Welcome to Tim Silver’s ancestry website

Main family names being researched:

Andrews | Hyman | Meads | Silver

More distant, but still significant, ancestor surnames:

Anderson;  Baldwin;  Brewer;  Chamberlain;  Church;  Clifford;  Comfort;  Drew;  Fricker;  Frith;  Gains;  Gray;  Greenham;  Groves;  Harmes;  Hooker;  Howard;  Hunt;  Johnson;  Knight;  Nash;  Nicholls;  Randall;  Reed;  Sawney;  Simms;  Tagg (Tegg);  Watts;  White;  Wicks;  Wooderson;  Young

Just some of the many ‘extended family’ surnames:

Abbotts;  Aldridge;  Alexander;  Allen;  Ayres;  Bacon;  Baker;  Barksfield;  Barlow;  Bates;  Berisford;  Blackman;  Blackmore;  Brench;  Bristow (Bristowe);  Bumby;  Bushnell;  Calcutt;  Carpenter;  Chalke;  Chapman;  Chatfield;  Clargo;  Coker;  Coleshill;  Collins;  Crawford;  Crook;  Cuddihy;  Davies;  Dawes;  Day;  Dennett;  Docker;  Douglas;  Drew;  Druce;  Dunk;  Dyer;  Earl;  Eaton;  Eggleton;  Emms;  Erridge;  Fairs;  Feimmer;  Fennymore;  Ford;  Frampton;  Freeman;  Fry;  Fryer;  Gadd;  Gale;  Geater;  Gibbons;  Giddings;  Girdler;  Goddard;  Goldswain;  Goodenough;  Greenaway;  Groves;  Guile;  Hale;  Hancock;  Hankinson;  Harmsworth;  Harris;  Hazell;  Hearn;  Hellhouse;  Henwood;  Hill;  Hoblyn;  Hollely;  Horwood;  Hughes;  Hutton;  Ireland;  Ive;  Ives;  Jakeman;  Jerray-Silver;  Johns;  Jones;  Keen;  Keep;  Kersley;  Kidder;  Kimble;  King;  Kok-Alblas;  Kybert;  Lambden;  Laney (Leaney, Leany);  Lawford;  Letch;  Levy;  Line;  Litchfield;  Lovell;  Lymposs;  MacKinney;  Maggs;  Mansfield;  Maplethorpe;  Margetts;  Mayers;  Merritt;  Micklewright;  Mockridge;  Morris;  Mudge;  Newland;  Newport;  Nightingale;  North;  Ollivier;  Orsler;  Ostler;  Page;  Parish;  Peaty;  Penn;  Perry;  Pither;  Plumridge;  Pope;  Pottinger;  Poulter;  Preater;  Pym;  Quilly (Quilley);  Rackley;  Rayner;  Roberts;  Rose;  Sage;  Scuffle (Schofield);  Sharp;  Shearman;  Shurvall (Shurvell, Shurvill);  Simmons;  Small;  Smart;  Smith;  Smythe;  Sone;  Southby;  Spinks;  Starbuck;  Staveley;  Strange;  Stanton;  Taylor;  Thatcher;  Tidmarsh;  Toogood;  Trimmer;  Tubb;  Turk;  Tuson;  Ubsdell;  Venner;  Wakefield;  Waterton;  Watkins;  Wells;  White;  Whitehouse;  Wicks;  Williams;  Willoughby;  Wingrove;  Woodhouse;  Woodley;  Worley;  Young

Main counties of interest:

Berkshire | Buckinghamshire | Hampshire | Middlesex | Surrey

Significant, but more distant counties of interest:

Kent;  Oxfordshire;  Somerset;  Sussex;  Wiltshire

So! When/why did it all start?

I had never been particularly interested in knowing about my heritage - I knew I was English - enough said!  However, while sorting through my late mothers papers (a moment of nostalgia with my sister), I paused and properly read some of the old documents that, previously, I had only quickly ‘scanned’.  The first that caught my eye was a lovely letter.  It was a ‘character reference’, written for my paternal grandfather (Wilfred Silver), by his CO, on Wilfred's discharge from the 6th Armoured Car Company, Bareilly, India, October 1922 (after 7 years service).  Along with this letter and other documents & photos, was the original certificate of my great-grandparents (Albert Edward Hyman & Phoebe Knight) marriage (1895 and very ‘dog-eared’).  And after that, I found a telegram from the directors of the Linoleum Company, Staines (Albert’s former employer) to Albert, congratulating him on his 90th birthday - 25 years after he’d retired!  Well, that did it!  I caught the bug, the bug bit & the search was on - and is still on-going.

I knew Albert - I was fifteen when he died and the number of times I’d sat at his feet when I was a child - and never once did I ask him about his time with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in 1891 (but I didn’t know, then, that he was in the DCLI in 1891!).

The 1901 census gives Albert’s occupation as a ‘colour mixer’ at the Linoleum Factory, Staines; as was one Herbert Richard Andrews.  Herbert’s son, Richard, married Albert’s daughter, Mary - my maternal grandparents.  I wonder how they met?

So far there have been no surprises; no hints of fame or fortune - a few illegitimate children (not as many as I’d anticipated but also my mother included it transpired however, that’s a story for another page), several visits to the workhouse and a hint of in-breeding (several 1st cousin marriages - which I had always believed to be illegal, but isn’t).  By and large, my ancestors were Ag. Labs. (agricultural labourers); a few other trades/occupations have come to light - thatcher, gamekeeper, ganger, lengthman, platelayer, general dealer (??).  On the female side, they were mainly domestic servants until they married, although there were a couple of lace-makers.

The page detailing some of the many fine pubs I’ve discovered while ‘researching’ the places my ancestors came from?  It’s here - hope you find it useful!

Tim Silver

PS - I did an Ancestry DNA test late ‘21 and I was most pleased that the results were pretty much as I’d expected (hoped for); 70% home counties, 5% Germanic Europe (Roman invasion) and 14% Sweden/Denmark (Viking invasion).  Well, that’s 89% taken care of and it was with great delight to discover zero French influence which means my ancestors, being peasants, didn’t interact with the Normans!  The remaining percentage comprises 6% Scottish and 5% Welsh!  I can’t account for that; early Celts perhaps?