My research into our origins became a serious project for me in October 1995 when I found myself forced into premature retirement.

At that time a collection of written notes, birth, marriage, and death certificates along with a loose-leaf folder of Family Record’s which I had commenced in 1966. In this folder, I had over a number of years recorded the details about my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Nieces and Nephews that I could recall. Whilst most of this information related to my mothers side of the family The Buttells it also included my wifes family The Newtons and The Winters who I have quite recently discovered were actully Winterbottoms as well as The Gosnalls.

All that I knew then of my father’s family was based on childhood recollections and on what I had picked up from my Mum. In 1996 the following was the sum total of my knowledge of The Gosnall’s:

My Grandfather William Frederick Gosnall his wife was Margaret Sweeney [Mum thought she had been born in Ireland which proved to be true by the entry in the 1881 UK Census retuns]. were both born in the year 1844, according to the ages recorded on their grave in the cemetery at Grays Essex.

Their home was at 32, London Road, Grays, Essex. It was the second house in on a terrace of houses that stood diagonally opposite London Road, Methodist Church. [now demolished to make way for a Super-market] The house had steps leading up from the pavement to the front door. At the rear of the property was an unmade back alley, their rear gate faced the rear of my mothers home at 24, Argyll Road, Grays, Essex.

They had six children, Uncles Bill, Fred, Albertand my father Thomas. My Aunts were Anne Tutton and Polly Hempstead. Mother told me that dad’s family had moved to Grays from the East End of London where she thought they had lived at Pennyfields, Poplar. Granddad’s occupation is described on mum and dads Marriage Certificate as a Dock Foreman. So we have surmised they came to Grays around about the time the new dock at Tilbury opened in in 1886. I never met either of my grandparents as Granddad died on 29 May 1916 and Grandma on 27 February 1929. This latter fact I discovered when visiting my father’s grave during the summer of 1999, he had been buried with his parents and for forty odd years I had been unaware.

Uncle Bill, John William was the eldest son, born we believe, [from his age at death in 1954 of 89]around 1865. He was married to “Aunty Vene”; the name I remember from childhood. Her family name was Lavinia Mercer, her family ran a horse drawn transport business from The Broadway, Little Thurrock. Uncle Bill and Aunt Vene’s home was at the foot of Orsett Road hill next door to the Offices of the Grays & Tilbury Gazette, just past the Grays Baptist Tabernacle on the other side of Hathaway Road. Dad used to take me to visit them on a Sunday morning on our way home from Church. Later around the 1950’s he moved home to a house in Southend Road close to what was then known as Piggs Corner.

They had a son Sydney and two daughters Hilda and Lavinia. I can not recall meeting them when I was very young. However when I was in my early teens and had become a junior member of the newly formed Thurrock Harriers Athletic Club in 1948 cousin Syd was a coach. I remember he coached Derek Mercer who I was at school with and myself, in sprint starting and hurdling at the Grays Recreation Ground. Syd explained to us both that we were related to each other by marriage. The only other fact I can remember about Uncle Bill is that he was a Trustee of Grays Athletic Football Club.

My father,Thomas born on the 17 December 1881 at Penny Fields, Poplar came to Grays around 1885. He told me that he had attended Quarry Hill School that no longer exists today. I can recall him referring to a master as “Old Daddy Coalman” I presume he may also have attended Bridge Road, Senior School for boys, which opened in 1889. At the age of fourteen in 1895 he was working. Mum said she remembered him coming out of his back gate with his cycle on his way to work that she thought at a Greengrocers in Finchley.

Father had by his late teens become an active member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church built on the London Road Grays in 1885 at a cost of around £2,500. The Church itself no longer stands having been closed and demolished in 1986 and is currently the site of a new super market. My Father studied and qualified as a Methodist Lay-Preacher going to smaller chapels in the circuit. He also became a Trustee of the London Road Methodist Church. When the First World War broke out in 1914 Dad was 33. He was, from what mother has said called up into the army, although she was not sure if he was ever sent to France, she recalled that he had been at the camp at Purfleet for a period of time. At the end of the war he played some part in setting up a branch of the then newly formed British Legion and proudly war his badge although never a club person being a committed tee-totaller.

Dad married mother on the 9 June 1934, at London Road, Methodist Church. They had met on a church char-a-bang outing according to mother. They set up home at 106, Bridge Road, Grays, Essex. And this remained the family home until 1976, when my mum and her second husband Ted Knight moved out to a ground floor flat at Greenwood House, Argent Street over looking the River Thames just inland from where the old Co-op Bakery had stood and at the bottom of what had been Sheffield Road.

They had three children myself, Albert William born 22 March 1935, my brother John Thomas born 22 June 1936 and our sister Jeanette Kathleen born 10 December 1940. We were brought up at 106, Bridge Road, Grays, Essex during the Second World War and remained in Grays until our mid-teens when National Service and marriage took us away from Grays.

Thomas, our father was employed as a Tally Clerk in the Dock at Tilbury. I have few memories of my Father but do remember sitting with him in the choir at London Road Methodist as a young boy he sang alto. Dad was twenty years older than mum, and as there was a War from 1939 to 1945 we never had a holiday away from home. I remember once my Father took me out with him on the bus to the Five Bells at Vange and then we walked up and over the Laindon Hills.

Uncle Fred and Aunt Ginne, as I called her, [Frederick Gosnall and his wife Sarah Jane Wilson] were married around 1920. From what mum told me they came to live at 32, London Road, the Gosnall family home, some time after Grandfather had died. I remember it was part of Dad’s Sunday routine. We would come out of church, cross the road to visit Uncle Fred and Aunt Ginnie, then we would go up the Orsett Road to Uncle Bill’s then across the park to Aunt Polly, and finally to Aunt Anne at Bridge Road.

Uncle Fred had two children Cousin Betty, [Betty Joan Gosnall] and Cousin Bill [Frederick George William Gosnall]. They were both a couple of years older than I so we were never really close, despite the regular family visit. Bill went to Quarry Hill Junior School while I, on the other side of town went to Arthur Street Junior School. Our paths became a little closer when I went to Park Secondary Modern in Bridge Road at the age of eleven as Bill was already there. He was in the third year and I in the first.

Bill left school in the spring of 1948 and went to work for the Grays Co-operative Society. I left school in the summer of 1950 and also commenced work with the Grays Co-operative Society based at the Grocery Branch in East Thurrock Road. As well as being a Grocery Shop it was also the depot for two mobile travelling shops. We, the staff in the warehouse for the store weighed up supplies like sugar, currents and sultanas and they would collect them from the warehouse in the basement. Bill was an assistant on one of the shops until he was called up for National Service in 1951. Shortly after Bill had left for his National Service I moved out of the shop and warehouse on to the travelling shops also.

But for my illness in 1995 our paths may not have crossed again. In my early searches in 1996 for the Gosnall family I set out to find links with all surviving family members in and around Grays. As a result, in 1998 I found Bill and his wife Irene living at Gordon Road, Grays. I wrote them on the 14, December 1998, as I was not sure if I knew them, as the name was not what I had expected. Bill replied on the 12, January 1999 and confirmed that he was my cousin Bill. So, after forty-eight years we met again on Bill’s 66th birthday in February 1999. One bridge had been crossed, and we both found we had many more relatives than we had before.

Aunt Polly and Uncle Sam [Polly Mary Gosnall and Samuel Hempstead] lived in Clarence Road the end house of a terrace, standing on the corner of the road leading to the entrance to the Park. My memory of them is quite vague, Aunt Polly was a small person and wore her hair in a bun and wore long skirts and had a somewhat stern countenance. They had three children Frederick, Samuel and Katie Hempstead they were 10-15 years older than I and were all married. Fred had two children about my age, twins Colin and Christine Hempstead. Both attended Palmers College, as did my brother John. I do not recall that Sam had any children. My main memory of Sam was as the conductor of our Sunday School Anniversary Concerts held each year. He was a talented singer. Katie I do not remember meeting, she was married to Roger Walker who designed patterns for Paisley silk. They lived at Macclesfield in Cheshire and they sent my mum and dad a pen and ink drawing of the Parish Church at Macclesfield which hung on the wall just inside our front sitting room. My last contact with this side of the family was early in 1991 when my mum died. I received a letter of condolence from my Cousin Fred. At the time I was already well on the road to the breakdown in my health and regrettable never at the time acknowledged it. I only realised this much later in 2001 when I came across his letter with my family papers as we were packing up to move back to Weston Super Mare.

Aunt Anne and Uncle Fred [Anne Gosnall and Fred Tutton] lived a little further along Bridge Road than us at number 94. Aunt Anne was a very big lady and Uncle Fred was tall and slim with a moustache and smoked a pipe. He was a shopkeeper and had the small corner shop at the end of East Thurrock Road and Bridge Road. They had two children James Tutton and Margaret Tutton again; they were several years older than I was.

Uncle Albert and Aunt Eugene Gosnall I never met. They lived at 21, St George’s Avenue, Grays, and there was a brass plate at the door with Aunt Eugene’ Music Qualifications displayed. She taught the piano and at one time was the organist at London Road Methodist Church. They had two daughters Kathleen and Flora. Flora, my mum thought had trained to be a ballerina. Following an excited contact from a lady on the internet who was reseaching her Dines Family I was in November 2000 I was put in touch with my cousin Flora who was still living in the family home and we met for the first time after 65 years. She had in deed trained as a dancer and had through the second world war served with ENSA entertaining the troops in the different theatres of war. So a further bridge with my past had been built.

I have mentioned already the first success in my quest to rekindle the links in the family chain again. In locating my Cousin Bill and his family I was also able to fill in the gap in respect of my Cousin Betty, who regrettable had passed away in the October of 1997 just before my quest began in earnest. This has added several new branches to the Family Tree.

My next task in 1998 was to try and find Uncle Bill and his family. I knew Uncle Bill had moved from Orsett Road to a house in Southend Road close to Pigg’s Corner. However, I could not find any trace of him in the Telephone Directories for Grays. So I made a visit to the library at Grays. Following a long browse through the Electoral Roll I came to the conclusion that it was probable that both he and Aunt Vene were dead. I then commenced a search of Telephone Directories and Street directories for any references to the Surname Gosnall.

It must have been towards the end of 1998 around the same time that I had found my cousin Bill that I discovered through reading the Family Tree Magazine, a search aid that could be used on a personal computer called UK-INFO. This combined on one CD-ROM the names and address of virtually all residents and business from all known and available documents in the public domain. I immediately sought and acquired a copy.

With the aid of this powerful search tool I was able to scour the country for every occurrence of the Gosnall surname and indeed a number of other surnames also from the comfort of my own study. As a result, I found an address for my nephew Robin, whom I had not seen or heard of since 1979, when we were both at his fathers bedside in the intensive care ward at the East Birmingham Hospital. I also had an address for a Howard and Hai-Ying Gosnall at Sternfield, Suffolk.

I sent off letters to both addresses on the 9, December 1998. Disappointed, after a few days that I had heard nothing from Robin. I assumed the information on the CD-ROM was out of date and that he had moved on so I would have to wait for an update of the disc or go to the library in Manchester to search the electoral roll for Salford. There was no immediate response from Howard and Hai-Ying either. So I considered if I should write to the lady called Marjorie Gosnall at Kelvedon whom I had also found.

Before I had made my mind up, I heard from Howard, just four days after visiting Cousin Bill at Grays. The letter dated 9 February 1999 confirmed that we were indeed related through my Uncle Bill who was Howard's Grandfather. He provided me with details of his family and of Uncle Bill and we arranged to keep in touch.

I had, since acquiring a personal computer in 1996, tried several Family History software programmes and eventually had settled on Brodebunds Family Tree Maker which I had found the simplest and most straight forward to use. It provided a wide range of detailed reports and charts and had the ability to store family photos. It also had a sophisticated word processor package to enable one to produce a History of the Family combining in chapters family memories, with charts, and photos. All neatly put together with a table of contents and detailed index of individuals.

With the aid of this, I commenced in 1997 to attempt to write a book ready for our Ruby Wedding Anniversary on the 22 March 1958. It was based on my recollections of my childhood through to my teens and entry into the Royal Air Force. What I knew of Sylvia’s childhood from what she had told me which was supplemented by her diaries from 1951 to the present day. In addition I also had the benefits of the letters that I had written to Sylvia between 1953 and 1956 which she had kept. By the beginning of March 1998 it was far from being a completed project. I had finished the chapter on myself covering the period from 1935 to 1953, a similar one for Sylvia from 1937 to 1953 when we first met and a third chapter covering us both from 1953 to spring of 1956. There it has come to a halt for the time being but more is planned for the future all being well.

In the summer of 1999 I upgraded my computer set up which I passed on to Faith my eldest daughter, and replaced it with a new setup onto which I had my files and data transferred. It had much larger storage and was a good deal faster it also came with a large 17 inch screen and a more proficient printer along with an A4 flat bed scanner. As a result I was tempted to try the Internet. A separate phone line was installed in my study so that I could fully monitor and control the cost. My first attempt at surfing had me searching for all contacts with the name Gosnall.

At one Website they had combined a list of all persons researching Essex Surnames along with a contact e-mail address. Browsing through I came across a Jayne Gosnall seeking any information on the Family Surname. I sent off my first e-Mail to the stated address and it was bounced back as not delivered. I thought I may have put something in incorrectly so I had another go. This time I was lucky and a reply was received from Jayne. She was, it turned out, my nephew Robin’s bride of twenty-three months, in addition I also had a great nephew who was 20 months old. Oh the wonder of this new fangled technology!

Since then I have again thanks to Essex Surnames, made contact with a 2nd Cousin in Australia, a friend in Tasmania, contact with a relative of my second father who is a Professor in Newfoundland, a researcher in Canada who solved the mystery of why I could not find Sylvias maternal grandparents and many more.

So the Search Continues.