My Family History

In my previous post , I traced the history of the Swift family, one of the roots of my family tree, up until the middle of the nineteenth-century. It was a family that had established itself through  the butcher's trade  on the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent.  I found out how, despite him nearly being made bankrupt,  the trade was being successfully maintained in the village of Eastchurch by Thomas Crayden Swift, my 3rd great- grandfather. At  the same time, he was also growing a family that eventually totalled fifteen children, through three successive marriages.   In this post I trace the second half of Thomas' long life, highlight some stories from the lives of his eight sons, and show how many of them took on his butcher's trade in their working lives (leaving the seven daughters for a separate post - largely to keep the story a little shorter!)   Thomas Crayden and Edward Crayden Swift's grave - and a mystery additional name on the gravestone Plotting the lives of father