by Maureen Storey
In this journal we welcome new member Hazel Miller. Hazel is the daughter of Hugh Soul and with help from member Brendan Soul has been exploring her Soul ancestry which has been traced back to the marriage of John Soul and Kezia Clarke in Gloucestershire in 1737. Hazel’s father has left her a rich heritage of family folklore, which she is trying to substantiate: it includes links to the Titanic, an infamous Essex murder and the Black Hole of Calcutta.
We would also like to welcome back Jan Warren who has rejoined the Society and is keen to resume her family history research. Jan is a member of the Kelshall family. Her grandfather William Sole was born in Therfield, HRT in 1883 but moved to London where he married Kate Berry in 1922.
Member Terry Sole has spent some time trying to establish who his great grandparents were. Terry’s grandfather Alfred Sole emigrated to Canada sometime between 1907 and 1921. He lived in Lachine, a suburb of Montreal, where he ran Sole’s Fish Market. The most obvious candidates in our database to be Alfred’s parents were Charles and Mary Jane (nee Bolam) Sole who had a son Alfred born in 1885. However, we have been unable to find Alfred’s marriage to Terry’s grandmother Mary Wall (or Wade) to confirm this. Recently the confirmation he sought finally came when Terry found Alfred’s second marriage in the parish registers of St Stephen’s, Lachine, which stated Alfred was the son of Charles Sole and Jane Bolam. Charles was a member of the Kelshall family. He was born in Kelshall in 1855 and moved to East End of London where he married Mary Jane in 1880.
Another query about the Kelshall family came from Robert Buckingham who found the article ‘An Apple for Lizzie’ about William and Lizzie Ann (nee Sole) Dowton on our website. Robert recognised William as one of his Dowton family and was thrilled to see the photo of him that went with the article. He has been able to give us further information about William and Lizzie’s descendants.
Another of our members, Colin Sole, was approached by Sean Sole who had seen Colin’s Facebook entry and wondered if there was any connection between them. From the information Sean gave Colin I was able to establish that Sean is a member of the Sole family that surfaced at Aston le Walls, NTH, in the 1780s, with the baptism of Samuel, son of Mary Sole in 1780. Sean’s 2 × gt grandfather George Sole moved from Northamptonshire to Leicestershire in the 1870s and many of his descendants still live in and around Leicester