C Rihan wrote: > I was thinking that it didn't sound as though she had a chance to get > married. > You are right that she could have had brothers and sisters who had > decendants. > > Neither surname is familiar to me, but the families may have moved away. > I can't see John Horwood and Eliza Balsum on my Bristol and Avon CDs > This http://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/3240914647/ says > John was the youngest of 10 children and his father an ex-seaman and > his mother was Orkney born. That's miles from Hanham.I wonder how they met. Eliza would have been about 20 when she died and was being stalked by John HORWOOD, so, no, she wouldn't have had a chance to meet anyone. HORWOOD might be mistranscribed as HARWOOD. The IGI is good for finding possible alternative spellings of a name. It's very likely both families did move; the HORWOODs especially. They may not have been a Hanham family to start with and the children could have been born anywhere. Maybe FreeREG can offer an answer. If Mrs HORWOOD was in service in one of the ports that her future husband visited regularly, they could have struck up a friendship that developed. Her father might have been on one of the ships Mr HORWOOD served on. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Greinton and Clutton, SOM Asst OPC for Ashcott and Shapwick, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk http://www.savethegurkhas.co.uk/