Finally

I visited Ancestry.com today and started looking at the hints, etc.  I looked at census returns for Richard Jones and saved a couple, learning the approximate birth date of three children.  I compared trees with others.  I know the death dates of Richard and Anne by the memorial cards I have.  I tried looking for them but couldn’t, and got worried.  They were not in the plastic sleeve of the relevant family folder.  Later in the day, after searching everywhere, I had another concerted look in the bag of ringbinders and found the envelope in a buff folder!  I was so relieved!  Anyway, one of the family trees I saw had Richard’s date of birth about 20-30 years after mine but I know mine is right.  The date for his wife was right but it made her about 17 years older than him so they had hold of the wrong Richard.

It’s so time-consuming looking at everything and then trying to piece together a life story.  I thought I had started biographies on my netbook but when I went to add some information I got from my cousins about my grandmother, there was nothing!  I distinctly remembered typing it all out but it wasn’t there.  I must have done that on the old laptop.  It’s possible I have the info on a flash drive – must check.

Once the computer was free again I visited Ancestry again and found a message from a cousin’s offspring (not sure if they’re male or female) saying that his grandmother, my aunt, died in August last year.  So sad.  She was a lovely lady, the first wife of my uncle who I only found out last year had died in 2008.

I’m adding details to my online family tree but that leaves all the paperwork out of date.  It’s easier to update an online tree but I must keep the paperwork up to date.  I also discovered I do not have the wedding certificate of my paternal grandparents.   Must get a copy off my cousin.

I went through the loose photos from two separate boxes and sorted them into families and eras.  There are a few duplicates (and even triplicates in some cases).  Unfortunately, as my scanner no longer works thanks to no driver for Windows 7 64 bit, I can’t scan any.  It looks like I’ll have to buy a new scanner.  I’ve tried taking photos of photos but they don’t come out as well.

Oh dear

I have done precisely zero research or organising of notes since my holiday last year.  What a complete waste of subscription to ancestry.com as well.

Last weekend I visited my brother who said he had more photos and other archives to give me.  Yesterday I went through and had a look.  In a box were several notebooks, some of which were filled with academic notes on philosophy written by my father, but others appear, at first glance, to be a type of autobiography or biographical novel.  I shall have to read it when I have more time – treat it as a novel once I have finished with my current one.

There was also a box of sympathy cards and letters for my father after he died in December 1984.  I went through the cards and kept only those from people I knew or from work colleagues.  The rest I recycled after counting that there were about 25 of them.  I don’t remember having seen a lot of them but then I would’ve been too upset at the time to read them properly.  There were insurance papers, legal letters and a couple of copies of the will.  I also found a letter from Christie hospital in Manchester which was a response to a complaint my mother must have made about treatment leading up to the death of my grandmother.  It appears she had pneumonia and refused to be admitted.  That I can believe, as my grandmother stubbornly continued on regardless of health.  In the letter the doctor mentioned that my grandmother was worried about her chest as her father died of lung cancer.  This I did not know.  I love these little casual snippets of information happened upon which are so useful.  (So that’s my mother, grandmother and great-grandfather on one branch of the family alone suffering from cancer.  I hope not to be the next!).

Amongst the photos were some of my grandmother which I had never seen before and I suspect that my brother got them from my mother’s cousin in England when he last saw her.  Alas, she’s dead now, but I’m so pleased that she gave these photos to him.  Two were of my grandmother as a baby and child.  I had never seen any of her as a child.  There were also photos of her wedding.  I had never seen my grandmother’s wedding photos either.  They were not the traditional church step photos.  My grandmother refused to get married in a church.  They were married at Maiden Hall and although I knew this and had a photo of the hall itself, I had never seen photos of the bride and groom.

Alas, my scanner no longer works because there is no driver for Windows 7 64 bit (blast them) so I can no longer scan old photos.  At some stage I think I’ll have to buy a new one, which really pisses me off as my old one worked perfectly fine but of course these corporations want you to buy new stuff not have to develop software for old stuff.   Bastards.  The last year and a half have been very expensive so I’m not wanting to spend money unless absolutely necessary.  Things like scanners will have to wait (unless I happen to come across a reasonably priced one).

I have not done anything about the compilation of biographies either.  I had my netbook specifically for this but the November Novel Writing month got in the way and I used the netbook for that every day and forgot completely about the biographies.  H used the netbook occasionally so often I didn’t even see it.  Now, there’s no excuse, apart from having to do things like paint rooms.  So much to do and read and so little time.  I’ll have to organise my time way better.

I’ll have to sort the numerous loose photos.  There are newer ones mixed in with older ones and some from one branch of the family mixed in with others.  Yes,  will have to do that…

In the meantime there are the Aussie cousins to see tomorrow…

Oodles of notes!

Distant cousin, the old lady who rings me up occasionally, sent me an A4 sized wad of notes she has on the Rose family.

By golly.  I thought some of my notes were difficult to decipher.  It will take several attempts to figure out what’s in it and who’s related to who.  Naturally she has included much information about her own branch which I will have to slot into the family tree both online and off.  She also included a photocopied page of pictures of the mills my ancestors owned and a copy of a probate for John Rose.  There are numerous little slips of other information but, as I say, it will take me some time to sort through them all and decipher the handwriting.

I now have all census returns for the direct line plus a couple of additional census returns for my great-grandfather’s sisters.

I will be away for the next month so will have no time to do any further research.  I haven’t done anything on ancestry for about 3 weeks (ever since the tree displayed in a ridiculously tiny font which I tried, without success, to fix).

When I return I will continue to compile mini biographies of all the ancestors for which I have a decent amount of information.

A random search

I really must stop searching records on impulse.  The trouble is, I have temporarily mislaid my search log so couldn’t recall what I’d last searched for exactly.

I tried initially to search immigration records for the 1920s for when my grandfather and his family moved to Australia.  No luck.

I then went on a different tack entirely and did a bit of searching on the Stevens line in Cornwall until I realised I’d already done a bit of searching on them.  Ditto for Dart which I didn’t really search much.

From Dart to Darlington and I did a search for Elizabeth Darlington of Cheshire.  Previously she’d just turned up on searches for her husband with the surname of Asher.  I searched for her in census returns.  I was delighted to find her parents and herself with eight siblings!  Yay!  Her father was born around 1809 but I can’t get further back than that, unfortunately.  I thought the discovery might lead me to further finds, but no.  Never mind, I’ve now fleshed out her family.

I might go back to the Dart family next.  But first, I must look for my search log notebook and note down what I did.  I also need to buy more paper to note down discoveries.  I have updated my online family trees though.  I do like having stuff down on paper though not only for future reference, but also to help sort things out in my head.

Marathon efforts

I was watching another episode of the Australian “Who do you think you are?”.  In it Georgie Parker was looking at newspaper articles online and I saw the website had Australian Newspapers written on it with a map of the states, etc.  Inspired, I headed to the computer and searched for Australian Newspapers and ended up at the Trove website of the National Library of Australia.  I spent the rest of the evening until 11.30pm trawling through articles in the Sydney Morning Herald which mentioned my family name.  I found several of interest including the announcement of my aunt’s marriage and the death of my great-great-grandfather.  There was also a photo of what looked like my grandfather but the initial was wrong.  I’ll have to ask cousins and aunt about it.

This morning I thought I’d have another go looking for census returns which I don’t have yet – this time on Ancestry.  I had the devil of a time trying to get the correct results to show up as the browser kept going to ancestry.com.au and showing Australian census returns.  The browser just would not go to ancestry.co.uk to show British results (as these are what I’ve subscribed to).  A plea of help on the forum got an answer which helped and I was off.

For some reason, I didn’t search initially for the missing census returns I’d noted down to look for.  I went off on a tangent from seeing the date of death of a great-grandmother on another branch of the family (from a fellow researcher’s tree) and went searching for her.  I found her on an 1871 census and adjusted my dates accordingly.

I was interrupted by a phone call by the old lady in England.  Unfortunately my cordless phone battery cuts off after about 3/4 of an hour and the other phone is rather crackly.  She’s not easy to understand because of the way she speaks so mostly I let her ramble.  I had no idea what she was saying when she rang back after the battery died and I answered on the crackly phone.  Thankfully she didn’t speak much more and rang off.

Back to the computer and I had been on the hunt for some Scottish relatives.  Ancestry has transcriptions of census returns but are unable to display the actual returns, which is a shame because the transcriptions are inaccurate.  I searched from 1851 to 1901 but found nothing for 1841.  I gained no new knowledge and am still stuck on Archibald Sutherland of Glasgow.  I can get no further back than 1851.  His father’s name is John but I haven’t even tried to search for a John Sutherland (and little other information) yet.

From Sutherland to Allison.  My grandmother always believed that through the Allisons we are related to Sir James Young Simpson but I haven’t been able to find any connection.  I searched the census returns for Allison for 1841-1871 but none of the names of my Allisons match the supposed brother-in-law? (I’m not even sure of the connection) of James Young Simpson.  Certainly one of the Allisons is named Jessie Simpson Allison so either there is a connection or my grandmother and her family believed there was because of the “Simpson” in the name.

I searched again briefly for my mother’s primary school in Sydney (of which I have a prospectus).  Previously I found no reference to it at all but through the Trove site I found a couple of articles mentioning the school.  In one there was a list of recipients of awards or prizes and there (I believe) was listed my uncle.  Another great find.  I sent this article off to my uncle’s daughter in Sydney who has contacted me recently about the family.

I finally went back to my initial purpose of looking for Powell in 1841 with no luck.  I had a look at a copy of my grandmother’s handwritten family tree which has many gaps in it.  She had [question mark] Powell married to [question mark] Bright.  I’d tried searching for the supposed brother William without luck so tried this unlikely search.  I found Thomas Bright married to Martha Powell in the 1871 census.  I know it’s the right result because she was born in “The Poles” in Shropshire.  My grandmother had written “The Poles” at the top of the Powell family tree.  My brother and I had never figured out what it meant.  I had presumed it was how Powell was pronounced and my brother wondered if they were Polish.  Neither of us had even thought that “The Poles” was a placename!  I searched on Google maps and it appears to be the name of a house (the little A is on a house) but apparently it’s an area in Bromfield, Shropshire.  I can’t find anything that actually says what “The Poles” is!  I wrote to my brother about the find.

A huge thunderstorm passed overhead and my daughter returned home from being away overnight so my searches ended.  I had come to a stop anyway and need a break.  Here comes the break…

Taking the plunge

A friend recently lent me series 3 of the Australian “Who do you think you are?”  After watching the first two episodes, I thought about World War One service records and realised I didn’t have any for my maternal grandfather.

I searched online and, of course, was directed to Ancestry.co.uk.  I searched anyway and a result came up for him.  Clicking on it took me to the subscription page.  I looked at it, considered it, worked out the exchange rate, and took the plunge.  I have 14 days free trial after which I will probably pay up and continue using it.  It’s so convenient to search from home.  I never get to the library during its opening hours and often people are using the computer from which you can access Ancestry.com.  Besides which, the desk on which the computer is perched has no room to spread out my notes.

I must ensure that I make good use of it.  It’s a great pity that it doesn’t include the records for Scotland.  Perhaps next year.

The mysterious Jones girls of Shropshire

Years ago I inherited a small portrait of a relative which I thought was painted by my maternal grandmother.  I had no idea who it was.  Recently my brother obtained, through family in England, four more similar ones which were part of a set.  It seems they were of the Jones sisters and a “great grandmother”.  The four recent additions have rather vague information on the back (including the “My great-grandmother”).  I can identify one of them only as I had her marriage details noted in a family tree.   On the back of one of the paintings is written “Mrs Mansell”, on another “Mrs Goff”.

However, considering the dates involved, my grandmother can’t possibly have painted them from life, so who was the painter? Her mother?

From recent census returns I’d downloaded, I tried to figure out who was who and also do some searches at familysearch.org to find any possible marriages of Jones and Goff/Gough or Mansell.

My grandmother had written 12 names as offspring of Richard and Anne Jones.  I have descendants of four of them.  I had possible christening dates of one other.  Five out of 12 isn’t great.  Of those 12, eight were girls.  I knew the marriage details of two of those eight (one of which is my great-great grandmother, Catherine).  The painting which has nothing written on the back is, I suspect, Catherine.  That left 6 girls unaccounted for and 2 remaining paintings to identify.  Census returns for 1841-1861 reveal only the names of four girls.  Presumably the others were born earlier and left home or they died young.

As mentioned, I searched familysearch.org for marriages.  I found a marriage of Edward Mansell to Sarah Jones but this was in 1859 and my Sarah was still living at home (as a housekeeper) in 1861 (her mother had died in 1857).  It’s quite possible that a husband died in those two years but in the 1861 census there is an Edward still living.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get details of the rest of the household – one needs money for that.  I also found a Thomas Goff marrying an Elizabeth Jones in 1843 (a bit early?) and in 1861 (a bit late).  It’s all just guesswork which is rather annoying and it doesn’t help me identify the ladies in the paintings.

Below is “Mrs Mansell”,

and her sister, “Mrs Goff”.

The other painting of “My great-grandmother” is also a mystery.  If the back of these were written by the owner of the paintings (my grandmother’s sister) then this woman is possibly the mother of the girls, Anne Jones (nee Phillips) which seems likely.

“Great grandmother” below.

I had very limited success with finding births/baptisms for all these Jones’.  There were a lot of Richard and Anne Jones couples who gave birth in Shropshire in the early 1800s it seems.  I found three that seemed definite (only one of which was a girl) and another two more that were possible (judging by the place names).  The others seemed a bit far away from the towns of the rest of the family.

So, not a lot of success overall.  Two women in the paintings are still a mystery.

Googling

As a distraction from thoughts of the death of my young cat the night before, I did a Google search of some surnames and areas.  I found a partial family tree of someone who had a distant relative included.  From that tree I was able to fill in more descendants from a branch of Kercher.  It’s rather like filling in pieces of the puzzle and is very satisfying.  I also downloaded some old photos of the ancestral village.

I must back up the information gathered so far on the computer.

Census returns

Well old lady from England didn’t ring until 11.15am.  I didn’t get any clear information from her rambling but I did get my cousin’s email address.

While I was waiting for her phone call I thought I might as well use some credits on thegenealogist.co.uk.  Looking up births, deaths or marriages was a complete waste of time.  It cost one credit to look up a possible but there was no information to help to confirm it was the right person.  For example my Elizabeth Darlington could’ve been married in Nantwich, Warrington or Salford.  How was I to know?  There was no information about the spouse.

So I turned to census returns which were way more useful.

Since the the old lady had mentioned Asher, I decided to look  up the census returns for Asher from 1841 to 1901.  I checked which I already had and did some others with good results.  Then I decided to save the PDF file of the actual entries of all of them, using up a fair number of credits.

I tried the same for Powell with limited results and again saved the PDFs of the certainties.

It was my deceased maternal grandmother who had got me onto this family research.  I still have the handwritten tree she’d written out for her mother’s side of the family.  Her grandmother was married to Richard Powell and his parents, according to her notes, were Edward and Ann Powell.  However, last year another researcher gave me a family tree saying that Richard’s parents were Richard and Martha.  I noted down the details (somewhere – it’s probably in the pad I’ve mislaid!) but didn’t want to believe her.

So I did a search for Richard Powells in the census returns and found the family of the one the researcher mentioned.  A later census which included my grandmother’s mother and the aunts and uncles had Richard as born in Lydham, Shropshire.  Unfortunately, the earlier one which included Martha and Richard had the son born in Lydham, Shropshire so it definitely looked like the same one.  Dammit.  I wanted my grandmother to be right.

I did find an Edward and Ann Powell but there was no sign of Richard and the only sibling my grandmother had written was William and there was no mention of him in the census either.  They were old enough to be lodgers elsewhere, but that doesn’t help.  Dammit!

Anyway, nothing like a prod from a fellow researcher, as well as a fast-approaching expiry to get me working on the family history.

Nothing doing

I won’t be renewing my sub to the NZGS.  I also don’t think I’ll renew my sub to the Hampshire Family History Society (which I joined last year).  There’s really no point unless you’re in the country.  You have to be there for anything useful and that includes the NZ society too.  The library’s in Auckland and all the events seem to happen there.  I”m not getting anything out of it at all.

My sub to the website I mentioned is expiring in a week.  I won’t be renewing that either.  I found it frustrating and I didn’t bother going back to  use up all my credits (of which I had quite a bit).  A waste of money for the whole lot.

I received a phone call last night from an old lady in England.  We’d last corresponded about the Asher family in 2000!  She rang in the hope I still lived here.  It was 10pm so she said she’d ring the next morning (for me) as she had some information about a fellow researcher and I think she mentioned my cousin’s name!  I’ve lost touch with that side of the family – my mother’s side.  After she died, her brother and his kids never bothered to keep in touch.  Now, obviously, one of the kids is interested in the family tree.  She sent me an email a couple of years ago which I replied to but to which she never responded.  It’ll be weird to get in touch again through a virtual stranger in England!

A year or two ago I came across a death notice for this cousin’s father (my uncle) – at least I think it might have been.  I thought I might have written it down somewhere, but do you think I can find it or even search online again? No.  I seem to have mislaid my pad of notes – just great – even more unorganised than usual.  That’s the problem with having a surge of activity surrounding research, then put it down thinking you’ll come back to it and over a year later, you can’t find where you put it.  I”m not impressed with myself.  How careless!

So, currently waiting for this phone call and hopefully get details about my cousin.  I’m ashamed to say I have no details about her or her sister or mother in my tree.  My mother did die over 30 years ago and with no contact, it’s easy to forget.