A photograph of Elizabeth CAMMISH was given to Looking at Filey about ten years ago but I failed to include the donor’s initials in the filename. I hope they will forgive me for not acknowledging the gift.

Elizabeth married John James TOMBLIN in 1916 (REDUX anniversary 19 April; and on the Hunts Cyclists website there is a wedding photograph). The birthday of their son, Jack Crane Tomblin, was a REDUX anniversary on 29 April. Reference is made on Hunts Cyclists that Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary Margaret Cammish “married an HCB man H. G. E. Lovitt”. My RootsMagic Filey Tree reckons they were variously third, fourth, fifth and fourth cousins once removed, with common ancestors Richard HAXBY & Elizabeth JENKINSON, John CAPPLEMAN, Robert JENKINSON & Margaret TRUCKLES, and for the fifth cousin and fourth cousin once removed William CAMMISH & Unknown.

Herbert Salvidge HALL and Jemima SCOTTER married at St Oswald’s in 1918. The groom was younger than the bride but their wedding photograph suggests that time had not been kind to Herbert.

Death claimed Herbert less than three years later. Jemima raised their daughter, Olive, didn’t marry again, and almost reached her ninetieth year.

As I write this, the FamilySearch Shared Tree doesn’t have much to say about the couple. A possible duplicate ID for Herbert gives him different parents to those responsible for his existence, so there is a possibility the two are not a match.  

After a close examination of all the sources attached to “Herbert S. Hall” on FamilySearch, I decided he is a figment. For sure, he is in a transcription of the 1891 Census in Cornwall, but ten years later he has been replaced in the family by “Thomas H.” with the same birthplace and birth year. On the 1891 page image, the transcribed initial “S” is more like a handwritten “T”. There is only one GRO birth registration in York that could be this boy. His mother’s maiden surname is given as “DARLING” but this is only momentarily disconcerting – it could be a mistranscription for “DUNNING”.)

Henry Waller DIXON junior may have been given the byname “Rennie” to avoid everyday confusion with his father. Almost a century has passed since the headstone remembering him, his uncle, and his paternal grandfather appeared in St Oswald’s churchyard. Soil has built up around the base of the cross and a mat of grass hides the lower inscriptions. Easing back the tufts –