My regular readers will know that my 4x great grandma Charlotte Phillips and her husband Samuel Trewartha are two of my fav ancestors, and I’ve written about them from time to time.

Born in the 1820s, they grew up in Cornwall, England and in the English 1861 census Samuel Trewartha’s occupation was given as Copper Miner, while Charlotte’s was Confectioner. This is followed by an entry in the 1866 Directory for Redruth (England) where Samuel is listed as a Sugar Boiler, so obviously they were making candy to supplement his income from mining.

It was in 1867 that they made the lifechanging decision to move from England to the United States, ending up in Rockaway and Dover, Morris County, New Jersey, and they opened a candy store there … which from what I can tell was a wonderful store, with an incredible reputation and ran for at least several generations, with her son John and his wife Minnie running it in her later year, and I believe some granddaughters did after that, with Black Rock Candy being their signature treat.

While I know a fair bit about Charlotte’s life from records, one thing I didn’t have is any photos of Samuel,  Charlotte, the candy store. That is, at least until cousin bait worked, and some distant relatives saw my previous posts, and have sent me some photos, and have kindly allowed me to share them with you here.

So I must say a HUGE, HUGE thank you to Glenn Rush who sent me the photos below, and has allowed me to share them with you. And also to Eric Bullfinch who has sent me a map showing the exact location of the store in Sussex Street, Dover.

Mrs S. Trewartha’s Confectionery Store in Dover, New Jersey, late c.1800s
as for who is in the photo – possibly Zella (far left) and Minnie (far right) and possibly Charlotte (second from left)

a 1970s candy box of Trewartha’s Black Rock Candy, complete with biography of Samuel Trewartha “Candy Sam”

Charlotte and Samuel’s son, John Trewartha’s memorial card

obituary for Minnie Trewartha with photos of her and John

obituary for Minnie Trewartha

Zella May Trewartha, at age 20

1899 Robinson Map of Dover, Morris County, New Jersey – showing Sussex Street with Mrs Trewatha’s shop circled

So now I’m hoping that with help from my new family contacts, I’ll be able to construct a tree of the US side of the family, which of course are half-siblings to my George Phillips who emigrated to Australia.

To view my earlier related posts, you can find them here:
Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: N is for … Never-Ending New Stuff and New Jersey
Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: P is for … Charlotte PHILLIPS
Christmas Time at the Candy Store

After thinking about what to do for the letter X for weeks, I still hadn’t come up with anything. So the fact that this post has even happened is a tribute to Wendy who commented on the Gould Genealogy Facebook page for the Family History Through the Alphabet, the letter X, and gave me the idea for this post.

X is for … Signatures

Actually technically this post is about the lack of signature, as in those that were illiterate and used X for a signature (ie. X is the mark of _________ ) was the actual wording that was used on certificates.

Continuing to work our way through the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, and we’ve made it to the letter P, and as intended right from near the beginning, I want to tell you about one of my favourite ancestors … Charlotte Phillips.

P is for Charlotte Phillips

Phillips is my maiden name, so naturally I have an interest in knowing just where I came from.

As has happened numerous times throughout the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge, I’ve changed my mind of what to write about after already starting this post.

So for this N post I’d like to say that

N is for NEVER-ENDING NEW STUFF

We all know that the internet is an absolute wealth of information with new websites and new records being added online daily. Seriously the rate of growth is overwhelming. So how do we keep up with what new online that interests us? And by that I’m meaning anything genealogy or genealogy-related, but you knew that didn’t you … just checking!!

Well there are several ways, so let me share those with you …