Hi, everyone, Great to find this new HEDGES list for UK. Here are my main interests as a new subscriber:- I am particularly interested in the ancestry and descendants of William HEDGES who is my 6xGFather,(via my mother). This William is the earliest of my HEDGES line found so far. I am in touch via the internet with 2 other HEDGES researchers who share this ancestor with me (Bob Adams & Beryl Newman) and have had considerable help from them and Sue HEDGES/Parsons (List Owner) in getting back this far. I would like to hear from other HEDGES researchers whose families may be related to mine. William HEDGES was born about 1740, probably the one in the Parish Record in Shrivenham (Berkshire,England; Baptised 1739) or possibly the William in PR for Headington (Oxon.;Baptised 1746). He Married Rachel SMITH of Westminster in 1763 at Westminster,London and they had 11 children Baptised in Faringdon, (next Parish to Shrivenham), Berkshire, England. He then married Ann JAQUES in Faringdon in1800 and died there in 1808. Thanks to Beryl, I have a copy of his Will of 1807and his 1st Marriage Register entry, but know nothing else about this 2nd wife Ann JAQUES. This William “TheElder” was the 1st of 4 generations of my HEDGES who were Tailors in Faringdon (to 1840’s) and later in Hillingdon,Middlesex to 1890’s). My particular line then broke the pattern by becoming Soldiers: my GGF Private Ernest J. HEDGES of the Grenadier Guards died on 2July 1900 on his way back from the Boer War; my GF Charles William HEDGES was aTrumpeter in the Lifeguards in World War 1 and eventually moved about 1921 to Edinburgh, Scotland, where most of my HEDGES relatives, including my 82 year old Mother,still live today. I retired to Shepperton, Middlesex and took up my amateur HEDGES research 2 years ago. Alan King, sharing e-mail DianKay@aol.com

Hi Alan, Sue, Beryl and Ron I've now signed on to the rootsweb site so that makes 4 of us (5 if Beryl has joined) i.e. Sue, Alan, me and the "one other" who Sue mentioned who I assume is Ron Fairbrother who posted the enquiry about Hedges of Headington, which is not that far from Faringdon so perhaps there is a connection with ours. Isn't Headington where the Oxford Crematorium is situated? If so it is where Peggy, (the 1st wife of my cousin Gordon and who is descended from Thomas H and Charlotte WHIPP who ran "The Star" Inn in Faringdon in the middle 1800's) was cremated. I well remember the day (but not the year). Gordon who had some years previously separated from Peggy under distinctly dodgy circumstances, felt that he ought to go to the funeral, in part perhaps to comfort their only daughter, but I sensed that he was extremely concerned as to how the rest of Peggy's family might react. I think he was glad of my presence for moral support if not out and out protection! Anyway, so far as I remember all went off peacefully. I'll do a summary of my HEDGES, similar to that posted by Alan and send it to Rootsweb in a few days - maybe even today - it depends on a possible visit by daughter. Alan - Thanks for the Adams and Hedges charts sent to you by Sherley Ewart. There are some very interesting coincidences, but I'm fairly sure that's all they are. The one that really caught my eye was not the fact of both Adams and Hedges in the Poplar area, but that the person who had provided Sherley with much of the info was a Rachel nee Hedges, a GP and that she was inclined .to be a bit slow in replying. I sent "our" Rachel Jackson nee Hedges a chart after I visited her some 3 months or so ago, and I have heard nothing since *. If it were not for the fact that our Rachel, who is also associated with the medical profession, is in Exeter rather than Australia, I would have been sure that Sherley's charts were going to be describing the forbears or relations of my Adams and Hedges grandparents. They lived within a short walk of some of the streets Sherley mentions, and some of Grandma Hedges nieces married to live only just round the corner. They are the ones who I lost track of between the electoral rolls of immediately before and after WWII. Alan, have you replied to Sherley or shall I? Sue. Although I have subscribed to a Rootsweb group before, this is the first I have joined which is dedicated to one name only so the correspondence is likely to be of a different nature. I suppose we would send info that is of a general Hedges interest to the Rootsweb, whilst keeping this sort of chit-chat to ourselves. Any comments on that? Are you envisaging something like the Berks FHS list run by our ex lodger and Met Office colleague Eddie Spackman? On books - I am the sort of person who I guess Sue would despair about . Fifty or more years on I still remember the Biggles "Philosophy" and although I used to get Biggles from the Library, if I still had any of my own I could never bring myself to get rid of them, how ever much they were worth (within reason of course). I may have mentioned before that I have a tiny book of children's stories belonging to a (Stewart) n x gt grandmother from the late 1700's. If any of my ancestors had sold it for a bob or two, one of my most valued family posessions would have been lost. Now, if you want a pile of 1960's Physics text books - that would be different..... * Not true actually, she did kindly pass my name on to someone in Sidmouth in a non-FH context. Bob