Lorna's research logs and linksThis is an attempt to let interested people know what is likely to have changed in my web pages and assorted online databases, eg at WorldConnect (LornaHenderson and LornaPotential ).
A copy of this in blog format, where you may add comments, corrections etc can be found in the GenBlog link above (and is more often updated, this version is in catch-up mode and really only maintained as a backup). An advantage of that format is also the ability to filter by "labels" ie the surname and place keywords I try to remember to put under each post, and also that I get notified if a comment is posted, unlike the guestbook.
I make no pretence of this log being a complete list of changes, just the points I remember to update these pages with. Items listed most recent first, and also exist on my GenBlog, which can be subscribed to as a feed, and filtered for topics of interest.
Love to hear about any relations, additions or corrections.
Mar 2012
20th: Agnes not Isabella & a twoferWhile checking off yet more data before publishing yet another update, I strayed back onto my shortest family tree, the DAVIDSONs (that of my great grandfather Adam) and decided to check whether or not I would have more luck pinning a few more twigs down.
Just as I picked a correct death cert. from the options available on ScotlandsPeople, in came an email.
This is a line I've not looked at for at least 3 years, probably more, and many years ago the entire tree consisted of some 30 people until the Australian contingent popped out of the woodwork.
The email was from one of the Australian contingent, a descendant of the sister of the chap whose death I had just found!
Only managed to add about 3 descendants and 2 wives into the tree on two of the lines remaining in Scotland but several more fates have been found, including that of Isabella, daughter of John DAVIDSON and Isabella FORD. The family story was that Margaret Greig DAVIDSON had emigrated to meet up with her sister, and the sister had been very tentatively identified as Isabella. Now however, with the increasing availability of records, the sister is more likely to be Agnes given there's one of the right age and birthplace emigrating to Queensland towards the end of 1891, especially as Isabella's death was found in Chirnside in 1909 - immediately preceding her aunt Mary JEFFREY nee DAVIDSON's on the same page - so two for the price of one!
17th: A burning issue
Further to Robert BISHOP in the last post (Resurrecting Robert) - we can now guess how come he was in jail in 1900.
Found a newspaper report (27 Oct 1899 San Diego Union) of an arson of his heavily insured and heavily mortgaged property, in which he, "Robert Bishop an old man", and his son "H L Bishop", lived keeping "a saloon in the front part".
Both were accused of the arson and arrested.
Haven't found a report of any trial, but Robert is known to be in jail in 1900 and Harold was living with his sister and her husband at the same census.
15th: Resurrecting Robert
Just found that I've prematurely killed off Robert BISHOP, husband of Elizabeth ANDREWS.
Given he was in the Alameda County jail in 1900 and not found (when I last looked) in the 1910 census, I jumped to the conclusion that he had died between 1900 and 1910.
Happenstance involving discussion about Queenie, aka Caroline PERRETT, the 8 year old kidnapped from Lepperton by Maoris in 1874 led me to revisit some of my Taranaki data.
Two of Queenie's siblings married into my extended ANDREWS tree: a sister Sarah became the second wife of Thomas LANGMAN, the first being Sarah, the above Elizabeth's sister; a brother married the daughter of the above Thomas and Sarah (ANDREWS) LANGMAN. A third married a BISHOP, which led to my yet again trying to figure out which, if any, of the Taranaki BISHOP families Robert belonged too - I failed, yet again.
However a general search on ancestry uncovered a Robert BISHOP of the right age in the 1920 Oakland, Alameda Co., California census. With a new, younger, wife Emilia, and a son (Ashton BISHOP) and a married daughter (Eva BROWN) born in New Zealand, previously unknown to me. Also with a convenient John E SAUNDERS in the household as brother-in-law of Robert.
The "BISHOP" son and daughter turned out to be step children of Robert's, being born to George LEECH and Amelia Hamblyn Cudlipp Scone SANDERS in New Zealand, probably in New Plymouth.
Also noted in passing was an Elizabeth Hamblyn Cudlipp Scone SAUNDUS marriage in New Zealand in the same timeframe to a Thomas Green LEECH. Sure enough Elizabeth and Amelia were siblings, emigrating from Devon to Nelson around 1860.
Thomas and Elizabeth LEECHs children seem to be well linked to the WOOD family, and there's also a connection in this lot to Alfred Bayley KIVELL.
All in all, a well tangled set of Taranaki families.
Feb 2012
28th: Adam RICHARDSON, Chester music instrument dealerRecently found what happened to Adam son of John & Ann (BLAIR) RICHARDSON, and ordered his will, thinking he would mention a heap of his nieces and nephews, given he was apparently childless.
Hope the blighter gave the solicitor a good family tree as he hedged his bets and left his estate "in trust for the person or persons who at my death under the Statues for the distribution of the personal effects of intestates would be entitled to my personal estate on my death intestate such persons if more than one to take in the proportion prescribed by the same statues". A heir hunter's dream.
Which led, of course, to yet another check to see if this time round, the fate of more of them might be found.
One mystery was Adam's brother Robert, married Margaret Dodds CLEUCH in Edinburgh in 1870, son John born about 1872, no hide nor hair after 1881 in Scotland - but where did they go?
Much more success this time round, one Margaret Dodds RICHARDSON popped up on ancestry in the, wait for it, New Zealand Electoral Rolls - and sure enough, she was at the same address as a Robert RICHARDSON, clerk.
So yet another branch of the RICHARDSONs in New Zealand.
Looks like Margaret died in 1905 and Robert in 1917.
There's also a John Blair RICHARDSON in Canterbury, who seems to have married a Violet WALKER in 1895, and died in NZ in 1940.
BLAIR is Robert's mother's name, so it looks like son John has also been found. John's burial record on the Christchurch City Council Cemeteries database shows him as aged 68, born Edinburgh, and having been in NZ 57 years. QED.
13th: Eager hands
Loved this little snippet about a fire in Dunedin in 1863.
The building concerned was being pulled down to stop the fire spreading, water not being immediately available.
"Meanwhile the houses fronting the street, were pouring forth their contents, and as usual the crowd was only too eager to assist in this part of the business, and the interference of the police became necessary to prevent the stores of Mr Fargie, wine and spirit merchant, which were in no immediate danger, from being broken into for the purpose of getting out their contents."
Otago Daily Times , Issue 351, 4 February 1863, Page 4
Jan 2012
30th: William of CrailAs referred to in an earlier post, my data on the William RUNCIMAN of Crail line (part of Lineage 1b) has been checked off and uploaded to WeRelate, where it has been merged with Allan's previously loaded tree sourced from, amongst others, Jen & Diane's 2000 publication, Scotland and Beyond.
As WeRelate is a public Genealogy Wiki, should you have any additions to the data posted there, simply log in and update it, the original submitter(s) will be notified of your changes.
The matching/merging process of my submitted gedcom with existing data was readily achieved, albeit that places and dates aren't treated separately, so often a duplicated date was added in order to get a place and/or source data attached. Easily sorted.
25th: Another gem
Another gem of a link from the SMGF newsletter.
Is your research glass half full or half empty?
23rd: Married or not?
Can anyone help decipher the marital status on this census entry? (1861 Appleton Wiske, Yorkshire, family of Sarah FAIRBAIRN nee MOORE)
(see GenBlog for image)
It may, or may not help to know that the husband seems to have deserted the family and returned to Scotland (from Yorkshire) to live with another woman as man and wife, no marriage to be found. 21st: Revisting the past
There's nothing like revisiting past research to make you realise how much more information is so much more readily available online theses days.
This comment arises from my additions to WeRelate. In this case my direct paternal and maternal ancestral lines (no collaterals, they'll come later when I get round to loading all the rellise with their particular surname).
So far I've not found anyone on WeRelate researching any of my direct ancestors unfortunately, but no doubt in time someone will pop out of the woodwork. Perhaps they'll miraculously come up with my Archibald HENDERSON's ancestors - I live in hope!
16th: What's in a name?
Climbing The Spiral Staircase: Learning Genealogy may be of interest.
I particularly liked the Maidenform - Medenfort - Madenford example, having recently tried (successfully) to verify a birth of a Jane(t) PRITCHARD.
'tis often a pity we have to pick one name as the primary name for display.
I think I prefer her baptismal name of PREACHER.
So far I've found her baptized as PREACHER (1827), and a census entry (1861) showing a daughter with the name Agnes Preacher RUNCIMAN, but her marriage (1847) and death (1904) certs, either side both show her as PRITCHARD, which is, I assume, what the name morphed to over time.
16th: Carried along
Read an interesting parish burial entry today - 1818 Edinburgh St Cuthberts.
Past Edinburgh parish burial records have often been very informative with ages, occupations, causes of death, addresses etc, so when I tried interpreting an unlabelled column as a cause of death, my first guess was "strokes", but it did look rather more like "spokes" - which sounded rather painful !
Looking at the other entries on the page however I've deduced that they were recording how the dear departed was carried to their final resting place: "Arms", Shoulders", "hearse", "Coach" and "half spokes" being the other entries.
Expensive business this dying lark.
Robert FAIRBAIRN of St Leonard Street looked like his estate paid 5/3d for mortcloth, 2/4d for poor, 9d for "keepers", 1/- recorder, 1/- for grave digger and 1/3d for beadles.
The estate got off comparatively lightly with the one recorded has having the hearse (Lucy WALKER, relict of WALKER, writer) paying £1/-/6d for mortcloth, 5/- for turf, 4/8 for poor, £1/1/- for "Warrants", 1/6d for keepers, , 5/- for recorder, 1/- for grave digger, 1/3d for beadles (11/7d compared to £2/19/11d if I can still add in LSD)
15th: Robert & Jane (WIGHT) SINTON
An email from Morley asking if I could quantify the rumoured connection between the families of Elizabeth MABON, whose son John married Jane ELLIOT, and the SINTONs, Jane ELLIOT's sister Betsy having married William son of Robert & Jane (WIGHT) SINTON.
This SINTON family had children baptized in Ancrum, ROX before emigrating to Beauharnois County, Quebec around 1831.
It had been rather a long time since I last looked at this SINTON family, well before easier access to census data online.
Haven't answered his question, but have updated my knowledge of the family, and realised that they weren't included on my SINTONs page - now remedied,with more updates on the chart included yet to come.
Should any SINTON descendants read this, please pop along to the SINTON Surname DNA project to join it and see if there's any connection to my SINTONs!
10th: HOPPERs , SINCLAIRs & RUNCIMANs
Contact from a couple of distant rellies has resulted in a few updates.
The family of Nathanial DAWE now has a few more twigs pinned down, particular the family of some of the HOPPER branch.
So the DAWE descendant chart has been updated.
Also an interesting set of conversations with Peter SINCLAIR starting from his post in my Guestbook has resulted in Donald SINCLAIR being "found" after 1871 - married Annie DALGLEISH in Edinburgh (1885), then moved to London, appearing there in 1891 but not to be found after that.
By 1901 Annie and children are living with a James MACKIE (as wife and step-children) without a marriage to be found (as yet).
By 1911 Annie is a widow and the children are shown as MACKIE, but that obviously didn't last as subsequent records has them as SINCLAIR again.
The wonderful Army Pension records furnished a heap of interesting details.
So the GRAY chart has also been updated.
Something cosmetic must have changed for Donald GRAY as part of this activity, so his recent changes entry for 6 Jan can be ignored.
Currently working through checking off some RUNCIMAN data prior to publication on WeRelate, so William of Crail's chart on my RUNCIMAN page has also been updated, (but there's a much fuller tree available on WeRelate, which my data, and sources, will be added to/combined with).
3rd: 3 months of updates
Quite an impressively long list of recent changes - but don't be fooled.
Many are minor changes to citations, or the last edit date changed because a scanned certificate has been added (which wont be visible on the family tree pages, but may be if included on the Originals subsite - not yet updated).
Another reason for inclusion in the recent change index is the addition of links to a hopefully relevant dna page for those belonging to dna tested lines (some of which links may still not yet work).
At least two new people now have pages, probably others:
Grace MEIKLE nee ROBERTSON, mentioned recently
Elizabeth HAMLEY nee ROWE, although the impetus for her publication eludes me at the moment.
Now that more of the FAIRBAIRN trees are included on the One Name Study pages, the FAIRBAIRN page has been cut back to only include trees for the more closely related FAIRBAIRNs.
Many updates probably don't feature in the recent changes index but only in the updated descendancy charts.
