S05EP07 - 'The Shoemaker' with Kelly Cornwell

06/13/23 • 51 min

In this final episode of Series Five, host Andrew Martin meets professional genealogist Kelly Cornwell and hears about her love of researching family history, and how that led on to her going professional, as well as her work on an extremely niche One-Place Study.
The Life Story - Rebecca Monksfield
Kelly has chosen to tell the life story of her 5x Great Aunt Rebecca Monksfield of Shoreditch, London, who, like her mother, worked for a shoe factory.
However, a chance search in newspapers followed by a search on the Old Bailey Online site, revealed that Rebecca was seemingly not been the model employee. She was charged with the theft and sale of many stolen pairs of shoes. She was found guilty and her punishment was given as transportation for 7 years. So, as a teenager, she was taken from London and sent to Tasmania, Australia.
Despite still serving her sentence, Rebecca continued to to test, bend, and break rules in her new country - some of which Kelly seems to admire her for!
The Brick Wall - Rebecca Monksfield
Kelly is annoyed that she can't find Rebecca Monksfield in Hobart, Tasmania after 1836, and so it's her later life that she has chosen to ask for your help with. Despite help from the Tasmanian archives, and numerous other sites including Trove, she can't find a death or a marriage.

What happened to Rebecca Monksfield after 1836?
Did she die, or did she change her name to start a new life?
Did she marry?
Did she travel home or move somewhere else?

If you think you can help Kelly with a clue or a research idea, then you can email her on the address she gives in the episode, or you can contact her via her website, her Twitter, of Facebook page. Alternatively, you can send us a message via our contact form, and we'll pass that on.
In the meantime, Kelly jumps at the chance of some help from Andrew, but something very strange is about to happen...

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Episode Credits:
Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
Kelly Cornwell - Guest
Daniel Loftus - Guest

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What happened to Rebecca Monksfield after 1836?
Did she die, or did she change her name to start a new life?
Did she marry?
Did she travel home or move somewhere else?

- -
Episode Credits:
Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
Kelly Cornwell - Guest
Daniel Loftus - Guest

Support the show

Previous Episode

S05EP06 - 'The Cousin' with John Erickson

NOTE: This episode contains discussion on the topics of eugenics, suicide, and abuse. Please consider others when listening aloud.
In this sixth episode of Series Five - The Cousin, host Andrew meets Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and now family history author John Erickson. Andrew will be finding out about how John's 30 years in journalism has helped him with researching his family, how his mother surprised him with news of her younger brother, and how the life of his Grandmother has affected him.
THE LIFE STORY - CAROLYN PHILLIPS

John has chosen to tell the story of his cousin Carolyn Phillips who, despite a lot of painful memories of her traumatic loss of her father, brother, and sister, was able to help him establish facts and write his book When Mortals Play God.

THE BRICK WALL - PATRICIA & ROBERT ANDERSON
Anderson is a rather common surname in the USA, and so this brick wall has been hanging around for quite some time. John wasn't able to discover much about his cousins, but he does know that they were the children of Raymond Anderson (b. 1925) who served active military service as a young man in World War Two.
John thinks that both Patricia and Robert would have been born in the 1940s, and in at least the 1980s, they were living in Minnesota, USA... but that's it!
This is a real needle in a haystack, but if you think that you have a research idea or clue that can help John's brick wall to come tumbling down, then you can send him a message via our Contact Form and we'll pass it on to him.
Meanwhile, John is unsure about the safety of Andrew's offer of help... and what IS that noise?
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Episode Credits:

Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
John Erickson - Guest
John Spike - Sándor Petőfi

Support is available to those who are affected by abuse, and suicide, or if you are feeling suicidal. You can find your local support lines and resources here: https://findahelpline.com/

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Next Episode

S05EP08 - 'The Rioter' with Andrew Martin (Bonus)

Previously on The Family Histories Podcast....
Whilst trying to send the previous episode's guest Kelly Cornwell back in time, Andrew makes a mistake and suddenly finds himself in an alternate dimension where things are the same but also a little bit different. In this reality, the host of The Family Histories Podcast is author and historian Dr. Wanda Wyporska who has been waiting for her guest - Andrew!
In this Series Five bonus episode, Wanda hears how family historian Andrew Martin got hooked on researching his family tree, his love of family documents, his thoughts on what's next for the genealogy industry, and his work to catalogue and digitise the collection of the town archive of The Littleport Society.
The Life Story - John Goltrip
Andrew has chosen to tell the life story of his maternal 5x Great Grandfather John Goltrip who was born in 1771/1772 in Littleport, Cambridgeshire.
By the time John and his wife Elizabeth are married and having children, the Napoleonic Wars are in full swing, then The Corn Law begins which raises inflation and causes the poorest to get even poorer with food prices rocketing, and then an Indonesian volcano erupts.
Andrew explains how this combination of events culminates in his ancestor taking action as part of the Littleport Riots of 1816, and how John risked changing things forever.
The Brick Wall - Mary Clarke
It's a sense of revenge that makes Andrew so keen to solve this long-running brick wall.
In 1841, his paternal 4x Great Grandmother Mary Clarke, by then Mary Bailey, was serving a 6 month prison sentence with hard labour in a gaol in Ipswich, Suffolk, England for the neglect and abuse of her step-children.
Moving ahead a few years, and the family briefly reunites in Botesdale, Suffolk, before William dies and widowed Mary returns to the workhouse in Eye, Suffolk in 1881. This is the last trace of Mary, who by this time is about 70yrs old. Having checked many burial, marriage, and death certificates, Andrew has not been able to finally kill off his nasty-piece-of-work.

What happened to Mary after the 1881 census?
When did she die?

If you think that you can help Andrew with a clue or a research idea, then you can contact him on Twitter at @FamilyTreeUK, or via his website. Alternatively you can head over to our website and we'll send your message on to him.
In the meantime, Andrew is very enthusiastic towards Wanda's offer of help, which makes her suspicious of him...
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Episode Credits
Series Five, Episode Eight (Bonus)

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