Monday, April 10, 2006

Caroline Sherwin

More personal work for the comic about the search for my family tree. This is my grandfathers aunt, Caroline Sherwin. On the first of January 1928, (in Eastbourne) she wrote down a brief family history -it took up one sheet of paper- and I used it as my starting point. According to Caroline the silver cup on the table was given in exchange for a horse and wagon to my 6th great grand father by The Young Pretenders army (Bonnie Prince Charlie) when they reached Derby in 1745. The army stayed a couple of days in Derby then retreated to Manchester. My relative followed them, and while they were resting in Manchester market place took back his horse and a cart.

All this is written down in quite a lot of detail, and I wonder how she knew it all, for instance the cart he brought back from Manchester belonged to a Mr. Bailey of Breadsall Derbyshire. I have no idea how to prove any of this, though according to the IGI there was a Mr. Bailey in Breadsall at this time.

Not everything she wrote down was correct; she has a couple of fathers and sons mixed up, and a wedding date that is definitely not right.

Caroline Sherwin died way before I was born and there are no photos of her either, so this picture is completely imagined. Caroline and her two sisters never married, and according to my mother lived in Eastbourne becasue they looked after a wealthy American woman.