by Geoff Sewell

The initial flurry of information reported at the beginning of the year has, I am afraid, not continued. A little disappointing, but on the other hand, it does give me more time to analyse the data that has come in. I find it amazing that considering that the SEWELL variant out­numbers all the others put together by 25 to 1 (this has now been proven, at least for Beds, Cambs and Herts), that there are not more people who have researched or are researching the name. Where are they all hiding?

On a lighter note, I have received, amongst my mail, two very useful sets of information. The first was from Nigel SEWELL (078) of Kent. Along with listings of Births, Marriages, etc., he sent me his family tree. This takes his line back to around 1720, originating in the village of Langham in the county of Rutland, the smallest county in England until it was submerged in Leicestershire with local government reorganisation in 1974. The village is full of SEWELLs and to my surprise, when you view the IGI for Rutland there are, to say the least, lots of SEWELLs. The numbers seem to decline from the 1830s to the 1850s. Fred Sole has forwarded me an 1891 Census return for Ironville, Derbyshire that reads:

149 34 Meadow; John T. Sewell; Head; Married., age 47; Forge Labourer; born Rutland, Langham.

Jane Sewell; Wife: Married; age 41; born Derby, Pye Bridge.

When I consulted Nigel's tree I found a John Turner SEWELL born in Langham, Rutland in 1842. This was a great‑uncle of his.

The second pack of information was sent by Michael SEWELL (076) of Hornsea. His family tree originates in Frodingham, Lincs with a marriage of Samuel (born 19 Feb 1726) and Agnes SEWEL, then downwards including places like Winteringham, Lincs. What is even more interesting is that I have had a letter from Mary Rogers of Kallaroo, Western Australia, and to my surprise, her tree commences with Samuel and Agnes and descends down two generations before breaking away from the common stem. So at last, pieces of the jigsaw are coming together.

Once again, I plea that when sending in family trees please include all data about an event, i.e. name, parents, occupation, date and most important of all, the place.

Some readers found the pedigree of the SEWELL family of Yarmouth in the last journal (p.67) a little difficult to follow. Note that the SEWELL part of the pedigree begins not at the top but further down on the left with Anna's grandfather, William Sewell (1753‑1836) and his two brothers. The earlier part of the pedigree at the top is Anna's ancestry on the female side through her mother Mary Wright and her grandmother Ann Holmes.

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