This photograph was taken in the front garden of 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon

Standing: Mrs Elizabeth Taylor (C), ? , Mrs Caroline Hood (C), Arthur C, John C, Fred Taylor  >>

                                      2P28                     ?                2P29                    2P33        1P61         2P28

>> Bertram C, Duke Bizley, Ernest C, Maurice C, Percy C, Fred Hood, Mervyn C, Mrs Maurice C

     1P63             2P32             1P64        2P34        2P35         2P29          2P36             2P34

Seated:   Mrs Nell Bizley (C), Mrs Ernest Collett, Groom & Bride, Lily Collett, Mabel Collett, Caroline Ruth Collett

                  2P32                                1P64         2P30 & 1P60          1P59          1P67               2O26

Children: George Taylor, Ella Bizley, Fred Taylor junior

On 13^th March 1909 a young man by the name of Harry James Collett (Ref. 2P30) pictured above was married at Saint Mark’s Church in New Town Swindon.  His bride was Alice Louisa Collett (Ref. 1P60).  Harry, who was thirty years of age, had been born in Swindon and Alice, who was approaching her twenty-eighth birthday, had been born in the neighbouring county of Gloucestershire.

History will reveal that this was not the first time a Collett had been joined in matrimony to another of the same name.  Those listed in this collection from earlier times were often cousins, the families being well known to each other.

However, on this occasion there appears to be no connection between the two families and perhaps it was viewed as a pure coincidence by the separate families at that time.

Could this really be the case?  Could it just be a coincidence?  Or did the families know of each other before hand?  Unfortunately the initial research into the family history only began after the death of Alice Louisa and therefore the opportunity of asking her, how and where she met Harry, is lost forever.  Perhaps through the research all would eventually be revealed.

This, therefore, has been the objective of the exercise.  It was a very single-minded attempt to determine that both Harry and Alice had origins in the same family somewhere back in time, which has now been proved but many generations earlier.  Details of both can be found under reference 1P60 in Part One, with Harry featuring in Part Two – The Second Gloucestershire Line (Ref. 2P30).

Obviously, such an undertaking could not hope to succeed without help and advice from other family history researchers, and a big vote of thanks must go to all those involved.

~~~~~~~~~~~

As many generations of my family before me worked for the Great Western Railway it seems only right that each section of my family history should carry the reference to Line.  Each part of the work has been referenced in this way.

Part One – The Gloucestershire Main Line is one of the longest of the family line commencing in the Gloucestershire village of Over Slaughter at the end of the fifteenth century to my own family in the early part of the twenty-first century.

It commences with William Collett (Ref. 1C1) who was born in 1454.  It is thought that he was the first of his name to be born in the county and it is believed that his family was connected in some way to Part 18 – The Suffolk Line and the Colletts of London and or Wendover in Buckinghamshire.