15th: Minor updates to web

Reloaded my main family tree pages.
You'll have to search fairly hard for the changes, none are the published people with pages of their own, so the recent changes index doesn't have any new entries.
However several charts will now have new twigs on them and one or two added names as partners have been identified etc.
eg William Fairside HAMLEY's wife has been confirmed as Florence Mabel THYNNE, and will show up on the ROWE chart;
a couple of present day COMBELLACKs now appear in their rightful place at the end of the DAWE chart etc etc.
Made time to get more of my recent updates up to date on OneGreatFamily
as well.
Everything to end of July is now there, my own families, and the FAIRBAIRN and RUNCIMAN investigations which result in at least 3 generations of family trees.

But, as is usual these days, most of my current investigations will be reported under the dna blogs, or the one name study pages - see links at top left.
It's quite interesting seeing which family lines pop up unexpectedly on the other side of the world.
Have now placed an Agnes FAIRBAIRN (married a John CRIGHTON) that I came across recently marrying in Balmain, Sydney in 1876.
My initial thought was that she may have been one of the sisters of Robert FAIRBAIRN, the Resident Magistrate of Freemantle, grdson of the Robert and Janet (AINSLIE) FAIRBAIRN I've been investigating (and have now popped a summary on the dna Patriarch's page - as reported in the Fairbairn dna blog).
Don't yet know if any others of the family emigrated, but her marriage notice in the paper shows her to be the second daughter of the late Thomas FAIRBAIRN, M.D. of Edinburgh.

Honor becomes Hannah, and Fanny was/is Sarah

Oh I wish our relations made things slightly easier for us by having one name throughout life!
Sarah COMBELLACK's 1879 Bristol birth cert has turned up, and yes, she has to be the Fanny with Henry and Flora COMBELLACK in Llandaff, Cardiff in 1881 and the Sarah with Charles H CHARLES, widower, in Plymouth in 1891.
It shows her as the dtr of Charles Henry COMBELLACK, miller, and Hannah (sic) formerly DAWE.
So, unless Henry married a Flora between 1879 when Sarah was born, and 1881 when he shows up in Wales with wife Flora, I currently think Flora is just another name for Honor/Hannah, after all she has to keep up her side of the name-changing equation, given how many names we've found her husband had.
So, I've removed Flora, and shifted Ada and Sarah/Fanny to being daughters of Honour, and republished Honor's web page (or should that now be Hannah's web page?

3rd: David or John revisited

What was the Latest Update, re John and Sarah (DAUGHTERTY) FAIRBAIRN back in March rather looks like it might have just been upturned.
Today I stumbled across a Quebec 1834 baptism (born 1833) that just has to be him, and may well overturn my sceptism as to the accuracy of his marriage and death certs.
I'm mulling over the options and implications, but for at the moment, he stays as a son of David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN. (My currently favoured revised theory is that there's a brother John for David and William.)

Re the blog entry for 27th Nov: the Flora DAWE mentioned didn't marry either a COMBELLACK or a CHARLES, so it's back to the drawing board.

And for those interested in COMBELLACKs, I've kickstarted a COMBELLACK Surname DNA Project to help any of you wishing to explore further the inter-relationships of assorted COMBELLACK trees.
Supporting web pages etc yet to be developed, but the basic join link is active.

Fanny/Sarah - Honor/Flora revisited

Liz has provided a certificate that has both a COMBELLACK and a CHARLES mentioned, even more evidence for the prosecution that her Annie CHARLES was Annie COMBELLACK.
This led me to get a bit more determined to identify Ada and Fanny/Sarah, and see if Sarah was indeed Fanny or yet another mystery in the family.
There's a Sarah COMBELLACK birth registered in Bristol 1879 which would sort of fit with Sarah's age in 1891, and make it highly likely she is the Fanny of the 1881 census.
So I turned my attention to the Honor/Flora mystery again.
Still being investigated but I've found a promising looking lead in a marriage of a Flora DAWE in Bristol in 1878, which fits by time and place. The FreeBMD index shows that the page has a mismatching number of bridges and grooms, and of all the marriages in Bristol that quarter, none are obviously Nicholas/Henry COMBELLACK or Charles Henry CHARLES, so the images will be searched.

DNA work of late has been on assorted FAIRBAIRN families to add a couple of lineages to the Patriarchs page - not yet published, but they will be that of John FAIRBAIRN and Margaret DEANS, in the hope we can prove John is indeed the son of Alexander FAIRBAIRN and Isabella ATCHESON.
Also that of the engineer Robert FAIRBAIRN of Eckford, who married Elizabeth YOUNG and moved to Liverpool then vanishes
DNA candidates being sought.

Charles Henry CHARLES again

But this time, the father.
Finally found the family of Nicholas/Henry COMBELLACK/CHARLES and Honor/Flora in 1891.
After being in Cardiff in 1881 (as Henry and Flora COMBELLACK), Henry has returned to England and is living in Plymouth as Charles H CHARLES, widower, with Annie, Mary and Ada with him, and a Sarah who may or may not be Fanny from 1881. Next household schedule, same address, is for Henry and Fanny CHARLES (the son, subject of the previous posting, Fanny looks like she remarries in 1897 to a Joseph George JURY, Henry having died in 1893).
Still can't find either Honor's death, nor marriage or death of Flora (if she exists and isn't Honor), and would very much like to find the births for Ada and Fanny/Sarah, supposedly in Bath to figure out if their Mum was Honor, or possibly Flora.
Anyone out there with a mysterious Ada or Fanny or Sarah CHARLES or COMBELLACK?
DAWE descendant chart updated.

Charles Henry Charles

What a mouthful.
With the hint that the COMBELLACKs may have become CHARLES, and the now knowledge, that the Military records on ancestry labelled as 1914-1922 actually also include earlier service records, I searched them for CHARLES instead of COMBELLACK.
Up popped one Henry CHARLES, of Devonport, born abt 1866, so I read his record.
He enlisted on the same day as Edmund John CHIVERS, for the same Corps.
Next of kin given as father Nicholas of Plymouth, crossed out and "wife Fanny with him" written in.
Fanny later identiifed as the Fanny Grace JEWELL, whom he married in 1890 at Mutley Wesleyan Chapel, Plymouth.
I believe this is Charles Henry COMBELLACK, and the C H CHARLES witness to the marriage of Edmund John CHIVERS and Annie CHARLES.
Just as well he only alternated between surnames beginning with C as he had a tattoo H C on his arm.

20th: Combellacks or Charles!

The power of pooling information was very evident today.
The name Charles obviously had some significance to the COMBELLACK family of Nicholas and Honor (DAWE) COMBELLACK.
Two of their sons had led me a merry dance as I tried to convince myself that Isaac Daw COMBELLACK was one and the same person as Isaac Charles COMBELLACK, and ditto for Richard Thomas or Richard Charles COMBELLACK.
Not to mention as to whether or not Henry in Wales in 1881 was actually Nicholas.
Yes to all of the above.
I still don't know the significance of Charles as a name to the family, BUT today I was contacted via the Ancestry message service by a Liz investigating her ancestor, an Annie CHARLES who had married an Edmund John CHIVERS in 1891, giving her father as one Henry CHARLES, and a witness being a C H CHARLES.
Her research had led her to Henry and Flora COMBELLACK in Wales in 1881 (family story about runaways, millers, gardeners and name changes from COMBELLACK to CHARLES).

With these hints, I have now found what looks like Nicholas aka Henry COMBELLACK aka CHARLES in Roath, Cardiff in 1901 as a widowed gardener, Henry CHARLES of the right age, birth place Gwendron, Cornwall, which I guess could pass as Welsh for Wendron .

Still can't find them in 1891 though.

Had a great deal of trouble finding Annie and Edmund anywhere beyond the marriage entry on FreeBMD, but eventually confirmed that it did rather look like she was the Anna, dtr of Nicholas and Honor as the 1911 census shows her as born Helston, Cornwall abt 1872 (Anna was Dec 1871 Sithney, Helston).
Edmund's military service record was very interesting reading (joined up in 1884, served until 1907, seeing service in Egypt and Sth Africa, and ended up being discharged from Ireland, getting a whole 5 pounds for his long service and good conduct over 23 years and 75 days service.
The only injury noted on his record was a head injury from being thrown from his cart when his mule shied at passing soldiers - in Aldershot.
So far this was all only circumstantial evidence of the right Annie, but the service record neatly lists all 5 of his children and adds considerably more circumstantial evidence in that one son was named Phillip Isaac Nicholas CHIVERS.
Phillip being Edmund's father, Isaac being a good DAWE name, and Nicholas being Annie's father.
I'm convinced. Now to see if C H CHARLES can be found and confirmed as Charles Henry COMBELLACK.

Update time

Thought it time to publish some of the updates from the last few weeks.

WorldConnect Database LornaHenderson has been updated.
Main changes are in the Devon families mentioned over the last few postings:

• Honor DAW and Nicholas COMBELLACK
• Joseph King ROWE's dtr Gladys
who married Norbert WILMERING - who now has her own web page so that I can publish the clippings sent to me by Bart.
• the CREBER/HELSON/PEARCE families mentioned a while ago
and
• the ALGARs
  

In addition I've incorporated all recent changes into OneGreatFamily , as usual. I was interested to note the results of an informal survey that Dick Eastman carried out recently that question 12 about usage of on-line genealogy programs showed that of those answering this question (admittedly not a large number of responses), most used OneGreatFamily, so it can't just be me that finds it useful.

Definitely time for Devon families

Must be something in the air at the moment, with all this activity on the Devon branches of my tree.
Next WorldConnect update will include several more of the COMBELLACK family of Honor DAWE as several certificates have arrived to confirm my suspicions as to who married whom apart from Emily Jane where I drew a blank. The Emily Jane who married Hugh NICHOLLS was the dtr of Richard Toll COMBELLACK instead of Nicholas as I was hoping she would be. So her fate remains unknown beyond 1881 when she was in Bristol with brother Richard.
And while all this activity was going on, yet another wonderful email arrived asking if I had any interest in a box of WILMERING memorabilia that included several photos letters and newspaper clippings relating to the family of Gladys ROWE and Norbert WILMERING. Thank you so much Bart, for sharing this little treasure trove.
Norbert is a relation of Bart's wife, and they had contacted a relation who had saved these boxes of memorabilia from an elderly WILMERING relation. The newspaper cuttings are in a grocery store's ledger book which begins in 1868, but was later used by Norbert's grandmother for the family clippings.
I feel yet more updates coming on!

13th: Let me count the ways

How many variants can there be for finding the surname CREBER in the indexes?
A couple of marriage certs for Richard CREBERs turned up today, ordered after I got confused about the identification in 1841 of who Eliza was with.
(Eliza is the one from the other day's entry, who married Robert PEARCE, and sister of Henry CREBER, all of whom ended up in Ontario).
The best 1841 candidate was of a 21 yr old Eliza with a Richard (34) and Mary (35) at Yealamade, Sheepstor.
However, that Richard doesn't exactly look like her brother Richard, as he is more likely to be with wife Mary (GILES) at Welltown, Walkhampton.
The next most likely candidate, a cousin Richard, son of James CREBER and Agnes SPRY was married to 1st wife Margaret at the time (2nd wife Mary BALL didn't come along until 1844) and they appear at Huckworthy Bridge, Sampford Spiney as expected.
Looking at the other Richards in the timeframe led me to the 1801 Richard son of Richard CREBER and Elizabeth SPRY and I noticed that some ancestry trees provide him with a wife and family in London.
Took me a while to verify this, beyond the easily found, but inconclusive, marriage record to Elizabeth WARE.
Census data indexed them as CREBO (1851), ALBER (1861), COLBER (1871), and yes, one states he was born Walkhampton.
Yet another musical CREBER family, as Richard, and son Samuel are both enumerated as pianoforte makers.
Son Samuel added to the count, by being enumerated as CREVER (1861) but indexed as BREVER.
However, that didn't solve my mystery of the Sheepstor 1841 census Richard and Mary.

Creber, Barter and King descendant charts has been updated to include a few more twigs, as has the DAWE descendant chart, and a page for Honor DAWE (marr. to Nicholas/Henry COMBELLACK) has been added.

3rd: Nicholas vs Henry

Fully convinced that Nicholas COMBELLACK is the Henry with Flora in Cardiff in the 1881 census.
Alan sent me a copy of Isaac's marriage cert to Annie PUGH, which shows his father as Henry (by now a gardener, not a miller, even though it was probably as a miller he shifted to Wales).
He had been provided it by a previous researcher of this family also hitting the same puzzles.
I still need convincing that Flora is Honor though, given the gap in the children's ages, and the fact I cannot find the birth registrations of the youngest two as yet.
Mind you, looking at a badly written Flora in that census, I did wonder if it was someone's mistranscription onto an enumerator's sheet of another poorly written misspelt Honor.

1st: Combellacks combined

Finally found a couple of links I was missing in the family of Nicholas and Honor (DAWE) COMBELLACK to convince me who all these variously named people were:
Richard Thomas aka Richard Charles aka Richard marr. to Annie WOOD living Penzance
and
Isaac Daw aka Isaac aka Isaac Charles marr. to Annie PUGH and living Cardiff (buried Thanet)
have all been combined into the family of Nicholas and Honor, who may, or may not, be Henry and Flora in Cardiff in 1881.

For the curious, the links that finally convinced me were a couple of War Graves, and War memorials.
Isaac's burial in Thanet records him as Isaac Charles, son of Nicholas and Honor and husband of Annie Pugh COMBELLACK of Roath, Cardiff
and Richard James, died Mesopotamia 1919 is shown as son of Mr and Mrs R T COMBELLACK of the same address as the Richard Charles COMBELLACK who married Annie WOOD.

My Rootsweb WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been updated to reflect all the latest findings.

Confusing COMBELLACKs

This family is proving MOST intriguing to research. There are so many alternatives online, with different parents, different names, and they are particularly elusive in census records beyond 1871.
Found one note that said Nicholas and Honor(DAWE) COMBELLACK had moved to Wales where they became Henry and Flora. Certainly Henry's age and occupation fit, as do the oldest two children enumerated with them in Cardiff. But why suddenly say they were all born Bristol? Talk about re-inventing yourself.
Given the age gap between the two oldest children and the two younger ones, I'd guess that Flora might be a second wife, but if so, I've been unsuccessful to date in finding the marriage to Flora, or death of Honor.
I've posted some of the contradictions on the COMBELLACK message board in the hope that someone can chime in with evidence from BDM certificates and will keep digging.

As recent changes will show up on the DAWE descendant chart, it has been reloaded.

28th: Who is Francis, who is he?

Finally found Jemima CLINTON in the 1841 census tonight. Suspect I've not been successful in the past as dtr Emma, my great grandmother, wasn't at home and I had probably been searching primarily for her (younger members of a family generally having more accurate ages).
They were living at 31 Rose St, St Martins in the Fields, Long Acre, Middlesex (same address as 1851). However I wonder who the "25 year old" Francis was with them, seaman. An older brother for Emma that I didn't know about?

Also took the opportunity to check London baptisms for the family given they are now online on ancestry. As a result the William CLINTON/Jemima PARKER family has lost one of the members I had as I've convinced myself that the one I had as James? baptised in 1826, was simply an additional baptism for the 1817 James, given that date was written in the margin of his St Leonards Shoreditch baptism.
Which neatly solves the puzzle I had as to how come the James who lived to marry appeared to be the earlier 1820 Fish St Hill Independent baptism!

Other than this sudden London flurry, main activity of late has been on the Honor DAWE who married Nicholas COMBELLACK, and the family of Maria Jane DAWE and Richard PRYOR.
Honor and Maria are sisters. The activity is thanks to Karinya for contacting me re her possible x greats grandfather John Henry PRYOR, Maria and Richard's son, whom I didn't have in my database, but he certainly appears on the shipping list with several of his siblings in 1878. The family story is that Maria died at sea en route to Australia with her new second husband, and the children were abandoned once they reached Queensland. The reality may be a little different, as Maria's death is registered in Queensland, but then, that doesn't necessarily mean she wasn't a death at sea and simply registered on arrival. More later, I hope.

The Honor DAWE isn't my 2greats grandmother, but one of her cousins, and there's another NZ connection with the family! Still working on it.

Also the FAIRBAIRN DNA project has a new member and match (not in my line, but an interesting match nevertheless as it is another between a Fife FAIRBAIRN family and an Irish/Canadian FREEBORN one. Check the DNA project diary for further details.