Annie Chaplin

  General Notes:

Kathleen Hay notes:
Elizabeth Davis is my Davis connection. She married Rebecca Gillingwater's g-g-g-grandson, Victor Emanuel Chaplin, had 9 children, then moved all of them to Toronto, Canada. My grandmother, Annie Chaplin Brown, was the only one who resettled across the border in the USA.

I was interested to see your Davis/Davies were in Wales. That's what I expected to find, because the only family information about Elizabeth Davis (They said Davies.) was that her family was from Wales. When I found her on Ancestry member trees, I wrote to the lady whose profile said she lived in Wales to ask if she knew a Wales connection. She said a cousin had told her they were a Romany family until they settled in Great Bookham, Surrey. Perhaps they had wandered around Wales?

What a surprise. Our American Chaplins have red hair and freckles. And the Davis family was in Great Bookham in all the census 1841-91, always different locations, though. All their children were born there except a middle daughter born in Southampton, Bittering.

I researched, and I believe (but can't prove) that they were gypsies. Problem is I can't tell if their census addresses were on public land or not. In 1861, they lived on Boswell's Row (no street number); that is almost a sure sign. Davis/Davies is a very common Romany surname. They were all agricultural laborers. Also, Leatherhead Epsom Surrey was like English gypsy home base. There's a Romany museum now, and it was a meeting place for centuries.