Allen

K for Kingston upon Thames

Miss W. Allen , , , ,

Foot Ball, Kingston-upon-Thames, Shrove Tuesday, Feb. 24th, 1846

Kingston upon Thames is a town in the Royal Borough of the same name. It is historically part of the county of Surrey. As the name implies, it is on the river Thames in London.

It is famous for many coronations of Saxon kings of England. Kingston is an ancient market town and is nowadays one of the biggest retail centres in the UK.

The name of the town has varied since early times when it was considered a royal manor.

  • Cyninges tun in 838AD
  •  Chingestune in 1086
  • Kingeston in 1164
  • Kyngeston super Tamisiam in 1321
  • Kingestowne upon Thames in 1589

The Post Office called it ‘Kingston-on-Thames’, then the Ordnance Survey maps called it ‘Kingston upon Thames’ but the borough council added hyphens. This is what it is now known as officially without hyphens.

From mediaeval times until 1866 there used to be a Shrovetide football match held in the town. All the shops and windows were boarded up and from 12 noon, men and women kicked many balls around the town before heading to the pubs.

Check out the website for more information on the history and businesses in Kingston upon Thames.

Now to how this town fits into my family history. It certainly doesn’t go back to the early times of the Saxon kings but to my most recent discovery on my father’s line.

My great great grandfather was George James Allen who was born in January 1851 and he was included on the English 1851 census. His father, John Allen was a shoemaker and his mother, Amelia Allen nee Elwes was a shoebinder. The family were living at 81 Forty Acres, Kingston. Most of George’s siblings were also born in Kingston.

In the 1861 census, the family were listed at Cowleaze Road, Canbury, Kingston where John was a cordwainer.

His parents John and Amelia died in Kingston before the 1871 census and were buried at Plot E268 at the Kingston Cemetery and Crematorium.

I for Isleworth

Miss W. Allen , , ,
All Saints Church, Isleworth

Isleworth is a parish in county Middlesex and is on the Thames River. At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, Isleworth was well cultivated farming land on the north shore of the Thames. Being on the river banks, meant it became a trading settlement as well. In the Domesday book it is written as  Gistelesworde. There were 118 households according to the survey.

The tower of the present church All Saints is from the 14th century but it is unknown when the actual church was built. The plague in 1665 killed 149 residents. Many of the plague victims from London were barged down the river and buried at Isleworth.

By 1868, The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland, mentions a lot of the parish is market gardens including strawberries and raspberries. There is also a brewery, cement works and corn mill.

My 4x great grandparents John Allen and Sarah Medwin were born around 1790 in Benson, Oxfordshire and Twickenham which is west of Isleworth. Their nine children were born in Isleworth between 1810 and 1830.

At the time of the 1841 census, John was a bricklayer. Others mentioned were Sarah, James, Richard and Elizabeth. Also living in the same house was James Medwin. Looks like one child Martha born between Richard and Elizabeth has passed away unless she married at age 16. They were living in South Street, Isleworth.

By the 1851 census, John a labourer and Sarah a basket maker were still alive and their grandson John Allen aged 4 was living with them at Richmond Road in Isleworth.

John was the only person mentioned in the 1861 census where he was residing at the Tollson Alms House at age 73 and now a widower. There were 8 other people also at the alms house all aged in their 60s to 80s.

Sources for information:

*Brief history of Isleworth

*Genuki – including the Gazetteer

What a challenge!

Miss W. #52ancestors, Allen, Dawson, Smith, Wyatt , ,
Mohamed_hassan / Pixabay

My parents and I had often spoken about our family history. Three of my grandparents were alive when I was born but none of my great grandparents. In fact four of my grandparents were alive but I didn’t know that until my parents, my brother and I did DNA tests.

Mum’s DNA matches were lots of her cousins that she knew or who we knew of from family reunions I had helped run back in the 1980’s and were on my database. But there were a few unknown names in Dad’s DNA matches.

Now came the challenge – how were they related to my dad?

Dad’s paternal line should have been the surname WYATT and his maternal line should have been SMITH.

From what I knew of dad’s paternal side, his father had deserted him and his mother when dad was two and there were no other children from the marriage. But his father had been married before and had two children from that marriage. I could find no matches relating to them. Another person with the surname Wyatt but living in New South Wales had been in contact with me and thought her grandfather and my grandfather were the same person. So we had her dad test DNA as well – another half brother for dad. But all my research on the Wyatt name from the paper work we had was getting us nowhere for 20 years until suddenly another DNA match with the surname ALLEN came up as a close match. We worked out he was a half nephew to my dad. His father had the surname Allen and he was older than my dad.  Over 20 years research to work out dad’s father was actually William Elvis Allen and not William Allen Wyatt.

Now Dad’s other challenge was the surname Smith. I had done a lot of research on dad’s supposed grandfather and his father who was a half Samoan whaling captain. But dad’s DNA had no Samoan ethnicity.  So I asked a few of the Smith relatives to test. They all had Samoan and they all matched each other. But Dorothy, who I had met on a bus tour and while chatting worked out we were related through Captain Smith, did not match my dad at all. She matched the other Smith cousins. From this we worked out dad’s grandfather was not the son of the whaling captain but someone else.

The close unknown matches on dad’s DNA came back to the surname DAWSON. After more researching, I worked out dad’s grandfather had been a miner on the west coast of Tasmania at the same time as the Smiths were there woodcutting and whaling.

Below are links to posts I’ve already written about these families.

William Elvis Allen

Alexander Dawson

Captain William Smith

Readers: Have you had both a bigamist and a NPE (non parental event) in your family tree?