Keeping it in the family *2

A last ditch attempt to see if I could any WIGHT descendants willing to join the WIGHT Surname DNA project before the good discounts run out at the end of the month (year) saw me seeing if I could update the family of this George WIGHT, whom, back then in 2005, I could not find beyond 1891.
Still can't find him in 1901, but have found his wife and children, all in Southampton, and think I can spot likely death registrations, in Southampton, for George and Helen/Ellen Ann WIGHT in 1904 and 1905 respectively.

The keeping it in the family references of the title apply to:
1) his grandson Harold Leslie WIGHT because he seems to have married both a Doris N and an Eileen Mary HAYNES, relationship unknown, but both from Southampton, and of an age to be siblings (born 1908 and 1911 respectively).
2) George's son Robert and Robert's son George - were found as crew on the same ship to New York in 1920, Robert as 45, Ship's cook, George as 20, Asst Cook;

So, George's coffee house in 1891 must have sparked off a family business or two.
Son Robert has a restaurant in Southampton in 1901, dtr Jennie has married a Manager of a cocoa shop by 1901.
By 1911 Robert is no longer running a restaurant as he is shown as a ship's cook (mercantile).
Think I also spotted the said Harold as an entree cook on another voyage to New York.

With the WIGHT DNA project now having at least two Borders lines represented, it would be good to get my Border WIGHTs into the project, along with the other WIGHT tree that is heavily inter-twined, that of John & Ann (MIDDLEMAS) WIGHT - or any others for that matter.
Some outline trees are available on the Patriarchs page of the project.

Apart from the above, I'm still plugging away at resolving the "orphans" before I do the next update to my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson, that and working thru some DAW updates Val sent a while ago, together with trying to piece together the likely trees from the latest Fairbairn DNA project results (should be some more interesting ones of those coming up about February as three more trees should be represented by then, and one more branch of the RUNCIMANs).

Where "matches" (don't) lead

Bless her cotton pickin socks.
I've just been notified of a match on MyHeritage, where the matching set were my HENDERSON 2greats, so of instant interest.

A quick response to my "why are you interested in James and Amelia" provided the information that her husband was a fourth generation down from them, via a Hulda JOHNSON which was a bit puzzling.

My immediate thought was that this was a descendant of my James' sister Margaret given the location of the tree owner seemed to be Pennsylvania (well it's sort of close to LA where some JOHNSON descendants were).

However, inspection of her tree showed that she had married James and Amelia's son John (born 1854 Carnwath, Lanarkshire, died 1925 Oamaru, New Zealand, and not known to have travelled after having arrived here in 1874) off to her Rosetta HENDERSON (born 1841 Pennsylvania), giving them a daughter Hulda Sophia HENRICKSEN born in Sweden in 1863 - when John would only be 9, let alone in a completely different country.

The positive bit of this however was that it did make me do something about the likely misidentified photo that appears to be circulating the web (which the above tree had in it, attaching the woman in the photo to both Amelia HENDERSON nee MILLAR and to her mother Margaret nee CRYSTAL!!).
It was given to me quite some years ago by the PHILLIPS branch as a photo of a somewhat younger James and Amelia HENDERSON than the golden wedding photo which graces my homepage.
Discussion with Clive back in 2005 determined that in their family the photo was identified as George and Marion (SMITH) YOUNGSON instead.
He's likely correct given the clothes and age of the couple. I'll pop it on the web with commentary sometime soon (like all the other "sometime soon" things).
The woman most definitely looks like most of the HENDERSON women in the older photos, whichever one she actually is.

Calverts of Cumberland

In my true (dis)organised style, I strayed back into one of my Cumberland families today, which will result in some small updates sometime soon to my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson.
William CALVERT showed up as a(n incorrect) match to another on OneGreatFamily, so I thought it was time to identify him a bit more accurately to avoid a repeat.
In the process I learnt where Torpenhow and Blennerhasset were, and helped another chap with his William CALVERT, given ancestry told me that he'd claimed the same entry on the 1881 census as I did for William, the problem being that the census entry showed him as single and younger than his married chap born the same place but several years earlier.
My connection to this chap is actually his wife Martha Maria SCAIFE.

17th: We're all connected really

One of those wonderful coincidences that I love about this hobby.
An email from a (4th) cousin from the WIGHT/RICHARDSON part of my tree, living in Edinburgh, greeted me this morning to point out that his mtDNA "Jasmine" (J) appears to have a fellow Jasmine descendant with Fairbairn ancestry, living in Wyoming.
Given that mtDNA matches fairly seldom result in anything useful within genealogical timeframes, I was treating that as of rather passing mild interest, until I spotted who the person was.
Her brother is represented in the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project (F-20) so the FAIRBAIRN is not his mtDNA connection.
Regardless of that, his ancestry is from the same area of Fife as my cousin's, and we have in the past corresponded about these FAIRBAIRNs and their IRELAND connections.
As to whether or not they'll find a match in their respective maternal trees, I do not know, but it does seem a wonderful coincidence that these two "met" and share me as a common contact.

Fewer "orphans"

Still plugging away at those who would show up as "orphans" in my LornaHenderson tree on WorldConnect (not yet updated).
The exercise of checking why does of course lead me into all sorts of little updates as I realise I can now find families in the 1911 English census, figure out who on earth that grandchild or niece with x or y in a census actually was etc etc.

Had a bit of a chuckle at one mistranscription on FindmyPast for a servant with the TOOP family at Place Barton, Buckland (Yelverton) - wonder how busy a House driver on a farm would be? My reading of the image makes it a much more likely horse driver.

2nd: WIGHTs

The fledgling WIGHT DNA project may soon be able to report two Scottish Borders/Lothians lineages, as we now have a new member, one from a family tracking back to Longformacus. Wish I could find a willing participant for my own lot.
Has to be a direct male line WIGHT for these sorts of tests - non invasive, no blood, can be completely anonymous if you wish.
Check out the project diary, and get in touch if you think you are eligible and/or can help - preferably before the discounts finish at the end of December!

Start of summer

It's the official start of summer here, and for once the weather knows it. We've been having wonderfully hot, sunny, windless days - no doubt we'll pay the price later with water shortages but for now, enjoyment is all.

So what am I doing sitting inside? Checking (it's too hot out there).
Fool that I am I decided to run an extra check against the data I upload to Rootsweb WorldConnect (ie BDM data on all my relations and their connected people of interest).
Checking for strays, ie those who had become disconnected to their families.
Some are easily fixed by marking their partner for output, others are meaning ongoing research, eg how was Charles Frederick William ANDREWS a grandson to Ambrose Willcock ANDREWS?
This time round I've cracked it by finally finding the family in the 1861 census where they had been hiding in Bristol, under initials instead of forenames, and along the way also identified the "visitor" Charles aged 2 with John and Maria ANDREWS in Tavistock in 1851. He was actually nephew to John.

This activity does mean that I get to re-visit parts of the database that haven't had much attention for quite some time, but also means the WorldConnect db update will be delayed until I've sorted more than the first one on the list of some 115 people!

Heard from Tim in France. Between us we've now solved each other's mysterious Alexander Ewing RUNCIMAN.
I didn't know where the family had disappeared to for the 1871 census, he didn't know who the 17 yr old chap documented as arriving in Sth Africa was.
Haven't yet rechecked to see if I can now find the rest of the family in 1871, but Alexander is now known to have already left Scotland, and obviously not straight for Argentina where he ended up.