Maureen StoreyThe Sole Society, a Family History Society researching Sole, Saul, Sewell, Solley and similar names

SOLE Co-ordinator's Report December 2001

By Maureen Storey  

 

In this journal we welcome several new members who have all added valuable information to our database.

Frank Pursey is a descendant of the Sooles of Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, through the marriage in Ickleton in 1873 of Alfred Pursey and Emma Eliza Soole. Like many of the Sooles, including his father-in-law Thomas, Alfred was a carpenter. After their marriage Alfred and Emma moved to the nearby market town of Saffron Walden where they raised their four children: Alice, Ethel, Herbert and Frederick.

Victor Soul is looking for the marriage of his great grandparents John Soul and Mary Ann Currey. According to the 1861 census John, a waiter, was born in Middlesex in about 1822, while from the IGI Mary Ann was baptised in Southwark in 1831, so it seems likely they married in the Greater London area. But, as the couple moved widely around the country (the first four of the children listed in the 1861 census were born Kent, Warwickshire, Surrey and Lancashire) this is by no means certain.

Pamela Herron’s 3´great grandmother Olive Soul was baptised in Bisley, Gloucestershire in 1826. She was the seventh of nine daughters of John and Mary (nee Hunt) Soul who farmed at Oakridge in Bisley. Pamela’s family first appears in the Bisley records with the marriage of Andrew Soul and Ann Sly in 1744. Andrew’s baptism is recorded in nearby Miserden in 1720 but it is one of a number at that time for which no parents are recorded. Hopefully the 1726 Will of Andrew Soul of Miserden, which we’ve ordered from Gloucestershire Record Office, will shed some light on the parentage of some of these Miserden ‘orphans’.

Debbie Garrand wrote to us asking if we had any information on the ancestry of her great grandmother Mary Sole who married Frederick Harrison at Little Wymondly, Hertfordshire, in 1894. Since Mary was the daughter of Goodman and Clara Sole of Kelshall, and is thus a member of what is still by far our largest family group we were able to give Debbie considerable information (probably more than she really wanted!).

We weren’t able to be quite as helpful to Brad Gorham who wanted to know if we knew anything about the family of John Branch and Susan Sowels who married at St Clements, Norwich, in 1811. We had a little information on the family, taken largely from the 1867 Will of Susan’s sister Mary and the 1851 census, that we were able to give Brad. The age at death that Brad gave us for Susan indicates she was probably the daughter of John Sowels and Susan Dady (or Dandy) baptised at St Paul’s Norwich in 1788.

Risca Solomon is interested in information on her great grandmother Elizabeth, the wife of Frederick Soul, who lived in Stratford upon Avon. Although we weren’t able to tell Risca Elizabeth’s maiden name we were able to supply her with the GRO references that would enable her to get not only Elizabeth and Frederick’s marriage certificate but also the birth certificates of their children. Frederick was a member of our Chedworth family; his branch moved to Binton in Warwickshire in the 1870s. n

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