Ancestors and Descendants of Adams and Mann and Others

  William Thomas Tripp became an important member of the community in his home village of Kessingland and the nearby fishing port of Lowestoft. Born on the 25th of October 1861 in Kessingland to Ritson Tripp and Patience Catchpole he was to lose both his parents by the time he was 7 years old. Before his first birthday his father Ritson had died while trying to save his drowning brother Robert. At the time of his death Ritson was survived by Patience, William and daughter Ellen Catchpole Tripp who was a year older than her brother. Then on the 19th of July 1869 when William was 7 years old his mother Patience sadly passed away, leaving the 2 children orphaned. On the census of 1871 William was living at 'the heath' Kessingland with his Grandfather John Catchpole a fishing boat owner and a member of one of the most prominent families to reside in Kessingland at the time and the most likely reason for William's rise in fortune. Interestingly William was listed on ...

  Heroes and Rebels in the Family Tree – Robert Jeremiah Wooltorton    Robert Jeremiah Wooltorton was born the eight of nine chilgren on 26 April 1867 in Denton, Norfolk, England to Nelson Wooltorton (1805-1870) and Hannah Sheldrake (1836-1903).   His mother, Hannah Sheldrake would outlive her husband by over 30 years and she went on to give birth to three more boys after Nelson’s death.   These siblings have no known father.   As a young boy living in poverty, he entered Dr. Barnado’s Home for boy for a short time.   At  some point just prior to his 18 th birthday, Jeremiah and a friend named Martin were out on Mr. Walne’s farm, quite possibly to hunt birds for dinner, when the shotgun accidentally discharged, striking Jeremiah in the back of the head.   He was quickly attended to by the town doctor and fortunately was able to recover soon thereafter.   His enlistment medical examination showed him having a small scar below left coll...

  Trades Tuesday – Beatsters (Net Menders) Mending the nets was an important job in itself, as each net was some 50m long, and, with up to 100 nets per boat, the total length of netting per boat could be almost two miles. The beatsters, as the net-menders were called, were highly skilled and, it is said, could almost mend nets in their sleep! Evelyn Cooper was born in 1908 and was brought up in Oulton Broad, where her father had his home and adjacent net store, a good two miles from Lowestoft harbour.   Like many other girls of her age and background, whose fathers owned herring drifters, she worked on the family store. “I dint start orf with my father.   I began when I wuz 14 an’ served my time with Harry Baxter.   Him an’ my father were good friends, an’ my father thought that somebody else should learn me.   He had a big store, Harry Baxter did, with about 12 girls an’ women workin’ on it.   You worked upstairs on the stores an’ there were t...