(10) The EDWARDS

The EDWARDS side of the family is really what got me started down this road to finding the roots of my family. My mother always thought that her father (who died when she was 13) had come from St. Albans or Bury St. Edmunds. In fact the family was from there but her father Alfred EDWARDS was actually born in Lancashire.

The furthest I have been able to go back is to is John EDWARDS who was born in 1778 in St. Albans’s Hertfordshire, England. He married Sarah HILL on the 13th of June, 1801 at St. Stephen’s in St. Albans. Sarah was also from St. Albans born in 1780,her father was William HILL and her mother was Mary SMITH. They had eleven children.

These very early records came from the family tree of someone else with whom I share ancestors. So consider the fact that records of birth, deaths and marriages were not registered, by law, until 1837 and you can understand the sparse information I have on them.

The first was Suzanna EDWARDS, she was born in August of 1801 only a couple of months after the wedding but you must remember that the records were not always accurate back then, otherwise make your own conclusions!

Next there was William, born in December of 1802. He married Elizabeth BUCKLEY in 1827. She was also from St. Albans. He was followed by Thomas born in May 1805.

Then there was James who was born in 1807 and who died two years later.

James died in the March of 1809 as Joseph was born in the April of the same year. He married Mary WILSON in 1829.

Sarah was next, she was born in February of 1812 but died the following October. Mary EDWARDS followed Sarah in 1814.

The next son, Samuel, was born in 1816. He would go on to marry Lydia RYDER and become the direct line to my Grandfather Alfred EDWARDS.

Another son George was born in 1818 only to die a year later. Following George there was another Sarah, presumably named for the baby that died. Unfortunately this Sarah also, being born in late February of 1822, died the following February of 1823.

Finally came Eliza EDWARDS born in 1824.

All of the children were born in St. Albans, they were all Christened and I think it would probably be at St. Stephen’s where their parents were married. The drawing of a church at the top left of this page is of St. Stephen's Church.

For this jumping off point to the EDWARDS I must thank Harry Cautherley without who’s help I wouldn’t have known where to start.