WorldConnect

Given that updates seem to be flavour of the week, my RootsWeb WorldConnect db LornaHenderson has also been updated. It will therefore contain the last 4 months of updates to all those connected to my extended tree, along with some pockets of connections to those connections.
BMDBs (Births, Marriages, Deaths, Burials) as usual, plus this time Census events have been included, date and place only.

As before,  for source information you will still need to contact me to find out where the information shown was obtained. This is because the older source data has never been re-examined to ensure nothing private is inadvertently shown, eg email addresses, dates for living people.

There's one less "orphan", ie a person known to be connected somehow but not where or how.
However the definition of "sister" on a US immigration form proved rather loose.
I'd not been able to fit a sister, supposedly Mrs T C JENKINS, into the family concerned (Marshall METHERELL) and up to now had also not found the "sister" in the US census.
This time round I investigated Marshall a little more and found a second marriage, and a child in the Pennsylvania records - where the sponsors for the baptism of the child were Thomas and Jessie JENKINS.
Seemed too much of a coincidence. This time, with first names now available, Mrs T C JENKINS has been found, and identified as Jessie DAVEY, so  rather looks to be a sister of Marshall's first wife Ann DAVEY, instead of Marshall's sister.

Fewer orphans

I'm in the process of checking another update to my WorldConnect database LornaHenderson.

Part of that check is to see if I can connect a few of the "orphaned" people in my database that are known to be related, but I've no idea how.  They've usually been found because there were "grandchild of xxx" in a census, or informant for a BDM etc.

This time round I've placed:
- Thomas BROWN, informant for the death of his brother-in-law Alexander LIDDLE in 1926 (he was married to Agnes WIGHTMAN, sister of Alexander's wife Jessie).
- Maggie P  and John P AINSLIE, who probably show up as HALL at the moment, given as part of this check I realised I'd recorded them inaccurately from the 1891 census. According to the 1901 census they belong to Euphemia AINSLIE or HALL, as they appear on that census as step children to Euphemia's husband Peter RIDDELL
But I gave up, again, on identifying which METHERELL married a T C JENKINS some time before 1923 and was living in Philadelphia - at least according to the emigration records for her brother Marshall METHERELL.
Several of his sisters are now more fully identified, with husbands and children as a result, so some progress, with names such as DONEY,  HAM and ROGERS, being added to the tree.

At this rate of progress, could be a while before the updates arrive.

26th: What a way to go

You've got to feel sorry for this chap and his family.

A Canadian death cert. I've just read (Samuel METHERELL 1894, Lindsay, Victoria Co, Ontario) gives cause of death as "diarohia with melancholia".
Haven't yet placed him in the HELSON/METHERELL families I'm currently filling in gaps on but he has to connect somewhere, given two of the dtrs of Thomas HELSON and Elizabeth PEEK both married METHERELLs, and many of them ended up in Victoria, Ontario, mostly around Mariposa.

24th: Census enumerator defeated

Having uploaded some updates to OneGreatFamily , I reviewed the families concerned (those of the last few posts) to see if anyone else was researching them.
Lots of "conflicting information" symbols showed up, along with several greyed out boxes on the descendant charts which showed that someone else had more people in the tree than I did (or insufficient information on our respective records for OGF to have merged them automatically).
One family I strayed into checking was that of Ann HELSON, dtr of John and Elizabeth (HORTOP) HELSON, whose son Aaron I thought had married an Emma, but the investigation of same hadn't ever made it to the top of the growing pile of Round TUITs.
The first record I checked was the 1881 census, at Wimsdon, North Petherwin, Cornwall, and two of the dtrs were listed merely as M.E. and H W F. MEHTERAL.
Birth records eventually unearthed showed M E as Mahala Elizabeth, and H W F highly likely to be Hephzibah Florence.
I concluded that the names were just too much for the enumerator to spell!

(OneGreatFamily are having a cut price sub offer for a few more days if you're interested)

Oct 16, 2007: Kirklinton GRAHAMS & more METHERELL

Back to chasing TURNBULLs and GRAHAMs around England. Anne Marie (mentioned on the 8th Oct) has been back in touch.

I just knew my research on the family of John TURNBULL and Isabella/Easet GRAHAM wasn't wasted when I was investigating who their son Robert TURNBULL was a couple of years ago. At the time it looked like there was going to be a connection with my Walter and Robert TURNBULL, and there may well be but it is unlikely to be proven unless more records miraculously appear from somewhere.
I had John's wife Isabella (whom I thought was also called Easet as John appears on census data with firstly Isabella and then Easet and they are of an age with the same birthplace) as the dtr of William and Jane GRAHAM, with a possible id of Jane as Jane FERGUSON.
Anne Marie also believes so, but corrected me about Easet, pointing out that Isabella died relatively young and John went on to have yet more children with her sister Easet. Saves on in-laws I suppose.
Anyway, Anne Marie believes Isabella to be the dtr of William GRAHAM and Jane FERGUSON, and has William as son of the George GRAHAM who married Easet CARRUTHERS, then George as son of William married to Eleanor, this William believed to be the son of Edward and Dulcibella GRAHAM. Quite exciting that by combining info we appear to finally have made some connections between the GRAHAM families and I've found several researchers of those lines. Great synergy. Also tidies up my database somewhat as I hadn't identified many of them as being one and the person, so had many of them twice over, once with parents, t'other with their own family.

Another guestbook posting by Heather sounds like she may have some info that might finally sort out the Jane METHERELL mystery, ie how many were there and who did they both/all belong to?

Oct 15, 2007: Wanton Walls to Michigan; Devon to Colorado

Some METHERELL snippets from a posting in my Guestbook by Heather A has tidied up a few more loose ends down the PEEK line.
And once again thrown a heap of evidence against the oft quoted statement that "our forbears didn't move around a lot".
I've followed some of the connected METHERELL families around from Devon to Cumberland to Pennsylvania to New York, back to Cumberland and back to Colorado.

I've also now spoken to (the wife of) a descendant of the William RUNCIMAN who went to Michigan around 1850, so have hopes of finding out a bit more about the States branch I hope to connect to the Wanton Walls lot one day.
In anticipation of which, I've added to the charts on the site by including the Michigan RUNCIMANs.