7 times Great Grandad

[rea1]

I am at the moment researching my late dads side of the family.  I have found some dates on my 7 times great granddad Thomas Hornby, he was Born 1617 in Kirkham, Lancashire,  Died 14th June 1671 in Wyre, Orkney, Scotland. He married Elizabeth Dicconson in 1640,  She was Born in 1620 Died 1657. As far as I know they had 1 son Thomas Hornby Born 1643 Died 1700.
I have not been able to find out anymore information, why or how Thomas senior ended up in Scotland.  Does anyone have any ideas how I'd go about researching his death, i'v not dealt with outside of England before.

Thanks
Liz

[Andrew Tarr]

I am at the moment researching my late dads side of the family.  I have found some dates on my 7 times great granddad Thomas Hornby, he was Born 1617 in Kirkham, Lancashire,  Died 14th June 1671 in Wyre, Orkney, Scotland.

I am suspicious of that - Kirkham is between Blackpool and Preston, and the river Wyre is not far away, which may mean that Orkney is a red herring.  My UK gazetteer doesn't mention such a place in Orkney, but it may exist.

Has your info come from Family Search?  My paternal line stems from Ashburton in Devon, but there are a few references to Ashburton NZ as well ....

[CaroleW]

Hi

Died 14th June 1671 in Wyre, Orkney, Scotland.

I think you have taken this info from a partial tree on Family Search which is incorrect.

Here is a bit about Wyre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyre

In present day - Wyre now covers the likes of Fleetwood, Cleveleys etc etc but was more extensive for the time you are researching - but did not extend as far as Scotland

[rea1]

Thanks for your replies Carole, Andrew.....you could be right.  I got the info off Ancestry off a member who seems to be a very distant relation as I am to Thomas.  I did wonder re Wyre, Orkney etc and thought it seemed odd,  so you could be right Carole.


Liz

[Andrew Tarr]

I am suspicious of that - Kirkham is between Blackpool and Preston, and the river Wyre is not far away, which may mean that Orkney is a red herring.  My UK gazetteer doesn't mention such a place in Orkney, but it may exist.

Having checked my map of Orkney I find that Wyre is a small island off Rousay, which is a large island off Mainland (not the mainland!).  From the size of it I think it extremely unlikely that your ancestor died there.

[Rosinish]

Rea,

I would agree that the info. so far is wrong.

Orkney being one of many of the most remote places in Scotland & I haven't researched anything regarding your line.

Annie

[andrewalston]

I think this has come about because Ancestry actually fill in missing parts of place names without even asking.

If you upload a GEDCOM which quotes only "Fylde" as an address, it will look up the word in its gazetteer and fill in all the rest. I've seen "Manchester" become "Manchester, Jamaica", and I'm certain that a lone "Birmingham" will end up in Alabama, USA.

Note that this is done WITHOUT COMMENT to the user. When a tree has more than a couple of dozen places mentioned, who can take the time to check them all?

[jbml]

This DOES sound as though it is probably spurious ... a case of somebody finding a name, and looking for it in a gazetteer, and settling on the first one they came upon without any real pause for thought.

BUT.

Is it possible he was a seafarer? Is it possible he sailed to Canada ... and back?

The Hudson's Bay Company was formed in 1670, a year before he died; and its ships used Stromness as (on Mainland, Orkney) as their "jumping off point" before crossing the Atlantic, and as their first port of call upon their return.

So ... there is just a possibility here ... that if he was serving on a ship that became part of the Hudson's Bay Company fleet, and died or disease on the return journey, just as they approached land, that the ship may have been quarantined and those who died of the pestilence, whatever it was, were put ashore and buried on a small island before the ship was allowed to proceed in to Stromness.

I'm not saying that this IS what happened. Bu the came from a seafaring community, so it is certainly a possibility, if the Orkney burial is indeed the correct one.