I became interested in the family ancestry when my cousin Mary showed me some old photos of the Great Aunts, which I had never seen before. Mary and her sisters had done a lot of research into the Millar branch of the family, at the time when it involved going to see the church records, before the internet and Ancestry became available. I was lucky to have her information to get me started, and was able to use the internet to do a lot of research. I also went to Canterbury Cathedral archives to do some research. It has proved to be a fascinating hobby, and has enabled me to be in touch with people all over the world, who are descended from some of my ancestors. I have managed to trace many branches of the family back to the 1600’s and have traced my late husband’s family too.
Most of my ancestors were agricultural labourers with a few ending their days in the workhouse. I have one very interesting discovery though, which was that my Great, Great, Great Grandmother had a brother, John Strachan, born 1778, who became the first Bishop of Toronto, and who founded the school that later became Toronto University. The second interesting discovery was to find that my maternal Grandfather, Alexander Smith Millar, was in fact a bigamist and possibly a double bigamist! I was bound to find some skeletons in the cupboard!
I am not much of a writer, but feel that I would like to put some of my research down, in a more readable and understandable way, and link it to some of the lovely photos I have found, and with stories of my family. Like most people, I wish I had asked my parents more about their past when they were alive, as now I realise how much I do not know about them. My father rarely spoke of his time during the war for example. I just feel that by writing down what I do know it may prove of interest to my children when I am gone, or as they get older.
My father was Hugh Norman Mockett (always known as Norman) born on February 8th 1913 at 155 Beach Street, Deal. The furthest we have traced the Mockett’s back is to John Mockett Junior born about 1640 in Deal. My brother, Hugh, did a great deal on tracing back to that date, again at a time when it meant going to the church records in person. I have expanded on it considerably, using Ancestry and other sites and have printed records of all John Mockett Junior’s descendants.
My mother was baptized Edna Josephine Millar but, as she was always nicknamed Teddy, she changed her name by deed poll in about 1969 to Teddy. My father always used to joke about how he loved his Teddy bear!!!
My parents adored each other, and had a very happy married life. As a result of that, we had an extremely happy childhood, even though money was tight until I reached the age of about 20
Both my parents were great favourites of all my cousins and, only recently, I was talking to Maria Brett – the Italian wife of my cousin Philip- who said how much she loved Aunty Ted! Wonderful when my mother has been gone now since 1989.
Lets start with The Mockett Family