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Topics - coombs

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1
The Lighter Side / Family stories rooted in some truth.
« on: Tuesday 12 March 24 13:19 GMT (UK)  »
In a small follow up to my "Myths debunked when doing family history" thread, we often have heard family stories that either prove to be true or prove to be wrong, or have some basis in truth.

My paternal gran always said there was some Irish in the blood on her Oxfordshire born mother's side. For years I have tried to find a link but none obvious so far.

In 1819 one of her ancestors James Smith married Sarah Inkpen and one of the 2 witnesses was Andrew Carney, which sounds Irish but he may have just been a friend of James who worked in similar trades as both worked in the tin/gilder making business. James died in 1849 and in 1841 in Oxford city he said "Not born in county". Other witness to the 1819 wedding was Hannah Hawkes, whose aunty married a Smith in Buckinghamshire in 1786.

But I think I may have found out why my gran thought there was Irish in the family. Her maternal grandfather James Edgington was buried in Rose Hill cemetery in Oxford in July 1927, and was buried with a woman named Anne Bough who died in 1912, who I have found was born in Wexford, Ireland. As far as I know she was not a relative, her maiden name was Delaney. It was quite common for people to be buried in a grave with a stranger, and James Edgington and Anne Bough are the only 2 people buried in this certain grave. Maybe my gran knew about this and assumed she was related, unaware that 2 or more unrelated people can be buried in the same plot.


2
The Lighter Side / Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« on: Sunday 25 February 24 13:29 GMT (UK)  »
I know some celebrities on WDYTYA were surprised when they found an East End ancestor had a parent or parents from, for example Suffolk or Norfolk and they say "I always thought we were true East Enders" such as Barbara Windsor was surprised to find an ancestor Golding Deeks was from Suffolk and had moved to London. I guess she had done very little genealogy before and was unaware that London always was a hotspot for people from all over the country in the 1700s and 1800s, as well as French, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Jewish immigrants. Of course since the late 1940s people from all over the world made London their home.

My dad and aunty were shocked to be told that a great gran was pregnant at the time she married and they said "I am sure that was not allowed" when bridal pregnancy has been rife, and known since the year dot.


3
The Lighter Side / Ancestors almost born somehwere else to where they were.
« on: Saturday 03 February 24 21:49 GMT (UK)  »
My 2xgreat gran Gertrude Wallaker was born 14 July 1866 in Foulness, Essex to a Foulness born father and an Oxfordshire born mother. Her said parents John Wallaker, a waterman, and Sarah Brain had married in February 1866 in Lambeth, London, (county was technically Surrey but Lambeth was part of the London metropolis by then) and lived near St Mary Lambeth. They lived down Catherine Street which is where the groom's maternal aunty lived. They had their first set of banns read on 21 January 1866 at Lambeth church. Sarah would have been about 3 months pregnant at the time the first banns was read. To think if they had stayed in London a few more months, the Gertrude would have been born there but at least she was growing in her mum's tummy when she lived in London. It is unknown how John and Sarah met, whether he travelled as far as Oxford and met her there, or she was living in London when they met.

Another 2xgreat gran was born in Sussex in late December 1863, but her parents moved to London when she was a baby and she spent the rest of her life there. She wed a born and raised Londoner (born Marylebone) and my great gran was born Islington in 1889.

4
The Lighter Side / Finding fathers of illegitimate ancestors?
« on: Wednesday 24 January 24 17:04 GMT (UK)  »
I know we will all find an ancestor who was illegitimate, a baby born to an unmarried mother with no father mentioned. A distinctive middle name may occasionally be mentioned, which can give a clue, or the putative father was even named, but often the baptism was just for example, "Samuel Davis, son of Ellen Davis, baseborn". Bastardy bonds are helpful, and maintenance orders etc, but there may not always been one made, and the mother raised the baby with help from her family, or she married the father/another man perhaps months or years after the birth of the child or children.

In advances in DNA testing it is getting easier to trace fathers of illegitimate children. And of course the baby may have been born illegitimate but was baptised after the parents married, or occasionally the man the mother wed may have just said he was the father to save face.

But sometimes I wonder if the anonymity of the father is what is compelling. For instance my ancestor Mildred (known as Amelia) Wickham was born in 1801 in Twineham, Sussex, to an unmarried mother Mary Wickham who was born in Bolney in 1779. So far I have never found any hint as to the baby's father. Mildred married in Bolney in 1818 aged 17.

I have an ancestor Phoebe Johnson born in 1807 in Rochford to an unmarried mother Sophia Johnson. Sophia wed Samuel Coote in 1809 in Rochford, and he was soon subject to a settlement examination, and it says he was recently married but no mention that he was Phoebe's father.


5
The Lighter Side / Researching local historic figures family trees.
« on: Tuesday 16 January 24 18:26 GMT (UK)  »
I guess some have done this out of interest, I have but just do the basic info unlike going into depth with my own ancestry.

For example I have done some general FH research into one of my local historic figures Henry Blogg (6 Feb 1876-13 June 1954) of Cromer Norfolk, a famous lifeboat coxswain. Born in early Feb 1876 in Cromer the illegitimate son of Ellen Blogg of Cromer who worked in domestic service. Henry's biological father has never been known but Ellen later married John Davies in 1881 and had some more children with John Davies. Henry Blogg himself had 2 children but one died in infancy and the other died unmarried in their 20s in 1925. I used to work in Cromer myself and knew people who knew Henry, and I have visited Henry's memorial plaque in Cromer.

6
At the minute you can buy any death registered July 1837 to 1957. And any birth July 1837 to 1922. In time do you think they will make post 1922 births downloadable, or will it be getting too recent, as since several people born in the 1920s and 1930s will still be alive?

I know you can still send off for a birth cert after 1922 by applying and having the cert delivered, I think there are some rules about births less than 50 years old.


7
The Lighter Side / How has your family history been doing in 2023?
« on: Friday 22 December 23 21:36 GMT (UK)  »
As 2023 is almost coming to a close I hope we can continue to break down some brickwalls in 2024. But I would imagine some of us have hopefully managed to solve some brickwalls in 2023.

2023 has been a bumper year for my Suffolk direct lot, as I found a 1809 marriage that I had been searching for, for years, turns out the bride was married before and the groom's usual recorded surname was written down in the marriage register as a variant of the name, showing how you must consider such things at all times when looking for a marriage, baptism, burial, census record etc.

And I found a 5xgreat grandfather was sent to Australia from Suffolk in 1791.

And Suffolk FHS has published several more baptism CD's for deaneries in East Suffolk which has helped me a lot.

8
Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing / DNA testing to get certainity.
« on: Wednesday 22 November 23 22:24 GMT (UK)  »
As we know occasionally DNA testing can throw up surprises, and can confirm paper trial lines, or sometimes deny them, but it is also very helpful. As other say it is a double edged sword.

Bridal pregnancy was very common, often the couple wanted to prove fertility to get married, or it was a "shotgun" wedding. As we know though, there were some occasions where a man married a pregnant woman and he was not the biological father, but he stepped in for a man who fled or died, or parted ways amicably but stayed in the area and wed another person. The percentage of such events (man weds pregnant woman but is not the father of the firstborn) is probably about 1 to 2% or maybe slightly higher.

For example in my tree I have one ancestor Susan Fradine born 1765 who lived in Bethnal Green, London, who was a daughter of one of the last Huguenots to come to England in 1752. She wed aged 19 in May 1784 to Dennis Helsdon, a non Huguenot Bethnal Green weaver, and she was 7 months pregnant at the time she wed, and gave birth to their first child in July 1784, who was baptised in August 1784 as Elizabeth Carolian Helsdon, daughter of Dennis and Susan Helsdon. As I said, it is highly likely Dennis was the father. Although I cannot be totally certain. Although autosomal DNA testing may one day give the answers, or 99.99999% certainly instead of say 99%.

Also Eliz Carolian was 7 months pregnant in 1806 when she wed, and her husbands mother was also about 5 months pregnant when she wed, so bridal pregnancy was very common.


9
The Lighter Side / Discoveries that wow you/others but are quite common.
« on: Saturday 30 September 23 20:09 BST (UK)  »
In 2004 I went to the Society Of Genealogists in Clerkenwell just after leaving the FRC. I went into the basement area where the computers and microfiche machines were to look up my 2xgreat grandmother on the 1871 census. I already had her on the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census. This was before I got a copy of her birth cert. 1881, 1891 and 1901 census entries for her said she was born "London Stoke Newington", and her ages point to an 1864 year of birth. I found her on the 1871 census in Bow, East London aged 7, and was shocked to find "Sussex" was her birthplace given, yet the next child, her sister, aged 6 was said to be born "London Middlesex". My 2xgreat gran's birth cert proved she was born in mid Sussex and her parents moved to London shortly after she was born, to none other than Stoke Newington. She was baptised at West Hackney Church in late 1864. So she must have assumed where she lived as a baby and infant is where she was born, and did not know she was born in Sussex. As we know birthplaces on censuses can be unreliable but can also hold a clue as to where someone grew up or spent their very early childhood.

I was also at first, a bit amazed at the amount of bridal pregnancies, as was one relative saying "That was not allowed". I soon realise it was very very common. About 30 to 40% of women in the 1700s, 1800s and 1900s were expecting when they walked up the aisle.

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