The Unfolding Pandemic - August

1 August 2020 – The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee says the COVID-19 outbreak is still a public health emergency of international concern. They urge WHO to provide a nuanced, pragmatic guidance to reduce the risk of response fatigue and counter misinformation and disinformation. Russia announce plans to launch a vaccination campaign in October with a vaccine that has not completed clinical trials.

2 new cases were reported in New Zealand, both imported by travellers returning from overseas.

397 new cases in Victoria bringing the total for the state to 10,931, there were 3 new deaths; 2 are linked to aged care facilities. There are currently 5919 active cases in the state. Seventeen new cases were reported in New South Wales as well.

2 August 2020 —

3 new cases were reported in managed isolation in New Zealand.

671 new cases and a further 7 deaths in Victoria prompt Premier Daniel Andrews to announce changes to restrictions in Greater Melbourne and regional Victoria. Melbourne will move to Stage 4 restrictions, with a curfew from 8pm-5am. This will stay in place for 6 weeks. Exercise for 1 hour is permitted, other than that people can only leave their home to shop (one person per household), seek medical care, go to work or caregiving. Nobody can travel further than 5 kilometres from their home. Uni and TAFE must be learnt remotely, from Wednesday 5 August weddings can not occur, wearing masks is compulsory, all school learning will be learning from home from 5 August. The same will apply to kinder and early childhood centres from 6 August. Regional Victoria returns to Level 3 restrictions.

3 August 2020 — Confirmed cases globally surpass 18 million. Some studies have estimated the infection fatality rate of COVID-19 at 0.6% which although it doesn’t sound like a lot, is actually quite high. It means just over 1 in 200 people infected will potentially die, but it is hugely skewed by age, with the risk much higher in older people. By comparison the infection fatality rate for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic is believed to be between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in 1,000,000. In addition long term health effects are still not well understood.

2 new cases were reported in managed isolation and for the 17^th day in a row no new cases reported were in the community in New Zealand.

429 new cases and 13 deaths in Victoria.

4 August 2020 – Pan American Health Organisation say half of programmes on diabetes and hypertension are stopped at primary care level, as health workers increasingly cater to COVID-19 patients and many of them become sick, according to a survey on 27 countries in the Americas.

There are 22 active cases in New Zealand in managed isolation. No new cases reported.

439 new cases and a further 11 deaths in Victoria.

5 August 2020 – Confirmed deaths from COVID-19 surpass 700,000 globally.

No new cases reported.

725 new cases and 15 deaths in Victoria.

6 August 2020 – Three days after reaching a global total of 18 million, cases have surpassed 19 million.

No new cases reported in New Zealand.

471 new cases and 8 deaths are reported in Victoria.

7 August 2020 – Cases on the African continent exceed 1 million.

No new cases reported and there are 23 active cases in New Zealand.

450 new cases in Victoria, total for the state is now 13,867. There were 11 new deaths reported. The State Government announces more support for VCE students and further mental health resources for young people struggling with the pandemic. All Victorians arriving in New South Wales from today are required to quarantine at their own expense for 14 days. Air travel from Victoria is restricted to solely arrivals at Sydney Airport.

8 August 2020 – Confirmed cases in the USA surpass 5 million.

No new cases reported.

In Victoria there were 466 new cases and a further 12 deaths, half of which are linked to aged care facilities.

9 August 2020 – New Zealand reports 100 days without community transmissions although there are 23 COVID-19 cases in isolation facilities.

No new cases reported.

394 new cases and 17 deaths in Victoria.

10 August 2020 – Globally cases reach 20 million. Brazil is sustaining a very high level of epidemic, while the curve has shown signs of flattening it is not going down with 50,000-60,000 new cases each day.

No new cases reported. There are now 21 active cases in New Zealand

322 new cases and 19 deaths in Victoria. The total for the State is nearing 15,000 and 228 deaths have been recorded in total.

11 August 2020 – New cases are reported in NZ in a family not linked to overseas travel. Russia grants regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine even though it is yet to enter large scale safety & efficacy trials.

One new case was reported in managed isolation. After 102 days with no community transmission four members of a family in South Auckland tested positive, the source of infection is unknown. Four probable cases are also linked to the family.

Victoria reported 331 new cases and 19 deaths.

12 August 2020 – The US Government secures 100 million doses of Moderna’s candidate vaccine mRNA-1273 which is in late-stage clinical trials.

At noon the greater Auckland region moved back into Level 3 restrictions, initially for three days. The remainder of the country moved to Level 2. The number of active cases in New Zealand has risen to 25. Police checkpoints set up to monitor who is entering an leaving the city.

410 new cases in Victoria. Twenty-one more deaths bringing the total for the state to 267, 16 of the 21 new deaths are linked to clusters in aged care facilities.

13 August 2020 – Russia’s candidate COVID-19 vaccine is not part of the COVAX-Global Vaccines Facility portfolio. Seven African nations will start to administer antibody testing to help understand how many people within their population have had the disease.

Fifteen testing centres open across Auckland. 13 new cases confirmed with 12 linked to the Auckland family bringing the total for that cluster to 17. The remaining new case is in managed isolation after returning from the Philippines. The total number of cases is now 36.

A further 278 new cases and 8 deaths in Victoria.

14 August 2020 – Global cases surpass 21 million.

Another 13 new cases are confirmed, two in the South Waikato town of Tokoroa, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces that the current alert levels will stay in place for 12 more days. There are 49 cases with one person in hospital.

372 new cases and 14 new deaths in Victoria.

15 August 2020 –.

Prime Minister Ardern released  the Government’s COVID-19 response framework, which would involve localised lock-downs in the event there was another community-wide outbreak of COVID-19.

303 new cases and 4 deaths reported in Victoria.

16 August 2020 –.

There are now 69 actives cases with 49 being linked to the South Auckland cluster.

279 new cases and a further 16 deaths in Victoria

17 August 2020 –.

9 new cases are reported. The Prime minister announces that the General Election will be moved to October 17.

Another 282 new cases and 25 deaths in Victoria. There are now 17,027 cases in the state and 334 people have died.

18 August 2020 – A letter signed by former world leaders, people in the education sector and economist calls for urgent action in response to the global education emergency. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation fear up to 30 million children may never return to school.

Another 13 cases are confirmed. Two cases which had not been linked to the South Auckland cluster through contact tracing have now been identified through genomic sequencing; one connected to the South Auckland cluster and the other to a managed isolation hotel in Auckland.

17 more deaths and 222 new cases

19 August 2020 – Globally more than 22 million cases and the death toll approaches 800,000.

6 new cases reported, 5 are linked to the Auckland cluster and the other imported. Five people are in hospital.

216 new cases and a further 12 deaths in Victoria.

20 August 2020 – A WHO survey of 39 countries in sub-Saharan Africa finds that schools are fully operational in 6 countries, closed in 14 and partially open in 19.

Five more cases reported all linked to the Auckland cluster

240 new Victorian cases and 13 deaths.

21 August 2020 –

9 new cases in the community and 2 imported cases were reported.

179 new cases in Victoria and 9 deaths.

22 August 2020 – Globally cases surpass 23 million and death toll now exceeds 800,000.

Six new cases were reported bringing the total number of active cases to 111.

182 new cases and 13 deaths.

23 August 2020 –

There are now 114 active cases in New Zealand the death toll remains at 22.

208 new cases and a further 17 deaths.

24 August 2020 – University of Hong Kong reports the first case of reinfection in a 33 year old man who previously had a mild case in April, now infected by a different strain.  WHO say It is important not to jump to conclusions and that ongoing studies following patients show that some do show a strong antibody response that stays.

Another 9 new case; 8 linked to the Auckland cluster, bringing the total to 123. The Prime Minister extends the Level 3 lockdown to 11.59pm 30 August. The remainder of the country also to remain at Level 2.

116 new cases and 15 deaths in Victoria. All the deaths are linked to aged care facility outbreaks. There are a total of 18,330 cases in the state and there have been 430 deaths.

25 August 2020 – Long turnaround times in testing are still hindering the response on the African Continent.

7 new cases in New Zealand, all but one are linked to the Auckland cluster. There are 8 people in hospital, three in a critical condition in intensive care units.

There have been 148 new cases in Victoria in the past day and 8 more deaths.

26 August 2020 – A decade of economic growth has been lost in Africa and the recovery will be long and difficult.

Five more cases reported, 2 are linked to the Auckland cluster.

Another 149 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours in Victoria and 24 deaths.

27 August 2020 – Over the past four weeks, on average, there has been a 17% decrease in the number of cases reported for the African continent. UNICEF finds that 463 million children globally have not had access to remote learning opportunities during the pandemic. The number of cases globally surpasses 24 million.

Six more cases are reported in the community and one at the border. There are 126 active cases  of which just 11 are imported and in managed isolation.

There were 113 new cases overnight and 23 deaths in Victoria.

28 August 2020 –

12 new cases (5 in the community) were reported in New Zealand.

There were 113 new cases and 12 deaths in Victoria.

29 August 2020 –

13 new cases (11 in the community) were reported.

94 new cases and 18 deaths were reported in Victoria.

30 August 2020 – Confirmed cases surpass 25 million globally. USA, Brazil and India are the most affected countries. Australia is 69^th and New Zealand 147^th. India reports the highest single day increase of any nation so far with 78,751 new cases. In the week ending today more than 1.8 million new cases and 38,000 deaths were reported to the WHO.

2 new cases were reported in the community. The greater Auckland region moved to Alert Level 2.5 at 11.59pm today. A modified version of Level 2 but with stricter limitations on public gatherings, funerals and weddings. Masks were mandatory on public transport throughout the country for passengers aged 12 or older. The rest of the country remains at Level 2.

Victoria recorded 114 new cases overnight and a further 11 deaths.

31 August 2020 – Cases in the US surpass 6,000,000 the highest number in any country. A WHO survey of 105 countries finds that 90% have had disruption to their health services due to the pandemic.

9 new cases were reported, 5 in the community. 9 of the community cases in the past week are members of a church group which has been classed as a subcluster of the main Auckland cluster. Eleven people are in hospital, there are 131 active cases.

There are now 19,080 cases in Victoria, 2620 are active cases. There have been 565 deaths in the state with another 41 deaths recorded overnight and a further 73 new cases.

 

Total cases globally as of August 31, 2020: 25,275,602 and 843,281 deaths

Total cases in Australia: 25,746, 652 deaths, 21,345 recovered

Total cases in New Zealand: 1,738, deaths 22, 1,585 recovered

(figures from WHO)

 

 

Sources:
https://www.devex.com/news/covid-19-a-timeline-of-the-coronavirus-outbreak-96396
https://shorthand.radionz.co.nz/coronavirus-timeline/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_New_Zealand
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-current-situation
https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers
https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus/updates
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2020-nsw-health.aspx
https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19

George Henry Cooper

George Henry Cooper was the youngest son of Samuel Cooper &  Elizabeth Hill. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand in March 1843, eighteen months after the family had arrived in the colony.

Again, not much is known about his early life. It is likely he and his elder brothers attended school in Sydney Street, Thorndon, though records to verify this have not been found, perhaps do not even exist.

In June 1868, George’s brother Fred and brother-in-law Michael Twomey advertised in the Evening Post their plan to dispose of their Ginger Beer, Aerated Water and Cordial Manufactury Business on Molesworth Street by lottery. I believe this was the business they had taken on after the death of another of George’s brothers, Thomas in 1867. Two hundred tickets were to be sold at £1 each. A letter to the editor of the Wellington Independent dated 29 April 1867 and published 30 April signed by George indicates that he too was assisting in the business which had been his brother’s.

It appears that either 25 year old George had the winning ticket or that perhaps the lottery did not work and he simply bought the business. Whichever was the outcome, from 1868 George carried on the business, first at Mulgrave Street and then relocating later that year to Thorndon Quay in what eventually became known as the Hotel Cecil block.

In October 1868 George married Elizabeth Carrick (or Calvert), who worked alongside him in the business and also a small shop adjacent to George’s factory where she sold ha’penny cakes, lollies and of course ginger beer. A letter to the editor entitled “Old Wellington” published in the Evening Post 8 September 1934 in response to a previous reminiscent article helps to place these building on the Thomas Ward maps held at Wellington City Archives. (From the maps it would seem that the start/end points of Thorndon Quay & Lambton Quay may have changed over time.) Also in this block and adjacent to Elizabeth’s store was a general store identified as Osbourne’s. The writer also states that prior to being run by the Osbournes the general store had been Stagg’s. This was an exciting revelation as that meant that Frederick Stagg – cousin to all these Cooper boys was living right amongst the family in Wellington.

In 1869, when his mother died George was reputedly in Kaikoura as mentioned in a notice (not yet verified) in the Kaikoura Herald recording the death in Wellington of “mother of John and George Cooper. I’m not sure why George would be in Kaikoura, unless simply visiting his brother. He can’t have been living there as his business was established in Wellington by then.

George and Elizabeth had no children of their own. I have often wondered if they cared for the orphaned children of his brother Thomas. At least one of the children later worked in the bottling and cordial industry and may have had their start working for their uncle. However, when George died of a stroke aged 40 in 1883 he left everything to his wife Elizabeth to be hers and hers alone – free from the control of any future husband she may have. After her death the money obtained from the sale of his real and personal estate and effects was to be divided equally between the children of his brothers John (of Kaikoura) and Frederick (of Wellington). The shares of any of those nieces and nephews not reached 21 was to be held in investment until they were old enough. No mention was made of the children of his other siblings, Thomas, Elizabeth or James.

Elizabeth did remarry, in 1888 to Charles Brodie – another ginger beer manufacturer in Wellington. He seems to have assumed control of George’s business and absorbed it into his own company. Elizabeth died in 1911, her will was dated 14 March 1889 – a year after her marriage to Charles – and left everything to him. He was described in her will as a gasfitter – but at her death his affidavit describes him as a gentleman. A bit of a rise through the ranks of society – I wonder if any of John or Frederick’s children ever did benefit from their uncle’s estate.

Frederick Cooper

Frederick Cooper was the last of Samuel and Elizabeth’s children to be born in England before they emigrated to New Zealand. He was noted as aged 6 months on Samuel’s application for Free Passage to New Zealand in November 1840. After purchasing his birth certificate, his birth date as confirmed as 20 April 1840, and he was baptised on 10 May at St Catherine's, Montacute.

The family were first offered passage on the Lord William Bentinck to sail from Gravesend on 7 January 1841 when Frederick would have been just 8 months old. For some reason they did not take up this offer, reapplying instead and travelling on the Oriental which sailed from Plymouth 22 June 1841.

As with his older siblings, nothing is known of Frederick’s early life in Wellington. His obituary in 1908 seems a little tangled with the lives of his older brothers. He apparently went to the Otago goldfields and then on to Ballarat, returning to New Zealand to marry. The dates don’t seem to make sense to me.

Gold was discovered near Bendigo in 1852 when Frederick would have been 12 years old. From all accounts the goldrush in Otago began in 1861.

It may have been the Otago goldfields that brought his brothers back to New Zealand from the Victorian goldfields but I’m pretty sure Frederick either did not go at all, or perhaps went to Otago very briefly.

In 1860 he had launched his seed and nursery business in Wellington where he first had a nursery at the top end of Taranaki Street. In 1863 he married Ellen Carpenter and the two of them worked at growing the business and established a store on Manners Street near Herbert Street (about where McDonalds is today). In 1864 he applied to be on the electoral roll and gave his address as Wingfield Street and his eligibility as a freeholder owner of a house and land at that address. Wingfield Street itself doesn't exist today. It ran parallel to Fraser's Lane which was pretty much where Aiken Street runs today and could be accessed from Molesworth Street or John Street which ran from Fraser's Lane. John Street today  looks like a delivery entrance running off Aiken Street between the National Library and the now demolished Defence Building and Freyberg Building (but is labelled Guthrie Street on maps). Frederick & Ellen had ten children; eight daughters and two sons between 1864-1879. Two of their daughters died in childhood, one aged 3 years and the other 9 years.

The family run business traded for more than 100 years before being sold in his grandchildren’s generations to their one time business rival business Yates. Frederick had nurseries in Taranaki Street and in Lower Hutt as well as the store in Manners Street. Bijoux Nurseries were in Woburn near where Te Omanga Hospice is today. Frederick traded globally, Cooper’s Seeds being in great demand. An article in the Upper Hutt Leader gives some history about the beginnings and development of the business in its 100^th year.

Frederick left notably the most well known footprint of all his family in New Zealand history. He was recorded on a number of documents throughout his life helping us to paint a better picture of who he was. He was amongst the witnesses at the inquest into his brother Thomas’ drowning in 1867. He also appears to have taken over and run Thomas’ business for a time after his death as mentioned here. His affidavit when his cousin Frederick Stagg died intestate in 1875 was a recent find, which lead to the discovery that other family members had also emigrated to New Zealand.

It was a surprise after all the discoveries of his great business success and legal interactions to learn that he died intestate in 1908 aged 67.

James Cooper

James Cooper was Samuel and Elizabeth’s 8^th child and 5^th son. If you’ve been keeping track you will be thinking I can’t count. There were however two other sons born in the 6 years between Elizabeth and James.

William born in early August 1833, baptised 11 August and buried aged 5 weeks on 17 September. Nine months later in June 1834 they welcomed another son who they also named William. He was baptised 3 August 1834 but also sadly died and was buried on 8 February 1837 aged 2 years 8 months.

James was baptised on 10 April 1837. It is possible he was born before William died and so avoided becoming the 3^rd William or maybe his parents decided that two Williams was enough. James' birth was just 5 months before civil registration began in England. 

James was 5 when the family emigrated to New Zealand. Not a lot is known of his early life in Wellington. Even his adult life has been a bit of a mystery, but a DNA match has changed some of that.

I was sceptical at first since he seems to have acquired an additional christian name in adulthood. But there are too many coincidences, and DNA in the right range to be a 3^rd cousin to Dad sharing the same great grandparent couple.

I have done a lot of investigating, building trees, chopping off wrong branches over the last year or so and I’m pretty confident now. I found James’ obituary in the Southland Times. This mentioned that he had arrived in Wellington with his brothers from Somerset in 1840. No mention of his parents who we know also came, and the year was out by one. It also mentioned he and one of his brothers had gone to the Australian goldfields in the 1850s which seemed to tie in with the suggestion that Thomas had gone to Australia too.

The obituary suggests that James returned to Wellington in 1861 and a year later moved south to Invercargill. He set about establishing a horticultural business there, importing seeds and plants. On 18 June 1864 he married Harriet Ware in Hobart, Tasmania. Harriet was born in Hobart and was 22 when they married. James (with his additional name Wade) was described as a merchant and a fruiterer & seedsman of Tay Street in Invercargill.

At the time of his marriage James’ business in Invercargill was situated in Lowther Arcade facing on to Tay Street. The arcade ran through to Esk Street. In 1869 his shop had moved to Dee Street adjacent to the Prince of Wales Hotel and later to the Athenaeum Building on Dee Street which also housed the library and eventually the museum. In addition to his store front he established Waikiwi Nursery on land he had acquired soon after his arrival in the area. It comprised thirteen acres and was situated on either side of the North Road at Waikiwi. James’ obituary describes how he transformed the land planting flowers, shrubs and trees. Numerous business advertisements appear in newspapers available at PapersPast.

Kete Invercargill, Accessed 31/10/2020 

James and Harriett had 10 children in the next 18 years and evidently travelled back and forth to Tasmania as one daughter was born in Hobart in 1877. By the time of James’ death in 1911 they had 27 grandchildren. Eight of their children were girls so that gets a bit tricky to follow when names change at marriage.

In 1888 he sold the nursery and his store to James Lennie. James was a Scot who had trained in the nursery business after leaving school and had been employed at Arden Capell Castle (the seat of the Duchess of Argyll) and at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens among other appointments before travelling to Ireland. He had arrived in New Zealand at Bluff in 1862, At first he was employed by local gentlemen seemingly offering landscaping advice and had three sons who were also involved in his business. I imagine our James sold with a heavy heart; his two sons possibly not being prepared to take over the business. After tracking them on electoral rolls it seems they both became butchers instead.

James along with James Morton were instrumental in the establishment of the Southland Horticultural Society and James was the first President.

I recently purchased his death certificate which confirmed that his father was Samuel, a tailor. So it certainly does seem that James Wade Cooper is our James Cooper.

Elizabeth Cooper

Elizabeth Cooper, Betsy, was 10 years old when she and her siblings arrived in Wellington with their parents. She was baptised at St Catherine, Montacute on 17 April 1831.

Six years later, at just 16 she married Daniel Morrison a mariner who was 18 years older than her, just a few months before her elder sister was married. Betsey was the first of Samuel and Elizabeth’s children to marry.

In August 1858, Daniel died from injuries sustained when his ship was wrecked, leaving Elizabeth with their five children aged 2-11. Shortly after his death Daniel Wilson placed notices in the local newspapers asking for donations toward a memorial for Daniel and from September three others placed advertisements for subscriptions to benefit his widow and children who were left “wholly unprovided for”. On 8 November a concert in aid of the widows Morrison and Mackenzie (I don’t know of the connection between these two ladies, perhaps it was just fortuitous timing) was held at the Lyceum Theatre on Lambton Quay with glees, songs and instrumental music. Another researcher some years ago had found information at Alexander Turnbull Library reporting that the monies raised by public subscription enabled the public of Wellington to purchase a house for Elizabeth and her children.

Eleven months after Daniel’s death Elizabeth married Michael Twomey. He too was a mariner, they married at her private residence in Little Ghuznee Street (Now Egmont Street which runs between Ghuznee Street and Dixon Street).

They had a number of children together, possibly 10, although only 5 appear to have survived childhood. To make life interesting, or research tricky, Michael is sometimes recorded as Henry or Michael Henry. This was the case for the birth of one of their sons whose birth was registered by Elizabeth’s elderly mother in 1866.

Just yesterday I found advertisements in the local newspapers for 1868 where an

“old established GINGER-BEER, AERATED WATERS AND CORDIAL MANUFACTURY BUSINESS”

was to be sold by lottery. 200 tickets at £1 each. The business was being carried on by Messrs Cooper and Twomey on Molesworth Street, and the manager was noted as F Cooper. I have not been aware of this at all, but it would seem that this must be the business of Thomas Cooper who had drowned in February/March 1867, and that his younger brother Frederick and brother in law Michael had taken over to keep it afloat and possibly help to support Thomas' orphaned children.

At some time shortly after the sale Michael and Elizabeth left Wellington with their children. They made their way to the West Coast where Michael was involved in mining. It has been suggested that they may have spent some time visiting with Elizabeth’s brother John’s family in Kaikoura. In 1870 Elizabeth’s daughter Elizabeth from her first marriage was married to a local Kaikoura boy. By 1871 Michael and Elizabeth were in Hokitika area where their youngest two sons were born. They moved back to Kaikoura around 1894/95 and Daniel died there in 1897 described as a gardener.

I have often wondered if anyone in the family might have offered assistance to John Cooper’s wife Mary, who left him and took her three youngest children to Australia, creating a new life with Charles Nicholls there. It has been suggested that they sailed from Hokitika around 1876. Maybe it was Elizabeth. She and Mary would have been contemporaries, quite likely knew each other in Wellington before their marriages. They were two years apart in age and both married husbands a lot older than themselves. Perhaps Mary and the children visited or stayed with Michael and Elizabeth before their departure. Perhaps too, Michael’s network of connections from his time as a mariner helped them find passage on a ship bound for Melbourne. I have only just had these pieces of information fall into place in the timeline in my mind today.

Maybe it’s true, it is mostly conjecture, but it does feel like it could add up.

What stories she could have told. Old enough to remember what life in England was like, old enough to remember her grandmother and aunts and uncles. She experienced travel on an immigrant sailing ship, life in the fledgling Wellington settlement, survived both the 1848 and 1855 earthquakes and was part of the gold rush on the West Coast before returning to the pioneer town of Kaikoura for her final years. Elizabeth died 27 May 1906.

Mary Anne Cooper

Samuel Cooper had two daughters named Mary Anne.

The first was his second child with Charlotte Hann. She was baptised at St Catherine Montacute on 31 January 1820, the day after her mother was buried. This suggests that she was born in January 1820 and that her mother may have died shortly after her birth. So far no record for her death or a marriage has been found. In the 1841 census there is an Ann Cooper living in Montacute of the right age. Could this be her ? All of the other Coopers in the church records and on the census seem to be connected to the one family, but this Ann has a daughter in 1841 and does not appear to have a husband. As yet, I haven’t been able to find her on subsequent census’ to gather more information about her.

So the jury is out.

Maybe she did die in infancy and the Ann on the census is just a red herring.

On 20 August 1828 Samuel and his second wife Elizabeth had their second daughter, Mary Anne, baptised at St Catherine Montacute. It doesn't make a lot of sense, would you give a new child the same name as another living child ? Perhaps. Stranger things have happened.

This Mary Anne was about 13 when the family left England in 1841 for their new life in Wellington, New Zealand. Six years later in 1847 she married Christopher Lockyer. He has lots of appearances in the local newspapers running into trouble with the law, appearing in court for drunkenness, fighting with his brother, being a vagabond, keeping a disorderly house (brothel), spending time in jail in his old age because the Benevolent Home would not have him. But there is never a mention of Mary Anne.

There is a death record for Mary Ann Lockyer in 1931, but the notice in the newspaper (New Zealand Herald, 27 August 1931) identifies her as the wife of Samuel Lockyer, not Christopher…and Christopher had died in 1904. There is also a marriage for a Mary Anne Lockyer and Joseph Sanders in 1849, but when that Mary Anne died her age is out by about 10 years. 

The search continues to unravel this story.

Charlotte Cooper

Charlotte Cooper was Samuel’s 2^nd daughter, but the first for him and his 2^nd wife Elizabeth. She was born on 28 April 1824 and baptised 23 May the same year at St Catherine, Montacute, Somerset.

Since we don’t know anything about Elizabeth before her marriage there are no clues about where the name Charlotte might have come from for their daughter. Perhaps it was her mother’s name, or a sister- hopefully it wasn’t chosen by Samuel to memorialise his first wife.

Not a lot is known about Charlotte’s life either as is often the case with daughters.

She was 17 when the family emigrated to New Zealand and I imagine would have been a great help to her mother on the voyage caring for her younger siblings – the youngest just over a year old.

No marriage or death records have been located for her although it has been suggested by some researchers that she may have died about 1857. Three of her siblings named daughters Charlotte around this time – a clue perhaps ?

Thomas Cooper

Thomas Cooper was born in Montacute in 1826. He was baptised on 30 July that year but no birthdate was recorded in the register.

Thomas was 15 years old when his family emigrated to New Zealand in 1841. He first appears on a Jury list in 1847 when he would be 21 as a labourer living in Thorndon Flat. By 1848 he was recorded as a shoemaker and this remained the same until 1850 when he was described as a publican.

Thomas was married in 1850 to Charlotte Pike, another Somerset native who had emigrated with her parents arriving a few months ahead of the Cooper family in 1841. By 1852 his aerated water business, making ginger beer, soda water and cordials in Pipitea Street was becoming established. Thomas had placed advertisements in local newspapers from at least 1853 wanting to buy bottles.

By 1866 Thomas and Charlotte had a family of nine children. For a short time in the mid 1850’s Thomas is thought to have left Wellington and ventured to the Victorian goldfields with his brother James. There is also a mention of him relocating to the Rangitikei area briefly before returning to Wellington to re-establish his ginger beer and cordial enterprise on Mulgrave Street.

It would seem that the business must have operated from the site now occupied by Wellington Girls’ College or across the road close to the site of the old brewery (Staples Brewery est. 1866, later Thorndon Brewery and then Lion Breweries) where New World is now located.

In October 1866, two months after the death of his father, Thomas’s wife Charlotte passed away leaving him with their nine children aged 2-16. Just four and a half months later Thomas mysteriously disappeared. A report of his disappearance appeared in the local newspapers. This one in the Wellington Independent on Thursday 28 February reads:

"MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. – We regret to state that Mr Thomas Cooper, a ginger-beer manufacturer, residing at Thorndon, has disappeared in a very mysterious manner. He left the Thistle Inn about eight o’clock on Monday night, and was seen shortly afterwards by a man named Allison to be going in the direction of Brown’s wharf. It is feared that Mr Cooper, who had been drinking, missed his way and fell into the water, and the drags were employed in that part of the harbour yesterday, but nothing was discovered that would throw any light on the fate of the missing man."

The following week, on 5 March, 10 days after his disappearance his body was found by a lighterman taking ballast out to a ship moored in the harbour from near Plimmer’s wharf. The witnesses at the inquest held the same day at the Te Aro Police Station included a friend who had been with him at the Thistle and his younger brother Frederick. They, and the lighterman who also knew Thomas, identified him by the clothes he was wearing. Ten days in the water is not gentle on a body.

His death certificate records his date of death as 5 March 1867, the day of the inquest, when it is more likely to have been 25 February, the date which he was last seen alive.

I have done a little bit of research and have been able to identify the location of Brown’s wharf. Very close to the Thistle as it happens. Anyone familiar with Wellington will know the stories about patrons of old, including Te Rauparaha, pulling their dinghies or waka up on to the beach near the hotel. The steps outside now take you from the pavement to Kate Shephard Street (formerly Sydney Street West) but back in the days before earthquakes and reclamation the shoreline was right there.

In 1867 some reclamation had begun and of course the earthquakes of 1848 and 1855 also contributed to the changing shoreline. Browns wharf is described in the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection “Early Wellington” published by Whitcombe and Tombs Limited in 1928, as being

“opposite the Royal (now Cecil) Hotel”

The site of the Royal Hotel which later became the Cecil Hotel, was known as the Hotel Cecil Block and was situated on Thorndon Quay where the Wellington bus terminus now is.

Plimmer’s wharf will have been located further along Lambton Quay, close to Plimmer’s Steps near the Old Bank Arcade (formerly Bank of New Zealand). 

Who was looking after the children all of this time while their father was missing ? Who assumed responsibility for them after his death ? More about Thomas’ business can be found here. 

 

 

 

 

John Cooper

John Cooper, my 2 x great grandfather, was born in Montacute, Somerset most likely in the summer of 1822. His baptism is recorded in the church register for St Catherine on 10 June 1822. He was the first born son of Samuel Cooper a tailor, and his 2^nd wife Elizabeth. 

Nothing else is known about John before his arrival in New Zealand, and even that is shrouded in mystery. John was listed on Samuel’s application for passage for his wife and family, first for the Lord William Bentinck and then the Oriental. At the time that the Oriental sailed he would have been 21 years old, perhaps that caused confusion and he should have been recorded separately to the rest of his family because of his age. Whatever happened, he isn’t recorded as disembarking in Wellington with the rest of the family once they arrived after 3 months at sea.

This sailing of the Oriental in 1841 was under charter to the Plymouth Company, ostensibly bringing settlers to settle in New Plymouth in the Taranaki, but arriving by way of Wellington. News of unrest in the Taranaki apparently caused some settlers to abandon their plans to travel on further and some disembarked in Wellington. I am not sure if the Cooper family’s intention was to settle in New Plymouth at all. Since their first application was for a voyage to Wellington, perhaps Wellington was their chosen destination all along. We have wondered though, whether John travelled on to Taranaki after the rest of the family disembarked to survey the situation and report back. However, he is not recorded as disembarking there either. Only recently I discovered that after delivering the remaining settlers to New Plymouth, the Oriental returned to Wellington before preparing to leave to return to England via India. So did John join the crew for the trip to New Plymouth and back and just not get recorded anywhere ?

However, we know he did arrive because we are all here as proof.

Occupationally John followed his father and become a tailor, although on the earliest Jury Lists for Wellington he was recorded as a labourer. In 1860/61 he placed regular advertisements in the Wellington Independent advertising his business on Lambton Quay next to the Eagle Tavern. I have tried several times over the last ten or more years to find out where the Eagle Tavern was situated. No luck at all until last week. Did I choose different search words or just see something I had completely missed before ?

Turns out Lambton Quay didn’t end where it does today, at Stewart Dawson’s corner. For some time it extended around that windy corner into what is now Willis Street – and that was where the Eagle Tavern was; a few building beyond the Commercial (which eventually became the Grand), about opposite Chew’s Lane.

In 1850, John married Mary Ann Barratt. She had arrived in Wellington with her parents and siblings in May 1842. When they married Mary was 17 and John 27. They lived in Wellington until about 1861 when they moved, along with some of Mary’s married sisters, to join her mother and youngest siblings in Kekerengu north of Kaikoura where John had secured a position as a tailor on the sheep station. Their first 6 children were born in Wellington and a further 4 at Kekerengu. About 1871 they moved further south to the township of Kaikoura. It has been suggested by another family historian, that the move to Kaikoura may have been prompted by the Tetley Affair. This involved some mismanagement of finances on the part of the owners of the Kekerengu Station and would likely have had follow on effects for those employed to work there. Another 3 children were born in Kaikoura.

Electoral rolls and jury lists show his occupation as tailor, apart from 1847 where he was listed as a labourer. His death certificate in 1895 records him as a gardener and a photograph has recently been shared with us of him standing outside his shop in Kaikoura where he is “J. Cooper, Fruiterer”.

Charles Cooper

Charles Cooper was the first child of my 3 x great grandfather Samuel Cooper and his 1^st wife Charlotte Hann. He was baptised on 11 October 1818 just 5 months after his parent’s marriage. The cleric made an error with the entry and he is recorded as Charles Hann instead of Charles Cooper – the other details (parent’s names and occupation) are correct.

Not much else is known about him. He is referred to (but not named) in the Churchwarden Accounts for the parish of Montacute several times while the parish contributed financially to his upkeep after his mother died in January 1820. Because residents were not identified by name (unless they were the householder) on the 1821 Survey or Census he hasn’t been identified there. But, he wasn’t recorded as living with his father and does not appear to have been with his paternal grandmother either.

The next entry for Charles in the church records is his marriage to Mary Ann Tavender (sometimes written as Taviner) in 1837. By the time the 1841 census came around, Charles and his small family were living in Middle Street, Montacute. By this time there were two young daughters, Ellen & Jane. Charles was a Chandler; a candle maker or a seller of provisions like groceries.

By searching the GRO indexes it appears that Charles and Mary had four other children by 1850; Matilda, George Owen, Walter Henry and Richmond Tom. To be extra helpful for researchers like me almost 200 years later, Charles and Mary don’t appear to have had their children baptised, at least not in the Church of England.

Charles appears a couple of times in the Churchwarden Accounts living in a rateable property in 1841 and 1847. I haven’t been able to find any further documentation for him post 1850. Did they emigrate too ? And if they did, where did they go ? Or did something else happen ?

The search continues.

Samuel Cooper

Samuel Cooper, my 3 x great grandfather, was probably born in Montacute, Somerset or a nearby parish in about 1789, no baptism record has been found for him yet. His parents John Cooper and Ann Pullman had married in Stoke sub Hamdon in the summer of 1784. The marriage record says they were both of the parish although John was described as a Sojourner.

Samuel earned his living as a Tailor, it is unclear where he learned this trade but occupations in the rag-trade feature throughout the census’ of the mid 19^th century. Perhaps his father was also a Tailor, but no records survive to confirm that. Almost as many townsfolk were listed as Glovers, Leather dressers, Weavers and Tailors as were recorded as Ag Labs in the 1841 and 1851 census’.

Samuel’s brothers John and Uriah are often mentioned in the Churchwarden’s accounts for St Catherine’s, Montacute, being paid for work on the roads in the parish, cleaning the inside of the church tower, washing down the wall between the church and the chancel, picking up boundary stones and other menial tasks. Samuel’s father John died in March 1810, most likely a few days after the baptism of his son Thomas, who subsequently died a month later. From the church records for Stoke sub Hamdon and Montacute it seems John and Ann had at least 10 children, however only half of them lived to adulthood. After John’s death Ann often appeared in the Churchwarden accounts receiving financial assistance from the parish.

Samuel’s sisters Ann and Mary married in 1812 and 1818. Mary died just six years later, Ann however lived to be 101, almost 102. Samuel married Charlotte Hann on 11 May 1818 in St Catherine, Montacute, 6 weeks after his sister Mary had married. He and Charlotte had a son Charles in September, followed by a daughter Mary Anne in January 1820. Charlotte died in the same month. It is unclear whether Mary Ann survived, however on the 1841 census there is an Annie Cooper of the right age, a Glover and single parent. There only seems to be one Cooper family in Montacute and Yeovil this whole time, so maybe ?

On the 1821 census, found amongst the documents in the parish chest (and available thanks to the Church of the Latter Day Saints), only the name of the householder is recorded, then tally marks to denote the numbers of people within given age frames and identifying their occupations. Samuel is there, living alone and engaged in a trade. His mother Ann is in a different house, where his brother John is recorded as the householder. John is engaged in agricultural work. The ages of the others, a male aged 10-15, 2 males aged 20-30, another 30-40 and a female aged 50-60 seem likely to be Ann 57, her sons, John 33 & Uriah 13 and two other unknown people. Not knowing the name of Charlotte’s father made it difficult to place Samuel’s children. Hann is a much more common name in Montacute than Cooper ! However the Churchwarden accounts record Samuel receiving assistance from the parish for himself and his child/children up until 1821.

Samuel remarried on 17 September 1821 to Elizabeth Hill. In the margin of the church register is a note "First marriage solemnized after rebuilding of the chancel". There don’t seem to be many people named Hill either in Montacute so nothing is known of Elizabeth prior to her marriage. But, she is definitely a Hill despite many people naming her otherwise in their trees having accepted an error on her eldest son’s death certificate as correct. I now have 4 documents where her maiden name is correctly recorded as Hill.

Of his siblings, Samuel appears to be the only one who could sign his name. He did this for both of his marriages, and also as a witness to another marriage in the parish. Charlotte his first wife signed her name, but Elizabeth did not. As a Tailor and businessman, the ability to read and write would have been necessary, I imagine.

Emigration schemes to New Zealand enticing free settlers to take the opportunity to settle a new colony at the far reaches of the globe began advertising in the late 1830’s. I guess we will never really know what Samuel’s motivation was to pack up his family and leave for New Zealand. At about the same time his brother Uriah was planning to leave Montacute too, although he would make his new life in the colonies which later became Australia.

Competition for work, and overall work opportunities may have been deciding factors. Times were changing in 1830/1840s England. Cottage industry weavers and glovers were being replaced by larger urban factories. Even in a tiny village like Montacute there were about 7 other Tailors in the 1841 census.

Samuel & Elizabeth applied for passage to Wellington on the Lord William Bentinck but did not sail for some reason, re-applying instead a few months later for passage on the Oriental which was to leave Plymouth bound for Wellington and New Plymouth. Their youngest son Frederick was 5 months old at the time of their application for passage on the Oriental. So perhaps they had decided to wait until he was a little older before travelling. He would have been about 8 months old had they sailed on the Lord William Bentinck compared to 14 months when the Oriental sailed. 

Samuel and his family don't appear on the 1841 census in Montacute - and so far nowhere else either. The census was taken on 6 June 1841 and the Oriental sailed from Plymouth on 22 June. I have wondered if they were somewhere en route, or perhaps even on board as ships in port were not enumrated in 1841. However being on board twelve days prior to sailing seems a bit extreme, especially since I discovered another family who emigrated on an earlier sailing still at home on census night. Perhaps they just decided not to complete the census as they were leaving.

Samuel’s son Charles, from his first marriage, was married with two children by 1841. He has been a little elusive to track since then – but I think I might have found him in Yeovil. Some more research is required.

Once in Wellington, the family lived in Thorndon Flat, around Little Pipitea, Mulgrave and Molesworth Streets. Samuel continued to make his living as a Tailor. Samuel and Elizabeth had one more child after their arrival in Wellington. Most of their children had married and were growing their own families by the time Samuel died in 1866 and Elizabeth in 1869. Like most early settlers in Wellington they were buried at the Bolton Street Cemetery.

  

Z - Zero, Zilch, Zip, Nada

There are a number of people who could fit in this category.

Great-great-grandfather Julius Fuller for one, who after 50+ years research still only appears on two official records in England before he emigrated to New Zealand in 1859.

But instead I thought I’d choose someone I really don’t know much about at all.

Ann Blackman.

She is my daughter’s 4 x great-grandmother. I haven’t been able to find her baptism in England, arrival in Australia, marriage or the birth/baptisms of the three children her death certificate says she had. That death certificate is only one of two documents I have found for her in 30 or so years of looking. The second is her daughter’s marriage certificate where she is recorded as a parent.

Ann was 64 when she died 3 May 1870 in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. The informant on the death certificate was her adult daughter. The only child I know for sure. But did Sarah REALLY know the details ? Here is what she supplied.

Name and occupation of Father:

____ Blackman, Blacksmith

Name and maiden surname of Mother:

Not Known

Where born & how long in the Australian Colonies or States:

Hastings, Kent, England; 33 years in New South Wales

Place of marriage, age and to whom:

Sydney, Not Known, Joseph Dickinson

Children of marriage:

Living 1 male, 2 females

Eight years later when Joseph Dickinson died, his 2^nd wife was the informant on the certificate and she stated 2 children to a former wife. Very helpful – not. 

The information provided by her Sarah suggests that Ann arrived in New South Wales about 1837. Sarah was born about 1845/1846, deduced from information on her marriage certificate. In 1862 she was 17, her father’s consent was given to the marriage and noted on the certificate. She may have been younger though since at the birth of her 2^nd child in 1864 her husband gave her age as 18. Therefore Ann & Joseph's marriage must have taken place between 1837 and 1846. Joseph Dickinson was a convict, there should be an Application to Marry for him; unless the marriage didn’t take place until after he received his Certificate of Freedom in 1841. There doesn’t appear to be an application – although there is something in that dataset which could do with a bit more investigation. The only Ann Blackman marriage I can find on the NSW indexes is around the right time - but not to Joseph. 

In 1850 Joseph Dickinson was charged with grossly abusing his wife, and later in the year jailed for breaching the conditions set in court. No children were mentioned in the newspaper coverage of the court case.

So far no DNA matches are clearly aligned to this little piece of the tree either. So there you go. 

Zero, Zilch, Zip, Nada.

This brings to a close my A-Z blog challenge for Family History Month 2020. I hope you have enjoyed it, maybe discovered something you didn’t know or maybe even been inspired to give it a go yourself.

 

 

Y - Y.M.C.A

No, this in NOT about the Village People !

This little discovery came when I was scouring newspapers on PapersPast for an article I knew I had seen, but had failed to record where. Let that be a lesson to you all. Document your sources !!

I was looking for the name of a house which my great-grandfather’s brother had built in Cambridge, New Zealand. I found an obituary for his wife instead, which I don’t recall having seen before. Harriett and her husband were first cousins. Their mothers were sisters, so obviously she was my great-grandfather’s cousin too.

Her obituary in the Waikato Independent, 26 August 1939, page 4  gave some details about her family, birth place and arrival in New Zealand. She had come with her parents – who were 2^nd cousins – to Auckland and then the Coromandel. She was their only child. Her mother died at Shellback Creek near Tararu in 1869 when Harriet was about 14. Her aunt and uncle lived at Tararu too so I daresay they helped her widowed father care for her.

Anyway, back to the discovery. One sentence.

“It is of interest to note that Mrs Davys was the second cousin to Sir George Williams, the founder of the Y.M.C.A.”

What ?

If Harriet was his second cousin, then chances were that her husband and his siblings, including my great-grandfather were too. So I had to search and see what I could find.

George Williams was born 11 October 1821 at Ashway Farm near Dulverton. He was the youngest child of Amos Williams and his wife Ann/Betty/Elizabeth (just to be confusing). I didn’t have any other Williams in my tree, apart from an odd one here and there, so who was his mother ? She had to be the key.

Cue flashing lights. 

Wikipedia says his parents were Amos Williams (tick) and Elizabeth Vickery. On the same page Wiki also says her name was Ann “Betty” Vickery. Hmmm. BUT, I do have a bunch of Vickerys mixed in with my Norman paternal great-great-grandmother’s family….and BINGO ! Harriet’s mother Caroline and my great-great-grandmother Sarah were Norman sisters. Harriett’s father was also a Norman (2^nd cousin – remember ?) Jane and Caroline’s mother was Sarah Vickery, who had married her 1^st cousin William Norman. Nothing out of the ordinary it seems in Huish Champflower !

Off I went to find the baptisms on Ancestry and build a tree to look for the link. First I found their marriage to get a starting point to look for baptisms. They married at Withiel Florey on 15 August 1807 and their first child John Vickery Williams was baptised 14 January 1808, in the same parish. The father of my 4 x great-grandmother Sarah Vickery was John. Was this another lightbulb flashing ? A quick diversion to check what siblings I had for Sarah, found she did have a sister Betty Ann baptised in 1785 (the date is illegible on the page of the church record book).

That solved the problem of how Sir George Williams could be the 2^nd cousin of Harriett, and proved that he was also the 2^nd cousin of my great-grandfather. But how did this youngest son from a farming family happen to be the founder of the Y.M.C.A ?

George was the youngest of 7 sons, he also had one sister. As career paths go seventh sons are way down the list. Not much chance of taking over the family farm there. Wikipedia says he attended Gloyn’s in Tiverton, Devon until he was 13 when he began working on the family farm. His family sent him to Bridgwater where he was an apprentice in Henry William Holmes’ draper shop. What is it with drapers and this part of the world ? They keep popping up in all my branches.

In 1837 he left the Church of England and joined the Zion Congregational Church and in 1841 he moved to London where he worked as an apprentice at Hitchcock & Rogers, a draper’s shop. In London he became a member of the King’s Weigh House congregational church. After three years with Hitchcock & Rogers, George was promoted to department manager.

On 6 June 1844, appalled by the terrible conditions in London for young working men, like himself, George gathered a group of 11 fellow drapers in the living quarters of Hitchcock & Rogers to create a place that would not tempt young men into sin. The name Young Men’s Christian Association was agreed on at the suggestion of Christopher W Smith, one of the 11. The aim was to put Christian principles in practice to develop a healthy “mind, body & spirit.” One of the earliest converts and contributors to the new association was his employer, George Hitchcock.

Nine years later in 1853 he married the owner’s daughter and was taken into the business as a partner. The business was renamed George Hitchcock, Williams & Co., and when George Hitchcock died in 1863 George Williams became the sole owner. George and his wife Helen had seven children. One son Albert went on to marry the granddaughter of Thomas Cook who had founded the travel agency Thomas Cook and Son. George’s nephew John Williams married the only child of Matthew Hodder of the publishing business Hodder & Stoughton. Matthew had been George’s lifelong London friend.

George Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria in her 1894 Birthday Honours, this same year was the silver Jubilee of the Y.M.C.A and the year he received Freedom of the City of London. He died on 6 November 1905 at the Victoria and Albert Hotel in Torquay aged 84. His funeral was attended by 2,600 mourners at St Paul’s Cathedral on 14 November 1905 and he was buried there. After his death he was commemorated by a stained-glass window in the nave of Westminster Abbey. A blue plaque is at No. 13 Russell Square, London where he lived from 1879-1905 and another plaque can be found on the façade of Ashway Farm where he was born. His portrait can be found at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The things I wish I had known when I was in London !

Now here are a couple of other things I discovered in the search. 

When I was adding the baptisms of George’s siblings to my tree in Family Tree Maker a message popped up for one. “Is this Robert Williams the same Robert Williams married to Betsy Davys ?” A little bit of checking and yes, he is. Uh-oh, now I’m related two ways. Betsy was a daughter Thomas Davys and Patience Palmer…Thomas was a younger brother of my 4 x great-grandfather. This Robert is the father of George's nephew who married the daughter of Matthew Hodder mentioned earlier,

When I first found the Wikipedia entry for George Williams in April 2020 it was called “George Williams (YMCA)” and included the comment that he was the 4 x great-grandfather of Boris Johnson, the current British Prime Minister. Today, the entry is retitled “George Williams (philanthropist)” and that comment is no longer included. However, I was able to verify that that was the case, by checking his family’s well documented entries in Wikipedia, a BBC Who Do You Think You Are episode and church records.

Just the other day on facebook I saw a post from someone who had bought a Bible in a thrift store. The flyleaf said it had been presented to the original owner by Sir George Williams. She had done a little research and discovered who George was. She had also found his will where he requested Bibles to be given to the members of his family. I think that might be a will I need to find and read myself. I wonder if any such Bible made it’s way to New Zealand to his family there ? I haven’t heard of one, but who knows ?

 

 

X - Marks the Spot

Look at this great map of Somerset !

I know it is crooked, but I didn't scan it so I'm not accepting any griping about it, I found it on Reddit after a Google search. Apparently it could have been inspiration for Game of Thrones. But I just love it. Dating to the mid 17^th century, with the parishes named and represented by church icons in varying sizes…or are they manor houses ?

There is this one too which dates from about the same time, but has slightly clearer writing - also from Reddit.

A lot of my family came from Somerset to New Zealand, and all had lived in particular areas for generations. Funnily enough they were all living near borders which moved and were not static until fairly recently. The Davys’ in the parishes on either side of the Somerset Devon border and the Bartletts and Coopers near the Somerset Dorset border.

I was surprised to see how closely the Bartletts and Coopers lived to each other. The same names pop up in both parishes. When you consider how widely the Davys family travelled and moved in their little part of Somerset, it is amazing that the Coopers and Bartletts don’t seem to have done the same thing. We did get a couple of DNA matches who descend from a Cooper person who married a Bartlett cousin of my great-great-grandfather in 1862. But as far as I can see that Cooper family is from the same area as the Bartletts – for generations. Maybe mine were too, maybe one of them just left at some point and went a bit further north over the Hamdon Hills…time will tell.

When I am trying to find people in my research I often refer to maps. I love the digitised Ordnance Survey maps at the National Library of Scotland. Great detail and easy to zoom in and navigate. Often when reading a census I look for a map as close to the time period and find the street. Sometimes the footprint of the buildings is marked on a map and if you are lucky the same shape is still there today when you look at a google map of the area. The streets might have changed a little, laneways disappeared, but by comparing the current map and the old you can often work out where things used to be. If it looks like the building is still there, street view is my next step. Until I can work out a way to teleport to the other side of the world, walking down streets looking at buildings and countryside courtesy of a google camera car is the best alternative. Sometimes I just walk down country lanes, unchanged in centuries, to “feel” what it was probably like for my ancestors who trod the same paths or rode along them by horse and cart.

I also use the Phillimore Atlas maps to check neighbouring parishes. These can give me an idea of where else to search when a marriage, baptism or burial isn’t recorded in the parish I expect it to be. My Davys’ and their cousins, for instance, married and baptised their children in almost every parish from Morebath, Clayhanger and Ashbrittle in Devon to Luxborough, Monksilver, Lydiard St Lawrence and Taunton in Somerset.

Lots of local libraries and museums have maps too. It was on such a site that I found an Insurance map for part of Melbourne and was able to identify the house where my great-great-great-grandmother had lived. Also, on another site I found similar maps for Sydney and could work out – with the help of a street directory of the time – where my daughter’s great-great-great-grandparents had lived in Surry Hills. Some maps, particularly in America even show who the landowners were. Sometimes the maps at local libraries haven’t been digitised and you need to go there. A bit of a pain at the moment with the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions curtailing many of those visits.

You can make your own map too, to record where a family moved to, mariner’s voyages, family farms, schools attended. You name it, you can do it.