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Topics - Eric Hatfield

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1
Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs / Scottish portrait date and age
« on: Saturday 16 March 24 12:04 GMT (UK)  »
I am researching the Stephen family who lived in Aberdeenshire in the 19th and early 20th century. Annie Shepherd Gibb married Thomas Stephen in Aberdeen in 1891.

I have many old family photos dated around 1920 with names written on the back. Most of the photos are of Annie & Thomas and several of their children. But one photo is not clearly labelled, and I'm not sure there's a resemblance to anyone else I have named. I'm hoping dating it might help identify the people.

It appears to be 3 generations of a family. It is printed on a postcard sized 5.3 in x 3.3 in (13.2 cm x 8.4 cm). On the reverse side it simply says "Post Card", and underneath in smaller letters: "For correspondence" on the left and "Address Only" on the right.

Thanks for any help.

2
Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Jean Horn birth details
« on: Friday 03 November 23 07:02 GMT (UK)  »
Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me with this please. The first part is easy:

"March 2nd James Horn on Keithfield had a daughter baptized named Jean,"

But then I'm stumped about the rest. It looks something like:

"Also Howard and William somename something"

Are these the names of godparents, or witnesses or something?

Thanks for any help.


3
The Common Room / Women and "home duties" in Australia
« on: Friday 27 October 23 02:02 BST (UK)  »
I have a question about understanding the lives of some of my ancestors, and when I have a question, I always come to this forum and get helpful answers, so I'm hoping someone can help here too please.

I have been researching my grandmother's family (she was adopted) and have had success identifying her grandmother, as discussed here on this forum. I am now trying to understand the lives lived by her mother and siblings in Melbourne, Australia in the early 1900s.

My grandmother's mother was Mary McDonald (born 1871). Her parents were Allan McDonald and Annie Foster, who had 11 children between 1871 and 1888. (She was a real pioneering woman!!) Eight of these were women and five of them never married (as far as I can find out).

I decided I wanted to understand their lives a little, so have constructed a timeline of them based on electoral rolls over the period 1903-1953. They all were born and grew up in the country not far from Melbourne, and after Allan died in 1891, when they were aged 3-19, they and their mother Annie seem to have gradually moved to the city.

Some of the unmarried women were recorded as having occupations (machinist, dressmaker, nurse), but sometimes they were recorded as "home duties" and some (including my great grandmother Mary) seem to always have their occupation as "home duties".

Obviously I understand that married women rarely had occupations in those days - they were having children, sewing, knitting, cooking, etc, all of which could be described as "home duties".

But I'm wondering how this applied to unmarried women. How did they support themselves? Was "home duties" just a general term used if nothing else was given? Did it cover working as a housemaid, cook or nanny for another family?

I'd be interested in any insights anyone has please. Thanks.

4
Australia / Mysterious children
« on: Sunday 30 July 23 14:00 BST (UK)  »
I have an interesting problem that I'm wondering if anyone can offer a possible explanation please.

My grandmother was adopted, and this problem concerns the couple who raised her in Melbourne Australia - John James Duncan Clark (1843-1902) and Charlotte Clark nee Bond (1849-1922) who were married in Australia in 1875.

I have a copy of the documentation for John's death in 1902, and it lists 4 children for him, all dead - Margaret, Albert, James and John in that order. The informant for this documentation is Charlotte.

When Charlotte died in 1922, no children are listed (it says "no issue"). The informant is a Police Officer because Charlotte died in a road accident, so I'm not sure how and if he actually knew.

John and Charlotte are buried in the Boroondara Cemetery in Melbourne, and in the same cemetery there are several Clark children with a couple of these names also buried there, but searching indicates they were not John and Charlotte's.

I have searched the Victorian BDM for these four children and have found nothing that shows John and Charlotte had any children. I've checked too if they were John's by a previous marriage, but again found nothing. It is hard to see how 4 children could be born and die without there being any record.

The most obvious explanation is that I haven't searched very well - that spelling errors in the records or something have led to me missing them. But I've tried a lot of different searches, so I'm wondering whether the children were invented, which is a pretty radical thing to wonder because I can't see any motive. But Charlotte had a troubled life, emigrating to Australia unaccompanied at age 16, being charged with "baby farming" (adopting children for profit then not caring for them), barely escaping being charged with murder when an adoped baby died due to her neglect, and ending life with an alcohol problem. So I don't know her state of mind or motivations when John died.

So I'm wondering, has anyone ever heard of someone inventing children on their spouse's death documentation, or is this an entirely silly thing to wonder? Is it simply that I haven't searched very well?

Thanks.

5
Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing / Is this endogamy?
« on: Thursday 04 May 23 05:25 BST (UK)  »
Hi everyone, this forum has been immensely helpful to me many times, so I'm going to ask for advice one more time please.

I have been searching for years for the parents of my grandmother, Olive Clark, born January 1891 in Melbourne Australia, and then adopted without any records. Her mother was recorded as Mary McDonald, 19 (= born 1871), from Ballarat, and no father was recorded. I wasn't able to find Mary via BDM records (there were very many Mary McDonalds back then!). If you want to read more about it, see this thread Finding my grandmother's undocumented parents.

The advice I received here about using DNA inormation was very helpful and I now feel I have certainly identified my gran's mother, and the family of her father.

Using the Leeds method I found 4 matches in 3 families (all 2-3 or 3-4 cousin matches on Ancestry) and traced their trees back. They all had Agnes McDonald as a common ancestor, one of 10 children of Allan McDonald and Annie Foster. Allan and Annie's first daughter was Mary McDonald, born in 1871 and so fitting the information I had. So our common ancestors (Allan and Annie) would be 4-5 generations back from me and these matches which means we are indeed 3rd or 4th cousins.

I did the same with four 3, 4 or 5 cousin matches in two families (two mothers & daughters) on My Heritage, and their common ancestors were George Foster and Bridget Lydon, via two of their nine children. Again, this couple was 4-5 generations back. This led me to believe that it was likely that my common ancerstors with my matches were also George & Bridget, via another of their children, and that this son was Olive's father. Of course proving which son is much more difficult unless I find some descendents who also match my DNA. But the generations also agree with the cousin matches suggested by the DNA.

I hope this isn't too complex (hopefully I've been able to attach a diagram). But here's where my question comes in.

It appears that George Foster (on Olive's father's side) is the brother of Thomas Foster, who was Annie Foster's father (on Olive's mother's side). I think this because:
  • A George and Thomas Foster of the right ages (more or less) and both from Galway emigrated as unaccompanied passengers together on the same ship in 1842.
  • Two years later they both married women, also from Galway, whose names agree with two women who were on the same ship and unaccompanied.
  • Both said their father's name was George.
  • When Thomas married, the two witnesses were named Bridget and John, the same names as George's mother and brother.
If this is so, then Olive's parents, Mary McDonald and an un-named Foster, appear to have been cousins once removed. Which means that Olive (and thence probably me) inherited Foster DNA via both her parents.

So my problem is, does this endogamy make the cousin matches I have worked out unreliable? For example, does endogamy mean that the common ancestor on Olive's father's side might not be one of George and Bridget's children, but perhaps another sibling or even another generation back?

I lack the experience to really make sense of this information, but I'd dearly love to try. Thanks for any assistance you can offer.

6
Inverness / Allan McDonald, born 1836-37
« on: Saturday 22 April 23 03:10 BST (UK)  »
Hi,

I live in Australia and am trying to trace my GGGrandfather, who emigarted from Scotland in the 1850s or thereabouts. I am having difficulty because there are so many McDonalds, Inverness-shire was larger then than now, and names seemed to be sometimes flexible.

The information I have from marriage and death documentation in Australia is:
  • Allan McDonald, born 1836-37 in Inverness-shire (which back then included places now in Argyll).
  • Father: Donald McDonald, a miner. (I hadn't heard of mining in the Inverness area.)
  • Mother: Mary. (However if have read that the English "Margaret" is equivalent to the Gaelic "Mairead", and I can believe that "Mairead" spoken in a Scottish accent to an Australian priest or government official might easily be written as Mary, so I think either Mary or Margaret could be correct.)
I haven't been able to find a family that meets all those details in either birth records or Censuses, and several families with one detail different. I have been using Ancestry.com, Family Search and Scotland's People.

Does anyone here have a family tree that could include these people, and can help me out please?

Thanks.

7
Australia Lookups completed / Choosing the right records to buy
« on: Thursday 20 April 23 09:21 BST (UK)  »
I am researching my great grandfather here in Australia. I know his name (Allan McDonald) and, marriage (1870) and children. I think he emigrated here from Scotland about 1850. I am trying to verify his parents and birth.

The difficulty is that the online records (Ancestry, Family Search and Victorian BDM) give scant details, so that I can identify several possible emigrations and several possible deaths, both of which might give me his parents names. A number of Ancestry trees give his birth location and date but none of them that I have found provide any sources - they all seem to reference other trees.

I could purchase certificates, but they cost $20 each, and I'd need to purchase about half a dozen, and then I still wouldn't be sure that have the info I want or that one of them is him.

So does anyone know which Victorian certificates (if any) would give me the information I need - marriage or death or one of his children's marriage?

Thanks

8
Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing / Finding my grandmother's undocumented parents
« on: Friday 16 September 22 02:09 BST (UK)  »
The ancestry of both my maternal grandparents was a mystery for many years, but thanks to DNA and advice on this forum (https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=664349.0), I was able to solve my grandfather's life and parents. But my grandmother still has me stumped, and I'm wondering if I can get any general advice please.

My gran was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1891 and the only record that matches her shows her mother was an unmarried 19 year old girl who gave her name as Mary McDonald from Ballarat (a nearby regional city). No father was named. She was named Olive Blanche, and subsequently adopted by Charlotte and John Clark. (There were no adoption records at the time, so this is all probable but not certain.)

The situation is more complicated by the fact that Charlotte Clark was subsequently accused of allowing another adopted child to die by neglect in a practice known as "baby farming" - a woman agreeing to raise an orphan child in return for money then neglecting the child to save money. In a much publicised court case, all those involved in that unfortunate adoption (mother, hospital and Charlotte) gave false names, so it is quite uncertain if the mother was really named Mary McDonald.

I have taken DNA tests with FTDNA and Ancestry and transferred results to My Heritage and Gedmatch. I have also had my mtDNA tested with FTDNA.

I have contacted and examined many atDNA match records, identifying which are maternal and paternal, etc, but so far nothing stands out. I have tried tracing the lines of a few of the best matches to see if anyone ends up in Victoria, Australia at the right time and so far haven't found anything obvious. The mtDNA shows all the latest matches are from Ireland (or Finland before that) and one distant atDNA and mtDNA match was from Ireland, so it seems likely that my Gran's biological mother was from Ireland - there were many Irish immigrants to Australia around that time.

I feel at a loss what to do next. I am not expecting anyone here to be able to solve the problem, but I'd really appreciate some advice, please, on the best way to proceed. Should I ....

.... spend the time to try to trace every decent match forward to see if any end up in Victoria?
.... do a lot of work on match surnames and locations to see if anything stands out?
.... just keep waiting to see if a good match turns up?
.... find some fancy DNA analysis that shows which matches are most likely (is that possible?)?
.... employ someone to do some advanced searching?

I have time to do the work if only I could decide on a productive course. All thoughts welcome thanks.

9
Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing / Interpreting Y-DNA results
« on: Saturday 26 March 22 23:45 GMT (UK)  »
Hello everyone, it's been a while since I posted here, but wondering if anyone can help my understanding please.

I recently had my Y-DNA tested at 37 markers. I don't have any paternal line mysteries to solve, I just did it out of interest and, I guess, to confirm that my paternal (Hatfield) line, which goes back to Yorkshire in 1735, was correct.

I have 4 matches at 37 markers, all 1 step genetic distance (so none at zero), and all surnamed Hatfield, as you'd expect, or at least hope.

Then I have 103 matches at 25 markers:
  • 11 matches are "1 step", the rest are "2 step".
  • There isn't one Hatfield among them.
  • Matches come from all over the place - Ireland (9), England (7), Germany (5), Russian Federation (8 ), Sweden (6), Norway (5) and about 40 unstated. All pretty much as you'd expect I guess. But there are some other unexpected locations, including Palestinian territories, Pakistan and India.
  • Earliest known ancestors and surnames seem to pretty much reflect the same mix, so it doesn't seem like many matches moved to their present country recently. Even the matches in Pakistan and Palestine seem to have been there for some time (though the Indian match has clear British ancestry).
Out of interest, I want to try to better understand Y-DNA via these results.

(1) So I assume that anyone named Hatfield comes from a common ancestor in the Yorkshire line in maybe the last 800 years or so when surnames were in use. Because they are all 1 step genetic distance, there must have been a relatively recent mutation to separate them from me.

(2) The 25 marker matches must go back quite a long time (maybe 2,000-5,000 years?) to have spread so far and have so many different surnames.

Are these correct conclusions? Is there any more I can leanr from this information? Thanks for any thoughts that will help me understand more.

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