#52Ancestors, Lucky

A couple of years ago, whiling away time on Ancestry looking for clues in a yet unsolved DNA puzzle, I came across a tree which included my great grandmother’s half-brother and his wife. I was intrigued, this couple had no children of their own, and I had done a bit of research about them as I built out my tree.

I messaged the tree owner to offer any further information I had to them – and hoped that maybe they knew something I didn’t. They messaged back five months later. They were in the middle of moving interstate and building a new home. Turned out that they were connected to my ½ great uncle by marriage, through his wife’s family.

Lydia (Lily) Barrett’s mother and the 2xgreatgrandmother of my new contact’s husband were sisters. He knew Lily and George as a child they were 1^st cousins twice removed, but she was always called Aunt Lil. But the best part – he had photo albums from his mother – and Lily. They would have a look and send copies.

We corresponded over the next few days and I emailed my 3^rd cousin, Jackie, to let her know what I had stumbled across. Our great grandparents were siblings, and George (Lily’s husband) was their only half-brother. Jackie’s great grandparents had emigrated from England to Seattle in 1907 and George had travelled with them. Time went on, other things became more important, but from time to time I would think “I really should message her again.”

Then along came COVID-19. At almost the same time as I was tidying up my messages on Ancestry, Jackie was tidying up her emails and we both came across the messages again. Jackie emailed to see if I had ever heard any more. I hadn’t, so added this task to my COVID-19 lockdown to do list.

A few nights later I sent off a quick message – checking in that they were okay and #stayingsafe and then enquiring about the photo albums. Once more we messaged back and forth but then instead of just on Ancestry an email arrived.

With photos from just one album.

Some were unlabelled – one was incorrectly labelled. We have a photo of George as a toddler with his two full siblings, found in an album which belonged to Jackie’s great grandmother. Jackie also had one from a wedding of one of her great grandmother’s sister where George had been best man.

But here were several of George and Lily’s wedding, some of George as a young man and Lily as a child and as a young woman. There are some that neither Doug nor we can identify (yet), there is one of Lily on the wharf at Southampton next to the Mauretania before it sailed back to New York in 1920. George and Lily had returned to England after the war to visit with her parents, her only brother had been killed in France – the passenger lists for their travel in both directions and George’s passport application can be found on Ancestry. They stayed for 5 months and missed the 1920 US Census, so I no longer need to keep searching for them there !

The photo which had been labelled incorrectly was of Jackie’s great grandparents and her grandfather as a child. One she had never seen. It seems that her great grandmother was Matron of Honour at George and Lily’s marriage and a photo of the bridal party includes all three of them again. In that photo there is a glimpse into the character of the young boy who would be Jackie’s grandfather – looking for his opportunity to run away and play with his cousins. Another group photo was taken with all the guests on the front steps of a house. There was a further photo taken before the wedding meal, inside the house, of George and Lily. Jackie and I (separately) wondered if it was her great grandparent’s home. Lily had given their address as her destination on her immigration forms a few months earlier.

It was ! You can imagine our happy dances ! Luck was certainly favouring us:

Stumbling across the tree connection in the first place,

Getting a reply to my message,

Discovering such a tenuous connection to our tree,

Learning there were photos,

Catching a glimpse of the inside of Albert & Sarah’s home,

The power of technology to bring us the photos, and zoom to confirm our hope.

On the right-hand wall of the room where George and Lily stood by the table, set for their wedding meal, hangs a photograph we had seen before. It was also in the photo album Jackie has from her great grandmother. Several other photos hung on the walls and arranged on the architraves above the doors look familiar too. But, that framed one on the right-hand wall was the clearest when enlarged.

Henry James – Jackie and my 4 x great grandfather. Albert’s maternal grandfather. No DNA relation to George. Henry and his unmarried daughter Elizabeth/Lizzie/Bessie had taken in our great grandparents as children when their mother died in 1879 and cared for them at least until their father remarried in 1886.

How lucky did we both feel !! We are still buzzing around, smiling like idiots (on opposite sides of the Pacific) now – four days later.

#52Ancestors, Week 11, Lucky

I have been thinking long and hard about this one – all the way into Week 12 !

I don’t know if anyone had a dog named Lucky. I am pretty sure there is no-one called Fortuna or anything similar hiding somewhere in my tree. The only two relatively lucky people though sheer luck that I can think of, I have already written about before. My great grand uncle Walter who did pretty darned well on the Thames goldfields and then on the Coolgardie fields of Western Australia; and my daughter’s great great grand aunt Carrie who won a tiara in an Art Union raffle.

When I mentioned my dilemma to my daughter she simply said “The luck of the Irish.” Very cliché – but LUCKY she said that, and LUCKY that I asked her because suddenly there was my inspiration.

There is not a lot of Irish in my tree, but there are a lot of DNA connections it seems for that small branch. That is another topic though and I feel I need to spend a lot more time researching those families.

There is even less in my daughter’s paternal tree. Imagine my surprise when I discovered some years ago that one of her Irish families was from the same county as mine.

So where does luck come into it ? Wait and see.

Richard Gibson married Harriet Irvine in Kiama, New South Wales, Australia on 3 June 1870. She was the daughter of Irish immigrants, who had been living in Jamberoo since early 1840. Their marriage certificate gave no clues about where he was born. Much later, from his death certificate just the county Cavan was provided.

I did however come across his arrival to New South Wales in 1867 on the Light Horse. There was a lot of information on these pages including confirmation of his parent’s names and that he had a brother James in Sydney. There was also a place name – Killishandra (sic), Cavan.

So I began to see what I could find out about Killishandra, which turned out to be Killeshandra. I posted questions on RootsChat in 2009 and later on Ancestry message boards. I contacted a person through RootsChat who had access to the few surviving pieces of the 1841 Irish census – and they were for Cavan.

And here is the LUCKY bit. The parish for Killeshandra had survived and he was able to send me the information about the whole family.

The Irish census’, for anyone who has not looked at them, are a mine of information ! Remember this is 1841 too.

The family was made up of :

William, 51, farmer, head of the household, married in 1815

Sydney, 42, wife

Mary, 23, daughter

Jane, 18, daughter

Ufemy (sic), 13, daughter

Emily, 13, daughter

James, 9, son

Ephram (sic), 7, son

Richard, 4 months, son

In addition to this on another page where listed “those who have left the house or died since the 1831 census”

Hester, 21, daughter, in America, house servant

Margaret, 13, daughter, deceased, died 1838

William, 1 month, son, deceased, died 1836

George, 16, son, deceased, died 1839

Wm Henry, 1 month, son, deceased, died 1840

I’ve not been able to find too much more about them. I have emailed someone in the past who was a descendant of Mary or Jane and today while searching I rediscovered some messages to a descendant of Emily as well. I think that James was married to a sister of Richard’s wife Harriet, and that Ephraim also went to America.

Reading this back, I think it is time I made a more concerted research effort on all my Irish folk. Unfortunately changes of email provider and hardware over the years has meant that I have lost the traces of some of my earlier messages.

Maybe some of them will get their DNA tested so that I can sort that puzzle out too.