More Puzzle Pieces

Last March I posted a blog titled "The Puzzle of Genealogy" which related to questions and answers brought on by the Bellamy Letters.

This week I went back into my email messages regarding the Rason family from ten years ago and found messages clipped together with a note: Jackson - Rason - Smith puzzle.

The subject of the puzzle ten years ago was a diary kept by Samuel Jackson (1867-1920). In the diary was a list of birthdays but no year of birth. Samuel's mother was Harriet Hand Smith, who was sister to my g.g.grandmother, Mary Creak Smith. Harriet and Mary had a younger sister, Eliza, who married Josiah Triffitt. Aunt Eliza was mentioned in Bellamy Letters #5.

Samuel Jackson's grandson, Norm Ashton, posted his grandfather's diary to the internet in 1998 wondering where the Rason name fit into the Jackson family. Through collaboration between Norm, Deborah Glover, and myself, we were able to identify most of the Rason entries but there was reference to some cousins in Holbeach, Lincolnshire:

• 12 May - G E J cousin Gertie Holbeach
• 1 Jun - M E J cousin Mary Edith Holbeach
• 2 Jul - A M J cousin Maud
• 16 Jul - J C J cousin Holbeach
• 22 Dec - Aunt E J

It was presumed that all names marked with a J in the diary were Jacksons, but I am convinced that the people listed above were all Triffitts:

• Gertrude Ellen Triffitt (1887-1947)
• Mary Edith Triffitt (1882-)
• Alice Maud Triffitt (2 Jul 1880-1974) d.o.b confirmed on death registration
• John Carrington Triffitt (1875-)
• Eliza Smith Triffitt (22 Dec 1840-21 May 1921)

Sometimes it pays to retrace your steps and look at old correspondence; I'm glad I kept it. Hopefully all these little puzzle pieces will lead to the big picture one day. Now I am trying to locate Norman Dennis Ashton because his email address is not current.