Genealogy Luck Story 3 

        Once again on the search for the home of a great great grandfather and once again deep in rural Suffolk and once again luck played the right cards.

           Knowing the village where he lived and his occupation were my only clues. I drove through the village, past the 13^th Century school for secular priests, past the empty ‘For Sale’ local Pub, past the larger than usual village Church and reached the end of the village, not a soul in sight!

          I turned to do another run back through the village and found I was being followed! The elderly sole occupant of the village as it seemed to me, stopped at the Churchyard and taking his grass trimmer headed for the graveyard, which is where I caught up with him. “I’m looking for my great great grandfather’s house” I say, “he was a maltster and he lived here in 1871”. Oh yes he says in an almost incomprehensible accent, “I’m one of 3 of us original village folks left” [I could tell that as soon as he opened his mouth!] “and if your relative was a maltster that’s where he would have lived over beyond those trees there”!!!

        A short time later he came in my car as navigator to take me to the malt houses on ‘Beeches Farm’. I tried not to ask him repeat everything he said! Sure enough there were the malt houses and a large Elizabethan farmhouse and barn. This was impressive and I really wanted this place to be ‘it’ but there was no one home.

         After a quick lunch with him and his wife I set of to further explore the village, a moated Castle and an old abbey caught my eye not to mention some heavily laden blackberry vines!

         When preparing to leave the area I decided on a whim to try the ‘Beeches Farm’ again. This time the owners came out to greet me, wow this was okay. Sadly they had confused me for their London guests who were due to arrive to stay in their converted malt houses! However I explained my interest in their home and before we had even got inside the house I knew it was my grandfathers home!! At the mention of his name they immediately knew of him because they had several documents proving his ownership of the property. One of them contained my grandmothers and all her siblings’ signatures. The present owners took copies of the documents and very kindly gave me the originals.

       A tour of their lovely home completed a very successful day of researching.

       So now we have an Elizabethan farmhouse to add to the family abodes along with the grocery shop and a small stately home, which is another story!

 

PS.  When searching for the correct house it can be very useful if the present owners are at home!!

 

Anne Gentleman, nee Chilvers

 

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