On 9th July 1792 Edward Henecar married Ann Russel at Little Chart, Kent, England. Source:Married in church, by Banns – Marriage Register photocopy (Little Chart Parish). The Mid-Kent Marriages Index 1754-1911 from the Woodchurch Ancestry Group provide the following information which shows that Edward’s name was spelt HENECAR. This is probably a misspelling, as people often could not read or write therefore the person recording the information spelt the name as it sounded to them. Earlier records relating to Kent, mention the Heneker name on numerous occasions. Heneker was a well known name in the county, and included nobility by that name. It is often spelt either Henniker, Hennicker and Heneker.
| Year |
Day/Month |
Name |
Spouse |
Parish |
District |
Note |
| 1782 |
09 July |
HENECAR Edward |
Ann Russell |
Little Chart |
West Ashford |
|
Note the spelling on the Marriage record where the surname of Ann looks like Rufel, however it is actually an ‘f’ and and ‘s’ which is how ‘s’ was written and ‘ss’ was written as ‘fs’ it was used for words with the sound of a long ‘s’ e.g mageftic (for majestic) which sounds like a long ‘s’ or mefs (mess) which also has the sound of a long ‘s’. This way of writing died out well before the 19th century. Hence Rufel or Rufsel is actually Russel.
The Church where Edward and Ann married was originally built in the 11th century by the Normans and expanded over time. In 1944 it was bombed by a “doodlebug” which had been intended to hit somewhere in London. Only parts of the tower were left and the chancel wall. It has since been rebuilt. In 1792 when Edward and Ann married it would have been a beautiful church with the wild woods next to it.
After the 1944 bombing this is part of the ruins of the Little Chart Church
The church in it’s full glory
I previously worked as a Library Technician at the State Library of South Australia and then Noarlunga Library Services. I was lucky enough to work at the State Library in the Archives department, which is now a separate entity and housed at a suburban site. I've always loved English and Australian history, and began my Heneker family history in about 1980, before the advent of the internet, and now o with so many digitised records online there is a treasure chest of information out there, and it just keeps growing. One of the most wonderful treasures we have here in Australia is the Trove website, the free digitised newspapers of nearly every place in Australia, provided for free by the National Library of Australia. This has opened up so much day to day information for people searching for further information about their ancestors. I chose to write a blog as a way for me to put down a lot of information I had that wasn't necessarily easy to slot into a "family tree" as such. And I wanted to record some of the stories of the Heneker clan, and especially James Heneker (1826-1917) who arrived in South Australia as a 12 year old boy with his family. Like most of us in the genealogy community I have become obsessed and this is a never ending story. The community of bloggers, and also Facebook specialist pages has allowed me and many of us to learn from each other, and to use some of the many amazing tools that are out there now for us to use and enhance our research. My one wish?? dad Neville Laurence Heneker 1929 - 1987, this is for you, for all the things you told me, and the stories you related, often when we were up north in the Flinders Ranges, at Beltana, Hawker, Blinman and many other amazing places. I wish you were here, so I could share all this new information that has come to light. And of course for you Pa (Laurence Douglas Heneker), your stories were incredible and watching you sleep out under the stars at Arkaroola with a rock for your pillow is an image I will never forget. Oh if only we had digital cameras back then...I think of you both every time I write my words and read my books. I love you both.
Heneker - a Pioneering family from Kent to South Australia 