By Maureen Storey
In this journal we welcome new members Travers Cape and Michael Rhodes and returning member Keith Sowell.
Travers is researching the family of his grandmother Elaine Amelia Sole, who was born in Queenstown, South Africa, in 1894. Records indicate that Elaine was the granddaughter of Alfred Sole and Caroline Pankhurst, who emigrated to South Africa in the 1850s. Alfred’s family has been traced back to John Sole and Mary Packman, who married in Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, on 24 Mar 1695.
Michael is yet to tell us which Sole family he is researching and we are looking forward to hearing from him.
Keith has exhausted his research into the Sowell/Sewell name in the USA and intends to write a book to show the various lineages in the USA. He is very interested in the origins of our names and has extended his research to include the line of the Viscounts of Soule and that of Sir Ranulf De Soule, both of which stem from France.
Some years ago Roger Clayton sent us some information on Basil John Butler Sole, son of Arthur Baron Sole (a descendant of the sixteenth-century Sole family of Stretham, Cambridgeshire). For Basil we had little more than a birthdate. Roger was able to give us some details of his life, including the fact that he had married Isabella Vera Clayton, although, as Basil spent long periods abroad, he had been unable to find the marriage. Roger has recently contacted us again, and although still unable to find the marriage (which seems to have taken place in Singapore in about 1929) he has given us much more detail about Basil’s life.
Chloe Bevan found the Picture Gallery on our website and thought we might like a copy of her photograph of Alfred Edgar Sole. Alfred, the son of Alfred and Dinah (nee Holness) Sole, was born in Littlebourne, Kent in 1894. During the First World War he served first with the Royal East Kent Regiment and later with the Royal Sussex Regiment. He was killed in France on 24 Sep 1918 and is buried at the Vadencourt British Cemetery in Maissemy, Aisne, France. Alfred’s ancestry has been traced back to John Sole and Elizabeth Cook, who married in Nackington, Kent in 1750.