SARAH WILSON
This picture, taken in Ross on Wye in around 1890, is thought to be  of Sarah Wilson, born Sarah Smith, probably the illegitimate daughter of Harriet Smith. Sarah was born in about 1842. The family lived in Cirencester with Sarah's grandfather, Issac Smith, a stone mason who died in 1856 aged 96.

In 1862 Sarah married Daniel Wilson, fourth child of George Wilson and Elizabeth Tombs in the village of Preston, Cirencester. Daniel and Sarah lived in the Watermoor area of Cirencester for a time, producing a son, Frederick and a daughter Mary. Then they moved to Spoonbed Farm in Painswick and produced my Grandfather, Albert Henry Wilson. The family then moved to Herefordshire, eventually settling in Bridstow, near Ross-On-Wye. There Daniel contracted pneumonia and died, aged 40, leaving Sarah with seven children.

In 1901 Sarah's children had all left home and she was living at Oaklands Cottages, Bridstow, working as a laundress.
By 1901 Albert Henry was a domestic butler in Cobham, Surrey. He married my Grandmother, Ada Bourne, in Rye Church, Sussex. They moved to Cambridge and produced two children, Audrey and Alan, my father.
Albert Henry became Butler at St Catherine's College Cambridge. He died in 1930 and is buried in Barton, near Cambridge. His widow Ada lived until she was 6 weeks short of her hundredth birthday.

If any of this family history is known to you, please contact me

John Wilson
'The real  Edith Tintwhistle'