I chose Florence May because Filey Genealogy & Connections only provides her birth date – and a couple of siblings. I am pleased she had a long life, but after almost five hours of research, I was still not in a position to put her on the Shared Tree.  (If you look for her in FamilySearch Records, birth year 1880, the top four hits should be hers.)

I couldn’t find Catherine on the Shared Tree either. A singleton from Flamborough, I chose her because she may have lived to be a hundred and five – and Kath noted her epitaph in FG&C.

To help the helpless in time of need, and ease the labours of my sex with speed;

To save the infant and the tender wife; was the employment of my life;

Many from pains my skilful hands did free, but none from certain death could rescue me;

My time on earth is gone, my life is past; You must surely follow me at last.

I put Robert and Rachel’s headstone photo on the Shared Tree; Jane’s was already there. I will update this post with information about Florence and Mary Pickering in the next few days.

Update 17 May

I thought my first task a couple of mornings ago would be to give Florence May SWEETMAN representation on the FamilySearch Shared Tree. After another look, I discovered she was already there.

Poor Florence, she isn’t looking well. The anniversary of her baptism is on 12 June. I will visit her on the Shared Tree then and hope to find she is looking more like herself.

The PARKE Family

Here are the children in Filey Genealogy & Connections.

It is a sad calculation – Mary Pickering’s life expectation looks to be about 12 years.

It gets worse.

Lucy Parke is missing from the list above. Born in 1813, she married Paul SUNLEY in the spring of 1841 and died in 1843. Also missing are the children Samuel and Jane may have had in the nine years before Lucy’s birth, following their marriage in 1804. And who, pray, was Jane’s first husband?

Jane died in 1840, aged 58, and Samuel towards the end of 1843 at 63 – the last of his family to bid farewell to suffering.