My nan always said to me when i was young that her family came from a place called Shepreth in Cambridgeshire and every week she would go with her father to get the eggs fresh from the farm. "Shepreth was beautiful" she tell my sister and i when she used to tell us stories of how her father worked on the railway there and she used to visit her nanny Shepreth. It's strange how these little stories have stayed in my mind from when i was a child till now and now that my interest is greater and deeper in my family history it's too late to ask my nan questions. So all i have is these stories and records to find information on my family past.

A few years ago i started my Barnard Family tree which i found a few connections on genes reunited who gave me so much information i was amazed how big the family were. I found my nan's father Bernard Barnard on the census's with his family living Shepreth and was amazed how many siblings he had. I then went back further and discovered his father was William Barnard who was born in Haslingfield a small village not far from Shepreth and he married a Harriet Drury daughter of Stephen and Sarah Drury who lived there. William and Harriet married in 1873 in Royston and had eight children that i am aware of. The family continued to live in Shepreth and according to the 1901 census they were living at Fowlmere Road, Shepreth.

William Disbrey Barnard was one of two children to Sarah Barnard and Linsay Disbrey he was born in Haslingfield a small and quaint little village not far from Shepreth which i have been to visit a few times and admit i have fallen in love with. I discovered that Haslingfield is where most of my Barnard relations were born and brought up and the churchyard there is to say the least filled with Barnard ancestors. All Saints Parish church is more than 650 Years old and it holds such a huge amount of history and documents of the history of the village.

Sarah Barnard (Williams mother) was one of ten children to Henry Barnard and Sarah Searle, she was the second sarah to be born in the family as the first died the year she was born. Sarah married Lindsay Disbrey 1845 in Chesterton, Cambridgeshire but their marriage was only to last about three years, as Linsay died in 1848 of 'Nephritis' which is certified on his death certificate. Nephritus is to do with the inflammation of the Kidneys it can affect one kidney or in some cases both. There are many forms of 'Nephritus' and some are more severe than others, today it can be kept under control with the likes of antibiotics and other types of treatment which were not around back then. Sarah Barnard was to re marry a grocers porter Charles Sell in 1853 and have six more children where they lived at Chessecake End in Meldreth.

One of Sarah's siblings was Joseph Barnard who is believed to have married two sisters Elizabeth Finkell on 27th December 1851 in Chesterton, Cambridgeshire and Sarah Ann Finkell. Although there is no proof of marriage to Sarah and no death certificate or evidence of divorce from Elizabeth. Joseph was one of a few people who emigrated around that time from Haslingfield on a ship called the 'Constant' to Australia with his wife Elizabeth and Finkell Barnard, their son (who was about three years old at the time), Elizabeth's mother Elizabeth Finkell and Elizabeth's older married sister Ann, her husband and child and her younger sister Sarah Ann Barnard. Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant when the ship left Liverpool, England on the 7 Nov 1854 and arrived in Portland Victoria on 22 February 1855. The baby was to die on the voyage and was named 'Constant' after the ship. The journey was to be a long one which had according to the shipping log had 191 adults on board.