A Family history about my mother, Lavinia Fuller’s family in Devon, England. I wish to dedicate this chapter of my family history to Ingrid Curwood, an experienced, dedicated and talented researcher. Without Ingrid’s help and collaboration, this part of my family tree would have remained unsolved. I want to thank the two Lavinia Chrystal’s, my sister and my niece, intrepid researchers in the field for their enthusiasm in visiting so many villages, churches and graveyards, recording their June 2015 visit …

In recent years both my first cousin Scott Fuller and my sister Lavinia Chrystal have visited Abney Park on several occasions to try and find our great grandmother Harriett Fuller’s grave. However, her unmarked pauper’s grave position in the cemetery remains lost to the family after the 1907 visit of her son Johnny Fuller. Scottie and Lavinia have poured over old maps and traipsed the cemetery in this quest. I firstly decided to find out how, when and where Harriett …

Five generations of my maternal family line are all named Lavinia, my great grandmother Lavinia Northey, my grandmother, Lavinia Moar, my mother Lavinia Fuller, my sister Lavinia Robson, my niece Lavinia Chrystal as well as my cousin Wendy Lavinia Fuller. It was armed with this name Lavinia, that I became determined to uncover more about why this name had been handed down without a break for over 150 years. The only other information I knew about my great grandmother Lavinia …

My earliest research endeavours on the Fuller Family were encouraged by my sister Lavinia Chrystal, who was keen for me to trace back the traditions of naming daughters Lavinia on the maternal side of our family, and to find out how far back this tradition had occurred. We were always told it went right back to Cornwall in England, where there were loads of  daughters named Lavinia. It is a fact that my niece, sister, cousin, mother, grandmother and great …

In my five years of research into the family history I have, in all branches of the family started off with no knowledge beyond my grandparents and no expectations about what I would find. Family history is the ultimate in pyramid building and, like every modern day family researcher before me, I keyed in my own parents on my laptop to start my family tree. This particular avenue immediately opened up two unrelated areas of research, and by keying in …