#52Ancestors - Week 37 - Large Family

Week 37 (September 10-16) – Large Family. Did you know that all 10 of the most common birthdays are in September? (If you’re a chart geek like me, check out this heat map of birth date frequencies.) So let’s feature an ancestor who had a large family or who was a member of a large family.

I have 3 families in my tree who each had at least 15 children:

• Joseph (Joel) Martin and Elizabeth Speirs
• John Edward Farley and Phoebe Bowlden
• Emanuel Defty and Sarah Frances Richardson

George Charleston also had 15 children, but with 2 wives

I've written about Joseph Martin and Elizabeth Speirs before, so this week it is the turn of John Farley and Phoebe Bowlden.

John Edward Farley, born in 1875 was the son of Jack (John) Farley and Sarah Jane Weller. He is my great grandfather's brother.

Phoebe Bowlden, born about 1879 was the daughter of Samuel Head and Susannah Boulden.

They married about 1897 in Sussex England

After he left school, John was a Baker's Boy, but as an adult he was a Bricklayer and then a Plasterer.

John and Phoebe's children were, as listed in the 1911 census;

• Alice Elizabeth Farley - she married George Paige
• John Charles Farley - he died at about age 9
• William James Farley - he married Mercy Akines
• George Frederick Farley - he married Kate Sayers
• Emily Florence Farley - she married Harold G Winder
• Norah May Farley - she died at about age 21
• Harold Herbert Farley - he married Gladys Robbins
• Stanley Farley - he married Dorothy White
• Christopher Farley - he married Gladys Louisa Soper

1911 census - daughter Norah was living with Phoebe's parents for this census

The next 6 children came after the 1911 census:

• Sidney E Farley - he married Margaret Clarke
• Edith Farley - she died about age 10
• Bertie Farley - he died about age 20
• Douglas Farley - he married Elsie Hollands
• Mary Annie Farley - it seems she never married
• Horace Ernest Farley - he married Stella White

I don't have a lot of information on John and Phoebe, but I found them in this newspaper article from the Sussex Agricultural Express from September 30, 1898 - this certainly would have given them something to talk about for some time.

The last thing I came across for John and Phoebe was an article about Phoebe's Funeral:

John died January 15, 1927 of Pulmonary Tuberculosis and as the article above says, Phoebe 10 years later in 1937