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