Hooked

I am well and truly hooked on this family tree thing, another evening spent going back in time. After getting stuck I made a phone call to one of my Mum's cousins and he managed to help me get back to 1812. My scribbled notes on the right were made while I listened to him rhyming off names and dates. What doesn't help when tracing ancestors was the level of literacy, the ancestor born in 1812 and his wife both signed their wedding certificate with a cross. The spelling of the surname has about 5 variations! Interestingly, they both learnt to write and their son, born in 1849, went on to become a civil engineer, describing himself as a 'Contractor of works' on the 1901 census when he was building Heysham Docks in Lancashire.