Ad pedem Parietis huic lapidi vicini jacet, Rebecca Lovering, mater Thomœ Lovering, Quæ cum annos Octoginta & unum implessit, morti cessit,
Sic gravidis onerata seges, subit horrea Culmis
Sic Matura suo tempore poma cadunt.

Obijt autem Junij 26, A. D. 1644.

Huic à Latere accumbit Blancia Lovering Uxor ejusdem Thomœ prima, quæ cum Sexaginta plus minus annos numerâsset tunc ablata: Sub hoc Lapide jacet Margeria ejusdem Thomœ Uxor secunda, de quâ, ut de Priore, dum vixerunt meritò affirmetur.

Utraque grata uni, vicinis grata et egenis, At nunc Cœlesti est Utraque juncta choro.

Obijt harum Prior Maij 12, 1658.

Posterior Aprilis 26, 1663.

I can see that the first paragraph refers to a Rebecca Lovering who is the mother of Thomas and died around the age of eighty, and also that further down it refers to two wives of Thomas, Blancia and Margeria, one of whom was about sixty, but the rest is a mystery so if you can fill in the gaps please share in the comments!

It’s lovely to see how much use the blog has had even during it’s hiatus, especially the GILBY thread which is turning into a really useful resource with a number of people posting details of their Gilby family and meeting up with others who are researching the same lines, plus the useful input of Michael who is something of a Gilby family historian.

I haven’t done a huge amount of genealogy over the last year or so – hit a lot of brickwalls which was frustrating – but I’ve been dipping my toe in the waters again on the last few months, and made a few break-throughs! With the help of the great people at rootschat.com I’ve made quite a lot of headway with my PUGH line, I’ll post more about that in the future when I’ve compiled everything.

I’ve also had a breakthrough in my COLLEDGE line (I haven’t added their details yet), discovering a link to Wendover in Buckinghamshire. William COLLEDGE, my great, great, great, great grandfather, was a boatman who carried cargo from Stratford on Avon to London. En route he would stop at Wendover, and there he met Edith MEAD, the daughter of the harbour master. They married in 1837 and their son, my direct ancestor, Thomas was born in Stratford in 1843.

I’ve also discovered a bit about Edith’s ancestry which includes the names LIPTRAP, GOWER/GOWEN, CAUDERY and DURRANT. The DURRANTs are particularly interesting: I’ve gone back as far as an Allim DURRANT – I’m very, very curious about how he came to have such an unusual forename. More digging needed!

I’ll try to update more often …

My 1000th was Bridget Basket who was the wife of my 11th great-uncle, Colonel Thomas Phelips. Bridget and Thomas married on 2nd November, 1657. Unfortunately, it was a short marriage because Bridget died less than 4 years later and was buried in Corfe Mullen, Somerset on 8th September, 1661. I’m afraid that is all I know about poor Bridget.

Over to you, who’s your 1000th?

I’ll still update this one with information pertaining to my family – a lot of cousins have found me here, so it’s definitely worth keeping that going. However, I’ll be posting general genealogy advice at a new blog I’ve set up at Blogger, where I’ll be able to use the same bells and whistles all the other bloggers use. I hope you’ll join me there