The Matrilineal Line

When most people begin researching their family history they begin with the Paternal line, and indeed when I wrote my family history book 15 years ago it was about my Paternal line, 'Moments in Time - A history of the Stickland/Strickland family of Cornwall'. With your Paternal line the name remains the same and it is a familiar, comfortable name, the one you grew up with and was known throughout your younger years, and if you are male or never marry, the name that you still go by and use. The Matrilineal lineage is the line that follows your Mother's maternal ancestry, this line consists entirely of women, it traces your mother, her mother, her mother's mother and so forth back into history. This line is sometimes known as the umbilical line and corresponds with the path of transmission of the mitochondrial DNA. Some people say that Judaism goes by matrilineal descent because we always know who a person's mother is and we can't always be certain who their father is. With your Matrilineal line the name changes with every generation which can make research more difficult, especially if a Mother's name isn't mentioned on a baptism record or you only have a first name for her because you can't find a marriage record. I have been able to trace my Matrilineal line back seven generations to Elisabeth Cotterel who was christened on the 31st July 1721 in Tadley, Hampshire. Her father was George Cotterel but the name of her mother wasn’t mentioned on the christening record and as yet I haven’t found a marriage record for her father George. During her youth Elisabeth and her family moved to Elvetham, Hampshire a small hamlet next to Elvetham Hall, an Estate that was once owned by the Seymour family and was visited by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Elisabeth Cotterel married Thomas Lowman on the 22nd July 1747 and lived in Elvetham with her husband and children until her death and burial at Elvetham on the 3rd July 1785 aged 64. Her youngest daughter Ann Lowman was christened at Elvetham church on the 30th December 1770, she also grew up in the hamlet of Elvetham which must have been closely involved with the affairs of Elvetham Hall. Apparently the Estate had fallen into disrepair during the latter half of the 18th Century and was eventually leased out to various tenants who did minor improvements. In 1792 the Landscape designer William Emes took a 21 year lease on Elvetham, living there at least 3 years in which time he made significant changes to the Elvetham’s park land as well as a few architectural improvements to the house.   Also in 1792, on the 21st of February, 21 year old Ann Lowman, my 4th great grandmother married John Turner at Elvetham Church. John had also been born and had grown up in Elvetham and after their marriage they continued to live in this small hamlet where Ann gave birth to eight children. Several of their children died in infancy but their seventh child, a daughter, who was born in 1810 and named Eliza Turner became my 3rd great grandmother. Eliza also grew up in Elvetham but when she was 23 she married Henry Challis in St. George’s Church in Ramsgate, Kent on the 10th November 1833. I don’t know how Eliza met Henry or what brought her to Ramsgate, a seaside town located about 120 miles from her home and on the other side of the great city of London. The only connection that I can find is that Eliza’s brother William was employed as a car man and the Challis family were also in the transportation business and Elvetham was located on the main thoroughfare from London to the West Country. After Eliza’s marriage to Henry they continued to live in Ramsgate and Eliza gave birth to and raised eight children, two boys and six girls. In their later years Eliza and Henry moved to Dover where they became the proprietors of the pub Neptune’s Hall. After Henry’s death Eliza carried on running this pub with her daughter and son in law Eleanor and William Bumstead. Eliza died in her 72nd year and was buried at St. Mary the Virgin Church in Dover on the 10th April 1882. Eliza and Henry’s fifth child was my 2nd great grandmother, she was born in Ramsgate on the 24th May 1842 and named Eliza Lowman Challis, Eliza after her mother and Lowman after her grandmother’s family name. My previous blog was all about Eliza Lowman Challis, her marriage to William Frederick Tozer and his untimely early death leaving her a widow and mother of three children at the age of 29. Her move up to Hull in East Yorkshire where she worked as a housekeeper, her failed second marriage and her death in 1927 aged 85. Eliza’s third child was my great grandmother Rose Tozer whom I have also wrote about previously. Rose was born on the 9th October 1871 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, her father died when she was 7 months old so she wouldn’t have had any memories of him. When she was 10 years old her mother was working as a housekeeper for a Polish Jewish man who generously left them well provided for after his death. Rose was employed as a Domestic Nurse in her twenties and married when she was 28 to 23 year old Harry Popplewell, Rose was three months pregnant when she married. They married on the 2nd June 1900 in Hull and after their marriage went to live in Harry’s home town of Batley, West Yorkshire. Their child, my grandmother, Violet Popplewell was born on the 12th December 1900. Sometimes it seems like history repeats it’s self, Rose lost her father as an infant and Violet lost her father as an infant. Harry Popplewell had worked in the coal mines of West Yorkshire since being a young boy of 13 or 14 and his lungs had been damaged by the coal dust, this is possibly the reason that he had been living for a short while in Hull in order to convalesce, when he met Rose. After returning to Batley he resumed his work in the coal mine and in February 1903 he died of silicosis of the lungs at the young age of 25, his daughter Violet was two years old. Rose eventually remarried a widower, William Whiting and father of six daughters and moved to the seaside town of Bridlington, North Yorkshire where she also helped to run a Bed and Breakfast. Life wasn’t easy for Rose, she had three more children to William Whiting but eventually he left her for someone else and in 1918 he divorced her. After her divorce Rose lived with Violet and her youngest son Hector, her other two children having been kept in the custody of their father which must have been heartbreaking for Rose. Eventually she moved in with a man called Joseph Cant whom she lived with for the last 10 years of her life. Rose sadly ended her own life when she was 59 years old by laying her head on a cushion in her gas oven and gassing herself, her body was discovered by Joseph Cant. My Grandmother Violet Popplewell married Herbert Cyril Orwin on the 31st July 1922, exactly 201 years after Elisabeth Cotterel, our Matriarchal forebear was christened. Violet and Herbert had three children, the youngest of whom was my Mum, Doreen Orwin. This Matrilineal line continues on through myself and my sisters and through my daughters and granddaughters. A line of strong women who I am proud to share my DNA with.