Feb 26, 2008: LAKEMANs NZ to AUS 1859

William LAKEMAN and family moved from Taranaki to Melbourne via the brigantine "Active" in Jun 1859. The obits of William and wife Martha appear in the Taranaki Herald on Papers Past because of their connection with early Taranaki history, so there are many hints as to the rest of the extended family, which I'm gradually working through.
There's even an MP in there, son Allen representing Balranald for 4 years (the family soon left Melbourne and settled in Wagga Wagga).

Feb 25, 2008: Early Taranaki, pre 1st 6 ships

Forgot to mention (back on the 21st) that the Toronto descendant of Hugh HAMLEY and Elizabeth ROWE found a web reference to a William LAKEMAN of Bere Ferrers who would definitely fit the bill of being the grandson mentioned in the will of Matthias ROWE in 1836.
I interpreted the will to refer to grandsons William, James and John LUKEMAN, but could easily re-interpret that as LAKEMAN.
I found the baptisms of (I assume twins) brothers James Rowe and John sons of John (carpenter) & Mary LAKENHAM of Lydford in the Bere Ferrers registers in 1816.
Check out William LAKEMAN, early resident of New Plymouth.
I've not managed to find his baptism, but this is the right age, place, and I think parents.
What I found most fascinating about this was the additional connection it gives me into Taranaki, and prior to the so called "first 6 ships" that brought my 2*great grandparents, and so many of the forbears of my Taranaki relations.

Addenda: Found William's baptism in 1811, which has convinced me even further that he's the right chap.
Interesting to re-read some of my New Plymouth history books in light of this new link. I've always thought of the first 6 ships as beginning the main European population of New Plymouth and environs, but the "Brougham" is described on 13 Feb 1841 as having "sailed on Monday last for Taranaki" (from Wellington). She has on board about sixty persons and a full cargo of houses".. and .. "With sixty persons Taranaki may be considered as colonised." (Rutherford and Skinner p xiv)
The Brougham arrived in New Plymouth on the 12th Feb, and the "William Bryan" arrived on 30th March 1841, landing passengers on the 31st.

Feb 23, 2008: a two part FUG(u)E

I do so love working on Devon families, so much economy of effort.
I was checking to see what might have happened to Elizabeth Hamley FUGE, so searched FreeBMD for a marriage. Up she popped in the Jun qtr of 1886 (Tavistock) along with a Walter Frederick CREBYK (as indexed) along with a Charles Henry HAMLEY and Hannah Laura HAMLYN.
I was reasonably sure that if I checked the image Walter Frederick CREBYK would be one of the many CREBERs in the area. The image was a little hard to read around his surname, but with the benefit of local research knowledge, I would have interpreted it as CREBER. But to make sure before I added a correction for the FreeBMD index, I looked for him in 1891. There he was, obligingly using his full name, and with wife Hannah Laura, QED. But before I went back to looking for Elizabeth Hamley FUGE and Charles Henry HAMLEY in 1891 (to prove they are the cousins they look like they are), I idly checked my database for Walter Frederick CREBER, not thinking any of the Bere Ferrers CREBERs were mine, and there he was, untraced beyond 1881 until now.
Definitely economy of effort.
ROWE and KING charts updated.

GenesReunited has again come up trumps too.
I'd found someone with an interest in Charles CORROCK and Sarah Rowe Hamley FUGE. He turned out to be a great grandson. His mother, still alive, remembers Sarah. Malcolm also remembers his granny (Emily Louise CORROCK) and her sister Flo (Florence Amy CROSSE nee FUGE) keeping a wine shop on the sth edge of Mutley Plain, Plymouth when they were both widowed.

Feb 21, 2008: SINTON certs

A few certs have arrived over the last couple of days but I've been busy with a visitor, and my pv panel installation (now operational, wonderful watching all that power flowing into the house that has no ongoing cost attached - just need to add the windmill now).

Firstly the family of Francis Douglas SINTON and Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN has now been confirmed to have at least Isabella May (born Nov 1904) and John William (born Oct 1906), both with Francis Douglas' occupation given as Police Officer, and occuring at Acklington R.D. Both registered in the Alnwick Sub District of Warkworth, Northumberland.

Secondly - confirmation that James SINTON, son of gamekeeper James SINTON and Jane AINSLIE, did indeed marry Isaballa Mary EMMERSON.
These SINTONs are actually a different branch of SINTONs, with Southdean connections, Jane being the dtr of Robert AINSLIE and Margaret SINTON, "my" Southdean SINTONs.
Usual refrain applies, would love to trace present day SINTON descendants of this line to join the SINTON Surname DNA project and see if the families are connected. James traces back to a Thomas SINTON and Elizabeth HASTIE.
There were several males in the next generation from James and his brothers Thomas and Robert, so I live in hope. Places associated with them are Anfield Plain, Wooler, Alnwick, Newcastle, Castle Ward.

Feb 19, 2008: What happens when someone chats to a neighbour!!!

Updated Ernest with the latest on the HAMLEY family, and he remembered that some years ago when he started investigating his family tree he mentioned this to his neighbour, who surprised him by replying that her ancestors were also from Bere Ferrers, called FUGE and that there was a connection to the ROWEs by marriage, with children named Sarah Rowe Hamley FUGE and others with HAMLEY in their names.
Wasn't hard to dig out that connection. Mary Elizabeth, dtr of Hugh and Elizabeth (ROWE) HAMLEY, married William FUGE, bargeman of Bere Ferrers. Someone else is obviously working on the tree as there's a post-em against the marriage entry on FreeBMD with the details of the marriage cert!
ROWE descendants chart updated, yet again.
As is the Barter Descendants chart as a few more twigs were found/updated.

Feb 18, 2008: More HAMLEY, and some DAWE

More work done on the family of Hugh HAMBLY/HAMLEY and Elizabeth ROWE. I've included their grandson William Henry HAMLEY on my web pages as at least one other researcher has different findings as to what happened to him.
My findings appear to agree with a descendant in Toronto, so I'm comfortable with what I have, even without a crucial marriage cert. to clinch the id one way or the other (married to either Ellen Ann GILL or to Martha WOODHOUSE).

ROWE chart updated, as is the DAWE chart as I've been found by a descendant of Betsy DAWE & John GALE via their son Samuel (see postings in my guestbook for further details)

Feb 16, 2008: DAWE DNA Project

DAWE Surname DNA Project Patriarchs page updated to include Isaac DAWE's family.
Any takers to join the project?
Would welcome any descendants of Devon or Cornwall DAW(E) families.

Feb 14, 2008: Baskerville connection again, and hunting HAMLEYs

Given the posting earlier this month about the ROWE family connection to "The Hound of the Baskervilles", I was somewhat amused to find that the baptism of one of the relations (in the family of Hugh HAMBLEY/HAMLEY & Elizabeth ROWE) showed a second forename of Baskervill. However this was in 1826 in Beer Ferrers, so rather prescient.
Have made great strides in identifying what happened to Elizabeth and her HAMLEY family. Mostly stayed around Beer Town, with some straying to Devonport so far.
ROWE descendants chart updated, yet again.

Feb 13, 2008: Further FAIRBAIRNs, more MATTERS

Continued updating the line of George and Janet (PURDIE) FAIRBAIRN.
Both that of their son Charles whose children ended up moving from Pennsylvania to Illinois, Washington State, California (and probably others).
And that of the New Zealand branch of their dtr Margaret who married John WILLIAMSON and 11 days later hopped on a boat to NZ (Three Bells, on the same voyage were the family of FAMILTONs who settled in Oamaru).
The other Archibald FAIRBAIRN chart updated - again.

Barb has provided details on how her friend Cathy connects back to Joseph MATTERS & Mary CUDLIP, and also provided a couple of useful web sites:
Washington State Digital Archives and a North Dakota Marriage License index

Feb 10, 2008: The EYRE affair?

Obviously a good year for FAIRBAIRNs. Having recently added George FAIRBAIRN and Janet PURDIE into the extended FAIRBAIRN family, I had found most of their children in assorted records, but not the dtr Margaret. All was explained. Here in NZ, about 3/4 hr drive away, is a descendant who has just contacted me, Margaret and her new husband emigrated to NZ shortly after their marriage in Melrose, Rox. The other Archibald FAIRBAIRN chart updated. Newly acquired surnames include: WILLIAMSON, EYRE, STENHOUSE, BRADBURY, THORNTON, in Dunedin, Auckland, and Wellington.

I've also been contacted by a MATTERS descendant in Washington State. Not yet exactly sure how she connects back to Joseph MATTERS and Mary CUDLIP, but that's her line apparently.

Feb 8, 2008: Updates & more coincidences

Both databases on Rootsweb WorldConnect updated (LornaHenderson and LornaPotential).

Today's coincidence. I was browsing the Rootsweb FAIRBAIRN Message Board and idly wondering if those mentioned in Lambton, Ontario were mine or not. I then checked my guestbook (see link at top right) and found a new message from a lady who kept finding FAIRBAIRN info that she didn't know where it connected with her family, including a funeral order of service for a Jessie of Blandford, 3 of which family had died within a year. Also mentioning a FAIRBAIRN of Lambton.
The Blandford sounded familiar, and sure enough were my relations (John FAIRBAIRN married Margaret SINTON, it is actually the SINTON that is related). Within the space of Jan to Apr in 1871 two daughters died of consumption followed by the father.
Unfortunately her email was rejected, so it could take a while to make further contact.

Feb 7, 2008: Small world

Another of those wonderful coincidences that I feel abound most particularly in this world of genealogy.
Over the last week or so I've been having an intermittent conversation with an Arnold, whom I assume is somewhere in Argentina, who has an interest in Scots in Argentina.

I was trying to figure out how to further identify the Richard RUNCIMAN who is shown on a website as being buried in Buenos Aires in 1875 aged 60. He has to belong to my family somewhere. Arnold suggested immigration records (Entradas) and a few other hints, which I forwarded to one of my RUNCIMAN relations in Argentina asking if he might help track down further information about Richard.

He replied that he would be delighted, and that he had a friend who was an historian who might be able to help.
In the meantime Arnold also gave me the email address of a lady, Maxine, who had published a directory of Brits up to about 1850. So I sent the info on. It turns out that Maxine (or her family) is the neighbour of my relation, and the historian friend he was talking about. Small world indeed.

Ongoing conversation, resumption of one from 2006, about the family of Joseph MUMFORD and Emlyn/Emmeline ROWE, and where she and brothers James and Henry (etc) ROWE of Bere Ferrers belong. I think I've convinced Angela, and reconvinced myself, that I am correct in assigned James Julian Dunkin ROWE to Matthias and Sarah (DUNKIN) ROWE. Both James and Matthias were blacksmiths, and whatever spelling of Dunkin you use for James Julian's 3rd forename, does point rather to Sarah being his mother.
They have a cousin James, who was of an age, one baptised 1787, the other 1788, so options do exist.

Feb 6, 2008: Hurrley=Hamly; Matthias ROWE Will

I obviously got sidetracked when working on the ROWE family last year. Found that I'd not finished working thru the will of Matthias ROWE. Probably because I still cannot identify who on earth the LUKEMAN family are (Matthias' grandchildren via his dtr Mary who also married HORNBROOK), but I did find a suitable HAMLEY marriage for dtr Elizabeth, having originally interpreted the writing as HURRLEY!
ROWE charts updated, World Connect databases LornaHenderson and LornaPotential will follow shortly as there have been quite a few dates and places checked since last update, including to the American branch of the family.
Both ROWE Surname DNA project web pages (FamilyTreeDNA and World Families Network) updated, and the first Devonshire descendant recruited.

Feb 5, 2008: Elementary my dear ROWE

A foray back into the ROWE family reminded me that I hadn't replied to an email from quite some time ago from Ernest, a descendant of the ROWE family who owned/ran the Duchy hotel in Princetown. He had found out that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written some of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" while staying at the hotel. Web searches show Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had checked into a hotel in Princetown. The book was beginning to be published by 1901, and there were two hotels in Princetown, both with ROWE family connections, the Duchy from at least 1851. In 1901 Aaron ROWE was recorded at the Duchy House Hotel, which Kelly's 1914 directory for Devonshire shows as a Private Hotel, with Aaron still there.
More Australian relations down this ROWE line have shown up, thanks to Ernest pointing me to a connection in GenesReunited.

Being a tiger for punishment, I've extended my DNA interests to the ROWE family, taking on co-ordination of the Family Tree DNA Surname project for that one too. Interested parties should check out the ROWE Surname DNA Project website at the World Famlies Network to see results for some who have already been tested, doesn't look like any Devonshire ones there yet, which will hopefully change soon.
I've not yet added "our" pedigree lines or done any changes to the web site I've just inherited, that will come.

Feb 3, 2008: BENNETT birthdays

January gone already?
Flurry of activity on the family of Edward BENNETT and Betsy DAWE, prompted by a descendant (grddtr) of Mabel VIGUS finding me. What's more she has supplied me with transcripts from two birthday books, so I've been having fun trying to identify everyone. Managed to do so for most, but not all. Several BENNETT children obviously belong in the generation after the 1901 census, and as they were born prior to the birth index showing the mother's maiden name, I don't know which BENNETT son they are likely to belong too (apart from the one whose parents have hopefully given the game away by including SLOWMAN in his forenames).
Brief DAWE chart updated, as is the fuller one on the main pages.
And with a number BDMs exact dates supplied, and registration places now checked, I'll probably do another WorldConnect update soon too.
This brings the surnames from the DAWE/BENNET marriage to: ASH, LISLE, SLOWMAN or SLOMAN, VIGUS, BLATCHFORD and MOON, with the next generations down having: BAKER, WIDDICOMBE, JENKINS, BORRETT, MITCHELL, NANCARROW, GOWING. It also adds another Australian family into the mix, Edith Mary BAKER nee ASH dying in Sydney at age 94.