Nigel Russell has contacted me with a pre
His Great Great Grandfather Isaac Gilham 1806- 1895 featured as a widower tenant of the farm in the 1881 census
Isaac’s daughter Sarah Ann married Henry Russell .She was to be the first of Henry’s two wives, one of whom was according to a family story implicated in ‘a dark secret,’ a baby in the cupboard in the 1880s. Nigel thinks the scandal hit the nationals between 1880 and 1900.
The photo is of Frank and Elizabeth Russell , son and daughter in law of Sarah Ann, and Nigel's grandparents. If anybody knows any more of the Gilhams or the baby, Nigel and I would like to hear.
As far as I know the cupboard was not in Ackholt aka Misery Farm!
OK, so I like to play with the Amityville echoes but I am a rationalist- there were a lot of premature deaths, abandoned babies in those times. Ackholt was possibly not exceptional, and afterwards, once you sink a 3000 foot mine at the bottom of a field – shit happens!
