« Reply #10 on: Thursday 28 March 19 01:31 GMT (UK) »
I have a family story running on parallel lines, although my ancestor born a decade before yours, wasn't a gypsy but a travelling musician.
When times were hard you made a living where and how you could and during that particular period there were groups of musicians travelling throughout Europe and some of the more organised ones even travelled further afield. They'd play at music festivals and busk in streets especially outside of theatres, markets, etc. It was common practice to use young children to encourage an audience to give money.
My gt. grandfather was one of about 12 children, he was six years old and his sister two years younger when they travelled around Europe busking with their mother's brother who taught them to play the violin. GGF arrived in England when he was 10 years 1 day old. His uncle eventually met and married a harp playing daughter of another musician who had stopped moving around and had set up a (boarding) school of music in the north of England. Life must have been hard as none of the older members of the two groups lived to a very great age.
I managed to find most of the story by chance because I kept noticing the frequency of the other family's name and eventually contacted the am researcher for his family story. It turned out that my gt grandfather's cousin (a daughter of the uncle) had married into the other band of musicians.
I was lucky enough to find a cousin of my late mother who filled me in with other personal bits of GGF's life. Maybe you will be lucky enough to find a relative who has a few more tidbits to offer.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke
