The Jeffrey Family

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The Jeffrey Family

A slow start .....

The research into my Jeffrey ancestors started with a copy of my grandfather, Edmund Jeffery, birth (1903) and marriage (1927) certificates and not much else. Added to this, no one in the family seemed to know much about his parents and so the quest into my family history soon came to an abrupt halt.

What I did know was that my father, Walter Edmund Frank Jeffrey and his youngest brother Peter both spelt their surnames Jeffrey whereas my grandfather and middle brother Raymond spelt their surnames Jeffery. My father once told me "That's how they were recorded on their birth certificates and being official documents, that's why they used those spellings". This was my first introduction into the variation of surname spellings and mistakes made, even on official documents but see The Spelling of Surnames page for other instances where this has occurred.

From my grandfather's birth certificate I learned that his parents were Alfred Jeffery and Florence Ann Davis and showed the surname was spelt Jeffery but oddly his marriage certificate spelt it Jeffrey and also recorded his first name as Edward but as he was known as "Ted", that may well have been an assumption made by the Registrar.

From searching the index of marriage registers I found that my great grandparents married in 1893 and I obtained a copy of their marriage certificate which showed they married on 6 December at The Register Office, Gravesend, Kent and that his father was named Frederick, a labourer but deceased at the date of wedding. Up to then, I just assumed the family had always lived in my home town of Erith, Kent and this confirmed to me just how little I knew of my ancestors, what they did and where they lived. The marriage certificate also showed that Alfred was a labourer and the surname was spelt Jeffery so perhaps that was the correct spelling after all.

At about that time, the 1901 census was released and I found that by then Alfred and Florence were living in Erith and had three children, James age 9 born in Dover, Kent, Lily, age 3 born in Canning Town, Essex and Charlotte, age 1 and born in Belvedere, Kent. I was vaguely aware that my grandfather (yet to be born) had a sister called "Lottie" but the first two children were not known to me. It also showed that Alfred was a General Labourer and perhaps moved around a bit to find work.

More recently, the 1911 census has been released and the family are living at Maida Villa, Maida Road, Belvedere, a suburb of Erith and the same house where my father was born in 1927. There were now four further children, all born in Erith namely Frank age 9, Edmund age 7 (my grandfather), Jessie age 5 and George age 1. Also living with the family was Florence's widowed mother Anne Davis. I recall my father once saying he thought his father had two brothers named Frank and George but he had never met them but the census showed there was a sister Jessie as well.

The 1901 census had confirmed that Alfred was age 38 and born in Lewisham, Kent and I searched the 1881 and 1891 census' without success. The 1911 census stated he was age 50 and born in Blackheath (a suburb of Lewisham) and a further search of the 1881 census failed to produce any results. I had also searched the index of births around 1860 but could not find an entry so in addition to not being in the 1881 and 1891 census', his birth was not registered as well (or at least I could not find it).

However, I had acquired through contacts on Genes Reunited, the birth certificate of daughter Lily (1898) as well as daughter Charlotte's marriage certificate (1923) but neither threw any more light on Alfred's ancestry. Additionally, I learned that Alfred, still a General Labourer, was not present at Charlotte's wedding and was thought to have left the family by then which would explain why so little was known of him. Lily's birth certificate showed Alfred's occupation as a Dock Labourer and confirmed again the spelling of the surname as Jeffery but Charlotte's marriage certificate introduced another variation e.g. Jeffries.

.....And a the Leap of Faith

Knowing that Great Grandfather Alfred Jeffery was born in Lewisham, Kent around 1860 and that his father's name was Frederick I set about searching the 1861 and 1871 census' and hopefully have found the right family in Greenwich which borders Lewisham. There are some inconsistencies, hence the leap of faith, but it looks a good match. ..... To be continued .....