Thursday 27 December 2012

Richardsons of Morebattle

Still investigating the Richardsons of Morebattle.
The descendant chart for James & Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON has a few more twigs on it - anyone out there researching the family?

Friday 21 December 2012

My Beautiful Chromosomes ...

... with apologies to the author of My Beautiful Genome.
Ralph's Family Finder results have arrived as an early xmas present for us both, and show that a small genetic segment of our shared ancestry back at Robert RICHARDSON and Margaret RUNCIMAN has indeed made it down through the generations unscathed to Ralph, me, and to my HENDERSON 2nd cousin who shares his WIGHT/RICHARDSON/RUNCIMAN ancestry with me.
Regardless of whether we can assign this to the RICHARDSON or the RUNCIMAN ancestry, it is a good confirmation that the Scottish naming pattern sometimes works, as that was how I found Robert & Margaret (RUNCIMAN) RICHARDSON all those years ago.
Here's an update to the earlier picture of my chromosome - restricted just to my paternal side's matches this time:

Thursday 20 December 2012

Re-org continues


My original Research pages are gradually being split into genealogy and "real life" and shifted to either LornaGenie or  LornaHen.com as appropriate.
A wonderful photo of the hawk resident in the area by the lagoons bordering my place hastened the move of the photos of some of the wildlife in the vicinity.
Enjoy.

Monday 10 December 2012

William HENDERSON

I've decided to claim the William HENDERSON married to Margaret SINCLAIR as "my" William.
Seems a bit too much to expect two William HENDERSON smiths at the Bridge of Allan with Archibald & Margaret as family names.
This adds SINCLAIR, TODD, BRADDISH, McCLURE and SPEAR (at least) into the HENDERSON names.
Interesting to note the occurrence of twins in this line, as well as in that of my James.

My family tree web pages (Big Brother) have been fully updated to reflect this, and any other snippets that have been included since last full update.
As several pages state:  love to hear from any descendants, particularly any with early photographs, or anyone willing to add to our knowledge of the HENDERSON dna.

As a result of the above update the HENDERSON page has had a bit of a revamp and more of the HENDERSON descendants' vital records (BDMs) now appear as pins on the map on that page.

Saturday 8 December 2012

Bridge of Allan smiths

Wonderful what a fresh pair of eyes does.
Robert's interest in my HENDERSONs, sparked by his relationship to Margaret COUPER, who married Archibald son of Archibald HENDERSON  & Margaret McEWAN, has had both of us reviewing available information on the other children, and descendants, of Archibald and Margaret (McEWAN) H.

I'd previously thought that their son William must have died prior to 1855, probably prior to 1841, as there were no obvious sightings anywhere, other than an 1841 census entry that would otherwise fit apart from it being claimed as William born 1810 Cowie Hill, Logie, by a researcher as the son of William HENDERSON & Jean DUNCAN that I'd been in contact with back in 1994.

The more I look at this family, the more I'm becoming convinced that this is indeed my William.
Proof definitely lacking however as he does indeed appear to have died between 1846 and 1851, with Margaret also appearing to have inconveniently died between 1851 and 1855.

However, 5 of the 6 children emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1857, possibly with their grandmother Elizabeth SINCLAIR nee WATSON, so I'm now scurrying around seeing what else I can find.

Reviewing the 1994 correspondence I now note that the birthdate/place and parents of William were tentative at the time, not proven - so time to be checked where possible - and with a bit of luck a suitable dna candidate found for the HENDERSON DNA project? (The latter currently looks a little unlikely as far as Y-DNA is concerned, but possibly FamilyFinder may show a match to one or other of the 4 of us tested for this line over either Family Finder and/or Y-DNA)

Anyone know anything about a William HENDERSON, smith at Bridge of Allan between 1841 and 1851 in particular?

Wednesday 5 December 2012

At last

My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been re-loaded to reflect the last few months research, or at least those bits of it relating to my relations and their connections.

Still working on the equivalent - Lorna Potential ie the potential rellies.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Miracle? Mistake? or ??

Part of the validity checking ready for the WorldConnect reload of db LornaHenderson popped up a birth after a mother had died.
My initial assumption was that it would be a simple typo on my part.
Not so simple.
Although the parish register clearly shows William Walter BICKELL's  birth and baptism are Jun/Jul 1895, with parents Richard & Mary Louisa BICKELL, they also show that his mother died 28th Jun 1894 and was buried 1 Jul 1894.
My next assumption was that his birth year was 1894 and he was baptized a year later - so a clerical error in the parish register.
Or that his mother's burial was misdated, given that it was one of a small number at the top of a page headed 1894, but having none for 1895, then a number of 1896 burials.
However, the birth and death registers show Mary Louisa's death registered 1894 Q2, and William's birth registered 1895 Qtr 3.
Since 1874 English births registrations were compulsary, with the parent being required to be registered within 42 days, or a £2 fine was to be paid. Perhaps Richard paid up for registering a year later, and the birth date in the Parish register against the baptism is incorrect?

Any takers on resolving this one?
For now, my database continues to show the implausible data.

Sidetracking

An update to my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson has been in train for a wee while now.
Anytime I run a check over the gedcom for potential problems I find either silly typos, outright mistakes, or gaps in the data that can be easily filled. Sidetracks always ensue.
The most recent proved a very interesting exercise.
It highlighted that I'd never found, or more accurately thought I'd never found, the family of Robert & Janet (SCOTT) WIGHT in the 1851 census. Wrong!
I'd found them years ago, but had shelved the id as I hadn't known anything about sons William and James, and the George with them was the wrong age. Nothing had led me back to review this isolated family sitting in my database.
So off I set to find the fate of the "newfound" children.

Several trees showed William as emigrating to Ohio and living in Iowa, married to a Mary SIMINS.
As his nephew William had indeed emigrated to Ohio, and been visited there by my 2*great grandmother, this seemed plausible, especially as the 1860 Ohio census age fitted.
I couldn't find a marriage to confirm the id, nor the birth of first daughter Margaret, supposedly born Edinburgh Feb 1854.
Subesquent census data, and William's death notice however all placed him as 10 years older and doubts began to creep in, so I moved William and Mary and family to show up (next update) in the WorldConnect potential rellies only (db LornaPotential) pending more info, and moved on to siblings Isabella and James.
With no sightings in the 1861 census I wondered if they might  not have survived - which may never have been able to be proven if it was between 1851 and the beginning of civil registration in 1855.
Thankfully for me, not so thankfully for the poor family, there were Isabella and James, both dying of typhus in Coldstream with a few months of each other, aged 4 and 17 respectively.
On a hunch, I then also searched for William - bingo. He had been the first of the family to succumb to typhus, aged 21, in February 1855 - so whoever the chap is in Ohio/Iowa aint him.

Always interested to find trees that match mine rather exactly, and note that my rethinks/subsequent research on who links to whom that I've documented aren't reflected on what look like copied data. (The earlier WIGHTs rethink refers.)


Friday 30 November 2012

Making doubly sure?

Still plugging away on the DAWE families of Sth West Devon, many descendants of whom are descendants of my KING and BARTER ancestors.
Many of the KING/BARTER rellies have now been better documented as a result of this exercise, which has highlighted, yet again, how inter-related many of these families are!

Today's intriguing find is a couple who appear to have married twice within a month - and no it doesn't look like banns in both parishes.

Mary Maria Pitt GILES and William SPURRELL are indexed as marrying in Devonport, with the FindMyPast transcription showing this was 22 Oct 1913 at St John's.
FamilySearch has the image of a marriage licence in Cook Co., Illinois of a 36 yr old William SPURRELL of Chicago marrying a 33 yrs Mary Maria Pitt GILES on 11th Nov 1913!
In between there's an passenger list into Montreal on 5th Nov 1913 showing William, 36, and Mary,  33, as SPURRELL, both "married", with William's children, William and Joseph, from his prior marriage (which children are with their grandparents in Wembury in the 1911 census).
 


Friday 23 November 2012

Traps for not so young players

Still digging around in the family of Donald Cowper HENDERSON & Margaret BROWN.
Back in 2006 I'd found an ancestral file entry for the family showing they had a son James born about 1882 in Scotland, married to Della HAUCK - which family I'd never been able to validate, coming or going to/from Scotland to California, marrying, dying, nothing.
But I did have a brother in the family named Hinckley who married a Della someone.
For the latter I had at least found some evidence in records, including the "perfect" speicimen his father, the registrar, thought he was in his WWI draft registration below.

Think I've cracked that one.
James supposedly born 1882 Scotland turns out to be James Cowper HENDERSON, born Hinckley Stn, San Bernadino County, California in 1896, on exactly the same day as the above Hinckley always uses, with the same parents.
Haven't yet figured out who his supposed child is and reconciled the conflicting marriage information between census and military records.


The Californian branch adds in a few new names: KLEINSCHMIDT, McDONALD, BOGGS, FAYLE, EARLE, SMITH, GOLDING, TRAPNELL to add to those already there - ALLAN, HAWLEY, MILLER, CRAWFORD.

The descendant chart on the HENDERSON page  has been updated to reflect current status.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Perfect

Came across an interesting case of bias in military registrations today.
The WWI draft card for Hinckley HENDERSON of Barstow, San Bernadino Co. had a slightly less than usual answer to the question:
Has person lost arm, leg, hand, foot, or both eyes, or is he otherwise disabled (pelase specify)?
The registrar had written "Perfect".
The more usual aswer is a non-commital No, or stark list of infirmaties.
All explained when checking the registrar's name - one Donald C HENDERSON, Hinckley's father!

This activity on the HENDERSONs, last touched back in Sep 2006, being explained by a contact from Robert, a relative of Donald's mother Margaret Aitken COOPER/COWPER.
Such contacts always make me check where I'd got to on a family, and there are several loose ends in the family of Archibald and Margaret HENDERSON, which family Linda and I had only found by accident in chasing Archibald's sister Margaret at the time.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Have you considered...

FamilyTree DNA have announced another good round of test discounts.
Details available on the DNASurnames project diary where the list of projects I have an interest in may also be found.
Direct male line descendants of my DAWE, WIGHT, & FAMILTON lines are particularly wanted.
Happy to explain how this is a painless, harmless process that will enhance our knowledge of the families concerned - contact details in footers of most pages.
We've had great successes with the RUNCIMAN and FAIRBAIRN projects.
Some links that may help explain dna testing for genealogy can be found on my Lorna Genie site.

Sunday 4 November 2012

Naomi

Naomi is a sister of one of the "Seven Daughters of Eve".
This is of interest as the mtDNA results are just in for the direct maternal descendant of Margaret McEWAN, wife of Archibald HENDERSON.
Don't think our overall sum of genealogical knowledge has been advanced a lot, but it is good to know that her descendant belongs to haplogroup W, a subgroup of haplogroup N.
The results did make me check where the direct maternal line led back to, and as a result a few dates have been amended, and an extra generation added - that of George STEVENSON & Jean OSWALL of Stirling, parents of Margaret.

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Wick to Edinburgh

Contact from a descendant of Jemima CRAIG & Samuel McKAIL led to a short burst of activity on the McADIE line this family belongs to.
Found marriages for two of Jemima's siblings: George to Helen HARVEY; and John to Margaret MOWAT.
A witness to the latter's marriage was a James McADIE who had to be related somehow (given Jemima is a McADIE descendant), and was living with them in Edinburgh in the 1901 census, a printer-compositor born Wick.
Looks like I've found James Bremner son of George McADIE & Elizabeth Sandison BREMNER, whom I'd "lost" after the 1881 census, especially as his brother Robert shows up as a compositor in one census.

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Fewer DAWEs

Well, fewer DAWE trees on my DAWE page anyway.
Some of the Buckland Monachorum DAWEs were kind enough to leave wills that have survived.
One is that of Betty DAWE nee SCOBEL, widow of William DAWE of Dunwood, Tamerton Foliott, to whom I had assigned the William married to Joanna ATWILL, at least until I received my copy of said will and found that by 1843 Betty was referring to her son William as "late", but kindly left his widow Hannah a bequest.
The latter hint brought the family of William & Joanna/Hannah (HUNT) DAWE in from the cold, but shifted the William married to Joanna ATWILL to the family of William & Elizabeth (WILLOCKS) DAWE instead - the Williams had both been baptized in Meavy, a few short months apart, one to William & Betty, the other to William & Elizabeth.
The William married to Joanna/Hannah had to belong to Sampson and Marina somewhere given these names featured in their children.
We now know where.
Their daughter Marina has long been in my tree as wife of Henry DAWE, a descendant of both my BARTER and KING lines from the area. I calculate that this new connection makes them 3rd cousins.

Monday 22 October 2012

More DAWEs & a RUNCIMAN rethink

The rather inter-twined DAWEs of South West Devon have had another update, as has the Patriarch page for the DAWE Surname DNA project where DNA oriented pedigrees lurk awaiting a direct male line DAWE interested enough in his family tree to donate a little bit of himself to history.

With that "little" project almost out of the way for now, there should be some time for attention to shift back to the RUNCIMANs where there has been an exciting bit of research by Phyllis and Alan who visited the Scottish Archives and finally found how the Richard who brought up William of Crail's orphaned children was related - he was their grandfather.
Back to the drawing board on how to connect up those dna matched trees !
Current favourite, and at the moment the only candidate available from readily available records, is the Richard married to Jennet GOURLAY, but evidence is rather sparse - or we'd have found it long ago.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Visitation of God, with Milwaukee for a bit of variety

Still flip-flopping between Devon and Australia on the extended DAWE families of South West Devon.
Had to shift one Henry DAWE from one family to the other on a bit of digging. I'd assumed he was an undocumented  brother of the Sampson and William at Willunga, but it looks rather more like he was a "cousin" instead. Not yet fully proven. His headstone shown on the Australian Cemetery Index shows him as "of Tamerton", which is indeed where the family that provided the other Willunga brothers, sons of Sampson & Jenny (MADDOCK) DAWE, lived, but so did that of John & Elizabeth (RUNDELL) DAWE, moving there from Coomb Hill, Sampford Spiney. The latter have a documented Henry of the right age. Some published family trees show him belonging to one, some to the other.
Did love the Coroner's verdict for Henry's unexpected death, as reported on Trove in the South Australian -  " Died by the Visitation of God".
The Milwaukee connection above is for yet another Samspon, married Mary Ann FUGE. A couple of trees confuse him with the Stoke Fleming Sampson (who married Catherine Henwood ROWE). Exactly how the Milwaukee one connects to the grandparents he is with in 1861 and 1871, William & Mary Ann (?HORN?, ?CONWAY?) DAWE at Hecklake in Whitchurch has yet to be found, but regardless, he emigrated to Milwaukee in 1893, wife and children following in 1897.
The trees on my DAWE page have been tidied up still futher, as several more linkages between families have now been confirmed.

Sunday 14 October 2012

And back to Australia

The DAWE activity continues.
Several of the Devon trees have been tidied up and assorted Sampsons have now found their rightful homes.
One I'd not found in English census records turned up in a Sth Australian cemetery.
My DAWE page has been updated, including another of the interconnected trees, that of William & Johanna Hannah (HUNT) DAWE - who have a Newfoundland connection in their tree.

Friday 12 October 2012

From Australia back to Devon

The activity on the Australian DAWE descendants of the Buckland Monachorum family of Sampson & Joan (BLANCHARD) DAWE reminded me of my trip to Devon in 2006.
Many photos were taken, many still await processing, most are of headstones, not scenic spots.
Those from Buckland Monachorum were the DAWE headstones in that churchyard, and have now been incorporated on my website.
To access them, go to the Places tab, scroll down to DEV, Buckland Monachorum and click on the little information icon

At the time I was probably taking the photos on spec rather than in the knowledge of where, or, they fitted into my family tree.
Some do, some don't, as it turned out, none are known to be from my direct DAWE line, despite what some online trees say (see prior post about his topic, enthusiasm vs accuracy), but are mostly descendants of James BARTER, or married to them.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Australian DAWEs

Their time has obviously come, again.
A descendant of Isaac DAWE, miller in Tasmania, had popped out of the woodwork a few weeks ago and some updates eventuated to that line, that from second wife Emily GREEN.

Just last week a MyHeritage SmartMatch popped up a TREMBATH/BROTHERAS researcher claiming another of my Isaac DAWs in Australia as marrying Elizabeth Ann BROTHERAS, nee TREMBATH in Cue, Western Australia.
This Isaac was one down the line from my Isaac, miller of Lumburn, Tavistock's brother William (married Mary WAY).
Two surprises here for me,  marriage and Western Australia!
Other researchers may  be well ahead of me here, but I had him has unmarried, born and dying in Victoria!
The information checks out, so Isaac has been included on my webpages for others to see the connections.
The wonderful newspapers online at Trove hint that maybe  Isaac's parents and some siblings also headed for Western Australia at some stage - not yet confirmed that "DAW and family" on the same voyage as Isaac is them however.

And then yesterday another heap of MyHeritage DAWE SmartMatches popped out of the woodwork, from yet another DAWE in Australia, Western Australia even.
These DAWE matches however turned out to be for the descendants of Joseph DAWE & Elizabeth CROSSMAN of Buckland Monachorum, no connection currently proven to my DAWEs above, but the trees are interconnected several times over via other families, such as my BARTERs and WILLCOCKs.

The DAWE DNA project would love to explore whether or not there is a connection between these South West Devon families, so are still looking for any direct male line DAWE descendants of any of these families willing to give it a try.

As a result of the above I've updated my DAWE page and added pages for:
  • John DAW of North Lew (to document the erroneous link that several trees make between the two above DAWE trees)
  • John DAWE of Yeoland, the John some trees give as the father of my Isaac DAWE, and is where at least one of my connections to his DAWE line begins, and
  • Elizabeth KING, wife of John DAWE of Yeoland

Wednesday 3 October 2012

World view

Recently begun investigations on how better to display some of my genealogy data, eg an analysis by census years for my RUNCIMAN one name study by population concentrations, reminded me that several years ago I'd purchased Map My Family Tree.
With the disk eventually found it looked like it might be rather an out of date program given it mentioned that it the version of TMG that it could read directly was 6 (8.04 is the current version), and certainly had never been loaded under my current system, Win7 (64bit).
It loaded just fine. So nothing ventured, nothing gained it was pointed to my current database and set running.
The place file structure in TMG must still be as they were several years ago as it worked.
Was there an update available?
Check for updates kept telling me to connect to the internet, which I already was.
All was not lost however as the program' website FAQs acknowledged that there was a problem and provided the update file as a download.
Here's the end result from my entire database - certainly shows my areas of interest.

Great for finding errors in your place locations, but not altogether what I'm looking for as yet, however interesting in its own right.
GenMap next to be investigated, as some interesting example sites show exactly what I'm looking for - pity it seems to only be for the UK. Although it does appear to be a program launched back in 2002,  at least the webpage mentions Win7.

Sunday 16 September 2012

3rd daughter identified

John has cracked the puzzle as to who the third surviving daughter was for James, tailor of Hamilton Bermuda and wife May MOFFAT.
He is working his way through James' 1879 will, which names the daughters, providing Naomi LEE as the missing one, presumably married to executor "son-in-law: George Andrews LEE.
Back to the Rootsweb Bermuda website and the family of Robert LEE & Mary McPHEE for more info.
Naomi's surname isn't mentioned, but it does show George Andrews LEE's first wife as Clarinda Darling FRITH, daughter of Hezekiah FRITH and Mary MATSON.
So Clarinda's brother Hezekiah FRITH married Naomi's elder sister Catherine Hadden Moffat RICHARDSON - keeping things in the family.
A quick search of Genealogy Bank newspapers adds a few snippets as to Naomi's life in New York, whence she had emigrated by 1875ish.  A custody battle for her McDONALD grandchildren, orphaned by the death of their mother (Ada Julia Alicia McDONALD nee LEE) in 1894 makes several column inches in several papers.
My Richardson page has been updated as the charts should now include one or two other twigs, both from the above, and from assorted digging around trying to find living descendants from the families listed, and that of James & Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON in particular.

Saturday 1 September 2012

Morebattle ctd

My RICHARDSON page has been updated to include a couple more descendant charts, and a slightly updated timeline (including one or two date ranges for some families to show when their children were being baptized at Morebattle).
As I continue digging around on Borders RICHARDSONs I come across families I've looked at before, some had already been included in my LornaPotential database for many years.
So, if they had a Morebattle connection, or a connection to those that do, they've now been included on the RICHARDSON page. Might help someone!

Thursday 30 August 2012

LornaGenie

Those that had access to my prior LornaGenie website may be pleased/indifferent to know that it is returning, piece by piece.
There will continue to be open and restricted pages - the distinction primarily being because the content behind a logon is purely notes, rather than fully researched webpages,  on assorted topics either of interest to me, or the subject of a presentation, or a WEA course.
The notes on the latter two are intended to supplement what was presented, and to prevent a paper war.
I'm taking the opportunity to rationalise some of my other bits and bobs on the web, so the main LornaGenie site will include/already includes some of the non family related parts of my Research website

Wednesday 29 August 2012

What about Jasper?

The Morebattle RICHARDSONs continue to spread their tentacles.
Something drew me to a RICHARDSON/CAIRNS headstone at Denholm and I decided to investigate a little further.
Sure enough, John RICHARDSON led me back to Morebattle, albeit via Selkirk (his birthplace) and Ancrum (father Jasper's), Jasper's parents being John RICHARDSON and Janet INGLES or INGRAM, depending on which records you believe, or whether or not John remarried to a Janet of the same age and birthplace but a different surname.
John being shown as born Morebattle or Eckford, again depending on which records you believe, the son of Jasper RICHARDSON & Mary HOPE.
The family of Thomas and Cecilia (YOUNG) RICHARDSON will be added to my RICHARDSON page. They do appear to have more connections to Southdean than to Morebattle, but inter-relate to several other families, so my research may as well show up somewhere!

Saturday 25 August 2012

Face recognition

Had to chuckle over the recent publicity about Facebook using face recognition to identify people.
Miaow?
My avatar on most public systems is one or other of my current or prior cats, or a mosaic of one of them that graces my backyard.



Thursday 23 August 2012

And Henry too?

The growing RICHARDSON page has been updated to include the family of Henry and Ann (PRESTON) RICHARDSON, where Henry appears to track back to James RICHARDSON & Isabel PRINGLE of Over Roxburgh.
Henry and Ann were also eschewing the established curch for the Morebattle Gateshaw sessions around the same time as James and Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON, and had emigrated to Quebec by 1832, as had James and Christian (OUTERSON) RICHARDSON, which James may, or may not, be one and the same.

Usual plea - any direct male RICHARDSON of Henry and Ann out there interested enough in their family history who would be willing to join the RICHARDSON DNA project to see if there's a match to John and Ralph?

Also added to the page is a timeline of relevant events to the above RICHARDSON families against the lifespans of some of the main characters. Suggestions of significant events to be added welcome.

With all this RICHARDSON activity, especially the repeating use of Andrew as a family name, and the extension from Morebattle to Roxburgh, the family of Andrew and Mary (WATSON) RICHARDSON also came back into view. They've been lurking in my database LornaPotential for many years as this tree inter-connects many times over with assorted lines in mine. So a brief descendant list for them as been added as well - the connection to the above being Roxburgh rather than Morebattle however, with Crailing thrown in.

Sunday 19 August 2012

Cracked it!

Patience, perseverance, and not believing what we've been told - or at least interpreting it less literally, given that the Sth side of the St Lawrence river would have been/is rather close to St Lawrence County in New York State.
Adam Brown RICHARDSON's census data all indicated he was born in New York around 1835.
The recent flurry of activity trying to connect him to the Bermuda RICHARDSON family that turned out to be that of James and Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON was inconclusive, but there is a growing body of circumstantial evidence of a connection - my theory being that James remarried, to Christian OUTERSON.
Who has finally been found to be Adam's mother.
A very big thank you to those behind the indexes on the Huntingdon County and the Seigniories of Chateauguay and Beauharnois website.
I was actually looking for anything that provided evidence for the age of James, Christian's husband, that may add even more fuel to my theory of this being his second marriage, and had turned my attention to Quebec, given that their son Robert's bio stated that he had emigrated at age 6 to Quebec, and taken part in the Patriot War of Canada at aged 16-17.
Still pinning my hopes on a heads of household census of 1841 for Chateauguay, but as there's also a James shown as being buried in 1840, I'm not holding my breath.
 

Wednesday 15 August 2012

WorldConnect updated

A fresh copy of the WorldConnect database LornaHenderson, the online tree of BDM data on the rellies no longer with us, and their connections,  has been uploaded.
Last updated in April, so a few months of updates.
Although not proven to be a connection, some of the Morebattle RICHARDSON research from the last few days has also been included in the hope of flushing some descendants out of the woodwork.

While onto updates, database LornaPotential has also had a rather overdue review.
Several people have been shifted into the above Lorna Henderson database as they are now either know to be relations, or connect to people who are, others have been dropped off. There's more that can be reviewed given the timespan since last review (last updated March 2010!), and the fact that 50 of them are "orphans", ie not connected to anyone else in the database, but pegged as of potential interest, mostly as possible sightings of one or other of the rellies.

I'm almost convinced

But have I convinced anyone else?
Some additional circumstantial evidence for the theory of the the two James families, that of James and Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON, and that of James & Christian (OUTERSON) RICHARDSON being one and the same James:
-  George (mother MABON) also emigrated to the States and is to be found in Omro, Winnebago, Wisconsin in 1860 three census pages before his presumed step-brother Robert who has his mother Christian (OUTERSON) living with him.
- George 's wife is Margaret MELDRUM
- David, George's assumed step brother names his daughter Ella Meldrum RICHARDSON
- a snippet view of "New Brunswick Lineages" on google books brought to my attention by John shows James as 1770 (Edinburgh) -1850 (Lower Canada) - which age makes it highly likely that he remarried (Christian was born around 1796)
So, just maybe John's Adam, born 1835 New York, belongs to James and Christian? This is only 3 years after their last known Scottish son was born.
All pure speculation of course, but even though there isn't, yet, a proven dna signature for James' line(s), we do still have a Bermuda, and a New York connection.

Love to hear from any direct male line RICHARDSON descendants of the above families who might like to explore this further.

Sunday 12 August 2012

Speculation rife

Couldn't quite give up on the RICHARDSONs.
Went back to my 2008 notes from the Morebattle Gateshaw session records to see if there might be a re-marriage of the widowed James, whose wife Margaret MABON had died in childbirth in 1812.
Although 8 years seems a little too long to wait to get a mother to his bairns, the family of James and Christian (OUTERSON) RICHARDSON came back into view. There's nothing on the 1820 Eckford marriage entry that indicates James was a widower, just that he was from Morebattle.
I'd never managed to find traces of them in Scottish censuses.
Spurred on by reminding myself that they had a son named Archibald Moffat RICHARDSON (Morebattle, 1832), I widened the net to the States.
An Archibald Moffat name is just too much of a coincidence given the Bermuda James' wife Mary MOFFATT, and her father Archibald MOFFATT.

Son Robert pops up in Winnebago Co., Wisconsin by 1850, stating he was born in Canada! Later censuses correct that back to Scotland, with 1900 adding an emigration date of 1841, and the 1860 having (mother assumed) Christy RICHARDSON, aged 64, born Scotland with the family.
His two subsequent remarriage indexes, between them, show his parents as James RICHARDSON and Christiana "OTTASUS" !
The mistranscriptions of OUTERSON abound, but that one takes the cake.

With the hint of Canada being somehow significant the net got wider.
Up popped son Andrew, with (assumed mother) Christian in the Quebec household in 1881.
Andrew thought he had emigrated in 1837.
One family tree has decided that Christian was born in Yorkshire (census records both indicated Scotland) - but as the Bermuda James married and had one child in Leeds, this may have been a bit of lingering family misinformation?

Another tree claims David for the James/Christian family but I haven't yet verified that one, other than yes, he's the right age, and of more than passing interest, is to be found in Oneida county, New York in one census - where Thomas of Bermuda settled. Well, the same county anyway, Thomas was at Trenton, David at Deerfield - which appear to be about 12 miles apart.

Just maybe, one day we'll find that John's Adam, born 1835 in New York, does belong to James of Morebattle after all, but the father not the son?  He's only 3 years after Archibald Moffat RICHARDSON was born in Morebattle to Christian.


Saturday 11 August 2012

The difference an s makes

Back to the drawing board.
Having gone from the Bermuda Triangle to the Pirates of the Caribbean*, John has reviewed the information that led us to examine the family of James & Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON of Morebattle, descendants in Bermuda, Canada and the States - at least.

His relationship has been relegated to one by marriage as it was the granddaughter of James RICHARDSON, tailor in Bermuda, that was the connection, not her husband William Meade RICHARDSON, sometime photographer of Bermuda, later of Wisconsin (Mrs W M RICHARDSON, not Mr W M RICHARDSON).

However, Ralph's and my interest remain because of the Morebattle Gateshaw session connection.

The newly uploaded Richardson page on my family tree pages has been updated to reflect this change.

* The Pirates reference being that James' daughter Catherine Haddon Moffatt RICHARDSON married Hezekiah FRITH, grandson of the pirate.

Friday 10 August 2012

RICHARDSONs

Spurred on by the recent RICHARDSON finding, the RICHARDSONs have been promoted to having a page of their own on my main webpages
It includes the chart of William RICHARDSON of Pringlestead's descendants that was already present, but William is now joined by charts of the families of James and Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON and William, the dancing master, or at least some of them.
Not all of the descendants found in the records have been entered.
Reviewing my notes from the Morebattle Gateshaw Session records I can spot several other RICHARDSON families that I noted in passing.  These will now get a closer scrutiny!

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Bermuda!

Some time ago we found a dna match between Ralph and John RICHARDSON.
John's family knowledge started in New York with the birth of an Adam in 1835, but without any knowledge of his parents.
John has been back in touch, having found a snippet that indicates Adam father was a James, tailor, who emigrated to Bermuda with a brother (also a tailor, unnamed, but probably Thomas as his Oneida death is reported in a Bermuda paper and states the relationship to James ).

So, the prior suggestion that his family might be Adam and Margaret (BROWN) RICHARDSON has taken a new turn of events.

James' 1879 obit. brings in a brother John of North Georgetown, and a sister Mrs Samuel MOFFAT of Beechridge, (Beauharnais, Quebec), which most definitely leads to the family of James RICHARDSON & Margaret MABON of Morebattle.
When reading the Gateshaw Session records I had noted this family as being of potential interest, so it just goes to show that all little snippets squirrelled away usually come in handy sooner or later!

John is now on a hunt to definitively link his Adam to James, but there is indeed circumstantial evidence in that he did know that Adam's three sons had a photography studio in Bermuda before returning to their birthplace of Wisconsin.
And I've found that Thomas, a tailor, died 1880 in Oneida, NY, had a son William Thomas, or Thomas William, born Bermuda around 1850, who was a photographer.

Investigations proceed. 

Friday 3 August 2012

The value of contacts

Love it when people get in touch.
Makes me review areas of the database that haven't been touched for quite some time.

The HENDERSON descendant chart has been updated to include a few more of the descendants of Margaret McGREGOR nee HENDERSON, the HEIGHTs of Nova Scotia and Connecticut ++.
Thank you Roger for contacting me because of a 2007 post to see if I was still interested in his grandparents - Alden Elkiney HEIGHT and Christine Addison McGREGOR.
Most definitely still interested, look forward to some updates.

As the Recent Changes index shows the family of David & Jane (HERD) FAIRBAIRN has also been updated as a result of the earlier mentioned contact.  David's page has been tweaked to include his naturalization, and land holdings in Wisconsin from the now more readily available information, and Robert Herd FAIRBAIRN's  family has been expanded thanks to Veronica.

Saturday 28 July 2012

How many husbands?

Contact from Veronica has led me to review where my research had left the family of Robert Herd FAIRBAIRN Jnr.
Back in 2008 or thereabouts his family was a bit of a puzzle as to whether or not there were one or two Roberts.
I convinced myself that there was indeed only one, but wife #1 had obviously not died, as she had popped up as large as life as an 87 yr old telephone operator in the 1930 census of Redington, Nebraska.
This time round, with much more information readily available and indexed, and with a very helpful BUSHEE researcher who had posted a biography of Lucy on his ancestry tree, there will be a lot more certainty to Robert's page next update. (As well as naturalization and land details for his grandfather David, married to Jane HERD).
Lucy seems to have led a colourful life.
Five "husbands" are mentioned. So far I've only found one marriage indexed, that to Walter GAGE (as Lucy FAIRBAIRN), but have found her in census data with Robert FAIRBAIRN, Walter GAGE, and "husband" #5 Harry GORDON. The quotes are because although the article states that Walter had died, then she married #4 HUNTOON, then #5, Harry, in 1893. Walter appears to have been happily living in California since 1888, dying there in 1910.  Guess if you can divorce one husband back in the 1860s, another isn't a problem.

Wednesday 18 July 2012

No news

No news is good news, isn't it?
Bit preoccupied elsewhere than genealogy for a while.
The update to my main Family Tree site is mostly a catchup, with all the recent changes shown since the last update (6th April to now 17th July) are mostly background data tidyups or links to other sites, rather than new data.
There are probably several new twigs on assorted descendant charts though.

The "home" link from this site has changed slightly because of a background experiment, which may mean that anyone going direct to my main domain Lornahen.com might get some unexpected results.

Thursday 21 June 2012

Sintons, Fairbairns and Hendersons

Family Tree DNA recently "invited" assorted dna participants to add Family Finder to their DNA knowledge, at a considerable discount.
This tests chronicles your autosomal dna, ie that you inherit from all of your direct ancestors, as compared to the Y-DNA used for Surname dna projects which is only passed on from father to son, or the mtDNA similarly only from a mother to her children, but only passed on by the female line.
Should you be lucky enough for Family Finder to find a match with someone else in their database, you get to see which bits of your chromosome you match on.
As this test is really only most useful for the closer generations, up to 5-6 generations, ie back to 2-3*great grandparents, to find matches, it was a bit of a long shot to expect Peter and Michael to show up with the distant ancestry that we shared, but we decided to proceed anyway.
Peter and I have Peter SINTON and Jane WIGHT as common ancestors, my 3*great grandparents.
Michael and I share  Walter FAIRBAIRN & Agnes ROBINSON, also my 3* great grandparents, but Michael's 4*greats.
As you can see above, the blue portions are far more prominent.
They reflect my shared ancestry with Bill. We share William HENDERSON & Helen Sinton WIGHT, my great grandparents.
I guess we can conclude that the overlapping pink and blue lines are shared SINTON ancestry (unless of course there is an undocumented relationship between Jane WIGHT, Peter SINTON's wife, and Helen Sinton WIGHT's ancestry).



Thursday 14 June 2012

Slight tweak to front page of my main website - added a HENDERSON migration overview from all the BDM data uploaded to Ancestral Atlas (this is just a screenshot, the real thing is scrollable/clickable)

Sunday 10 June 2012

Cumberland to Oz

Another Guestbook posting from a rellie.
This one shows that at least one more branch of my GRAHAM family ended up in Australia (from Longtown).  Relatively recently in this case, a branch of the MONKHOUSE line.
Updates yet to happen.

Saturday 9 June 2012

Few more twigs

Yet another Guestbook posting, this time on the subject of the GALE descendants on my DAWE tree, those living in BC, Canada.  As the updates are within the living generations they probably wont appear on the charts etc.
Thanks Curt.

Thursday 31 May 2012

Devon again

Sally's posting in my Guestbook (28th May) has led to another tangled web of inter-relationships between the Devon families starting with a John BICKLE. His line leads back via MOSES and CREBER to  Elizabeth, daughter of James BARTER.
What the posting didn't state is that Sally's grandfather John A BICKLE married Amy Caroline BOWDEN, which name also seemed a bit familiar.
They were 5th cousins twice removed, as well as 6th cousins once removed, with Amy working back via ANDREWS and WILLCOCKS, to Ann BARTER, daughter of James BARTER (assuming of course the early BARTER research is solid).
My descent from James is from Elizabeth and Ann's brother James of Lower Dittisham.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Catching up

I still like to upload my researches to OneGreatFamily .
Their overview tree is still one of the better available on line for getting a good grasp of a family, and if others have also uploaded, where they have people you don't, or where your information differs.
My updates have been lagging behind somewhat as the earlier parts of each year are by far the busiest for me on the few things that take priority over genealogy in my life , but my August and September 2011 updates are now included in their combined tree.
The overview of how the updates are selected for upload etc back here, still holds.

Thursday 10 May 2012

Ever hopeful

Thought I'd found a connection between the  FAMILTONs I was researching today and my DAWE/GALE twigs: Northumberland and Devon. Still wondering how come they met!
Closer inspection however showed that there were two Martha GALEs of an age born Devon around 1830, one the niece of the John GALE who married Betsy DAWE, the other the daughter of a Maria GALE. The latter's daughter is the one who married Thomas Potts FAMILTON of Preston.

Wondering where I've been?
Check out the FAIRBAIRN and RUNCIMAN project diaries and/or the recent change indexes for their respective One Name Studies, along with the FAMILTON DNA project diary. One day we'll find a willing candidate or two to test the theories on how some of the trees inter-relate.

Those aside here has been some DAW activity following Sheila's posting on my Guestbook with the current investigation being whether or not the Maud Millicent DAWE that Fredy DAW married was a relation?  Jury still out.

Sunday 22 April 2012

SINTON twigs

Email from Dave greeted me this morning, researching Archibald Douglas TURNBULL (Jnr).
Did I know his wife's name? All he had was BROWN and couldn't find a marriage in England.
He was one step ahead of me, I didn't even have Archibald married.
I ended the day a few steps ahead - they married in Edinburgh, presumably because Mary Grace BROWN was working at Fleur, Coldingham at the time, even though she was Northumberland born and bred.
No idea if Mary is any connection to her husband's grandmother Jessie Douglas Carmichael BROWN, with or without an E, daughter of David BROWN(E) watchmaker born Edinburgh.

The SINTON descendant chart these TURNBULLs belong to has been updated with the above and one or two other connected dates, including that for the above Archibald's grandfather's 1934 death as there was a probate indexed in 1934 for Thomas Wilson TURNBULL of the right place, wife and children.
Some trees seem to claim this Thomas Wilson T. as the father of an Archibald Lancelot TURNBULL and have him dying in 1913 in Linlithgow, which date and/or place cannot be verified.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Isn't it wonderful...

... that when someone shows you how to re-interpret a mystery that all the records you couldn't find are now easily found!

Midi popped out of the woodwork to let me know the fruits of the research that she, and a very helpful Devon Online Parish Clerk (OPC), had put together in the search for her 3*great grandmother, one Thomasin aka Tammay aka Thomazin aka Tamson etc etc etc YEOMAN.
During that research she happened upon the 1861 census entry showing one of Tammay's married daughters, Jane WALTERS, in the family of Nathaniel DAWE and wife Tammay, in Plymouth, showing as a daughter of Nathaniel's.
Not that I'd searched particularly concertedly, but on the information shown I'd never managed to find Jane DAW(E)'s marriage to WALTERS, nor her birth, nor the marriage for Nathaniel and Tammay.
Knowing what I now know, out they popped:
  • "daughter" Jane's 1848 marriage as Jane COTTON to William WALTERS (at least the husband had been correct all along thankfully)
  • Jane's 1817 baptism in Plymouth Charles, father Sampson COTTON a miller at Lipson Mill
both images now being available on FindMyPast. 

Midi supplied both of Thomasin's marriages (which images I've not yet managed to find on FindMyPast):
  • firstly to Sampson COTTON in May 1816 at Charles the Martyr, Plymouth
  • secondly to Nathaniel DAWE in May 1824, Stoke Damerel.
Adding that Sampson had died in 1822 and was buried at/from the Ebeneezer Methodist Chapel in Plymouth, aged 34. And that son Samuel COTTON was a witness to the marriage of Nathaniel DAWE junior's marriage in 1855.
In my defence, I did have a note that possibly the marriage to Nathaniel might be around 1825 rather than 1816 given that's when the next children arrived, but I'd obviously not searched hard enough back when I had access to the Plymouth/Stoke Damerel parish records.

Jane WALTER's family will continue to be included in my WorldConnect database LornaHenderson, so that the research that has been shared  by/with me over the years down that line still shows, but they are now COTTON, not DAWE, descendents.
In the process a few other COTTONs in the database have had their dates checked and approximations now match reality, the family of James COTTON (b. Sth Africa) and Hannah Emma Jones BROOKING. Also added three more children into the family from the 1911 census, which included a 1 month old mite Emmie Violet, crossed out, who turned out to have been born and died the year before.

The database has been reloaded to reflect all of the above, along with the recent activity on the family of Alexander HENDERSON of the P.O. Buildings, Biggar - although several of the newly identified twigs are amongst the living and thus not shown in this extracted database. Would love to hear from the children of Alexander's son Alexander in California.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Blog labelling convention

Probably time the label naming convention being used here was re-stated.
  • SURNAMEs mentioned are shown in capitals
  • Places usually have a higher order place (in brackets) after them, usually using Chapman codes or the abbreviated county/country list that used to be distributed with the GRD
Anything else is just a key word of some sort, or a place that hasn't yet been supplemented by a (CODE), of which latter there will be a few still.

The accuracy of family info

It should come as no surprise that family information, filtered through several sets of ears and many years, may not actually be accurate.
Latest instance popped up in one of my HENDERSON families.
I'd been told, several years ago, that "Peggy married Joe and had two children..." with Joe later being named "GOODWIN".
The statement turns out wrong on several counts but the one that prompted this entry was being found by Peggy's daughter and learning that Joe GOODWIN was actually two separate husbands, one a Joe HEANEY, the other a George GOODWIN.
So far Joe HEANEY's existence is only partially confirmed in a child's surname, and Margaret/Peggy's marriage to George, back down in Cumberland (from Biggar), but it does seem to be a step or two closer to reality.
The HENDERSON chart has been updated to reflect at least some of the additional twigs now on the tree down from Archibald, brother of my great grandfather William.
Look forward to more updates Liz, great to chat to you.

Friday 6 April 2012

BATY/TURNBULL

Thank you Annie.
Annie has posted on my Guestbook a death notice from the Carlisle Journal, Saturday 11 Oct 1834, transcribed by Petra Mitchinson (on the Cumberland Rootsweb list)

"At Glasgow, on the 1st inst., in childbed, Ann, wife of Mr. John TURNBULL, and daughter of the late Mr. Wm. BATY, of Hornick Hill, near Longtown, in this county, aged 30 years, much respected." (I've changed the Hall to Hill)

This has to be the Annie born 1804, daughter of my William BATY and his second wife Mary SIMPSON.

With this hint FamilySearch shows that the "in childbed" refers to a daughter born, and died, 24th Sep.

Wonder if John TURNBULL connects to my other Arthuret and Nicol Forest TURNBULLs?

The only marriage found to date is in Glasgow of a John TURNBULL, chaise driver, to Ann BEATTIE in May 1934.  Can anyone claim them and/or disprove that this couple is the above John and Ann?

Ignore the BATY recent change index entries for 6th April other than Ann, the others were just typo fixes.

Thursday 29 March 2012

STEVENSONs of Hokitika

Not sure how I ended up in the ADDISON/STEVENSON part of my database, but having done so, it looked time for an update.
Several births, deaths, and marriages have now been confirmed, spouses correctly named, one or two descendants names, and the wonderful cemetery database resource of the Westland District Council has been found.
My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has already started an update process so this version wont contain any data from the newly found Hokitika headstone photos on the above site, but does contain many updates to the family.
They descend from Margaret FAIRBAIRN and Joseph BROOMFIELD via their daughter Agnes whose photo in an inherited album opened up a whole new line of research, so many years ago.  She looked far too well dressed to be one of my relatives, but no, she was indeed, as labelled in the album, my great grandfather Adam DAVIDSON's cousin. 

Monday 26 March 2012

Life lines

Finally did something I've been meaning to do for ages - uploaded a gedcom to AncestralAtlas.
Love one of the features that's arrived since I last explored - Life Maps Mode.
You have to be subscribed to see this feature, but with it you can pick someone in your tree and see either where they moved to over time, or where their ancestors were, or their descendants. I've only uploaded basic bdm data (for all those in my WorldConnect database LornaHenderson), but this would be even more valuable if I'd included census data - next time perhaps.
Check out where the descendants of John RUNCIMAN & Bessie FAMILTON ended up (this being a jpg snapshot, not an interactive display sorry):

Wish they had the historic map layers for Scotland, particularly as the Scottish Gazetteer site seems to still be having problems with that, but following the Vision of Britain links on the map does bring up several other options as does visiting the National Library of Scotland's wonderful maps.

Saturday 24 March 2012

Wybunbury

Have had several interesting email conversations recently with Peter who was brought up in the Vicarage at Wybunbury, ie where the Rev. Robert TURNBULL was the Vicar for 18 years until his death in 1877. Amongst other things the conversation has resulted in a photo of the headstone I couldn't find back in 2006, plus a couple of pictures of the Vicarage, 1847 and 1966. All of which can now be seen in the places section of my main website under, yes, Wybunbury, Cheshire (CHS). Click on the little info icon next to Wybunbury. Still don't know who the first wife was though. Perhaps in another 6 years? Many thanks Peter.

Friday 23 March 2012

LornaHen.com

Thought it was time to update a few of my webpages. The main family tree website, "big brother", has been fully reloaded. A lot of the entries in the Recent Changes index are merely tidy-ups to do with links to/from the FAIRBAIRN and RUNCIMAN One Name Study and DNA projects, with some exceptions. Many updates will only be visible in updated descendant charts, eg RUNCIMAN, DAVIDSON and RICHARDSON for the more recent finds. The heads of the Michigan RUNCIMAN families now have pages of their own, along with their father William. A feedback form has been added - see footer of each page - one day I really must put a captcha challenge on it to stop the spam! The menu items have been slightly rearranged and rationalised. Also updated is the main gateway page. "Lorna's life". It now includes links to assorted other pages explaining the differences between them, plus the latest entries for three of the main genealogy blogs I use to update progress. Lorna's links has had a few tweaks as well, consolidating the backup research logs into yearly files (and catching them up to this more regularly updated blog), adding a few more links to sites I currently use. Even my original family tree site, "little sis" has been reloaded, prompted by the main change to the RUNCIMAN tree. Yet to come, an update to WorldConnect database LornaHenderson (where all the basic BDM data for all the dead rellies and inter-connected people is available) - that's been delayed while I do a check of the "orphans" I was about to upload as I do more research to try and attach them to their family.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Agnes not Isabella & a twofer

While checking off yet more data before publishing yet another update, I strayed back onto my shortest family tree, the DAVIDSONs (that of my great grandfather Adam) and decided to check whether or not I would have more luck pinning a few more twigs down.

Just as I picked a correct death cert. from the options available on ScotlandsPeople, in came an email.

This is a line I've not looked at for at least 3 years, probably more, and many years ago the entire tree consisted of some 30 people until the Australian contingent popped out of the woodwork.
The email was from one of the Australian contingent, a descendant of the sister of the chap whose death I had just found!

Only managed to add about 3 descendants and 2 wives into the tree on two of the lines remaining in Scotland but several more fates have been found, including that of Isabella, daughter of John DAVIDSON and Isabella FORD.  The family story was that Margaret Greig DAVIDSON had emigrated to meet up with her sister, and the sister had been very tentatively identified as Isabella. Now however, with the increasing availability of records, the sister is more likely to be Agnes given there's one of the right age and birthplace emigrating to Queensland towards the end of 1891, especially as Isabella's death was found in Chirnside in 1909 - immediately preceding her aunt Mary JEFFREY nee DAVIDSON's on the same page - so two for the price of one!


Saturday 17 March 2012

A burning issue

Further to Robert BISHOP in the last post (Resurrecting Robert) - we can now guess how come he was in jail in 1900.
Found a newspaper report (27 Oct 1899 San Diego Union) of an arson of his heavily insured and heavily mortgaged property, in which he, "Robert Bishop an old man", and his son "H L Bishop", lived keeping "a saloon in the front part".
Both were accused of the arson and arrested.
Haven't found a report of any trial, but Robert is known to be in jail in 1900 and Harold was living with his sister and her husband at the same census.

Thursday 15 March 2012

Resurrecting Robert

Just found that I've prematurely killed off Robert BISHOP, husband of Elizabeth ANDREWS.
Given he was in the Alameda County jail in 1900 and not found (when I last looked) in the 1910 census, I jumped to the conclusion that he had died between 1900 and 1910.

Happenstance involving discussion about Queenie, aka Caroline PERRETT, the 8 year old kidnapped from Lepperton by Maoris in 1874 led me to revisit some of my Taranaki data.
Two of Queenie's siblings married into my extended ANDREWS tree: a sister Sarah became the second wife of Thomas LANGMAN, the first being Sarah, the above Elizabeth's sister; a brother married the daughter of the above Thomas and Sarah (ANDREWS) LANGMAN. A third married a BISHOP, which led to my yet again trying to figure out which, if any, of the Taranaki BISHOP families Robert belonged too - I failed, yet again.

However a general search on ancestry uncovered a Robert BISHOP of the right age in the 1920 Oakland, Alameda Co., California census. With a new, younger, wife Emilia, and a son (Ashton BISHOP) and a married daughter (Eva BROWN) born in New Zealand, previously unknown to me. Also with a convenient John E SAUNDERS in the household as brother-in-law of Robert.

The "BISHOP" son and daughter turned out to be step children of Robert's, being born to George LEECH and Amelia Hamblyn Cudlipp Scone SANDERS in New Zealand, probably in New Plymouth.
Also noted in passing was an Elizabeth Hamblyn Cudlipp Scone SAUNDUS marriage in New Zealand in the same timeframe to a Thomas Green LEECH. Sure enough Elizabeth and Amelia were siblings, emigrating from Devon to Nelson around 1860.

Thomas and Elizabeth LEECHs children seem to be well linked to the WOOD family, and there's also a connection in this lot to Alfred Bayley KIVELL.
All in all, a well tangled set of Taranaki families.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Adam RICHARDSON, Chester music instrument dealer

Recently found what happened to Adam son of John & Ann (BLAIR) RICHARDSON, and ordered his will, thinking he would mention a heap of his nieces and nephews, given he was apparently childless.
Hope the blighter gave the solicitor a good family tree as he hedged his bets and left his estate  "in trust for the person or persons who at my death under the Statues for the distribution of the personal effects of intestates would be entitled to my personal estate on my death intestate such persons if more than one to take in the proportion prescribed by the same statues". A heir hunter's dream.

Which led, of course, to yet another check to see if this time round, the fate of more of them might be found.

One mystery was Adam's brother Robert, married Margaret Dodds CLEUCH in Edinburgh in 1870, son John born about 1872, no hide nor hair after 1881 in Scotland - but where did they go?

Much more success this time round, one Margaret Dodds RICHARDSON popped up on ancestry in the, wait for it, New Zealand Electoral Rolls - and sure enough, she was at the same address as a Robert RICHARDSON, clerk.
So yet another branch of the RICHARDSONs in New Zealand.
Looks like Margaret died in 1905 and Robert in 1917.

There's also a John Blair RICHARDSON in Canterbury, who seems to have married a Violet WALKER in 1895, and died in NZ in 1940.
BLAIR is Robert's mother's name, so it looks like son John has also been found. John's burial record on the Christchurch City Council Cemeteries database shows him as aged 68, born Edinburgh, and having been in NZ 57 years. QED.

Monday 13 February 2012

Eager hands

Loved this little snippet about a fire in Dunedin in 1863.
The building concerned was being pulled down to stop the fire spreading, water not being immediately available.
"Meanwhile the houses fronting the street, were pouring forth their contents, and as usual the crowd was only too eager to assist in this part of the business, and the interference of the police became necessary to prevent the stores of Mr Fargie, wine and spirit merchant, which were in no immediate danger, from being broken into for the purpose of getting out their contents."
Otago Daily Times , Issue 351, 4 February 1863, Page 4

Monday 30 January 2012

William of Crail

As referred to in an earlier post, my data on the William RUNCIMAN of Crail line (part of Lineage 1b) has been checked off and uploaded to WeRelate, where it has been merged with Allan's previously loaded tree sourced from, amongst others, Jen & Diane's 2000 publication, Scotland and Beyond.
As WeRelate is a public Genealogy Wiki, should you have any additions to the data posted there, simply log in and update it, the original submitter(s) will be notified of your changes.
The matching/merging process of my submitted gedcom with existing data was readily achieved, albeit that places and dates aren't treated separately, so often a duplicated date was added in order to get a place and/or source data attached.  Easily sorted.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Monday 23 January 2012

Married or not?

Can anyone help decipher the marital status on this census entry? (1861 Appleton Wiske, Yorkshire, family of Sarah FAIRBAIRN nee MOORE)
(Mar or Unm) under order of P??ia
It may, or may not help to know that the husband seems to have deserted the family and returned to Scotland  (from Yorkshire) to live with another woman as man and wife, no marriage to be found.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Revisting the past

There's nothing like revisiting past research to make you realise how much more information is so much more readily available online theses days.
This comment arises from my additions to WeRelate. In this case my direct paternal and maternal ancestral lines (no collaterals, they'll come later when I get round to loading all the rellise with their particular surname).
So far I've not found anyone on WeRelate researching any of my direct ancestors unfortunately, but no doubt in time someone will pop out of the woodwork. Perhaps they'll miraculously come up with my Archibald HENDERSON's ancestors - I live in hope!

Monday 16 January 2012

What's in a name?

Climbing The Spiral Staircase: Learning Genealogy may be of interest.
I particularly liked the Maidenform - Medenfort - Madenford example, having recently tried (successfully) to verify a birth of a Jane(t) PRITCHARD.
'tis often a pity we have to pick one name as the primary name for display.
I think I prefer her baptismal name of PREACHER.
So far I've found her baptized as PREACHER (1827), and a census entry (1861) showing a daughter with the name Agnes Preacher RUNCIMAN, but her marriage (1847) and death (1904) certs, either side  both show her as PRITCHARD, which is, I assume, what the name morphed to over time.

Carried along

Read an interesting parish burial entry today - 1818 Edinburgh St Cuthberts.
Past Edinburgh parish burial records have often been very informative with ages, occupations, causes of death, addresses etc, so when I tried interpreting an unlabelled column as a cause of death, my first guess was "strokes", but it did look rather more like "spokes" - which sounded rather painful !
Looking at the other entries on the page however I've deduced that they were recording how the dear departed was carried to their final resting place: "Arms", Shoulders", "hearse", "Coach" and "half spokes" being the other entries.
Expensive business this dying lark.
Robert FAIRBAIRN of St Leonard Street looked like his estate paid 5/3d for mortcloth, 2/4d for poor, 9d for "keepers", 1/- recorder, 1/- for grave digger and 1/3d for beadles.
The estate got off comparatively lightly with the one recorded has having the hearse (Lucy WALKER, relict of WALKER, writer) paying £1/-/6d for mortcloth, 5/- for turf, 4/8 for poor, £1/1/- for "Warrants", 1/6d for keepers, , 5/- for recorder, 1/- for grave digger, 1/3d for beadles (11/7d compared to £2/19/11d if I can still add in LSD)

Sunday 15 January 2012

Robert & Jane (WIGHT) SINTON

An email from Morley asking if I could quantify the rumoured connection between the families of Elizabeth MABON, whose son John married Jane ELLIOT, and the SINTONs, Jane ELLIOT's sister Betsy having married William son of Robert & Jane (WIGHT) SINTON.
This SINTON family had children baptized in Ancrum, ROX before emigrating to Beauharnois County, Quebec around 1831.
It had been rather a long time since I last looked at this SINTON family, well before easier access to census data online.
Haven't answered his question, but have updated my knowledge of the family, and realised that they weren't included on my SINTONs page - now remedied,with more updates on the chart included yet to come.
Should any SINTON descendants read this, please pop along to the SINTON Surname DNA project to join it and see if there's any connection to my SINTONs!

Tuesday 10 January 2012

HOPPERs , SINCLAIRs & RUNCIMANs

Contact from a couple of distant rellies has resulted in a few updates.
The family of Nathanial DAWE now has a few more twigs pinned down, particular the family of some of the HOPPER branch.
So the DAWE descendant chart has been updated.

Also an interesting set of conversations with Peter SINCLAIR starting from his post in my Guestbook has resulted in Donald SINCLAIR being "found" after 1871  - married Annie DALGLEISH in Edinburgh (1885), then moved to London, appearing there in 1891 but not to be found after that.
By 1901 Annie and children are living with a James MACKIE (as wife and step-children) without a marriage to be found (as yet).
By 1911 Annie is a widow and the children are shown as MACKIE, but that obviously didn't last as subsequent records has them as SINCLAIR again.
The wonderful Army Pension records furnished a heap of interesting details.
So the GRAY chart has also been updated.
Something cosmetic must have changed for Donald GRAY as part of this activity, so his recent changes entry for 6 Jan can be ignored.

Currently working through checking off some RUNCIMAN data prior to publication on WeRelate, so William of Crail's chart on my RUNCIMAN page has also been updated, (but there's a much fuller tree available on WeRelate, which my data, and sources, will be added to/combined with).

Tuesday 3 January 2012

3 months of updates

Quite an impressively long list of recent changes - but don't be fooled.
Many are minor changes to citations, or the last edit date changed because a scanned certificate has been added (which wont be visible on the family tree pages, but may be if included on the Originals subsite - not yet updated).
Another reason for inclusion in the recent change index is the addition of links to a hopefully relevant dna page for those belonging to dna tested lines (some of which links may still not yet work).
 
At least two new people now have pages, probably others:
Grace MEIKLE nee ROBERTSON, mentioned recently
Elizabeth HAMLEY nee ROWE, although the impetus for her publication eludes me at the moment.

Now that more of the FAIRBAIRN trees are included on the One Name Study pages, the FAIRBAIRN page has been cut back to only include trees for the more closely related FAIRBAIRNs.

Many updates probably don't feature in the recent changes index but only in the updated descendancy charts.