Tonight we write from the deep countryside of Dorset. We are staying in the little village of Milton Abbas with a cousin’s cousin. We are both related to the Coley and Harris lines in Halesowen, England. Peter and Cynthia Wise have taken us in a day earlier due to the fact we are not going to Merthyr-Tydfil, Wales now. We will be with them two days.
Yesterday went terribly wrong. We left a little late from Walkden, got stuck in a traffic queue for 1.5 hours in Stockport meaning we had to drop our visit to Chatsworth House. Then we decided we better drop Mattersey and Misson on my Sharp family line to at least make Sudsbury Hall. We then found out the M1 was closed with miles of traffic queue so we had to take side roads to Nottingham. There we saw the Robin Hood sites and made our way to Sudsbury for their manor house. Well, all the side roads were occupied with motorway traffic so we were delayed, we got lost, and in the end missed the last time to get into the home. We got pictures with the house but Amanda was devastated we didn’t get in.
In defeat, we made our way to Hagley, near Halesowen, near Birmingham last night. We checked into our little hotel and ran into Halesowen where we found the church of St. John the Baptism. Interestingly, as we wandered the cemetery, we found loads of Coley, Willett, and Harris tombstones. Many were modern, but there were a few in which I am sure they are cousins I have in my family history file. That made it worth it. The other deceased I will have to do some research on to trace them back to the family and connect them in. Hopefully I can find another person who has done research on some of the same lines and can help me with my research. We shall see.
Today we toured Romsley, Hayley Green, and Bromsgrove near Halesowen, more sites of Coley ancestry. We wandered and took more pictures in St. Kenelm’s church. There were more Coleys and Willetts found there. I was pretty excited. None as old as in the Halesowen church, but you never know.
We hopped on the Motorway and went through Worcester, Gloucester, and finally to Bath. There we saw the Royal Crescent, some of the Victoria Gardens, and the Roman Baths. It is a beautiful city. We enjoyed ourselves. From there we wandered to Milton Abbas way out in the countryside. We drove several miles through one car-width lanes to this village.
We are still figuring out what we will do tomorrow. At any rate, it should be fun.
Sagacity 