The Scrace (Scrase) One Name Study

​About me

 

In 2003 whilst on maternity leave I commenced researching my own family tree and right from the start I was hooked. I loved not only the challenge of finding and confirming links between individuals, but also the social history element of it and adding the “flesh to the bones” so to speak! My grandmother, Florrie who I loved dearly, was born a SCRACE in 1914, which is my association with the surname. The main brickwall in my personal family history though lies in East Barming , Kent, UK. This is where my GGGGG Grandfather James SCRACE’s marriage took place.

 

James SCRACE married Mary COUNTS on 21st May 1766 at St Margaret’s Church. After his marriage he settled with his family and subsequently leased the farm that was owned by the Hubles, that had previously been hired by his father in law Thomas Counts. He was in his early life a constant attendant at Public worship, but through drinking spirits to extreme he stopped entirely! James and Mary had three children that I have located so far, all from the parish records at St Margaret’s Church: Elizabeth SCRACE who was baptised on 12th April 1767; John SCRACE who was baptised on 20 February 1768 and finally James SCRACE who was baptised on 29 March 1772.

The farm was at some point named “Scrace’s Farm” and can be seen clearly on old maps of the area as such. James was also a farrier by trade, from which he obtained some property, sadly though in 1791, only a few weeks prior to his death, after having a  new house built and moving in he died and subsequently his burial took place on 8th April.

 

From this generation forwards I know about most (not all though!) of the family descendants. I have though been unable to find out where James was born or to whom. In the hope that I would eventually find him and his parents I commenced gathering information on all Scrace’s that I found within a 10 mile radius of East Barming, using Parloc to identify parishes. Several descendants with whom I have made contact believe that he may have come from Sedlescombe, but I to date personally cannot find any evidence to corroborate this. My search has now expanded and so the SCRACE One Name Study was born!

 

The email address for this study is Scrace.ONS(at symbol)gmail.com