Hopefully you will have read the Robinson introduction from which you will understand how I got into the researching. I must admit that it was not until I had come to a very "full stop" on that side that I began to turn my attention to this side.

There are no stories or hearsay to relate or work on from the past only the sad one of my Grandmother who was killed in a car crash when my mum was 6 years old. I am told it was in the local papers of the time but I could not find it on my one visit to the National newspaper archives.

The Broker name is very uncommon. Go to any telephone book and you are lucky to find one. So it was with surprise that having obtained a CD copy of the 1881 census and having put in my Great Grandfathers name, Alfred, that in the village and area he lived, Sutton Cambs, there were about 30. In the whole country there were only 180! In that area today the telephone book gives 6 or 7 Brokers all of which I would guess are related but dwindling in numbers.

I did write to them all and I had a follow up from a couple, one who’s Aunt I had written to had just died and had had no children so no more on that line. David Broker was another who replied and he has children so there is ongoing line and he has done more research than me. He has contacted people in Canada and Australia that are related.

The 30 in Sutton in 1881 all seem to relate back to a Josiah Broker who between 1829 & 39 had at least 6 sons all who went on to marry and have children and who were in the village at the time of the census. His father was a John Broker born in the 1770’s and moved into the area about 1820 on a farming basis. The whole family was connected to farming on what I would term a higher level in that they are described as "farmer of 120 acres" rather than agricultural workers. However, whether because of having too many children to split the farms into or they were really poor tenant farmers, no real wealth seams to have been passed down.

My Great Grandfather, Alfred, his parents, brothers and sisters all moved to Yorkshire in the late 1880’s. For what reason I do not know, I can only guess to go that far, when I cannot trace a link to the area, was for factory work which they then did.

The most interesting connection I find is the marriage of my Mum & Dad because my Dad’s Great Grandmother, Edith Robinson nee Watson came from Islesham Cambs just a few miles from where my Mums Great Grandmother & father Mary Ann Broker nee Long & Josiah came from. Both families left the area, went in totally different directions, only for Mum & Dad to bring the families together 100 years later.