In this Series Five bonus episode, we follow immediately on from the cliff-hanger ending of Episode Seven, where host Andrew Martin has unexpectedly found himself becoming the guest on a parallel dimension version of the show – where everything is the same but also a little different.

In this dimension, the host of The Family Histories Podcast – author, and social and family historian Dr. Wanda Wyporska – will be finding out how Andrew got hooked on family history, his adventures in DNA testing, his thoughts on the future of the genealogy industry, and his work as a cataloguer and digital archivist with The Littleport Society.

Listen to the episode

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others…

The Life Story:
John Goltrip

Andrew has chosen to tell the life story of his maternal 5x Great Grandfather John Goltrip, who was born around 1771/1772 in the fenland village of Witcham, Cambridgeshire, England.

After marrying Elizabeth Paget in 1798 and starting his family of an eventual six children, a series of world events would eventually lead to John taking a stand against authority and poverty and take part in the Littleport Riots.

This act exposed him to a potentially life changing or life threatening outcome in a nation engulfed by the impact of the Corn Law, the Napoleonic Wars, and the erupting Indonesian volcano Mount Tambora thousands of miles away.

The Brick Wall:
Mary Clarke

Andrew’s brick wall has been haunting him for years – it’s his 4x Gt Grandmother Mary Clarke (later Bailey), who was born to non-Conformists William Clarke and Susanna Rolf on 19th January 1810 in the village of Wattisfield, in Suffolk, England.

Whilst Andrew knows a little of Mary’s parents, and Mary’s descendants, he is desperate to ‘kill her off’, and there’s a very good reason – she was the archetypal wicked step-mother.

Having married widower William Bailey in 1838, Andrew eventually found them, and with their combined brood of children in 1841, after posting a plea on RootsChat.com. Help soon pointed him to a court report in a newspaper from 1840. His 4x Great Grandmother and her husband were both charged and sentenced for neglecting his children, and Mary was also charged with their physical abuse.

After finding her in jail with hard labour in 1841, and tracing her in and out of the workhouse in subsequent censuses, he loses her after the 1881 census. Her last known location is the Hartismere Union Workhouse at Eye in Suffolk, England. She’s there as an inmate, noted as a 68 year old widow (William died there in 1869), and she is noted as ‘housekeeper’.

Attempts to find her on the 1891 census have proven fruitless.

• Where did she go after the 1881 census?
• When did she die? Can you help Andrew to kill her off?

If you think you have a clue or research idea, you can send Andrew a message directly either at his website, via his twitter account @FamilyTreeUK, or alternatively you can head over to our contact form and we’ll send it on to him.

In the meantime, Andrew is very enthusiastic towards Wanda’s offer of help, which makes her suspicious of him…

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Episode Credits

• Dr. Wanda Wyporska – Host
• Andrew Martin – Guest
• Kelly Cornwell – Guest
• Phoebe Batteson-Brown – Jane Austen

Resources

A list of resources and websites mentioned in this episode;

• https://www.littleportsociety.org.uk – The Littleport Society
• https://rootschat.com – RootsChat.com