Happy New Year to you all. In the last few days I have made contact with a granddaughter of my paternal grandmother's brother Alfred GURDLER, this is most exciting as until this contact I knew little about my grandmother's siblings; my grandmother died when my father was only four years old and he did not really know much about his GURDLER relatives. In the course of exchanging information it has come to light that my new cousin's husband's family have been traced back to Kingsclere, I don't have all the details yet but one of the names that appears is WOOFF and I have a note of a marriage of a Joseph WOOFF to an Alice GIRDLER in November 1869 in Kingsclere. Can anyone lay claim to this Joseph, as so far I have been unable to discover his origins? The couple do not seem to appear in the 1881 census, assuming them to be still in the country, I have tried a number of variations on the name WOOFF but no luck so far. TIA Colin Harris --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.434 / Virus Database: 243 - Release Date: 25/12/2002

On Thu, 2 Jan 2003 07:42:06 -0000 Colin Harris wrote: > In the course of exchanging information it has come to light > that my new cousin's husband's family have been traced back to > Kingsclere, I don't have all the details yet but one of the > names that appears is WOOFF and I have a note of a marriage of > a Joseph WOOFF to an Alice GIRDLER in November 1869 in > Kingsclere. Can anyone lay claim to this Joseph, as so far I > have been unable to discover his origins? The couple do not > seem to appear in the 1881 census, assuming them to be still in > the country, I have tried a number of variations on the name > WOOFF but no luck so far. Hello Colin The marriage took place at St. Mary Kingsclere on 13 Nov 1869 (register entry 428) witnesses were William & Harriet Woodhouse. Both Joseph and Alice were residing in Kingsclere and their parents were Emmanuel Wooff and William Girdler, both labourers. Joseph said to be aged 19 years and Alice 22 years, both previously unmarried. The age for Alice is about right as I have her baptised on 26 Mar 1848 at St. Paul, Woodlands. Only problem is I cannot find a baptism for Joseph. There are baptisms for Emmanuel and Elizabeth Woolf from 1833 onwards, Priscilla 1833, David 1835, Sylvia 1841, Emmanuel 1843, Charles 1844, Jane 1845, John 1848, Sarah Ann 1849 and Julia 1853. Emmanuel lived in the Headley Common area and children from John onwards were baptised at St. Paul, Woodlands. The St Paul entries have surname as WOLF Sarah Ann was bapt Oct 1849 and Julia Dec 1853 so there is the possibilty that James _was_ born between these two. I cannot find a marriage for Emmanuel & Elizabeth nor a baptism for Emmanuel in Kingsclere. I do have William & Elizabeth Wooff living at Fair Oak who baptised two children at St. Mary, Thomas in 1816 and Henry in 1819 who could possibly be the parents of Emmanuel. I will have to look in the other Bishops Transcripts I have to see if I can find any Wooffs elsewhere. Finally I have a note that a Joseph Wooff, maltster of Kingsclere has a will listed for 1795 so another possible parent/ancestor of Emmanuel. --- John Lewis <jayellatntlworlddotcom> from Bournemouth, Dorset, UK. using Debian GNU/Linux and GeneWeb genealogy software Main Family Names in HAM are: Kingsclere: BUTLER, COOPER, FISHER, FOSTER, GIRDLER, HAWKINS, SMITH Hazeley Heath: BARKER, CHANDLER, LEWINGTON, NEVILL(E) Main Family Names in GLA are: GRIFFITH, HOPKINS, JENKINS, LEWIS. MORGAN, PHILLIPS and CMN: HOPKINS, DAVIES