Eliza Ellis & Charles Hudson

Last year I commented on the post of George Ellis that there was an address on the reverse.

The address read and refer to Eliza Ellis and her husband Charles Hudson.

St Kilda
Regent Street
Leederville
Western Australia

From my notes my cousin who descends from John Ellis born 1817 in Elstead and now lives in Victoria wrote to the address as it is written above in May 1991 in the vague hope we might have had a reply, but alas the letter was returned by Australia Post as address no longer known.

Henry & Caroline Harris Nee Ellis

I was given this picture by one of my Grandfather's first cousin's and I recall showing it to my Great Aunt. Her sight wasn't particularly good, but I wondered if she had ever seen the photo, so I asked her.

I was surprised and delighted with the answer, which was, I don't just recall the photograph she said, I took the photograph she said really proudly. Well that was two of us who were proud.

The photograph is of my Maternal Great Great Grandparents, Henry Harris (1843 - 1929) and Caroline Harris nee Ellis (1844 -1935). The couple had married on 3rd December 1864 at Puttenham Surrey. This photograph was taken on the occasion of their 60th Wedding Anniversary in 1924 and was taken at Manor Farm at Wanborough Surrey.

Henry and Caroline raised a family of 10 children born between 1864 and 1885, their eldest child, born just a few weeks after their wedding.

Ellis, Ellis and More Ellis!

The following is one of a series of posts for the Family History Writing Challenge - Day 15 (For more information on the challenge click here)

I have always thought that my Ellis families from Puttenham and Elstead were connected. When I initially embarked upon trying to untangle the Ellis I shared my thoughts with Ivy Sheffield, who was my Grandfather's first cousin. Ivy was then in her late 70s, but like most of the Grandchildren of Caroline Harris, nee Ellis, Ivy had an amazing memory and as I explained my hypothesis to her, she simply nodded and said I suspect your right. Not perhaps the most helpful of statements, but I felt that there was perhaps some truth in my thought process.

Then in 1990 I met a contact, I can't even remember how we met, but someone who shared a connection to one of the Ellis families in Elstead. She didn't live too far from Elstead and I was invited to tea and to see the documents and photos she had. They were delightful. With hindsight I wish I had photographed them, but I didn't, although I did transcribe and described the documents. The transcripts of those documents is online. Following that meeting I was even more confused and I elected to go back to basics and start again with a clear head.

The bottom line was there were too many families in the same 4 mile radius each having children and calling them all the same names. See the problem?, but there was a glimmer of light on the horizon and I remember telling myself at the time that I must not get swept away and caught up in the details that I was about to unravel.

The first thing was to head back to Ivy. Her son in law, (DW), was the Grandson of a man, from Elstead called Job Ellis. DW presented me with a birthday book that had come down through his family, and was understood to have originally belonged to Adelaide Underwood. I copied the details and like the other Ellis material it is online. It was the least of my problems to know where Adelaide Underwood slotted into the general mix. So my big question was to DW what is the connection between your Grandfather Job and your wife's Grandmother Caroline? The answer was a smile and then "that is what your to find out!" I could have cried. I didn't of course. DW reached into a photograph album and very kindly lent me some photographs that I shall load to the Ellis' of Elstead blog.

So, now I had four sets of Ellis families in the parishes of Elstead, Puttenham, Godalming and Guildford, and in 1992 I met a fifth connection to the Ellis families.

1. My Great Great Grandmother Caroline Ellis born 1844 the daughter of George and Prudence nee Budd in Puttenham.
2. Job Ellis born in Elstead in 1848 and the Grandfather of DW
3. The family of John Ellis born 1817 in Elstead whose family had migrated to Geelong Australia in 1854. I had already made connections with at least three other researchers in Australia and met them during their time in England, or mine in Australia
4. The family of my contact OS whose family came from Elstead.
5. The family of my contact BE whose husband's family came from Elstead.

The early families, were easy to work on.

• John Ellis born 1817 was the nephew to Job Ellis through the marriage of George Ellis and Sarah Hall in 1801 and subsequent lineage to James Ellis
• Caroline Ellis born 1844 was the Second Cousin to John Ellis leading to James Ellis
• Caroline Ellis born 1844 was the third Cousin to Job Ellis leading to James Ellis

Initial research has shown that James Ellis, who is the key to this entire family was one of three sons who were the children of James Ellis born circa 1690 and Jane Edwards who married in Peperharrow in 1710. As to what happened to the other two children of James and Jane I have no idea, and I am almost to frighted to find out!

The members who connect to the families of OS and BE are related and eventually join up and connect to Job Ellis.

So I was right when I sat and said to Ivy I think they all connect, I simply hadn't thought that they connected back in 1710!

Birthday Book of Adelaide Underwood

Back in the Spring of 1990 I was visiting an elderly cousin,whose Grandmother was a Caroline Ellis of Puttenham. The cousin whose daughter had married the Grandson of a chap called Job Ellis from Elstead found it somewhat amusing that perhaps the Ellis connection was stronger than were first thought. Over a cuppa and chat I was presented with a birthday book and it is this book that is transcribed here, written in the order the details appear in the book.

Owner identified as Adelaide Underwood May 14th, 1776


Harriett Street 1852 Jan 15th

Marjorie Ellis Jan 27th 1910

Frederick Street 1857 Feb 2nd

Herbert Ellis Feb 23rd

Frederick Street 1882 April 1st

Emma Street 1854 May 3rd

Annie Underwood 1854 June 6th

John street 1859 Oct 5th

Adelaide Ellen Underwood 1853 Nov 7th

Annie Street 1886 Dec 3rd

Reverse of Photo of George Ellis

The following was written on the reverse of a photo of George Ellis. The photo has not be made available to me, but the details on the reverse reads:

St Kilda
Regent Street
Leederville
Western Australia

Reverse of Photo of Alice Ellis nee Wareham

Sadly the photo has not been made available to me, but the following were the details on the reverse:

"Alice Ellis nee Wareham, wife of George Ellis. Mother of Stephen Frank Ellis. She had sons, Henry,Philip,Leonard,Stephen,Percival and daughter Olive. Survived her daughter and son George killed in 1914-1918 War"

Letter - 14th November 1916

"Dear Mrs Ellis,

Your letter asking for news of your son reached me. It is with great regret that I am unable to give you any further news.

Ellis has been missing since July 13th and nothing further has been heard of him. I am very much afraid that he was killed on that date with many other brave fellows. He was an awfully good fellow and I miss him greatly"

War Office Letter - 2nd September 1916

War Office
London
SW

2nd September 1916

No C2 Casualties
No 278885

Madam,

In reply to your enquiry of 18th August 1916. I am commanded by the Army Council to inform you that 1682 Private G.C.Ellis of 7th Royal West Surrey has been reported in a casualty list which has reached this office as missing since 13th-14th July 1916

Missing Since 14th July 1916

"Private G E Ellis of the Queens Regiment, son of Mr & Mrs G Ellis of Charles Hill Elstead who has been missing since July 14th, 1916"

Letter from George Ellis - 26th June 1915

Officers Servant
Number 1682 D Boy
7(S) Batt Queens
Cadford-St-Mary
Wiltshire

"Had letter from Ollie - Herb had been home"

Introduction.....

Back in 1990 I was introduced to a lady (described in the taglines as OS), who descended from one of the Ellis families of Elstead. The question was, were we descended from the same family?

Research has shown that we were, but we were not connected in the way I thought we were! Nonetheless, we spent some time together chatting about what we knew of the Ellis' and I was introduced to some of this lady's family documents. There were not many documents, which date to the troublesome days of the Great War, but I thought that twenty years after first seeing them, a quick transcript (and subsequent research) would be nicely committed to the world wide web.