Family History Correspondents

I don't receive many comments on my blog. But I was delighted when a letter arrived in December from a Chris Rathbone, with details of the families of our two common ancestors. The first is my great great great grandfather Sidney Roberts. I am descended from his eldest son, John Shearwood Roberts, and Chris from John's brother Augustus Morton Roberts. The brothers married two sisters, John to Ellen Littlewood and Augustus to her sister Sophia Arrabella. So Chris and I share another ancestor in the father of these sisters, John William Littlewood.

Chris also put me in touch with one of his correspondents, Nigel Buchanan, who is an even closer relative in that his mother (Ada Ellen Matilda Roberts) was the sister of my great grandfather, Vincent Littlewood Roberts. So the three of us have been swapping information and exchanged many emails and letters. One of the most interesting items has been an obituary of my grandfather, Stanley Boyd Roberts, of whom I knew (or remembered) only little.

All the information from Chris and Nigel has been absolutely brilliant. It will take me some time to digest it all, and even more time to put it on the Family Historian programme.