Mat-making: the village industry

As a contribution to the further understanding of the lives of our predecessors, I have published a short examination of the mat-making industry of the 19th Century.

The page can be found by following the link in the title of this entry, and I gratefully acknowledge the work of Richard Deeks, on which my contribution heavily depends.

As always, I would welcome more contributions in a similar vein.

SC

More from Glemsford Local History Society

As well as the snippets from the School Log Books, I have also put "on-line" three early editions of the Society's newsletter - dated 1994 and 5 - for the interest of visitors to the site.

Included in the first is a glowing tribute to the late Richard Deeks, founder of the society (and some would say founder of the History of Glemsford).

The newsletters can be found at this address.

Steve Clarke

Deeks and Hartley families

Dawn Good added a note to this section on 13 July 2006, and Sue Bignell added her notes about the same families on 30 October.

Dawn has now added these notes about her branch of the family.

Jepthah was the son of James Deeks (1780) and Mary Goody (1779), who married 22 Feb 1808, Glemsford .

Their children were an Emily and Eliza (baptised 1809), Mary Ann (1810) and Jepthah )27 Nov 1814 Glemsford).

In the 1841 census Jepthah is living with Mary aged 60 at Egremont St (H107/1011/34/21) .

The William (who I believe you thought was her husband) is living with Eliza and a William aged 20 (ref H 107/1011/14/29).

Anyway: I am descended from Eliza Deeks 1809( sister to Jepthah) who married a Henry Farrow Hartley.

Deeks in Glemsford

The surname Deeks is familiar to all who have looked into the history of Glemsford (and the name even featured in a recent edition of "Who Do You Think You Are?").

Richard Deeks for many years ploughed a lone furrow in recording the real history of the village and its real people, as opposed to other more fanciful romanticised nonsense.

Richard himself did a large amount of research into his family background.

I was more than pleased therefore to receive this note from Sue Bignell, who may be contacted via my email address:

I've recently traced my great grandfather Alfred George Deeks ( born abt 1849) back to Glemsford where he was born, the son of Jeptha Deeks ( the spelling changes depending on which source you're using) and Martha (nee Cocksedge).

I know that Jeptha was born around 1813 and died in approximately 1891. He was probably the son of William and Mary Deeks.

It's all very exciting but there's a lot of 'probablys' and 'abouts'. I would be interested to know if anyone has any information to flesh these people out and make it a more exact science. Given the number of Deeks's in the local area it would also be interesting to know of the history of the name generally as this seems to be the heart of the name in the U.K..

I look forward to any replies.

Who Do You Think You Are?

I've been a fan of the programme since its first instalment, and have enjoyed some of the most unlikely people's discoveries. For instance, I detest Clarkson and everything he stands for (except his loathing of caravans on the road), but his programme was fascinating.

Conversely, I have always enjoyed Robert Lindsay's work (and "Citizen Smith" in particular) but I thought his programme in the new series of WDYTYA this week was a major let down.

If the BBC really are trying to encourage people to get into Family History, surely they should be showing how to do it properly. Robert Lindsay was allowed to get away unchallenged with every mistake in the Family History handbook - mostly putting 2 and 2 together and making something in excess of 73.

No cross referencing, no correlation, just "it must have been grandad's boat." We've all done it, but I don't think it should be shown as an example of research on tv - unless of course it's another example of dumbing down for some imaginary BBC1 audience: then, even more so, it shouldn't be shown.

Simply, it was Bad History and moist-eyed television. Which is more important?

Which brings me to Barbara Windsor, or "Deeks" as she should be called.

Now, that was a good programme. And there we were back in the Suffolk Record Office in dear old BSE.

And did you catch the fleeting reference to Glemsford? Home of both Golding and Deeks of course, and now, it seems, an ancestral homeland for dear Barbara.

So: "Carry On Up The Family Tree". Great Stuff.