Some key historical and family dates. Includes marriages of great, great, great grandparents (3 splicings missing – Neal, Cutting, Hughes – and 2 illegit lines).
1807 John Watts marries Eleanor Cook, Skeyton.
1809 John Harper Smith marries Lydia Bacchus, Norwich.
1817 Victoria born.
1826 James Howes marries Ann Lane, Besthorpe.
1831 David Griffiths marries Grace James, Merthyr Tydfil.
1834 Poor Law unions created.
1834 Mark Barcoe Carter marries Mary Ann Revell, Kimberley.
1835 John Cutlock marries Charlotte Plunkett, Norwich.
1836 Possible marriage of William Watkins to Elizabeth, Llandefalley South.
1836 First police force in Norwich.
1837 Victoria becomes queen.
1840 Victoria married Prince Albert. Start of Cunard Line steamships to America.
1841 Great Western Railway built.
1844 Norwich has railway to Yarmouth, 1849 to London.
1842 David Rees marries Hannah Francis, Cadoxton.
1845 Charles Vickery marries Mary Harris, Seavington St Mary.
1846 Robert Osborne marries Mary Ann Dawe, Merriott.
1846-49 Repeal of Corn Laws.
1850 Master/Mate Mariners Certificates start.
1850 William Sibley marries Honor Garland, Beaminster.
1850s Osborne brothers to Australia.
1852 – 58 Birth of great-grandparents, Howes side.
1859 Levy Watkins in Merthyr Tydfil by now.
1860s Bush Houses built, Rhondda.
1850-70 Somerset railways built.
1861 Prince Albert died.
1861-65 American Civil War.
1862 USA’s Homestead Act, 160 acres for citizens tilling for 5 years.
1866 First transatlantic telegraph cable laid.
1870 Education Act – elementary education for all (England, Wales).
1872 Robert Jeary/Jane Watts arrive in Seward, Nebraska.
1873 Henry Neal emigrates to Ontario, Canada.
1869 – 1878 Birth of great grandparents, Watkins side.
1881 Osborne family arrived in Rhondda, and Watkins have moved here from Merthyr.
1879 – 1883 Griffiths branches arrive in Wilkes-Barre, USA.
1888 – 1897 Birth of grandparents.
1890/93 Frederick Watts, Emma Watts emigrate to USA (separately).
1894 William Cullum and family arrive in south east London. Alice Neal emigrates to Canada.
1897 approx Robert and Mary Neal emigrate to Manitoba, Canada.
1899-1902 Boer War.
22nd Jan 1901 Victoria dies.
1904 Death of Laura Curtis (nee Neal).
1905 Clydach Vale mining disaster (33 killed).
1910-11 Cambrian Colliery dispute, Tonypandy riots.
1912 Launch and sinking of Titanic.
1914-18 World War One.
1916/19 Marriage of grandparents.
1919 Howes family follows uncle William to south east London.
early 1940s Watkins family arrives in New Cross.
1952 Elizabeth II becomes queen. Major London smog leads to deaths and an eventual clean-up.
1953/54 May family to New Zealand.
1969 Bush Houses demolished.
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