Saturday 29 September 2007

Sep 29, 2007: Cor(ry), lots of updates

LornaHenderson db on World Connect updated with the latest HENDERSON findings and whatever other updates have been found in the recent past, including the CORRY bits below.

If anyone knows what happened to Robert JACK after 1910 I'd like to know. Thought I'd found him dying in Massachusets, married to a Catherine, but that chap, although born Scotland at the right time, he turns out to have emigrated 1926 (instead of 1908), was born Greenock and had a brother David, so didn't fit.

Decided to also clear out any backlog of unchecked web updates, so big brother has also been fully updated. Ignore the recent changes shown under 14th and 21st September, they were behind the scenes stuff.

Francis Douglas SINTON has been promised for a while, and John CORRY is a new addition prompted by the arrival of his will today, with lots of relationships spelled out in it. So that meant the Fauld place information also had a bit of a tweak. Still to get round to the Thomas SCOTT page I want to ouptut (his mother is the Margaret SCOTT nee CORRY referred to under John CORRY).

The other main change is to the Hendersons Galore page. I've included an extra generation on the descendant chart so more of the modern day HENDERSON descendants can spot where they fit. No dates or links for anyone not already included on the rest of the site. If anyone is uncomfortable with this I will reduce it back a generation again.

More McGREGORs

Even more HENDERSON/McGREGOR activity last 2 days. I presume we might find them all sooner or later!
Latest main discovery was finding that Helen (aka Nellie) McGREGOR married an Andrew JACK (ta Linda). I then found that this family emigrated to the States in 1907 (Andrew) and 1908 (rest of family). This added in a BORRUP line. Main haunts seem to be New Jersey and Connecticut, with a dash of California and Florida, this latter assuming that the Margaret Elizabeth Addison BORRUP who is shown as dying in Miami in 1948 is Margaret E A JACK dtr of Andrew and Helen/Nellie.
A Rootsweb WC "tree" of the BORRUPs has the JACK family a tad mixed up, but is full of useful hints as to where to look for assorted branches, and it looks like there's a NZ connection in there too, not that I can figure out where Elsie ALLER fits. Anyone out there to help me on that one?
Brenda K, (married to a grdson of George Manson Henderson BAIN), pointed me to a searchable site for British Columbia burials.

Thursday 27 September 2007

Sep 26, 2007: Two for the price of one

More HENDERSON/McGREGOR activity today. Linda found the elusive Susan HUTTON, she'd inconsiderately moved to England and married a JONES. I found more SHEPHERDs, inlcuding two for the price of one. Acted on a hunch and ordered a likely looking marriage certificate for John SHEPHERD, one of the witnesses was a Margaret SHEPHERD of the same address, so went looking for her birth. She was a twin, Margaret McLean SHEPHERD and Christina Johnston SHEPHERD (talk about getting in all the family names with economy of effort).

Anyone with Timaru connections might be interested in the Timaru District Council web site - has a well indexed burial register for the Timaru District Cemeteries, ie not just Timaru but also Geraldine and Pleasant Point (at least), linked to photographs of headstones and plots. Which meant a brief sidetrack and several people with dates updated now. (That info came courtesy of the Canterbury Branch newsletter).

Wednesday 26 September 2007

Sep 25, 2007: Fife HENDERSON descendants

HENDERSONs rule KO. Linda and I have had an intensive couple of days updating assorted McGREGORs in Fife (descendants of Archibald HENDERSON's dtr Margaret), prompted by the GenForum posting from a descendant mentioned below. Probably more updates to come, but enough changes have been checked out by now to justify an update to LornaHenderson db on WorldConnect.
The basic HENDERSON chart has also been updated.

Monday 24 September 2007

Sep 23, 2007: Tiptoeing thru the TIPPETTS, and hunting the HENDERSONs

A day for the TIPPETTs, well an hr or two anyway. Found an entry in my Guestbook from Karen directing me to her TIPPETT/ROUNSLEY information. So much easier finding people in the US census when you know where to look, even though TIPPETT was variously transcribed on ancestry as LEFFEL and TAPPET (corrections lodged). I'd guess that the ROBERTS connected into the TIPPETTs shown on Karen's page probably connect to the other Welsh ROBERTS that married into the ROUNSLEYs but I'll not get sidetracked onto that as it's getting a bit far away from the already distant relations here.
Also several snippets from Linda H. on the HENDERSON/McGREGOR line, spurred on by the contact via the McGREGOR GenForum. Linda found George WATT in Edinburgh in 1901 and found his son, yet another William Meikle WATT, and George's marriage, irregular "by declaration". Several of the family of James HUTTON and Margaret McGREGOR continue to elude her/us though. Anyone seen a Janet HUTTON after 1886? Born Dunfermline 1856. Possible last census sighting was as a cook in Edinburgh St George in 1881.

Saturday 22 September 2007

Sep 22, 2007: HENDERSON dna results and searchable papers

OneGreatFamily
contact from someone interested in Cecil James GULLETT (marr. Ada CREBER in Australia, aft 1912). I hadn't any info on him prior to the marriage but given she tells me he was supposedly from Plymouth I've done some digging and have now updated his birth data and confirmed the emigration date.

Having fun investigating dna based genealogy at the moment.
Oxford Ancestry testing shows that the HENDERSON paternal line comes from what Professor Sykes has named the clan of Oisin.
For more accurate matching of relations more markers need to be tested however, so I'm working on a 2nd cousin to see what can be done about a more detailed test. Wouldn't it be fantastic to finally find descendants of Archibald's eldest son William, or find out what happened to his son John that looked like he went to Berwickshire? Or, the creme de la creme, find out where Archibald came from!

Clive has been searching the newly published version of Papers Past where the newspaper text is now searchable. Snippets shared to date look like it really is time I published what I have on my grandfather William HENDERSON, but it will have to wait until I've cleared the decks of some non-genie stuff I'm busy with at the moment.

Pays to advertise

A Feb 2007 posting about ANDREWS/COATH has elicited a response from a 2*great grdson with some updates. Mind you, the relationship does rather depend on the right Ann BARTER being selected from the records as another contender has been found. They have an old family tree drawn up some years ago, which I wont get an update from until after a return from holiday. Hope it matches my diggings.

Wednesday 19 September 2007

Luck changed on LUCOCK

And another hunch verified. Agnes Gair HENDERSON, of Great Clifton, dtr of Archibald HENDERSON, joiner, did marry Joseph LUCOCK, also of Great Clifton, widowed butcher, s/o Reay LUCOCK, farmer. Bit annoyed with the certified copy I received, has the Parish as Wokington, not Workington, and Joseph as LACOCK and Reay as LAYCOCK, instead of LUCOCK. Wonder why I didn't get the normal photocopy?
Casting around for Joseph's first marriage I found a likely looking one in 1909, to an Annie, wait for it, HENDERSON. There's a likely death of a 25 yr old Annie LUCOCK in 1912 in the right area, and an age of 25 would make her highly likely to be Agnes' elder sister. The plot thickens. It looks like a nephew of Joseph's (Albert Reay LUCOCK) emigrated to NSW.

Sep 18, 2007: Confirmed PC

PC Francis Douglas SINTON did indeed marry Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN, and yes he was the son of John Gillies SINTON, Police Constable. 1894 Crookham, Dist of Glendale, NBL, witnessed by Richard LILLICO and Alice MOFFAT

Monday 17 September 2007

Sep16, 2007 Cousin John SINTON

Still on the trail of PC Francis SINTON's descendants. RUNCIMAN family memory came up with a "cousin" PC John SINTON of Lynemouth, married to a Gertrude, with a son of unknown name and dtr Issy, John being likely to be born around the turn of the century (which coincides nicely with the places, dates I'm looking for).
Research has turned that into a 1930 marriage of a John W SINTON and Gertrude E ORMISTON, registered in Rothbury, and so far I've found a son John D, reg. 1931 Rothbury and a male born/died in 1932 reg. Morpeth. No sign of an Isabel as yet (up to 1944).

Friday 14 September 2007

Up to date

WorldConnect db LornaHenderson updated.
One of the main changes is in the SCOTT family connected with Thomas who may or may not be Eleanor's brother, but connects in anyway as he fathered an illegitimate child with one of the Abigail SCAIFEs. WorldConnect doesn't quite cope with "de facto", so no, Thomas wasn't married 3 times at all, and it is a bit of conjecture that all three of these partners are the same Thomas, but as two of the children are with him in later census records, and the Thomas SCOTT in each is "of Fauld" or "of Corrylees" it does seem highly likely.
A couple of SCOTT wills, and a CORRY of Fauld one are on order. Pity that Robert SCOTT of Corrylees seems not to have left a will.

Back to BAINs & no luck with LUCOCK

Hope to get Thomas SCOTT on the web soon as I've had fun chasing assorted Cumberland SCOTT families around the records the last couple of days. No great conclusion re Eleanor's relationship to them though. Someone, somewhere might hold the key to where Eleanor fits in.

Also hope to get out an update to my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson as there seems to have been a sudden rush of updates.

GenesReunited hot matches has put me in contact with another of the BAIN/SUTHERLAND/THOM descendants in Australia, so that's a few more dots on i's and t's crossed (how are you meant to write that, doesn't look right with "is" for plural of i!). Thank you Peter M., 4th cousin once removed. The BAIN chart has therefore had a few twigs added.

Received a reply from the LUCKOCK researcher, but dipped out on enough information to solve the Agnes Gair HENDERSON & Joseph LUCOCK marriage mentioned below, at least not without paying for a certificate anyway.

Linda H called my attention to the McGREGOR GenForum activity in response to one of her posts. Looks like we've been found by another HENDERSON descendant of Margaret H, sister to my James H. Not sure where as yet, but her husband is a descendant of James Addison McGREGOR.

Update: digging around from the hints on GenForum and the fact that Canada might be a good place to find James, I came up trumps as he started off in Ontario where I can access BDM data online via Ancestry, and there were a couple of dths in the British Columbia index too so the HENDERSON chart has a few extra twigs under James McGREGOR now.

Monday 10 September 2007

Sep 10th, 2007: site's officially PC - Robert RICHARDSON added

P.C. Robert RICHARDSON added to the web pages to show the information Paul R extracted from the Northumberland Record Office on his police career.

I hope to be able to include PC Francis Douglas SINTON soon too, assuming that he turns out to be who I think he is.

Looking at the other "recent edits" I can't remember what changed for John ROBERTSON and James Stewart CAMPBELL, but suspect it was merely something minor associated with the recent activity on John HENDERSON's wife Agnes Johnston WHITE who has had her place in the JOHNSTON clan verified as best it can be.

Sep 2007 birth notice of Taryn Heather JACKSON received from a proud grandma (Brenda).

The GRAHAM chart will have a few small twigs added to show Abigail SCAIFE's illegitimate son Thomas SCOTT. Following that lot around the census records really showed how people just didn't know or didn't want to tell their age. I don't think I've ever come across such a varied set of ages over the years. Interesting to note though that the ages at death of Thomas SCOTT and siblings actually suddenly and miraculously became accurate again. Cannot yet fully determine that this Thomas SCOTT and his family are Eleanor's siblings, but it looks highly likely that there's a connection of some sort.

Sunday 9 September 2007

Sep 9, 2007: Scotts of the Fauld & PC SINTON

It is looking likely that I've picked the right Margaret marriage for PC Francis Douglas SINTON, but so far this is on entirely circumstantial evidence.
A descendant of Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN's aunt Susan Bell RUNCIMAN (marr. Robert MOFFAT) remembers a PC John SINTON, and wife, of Lynemouth visiting her great aunt and uncle at Millfield. She also remembers a son and a dtr, but I've no timescales for this as yet. Anyone with a stray PC John SINTON and family of Lynemouth sometime within living memory?

Bridget has shared some SCOTT of Cumberland research with me that looks very promising. It may not lead to conclusively placing Eleanor SCOTT (married Robert TURNBULL) but does have some interesting leads that link SCOTTs to SCAIFES of the Fauld (an Abigail SCAIFE and Thomas SCOTT, both of the Fauld, had an illegitimate son Thomas SCOTT in 1812), and throws in a BARNFATHER name as well. All yet to be further investigated.

Friday 7 September 2007

Sep 7, 2007: OneGreatFamily +

Interesting to read Dick Eastman's review of OneGreatFamily


The RICHARDSON finds mentioned yesterday will have resulted in some small updates to the RUNCIMAN chart.

Sep 6, 2007: Small world territory and updates

Found a couple more RICHARDSON relations whilst browsing Ancestry today. Noticed that a couple of trees had the same RICHARDSON and RUNCIMAN names as my tree so went investigating. Guess I'll only hear from them if their user info on ancestry is up to date. Small world territory. One of them appears to be from the Robert RICHARDSON Jane YOUNG branch of the tree but has ended up in the same Northumberland town as a RICHARDSON researcher down from the John RICHARDSON / Elizabeth SHIELL line.
The PC Robert RICHARDSON, of Northumberland, is of this RICHARDSON/YOUNG line (and still hasn't been written up).
I'm in the process of preparing a presentation for the Computer Users Group of the local genealogy society. Which means I'm looking around for suitable screen shots as illustrations. As a result I've found someone else researching the family that Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN belongs too and have sent her a message, brought the family of Duncan McGREGOR and Helen MOULTRIE up to the 1901 census and updated my LornaPotential database.

Wednesday 5 September 2007

Sep 5, 2007: Green is the colour...

A new set of web pages is hereby launched. Robert's Dunsmores and McCutcheons. Not my data, I'm just doing the web design and publishing the pages (by importing Robert's FTM backup into a TMG database and then using SecondSite, this latter being what I use for all of my pages).
They are by way of a thank you for all Robert's hard work looking things up for me, long may it continue! The green was Robert's choice, or to be more accurate, Robert said green was his favourite colour and that's what he ended up with.

Sep 5, 2007: HELSONs

As mentioned briefly yesterday, I've been contacted by a HELSON rellie (from BC). Which of course prompted me to review what I was missing around the family concerned, that of George Alfred HELSON and (1st wife) Sarah BONNEY of Peterborough, Ontario. So several Marthas and Harrys and one or two others that fell out of ancestry in searches have all been updated. Main mystery that surfaced was a Marwood SMITH, "stepson" to William BONNEY (married one of the Martha HELSONs). I feel he has to be a son of Martha's sister Ella Clifton HELSON, but the documented one of those, Marwood Oliver SMITH was born and died in 1903 and this one is consistently shown as born c 1905. He rather inconsistently shows as female as he crosses into the States around 1919 but that's remedied by the 1930 census where he's in Toledo, Ohio as a machinist for a bottle company. Anyone want to claim him, make him feel wanted?
The PEEK chart on Big Brother has been updated, other updates will follow.

Sep 4, 2007: A side-tracked day in Lorna's life

How I get side-tracked. Not that this is new information. Having found the toothless James SINTON, I looked at the rest of his family and realised that I'd nothing on his brother Francis Douglas beyond the 1891 census so I went looking. Found him living with Mum in Hawick in 1901, working as a laundry vanman. Some years ago I'd noted a PC Francis SINTON at Rothbury, NBL in 1920 injured in a "dastardly attack". But without any further info as to age, and not having any known Rothbury SINTON connections it was just filed info. However, I did find a 1904 marriage of a Francis Douglas SINTON reg. in Glendale, NBL. The brides on the same page were a Margaret BRYSON and a Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN, so he married a Margaret and is highly likely to be the Francis I'm looking for. With a move south from the Borders into NBL he was also looking good to be the injured pc. It wasn't a great stretch from laundry vanman to PC as his father was one. A web search turned up a few more details about the crime as being written up in a book "Tough Times & Grisly Crimes" by a Nigel Green, and Amazon turned up trumps with it being one of the books with a content search enabled. He had a page and a photo, and even better, it gave an age (and that he survived the attack, continuing as a policeman to retire at age 65). Looking good to be "my" missing Francis SINTON.

Setting that aside I decided to investigate the possible RUNCIMAN bride given my interest in that surname, and quickly found a likely match in the same area, tracing her and her family back through the census data etc. The family came from Scotland but had moved to Northumberland between 1851 and 1861. Working back from Margaret I quickly found that a couple of years ago I'd traced her grandparents around BEW and ROX up to 1861 for some reason I cannot now remember, and it was easy to connect up Thomas RUNCIMAN with wife Alison/Alice/Allais CURRIE to this Thomas & Alice RUNCIMAN in NBL. Not that I know she is the right Margaret for Francis as yet.

Decided to check out the theory by buying the marriage cert, so I'll know that answer in a few days.

And as I was putting in a cert. order anyway, I ran off a list of outstanding tasks where I was considering purchasing an English BDM cert. Up popped the query about a dth cert for William White HENDERSON of Cumberland. Which made me look at that family again.

William has a sister Agnes Gair HENDERSON, so I checked FreeBMD for marriages in a likely time period and place, and up popped an Agnes G HENDERSON marrying in 1919 to a Joseph LUCOCK in Cockermouth. Sounded likely. Off to GenesReunited (GR) to see if anyone had a Joseph LUCOCK of the likely age/place. Yes, one person did. Checked 1901 and 1891 census for Cumberland to see how many likely candidates there might be. At least 2, possibly 3. One was living with a blacksmith's family, so he seemed a highly likely candidate to trace back. GR came up with someone who looked like he was investigating that family too, so queries were sent off.

And about there my side-tracks came to a halt, apart from answering some of the daily mail miscellaneous contacts and info.

Few more snippets about the JOHNSTON family of Awamoko, with a FRIDD name thrown into the mix, so a search of the Cyclopedia of NZ to no avail for the new name.

Another HELSON contact popped out of the woodwork, so there's tomorrow's side-track, if you can call it a side-track, I've long since forgotten what I'm being side-tracked from, but the table is looking slightly clearer, so I must be finishing some of the things I start.

Tuesday 4 September 2007

Sep 3, 2007: Toothless in Romsey

It's official. I've a toothless relative. Wonderful what you can find in Army pension files. I moved on from the RUNCIMEN to the SINTONs and came across James SINTON, stud groom of Ayr, born Earlston, last employer Mrs E C MacFARLANE of Fenwick Lodge, Ayr. Thought that sounded a bit familiar, and sure enough, he's one of the WIGHT relations, s/o John Gillies SINTON and Isabella WIGHT. His pension application for losing all or most of his molars in the army appears to have been declined on the grounds there was no corroboration in the office vetting the applications. Found a birth date for his dtr Christina buried in the mire of officialdom there, and now have the priceless information that he spent 3 days in Romsey hospital while on army service, suffering from "headache 128".

Monday 3 September 2007

Sep 2, 2007: WWI RUNCIMEN

Wonder if any of them took their runcie horses to WWI? Found that Ancestry has the British WWI pension records 1914-1920 online. Checked the RUNCIMEN entries and found one of our missing Argentinian bunch being discharged (without a disability pension) in 1919. Although he appears to be living in Walthamstow his occupation was listed as a horse and cattle breeder of the Argentinian Republic. Several others with papers there, mostly belonging to the Haddington lot, and one a son of Walter RUNCIMAN of St John's Wood.

Sunday 2 September 2007

Sep 1, 2007: St Paul's Parish, Oamaru

A few finer details added to Oamaru marriage dates thanks to the Presbyterian Archives published lists of marriages in St Paul's Parish, Oamaru 1869-1920 (Ta Brenda for drawing these to my attention)