Reaping what you sow

After a February dominated by family history writing but very little blogging, I’m back with a vengeance for (what’s left of) March!

Back in December I wrote a post called A tale of two discrepancies about how I’d handled errors that I had noticed in other people’s trees on Ancestry. In my final paragraph, I said: I know I would certainly appreciate a gentle correction on anything I’ve got wrong in my tree...

Well, this weekend, I received one such gentle correction, and it was indeed very much appreciated!

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  – 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 H is for Hancock(s)/(x), and re-posted here:

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.

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.

However, the marriage of Charles and Comfort gives Thomas and Ann as Charles’ parents.

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.

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....

L x

On my brief visit to the Forest of Dean

Last weekend I had occasion to travel to the Forest of Dean, which is about 30 miles out of Cheltenham, in the direction of South Wales. It’s an area I’ve never been to before, but it also happens to be where many of my supposedly ‘Welsh’ ancestors actually originated, before their move to Tredegar, South Wales, in the late nineteenth century. It was a somewhat impromptu visit, to meet my boyfriend’s mum, (who happened to be working there) and pick up some exciting post (on which more very soon, hopefully...!)

Anyhow, as it wasn’t organised, I hadn’t had the time to gather together what I needed in order to make it a research expedition, though I am planning to go back there for this purpose at some point – it’s almost inexcusable that I haven’t done so already, given how close it is! However, it did give me a chance to scope out the area, and I came away with some interesting impressions.

The Forest of Dean is a Crown forest of about 42 square miles and today attracts a lot of tourists, for the stunning woodland and outdoor pursuits such as walking and cycling. However, while it may sound like a rural idyll, in fact the area has a long history of mining, both for coal and iron. While there I also discovered that there was a gold mine in the north of the forest.

The forest has an interesting tradition of free miners – men who have have earned the right to mine for coal or iron on personal plots, known as Gales. The practice is regulated through a  unique system of rules, and some free miners continue to operate today. Here is the eligibility rule:

"All male persons born or hereafter to be born and abiding within the said Hundred of St Briavels, of the age of twenty one years and upwards, who shall have worked a year and a day in a coal or iron mine within the said Hundred of St Briavels, shall be deemed and taken to be Free Miners."

We arrived at a place called New Fancy View (a viewing point that was formerly a mine called New Fancy). Here there is a large ‘map’ set into the ground, showing the locations of all the mines in the Forest, numbered with a key giving their names. I found this really interesting, and of course it made me resolve to find out, if I can, where my ancestors worked, or where they may have worked. I don’t have any reason to believe that they were operating as Free Miners, from the censuses, though of course, it may not have been stated.

They did seem to move around the forest a lot, however, so I may be able to map this against the opening and closing of mines to see if I can see any pattern. And of course, they eventually began to drift off into South Wales. Interestingly, they did all seem to move to Wales, but not all at the same time – perhaps it became apparent that their family members were prospering there, and so one by one they began to follow them?

I was also struck by the names of the gales, many of which, like New Fancy view, were obviously locally named. Here are a few of my favourites: All Profit, Brazilly, Breadless, Mystery, Oddfellows Delight, Potlid, Strip And At It, Trafalgar, Tormentor, True Blue, Uncertainty.

While some of them are named optimistically, such as ‘All Profit’, or ‘True Blue’, others give a hint of the Free Miner’s life of hard work ­­– ‘Strip and At It’ –­ and instability– ‘Mystery’, ‘Uncertainty’, ‘Breadless’ or ‘Tormentor’. Others  are affectionate – ‘Oddfellows Delight’; patriotic – ‘Trafalgar’; or just plain incomprehensible – ‘Brazilly’ and ‘Potlid’!

I found this useful site, which allows you to browse known information about these gales. I’ve read a few, and some of this history is quite interesting, with what seems to be some personal testimony about the mines, such as this one, from the page about the gale ‘Uncertainty’:

“Colliery such a serious loss to me and other members of family.  My father involved us in difficulties in spending so much money to get coal out but found hardly any to be seen. “

However, there’s no sign of any of my ancestors at first glance, which probably means I was right that they weren’t working as Free Miners.

The towns and villages of the Forest are not particularly picturesque, having been mostly pit villages, and today they are areas or relative poverty. My boyfriend commented that they reminded him of the towns and villages of the Welsh Valleys, like Tredegar, where my grandfather was born. I agree, they do have the same feel to them, and after all, it was an area with the same mining heritage, and just over the border. In the Dark Ages, parts of the Forest of Dean might have been within the Welsh kingdoms of Gwent and Ergyng, and the boundary remained uncertain until Offa’s Dyke was built in around AD 790. I can imagine that movement between the two areas was frequent and family ties numerous.

This is really just a starting point for further research, but it definitely gave me a feel for the area I’m dealing with.

L x

In the genes (part 2)

So, as promised, here’s part two of yesterday’s part one. (Though if you read the original article, you will already know the story!)

One of the boys died just days after they were rescued, but the other, aged about seven or eight, survived and was adopted by a local doctor, taking the name Evan Thomas. Remarkably, the boy quickly showed himself to have bone-setting skills that had never been seen before in the UK, including the use of traction and splints. His techniques are still the foundation of modern orthopaedic surgery.

His flair for medical skills certainly seems to have been in the genes, for in each of the next twelve generations of his family there has been at least one person working in orthopaedics. His great grandson, Hugh Owen Thomas, was to become known as the father of modern orthopaedics. A generation later, Sir Robert Jones’s pioneering work on the battlefields of the First World War drastically reduced the rate of deaths caused by fractures, from over 80% to just 8%. To this day, Evan Thomas has ancestors working in the medical field, including orthopaedics.  

I find this rather intriguing – could this skill really be ‘in the genes’?

On the one hand, it seems unlikely. His ability to set bones must have been a learnt attribute it would seem. But then there is a difference between having knowledge of something and having a natural flair for it. In our schools, children are all taught the same things, yet some of them excel more than others and in different subjects, different children do better. Surely this must be partly genetic? If you follow this line of reasoning, surely it can’t be too ridiculous to argue that my natural aptitude for languages was inherited from a great-grandmother who learnt fluent French? Or that some of my cousins seem to have inherited the performing bug, which might easily come from my theatrical ancestors? On the other hand, perhaps it’s just coincidence...

In Evan’s case, there are further factors too. The article says that Evan initially demonstrated his skills on animals, and it strikes me that he must have been of a naturally gentle and caring nature to have cared for wild animals in this way. If his techniques were learnt, his skill in carrying them out may have been far more natural. And gentle handling of the weak and vulnerable is perhaps a natural trait for those in the medical profession, which might explain why so many of his ancestors went down that route.

But Evan’s modern day ancestor had a different take. He felt that Evan’s skills were so valued in the family, and that the family were so close and supportive of one another, that it was natural for the skills, and the respect for those skills, to pass down through the generations. And he might have a point. After all, the article seems to imply that this family story, which dates all the way back to the 1740s, had been passed down through his family. It seems to hint at some special regard for family history, because I’m pretty sure no family lore has made its way down to me from such a long time ago!

(Unless you count the completely unsubstantiated claim that someone was involved in the gunpowder plot, of course!)

What do you reckon – Nature or nurture?

L x

In the genes (part 1)

Well, this has been the longest break so far in my genealogy blogging career, so huge apologies for that. There’s a lot going on at the moment, and unfortunately the genealogy has had to take a bit of a back seat.

That said, I did enjoy this article.  At first I thought it was fascinating piece of news, though it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t so ‘new’ – the links at the bottom of the article date it all the way back to 2010, and my boyfriend said he had a feeling it had been mentioned in an episode of Coast (which I love, but I’m fairly sure I didn’t see that one).

To sum up, in about 1745 two young boys were shipwrecked off the coast of Anglesey. They were rescued by a local smuggler and taken to the local doctor’s house. They didn’t speak any English or Welsh and their origins were a mystery to the locals, who assumed, because of their dark colouring, and the fact that Spanish ships were known to be in the area (taking troops to support the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland), that they were from Spain. This myth endured until a few years ago, when scientists did some genealogical testing on one of their direct descendants and discovered that their genetic background was very similar to that of someone from the Caucasus Mountains in Russia – they are now hoping that they might find a closer match and be able to pinpoint it further, to a more specific area, or even a particular village

Fascinating stuff, and it definitely got me thinking about the concept of genetic genealogy, which must be ever so interesting if you don’t really know what your background is. However, as I’m about as ‘British’ as they come, and pretty Yorkshire-heavy at that, I’d hazard a guess that mine would be almost entirely Norse!  Mind you, you never know...

This story has another interesting facet though. On which, more tomorrow...

L x

W is for Webb

Nearly there with the alphabet now – having come so far I am determined to complete it.

There were quite a few options for W, and I really wanted to write about the Woffendens, because apart from anything else they have such an interesting surname. However, a quick count up shows that in the course of this blogging project I have somewhat neglected my mother’s paternal family – only the H is for Hancocks post has addressed this branch, and of course there is so much more to it than that.

So, I’m going to talk about the Webb family. Miriam Webb was my mother’s paternal grandmother. In 1908 she married Philemon Hancocks, and together they had three children, the eldest of which was my grandfather Horace James Hancock. Miriam lived into her eighties, and according to my mum she was, to put it gently, a bit of a character in her old age!

Miriam was born on 15 June 1886, to parents James Webb and Miriam Jayne.  The couple had six other children: Sarah Ann Webb (b. 1867), Francis J. Webb (b. 1869), John Webb (b. 1872), James Webb (b. 1874), Thomas G Webb (1) (b. 1879) and Thomas G Webb (2) (b. 1881) – I’m reasonably sure that these last two were separate individuals. Miriam was their last child, and perhaps she was a somewhat unexpected one given the large gap between her birth and those of their older children.

The children were all born in Wales, but alas my mum’s dream of Welsh ancestry is once again dashed when we see that James Webb senior was born in ‘Bristol Pill’ in 1844. Luckily for my mum, James Webb’s wife Miriam Jayne was definitely Welsh!

Pill is a village just outside Bristol on the south bank of the Avon, an area that was mostly involved with industrial pottery.  I asked my boyfriend if he’d ever been there and what it was like; he described it as ‘plain’! I take this to mean that it’s not exactly a quaint and picturesque old-English-style village.

James’ father was named Samuel Webb (b. 1819), and his mother was Charlotte Dyer (b. abt 1816). They had five other children: William Webb (b. 1846), Henry Webb (b. 1848), Jane Webb (b. 1855), Martha Webb (b. 1857) and Harriet Webb (b. 1859). Given the seven-year gap between Henry and Jane in particular, I speculated that there might have been other children in the family.

(Since I originally drafted this post, my speculation has been rewarded by the discovery of two more Webb children: Elizabeth D. Webb (b. 1842 – D for Dyer, perhaps?) and Ann Webb (b. 1852), who were living with their mother’s unmarried brother Samuel Dyer and sister Harriet Dyer in Easton in Gordano, just outside Pill, in 1861.)

I’ve still got a bit of work to do on the Webbs. For one thing, nowhere do I seem to have recorded what either Samuel Webb or James Webb did for a living, but I would to hazard a guess that they were in some sort of manual-labour job, and probably in mining once the family moved to Wales!

L x