52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 2 - Origins

My Cornish Roots

    Where did my ancestors come from?  The eternal question.  I was lucky in my genealogy journey to know where all 4 of my Grandparents came from. They were all immigrants, and had left their family and friends behind for a better life in America.  My ancestors were "late-comers", all arriving in the early 1900's from England and Ireland.   Each came to a family member/friend, but none ever returned to see the family they had left behind.  

    My interest in genealogy was spurred on by a hand written family tree my Grandmother's Twin Sister drew out for me. The tree detailed our family's deep roots in Cornwall, England.  If she hadn't drawn the tree, I would have had a very difficult time tracing back to the village of Pendeen in Cornwall.  

    My Gt Grandmother left Pendeen as a teenager to work as a domestic servant in Liskeard, on the Devon border, nearly 70 miles away!  The wife of the family she worked for was from St Just in Penwith, near Pendeen - so possibly there is some connection, but I've yet to find it.

Grace Oats White 1846-1888

    She met and married a local man in 1871, and they moved to Torquay, Devon around 1878, where they raised a family, including my Grandmother and her twin sister, born in 1885. Sadly their Mother died in 1888 at the age of 42, and the family was broken up to live with relatives.

    Despite the early death of my Great Grandmother, the connections to Pendeen remained and there must have been correspondence, as the family tree detailed ancestors and more recent descendants.  Grace even went back to Pendeen to have her first child in 1871. 

    The Cornish naming tradition is such that the Mother or Grandmother's maiden name is often used as the child's middle name. Thus my Great Grandmother was Grace Oats White, as her Grandmother was Elizabeth Oats.

    I've been to visit Pendeen several times, and it always amazes me to see what deep roots I have in the area. It is the southern most part of England, and has a beautiful rocky coast and temperate climate. Fishing, farming and eventually mining sustained the population.  

    I've traced the family back to the mid 1500's.  Being an isolated area, there was lots of inter-marriage of distant cousins, so the DNA signature for West Cornwall is quite strong.  Working on the family tree often involves connecting distant cousins from multiple lines as they marry and their descendants marry other cousins.   

    I have worked with my 3rd cousin in Australia to research the burials at the Pendeen cemetery, and amazingly we are related to over 95% of the people! That shows how interconnected the families in the area are. There are only a few "blow-ins", such as a Teacher or Doctor.  So with certainty, I can say that I have DEEP roots in Pendeen and Western Cornwall.

    

    

52 Ancestor in 52 Weeks

Family Lore

OK, I'm going to try this again in 2024.  Getting back to blogging, even if it's a quick little blog!

    My Grandfather, George Henry Toulson was the youngest in his family, born in Fulbeck, Lincolnshire, England, when his Mother was 42. She had 8 children, 2 illegitemate, and 2 who died as infants.  My Grandfather, from family lore, fell out of a high chair when he was an infant, and did something to his back/spine, that stunted his growth.  He only grew to a height of approx 5 feet - about the size of a jockey.  

    His height limited his prospects (work as an agricultural laborer was common in the area), he was listed as a Stable Boy in 1891 and a Domestic Gardener in 1901.  In 1903, he emigrated to his Uncle in Clinton, Iowa.  He and a friend from Fulbeck, Arthur Hutchinson emigrated together.  The family story is they flipped a coin to decide if they'd emigrate to Australia or America, and America won.

    It is mind boggling for me to believe that I could have been an Australian - as I absolutely love that country and have visited 12 time!  I think my Grandfather must have also had the same fascination, as he ended up on the West Coast (San Francisco area), and in more Family Lore, he was saving his money to emigrate to Australia, when he met my Grandmother and well.....they had to get married, as my Father was on the way!

    So my love of Australia is clearly genetic! 

Irish discoveries!!

 This past few weeks has been an absolute bonanza of new cousin discoveries!  After a trip to Ireland, I came back with tons of new clues, new cousins and new lines to explore.  It's been almost overwhelming -- when it rains it pours!

From one small note, and a photograph we've uncovered some amazing discoveries, resolved some mysteries, and found hundreds of new cousins!   Truly mind blowing.

This note told of a heretofore unknown Great Grand Aunt (Anne Walsh), born well before the baptism records in 1833 -- and marrying into another side of my family (the Toole's of Leam).  This led to a discovery of 10 children, and many descendants from there - many of whom went to Boston.

A cousin we visited, had this photo of his Uncle Michael Walsh, on his wall. Michael went to Boston, and upon further research, we unraveled a long standing mystery, regarding who the cousin Michael Walsh was that my Grandmother was emigrating to!  The address she lists on her passenger list for cousin Michael Walsh, matches the address he used on his naturalization, where he lists his birthplace as Letterfir.

Michael Walsh - Boston

We also received a heretofore unknown photo of my Grandmother (that had been sent home to her Sister in Ireland).  Sometimes you need to go to Ireland to find the old photographs!  

                                                       Barbara Walsh - about 1910, Boston

 

More Tangled Toole's

 Further to my previous post, the Toole's continue to confuse me!   

I have found a Melia family - Peter Frances Melia of Carramoreknock, Oughterard marrying Mary Connolly/Conneely of Leam.   They have 6 children, including Maria Melia b 1876 and Patrick Melia (O'Mally) b 1870.   

Maria marries my Michael Thomas Toole (son of Thomas Toole and Anne Walsh) - my 1st cousin 2x removed.  They married in 1896 in Roxbury, Mass.

Patrick marries my Mary Toole (b 1867 in Glantrasna to John "Seanin" Toole and Mary Toole) - my 1st cousin 3x removed. They married in 1891 in Boston, Mass.

So, thanks to genealogy software, Michael Thomas Toole and Mary Toole are related in five different ways!  Generally through marriage, but if I eventually connect Thomas Toole to his potential parent of James Toole and Mary Halloran (my GGG Grandparents) the connection will be closer!  

If that is correct, then my Grandmother's Aunt (Anne Walsh) married my Grandfather's Grand Uncle (Thomas Toole).  I wonder if Martin and Barbara (my Grandparents) knew of this close connection between their families when they met in San Francisco?

And I still need to investigate the Connolly connection in Leam -- potentially there could be a Toole connection there.

Tooles -- what a tangled web

 I've always had trouble sorting out the various Toole families of Leam, near Oughterard.  Several of them moved to Glantrasna, and my Gt Grandmother Cait Toole is a descendant of theirs.  But going further back into Leam, there are several families of Tooles, in both East and West Leam, and all using lots of similar names; are they all connected?

To add to all of this general confusion, I've just been to Ireland and met up with a Walsh 2nd cousin, who told us about a heretofore unknown sister of my Gt Gt Grandfather.  She was Anne Walsh, born about 1833, and he told us that she married Thomas Toole, a shopkeeper in Leam, and that there were 2 descendants (grandchildren) John and "May" Toole who didn't marry.  

Thomas was born about 1820 and died 1895. So now my conundrum is - who were his parents, and is he a sibling of some of the other Toole's I'm connected to in East or West Leam?   DNA is leading me to believe that he may be the son of James Toole and Mary Halloran, my GGGG Grandparents.  James was born about 1798, and so Thomas might be the 1st son.  

If this is true, then my lines from my Maternal Grandfather and Maternal Grandmother have once again co-mingled!

Of course, while working on this, I ran across another Toole descendant from Glantrasna, that emigrated to Boston.  I found this via DNA Thru Lines on Ancestry.  She was the last child before her Father's death, her Mother remarried and she disappeared -- well now it looks like she emigrated.  

The Boston records are amazing, and on marriage records the bride and groom list their full parents names -- so I can confidently say that the Michael Toole I found is indeed the son of Thomas Toole and Anne Walsh.  He emigrated about 1888, and the passenger records don't give much identifying information other than name, age, nationality and occupation.  So hard to determine when exactly he emigrated.  

In tracing the descendants, the obituaries have been a gold mine -- lots of information detailing names, residences, etc.

Cousins marrying cousins and a habitual criminal!!!

 Wow, what a day of research!  Started out exploring the new General Register Office digital certificates program.   For only 2.5 pounds, you can get a immediate digital image of a birth or death (sadly not marriages).   I was thinking who do I need a cert for, and what new information might it show me.  For some reason, I was looking at my direct Pearce line, and I thought, aha! What about the child that was born and died between censuses.  So I ordered that cert, and got the first address of the family when they moved to Torquay (from St Ive, Cornwall), and the fact that the child died of measles (9 days duration).

I then ordered a death certificate for William Pearse/Pearce, showing his death in Callington in 1855. And from there started going back down his line, to his GG Grandaughter Vera Pearce.  Her parents being Thomas Pearce and Annie Hetty Gooding.  I expected Thomas to be my 2nd cousin 2x removed, but when I looked at Annie Hetty Gooding, it showed her as my 6th cousin 1x removed......WHAT??!!?  How was she related to me --- so did some checking and sure enough, she comes down from my Furzeland line!

Now the fun really began, as her Father, John Henry Gooding (son of John Rowcliffe Gooding and Elizabeth Ann Furzeland) turns out to be a habitual criminal!!!  He has a long history of forgery, and lots of documentation to read through!  And then he changed his name to Frank Hall, and goes on to marry again under that name and having a second family!  He's my 5th cousin 2x removed....

I'm still sorting through it all, but what a rogue!  

Levant Mine Cost Books -- Pendeen, Cornwall

 On a recent trip to Cornwall, I was able to visit Kresen Kernow (the County Archives) -- and do some research on my GG Grandfather Thomas White.

Thomas was killed in a mining accident in 1854 at the Levant Mine in Pendeen, Cornwall.  There are newspaper reports on his death, which provide fascinating (and gory) details.

On a previous visit to the Mine, one of the volunteers showed me copies of the Levant Mine paybooks, which showed my Thomas White being paid to take a load of ore from the Mine to the Quay at Penzance.

On this visit to Kresen Kernow, the Archivist let me look at 3 Cost Books they had from the time period 1849-1854.   It was incredible to be able to handle these 170 year old books!  The books were filled with familiar names, and I was able to find my GG Grandfather Thomas White, AND his Father Edward White (my GGG Grandfather) -- both were Tributers.   There were multiple entries for them, and I took hundreds of photos of the various pages/entries.   Now to sort them all out and add to the Family Tree -- it may be a long project!