Strange but true !!!
During the course of our research into peoples Family History, we often come across some strange entries. Some are related to births, marriages, deaths and others to burials but this one is a combination of two such events !!!
We recently found an article that had been re-published in the Liverpool Echo back in 2003.
It certainly made us all chuckle, I hope it raises a smile with you as well.
Granddad joins the wedding party!
A New Zealand man who died two days before his granddaughter’s wedding was brought to the ceremony anyway.
Johannes Fransen’s family parked his corpse in an open coffin in the church at Hamilton, 330 miles North-East of Wellington. The former gardener and father of twelve died while celebrating his 79th birthday last week.
But the family decided he would still attend granddaughter Rachel James’ wedding, said Rachel’s mother Nancy.
“We just went ahead with the wedding and put his coffin at the side of the church,” she said.
During the reception, open casket placed at the end of the hall.
“People went up to see him,” Nancy James said.
“It really helped everybody, including Mum who wanted to be with Dad.”

Some times it’s hard to believe what you read, but often the truth is stranger than fiction.

The Alphabet Girl!!!
A couple of years ago we were doing some research for a family from Liverpool and discovered this amazing family record of one of their ancestors names.
This unusual example, taken from the Probate Calendar from 1908 for her Father Arthur Pepper.

After we found this record we continued to explore further into her family tree.
We first looked to see whether all of these forenames are shown in her entry in the new GRO birth indexes. Sadly they aren’t – the first four forenames are shown in full, but the others have been completely omitted:

By contrast, the Birth, Marriage and Death indexes show the first two forenames followed by 23 initials:

Ann was the only child of the marriage between Arthur Pepper and Sarah Jane Hughes.
Another strange fact is that on Ann’s birth certificate her mothers maiden name is listed as Creighton which was her first married name not Hughes, which was her maiden name.
Sarah Jane Hughes married Hugh Creighton in 1872 and he died in 1881 leaving her a widow when she married Arthur Pepper in 1882.
By the 1901 Census, Arthur Pepper was a widower and his daughter was no longer living with him; in fact,
Arthur died in London on the 12 Jan 1908.


Ann was also known as Ann Starkey Pepper after paternal Grandmothers maiden name and as Nan Wait by her American side of the family.
Ann Pepper emigrated to America in 1906 where she met and in 1910 Married
Arthur Von-der Donk Wait in New York. They went on to have two son’s, Arthur Jr. born in 1916, who died aged two years and Gale Pepper Wait who was born in 1919.
Ann died on the 22 February 1955 in Nyack, New York, New York County, USA of Coronary Thrombosis due to Coronary Arteriosclerosis also Diabetes Mellitus.
She was buried as Nan Wait, in Rockland Cemetery, Sparkill, Rockland County, New York, USA

Who knows where our research into genealogy and family history research will take us next this year.
There are many new families and stories to research for new and existing customers.
We often get asked how long it takes to finish building a family tree?
The answer is that it is a never-ending story, for every loss in a family there are new arrivals, be it through marriage or birth the family history keeps on growing day by day.
Every week new record sets become available, some online through the many different sites others become available as the 50 or 100-year closed record rule expires.
Needless to say, we will as always have plenty to keep our team busy and I am sure we will answer many more questions about people’s families and their pasts.