The FOREST family of Burford, Oxfordshire



Links

GENUKI's Oxfordshire page.

The Rootsweb Oxfordshire-L mailing list.

The Oxfordshire Family History Society (OFHS) website.

PicturesOfEngland.com has some lovely photographs of Burford and Burford church.

Try the LostCousins site


 

If you will allow me to mangle a metaphor, this section of my family history is subtitled: "I can't see the family tree for the Forest's"!  

When I began researching my family tree, I was told that one of my great grandmothers was a Mary Jane FOREST, born about 1870, in Fifield, Oxfordshire. Using the 1881 and 1901 censuses, the FHL film of Burford baptisms and marriages, the Rootsweb Oxfordshire-L mailing list, and other resources, I have managed to trace my FOREST line back to a John FOREST, who was born about 1781 in Thornton, Cheshire.

On 7th June 1804, at Burford, Oxfordshire, John FOREST married Sarah DOWLER, who was born about 1784 in Oxford. John and Sarah had 15 children between 1804 and 1831, and based on my research to date, it appears that all the FOREST's born in Burford in the 19th century can trace their roots back to John and Sarah.

John was a tailor, and I assume that he came to Burford because of its woollen trade. Several of John's son's and their descendants also worked as tailors. Other descendants worked as bakers, carpenters, general dealers, and gardeners.



 




To contact me please email:  jeremyb at pcug.org.au

© Jeremy Bishop