Named for a Queen

Alexandrina Victoria Fuller was the first child of Stephen and Fanny (née Sheepwash) Fuller, born in Sandwich, Kent, in 1840. She was the sister of my great great grandmother Julia. There were an awful lot of Fullers in Kent, and many of them weren't exactly poor. Some appear to have been gentleman farmers and they were fond of giving their children odd names. You can understand Alexandrina Victoria being named after the Queen, but what about Stamp Fuller (1848-1916)? Or how about Pierce Nimrod Fuller? There are also a Lucretia, a Mark Anthony and a Hartington in the Fuller ranks, as well as lots of unusual but not so outlandish, not to say pretentious, Christian names. Alexandrina's half brother John emigrated to New Zealand. Her aunt went off with her husband pioneering in Wisconsin, USA. A cousin went to Queensland. They certainly moved around a bit. But back to Alexandrina. I found her in 1881 in London working as a caretaker. Then she disappeared. What happened to her? Amazingly between mid-1881 and 1884 she is to be found crossing the ocean as a stewardess on board ship. By March 1884 she had risen to the rank of 1st Stewardess on the Chimborazo (by curious coincidence the same boat on which the Weedons sailed to London fro Australia in May 1886. Could their paths have crossed?) Possibly (to be confirmed) she married in 1886 and this put an end to her unusual career. But good for her - another example of a small town girl who deserved to be famous.

Dedicated to my normal ancestors

I am an amateur genealogist. There are no royals, titled persons or famous figures to be found in my family tree even though I have managed to get back to the 16th century in a couple of cases. I do however have a lot of distantly related ancestors who are not quite famous. Maybe they were married to someone vaguely famous at the time. Maybe they had their moment of glory or infamy then faded back into anonymity. Maybe they were just interesting, adventurous or off the norm. In any event, this blog is dedicated to them. I found their stories interesting, so perhaps someone else will too. And you never know, someone might read this and recognize a name. If you do, please let me know!