I knew that my great great grandfather was called Thomas Bennett, and that he was a jeweller in Dublin. I even have a ring that he made which was passed down to me. However, that was the extent of my knowledge.
Thomas’ son, my great grandfather William Lomas Bennett, was also a jeweller, diamond merchant and goldsmith. He moved to London in 1859, and in 1861 married Charlotte Brock, who grew up in Bishopsgate, Middlesex. They lived in Dublin for a time, but then settled in London. They had five children including my grandfather Arthur, born in New Bond Street in 1869.
My mother Joan was very close to Arthur, and her Bennett family was my priority when I began researching in 2003. Frustratingly, it was hard to trace them back to Dublin, because of the absence of birth, marriage and death records.
The first major clue that I found was a probate record for Thomas Bennett who died in Dublin in 1857. The record gave his address as 75 Grafton Street, which was and remains one of Dublin’s premier shopping streets, and his date of death which was 31 October. Thomas was a widower and his children had been placed under the guardianship of Charles Bennett of Dublin.
I found many advertisements for Thomas’ jewellery business in old Irish newspapers. Clearly, it was a prestigious venture.
Another major breakthrough came when I discovered a notice for the sale of lease and stock belonging to Thomas Bennett. This was listed in the Irish Times published on 3 July 1861, and confirmed that he ran a business at 75 Grafton Street. The stock included jewellery, tea and coffee sets, watches and chains.
Eureka! The article and the address of the shop together proved that I had found the correct Thomas Bennett.
I also discovered an article in the Freeman’s Journal of 1859 that named Thomas’ heirs – his six children Emily (and her husband Andrew Nolan), Thomas junior, William Lomas, Henry, Alfred and Bernard.
Last year, I decided to search a map of Dublin hoping to find the most likely burial ground for Thomas. I contacted Mount Jerome, a large cemetery in south Dublin, and for a small fee an administrator searched and sent me several burial records and a photograph of the family grave.
The records gave the death dates for Thomas, who died of brain fever in 1857. His wife Anne Hawkes died aged 35 in 1854 of dropsy – an old-fashioned term for oedema, or swelling under the skin caused by fluid retention. Tragically, their daughter Clara died of consumption when she was 12, and their son Alfred Fairfax Bennett of disease of the spine when he was 20.
My great grandfather William Lomas came to England in around 1860, and established his thriving jewellery business on New Bond Street. Some of his siblings remained in Dublin, but others joined him in London.
I was intrigued to see that Emily Bennett and Andrew Nolan emigrated to Gothenburg in Sweden with their children. I discovered this because the couple died there in the 1870s and their records were available on Ancestry.
I continued to research old Dublin newspapers and sadly found a death notice for another of Thomas and Anne’s sons, George Bennett. He passed away aged 14 in 1853 at Poulton cum Seacombe, on the Wirral.
George was attending boarding school there when he died of heart disease. I wanted to be sure that I had the right relative, so I ordered the death certificate from the General Register Office, which confirmed that his father was Thomas Bennett, jeweller.
Although this is a rather sad story of early deaths, I can now construct my Bennett family tree. By placing my mother’s relatives on my online tree, I hope to ensure that they will be there for posterity and for future generations to feel proud of.
