Bibliography - Roy Grant
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Eastbourne Paupers, by Roy Grant, published December 1988 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 8 no. 4, article, pp.183-187) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10736] & The Keep [LIB/501260] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

List of Paupers receiving Parochial Relief - 1831-32

Eastbourne Paupers, continued, by Roy Grant, published March 1989 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 8 no. 5, article, pp.200-202) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10736] & The Keep [LIB/501260] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

List of Paupers receiving Parochial Relief - 1831-32

Brighton Paupers, by Roy Grant, published March 1991 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 9 no. 5, article, pp.170-174) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 11999] & The Keep [LIB/501261] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

A list of unsettled poor giving name, age, number of years resident, period of relief and Union for the years 1831 - 1846 in Brighton.

Somersetshire embarkation, by Roy Grant, published September 2011 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 19 no. 7, article, p.333) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508848] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

In recent correspondence with a POTTER descendent on the Sussex Rootschat network, I discovered that the following Register of Emigrant Labourers applying for a free passage to South Australia, March 1839 showed quite a number of Sussex families that were leaving for Australia aboard a ship called the Somersetshire. The lady very kindly gave me the opportunity to note the trades, names, ages, and the ages of any children that accompanied them, as well as places in Sussex where they resided.

Brighton's Backstreet Contessa, by Roy Grant, published June 2014 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 21 no. 2, article, pp.74-78) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/508981]

The life of the Countess of Beauregard: Formerly Harriet Howard, but born Eliza(beth) Ann Haryett of Brighton (1823 -1865)
One advantage of having an interest in family histories is that you can occasionally diversify and use the same skills to explore some quite fascinating topics. An investigation I undertook for personal amusement rather than family ties, was verifying numerous historical accounts about an astute beauty from Brighton's backstreets, whose activities as a courtesan made her an extremely wealthy confidante of Napoleon III of France. Although I have no connection with the Brighton HARYETTs, GOWENs, ALDERTONs or to my knowledge, the French aristocracy, her rise, 'from rags to riches' so intrigued me that I was determined to investigate the accuracy of those stories.

Harriet Elizabeth Rowell (AKA Elphinstone Dick), by Roy Grant, published June 2015 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 21 no. 6, article, pp.284-286) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508876]

Six months ago, the SFHG journal included Geoff Rowell's article (Making Ends Meet) about his Brighton born ancestor George Richard ROWELL (son of a Brighton watchmaker) who emigrated to Melbourne in Australia. Geoff wondered what inspired his ancestor George to leave Brighton, and raised the issue that Australia may have been considered as a place to send a black sheep that the other members of the family wanted rid of. I suppose most of us enjoy having a black sheep somewhere in our ancestry, for we openly boast of being related to lotharios, mistresses, bigamists, thieves, embezzlers, criminals, whores, and even murderers. Whilst none of these terms seem to apply to Geoff's relative George, some research I did a while back on the MOON family of Brighton, does indicate that in the Victorian era, George's sister Harriet Elizabeth ROWELL (born 1852, not 1858) may have been thought by her family to have a less conventional approach to life. Although not a black sheep by any means, many prudish Victorians may have nevertheless thought of Harriet ROWELL as a misfit. In fact one more recent Australian article I came across (http://melbqueerhistory.tripod.com/rossdick.html) categorically identified her, under her pseudonym of Elphinstone DICK, as a lesbian. If that were to have been the case, it is quite conceivable that Harriet and her close confident (Alice MOON also of Brighton) may have been dispatched to Australia by two comfortably off, dyed-in-the-wool, Victorian fathers who felt unable to comprehend their daughters 'attachment' for each other.

Doing It the Old Way, by Roy Grant, published December 2015 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 21 no. 8, article, pp.386-389) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/509026]

I started my family history back in 1984, in those early days when computers were just glorified word processers, there was no internet and few indexed databases. All we had then were local reference libraries with street directories and a few microfiche, St Catherine's and Somerset House for birth, marriage and death certificates, and distant County Record Offices with deposited parish registers.