Alfred John Wallin Murch, Cricket Bat Maker

Alfred John Wallin Murch was born in 1861 to John Alfred Undrey Murch and Sarah Emma (Wallin) Murch.

On 3 August 1884, Alfred married Caroline Elizabeth Farmer in Shoreditch. The couple remained in Shoreditch, and had eight children: Alfred 1885, Amy 1886, Ada 1887 (who died aged 2), Frederick 1888, Florence 1890, Albert 1891, Sydney 1893, and Charles 1897.

Alfred was a cricket bat maker in Shoreditch for over twenty years.

ONE SEVENTH SCALE REPLICA OF THE BATS 

TAKEN FROM THE M.C.C COLLECTION AT LORDS CRICKET GROUND

The 1901 census (the final one on which he would appear) shows that he and his family have moved to the middle-class residential area of Wood Green.

Alfred died in 1907 at the comparatively young age of 45.

He features in the Murch Surname Study. For further information including sources and links, see his WikiTree profile.

© 2019 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

Arthur Montague Murch, born 1878

Arthur Montague Murch was the seventh child of John Benjamin Murch and Charlotte Webb.  His birth was registered in the March quarter of 1878 (so he could have been born in 1877) in the Dover Registration District of Kent, England.

He appears with his family in the 1881 and 1891 censuses in Waterloo Cottage, Cambridge Road, St James (Kent).  His mother, Charlotte, died when Arthur was only ten.  His father, John, was a shipwright and, by the 1891 census, two of Arthur's elder sisters (Kate and Elizabeth) were teachers, while his eldest sister (another Charlotte) ran the house.

In the 1901 census, Kate has taken over the running of the house for her widowed father, while Arthur

remains at home as a 23-year-old commercial clerk.

By 1911, the family has moved to 34 Oakwood Gardens, Ilford, Essex.  Kate is still running the household at 42, younger sister May is a secretary for a barrister's office, and Arthur is still at home, still single, but now a bank clerk.

He features in the Murch Surname Study.  For further information including sources and links, see his WikiTree profile.

© 2019 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: Reflections

April 2016's A-Z Challenge was a first for the Murch Blog.  More than just one first: the Murch Blog did not even exist before the Challenge!  I realised that it was all very well gathering piles of names and records about Murches in times-gone-by.  I needed to expand the horizons of the Murch Surname Study.

I had never quite been able to grasp the concept of telling stories about my ancestors.  For me, the raw data was the most important thing.  Stories and anecdotes were very nice if you happened to come across them, but they weren't to be made a priority.  In fact, I entered the Murch Blog into the A-Z Challenge with the vague idea that I would just put names and dates down in each blog post.  But each individual I chose to write about made me want to write more about them, to identify each ordinary name and turn it into an extraordinary person.  Because to me, being a secretary in a time when girls were supposed to stay at home until they got married - that's extraordinary.  Being written about in the local paper as being 'trustworthy and faithful' - that's extraordinary.

OK, so the blog didn't garner many views.  But I didn't expect that from this blog.  I had in my mind the picture of some desperate genealogist somewhere who had almost given up on finding Hephzibah, or Queenie, or Robert, or Violet - and then they came across my blog.

Happy researching! I'm glad I could help.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: X is for eXtended Family

You've been spending ages (possibly years) working on your own family tree, and in fact genealogy is getting a little bit stale.  That's how I was beginning to feel, after 30 years of research.

Enter the Murch One Name Study (also known as a Surname Study).  Think of the times you have searched through a parish register, line by line, and discounted those with different given names or in different locations as being 'not yours'.  Well in a Surname Study - they're ALL 'yours'!  Suddenly you go from having tunnel vision to having a whole new extended family.  And, far from cramping your style, it makes you realise just how many folk are (or were) out there who are just as deserving of your love, care, and attention.  You don't so much develop different ways of researching - it's just that everywhere you turn, you are guaranteed to find individuals and families who belong in your Surname Study.  And then you can look at your own biological ancestors with renewed energy.

You have extended your horizons.  It's wonderful!

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: S is for Samuel Murch 1778-1849

Samuel Murch was my 4 x great grandfather, and obviously a good person.  I say 'obviously', because I have found two little pieces about him in local newspapers:

Exeter & Plymouth Gazette, 30 Oct 1841:
Column devoted to the Agricultural and Industrial Association Dinner at Subscription Room, Canniford's London Tavern
"To the Journeyman who has worked longest in the employ of the same master, £1. - Samuel Murch, Sen., 38 years employed in the Ottery Factory, 18 years during the time of the present respected proprietor, Mr. Newbery."
and his death notice:
Small article from Exeter & Plymouth Gazette (Saturday January 20, 1849) in Deaths column:
"Jan.16, at Ottery St. Mary, Mr. Samuel Murch, in the 71st years of his age.  He was employed 44 years in the Ottery Factory, - the last 26 years in the silk department of the present proprietor.  He was a trustworthy and faithful servant."

Samuel had his faith to sustain him.  Or did he? It seems as though the Murches were constantly searching for ‘the truth’.  The Murch family were nonconformists: Protestant Dissenters, then Presbyterians, then Congregationalists – and nonconformists were often associated with being hard workers and entrepreneurs.


Samuel features in the Murch Surname Study.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: Q is for Queenie Gladys Noyse Murch 1901

Queenie Gladys is one of those females that would be left out of a Surname Study by some managers.  She wasn't born a Murch, you see - but I think that she spent most of her life, and more of her life as a Murch, so I include her in my Study.

Queenie Gladys Noyse was born in 1901 in the West Ham Registration District of London (hovering over Essex at one point) to Ernest and Mina Noyes.  Since Ernest came from Bow, and Mina from Shadwell, and most of the children were born in Leyton, Essex, there was probably a distinctive Cockney accent within the home.  She married Sydney Samuel Murch in 1920 in the Thanet Registration District of Kent, England.

Queenie features in the Murch Surname Study.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: P is for Phillis Emma Murch 1860-1863

You may have decided to read this post because you thought "That spelling is incorrect!  It should be 'Phyllis'!"  Welcome to the wonderful world of genealogy and family history, where spelling can get VERY creative, and you shouldn't dismiss a record because "it's not the way I spell it".

Phillis Emma Murch was born in the late spring or early summer of 1860 in the Colchester Registration District, Essex, England.  She died and was buried just before her third birthday, on 18 March 1863.  She may have lived a very short life, but she manages to teach us (as genealogists) something very important.  Many people in 1860 were illiterate, so the official who registered the name spelled it the way he thought it should be spelled, and maybe the parents didn't know that it was wrong.  How many times have you come across marriage certificates where both the bride and groom made an X instead of writing their name?

And it's not just way-back-when that it happened, either.  When my maternal grandfather went to register the birth of my mother, he had such a thick Devon accent that the registrar wrote him down as 'William Rupert Ball', when his name was actually 'William Hubert Ball' (and he wasn't illiterate).  One of my Haywood families was enumerated in the 1861 census as Howard.  I wonder if there were any thick accents in that crowd?  And one of the best is a lady who also features in the Murch Surname Study: Susaner Murch.  Yes, she is actually spelled 'Susaner'.  It happened in Devon - can't you just hear the accent?

Phillis/Phyllis features in the Murch Surname Study.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved