Spaniard in Holmfirth in 1860

[emeltom]

The only other way is to go through every Census entry for Holmfirth and the surrounding area looking for a foreign sounding name - sooner you than me. I'm getting on a bit and might not make it to the end of the list!

Emeltom

[bykerlads]

I suspect that we shall not get a definitive answer, Emeltom.
But after years of wondering why grtgrandma had such a wierd and unique first name, we were prompted by the results of a family history dna test to look for Iberian blood in our tree. Obviously these tests can be misleading but it made us think that the first letter H of the name might be the result of an Yorkshire attempt to pronounce J in a Spanish way. Certainly in the few early documentary renderings of the name, the first letters seem to have caused a problem.
Will keep digging.

[dobfarm]

Sorry, we have no surname but a slight suspicion ( based on her first name) that the father of our illegitimate great grandmother might have been of Iberian origin.
A bit of a long shot but we know that it was not unknown for "foreign" people to visit the area perhaps in connection with the textile industry.

As I don't know your illegitimate great grandmothers first name, so I'll use a taken at random Spanish girls first name.

If the girl was born illegitimate to an English or UK mother with a foreign father, the girl could be named something like (Example only) Bianca Boothroyd or Antonella Kaye using the mothers spinster or widowed surname.

One of your Gt grandmothers children's birth certificate or her grown up child's marriage certificate may have answers

Depending on the illegitimate (Gt Grandmother ) child's mother status ability to bring up supporting the child ? maybe Overseers of the poor records or bastardy orders ?

[heywood]

Does your DNA result still have the Iberian percentage.
Mine did initially but then Ancestry did a big revision and it was removed.
Many of my family are dark haired etc but that is the West of Ireland.

[Mike in Cumbria]

What was your great grandmother's exotic first name?

[bykerlads]

The dna result is very recent so probably valid.
Grtgran's first name was Hosetta. Written variously in baptism and early censuses but gradually  settling down to that spelling.
If the name was meant to be Josetta it would, I think have been pronounced in Spanish with the typical " whistling"
H sound.
We might take a huge leap and assume that her father was called Jose ( " Hoseh")?
Ironically, there is no hint of mediterranean blood in the hair and skin of any family members current or born after 1880. We are all rather fair, nordic types.

[dobfarm]

Maybe a connection between a Holmfirth family with Gibraltar

[bykerlads]

PS. So far the only long shot possibilty I have found is one Jose Claramunt, stuff (ie cloth) merchant b. Spain, staying at at inn in Bradford in 1861.
Spanish, called Jose, travelling around West Yorkshire?

[dobfarm]

Hosetta Wimpenny
   Birth Registration
Quarter   Apr-May-Jun
Year   1861
Registration District   Huddersfield
County   Yorkshire
Volume   9A
Page   275
---------------------------
1901 c

Hosetta Mellor
Event Type   Census
Event Date   31 Mar 1901

Jabez Mellor   Head   M   39   Austonley, Yorkshire
Hosetta Mellor   Wife   F   39   Upperthong, Yorkshire (Birth Year (Estimated)   1862)

-------------------------------------------------

   Jabez Mellor
Birth Date:   1861
Age:   21
Hosetta Wimpenny
Spouse's Birth Date:   1861
Spouse's Age:   21

marriage date - 20 May 1882
Upperthong, York, England

Grooms Father's Name   Joseph Mellor

Registration District   Huddersfield
County   Yorkshire
Event Place   Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England
Volume   9A
Page   473
Affiliate Line Number   231