Q - Questions

Genealogy is all about questions. What do you know? Who do you remember? What was it like? Where did you live?

Some people answer willing to share, flattered that you have asked. Others don’t. Nothing to know here, what do you want to know that rubbish for? Some answers are chinese whispers with just a skerek of truth woven in. Other questions get answered with answers which create more questions.

There are so many places now to search and research, compared with what was available sixty or so years ago. But there is always a question before you begin, where can I find out about…?

Most of the records we seek are full of answers to questions posed by officials. What is your name? Where were you born? What is your occupation? When were you born? What is your father’s name? How old are you?

Slowly we can build a picture of the people we have never met and put their lives in context. See the world as they saw it, imagine their wonder if they could see today’s world (or maybe their despair).

Would the people who didn’t want to answer questions, or who gave vague answers be surprised about what we have been able to discover anyway? Would they feel that the past had been honoured, the people respected, their lives cherished?

I hope so.

P - Peternell Eastment

Peternell was born about 1733 and baptised at Hardington Mandeville in Somerset. Most of her siblings were baptised in East Chinnock which is where she married Richard Bartlett in 1760.

She and Richard raised a family of six sons and one daughter. Three of those children; Samuel, Ann and Joseph, would go on to have children and grandchildren who emigrated to New Zealand and Australia in the 1840-1850s. Samuel’s son Nathaniel came to Wellington, his grandson John to New South Wales. Ann’s great grandson George came to Auckland and two of Joseph’s daughters and a son came to Wellington, the two girls and their families settling in Hawke’s Bay. Another of Joseph’s daughters came to New South Wales and a granddaughter as well, daughter of one of the two sons who remained in England.

Perhaps others migrated too, to other colonies, or maybe some of her siblings and their descendants did.

The Bartlett line gets a little muddly, there are SO many Bartlett families in East Chinnock which by all accounts is a very small parish. A lot of research was undertaken by a cousin of my grandmother, along with my Dad and a few other cousins in the 1980-1990s culminating in a reunion in 1988 in Cambridge New Zealand and the unveiling of a plaque commemorating my great great grandparents at Hautapu Cemetery.

So far, I have found one granddaughter and two great granddaughters who were named for her. Both great granddaughters lived in Australia or New Zealand. One came with her husband and young family to New South Wales and the other was born in Ngaio, Wellington after her parents and older siblings had emigrated. I wonder if there are more.

But what of the Eastments? Peternell had at least five siblings and I have not done very much to see if I can follow them forward. I believe her father was William Eastment and her mother Joan Taylor. But the early 1700s is getting near the sketchy end of parish records to be 100% sure.

Perhaps you know more? Do you have Eastments in your tree? Or Bartletts? I still have some gaps there too.

O - Olive Laura Hammond

Olive was born in Appleby or Richmond near Nelson New Zealand in 1893. Her parents Walter and Eva were first cousins. Her grandfathers were brothers who had come to New Zealand in the early 1840s with their parents who were following other members of the family.

Olive was the eldest child of the marriage, although she did have an older half brother from her father’s first marriage. She had two younger brothers and a younger sister by 1899.

She grew up with her siblings in the Waimea area where her father worked for Hon. J. Barnicoat on his estate. He was the third generation of the Hammond family to be employed by Mr Barnicoat. His grandfather had travelled to New Zealand on the same ship as Mr Barnicoat who was tasked with surveying the Waimea plains. On Mr Barnicoat’s death he was able to buy part of the estate and farmed there for the remainder of his life. He was a founder of the Waimea Dairy Company and director for twenty years. He was also well known for his pedigree Friesian herd who won prizes at shows and produced superior milk for use in cheesemaking.

Driving through that area today, you can imagine it must have been a carefree and enjoyable life in those early days in the colony, when you were fortunate enough to have a successful farm providing a good income.

Olive’s brothers all married but she and her sister did not. Olive became a schoolteacher, sitting an entry examination in 1911 when she was eighteen. Her sister Vida became a nurse, training in Nelson and in 1940 was appointed Matron at Whangarei Public Hospital. Born in the year of the 3^rd Suffrage petition perhaps she was meant to be a strong independent woman.

When she died in 1964, she left £300 to two nieces (nothing to nephews?) and the remainder of her estate to her sister.

She and Vida are buried together at Richmond cemetery, in Richmond.

I am connected to Olive through her great grandfather. He was one of the three brothers of my great great great grandmother who also settled in Nelson in the 1840s.

Do you have these people in your family? There are LOTS of Hammond descendants in the Appleby, Waimea, Richmond, Nelson and Marlborough area – maybe we can expand our trees together. Please reach out if you are a cousin no matter how distant.

N - Norman Smyth Langdon

Norman was born in Brompton Ralph, Somerset in 1887. He was the eldest child of George Washington Langdon and Annie nee Smyth.

Norman’s father was born in 1855 in Chicago, Illinois. His grandparents Robert Langdon and Harriet nee Yeandle, were briefly in America before returning to farm in England. They left England shortly after their marriage in 1855 and made their way to Illinois and later Minnesota. George was their only biological child. In about 1863 they took in and adopted Wilbur Norman Crawford. His mother had died leaving five very young children including baby Wilbur. He was raised as part of the Langdon family and returned with them to England when he was about fourteen, in the late 1870s. Wilbur would later discover his true identity and reconnect with his birth family when he returned to live in America.

When the family returned from America they went back to Brompton Ralph. George at this time was in his early twenties working with his father on the family farm. He married Annie in Stogumber in 1886 and welcomed first Norman and then three years later another son Ronald.

In the 1890’s both brothers relocated to Kent and continued to farm there. Norman married in 1926 but did not have children. He died in 1945 aged fifty-eight.

I am related in a couple of ways to Norman. His two times great grandparents Robert Norman and Jane Venn are also my four times great grandparents. In the same way his four times great grandparents Thomas Davys and Jane Helling are also my six times great grandparents. Confused? Imagine trying to keep this all straight in your head!

Do you have Yeandle, Davys, Norman, Langdon in your family? Maybe we can share information. Please get in contact if you are keen.

M - Mary Ellis

I don’t know a lot about Mary. Here is what I do know.

She was born on 24 July 1770 in Liverpool, Lancashire and baptised on 12 August the same year at Our Lady & St Nicholas. Or was she? There seem to be three Mary Ellis’s born within one year of each other in Liverpool.

I have gone with this one merely because the Mary Ellis who married Thomas Vose in 1797, was married at Our Lady & St Nicholas which seems to suggest there could be a family connection to that church. There are no clues that I have found to determine who her mother was and whether she had any siblings.

On her baptism, she is recorded as the daughter of John Ellis, Tobacconist of Hale Street, no mother’s names appear on the pages in the church record. The marriage record similarly is too early to have additional information included such as her father’s name.

Mary’s husband Thomas was recorded as a Joiner on the baptisms for both the children who have been confirmed. When their son Edward was baptised on 20 May 1798 his birthdate and birth order in the family were also noted in the parish register. It also notes that the parents place of marriage was “this Chapel”, making me feel I have followed the right Mary. At the time of Edward's baptism they were living in Cheetham Brow and Edward was numbered #1 in the family.

Fourteen months later they returned to Our Lady & St Nicholas to baptise their daughter Elizabeth, her place in the family is recorded as #3 – surely an error – and the family are now living in Vernon Street. They don’t seem to have anymore children, but perhaps they moved and I have been looking in the wrong places.

A burial record for Mary says she is the wife of Thomas Vose and was buried in Wigan 13 October 1810. Her recorded age is not quite right but considering that in those times many were illiterate and birthdays weren’t celebrated with all the festivities we enjoy now, its not too far out to be impossible.

Anyway, can you help me sort out the Mary’s? Or discover any more about their family? Please reach out if you think you can.

L - Lafayette Nathaniel Norman

Lafayette was born in 1868 in Winthrop, Buchanan, Iowa. He was the tenth child of Nicholas Norman and Mary nee Taylor. His parents had come to America as young adults in about 1847. Mary with her family and Nicholas apparently working his passage as crew. According to family lore, they knew each other distantly in Somerset but were not aware of the travel plans each of them had. They met again by chance when Nicholas’ ship was wrecked, and the one Mary’s family were travelling on was part of the rescue.

They married in 1849 in Bloomdale, Wood, Ohio where Mary’s family had gone immediately after arriving in America. Most of their older children were born in Ohio before the family settled in Winthrop.

A couple of years after Nicholas went to America, his brother-in-law followed him to Ohio. Once established about a year later, his wife – Nicholas’ sister – followed with their young children. Clement Warren, Lafayette’s uncle, was drafted in Bloomfield in 1863 and fought in the American Civil War which went from1861-1865. Did Lafayette’s father also fight in the war?

What prompted his parents to name him after the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the War of Independence fought almost a century before he was born. Nicholas was a farmer; did he stay on the farm and not join up to fight in the civil war? Perhaps, naming his sons born during and just after the war was meant to be a symbol of his patriotism. Perhaps Lafayette’s elder brother Grant was named for Ulysses Grant famous for leading the Union Army to victory in the civil war and a citizen of Ohio. I have seen instances in other families of children being named for Lafayette and George Washington, possibly for a similar reason.

Lafayette spent most of his life in Winthrop and Byron Iowa. He married twice; with his first wife Lillian he had two daughters. He was employed by the Post Office and on most censuses gave his occupation as Cashier in a Bank. Lillian died in 1926 aged fifty-eight.

Just a year after her death, Lafayette remarried.  His new wife was seventeen years younger than him, just five years older than his eldest daughter. They had one son born the following year and named Lafayette Nathaniel, like his father. His new bride was also a widow and brought her two children with her into the family. In 1930 they were living at Lake Worth, Palm Beach, Florida, but returned to Winthrop by October 1933 when Lafayette died aged sixty-four.

Kind of cool that having been gifted his father’s name Lafayette Jnr raised his family in Independence, Buchanan, Iowa.

Lafayette’s grandchildren would be fourth cousins to my Dad – fourth cousins once removed to me – that’s not too distant at all in the grand scheme of life. Do you know these people? Are they in your tree? Can you help me fill in some gaps?

 

 

K - Kate Marriott

Kate was a cousin of my grandmother’s father. Kate’s mother was Mary Timms born in Rousham, Oxfordshire, she married Alfred Marriott in December 1844 in Great Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire. She had been living there at least since the 1841 census working as domestic servant. Alfred was a baker, together they had eight children, seven of whom survived into adulthood. Kate was their second child and first daughter.

At the time of the1881 census Kate was living in Enfield, Middlesex employed as a domestic servant for a widowed Justice of the Peace. Around 1884 Kate married Uriah Gardner, sometimes known as Leonard and with various spellings of Gardner. They seem to have only had one child, a son: Uriah Leonard born in Kensington, London in 1884.

The family can be found on the 1891 census with their seven-year-old son, on this record both father and son were recorded as Leonard. In the 1901 census only Kate and Uriah (Leonard) are living together. Uriah was a Coachman and Bus Driver. Their son Leonard was living next door in a boarding house working as a Painter’s Help.

But what happened next?

Their son married in November 1902. At this point he said he was an Engineer, later he was out of work and then a Printer in 1911 at the census. While he was out of work it appears he deserted his wife and children briefly to search for work which resulted in her relocating to a different parish and looking for aid. Of course, the times being what they were the church did not want to take on and support a family which was not native to their parish, and so she and the children were removed to the parish from where they had come after a brief stay in the workhouse. On these records a note in pencil says that her mother-in-law Kate Marriott was in the Kensington workhouse.

How had Kate fallen on tough times? Why was she using her maiden name instead of her married name? Sure enough, on the 1911 census there is a Kate Marriott aged sixty-one in the workhouse. But she says she is single rather than married or widowed and her occupation is recorded as “formerly Ladies Maid”. Is this the right person? Also, in 1911 Uriah or Leonard is boarding with a family.

Meanwhile, their son is living back with his wife with two children and another arriving shortly after the census. At the 1911 census it is just three years until the outbreak of war. Leonard enlisted in September 1914, leaving his wife and four children to go to fight in France. Eighteen months later his only son would arrive. Sadly, three months after that in May 1916 Leonard was killed in action. In his service record one document records all living relatives of the deceased soldier. They are all marked as none (siblings, parents, and grandparents) apart from his wife and five children.

When did his parents die? Did Kate die in the workhouse or was she reunited with her husband?

Is Kate part of your family? Please contact me if you know more then I do or are keen to see if we can find more together.