Dear South Hamsters all, I know that this message falls rather outside the immediate area of South Hams, but please bear with me, as [1] I think it will be of interest anyway in a general way, and [2] someone might possibly be able to give some leads. So here goes. Some of you will know that for the past six or seven years, on and off, I have been researching the relationship between our cousin, Philip Wilson Steer, OM [1860-1942], the Impressionist painter, and his model and [for a time] fiancee, Rose Amy Pettigrew [1873-1950s]. My view is that, after they broke up in 1895, his paintings changed gradually but radically, returning to classical subjects and eventually reverting to lanscapes without people. After his death, Rose wrote a short memoire of the painters she had sat for, including PWS : they appear in an apprendix to Bruce Laughton's book about PWS' paintings [Clarendon Press]. Rose herself married the composer and viola player, Harry Waldo Warner [1875-1945], a founder member of the London String Quartet. I have now been put in touch with Harry's grandson, Tim Warner, who has generously shared papers, photographs and letters with me. Amongst these papers is a strange, breath-taking discovery. The famous Pettigrew sisters, Harriet, Lilian and Rose [who appeared in Millais' painting "The Idyll of 1745"] were in Portsmouth in the 1881 census, but their mother Harriet Pettigrew came from Plymouth, and more specifically Stoke Damerell. She was born circa 1841, and has siblings, Emma, Selina and Frederick and their surname was Davies/Davis. This "blew a hole in my head" because my great-grandmother was Selina Davies - born 1846 in Saint Budeaux and died 1927 in Portsea. She married Philip William Steer [1843-1918] in Stoke Damerell and moved later to Portsea, where he was a founder member of the Portsea Island Cooperative Society. So, after all my researches, it turns out that Rosie Pettigrew and my grandfather, Philip, were first cousins....in fact I am more closely related to her than to PWS !! No wonder I have had a strange attraction to this whole area. My question now is : Can anyone help me find the Davies/Davis family in Stoke Damerell or Morice Town or close by in the censuses of 1851, 1861, and 1871 ?? Also the Pettigrew family in the same censuses : Rose's father was probably William - so we are looking for William and Harriet Pettigrew and their 10 or so children. It looks as though both Pettigrews and Steers had mainly decamped to Portsea by 1871 or shortly afterwards. Rosie's uncle, Frederick Davies, eventually became Superintendant of Devonport Dockyard, and his eldest son became Engineer-Admiral Sir William Davies. Of course, any lead you can provide towards them will also be appreciated. With best wishes, as ever, Philip Steer