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My British ancestors’ homes
The wonderful article about house histories by Melanie Backe-Hansen (FT June) reminded me of the fun I had finding homes of many of my British ancestors. Living in Canada, they were places that I might never get to see in person.
Until recently, I thought I knew the location of the home of my 3x great-grandparents, Thomas and Mary (Smith) Pearson, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and, following their deaths, also where my 2nd great-grandparents, Charles and Susannah (Davis) Pearson, lived. A photo of the home passed down to me through my grandfather gave me a clue.
You can read about my search for the home and see the old photo on my blog post at Discover Genealogy: https://familytr.ee/discover
In many documents produced during the 1880s and 1890s for both Thomas and Charles, their primary residence was at #58 Leam Terrace East. So, what could go wrong with just looking up the address? Well, lots as it turns out.
The earliest censuses did not record building numbers. The later ones had entirely different numbers: what was number 58 in 1891
