Marriages

Susanna Pudvine, aged 24, occupation servant, married Richard Bonsey, aged 30, occupation labourer, on 16 November 1851. Richard’s father was William Bonsey, occupation labourer, and Susanna’s father was William (not Thomas) Pudvine, occupation wheelwright. They were married by Banns in St Mary’s, Guildford. The witnesses were Robert Wheatley and Ellen Covey; only the witnesses could sign their names.

Ann Pudwine, aged 19 years, of no occupation, married Henry Rose, aged 22 years, occupation labourer at gas works, on 14 May 1859. Ann’s father was William Pudwine deceased (again not Thomas), occupation wheelwright, and Henry’s father was James Rose, occupation agricultural labourer. They were married at Guildford Register Office. The witnesses were William Smith and Esther Moore. Only William and Ann could sign their names.

Lewis Pudvine – a surprise find I was not sure about but it was a ‘had to have’ – of full age, occupation servant, married Grace Fergusson of full age, no occupation, on 1 May 1879. Lewis gave his address as Belgrave Square, London and Grace gave hers as Park Lane, London. The father of Lewis was William Pudvine, occupation wheelwright, an amazing find, and the father of Grace was John Fergusson, occupation carrier. They were married at the Parish Church in St George’s, Hanover Square. The witnesses were Christine Fergusson and John Arlidge, and all could sign their names. Wow! I was thrilled with this information, as there had been no mention of Lewis previously!

Henry Pudwine, aged 36 years, a widower, occupation labourer, married Alice Bristow, a widow, aged 43 years, of no occupation, on 9 August 1881; both were living in Castle Street, Guildford. This time Henry does give his father’s name as William Pudwine, deceased, occupation wheelwright. Alice gave her father’s name as Morris Ayres, occupation dealer. They were married at Guildford Register Office and the witnesses were G. Goodridge and Ellen Goodridge. Only the witnesses could sign their names.

Charles George Walker, aged 22 years, occupation labourer, married Mary Ann Pudvine, aged 22 years, no occupation, on 31st December 1882. Charles gave his address as Milk House Gate and Mary Ann as the Parish of St Nicholas, Guildford. Charles gave his father’s name as Charles Walker, a labourer, and Mary Ann gave her father’s name as Frederick Pudwine, a labourer. I now know that Frederick is my three times great grandfather and it feels great. I am now confused about the Mary Walker on the 1881 Census as I can find no other record of Mary Pudwine. Perhaps this is her but she preferred the name Walker, but at least I know that Mary Ann and Mary are the same person.

Deaths

Harriett Pudwine died on 20 February 1847, aged 39 years. The cause of death was typhus for 80 days and diarrhoea for six days. Her occupation is noted, as widow of William Pudwine, wheelwright, and present at death was Harriett Downs. What is strange here is that Harriett is a widow but William was still alive in 1847, as he did not die until 1849. Were they separated? Maybe William had been ill for a long time and Harriett thought he was already dead? I now know that Thomas and William Pudwine are the same person.

A female Pudvine died on 6 May 1859 aged one day. She was the daughter of Henry Pudvine, occupation agricultural labourer, who was present at her death and signed with his mark. The cause of death was debility from premature birth, seven months. This moved me because I was able to peep into this couple’s world with the information I had found on the Newspaper Detectives site and wondered how this spirited couple must have felt at the loss of their daughter.

Alfred Frederick Pudwine died on 6 April 1862 aged five weeks. He was the son of Frederick Pudwine, an agricultural labourer. The cause of death was pneumonia and the informant of the death was E. Lewis at the Union Workhouse, Guildford.

Charlotte Pudvine died on 2 March 1869 aged 18 months, the daughter of Frederick Pudvine, agricultural labourer who was present at her death in Wood Street Village. The cause of death was pneumonia.

Harriet Pudvine died on 4 June 1869 aged 32 years, the wife of Frederick Pudvine, agricultural labourer, who was present at her death in Wood Street Village. Brian and I used to socialise in Wood Street Village pub. The cause of death was tubercular disease of the lungs for five years, bronchitis and premature child birth for four days. Poor Frederick – a child and his wife within three months and poor Harriet – what a dreadful end to her life.

Alice Pudwine died on 1 June 1871 aged eight years, the daughter of Frederick Pudwine, general labourer. The cause of death was pneumonia for sixteen weeks and present at death was E. Lewis of the Union Workhouse, Guildford.

Emily Pudvine died on 3 August 1877 aged 36 years, the wife of Henry Pudwine, a labourer in a flourmill. The cause of death was renal dropsy for three months, seven days, and present at the death was Henry Pudvine, widower of deceased, at the Royal Surrey Hospital. Her age should read 38 going by the information on her marriage certificate or maybe she lied about her age when she got married. I think it’s probably an error on the death certificate.

Emma Pudvine died on 9 August 1882 aged 17 years, occupation domestic servant in Albury and cause of death tubercular ulceration of intestines. The informant of the death was Rysling Marsh, the Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

Maria Pudvine died on 9 May 1895 aged 54 years in Queens Road, Guildford, the wife of Frederick Pudvine, a farm labourer. Present at the death was Emma Jane Jones. The cause of death was phthisis haemorrhage one day and syncope.

Ada Pudvine died on 22 December 1900 aged 17 years, occupation general servant (domestic), of Margate. Ada was the daughter of Frederick and his second wife Maria and was born in 1883. The cause of death was caries (the decay or death of a bone producing a chronic inflammation that forms an abscess that burrows through soft tissue or opens externally) and cervical vertebral scrofulous paralysis. (Scrofula is a generally hereditary constitutional disease, which manifests as an enlargement and cheesy degeneration of the lymphatic glands, particularly those of the neck, which is tubercular in character. Scrofula was also known as the King’s curse or malady during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.) The informant of the death was Samuel Gerrard Master of the Union Workhouse in Minster in the county of Kent. What was Ada doing in Margate? It’s such a long way from Guildford, and how sad that she died alone. Maybe there are relatives living in this area! Maybe she was sent to work there for her health! There appears to be a lot of tubercular related disease in my family’s heritage. I wonder if that explains why I had a natural defence against TB and did not have to be immunised?

Frederick Pudvine died on 25 September 1906, aged 76 years, a farm labourer from Ockham in Surrey. Frederick died of senile decay at Guildford Workhouse. Frederick’s christening record gives a date of 1833, making him only 73 years of age. For some reason in his early 20s Frederick aged himself by three years.

Alice Pudvine died on 22 October 1914 aged 71 years and was the wife of Henry Pudvine, a hawker of Sparrow Row, Valley End, Chobham, Surrey. The cause of death was senility and heart failure, and her son-inlaw E. H. Copeland from Upper Holloway was present at her death. Sparrow Row in Chobham still exists and is about five miles from where we live now.

The final death was for Henry Pudvine on 17 March 1916, aged 87 years. His occupation was given as hawker and he was now living in Sunnycote, West End, Chobham. The cause of death was influenza for three days and heart failure. Present at his death was E. M. Dew, the occupier of Sunnycote. His age was given as 87 years but he was only 82 years – maybe he felt like he was 87 years!

What I learned

• The marriage certificates for some of William and Harriet’s children now confirm that my four times great grandfather is called William and not Thomas.
• Ordering Pudvine certificates from districts other than Guildford was a risk worth taking as with Lewis and Ada.
• Later in life William and Harriet must have been parted, as at Harriet’s death she believed she was already a widow but William was still living – maybe in the workhouse where he died.
• An ancestor’s given age can vary greatly on different sources such as birth, marriage, death, christening or Census records. It does not mean you have the wrong ancestor, it just means you need to verify your information with more sources.
• I was now learning about the medical history of my own family.
• You can never ask too many questions too many times about family memories.
• Blanket searches for unusual family names are worth the time and effort.

I never thought I would say this but my family tree is now too large to show on one page so to keep you up to date I have split my recent finds into two trees (see figures 7.2 and 7.3).

My first visit to the Surrey History Centre

I had previously spoken to Jane at the Surrey History Centre in Woking regarding the work she and her colleagues carried out on my behalf; she recommended a visit to the centre. The Surrey History Centre (SHC) does not hold records of births, marriages and deaths except for the years from 1900 to 1920 for Surrey but they do hold parish records, Census, old newspapers and much more. I did not know this before I went to the Centre (see www.surreycc.gov.uk/surreyhistoryservice.)

During this month I made a couple of visits to the SHC to search Census records for Surrey. The advice I was given by the society is the correct advice and that is to work backwards when researching family history. As an inexperienced researcher who had gone my own way, with surprising success, I already had lots of clues from the certificates I had obtained and wanted to look for specific information. You also have to remember that having family names such as Pudvine, Pudwine or Marelli meant my blanket searches proved very successful. However, this would not have been right for the Walkers or Reynolds, for instance, as there are thousands of them. There will be times when you cannot go any further back and your only option is to go sideways or forwards.

My first stop was the 1841 Census for Albury and the surrounding area. This is what I found:

• William Podevin (that’s a new spelling), aged 40 years, occupation strangely given as J. Wheelis – maybe it means the person he worked for. The 1841 Census does not give as much information as later Censuses but there was a (Y) for yes to signify born in same county. I now have conflicting dates of birth for William: the 1841 Census indicates he was born circa 1801 and his death certificate indicates he was born circa 1796. (But as we know the 1841 Census rounds the birth date down to the nearest five-year mark, so he could have been 44 years of age making his date of birth 1797, near enough matching my earlier estimation that he was born circa 1796.)
• Harriett Podevin, wife, aged 33 years of no occupation, born in Surrey. (It’s strange that Harriett’s age is not rounded down.)
• Susannah Podevin, aged 13 years, of no occupation, born in Surrey.
• William Podevin, aged 12 years, of no occupation, born in Surrey.
• Mary Podevin, aged 10 years, of no occupation, born in Surrey.
• Frederick Podevin, aged eight years, of no occupation, born in Surrey – so he was born in 1833.
• Henry Podevin, aged seven, born in Surrey.
• Edward Podevin, aged four born in Surrey.
• Elizabeth Podevin aged five weeks, born in Surrey.

This was great news as all those children I had found on the FamilySearch listing for Thomas and Harriett are in fact the children of William and Harriet, my five time great grandparents. The spelling of the name Podevin is of most interest to me at this point.

One of the children that should have been there was Charles who died in 1848 so I kept looking and found:

• Charles Pudvine, aged 15, occupation MS (male servant or man servant), born in Surrey; he was working for Ann Ansell, a publican in Albury Village.

I decided to keep searching for other possible family members and found William Voller, his wife Charlotte Voller and their children, John Voller and Sarah Voller. What I needed was John and Charlotte Voller who were the parents of Harriet Voller, Frederick Pudvine’s first wife – they could be related though.

I had been at the SHC for several hours and was completely overwhelmed by the amount of searching I had to do. Looking around for inspiration I noticed some cabinets that held film of old newspapers and was told it was the Surrey Advertiser. I explained the information I had from the Newspaper Detectives site and was directed to the film I required. Call it luck but, because I had no idea what information to take with me that day, I took everything related to my Surrey ancestors, including a printout of the index for the Surrey Advertiser in 1866 taken from the Newspaper Detectives website.

It did not take me long to find the right dates but I had to trawl carefully through the whole newspaper for each article to find what I was looking for. Even though I had the dates of the story, the name Pudwine and the name of the newspaper I could not quite believe I was going to find such personal historic data and my heart was hammering. Sure enough in the newspaper dated 21 April 1866 was a wonderful story about my three times great uncle Henry and his wife Emily. It read:

A Wife and a Policeman – At the Borough Branch, on Monday last, before Messrs. J. Weale and H. A. Adams, Emily Pudwine was charged with having committed an assault on P.C. Chatt, while in the execution of his duty. The facts of the case are rather amusing. It appears that on Friday, the 6th inst., about six o’clock in the evening, the defendant’s husband and another man were drunk in the High Street. P. C. Chatt, who chanced to come up at the time, ordered the men to ‘move on;’ but Pudwine refused to do so. The police constable then proceeded to arrest Pudwine, who, however, resisted violently. His resistance became the more daring and violent when he espied his wife turning the corner with an air of ‘deep defiance’. When she saw her better half ‘chuckled,’ she ‘flew at’ the constable. Another constable (Castleman) who was coming up behind, ‘flew at’ her, and a mêlée ensued, greatly to the amusement of bystanders, who encouraged the wife in the attack she made. ‘Handfuls’ of hair, as it was stated, were pulled off the police-constable’s head. It required five stalwart members of the force to appease the quarrel. The defendant now denied the entire charge against her, and with tears asserted it was all a ‘big lie’. The Bench fined the defendant 20s., or twenty-one days’ imprisonment. Some sympathising females present paid the fine.

This was incredible and I had to stop myself from calling out to everyone in the centre saying, ‘look what I’ve found, come and see, everyone, it’s amazing’. I still had another story to find but I was twitching to get outside and phone Mum, Brian, Auntie Shirley, my sisters, my brothers, my friends – anyone who would listen! Such luck, such a find and no one to share the moment with!

I returned to look for the second story that was a little more serious, but not much and as far as I was concerned a total miscarriage of justice. Well maybe not!

BOROUGH BENCH – Monday

(Before the Mayor and Mr. Wheale)

AN OLD OFFENCE – A man rejoicing in the peculiar name of Pudwine was charged with being drunk and disorderly. P.C. Northgayle deposed that almost ten o’clock on Saturday night he was going through Stoke-fields when he met the prisoner who was drunk and shouting. He cautioned him and told him to go home, but prisoner refused. Witness then took him into custody but had some difficulty in getting him to the station, as prisoner, who was a powerful man, threw him twice. The prisoner denied that he was drunk, and said he was going along quietly when he was interrogated by the policeman. The latter caught hold of him in the mouth when prisoner gave him a push, and that was what took place between them. The prisoner was fined 10s., and in default was committed for fourteen days.

Was I just the luckiest family historian alive – could this really belong to my family! Is there a God, yes there is and with respect ‘Thank God’ for the Emilys and Henrys of this world. With copy in hand I raced once more to the car and my phone.

When I thought I might burst with excitement I was told incredibly that I could view the 1901 Census on microfiche at the Centre. Who was alive then and living in Surrey? I scanned my documents. There was my grandfather Harry on Mum’s side who was living in Epsom, and also Asor Zora who gave birth to her daughter Edith in Knaphill. I thought it might be interesting to see if I could find out who had lived in the house in Knaphill where Edith was born as they could be related. I began my search of Epsom and this is what I found:

• Living in Epsom was Robert Reynolds, head of household, aged 40 years, occupation engine driver – stationary. There was someone else in the family that had this job, but what was most interesting was it gave his place of birth as Bow, London, not Epsom. My great grandfather was born within the sound of Bow Bells, which perhaps explains why my grandfather’s accent was more Cockney than Surrey, and there was me, a Liverpool lass!
• There was Eliza Reynolds, wife, aged 39 years, no occupation, born in Banstead, Surrey.
• There were Ada aged ten born in Dorking, Edith aged eight, Annie aged six, Lilian aged four (was Mum named after her aunt?), Edgar R. aged two and Harry W. aged one month. The latter was my grandfather – all born in Epsom. (I must look at the 1891 Census for the Dorking area at some point.)

My next find was not at all what I expected. I looked up the address for Asor Zora in Knaphill hoping to find a relative or perhaps that it was a home for unmarried mothers as this is where Asor Zora’s first child Edith would be born the following year. This is what I found:

• Charles G. Walker, head, aged 40, occupation stoker at asylum, born in Guildford;
• Mary Ann Walker, wife, aged 40, no occupation, born in Worplesdon;
• Asor Zora Walker, daughter, aged 18, no occupation, born in Guildford;
• Charles G. Walker, son, aged 16, labourer on railway, born in Woking District;
• Frederick Walker, son, aged 14;
• Nellie Walker, daughter, aged 12;
• Amelia Walker, daughter, aged nine;
• Albert Walker, son, aged seven;
• Alfred Walker, son, aged four;
• Sydney Walker, son, aged one;
• The last six children were born in the Woking District.

So Asar Zora was living at home with her parents when Edith was born. Had I not been curious to know who was living at the address on Edith’s birth certificate I might not have found this information for quite some time.

What amazes me about discovering my ancestors in my local area is that I may have met a descendant of an ancestor and not known it. I’ve had a horrible thought – I could have dated one of them prior to meeting Brian! I hope not. I wonder how many times that happens in families with lost generations?

About this time I decided to write to the Pudvine that my friend Sue had found for me giving him a brief outline of what I had found and asking if the information meant anything to him. I had a phone call back to say he was thrilled to receive my letter, as he believed he was the only living Pudvine descendant. We chatted about all I knew and tried to find some connection. He said he believed his grandfather or great grandfather lived in London and was called George and married someone called Frances. Sadly it meant nothing to me, as I only knew of Lewis who had lived in London.

I decided to head to the FRC to try to find George Walker, the other child of Asor Zora, to complete this part of the family. My thinking now was that he could have been born elsewhere. I found two possible birth certificates, one for George Albert Walker born in Guildford in1902 and one for Charles George Walker in 1904 – they were both incorrect. I spent a lot of time looking for possibilities but who knows what surname George was born under? It could have been Walker or Brown, or was there another man in Asor Zora’s life?

I had taught myself to avoid depressing disappointment when searching for the impossible ancestor by always having information with me about a certainty. Then I would not feel that I had wasted my day by going home empty handed. I decided to find another of Charles and Ellen Walker’s children and I also looked for the birth of Charlotte Pudvine who as yet I had not found.

The certificates arrive

Amelia Caroline Walker was born on 12 January 1892 in Jay’s Cottage, Knaphill. She was the daughter of Charles George Walker, a labourer (general) at Brookwood Asylum, and Mary Ann Walker, formerly Pudvine.

Charlotte Pudvine was born on 7 July 1867 in Wood Street, Worplesdon, daughter of Frederick Pudvine, an agricultural labourer, and Harriett Pudvine, formerly Voller.

What I have learned

• Visiting other establishments such as the Surrey History Centre, as some of my ancestors come from Surrey, can prove extremely beneficial, especially with the newspaper archive I found.
• At some point I would need to search the 1891 Census in Dorking for my grandfather Robert Reynolds as the 1901 Census told me his eldest child was born there ten years previously. I would never have looked in Dorking without this valuable piece of information.
• Without a specific address for an ancestor searching the Census can be a laborious task, but is not as expensive as randomly ordering incorrect certificates.
• Being inquisitive helps. Had I not been curious to look up the address on Edith Walker’s, Maggie’s sister’s, birth certificate I would not have found the whole family of my three times great grandparents Charles and Ellen Walker for quite some time.
• It is worth contacting strangers if you think that a possible family link exists. I have always had a positive response even if there is no link and the contacts I have made have always been interested in the subject of family history.

I do not take any of the information I have found lightly. I am so lucky, but again I find my irritation building as I cannot find any information about the William Pudvine, Pudwine or Podevin birth. I even thought about going to a psychic to try to contact him personally!