Long Tweed Skirts, Warm Sweaters and Small Crofts ...: March 2026

I haven't written on this blog about Annie and Barry and Julian, but they are in another blog that I wrote on my mission and they are now published in a little coffee table book of our mission that my daughter Ashlyn published. They are very dear to me .... They were one of the most pleasant and important surprised on our mission. Because this is a family history blog I will copy my other blog here.

Beatrice had a daughter Mary and I have cousins Annie and Julian

The end of May/beginning of June when Steve and I were told to take a week and see what we wanted to before going to Guernsey we headed west to Bristol and Devon. It takes no encouragement to get me to those places. We saw the Tedburrow sign and I was aware of the the area in my family's history, but didn't have it all figured out. Stephanie and I had been to Tedburrow in July. We talked to a few people on the road and one man in a large house, but still couldn't pinpoint houses or cottages. Tedburrow is a small area ...not even a hamlet, just outside of Hemyock, Devon, England and my Great Great Grandparents death certificates and census records say they lived and died in Tedburrow, so I was not finished! October put us back in the area for a Senior Conference. When we had a little time we headed to do family history .... SURPRISE, SURPRISE! We first headed to Plymouth to do Steve's work. See previous post on John Rowe Moyle. We went directly to the records office in Plymouth and found some great maps that helped us pinpoint those Moyle houses, but I also found a great map of Devon and I was able to search the Tithe Applotment records for Devon ancestors, especially those that were from Hemyock, my Broomfield family. my grandmother Isabella's family. Again, I found a map and we headed to Tedburrow.

Short, short version. There were two houses that interested me. One bore the name, Tedburrow Cottage, the same name as on the census records f or William Broomfield and Sarah Wood. So I knocked on the door of the cottage and sweet Mrs. Richards answered the door. I asked her questions about the cottage and I thought there must have been additional cottages in the back, according to the map. She told me that the back of their cottage was an add-on and yes, there were cottages in the back that are no longer there. She said that she had another man and a lady come by to see the cottage and she had a letter from them and knew right where the letter was. The letter, although I didn't know it at the time, opened up an unknown and new part of my family tree. Julian Potter had written the letter prior to a visit to see Tedburrow Cottage with his sister Annie, but I still did not know if they had a Broomfield connection or if I was on the right path. I knew I was close. So I took a picture of the letter and sent off my own letter to Julian, who actually lives quite close to Tedburrow. Apparently very soon after his sister Annie emailed me a couple of times and I did not get the email. One day when we were in Guernsey I received a phone call from Annie. Yes, we are related and she told me that she was the granddaughter of Beatrice, my grandmother's sister. That couldn't be ... Beatrice didn't have a daughter. Beatrice was never married!

Victoria "Mary" Broomfield with her
daughter Annie.

She lived most of her adult life in a hospital, home or an institution. "No, she didn't marry but, yes she did have a daughter," said Annie. At some point Beatrice was taken out of one home, probably close to 1920 and became pregnant, or that is what they were told and the daughter Victoria Mary Broomfield was the result of that pregnancy. Mary had two children Annie and Julian and they are my second cousins. Annie and her husband Barry live in London and Julian lives in Devon, Newton Abbot to be exact. We met in on a Saturday in March in Dorset at her parent's former home, that they call the Forge, because at one time it was a forge. Julian came also and we had a wonderful visit, exchanged information and shared a wonderful meal together. It really was wonderful! They have never known family on their mother's side, and although there are many here in England, the two of us, who have had the least family around us all of our lives, met in Dorset. Their mother Mary had a difficult upbringing in foster homes where the parents were mean and even meaner because Mary was illegitimate. How cruel! Mary so wanted to know family and at one time Annie had added up just the family on rough sheets Annie had obtained from the home where Beatrice had lived. She told her mother that she had lots of family. Their parents

Mary Broomfield and Don Potter her
husband, parents of Annie and Julian.

spent their entire adult lives in the village of Bryanston and their father, Don Potter, an artist taught at the Bryanston Residential School, just down the road, as did their mother. Both parents, amazing artists and craftsman. I so wish I had known them. The forge was a favorite for me with paintings on the walls, hand thrown pottery all around and pieces of each of their work, a woven screen that their mother had maid and pillows that had been made from handspun yard. Sculptures and work of their father. It was difficult to take it all in. I went to the bathroom upstairs and it took me so long because I had to stop all along the way and look at everything. It was all so tasteful. I suppose besides meeting them one of the real treasure of the trip were the rough hand typed notes that they had obtained from the home where Beatrice had lived. We started to add up the James Broomfield family including my grandmother Isabella and their grandmother Beatrice. They had three more children on those rough notes that I did. Three more children ... three that I never knew about and was never told about. Did my grandmother know that. All three had been born between census years and had died as infants, two boys, James and John and a girl Sara Ellen. I searched for years there weren't children on the indexes, I looked in areas that I knew James and Ellen Broomfield lived and looked for names that sounded like family. I have found, sent for and received all their birth certificates and the boys death certificates.The information had been provided to the home by Beatrice and Isabella's older sisters Fanny and Eliza. Well, if I do nothing more on this mission and I hope we are doing and will do much more, this may be enough. A beautiful new family relationship. I sent she and Julian a number of pictures of Beatrice, some that I had on my computer, some that Anthony sent me and some that my Uncle George sent me. They had not seen any of them and were delighted. They saw their grandmother as a child and as an adult. It has been very tender and very rewarding for me. So life in southern England has not disappointed. We need to figure out a way to do more rescuing of the YSA and with the new emphasis and we already started before this new emphasis on ministering, but I will save that for another blog. I have three new cousins Annie, Barry and Julian. I am very blessed and very happy.