The Booth Family

I received a little information about my great great great grandmother's family from my great grandfather. She was Sarah Booth, and I own letters that she wrote over two hundred years ago to her husband when he was serving in the Cheshire yeomanry, and to her children, especially her sons John and Henry when they were on Tortola or in America. I still have a lock of her hair from when she was a young woman. Many documents concerning the Booth family and the letters are here.

I attempted to find out more about my Booth ancestors but it proved difficult, because of intermarriage between cousins, the repetition of forenames, and the frequency of remarriage. In addition, few of this numerous family seem to have moved far from Alcumlow and Astbury, near to Congleton in Cheshire.

I was fortunate though to make contact with Professor Andrew Booth about twenty years ago, the doyen of Booth family studies and, of course, a distant relation. He was generous in sharing information about the Booth family, and I had the pleasure of meeting Andrew and his wife when I was attending a conference on museum education in York and they came over from their Harrogate home to be my guests for lunch in York, which was my way of thanking him for his generosity.

Recently, as part of my big sort out of papers as I make the best use of the limited time still available to me, I was delighted to come across the ten pages of Booth family trees that he kindly gave me. I tried to contact him to ask his permission to use his material in my sharing of information about my maternal family histories, but was very saddened to discover that Professor Booth died last year. I was able to speak to his wife Christine and thank her for his work and scholarship, and his generosity of spirit.

I have copied his genealogical charts here and am sharing them, as I have been unable to discover any of Professor Booth's work on the Booth family available anywhere on the internet. he was an excellent scholar and detailed and accurate researcher.