Investigating family history at Brighton History Centre

Exploring family history can be fascinating particularly if there are a few surprises in store.

For instance a descendent of Mary Bailey would like to find out more about her family history. Someone told her that the family ‘had something to do with sweets’ and ran a shop in a ‘posh’ street in Brighton.

Details of Mary’s marriage can be found on the websites Freebmd or Ancestry.com. She was married in 1920 and her maiden names was Drogrez.

Search the census records

Now you know her name you can search on the census records. Mary appeared on the 1891 census, living with her mother, Hephzibah and her father Emile. His occupation was given as ‘journalist and French chocolate maker’. The census also shows that the family were sufficiently well off to be able to afford a servant

Find out more in the street directories

The address in 1891 was clearly a private one so now you would look at the Brighton street directories. Emile is listed as living at ‘Harmony Villa’, 11 New England Road and an Eliza Drogrez is listed as being a ‘French confectioner’ at 11 East Street. The periodical magazine, Brighton Season, carried an advert for it in 1897 (above).

This fits with the story that the family ‘had something to do with sweets’ and ran a shop in a ‘posh’ street in Brighton.

By looking at various census returns and street directories you will eventually discover that a French couple, Elise (later changed to the English Eliza) and Edmund Drogrez came to Brighton in the 1840s and established a chocolate factory at 20 East Street. The widowed Elise remarried a dentist, James Bulgin, in 1861 and died at 11 East Street in 1879. Her death was listed in the local newspapers.

Her daughter, Elise Maria , married Emile Mercier, a travelling salesman and lived over and helped run the shop; their first son, Jules, became a photographer and the second son, Emile, worked in the shop and was also a journalist. The shop closed in about 1903. Even Emile’s son’s First World War records are available to view online.

Research facilities are available at the Brighton History Centre and there are staff on hand to guide you through the many resources that held there.