The Giddings family

Lincolnshire origins

The earliest appearance of one of my Giddings family ancestors was in 1787, when my 5x Great Grandfather Thomas Giddings married Rebecca Watson in the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene in the village of Fleet in the county of Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

Moving to Cambridgeshire

By about 1792, Thomas and Rebecca relocate with their growing young family to the market town of March in the county of Cambridgeshire.

The Giddings family join my Martin ancestral tree through my Great Great Grandmother, Sarah Elizabeth Giddings' marriage to my Great Great Grandfather, James Martin on 30th January 1874 at The Providence Chapel, March, Cambridgeshire, England.

Sarah Elizabeth was born illegitimately in 1852 to Elizabeth Giddings - the granddaughter of Thomas and Rebecca.

Elizabeth went on to appear on the 1861 census as an Agricultural Labourer living at Burrow Moor just West of March and until she married Charles Lincoln the following year. Whilst the couple welcomed a daughter Jane Lincoln in 1863, and son Jesse Lincoln who died in infancy in 1865, the marriage would only last another 10 years - with Elizabeth dying prematurely in 1873.

The following year, Elizabeth's illegitimate daughter Sarah Elizabeth married my Gtx2 Grandfather, James Martin, a platelayer for the railways, and was mother to twelve children. Her first child was born when she was 22 and her last at the age of 47. Tragedy struck her family as 1890 brought the untimely death to her son William Martin following an accident with a horse and cart (there's more information about the inquest on his page); as well as during an 11 month period during the First World War; Herbert Martin (my Gt. Grandfather) died in a train accident in France, Albert Martin (the youngest of her children) died as a P.O.W in a German coalmine, Emma Jane and her husband John William Goodge also died during this time - leaving their orphaned daughter Mary Goodge to be brought up by Sarah.

Giddings family connections

The Giddings family are linked to a number of my ancestral families including: