The holiday accommodation was booked. Record office catalogues had been searched. Documents to ‘handle’ were ordered and those ‘to view’ listed. The rules were read, readers’ cards set up etc. We made a plan to visit the locations geographically, from west to east, over our days away – maps, postcodes etc. noted.
There was a lot to see over a relatively small distance between Goring on Sea and Cuckmere Haven, Sussex. Our ancestors were from two families: the Barretts and the Reddings.
William Barrett b.1804 at Landulph (our 2x great-grand-uncle) and Thomas Redding b.1799 in Fowey (our 2x great-grandfather) were both coastguard boatmen, born in Cornwall. William Barrett married Mary Ann Redding (b.1820, Fowey) and Thomas Redding married Ann Polwin (b.1799, Mullion).
