John SlaughterThe Sole Society, a Family History Society researching Sole, Saul, Sewell, Solley and similar names

SAUL Co-ordinator's Report August 2011

by John Slaughter

 

I am pleased to welcome four new members in this report, Wayne Morris, Barbara Sault, Pat Nichols and Cecil Saul.

Wayne posted a message on our Forum advising that he had recently discovered that his father had been adopted as a child, his birth name being Herbert A Saul. The adoption record lists his father as Robert Edward Saul who was born in London around 1888. Wayne had found a Robert Edward Saul born in Liverpool around that time and wondered whether this was the same person. I was able to confirm that was indeed the case. We already knew something about this family from research that an ex member and I had carried out some years previous. This earlier research had shown that the family had originally come to England from Ireland. Robert Edward’s grandfather was a George Saul who, though born in Ireland, was, by the time of the 1851 census, an emigrant passenger agent in Liverpool. More details about George will be found in my report in the April 1995 journal. As far as we are aware George and his wife Jane Hanway had five children, one of whom Robert Wallace Saul emigrated to America some time after the birth of his son, Robert Edward. It is not known precisely when Robert Wallace emigrated or how many children he eventually had, I have been given a total of eight but details are sketchy.

Robert Edward Saul married twice and was killed in a motor accident on 20th September 1928. Herbert A was a child of the second marriage and just one year old when his father died. There was at least one other child of the second marriage, a Robert Saul, who was adopted by his uncle George Weston Saul.

Barbara Sault made contact after finding references on our website to Kate Leach and Phillipa Saul, to whom she is related. Phillipa was her father’s first cousin. Barbara’s father was John Henry Sault and his father Henry Charles Saul. It was the latter who added the “t” to his name, after he had emigrated to Canada, it is said in order to make it easier to obtain employment. This Saul family has been traced back quite a few generations to Stalham, Norfolk.

My records show that I had correspondence with Pat Nichols as long ago as August 1997 so am particularly pleased that she has now joined the Society. Back in 1997 Pat provided me with a copy of her Sawle family tree that went back to an Edward Sawle and Jane of Veryan, Cornwall. This chart formed part of the information that was used to prepare the Sawle charts some years later. Subsequently we were able to establish that Edward’s parents were John Sawle and Elizabeth Thomas who had married at Probus, Cornwall in 1755 and had baptised their first three children there before moving to Veryan. I wait to hear if Pat can add anything further
to our knowledge.

Cecil is a descendant of a William Saul who was born in Campsall, Yorkshire in 1837 the son of Charles and Mary (nee Seniour). William emigrated in 1862 initially to Canada and then on to America. William was following in the footsteps of two of his uncles John and Thomas (the sons of Thomas Saul and Elizabeth Addy). Cecil has clearly spent a lot of time, together with others, in researching the descendants of both William and John and has uploaded his information on the website  www.findagrave.com. I was not previously aware of this site and it is certainly well worth a look, particularly if you are trying to trace American connections/descendants. What happened to Thomas is not presently known but Cecil is on his trail.

I received an enquiry from a Gavin Saul who noticed that his name had been mentioned in my April 2007 report as being the owner of a Saul Tartan. I had no knowledge of who Gavin was at that time.  Gavin has now kindly provided me with some details of his Saul ancestry. His grandfather was Percy Sidney Saul who I was able to confirm from the birth indexes as having been born in 1909 in the Leeds registration district. Percy’s parents were Herbert Saul and Agnetta Henderson who had married in the previous year in the Chorlton registration district. Despite this information however I have been unable to find the family on the 1911 census and wonder whether they may have been resident in Scotland at that time (I do not have access to Scottish records – so if anyone does and could have a look, I would be grateful). Gavin subsequently obtained a copy of the marriage certificate for Herbert and Agnetta from which I was able to link the family to our largest Norfolk chart. Herbert was born Herbert George Saul in 1885 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. His father Frederick George Saul was a travelling printer and had eight children in total. The birth places of the children clearly demonstrate his mobility. 

 

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