by John Slaughter  

Welcome to three new members, William Saul, Christopher Saul and Terri Brownbridge.

William’s grandfather, George Joseph Saul emigrated to the USA, together with his brother Robert, in 1883 on the SS Pennsylvania. On the 1881 census George and Robert were resident at 45 Balaclava Street, Blackburn together with their sister Agnes. All three are shown as having been born in Ireland. Robert was shown as a master draper employing 3 persons, one of whom was presumably his brother George, described as a draper’s apprentice. Curiously though, on their immigration papers they are described as butchers. Agnes stayed in the UK and married a William Emmerson in Blackburn. It is thought there were other siblings Susannah and possibly Christopher. We have not been able to make any connections with the snippets of Irish information that we hold.

Christopher owns a butchers and caterers business “Sauls of Spratton” and it was his daughter Emma that originally got in touch. The business had been established in 1926 by, it appears, Christopher’s grandfather Frank Evelyn Saul. It was assumed that they were connected to the other Saul families in the area. However, research established that Frank’s father was a Joseph Saul who had been born in Old Catton, Norwich in 1858. This linked very nicely to one of our Norfolk charts on which Joseph and his wife appeared but no details of their children. The patriarch of this chart is a Robert Saul of Mundesley, Norfolk and who was buried there in 1834. Unfortunately I have never been able to establish how Robert links to the other Mundesley Sauls, if indeed he does.

Terri’s great great grandmother was Mary Jane Andrew nee Saul and who was born at New Sleaford, Lincs in 1843. An ex member, Daphne Duffield, is also descended from Mary Jane and Daphne provided considerable information on this family whilst she was a member. Mary Jane’s parents were Seth Saul and Naomi Crooks. Seth had been born in Harbury, Warwickshire the son of a Samuel Saul, a Customs and Excise officer. Daphne provided us with a lot of information on Samuel including details of his career as a Customs Officer taken from official records. Subsequently I was able to link Samuel with a Cambridge family and the chart now extends back to a Samuel Saul who married Sarah Chapman in Cambridge in 1752.

A number of interesting enquiries continue to be received thanks to our web site. Peter Saul in New Zealand got in touch and provided some details about his grandfather Walter Saul who went to South Africa as part of the Queens Constabulary during the Boer War and stayed on afterwards in the South African Mounted Police. He returned to England at the outbreak of World War One to enlist and finally emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1919. Walter had been born in West Derby, Lancashire in 1881 the son of Charles Saul and Mary Ann (nee Priestley). Charles is shown on the 1881 census as a railway carriage examiner but the family later moved to Aldershot where we find them on the 1891 census. Charles’s occupation is by now listed as a fishmonger. Both censuses give Charles’s place of birth as Retford, Nottinghamshire and suggest he was born around 1847. Charles however is proving to be elusive. There is no Charles that fits in the GRO birth indexes and attempts so far to locate him in censuses before 1881 have drawn a blank. Peter understands that Charles’s father was a David Saul, a greengrocer born around 1823 and is checking the source of this information.

Tessa Kendall was conducting online research into her great grandmother Margaret Saul Rodriguez and found references on our web site to the Saul Rodriquez families who are being researched by three of our members. Tessa has made contact and I understand a connection has been established.  

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