The Greens

In my husband’s family the name Green keeps cropping up; Mr and Mrs Green and their daughters Doris and Phyllis attended my parents-in-laws’ wedding and they were some sort of cousins. I think they were some relation on my mother-in-law, Dorothy Colgate’s side… but whether from her maternal or paternal side I can’t find out.

Our other family names for the most part are unusual enough to make searching census and other material a little easier, Sparshott, Colgate, Elsden,Walford; and when surnames are less unusual, there has often been an uncommon name to go with it, Augusta Brown for example.

The Greens though… I don’t know anything about their ages or where they were born and only know that in 1938 when my parents-in-law married, they were living in Earlswood, Surrey. If I guess that maybe the Greens were Dorothy’s relations, and had always lived in Surrey, pre-war it was a rural community and although people did move around, and travel as I’ve recounted in other family stories, a lot of families did stay put for several generations.

There were 29 Doris Greens born in Surrey between 1896 and 1939. two of them born in Godstone where Dorothy lived. Doris Edith L was born in 1908. so her birth record does not show the surname of her mother, which did not start until after 1911. Doris A was born in 1915, and her mother’s surname was Furlonger – very unusual! There were not so many Phyllis Greens born, only fifteen, and none who match Doris either in location or mother’s maiden name… but of course they might have lived somewhere else for a while…

… and of course I might be totally wrong! there were Greens in Portsea where the other side of the family came from… but did they attend the wedding between Harold and Dorothy? Who knows?!

I shall keep on searching, but unless I get some other clues or information, I think the Greens may remain a mystery!