The Excitement of Luck in Genealogy
His name was John his wife was called Sarah and they had a son called Ambrose who was baptised the day he was born.
Nineteen years ago that is all I knew about my great x4 grandfather. After much effort but lots of fun on the way, and some extraordinary instances of pure luck that is still all I know about him! This is an account of one of these instances of luck, which make the hobby of genealogy so absorbing.
Ambrose Chilvers's Will indicated that he owned land and property in his home town and nearby villages so hoping that he had inherited some of these from his elusive father John I made extensive enquires about the said land and buildings. If John’s name appeared on any legal documents in connection with Ambrose’s properties it might lead me to other family members as well. After a visit to a local legal firm and the nearest Record Office both of which gave me very little hope of ever finding details of Ambrose’s properties I could easily have given up but a helpful Record Office staff member suggested just for interest that I look at the 1841 tithe maps and books. This took me to be searching a huge 6 feet by 4 feet map! The Record Office had huge tables and large felt covered weights to enable one to peruse such a map.
I duly recorded and drew mini maps of where his properties were and then set off to find them in my tiny rental car driving the delightfully unspoilt and very rural part of Suffolk. When I came to a tiny remote village to find site no.3 which included 2 semi detached cottages the present owners were very helpful and confirmed details of other older buildings on the site. At the mention of my Ambrose Chilvers the owner suddenly got quite excited. It turned out that his neighbour in the other half of the semi had recently been sent unsolicited, a pile of old documents relating to his property and he was sure my Ambrose Chilvers’s name was on one of them.
Luck continued to present itself, the neighbours were in and happily let me look through this pile of papers [about 30cm deep] and sure enough not only did my relatives name appear, it appeared on several of them. Unbelievably one of them was the notice advertising the sale of all my relatives’ properties on his death, the very information I was told I would be extremely unlikely to find!!!
So through pure luck there in a cottage in a tiny village where no one would have thought of looking was the information I was looking for. It did not get me any nearer my missing relative John but it did eliminate the possibility of him having left his properties to his son Ambrose.
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PS. Often in genealogy it seems eliminating possibilities is as important as confirming definite connections
Anne Gentleman, nee Chilvers
