The Family Tree

The Newman family

The Newman family linked into my family tree when my Grandmother - Edna Olga Newman, married my Grandfather, Percy Martin in the late 1930s.

The furthest back that I have successfully traced (with a little help from a fellow Newman researcher) is to John and Hannah Newman, having married in 1750 at Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire (or Huntingdonshire as it was back then). The couple have at least one child, a son named Philip Newman.

Tragedy strikes twice

Philip married Lydia Ingle and the couple had at least two children but Lydia died aged 22 and was buried on 10th September 1781 at Somersham, Huntingdonshire along with her infant son also named Philip. It is possible that either complications during birth or a sickness brought tragedy to this young family.

Philip goes on to remarry, to Elizabeth Whitehead of Haddenham and this eventually brings six children to the family although at most, only three survive into adulthood.

By the early 1800's, Philip has set up home in Haddenham, Cambridgeshire with his new family and wife. However, Philip, now a miller, is tragically killed in an accident at a Haddenham Mill belonging to local landowners, Messrs. William and Robert Pate.

Philip and Elizabeth's youngest child, Rebecca, baptised in 1804, gives birth to her son in 1820 and the father is seemingly accepted as Elias Dann of nearby Wilburton (as freely noted in church records and the child's marriage certificate). Rebecca and Elias do not marry and instead, Rebecca marries John Seymore. Elias' name is then repeated through the Newman family offspring.

Moving to Swaffham Bulbeck and beyond...

It appears to have been Rebecca's son, Charles, who takes the family off to Swaffham Bulbeck - a village a few miles North East of Cambridge and South East of Ely. Here he marries Emma Levitt and sets up 'shop' as blacksmith. Together their family grows with their sons working as Coprolite Diggers (the fenland around Swaffham Bulbeck was found to contain a high amount of coprolite.

As the family grew up and married, one of Charles and Emma's sons, Alfred, moved the family to Ely, where the family has lived since the latter part of the 1800s.

Further Information