by Maureen Storey
In this journal we welcome new members Keith Clark and Lesley Wood.
Keith is researching the family of his mother Amelia Ellen Sole. Amelia’s father Samuel Lawrence Sole was born in Eyeworth, BDF, in 1896 but by the time of his marriage to Ellen Parkinson in 1916 he had moved to Birkenhead, CHS. Samuel died in Birkenhead in 1945. Keith’s family has been traced back to the marriage of William Soule and Agnes Clare in Stotfold, BDF, in 1624.
Lesley is interested in the family of Robert Soall, who married Ellen Kaminski on 11 Sep 1911 in West Ham, ESS. Robert was one of those people whose name changes between their birth registration (he was registered as Robert Ernest) and their marriage (he appears as Robert Augustus in the marriage indexes), so Lesley had been having some trouble in tracing his parents. Our database shows that Robert was a great great grandson of William Soall and Clementina Benson, who married in Shoreditch in 1775.
Leigh Paintin found Don Steel’s article about the origins of the Society names and how they could be confused with one another and wrote to tell us about the name variations in her own family. Leigh’s great grandmother’s surname was recorded as Nancy Sowells, but in the 1880 US census Nancy’s father appears as Sowel, while one of her brothers is entered as Sowls and another as Sauls. Leigh’s great great grandfather Marian Sowel, the son of John W Sowel, was born in Illinois in 1862. She is currently looking for John W’s origins.