Another fabulous old family photo I bought at the North Petherton Festival of Cards back in March. (The Venue @ Junction24, Market Way, North Petherton, nr. Bridgwater, Somerset TA6 6DF).

A name on the back and an address.

Gwendolen Mary Griffin. Age 6 1/2 years.

24 Brighton Rd

Redhill, Surrey. Inglaterra (Spanish)

I’m unable to find number 24 in the 1911 census, but at number 26 Brighton Road, Redhill, is a family by the name of Amos. Is this photo connected to the previous Amos family I researched in some way? Maybe they were friends?

Elsie’s surname was Norton, and her husband’s name was Charles Amos, but I can’t find a connection to the previous family of Amos that I researched for the previous blog…..yet!

In the 1921 census, two families were living at number 24; they were Girling and Larkin.

This story begins in the Weald of Kent, follows them across county boundaries into Surrey, and eventually spreads as far as Australia and New Zealand.

Yet at its heart is a close-knit family whose lives revolved around home, hard work, and each other.

The Griffin Sisters of Blindley Heath.

When I look at the photograph of Gwendolen and Ellaline Griffin, I see much more than two sisters posing for the camera.

I see two young women whose lives were shaped by family, duty and the changing fortunes of a remarkable household that stretched from the spa town of Tunbridge Wells to the little Surrey village of Blindley Heath.

Their story begins with their parents.

Charles Robert Morow Griffin was born in Tunbridge Wells on 23 July 1878, the eldest son of Louis Morow Griffin, a bootmaker and a Naturalist, and Mary Ann Lloyd. Growing up in Kent alongside his sisters Marion and Ethel, Charles came of age during a period when skilled trades were highly valued.

By the time he married eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Mary Carpenter in 1898, he had already begun building a life that would eventually support a large and close family.

Elizabeth had been born in Tunbridge Wells on 31 October 1880 before her own family moved to Croydon.

She brought qualities that would become the backbone of the Griffin household for nearly sixty years.

Their first years together were spent in Kent, where their sons arrived in quick succession. Louis Charles was born in 1899, followed by Cleland in 1900 and Leslie in 1903.

During these years the family moved through Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Hawkhurst and Cranbrook as Charles established himself in his unusual occupation as a taxidermist.

It was a skilled Victorian trade requiring patience, artistry and an eye for detail, and by the 1911 Census Charles was recorded proudly as a taxidermist working on his own account.

Into this busy household came two daughters.

Gwendolen Mary Morow Griffin was born at Hawkhurst on 6 May 1907.

Just sixteen months later, on 15 September 1908, little Ellaline Constance Morow Griffin arrived in nearby Cranbrook.

Although they had three older brothers, the two girls naturally became companions from their earliest years, growing up side by side as the only sisters in the family.

The photograph of the girls almost certainly captures this special bond. One can imagine the excitement of putting on their best dresses, carefully arranging their hair and standing patiently before the photographer.

Their expressions suggest confidence mixed with the seriousness so often seen in Edwardian children’s portraits, yet behind the formal pose must have been two sisters who shared games, secrets and the adventures of growing up together.

By 1914 the family welcomed their youngest child, Donald Roy Griffin, born in Redhill after the family’s move into Surrey.

The move proved to be a turning point.

By the time of the 1921 Census the Griffins had settled at Blindley Heath near Godstone, where Charles had become a grocer trading on his own account.

Sometime during the following decade he expanded the business by adding the village Post Office, creating the familiar combination of village stores and sub-post office that served as the social heart of so many English communities.

The Griffin family lived above and around the business, where daily life revolved around customers calling for groceries, letters, telegrams and news.

It was undoubtedly a busy household, with every member of the family helping where they could.

The older boys gradually followed different paths. Louis worked alongside his father in the grocery business before marrying Ellen Rothwell in 1926.

Cleland spent time in the Mercantile Marine and later emigrated to Australia with his wife Lilian, where he settled in Victoria and remained for the rest of his life.

Leslie also went to sea before later becoming a beekeeper, eventually emigrating to New Zealand after the Second World War.

While her brothers were finding lives further afield, Gwendolen’s future was much closer to home.

In October 1926 she married Reginald William Ellis, a young man from nearby Lingfield.

Reginald had something of an adventurous spirit, having travelled to America and Canada in the early 1920s before returning home.

After their marriage the young couple lived for a time at Blindley Heath Post Office with Gwendolen’s parents, making the Griffin family home the starting point of their married life.

Their first son, Rex Arnold Ellis, was born in Godstone on 4 December 1927, and for a brief period the family even tried their luck in Australia.

Passenger records show that Reginald, Gwendolen and little Rex sailed there in 1928 intending to settle permanently. Maybe as a result of her brother’s being there.

Like many families of the period, however, the dream was short-lived, and they were back in Surrey before the birth of their second son, Roy Derek Ellis, in July 1931.

By 1939 Reginald had established himself as a fishmonger with his own shop on Lingfield High Street.

Gwendolen devoted herself to raising her family while helping behind the scenes, creating a comfortable home above the shop where the boys grew up.

Meanwhile, Ellaline remained at the heart of the family business.

The 1939 Register records her as the Post Office Counter Assistant at Blindley Heath, working alongside her father, who was Sub-Postmaster, while her mother Elizabeth assisted with the Post Office duties and youngest brother Donald worked as grocer and shopkeeper.

Together they formed a true family enterprise, serving neighbours who relied upon the Post Office for far more than simply sending letters.

Life brought both joy and sorrow in later years.

Charles died at Blindley Heath on 19 January 1947 after nearly half a century of marriage to Elizabeth.

The familiar figure behind the village counter was gone, but the family business and his legacy lived on.

The greatest heartbreak came seven years later. On 13 April 1954, Ellaline died at only forty-five years of age.

She had never married and had remained devoted to her parents and the family home throughout her life.

Her address at the time of her death was still Blindley Heath Post Office and Stores, the place that had been at the centre of her world for more than thirty years.

She was laid to rest in Blindley Heath, close to the community she had faithfully served.

Elizabeth survived both her husband and beloved daughter, passing away in February 1957 at the age of seventy-six. With her death, an era quietly came to an end.

The Griffin family gradually scattered across the world. Cleland remained in Australia until his death in 1964.

Leslie made his home in New Zealand, where he died in 1971.

Louis stayed closer to home, dying in Sussex in 1967, while Donald lived until 1995 after military service during the Second World War.

Gwendolen was the last of the two sisters.

She enjoyed a long marriage of sixty-three years with Reginald Ellis and lived to see her family grow through another generation.

She died in November 1989 at the age of eighty-two, leaving behind two sons, Rex and Roy, and a lifetime of memories stretching back to Edwardian Kent.

Here’s the small Griffin public family tree on Ancestry: Gwendolen Mary Griffin Family Tree

Today, that old photograph of Gwendolen and Ellaline has become far more than a family portrait.

It captures a fleeting moment before marriages, businesses, emigration and loss changed their lives forever.

It reminds us of two sisters standing together at the beginning of their story, one who would become the wife of the Lingfield fishmonger, the other who would dedicate her life to the little Post Office at Blindley Heath.

Together they represent the heart of the Griffin family: hardworking, devoted to one another, and deeply rooted in the communities they served.

Through them, the story of Charles and Elizabeth Griffin lives on, preserved not only in census records and certificates but also in the faces of two sisters whose photograph has carried their memory safely into another century.

I was so lucky to spot these old photos of Gwendolen with her husband on a public family tree on Ancestry.

This old photo also from a public family tree on Ancestry is Reginald in the centre, Rex on the left and Roy on the right.

Where did the Morow name come from?

Gwendolen and her siblings’ great-great-grandparents were Robert Morow and Elizabeth Griffin. At some point, it seems they adopted Elizabeth’s surname to pass on to their offspring, but they didn’t want Morow to be forgotten.

My Transcription Experiment.

I thought you would be interested to see this. It is the last Will & Testament of Captain Robert Morow from this collection on Ancestry: England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858

I asked ChatGPT for a quick transcription for my notes. I can see other names and words that ChatGPT has missed and that I would transcribe if I needed it for my own family, but this doesn’t seem too bad.

I haven’t got the time to spend transcribing this, so I’m happy with it as an experiment.

Page 1, Transcribed by ChatGPT.

In the Name of God Amen

This is the last Will and Testament of mee Captaine Robert Morow of Aldeburgh in the County of Yorke aged about the two and thirtieth yeare of my age and sicke of body but (praised be Almighty God) of good and perfect remembrance.

First I commend my soule into the hands of Almighty God my Creator hoping assuredly through the death and passion of Jesus Christ my Redeemer to receive free pardon and remission of all my sinnes and to inherit everlasting life.

And my body I commit unto the earth to be buried in such decent Christian manner as my Executors shall thinke fitt.

And touching all such temporall goods, lands and estate wherewith it hath pleased Almighty God to blesse me, I give devise and dispose thereof in manner following.

Page 2, Transcription from Chat GPT:

Item, I give unto Elizabeth Morow, my loving wife, all my messuages, lands, tenements and hereditaments whatsoever lying and being within the County of Yorke, to have and to hold during the terme of her naturall life, she keeping the same in good reparacion and paying such rents, duties and services as shall become due.

And after the decease of my said wife I give the same unto my sonne William Morow, and to the heires of his body lawfully begotten.

And for want of such issue, then unto my daughters Sarah Morow, Ann Morow, Elizabeth Morow, and Dorothy Morow, to be equally divided amongst them.

Item, I give unto my brother William Morow the summe of forty pounds.

Item, unto my brother David Morow the summe of forty pounds.

Item, unto my sister Sarah Morow twenty pounds.

Item, unto my sister Elizabeth [surname uncertain] twenty pounds.

Item, I give unto my nephew Robert Campbell and unto Jane Campbell my niece twenty pounds apiece (or thereabouts – amount uncertain).

All the residue of my goods, chattels and personal estate I give unto my loving wife Elizabeth, whom I make sole Executrix of this my last Will and Testament.

..residue of my interest and Estate to the said Annetta Jane Campbell and Jane Campbell as my residuary legatees and especially I entreat them or the survivor of them and the executors of such survivor remaining always that they doe not institute any suite in lawe for remission nor upon the same but leave all for this one actuall interest upon good security always provided to myself to alter or revoke these presents at all pleasure until my last and latest sickness or received…

…I nominate and appoint the said Robert M’Robb of Edinburgh, gentleman, and John Gregory, writer, my executors, doing diligence for the upbringing and education of my children…

…In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and subscribed these presents at Aldbrough the sixth day of September one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.

Robt. Morow

Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said testator Robert Morow as and for his last Will and Testament in our presence and in the presence of each other, and at his request.

Ja. Warman. Housekeeper. Ramsgate

Wm. Knott. Servant to Captain Morrow (one witness illegible)

Proved at London the 11th February 1843 before the Judges for the probate of Wills and granting administrations lawfully authorised, by the oath of William Hailin, one of the executors, to whom administration was granted, power reserved for making the like grant to the other executor when he should apply for the same.

The will was made by Captain Robert Morow (or Morrow), was signed (or copied as signed) at Aldbrough, is dated 6 September 1839, and was proved in London on 11 February 1843.

Chat says:

Leaves everything to his wife Elizabeth for life. After her death, the property goes first to his son William. If William dies without children, the estate passes equally to his four daughters: Sarah, Ann, Elizabeth, Dorothy.

He also leaves money to: and his nephew and niece, Robert and Jane Campbell. His brother William, his brother David, his sister Sarah, and another married sister, Elizabeth,

This is the transcription of page 2 from Ancestry’s own Transcription:

152 151 estate and reeard for red and attention to me during my at tiony and profarsed illus way be paid as soon ad my afford s m arranged and in within six months after my octant to the said the said Williams June Sara Aun Harr e and Jonie Hjar nall rpethiy zL.Y Sup a tak tused Janet St Frema Tabassalg S Naty a a saying Lw ur sov x lorent usi oct vang and of my it so almi Will dial ad after my personal effect daoll be disposed or and my funeral expenses paude with any other or debt that may be or due it by me as thi heir of my brighter the dohole anount nors mot invested in my name m He Bank am which or any offical monoced or derivvice wh ad d may be to an expired on the fifth way of April 1839 an6 or any other be ‘amferred into the public funds she divided ad wel follows to in brothers Difmore Morrow and John Morrow and to my sister Euchar Morrow ad EAlan Mornow and an anuel Baker shik of the last an Helary Baker for ewe of Bristor and to Mary Bassett of sonow sand an a s equal D |ared off bat remaining property after all my first dict a and lespay a stoall be paid in she sovisod zstall take at immediately provided also dail im the event sfany of my a afreda and Brothers aister asing in my lifetime rivst siare or assandom s taskin de one east ly zall raub bet net cultils so under this my Will a to a a palabra l comfort by divided iniam joshie Bros ted and hid jun hlland mas may remain alosly siare an shane atlkt im the man a wer an interestd an d Have found all and shesay totall in former Will or bills by me at any have ange and declare in the of in nt silly last Will and Testamen h in %ithes-mein wil t ess h send arrange or my double and matter als ojiat n al this sights day of December one thousand sigal in aubr ed and treesy we ne – a Marre and Morrow-29 -a Morrow By-Signes sealed published and declared by the said teafalon Allteh r Morrow or n Rohert Morrow and for this last Will and at ava Test Amiaf in our present was we in his presence as risrequest and in the presence of callissier litant Aremsuto sahanted our named as Wikas into this day and year first its Week and written – I, the Marrin Hianepe isna ngo fte ad W Moshe Sasch Servant te c a Ssnawa S Provend at London the 14th February 1843 before the un Worshipful Jonnie Soulins solton ovar Law and Course ate up the Date of William shine out ottan Excintor to 12-10 in an Housoy was grantod having futter frist womery willfo m a an administer – Lovery reasewh or making the like Drain to m a Elizabeth Morrow Spinder the sister the other Exermtor question otic a dull ap f ll jor + he dame.

This is the last Will and Testament of william S talk of me william e Mosleu of any cottage pay some s rounod Aran Dollington fir the bountas of Mildomta z five notch a a vfancuna euto an recommended hueriafffer toamod all my on Mociaty and set wilta d for may a and all my Bousehold 11 Goods and furrihire place hexen and China and all others in my Estate and ‘effedro walosover and se developer Lomha teal aud personal l except hat with report in my hand

Even with small parts missing, I know which transcription I prefer. ChatGPT did say they could do a much better job if I sent a small section at a time, but I found this good enough for my experiment.

If I were doing it for my own family, I would definitely spend the time transcribing it for myself.

You can contact me either by commenting here or via email at lynnswaffles@gmail.com

Till next time then………