Sep 6, 2007: Small world territory and updates

Found a couple more RICHARDSON relations whilst browsing Ancestry today. Noticed that a couple of trees had the same RICHARDSON and RUNCIMAN names as my tree so went investigating. Guess I'll only hear from them if their user info on ancestry is up to date. Small world territory. One of them appears to be from the Robert RICHARDSON Jane YOUNG branch of the tree but has ended up in the same Northumberland town as a RICHARDSON researcher down from the John RICHARDSON / Elizabeth SHIELL line.
The PC Robert RICHARDSON, of Northumberland, is of this RICHARDSON/YOUNG line (and still hasn't been written up).
I'm in the process of preparing a presentation for the Computer Users Group of the local genealogy society. Which means I'm looking around for suitable screen shots as illustrations. As a result I've found someone else researching the family that Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN belongs too and have sent her a message, brought the family of Duncan McGREGOR and Helen MOULTRIE up to the 1901 census and updated my LornaPotential database.

Sep 5, 2007: Green is the colour...

A new set of web pages is hereby launched. Robert's Dunsmores and McCutcheons. Not my data, I'm just doing the web design and publishing the pages (by importing Robert's FTM backup into a TMG database and then using SecondSite, this latter being what I use for all of my pages).
They are by way of a thank you for all Robert's hard work looking things up for me, long may it continue! The green was Robert's choice, or to be more accurate, Robert said green was his favourite colour and that's what he ended up with.

Sep 5, 2007: HELSONs

As mentioned briefly yesterday, I've been contacted by a HELSON rellie (from BC). Which of course prompted me to review what I was missing around the family concerned, that of George Alfred HELSON and (1st wife) Sarah BONNEY of Peterborough, Ontario. So several Marthas and Harrys and one or two others that fell out of ancestry in searches have all been updated. Main mystery that surfaced was a Marwood SMITH, "stepson" to William BONNEY (married one of the Martha HELSONs). I feel he has to be a son of Martha's sister Ella Clifton HELSON, but the documented one of those, Marwood Oliver SMITH was born and died in 1903 and this one is consistently shown as born c 1905. He rather inconsistently shows as female as he crosses into the States around 1919 but that's remedied by the 1930 census where he's in Toledo, Ohio as a machinist for a bottle company. Anyone want to claim him, make him feel wanted?
The PEEK chart on Big Brother has been updated, other updates will follow.

Sep 4, 2007: A side-tracked day in Lorna's life

How I get side-tracked. Not that this is new information. Having found the toothless James SINTON, I looked at the rest of his family and realised that I'd nothing on his brother Francis Douglas beyond the 1891 census so I went looking. Found him living with Mum in Hawick in 1901, working as a laundry vanman. Some years ago I'd noted a PC Francis SINTON at Rothbury, NBL in 1920 injured in a "dastardly attack". But without any further info as to age, and not having any known Rothbury SINTON connections it was just filed info. However, I did find a 1904 marriage of a Francis Douglas SINTON reg. in Glendale, NBL. The brides on the same page were a Margaret BRYSON and a Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN, so he married a Margaret and is highly likely to be the Francis I'm looking for. With a move south from the Borders into NBL he was also looking good to be the injured pc. It wasn't a great stretch from laundry vanman to PC as his father was one. A web search turned up a few more details about the crime as being written up in a book "Tough Times & Grisly Crimes" by a Nigel Green, and Amazon turned up trumps with it being one of the books with a content search enabled. He had a page and a photo, and even better, it gave an age (and that he survived the attack, continuing as a policeman to retire at age 65). Looking good to be "my" missing Francis SINTON.

Setting that aside I decided to investigate the possible RUNCIMAN bride given my interest in that surname, and quickly found a likely match in the same area, tracing her and her family back through the census data etc. The family came from Scotland but had moved to Northumberland between 1851 and 1861. Working back from Margaret I quickly found that a couple of years ago I'd traced her grandparents around BEW and ROX up to 1861 for some reason I cannot now remember, and it was easy to connect up Thomas RUNCIMAN with wife Alison/Alice/Allais CURRIE to this Thomas & Alice RUNCIMAN in NBL. Not that I know she is the right Margaret for Francis as yet.

Decided to check out the theory by buying the marriage cert, so I'll know that answer in a few days.

And as I was putting in a cert. order anyway, I ran off a list of outstanding tasks where I was considering purchasing an English BDM cert. Up popped the query about a dth cert for William White HENDERSON of Cumberland. Which made me look at that family again.

William has a sister Agnes Gair HENDERSON, so I checked FreeBMD for marriages in a likely time period and place, and up popped an Agnes G HENDERSON marrying in 1919 to a Joseph LUCOCK in Cockermouth. Sounded likely. Off to GenesReunited (GR) to see if anyone had a Joseph LUCOCK of the likely age/place. Yes, one person did. Checked 1901 and 1891 census for Cumberland to see how many likely candidates there might be. At least 2, possibly 3. One was living with a blacksmith's family, so he seemed a highly likely candidate to trace back. GR came up with someone who looked like he was investigating that family too, so queries were sent off.

And about there my side-tracks came to a halt, apart from answering some of the daily mail miscellaneous contacts and info.

Few more snippets about the JOHNSTON family of Awamoko, with a FRIDD name thrown into the mix, so a search of the Cyclopedia of NZ to no avail for the new name.

Another HELSON contact popped out of the woodwork, so there's tomorrow's side-track, if you can call it a side-track, I've long since forgotten what I'm being side-tracked from, but the table is looking slightly clearer, so I must be finishing some of the things I start.

Sep 3, 2007: Toothless in Romsey

It's official. I've a toothless relative. Wonderful what you can find in Army pension files. I moved on from the RUNCIMEN to the SINTONs and came across James SINTON, stud groom of Ayr, born Earlston, last employer Mrs E C MacFARLANE of Fenwick Lodge, Ayr. Thought that sounded a bit familiar, and sure enough, he's one of the WIGHT relations, s/o John Gillies SINTON and Isabella WIGHT. His pension application for losing all or most of his molars in the army appears to have been declined on the grounds there was no corroboration in the office vetting the applications. Found a birth date for his dtr Christina buried in the mire of officialdom there, and now have the priceless information that he spent 3 days in Romsey hospital while on army service, suffering from "headache 128".

Sep 2, 2007: WWI RUNCIMEN

Wonder if any of them took their runcie horses to WWI? Found that Ancestry has the British WWI pension records 1914-1920 online. Checked the RUNCIMEN entries and found one of our missing Argentinian bunch being discharged (without a disability pension) in 1919. Although he appears to be living in Walthamstow his occupation was listed as a horse and cattle breeder of the Argentinian Republic. Several others with papers there, mostly belonging to the Haddington lot, and one a son of Walter RUNCIMAN of St John's Wood.

Sep 1, 2007: St Paul's Parish, Oamaru

A few finer details added to Oamaru marriage dates thanks to the Presbyterian Archives published lists of marriages in St Paul's Parish, Oamaru 1869-1920 (Ta Brenda for drawing these to my attention)