Elizabeth Cleaver was my great great great grandmother. I originally thought her maiden name was Haines as I found an Elizabeth Haines in the 1841 census who seemed to fit the bill.  Eventually though I found her maiden name was Cleaver, she married Robert Hooker in 1812 and after he died she married a Thomas Haines.  When I discovered the name Cleaver it brought back a very old memory to me – I remember my father coming  home in  a rather “relaxed” state after spending the afternoon sharing a few tots of rum with a nearby neighbour whose name was Terry Cleaver.  As I rarely saw Dad in such a state, I must have looked surprised because he explained to me that he & Terry had discovered they were probably related via common ancestors in London.  I thought no more about it then as I was a long way off dicovering an interest in family history, but now it occurs to me  a) how incredible they should meet up like that, in the same street, same town, same country after travelling 13,000 miles (not sure of that in kilometres, must look it up) from their native UK – and b)what a lost opportunity to discover something of my father’s background. 

Anyway, back to Elizabeth!  Now that I have sorted out her names, I must –

1. find her parents if possible and an accurate date of birth for her

2. find her death – somewhere between 1861 – 1871 (she appears in the 1861 census, but not in the 1871 census.

3. find out details of her other children

4. look up her marriage to Thomas Haines in 1847

5. try to find her in the 1841 census – she was then married to Robert Hooker and I can’t find either of them in 1841.

PS – 13,000 miles = 20,917 kilometres. I think I’ll leave the miles reference in though as it brings back another memory of my father – when he was feeling fed up with his job and/or his bosses, he used to say “I’ve travelled 13,000 miles to this job, I can travel 13,000 miles to another bugger” !