(I think the critical thing to remember is that you should review old research from time to time, especially things you did when you were starting out. Available information changes, and so do your thought processes).
Over the years, I’ve talked about interviewing my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Alice Oliver, using a list of questions I’d found in a book. I interviewed her around 1977 because I’d watched Roots and discovered that genealogy would be interesting, as I think so many people did when Roots came out as a mini-series. I worked on my genealogy for a while but then got busy with married life and put the information in a box (pictured above). Of course, I’ve been back doing genealogy for over twenty years (ok, I know I’m starting to show my age).
Today, I came across a name in someone’s tree and realized I’d heard that name so many years ago. It was Easton. I don’t think I have a photographic memory, but I can often visualize information on a page, and I have a pretty good memory for names I’ve come across, which is handy for DNA surnames.
So I dug out that box and looked at the questions and answers I’d received from my great-grandmother. Sure enough, there was the name Mabel Easton with just a note of an address: Hythe Road, Brighton. It was written above question 9: How did you get to Edmonton? with the single word train as an answer.
I don’t think the note about Mabel had anything to do with the question, but I’d written it down as my great-grandmother, and I had obviously thought it was important to note.
So off I went, looking at my tree to see if I’d captured any information about Mabel Easton. Somehow, I didn’t know this person’s significance when I wrote it down all those years ago. But as I dug deeper, I realized I had discovered her relevance a while ago. She was my great-grandmother’s 1st cousin’s daughter on her father’s side, so a 1st cousin 1x removed.
My 2x great-grandparents, Robert Clark (1813-1893) and Elizabeth Williamson (1813-1874), had six children.
- Esther Hannah Clark (13 Mar 1839)
- +Robert Clark (17 Feb 1842 – 07 May 1888) m. Hannah West ( 08 Feb 1846 – 15 Apr 1917) married on 20 Sep 1863.
- Daniel Clark (1844) m. Louisa Rook
- Elizabeth Margaret Clark (1846)
- William James Clark (1847 – bef 1861)
- Noah Clark
Robert Clark was the father of my great-grandmother, and Daniel Clark was the grandfather of Mabel Easton. Daniel Clark’s daughter Louisa Susan Clark married Mark Easton in 1888, and Mabel came along in 1889.
Reviewing my information about Mabel, I realized she’d never married. I updated her profile to include her in the 1939 England and Wales Register. Then I wondered if I could find the significance of the address; Hythe Road. I couldn’t see it as I reviewed the census records and the registry, but then I came to her probate record, and there it was.
When I read this, I realized a couple of things. First, Mabel died not long after my great-grandmother, and I talked; second, she had a rather sizeable estate. When I checked, £14,078 in 1978 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £101,219.91 today, equating to $181,355.03 Canadian or $132,282.28 US.
So, in my usual rabbit hole style, I started looking at previous census information to see what she’d done in her career. In the 1939 England and Wales Registry, she was called a Shop Assistant in baby outfits.
Her mother had passed away in 1959, and her probate file identified the same address, 88 Hythe Road, but the effects were only £252.
I decided to go to the 1921 England Census at Find My Past, where I purchased the record. I found that in 1921, Mabel was a Shop Assistant in the baby linen department, so she had quite a long career as a Shop Assistant in the baby department.
I also noticed that her parents lived apart in 1911, which was still the case in 1921, although Louisa listed herself as married. Her husband Mark was living down the way from Brighton in New Haven. I didn’t purchase the document, but could look at the info in the search results.
But I’m still wondering how Mabel’s estate was such a tidy sum. So, I decided to see if I could find a will for her father. Mark Easton died in 1925, but I couldn’t find a will for him.
There was one other person to check. Mabel had a maiden aunt, Clara Clark. In fact, in 1911, Clara, her sister Louisa, and her daughter Mabel lived with their parents, Daniel and Louisa Clark. In 1939, Clara lived next to her father’s sister, Elizabeth Gower, and her job was as a domestic.
The only thing left for another day is to find out who might have been on the property tax records for 88 Hythe Road. But as I say, that’s for another day—another rabbit hole. The other thing left to do is go through the rest of the documents in the box and confirm that all that information is in my tree. But as I say, that’s for another day… another rabbit hole.
My conclusion is that Mabel’s estate was likely of her own making. Which makes me quite proud of her achievement as a single woman.
While searching for Mabel and her family, I used Ancestry, MyHeritage, Find My Past, WikiTree, Newspapers.com, and OldNews.com.
If you’re not already a member of my pack (after all, many of you are Family History Hounds like I am), you can sign up here or click the form below, and you won’t miss a post. By joining, you’ll not only get updates on blogs, but you’ll also receive special offers from my genealogy friends, and they’ll all come to your inbox.
