In April we were pleased to welcome Alan Johnson to talk to us about the TRUMAN family.
Before the railways the main travellers around the country were the drovers who travelled from all over the UK to London, Smithfield with their livestock. Jonathan TRUMAN b. 24 September 1748 was one such drover. Alan’s family still have in their possession a dog collar bearing the legend ‘Jonathan Truman 1788’. Store cattle were grazed along the way and it is likely that the dog collar was left with landlords as surety for payment for board and lodgings, also to identify the dog as some dogs made their own way back home from Smithfield Market.
We followed the Trumans in the Fens, and to Australia and the USA with their horses. Alan did say that even with the extensive Truman family in the United States, there is (unfortunately) no family link to Harry S. Truman!