tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34225832929515028672024-03-19T04:12:14.978+00:00Probably ArborealMusings from under the family treeProbably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.comBlogger117125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-34049622515965774542013-03-18T14:04:00.000+00:002013-03-18T14:04:57.161+00:00A sinister discovery<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This weekend I finally found myself with a bit of free time, mainly because my poor boyfriend had taken himself off to bed ill and hence he couldn’t force me to DIY. So, I turned to my family history for the first time in a while to do some proper digging.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I decided that I would focus my efforts on the family of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Doris Ross</b>, who was my grandfather <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Horace James Hancock</b>’s first wife, before he married my mum’s mother <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Margaret Goulding</b>. She’s not at all a direct ancestor of mine, but she died young, I’m not entirely sure how, and the couple didn’t have any children, so although I felt a little bit like I was intruding on someone else’s family, I knew that no direct line descendants would be researching her at least, and I’ve always been a little bit intrigued by her. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For one thing, Horace was born in Wales, and was supposedly a fireman in Brighton during the Second World War – however, his marriage to Doris took place in 1941, in Wakefield and it has never been clear how he came to be here. I had wondered if he only moved here after he met Doris, if she was local. As it turns out she was. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In fact she was incredibly easy to track down. Firstly, I was able to find her probate record, and thus confirm the death I had for her, in 1954, was correct. She was aged just 42, giving a birth date of 1912. This was a little frustrating, as it meant she wouldn’t appear on the 1911 census, but I was able to find a birth record for her, which gave her mother’s maiden name as Gillings. From this I was easily able to track down a Gillings–Ross marriage: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Elizabeth Gillings</b> married <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Claude Atkin Ross</b> in 1908. And with a name like Claude Atkin Ross to follow the rest was a breeze. Finding his probate record, with Doris Hancock named as the executor neatly tied up the parcel, so I knew I had the right family.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I won’t bore you with all the minute details of the family tree. In brief, the family seems to be mainly upper working class and one branch originates in the tiny village of Lambley, north-east of Nottinghamshire, with other branches rooted more strongly in Wakefield and the surrounding areas. However, there were a couple of intriguing snippets:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First up, there’s the religion issue. The Ross line in particular seems to be somewhat undecided as to whether it is C of E or Wesleyan – in places, one sibling is baptised Wesleyan, and then the next C of E, which variation I struggle to understand. Claude Atkin Ross himself is baptised Wesleyan in 1909, a year after his marriage to Elizabeth. I can’t find any register at all of Doris’ baptism, but many of her siblings had Wesleyan baptism. I’d liek to find out more about why this might have happened.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Far more sinister though, is the family murder! The victim was Claude Atkin Ross’s aunt <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Emma Eliza Sheard, formerly Perkin, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">née</i> Land</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– sister of his mother, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nancy Hagar Land</b>. I was first alerted to the murder when I discovered her probate record, which read as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sheard, Emma Eliza of 4 Chevet-terrace Walton, Wakefield, widow who was last seen alive in or about July 1941 and whose dead body was found on 17 December 1948 at the Sharlston West Colliery Walton. Administration Wakefield 18 February to Harry Bramley Norman clerk. Effects £654 7s 8d.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, this immediately piqued my interest, and I Googled her to see if I could find out more:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of Walton's dark deeds happened at Chevet Terrace back in the first half of the twentieth century. Winifred Mary Hallaghan of Chevet Terrace was arrested in 1949 charged with with the manslaughter of her great aunt, Emma Eliza Sheard. When the Second World War started, Winifred invited her widowed great aunt to stay with her and her husband at Chevet Terrace. It seems that Winifred thought that the old lady might be nervous on her own. However, things did not go smoothly and Mrs Sheard, it seems, was not an easy woman to live with. In 1941 there was a quarrel between Winifred's husband, Don, and Mrs. Sheard over an electric light bulb. The quarrel ended with Don Hallaghan telling the awkward aunt that she had to go. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mrs Sheard did not go at this point, for there followed a further exchange of bad-tempered words, this time with Winifred. Mrs Sheard said that Don should be the one to go as he had been having a bit on the side with the woman next door. Although Winifred did not believe her great aunt, she was sufficiently angered to strike her. The old woman fell backwards, hitting her head on a sewing machine. Winifred left her great aunt lying on the floor. Later, when she returned, she found her still lying there, at which point, she dragged her great aunt to bed. It seemed likely that Mrs Sheard was already dead. On her way to tell her husband about the incident, it seems that Winifred noticed children playing around a capped pit shaft not far from her home. And so it was that Mrs Sheard up at the bottom of the shaft, toppled there by her great niece Winifred.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Later, Winifred sold a cottage that her great aunt owned in Neville Street, Belle Vue - by forging her signature - all the while Mrs Sheard's remains lay at the bottom of the shaft. It seems that she did tell her husband and her brother about the incident in 1946, but they kept 'mum', so to speak. It was in 1948, that the corpse was discovered by a colliery electrician. At Leeds in 1949, Winifred was sentenced to five years in prison for forgery and three years for manslaughter.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">(from </span><a href="http://www.jss.org.uk/north/north.html"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.jss.org.uk/north/north.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I haven’t yet identified <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Winifred Mary Hallaghan</b> – who would be a cousin or second cousin of Doris Ross. However, I can confirm that this is definitely the same family, as I have identified H<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">arry Bramley Norman</b>, executor of Emma Eliza Sheard’s will, as the son of Emma Eliza’s older sister <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Fanny Norman <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">née</i> Land</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I wonder whether Doris, who married Horace at around the same time as her great aunt disappeared, knew about it – after all, this could have been a quite distant branch of the family, or a very close one. Her father, Emma Eliza’s nephew, was still alive, but his mother had died in 1934, so he may not have had much contact with her family. If they were close, I wonder how they felt about this tragedy?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-88416173778849197502013-03-11T13:05:00.002+00:002013-03-11T13:05:09.137+00:00Reaping what you sow<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After a February dominated by family history writing but very little blogging, I’m back with a vengeance for (what’s left of) March!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Back in December I wrote a post called <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://probablyarboreal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-tale-of-two-discrepancies.html" target="_blank">A tale of two discrepancies</a> </b>about how I’d handled errors that I had noticed in other people’s trees on Ancestry. In my final paragraph, I said:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> I know I would certainly appreciate a gentle correction on anything I’ve got wrong in my tree...<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, this weekend, I received one such gentle correction, and it was indeed very much appreciated!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Ancestry member in question sent me a message guiding me to a parish marriage record that I hadn’t yet found – on a very useful website, forest-of-dean.net, which I can hardly wait to explore further <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– for my direct ancestors Charles Hancocks and Comfort Green. This record contained a priceless nugget that would appear to thoroughly disprove one of my long-held family history theories, as outlined in my post <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://probablyarboreal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/h-is-for-hancocksx.html" target="_blank">H is for Hancock(s)/(x)</a></b>, and re-posted here:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Charles Hancocks was born in 1839, in Longhope, Gloucestershire. On the 1841 census he appears in the household of Thomas Hancox [sic] and his wife Ann, along with seven other children: Mary (b. 1822), Charlotte (b. 1827), James (b. 1829), Susan (b. 1831), Caroline (b. 1833), Sarah (b. 1835) and John (b. 1836). Ann is aged about fifty so it immediately struck me as unlikely that she is Charles’ mother. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is borne out by the 1851 census, which seems to confirm that Mary Hancox is the mother of Charles; he is ostensibly listed as son of the head of household, but an ink marking linking him to Mary in the row above seems to indicate that he is her son. She is listed as unmarried and the daughter of Thomas and Ann, so presumably Charles is illegitimate. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, the marriage of Charles and Comfort gives Thomas and Ann as Charles’ parents. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My helpful contact also adds that there is an 1839 baptism for Charles, which was originally under the name of George Hancocks but has subsequently been corrected to Charles. It also confirms that Thomas and Ann are his parents. I’m still surprised that Ann gave birth at such an age (she was forty-eight in 1839, if the census is to be believed), but happy to concede that it is possible. Certainly, it seems most unlikely that Thomas and Ann would lie and baptise a child as their own if he was in fact their daughter’s illegitimate son. It’s definitely not something I’ve ever heard of happening.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Obviously I want to check out all of these new records for myself so that I’m satisfied that my theory is disproven – but I’ll be overjoyed if it is, as it means I can continue to follow my mum’s paternal line to wherever it may lead me....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-20635652976168571282013-02-12T13:07:00.001+00:002013-02-12T13:07:33.960+00:00Releasing my inner writer<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I love words. I am an editor after all. However, I had never really thought of myself as much of a writer, until I started this blog. As it turns out, I have found writing so rewarding, and hopefully I’m not too bad at it! It’s also useful for organising my thoughts and helping me work out where to go next in my research. I also mentioned in my Spring Clean post that I was planning to write a sort of narrative for each ancestor, and I do still intend to do this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, this month I have taken up the Family History Writing Challenge, run by Lynn Palermo of the Armchair Genealogist blog. It’s basically designed to motivate you to write your family history, in whatever form you choose. You basically commit to writing a certain number of words every day throughout February, and by the end of it you should have at least made a significant start on whatever you’re aiming to achieve.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have committed to writing 500 words a day. I’m writing from a very personal perspective, so that I can both document my ancestor’s lives and my research journey at the same time, in much the same way as I do in this blog – indeed, I’m using many of my blog posts to supplement my new writing as I go. I was quite late in joining in the challenge and I didn’t really have any time to plan. So, I just dived in and started what Lynn describes as ‘writing ugly’ – i.e. not worrying too much about making my writing pretty, just dumping my ideas on the page. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I started by focusing on my home town, exploring my own memories of it and its role in my family’s history. I then moved on to examine how the various branches of the family moved to the area, as far back as my great grandparents, which is allowing me to tell some of the stories behind my immediate ancestors i.e. my grandparents and their families. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s day 12 today, I’m progressing well, and am currently about 1,000 words ahead of my target, mostly because I can’t bring myself to stop mid-story so I keep finishing a bit and finding I’ve gone a little bit over my intended limit for the day – but, hey, it’s all progress!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The difficulty is that I’m not sure how I’m going to get beyond this first section. On the one hand I’d like it all to flow smoothly from one section to the next, and I can always find a link at the end of a chapter to take me on to talk about something else in my family history, but I’m concerned about it becoming impossible for anyone reading it to follow the thread as I jump around the family, so I probably need to think more about the organisation of my material. However, I think I’ll just stick with brain-dumping for now; I can always worry about how to fit it all together later.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I hope to keep the blog updated with my progress and also possibly share a few excerpts, as soon as I write something I haven’t talked about on here before! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I do have a mini research project going on at the moment as a favour for someone, which is yielding some fascinating results, but as it’s not my research I’m not really in a position to share it. However, I will say that it has introduced me to the interesting resource of the Commonwealth War Graves, which I’ve never had recourse to before. They are incredibly useful and well-documented, so I’m most impressed. I’m almost a bit disappointed that I don’t know of any close military ancestors to track down using them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, if anyone has any clue where I can get hold of Maltese BMD/parish records without actually going to Malta it would be a huge help! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-48259059388110117472013-01-16T10:45:00.000+00:002013-01-16T10:45:17.824+00:00Another weapon for your arsenal<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, here’s the background: I was trying to help solve a small mystery posted on a LinkedIn group. I spent some time scrolling through the 1851 census on Ancestry at the weekend, but yesterday I started Googling for other options to see if perhaps we were dealing with an Ancestry mistranscription that was correct elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was specifically looking for census transcriptions for the areas they were living in, to see if we could check out their last known addresses and future know addresses – it’s notoriously hard to work by address on Ancestry, as it takes ages to find the right page. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, what I found was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.ukcensusonline.co.uk/">www.ukcensusonline.co.uk</a></b>, which popped up in the advertisements at the top of Google’s search. I thought I’d try it, since it claimed free access. It doesn’t do what I wanted to, but it is really very helpful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The great thing about this census website is that you initially just pick a census year and search on a name. What you get is a basic, easy-to-read list including the following: forename, surname, age, occupation, county, estimated year of birth and place of birth. You can then ‘select a record set’, which basically allows you to filter by county. The numbers of the name in each county are given in brackets alongside. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know it sounds fairly standard, but in fact it’s brilliant as an ‘at-a-glance’ tool. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On Ancestry you have to hover over each search result to get the crucial details, and often you can’t find the occupation without going into the image itself. Here it’s given to you up-front, which it makes it so much easier to locate the right person when we’re dealing with common names. In this respect it definitely trumps Ancestry. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">UK census online also ‘wildcards’ the search (unless you ask it not to), as does Ancestry. But because their basic search doesn’t include any other criteria, what you get is a comprehensive list of possibilities with all their basic data there at a glance. And because it isn’t attempting to then organise your results by relevance, you’re not likely to miss anyone out. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I often find myself frustrated by Ancestry’s search, because if you put in multiple details, for example place and date of birth, it may bring up people born around the right time in the wrong place as more likely matches than someone who is born in exactly the right place but their birth date is out by a few years, or vice versa. Using UK census online’s basic search you get a simple list of possibilities, and it’s left to your brain as opposed to the computer to identify the right one. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The option to easily filter by county makes it easier to whittle down your options and perhaps check multiple locations without having to restart your search. It would also be a useful tool for finding out where specific surnames were most common at any given time, for example, so as to give you an idea where to conduct your search if you were completely clueless about location. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, you could just search by name on Ancestry as well, but then the results aren’t so easy to scroll through, so you wouldn’t necessarily make your life any easier. One of the key strengths of this website is the very clear column-style layout of the list you get, which you can just run your eye down.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The limitations of this site are, firstly that you have to subscribe in order to be able to access the record from this search and to be able to conduct a more detailed search. As I haven’t subscribed (as yet – I’ll see how useful I find it), I can’t tell you how well the detailed search function works or what the standard of the images is. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, without being able to click into the record, it’s harder to spot possibly mistranscribed people – for example if you had struggled to find someone on ancestry, but here you thought you had spotted them by their occupation but their age was wrong, you wouldn’t easily be able to check the original image. You would have to go and search for them on Ancestry or wherever and hope that they had the same error. And if it’s a transcription error you’re trying to confirm, you can’t be sure that you’re going to find them, because they may not have made the same one. Hopefully you’d have enough info from the record to search by, but what if other errors have been made? I suppose that if this particular situation arose I’d end up subscribing just to get the access I wanted, but it’s not really ideal financially. I’d prefer the credits option, like you used to get on the old 1911 census.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The other issue is identifying family members; again, you need record access to do this – though the same can generally be said of any website you’re not subscribing to, of course. With the original 1911 census, if I knew of household members I was expecting to find, but didn’t want to pay for the record, I would just search for them and see if there were matching possibilities in the same location as my original – easy enough if you’re looking for unusual names, but perhaps tricky otherwise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can tell you, however, that finding the answer to the above mystery (sadly a ‘no’, the person we were searching for doesn’t seem to be there) took me about ten minutes of scrolling through the results list, compared to an hour or so of flicking through the possibilities using various different combinations of search criteria on Ancestry – talk about a timesaver!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This site will be my go-to at-a-glance census searcher in future; I urge you to check it out and see if it can help you out too!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x</span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-75700005230904278532013-01-13T15:03:00.000+00:002013-01-13T15:03:00.526+00:00Another Hall marriage found?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As my descendancy progresses, I’ve come back around to my own line, the Halls. Because the name is so common, sorting out the marriages and children of the siblings of my 2 x great-grandmother <strong>Mabel Hall</strong> is proving tricky.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first one I found, a long time ago, was <strong>Mona Hall’s</strong> marriage to <strong>Stanley Arthur May</strong>, and the births of their two children, the unusually named <strong>Monica Urania May</strong> and <strong>Stanley Errol May</strong>. I got lucky with this one, because family friend Brenda, who provided me with most of my starter info for this line, was able to remember Mona’s married name, and knew of her son, whom Brenda believed to be called Errol. Armed with this info, it didn’t take me long to unravel the May mystery – though it wasn’t helped by Mona having decided to sometimes go by the name Edith, her middle name!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After that I stalled slightly, until I found actress <strong>Amy Hall</strong> on the 1911 census, which informed me that she was married, despite the fact that she was still using her maiden name (probably because this is the name she performed under). With nothing else to go on, I’m still no closer to tracking this one down, but at least I know that there is something to be tracked down, which is a start! I also know from the 1911 census that the final sister, <strong>Marion Hall</strong>, was unmarried in 1911. There is a possible late marriage for her, but this is still speculative until I order the certificate, so I won’t go into it here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The last, and only male, sibling, <strong>Henry V Hall</strong> is something of a mystery. The V is presumed to stand for <strong>Victor</strong>, as it is this name that he uses on the obituary message that he, Amy and Marion write for their father in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stage</i> in 1922. The only other leads I have also came from Brenda. When I was initially gathering info on this side of the family, she told me that my great-grandmother Victorine had a cousin, <strong>Matt Hall</strong>, who, she believed, lived in or around Bristol. However, it’s only today that I’ve made a breakthrough using this information. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First I searched on freebmd for all the births of a Matthew Hall between 1905 and 1925 – the choice of dates was fairly arbitrary but seemed a realistic starting point. Then I opened a separate tab and search for all the marriages of a Henry V Hall between these same dates. Unfortunately this only produced one marriage, of a Henry Voss Hall. So, I started again, just with Henry. Then I began cross-referencing the spouse’s and mother’s name looking for anything that remotely paired up. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There were a couple of names that cropped up across both sets of data, but these were fairly common names and the places and dates didn’t particularly match up with one another. Nor did they strike a chord with what I know about this branch of my family. Many of the Halls seemed to be born around the North East, which wasn’t a particularly strong location for my family, although <strong>Matthew Hall senior</strong>, Mabel’s father, lived there for a time from his childhood, and presumably some of his siblings would have settled there, particularly those from his father’s second marriage to a local woman, <strong>Mary Ann Wimbles</strong>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I hadn’t completely discounted it though, because Henry Victor Hall is in fact staying in the area at the time of the 1901 census – I assumed it was because he was travelling as a performer, but I suppose it’s possible that he could have been more rooted in the area. In fact, it occurs to me as I write this that he might even be staying with a relative of his father’s... <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d never thought of that before, I must investigate further. You see, this is what I mean about how blogging helps me think more clearly!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyhow, without anything particularly strong to go on, I decided that the next thing to do was to check the 1911 census for Matthew Halls with a father named Henry, on the assumption that it must be one of the earlier marriages and births for which the spouse and mother’s surnames aren’t given. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, I was then struck by another thought – that I should check for marriages of a Victor Hall – after all, if this was how Victor signed himself in 1922, then he might have used this name on his marriage as well. And this was when I struck gold.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I quickly identified that there was a marriage between a <strong>Victor H Hall</strong> and a <strong>Mary J / Josephine Rooney</strong> in Stoke on Trent in 1922 (to clarify, there are two separate entries, one for a Mary J Rooney, and one for a Josephine Rooney – both give Hall as the name of their spouse, but a quick check confirms that there is only one Hall on the page), and a birth for a <strong>Matthew V Hall</strong> to a Rooney mother in West Derby in Q4 1923. It struck me as a strong possibility because<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1. The initials make sense – Henry Victor has reversed his name to become Victor Henry (and of course we have an example of him going by the name Victor that same year), while the V following Matthew must surely also be for Victor, after his father?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2. There are both Stoke on Trent and West Derby connections in the family line – Stoke on Trent was where Matt Hall was based for many years, and where I suspect Marion married that same year. And West Derby crops up time and again as the registration district across the Geoghegan line, suggesting strong family connections in the area. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve suggested previously that I believe the Hall children kept in contact with their mother’s family even following the divorce of their parents, based on the fact that <strong>Charles Bennett</strong> (son of <strong>Kathleen Birchall Geoghegan’s</strong> closest sister in age, <strong>Annie Birchall Geoghegan</strong>) was staying with his cousin Marion on the 1911 census.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was optimistic at this point, but not fully convinced. I decided to search for further possible births from this marriage, and came up with four possibilities, two of which carry further weight in the argument.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first was the birth of a <strong>Kathleen Hall</strong> to a Rooney mother in Q4 1922 in West Derby, a year before the birth of Matthew. Kathleen, as I mentioned above, was the name of Henry/Victor’s mother.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second was the birth of a <strong>Josephine Hall</strong> in 1926 in Bolton –presumably named for her mother, but perhaps also tipping a hat to her grandfather <strong>Joseph Bryan Geoghegan</strong>. Bolton is another location with strong family ties.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The two other births that I suspect might belong to this family are <strong>Ronald Hall</strong> in 1930 and <strong>Maureen Hall</strong> in 1933, both in the registration district of Leeds North. At first I wasn’t convinced that these were connected, but I compared all the Hall-Rooney marriages and all the children born to Hall-Rooney parents, and there’s really no other marriage to account for these children. so, unless they were born out of wedlock, I have to assume that there’s a move to the Leeds area by the Hall family between 1926 and 1930. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This would have them moving to Yorkshire shortly before Henry/Victor’s niece Victorine moved with her family from Romford to Wakefield, just a few miles from Leeds, between 1933 and 1936. Victorine’s move would eventually bring her mother, Henry/Victor’s sister Mabel, up north as well. Victorine’s son was also named Victor, which I think speaks of the close family ties between the Hall siblings – useful perhaps, in that finding one should always lead me to the others eventually!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All in all, I’m convinced that I have got the right people here. There can be no question that Matthew, Kathleen and Josephine, at least, are the children of the marriage I identified between a Victor H Hall and Mary J/Josephine Rooney. (I would need to order certificates or find some further evidence to be sure that Ronald and Maureen were also their children.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And the coincidences of children’s names and places are, I think, too striking for this not to be the marriage of Mabel’s brother Henry. What do you think?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-89956791543505949772013-01-11T15:02:00.000+00:002013-01-11T15:04:55.222+00:00It’s spring clean time! <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Basically, my job for the spring is to get myself into some kind of order, so that I can work in a slightly more orderly fashion. When it comes to genealogy, orderly is not my strong point! I much prefer the researching to the organising side of things. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My indexing has completely fallen by the wayside in the past year, and I’ve generally decided that it has become rather unwieldy and impractical to do it this way, so I need to find a new method. At the moment I store most things in Ancestry as well as keeping electronic files of documents and some hard copy stuff in a carrier bag at home. Yes, you read that correctly – in a carrier bag!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My plan is to buy some new equipment, including, finally, a new laptop. Also a printer and scanner, and some nice filing stuff for my hard copies. Then set to work compiling it all into a functioning system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am also considering purchasing some software, as I’m not sure how comfortable I am with having all of my tree stuff out there on the internet, though it’s really handy just being able to directly link online documents and stuff in Ancestry into my tree. I fear if I move away from Ancestry I will become far worse at keeping track of my documents and sources. And I’m also not sure how to go about selecting the best software?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Next on the spring clean list is doing an ancestor ‘tidy-up’ to help me establish whether I’ve got everything I need for each person and where to go next with my research on each of them. In particular, I’m increasingly aware of how urgently I need to order documents to confirm various relationships etc. I’m reasonably confident about most of them, but until I have the documents I can’t be sure, and upsets aren’t exactly unknown. So the tidy up should help me write a further to do list of documents to order and things to do that should take me through the rest of the year. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of my ancestor tidy-up I intend to write up a sort of ‘narrative’ for each ancestor. I’ve found that blogging about my genealogical searches has helped me to think more clearly about exactly what I need to know, and stopped me getting distracted by other related lines and so on as I work. So hopefully, writing a piece about each ancestor will help me to clarify where I’ve got to with them and where to go next. I’ll be publishing some of the most interesting ones throughout the spring – otherwise this blog would become an extremely boring account of alphabetical filing and list making!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I mentioned in my last post, I’m also working to get my Geoghegan descendancy moving and online. This is where my research focus has been recently, and it’s certainly progressing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can confirm that <strong>Marion Geoghegan</strong> married <strong>George Hodson</strong>, a Master Tailor, and they had four children: <strong>Marion Kirby Hodson</strong>, <strong>Mary Hodson</strong>, <strong>George Hodson</strong> and <strong>Elsie Hodson</strong>. I’ve been able to confirm that Marion died at the age of thirteen. Mary Hodson appears to have married a <strong>Henry Lees</strong>. The marriage is recorded under the name <strong>May Hodson</strong> on lan-opc.org.uk, but we can be fairly sure this is Mary by the father’s occupation – originally identified from finding the family on various census. There would appear to be five likely children of this marriage born between 1913 and 1922, whose names I won’t publish here, as some or all could still be living. However, I will be investigating those lines – If any possible descendants happen to stumble across this and want to get in touch, I would love to hear from you!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am nervous about the fact that I’m essentially shoving my way downwards into some people’s families, including some online trees, and sometimes doing so quite speculatively. However, I’ve made my tree private and its description makes it clear that should anyone have any questions, concerns and objections about what I’m doing they can contact me and I’ll listen and do what I can to help them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My plans for the rest of the year will follow on from this spring clean – I’ll keep you posted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-50674516929207173142013-01-04T12:04:00.003+00:002013-01-04T12:04:54.537+00:00A new trick<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Happy new year to you all. I’m currently working up my goals for the year (on which more later), one of which is to progress with my descendancy of Joseph Bryan Geoghegan. It will be in a private member tree on ancestry, so that I don’t intrude on the privacy of my distant cousins who may not wish me to be poking about in their lineage. It also means I can play about with hypotheticals and alternatives without anybody taking it as gospel and assuming that’s the correct lineage when it may not be – it’s all still quite experimental at the moment!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s a work in progress, and I can’t help myself, I have to research as I go. As I input each descendant I find myself trying to get all of their vital info in place and fill in any blanks. And in the course of this, I learnt a handy new trick. I thought I’d share it. Though it may seem rather obvious to some of you, I’d never done it before, and perhaps it will come in handy for someone else too...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The action takes place at freebmd.com. Now, this website is not one I use very often, as the info is all licensed to Ancestry anyway. However, sometimes it’s helpful for double-checking – as I’ve mentioned previously, Ancestry isn’t always accurate. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was looking for marriages of JBG’s daughter Marion, born 1870. There were two clear favourites. The first was a marriage in 1894 to either Patrick Kavanagh or James Henry Doran, which I’ve narrowed down again to most likely Patrick Kavanagh (as I think I’ve accounted for James Henry Doran and the alternative female spouse on the censuses). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, the second possibility, in 1888, was one of those pesky marriages where the transcription info for the volume and/or page number is incomplete, so Ancestry can’t give you the usual list of others appearing on the original page. I’d just left this until now, but I decided to investigate further using freebmd. They had the exact same transcription error, and so I decided to follow their troubleshooting advice, and search by possible page numbers within the known volume for the date and place you need. (Ancestry won’t let you search by volume or page number.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Helpfully it tells you what the expected range is, so you don’t have to search indefinitely. For example, my error was an unknown first digit: 8c _02 – but freebmd told me that the </span></span><a href="http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/district-page-map.pl?file=1888M1.csv%201888M2.csv%201888M3.csv%201888M4.csv"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">expected page range</span></span></a><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB">for the district was, e.g., 327 to 544 – so it could only really be 402 or 502. I searched both sets of page references, but annoying they both had complete pairs on the page, so no spouses left unaccounted for to match up with Marion. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I went back to Marion again, and discovered that freebmd will let you see the original page scan – as, of course, does Ancestry – and so I was able to ascertain that the page number definitely read 502. I can see why the poor transcriber (is that right – surely it should be like scribe – a transcribe?) went wrong, because it did sort of look like a three, but if you knew that the expected page range didn’t include 302 then it was fairly obvious!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I soon realised that the only explanation for the lack of potential spouses appearing was that the one of the spouses on that page had been mistranscribed as well. Note, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not necessarily</i> Marion’s husband.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, what to do now? I could just order the certificate, of course, but a) it would cost me, and b) given that Marion is only 18 at this point, it seems to me that the 1894 marriage is more likely and thus it would be a waste of time and money when I all I really need is to be able to identify the couple on the census and ascertain that this other Marion née Geoghegan is the wrong age (or from the wrong place, or whatever else). And c) where would be the fun in that, when I can surely solve the riddle using my wits, for free?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Frustratingly, BMD won’t allow you to ‘wildcard’ a volume number or page number, otherwise I might have found him in three moves: *02, 5*2, 50*. However – and this is the nifty bit – it will let you search for all the entries in a given volume for a given date and place – i.e. you can leave the page number blank. I tried it the other way around as well, and yes, you can search on page number without volume number – but as the volume numbers are less variable, it’s probably not so useful!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This search brought up a list of all the marriages registered in volume 4c in Bolton in March 1888. It’s long, but not so unwieldy that it takes long to complete the task, which is to run your eye down the column of page numbers, looking out for anything suspicious. It only took me a minute or so to spot him: Thomas Relpf, as the transcription had him, was apparently on page 5_2. Opening the original image I could see that this page number did indeed read 502, and his name was Relph, not Relpf.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, the complete set of people on page 502 is George Hodson, Margaret Ann Johnson, Marion Geoghegan and Thomas Relph. Now to find out who is married to whom... I’ll let you know!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was also able to fix all of the other errors in the volume. I include them here:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Robert Hamer (3_4) is the missing spouse from page 384 (William Lee King; Belinda Glover; Alice Ann Harwood).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mary Ellen Hilton (3[56]0) is the missing spouse from page 350 (Thomas Atkinson, Martha Hannah Blake, Isaac Hill) – page 360 doesn’t exist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Elizabeth Ratcliffe (3[41]1) is the missing spouse from page 341 (James Ball, Thomas Bogle, Mary Jane Faulkner) – page 311 doesn’t exist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And finally, as the only two illegible reference numbers that didn’t match anything else, they must match each other: Thomas Holden ([3 ]*A) and Sarah Jane Holt (*) – both have been added to the bottom of their respective index pages in pen; it seems likely that they were indeed the same certificate, presumably somehow missed out during the original indexing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s lost on me why this isn’t done by freebmd as part of a transcription check. It took me all of about 15 minutes to check and resolve these missing spouses from the pages. It’s probably not completely error-proof. The last one might be a bit speculative – if you had two such issues on a page you would struggle to iron it out without recourse to the censuses and you could still get it wrong. However, the other three were simple enough, and a little more time spent resolving this kind of thing would make it far less taxing to find a spouse! I suppose as always, time and resources are the difficulties. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-18410900127456593662012-12-27T09:38:00.000+00:002012-12-27T09:38:00.315+00:00Thankful Thursday: Thanks for 2012<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It being the final Thankful Thursday of the year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to thank some of the people who have been most helpful, supportive, and just plain entertaining in my world of genealogy. So here goes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First up, thanks to you lot for reading – blogging would have been pretty dull without you! Also, thanks to those of you who write the fantastic blogs in my blogroll and beyond, genealogical or otherwise – you’re all inspiring!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thanks to the archives and websites who work hard to bring us new resources, to geneabloggers and everyone else in the genealogy world for spreading the word about them, and to the twittersphere for endless tips, fascinating stories and pure entertainment (@rudegenealogist anyone?)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I also have to thank friends old and new for taking an interest in the blog this year, for asking interesting questions, and in a few cases for asking me to hunt things down for them – I love a new challenge!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thanks to the miscellaneous researchers who have helped me solve mysteries or added to my understanding of my family tree, particularly Mark Dearnley and everyone at mudcat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And of course, I have to thank my family. I’ve discovered some distant ‘cousins’ this year, including Helen McClure, Joy Wodhams, Angela Morrison and Keith Lockwood – thanks to all of you for the info and the interest. And finally, to my parents and the rest of my family for answering my endless questions and for taking an interest in my genealogy obsession!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s been a great year – bring on 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-53623755538337165292012-12-20T09:36:00.000+00:002013-01-17T16:37:56.492+00:00Exciting news<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In my post<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> <a href="http://in%20my%20post%20on%20my%20brief%20visit%20to%20the%20forest%20of%20dean,%20i%20mentioned%20that%20we%20were%20there%20to%20pick%20up%20some%20exciting%20post.%20i%20can%20now%20reveal%20the%20exciting%20news,%20finally,%20without%20jinxing%20it%20...%20my%20boyfriend%20and%20i%20have%20officially%20bought%20our%20first%20house!/" target="_blank">On my brief visit to the Forest of Dean</a></b>, I mentioned that we were there to pick up some exciting post. I can now reveal the exciting news, finally, without jinxing it ... my boyfriend and I have officially bought our first house!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What does this have to do with genealogy, I hear you ask. Well, short answer, it doesn’t really. However, it has prompted a new line of historical investigation for me – house history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have done a little bit of this before, when I did some investigatory work into my parents’ new house a few years ago. However this was slightly different because what I was investigating wasn’t the history of the house, but the history of a working mill. This time, I’ll definitely be looking at proper house history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The starting point for a house history would usually be the title deeds. However, we have a minor problem in that ours only date from 2004 (when it was purchased from the council), when clearly the house is much older than that. I suspect it’s Victorian, but it could be as late as 1930s possibly (I’m not great on architecture – it’s definitely old-ish though!) So, I may be forced to contact the council and see if they can tell me anything more. I don’t exactly relish the prospect, as they’ve been mostly useless during the house-buying.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, I have done a bit of research around the street already. A document form the Cheltenham Museum informs us:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sherborne Street is one of a number of small streets of artisan houses that were created on the fields to the north-east of Cheltenham town centre during the early 19th century. The street was named after Lord Sherborne, the Lord of the Manor of Cheltenham, and was laid out by a High Street grocer named William Gyde from 1808 onwards; no. 43, on the east side of the street, was probably built in 1818.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It seems to have been a very working-class street with lots of chimney sweeps living there. The museum document tells the story of a sweep’s sign that it has in its possession and traces the connected family, the Fields. They didn’t live in our house (no. 40), though they must have been close by. They began at no. 15, at the other end of the street (which probably no longer exists, I would guess), before they moved into no. 39, which today is no. 43. I assume this is across the road from us somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This does give me an interesting clue that there has been some change of numbering on the street, which doesn’t really help me in tracking down our house. However, the document says that number 15 was on the west side of the street, and number 39 was on the east. We are situated on the west side (I think, the street doesn’t exactly run due north to south though). With some comparison of the house numbering today, it may be possible to conjecture about what number our house was originally, but I think I might have to contact the council to find out more specifically about the history of the house. I’ll keep you posted!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-89045683611370800622012-12-19T10:30:00.000+00:002012-12-19T10:30:02.815+00:00George Harold Oliver<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another day, another fascinating discovery from my family tree!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Continuing with work on my descendancy of Joseph Bryan Geoghegan, I went back to the marriage of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">George Harold Oliver</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ellen Christina Bennett</b> to see whether I could come up with any children. I had found them living in Derby in 1911, with George Oliver listed as a motor mechanic. There were no children given, but the couple will still very young and had only married the previous September so it wasn’t too surprising. Derby wasn’t a surprise either, as this was where the marriage record tells me George was living at the time of his marriage. However, he was apparently born in Pendleton, c. 1887.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I first went to the birth index to search for Oliver children with mother’s maiden name Bennett, but predictably there weren’t any strong leads. One possibility appeared for Derby, which I made a note of, but beyond that there were multiple options, including strong leads in Stoke-On-Trent, which left me wondering whether the family connection in the area had continued with the Olivers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, I decided I would Google Ellen and George, and see whether there was anything that might help me. The first thing that came up for George Harold Oliver was this <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Harold_Oliver" target="_blank">Wikipedia entry</a></strong>. I clicked on it, not really expecting it to be remotely relevant. The first sentence reads:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George Harold Oliver QC (24 November 1888 – 22 September 1984) was a British engineer, barrister and politician who was for a longtime Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilkeston and served briefly as a junior government minister.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I thought, well the birth date is close, and Ilkeston is in Derbyshire. I read on.</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Oliver was born in Bolton and educated at Holy Trinity School in the town. He became an engineer working as a gear cutter for Rolls Royce, and when the works were moved to Derby, he moved with them.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bingo! It all made sense – age, occupation, move from Lancashire to Derby. I will need to verify the place of birth – Wikipedia says Bolton, while George himself says Pendelton on the census. I think he may well have grown up in Bolton, as did Ellen, but I’m more inclined to support his personal claim of a Pendleton birthplace than Wikipedia’s unsupported statement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, my great-great-grandmother Mabel’s cousin Ellen Christina Bennett married future Labour MP George Harold Oliver. They had perhaps met following the marriage of Ellen’s mother Annie Bennett <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">née</i> Birchall Geoghegan in 1903. They would have been around 15 years old at this time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His career was that of a moderately successful junior minister, and I enjoyed reading about some of the causes he supported, including a 1932 motion for a national minimum wage. He also initiated a debate on the development of civilian air transport, which perhaps contributed to me being able to fly off to sunnier climes for my holidays! He retrained as a Trade Union lawyer (hence the QC) in 1927. At the 1931 general election, he lost his seat by only two votes – the equal closest election result during universal franchise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, my favourite snippet was this: </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In February 1952 he was chosen to be one of the members of the House of Commons to call on the Queen Mother to extend Parliament's condolences on the death of King George VI.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He met the Queen Mother – albeit under rather sad circumstances. It’s my first (and very distant) genealogical brush with royalty!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All of this seems to confirm that George and thus presumably Ellen stayed in the Derby area at least until around 1965, when George stood down from parliament. So, I conjecture that they only had the one child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A scan of Ancestry’s suggested connections confirms this, and the most detailed tree appears to suggest that their child is still living, so I won’t go any further on that subject for now, though I’ll be tracing it as far as I can for my own purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George Oliver lived to be 95, dying in 1984, just a year before I was born.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-76515050461105714922012-12-17T23:00:00.000+00:002012-12-17T23:00:06.029+00:00A tale of two discrepancies<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I try to avoid relying on other people’s information, particularly others’ Ancestry trees, but on occasion I do have a look, because you never know when it might present something new that you didn’t know about. However, it’s always worrying when you then find something that contradicts your own info. On a couple of occasions in recent days I’ve been forced to investigate others’ info for myself, to see how they got their data and where they went wrong – or indeed, where I went wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First up was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">James Thompson</b>. I was looking at some of his grandchildren for one of my previous posts when I decided to click on the little shaky green leaf for their father, James’ son Albert Thomas Thompson, and check out his ‘hints’. On tree gave Thomas’s parents, whom I don’t have yet, so I was excited at the prospect of new info. However, when I had a look at the tree, it immediately became obvious that most of the info was utterly incorrect. James is given the correct wife, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sarah Ann Semley</b>, but this tree claims she died in 1860, and then James moved to Shiloh, Texas, where he died in 1862.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An interesting theory, but since Albert wasn’t born until 1870, I don’t really see how that works! It also gives completely incorrect siblings for Albert as well. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This kind of sloppy research really makes my blood boil. I’m very understanding when it comes to new researchers perhaps make unjustified assumptions or get careless about recording sources – we all have to make this kind of slip-up in order to learn – but less so when they try to bring people back from the dead!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, there was very little evidence attached to this tree either, which would have set alarm bells ringing even if it hadn’t been for the obvious errors, and I would always proceed with caution, because people make mistakes all the time – I know I do. In this case, I was slightly relieved that this tree was so obviously wrong that I didn’t have to waste any more time verifying half-baked research! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m very much an advocate of ‘speculative’ genealogy, because sometimes I think it’s the only way to make progress. If you never take a gamble on something being the right record, you might struggle to get anywhere at all. But speculating that someone gave birth to a child ten years after they died is just plain stupid!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Take, for example, my Newbys (yes, them again!) If I hadn’t taken a punt on the birth record of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Walter Newby</b>, I can’t see how I would ever have tracked down his parents. And indeed, my second discrepancy was on this very line...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Walter’s mother <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sarah Jane Newby</b> actually appears in several online tree; it was quite a large family, and I have yet to explore the full extent of the parallel branches. However, I decided to check out her shaky green leaves – I forget why – and I discovered another tree that had her husband as a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">George Winters</b>, and a daughter <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Olive Winters</b> born in 1910. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After a bit of investigation, I concluded that Sarah Jane was not in the main line of this researcher’s tree, and he had probably just speculated on her marriage with this being the most likely candidate. I think<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>actually he was being a bit too speculative, as the 1911 census clearly says her birth place was Leeds, which is not entirely consistent, but even so, I can’t argue with the rest of his logic. It does remind me that I really mustn’t assume that all of my speculative marriages and children for siblings are 100% correct.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Whereas I was justifiably bemused and slightly irritated by the last discrepancy, this time I was sympathetic. This poor researcher wasn’t to know that Sarah Jane had gone off and had an illegitimate son or three and then pretended to be married on the 1911 census, had two more children and finally married in 1922. How could he? Even I’m not even 100% sure all the details are right yet!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyway, I sent the guy a message over the Ancestry message system, explaining to him my own findings about Sarah Jane and my process for getting there, and inviting him to help himself to info and records from my tree. Hopefully he will take it as the gesture of help it’s meant as. I know I would certainly appreciate a gentle correction on anything I’ve got wrong in my tree, and I thought this was the probably best way to handle it. However, I didn’t bother correcting the other tree-owner, on the basis that their tree was so clearly wrong that no one would ever take it seriously anyway!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-24898717885186827162012-12-16T16:01:00.000+00:002012-12-16T16:01:00.151+00:00From looking at old photographs: 4. Father Baxter<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today’s old photo mystery comes from my mum’s side. The photographs on this side are much better documented – i.e. my mum actually knows who they all are. Plus many of them are labelled. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, this post focuses on my great grandmother, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Annie Louisa Goulding</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">née</i> Hampshire</b>. There are many photographs of her in our collection, though most of these were taken when she was elderly. In one of these pictures there is a man. I asked my mum who he was, and she said ‘Oh, that’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Father Baxter</b>, her second husband.’ I had no idea she had been married a second time, though my mum insists she had told me before!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My mum didn’t know anything much about Father Baxter apart from this slightly archaic-sounding name. I thought he must have been some sort of clergyman, but my mum said not, just that this was what they all called him. So, I set out to investigate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Annie Louisa’s first husband <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Thomas Goulding</b> died at the age of 60 in 1938, and my mum said that her grandmother remarried well before she was born in 1963, so I guess we were looking at 1940s or ’50s. Thankfully Annie Louisa Goulding is a relatively uncommon name, so it didn’t take me long to identify a marriage. It took place in Scarborough in the last quarter of 1948. It’s slightly outside of my usual area of focus, but I was aware that the some of the family did live on the coast for a while, on a farm at Osgodby I believe, though I probably need to ask my mum more about that as well! So, Scarborough wasn’t completely unexpected. In 1948 Annie Louisa was 61. Her new husband’s name was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">John J. Baxter</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finding this marriage and thus her new surname also helped me to identify a death for Annie Louisa – I hadn’t been able to before, and now I know why – in Wakefield, in the first quarter of 1974, at the age of 86. It also furnished me with her exact birth date: 16 Jun 1887.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I now want to find out more about Father Baxter. I started with Scarborough, as this was the only concrete piece of information about him, and of course an assumption that he was of a similar age to my great-grandmother. I found a couple of likely deaths first: John J Baxter, died Scarborough in 1954, aged 71; and John Baxter, died Lower Agbrigg in 1955, aged 71. Helpfully, Ancestry had identified a probate record that matched the Scarborough death, and this confirmed that John James Baxter of Haltona, Osgodby Lane, Cayton, Scarborough, had died on xx September 1954, leaving his widow Annie Louisa Baxter a sum slightly in excess of £400. So, I can be fairly confident this is the right John Baxter, even though it doesn’t bring me any closer to identifying his parents or any other family.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s as far as I’ve got for now, but I’ll be continuing with this little project, so I’ll keep you updated on any interesting findings!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-34050901942022742422012-12-14T20:00:00.000+00:002012-12-14T20:00:02.762+00:00From looking at old photographs: 3. Mystery Wedding<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mystery number three is more recent. I came across a lovely photograph of my dad’s parents, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">John Newby</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Fay Rayner</b>, with my grandfather’s parents, the mysterious <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Walter Newby</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Margaret Thompson</b>, pictured outside the front door of what appears to be a church. I then found another photograph clearly taken at the same event: the same church appears, and all four are wearing the exact same outfits, down to the headband/fascinator worn by Fay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The event in question is a wedding. The second photograph quite possibly pictures all of the wedding guests; it is a very large group photo. Given that two generations of the family are in attendance, and that the photograph was kept for such a long time, it seems likely that it’s the wedding of a family member or a very close family friend. Of course, I’m now determined to come up with a probably identity for the bride and groom, so let’s look at the evidence:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">No date is given, but I can fairly easily deduct that it was most likely taken some time in the late 1950s. My grandparents married in the summer of 1956, and separated when my dad (b. 1963) was aged two or three, so it couldn’t have been much later than 1965-ish. To my (admittedly clueless) eye, the fashions look more fifties or early sixties, so I’m leaning towards earlier rather than later in the period 1956–66</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On their marriage, my grandmother was only seventeen, though my granddad was older at twenty-four, and I’m under the impression that it all happened fairly quickly. With that in mind, I think it’s unlikely that this photograph was taken before their marriage. My dad’s oldest sister was born around a year later in June 1957. The next child, a daughter, was born in October 1958, her third child, a son, in the summer of 1960, and finally my dad in August 1963.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Given the young age of my grandmother in this photograph, I would assume it was taken within a couple of years of their wedding. As she’s not visibly pregnant in the photograph, I would be inclined to rule out the periods of early 1957, mid- to late 1958, and early 1960. So, we’re looking at either the first half of 1956, the July 1957 to spring 1958, or any time during 1959.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think it’s doubtful from their ages in the photograph that it was taken much later than that, but as I can’t be sure, I have to consider the possibility that it was taken some time from late 1960 to the end of 1962, or even after the birth of my dad, into the mid-sixties. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I’d still guess earlier rather than later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The next thing is location. Now, ordinarily identifying a church on the basis of an image of its front door, given that it could be taken almost anywhere in the country, might be rather tricky. The church has a sort of triangular shaped ‘porch’, with the church sign (too small to read, even with my trust magnifying glass) affixed to it. However, we’re helped somewhat by the presence of a pub with a clearly legible sign in the background: The New Inn. One of the photographs is taken from a slightly different angle, and we can also see the side of a building, probably a house, alongside the pub.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve started with the likelihood that the church was fairly local to my grandparents, somewhere in the Wakefield area. It can’t be proven of course, but I needed a starting point for investigation and close to home seems sensible, especially as the families in question had all been fairly local for a couple of generations by now as far as I know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I asked my dad about local pubs by this name, and one suggestion was at Durkar, roughly five miles from my home town of Horbury, where John and Fay were living at Sunroyd Hill in the early years of their marriage. Google informs me that the New Inn at Durkar is located on Denby Dale Road East. A search for churches in the vicinity reveals the </span><a href="http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/PhotoFrames/WRY/DurkarPrimMethodistGeograph_BL.html"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">Primitive Methodist church</span></b></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> a short way down the road. The nearest C of E church is too far away. However, this brick building doesn’t look right – I would have said it was stone (bearing in mind I don’t have access to the photograph and I’m doing this from memory) – and I can’t see the triangular-shaped entrance porch. Also, studying<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the relative locations of pub and church on both Google Maps and Geograph convinced me that the church was too far from the pub for its sign to have been visible in the photograph – indeed, I’m not convinced that the pub would be visible at all from the church. Also, looking the pub, it doesn’t quite look right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, I tried a generic search for pubs called the New Inn located in West Yorkshire, and then scanned the images and locations for likely candidates. And, by Jove, I think I’ve got it! There is a pub called the New Inn on Shay Lane in Walton, roughly 6½ miles from Horbury. And, whitin the first few Google images, I found </span><a href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&tbo=d&biw=1360&bih=571&tbm=isch&tbnid=t-tBGP3c9ET-aM:&imgrefurl=http://www.jss.org.uk/middle-walton/middle-walton-gallery.html&docid=EGafk9y4EllAFM&imgurl=http://www.jss.org.uk/middle-walton/images/Methodist-Church"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">this image</span></b></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> With the caption: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Methodist Church, view towards the New Inn, Shay Lane</i>. There is the stone building with triangular porch and a sign affixed to the wall. And there is the pub, clearly visible in the background – at least from this angle. The pub does look sort of right, if my memory serves me. I am a little concerned that this pub is still a bit too far away. The foliage beyond the front door, in the middle distance between the two, wasn’t there (the tree might have been), but that could have been planted later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, I’m not sure whether there’s enough space between the door and the wall and railings for my photograph to have been taken there, unless they are also later additions. This is possible, though they do look quite old. I haven’t been able to find any older photographs of the church to check this. I suppose an older local person might remember, or I might have to try a local publication. I could even contact the church and ask if they know when they were added. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Overall, I’m about 90% confident I’ve found the right church. My dad knows the entire area very well, as he drives around it for work, so I intend to ask him what he thinks – he might even be able to take the photograph with him on his travels and do the comparison for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m very intrigued by the fact that this was a Methodist church. Though my home town has quite a strong Methodist tradition, the only evidence I have of any kind of Methodist leanings in my family is that my dad’s older sister got married in the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://probablyarboreal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/in-memory-of-horbury-methodist-church.html" target="_blank">recently demolished Methodist church</a></b> in Horbury in the late seventies. I wonder if there was a hint of Methodism on my dad’s side after all – after all, I’ve only scratched the surface on his grandfather Walter’s side. And, given the presence of Walter and his wife, it seems likely that this wedding was on his side of the family. However, Margaret and Walter married in an Anglican church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, who got married at Walton Methodist church in the 1950s? I'll certainly be checking out Ancestry's Yorkshire non-conformist records, though I'm not sure how up-to-date they come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s definitely not the marriage of Fay’s brother <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Leslie Gordon Rayner</b>, as his wife was an Italian Catholic. Plus, I would definitely recognise them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It could possibly be the marriage of John’s brother <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Trevor Newby</b>, who married <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Brenda Hartley</b> in the first quarter of 1958. It fits into my schedule of likely dates. However, I think my dad would have recognised them in the image. On the other hand, Walton falls under the Lower Agbrigg registration district in which their marriage was registered, so perhaps I’ll get him to take another look. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alternatively, it could be a cousin. Walter had, I believe, four brothers: (you can find out more about this on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://probablyarboreal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/another-piece-of-puzzle.html" target="_blank">Another Piece of the Puzzle</a></b>), while Margaret was one of twelve children?. I think I need to devote some time to chasing down the marriages of the various siblings and see if I can figure out who it could be!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x</span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-33916840145882406702012-12-12T17:34:00.000+00:002012-12-12T17:34:00.858+00:00From looking at old photographs: 2. Dad’s Army?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Continuing the military theme of part 1, among the photographs from my dad’s side of the family is a rather rag-tag-looking group of a dozen or so men in military uniform. The only information given is a date: 1939. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I asked my dad if he knew what the connection was, he had no idea, but on closer inspection he remarked that to him they looked more like home guard. Certainly the uniforms look incomplete, except that most of their hats match up, and they’re certainly not dressed to military standards. Also, my dad pointed out that there were some older men in the photograph, whom you wouldn’t necessarily expect to have been the first to be going off to war – not ancient, but certainly in their late thirties and early forties at least. However, there were also some much younger men mixed in amongst them. Unfortunately research quickly informed me that the Home Guard weren’t actually formed until 1940, so that rules that out. I suspect that this is an off-duty photograph, and so that explains the slightly unruly state of dress!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After much studying of this and other photographs with a magnifying glass, I think that the man front and centre of the photograph is my great grandfather, the formerly enigmatic <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Walter Newby</b>. Though most of the other photographs we have of him are taken from a greater distance, and when he was much older, I can see a similarity particularly in his quite prominent chin, which has a deep horizontal line across it. My father never knew his grandfather, who died relatively young, so he’s only ever seen him in photographs. However, the entire family agreed that there was a resemblance between this man and others of Walter. (Though perhaps that was just to stop me thrusting the magnifying glass at them and asking questions!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I noted in my post <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://probablyarboreal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/v-is-for-victory.html" target="_blank">V is for Victory</a></b>, Walter would have been thirty-five when war broke out and therefore was likely to have seen active service. I’d say that was consistent with the age of the man in the photograph as well. His marriage certificate tells us that he was a motor driver before the war, and so perhaps he continued to work as a military driver as well? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I need to have a hunt around Ancestry’s military records for clues about Walter’s time in the military, methinks!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-38784350439107199452012-12-11T08:32:00.001+00:002012-12-11T08:32:43.554+00:00From looking at old photographs: 1. George Jones<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last weekend I had a lovely extended stay with my parents, mainly for the purposes of Christmas shopping with my mum. However, while I was there I also had a hunt through some old photograph albums. I’ve seen all of these pictures before, of course, but they really come alive after making some progress, particularly on my paternal side. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unfortunately I have no means of scanning any of the images at the moment, and of course they’re all at my parents, but I intend to get some copies made, and eventually get myself a scanner too – it’s shameful for a ‘serious’ genealogist to be without one! However, I thought I’d write a few posts about some of the images I found. In particular, the ones that provided more questions than answers...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First up, a copy that my mum had made of a photograph that is in fact in the possession of my father’s cousin. It is believed to show <strong>George Jones</strong>, the second husband (?) of my 2x great-grandmother <strong>Mabel Hall</strong>. Firstly, I question ‘husband’, because no one seems to be entirely convinced that they were married. However, Mabel’s death was registered with the name Jones, and I have found a potential marriage in Tunbridge Wells in the 1930s. This certificate is on my list of urgent things to order. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I believe they did marry in the 1930s, following the death of Mabel’s first husband William Hedgcock AKA Hayward, whom she had never divorced. Mabel and William’s daughter, my great-grandmother Victorine, was born in 1913, but Mabel must have left William (apparently an alcoholic) not long after this, and then quickly met George Jones, as Victorine apparently grew up believing that George was her father.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The photograph is professionally taken, apparently coming from a series of photographs of aviators. The name of the photographer is given, but I forgot to make a note of it. George Jones stands beside one of those really old-fashioned planes, in what can best be described as typical WW1 flying gear (need to swot-up on my military history!). On the back of the original, George addresses the photocard to ‘to my darling “Little Wife”’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Though they apparently didn’t marry until the 1930s (if at all), “Little Wife’ is generally believed to be Mabel. She was later known as ‘Little Nana’. Indeed there is another photograph of Mabel’s son-in-law Les in WW2 military uniform addressed to her as such. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">(Given that Mabel’s sister, the actress Amy Hall was on one play poster described as ‘the pocket Vesta Tilley’, I suspect that all of the Hall sisters were small of stature!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Beyond the question of whether this is indeed George Jones and whether or not he was married to my great-great-grandmother Mabel, is another question: Was he really a WW1 pilot? The way forward would be Ancestry’s military records, or the Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificates, 1910–1950, also to be found on Ancestry, but I’m not sure how far I’ll get without further information – certainly nothing stands out on a basic search at the moment. Ideally I would need a birth record, as you can search the Aviators’ Certificates on birth date, but that may take me a while to track down given how common his name is!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m also a little concerned about the timings. Mabel’s daughter with William was born in February 1913, which doesn’t leave much time before the war for her to meet George. Even if you accept that he quite likely didn’t join up straight away, there is evidence in the form of a playbill that William and Mabel ere performing in the same theatre troupe (and thus presumably still married) in June 1916, which squeezes the timescales further. On the other hand, if Victorine really did grow up believing George Jones was her father, as the story goes, then George and Mabel can’t have met much after early 1917, as Victorine would have been old enough to know her real father by then, surely?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Or perhaps George wasn’t a military aviator but a 1920s pilot? Though whether this was then really a ‘career’ I’m not sure? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone who looks at the photograph seems to assume it’s First World War and it certainly can’t be much later than that (because of his age apart from anything else), but there’s no date or anything visibly military on there either. Perhaps I need to do some comparisons with other military photos from the period for more info?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The rest of George Jones’ story is equally muddy. Most of what I know about him was told to me by old family friend Brenda, who first furnished me with enough information to get started on my dad’s side of the family. Apparently, he later went to work as a chauffeur in America (Detroit, possibly?), where he was sadly killed in a car accident while working. His employers, a wealthy American couple I seem to remember, wrote a letter to George’s widow Mabel, which she kept for the rest of her life. Brenda saw this letter in the early 1960s, when she first befriended the family and shortly before Mabel died. Sadly, though unsurprisingly, we no longer have it, and therefore the fate of George Jones is perhaps lost forever. The dates are woolly (anytime from mid-1930s to early 1960s), and I have no idea why George was in America instead of at home in England with his wife. Though of course, perhaps she was out there with him? It is only the fact of them having written a letter that gives me impression that she was still living in England.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s an intriguing half-story that certainly needs some further investigation!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-50992321173766435282012-11-27T15:43:00.003+00:002012-11-27T15:43:39.802+00:00On chasing wild geese<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You might have gathered by now that I have a tendency to flit about in my research, picking up and putting down different projects as my mood changes, and one of the things I have been working on for a while, on-and-off, is a descendancy of my 4x great-grandfather, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Joseph Bryan Geoghegan</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve mentioned JBG, as I usually shorthand him, in my post <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://probablyarboreal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/g-is-for-geoghegan.html" target="_blank">G is for Geoghegan</a></b>. He’s my absolute favourite ancestor, because he had a long, fascinating and semi-famous life. He also effectively founded a dynasty, having two wives and fathering 20 known children altogether. (Some sources quote 22, but I only have 20 in my tree so far.) Plus, he has a nice unusual name to work with: the ideal candidate for my descendancy experiment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As you already know, I do have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about extended family, and I routinely try to identify siblings’ marriages and children. However, I rarely go further than this, or go on off on a wild goose chase if I can’t find them easily, unless I’m looking for a particular piece of info that contributes to my wider genealogy. To try and investigate all the descendants of an ancestor just for the fun of it is a bit bonkers, to be honest!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So far I have identified 125 possible descendants of JBG (across all generations). It’s kind of tricky, as I’m essentially doing genealogy backwards, but actually it’s teaching me to think outside of the box, to focus on useful information that I tend not to pay that much attention to (father’s occupations and marriage witnesses have proved key) and to use my usual sources in different ways. It’s also turning up some fascinating discoveries. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I came across a second marriage of JBGs daughter <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Annie Birchall Geoghegan</b>, which I would probably never have found otherwise, to a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">William Proctor Oliver</b> in 1903. He was 26 years old. She was 44 but claimed she was 38, and she continued to lie about her age on the 1911 census as well!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then I discovered that Annie’s daughter <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ellen Christina Bennett</b> had married in 1910 to a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">George Harold Oliver</b> – some relation to her stepfather William, perhaps? George Oliver’s father is given as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Emmanuel Oliver</b> on the parish record; I have yet to identify what connection, if any, there is to William Proctor Oliver.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The parish record also gave one of the wedding witnesses as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Charles Phillip Bennett</b>. I assumed that this was Ellen’s brother Charles, though I’ve never come across the middle name before. However, as Charles was still unmarried in 1911, I took a guess that I’d probably be able to find him on the 1911 census, and went to Ancestry to do a search, on the logic that from this I would be able to find an occupation that would help me to identify him in marriage records – and also just ‘cos I was curious!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ancestry brought up the following:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Charles Bennett, b. abt. 1890, Bolton, Lancashire. Boarder at Woolpach Hotel Inn, 29 Commerce Street, Longton, Stoke On Trent. Marital Status: single. Occupation: clerk, china factory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was immediately excited, because it is yet another family link to Stoke on Trent, where JBG had a music hall just before he died, and where his son in law, my 3x great-grandfather <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Matt Hall</b> also had a music hall around this time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, then something else struck me. I had seen this address before; this was where Matt Hall’s daughter <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Marion Hall</b> was living and working as a barmaid... on the 1911 census. I was sure of it. Yet she wasn’t listed in the household here. (I was slightly scuppered by the fact that this was in my lunch hour, today, and I don’t have flash on my work PC so I couldn’t see the original)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Looking at my entry for Marion on Ancestry, I discovered that I hadn’t found her in Ancestry’s version of the 1911 census, which meant I must have found her on the ‘old’ 1911 census website. I went back to the website, which very kindly allows you to see records you’ve already viewed without paying for them again, and found the household (again, only the transcript, I hadn’t paid for the original in this case).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Both Marion Hall and Charles Bennett appear here, along with Jane (or ‘Lane’, as Ancestry has it) Rowe, the cook and Charlotte Sullivan, the manageress, who doesn’t appear on the Ancestry transcript either. However, it doesn’t feature the 6 members of the Tattersall’s family to be found on Ancestry’s version – who, it turns out, all lived at number 27 Commerce Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I assume Jane Rowe and Charles Bennett have somehow been accidentally tagged onto the wrong household by Ancestry. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Had it been the 1901 census, it would be more understandable, as the households followed on from one another on each page, and I’ve frequently found instances where two households have accidentally been lumped together in transcription. But since the 1911 census is made up of individual forms for each household, I’m not sure how this could have happened. I’ve still been unable to find Marion or Charlotte Sullivan, and I can only assume they have been completely missed from the transcription by Ancestry, which is somewhat frustrating. But it does remind you of the importance of checking multiple sources! And to keep a track of addresses! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyway, having solved that little mystery, I was delighted to find out that Charles, whom I had originally taken to just be a guest at the inn, was in fact Marion’s cousin! I suppose it could be coincidental that they ended up in the same place, but it hardly seems likely. So their mutual presence goes some way to confirming the relationship on both sides. I couldn’t be 100 per cent certain that this was the correct Marion before, and nor could I have been completely certain that this was the correct Charles Bennett without Marion’s’ presence either! And as well as corroborating one another’s identities, this meeting sheds some light on an issue that had previously played on my mind. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1896 Matt Hall divorced his wife Kate for adultery, and she subsequently disappears from my family history. I’ve found no trace of her at all following the divorce. In 1901, Marion is living with her father in Stoke on Trent. Her brothers and sisters are not fully accounted for, but I believe that they were travelling and working in theatres at this time, and that they were mainly in the care of their father. In 1922 Matt Hall dies, and all five children contribute warm and loving obituary messages to the Stage publication. All of this is testament to their very close relationship with a loving father. But given that so many members of their mother’s large family were also heavily involved in the theatrical world, I had often wondered what relations were like between them. Seeing this glimpse of Charles staying with his cousin Marion is enough, I think, to confirm that they remained in contact with the maternal family. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have still to find a marriage for Charles Bennett. I think I already have a marriage for Marion, but I need to order the marriage certificate to be sure. But even if my descendancy never fully ‘descends’, my wild goose chase will have been worth it to have discovered this tiny but vital piece of my story. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-66663028646202814632012-11-15T13:58:00.000+00:002012-11-15T13:58:05.414+00:00100 posts of genealogical joy <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is my 101st post. To mark the occasion (it’s an achievement of sorts) I thought I’d take the time to look back on my blogging career so far. Here I look, rather selfishly, at what genealogy blogging has done for me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I started the blog back in February, after nearly a year of thinking about it. Having gone into it not knowing what to expect or what I hoped to get out of it, I’ve found it incredibly rewarding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One thing that I was looking for was to engage with genealogists nearer my own age. Though it still seems that we young genealogists are a rare species, I have come across a few (<a href="http://www.nmcmahon.co.uk/" target="_blank">Niall</a>, <a href="http://young-genealogist.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Katelyn</a>, <a href="http://erstwyle.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Elisse</a>, <a href="http://elysesgenealogyblog.com/" target="_blank">Elyse</a>, <a href="http://storiesofacanadianfamily.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Lianne</a>, <a href="http://ancestrysearch.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Jess</a> and <a href="http://genwishlist.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Tina</a>) and I want to thank them all: you’ve made being a twenty-something genealogist a much less lonely pursuit! I’m sure there are still others I haven’t discovered yet, so if you’re out there get in touch – we can start a little club!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Blogging has helped me to engage more with the genealogy community as a whole. There are some great blogs out there that I really enjoy reading – too many to list here. I’ve begun using Twitter, which has been a revelation. I particularly like the real-time tweeting as breakthroughs are made and mysteries are solved. I’m also engaging with genealogists both pro and amateur around the world on LinkedIn and enjoying some of the thought-provoking discussions on genealogical etiquette, problem solving and methodology. Genealogy can be a rather solitary activity, so it’s nice to be able to share the joy and the frustration with like-minded people of all ages.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve found that blogging really helps me with my research too. As I encounter a problem or an interesting story to discuss, and begin to formulate a blogpost about it, I find that it crystallises in my mind where there are gaps, where things need verifying or elaborating, and how I can take it further. I’ve talked before about how I have found writing a narrative about my genealogy useful, but it never occurred to me that blogging would magnify that further, because of course it’s not just for you but for the rest of the world. By opening up your research to closer scrutiny from the blogging community, you force yourself to be a more detailed, more meticulous and more critical of yourself. I have made errors on my blog, but I accept that and I try to correct them where possible. Also, the input from readers has been really useful as well, and I’m so grateful for that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps the most rewarding part of my genealogy blogging is that I’ve found that my real-life friends have read it and shown an interest. Weirdly, though genealogy is a big part of my life, it’s not something I’ve talked about much to them, because I thought they wouldn’t be interested or that they would think it was really geeky – which it probably is, and I’ve never really been ‘cool’ so no one should be surprised! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Actually, what I’ve found is some of my friends have said they have found it really interesting. Then they often launch off into their own family stories – usually prefaced by ‘my mum/dad/grandpa/etc. did their family tree and...’ A few people have even asked me to look things up for them, or how they should go about finding certain people. I even succeeded in getting my boyfriend interested briefly. It has made me realise that a lot of people are actually interested in their family’s past, they’re just not that interested in researching it themselves at this point in their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The most common questions I get asked also reflect this: ‘Where do you find the time?’ and ‘how do you know where to start?’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My responses: I find the time from the same place as you find time for zumba/golf/hockey/photography/the gym etc. and knowing where to start comes easy when it’s something you’re really interested in – you just teach yourself. After all, I wouldn’t have a clue where to start at the gym even! And that’s the key I think: I love genealogy, and blogging about it just adds a whole new dimension. Perhaps it’s a bit like having a single running machine at home and then going to a huge gym with all the bells and whistles? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyway, thank you all. It has been 100 posts of genealogical joy, and here’s to many more!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-63344835070124985912012-11-05T13:07:00.000+00:002012-11-05T13:08:53.691+00:00Remember, remember...?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, I was planning on making this, my 100th blog post, rather more reflective, but I will postpone that until next time in order to concentrate on some rather more timely subject matter – Bonfire Night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The reason for this is that there is an old family rumour that one of my ancestors was in some way involved with the Gunpowder Plot. Exciting as this may seem, as yet I have found no evidence that it is actually true. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The rumour originates from my paternal family, but I haven’t been able to narrow it down much beyond that, which means 50% of my ancestral lines are currently implicated. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I was ever to narrow this down – or even get that far back on most of these lines – I’d be very impressed, and I don’t hold much hope, to be honest. However, it is rather interesting to consider that if the rumour were true it would imply Catholic recusant ancestors, and the recusancy rolls are a potential source of information that I am aware of, many thanks to my degree, so you never know...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In an attempt to possibly suggest where the connection might be, I have looked in a little more detail at the plot and two potential connections immediately present themselves:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One possibility is the Wintour, or Winter,brothers, Robert and Thomas, who were among the key plotters. The name Winter occurs in my Father’s maternal line, which is where I sort of get the impression the story comes from (though I can’t be certain). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If it were on my father’s maternal line, the Winters would seem the most likely candidates. The Rayners came from Ireland in the early 1800s and so that’s half of my great-grandfather’s side accounted for. On my great-grandmother’s side, again we can discount the Geoghegan line, which also came from Ireland, and I have enough second-hand information on the Hall line back into the 1600s to suggest that they’re improbable. It really only leaves either the ancestors of Emma Winter (both of her parents were also Winters, quite probably related) on my great-grandfather’s line or the ancestors of William Kipping Hedgecock on my great-grandmother’s line.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The possible problems with the Winter connection are that Winter is a fairly common name, so alone it is hardly compelling evidence. This is further compounded by the fact that Wikipedia tells me that historian Antonia Fraser (for whom I have great respect) in her book about the Gunpowder Plot (which I may have to purchase) points out that the brothers never used the spelling Winter themselves; it is usually found spelt Wintour or Wyntour. Obviously, spelling was quite variable back then, and I suppose it was still relatively fluid by the time I encounter my Winters in the nineteenth century. However, my Winter ancestors are consistent in the spelling of their name, which doesn’t really help my case.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Further to this, the location is wrong – the Wintour brothers came from the West Midlands, whereas my Winters were based in Surrey. Again, though people did move around, the location evidence hardly helps any argument for this being the connection, so I have to concede it isn’t likely.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A stronger possibility, I have to concede, is on an entirely different branch of my family, which has strong roots in the right area. My Buswell line as far back as I’ve been able to trace it originates around Whichford in Warwickshire, before migrating southwards into Chipping Norton and Banbury. Whichford is roughly thirty miles from Coughton, the base of the Throckmorton family, to whom many of the Gunpowder Plotters were related or connected. Though it’s not particularly close, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine part of the family moving a relatively small thirty miles over a couple of hundred years, and/or being connected by marriage to a family within such an area.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The problem with this possibility is that the Buswells feed into my Thompson/Newby line, which is my paternal grandfather’s side, and as I say, if anything I had the impression that the connection was on my dad’s maternal line. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On his paternal line, I can discount the Thompsons, also Irish, and the other possibilities are the Newbys/Wallingers, about whom I know too little to guess either way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What I can say without any hesitation is that nowhere in my family lines have I encountered anyone who can seriously be called a gentleman of the rank that the Gunpowder Plotters were (with the exception, perhaps, of William Kipping), so whichever branch it was, they must have had some financial problems somewhere along the line!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Just to be clear, this is all very much conjecture, just for the fun of it. I have absolutely no evidence that this particular rumour is even true, never mind the means to identify the ancestor! Indeed, many such rumours do turn out to me completely untrue, or at least exaggerated considerably. Given that my most famous real ancestor’s granddaughter – J. B. Geoghegan, grandaughter Mabel Hall – only died in the 1960s and yet the man was never mentioned, it would seem improbable that a true story so much older would survive!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think the most likely explanation is that my ancestors may have ‘supported’ the plot – i.e. they were recusant Catholics, hoping to put a Catholic monarch on the throne – rather than being actively involved in it, and over time, this expression of support became exaggerated into something more sinister. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That said, I have no evidence whatsoever for any kind of recusancy or nonconformity in my family either. Almost all of my ancestors baptised their children, married and were buried in the Church of England (despite the fact that many of them lived in strongly Methodist areas). Beyond that, I have found no evidence of anyone actively involved in the church or showing any strong faith. As a fair complement of my ancestors was Irish, some of them may have had a catholic background, but that wouldn’t really tie in with the Gunpowder Plot in any case. The vast majority of them seem happy to tow the Anglican line, to be honest!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It just goes to show that there’s only so much that genealogy can uncover. The vast majority of our family history must remain unknown, and many of the myths must remain unresolved. It’s rather nice to have the possibility that I really do have such an exciting background, though, and with a bit of luck I might one day make the breakthrough that proves or disproves it!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-62028875684384783372012-11-02T16:05:00.000+00:002012-11-08T09:09:50.730+00:00The teeny tiny fruits of a teeny tiny breakthrough<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was using the 1911 census on Ancestry a few days ago, when I noticed something: Occupations appear in the transcribed information. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This interesting for 2 reasons. For one thing, it isn’t always the case for censuses that it does, and I like having it there for easy reference. (Especially at work, where I can’t see census images due to lack of flash – most annoying when I’m trying to do a bit of research in my lunch hour.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The real reason this intrigued me, though, was that if it’s transcribed then it will show up in a search, and this fact opens up new options for locating people whom I couldn’t find back when I was using the original 1911 census website. In particular, my Hall family have generally been most tricky to locate, because of their peripatetic lifestyle as music-hall performers. In 1911, I only had two out of the five children – Mona and what I believe to be Marion – and had not found their father either. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, I put the 1911 occupation search to the test on the remaining three: Mabel (my 2x great grandmother), Henry Victor and Amy, as well as their father Matthew. No luck with either of the first two, or with their dad. But, with Amy I came up trumps. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now Amy has always been a matter of some frustration. Of all the siblings she does seem to have had the most prolific career, which I have tracked steadily through mentions in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stage</i> publication. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Born in 1879, by November 1887, at the age of eight, Amy is already forging her stage career with performances as Jim in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Saved From The Streets</i> with the W. H. Sharpe company. She then takes up a position with the Rass Challis company from around 1893. There is a bit of a gap for her in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stage</i> archives between 1890 and 1892, but she was definitely still touring on the 1891 census. Between 1893 and 1895 – again, there’s a bit of a gap – she moves to the Leopold Brothers company, and stars in various production, including<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the long-running show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frivolity</i>. I have also found evidence of performances alongside her sister Mona between 1904 and 1906, and a slot in her father’s production <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Unknown</i> in 1896 at his Music Hall. Her career stretches into the 1920s, when she would have been in her forties. But, despite all this, finding out anything about Amy’s private life has been utterly hopeless. Until now.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The 1911 census was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April. From the Stage archives, I knew that Amy was performing in Brighouse, just three days previously, but she certainly wasn’t there by the time the census was taken! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, searching for Amy Hall born 1879, Liverpool, with ‘actress’ in the keywords box, threw up the following: Amy Hall, born about 1880, Liverpool, an Actress. She is staying in Chorlton, Lancashire, in the household of a Mrs White, some of whose children and grandchildren have the surname Elliott (I have yet to unravel the relationships in this household). Also lodging there is a married couple, Horatio and Annie White, both also actors. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">She gives her name as Amy Hall. But intriguingly she says she is married . So, it doesn’t give me much clue, and there’s no sign of anyone who might be her husband, but apparently she <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> married – I’d always wondered. Like her sister Mona, it seems she continued to use Hall as her (stage?) name. Now I just have to find the marriage record – no mean feat. However, it’s one of the very few tidbits of information I do have about her personal life, so it’s very welcome. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Plus, I can add the Sinclairs to my list of connected theatrical people to look out for on my travels; you never know when they might come in handy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m now wondering whether Amy might have had children as well, and also considering whether gaps in her career might tally with marriage and/or pregnancy. On the basis that Amy was about old enough to marry from the age of 16, anytime from mid-1895 onwards is plausible. Looking at gaps in mentions in the Stage, there are holes from December 1895 to Jun 1896; March to Aug 1897, Jun 1899 to Aug 1900 and Nov 1906 to May 1907. From late 1907 the mentions slow down radically – there are none at all in 1910, for example. There are, I think two possibilities her. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One is that Amy did indeed marry sometime in the period Dec 1895 to Jun 1896, at the tender age of sixteen, and perhaps gave birth to a child in the gap between March and August 1897, and perhaps again in 1899–1900. On the other hand, perhaps she was rather young for this to be a strong possibility. Also, in 1896 Amy’s parents divorced, when her youngest sister Mabel was just five years old, and her father moved from his post s stage manager in Lincoln to the managerial position at the newly opened Burslem Hippdorome, so perhaps it was these family difficulties that kept the young Amy busy out of the limelight. You might even conjecture that perhaps the Stage diligently chose to avoid mention of the family at this difficult and potentially scandalous time for them, well-known as they were in the Music Hall community.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On the other hand, perhaps the possible slowing down of reports on Amy’s career from 1907 onwards is because she had a new family and responsibilities that kept her from the stage. She would have been in her mid-twenties by now, a much more likely age of a marriage, especially in someone so career-driven.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, it can’t be proved that just because there were fewer mentions of her Amy’s career had slowed down, or that gaps meant she had stopped performing. As I previously mentioned, in 1891 she was on tour at the time of the census, and yet I have found no mentions at all of her in 1891 in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stage</i>. However, when you look at the frequency of entries at other times, it is hard to believe that the gaps have no significance. For example, there are thirteen mentions of Amy in various performances in 1898, and eleven mentions in 1901 – and yet from mid-1899 to mid-1900 there was nothing at all?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Whatever the truth of the matter, it never ceases to amaze me how the slightest bit of new information can reopen a mystery that you thought was pretty much a closed case. This just highlights the importance of improving the information available online, both in terms of getting new records digitised and in improving on the digitisation of those collections that do exist. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">You can read more about Amy and her career in </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://probablyarboreal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/fearless-females-2012-shining-stars.html" target="_blank">Fearless Females 2012: Shining stars</a></b> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x</span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-45518213219223844432012-10-22T10:40:00.001+01:002012-10-22T10:40:31.049+01:00Another piece of the puzzle<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, I’m referring to the puzzle of Walter Newby’s parentage. If you remember, I did find his mother Sarah Jane Newby, and his father Thomas Wallinger, but I had still spectacularly failed to find Walter himself on the 1911 census. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, I know that the census record itself isn’t the goal so much as finding detail to piece together Walter’s life, but I did feel quite strongly in this case that the census was really the only reliable source that would tell me something about Walter’s childhood and what happened to both him and his mother following his father’s death when he was just a year old. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Given that I couldn’t find either of them under the names Newby or Wallinger anywhere on the census, or by tracing their families. I then began various searches to identify children of roughly the right age, called Walter, with mothers called Sarah also of roughly the right age. And yesterday (on my birthday no less), after lots of fruitless attempts, I finally struck what I hope is gold!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Walter Barker is aged six, giving him a birth year of 1905, which ties in nicely with a September 1904 birthdate – in April 1911 when the census he would indeed have been aged six. He was born in Wakefield, which is a strong match for his birthplace of Snapethorpe. His mother Sarah Barker is 34, meaning she was born roughly around 1877, which is a match, and her birthplace is given as Kellington, which is also a direct match. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Her husband Henry Barker, is aged 38 (b. around 1873). He works as a ‘cowman’ on a farm and the family live in Hemsworth, which is roughly halfway between Wakefield and Doncaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet Henry was born in ‘Ardsley, Wakefield’, which is to the north of the city, on the way to Leeds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sarah Barker claims to have been married to her husband Henry for eleven years, and they have three other children – Tom, aged nine, Charles, aged eight, and Albert aged three. Of course, none of this makes much sense in the context of what I know about Sarah Jane and Walter – Sarah Jane certainly can’t have been married for eleven years, because she was still Newby on the birth certificate of Walter in 1904.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, this is where it gets interesting: The census states that Tom and Charles Barker were born in Blackpool – where we know that Sarah Jane and Thomas Wallinger were living in 1901, and where it would seem Thomas died in 1905.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, here’s the theory: Walter was not Sarah Jane and Thomas’s first child – I had assumed he was. But I know they were living together from 1901 and Sarah Jane could potentially have been having children from the mid to late 1890s, so there was no reason to think that she/they hadn’t had other children. Tom (named for his father?) and Charles were born while the couple were living in Blackpool in 1902/03. By late 1904 they had returned to Yorkshire, where Walter was born. Following Thomas’s death in late 1905, Sarah, effectively widowed, met Henry Barker, giving birth to their first child Albert in 1908. (The census indicates only four children, all accounted for). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alternatively, Tom and/or Charles were the children of Henry Barker from a previous marriage. Henry was in Blackpool, with his children, and it was here that he and Sarah Jane met following the death of her husband<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On his marriage certificate, perhaps Walter took his own surname and combined the names of his father and stepfather to ‘invent’ a fictional Thomas Henry Newby? (This still doesn’t explain where the ‘market gardener’ came from, as it doesn’t really describe either father figure, though both were in farming at one time or another.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now to test the theories. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An initial search for relevant marriages shows a Sarah Jane Newby marrying a Henry Barker in Dewsbury... in 1922. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dewsbury would make sense. Walter Newby marries Margaret Thompson in Chickenley just 7 years later, and the parish record describes him as ‘of this parish’, so he was living in the Chickenley area, which is in Dewsbury registration district, by 1929. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Did Sarah Jane and Henry not marry until 1922? If not, why not? Money? Or was Henry married already? (It reminds me of Mabel Hall, who couldn’t marry George Jones until later life when her estranged husband William Hayward (AKA Hedgcock) died. ) If so, why did they lie on the census? Sarah Jane and Thomas never lied about their marital status, so why would she do so now with Henry?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The next step is to order this marriage certificate and see if I can confirm that this is indeed my Sarah Jane, based on her father’s name and occupation and any marriage witnesses. It should also shed some light on Henry’s circumstances, whether he was previously married, etc. I also intend to search for potential births for Tom and Charles in Blackpool, and also Albert’s birth in Badsworth (not far from Hemsworth) and see what names their births were registered under. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have quite a strong instinct that I’m on the right lines here, so fingers crossed!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-83523618512156485082012-10-12T11:07:00.002+01:002012-10-12T11:07:19.877+01:00On the criminal element<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I begin with a caveat, otherwise you might get something of the wrong idea: Thus far in my family history, my ancestors appear to have been generally decent, law abiding citizens (with the exception of Sarah Ann Semley, possibly). </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, I have begun investigating my newly identified Wallinger branch, and it would seem they are a BAD lot!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My 2 x great-grandfather Thomas Wallinger was born to parents William Wallinger, ag lab, and Alice (maiden name unknown) in Hanslope, Buckinghamshire in 1844. Alice was William’s second wife, and he would marry again in later life to Harriet Hensman. Eleanor gave William a son, George, and Alice went on to give him five more sons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Two of Thomas’s brothers, Benjamin and Thomas (the elder, in memory of whom my Thomas was presumably named) died young, but some of the other Wallinger boys, it seems, were not the best behaved! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve already talked a little about Thomas, who left his wife Charlotte for the much younger Sarah Jane Newby, with whom he had a son, my great grandfather Walter. The year after Walter was born Thomas was summoned to court for debt, and he died shortly afterwards. I still don’t know what happened to Sarah Jane and Walter. Until Walter married in 1929, his life is a mystery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thomas’s brother William was married to Rosannah Cook, with whom, presumably, he had his daughter Clara, in Yorkshire. On two censuses William is in jail, in London in 1871 and then in Surrey in 1881. As yet I’m not sure what he was convicted for. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can only assume that he had abandoned his family. Rose ,as she appears on the 1861 census, completely disappears after this point. His daughter Clara, born 1860, is not present either, and nor does she appear again until 1891 when he elderly father is living with her and husband George Surby.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">More shocking and intriguing though, is Peter Wallinger. In March 1845, at the grand old age of ten, he is convicted of arson – on ‘stacks of [illegible]’ – and sentenced to transportation for fifteen years. At this time transportation meant to Australia. This isn’t an area of genealogy I’ve encountered before, but initial searches don’t reveal any trace at all of Peter Wallinger following his conviction, either in Australia or the UK, so what happened to him is, for now, something of a mystery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With more Wallinger brothers still to investigate, who knows what else they got up to?!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-62179262145260198342012-10-04T14:41:00.000+01:002012-10-04T14:41:02.915+01:00Clifford: connection or coincidence?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, I’ve set to work on the family of Sarah Jane Newby, and this time I’ve started as I mean to go on, trying my best to get a handle on all siblings and relevant parties in a methodical manner rather than getting sidetracked. I’m hoping that tracking down as many relatives as possible might lead me to where Sarah Jane and Walter are hiding on the 1911 census, but no luck so far.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, my searches have revealed something else rather interesting – the recurrence of the name Clifford. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1896, Sarah Jane’s older sister Clara Newby marries a man with the surname Clifford. In 1911, Sarah Jane’s father Henry is living with the Clifford family. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Occurrence number two of the name is in 1895, when Sarah Jane’s mother Elizabeth’s brother, Mark Lockwood, christens his son Clifford Lockwood. My first thought was that this was a sort of family tribute, as I have started to notice a few reuses of names in the family. However, Clifford is baptised a year <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i> Clara marries into the Clifford family. And Clifford definitely isn’t Mark’s wife’s surname, which was my other thought – so where did it come from?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Only two possibly unconnected occurrences in the immediate family so far. However, during my searches for the Newbys I have also come across a family of Clifford Newbys not too far away.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Strangely, though this <em>is</em> most likely a coincidence, I also note that Clifford has been used as a middle name for one of the Semleys – Charles Clifford Semley, nephew of my direct ancestor Sarah Ann Semley. And it is Sarah Ann’s granddaughter, Margaret Thompson, who goes on to marry Walter Newby in 1929. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Am I now facing one giant Newby/Lockwood/Clifford/Semley/Thompson knot? Or is it all just a big coincidence? Only genealogy will tell!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-36800504287313170712012-09-27T16:50:00.000+01:002012-09-27T16:50:04.742+01:00I have a confession to make<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sometimes I worry that I am a bad genealogist<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I worry that my research isn’t rigorous enough. That sometimes I hypothesise and don’t immediately have the evidence to back it up. That don’t obsess over county boundary changes when recording some ancestors’ place of birth and, shock horror, I might occasionally forget to record the full details of every source I use.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All this makes me feel guilty. I did a degree in history, and I should understand the importance of small details, and citing my sources. Indeed, I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> understand the importance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The thing is, I’m not a natural organiser, and I don’t particularly revel in the ‘recording data’ side of my family history adventures. Even my index, which I was so enthusiastic about when I started, is unfinished and hopelessly out of date, and I tend to rely on the quick record features offered in ancestry to keep track of my data. Even then I’m sloppy about the details. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What I love about my research isn’t the need to meticulously record everything, it’s the stories that the evidence reveals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Who wants to stop and worry about whether this village was in West or South Yorkshire on a particular date when they’re busy trying to piece together what was the relationship between these two people, who was the father of that child, what happened to this ancestor...? The information I’m worrying about at that point is the vital clue that’s telling me what’s going on, and it’s unlikely to be what county a village happens to be in at that time – well, I suppose it could be! But my point is I only worry myself about such details when they become vital to my research. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I reason with myself that one day I will fix it all. That I’m so young that I’ve got years ahead of me to tighten up my records! I still worry about it though.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Once upon a time, before the internet, no one else would have known my guilty secret, but now everyone can see my badly-kept tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They probably think that it’s poorly researched and that I have no grasp of the Genealogical Proof Standard or how it should be done. It’s not that, it’s just that I’m bad at it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And then I get cross because this is my family, my hobby, and I shouldn’t be made to feel guilty about how I treat <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my</i> genealogy. I’m only doing this for me. Everyone else should just be glad I make my tree public really!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Please, fellow genealogists, don’t judge me for the gaps in source citations and muddled up name spellings! I’m aware of my shortcomings, but I promise I’m not a bad genealogist. I’m just a poor record-keeper!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-65171910521264526082012-09-26T14:46:00.002+01:002012-09-26T14:47:34.411+01:00The Newby mystery solved!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On Friday I finally received a birth certificate for Walter Newby. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I had ordered this certificate, registered Q4 1904 in Wakefield, on the basis that it was close enough to match the birth on the marriage certificate (circa 1905); it was in my home registration district (while I had no evidence that Walter was born there, he had married nearby and certainly died in Wakefield, so I had no evidence that he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wasn’t </i>born there either); and it seemed to be the only birth of a Walter Newby that I couldn’t account for.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The birth was registered in December. Here is the information as it appeared on the certificate:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Name:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> Walter Newby<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Date of birth:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> 20 September 1904 <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Where born:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> Snapethorpe Farm, Lupset<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Father’s name and occupation:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> <s>Thomas Wallinger<o:p></o:p></s></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mother’s name and occupation:</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Sarah Jane Newby, Housekeeper Domestic <br />(at Snapethorpe Farm, Lupset, as the informant section went on to show)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I had long suspected, it seems Walter was illegitimate!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Interestingly, this means that had Sarah Jane married Thomas Wallinger (the writing is quite legible, despite having been crossed out), my surname would have been Wallinger rather than Newby, which I find quite strange. Though at least it is an interesting surname!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, now it was time to investigate Walter’s story. There were quite a few Sarah Jane Newbys and Thomas Wallingers, so it did take a bit of searching and unravelling before I could get the full picture, and there are still lots of things to learn, but here goes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sarah Jane Newby</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> was born in in around 1877 in Kellington, Yorkshire (which is to the east of Pontefract, out towards Goole). Her parents were <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Henry Newby</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Elizabeth Lockwood</b>, both of whom were also local. Henry worked as a farm labour in his younger days, before working in a malthouse. Sarah Jane was the fifth of ten known children.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Thomas Wallinger</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> was born in Hanslope, Buckinghamshire, some thirty-three years before Sarah Jane. In 1876, around the time that Sarah Jane was born, Thomas married <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Charlotte Johnson</b>, of Carlton le Selby, Yorkshire, less than ten miles from Sarah Jane’s place of birth. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How Thomas and Charlotte met is something of a mystery, but I can say that Thomas is not in his home town of Hanslope on the 1861 census, and instead is possibly lodging with a family in Treeton, a village now on the outskirts of Sheffield – in Yorkshire, but still well over thirty miles from Carlton. This is unproven as yet, though.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By 1901 both Thomas and his wife Charlotte are in Blackpool, running boarding houses – but apparently separately. Charlotte is alone in her household other than a servant, Alice Held, also born in Yorkshire. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And in the 1901 household of Thomas Wallinger is none other than Sarah Jane Newby and her younger sister Dinah. The relationships in this 1901 household have been mangled. Thomas is listed as ‘head’, Sarah Jane as ‘sister’ and Dinah as ‘servant’. Sarah Jane does give her occupation as housekeeper, however. It was only when I found this particular record that I could start to unravel both of their family backgrounds further.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By 1904, of course, Sarah Jane is back in Yorkshire, living about 15 miles from her home town at Snapethorpe Farm. A Thomas Wallinger appears to have died in Q2 1905 in the district of Fylde, Lancashire – so I thought he was probably still living in Blackpool. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, when I googled Snapethorpe Farm out of curiosity, it came up with something from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">London Gazette</i> of 17 February 1905, namely a list of ‘First meetings and public examinations’ of debtors. Thomas Wallinger, Farmer, of Snapethorpe Farm, Wakefield was due in court on Mar 2 1905. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So perhaps Thomas and Sarah Jane both returned to Blackpool in spring of 1905, and then Thomas died. But what happened to Sarah Jane and Walter? And where on earth were Sarah Jane and Walter in 1911? I still can’t find anything on the census.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This story leaves a lot of unanswered questions, but it’s certainly a start! Hopefully more will be revealed as I investigate my exciting new Newby, Lockwood and Wallinger lines further...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422583292951502867.post-69702846304412861232012-09-12T15:57:00.002+01:002012-09-12T15:57:18.831+01:00Where’s Wally?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you happen to have seen my Twitter feed towards the end of last week, you might have detected a scuffle of excitement as I once again turned my attention to the saga that is my great grandfather <strong>Walter Newby</strong> and his father, the mysterious <strong>Thomas Henry</strong>. (If you want to catch up on the story so far, the easiest way is probably to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the Newby tag, which should bring you all the related posts!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Previously I had focused on finding Walter on the 1911 census, because I know that he should be aged about five at this point, and he must be alive somewhere. However, I can’t find him, either with his father or without!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Having had absolutely no luck with the son, I turned my attention to the father. My knowledge about Thomas Henry Newby is limited: He was a market gardener, and he was dead by the time Walter married in 1929. Of course, this means that I can’t even be sure that Thomas Henry was alive in 1911. But, I thought, perhaps I can find a Thomas Henry with a son of the right age who has been badly mistranscribed, explaining why my searches haven’t found him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, after a lot of searching, using various wildcards, I came up with something: <strong>Thomas Henry Norbury</strong>, nursery and seedsman.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OK, so he doesn’t appear to have a son of the right age. But he is located in Clayton West, which is local, roughly ten miles from where Walter later marries. Though I don’t have any evidence to suggest that Walter was definitely born locally to where he later lived, nor do I have any reason to believe that he wasn’t. (It does give rise to questions about the assumptions one should make during a genealogical investigation...)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, Thomas Henry Norbury and his wife, Eleanor, have four living children in 1911 and one who has died. They have three children living with them on the census, none of which are Walter. I located them on the 1901 census, and there they have a fourth child. However, this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">could</i> be the one who has died. Thus, possibly, Walter could be the elusive fifth?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One problem regarding this family is in fact that Eleanor is a little old to have a six-year-old son in 1911. But perhaps she isn’t his mother ... ? And of couse there’s the slightly bigger problem – where the heck is Walter in 1911?!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, the Norburys could be a red herring, but with nothing else to go on, I reckon they’re worth investigating further. I’ll keep you posted...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">L x<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Probably Arborealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079430711311425872noreply@blogger.com0