Romany Gipsy HARRIS' from Forest of Dean (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, April 15, 2016, 15:08 (3218 days ago) @ mehaines82

You're very welcome Melissa, I found it very interesting hence enjoyable.
Yes you're right Ann is another difficult one; as per your earlier post I suspect the canals played a large part in their lives, perhaps for generations. Sadly, if they did have gipsy roots, they may possibly have deliberately kept that background quiet in census's etc, sometimes this was done to help them fit in better with "normal" society, which was quite anti-gypsy as you probably know. Tracey Emin found this with her Hodgkins roots on "Who do you think you are", if you've not seen it and are in the UK it's still available (just!) on the BBC iPlayer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0161hmn

Re James' wife's family, that line seems to be outside the bounds of this website and forum so I cannot dwell too much. However, and I may well be wrong, when I revisit Ancestry re James b1838, it suggests his wife is Elizabeth Haines who's father William was a miner in Dudley, living near other miners and ironworkers, despite being born in rural Ludlow, so possibly? not the farmers you mention.

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Finally, ref "Charlemont", to me this sounded more like a Loire chateau than the West Bromwich I know, so I had to look it up ! Again you've probably already seen this history of that area including many local family names of old, if you've not then it's a recommended website for this type of historical enquiry across the whole UK.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol17/pp20-27