----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Fowler" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Cc: "MARGARET HUDSON" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 6:57 AM Subject: FOWLER Thanet puzzles and project > Puzzle no1. My grandfather,James Sidney.Fowler (1877-1930) appears as an > art student in Rochester on the 1901 census. I have a small faded > watercolour believed to be by him. How could he could possibly afford to > pursue such a vocation? And why Rochester? > His father Robert Fowler (b St Lawrence Ramsgate) had been a naval stoker > who died in 1879 in Haslar Naval Hospital. His mother (Elizabeth nee Cook) > remarried to a dock worker; his brothers were in the Navy and his sister > was married to a Royal Marine. So gf was the odd one out who became an > insurance agent after his 1907 marriage to my grandmother. In 1911 they > were in Footscray with my dad aged 2. > The only possibilities seem to be a) his mothers family originally from > Woolwich, as his maternal grandfather had been master of a (gun)powder > ship.b) in the 1840s a Fowler from Ramsgate painted a famous portrait of > Queen Victoria and was a member of the Royal Academy. But we have no > proven connection to this artist. Any ideas? > > Puzzle no2. When was my great grandfather born? Robert Fowlers navy > records give his birth as 29/12/1831 St Lawrence, Kent. This tallies with > his 1861 marriage certificate which identifies his father as John Fowler, > Carpenter. Neither I nor a cousin who researched this independently can > find a baptism. We have checked the PRs and BT for all Thanet parishes, > and some of the Independent records but these are incomplete.Both my > cousin and I think he may have been born c 1823 and falsified his age > (younger?) to join the navy at the start of the Crimean war. While there > is no sign of RF b 1831 in 1851, an RF bc 1823 , (father =John) had > married Mary Cramp. 2 of their daughters died in a cholera epidemic and a > possible son appeared in 1861 with his grandfather, another John Fowler.We > have no death for Mary and no further record of either Robert or Mary. Any > ideas? > > Project. Fowler/ Thanet master tree.After Xmas 2009, I want to resume a > project started abt 2 years ago. Several Fowler/ Thanet researchers > kindly sent me their trees (all pre 1910) including the elusive C18th) > Fowler/Kebble marriage. Together with my own material I hope this will > form a core tree for others to use. The earliest references to Fowlers in > Thanet PRs date from Elizabethan times but there are many gaps as you > would expect with seaport and easy access to London. Would anyone with > Fowler/Thanet interests care to contact me please? > > Dick Fowler KFHS 9342 DFHS 13423 > >