Surprises!

After work Mum and Dad came around to distribute presents from their holiday and as always, we did very well! Keith and I received smellies and chocolates while the children were treated to new clothes, which they loved. We didn't have a lot of time with my parents as we had to try and have dinner before Mikey went to Army cadets and Sophie and I went off to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 7pm, but they told us all about their holiday and how much they'd enjoyed it.

So, Sophie and I drove off to Northampton to the church full of hope about finding lots of information. On the way Sophie was talking about a car that belonged to her friend's father and she said how gorgeous it was, and how she wanted one when she was older. As it's a beautiful Jaguar I said I hoped she'd get one!

Imagine our surprise when we drove into the Church car-park to find it there! Then we saw her friend's mum who looked shocked to see us and asked what we were doing there. Sophie explained we were visiting the Family History Centre to look up some old records and she very kindly showed us the way and got us settled at one of the computers. Both of us had no idea whatsoever that the family were Mormons, which did come as a bit of a shock!

We couldn't really talk as there were two other people in the room and it was very quiet indeed! I found the records I needed but not the baptism of my 3x Great Grandfather who was supposed to have been born and baptised in the Kent village of Brenchley. Sophie, bless her, looked at me as if I were mad when I brought all the records up and explained that one of the things I have to do is trawl through them all in the hope of finding what I needed. It wasn't her idea of a fun night out and I did appreciate her coming with me and being a second pair of eyes!

I then had a quick look on Find My Past which I don't have a subscription to, but I could access it via the LDS church, which was a huge bonus. I then found a baptism in Yalding (near Brenchley) of an illiegitimate boy with the name of my ancestor, born to a woman with the right name...I did some more research and I'm 99% certain that this is my family member, the first illegitimate child I've found so far! It looks like the parents married a few months after the birth but it would explain the double surnames used throughout the censuses!

We stayed until 9pm and I found another relative, born in 1816, and from the baptism record I was able to discover her parents' names so that was another tiny piece of the puzzle solved. It was certainly worth visiting the centre and the amazing thing was that it was all free for people to use. The man in charge kept coming over to see if we were OK and tried to help, so I will definitely be going back if I need to access more records, rather than going down to Kent!

Back in the car we had a good gossip about Sophie's friend (I advised her not to say anything until her friend mentioned it first) and then went to pick up Mikey from Army Cadets. We were a bit early so we called into a shop for some ice-cream...I think Sophie definitely deserved it!