Beard family

Although I had the best of intentions yesterday to continue my transcription of the Hinxman v Blake document, I was definitely sidetracked with the Parish Records for Greater London now available on ancestry. I was checking out the wills for the Beard family and discovered a death for Jane Beard in 1820-21 on Ancestry. The area was good for Jane widow of Henry Beard my 4x great grandfather so I purchased the will and it was a goldmine of information on the Beard family mentioning my Christy Buller and his children as well as the married names of the two sisters of Mary Beard my 3x great grandmother and wife of Christy Buller.

As well we wanted to continue working on cleaning the kitchen so now we have just the recipe cupboard, the refrigerator, stove and three dish cabinets to clean out - the cupboards are basically finished. Once we have completed that and the last bookcase in the living room we can move on upstairs and continue cleaning there. We are "downsizing" somewhat as we clear away years of accumulated extras - we check first with our daughters and then out it goes to the Diabetes group or other groups that are collecting used household goods. It is nice to see them used since they still have life in them. Otherwise they are going out to the garbage. We have still a few large furniture items to eliminate - an old single bed with a good mattress which we will put out to the street when the "free day" is upon us when people just take whatever is out at the street line if they want it. Our television went last time as well as a good sized box of smaller items. It is such a good way to downsize and yet not throw things out that still can be used.

This morning again I was tempted by the Parish Registers but I think I may have gleaned everything that I can thus far without heavy line by line searching for the remaining people. I rather think I found Elizabeth Hemsley's parents - Thomas and Elizabeth Amsley - in St Mary Magdalen parish at Bermondsey where Elizabeth marries Henry Beard. There are Beard families there but it will take a longer search to discover if this is Henry's line. There are also Buller families there so I may yet discover my Christopher Buller's parents.

Tomorrow is my talk so I need to spend a little time just reviewing it one more time. I will be glad to be finished - it has been gnawing away at my brain for weeks. I am finding that I can not walk away from such items as easily as I could in the past. It tends to dominate my thinking.

I did discover the source of my great grandfather Edwin Denner Buller's middle name. One of Henry Christopher Buller's aunts (Edwin's father) was married to Michael Jacob Denner. Later on the census I find Michael Jacob Denner and he is a slop maker (naval uniforms) like Christopher Buller which was quite an interesting find. Michael is 87 years old when he died. His wife (Sarah Beard) died before 1841 as Michael is on the census with his sister Ann Denner. Later on the 1861 census Michael is listed with his wife Esther (Hawkins) whom he married June quarter 1852 at Bermondsey when he was 69 and she was 49. I can not find the children of Michael and Sarah Denner on any of the census - Henry John Denner and Sarah Jane Denner.

I didn't transcribe the will of Jane Beard yet as I want to return to the Hinxman v Blake document. It looks quite interesting but will take me a while to put together I suspect. It may explain though what happened to the Blake family at this time in Andover. I did manage to get through the first scan of the Hinxman v Blake document and about half way through the second.

We had the Charter Night dinner for the St Lawrence Branch of the United Empire Loyalists Assoication of Canada and attended with another couple that we do bus trips with. It is about a 1.5 hour drive down to the St Lawrence where the banquet was held. I do not have any UELs in my ancestry as my earliest ancestors to come to Canada were not here until 1818.