Lamberts of Panfield... or Canfield?

I was looking for some of my Lambert ancestors, and I came across this post on RootsChat.com.  I do believe that this is my Steele Lambert.  What's interesting is that the exchange later talks about the Lamberts living at Canfield in Essex... whereas I have been told that the family lived at Panfield (specifically, they farmed the land around Panfield Hall).  The two places don't seem to be that far apart, but it still makes me wonder: which one is right?

Steele Lambert was the son of Jeffery and Martha.  Nobody in the RootsChat thread seemed to know the maiden name of Martha, though I have it in my records as Steele (which makes sense).  I haven't been able to find any birth/baptism records for a Martha Steele in that area, though.

I don't have an account on RootsChat, so I can't contribute to the conversation at the moment.  But if anyone researching the Lambert family (or the connected Willsher family) in this area of Essex has any more information, please feel free to leave a comment.

Family secrets...

I've been having a great time perusing the scans of documents that have recently been put up on FamilySearch.org.  Out of curiosity, I looked up one of my ancestors.  According to stories I heard from the family, he'd died of the flu in 1919 (I'd always assumed he was caught up in the major pandemic).  But I could never figure out why his place of death was nowhere near where he and his family lived.  I think I've found the answer.

He didn't die of influenza.  He died of "exhaustion of acute mania" in an insane asylum, after being there for just over two weeks.  I suppose mental illness was one of those things that wasn't talked about back at that time.  I have my doubts as to whether anyone other than his wife even knew the truth; perhaps it was just easier for her to tell her children that their father had gotten ill with the flu and died.

It's a good illustration of why we need to be skeptical about stories that are passed down orally.  There are plenty of things that people might want to hide.  Unfortunately, unless we can find written records to determine what's actually true, these stories will keep getting passed along as the truth.

Horne family in... New Zealand?

I was recently contacted by another researcher about someone in my tree by the name of John Lewis Horne.  According to the information I had, John was born in 1845 in Edinburgh to James Wilson Horne and Sophia Lewis.  I'd found records in New Zealand for a John Lewis Horne on FamilySearch.org... but I was never sure if it was the same person or just a coincidence.  But now, it looks like this John Lewis Horne is actually one of my Hornes: my great-great-grandfather's first cousin.

John married a woman named Elizabeth Margaret Lodge, and he was her second husband.  Elizabeth seems to have been quite an interesting character.  You can read about some of her trials and exploits on FamilySleuth's blog.

John and Elizabeth had one son, also named John Lewis Horne.  I knew that a number of my Hornes had spread out from Scotland, but this is the first time I've been able to trace any of them to New Zealand.  I wonder how many distant cousins I've got there that I'm not even aware of...