W - William Reuben George Betts

William was born in Chelsea, London on 27 December 1841. His birth is registered as Reuben George, but by the time he was baptised at St Luke, Chelsea in January 1842 his name had become William Reuben. On the 1851 census he was recorded as Reuben. He was the second child and only son of Thomas Betts and Anne nee Horskins. He was a first cousin of my great great grandmother.

William’s father was recorded as a Distiller when he married Ann and a Brewer’s Labourer on the 1851 census. On subsequent censuses he is recorded as a Labourer. William was usually recorded as a Labourer too, but on Christmas Eve 1865 when he married Elizabeth Rice in Wandsworth, he gave his occupation as Engine Driver. At the baptism for his eldest son, he is recorded as a Stoker.

In July 1874, with his wife and three eldest children, William emigrated to New Zealand. His cousin, my great great grandmother had been living in Christchurch since 1860. Did they come because they knew she was already settled there? Or was there other family already here as well? They had five more children once in Christchurch, although only two survived into adulthood.

Christchurch was still a small town in the 1870s, they surely knew each other although I have never heard talk of this family before myself. They lived and worked in the same growing suburbs as well.

In 1900 the family were living in Southampton Street, Sydenham. Their three eldest children Elizabeth, James and Walter were already married. James was employed as a compositor; Walter was a bootmaker and very shortly would have a shoe store on the corner of Colombo and Byron Streets. There appears to be another Betts family living in Sydenham. James marries a daughter from this family but perhaps they are connected some other way too? Potentially cousins of William.

In another potential twist or hypothetical coincidence. Two of my grandfather’s cousins ran a printing and stationery business in Christchurch. Where did they learn this trade? Could it be that they worked for their Betts cousins who were compositors and in the print trade?

A DNA match revealed this surprise connection. Until then we had absolutely no idea anyone else in this family had emigrated. Let alone to the same flourishing city or that William and his wife were buried just a row apart from my great great grandparents.

Do you know this family? Maybe we can collaborate.

V - Viola Grace Cooper

Viola was born in Waikiwi, Southland, New Zealand in 1880. She was the ninth child of ten. Her parents were married in Hobart, Tasmania in 1864 where her mother had been born and raised, the daughter of two convicts. Her father had been born in England and emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand as a child with his parents and siblings. He spent some time on the Victorian goldfields and returned to New Zealand and set up a nursery business in Invercargill and Waikiwi.

Viola married James McKay in 1902 and they had four children. In the 1905 and 1908 electoral rolls James is an engineer and they are living in Kelso in the Clutha or Wakatipu electorate. In 1911 they are still in the Wakatipu electorate but are living at Waikaka. In 1914 though they were living at Mabel School in the Mataura electorate and James was a farmer. James died in 1918. Their children at this time were aged between four and fourteen.

In the 1919 electoral roll although James no longer appears, Viola’s entry still shows her as married and living at Mabel School. In 1922 Viola appears on the electoral roll in Timaru living at 106 Church Street. In 1923 she is listed in the Wises Street Directory as a Dressmaker living at the same address, on the left-hand side between Gibson Street and Le Cren Street. James had died in Invercargill so at some time afterward she must have moved her family north.

Viola remarried in 1924 to William John Spence a well-known horse trainer in Timaru. On the 1925 electoral roll they are living at 137 Evans Street, where they remained. William was killed after suffering a seizure his horse bolted, and he was thrown from the gig in 1941. Viola died in 1959.

One of Viola’s older sisters named one of her own children Viola Grace as well, perhaps after her favourite sister. Do you know this family? Viola’s father was a younger brother of my great great grandfather. He appears to have an additional name which I haven’t been able to verify and so was initially sceptical of the link. However, DNA and the information recorded on various certificates has convinced me. Plus, there seem to be a lot of green fingered nurserymen in this branch. If this all rings bells for you please contact me and we can share what we know.

U - Unknown

I have an overwhelming number of people in my tree called Unknown. I knew they were there, but doing this A-Z challenge searching for people to write about has dramatically brought the situation to the forefront.

Unknown spouses, unknown surnames, specifically unknown maiden names of spouses, unknown children. Some are unknown because the records don’t exist or in the case of many women, they are never given an identity – just considered a chattel of their husbands.

Others are forced to be unknown because although there are records, we are paralysed in our research by the 100-year rule and unable to confirm names and events.

I need to do something about this to make my tree as complete as I can. So, my challenge for the next wee while will be to pick away at the list and see if I can give some of them an identity.

If you are looking for me, that’s where I will be, standardising place name formats and reducing the number of unknown people in the tree.

T - Tabitha Turtle

Tabitha was born on 29 June 1831 in St Marylebone, Westminster. On her baptism record on 7 August that year at All Souls her father is recorded as a Servant and Chandler and the family were living at 22 Harley Mews. Tabitha was the eldest known child of Thomas Turtle/Turtell/Tuttle and his wife Ann nee Boddington. Her parents were both from Oxfordshire and had married at Christ Church, Southwark, Surrey on 7 August 1828.

DNA matches link Tabitha to my family through the Boddingtons with her mother likely to have been a sister of my great great great grandmother Hannah.

By the time of the 1841 census Tabitha has 4 younger siblings, there was a fifth who had died aged about fourteen months. At this time the family seems to be one of six families living in one building in Upper York Street, perhaps a tenement. Thomas is only recorded as a male servant.

In 1851 Tabitha is employed as a Parlour Maid to the Vicar in Peasmarsh Sussex. Her father and brother were still in St Marylebone, lodging with a husband and wife in Little George Street where the head of the house was a Coachman and Thomas was recorded as a Cab Driver. Her sister Maria is a scholar at the Parochial School in New Road Sy Marylebone, and Rebecca the youngest sibling is living with an aunt and uncle in Standlake Oxfordshire. I have been unable to find either her mother or her sister Ann in 1851. Perhaps they had died and this is why the family were spread across four different households at the time of the census.

In 1856 Tabitha and her sister Maria emigrated to South Australia arriving at Port Adelaide on the Fitzjames on New Years Eve 1856. Two years later she married John Hooker. They had one child before he died in Kapunda in 1860 aged thirty-nine. Very soon after his death Tabitha remarried to Thomas Cook.

Two years later, Tabitha’s youngest sister joined them in South Australia, sailing on the Sir John Lawrence, the first ship to arrive under a new Emigration Scheme.

But what happened next? There is a death in New Zealand for a Tabitha Jane Cook under suspicious circumstances in 1875, but the age doesn’t quite fit to be this Tabitha. But then information on death certificates is notorious for being error filled.

Do you know the Turtle/Turtell/Tuttle family? Can you help me?

S - Sarah Elizabeth Laney

There are two people in my tree with this name. My great great grandmother, born in Nelson New Zealand in 1850 and her first cousin born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire in 1839.

I came across the elder Sarah from a DNA match which Dad had – third cousin twice removed. Pretty faraway, but the only one at that point possibly hinting at the next generation back. Always sceptical about some of these small matches I did a bit of research of my own. Ancestry had identified the match as being on my grandmother’s side which was correct and age, place and other family names seemed to match – or look likely too. The biggest hook for me that this was right, was that her father’s name was Leander.

It isn’t a very common name, I’m not even sure where it comes from, but it sure helped to persuade me that the tree was correct and the match was valid. Leander appears through many generations of the descendants of my great great great grandfather who emigrated to Nelson in 1842 and raised a family there. I messaged the match, way back in 2020 and I am still patiently waiting on a reply.

Sarah’s parents were married in Oxford in 1827. At the time of their marriage Leander was living in Newbury, Berkshire. By 1841 the family had moved and were living in Cleveland Street, Wolverhampton. They had six children by then and none are recorded as being born in Staffordshire on the census. On later censuses the younger ones are recorded as being born there. They went on to have thirteen children, although not all survived to adulthood.

Sarah’s father is a musician on the 1841 census and in 1851 he is a Teacher of Music, and they have moved to Merridale Street. They were still at this address in 1861 with six of their children. On this census, Sarah aged 21 is a dressmaker. She married Joseph Simpson in 1868, he was a tailor. In the 1871 census Sarah is still listed as a Dressmaker despite being married with a toddler and another baby on the way.

Joseph and Sarah had a family of seven although three of her eldest children died before their second birthdays. By 1881 Joseph had become a Hardware Merchant’s Packer but Sarah was still contributing to the family’s income as a Dressmaker. Sarah continued to work into her widowhood after Joseph died in 1899. She died in Wolverhampton in 1912.

Maybe this Sarah is your great great grandmother? Or one of her siblings is your ancestor. I would love to hear from you and reconnect the branches of the tree.

 

R - Roxillanna Lawrence

What a great name – don’t you think? 

Roxillanna was born in Coventry in 1899. Her father was my great grandfather’s first cousin. They lived almost next door to each other for some of their childhood, but a seven-year age difference may have meant they didn’t know each other well.

Roxillanna was the middle child of nine although as her elder twin brothers died in infancy so she will have grown up as the third child with five sisters and one younger brother.

Her father was a Fruiterer, managing his own store in Birmingham and later Coventry. Her mother took over the business after the death of her father in 1917. Not long after his death, in 1918, Roxillanna married Cecil Payne. Cecil was a public servant on the 1921 census working at the Ministry of Labour employed at the Government Instructional Factory. In 1939 at the outbreak of World War Two he was an Assistant Production Manager.

Cecil and Roxillanna had two daughters.

But where did her name come from? Did she like it? It was quite different to her sister’s names – Nellie, Rose, Jessie, Gladys and Doris.

Do you know this family? Can we help each other? Please get in contact if you think we have a connection.

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.