Holyer family now linked up?

Over the years, I have been able to link almost all the Holyers from Kent into one big pedigree, starting with John Holyer and Elizabeth Gregory. However, a William Holyer married Annie Sarah Middleton in 1920 and he claimed to be a 27 year old son of John Holyer, a labourer. While I know a lot about their descendants, I have never been able to identify William born c1893, or Annie Sarah Middleton (dau of Walter Middleton), or their respective deaths, or William's father John.

But now, thanks to Shelagh Mason, another Guild member, I have the baptism records from 1920/1 of their first two children. These show the mother as being called Sarah Elizabeth, not Annie Sarah. Sarah Elizabeth Holyer died in Canterbury in 1978. Another death in Canterbury in 1977 was of Moses Holyer (born 1891), but the death was registered twice, the second time as Moses William Holyer, suggesting that he used the name William. Moses was the son of Walter John Holyer and Mary Gammon, but his father died the year after he was born, so maybe describing him as John was either a mistake or just reflecting that Walter used his second name. All this confusion is caused by folks using names other than those with which they were registered at birth!

However, this seems to have solved this long-standing problem.

Catch Up!

Guild members continue to assist in locating new Hollier information. Sue Hedges pointed out a searchable index of documents at Oxford Record Office that had several interesting Hollier references. The most significant related to the Hollier family at Over Worton and proves that their son John born c1753 is none other than John Hollier (elder) of Thame, who like hsi son John was a lawyer. This provides more evidence that the Holliers in the south of the county are indeed linked to those in the north surrounding Deddington.

Howard Laver pointed out a database of Clergy which I had previously known about but which at that time had no Holliers. Now it shows 4, 3 of which come from the same family: the small group I call the Cannock and Colwich Holliers from Staffordshire. This group probably descends from the Barton under Needwood group, due to naming patterns, but left no descendants. There is an as-yet unsolved problem with this group and their relationship with the MALE family. It is complicated by a plaque in St Philip's Cathedral in Birmingham which seems to contain incorrect genealogical information. At present, this Hollier family is not on my master database, because of these doubts, but I will get round to adding them soon.

The Marylebone Marriage Challenge (1837-1846) run by Sian Plant uncovered one Hollier marriage about which I had previously known nothing except the index entry. Eliza Hollier married Martin Moses May in Holy Trinity Church on 6th Jan 1839. Her father was James Hollier, a Shoemaker. A bit of digging in the 1851 census shows Eliza May (née Hollier) was born in Bethnal Green c1813. The IGI then suggests that she must be the Eliza Hollier (one of three daughters) of James and Elizabeth Hollier, she being born 14th June 1810 and baptised 10th April 1811 at St Matthews, Bethnal Green. The 1841 census shows James (aged c.50) at St George, Bloomsbury, a Shoemaker not born in Middlesex. He is probably the James who died in 1847 in St Pancras district. What is interesting here is that we already know of another Shoemaking Hollier family in Bethnal Green, so could they be related? William Henry Hollier, the other Shoemaker who had married at Bethnal Green in 1816 lived in 1841 in Mile End New Town, but he said he was born in-county. The IGI does show a William Henry Hollier baptised in 1796 at St Martin-Vintry of John and Mary Hollier, but I cannot find a matching baptism of a James. There is a James baptised at Stepney in 1793 (of William and Susanna) but he should have been born in-county as far as the 1841 census is concerned.