Chasing the Hopes...

We spent the day today checking out some of the little places around the area where our ancestors came from. Of course, we head for the churches in the area first, because the church was the center of everything, and we know the church was there when our ancestors lived there, so we know we're looking at and walking around something that our ancestors knew very well. Not only that, but we know that our ancestors would have been christened, married, and/or buried at these churches. The problem we face is that the Hopes were poor, and we know they were buried in paupers' graves, which means they either weren't marked or if they were, they were wooden markers that no longer exist. We know that Stephen Hope Sr and Jr, Elizabeth Coleman, (married to Stephen Sr), Caroline Hook (married to Stephen Jr), and her parents died in Waldron, and we can find areas where we can imagine that the paupers graves were, but they could have even had others buried over top of them years later. At the All Saints' Church in Waldron we KNEW they were there, and it was a special experience to walk through the cemetary and hope they knew we were there, specifically to show them we remember them, even though we can't see a marker with their name on it. The older parts of these cemetarties are overgrown with grass and trees and brambles, and some of the markers have sunk into the ground so that you really need a shovel to dig down to see the very bottom of the writing on the stone - and that's if you can even read the writing. We've spent a lot of time tracing our fingers over letters over and over again until we feel like we know what it says. Sometimes we can't figure it out. I bought some paper and charcoal to try to do some rubbings, but there is so much moss and orange stuff growing to the stone that all you get is a big mess and black fingers from the charcoal. We wrote down a lot of what we could figure out, and then we'll see if we can find them and find out if they're part of our family. We never did find any Hopes - no wonder James came to America, if they were all so poor none of them could afford grave markers. We found lots of Goldsmiths - Martha Goldsmith married James Hope, but died before he came to America.

At the All Saints' Church in Heathfield (yes, same name, different town) we found a stained glass window that depicted and Indian and some Puritans, and a sign by it that said Virginia. When I got closer and read about it, Robert Hunt was the Vicar at this church when he was asked by the Bishop of London to go as chaplain to an expedition which set sail in three ships from Greenwich in 1606. Sound familiar? There he served the settlers of Jamestown. Heathfield is one of the earlier areas that the Hopes came from.



We also went to the Chiddingly church (pronounced Chiddinglie) where we found many Goldsmith stones. This church has survived quite a bit - they said that 60 high explosive and 1350 incendiary bombs were dropped on Chiddingly during WWII.


Tonight was a wonderful event! We had real, English fish & chips! Yum! It was SO good! Mom wouldn't try the salt and vinegar on the "chips" (thick, hand-cut french fries) but I did - and it was wonderful. The fish was a whole half of a fish rolled in batter and fried. I wasn't hungry after my big plate of fish & chips, but I could have gladly eaten more.

I think we get to go see the ocean tomorrow. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but, oh well. We had a really nice day today - guess we can't be too picky. Heading for bed.

Almost forgot - day before yesterday we found a stone in Shipmeadow which we had a really hard time reading. We had to trace and retrace the letters with our fingers to read it as well as we could. The stone was under a bush, facing the bush - it was easier to read from behind and upside down than from the front. On the stone it said, "Sacred to the memory of John Wright who died April ? ? Aged 66 years and of Sarah Wright his wife, died July ? 1830 (?) aged 69 years." Heidi - Mom said for you to figure out if that was OUR John Wright and Sarah Bencley who were Charlotte Wright's parents. Pam & Roger and Doug & Barbara helped us find that stone - actually Doug & Roger did, and they were pretty proud of themselves. It would be really cool if that was ours - we've found so few that we can really feel like we know who they are.

Ok, really going to bed now. Love to everybody! We're tired of living out of our suitcases, but still enjoying ourselves.