D - David Hall

I have a bit of a conundrum with my great great great grandfather David Hall. He was born about 1800 most likely in Cavan, or Monaghan, Ireland. He married about 1820 to Margaret Pritchard and they had about thirteen children.

But who were his parents? 

There are a few challenges unravelling this.

·         There is at least one other David Hall born around the same time and in the general area.

·         The family is likely an Ulster Plantation family – because let’s face it, Hall is not a very Irish surname. They lived in the same area for generations, went to the same Presbyterian churches and intermarried A LOT.

·         David’s daughter Anne, my great great grandmother, married another Hall. Just a coincidence? A cousin or second cousin?

William Hall, Anne’s husband was the son of Samuel Hall and Sarah Bailey. We knew this, as well as who Anne’s parents were from their death certificates in New Zealand. For a long time that was the extent of our knowledge.

Then along came DNA and the discovery that other branches of Samuel’s tree had also come to New Zealand. Surely people at the time knew one another and the family connection – but overtime the knowledge was lost.

Contacting other DNA testers in an endeavour to unravel the Irish branch of our tree, research all seemed to point to Samuel’s parents being William Hall 1769-1833 and Arabella Reilly.

Certainly, there are a lot of DNA matches where you can see the connections to each other through Samuel’s siblings. Researchers had found records for the children of William and Arabella – at least seven – including a David.

We have DNA matches to William’s family including descendants of his aunts and uncles (Samuel’s siblings), so it seemed quite resolved there. We also had good matches with Anne’s family going back into the past a little further and following her mother’s maternal line. For most of the descendants of William and Anne everything made sense, they should have matches to both families. But then some of Anne’s siblings’ descendants appeared to have matches to William's family!

The only way I can see this being possible is if “my” David Hall born about 1800 and died on 26 February 1883 at Coppenagh Mills is the son of William and Arabella Hall, born in 1797 at Lattacapple. This would mean that my great great grandparents William and Anne were first cousins. Or is it just an endogamy effect living in the same community for so long?

What do you think? Do you have a David Hall in your tree too? Is he this guy, or another one altogether? Please contact me if you think you can help.

 

 

#52Ancestors, Week 32, Youngest

Oldest last week, youngest this week. I did think about my brother – he’s the youngest in my nuclear family, and it is his birthday this week too. But then, I thought I would follow the theme from last week.

So Happy Birthday little bro. Another trip around the sun completed safely and great things to look forward to on the next trip.

Looking at my tree, I can see I have made some additions this year. My cousin had her second daughter in June 2018 and there are three others, either here on or the way.

Family history often focuses more on the people who have gone before, researching their lives and trying to form a better picture of who they were and what their lives were like. It is great being able to add new people and happy events to the family though, because all the research is for them, ultimately.

It got me thinking about relationships though, and how often branches of our trees grow at different pace to others. I have looked at the relationship of these youngest people compared to my daughter since they are related to her on both branches of her tree.

Already this year a new 2^nd cousin and 4^th cousin once removed have been welcomed and added with another 4^th cousin once removed and 5^th cousin once removed on their way. You can see how far back the common ancestors are for these new family members; great grandparents, 3x great grandparents and 4xgreat grandparents. These new little twiglets are all on my side of her tree.

On her paternal side of the tree though things are a little different. In the past couple of years there have been additions who include a 1^st cousin once removed and THREE 1^st cousins twice removed. Their common ancestors are much closer – her grandparents ! Those three 1^st cousins twice removed are the GRANDchildren of her first cousins.

My side of the tree doesn’t stand a chance catching up to that growth. But nevertheless, each new little twig that I add to the tree is welcome. I hope that someday all my hard work will answer any questions they might have about their ancestors.

#52Ancestors, Week 5, In the Census

Searching for connections and reconnecting

Back in the early 1990’s when the 1881 UK census was the only census available freely to researchers with roots in the United Kingdom, (and only on CD or microfiche) many researchers spent hour upon hour trawling through fiche after fiche in darkened Family History Centre rooms and libraries.

We had only begun piecing together information in my maternal grandmother’s family from the little information she had given away to us over the years. My Dad and I spent hours in the evenings at the Family History Centre reading church records hoping to find something concrete. Sometimes we went alone.

We knew from Nana that her mother’s family was from the “Black Country” and that she had a brother. We also knew that Nana’s grandfather married three times and that she also had two half siblings. Her mother’s brother and a half-brother (although I don’t think that Nana referred to him as such) had emigrated to the US. We knew their names and the names of their wives. We also knew an elderly aunt had emigrated to the US.

Between 1989 and 1991 some certificates were purchased from the GRO and we discovered that my great grandmother had been born in Wolverhampton on 17 July 1878[1], and that her parents were married in Dudley in a Primitive Methodist Chapel on 23 August 1875[2] (a WHAT !!?? – researching Primitive Methodism soon became another obsession). We also learned that her mother died in Wolverhampton on 5 May 1879[3]. What became of the children ?

I remember Dad’s jubilation when he returned home one day from the library with a piece of paper detailing the residents of one household in Dudley.

Residence: Paradise, Dudley (Worcs), Staffordshire, England[4]
Henry James	Head	Male	62	Leintwardine, Herefordshire, England
Elizabeth James	Daughter	Female	34	Leintwardine, Herefordshire, England
Albert Kelsey	Grand Son	Male	4	Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Laura Kelsey	Grand Daughter	Female	2	Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Amnie H Richards	Niece	Female	15	Mold, Flintshire, Wales

So, here she was, living with her grandfather and aunt…and a cousin ? To be fair, we didn’t make much more progress until the arrival of that wonderful phenomenon – the internet. I dabbled, I joined Ancestry in 2002.

One day (5 March 2003) while dabbling, I came across a post on a bulletin board -remember those ? Someone in the US had come across that same census entry. She was looking for more information about the Henry James family, last known living in Dudley with a daughter, niece and two grandchildren. I posted a reply, from work. Could it be ?

On returning to work the next morning there was a reply email. Needless to say, not much work was done that day. I couldn’t wait to get home. I replied, I sent the email to my Mum and Dad, I rang them to make sure they checked and read their email. I was dancing on air. The poster, was the great granddaughter of my great grandmother’s brother Albert who had emigrated to the US. We are 3^rd cousins. We knew they existed somewhere in the US – they had no idea we were down here in New Zealand searching the same tree.

Since then we have filled out the family so much more, broken some brickwalls down and reconnected with other members of the extended Kelsey family all over the planet. There are still some brickwalls to smash, but to think this all began with people on opposite sides of the Pacific, reading microfiche in Family History Centres and libraries.

---

[1] Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, Laura Ellen Kelsey, General Register Office, England.

[2] Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage, Thomas Kelsey and Mary James, General Register Office, England.

[3] Certified Copy of an Entry of Death, Mary Kelsey nee James, General Register Office, England.

[4] "England and Wales Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27F-JV6M : 13 December 2017), Henry James in household of Henry James, Dudley (Worcs), Staffordshire, England; from "1881 England, Scotland and Wales Census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing p. 2, Piece/Folio 2881/23, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm 101,774,821., accessed 4 February 2018.

Ruminating, in an orderly fashion...

Well, it has been two months since I updated this. My holiday seems like a million years ago now, and the routine of work and stuff has just taken over again.

But, I have been doing things, and ruminating about blog topics or content. I just haven’t managed to devote any specific time to it.

I’ve been to a couple of genealogy workshops, and I have completed an online course in genealogy as well which was great fun. All of these things have refreshed my mind, honed techniques I was familiar with and given me new strategies to use in my search. It was enjoyable to spend time with like-minded people, even if the housework and other things suffered at that expense.

Even better, at one workshop I bumped into a 4th cousin who I have only met once a few years ago.  We had corresponded with each other extensively about our respective family connections, but even that had ceased over the last few years. Since moving to Auckland though, I have often wondered how she was but not actually done too much more than that. Our chance meeting has rekindled interest and the topic of one workshop session motivated me to look at new records – where I found something about our elusive relative. An extra bonus for a weekend away from housework and tv.

The workshops and the study course both reinforced the need to be organised in your research, and to make a plan, so that you covered all options, and didn’t research the same things over and over, and to be better at recording sources. By using a technique (which I had always used but hadn’t really thought of as a technique before) since my studies and the Family History Expo workshops, I have found whole new families which I had completely missed before.

What was the technique ? Revisiting sources that you have already used to check if there have been new additions in their databases, or whether other people are searching the same families so that there is potential to collaborate.

I knew I did this, I just thought it was part of my haphazard plan. My approach probably has been haphazard in the past. Now though I am consciously using this approach. In the past month or so I have discovered two whole families I had overlooked previously.

One by not properly looking at the information in front of me, and the other by being able to search new records which weren’t available on previous occasions when I had been searching.

I could be forgiven then for completely missing one family, until the baptisms and marriages became available. The spelling of the surname on other records will have led me to overlooking them in the past on census documents – but church records have definitely linked them on the tree. Interestingly we already had the parents names in our tree, but no information going forward to show any children or other life events.

The other family I found, and members of which I am sure there may be more to find, came to light when I was looking at a census record. It suddenly struck me that there was a member of the household who I didn’t know, and who wasn’t recorded on my tree. Who was this mystery girl ? Of course it had to be the 1841 UK census, which doesn’t show relationships. Everyone else matched with my tree; head of the household, his wife, their children…and then this older girl. On studying my tree more closely I noticed that the head of the household had been married twice, and that I had no children attached to his first marriage. This mystery girl fitted age wise as a possible child of that marriage. How many siblings did she have ? Anyway, I have her now, and for a few generations going forward from there as well. Cousins everywhere.

Speaking of cousins everywhere, isn’t Genealogical Genetics a fascinating science ?

Maybe that can be the topic of my next post.

Going to California

There is another song to get inside your head. (Led Zeppelin in case you didn't know)

This morning we got up, packed the car and had breakfast and were on our way again. Carson City has a few places worth having a better look, so maybe they might make it on the list for another time.

We had decided (or I had) to drive around Lake Tahoe to Truckee and then on to Sacramento. The GPS had different ideas though which caused a bit of a meltdown and ended up on some narrow backroads for a bit. But we were soon back on track. 

It is very lovely - and very popular which made our trip a lot slower than planned, with  a lot of roadworks thrown in for good measure. However, we made it to Sacramento to meet a new cousin and have a chat for a while before we made the last part of our journey to San Francisco.

The last 98km from Sacramento to San Francisco took close to 2 1/2 or 3 hours ! All of those people who had been out of town for the weekend, returning home. The bonus about slow traffic is that it gives you more time to concentrate and understand what the GPS is trying to tell you.

We've made it to the motel, found dinner and have some plans for tomorrow. Hopefully the June Gloom will stay away for us.

DNA Soup - the difference between ethnicity and nationality

I've just been sitting here, enjoying a little lull in my job hunting chaos. Taking time for me. Anyway, I just realised I've not shared much about our DNA results. In fact I haven't shared anything.

Some of you will not be interested at all, so read no further - I wont mind.

The study of genetics is a science. The DNA testing companies have programs and databases and data-sets and scientists and are making this knowledge available to genealogists and family historians around the globe. They are bringing this science and it's discoveries to us, ordinary folk, in an effort to help us understand or learn where we came from. It also should enable us to make contact and potentially meet relatives we never considered we had before. 3rd cousins, 4th, 5th, 6th and beyond where the connection to a common ancestor goes back many generations. It doesn't matter how simplified the DNA testing people make their results, it is quite baffling. I'm a big picture person and I like to understand the whole thing. But I don't, and it frustrates me.

I'm a bit of a detective, but there are some things I can't unravel and solve and I sometimes I wonder why I didn't study genetics when I was young - maybe that would have helped now. BUT, the whole process of trying to unravel connections and find common ground, and understand our results is making my brain keep working - and that has to be a good thing, Right ?

Anyways, I know my family tree. Hours and hours, and years and years of research by both my Dad and myself has led to us having a pretty comprehensive tree, back to the 1600's on some branches. In more recent years I have collaborated with cousins I have "met" online - and now mostly in person - as well. So here is what I know:

1. Both of my parents were born in New Zealand
2. Three of my grandparents were born in New Zealand, one was born in England
3. Four of my great grandparents were born in New Zealand, three were born in England, one in Ireland
4. Two of my great great grandparents were born in New Zealand, eleven were born in England, three in Ireland
5. At least 30 of my 32 great great great grandparents were born in England, Ireland or Wales.

So ethnicity-wise what would you expect ?

I'm not going to be identified ethnically as a New Zealander. I know THAT. We are all immigrants - all of us with European heritage are populating remote former colonies because our ancestors were travelers. Emigrating by choice or by force from their homelands. Some of us may have acquired other more local ethnicity markers post migration. But not me. I KNOW that.

So knowing that I am a New Zealander by nationality because my forebears chose to sail to the opposite end of the planet for a new, better life is one thing. Were they travelers before that too ? Where did they come from before they settled in England (or Wales or Ireland). I can trace one line back to the France/Belgium border. They probably emigrated to England with other Huguenot families as they were silk weavers in Spitalfields for some generations after their arrival in London. I have one other branch which is just a big brick wall right now - where did they come from ?

Some of these places maybe ?

...not quite what I expected either, I can tell you ! We each get our DNA from our parents, 50% from each, but in a unique mixture. Each sibling will have a different mix to the other.  

I figure my brother must have quite a different match. Where did all those Great Britain markers which I can see in my tree for generations go for example ?

Ethnicity aside, Ancestry and other providers also "find" for you among their other tested account holders, potential matches who share the same markers as you. They did ! And they keep adding to the list frequently as more people are tested. They correctly matched me with my daughter, my parents and one 4th cousin who I already had been in contact with for almost 15 years. They do match you as well with positive/negatives - people who match by chance, rather than by descent. So it is tricky to establish who is who.

However, I have been able to identify and contact other 3rd, 4th and beyond cousins who I had no idea about before. Of course I knew they would be "somewhere" because I knew that my direct ancestors were not the only ones in their families to have had children, grandchildren and  great grandchildren. I just had no idea how to start trying to find them. 

If you suppose that one great great grandcouple had say 5 children, and they in turn each had 5 children and so on, that would mean the starting couple could have 25 grandchildren and 125 great grandchildren and 625 great great grandchildren. (Did I work that out right ?) Anyways, 600 or so 4th cousins !! in just one branch of the tree ? That's a lot of people out there around the world sharing parts of my DNA.

I've also been able to determine that I have more matches with my Dad's side of the family than with my Mum's. All the more reason to get my brother spitting in a vial.

My cousin in the States told me about Gedmatch.com where you can upload your raw data from the initial testing provider and find matches in a much bigger pool. I've uploaded ours now and found her (my cousin in the States) as well as some others who I think are the same as people I matched with on Ancestry, and a 4th cousin in New Zealand who had tested with a different provider. They have an amazing number of tools to study the matches and I am still trying to understand them all and how they might help solve the puzzle.

I was relieved though to confirm through one of their tools that my parents are not related - except legally by marriage.

That's it for now. More next time, when I have unraveled some more. But if you are a keen genealogist, or you are just interested in where you came from, get like Nike and Just Do It.

Haere ra Ingarangi, ka hoki tatou

Farewell England, we will be back

It all got too much for me, the money, the waiting, the uncertainty - even the wretched decision making. But the decision has been made and with a real heavy heart we're sticking with the choice we made.

We left Suffolk yesterday after having been to Ipswich the day before to send some boxes of extra bits and pieces home ahead of us (hopefully). It was a long sad drive full of regret and indecision. We paid one last visit to Framlingham to donate some more clothes and books to the East Anglia Children's Hospice shop and get something to eat from the market. Then off to Shipston we went (the looong way).

We stopped on the motorway to take some photos of the glorious colours that the leaves are turning, and then headed first for Leamington to have afternoon tea with some cousins we just kept missing other times we had stayed there. it was great to meet them and share some of our experiences, tinged with sadness that it had happened so close to the end. Then out for dinner and back to Shipston for the night.

Today, we left our hosts to head south to Heathrow. It has been fun unravelling some family tree mysteries and identifying faces from old photos together. It had been suggested that we go to Harry Potter World on our way, but we decided against it since the tickets had to be bought in advance and were for timed entry...what if we got lost and didn't get there in time ?

So instead, after a quick trip back to Leamington for some shopping (only lip balm it turned out) we headed south through the Cotswolds....and made a detour to Chedworth to see the Roman Villa. That National Trust membership we bought at our visit to Montacute House back in July has been well worth it. Parking is pretty minimal at Chedworth, and a lot of what you see is just remaining walls. But the heritage centre is truly amazing. Walking on metal and wooden platforms suspended above the most amazing mosaic floors. There are a few glimpses of mosaic floors as well in the bath house, but most exciting is the area - now re-hidden under the grass where an incredible find of intact mosaic floor was just discovered in August 2014 - last month.

Then before we turned east to come back to London we went to hunt down a spot that was on our bucket list.

Who knew we were this close to home !

But soon we'll be closer. We're leaving tomorrow, it's time to rebuild...and I am already planning how and when I am going to get back here. We've done so much, but there is still so much left to do and explore, it can't truly actually be the end.