Hello Lin, It was not a house fire but a burglary, Edmund was given 6 months hard labour...I would love to know why the 4 of them were in the house, the court papers do not say, but the women were not charged, Diane's son Matthew was a very serious burglar, he waited until the miners went to work early in the morning & while the wives were asleep he went in & took what he wanted..very nice fellow Joseph said that Edmund was his father, they carried a very nice photo of him, named their children after him so I decided to do DNA on the family, mostly to see if Richard Marklew who was the father of Richard Southall, eldest son of Ann Southall, was not Joseph's father as that would have meant that Joseph married his half sister, he married Harriett Marklew the daughter of Richard Marklew the Brickmaker & Caroline Brindley, I have Bastardy papers for Richard. I was fortunate as Joseph's DNA was matching the Aldridge males that had tested for DNA. I also tested the Marklew males. I have used DNA quite a bit in my research, mostly for my Irish family. I find males from where my family come from & approach them to test with my males, I pay for them to take this test. Have had no problem to date & have been doing it for many years now. I have also checked all of the marriages for Ann's sisters & found that Edmund Aldridge was a witness to one of her sisters marriage. Interesting Ann signed her name as Ann Southall when her eldest son Richard Southall married, even though she was married at that time...I have checked original signatures also. Joseph Southall was a most interesting man, he wrote poetry, was a writer to the papers & on many committees. His mother Ann ran a Dame School. She certainly educated him well. My favourite of his poems was one he wrote about the Hednesford church, the minister & the wealthy parishioners. Any suggestions always welcome. Robyn -----Original Message----- From: staffordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:staffordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Lin Lamberg Sent: Monday, 21 January 2013 12:28 AM To: staffordshire@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [STAFFORDSHIRE] Aldridge family Robyn, where and when did this house fire take place? Are you sure that Joseph born 1826 was the son of Edmund Aldridge, being as his mother Married Edmund so many years later? ****************************** ATTENTION TO ALL:- When replying please remove the details that do not apply to your mail and change the SUBJECT LINE for best useage of ARCHIVED MATERIALS. ****************************** PLEASE keep your Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware software up to date. BEWARE of messages making it onto the List with a single URL. NEVER follow the link. It's usually from an infected source! ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to STAFFORDSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message