Children of William WEBSTER and Elizabeth PORTER

In a previous post I wrote about the origins of William WEBSTER, who married Elizabeth Harley PORTER. William and Elizabeth had eight children - Thomas, James (my ancestor), Elizabeth, Ann, William, Henry, George and Ebenezer. They were all baptised at either Stockwell Chapel or St.Saviour's Church in Southwark, Surrey, England. All eight were still alive in early 1813, when they were named in the will of their uncle, Henry WEBSTER.

Brothers James and George WEBSTER married sisters Mary and Sarah GIBLETT, and I know a lot about their descendants.

Thomas and Ebenezer WEBSTER (the eldest and youngest of the siblings) died in Leeds, Yorkshire (unmarried).

Ann WEBSTER was born circa 1800, and her brother William WEBSTER was born 21 Dec 1802 (the baptism register shows his birth date). When Michael FLYNN (historian, author, and my 6th cousin) was researching the PORTER descendants, he found the 1851 census entry, in Tottenham (Middlesex), for William WEBSTER (aged 47, born Southwark Surrey, unmarried), Anne WEBSTER (aged 49, sister, born Stockwell Surrey, unmarried), and Mariamne PORTER (aged 14). Other sources confirm that her name was Mariamne, not Marianne. For her relationship, it looks as though the enumerator couldn't decide whether to put 'Niece' or something starting with C. Mariamne was in fact a daughter of William and Anne's cousin.

Although Ancestry's index showed the wrong year, I found an image of an 1857 burial register entry that, based on the address (Tottenham) and age, fits this William WEBSTER. To check whether it was the same person, I bought the 1857 death certificate. William WEBSTER's occupation shown there fits with the 1851 census entry ('agent for iron works'). Although I'd have liked to find a will, I'm still confident that this William and Anne are the children of William WEBSTER and Elizabeth Harley PORTER.

I have yet to research the other WEBSTER siblings - Elizabeth (baptised 1797), Ann (baptised 1800) and Henry (born and baptised 1805). If you'd like to exchange information about the family, or if you have questions about the sources that I used, please email me at the address shown in the sidebar.

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This is my Week 2 post for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us to do something with the family history information that we've gathered. Even if I don't always stick to the suggested themes, I'll try to post something here each week. It may just be an 'On This Day' biographical snippet, or an extract from an interesting document, but anything is better than nothing!

(This post first appeared on https://judy-webster.blogspot.com/2022/01/children-of-william-webster-and.html)

Genealogy in 2016: Accentuate the Positive

With the 'Accentuate the Positive' geneameme, Jill Ball encourages us to focus on our recent genealogical achievements, not the things that are still on our 'to do' list at the end of 2016.

• An elusive ancestor I found was my gr-gr-gr-great-grandfather William WEBSTER (occupation: dyer), whose burial was among 79,000 new records added to the Greater London Burial Index on FindMyPast. I subsequently found an image of the original burial register in the London Metropolitan Archives collection on Ancestry.


• A precious family photo I found (courtesy of a distant cousin) was Helen Rebecca CAMPBELL (born Tiree, Argyllshire, Scotland) who married William Tasman WOOLDRIDGE in Tasmania, Australia. There is a strong resemblance between Helen and her brother John CAMPBELL, whose portrait (painted by Alfred Bock) was in the historical museum at Sale in Gippsland, Victoria.


• An ancestor whose grave I found was Carl Ludwig RIENECKER. I somehow missed it when I tramped through Forest Hill cemetery (Queensland), which has several sections separated by bushland. Luckily there is a grave location map linked to the Billion Graves Cemetery Index.


• An important vital record I found was the marriage of James WEBSTER and Mary GIBLETT in Bath, Somerset, in 1817. FindMyPast has an index (Somerset marriages post-1754) but the image of the original register is in Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations on Ancestry.


• A newly found family member shared information about descendants of Annie Louisa WEBSTER (1848-1916) who married William SMITH, a builder in Camberwell, Surrey, England. Some members of that family use the hyphenated surname WEBSTER-SMITH.


• A geneasurprise I received was (1) Dick Eastman, in his famous online genealogy newsletter, recommended my Web page (Using and Compiling Indexes); (2) some of my English relatives were born or married in China (Ethel Winifred HUDSON, Edgar Murray HYND and their children) or died in Africa (Geoffrey Aubie TURNER). The sources I used included Andrews Newspaper Index Cards 1790-1976 and the National Probate Calendar on Ancestry, and British Nationals born overseas and British Nationals married overseas on FindMyPast.


• A 2016 blog post that I was proud of (because I think it will help a lot of people) was '40 of My Favourite Genealogy Indexes and Sources'.


• A new piece of software I mastered was IrfanView (see 'How to save source information so that it appears on an image' and 'Using IrfanView to Label Digital Photos').


• A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was Tweetdeck. I make separate columns for selected people and topics (such as hashtags #genealogy and #AncestryHour) so that I can easily see those tweets. With Tweetdeck I can also schedule my own tweets to be posted when I'm away or asleep.


• A genealogy webinar from which I learnt something new was Publishing a Genealogy E-Book, by Thomas MacEntee.


• I was pleased with the presentation I gave to Toowoomba and Darling Downs Family History Society ('Not Just the Patient: how hospital and asylum records tell the story of a family' and 'Ancestors who moved or vanished'). Just before I left home, I broke my toe, so driving to Toowoomba and giving a long presentation was quite a challenge.


• I taught a friend how to use the full list of all record sets on FindMyPast to gain access to some that (inexplicably) can't be found via their A to Z Search.


• A genealogy book that taught me something new was Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History, by Mark Herber.


• A great repository I visited was the Borthwick Institute for Archives (Yorkshire, England) - but it was a 'virtual' visit, not an overseas trip! Many of the Borthwick's original records are now online as digital images. This year I downloaded several wills and hundreds of parish records via the magnificent Yorkshire Collection and Prerogative and Exchequer Courts Of York Probate Index on FindMyPast.


• A new history book I enjoyed was Shadows of the Workhouse: The Drama of Life in Postwar London (the beautifully written memoirs of Jennifer Worth).


• A geneadventure I enjoyed was a genealogy conference on a 7-night Barrier Reef cruise organised by Unlock the Past.


• Another positive I would like to share is... In 2016 I made a lot of progress because I took a close look at what I'd previously found (or failed to find). I studied certificates again, and suddenly realised the significance of witnesses' names. Taking one ancestor at a time (and then their siblings), I listed the records that were missing from my collection. I obtained certificates, wills, school records and other items that were unavailable (because of access restrictions) when I started family history 40 years ago. I checked what sources I'd previously used, and I looked for new indexes (and digital images of original records) on the Internet and in libraries and Archives.
  
  I'm sure that you, too, will enjoy success in 2017 if you follow Pauleen Cass's superb advice in My 3 Rs of Genealogy Research.

My previous posts in the 'Accentuate the Positive' series were in 2012 and 2013. If you'd like to join in, see Jill's blog.