Burke’s family records can be wrong

Double portait of Edward Mainwaring and Jemima Pye by Michael Dahl. The portrait hangs in the front hall of Whitmore Hall. Image from the book by Christine Mainwaring: From 1066 to Waltzing Matilda page 71

Many family historians rely on published pedigrees such as John Burke‘s 1833 Genealogical and Heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. Unfortunately sometimes Burke got it wrong.

My Mainwaring forebears are included in Burke’s 1833 family records, a genealogy of the junior houses of British nobility, which records family origins, surnames, events, and locations of about 300 British families; some are accompanied by coats of arms. The records have been digitised and indexed by Ancestry.com. The incorrect relationships are included in at least 28 public family trees on ancestry.com, presumably based on Burke’s error.

The entry for my seventh great grandparents reads:

Edward Mainwaring, of Whitmore Hall, bapt. 25 Aug. 1681, m. 1st Jemima Pye, second dau. of Edmund Pye, of Farringdon, Berks (see Burke’s Landed Gentry), by Anne , his wife, dau. of Lord Crewe, of Stene, and by her, who was buried 22 August 1721, had issue, …

When I started to look at the text of the marriage settlement for Edward and Jemima I became a little confused. Burke’s has combined mother and daughter into one person: Jemima was the daughter of Anne Rider formerly Pye nee Wright (c 1660-1731) and granddaughter of Anne Wright nee Crew (1637-1707); Jemima was thus the great granddaughter of Lord Crewe of Stene, 1st Baron Crewe.

The settlement was dated 15 March 1708 and was between four groups of people:

• Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore, only son and heir of Edward Mainwaring deceased by Bridgett his wife, of the first part;
• The Right Honourable and Right Reverend Nathaniel Lord Crewe, Baron of Stene, and Bishop of Durham, Henry Pye of Faringdon Co. Berks Esquire and John Conyers of Walthamstowe Co. Essex Esquire, Executors of the will of Dame Anne Wright of Dagenham, of the second part,
• Anne Rider late wife of Edmund Pye Esquire of Faringdon and Jemima Pye, the daughter of the said Anne Rider and Edmund Pye of the third part, and
• the Honourable Edward Cartaret of the Middle Temple and Carew Hervey, alias Mildmay, of the fourth part.

Dame Anne Wright of Dagenham was the daughter of Lord Crewe of Stene. She was the sister of the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Nathaniel Lord Crewe, Baron of Stene, and Bishop of Durham. She died in 1707 and her will was proved on 24 March 1708. [The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 508]

Anne Crew, born about 1637, married Henry Wright on 23 March 1658. Wright was a physician, son of Laurence (Lawrence) Wright, also a physician, at one time physician to Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. Laurence Wright died in 1658. Shortly afterwards, on 10 April 1658, Cromwell made Laurence’s son Henry a baronet. This honour was disallowed – it didn’t seem Wright – when the monarchy was restored in May 1660, but on 11 June 1660 Henry Wright was AGAIN created a baronet by King Charles II. Henry and Anne Wright had two children, Anne and Henry (1662-1681). Henry junior died unmarried and on his death the baronetcy became extinct.

Anne Wright, the daughter, married Edmund Pye on 4 March 1678/9 at St Giles in the Fields. Pye was a medical doctor, the son and heir of Sir Robert Pye of Faringdon, Berkshire. Edmund Pye was born in 1656 and died about 1703 of smallpox at Knotting, Oxfordshire. His wife Anne remarried, to William Rider or Ryder. She died in 1731. [Edmund Pye’s will probated 3 January 1704 PCC Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 480. Anne Rider’s will probated 2 March 1731 PCC Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 650]

 

Edward Cartaret was Jemima Pye’s second cousin. He was youngest of four children. His mother died at the time of his birth. Edward’s father, Philip Cartaret, was killed in the Battle of Soleby when he was six months old, along with his maternal grandfather, Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich. Edward Cartaret, together with Carew Harvey, were provided for in the marriage settlement of Edward Mainwaring and Jemima Pye in the case of failure of male issue of the marriage.

The Burning of the ‘Royal James’ at the Battle of Solebay, 28 May 1672. Painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger. Edward Montagu and Philip Cartaret were on board the ‘Royal James’ which was attacked by fire ships. Image retrieved through Wikipedia.

While I understand the family connection of Edward Cartaret, I am not sure how Carew Harvey alias Mildmay is related. He was a neighbour of Anne Rider formerly Pye nee Wright in Essex and was appointed Sheriff of Essex in 1712. Perhaps her estate of Dagnams was encumbered in some way to him.

I have not been able to find out much about William Rider. When Anne Rider formerly Pye nee Wright made her will in 1722 she described herself as the wife of William Rider and left him an annuity of one hundred pounds per year during his lifetime. She bequeathed one thousand pounds to her grand daughter Jemima Mainwaring as promised her son in law Edward Mainwaring. There were other bequests but her residuary legatee was her much esteemed friend and relation Edward Carteret, that is her first cousin once removed.

William Rider / Ryder and his wife Anne were involved in several court cases.

• 1707 Pye v Ryder: (UK NA C 5/263/27)

Plaintiffs: Jemima Pye, Mary Pye, John Pye, Penelope Pye and Isabella Pye.

Defendants: William Ryder, Anne Ryder his wife, [unknown] Pye and others.

Subject: personal estate of the deceased Edmund Pye of St Margaret, Westminster, Middlesex, Bedfordshire.

• 1707 Argus v Ryder: (UK NA C 5/222/11)

Plaintiffs: Emery Argus and another.

Defendants: William Ryder, Anne Ryder his wife, [unknown] Pye and others.

Subject: property in Westminster and Grafton, Middlesex and Oxfordshire.

• 1714 Rider v Rider: (UK NA C 11/1248/20)

Plaintiffs: Anne Rider (wife of William Rider, esq of Knotting, Bedfordshire, and formerly widow and sole executrix of Edmund Pye, esq deceased late of Knotting, Robert Packer, esq) and Henry Pye, esq of Faringdon, Berkshire (eldest son and heir of said Edmund Pye and Anne Pye).

Defendants: William Rider, esq, Edward Carteret, Carew Hervey alias Carew Mildmay, Thomas Watford senior and Thomas Watford junior

• 1714 Rider v Watford: (UK NA C 11/745/15)

Plaintiffs: William Rider, esq of Knotting, Bedfordshire and Ann Rider his wife (late widow and executrix of Edmund Pye, esq deceased, late of Farrington, Berkshire).

Defendants: Edward Carteret, esq, Thomas Watford senior, Thomas Watford junior and Carew Harvey alias Carew Mildmay.

• 1716 Rider v Rider: (UK NA C 11/1248/23)

Plaintiffs: Ann Rider (wife of William Ryder, a defendant, by Robert Parker, esq) and Edmund Pye, esq.

Defendants: William Rider, esq and others.

William Rider was also involved in several other court cases.

Although John Burke’s genealogy made a small error in confusing the generations, overall it is a very useful source and a terrific starting point for tracing the family trees of the families he documented. The genealogies would have been painstakingly compiled and of course without the databases and digitised records we rely on today. As with anybody’s research, Burke’s genealogies need  to be verified against available documents which for this period include marriage settlements and wills. Perhaps also court cases.

Sources:

• John Burke (1833). A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. p. 352.
• The marriage settlement is transcribed at pages 151-154 of The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore. J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring, about 1935. Gordon Mainwaring had deciphered the relationships and noted the dis repancy in Burke’s pedigree.
• Mark Noble (1787). Memoirs of the Protectoral-house of Cromwell: Deduced from an Early Period, and Continued Down to the Present Time. Printed Pearson and Rollason, sold by R. Baldwin [etc.] London. pp. 106–107.

My Most Recent Unknown Ancestors

This week in his regular post ‘Saturday Night Genealogy Fun’ Randy Seaver asks “Who Is Your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor (MRUA)?”

The mission:
1) Who is your MRUA – your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the lowest number in your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name.

2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don’t you scan it again just to see if there’s something you have missed?

3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your MRUA?

The starting point for my ahnentafel list is my children, the list formed by combining my tree with that of my husband Greg.

I know all the names of our children’s 3rd great grandparents.

In the next generation, however, I don’t know the parents of George Young (c.1826-1890), Greg’s great great grandfather. George is number 32 on the index; I don’t know the names of his parents, numbers 64 and 65.

There’s no help from his death certificate; the informant does not name his parents. Other information about him is scanty. From his death certificate I know that he was born in Liverpool, and this corresponds with details that he provided on the birth certificates of his children, but I have not found his marriage certificate. The reason may be that he and his wife Caroline Clarke were married before compulsory civil registration was introduced in Victoria in 1855, or perhaps they never formally married. I have not found a shipping record for him, and I have no evidence that he had any near relations in Australia. Land records, and I have several that concern him, give no relevant information. George did not leave a will. Frustratingly, the name Young is too common to identify George from the many other births in Liverpool about the same time or from people with the same name listed on the United Kingdom 1841 census.

I feel my best hope in identifying George’s parents and finding out more about his life before he emigrated to Australia is through DNA. Several of Greg’s cousins descended from George have tested their DNA. I hope that DNA will lead me to one or more of the descendants of George Young’s siblings.  Their research might get me past the dead end I have come to with George himself.

Greg has a number of shared DNA matches (shown in green on the chart). I have not yet identified anybody descending from a brother or sister of George Young.

I do have some DNA matches from people with the surname Young who were born in Liverpool, descendants of Philip Young (1840-1910). I have not yet found the parents and grandparents of Philip to allow me to make the connection between our two trees, although we have several DNA matches. However, having an additional line to search, which appears to be connected by name, place and shared DNA, gives me a better chance of finding the family of George Young.

U is for Una

Una Elizabeth Dwyer née Sneyd (1900-1982), first cousin twice removed of my husband Greg, was the daughter of Samuel Charles Sneyd (1863-1938) and Emily Sneyd née Way (1868-1952).

Usually in my family work I am able to find a considerable quantity and variety of information about the person I’m looking researching. I gain, I hope, some small insight into their circumstances and perhaps one or two events of their lives.

Una Sneyd and her family, however, managed to keep a very low profile. They didn’t write to the paper with bright ideas about burials in wicker baskets, weren’t imprisoned for bankruptcy, and weren’t exiled for their religious views. Thoreau said that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation; the Sneyds apparently just led quiet lives, and left few traces of themselves for a family historian to work with.

Una’s mother Emily was the seventh of ten children of John Way and Sarah Way née Daw. She was born in Grenfell, New South Wales in 1868 but her family moved to Parkes, New South Wales, when she was about five years old.

In 1892 Emily married Samuel Charles Sneyd, a police constable, in Hughenden, Queensland. I don’t know why Emily, then aged 24, was in Queensland; Hughenden is two thousand kilometres north of Parkes. As far as I know, no other members of her family were in Hughenden. At the time of her marriage Emily was living at Hughenden.

1892 marriage certificate of Charles Samuel Sneyd and Emily Way

Emily and Samuel Charles had six children:

• Lionel Walter Sneyd 1894–1976
• Cecil Sneyd 1896–1954
• infant daughter Sneyd 1898–1898
• Una Elizabeth Sneyd 1900–1982
• Ruth Dawes Sneyd 1904–1996
• Jasper Samuel Sneyd 1906–1991

Lionel was born in Hughendon but the others were born in the Emmaville district of north-east of New South Wales. Samuel Charles Sneyd worked as a miner.

When Emily’s father John Way died in 1911, four daughters were mentioned in his obituary, so it would seem Emily was still in touch with her family. When her sister Mary Ann Waine died in 1938, Mary Ann’s obituary mentioned only one sister, Eliza: the family seemed to have lost touch with Emily.

The Sneyd family moved to Sydney sometime after 1913. In August 1915 Lionel Sneyd enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. He gave his father as his next of kin. At the time, he was living in Marrickville, an inner-west suburb of Sydney

Lionel served overseas in France, was wounded in action in July 1916, and was repatriated with a fractured left ankle.

Only limited number of electoral rolls for New South Wales have been digitised. In these I have been able to find  Una Elizabeth Sneyd listed in 1930 as living at  39 Tupper Street, Marrickville. Her occupation was shop assistant. She was living with her parents and younger brother Jasper, who was also a shop assistant. Samuel was a carpenter. Emily’s occupation was listed as home duties.

In 1932 Una Sneyd married Patrick George Dwyer, an engine driver. In 1935 the Dwyers were living at 11 Audley Street, Petersham. Una’s occupation was given as home duties. Petersham is immediately north of Marrickville.

By 1936 the Dwyers had moved to 6 Brightmore Street, Cremorne. The suburb of Cremorne is on the lower North Shore in Sydney, 13 kilometres north-east of Marrickville, across the harbour. The Dwyers were still at the same address at the time of the 1980 electoral roll.

Samuel Charles Sneyd died in 1938 and Emily Sneyd died in 1952.

I have not ordered her death certificate, but I notice from the index that Emily’s mother was named Ruth; her family appear to have known very little about Emily’s parents.

Patrick and Una seem to have had only one child, called John. He is listed on the 1958 electoral roll as living with them and is named in their death notices. As the voting age was 21, he was born between 1936 and 1937. I have not found a newspaper birth notice.

Patrick George (Paddy) Dwyer died 29 December 1981 in hospital. His death notice stated that he was from Cremorne, loved husband of Una. The notice names his son and two grandsons. Una died on 13 February 1982, also in hospital. Her death notice also named her late husband, son and two grandsons. In May 1982 there was a notice in the Sydney Morning Herald associated with the estate of Patrick George Dwyer, retired council employee.

In researching Una I have been able to verify dates, places and relationships with the aid of birth, death and marriage indexes, electoral rolls and notices in the newspapers. The Sneyd and Dwyer families, however, did not attract much notice in the newspapers and it has been hard to find any events that enable me to get to know Una Dwyer née Sneyd.

Sources for my family tree

Seaman’s record for John Plowright (1831-1910), one of the many many sources I have used in compiling my family tree and associated family history.

Randy Seaver asks in his Saturday Night genealogy Fun post this week “What Source Have You Used the Most?”

The mission:
1) Have you done a good job of citing your sources in your genealogy management program or online family tree? How are you doing? How many source citations do you have, and how many people are in your tree? What is the sources to persons ratio?

2) Which master source (e.g., 1900 U.S. census, Find A Grave, specific book, etc.) do you have the most citations for? How many? How did you figure this out?

My main tree is kept on Ancestry.com, synchronised to Family Tree Maker 2017.

The summary statistics for my tree on Ancestry.com are:

• People 7484
• Photos 1581
• Stories 192
• Records 9373

Family Tree Maker also has 7,484 people covering 23 generations. The youngest person is my husband’s great nephew born May 2016. The oldest forebears are William Mainwaring who died 1341 and his wife Mary Davenport, my 19th great grandparents.
There are:

• 2,219 marriages
• 1,532 surnames
• 33,136 facts
• 4,664 places (but I know there are duplicate place names and I need to work on cleaning these up)
• 839 different sources used
• 14,293 citations
• 5,302 media

The discrepancy between Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker in trying to reconcile records and sources can be accounted by  not all records have media, and the same record can be cited for several people, for example a marriage record might mention husband, wife, and fathers of both bride and groom thus one record might be be a citation for 4 people; similarly one census record could be cited for many members of a family in the same household on census night.

Under the Publish menu in Family Tree Maker there is a Source Usage Report. The report runs to 1,487 pages at present. One source can be cited for several facts and this report lists all the facts covered by the citation.

Family Tree Maker can also produce a report of undocumented facts. For my extended family this report is 416 pages long. The report of documented facts is 3,282 pages long. There is room for improvement.

At present I have 14,293 citations : 7,484 persons or 1.9 citations per person. Of all facts there are approximately 3,700 pages of which 416 pages are not documented or 11%.

I was unable to identify a quick and effective way to answer Randy’s question as to which source have I used the most. Under the Sources menu in Family Tree Maker I could have a look at source groups and for each group see how often it had been cited. I found that Australian births were cited 744 times and the 1861 English census was cited 374 times but was unable to export the data and be systematic in my review.

I know my sources need to be cleaned up and reviewed, there is plenty of room for improvement. I also find when revisiting my sources that I often learn something new by reviewing the detail within the record.

The marriages of Anne Champion Crespigny (1739-1797)

Anne Champion de Crespigny (1739-1797) sister of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, portrait by Katherine Read (1723-1788). Image retrieved from Neil Jeffares, “Katherine Read”, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, London, 2006; online edition [http://www.pastellists.com/articles/read.pdf], accessed 2 September 2017. (reference J.612.171) . Original reproduction in “Painting and Sculpture” 1927 a catalogue for a sale https://archive.org/stream/paintingssculptu00ande#page/94/

Every Friday the genealogy website FindMyPast lists records newly added to its collection. On 1 September they added several volumes of English marriage licences.

Commissary Court of Surrey Marriage Licences 1673-1770 , title page

In the Commissary Court of Surrey Marriage Licences 1673-1770 I was pleased to find a record, dated 19 April 1765, which gives licence details for my 6th great aunt, Anne Champion Crespigny.

Anne was the sixth of seven children of Philip Champion de Crespigny (1704-1765) and his wife Anne née Fonnereau (1704-1782). She was born 10 October 1739 and was baptised 30 October 1739 at the Church of St Benet’s, Paul’s Wharf, London. Anne’s father Philip died 11 February 1765. He had had a successful career as a lawyer including holding the position of Marshall of the Court of Admiralty.

The Commissary Court of Surrey Marriage Licences lists Anne as a spinster of Camberwell, 21, licensed to marry Bonouvrier Glover of Camberwell, abode 4 weeks, Esq. signs, bachelor 21. Claud Crespigny, surrogate. (page 547).

The surrogate named on the licence could have been Anne’s uncle Claude (1706-1782) or her older brother Claude (1734-1818). A surrogate can take the affidavits sworn by the applicants when applying for the licence. (see paragraph 802 of http://www.oxford.anglican.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/marriage_in_the_church_of_england.pdf)

The index of licences says she was 21 but actually she was 26 and thus of full age, that is over 21. Bonouvrier was also 26. He had apparently only recently moved to Camberwell.

Bonouvrier Glover, the son of Richard and Hannah,  was born 22 November 1739 and baptised 18 December 1739 at St Lawrence Pountney, London. Richard Glover was noted poet and also a parliamentarian. Bonouvrier’s younger brother, Richard Glover (1750-1822), also was a parliamentarian. In 1756 Bonouvrier’s father, Richard Glover senior, sued his wife for divorce. At this time divorce was very rare. The divorce of Richard Glover was the only divorce in 1756 and one of only sixteen in the decade 1751-1760. (Great Britain. Parliament. An act to dissolve the marriage of Richard Glover, with Hannah Nunn his now Wife, and to enable him to marry again; and for other Purposes therein mentioned. S.n., [1755]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online, tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/5A8RA2. Accessed 1 Sept. 2017. Victorian Divorce by Allen Horstmen page 16 retrieved from Google Books)

At the time of his marriage to Anne, Bonouvrier Glover was a naval officer with the rank of Commander. On 20 June 1765, two weeks after his marriage, he was promoted to Captain. Some years later, in 1778, he commanded the Janus, a newly commissioned 44 gun Roebuck class warship. In 1780 he became ill and died of natural causes on 20 March during a fight with the French off Monte Christi on San Domingo in the West Indies.  (http://morethannelson.com/officer/bonovier-glover/)

The Argo, a sister ship of the Janus, as flagship at Gibraltar 1799. Image from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roebuck-class_ship

On 3 March 1783 at St George’s Hanover Square, London, Anne married James Gladell (1746-1819), nephew of Francis Vernon, 1st Earl of Shipbrook. Witnesses to the marriage were

• Anne’s brother Claude Champion de Crespigny (1734-1818),
• Claude’s wife and Anne’s sister-in-law, Mary Crespigny (1747-1812),  and
• Henry Reveley (1737-1798), husband of Anne’s sister Jane (1742-1829). (index to marriage retrieved through the genealogist.co.uk)

James Gladell’s uncle Lord Shipbrook died in October 1783 and James Gladell received an inheritance in the will, written 29 May 1781 and probated 7 November 1783. (Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills PROB11/1110)

The London Gazette Publication date: 4 May 1784 Issue:12540 Page:1 retrieved from https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/12540/page/1/data.htm

 

In May 1784, after his uncle’s death, James Gladell changed his surname to Vernon.

In 1788 James and his wife Anne were involved in an insurance case in 1788 (Description: Insured: James Gladell Vernon, Esq. and Ann Gladell Vernon, his wife, Hereford Street, Oxford Street and James Mansfield Chadwick, Piccadilly, Esq. Other property or occupiers: Finch Lane, Cornhill (Seagood and Collins, printers) Date: 24 June 1788 Reference: MS 11936/353/545158 Held by the London Metropolitan Archives)

Anne died 2 June 1797.

Died:  Friday, Mrs. Vernon, wife of James Gladell Vernon, Esq. of Hereford-Street. (“News.” St. James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post, June 3, 1797 – June 6, 1797. 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection, tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/5A77y2. Accessed 1 Sept. 2017.)

Anne had no children. James Gladell Vernon married again in 1802. He died in 1819.

Learning more about German genealogical research

My mother, born in Berlin, now an Australian, still has a few German family documents, and for me these have been a valuable source of information about my German forebears, her side of the our family. However, most of what I know about about my German ancestors I learned directly from my German grandfather, who was happy to answer my family history questions. When I started researching this branch of the family I also found some good leads in the International Genealogical Index (I.G.I.) microform indexes prepared by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Researching German sources from Australia is difficult, of course, and there is much more information online about our British forebears. So I look forward to attending a day’s session in August about German genealogical resources and methods for Australian researchers, hosted by Unlock the Past. The main speaker will be Dirk Weissleder, a genealogy consultant, who is national chairman of the Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbände e.V. (D.A.G.V.) (at http://www.dagv.org), the umbrella organisation of the genealogical and heraldic associations in Germany. He is President of the Federation of Family Associations (Bund der Familienverbände, BdF). Herr Wiessleder has written extensively about genealogical research in Germany. See, for example, http://www.forum-familiengeschichte.de/haus-der-genealogie-hdgen/.

In Melbourne Herr Wiessleder will be speaking about primary and secondary resources on genealogy in German and about European research generally. He will also be talking about the International German Genealogical Partnership, https://iggpartner.org/about.php, and on archives, libraries and institutions for genealogical researchers in Germany.

Herr Weissleder will speak in Melbourne on Saturday 19 August.

The Roadshow costs $57 for a single day if the ticket is purchasedahead of time, or $60 on the day. On Friday 18 August, a Scottish researcher, Chris Paton,  will be speaking on British Isles research. A combined ticket for the two days is $90. Herr Wiessleder will also be visiting Brisbane, Auckland, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth.

 —
Disclosure: I have accepted the opportunity to participate in the Unlock the Past Researching Abroad Roadshow 2017 as a Roadshow Ambassadress and agreed to promote the Roadshow in return for free entry. I will write again after the session on what I have learned.

Sun charts

I was interested to read about sun charts, a new product from MyHeritage for displaying family trees.  I have seen circular charts displayed at the Genealogical Society of Victoria and thought they looked very elegant, but they were hand drawn and it looked like a lot of work.

In the 1990s a cousin arranged for a de Crespigny family tree to be drawn up by hand. It is very elegant but clearly a lot of work, not only in compiling the research, but also in arranging the branches of the tree and all the descendants.

This morning I signed up to MyHeritage and uploaded a gedcom. The process was easy and efficient.

I have generated a couple of charts and I have had them printed up at OfficeWorks. It was only $4 per A0 sheet and I am very pleased with the results.

The next step will be to add photographs to the tree at MyHeritage as I think this will make the charts more interesting.  I haven’t got pictures for everyone but I have quite a few.

This chart is of the descendants of Claude Champion de Crespigny (1620-1695) my eighth great grandfather. 12 generations are shown in the one chart.

This chart is just of the Australian branch of the family, that is the descendants of Philip Robert Champion de Crespigny (1817-1889), my 3rd great grandfather.

This is one of the three sheets of the family tree drawn up in the early 1990s

W is for George Wilkins writing from Western Australia

Greg’s grandfather Cecil Young (1898-1975) had a small collection of postcards that he had collected when young. He passed it on to Greg’s father, Peter.

When I first started our family history research I looked at those postcards and tried to work out who was writing to whom and why the cards had been collected.  They contained important clues. I’ve spent many years working on the family tree they make a lot more sense now,  but they are still worth revisiting for new insights.

Two of the cards were sent from Western Australia, I think from Cecil’s cousin George Wilkins (1884-1909). Cecil and his brother Jack lived at Homebush near Avoca, with George’s parents, George Wilkins senior (1857-1944) and their aunt Charlotte Wilkins née Young (1861-1925). These two postcards were addressed to Charlotte Wilkins.

 

The cards show Fremantle Harbour and Kings Park, Perth. Both cards are postmarked Meekatharra, a town in the mid-west of Western Australia.

An article in the Avoca Free Press of 10 March 1909 mentioned a memorial service for George Wilkins who had died 30 January 1909 in Meekatharra.

Cemetery records show that George was buried at Nannine Cemetery.  Nannine is 35 kilometres south-west of Meekatharra, 735 kilometres north-north-east of Perth. It is now a ghost town but in the early 1900s it was a gold-mining centre.

When I was thinking about researching this post I decided to look up the Victorian probate index. Although George did not die in Victoria there was a chance his affairs had been administered there. George died intestate but he had a block of land and there is a file containing letters of administration.

• George E Wilkins occupation School Teacher residence Maryborough date of death 30 Jan 1909 file number 115/855 VPRS 28/P3, unit 130 VPRS 7591/P2, unit 447

The file contains an affidavit by George’s father concerning the search for the will. It mentions a William Baker of Meekatharra, who had been an intimate friend of George’s. Baker stated there was no will and there was no will found in the effects forwarded to his parents by the police. Nurse Cameron of the Meekathatta hospital attended George in his last illness and stated he had made no will despite being urged to by his attendants. George Wilkins senior also stated that Nurse Cameron had said George had been asked

if he had any message to leave. He replied that he had told Willy Baker all that he had to say except what he would tell his mother. His mother did not see him as he died before news of his fatal illness arrived. For all of which reasons I am fully satisfied that deceased left no will. (VPRS 7591/P2, unit 447, pages 15-16)

The letters of administration dealt with 20 acres of land at Homebush Lower and associated fencing.

I don’t know how long George Wilkins had been in Western Australia. The postmarks are not clear and I can’t read the dates.

Related posts

• T is for teachers’ records

S is for Sebastapol school records

One day I was browsing the resources of the Ballarat Archives Centre and came across some microfiche prepared by the Ballarat and District Genealogical Society, the  Ballarat and District School Students Registers – Consolidated Index 1864-1963 (BDGS).

I checked for my husband’s father. He was listed and I learned something that I hadn’t known. He had moved schools and addresses while living in Ballarat as a child.

Ernest Young was born on 8 July 1920 in Melbourne to Elizabeth Young née Cross and Cecil Young. Ernest was always known as Peter. His parents separated and Peter and his mother lived with her parents, Frederick James Cross and Ann Jane née Plowright.

Peter Young aged about seven.

The Cross family lived at Homebush near Avoca for many years. In the early 1920s Frederick James Cross sold his property there and the family moved to Sebastopol near Ballarat. They lived on the corner of Grant and Victoria Streets. The house is still there.

Peter outside the Cross house on the corner of Grant and Victoria Streets, Sebastopol.

The house on the corner of Grant and Victoria Streets where Peter Young lived with his mother and grandparents. Photographed May 2014.

The Sebastopol Primary School records are held by the Sebastopol & District Historical Society, housed in the old Sebastopol school building. The Society is open on the first Sunday of each month from 2 to 4 in the afternoon.

The old building of the Sebastopol State School now houses the Sebastopol & District Historical Society. Photographed May 2014.

Ernest Young started school at Sebastopol on 3 June 1925, just over a month before his fifth birthday. His father, Cecil Young, was named as his parent. Cecil’s occupation was given as labourer.

The school records show that Peter left Sebastopol to attend Urquart Street school in Ballarat in December 1929.

Peter’s grandfather Frederick James Cross had died in May 1929 and the family moved house.

The Urquart Street School records indicate that he was living at 419 Ascot Street and that he left in December 1931 to go to Melbourne.

Peter’s grandmother died in November 1930. It seems that another upheaval in his living arrangements followed.

Urquhart Street SS No 2013 – Vision and Realisation Vol 2. from Ballarat & District Genealogical Society Resources – Ballarat Schools

The former Urquart Street School photographed May 2014

The house at 419 Ascot Street Ballarat photographed May 2014

I don’t know where Peter went to school in Melbourne. His mother found work as a housekeeper there.

Further Reading

• Ballarat & District Genealogical Society Resources – Ballarat Schools

X, her mark

In 2012 at http://www.lonetester.com/2012/10/family-history-through-the-alphabet-challenge-x-is-for-signatures/ Alona Tester blogged about ‘X is for signatures’. She included examples of certificates where ‘X his mark’ showed that someone could not sign his name.

I looked though my collection of birth, death and marriage certificates for examples of people who could not sign their name.

On the birth certificate of Alice Young, born in 1859, the informant, her mother Caroline née Clark, could not sign her name and made an X. On the birth certificate of Caroline Young in 1867, the informant was her father George Young. He signed his name. In 1878 the birth of James Ernest Young was registered and the informant was Caroline. This time she appears to have signed her name. The informant’s name is in a different handwriting to the details on the rest of the certificate. Perhaps Caroline had learned how to sign her name in the twenty years between the births of Alice and James.

Informant’s details from the birth certificate of Alice Young. Birth registered in Victoria number 4807 of 1859. Caroline was also the informant on John Young’s birth in 1856. She signed with her mark on that certificate too.

 

Informant’s details from the birth certificate of James Ernest Young. Birth registered in Victoria number 20382 of 1878. Other details from the certificate and from the preceding certificate have been left to show the difference in handwriting, which suggests that this might be the signature of Caroline.

Sarah Way née Daw was the informant on the 1868 birth certificate of her daughter Emily Way. She could not sign her name and made a mark. However, in 1896 Sarah’s husband John Way signed his name as the informant for the registration of the death of his son John.

When she registered the birth in 1864 of Henry Dawson at Corby, Lincolnshire, Eliza Dawson née Skerritt, his mother, could not sign her name. Her husband Isaac was able to sign his name when they married in 1855. She signed the marriage register with her mark.

These are the only examples I could find in my family documents of people who could not write their own name. All three women were great great great grandmothers of my husband. Eleven of his other great great great grandparents could sign their name.

These women were all born in the first half of the nineteenth century. All their husbands could sign their own names. In the next generation, their children, both girls and boys, could write their own name.

Some demographers have argued that illiteracy is linked to the size of families, in particular that education diminishes fertility. For example, a study of demographic changes in Britain from the 1850s to the early twentieth century found that “the extension of basic literacy is related to increases in female labour market participation, which is in turn related to fertility reduction”. (Newell and Gazeley) The data from my family does not support this hypothesis. None of the women in the table below were ever in paid employment. I cannot see any link between the literacy of my own and my husband’s great great great grandparents and the size of their families.

 

Age at marriage, children and dates of birth for our great great great grandmothers

 

Name	Ahnentafel number	literacy	number of children	age at marriage	age when first child born	age when last child born	age at death	lived	Notes
Caroline Clarke	33	no	13	18	18	43	44	1835-1879	Includes one set of twins.
Sarah Daw	35	no	10	17	18	37	58	1837-1895
Ellen Murray	37	passenger list stated she could read and write	11	19	20	41	64	1837-1901
Margaret Smyth	39	passenger list stated she could read and write	7	21	19	38	63	1834-1897	had a child before she married
Eliza Sinden	43	signature appears on birth and death certificates	8	25	26	41	85	1823-1908
Eliza Skerrit	45	no	10	21	24	38	65	1834-1899	Includes one set of triplets. This is the only English family. The last child was born at the time Eliza’s husband, Isaac Dawson, died.
Caroline Ralph	47	signature appears on marriage certificate	10	20	21	43	46	1850-1896
Annie Frances Chauncy	49	yes	2	20	21	24	25	1857-1883	died young
Jeanie Hawkins	51	yes	4	21	22	31	79	1862-1941
Margaret Budge	53	yes	13	21	22	44	67	1845-1912
Ellen Jane Mainwaring	55	yes	10	20	20	37	75	1845-1920

The women in this table were Australian, with the exception of that of Eliza Skerrit, wife of Isaac Dawson, who was from Lincolnshire, England. I have not included my German great great great grandparents as I do not have the relevant data.

A graphical representation of the above data for our great great great grandmothers

click to enlarge

Reference:

• Newell, A. and Gazeley, I. (2012) The declines in infant mortality and fertility: Evidence from British cities in demographic transition, Economics Department Working Paper Series, University of Sussex, No. 48-2012 retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp6855.pdf 27 April 2014