Hi Shane. Sitting here surrounded by hatches, matches and despatches from -Stonesfield, Spelsbury, Charlbury, Chilson/Charlbury, Shipton-u-Wychwood, Shorthampton, Northleigh and Leafield. NOTHING on John and Ann at all. Very strange but I will plod on...and on...........and on...................
Thanks for all your views - I am sure something will turn up soon.
I notice that Solomans marriage was Pallots marriage index.
Perhaps I will try feeding in the names of Soloman, William and Ann and see what happens on Ancestry.
I know the feeling - so many names, dates, marriages, maiden names etc, it all certainly buzz's around your head doesn't it!
So, Solomon, well to date I haven't managed to find any 'catagoric' confirmation of his parents, unfortnately his baptism record in the Stonesfield parish transcript doesn't fit nicely with the other births that are happening around that time.
There are in fact two births that don't fit nicely:
Joshua Oliver, 1797, May 21, s. John (no mothers name) Soloman Oliver, 1802, Aug 15, s. John and Ann
I suspect they could be brothers.
The issue is that there are no other children of a John and 'Ann' around that time.
However there is a John Oliver and a Jonathan Oliver (brothers), hypothetically either could be Solomon's father.
1 - Jonathan Oliver bn. 1770 d. 1810
There is no record in Oxfordshire of a Jonathan Oliver marrying and Ann x.
Jonathan could of course have married outside of Oxfordshire but have lived in Stonesfield and had his children baptised there. There is also no obvious burial of an Ann, possibly his wife, in Stonesfield either, however, if she was from another county she may have been buried there.
So, there isn't too much other evidence to support this option.
2 - John Oliver, John married Sarah (Painten) and had the following children:
1781, Martha 1784, Jesse (though recorded as John and Mary) 1790, Caleb 1794, John
So, potentially the dates fit that they may have gone onto have 2 further children.
Whilst I think this is the most probable answer, I believe Sarah would have been 47 when she had Joshua and 52 when she had Solomon - possible? - well, she did go onto to live to be 90 when she died in 1839 so I would suggest she was probably a strong, fit and able lady.
I am hoping to pop by the Oxford Records Office tomorrow so I will have another look at a) Solomon's birth record in the original register to see of there has been any form of transcript error and b) have a look at his original marriage record in 1833 to see if there is any helpful infomation there either.
So, those are some of my own thoughts on things I've found to date, I know one of our members 'Liz S' is a descendant from Solomon.
Well, as luck would have it, I bought myself a handful of credits for the 1911 census just a couple of days ago - and this sounds like a good one to use them on!
Okay, here goes with a few findings....
The 1911 Census includes the following:
William Edgar Oliver, 35, Builder, Born Stonesfield (married 14 years) Elsie Jane Elizabeth Oliver, 35, Born Chelsea, London (married 14 years)
WilliamAlexanderOliver, 13 (Born Coombe (Woodstock District) Jul to Sep 1897) PhillisCarolineEvaOliver, 9 (Born Coombe (Woodstock District) Apr to Jun 1901) Allan Thomas Oliver, 5 (Born Coombe (Woodstock District) Jan to Mar 1906)
To date I've had some trouble finding the registration of William and Elsie's marriage, however I am pretty sure that Elsie's maiden name was 'Johnstone'.
Why?, well, firstly, knowing that she was 35 in 1911 (so born 1876'ish), from Chelsea, and having both her first name and her two middle names helped, so a census search on those details located an Elsie Jane Elizabeth Johnstone that matched.
Secondly, the father of the Elsie I found on the census was called Alexander, William and Elsie's first child was named William Alexander.
And thirdly, but I'm still to figure out what this is all about... but Elsie's father Alexander was born in Haddington, Midlothian, Scotland and her mother Mary was born in Wroughton, Wiltshire BUT somehow their first child Agnes (Elsie's eldest sister)was born in Coombe? all further children we then born in Chelsea.
So, there was a Coombe connection already - did that maybe somehow bring Elsie to the area where she met William Edgar???? As I say, I can't yet find if they married in Oxfordshire or in London, but their first child (and the next two also) were registered in Coombe.
So, onto, William Edgar Oliver, well there is a registration for him Apr to Jun 1876 and he shows up in both the 1881 and 1891 census, in Stonesfield.
He appears to the the son of Albert and Hannah/Anna and looking for Albert and Hannah's marriage we find it in 1862 and Hannah is Hannah Hanwell.
So you were right, William Edgar appears to have jumped across the village borders from Stonesfield into Coombe. Allen also appears to have followed ino his fathers footsteps as a biulder too.
This one is very interesting with the scottish connection, also Agnes, Elsies sister being born in Coombe - I wonder how that came to be about?
So, hopefully there's alittle more info for you there.... lots more questions though! Thanks, Shane
Hi. I believe Allan was also a Church Warden. His son John emigrated. Destination unknown. If you left the village in those days - it was as good as emigration! My brother, John, married an Austrian girl and has lived in Graz/Vienna since about 1965. Older people in the village still think of him as a `pioneeer`. In the early 1800`s when people went to America, Canada and Australia to settle their families in England must have classed them as `dead and buried` I should think.
When my brother, Derek, from Witney, asked me to check out the Allan Oliver Family, I think he said the Father of Allan had some money because he bought into a slate quarry in Stonesfield, instead of just being a slate worker. I am sure he said the name was Edgar or Edwin. I do not have access to 1911 Census so I do not know which Olivers were living in Combe at that time. The 1901 Census shows an Oliver Family in Akeman Street, Combe. Who, I think, are Finstock Olivers via Stonesfield. I am still checking that family out - they are complicatd because it seems as though they had two sets of Census papers one year. One in the name William Augustus, the other Augustus William.
Thankyou for the note on the Charles Stephen Oliver entry, I'm pleased you enjoyed it - I really enjoyed putting it togther.
So, Allan Oliver, Ah-Hah, I see, you clearly did know him and his family, I think that's really helpful - and the extra stories of 'batteries' and their jobs is great!
Having a very quick look on ancestry.co.uk, I think you could be correct about the children, there certainly is a John, David, Michael and Ann, all born as Olivers, with the mothers the maiden of Smith, in the Oxfordshire area (though not all in Coombe by the look of it):
John A E Oliver - Jul to Sep 1927 - Woodstock David T Oliver - Apr to Jun 1931 - Headington Michael J Oliver - Oct to Dec 1935 - Oxford Ann R Oliver - Oct to Dec 1943 - Ploughley
There are a few years between each, possibly WW2 being the reason for the pause before Ann, if these are all in fact Allan and Lillian's family?
Interestingly, on a side note, I had never heard of 'Ploughley' before, but I now know that would be because it was a rural district being closed down just as I was being born.
An entry on Wikipedia (which always needs to be taken with a pinch of salt) reads:
Ploughley was a rural district in Oxfordshire, England, from 1932 to 1974. [1] It entirely surrounded Bicester but did not include it.
It was created in 1932 from parts of the abolished Bicester Rural District, Headington Rural District and Woodstock Rural District, along with a couple of non-urban parishes from Bicester urban district.
In 1974 it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 and now forms part of the Cherwell district.
So there's a new fact for me quite by accident!
But back to Allan, the bench definitely now has some more detail and context about it, thank you!
Hi Shane, First that was a lovely piece about Gt. Uncle Charles Stephen Oliver.
Regarding Allan Thomas Oliver of Combe. He was the village builder and general odd job man. He married a Lillian M. Smith in 1927 and had children (Hazy memory here) John, David, Micky and Ann. He had a brother named Seymour. Both familes lived in the cottages leading up to the main Church Drive. There was also Herbert Oliver in Combe but I am not sure if he was another brother or not. Seymour worked for Eastern Electric in Woodstock. We used to carry our accumulators (Battery type things) for our `wirelesses` to Allan to get them charged up. I was given the job of trying to link up that Oliver family to mine, but I did not get very far. Grandfather to Micky could have been- William Edgar Oliver. It was the Grandfather who `escaped` from Stonesfield to the much better village of Combe!!
Coombe churchyard has a wooden bench to the memory of Allan Thomas Oliver 1905 - 1986.
I personally don't have Alan in my research to date. but wondered if anyone does?, and if the existence of the bench might be new information for someone?
Does any one know of Allan?, where he fits into the tree? or if there is any particular story behind the bench? was he involved with the church perhaps?
