Author Topic: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham  (Read 1861 times)

Offline KateGVA

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WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« on: Thursday 13 July 17 13:53 BST (UK) »
Hello,

I was hoping someone might be able to help with any information on the canal families West, Lewin, Nixon and Diggory.

In particular, I am trying find information on Samuel West (1890 - 1966) born in Birmingham, his wife, Annie Lewin (1897 - 1939) born in Birmingham and Samuel's parents Samuel West (1852 - 1895) born possibly in Droitwich and Mary Elizabeth Nixon (1855 - 1909) born in Tipton.

I suspect that Mary Elizabeth Nixon was married once before and once after Samuel, though I have found it hard to confirm this. Mary Elizabeth's first husband would have been John Diggory b. 1843. I think their children would have been:

William b. 1872 (married a Sarah Harrison)
John b. 1873
Mary Elizabeth b. 1874
Henry b. 1875
George b. 1877

Mary Elizabeth's third husband was Frank Humphries b. 1865 who should married in 1896.

If anyone could shed on light on this, either to confirm or not that my suspicions are true, this would be a great help. Any other information on the families would be great too.

Other family names that we have found are Hughes, Wright and Ralph.

I appreciate that there are already a lot on this forum about canal families and these names, however, I have been slowly searching the forum on and off for a few months now and haven't come across much relating to the Wests. My apologies if this a duplicate and thank you in advance for any help

Offline Tracey Joy Kelly

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Re: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« Reply #1 on: Friday 04 August 17 05:47 BST (UK) »
hi there I have hughes in my family  I have been told they are irish travelers
Barham/Burram, Brimson, Parkin, Thomas, Underwood, Waldock, Ward, Wheatley,
I am currently researching these names, if you have any information or think you may be linked, please email me I would love to hear from you!

Offline jane harrison

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Re: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« Reply #2 on: Friday 04 August 17 09:23 BST (UK) »
hi there I have hughes in my family  I have been told they are irish travelers
Hello
as you dig more into the boating familys you will find that they all are related as they in their time never hardly mixed outside their own people for example  I come from 7 generations of Boatmen on my granddads side & 4 on my nannys side I was born into the Harrison line  Nixon are in my tree Sarah Harrison who married William Diggory was my G Grandads sister two of my granddads sisters married into the Humphries but there was already a connection Ralp & Wright are also strong connections

Offline Tracey Joy Kelly

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Re: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« Reply #3 on: Saturday 05 August 17 02:02 BST (UK) »
boating families  is that what they are called.. your going to have to forgive me I live in western Australia and its all pretty new to me.
are there places I can go online to find some info on the hughes family
Barham/Burram, Brimson, Parkin, Thomas, Underwood, Waldock, Ward, Wheatley,
I am currently researching these names, if you have any information or think you may be linked, please email me I would love to hear from you!


Offline jane harrison

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Re: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 05 August 17 04:50 BST (UK) »
boating families  is that what they are called.. your going to have to forgive me I live in western Australia and its all pretty new to me.
are there places I can go online to find some info on the hughes family
  Boating families is a term I use  other terms are bargees canal boatmen. your Hughes sound as if they are travellers or Gypsies these are two different groups of people  who years ago although their life s where similar in some ways, they hated each other & hardly ever mixed except for the apple fair where they would both need to attend to buy horses & would always end up with fighting between both parties after they had had a few drinks. roots chat have a page for traveling people that separates the two into their own pages the travellers ,Gypsies have a lot on their people & families just click on forums & scroll down to it I think also websites like Acestery & find my past may have sections covering Irish travellers but these are sites you have to pay for but can go on line & check they cover the area you want first as they often have free week ends in an attempt to get people to sign up.  hope this is of some help

Offline Tracey Joy Kelly

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Re: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« Reply #5 on: Sunday 06 August 17 06:48 BST (UK) »
thank you so much oh wow I love the story of the apple festival thank you so much I find it all so fascinating
Barham/Burram, Brimson, Parkin, Thomas, Underwood, Waldock, Ward, Wheatley,
I am currently researching these names, if you have any information or think you may be linked, please email me I would love to hear from you!

Offline bitzar

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Re: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« Reply #6 on: Sunday 06 August 17 07:15 BST (UK) »
Ive got a connection to LEWIN in Leicestershire if you want to 'park' that idea for the moment.

Regards,

bitzar, Melbourne.
ROBERTS / ROBERT / ROBERTSON (Paternal) - Dunbartonshire/Stirlingshire, Scotland
NEWEY - Leicestershire, England
FITZGERALD - Co. Cork - Ireland
HOWLETT - Suffolk, England
PHILMORE - Wiltshire, England
CHAPMAN - Cornwall - England
NICHOLLS - Cornwall - England
SHAW - Nottinghamshire, England
PRITCHARD - Salop, England
ROBERTS (Maternal) - Surrey, England

Offline KateGVA

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Re: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 01 February 18 10:08 GMT (UK) »
Thank you all so much for answering and sorry it took me so long to respond. I didn't get any notifications...

hi there I have hughes in my family  I have been told they are irish travelers
Hello
as you dig more into the boating familys you will find that they all are related as they in their time never hardly mixed outside their own people for example  I come from 7 generations of Boatmen on my granddads side & 4 on my nannys side I was born into the Harrison line  Nixon are in my tree Sarah Harrison who married William Diggory was my G Grandads sister two of my granddads sisters married into the Humphries but there was already a connection Ralp & Wright are also strong connections


Jane Harrison: It seems like there might be a connections, though I may have got all my information mixed up. The way I have it is that Mary Elizabeth Nixon (b 1854 in Tipton I think) married John Diggory in 1870. I think they had 6 children:

William Diggory born 1871 who married Sarah Harrison
Sarah Ann Diggory borh 1872 who married Richard Ralph
John Diggory born 1873
Mary Elizabeth Diggory born 1874 who married Robert Humphries (and then Tilley I think)
Henry Diggory born 1877
George Diggory 1877

Does this sound right to you?

I haven't had much luck with researching the Nixons so I am not sure if there is a connection to the Harrisons, but from reading up on boating families, it seems like it could be possible.

I believe John Diggory died and Mary Elizabeth went on to marry Samuel West in  1879 and they had I think 3 or 4 kids including Samuel West born 1890 who married Annie Lewin. This Samuel is my partner's great-grandfather and the reasons we started the search.

Mary Elizabeth Nixon then married her third husband in 1897, Francis 'Frank' Humphries, when Samuel West died. I am not sure if Frank is related to her son-in -law.

The Ralph and Wright connections comes from my partner's great-grandmother, Annie Lewin. Her grandparents were Thomas Wright and Emma Ralph and parents were Thomas Lewin and Ann Wright.

I find it hard to find out the exact number and names of Mary Elizabeth's children. In the different census they seem to take on their step's father's last name when leaving with them but revert back to their original names in later censuses. An example would be William Diggory who married Sarah Harrison, in 1891 he is William West but in 1901 he is back to Diggory. The same with Samuel West (1890). In the 1891 is he a West, in 1901 he is Humphires and in  1911 he is back to being West. This doesn't make it easy to track anyone down!


Ive got a connection to LEWIN in Leicestershire if you want to 'park' that idea for the moment.

Regards,

bitzar, Melbourne.

Bitzar: Are your Lewins from a boating family too? My Lewins seem to be mostly from Staffordshire, Hertfordshire and Warwickshire. I'll keep an eye out for Leicestershire!


hi there I have hughes in my family  I have been told they are irish travelers

Tracey: So far there are no connections to travelers. Good luck with your search, I imagine that is must be as difficult tracing travelers as it is boatmen

Offline bitzar

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Re: WEST - LEWIN - NIXON - DIGGORY / Birmingham
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 01 February 18 10:31 GMT (UK) »
Leics LEWIN's are not Boatmen.

Soz, bitzar.
ROBERTS / ROBERT / ROBERTSON (Paternal) - Dunbartonshire/Stirlingshire, Scotland
NEWEY - Leicestershire, England
FITZGERALD - Co. Cork - Ireland
HOWLETT - Suffolk, England
PHILMORE - Wiltshire, England
CHAPMAN - Cornwall - England
NICHOLLS - Cornwall - England
SHAW - Nottinghamshire, England
PRITCHARD - Salop, England
ROBERTS (Maternal) - Surrey, England