Thursday, February 9, 2012

Ancestral Village #2: Erdington, West Midlands, UK

Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham England.


Erdington High Street

Erdington Abbey

All about Erdington.
Erdington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Erdington was an Anglian settlement set up in the Early Middle Ages and by the time of the Norman Conquest was a sub-manor of Aston. Its name derives from the Anglo-Saxon, Eardred ing tun meaning 'Eardred's people's farm' or perhaps the 'village of the Eardredings'. The settlers were either followers of a man called Eardred, or perhaps a clan called with the surname, Eardreding, meaning Eardred's people."
from: http://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-e/erdington/

The History of Erdington
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/erdingtonhistory

Sarah, my maternal ancestor, who was from Erdington, England


In 1851 my maternal ancestor, Sarah French, who was born in 1831, came to the US with her parents Thomas French and Katherine "Kitty" Ewers, and with her siblings.

I believe that our blood ancestry shapes us and is a part of our being whether we acknowledge it or not, and I have always felt a particular fondness for Sarah, who was described as the best of wives and mothers by her family.

Sarah left England (which she yearned for ever afterword, and remembered as so green and beautiful), as well as a beau behind, for a new life in a new country, never to see her beloved England (or said beau), ever again; although she dreamed of both often according to the stories her children passed on about Sarah. Sarah was said to be very shy and  most at home with her family.

In the US, Sarah lived through an Indian uprising, the death of both her parents, several moves to different states, a horrific plague of grasshoppers on the Kansas prairie, and so much more. Her children considered her brave and resourceful.

I believe I carry some of the characteristics of my hardy English ancestors, and of my lovely ancestress, Sarah. I feel a love for both Sarah and her England, though I've never set foot on the shores of England and Sarah died about 70 years before I was born.

This post is dedicated to Sarah and to all my many ancestors from England.

 

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