As we investigate further back in time, family lore and old photos become thinner on the ground. More imagination is required to picture what life would have been like for an ancestor. I don't know if my great-great-great grandmother, Emma TUCKER, was actually a tough woman, but based on the bare facts of her life, I have to imagine it to be true.
The obvious choice for this week's theme ancestor is Nannie TUCKER.
Reason #1: Hers is the only branch of the family tree in which there is even a whiff of a rumour of nobility. Reason #2: Her maiden name was Annie Alice DUREY. Get it? Du Rey? Heh! It seems a little ghoulish, perhaps, but the records created when someone dies
can be a treasure trove of genealogical information. Hence my current fascination with the England and Wales National Probate Calendar for 1858-1966. Probate records are the legal documentation of the human stories of a family. While the record confirms the date of death and (often) full name of the person who has died, it also provides clues to their relationship to others in the family, and their financial status at the time of their death. The best thing I've found in the probate records (so far), is the index listing of the Will of Elizabeth Huddleston (the great grandmother of Archibald George Robert Tucker). They say that your job doesn't define who you are, it's just what you do. However, I subscribe to the theory that the jobs that our ancestors did often provide clues to who they were. The details of the occupations held by our ancestors can be found in census records, many of which are available online.
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