My English GreatGrandparents James Broomfield and Helen (Hellen/Halland) Coles Broomfield

Steve and I were called to serve in the England South Mission, later the England London Mission and left in May of 2017.  For the first seven months we lived and served in St. Peter Port, Guernsey. That's another story. But before we went to Guernsey we lived for a week in a flat in East Grinstead, near the London Temple. There was going to be a conference in the London area and our mission president told us to go and do anything we wanted for the next week so we could be near for the conference. Do anything we wanted ...Of course my mind went right to family history and in particular my Broomfield and Coles families. We had a car and I knew where my grandmother Isabella Broomfield Rahier was born, 15 Bonnington Square, as I had been there in 1995, when I took my mother Catherine (Kay) Rahier Lillie and my aunt Angela Rahier Quinn to Europe, but my grandmother or my mother had given me two burial cards for their grandparents and I wanted to find their burial sites. On the card for James Broomfield, Streatham Cemetery was listed as his resting place. It also gave the grave number so I thought it would be an easy find. Streatham Cemetery is located on Garratt Lane, Tooting, Wandsworth, Greater London, near Wimbledon Tennis Club. Like we always did, we drove around, drove past a number of times and had to turn around. That day the cemetery was closed and we had to come back later. Such a disappointment! 

But go back we did! I couldn't find a headstone and was really puzzled as there was just a large mound of grass and wild flowers. The cemetery office was open and after waiting for a little while the employee told me that there was no one buried in that area. I showed him the burial cards and then he was puzzled. so he went to the huge master books and looked up the plot. It was there but it was a pauper's grave with many buried there. I had never experienced looking at a common pauper's grave before. He and his brothers had been quite successful in the dairy business in south east London. The newspapers have articles about their business. 

This is the paupers grave where James Broomfield is buried.
 I looks quite peaceful, but there are many buried there.
After all he had accomplished in his life this is his final
resting spot at least for his body.
 R.I.P.  Great Grandfather!

Forester's Creek, North Carolina ... Found It!

Last September (2020) I needed to get away. We had no college football games, no theater or concerts, couldn't see our families, no work, no mission, no in person church so I thought and felt it was time to get away. Rent a camper, rent a car to pull it and leave. I won't blog the trip but we went south to Florida and then east ending on the east coast in Myrtle Beach and point northward. The goals were beaches, national parks, gold courses and  of course FAMILY HISTORY! For years I had wanted to go to North Carolina, but knew little about North Carolina. Michael Grote (Groat) probably came with the Davis and Gage families when they left Orange County after the  Revolutionary War on their way to hopefully, new land and freedom in Canada. 

It has been said that in 1781 General Charles Cornwallis arrived at the Davis plantation where his men were sheltered and fed. The Gant plantation was the headquarters for Cornwallis. The families  had allied with the British and their farm had been used as a hosting ground for Cornwallis and his army and later ravaged by the opposition. 

Cornwallis defeated the American Army commanded by Major General Nathaniel Greene at the Battle of Guilford Court House. The following fateful battle occurred after Cornwallis and his troops marched to Virginia, where on October 19, 1781 surrendered at the Battle of Yorktown, the last major battle of the American Revolution. 

So thus all of this part of our journey was to find those sites in North Carolina that may or may not have been land my family lived and work on, but it is the only "maybe" information  I have  found up to this point.

I have a number of documents that said that on this exit from North Carolina they had been accompanied by faithful slaves. This may be a surprise for some and was a total surprise to me, Michael Groat (Groat) father or grandfather to my great great grandfather William Groat (Grote) may have been one of those slaves. A story for another post. William married to Elizabeth Adams, an Irish woman who also immigrated to the Guelph, Ontario area. They lived, bore nine daughters and one son, who died early and died within miles of their original homestead in Marden, Guelph Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada.

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After crossing Cape Fear on a ferry (SIDE NOTE: You know I sought out and found places where the movie Safe Haven was filmed) and spending one stormy night in Wilmington we headed inland to Raleigh/Durham (Orange County). I had spent years previous looking over this area and these lands. Many think you can do all this from home, maybe those smarter than I, but getting a layout of the land and the country and talking to local people always helps. We spend the greater part of our first day there talking on the phone, because of Covid, to historians, librarians and looking for the two places I had identified as possible places where my Groat/Grote ancestors lived, the lands of Robert and William Davis. I had some old maps and also looked online at land transfers in the area and spoke to people at those offices, as much as I could due with everything closed. The second day after having no success  and getting to the point I didn't think we would ever find anything the first day we were going to go straight to Asheville but Jenny Smoot Preece had told me about a slave plantation, Stageville Plantation, near where she and Steve had lived, so we went there. We were the only people, so got a short tour and then a small car ride to the other part of the plantation. But I still felt like I needed to find Foresters Creek (Note: it is now Forest Creek) which flows into the South Fork of Little River. I finally found Forest Creek (now named) on  google maps. We tried a couple of  times. It was near the town Sh.  I had tried the day before to find it but no way ... it was a lost and frustrating cause then and I thought it was going to be a  lost cause today, but I felt propelled to find it.  Michel Groat  may have been born on and lived on this property that was owned by Robert Davis and possibly also William Davis, both of whom went to Canada after the Revolution. Robert Davis, at one time, owned 385 acres on Forester's Creek. He died at Little Rock, Orange County, North Carolina.

• January 25, 1772 Orange County waters of Haw River on both sides of Nelson's Branch, being part of 200 acres, more or less, part of a larger tract of land granted to David Phillips by the Earl of Granville. Phillips  was father to Hannah Phillips who married William Davis. William Davis was deeded land by his father-in-law
•  April 12, 1792 William Davis sold 195 acres on the west side of Haw River on Nelson's Branch to Henry  White.
• 17 April 1797 Henry White sold 195 acres to John Powell (Margaret)  .. 22 chains to the hickory pole in James Freelands line. 
• Another try and again I marked the spot on google maps. It took us to a private community and when we  got out I had Steve sit by the side of the road while I took another look. I thought I had it and up pulled a  white car with a flashing light on it. Yes, it was the postman and who knows the area better than a postman. He confirmed my thoughts and we set off in the opposite direction down  the road, a  turn, another turn and finally a  bridge over Forest Creek. I could not determine the piece of  land by the old map I had as roads were not marked and lands were not the same divisions.  If I had been more prepared and followed up the old map with subsequent maps I may have come closer. We went up a  long lane and  I knocked at the door and a man younger than I answered. He was very suspicious, but finally told me we were in the right area, but without road names, like Hunt, he couldn't give us more information. Why do I do  this? It really doesn't matter and that is true, but there is a magic, peace, respect in walking the roads and lands where ancestors may have walked and lived. It is sacred to me and  maybe so  many don't understand it, but I feel it. Maybe it  is like they walk with me, or they are  at l east pleased with my effort to get to know them better. It's been a long  trip, but it's moments like these that tmake it worthwhile. I am glad I didn't give up.