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  • The Snells, London
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  • The Jeffs
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• Mysteries

The Jeffs

In the 1911 census, Laundry Labourer Joseph Thomas Jeffs 41, his wife Annie Jeffs 41 and family live at 31 Dawlish Street, Lambeth - the family being Rose 17, Frederick 16, Albert 13, Arthur 12, Charles 11, Maud 10, Williams 7, Emma 4, Alfred 2 - the other 4 of their 13 children have already died.

Dawlish Street no longer exists -presumably following bomb damage in WW2 - is now Luscombe Way. It was about a mile south of Reedworth Street (as the crow flies), where the Snell family lived until some time around 1907-1910.

UPDATE 13/09/09: All the above must be wrong - or at least irrelevant. Arthur Jeffs was 29 in 1920 when he married, so would have been 20ish at the 1911 census. The Arthur Jeffs I've found above was only 12. Doh! Back to the drawing board. I can't find any Arthur Harry Jeffs in 1891, 1901 or 1911 census, nor in the Birth records. Had he changed his name, perhaps? But I think I've have found a 'mention in despatches:

A H Jeffs was in the Middlesex Regiment, his daughter Angela tells me. He was a railway man, according to later records, so he probably would have been in a Service Battalion. I think it must have been Arthur who was 'mentioned in despatches' by General Sir Douglas 'the machine gun is a much over rated weapon' Haig (who was held by some to be Scotland's greatest general - for the number of Englishmen he killed on the Western Front - but I digress...)

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/29623/supplements/5947

On 4 February 1920, Arthur Jeffs married Emily Snell. Arthur's address is shown as 36 Napier Road and Emily's is the 'Snell family home' of 2 Lushington Road. (On the marriage certificate, Arthur's father's details are missing - so I don't know who his father was, so I can't find who his mother was either. The trail stops there, unless I can find out more from his descendents.)

On 16 March 1920 Leslie A Jeffs is born - but now their address is now 101 Buchanan Gardens Willesden. On the birth certificate, Arthur is described as Railway Platelayer (ex-Army) - I shall have to search the army records...

Further children arrived; Angela in 1923, Lione in 1925 and finally  Derek 1930.

I don't know what happen to Leslie A Jeffs, and I don't think I ever met him - but there was a marriage of a Leslie A Jeffs to Irene R Ayers in Honiton, first qtr 1950 - was that our Leslie?

I think I met Angela just once, when I was quite young - I think remember the Thames, swans - I definitely remember lettuce somehow made palatable with sugar. No idea how that was done, it was unrepeatable.

Lione married Gordon G James in 1946, in Willesden - funny, I thought his name was Tony. They had a son, Russell James, in 1949. I remember when young, going to visit Auntie Lione, Uncle Tony and Russell - especially their firework parties - especially one where a spark fell into the stock of fireworks and everything went up at once - where Uncle Derek tried to save the day by repeatedly thrusting his hand into the conflagration to pull out fireworks that might not have started - but some had. What a show!

I think Lione may have died in 1997, but I'm not sure what happened to Tony (aka Gordon G James). Thinking back, I do have a story about when he had his car worked on in my Dad's garage in the Sixties - but it's not repeatable here.

Derek married Joan McClean, third qtr 1950 in Willesden. They had Ian G Jeffs in 1953, Graham L Jeffs in 1956 and Annette S Jeffs in 1960.