Stemma Genealogy

About 6 months ago, I was asked by a colleague of mine to find out more about her mother’s paternal line. The aim was to present her mother with as much history as we could about her ancestors.

The first step was to find first hand sources to create a basic family tree and expand the search from there. I collected various certificates, newspaper articles and through the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills managed to find further ancestors.

It was discovered that my colleague was directly related to John Tharp (1744-1804), a wealthy and influential figure and landowner in Jamaica. Distant family still live in Chippenham Park – the ancestral home in Cambridgeshire. They gave my colleague and I permission to view Chippenham Park and gather further information from old photograph albums held there.

Cambridgeshire Record Office holds a lot of information: hand written correspondence chancery records and plans of Chippenham and Good Hope estate in Jamaica. I collected any relevant sources and images in a file and created a digital family tree for my colleague to share with other family members.

Using the information that I provided, she decided to write the history of the Tharp Family and create a book that she could present to her mother on her 70th birthday.

As a thank you for my input, she also presented me with a copy.

This is William Alfred Kyte and his wife Margaret (nee Edmundson) with their daughter Elizabeth. Their story is one that I found particularly moving when I began to piece together their family.

William served in India where he met and married Margaret Edmundson when she was 16. They had four children, who where all born in India: Elizabeth (born 1882), William (born 1884), Frederick (born 1890) and Alice (born 1891).

Sadly, Alice died when she was only 9 months old in 1891. The family faced more devastation when in 1882 William (Senior) died and again two years later when Margaret died, leaving three young children. At the time of losing both of their parents, Elizabeth was aged 12, William aged 10 and young Frederick was just four years old.

The children were sent to the Lawrence Asylum, which was set up to care for the children who had family serving in the Army. Here young girls are expected to become Governesses and young boys are enlisted in to the military.

This tiny photograph inserted into a brooch was found amongst Elizabeth’s belongings. The image is of all three Kyte children taken when they were aged in their twenties and thirties and is sadly, probably the last image of all of them together.

William and Frederick both fought in the First World War, however, Frederick was killed within a month of England declaring War on Germany, on 27th August 1914. He was 24.

William served in the Army and went on to have a family of his own.

Elizabeth went on to become a Governess. She married and had two sons. Sadly, the Second World War was to take the life of her youngest son, William, when he was just 19 years old.

Her oldest son also served in the Second World War. He went on to have children, grandchildren….. and ……great grandchildren and is currently living with his family at the age of 95!