The Rossiters travelled, not much but enough to make things tricky, Why couldn't they have stayed in the lovely green countryside of Somerset, instead of packing their bags and ending up in London ?
I suppose that around 200 miles migration isn't to bad for genealogical research, at least they're in the same country !
The Rossiters (that I know of so far) started out as farming types in Hemington, near Frome in Somerset around 1737, we have a journal/almanac belonging to one William Rossiter from that time. Around 1830 a William Rossiter moved up to London, William crops up again and again either a first or second name in all the following generations. From the 1830s there has been quite a technical slant to our occupations, including Blacksmith (Joseph), 'Engine Smith' (William), Engineers Tool Maker (William George), Brass Finisher (& inventor)(William), Radio Mechanic and Computer Buff (Edgar William) and a Telecommunications Engineer & Computer Wiz (Me) - funny that coming from farming stock.
From William George (married in 1861) forwards we have quite good documentary and official evidence of our existence, before that we have one husband and wife obstinately refusing to reappear after the 1851 census, dead or alive. If anyone comes across Willam & Maria Rossiter (aged 40 & 38 respectively in 1851) please drop me a line
Research is not as easy as for our Mitchell ancestors, the London Metropolitan Archive is very good as is the FRC in Myddleton Street (and only 100yds apart) but there are no indexes for 1861 & 71 censuses, so I don't know where to start looking for my lost sheep (apart from searching all of Shoreditch).For the Somerset end of the trail.I have only managed to get to the Taunton record office a couple of times so far. Next time I hope to tie up a few loose ends.
Thanks must go to Merv Rossiter in Australia & everyone else on Genbrit, Bristol & Somerset and all the other Roots Web mailing lists for assistance given in my searching.
The name ROSSITER is variously spelt as ROSSITTER, ROSSETER and ROSISTER, depending on who was writing it down
Wow visitors to
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A Ged2html list of Rossiters and associated people
A Ged2html list of Surnames associated with the Rossiters
This site was last updated on Sun 25 Oct 1998 by Dave Rossiter