Early 1900s photo of Charcott Farmhouse, Kent

Our thanks to Judy Coutts, who sent us the attached postcard showing the Charcott farm in Kent, which was owned by Richard Nye and passed down to his son.

The postcard reads: "You see I have been able to procure an up to date view or two of your old home at Charcott. The building between your house and the pub is the new bakery, otherwise Charcott is the same as you left it."

Goldsmith Family Photos

Our thanks to Leonard "Lenny" Goldsmith of Lobethal, South Australia for sharing with us his family photos. Lenny is a descendant of Job Nye as follows:

Thomas Nye + Ann Walker (married 1775)

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Job Nye + Ann Rolfe (married 1815)

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Elizabeth Nye + Richard Goldsmith (married 1852)

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James George Goldsmith + Maria Barton (married 1875)

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Albert Goldsmith + Rose Turner (married approx 1913)

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Leonard Albert William Goldsmith + Jean Hay (married 1943)

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Leonard Goldsmith

Marriage Record of Richard Goldsmith and Elizabeth Nye, 25 November 1852
Witnessed by James Goldsmith and Job Nye
courtesy of Lenny Goldsmith

Albert Goldsmith (right) at the seaside in England
photo courtesy of Lenny Goldsmith

Rose Esther Turner Goldsmith, wife of Albert Goldsmith
photo courtesy of Lenny Goldsmith

Wally Turner, Rose Turner Goldsmith, and Albert Goldsmith
photo courtesy of Lenny Goldsmith

Leonard Albert William Goldsmith, 1916
son of  Albert Goldsmith and Rose Turner Goldsmith
photo courtesy of Lenny Goldsmith

Leonard Albert William Goldsmith, about 1918
photo courtesy of Lenny Goldsmith

Leonard Albert William Goldsmith
photo courtesy of Lenny Goldsmith

Leonard Albert William Goldsmith and Jean Sloan Hay
on their wedding day in Glasgow, Scotland 1943
photo courtesy of Lenny Goldsmith

Partridge and Baker Family Photos

We are very grateful to Brian Skinner, of Dorset, who has sent us a number of photos of the Partridge and Baker family descendants of Elizabeth Nye and Samuel Kite.

They are related as follows:

Thomas Nye + Ann Walker (married 1775)
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Elizabeth Nye + Samuel Kite (married 1796)

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Samuel Kite Jr + Eliza Farrell (married 1833)

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Esther Kite + John Wood Partridge (married 1873)

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Sabina Farrell Partridge + Frederick Baker (married 1899)

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Children:

Mabel Annie Baker, Frederick George Baker, Winifred Baker, Leslie John Baker

Esther Kite and husband John Wood Partridge
photo courtesy of Brian Skinner

Sabina Kite, sister of Esther Kite Partridge
photo courtesy of Brian Skinner

Esther Kite and husband John Wood Partridge
photo courtesy of Brian Skinner

Sabina Farrell Partridge
daughter of Esther Kite and John Partridge
photo courtesy of Brian Skinner

Sabina Farrell Partridge and husband Frederick Baker
with their children Winifred, Mabel and Frederick
photo courtesy of Brian Skinner

Kneeling: June and Ann Pickett (daughters of Bert and Mabel Pickett)
Standing: Audrey French, Sabina Partridge Baker,
Mabel Baker Pickett (daughter of Frederick and Sabina Baker), Ethel Pickett, Frederick Baker, and Bert Pickett
1951 - silver (25th) wedding anniversary of Mabel and Bert Pickett
photo courtesy of Brian Skinner

Frederick Baker and Sabina Partridge Baker
photo courtesy of Brian Skinner

Nye Descendants on the Titanic

Thanks to information sent to us by Leonard Goldsmith, of Lobethal, South Australia, we have been surprised to learn that there were descendants of the Nye family on the fateful voyage of the Titanic.

Thomas Nye + Ann Walker (married 1775)

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Job Nye + Ann Rolfe (married 1815)

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Elizabeth Nye + Richard Goldsmith (married 1852)

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James George Goldsmith + Maria Barton (married 1875)

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Frank John Goldsmith + Emily Alice Brown (married 1901)

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Frank John Goldsmith, Jr.

Frank John Goldsmith, the grandson of Richard Goldsmith and Elizabeth Nye Goldsmith, boarded the Titanic in Southampton, England, on 10 April 1912 with his wife Emily and son Frank Jr. as 3rd Class passengers. Their destination was Detroit, Michigan, where many of Emily's family had relocated.

Frank Goldsmith Snr, his wife Emily Brown, Frank Goldsmith Jr, baby Bertie.
Photo taken in Kent, England about 1907. The baby died in Kent in 1911.

When the ship struck the iceberg on 15 April 1912, Frank Sr. woke his wife and son, and, together with others made their way to the forward end of the Boat Deck, where lifeboat Collapsible C was being loaded. There was a ring of seamen standing around the boat, letting only women and children pass through.

Frank Jr. wrote of the experience in his book, Echoes in the Night: "Mother and I then were permitted through the gateway." He later recalled "My dad reached down and patted me on the shoulder and said, ‘So long, Frankie, I’ll see you later.’ He didn’t and he may have known he wouldn’t." Frank Goldsmith Sr. died in the sinking. His body was never recovered.

The story of Frank John Goldsmith Jr. is very well told on a page dedicated to him on Wikipedia. The story of his mother, Emily Alice Brown Goldsmith, is also told on the website Encyclopedia Titanica.

Emily Alice Brown Goldsmith later married Henry Illman.

Wedding photo of
Emily Alice Brown Goldsmith and Henry Illman
courtesy of Leonard Goldsmith

New information

I have been adding birth, marriage and death certificates to the blog but you will have to scroll through the families to find what I have added.  I will be working on adding more as I get time, I hope this will be useful to those searching for Nye information.  
Janice

Photographs of Kite family

During the past month I have received several photographs of members of the Kite family courtesy of Brian of Dorset, England. It has been so exciting to hear from Brian who stumbled across this blog while searching one day.

I have been able to share some information on the Kite family with Brian and he has shared dates and places with me that I didn't already have. Thank you again Brian.

Since I began doing genealogy and family history work many years ago I have been contacted by many wonderful family members. By sharing our work we don't have to repeat the same research over and over again.

What a blessing it has been in my life to get to know new people and others who have only been names but now are my friends.

If anyone has information or who has family pictures please contact me at jnybltz@q.com and let's share!

Thomas Nye and Ann Walker

We know that Thomas Nye was buried 3 March 1831 at Leigh, Kent, England. He was 81 years old and his birth year has been estimated as 1750 from this information. Although many family members have reported that Thomas' parents are Thomas Nye and Barbara Gearing it has been proven that information is incorrect.

Trying to find the parents of Thomas Nye has been a very tedious and long task and as of August 2011 the search continues.

We do know that Thomas married Ann Walker on 12 October 1775 at Leigh. This information was found at the LDS Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and is recorded in the Parish Registers of Leigh, Kent. England.

Another interesting bit of information was found in Salt Lake City also and following is a transcription of a court entry-

The 1797 Quarter Sessions Meeting House, recorded in Leigh:
Whereas Thomas Hopkins, Joseph Gateward, John Harmon, Thomas Nye and William Medhurst protestant injectors of the denomination of General Baptist have certified to the justices of the peace at the General Quarter Sessions of the peace to house of William Medhurst in the parish of Leigh in the said County as the place of meeting of a congregation or assembly for religious worship and desired that it may be recorded in the court for that purpose. It is ordered by this court that the said house behind the same is hereby for that purpose pursuant to the statute in that case made and provided.

This proof of Thomas being a non-conformist helps us to understand why his granddaughters Anne and Sophia Nye paid to have the Baptist Church on Pembury Road built and also why his grandsons John and Thomas Cotton Nye chose to marry their brides at the Wateringbury Baptist Church.

Ann Walker had been christened on 15 July 1750 in Bidborough, Kent, the youngest child of John Walker and Mary Peckam.

According to the Parish Registers of Leigh the following Nye children were baptized:

• Elizabeth Nye born 1 September 1776
• Ann Nye born 31 May 1778
• Richard Nye born 24 March 1782
• John Nye born 26 January 1784
• Gracy Nye born 22 May 1785
• Thomas Nye born about 1787 (no parish record found)
• William Nye born 12 May 1789
• Job Nye born about 1791 (no parish record found). 

Click on the links to see the children's individual stories on this blog.

There is another problem that is believed by some family members. The spelling of Walker on one record appears to be Walther or Wather so it has been reported that Thomas Nye had two wives.

Reason reminds us that names were commonly misspelled, very few people could read or write and those who could certainly tried to be accurate but weren't always.

If Ann Walker had died and Thomas had married again there would have been records to that effect, I have been unable to find either one. Divorces were extremely rare and there would definitely be a record.

If anyone has a source or a copy of a record that is different to what I am posting in this blog please send it to me, I would be happy to receive it.

Ann Walker Nye died 14 November 1837 at Tonbridge Wells at the age of 88. Her death certificate reports that the cause of death was gangrene. Her son William was with her at the time of her death. She was buried 19 November 1837 in Leigh, Kent.

Hadlow St. Mary Church, Kent, England

Job Nye

Marriage Certificate of Job Nye and Catherine Goldsmith in the Parish of Brenchley
4 June 1840 is above.

The 8th and last child born to Thomas Nye and Ann Walker was named Job who was born about 1791. Similiarly to his brother Thomas, after much searching for a birth or christening I began to doubt that Job existed.

Finally after ignoring him for a long time I received a telephone call from my cousin Karen. She was in Salt Lake City researching at the Family History Library and was excited to tell me that she had found Job's marriage, so we were off and running again.

Job married Ann Rolfe on 4 June 1815 in Horton Kirby, Kent. They lived in East Peckham where five children were born to them:

• Caroline Nye born in 1820
• Mercy Nye born in 1823
• Thomas Nye born in 1825
• Anne Nye born in 1828
• and Elizabeth Nye born in 1831.

Ann Rolfe Nye died and was buried at East Peckham on 21 November 1833. Their son Thomas died and is buried in East Peckham also on 6 April 1834.

On 4 June 1840 Job married Catherine Goldsmith (nee Bromley), a widow who had been born in Ireland. They were married at Brenchley, Kent. Catherine's first husband, James Goldsmith, had died in 1830 at Newfoundland, Canada and she had 3 children: Richard Goldsmith, born 31 Dec 1825; Martha Goldsmith born 16 March 1828; and James George Goldsmith born 11 May 1830 (died 1830). Martha and Richard came back to England - Martha can be found in the 1851 census and in the 1861 census she had married. Richard is in the 1841 census, but not  living with Job and Catherine and Job's daughters. He was probably working nearby being nearly 16 years old.

In 1851 and 1861 Job's birthplace was listed as Cranbrook, Kent. Since Cranbrook is approximately 15 miles from Leigh, and his mother could have travelled that far to be with a sister to have her last child, Cranbrook was thoroughly searched for Job's christening with no results.

Job was an agricultural laborer. He and Catherine did not have children. Job died in 1868 in East Peckham and in 1871 Catherine was living in an almshouse in East Peckham.

The death record of Catherine Goldsmith Nye reads as follows:

Catherine Nye nee Goldsmith died 18th Feb in Tonbrige workhouse aged 75 widow of Job Nye farm labourer died of senile decay Richard Goldsmith son in attendance Golden Green Hadlow

Elizabeth Nye Goldsmith
Job's daughter Elizabeth Nye married Catherine's son Richard Goldsmith on 28 November 1852 in East Peckham, Kent (about 5 miles from Tonbridge). Richard was age 26, and Elizabeth was age 20.

As shown in the above marriage record, their residence at the time of marriage was Hale Street. Elizabeth could not write, so she left her mark in the presence of Richard Humphrey and Mercy Humphrey maiden name Nye. Mercy left her mark as well.

Richard and Elizabeth were blessed with three sons and three daughters. As shown in the following death record, Richard Goldsmith died on 8 March 1884 of a strangulated hernia, age 59.

After Richard died, Elizabeth married John Wallis, a shoemaker in 1885. They are shown in the 1891 Tonbridge census. John died in 1895 in Maidstone, Kent.  Elizabeth died in 1907 at Bartons Farm (information provided by Leonard Goldsmith).

Mercy Nye Humphrey

Mercy Nye married Richard Humphrey, as shown in the above marriage record for Elizabeth Nye and Richard Goldsmith.  Richard and Mercy were the parents of ten children.

For more details on the descendants of Job Nye and the Goldsmiths, see the Genealogy page.

William Nye

Thomas and Ann Walker Nye next had another son whom they named William. He was born 12 May 1789 and christened on 9 August 1789 in the Parish Church at Leigh.

William married Elizabeth Scott of Pembury, abt 1822 in Pembury, Kent.

Beginning in 1822, the first nine children were born and christened or baptized in the beautiful baptistry in the Pembury Church. They were Eliza or Elizabeth 1822, William 1823, Harriett 1825, Mary 1827, Emma 1828, Alfred 1831, George 1833, Maria 1835, and Charles in 1838. Two more boys, John and Thomas were born in the Tonbridge area in 1840 and 1845 but no christening has been located for them.

George and Charles both died in 1841.

The 1841 and 1851 census' note that William was an agricultural laborer and he would have worked on farms belonging to others. He died about 1853.

Elizabeth became a monthly nurse, living in Tonbridge Wells. She continued in that profession until her death in 1873. Elizabeth was probably untrained and her role as a monthly nurse would have been to care for a new mother and infant for one month following the child's birth. Her oldest daughter Eliza, a widow came home from Sussex with her son Frederick and lived with Elizabeth in 1871.