John Winship Soppit and Mary Ellen Bradley

Sangley Rd, Lewisham
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © N Chadwick - geograph.org.uk/p/3162332

John Winship Soppit (b. 1 Mar 1882 in Greenwich), son of John Soppit and Louisa Tompson married Mary Ellen Finch, at St Lawrence, Catford (built in 1887, demolished in 1968) on 24 Sep 1904. Born Mary Ellen Bradley in 1872 M Quarter in YORK Volume 09D Page 12, she was the illegitimate daughter of Mary Elizabeth Bradley. Following her mother's marriage to George Henry Finch she was known as Mary Ellen Finch. [Source]

John and Mary Ellen had three daughters:

1. Dorothy Louisa Soppit b. 18 Aug 1906 in LAMBETH Vol 01D Page 471
2. Hilda Mary Soppit b. 14 Aug 1908 in LAMBETH Vol 01D Page 477
3. Kate Winship Soppit b. 12 Oct 1910 in Lewisham 

The records for the first two girls show the mother's maiden name as Finch. 

In 1911, living at 78 Sangley Road, Lewisham, were John Winship Soppit (29) Joiner from Deptford; Mary Ellen Soppit (36) with birthplace listed as York; Dorothy Louisa Soppit (4) birthplace Brixton; Hilda Mary Soppit (2) birthplace Brixton and Kate Winship Soppit (0) born in Catford.

In 1917, then actually 35 (not 33 as listed) John Winship Soppit enlisted (was probably conscripted) into the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) at the 4th General Hospital, Birmingham. [See more at: Birmingham’s Military Hospitals] At the time of his discharge he was a nursing orderly. [Source]

In 1921, John Winship Soppit (39) Commercial Traveller was a visitor in the household of his brother, Joseph at 175, George Lane, Lewisham; while Mary Ellen Soppit (39ish) was living at 107 Reservoir Rd, Erdington, Birmingham with George Alfred Finch (41) Commercial Traveller (Brother), Dorothy Louisa Soppit (14), Hilda Mary Soppit (12) and Kate Winship Soppit (10).

Mary Ellen Soppit died, aged 51, in 1924 D Quarter in BIRMINGHAM NORTH Volume 06D Page 486 and was buried 13 Oct 1924 at the church of St Barnabas, Erdington, Birmingham.

John Winship Soppit (46), Widower, Commercial Traveller of 107 Reservoir Rd, Erdington, Birmingham, then remarried to Mary Baker (née Morrell), Widow (43), daughter of William Jabez Morrell and Sarah Waldron, at the Parish Church in Erdington, Birmingham (St Barnabas' Church, Erdington) on 8 Dec 1928. (Her first husband Samuel Horatio Baker had died in 1925 and she had at least two sons from that previous marriage.)

Second wife, Mary Soppit, died, aged 65, on 13 Jul 1950 (1950 S Quarter in BIRMINGHAM Volume 09C Page 15).

John Winship Soppit died, in Birmingham, on 6 May 1969. The death notice in The London Gazette gives his address as 15 Homecroft Rd, Yardley, Birmingham. It's ironic that growing up in Birmingham in the 1960's, at times we'd have been mere streets from there, while my mother felt as 'a fish out of water' in that city. If only she'd known she had blood relatives so close.

• Dorothy Louisa Soppit died in DOR Q2/1989 in BIRMINGHAM (0611K) Volume 32 Page 1041
• Hilda M Soppit married James F Lawless, in Birmingham, in 1933. James Frederick Lawless (bap. Jacobus Fredericus Lawless at the Roman Catholic parish of Most Holy Sacrament & St Osburg, in Coventry, in 1908.) The couple don't appear to have had children. In 1939, they lived at 286 Chester Road, Hardwick (286 Chester Road, Streetly, Sutton Coldfield). James Frederick Lawless died in 1980 in Carmarthen. Hilda Mary Lawless of 15 Homecroft Road, Yardley, Birmingham died, aged 86, on 18 Mar 1994 at Lapworth Nursing Home, Chessetts Wood Road, Solihull and was buried at Yardley Cemetery & Crematorium, on 25 Mar 1994.
• Kate Winship Soppit died in DOR Q3/1998 in SOLIHULL.

It's evident, therefore, that neither Dorothy, nor Kate ever married.

George Charles Breame and Alice May Howes

Spire of Holy Trinity, Norwich
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Graham Hardy - 
geograph.org.uk/p/167498

George Charles Breame (b. 20 Nov 1890), son of Robert Breame and Caroline Bell, married Alice May Howes (b. 31 Oct 1899), daughter of William Harman Howes and Elizabeth Eliza Blazey at Holy Trinity church, Heigham, Norwich, Norfolk on 3 Jun 1922.

George and Alice had two sons, born at 23 Manchester Street, Heigham:

1. George Charles Breame b. 31 July 1923 (1923 S Qtr in NORWICH Vol 04B Page 246)
2. William Robert Breame b. 21 Nov 1924 (1925 M Qtr in NORWICH Vol 04B Page 207)

In 1939, living at 15 Henderson Road, Norwich, Norfolk were George Charles Breame Snr, Builder's Labourer; Alice May Breame; son George Charles Breame, who at that time, was employed as a Saw Mill Labourer, and a closed record that I assume relates to his brother.

In the 3rd quarter of 1945 (the same time as my parents married), George Charles Breame Jnr married Anna Thornton in Cleveland, Yorkshire. This couple had three daughters - all young enough to still be alive - who are my 4th cousins, who I remember meeting once when I was a child.

In 1946, William R Breame married Doris Buck, in Norwich.

George Charles Breams (sic), but date of birth quoted correctly as 20 Nov 1890, died in the second quarter of 1974. He will have been 83.

Alice May Breame died in Q4/1984 in EAST DEREHAM (6341) Volume 10 Page 1088. She would have celebrated her 85th birthday that October.

George Charles Breame Jnr died, aged 74, in Q1/1998 in NORWICH (6391D) Reg D21B Entry Number 46.

William Robert Breame died on 21 Aug 2007 (DOR Q3/2007 in NORWICH (6391A) Reg 1A002  Entry Number 110).

Alice May Howes was my grandmother's 2nd cousin and is exactly the same age and is related to her in the same way as the singing, dancing, Winifred Constance Stanley Trevail, about whom I'm certain we knew nothing. Three very different women, brought up in three very different countries. 

Growing up, I'd met "Cousin George from Norwich", George and Alice's son, a few times, but had no idea whose cousin he was or how we were connected. This is why I had to follow this line down to work out that he was my father's 3rd cousin. You have to go right back to Francis Stephen Blazey and Hannah Minns, my 3rd great-grandparents, to find our common ancestor. 

Leslie Victor Stone and Lilian Letts

Stainforth Packhorse Bridge and the River Ribble
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © John S Turner - geograph.org.uk/p/433349

Leslie Victor Stone (b. 21 Feb 1901 in Devonport), son of Tom Stone and Margaret Knapman, married Lillian Daniel, in the district of Thorne, South Yorkshire, in 1939. Born Lilian Letts on 15 Jun 1903 and registered in Cardiff, she was the illegitimate daughter of Edith Emily Letts, who was then 16. 

In 1911, Lilian Letts was living with her great-grandmother, Julia Ann Founds, although listed as her grandchild, at Swan Court, Cross St, Northam, Devon. In 1921, Lilian Letts (18) Laundry Maid was living with her grandparents, Alfred and Mary Hannah Letts, in Fore Street, Northam. (Lilian's mother, Edith Emily Letts, married a Frederick George Stone (b. 25 Dec 1873 in Bideford) in 1911. He seems not to be related to the rest of my Stone family.)

Lilian Letts had first married Norman Daniel in Bideford, Devon, in Q2 of 1923 and they had one child, Joan Daniel b. 24 Sep 1923 D Quarter in BIDEFORD Volume 05B Page 656. Norman Daniel died, at 25, in 1930.

In 1939, Leslie Victor Stone, Agricultural Land Worker, Lilian Stone and Joan Daniel were living at 16, Long Grove, Stainforth, North Yorkshire.

Leslie and Lilian had 3 further children: 2 daughters in 1941 and 1943, and a son, Anthony Michael Stone b. 17 Apr 1946, who died, at just 25, in 1971. 

Leslie Victor Stone died, at 63, on 5 Jun 1964, in Fishlake, Yorkshire.

Lilian Stone died, in Doncaster, in 1984.