Firstly, I apologise for my lack of posting onto aFamilyHistoryBlog in recent months! Apart from my travels in Scotland, in May (from which I have a lot of information, that I have yet to fully process!), I have continued looking into various parts of my family tree, where in a number of places I have found new information online.
A number of times I have found new things that I thought I should write posts about for aFamilyHistoryBlog, with links to the sites where I’ve found that information. And my Family Tree pages need some updating with new details. But I tend to go on exploring, and don’t get round to writing up about what I’ve found!!!
In recent months I have also been looking into upgrading the genealogy software that I have on my computer. I have a very old version of Family Tree Maker (2005 version), which in some aspects isn’t working properly on my newer computer! Namely; it won’t save reports to PDF, which is annoying!
In looking for a solution (in the form of a new program), I’ve been browsing reviews and have downloaded several free trial versions of software to try out, including RootsMagic, and Heredis. I have also been trying out the use of free apps like OneNote and GoogleSheets (as I’ve previously posted about; here and here).
Its said that first impressions are everything, and while these family tree programmes can look good in the promotional shots and YouTube clips, the impressions that I’ve had of the trial softwares, when first opening them on my own computer, have not been very good! I’ve not been drawn into using them!
This changed last week when I decided to try Family Historian 6, the full version of which can be downloaded and used for free, for a 30 day trial period, before you have to buy a licence key for £35.99 to continue using it. When I first opened the Family Historian program on my computer, I liked the interface and was drawn into using it in a way which I haven’t been with the other programs that I’ve looked at.
Although I have been able to transfer my main family tree database over from ‘Family Tree Maker 2005’, into ‘Family Historian 6’ (via GEDCOM), I’ve decided that I should start a fresh family tree project, entering the details I know from scratch! This is so that I can get to learn the new program better, and to resolve a muddle that I have in the sources/citations in my existing database. By beginning from scratch, I can ensure that everything is properly sourced and cited, making it more presentable and shareable with others. It may also highlight for me, new areas of my tree that particularly need further attention and research.
To give this some scale for you, my old database contains nearly 4,500 individuals, and 1,300 families, which I’ve collected over 10-15 years. And I have a lot more on paper (or that I’ve found on-line) that haven’t even been added to that old database. But I may not be adding ALL of these names! Some come from imported GEDCOMs, created by other people, which include very, very distant relations.
My plan in the new tree project is to include my direct ancestors, working back one generation at a time (as far as I know), equally in all ancestral lines lines, adding my [X]x-Great-grandparents, and their additional descendants (who aren’t already included), up to 3 or 4 generations if possible (i.e. to 2nd or 3rd cousins in subsequent generations). This might stretch to 5 or 6 generations of descent in some cases, but I probably won’t go further that that!
I began by entering myself, my parents, siblings, and nephews/niece; then grandparents, uncles/aunts, cousins, and their children. When I got on to my Great-grandparents and their descendants, I began to see where I have some gaps; basic details about some of my parents’ cousins, my 2nd cousins, and their families, which I don’t have up-to-date! So I’ll be contacting some relatives, asking for help to fill in those gaps.
It took me about 6 hours (not all at once) to enter all the basic details that I know about my Great-Grandparents and their descendants. That’s 156 individuals, in 50 families, that I have details for. At that rate it’ll take me about 200 hours to copy over everything I’ve got in the old database!!! After those 6 hours, over the last week I’ve been adding in some additional details about people; biographies, photos, documents, and other media sources; none of which were attached to my old database. This will result in being able to output much richer reports about my family history to share with relatives.
I’m pleased with Family Historian 6, so far. So I’m planning to continue using it, and to buy a licence key before my 30 day trial period expires. Then I’ll try to come back onto aFamilyHistoryBlog with a further review of the software in the coming months.
In March I wrote about using note apps for genealogy, and how I was planning to use OneNote to organise my genealogy in preparation for a trip to Scotland where I plan to do some research. I’ve been quiet here on AFamilyHistoryBlog over the last couple of months largely because I’ve been trying to organise my notes, etc, ready for this trip.
Well I haven’t gotten on with OneNote as quickly as I had hoped! I began by creating a few notes about people in my family tree, starting with the earliest known members of my Walker family line, and their relatives, which worked OK. But when it came to creating a “Genealogy Index” (as suggested in the various examples of using note apps for genealogy that I had read about), I found that OneNote struggled to cope with things like copying large spreadsheet indexes of ancestors into it!!!
Alongside OneNote, I had started a spreadsheet (initially in Excel) of my known ancestry, at first to help me work out the Dollarhide reference system (with some tweaks of my own to that system). This spreadsheet has expanded to include details of persons; dates, places, note of sources, etc. After a while I copied the spreadsheet intoGoogle Sheets, which I can save/access on a smartphone/tablet so that I can access it while on my travels. Having done that, I’ve continued to work on the spreadsheet in Google Sheets, and its working very well.
The spreadsheet has let me see clearly where the most recent gaps in my ancestry begin to occur, which prompted me to have a look into some of these, to see if I could fill any of them! Several of these gaps are parts on my family tree which I have not actively looked into before. I soon found clear details, that were new to me, about several lines of my ancestry, which take me back another 2 – 4 generations in those lines. I have already updated the CADZOW tree on the site, with my finds in that branch of the family, and posted some comments onto my Facebook feed. Other parts of my ancestry still need to be updated on the website!
The spreadsheet has also allowed me to analyse how many ancestors I know in each generation and the date-range of each generation (which is something that I’ve thought of trying to do for a while). So below is the present (May 2017) snapshot of what I know about my ancestry.
This shows the number of ancestors in each generation that I have forenames for. I don’t necessarily have women’s maiden names, or dates of birth/death for the oldest generations in any line. Numbers in brackets “(? x)” represent a total which includes possible ancestors that I’m not yet certain of! And “x / x” represents the number of individuals / and the number of places in my ancestry that they occupy (i.e. where cousins married, therefore their grandparents each occupy two places in the ancestry. So “2 / 4” = two grandparents, occupying 4 places in the ancestry, the effect of which doubles each generation further back you go).
SURNAMEs of Matt’s 2x Great-Grandparents;
3x Gt [iii]
4x Gt [iv]
5x Gt [v]
6x Gt [vi]
7x Gt [vii]
8x Gt [viii]
Generation no. > 5
6
7
8
9
10
11
futher gens.
WALKER
2
4
2 (? 4 )
1
–
JOHNSTON
2
4
6
4
2
–
CADZOW
2
4
2
–
BLACK
2
4
4 (? 6 )
4 (? 8 )
ELLIOTT
2
1
–
FRY
2
4
8
4
6
6
+6 gens
EYRE
2
3
2
–
BUCKNALL
2
4
4
2
–
HUTCHISON
2
4
8
4 / 8
4 / 8
2 / 4
KEY
2
–
WALTON
2
4
4
2
2
–
HENDERSON
2
4
6
4
4
4
+3 gens
SWAIN
2
4
–
HART
2
1 (? 4 )
(? 2 )
(? 4 )
–
TWITE
2
3
–
MAWER
1
2
–
Total; Known Individuals / (Places on tree)
31
49 (?52)
46 (? 52)
25(?29)/ 33(? 37)
19 / 23
12 / 16
15
Total; Possible Individuals;
32
64
128
252
504
1,008
2,016
Total; Places on tree;
32
64
128
256
512
1,024
2,048
Birth Date Range;
1772 – 1832
1731 – 1803
c.1694 – 1779
1683 – 1749
1622 – 1723
1587 – c.1704
Death Date Range;
1840 – 1925
1795 – 1883
1768 – 1854
bef.1728 – 1839
1688 – 1813
1688 – 1780
Mar. Date Range;
1816 – 1856
1766 – 1824
1728 – 1798
1732 – c.1769
1678 – 1746
1615 – 1722
Another thing that I’ve begun to try and do with Google, and the help of the Google Sheets, is to map where my ancestors come from. I’ve created a Google Map, on which I’ve started placing markers for the place of birth of each ancestor (where I know it). Its a good way to visualise where my ancestry is from. Due to my forthcoming trip to Scotland, I’ve begun by focusing on the Scottish branches of my family, and to show an example below, this is what I get for the WALKER and CADZOW sides of my family (my paternal Grandfather’s ancestors); very concentrated in and around West Lothian.
Last week I took up an offer of 1 month’s subscription to Find My Past – for £1 (the usual monthly subscription is about £10.). Once subscribed, I made sure to disable the”auto-renewal” on the site, and I’ll double check this before the month expires – because I don’t want to be charged £10 every month hereafter!
I thought that the Find My Past subscription might come in useful while on my forthcoming Scotland trip. Then having subscribed, I decided to blitz trying to find all the census records that I can for my ancestors. So this is what I’ve spent much of last week doing.
Here the Google Sheets came in useful again. On sheet 2, where I’ve listed all my ancestors in Dollarhide number order, with separate columns for birth, death, and marriage details, notes, and source details, I added columns for each available UK census date. Then against each ancestors I coloured in the relevant cells to indicate which census dates I might find them recorded in. This made it easy to see who to look for and when. I began searching for the census records on Find My Past, working down the Dollarhide list, beginning with one grandfather who was born before 1911.
As I worked my way down the list I found a lot of records, some of which added new details about people, and in one or two cases added new people to my ancestors. I downloaded all the scanned images that I could, and copied transcription texts into word DOCs which I saved on my computer. In the spreadsheet I changed the colour of the relevant cells to indicate where I’d found records, and noted whether I had found images, transcriptions, or both.
There are still gaps where I’ve not found the records. But I’ve now got a good spread of census records, which I’m pleased with. So with that I’m going to have a lot of things to update on my family tree pages on AFamilyHistoryBlog .
A few weekends ago I spent quite some time on FindMyPast, trying to make best use of their weekend of free access to birth, marriage, death, and census records. I posted on Facebook about it at the time. I downloaded and saved a lot of images from censuses and parish registers. But most of what I found was only to confirm details I already had. There were no big new finds. But there were a few small tweaks to some details that I previously had!
These “tweaks” made me look back at what I’ve previously included on the pages of aFamilyHistoryBlog, and I realised that I needed to do a big update to some of the material that I’ve shared here; to incorporate all of the new things that I’ve found over the last year or two, and an accumulation of other small tweaks. So I’ve been busy working on that over the last 2 or 3 weeks, and I’ve just finished updating the main details of my Family Trees pages.
A cloud of all the known surnames in Matt’s direct ancestry (as of Feb. 2017).
I have also been rewriting my Surnames of Interest list, tweaking dates, adding details of some individuals with each surname, and expanding the list to include many more surnames – like those where I only know of one or two generations of the family with that surname.
You can see aFamilyHistoryBlog – SURNAMES of Interest page, or look below for a copy of my February 2017 version of the list. You might also be interested to look back to my previous “Names of Interest” posts to compare. See; January 2016, and January 2014. There will be some further refinements made the the SURNAMES page, adding hyperlinks to tagged names, etc.
Note; I have not yet touched the “locations” of interest in this Feb 2017 update. It is another thing that I need to look at!
I have also created 8 sub-pages; one for the surnames of interest in each of the 8 branches of my family tree that I present on this blog (from each of my Great Grandparents);
ANDERSON. [WALTON]; from Inverugie, Aberdeenshire (ABD) / Durness, Sutherland (SUT); 1700 – 1900. Hughina Forbes ANDERSON [iv], b. 1796, Durness, SUT, d. 1858, Milton, Glasgow, LKS, m. 1817, in Edinburgh, MLN – to Thomas Balfour NICOLSON. See; http://bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I404766&tree=ID1 . [TR] [PP]
BAKER. [ELLIOTT]; from Sampford, Essex (ESS); 1600 – 1700. Ursula Susan BAKER (Y? – Y?), m. Edward CLARENCE (1622 – 1688, Gt Sampford, ESS) [TR]
BARKER. [HUTCHISON]; from Kirkcaldy, Fife (FIF); 1650 – 1800. Two BARKER sisters married two brothers in the OLIPHANT family (see OLIPHANT and BARKER family papers). Mary BARKER [v] (1733 – 1775), m. 1763 – to William OLIPHANT. Christian BARKER [v] (1741 – 1777), m. 1776 – to Henry OLIPHANT. [FP] [TR]
BARR. [WALTON]; Renfrewshire (REW); 1700 – 1850. Mary BARR [v] (Y? – Y?), m. James HENDERSON. Son John HENDERSON [iv], b. 1797, Houston, REW. [TR]
BARRON.(or BARON) [WALKER]; from Corstorphine, Mid Lothian (MLN); 1650 – 1800. Elizabeth BARRON [v], b. ???, d. ???, m. 1728, in Corstorphine (MLN)/Kirkliston (WLN) – to William WALKER. The BARRONs lived at “Clay-Walls” (or Kershall) near Gogar in Corstorphine parish, Mid Lothian, during the 1700s. They may be related to the BARONs of Preston (near Linlithgow), who’s details you can find HERE. [FP][PCR]
BASSETT. [EYRE]; from Gloucestershire (GLS); 1800 – 1900. Elizabeth BASSETT [iii], b.1829, d.???, m.1848 – to John BUCKNALL (1822 – 1887). [TR]
BAXTER. [TWITE]; from Sibsey, Lincolnshire (LIN); 1750 – 1900. Sarah BAXTER [iv] was born in Sibsey, circa 1789-90 (ref. Censuses), d. 1878. She married Joseph MAWER in 1822. But because there were two “Sarah BAXTER”s christened at the right date in Sibsey, I’m not sure which is her, or who her parents were! [PCR]
BELL. (or BETT / BUTT / BEATT). [HUTCHISON]; from Kirkcaldy, Fife (FIF); 1700 – 1800. The surname BELL (and spelling variations) relate to several different individuals from the same geographical area, who all married into the OLIPHANT and BARKER families. It is not clear whether these individuals all come from the same “BELL” family, or from several unrelated families with the same/similar surnames! Janet BELL (or BUTT) [vi] (Y? – Y?) m. Robert OLIPHANT (cir.1696 – 1772), and Christian BELL (or BETT) [vi] (Y? – Y?) m.1733, George BARKER (1704 – Y?). [FP] [TR]
BETT. [HUTCHISON]; from Kirkcaldy, Fife (FIF); 1700 – 1800. See note on “BELL”, above. Isabel BETT (or BEATT) [v] (Y? – Y?), m. 1773, in Kirkcaldy – to John HUTCHISON (or HUTCHESON). [TR] [PCR]
BINNIE. [HUTCHISON]; from Cramond, Mid Lothian (MLN); 1700 – 1800. Robert BINNIE [v] (Y? – Y?), m. 1768, at Cramond, MLN – to Janet GEDDES. Their daughter, Joanna BINNIE [iv] (1782, Cramond – Y?), m. 1804 – to Alexander HUTCHISON. [TR] [PCR]
BLACK. [CADZOW]; from Carnwath, Lanark (LKS); 1750 – 1900. David BLACK [iii], b.cir. 1802, Carnwath, LKS, d. ???, m. Agnes MANN. Their daughter, Helen BLACK [ii], b. 1838, Carluke, Lanark, d. 1923, m. 1862, at Livingston, WLN – to James CADZOW of Lesmahagow. [TR][PCR]
BROWN. [ELLIOTT]; from ??? Croydon, Hertfordshire (HRT); 1750 – 1900. Mary BROWN [iii], b.?, d.cir. 1869, m. John (Jack) ELLIOTT. Their son, Joseph John ELLIOTT [ii], b. 1835, in Croydon, HRT, m. Lucy Elizabeth FRY. [TR] [PP]
BUCK. [ELLIOTT]; from Exeter, Devon (DEV); 1700 – 1900. Elizabeth BUCK [iv] (1775, Exeter – 1852, Exeter), m. 1801, – to Richard CLARENCE. Their daughter, Caroline Mary CLARENCE [iii] (1809, Bermondsey, LND – 1874), m. 1837, in Gurnsey – to Edmund FRY. [TR]
BUCKNALL. [EYRE]; from Stroud, Gloucestershire (GLS); 1700 – 1900. The BUCKNALL family is traced back to Samuel BUCKNALL [v] (1763 – 1821), m. 1790 – to Ann CLISSOLD (1765 – 1827). Margaret BUCKNALL [ii] (1857, Rodborough, Stroud, GLS – 1935, Upper Norwood, London), m. 1880 – to Alfred James EYRE. [TR]
CADZOW. (or CAGOW / KADZOW); from Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire (LKS); 1700 – 1900. William CAIGOW [vi], b.?, d.?, m. Janet WILSON. Their son, William CAGOW [v], b. 1760, Carnwarth, LKS, d. 1858, Hallhill, Lesmahagow, m. Jean MANUEL. Download a CADZOW ancestor “pedigree” file (.pdf) HERE. [TR]
CLARENCE. [ELLIOTT]; from Sampford, Essex (ESS); 1700 – 1900. The CLARENCE family is traced back to about 1500, around Great Sampford, in Essex. Caroline Mary CLARENCE [iii] (1809, Bermondsey, LND – 1874), m. 1837, in Gurnsey – to Edmund FRY. See; http://studymore.org.uk/quasho.htm#Fryfamily . [TR] [PP]
CLISSOLD. [EYRE]; from Stroud, Gloucestershire (GLS); 1700 – 1850. Stephen CLISSOLD [vi] (Y? – Y?), m. Mary WATT (???? – 1789). Their daughter Ann CLISSOLD [v] (1765 – 1827), m. 1790 – to Samuel BUCKNALL (1763 – 1821). [TR]
DAVIE. [WALKER]; from West Lothian (WLN) / Lanarkshire (LKS); 1650 – 1750. Marion DAVIE married Thomas JOHNSTON (a farmer at East Mains of Ballencrieff, near Bathgate, West Lothian), and had 3 children, born in 1723, 1724, and 1728. It has been suggested in documents about the JOHNSTON family, that Marion DAVIE was related to the Covenanter, James DAVIE, who was killed while attending a conventicle at Blackdub, in about 1673, by a party of dragoons, and was buried in the secluded old churchyard of Bathgate, where there is a stone to his memory. I have no documentation as yet to verify this claim. See; https://afamilyhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/mair-and-johnston-part1/ [PP] [TR] [TBC]
DOUNS. [WALKER]; from Uphall, West Lothian (WLN); 1750 – 1850. Barbara DOUNS [iv], b.?, d.?, m. George NEIL. Their daughter, Isobel NEIL [iii], b. 1788, Uphall, WLN, d. 1860, m. 1816 – to John WALKER. [FP][PCR]
ELLIOTT. (or ELLETT); from Croydon, Hertfordshire (HRT); 1750 – 1900. John (Jack) ELLIOTT [iii], b. 1793, d. 1864, m. Mary BROWN. Their son, Joseph John ELLIOTT [ii], b. 1835, in Croydon, HRT, m. 1864, in Brighton – to Lucy Elizabeth FRY. Download an ELLIOTT ancestor “pedigree” file (.pdf) HERE. [TR] [PP]
EYRE.; from Lambeth/Sydenham, London (LND / KEN); 1800 – 1900. Edward EYRE [iv], b. 1800, d.?. His son, Alfred George EYRE [iii], b. 1832, d.?, m. Emily SMITH. Their son, Alfred James EYRE [ii] (1853 – 1919) was Organist at the Crystal Palace, and Master of Music at St John’s Church, Upper Norwood. Download an EYRE ancestor “pedigree” file (.pdf) HERE. [TR] [PP]
FLINT. [WALKER]; from West Lothian (WLN); 1700 – 1800. John FLINT [vi], b.?, d.?, m. Marian MURKEL. Their daughter, Janet FLINT [v], b. 1739, d. 1817, m. 1766, at Kirkliston / Mid Calder (WLN) – to James WALKER. [FP][PCR][MI]
FRY. [ELLIOTT]; from Bristol / Wiltshire (WIL); All dates. A well known family of Quakers originating from Sutton Benger in Wiltshire, who became chocolate makers and type-founders in Bristol. Also related by marriage to Elizabeth FRY (nee GURNEY), the famous campaigner for prison reform in the early 1800′s. See; http://studymore.org.uk/quasho.htm#Fryfamily . Lucy Elizabeth FRY [ii], b. 1844, Plymouth, DEV, d. 1931, m. 1864, in Brighton – to Joseph John ELLIOTT. [TR] [PP]
GANDY. [WALTON]; from Fallowfield, Lancashire (LAN); pre 1850. Mary GANDY [iv], (Y? – Y?), m. ??? – to John WALTON, of Longsight Hall, Fallowfield, Manchester [TBC] [TR]
GEDDES. [HUTCHISON]; Mid Lothian (MLN); 1700 – 1800. Janet GEDDES [v] (Y? – Y?), m. 1768, at Cramond, MLN – to Robert BINNIE. Their daughter, Joanna BINNIE [iv] (1782, Cramond – Y?), m. 1804 – to Alexander HUTCHISON. [TR] [PCR]
GREEN. [TWITE]; from Boston, Lincolnshire / Lewisham/Holborn, London (LIN/LND); 1800 – 1900. Susannah GREEN [iii], b.cir.1825, Boston (LIN), d. 1893, m. 1851, in Lewisham (LND) – to George TWITE. Susannah’s father, Thomas GREEN [iv] was a wheelwright from Boston (LIN). [TR][PCR]
HART. (or HEART) [SWAIN]; from Staffordshire (STS); 1800 – 1900. Ellen HART [ii] (or HEART), b. 1846, Castle Church, Stafford (STS), d. 1938, Western Park, Leicester (LEI), m. 1870, at Whittington, Worcester (WOR) – to James Christopher SWAIN. [TR]
HENDERSON. [CADZOW]; from Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire (LKS); 1700 – 1900. Elizabeth HENDERSON, b. ???, d. 1795, m. William MUIR. Their daughter, Margaret MUIR, b. 1795, d. 1857, m. 1816, at Dalserf (LKS) – to William KADZOW (CADZOW). (n.b. as of January 2017, all tags for “HENDERSON” on aFamilyHistoryBlog relate to those on the WALTON branch of Matt’s family, who are not related to those on the CADZOW branch!). [TR]
HENDERSON. [WALTON]; from Paisley, Renfrewshire (REW); 1700 – 1900. Helen Urie HENDERSON [ii], (1859, Paisley, REW – 1945), m. 1890 – to Edward Arthur WALTON. (n.b. these are not related to the “HENDERSON”s on the CADZOW branch of Matt’s family!). [TR]
HUTCHISON.; from Kirkcaldy, Fife (FIF); 1700 – 1900. John HUTCHISON (or HUTCHESON) [v] (Y? – Y?), m. 1773, in Kirkcaldy – to Isabel BETT (or BEATT). Robert HUTCHISON [iii] (1806 – 1883) was a wheat & grain merchant in Kirkcaldy. Download a HUTCHISON ancestor “pedigree” file (.pdf) HERE. [FP][TR][PCR]
JAMES. [SWAIN]; from Birmingham, (Staffordshire/Warwickshire?) (STS / WAR); 1750 – 1900. Ann JAMES [iv], m. 1813, at St Martin, Birmingham (WAR) – to Christopher JOHNSON.
JOHNSON. [SWAIN]; from Birmingham, (Staffordshire/Warwickshire?) (STS / WAR); 1750 – 1900. Isabella JOHNSON [iii], b.cir. 1817, Birmingham?, d. 1882, Stafford, m. 1837, at St Martin, Birmingham (WAR) – to James SWAIN. [TR]
JOHNSTON [WALKER]; from Bathgate, West Lothian (WLN); 1650 – 1900. The earliest generations (traced back to 1692) were farmers at East Mains of Ballencrieff, Dykeside, and Nethermuir, near Bathgate. Subsequent generations of the JOHNSTON family were involved in banking in Bathgate, and in printing & publishing in Falkirk. I have a printed family tree “of the JOHNSTON family, Bathgate” – compiled by Alexander A. CUTHBERT. I believe this tree dates from about 1906 (the last date on the tree). See this tree on the blog page, HERE. [FP] [TR] [PCR] [PP] [MI]
KADZOW. (see CADZOW)
KEY. [HUTCHISON]; from West Lothian (WLN); 1800 – 1900. John KEY [iii], (Y? – Y?), m. 1845 – to Sarah WHITE (or WHYTE). Their daughter, Sarah “Hannah” KEY [ii] (1850 – 1938), m. Henry William HUTCHISON. [TR]
KING. [EYRE]; from Gloucestershire (GLS); 1750 – 1900. Mary KING [iv] (???? – 1874), m. 1822 – to Edwin BUCKNALL (1791 – 1869). [TR]
MAIR. [WALKER]; from West Lothian (WLN) / Falkirk, Stirling (STI); 1700 – 1850. Patrick MAIR [v] was a printer and publisher in Falkirk; b. 1738, Shotts (LKS), (christened at Whitburn, WLN), d. 1805, Falkirk, m. 1763, to Jean AITKEN. See; https://afamilyhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/mair-and-johnston-part1/ [FP][PP]
MANN. [CADZOW]; from Carnwath, Lanark (LKS); 1750 – 1900. Agnes MANN [iii], b.cir. 1803, Carnwath, LKS, d. ???, m. David BLACK. Their daughter, Helen BLACK [ii], b. 1838, Carluke, Lanark, d. 1923, m. 1862, at Livingston, WLN – to James CADZOW of Lesmahagow. [TR][PCR]
MANUEL. [CADZOW]; from Lanark (LKS); 1700 – 1850. Jean MANUEL [iv], b. ?, d. ?, m. William CAGOW (or CADZOW). Children born in 1786 and 1788, in Lesmahagow, LKS. [TR]
MAWER [TWITE]; lived at Sibsey, Lincolnshire (LIN); 1750 – 1900. Census records identify Joseph MAWER [iv] as a “wheelwright” and “carpenter” who was born circa 1800, at Walsoken, Wisbech, on the Lincolnshire/Norfolk border. But he appears to have lived most of his life in Sibsey, and I suspect that he had earlier family ties to this village. He married Sarah BAXTER, in Sibsey, in 1822. She was about 10 years older than him! Joseph died in 1883. Their granddaughter, Annie MAWER [ii] married Charles TWITE. [TR][PCR]
MUIR. [CADZOW]; from Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire (LKS); 1700 – 1850. William MUIR [iv], b. 1750, d. 1796, m. Elizabeth HENDERSON. Their daughter, Margaret MUIR [iii], b. 1795, d. 1857, m. 1816, at Dalserf (LKS) – to William KADZOW (CADZOW). [TR]
MURKEL. [WALKER]; from West Lothian (WLN); 1700 – 1800. Marian MURKEL [v], b.?, d.?, m. John FLINT. Their daughter, Janet FLINT [iv], b. 1739, d. 1817, m. 1766, at Kirkliston / Mid Calder (WLN) – to James WALKER. [FP][PCR][MI]
NEIL. [WALKER]; from Uphall, West Lothian (WLN); 1750 – 1850. George NEIL [iv], b.?, d.?, m. Barbara DOUNS. Their daughter, Isobel NEIL [iii], b. 1788, Uphall, WLN, d. 1860, m. 1816 – to John WALKER. [FP][PCR]
NICOLSON. [WALTON]; from Dundee, Angus / Kirkwall, Orkney (ANS / OKI); 1700 – 1900. Thomas Balfour NICOLSON [iv], b. 1793, Kirkwall, OKI, d. 1865, Glasgow, LKS, m. 1787, in Kirkwall, OKI – to Hughina Forbes ANDERSON. Their daughter, Eliza Anne NICOLSON [iii], m. Jackson WALTON. See; http://bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I404775&tree=ID1 . [TR] [PP] [TBC]
OLIPHANT. [HUTCHISON] from Kirkcaldy, Fife (FIF); 1600 – 1900. Mary OLIPHANT [iii] (1808 – 1852), m. 1837, in Kirkcaldy – to Robert HUTCHISON. Mary OLIPHANT’s parents were 1st Cousins x2 – sharing the same 4 grandparents; Robert OLIPHANT [vi] (cir.1696 – 1772) m. Janet BELL (Y? – Y?), and George BARKER [vi] (1704 – Y?) m.1733, Christian BELL (Y? – Y?). I have posted onto aFamilyHistoryBlog, details of a collection of original OLIPHANT and BARKER family papers – wills, etc. [FP] [TR]
PATRICK. [HUTCHISON] from Kirkcaldy, Fife (FIF); 1650 – 1750. Lucras (or Lucretia) PATRICK [vii], (Y? – Y?) m.1691 – to John BARKER. [TR]
PORTSMOUTH. [ELLIOTT] from Basingstoke, Berkshire (BRK) / Shoreditch, London (LND); 1700 – 1800. Anna PORTSMOUTH [vi] (1732, Basingstoke, BKS – 1803, Bristol), m. 1755, to Joseph FRY, type-founder, printer, and chocolate maker, based in Bristol. See; http://studymore.org.uk/quasho.htm#Fryfamily . [TR] [PP]
RUSSELL. [HUTCHISON]; from Kirkcaldy, Fife (FIF); 1650 – 1750. Jannet RUSSELL [vii] (Y? – Y?), m. James OLIPHANT. Children born circa 1696 – 1710. [TR]
SCOTT. [WALTON]; from Renfrewshire (REW); 1700 – 1850. Elizabeth SCOT [v], (Y? – Y?), m. 1790, at Paisley, REW – to John URIE. Their daughter, Helen URIE [iv], (1798, Ferguslie, REW – 1878, Pollockshields), m. 1818, at High Paisley – to John HENDERSON. [TR]
SMITH. [EYRE]; from London (LND); 1800 – 1900. Emily SMITH [iii] (Y? – Y?), m. Alfred George EYRE. Their son, Alfred James EYRE [ii] (1853 – 1919) was Organist at the Crystal Palace, and Master of Music at St John’s Church, Upper Norwood. (Unconnected to the two SMITH families in the WALKER branch – below).
SMITH. [WALKER]; from Muiravonside, Stirlingshire (STI); 1700 – 1800. Alexander SMITH [v], b. ?, d. ?, m. Mary FISHER. Their daughter, Mary SMITH [iv], b. 1753, d. 1820, m. 1772 at Muiravonside – to Thomas YOUNG. (1 of 2 SMITH families in the WALKER branch – probably not related to each other!). See; https://afamilyhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/26/old-walker-papers-johnston-samplers/ [FP][PCR]
STORRS. [ELLIOTT]; originally from Sutton-cum-Lound, Nottinghamshire (NTT); 1500 – 1750, then Chesterfield, Derbyshire (DBY); 1600 – 1800. Mary STORRS [vii], b. 1702, Chesterfield, DBY, d. 1775, Melksham, WIL, m.cir. 1726 – to John FRY. Their son Joseph FRY [vi] (1728 – 1787) was a type-founder, printer, and chocolate maker, based in Bristol. See; http://studymore.org.uk/quasho.htm#Fryfamily & https://archive.org/details/storrsfamilygene00stor [TR] [PP]
SWAIN.; from Bristol (WIL) / Birmingham / Staffordshire (STS) / Leicester (LEI); 1750 – 1900. The SWAIN family lived in various locations around the English Midlands. Many of them were involved in Shoe and Boot making. From the latter 1800’s the direct family were settled around Leicester. Earlier generations had connections to the Stafford and Worcester (WOR) areas. James SWAIN [iii], b.cir. 1800 – 1801, Bristol (WIL), d. 1883, Stafford (STS), m. 1837, at St Martin, Birmingham (WAR) – to Isabella JOHNSON. Download a SWAIN ancestor “pedigree” file (.pdf) HERE. [TR]
TABRUM. [ELLIOTT]; from Sampford, Essex (ESS); 1650 – 1800. Ann TABRUM [v] (1717, Old Sampford, ESS – ????), m. 1740 – to John CLARENCE. [TR]
TELFER. (or TELFURE); [WALKER]; from Shotts (LKS) / Whitburn (WLN); 1700 – 1800. Margaret TELFER (or TELFURE) [vi] was the mother of Patrick MAIR [v], a printer and publisher in Falkirk. Patrick MAIR was born in 1738, Shotts (LKS), (christened at Whitburn, WLN). See; https://afamilyhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/mair-and-johnston-part1/ [PP][TBC]
THOMAS. [TWITE]; from Carew, Pembrokeshire (PEM); 1750 – 1850. Mary Ann THOMAS [iv], b.cir. 1796, Carew, Pembrokeshire (PEM), d. 1872, Edmonton, Middlesex (MDX), m. 1819 at Walcot, Bath, Somerset (SOM) – to Joseph TWITE. [TR][PCR]
TWITE.; from Bath, Somerset (SOM), then London (LND); 1750 – 1850. Joseph TWITE [iv] was a shoemaker, b. 1781, d. 1845, at Philip Street, Bath, m. 1819 at Walcot, Bath, Somerset (SOM) – to Mary Ann THOMAS. Their son, George TWITE [iii], b. 1824, became a Butcher at 46 Fetter Lane, Holborn, LND. Download a TWITE ancestor “pedigree” file (.pdf) HERE. [TR][PCR]
URIE. [WALTON]; from Renfrewshire (REW); 1700 – 1900. John URIE [v], (Y? – Y?), m. 1790, at Paisley, REW – to Elizabeth SCOT. Their daughter, Helen URIE [iv], (1798, Ferguslie, REW – 1878, Pollockshields), m. 1818, at High Paisley – to John HENDERSON, who was Provost of Paisley; 1841 – 1844. [TR]
WALKER.; from Kirkliston, West Lothian (WLN); 1650 – 1900. The WALKER family lived and farmed in Kirkliston parish, West Lothian. The first records place them at “Puncheonlaw“, N.E. of Kirkliston village, towards Carlowrie, from 1728. In 1745 they moved S.W. to Hiddlefaulds(or Hiddlefolds). They also had connections at this time to Overtoun farm (or Overton), in Kirknewton, Mid Lothian. During the 1800s they combined the farm at Hiddlefaulds with its neighbour, Kilpunt(or Kilpont), which the family moved to in the 1840s. From here the family moved down to Hertfordshire in 1898. William WALKER [v], b.cir. 1694, d. 1768, m. 1728, in Corstorphine (MLN)/Kirkliston (WLN) – to Elizabeth BARRON.
I am working on a series of blog posts about various old WALKER family papers. Download a WALKER ancestor “pedigree” file (.pdf) HERE. [FP][PCR][MI]
WALTON.; from Fallowfield, Lancashire (LAN); pre 1850. John WALTON [iv], of Longsight Hall, Fallowfield, Manchester, married Mary GANDY (dates unknown!) [TBC]. Their son, Jackson WALTON [iii] (1809 – 1873), moved to Aberdeen and then Glasgow. Download a WALTON ancestor “pedigree”file (.pdf) HERE. (details to be checked. Some vague details, and differing sources which may be contradictory!). [MI] [TR] [PP]
WARD. [SWAIN]; from Staffordshire (STS); 1800 – 1900. Ann WARD [iii], m. 1830 at St Mary’s Church, Stafford (STS) – to Charles HART (or HEART). [TR]
WATT. [EYRE]; from Gloucestershire (GLS); 1700 – 1800. Mary WATT (???? – 1789), m. Stephen CLISSOLD (Y? – Y?). Their daughter Ann CLISSOLD (1765 – 1827), m. 1790 – to Samuel BUCKNALL (1763 – 1821). [TR]
WHITE. (or WHYTE). [HUTCHISON]; from West Lothian (WLN); 1800 – 1900. Sarah WHITE (or WHYTE) [iii], (Y? – Y?), m. 1845 – to John KEY. Their daughter, Sarah “Hannah” KEY [ii] (1850 – 1938), m. Henry William HUTCHISON. [TR]
WILSON. [CADZOW]; from Lanarkshire (LKS); 1700 – 1900. Janet WILSON [vi], b.?, d.?, m. William CAIGOW (or CADZOW). Children born 1760 – 1771, at Lesmahagow, LKS. [TR]
Counties are abbreviated using the Chapman codes. All locations should be read as being located within the British Isles, unless another country is clearly stated. I have set the “dates of interest” quite broad, to try and cover one or more generations on either side of those that I already know of.
[i] [ii] [iii] [iv] [v] [vi] [vii] [viii] – represents the generation of my family tree that the person named belongs to, counting backwards. [i] = my Great Grandparents. [v] = my 5x Gt Grandparents.
At the end of each entry is a note about the kinds of sources that I have for that branch family;
[FP] = Family Papers, original documents, etc. I generally have high confidence in the accuracy of information from such original sources!
It’s very easy to make false assumptions; but harder to get the real facts.
I’d like to tell a cautionary tale from my own research.
First some context; on occasions I’ve found other people’s family trees posted in various locations on the web, which appear to have connections to mine. They claim to have connections to the same ancestors. But there are some differences! Some “extra details” that are a surprise to me, or some clear discrepancies! So I try to contact the person who has posted the tree; to try and get more details and find out what their sources are; to see if it really does fit with my tree and whether there are new details that I can add to my tree.
Too often I’ve either had no response, or they are unable to explain the sources of their information. And too often people appear to have relied only on details obtained from the transcriptions of Parish registers (like the IGI), and to have assumed that the same “name” appearing in several places in the Parish register all relate to the same “Person”.
I want to explain, from an example in my own research experience, why I believe that this particular approach is highly unreliable! And why I believe that more evidence is normally required!
It must be said that there is a scale to the reliability of this approach. If you’re dealing with particularly rare or unusual names then there may be a reasonable degree of reliability to this approach. But more often than not you’ll be dealing with relatively common names (both forenames and surnames), and here this approach is totally unreliable!
Remember also that in the past people rarely moved very far, unlike they do today. So it was very common to find extended families living geographically close together, and to find cousins or second cousins, or uncles/aunts & nephews/nieces, who shared the same names, living in the same parish. So, unless you can study the original text for un-transcribed details (which might confirm a continuity between different records), you can’t rely on a name that appears in the records on several occasions being a reference to the same person on each occasion. But also people did sometimes move, and the person you’re looking for may be married in a completely different parish to where they were christened.
In my recent posts about Walker family papers, I have mentioned 2 examples (William Walker, b.1739, and Elizabeth Walker, b.1769) where trees posted by other people appear to have made assumptions from the Parish registers that the same “name” appearing in different places in the registers is the same “person”. But these associations seem to me to be at odds with the evidence that I have found in the original family papers that I have!
I have another example from the same family where I appear to have made the same kind of error! This demonstrates the unreliability of this approach, when there is no other evidence to support the assumptions being made!
When I uploaded my GEDCOM to FindMyPast (in Jan. 2016), I noticed that I had “Isabell Walker” (b. 23rd Aug 1729 in Kirkliston, West Lothian) recorded as marrying William Glass in May 1760. The “Walkers in Scotland” website lists the IGI transcriptions for the marriage like this;
16750 – Isobel WALKER, William GLASS, marr, 4 May 1760, Edinburgh Parish Edinburgh, Midlothian, 993527
16751 – Isobel WALKER, William GLASS, marr, 2 May 1760, Kirkliston West, Lothian, 1066630
The similarity of these 2 records means that they are almost certainly recording the same couple, registering their marriage in the parishes where each of them lived. This appears to be the only record for the marriage of an “Isobel Walker” (or similar name) recorded in the Kirkliston parish records. So at some point I appear to have associated this marriage with the Isabell Walker b. 23rd Aug 1729 in Kirkliston, to William Walker & Elizabeth Barron. I’m not sure if this came from seeing this association being made in someone else’s tree! But more likely, it’s an association that I had made myself!
I know that I’ve not found any evidence for this association from among the family papers that I have, or from any other sources. So seeing it again through the FindMyPast Family Tree Builder made me question what evidence I had for it. Nothing except the transcribed Parish registers, it seems, which I don’t think is sufficient!
So last week I started searching on-line to see if I could find any more evidence that would prove (or disprove) this association. If I couldn’t find more evidence, then I intended to delete this association from my tree, as unreliable! But it would be important to keep a separate note of it being a possibility, for future reference and further research.
As it was, I soon found evidence that this association was completely false; that the “Isobel Walker” who married “William Glass” in 1760, could not be the daughter of William Walker & Elizabeth Barron, b. 1729. The first thing I found, from Google Books, was; “The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1766-1769: 1768-1769”; a transcription of letters, published by Edinburgh University Press in 1997. On page 92, an editors’ end-note about one of James Boswell’s letters says the following;
“ Lady Jane’s serving-maids were Isobel or Isabella (‘Tibby’) Walker and Euphemia (‘Effy’) Caw. Walker (b. 1719), a naitive of Leith, re- mained in the service of Lady Jane until Lady Jane’s death. She later (c. 1759-62) became servant to William Hogg of Edinburgh and c. 1762 married William Glass, gardener at Newliston (Douglas memorial, pp. 130-31, 142; Hamilton Proof, p. 48).”
(“Lady Jane” was; Lady Jane Douglas, married to Sir John Stewart)
This indicates that the “Isobel Walker” who married William Glass was 10 years older than the daughter of William Walker & Elizabeth Barron. None of the described life events of this Isobel Walker appear to match with what I would expect to find for the Isabell Walker in my family tree! I wanted to find out more! I wanted to check out what the source of this note; the “Douglas memorial” actually said!
After a bit of web-searching, trying slightly varying terms, I found 2 contemporary records, digitised on Google Books, which mention the Isobel Walker who married William Glass;
The Memorial for Archibald Douglas contains numerous mentions of “Tibby Walker”, or “Ifobel Walker” (the “s” being replaced with an “f” – it was common in old handwriting to sometimes write an “s” like an “f”. This practice has been copied in the original print, and in the modern, digital transcription.). She is also identified in parts of the text as “Isabella Glass”, and “Mrs Glafs”.
It takes a while to read through these references and their contexts. There are 2 or 3 points where the text indicates that Isobel was “about the age of twenty-nine” (in 1748), and that she “was further advanced in years” than her colleague, Effy Caw, whose birth-date is identified in one place as “1st February 1727”. All this proves to me that this “Isobel Walker” (who married William Glass) is too old to be the “Isabell Walker” in my family tree, who was born in August 1729.
The point of this post is to show how easy it is to make false assumptions. It was unreliable for me to assume (without other evidence) that a name appearing more than once in the records of a parish related to the same person on each occasion. It may, more often, not be the case. I have tried this approach and proven it to be potentially faulty! But it seems to me that too many people take this kind of approach, or at least fail to provide sufficient details of any other evidence that they may have to support such assumptions.
The trouble I have is that when someone posts, publishes, or shares a family tree which contains this kind of assumption, these assumptions become “pseudo-facts” which people using the tree further down the line will treat as real, proven information.
Take the Johnston family tree (published circa 1909). I have treated it all as fact. Looking at the tree, without other evidence to hand, you have no way of knowing if it all has evidence to prove it, or if any of it is based on assumptions (like those I’ve describe above) which may turn out to be false (if you could find the genuine evidence)! I do have other evidence which supports significant parts of the Johnston tree.
Likewise the genealogy of the “Barons of Preston” in “Some Old Families”, by Hardy Bertram McCall (published in 1890); you would probably take it on faith to be accurate! But due to the evidence that I have found in my family documents, I have some questions and doubts about that genealogy (expressed in my notes HERE).
I want my trees to be as accurate as possible; based on evidence rather than assumptions; facts rather than theories. I’m happy to discuss assumptions and theories (mine and other people’s), as you can already see from some of my blog posts. But I want to be really clear about what has evidence and what is assumed. I want to try and avoid including assumptions, that lack clear evidence, in any formal trees or genealogy reports that I post to this blog or publish anywhere else.
I hope that others will also want to be as clear in distinguishing between evidence and assumptions, and in providing reasonable evidence for their information.
I was tempted last week by the offer of a weekend of free on-line access to “billions of historical records” at FindMyPast.co.uk. And after a great talk at my local Family History Society meeting, by Myko Clelland from FindMyPast, I decided to sign up, give it a go, and see what new things I could find. So I registered, and uploaded a GEDCOM file, with nearly 4,500 people in it. Then I had an initial explore of the site, and waited for the free access weekend to start.
The FindMyPast website was not as good as I had hoped! I’ll explain how I got on as a new user, and in particular the things that frustrated me about the site.
The first thing I found disappointing with the site was that the “Hints” system which FindMyPast advertises as a great way to find new, relevant records to help build up your family tree, only works (currently) when you edit entries, or manually enter new ones. It doesn’t provide hints for the people that you’ve added from a GEDCOM file! FindMyPast should make it clearer before you start that when uploading a GEDCOM file you won’t get “hints” for the individuals in that file.
My next frustration was that when I did start getting “Hints” (after adding details from paper notes that were missing from the GEDCOM file) – although at first sight many hinted records looked to be relevant, digging deeper revealed that they really weren’t relevant to my tree. A couple of times I added facts to my tree using the hints provided by FindMyPast, but then deleted them again after looking much more closely and checking back on my paper notes of details I’ve previously found! (this largely related to parish registers from the 1700’s).
It appears to me that FindMyPast‘s threshold for matching the information to provide its “Hints” may be set too low! Many of its hints can be very quickly screened out. But the difficulty comes with the ones that you have to dig into much more deeply to detect the inconsistencies. It is so easy to see something that seems to match, and add it to your tree. This could so easily lead to many false paths in numerous family trees.
AFamilyHistoryBlog is (in part) my attempt to counter some of these “false” trees that appear on-line, where people have assumed connections to exist between separate records, but without any clear evidence for the connection. I hope that by posting the real evidence that I have from original family documents and other reliable sources, I can help to challenge and correct some of those “false” trees which can so easily develop. I also hope that if and when I follow a false path, my blog will allow others to contact me with any evidence they have, to put me back on the right path.
I had hoped to find many more images of original documents to be available to view on the FindMyPast website. But while it does have images of things like census records (which is useful), it doesn’t seem to have images of the parish registers which I had hoped for! Only the transcriptions of them!
Very often seeing images of the original parish registers (which I have done in the past on microfilm) provides additional clues/evidence that is too often missing from the transcriptions; for instance names of witnesses (who often may have been relatives), or names of places (houses/farms) where the people lived, which can confirm a continuity between different records. Without establishing such continuity between records you often can’t be certain if the name appearing several times in a parish register relates to one person, or to several different people with the same name. It was very common in the past, when extended families often lived geographically close together, to find cousins or second cousins, or uncles/aunts & nephews/nieces, who shared the same names, living in the same parish. So in the records (and more-so in their partial transcriptions) it can be very difficult to tell these individuals apart!
After these initial frustrations with the FindMyPast system, where I was largely trying to find more about earlier ancestors through parish registers, etc – largely the Walkers of Kirkliston (whom I’m currently posting documents about), I decided to change track. I began to have a look at the lines of my ancestry that I can trace least far back. From my 3x Gt-grandparents back, some gaps begin to appear. So I began looking to see if FindMyPast could help fill any of these gaps.
That generation of my tree typically features individuals born in the late 1700’s and particularly the early 1800’s – people who often had their families at the time of the early censuses. So it proved easy to find out some more about some of these ancestors from the UK censuses. In one case I have been able to obtain the maiden name of a 3x Gt-grandmother, where before I only had her married surname.
Elsewhere I was able to work out sideways, adding children and other details in the next generation. But this also produced one more frustration with the FindMyPast system. FindMyPast would try to use the census data about a household to identify everyone in the family and use that to update or add individuals in your family tree. But too often it risked duplicating individuals because slight differences in name spelling meant that it didn’t link the person in the census to the person in your tree! And you couldn’t easily compare the full household list in the census with the whole family group in your tree, to check who was there and who was missing.
In one case I added a “son-in-law” from the census to my tree. I already had the son-in-law in my tree, but FindMyPast didn’t connect the two together, or connect the son-in-law from the census to his wife in my tree (who was also in that census entry), but only to his parents-in-law! So “Henry” then appeared twice in my tree – a duplicate! I tried to find out how I could merge the two entries into one! But I couldn’t!
The best help I could find was on a blog by Phil Moir, who is “technical lead for the Family Tree team” at FindMyPast. That helped a little, but wasn’t exactly what I wanted! In the end I had to resort to copying the new details provided by the census, from the “new” Henry, and pasting them into the profile of the “old” Henry, then delete the “new” Henry from my tree. Not very satisfactory! It should be much easier to merge two “profiles” into one.
Another example of the problem with FindMyPast‘s handling of census records is where a child in a family had died. Then a new child was given the same name, which was common when child mortality was high – in this example “William”. The 1891 census records the younger William (b.1886). But the FindMyPast system picks up on the older “William” in the family tree (b.1867), who had died (1871) before the 1891 census, and attempts to persuade you to change his date of birth to that of the younger James, who is in the census and on your tree. If you were to follow through on FindMyPast‘s advice and update “William’s” details based on the census record, then you would have two “William”s with the same approximate date of birth in the family group. This would then look like a duplicate of one individual (similar to what I described above), when in fact they were two different individuals, with a wide gap between dates of birth.
You really need to be able to compare the census records, and what FindMyPast is hinting you to change in your tree, side-by-side with the WHOLE family group that you currently have in your tree. You need to be better able to see the context of the wider family into which you’re being prompted to add new details of an individual. As far as I can see at the moment the best that you can do is to switch between the “merge” page and the “family view”, in separate browser tabs. This isn’t satisfactory. You should be able to view them side-by-side, in the same tab, in order to fully check how the details in the hinted record compare to the family group that you already have in your tree.
So, to summerise my experience; while FindMyPast could be very useful as a research tool, the frustrations that I’ve had as a new user trying it out for the first time, mean that I can only give it 2 stars! ★★☆☆☆
The free Family Tree Builder app is great and I’ll probably continue to play with it, adding material that I’ve got elsewhere. It looks great. I just wish it was a bit easier to navigate between different branches of my tree. A tab at the top of the “family view” that would let you get quickly to an index of all the individuals in your tree would be great for that.
The available records that you can search is also good. But I think that the systems of “Hinting” records, and of merging record details into your own family tree needs improvement (I realise that this is sure to be a very technically challenging thing to get right!).
So I think that I am unlikely to take out any kind of subscription to FindMyPast until I can see them ironing out many of the frustrations that I’ve mentioned above. Once they do, it’ll be a really great tool.
In June last year (2015) I joined my local Family History Society in Norfolk for the first time. I had been to a number of their monthly meetings before, and joined expecting to attend several more meetings that looked to be of interest in the 2015 program (entrance to meetings being much cheaper for members than for visitors).
As it turned out, I didn’t make any more of their meetings during 2015 (for various reasons!). But I have just renewed my membership and been to the first meeting of 2016. I have also written an article for the Society’s newsletter – all about starting this family history blog. I intend to post a copy of that article onto the blog here, once the newsletter is published (which I think is due at the end of February).
I have spent a while working out what to submit as “Names of Interest” to the local Family History Society’s “Member’s Directory”. I have just submitted my list along with my membership renewal, and I thought that I should also post that list here.
I have previously posted my “Names of Interest” onto AFamilyHistoryBlog and created a “Surnames” page which gives some additional details about some of the surnames, and includes some names that are not in the lists below. But the Family History Society has a specific format for the Members’ Interests, which I thought I should reproduce in this post.
I should say that none of my ancestry is very local to the area where I live. So it may be useful at some point for me to join Family History Societies in some of the areas where my ancestors did come from. There are links to some of these societies in the right-hand column of this website, and on the Resources page.
I have come up with two lists;
a “short list ” – of the names of greatest interest to me, arranged roughly in order of interest; the greatest interest first (though this is flexible – it’ll change depending on what I’m particularly researching at any given time). Most of these surnames can also be found in “Categories” list, in the right-hand column of the website.
a “long list” – including most of the surnames in my ancestry, which I arrange alphabetically for ease of searching.
Each entry in the list gives the SURNAME (in capitals), any spelling variations in brackets, then the location(s) – parish & county (using “Chapman Codes“), and finally the time period of interest. I will hyperlink each surname in the list to its relevant tag/category on AFamilyHistoryBlog so that you can quickly find all my blog posts relating to that surname.
Here are some further details that David Swain has sent to me about the SWAIN family, focusing on the generation of his father (my Great Grandfather) Ernest Garfield Swain; the children of James Christopher SWAIN and Ellen HART;
(I hope at some stage to be able to add some more images/photos to this post. You can see the previous post about the SWAIN family HERE )
James Christopher SWAIN; b. 17/9/1846 in Penkridge, Acton Trussell, Staffordshire. – d. 24/1/1900 (from tuberculosis), burried in Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester.
m. 6/3/1870 in Whittington, Pershore.
Ellen HART; 25/8/1846 in Silkmore- Castle Church, Staffordshire. – d. 10/3/1938 at 129 Letchworth Road, Western Park, Leicester. burried in Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester.
Children;
Allen ……… b. 1871 – 1943
Jessie Ann …… b. 1873 – 1960
Charles James … b. 1874 – 1945
Percy ……… b. 1876 – 1941
Rose Ellen … b. 1878 – 1921
Arthur Harry … b. 1880 – 1952
Ernest Garfield … b. 1881 – 1968
Georgina Isabella … b. 1883 – 1966
Nellie Ada ……… b. 1885 – 1952
Notes about the children, written by David Swain;
Allen Swain; 1871 – 1943
Allen was born on 2nd January 1871 at Red Hill Cross Worcester. The first child of James Christopher and Ellen. I believe that he joined his fathers Trade of boot and shoe manufacture. I know very little of him and my father never spoke of him, so we didn’t even know that he existed. He was apparently engaged to a Minnie Byham, who was friend of his sister Jessie, but nothing came of it.
1901 Census;
Show him as a boarder and shoe operative living with William Hall, a Black Smith, and his wife, Elizabeth, at 177 Gerrard Street, Derby.
Allen Swain of 62a Broad Green, Wellingborough, died on 9th February 1943, age 72, in the Park Hospital of natural causes and cerebral heamorage.
Jessie Ann Swain; 1873 – 1960
Jessie Ann was born on 9th February 1873, at 39 Browining Street Stafford. Like her mother she was quite petite.
1900 Census;
Living at 6 Avon Street Leicester. She is 28 and a boot and shoe embroiderer.
1911 Census;
Living at 315 East Park Road, Leicester. She is 38 and shown as Domestic, so obviously helping out her mother at home! I remember her as always cheerful. Our family had great affection for her and she used to come and stay with us in Oxford.
She and her sister, Nellie, lived together in later life. When Nellie died, she went to live with her younger sister Isabella (Mrs brooks), whose husband was a chemist at 15 Eastfield Road, Western Park, Leicester. But she was never happy there. Dad tried to get her to come and live with us in Oxford, but as she had lived the greater part of her life in Leicester was a little wary.
She died on the 11th of September 1960 and as far as I know is also buried in the Welford Road Cemetery.
Charles James Swain; 1874 – 1945
Like His older brother Allan I have not been able to find out too much.
Charles was born at 44 Filbert Street in 1874 and was probably classed as a scholar until the census of 1891, living with his family at 160 Auburn Villas in Leicester, where he is shown as Clerk in a factory, I imaging a boot factory.
In 1899 he marries Amy Catherine Greatorex and in the census of 1901 they are living at 44 Harrow Road, Leicester, with a daughter; Phyllis Mary, age under one month.
1911 Census;
Charles – age 36, Amy – age 36, Phyllis – 10, and Kenneth Charles – 3, are living at 38 Paton Street, Leicester, and his occupation is shown as Professor of Music. Charles died in 1945 in Northampton.
I know that Phyllis married a Mr Oram and they had a daughter, Joan. After he died she married again?
There are no more census records available after 1911 so without local research carried out further family details are difficult, expensive and very time consuming to follow through.
Percy Swain; 1876 – 1941
The census of 1891 shows him age 14, as a Scholar, living with the family at 160 Auburn Villas Leicester.
1901 Census;
Age 24 shows that he is living at 83 Harrison Road Leicester a Foreman clicker, shoes.
He married Emily Francis ? Probably in 1896/97. without local research I have no marriage certificate which would probably have given Emily’s surname.
1911 Census;
Living at 42 Erskine Street Leicester, Percy, now 34, a Pattern designer and cutter to the boot and shoe trade, with Emily Francis – wife, 34; Harry – Son, 13, Scholar; Annie – daughter, 12, Scholar; Frances Emily, 10, scholar; Percy James – 5; and James Christopher, 10 months.
The whole family emigrates to Perth in Australia but I have not been able to find out when, my Father kept in correspondence with his niece Annie, Mrs Downie ,also known a Cissie, in the 1960’s and according to letters received from her thanking him for all the Swain family history, a subject which he never spoke about to me or I believe my sister, what a shame!!
I wrote to two of my cousins there but never received replies so all this information is lost to my researches.
(Percy’s death on 3rd March 1941 was noted in “The West Australian” newspaper, which can now be seen archived on-line HERE. Look for “SWAIN” close to the bottom of the page, in both the first, and third column.)
Rose Ellen Swain; 1878 – 1921
Roes Ellen was born on 3rd August 1878, at 311 Belgrave Road, Leicester.
1901 Census;
Shows her, aged 23, as a Hosier and outfitter, and living with the family at 6 Avon Street, Leicester.
1911 Census;
Shows her, aged 33, a Hosier and outfitter, living with the family at 315 East Park Road, Leicester.
Rose Ellen died on 28th November 1921, age 43, at 44 Fosse Road Central (probably a hospice), from cancer of the bladder, and was buried in Welford Road cemetery.
Her last will and testament “gave and bequeathed all my possessions to my dear sister Jessie and sole executor of my will”, dated 23/11/1921. The value of her estate was £190 – 4s – 7d.
Arthur Harry Swain; 1880 – 1952
Harry is going to be a difficult one to fit in here as he had such a full life and did so much in the community. He and dad were great friends, so I got to know him better than all the other uncles/aunts.
Arthur Harry was born on 16th January 1880, at 44 Filbert Street Leicester.
1891 Census;
The family are living at 160 Auburn Villas, Narborough, and Harry is shown aged 11, as a scholar. In 1895 at the age of 15 He finishes at the Holy Trinity School and joins John Storey, Solicitor and Leicester Town clerk.
1901 Census;
Living with the family at 6 Avon Street Leicester. Harry, aged 21, is still working as a Solicitors Clerk, but owing to his Fathers death last year is not able to carry on his training for the legal profession.
1911 Census;
Living with the family at 315 East Park Road, Leicester.
Harry is now 31 but at the age of 26 he started his own company; A H Swain Insurance Brokers. Where and what he did from 1901 to 1906 I do not know.
In 1911 he is elected as Councillor for St Martins Ward, which he held for 17 years.
He and Mary Aitken Tarbet (daughter of Richard and Jane Blair Tarbet, of Largs, Ayreshire), were married on the 26th July 1911, in Largs, where she and her family lived. Then she and Harry lived at “Darvell”, 7 Fosse Road, Western Park, Leicester. Harry was 31 and Mary was 41.
During WW1, Mary served as a VAD nurse and this is probably when my mother, Doris Twite (also a VAD) met. This no doubt led to Doris coming to know the Swains.
It is perhaps ironic that Mary Died on the day of local elections in 1933, age 66. Her funeral was held at St Mary Magdalene, Knighton. Her will shows that she had a private income and left effects to the sum of £2,639 – 15s – 8d. Quite a sum for the 1930s. She had been ill and bed ridden for some time I can just remember seeing a lady in bed with a supported raised leg, I was only 4 then, she died of cancer of the femur.
At this time Harry wrote a book dealing with Export credit insurance. This book attracted the attention of the British and French Governments. He gave evidence before a joint committee and his book was looked upon as a standard work, the French Ambassador presented Harry with the Palm D’Academy for his services.
In November 1936 Harry was elected to be Mayor of Leicester. As his wife, Mary, had died, his sister, Nellie, supported him as Lady Mayoress.
Harry married Edith Masie Darvell in London. She was the daughter of Colonel and Mrs Darvell of Windsor, what a coincidence in the name Darvell. They lived at 44 The Ridgeway, Rothley, Leicester.
Harry died on 12th February 1952, and after the funeral service in Leicester Cathedral was buried in Rothley cemetery; the family vault in the Abbey cemetery being full.
Ernest Garfield Swain; 1881 – 1968
Ernest was born on the 20th August 1881, at 14 Walnut Street, Leicester.
1901 Census;
6 Avon Street, Leicester; age 19, a shoe machine operator.
1911 Census;
315 East park Road, Leicester; aged 29; Traveller in Wholesale Confectionary.
He was employed by the largest sweet manufacturer in the country, Clarnico & Company, as their representative in Yorkshire, and they provided him with a Scrips Booth American car.
He told me that he always had a spare rear axel on board as they had a habit of wearing out and petrol was only obtainable from a few Blacksmiths.
Sometime in 1915 he enlisted in the Leicester Regiment Territorial Force, and on the 21st November that year was appointed an officer; Second Lieutenant Swain.
The regiment was deployed to France and at some stage he suffered shrapnel injuries to his left leg and eye, and was invalided out of the regiment. Like many, he never talked about his war experiences.
The Swains knew the Twites as the families had business in Leicester and he and my mother (Doris Twite) wished to get married but she was taking care of her parents, Charles and Annie, in Droitwich, where they had gone for the spa waters, to help Charles relieve his painful arthritis, and thus she and Garfield, as he was always known, were unable to marry until Annie’s death in 1926.
They were married on 5th May 1927, at the Parish Church of Aylestone, Leicester, and spent their honeymoon touring by car; Gloucestershire, Somerset and Devon in a 12hp Calthorpe.
Dad had taken a post as company secretary to G R Cooper, Ironmongers, in Oxford, in 1925. So they purchased No11 Park Cresent, Oxford, for I believe the sum of £1600.00 pounds.
Our Father developed the company into the largest Builders Merchants in the South of England, this included Ironmongery metal workshops and salerooms. He set up an offshoot known as Multifactors; a wholsale company dealing in tobacco and sweets, covering many counties. He obviously had good contacts from his days with Clarnico & Co.
For some reason or other he never wished to become a Director, mores the pity for he would have been in a better position financially which would have made his retirement years easier. He retired in 1957 age 76.
Father died on the 26th March 1968, age 86, myocardial failure- senile decay.
Georgina Isabella Swain; 1883 – 1966
Georgina was born on the 1st of June 1883 at 3 Frederick Street Leicester.
I know very little about her.
1911 Census;
shows her at age 28, as a Clerk. She married William Garratt Brooks, who had a Chemists shop in Leicester, and they had a son, William Stanley.
She died on the 1st January 1966 age 82 in the George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton. This would have been nearest to Hinckley, where they lived at 28 Salem Road, Burbage.
More research would be needed.
Nellie Ada Swain; 1885 – 1952
Nellie Ada was born on the 15th of March 1885 at 3 Frederick Street Leicester.
1911 Census;
Shows her age 26, as Elementary School Teacher. She remained a teacher all her working life. She became Head Teacher of the Belgrave National C of E infants School, from 1918 to 1941. Sadly head mistresses were not allowed to marry.
In 1936 she was Lady Mayoress to her Brother Arthur Harry when he was elected Mayor of Leicester.
All this time she lived with the family at “Darvel”, 129 Letchworth Road, Western Park, Leicester.
Nellie Died on 7th September 1952, age 67, and is buried in the Welford Road cemetery.
Mr J C Martin the headmaster of her School in 1990, sent me lots of details of her time there and pictures of the school but I have as yet to scan them to the computer.
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For other details about the SWAIN family on this site, please see the SWAIN category or the Swain tag.
In no particular order I’m making several posts to show my known ancestors, in a “pedigree view”, starting each pedigree with one of my great-grandparents (for people’s personal privacy I will not give details of the more recent generations).
The Roman Numeral in front of a name indicates the generation (counting backwards) and the number of “great”s that you need to add to describe their relationship to me. i.e.
“-i-” = my “great-grandparent”,
“-iv-” = my “4x-great-grandparent”.
Click the numeral to link to any posts tagged with that individual’s name, or to all the posts tagged with that surname (if the individual person doesn’t have a tag).
If someone’s name is highlighted as a hyperlink, you can click that link to an external webpage with information about that person. I generally favour entries on Wikipedia, though other sources may come up if there is nothing on Wikipedia, or if the alternative offers better information.
In no particular order I’m making several posts to show my known ancestors, in a “pedigree view”, starting each pedigree with one of my great-grandparents (for people’s personal privacy I will not give details of the more recent generations).
The Roman Numeral in front of a name indicates the generation (counting backwards) and the number of “great”s that you need to add to describe their relationship to me. i.e.
“-i-” = my “great-grandparent”,
“-iv-” = my “4x-great-grandparent”.
Click the numeral to link to any posts tagged with that individual’s name, or to all the posts tagged with that surname (if the individual person doesn’t have a tag).
If someone’s name is highlighted as a hyperlink, you can click that link to an external webpage with information about that person. I generally favour entries on Wikipedia, though other sources may come up if there is nothing on Wikipedia, or if the alternative offers better information.
Here are the ELLIOTTs.
-iv-[ ??? ELLIOTT (or ELLETT)
-iii-[ John (Jack) ELLIOTT, b. 1793, d. 1864, m. ???.
-i-[ Clarence ELLIOTT, b. 03/11/1881, Hadley Barnet, Hertfordshire, d. 18/02/1969, Broadwell, Gloucestershire, m. 28/11/1911, ???, to Phyllis Mary EYRE.
-v-[ John CLARENCE, 06/06/1714, Old Sampford, Essex, d. 05/05/1784, m. 16/12/1740.
-iv-[ Richard CLARENCE, b. 08/06/1759, Sampford, Essex, d. 30/03/1826, m. 14/05/1801.
-v-[ Ann TABRUM, b. 01/08/1717, Old Sampford, Essex, d. ???
-iii-[ Caroline Mary CLARENCE, b. 29/01/1809, d. 1874
-v-[ John BUCK, b. ???, d. ???
-iv-[ Elizabeth BUCK, b. 02/04/1775, Exeter, d. 19/12/1852, Exeter.
-v-[ Elizabeth ???, b. ???, d. ???
* Notes; Henry FRY’s father, Joseph, was a type-founder and chocolate maker in Bristol. After Joseph’s death, his widow, Anna, and youngest son, Joseph Storrs FRY, continued the chocolate making business, while Henry and another son, Edmund, continued in the type-foundry business.
I have details going back a further 9 generations in the FRY line, originating around Sutton Benger, in Wiltshire (although as you go back there are several differing versions of the FRY family tree). I also have details going back 6 further generations in the CLARENCE line.
* Sources;
FRY tree – info from David ROBSON.
CLARENCE tree – from Sharolyn REDFERN. Tree found on Ancestry.com & e-mails exchanged with Sharolyn Redfern.
ELLIOTT family – notes/letters
My apologies if I’ve missed any particular sources or credits that I should have given. I believe that these are my major sources.
In no particular order I’m making several posts to show my known ancestors, in a “pedigree view”, starting each pedigree with one of my great-grandparents (for people’s personal privacy I will not give details of the more recent generations).
The Roman Numeral in front of a name indicates the generation (counting backwards) and the number of “great”s that you need to add to describe their relationship to me. i.e.
“-i-” = my “great-grandparent”,
“-iv-” = my “4x-great-grandparent”.
Click the numeral to link to any posts tagged with that individual’s name, or to all the posts tagged with that surname (if the individual person doesn’t have a tag).
If someone’s name is highlighted as a hyperlink, you can click that link to an external webpage with information about that person. I generally favour entries on Wikipedia, though other sources may come up if there is nothing on Wikipedia, or if the alternative offers better information.
Here are the CADZOWs.
-iv-[ William CAGOW, b. 18/04/1760, Carnwarth, d. 17/03/1858, Hallhill, Lesmahagow, m. ???
-iii-[ William KADZOW, b. 03/04/1786, d. 17/03/1858, Hallhill, Lesmahagow, m. 30/11/1816, Dalserf.
-iv-[ Jean MANUEL, b. ???, d. ???
-ii-[ James CADZOW, b. 24/05/1837, Hallhill, Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, d. 1903, North Hall, Lesmahagow, m. ???
WALKER family notes/papers – various notes and records kept within the WALKER family that I’ve been able to look through.
CADZOW tree – from Libby DUNLOP – who I had contact with via the internet/e-mail in June 2005.
CADZOW tree – from Lionel & Janet BENSON – who I had contact with via the internet/e-mail in June 2005.
1881 Census – viewed on CDR. My own search of the 1881 census, via CDRom.
International Genealogical Index (IGI) – My own searches of the index, used mainly to double-check other sources. Not to be fully relied on by itself. Given the chance I like to look at the OPR microfilms (from which the IGI is transcribed), which tend to contain many more details than the IGI.
My apologies if I’ve missed any particular sources or credits that I should have given. I believe that these are my major sources.
In looking for a solution (in the form of a new program), I’ve been browsing reviews and have downloaded several free trial versions of software to try out, including RootsMagic, and Heredis. I have also been trying out the use of free apps like OneNote and GoogleSheets (as I’ve previously posted about; here and here).
This changed last week when I decided to try Family Historian 6, the full version of which can be downloaded and used for free, for a 30 day trial period, before you have to buy a licence key for £35.99 to continue using it. When I first opened the Family Historian program on my computer, I liked the interface and was drawn into using it in a way which I haven’t been with the other programs that I’ve looked at.
My plan in the new tree project is to include my direct ancestors, working back one generation at a time (as far as I know), equally in all ancestral lines lines, adding my [X]x-Great-grandparents, and their additional descendants (who aren’t already included), up to 3 or 4 generations if possible (i.e. to 2nd or 3rd cousins in subsequent generations). This might stretch to 5 or 6 generations of descent in some cases, but I probably won’t go further that that!
, and I’ll double check this before the month expires – because I don’t want to be charged £10 every month hereafter!
The regiment was deployed to France and at some stage he suffered shrapnel injuries to his left leg and eye, and was invalided out of the regiment. Like many, he never talked about his war experiences.
A Family History Blog 