Lorna's research logs and linksJune 2007
30th: Andrew RICHARDSON and the associated RUNCIMAN chart have been updated with the last couple of days finds on the family. Still trying to find the conclusive link between a James Russell RICHARDSON (marr. to Frances Maud DYER) who was born in Dunedin 1866 and this Andrew, hoping to prove they are brothers. Anyone know of any descendants of their dtr Rita (?Frances Rita) and Russell? I believe they were both born Hunterville, but moved to Ashburton and am also assuming that "Russell" is actually James Russell Jnr, marr. to Meta GIBSON, dtr of a Borough foreman.28th: Some more updates to the main web pages. Once again, the "recent changes" for today, 28th Jun, are behind the scenes tidy ups, except for the inclusion of one new person: Andrew RICHARDSON
27th: Rootsweb pages updated. NB the "recent changes" for today, 27th Jun are all just tidy ups, except for the inclusion of two new people: Procretia PYKE, Besty RUNCIMAN and a few snippets and photo for Dr David RUNCIMAN, as I'm really just clearing the decks of updates etc before including some of the more recent RICHARDSON finds, some of which are included in the RUNCIMAN descendant chart - a couple of the new surnames added into the mix are BONAR and WOONTON, love to hear from anyone with information on that lot.
26th: Web updates will follow with the RICHARDSON data, but in the meantime, the RUNCIMAN descendant chart has been updated, twice, given that after the first update I found the family in NZ, blacksmithing in Oamaru, even living in Coquet St, which is the same street as my HENDERSON blacksmiths, wonder if they realised they were related? Perhaps this is an alternate explanation to how come William HENDERSON met his Borders wife? I need to check out more dates, but it looks like the RICHARDSON family emigrated from Victoria around 1867 after leaving Edinburgh about 1852/3.
24th: The RICHARDSON family has taken a large leap in knowledge and numbers. I realised that I hadn't looked for some of them in the census, and an Edinburgh based James, blacksmith born Maxton caught my eye. I've now therefore found what happened to James, brother of my 3 greats Elizabeth (both children of Robert RICHARDSON and Margaret RUNCHAMAN). Mind you his death certificate does show that his son Thomas was a bit confused, putting his mother's forename instead of his grandmother's for James' mother, but everything else fits, occupation, birthplace/time and naming pattern of children. Even found a NZ connection, yet to be explored, so if anyone has a James RICHARDSON, son of James RICHARDSON and Jane RUSSELL, I'd love to hear from you.
22nd: A few more METTERS snippets will show up next update thanks to John M. (mainly the family connected with the JEFFERYs and BIDGOODs, ie the Lewtrenchard lot.
Prompted by a question from Paul R, an examination of my RICHARDSON and DICKSON families highlighted that I'd not yet taken advantage of the increased census availability for some of them. Now remedied for the DICKSON/WILSON lot - which led me back to Caithness with a DEUCHAR family from Wick. Haven't had much of a look around for them as yet, but the rest of them seem to have stayed up in Caithness, so I wonder why dtr Kate moved south?
17th: Decided that the 1831 burial in Walkhampton of a James CREBER is more likely to be the James son of John CREBER and Ann WORTH, than the James of about the same age son of Richard CREBER and Elizabeth SPRY.
The evidence is entirely circumstantial, but given the burial entry says "of Horsyeat", and that's where the former couple were rather than the latter couple, I'm happy with that id, even if at least one other WorldConnect db disagrees. I'll update mine sometime soon. The son of Richard and Elizabeth may, or may not, have married Margaret MITCHELMORE and worked as a wheelwright/blacksmith in Buckfastleigh. Which adds to the circumstantial evidence as a brother John also worked as a wheelwright (in Whitchurch).
10th: Will need to do another update to LornaHenderson soon, but in the meantime, the SINTON chart has been updated.
The main changes are the additions and updates to the SINTON descendants of James SINTON and Margaret WILKIE that contact from Linda has spurred me into searching for. The latest find was that Janet SCOTT was the informant for her sister Rachel BUCHAN nee SCOTT's 1932 death. So she had to be in the census somewhere, even though I'd been unsuccessful up till now. No wonder, I was looking for a single woman, so had been ignoring those marked as "wife", unless the birthplace was close, and had been looking in Scotland. However the address she gave as informant said Mansfield, which was pointed out to me as being in Nottinghamshire (the Nottingham Rd address being a bit of a giveaway). Sure enough, there she was in 1891, same town as in 1932, still Janet SCOTT, but that was because she had married a John SCOTT (don't know if he was a relation or not). 1901 still eluded me, but I eventually found them then too, by ignoring the surname. They'd been enumerated as John Scott do and Janet Sinton Scott do, and therefore indexed with the surname of the preceding household (and Sinton changed to Linton, which is a common mistranscription). One of the daughters was a Rachel Haldane SCOTT. Haven't figured out where the Haldane bit comes from at all as yet.
I've given up updating GenCircles, something seems to have "stuck" on that site, and web searches indicate that it has been having problems and a several disgruntled users. Although it says my file has been updated, the indexing of it hasn't happened for quite some weeks/months now, so the search facility is useless.
6th: Another SINTON descendant has found me (ta Linda McK for the updates as to what happened to the family of William & Isabella (WADDELL) SINTON). This is down the line of James SINTON/Margaret WILKIE via son Robert (marr. Jane PARK). Which prompted me to find out more about some of the lines I'd not traced far. Couldn't find Robert & Jane's dtr Margaret (marr. Thomas SCOTT) in 1881 at all, mainly because they were in England. Wonder what made her become a dairymaid in Altrincham, Cheshire, taking her two sons with her? She obviously thought better of it however as by 1891 they were back in Galashiels.
4th: Both LornaHenderson and LornaPotential updated. Main changes being in the RUNCIMAN family (more to come, but probably mostly in the more modern bits, so not online), but other snippets also included.
1st: Ann BAIN (c 1855 - 1872) is hereby deleted from the family of William and Jessie (DAVENDER) BAIN. There was always a doubt about her, despite her death cert. showing her as the daughter of a William BAIN and Janet m.s. BAIN, given that William was shown as a deceased fisherman, rather than the living labourer he was in 1872. I never could find her in census records with the family and the family all described the daughters as the seven sisters of Staxigo, which Ann rather mucked up as she made 8. As I found another William BAIN also living in Kinnaird St, who was a fisherman, and was deceased by 1872, and had a dtr Ann of the right age, I have now assumed that the neighbour who was the informant on Ann's death cert, mixed up William's wifes name, substituting that of the living William instead.
May 2007
27th: Still chugging away at the RUNCIMAN, MERCER & WALLACE families, but with a small sidetrack to Bere Ferrers prompted by a contact studying the METTERS families of the area.John highlighted that he believed Mary, the dtr of Richard and Patience (PYKE) METTERS, married a Thomas Courtis Metters, who seemed unable to decide whether he was a COURTIS METTERS, a METTERS, or a COURTIS (and all variants thereof). This does look a convincing id for Mary, and supplants that of her possibly being the Mary METTERS of an age, who was supposedly born Bere Ferrers and married a Nathaniel HAWKE (Walkhampton 1806) and lived Gwennap. There's only the one Mary baptism recorded in the Bere Ferrers Parish Registers, that of the dtr of Richard and Patience. The descendants of Mary and Nathaniel reported their Mary as being baptised to Richard and Joanna in the Bible Christian registers. The mystery remains, but I've assumed that I've now got "our" Mary identified. Updates will follow in due course.
And while I was digging around in the Bere Ferrers registers, I realised that I'd never checked out Richard and Patience any further back than their marriage. Richard wasn't spotted, but Patience was easily enough found, along with a heap of other PYKE families. Can't find her parent's marriage, so that must be in some other register/parish somewhere. Also drew a blank on her father Robert's baptism, so another dead end, just a generation earlier.
Also checked out a few of the ROWE family while I was looking in the registers for that time period. It is possible that Hannah, wife of Joseph, was a HARRIS, as there is only the one Hannah baptised in the appropriate time period (1708-1727), ignoring Joanna and Ann and Joans. Coffee rules supreme, if it is her, I have a Robert HARRIS as a forebear - pity I hate coffee.
23rd: Included yet another Margaret King CREBER on the web because I found the family rather fascinating in what they did and also updated the KING chart at left.
RUNCIMAN and the related MERCER & WALLACE findings continue apace.
22nd: More RUNCIMAN data added, prompted mainly from contact with, and a family history received from, David R in Spain. It did finally nudge me into bringing the Janet RUNCHIMAN who married William MERCER in from the cold and admitting her into the family, which adds a heap of MERCER and WALLACE names to the tree, and yet more cotton weavers of Earlston.
Nearly finished documenting the WARE/CREBER line of warreners at Ditsworthy.
RUNCIMAN and BARTER charts both updated, more to come.
19th: Contacted by a BOWDEN/CREBER descendant in Australia whose info led me to extend the families of both Robert BOWDEN/Sarah CREBER, and Henry Willcock ANDREWS/Lydia HELYER ++. Fred, son of Jacob BOWDEN and Elizabeth Tuke ANDREWS, ended up in Tasmania apparently, along with several of his cousins. And then I found that his brother Henry married a CREBER/PEARSE descendant and that unearthed a whole nest of inter-related people, both PEEK and KING descendants, including a John CREBER and Margaret Phoebe CREBER marriage which united a 1st cousin once removed, a 3rd cousin and a 4th cousin once removed, and yes there were only 2 people involved! And as part of this exploration, one chap involved had an occupation of "warrener of 500" at Dittsworthy Warren. Anethema to a Central Otago lass where rabbits are complete pests, here was a rellie breeding the blighters. A search of that wonderful site that is encouraging people to load their photos for every grid square of the UK map, brought up a lovely pic of Ditsworthy Warren near Sheepstor, and a row of prehistoric stones.
18th: Rootsweb web pages updated, mainly the Rev David Williamson RUNCIMAN and the RUNCIMAN chart at left. NB the supposed changes listed for 9 May are bogus, I was fiddling in the background, not changing data. Given the recent flurry on RUNCIMAN, I've also updated my LornaHenderson database .
16th: The illegible writing is hereby deemed to read "William Scaife And Franses? his? wife whom I hereby nominate and appoint". And as that's what I wanted it to read, I'll believe the kind person who wrote to me.
15th: Another flurry of activity on the RUNCIMAN family. In particular, the families of William & Mary (BROWN) RUNCIMAN and James & Isabella (CARTER) RUNCIMAN who both ended up in Michigan early/mid 1850s. Rumour, and previous charts have reported them as brothers, but one researcher, now deceased, concluded that they were cousins, brought up together and calling themselves brothers. Love to know where they fit back in Scotland, especially given that William & Mary lived in Lauder, they had a dtr with a 2nd forename of Lockie and Mary's brother wrote to her reporting at least some news about the Wanton Walls RUNCIMAN family. The William and James, sons of David RUNCIMAN & Janet LOCKIE, are accounted for in Scotland, so it isn't an immediate connection.
Updated LornaPotential as a result, but it already needs another update.
Made contact via GenesReunited with another twig of the WIGHT tree. Ta Susie, I'll add your grandfather, James Scott PRINGLE, into the online database next update.
5th: If anyone thinks they're a dab hand at interpreting unintelligible writing, they might like to try the crucial line in the will of David GRAHAM that actually says who his "hairs and executors" are (I've included a pic of the vital bit on his page). I reckon it starts "William Scafe", and would like the next few words to be "and Fanny his wife", and could almost convince myself of at least the "wife" bit of that, but even so, what on earth is the rest of the line concerned?
2nd: Carlisle Marriage Bonds received, which showed that the William BATY who married Mary SIMPSON in 1795 was indeed a widower of Hornickhill, so I've merged the two families, those of William and Sarah, and William and Mary, into one. Also that the Andrew BATY who married Mary RICHARDSON in 1814 was indeed of Hornickhill, so I'm even happier with that identification as well.
The availability of transcripts of the Scottish census data on ancestry is proving a great help in tracking people as they move around. One however I've just realised I had all along, albeit in disguise. I'd not been able to find Robert MANSON in 1851. Given I can't find him anywhere else, it seems highly likely that he's the lodger, enumerated as Robert MORISON, of the right age, birth place and occupation, in Edinburgh, where he later married - especially as his landlord is his cousin Robert McADIE.
April 2007
30th: Included Andrew GRAHAM on the web pages, father of Stephen, and, it turns out, the Dulcibella who married the Edward GRAHAM buried at Kirklinton, the one with a coat of arms on his tombstone. Don't yet know who he is, but he's apparently mentioned in Cumberland Families and Heraldry.Bridget's website shows that the Arms are "....on a Chief....three scallops....Crest. A cubit arm holding a scimitar", whatever that means - bit of research required here, new territory for me, finding people that have things written about them. I presume this means that several of the other Kirklinton GRAHAMs are therefore related, particularly those connected with Moorhouse, but I don't yet know that. Edward seems not to have left a will, or if he did it hasn't survived.
Also updated both LornaHenderson and GenCircles, the main change being the new GRAHAM data, primarily from the will of Andrew GRAHAM of the Fauld, will written 1736, proven at Carlisle 1739.
28th: This wonderful site ( geograph) has just been recommended to me. Aim is to get photos of every grid of the (UK) map. You can search by grid reference or place, or just zoom in on the map. Found a photo of Dale Mill nr Westerdale where Donald BAIN was shown as a miller in 1861. Devon coverage is pretty good too.
27th: Ignore the apparent "changes" listed as recent edits for the 23rd thru 27th April, I was "fixing" some behind the scenes bits and pieces, not adding data.
Main change of significance is that I've included Richard GRAHAM victualler of Clerkenwell Middlesex and his will on the web pages. With a fair wind behind the postie I might soon also be able to include details from the will of David.
22nd: With all this GRAHAM activity, I have updated my Rootsweb pages, although I have yet to tidy up Richard GRAHAM enough for publication (he of the lucky will, see the 20th). I've had a change of heart about the family of David GRAHAM of Fauld, and have un-married him from Bridget given that a living Bridget found me a much better match for Frances SCAIFE nee GRAHAM. I await his will with interest.
20th: Will of Grimston GRAHAM arrived, along with lists of GRAHAM and BATY/BEATY wills held in Carlisle. Looks like a few more of interest are available. Grimston's brother Richard pre-deceased him, and was "of London". The search widens. And I'm not sure I believe what happened next. I searched Documents online for any likely candidates, after all, a search with keywords "Richard Graham London", only netted 128,138 wills in the likely time period. The first one I picked was the right one (and it didn’t have any mention of Cumberland in it whatsoever to give me a hint, honest). Not sure he was of sound mind, there's a memorandum that says where he said Jane daughter of his sister Jane he meant her dtr Margaret, so I'm having a bit of trouble deciphering who is who, particularly with what appears to be two generations of William SCAIFEs involved and at least two different Abigails (SCAIFE and GRAHAM).
19th: A contact with Hawick based FAIRBAIRNs caused me to look at my db to see who all I had in the area. Didn't have a match, but as a result, I extended the family of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Elizabeth HOOD a tad by proving my speculative id of dtr Mary in 1881 was correct. She married a James JARDINE and they continued living in Hawick.
11th: Main updates are to the GRAHAMs of Fauld and Craggs thanks to the Cumbria Archives Historical Research Service and Carolyn (also indirectly Mike of the Bewcastle Heritage Society). See particularly Stephen and Andrew GRAHAM. I've also thrown in a bit about William GRAHAM in the hope that someone can enlighten me as to whether or not he and Margaret baptised to a couple named Andrew and Jane GRAHAM, but in Kikrlinton Parish, and at Astenby/Great Astenby, are the same Andrew and Jane who had Richard and Stephen baptised in Bewcastle a few years earlier.
8th: Thought it was about time I included my 4xgreats Caithness grand-dad, John BAIN on the web. One of the earlier ones I know a bit more about than just BMD data. Also included some recently received photos of where he's buried (ta Bobby, that saved me from finding mine, which task has been on the to-do list for qite some time), and Bobby's earlier photos of Clashscriby where this BAIN family lived. (See place index). Threw in Donald TAYLOR for good measure, as he must have led an eventful life. But in doing the necessary checking before the upload I stumbled across a few bits of additional info which made me rethink the TAYLOR tree, primarily I shifted Christina TAYLOR from being a sister to this Donald to being his niece instead, and found a niece of Isabella McDONALD, probably the one of my direct relations that I know least about, not that I've figured out where she belongs as yet.
1st: Some people just do NOT want to be found in census records. For some time now I've been trying to find Mary, born St Stithians, Cornwall about 1829/1831/1833 the wife of stonemason Henry CREBER in the 1851 census. Supposedly with son William born Portsea. Henry was with his brother in Princetown. Nothing I could think of to search for helped. I'd even been thru the entire two Enumeration Districts of Walkhampton where they were by 1852 (Welltown) to no avail, even if I did find a lot of others in the process. I wasn't about to scan the images for all of Plymouth where they were in Dec 1850, I wasn't that desperate. When I decided to check for son James, born Plymouth Dec 1850 instead, also a blank. Because I'm writing this, I've obviously found them at last. Indexed as CUBER on ancestry, a common enuf mistranscription, but each and every one of them is under their second names. Mary is Jane, William is John and James is Harry. Grrrr.
LornaHenderson and GenCircles databases have both been updated, as has the PEEK chart (it now includes the METHERELL/PEPPERELL pairs etc.)
March 2007
31st: A few more CREBER twigs confirmed and added.The Rootsweb Devon list had this link to 1723 Oaths which may be of interest if you're back to early 1700s.
30th: Talk about 7 brides for 7 brothers. Continuing with the family of Arscott METHERELL and Sally HELSON I've just found a 3 bride/brother version. And they went for rhyming brides, they're PEPPERELLs.
Still having fun with OneGreatFamily
Have also been having fun with BATYs of Cumberland, sorting a heap more of them into families. Became rather interested in a family at Whiteclose but the jury is still out on whether they connect to William of Hornick Hill as I've not finished fossicking as yet.
24th: Decided it was also time to update both sets of webpages: Rootsweb Freepages and Paradise Homepages and thru in an update to LornaPotential for good measure.
23rd: Updated both LornaHenderson and GenCircles Main recent changes were on the line of the METHERELL/HELSON family of ROUNSLEY/ROBERTS but several other bits and bobs have had dates/places checked.
Spotted a Whitchurch headstone picture I took in August last year that hadn't been processed, which led me to try and sort out a family of Richard and Mary Ann CREBER and James and Mary Ann CREBER.
One db on WC thinks the same Mary Ann married both, but I'm reasonably sure they're different Mary Anns (see postit on Mary Ann CREBER for details). Richard, stone mason, was supposedly born 1820 Walkhampton but he doesn't show up in the baptisms there. I do believe Liz is probably right that is where he belongs (to William CREBER and Joan GILES) given that the William J boarding with him looks like the son of Henry CREBER and Mary Jane PETERS, which would make Richard and William J uncle/nephew. Finally found him baptised in Meavy to William and Jane of Walkhampton. Wonder if they had a fight with the Walkhampton Vicar or something? Can't find them in all the census records yet, they're proving particularly elusive in some, so if anyone finds a Richard CREBER, stonemason bap. 1820 Meavy but saying he's from Walkhampton, prior to 1861, I'd love to know where he was.
22nd: A BATY day. Two contacts this morning, one looks more related to the Charles BATY, blacksmith of Lanercost who has an 1841 will in the Carlisle Record Office and some connection to the Andrew BATY who married Elizabeth TELFORD (John SHARPE, if you're reading this, your email address bounced when I tried to recontact you to put you in contact with Michelle). The other from Anne interested in Andrews of Slealands, more info to follow.
21st: Back to working thru the METHERELL/HELSON families. Sorted out a few more of the family of Arscott METHERALL who moved from Devon to Cumberland, and then dtr Charlotte and family on to Pennsylvania. Added another son, Arscott, to the tree, as he shows up as a brother-in-law of Thomas WORTH who appears to have married Mary METHERALL.
18th: 2nd day of our Kapiti Genealogy Society EXPO today. While I was helping out at the computers with the NZSG marriage index on them a lady came up and asked if I could check for the 2nd marriage of her grandmother, one Sarah Jane SINTON of Christchurch. "Would that be the dtr of William and Sarah (nee AUSTIN), emigrated around 1880?" was probably not the response she expected. Not that she could help me fit her previously unknown great grandfather into my SINTONs at all, but as I believe him to be born in Scotland c 1854 we may well do so yet. Sent her off all fired up to ask the great aunt what she knew. Intermittant research over the last few years hasn't turned up likely matches in 1861 or 1871 census records.
And while scratching around checking assorted census records for this William I happened across an 1871 census I didn't have for the family of John Gillies SINTON and Isabella WIGHT and added another son (John) to the family, born a tad early, pre-dating the marriage by a couple of years, but on the IGI as an extracted record.
17th: Was pointed to the Ryerson Index for recentish Australian Deaths (Ta Lyn). So a few dates have been added/checked.
13th: Finally cracked the Agnes CREBER mystery. For nearly 6 mths I've been plugging away at assorted CREBERs, prompted initially by a 1856 marr. cert of an Agnes CREBER marr. to a John CREBER. She was the dtr of a Richard and resident Peter Tavy, which threw me somewhat. John was of Princetown, the son of a James. Never did work out which Agnes she was and none of my Peter Tavy data fitted. Just today however I got round to checking the burial of Elizabeth CREBER nee SPRY, of Eggworthy. Liz's db on WC has her as dying and buried Walkhampton, which seemed OK. However the actual 1855 burial shows Elizabeth as of Peter Tavey, late Eggworthy. Eureka. So my previous dth data for Agnes dtr of Richard and Elizabeth CREBER of Eggworthy now has to find another Agnes as the 1869 St Germans one is more likely to be one or other of her many cousins called Agnes instead. Not that I've found her after 1861 as yet (Whitchurch with hubby John which is probably where I started this search given both were born Walkhampton).
12th: Decided to figure out who a Richard ANDREW Jnr would be. He was mentioned as a life on the lease of Eggworthy held by James CREBER (1st wife Agnes ANDREW). As a result I spent a rewarding time sorting out the inter-relationships between ANDREW, CROSSMAN and CREBER families in the early 1700s around Walkhampton and threw in a WILLCOCKS for good measure. I had a feeling they'd all connect (they all do after all). I presume, but have not yet proved, that Richard ANDREW Snr and Agnes might be siblings. The Nathaniel ANDREW also named as a life on one of the tenancies turned out to be the son of Richard ANDREW Jnr (and his wife Jane WILLCOCKS). Richard Snr was married to Martha CROSSMAN. This latter family, Martha and her siblings, is written up on the Dartmoor Press Walkhampton pages, which helped greatly. There may or may not be a link across to the Elizbeth CROSSMAN who married Joseph DAWE, but that might be a tad hard to prove if they're from Sheepstor, given the gaps in the records.
Connected up Gustavus SOLE to complete the link between the OLD, SOLE, BIDDICK & HELSON family connections started a few days ago (thanks Greg, as suspected grdson Syd had mixed up the dates and given me Sarah's dates instead of Gustavus').
8th: Cousin Harry in Edinburgh got curious about a citation in a Gaelic dictionary which referred to a Rev. T SINTON of Dores (I'll turn him into a SINTON researcher yet, even though he's a WIGHT rellie). So off he went and found out a bit about him, which still pointed to a Highlands family rather than my Borders one. But Harry knows about clearances and how the Borderers were the dastardly lot that drove the sheep north and opined that his family probably came from the Borders. He's been proven right too, even if I can't immediately connect him to my lot. A quick search of the 1851 index on ancestry showed his parents as born Roxburghshire at 1770, Thomas SINTON and ?Sarah MORISON?. I'll add him to my LornaPotential at some stage in the future.
7th: Been burning the midnight oil making connections thanks to OGF. The latest voyage of discovery was because of an independent contact curious about my JAMES/HELSON connections. As I started verifying the Canadian data I realised that a born England abt 1851 just might take me back to Devon for Henry JAMES. Sort of. Actually Cornwall. And being the curious soul I am, I decided to put a surname to his mother after I'd found him with his parents in Cornwall in the 1851 census. BIDDICK sounded relatively unusual, so I plonked it in a search of OGF. Lo and behold up it came, input by Tony C in Wellington as one of the OLD descendants and therefore probably connected to half of Taranaki. Noticed that both SOLE and KIVELL showed up in the list too. So a voyage from Devon 1850s to Ontario 1880s to Cornwall 1850s and back to the mid 1700s and forward to Taranaki in the 1840s, and a lot of updates to the database as I filled in the linkages. None of which have made it online yet.
4th: Had fun with OneGreatFamily.com (OGF) today and found a few matches, some of whom even had current email addresses. I've added it to my Lorna's Links page, but as I say there, I'm not yet sure whether or not it will be worth persevering with the db there. I do like the concept though as it seems a huge advance on GenesReunited in friendliness (and the matches to date have mostly been sensible ones unlike on GR) and definitely better than ancestry one world tree which seems to automatically connect up completely spurious data creating traps for the unwary.
Discovered that ancestry now has the Scottish 1871 and 1891 census indexes as well as the previously available 1841-1861, so tried finding a few more of the elusive HENDERSONs. Still can't find that dratted Archibald, but have extended one or two of the families a tad (mainly that of Duncan McGREGOR and Isabella ARMSTRONG, but also found the family of Donald Cowper HENDERSON still in Glasgow without him which gave me a birth date for dtr Jane whom I am assuming is one and the same as the Jean Frost HENDERSON I found earlier).
3rd: A few more of the DAWE & GILES descendants of the BARTER tribe checked off and will be included in the WC database next update.
2nd: And yet more CREBERs.
I'd noticed references to a Thomasin CREBER in Cornwall but hadn't gotten round to confirming she belonged to William CREBER and Grace PEARSE. A descendant has contacted me, so an update ensued. Yet another case of siblings marrying siblings, CREBER & MAYNARD in this case. At least one branch (yet more LUSCOMBEs) ended up in Canada. Can't see any immediate connection to the other LUSCOMBEs I've not yet finished working thru. Also haven't finished working thru all the CREBER, MAYNARD, LUSCOMBE data available, but an interim update has been posted to LornaHenderson on Rootsweb, also the KING and PARKER & CLINTON charts
1st: Where did February go? And summer, brief that it was?
Robert SMITH, disappearing blacksmith extraordinaire, has been confirmed as the 1938 Robert SMITH tucked up in the Waikumete Cem. Dth notice doesn't show any additional children, not that we've found the birth registrations for all of the 3 known ones yet.
Continued working thru more of the CLINTON notes and was able to make more sense of some of them with newfound knowledge. The National Library in Wgtn has The Argus on film so checked for the inquest mentioned in James C's dth cert, no joy, but I did find a lodge notice. Even though the cert is a real muddle and rather uninformative, I am convinced it is James CLINTON, brother of Emma Parker CLINTON, AUSTIN, GIBSON as he is buried with some of the family in the Melbourne Cem. Wonder when he was a mariner as the policeman informant says, instead of the clerk/Civil Servant he shows up on other certs as?
GenCircles updated to reflect the above.
February 2007
27th: Prompted by the recent contact with Bob in California re his grandmother Florence Devina DRAKE nee CLINTON, I dragged out all the stuff I got years ago and rechecked it. Found I hadn't entered quite a lot of it, so did a catch up, checking off what I could as I went. As a result, I decided it was time I included 2 greats granny Emma Parker CLINTON/AUSTIN/GIBSON on the web.The PARKER & CLINTON chart should also show a few additions.
Florence's sister Anne (Annie Priscilla) also led an eventful life as living in China most of her adult life had the consequence of her being interned at the Stanley Peninsula internment camp during WWII, and she died not that long afterwards, back in Australia.
25th: Great to meet up with the relatively recently newfound FAIRBAIRN cousins down from Walter and Grace (ARMSTRONG) FAIRBAIRN. Alan and Ann were in NZ on holiday and stopped by.
Database LornaHenderson updated to include all the recent findings, eg CLINTONs from Tasmania to America via China as DRAKE; BATY from Longtown/Arthuret in Cumberland to Lancashire and Cheshire and Australia, and a few WIGHT descendant snippets.
24th: Successful outcome re my Ancestry.com subscription, but only after several more live chats, support emails and toll calls, the last of which was firstly to the escalation team to try a manual transaction (no go) and being transferred to the Ancestry fraud team who were puzzled by all of the problems they were having with Visa, particularly as they DO use the CVV2 setup (that's apparently the 3 digit numbers on the back of your card stuff). The nice chap tried my card again and found that it wasn't even asking for the 3 digits, so that may well be the problem they need to solve. I however now have my sub and am fine for another year.
Some updates to the CLINTON branch of the tree. I thought that other than my Emma Parker CLINTON/AUSTIN/GIBSON that they'd stayed in Australia. Wrong. Florence Devina CLINTON, born 1886 Tasmania seems to have led an interesting exotic life. I was contacted by her grandson in America and given a photo of her headstone (she lied about her birth year). So armed with a surname and some more dates, I set too seraching. Found her travelling over 1919 thru 1940 on ships from Shanghai to San Francisco, Shanghai to Seattle, Liverpool to New York, Honolulu to Los Angeles, and in Sep 1940 from Kobe Japan to Seattle. Later, also Hong Kong to San Francisco. Her two children were born in Shanghai and I've yet to find out how she met her husband Edward Ott DRAKE.
I'm even more convinced that I've connected the Andrew BATY who married Mary RICHARDSON in Longtown to the right BATY family (mine, William & Sarah of Hornick Hill) as the other Andrew, baptized the same year, is buried close by to the other Slealands BATY graves.
Some OAG corrections as well. Found a father for Janet Flett BAIN or OAG (one James FLETT, plumber of 2 Brown Place, Wick), and also removed an erroneous marriage and children (too recent to be online).
Confirmed a twig or two on the Andrew GRAHAM/Jane MOFFAT branch in Longtown
Nothing updated online as yet.
20th: What a frustrating day. Well, it started last night just after midnight when my ancestry.com sub finally decided to expire. This was despite my having checked my credit card details etc were fine for the automatic renewal that I expected back in January. So I tried resubscribing. Several times, two different credit cards. Each time it just came up as "declined please use another card". I refuse to believe I'm that bad a typist, but as support wasn't open, I left that till the morning. Then I fought the telephone system trying to work out how to access the assorted USA numbers using Skype or telecom's 0161 cheaper rates, both unsuccessfully, despite following instructions (USA 1 800 numbers are supposedly accessible via Skype but even with the adidtional guff in front of the number I still couldn't get through other than via the "normal" Telecom rates). I ended up talking to a human who helpfully tried both cards and unhelpfully told me that they were both "blocked" and to try my card company. Which I did. No, my cards were not blocked in any way shape or form, and there was no record of any transaction attempts for the sum/company concerned. The nice Visa lady said she'd discuss this with technical support and get back to me. Which she did. Twice.
Firstly to tell me that Visa International had put ancestry.com, or possibly MyFamily.com, on a suspect company list as originators of fraudulent transactions, more information to follow when she had it.
Secondly, to say, that yes the previous info was indeed correct and the end result was that I could only place transactions up to $100, presumably $US.
Useful to know what the problem was, not so useful to try and implement a work around. The subscription screen for ancestry only has full or monthly subs. And whereas the monthly sub was indeed well under $100, over a year that would be well over $US100 dearer. Trying the 14 day freetrial option offered didn't work unless I picked the monthly trial as even though they don't bill your credit card until the end of the free trial unless you cancel, it validates the transaction at the beginning, and you guessed it, "declined". So I'm currently on a free trial for the monthly sub in the hope that this will be sorted before it runs out. But I foresee I'll have to make yet another toll call to America once the timezones are in synch again.
Visa did add that if Ancestry used either a CVV2 setup or verified by visa on their web site there wouldn't be a problem. Needless to say I have suggested this to them but I'm not holding my breath.
On the BATY front, have made contact with another researcher who claimed his lot with a 1784 Longtown/Arthuret Andrew, belonged to the John BATY/Jane GRAHAM lot, probably of Slealands. However, when I looked at his GenesReunited tree, he has linked the Andrew who married Mary RICHARDSON to John and Jane, not to William and Sarah. I remain to be convinced, and have asked him what convinced him that was where he belonged. I've included Andrew on the web for others to draw their own conclusions.
18th: Updated another twig of the BARTER/CREBER/MOSES/BICKELL lines: that of Mary BICKELL and William OXENHAM (appears not to be closely connected to the other OXENHAM family I was tracking). Mary seemed a bit unsure of her birth date and place, as it ranges from Oct 1840 Sheepstor thru Dec 1840 Princetown to 1842 Princetown to 1843 Shaugh or Prince Town to 1844 Sheepstor. Still cannot verify 1891 census for her and William and family, although they were apparently in Truro.
17th: Further loose ends tidied up on the BATY family of Andrew BATY and Mary RICHARDSON, including some details of the Australian branch, dtr Jane who married William BARNFATHER, and the branch that went south to Liverpool and then Birkenhead (son John who married Sarah BURNS.)
16th: A flurry of activity on the GRAHAM and BATY ancestors, tidying up all my 1994 notes and combining them with recently found/offered information. Good things take time. Included two new charts, one each for the BATY and GRAHAM lines, but only down to Stephen and Jane as their descendants are covered on the TURNBULL line.
15th: All databases updated: LornaHenderson and LornaPotential on Rootsweb and GenCircles.
14th: Brought the family of Andrew GRAHAM/Jane MOFFET across from database LornaPotential to LornaHenderson as I've convinced myself that this is the Andrew son of Stephen GRAHAM and Jane BATY born 1805, Longtown.
Still trying to convince myself that the Walter CREBER who married Maria NORTHMORE is the son of John CREBER and Mary ?DINNER, rather than his 2nd cousin, the son of John CREBER and Grace KING. His marriage cert only has "of full age" so doesn't help much there. At least one other researcher believes so, but both are of an age, both have Whitchurch connections. While fossicking around this part of the database I did stumble across John Ambrose, s/o John CREBER and Grace KING in Victoria, Australia marrying in 1853 to a Tavistock lass Adelaide DOIDGE, so no wonder I couldn't find him in the English census data, nor burials.
12th: Another linked up CREBER, the Marystow branch this time, who married into my Lamerton/Tavistock DAWE family. Remember Sarah CREBER who married Edward SPURR in Ohio? I got curious about dtr Ethel Mary Maud SPURR who married a William Creber NIVEN in 1903 in Wimbledon, SRY. Despite his Scottish birth, it turns out that his mother was a Maria nee CREBER, of Tavistock. Working backwards brought me back to Maria's father being William CREBER, born c 1827, Marystow, and the only baptism that fits this info is the half brother of Ethel's Mum, Sarah CREBER.
11th: OAG/BAIN descendants have had some dates/places confirmed thanks to Robert N. and some Scotland's People certs.
GenCircles database updated. And the BAIN chart.
10th: Thanks to a wonderful lady on the Rootschat Cumberland board I've had a breakthrough on one of my brickwalls, that of my 3 greats Stephen GRAHAM of Longtown, supposedly born 1774 Bewcastle. An uncle, one Grimston GRAHAM, apparently remembered him in his will of 1810, and carefully named his father, and another of Stephen's uncles, and a cousin Fanny SCAIFE. A whole new avenue has opened up, which appears, on the face of it at the moment, to jump back via assorted alternating Andrew and Stephen GRAHAMs back to the mid 1600s. All to be confirmed, but "feels" right. As to not being able to find Stephen's baptism, she suggests that the Stephen recorded in the right time and place but with the wrong surname might actually be my one courtesy of a slip up by the Minister, given no other data is available on his supposed parents. Sounds good to me.
Quite a few more twigs confirmed/added on the Ontario HELSONs.
9th: Two certs arrived today, one BINGO, one "oh darn". The first was the marriage cert. of a Robert SMITH to Mary Ann STOTT in 1924. It was indeed the missing in action Robert SMITH s/o Margaret HENDERSON and Robert SMITH. Living Oruaiwi in 1924. Assuming there's only one of those in NZ, it's inland from Taumaranui, "off the main trunk line"
The "oh darn" was that I'll be unlikely to conclusively prove my theory that the Elizabeth CREBER who married Elijah DUCK was the dtr of James CREBER and Agnes SPRY as all it said of her was that she was, "of full age", and father was "dead". The latter fits! However, adding in age/place data from census records, there is only one matching baptism and also add in the circumstantial evidence that dtr Elizabeth Agnes was staying with KING relations, and married one of them, I'm reasonably confident. And then I realised that sister Margaret also ended up in Wiltshire, somewhat off the more usual beaten track for the Devonshire Creber family.
Having read a few more Walkhampton burials, I've shifted a Thomas CREBER I'd found in Cornwall with sons Joseph and William, from Richard CREBER/Elizabeth SPRY to James CREBER/Agnes SPRY instead, as the 1831 burial of a Thomas fits the Richard/Elizabeth family slightly better. They're only a year apart in age, but the Cornish census data consistently dates the marginally older one as 1803ish, and the 1831 burial said he was of Eggworthy, which is where Elizabeth CREBER nee SPRY was. This does further confuse my identification of assorted Agnes CREBERs however. I despair of every sorting them out to my satisfaction.
Several HELSON Canadian loose ends tidied up, addditional dates/places added, one or two more descendants included in charts.
Given all the updates, I've regenerated the charts and republished database LornaHenderson on Rootsweb
6th: Still working on the BARTER descendant line of ANDREWS/WILLCOCKS Finding I have some of them already. One of the BOWDEN families I'd looked at when tracing MOSES turns out to be married to Caroline Tuke ANDREWS. Dtr Lydia married Richard MOSES. Wonder if they realised they were 5th cousins and 5th cousins once removed?
Darned if I can find one family in 1861 anywhere - Ambrose Willcocks ANDREWS and wife Emma COATH. Eventually tracked them down in one later census, they'd been completely misindexed with the surname of the previous household.
4th: And of course I kept on digging and found that, as always, all Devon roads lead back to CREBER.
Looking more closely at some of the ANDREW(S) DAWE families I did a web search on a particular couple, Walter ANDREWS with wife Mary. Oddly enough, the only family that came up was in my own WC database! I've now proved to my satisfaction that Walter ANDREWS with wife Mary and dtr Mary ANDREWS who married John DAWE, is one and the same as the Walter ANDREWS with wife Mary WILLCOCKS. I KNEW I wasn't wasting my time working on all those Buckland Monachorum DAWE families. It will take some time to add them to the published data, but a first cut at some of them is included in GenCircles now. Synergy applies, many of them I already had, working or visiting rellies on neighbouring farms etc at assorted censii.
This means that all the BLOWEY families mentioned earlier have now married rellies.
BARTER chart also updated.
3rd: Not directly related, just inter-connected, but I now know what some of the DAWE, SPRY lot look like thanks to Katherine. Which spurred me into sorting out a batch of WILLCOCK, SPRY, DAWE inter-related families and introduced some BLOWEYs into the mix.
Of note was that I found one of them, Henry WILLCOCK, son of Ambrose and Jane (WEST) on one census as nephew of a James & Harriet WEST, Harriet being somewhat younger than her husband. Next census Henry shows up as married to a Harriett somewhat older than him, and sure enough, there's a matching marriage to a Harriett WEST.
2nd: Working on SINTONs yesterday must have been a bit of esp. Contact from a descendant of another Southdean family of SINTONs that we'll never conclusively manage to link up to our Southdean ones, but there has to be a connection. I believe, but cannot prove, that the family of James SINTON and Janet OLIVER are related to my Peter. And they're also probably the grandparents of the John SINTON who married Alison HALL, two of whose children moved south to Yorkshire. It's a descendant of James Oliver SINTON who has found me. Lovely to be able to put her in touch with a HALL cousin of hers in Canada. Updated LornaPotential on Rootsweb as a result, including a few more of those likely to match SINTONs.
1st: Brought a SINTON family of HALL/AINSLIEs up a census to 1891. Which threw in a couple of unidentified grdchildren, Maggie P and John P HALL, supposed born Kelso 1887 and 1888, who so far have eluded my searches for their births to figure out where they fit.
And hey, I haven't been ignoring that group of people I updated in some way whilst in the UK, the list to be checked out further is now down to 879, might even finish it by the time I'm 100.
Now down to 876 as I've checked off a few more and have just looked at one Elizabeth Agnes DUCK. I'd been puzzled as to how come one of the Devon KING family had married a DUCK from Wiltshire. I've now found John's wife Elizabeth Agnes DUCK in the 1871 census, her mother was born in Walkhampton. And turns out to be, wait for it, yet another CREBER. Given the dates, the favoured match is Elizabeth dtr of James CREBER and Agnes SPRY but I've more work to do to prove that as yet as she appears to be a little economical with the truth of her age. If correct it would make John and wife Elizabeth related many times over. Her Mum would be John's 1st cousin once removed, 2nd cousin twice removed and 3rd cousin once and twice removed. what was that I said about everything coming back to a CREBER family one way or another?
Databases LornaHenderson on Rootsweb and GenCircles both updated.
January 2007
31st: Included photos of the TURNBULL graves in the Huirangi Cemetery30th: Back to the LUSCOMBE (BARTER descendants down the MOSES/CREBER lot).
From the Cumberland Rootschat forum, a Carlisle Cemetery index, which netted me a missing burial date for a Calisle Turnbull. Wonder why she wasn't buried with the rest of the family in the same cemetery?
29th: Brief flurry of activity on the GRAHAMs of Longtown. 3greats granddad Stephen GRAHAM now included on web
28th: More BROOMFIELD data confirmed/clarified and the FAIRBAIRN chart updated as a result.
25th: Few more ROBERTS/ROUNSLEY twigs updated/confirmed on the HELSON/PEEK descendants.
Some BROOMFIELD bits and bobs confirmed/updated down the FAIRBAIRNs.
Both LornaHenderson and LornaPotential Rootsweb databases updated, and the FreePages web pages.
20th: Proved that the OYNS Daniel and Mary who married KING siblings Jane & Walter resp., were also siblings.
19th: Found that findmypast.com (was 1837online) has indexes to British emigration records 1890-1899 online. Haven't actually paid to see any, but the indices confirm one or two dates and likely fellow travellers, and prompted me to check ancestry immigration records to see if more had become available. Several DAW(E) emigrations to the States have been clarified.
17th: No matter where you touch Devon records you always seem to end up back with CREBER. Sorted out more of the MOSES family, and as a result, more of the CREBERs, also some WILLCOCKS.
Also incorporated a few more exact dates/places on the BAINs of Caithness, courtesy of Bobby (ta).
GenCircles updated, as was the BARTER chart.
14th:Working thru assorted Meavy, Devon records trying to sort out several WILLCOCK(S) and CREBERs of the same names. Got sidetracked onto a William DAWE and as a result, found a few more twigs in NZ of the TONGS family of Isaac DAWE and Elizabeth Melody STADDON (on World Connect, db of a Karen HUGHES, ta Karen) which checked out against data I hold.
8th: Made so much progress on the HELSON/METHERELL/ROUNSLEY descendants in the States that I decided to do another update. LornaHenderson has therefore been updated. Some of the UK branch that stayed have also been updated.
6th: GenCircles database updated with the bits below, and some WALDIE snippets courtesy of Alan.
Following one of the METHERELL children around the census records led me back to the family of John HELSON/Elizabeth HORTOP as Jane dtr of James METHERELL and Ann HELSON lived with cousin John Helson JAMES and others in the extended HELSON family for the last 3 census nights at least - BUT she was enumerated both with her parents and her grandmother in 1841, so I'm not entirely sure I've the right one, even with the "cousin of John Helson JAMES" information.
A heap of them, the Bible Christian lot, ended up in Ontario.
PEEK chart updated, and Moses and Jane METHERELL included in the web pages, the latter in the hope that someone knows whether or not I've identified the right one!
4th: Few more twigs off the HELSON/PEEK descendants have been documented. Mainly down the METHERELL lines of Arscott and James, who married siblings Sally/Sarah and Ann respectively. Not only did they move from Devon to Cumberland, but on to America (Pennsylvania).
Continuing documentation of the BARTER/CREBER LUSCOMBE descendants with the help of Rodney (ta).
1st: Reviewed some of my Caithness SMITH data after being contacted by a researcher. Couldn't spot any obvious links, but in the process I found another MANSON twig, John HENDERSON, cousin of John SMITH, living with him in 1861 at Catchery. Added 10 yrs to the life of John SMITH's aunt Christian MANSON, as she was also with him there. And kept on looking for her. She lasted till 1881, but not till the census. Her death cert. added in another mystery however, who on earth is the niece Mary SMITH, the informant? On the strength of this, and the updates mentioned below, I've updated the Rootsweb web pages and re-indexed them so the search facility should work.