Phelps family (General)

by admin , Forest of Dean, Thursday, February 23, 2006, 10:18 (6639 days ago)

I have a distant indirect connection with a 'Phelps' in the Forest or nearby in the mid/late 1800s.

I have been sent, found in the personal papers of a deceased distant relative, a copy of an undated, unsourced newspaper clipping being the "Obituary of Mr Merrick Phelps" (82) of High Croft, Mitcheldean. "He was a retired inn keeper who kept the Greyhound at Mitcheldean for nearly 18 years before his retirement 12 years ago. Earlier he had been licensee of the Crown, Howle Hill, where he once had a bakery and grocery business."

There is mention of a "Brother Will", "Mr Leonard Phelps (cousin)", "Mrs E Cinderby (cousin)", "Cousin Beatrice" and, indistinctly, "Miss (or Mrs) J Smith (niece)". A similar cutting refers to the death of "Miss Ivy Phelps".

I suspect that my connection is to someone in Merrick Phelps' family tree. He does not appear to be recorded in the 1881 census, the only one to which I have access via the internet. Can someone (perhaps that gem 'slowhands' with his apparently inexhaustible fund of information) help in tracing Merrick Phelps' ancestry, and how the 'cousins' are actually related to him?

Thanks in advance.