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Our current best theory is that "our" John was from Skelton by Guisborough. There is a John Robinson who was a weaver and married a Margaret Garbutt there in Dec 21 1807.

The IGI gives them as the parents of an Isaac (christened in 1809), a Mary (christened 1815), Benjamen (christened 1817), Elizabeth (christened 1818) and a Margaret (christened 1824). The time frame is good, the names are good (father and son, the names of the sisters and his mother dovetail well with what Isaac named his own children), the location is good, the number and sexes of the children are good....but the dates are not perfect (i.e. this Isaac was christened in July 1809 and according to his headstone, "our" Isaac was born in  October 1809 - and I do realize that headstones often fib!

I know our Isaac came to Canada in 1831, and his father John was in Toronto around the same time frame since he died here in 1834 (and was later lovingly moved 50 or 60 years later, when the main cemetery for Toronto found itself on prime real estate and was closed and the graves and headstones moved....that is, one hopes they were all moved!!)Since the headstone carefully records the details of John's birth and death but makes no mention of Margaret Garbutt, one has to assume she (if she was indeed the wife of our John) must have died prior to 1831 and not ended up in Toronto.  If this happened, we wonder if the surviving family came away together - or if more of them died before Isaac and John left.

Anyone have some good sources for Skelton by Guisborough? I wonder if we can figure out if the John and the Margaret who are the principal suspects vanish from the scenery at the right time, or if they and their Isaac  lived out their lives in Skelton by Guisborough and never gave a thought to going to frosty Toronto!

Mary

My 3G grandparents were John Hyatt and Leah Trotman, married at St. Mary Redcliffe in 1823. I have been unable to find out who his parents were. I THINK Leah is the daughter of William Trotman and a Sarah and may have been born in Great Rissington sometime between 1792 and 1800 (there are conflicting ages given for her in various sources). Children I know of from John and Leah include William, Sarah, Louisa, Caroline, John, Edwin, William and Henry (all born in St. Phillip and Jacob, Bristol between 1823 and 1836).

Anyone with any connections?

Mary G.

Do you have a time frame for your Alexander? I have a number of them, and don't know all their wives. For example, I have an Alexander Garibaldi Bertram, born in Athelstaneford in 1863, son of David Craig Bertram and Mary Hogg, and I know he was a teacher (he shows up in the 1881 census as a student teacher).

Mary  (drowning in Bertrams from East Lothian!)

My best advice would be to get yourself a way of organizing information. Like many people, I had disorganized shoe boxes of "stuff" related to my family history - photos, news clippings, documents, letters etc. When I got serious about tracing family history, my husband bought me some genealogy software for Christmas. There are a range of wonderful products out there - I happen to use Reunion, which is a package designed for iMac platforms - Family Tree Maker is another popular line, designed for a PC platform.

You really do need something to help you keep it all sorted. I know some people manage with index cards and file folders, but honestly, using the software makes keeping things in order MUCH easier - plus it lets you exchange files with others easily. Most of the software also lets you plot all kinds of nifty family tree charts which are fun. It doesn't take long to get overwhelmed by data. Just to give you an example, my great grandmother, who was alive when I was a child, currently has 135 descendents.

I started out by filling in what I knew about my immediate family (my parents and grandparents), and recording every scrap from the various bits in the shoeboxes (dates from wedding invitations, death notices, baptism certificates, etc.) and then moved outwards from that. I called every living relative I could think of and picked their brain to find out what they knew, what they might have in terms of documents. Doing this also put the whole family on notice that I was interested - and they all launched into turning out their shoeboxes to see what they might be able to help with. When I had a section of the family done, I'd send off what I knew to be confirmed by that arm. I'd also bring copies to family gatherings to see what corrections and updates I could get, and see if seeing things written out would twig any memories that might help figure out where people came from. I've found my extended family absolutely fascinated by it all, and more than willing to assist.

M.