Finding my 10th Great Grandparents ---- and OMG, a SMITH!!

In my rush to fill in my Devon ancestors, now that the Parish Registers are on Findmypast -- I've been busy finding grandparents right and left.   Today, I had a big breakthrough on the Luscombe line, and took it back 3 more generations ---and found, the genealogist's nightmare, a SMITH!

Oh, Lord......I've always had some pretty unusual surnames in my research, without too many common names --- until now.  The only saving grace is that her first name is Wilmoth.

So, my 10th Great Grandparents are:
WILMOTH SMITH and WILLIAM HINGESTON.  Married in 1571 in Charleton, Devon, England.

I added some other unusual names:  Winchelsey or Winchelsea  and Neele.

More research needed on these lines, but for now I'm pretty happy to have taken my Devon roots back into the mid 1500's!!!

Irish DNA Soup!!!

On to my Irish side of the family.........oh, what a tangled web!

Most people throw their hands up when faced with Irish ancestors, and say "all the records were burned", and give up!   This is so not true!!!  Yes, researching your Irish ancestors can be challenging, but it is possible, there are plenty of records, and you just need to hone your skills even further and dig in.

The advent of DNA testing, has been a huge help in my research and it has helped tie up some of my loose ends and prove some of my suppositions, that I couldn't prove through traditional records.

Irish research also requires the use of "oral history", since the records don't go back much further than 1800 or so.  I am lucky in that my Grandparents emigrated in the early 1900's, and several of their siblings stayed behind in Ireland, leaving many cousins still living in the area.

My roots are in Connemara, the rugged area west of the City of Galway.  Irish is the native tongue, and many people still speak it today.  Local nicknames are important, as it is often a mini-family tree in a name!  To identify people with common names (Mary Walsh, for example), people are often referred to by their first name, their father's first name, and even his father's name.  So someone might be called Mary Bill, or Mike Tony, or Martin Seamus Padraig.   This helps distinguish families in conversation and oral history, but not in the written records.  So the written records say Mary Walsh, father Patrick --- which isn't helpful, when trying to sort out your family tree!   Occasionally you may see a name written in parentheses on a record (i.e. Griffith's Valuation) to distinguish the Father of 2 landholders with the same name.  Another record source that I've used, is the cemetery inscription book --- in these, the nicknames are listed, as well as a bit of the the family line.

I've DNA tested with both Ancestry.com and FamilyTree DNA.  Since I'm a female, I've only been able to do autosomnal testing, but I had a 2nd cousin test our male line (surname CONNOLLY/CONNEELY).  Since so many Irish emigrated, there are plenty of researchers here in the USA who've tested, to try and find their Irish roots.   Thus, leading to LOTS of matches. Sorting them all through is a challenge, which is compounded by the fact that there was a lot of inter-marriage between cousins (both close and distant), and the isolated nature of Connemara, means the gene pool was small and families tended to marry amongst their local area. 

Update: Not sure what the point of this blog post was originally, other than my utter confusion!!  I am still busy working, so only able to dip in and out of my genealogy research, and I feel like DNA requires my full concentration!!  Maybe by the time I retire, I will have lots of close matches and it will all be sorted out for me! Ha!

Parish Records at the National Library of Ireland

Ah, another quick trip to Dublin to consult the Roman Catholic Parish Registers......

Currently the only place these records can be viewed are at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin. This is all due to change in the Summer of 2015, when Ireland will enter the digital age and put these up online for the public to consult at their leisure!  What a day that will be! I will hold my breath until that actually happens, knowing that things move SLOWLY in the genealogy world of Irish records.  And there won't be an index, so even online you will have to slog through the records (albeit at your leisure).

I have looked at these records on several trips to Dublin, but always in short bursts, since the Library's opening hours are limited, and one's vision can only take so much of peering at bad handwriting and faded, torn and stained pages.

The first few times I looked at the registers I was only looking for specific names in specific villages.  I took down those in a spreadsheet and have consulted that initial file countless times, but as my research has progressed I've found new names and new villages that are connected, so it's been back to Dublin, once again.

This trip I was concentrating on the surnames: Nee, Conroy, Cannavin/Cannavan, with the assorted Toole, Conneely, and Walsh's I missed the first time around.  I was looking exclusively at the Rosmuc Parish Register, which only has baptisms (no marriages or burials) from 1840-1880.

The early 1840's have plenty of births, and then there is a pronounced decrease as the Famine occurs. By late 1850's into early 1860's the baptisms pick up again as would be expected.  The shear number of names and villages can be overwhelming, but the most amazing thing is that the Mother's maiden name is listed, so that you can get a "defacto" marriage record from the baptisms. The sponsor names also give you other possible family members (brothers, sisters, parents, etc).

Most of the names are incredibly common:  Mary, Bridget, Patrick, Michael, etc.  There are the occasional wild cards, some Irish names like Thadg (Thady) and Saints names like Colman/Coleman occur.  Then there are the varieties of names:  Honor, Honoria, Nora;  Penelope, Penny, Nuala; John, Sean; Bridget, Bridie, Biddy, Delia, etc.

A mystery I've been trying to solve is where my Great Great Grandmother, Mary Nee comes from.  She marries Patrick Walsh of the small village of Muckanaghkillew, but I suspect she may be from the Rosmuc area, as there are Nee's there.  In looking at her children's baptismal sponsors I'm trying to establish that connection.   It's still to be determined whether this will help.....

Elusive Aunt......the mystery of Aunt Mallard

For years I have struggled to find an Aunt ____ Mallard, listed in my Gt Gt Grandmother Mary Shepherd Hurrell's will dated 1812 in Stokenham, Devon.   There was no first name listed, just a line.  The name Mallard was also curious, it isn't common in the area and I couldn't find any Mallard marrying a Shepherd.

Turns out I was making some classic genealogical mistakes....I was assuming it was HER Aunt, so looking at the Shepherd line.  Turns out that in fact it was her late husband's Aunt.  The will states that her children should take up the legacy left by their Aunt (in fact Great Aunt), so I hadn't read carefully enough to look at both the children's father and mother to find the Aunt.

After some recent work on the Hurrell family, I had found some additional siblings for William Hurrell, and one was a Dorothy Hurrell.  I did some cursory searching and couldn't find a marriage for Dorothy, but possibly a death.  I put her to the side and didn't look further for a few days.  Then by chance in some other searches I found that by leaving out the final L in the surname Hurrell, (so spelling it Hurrel), I got some additional hits.  So, I tried Dorothy Hurrel in the search box of Findmypast, and lo and behold what came up?

Dorothy Hurrel married Edward Mallard 19 Oct 1745 in Totnes

And to further establish that I had the correct couple, it listed her as "of Sherford" and he "of East Allington" -- so definitely the right villages.  Not sure why they married in Totnes, but that's another mystery to solve.

Then the challenge of seeing if I could find anything further on the couple -- children, death dates, and MAYBE a will?!!

I found their death dates, and no children, and then tried finding a will. No luck in finding anything for Edward Mallard, but lo and behold there was a will for Dorothy Mallard in 1801.  BINGO!!!! Now to see if it was available online (fingers crossed).  I found an entry on Findmypast under Devon Wills, but it was just the name and date.  After some searching on The National Archives site I still couldn't find it, despite knowing the date and name.  I then tried some Google searching and it seemed to show it was on the National Archives site, but the last name was misspelled as Matland.  Eventually I found it and was able to purchase and download.

Wow!!!  What a bonanza of names!!  She names Richard Hardy (her nephew) as her sole executor.  She leaves 20 pounds to Dorothy, wife of Phillip Hinston. She is noted as no relation (which isn't exactly true, she is a great niece).  Then she goes on to leave 10 pounds each to her nieces and nephews:  Richard Hurrell, John Hardy, Elizabeth (Hardy) Cranch, Priscilla (Hardy) Lidstone, Sarah (Hardy) Webb, Elizabeth (Hurrell) Morris(h), and Mary (Hurrell) Goodman.

I didn't have Priscilla, Sarah or Elizabeth Hardy in my tree, as these were additional siblings to Dorothy's sister Elizabeth and husband Richard Hardy.  The Hurrell's have me confounded as Mary Richard, and Elizabeth could be from either of Dorothy's 3 brothers (Richard, William and John).  So, more research needed there.  I suspect they are from East Allington, and those records aren't online for the period needed.

I've found descendents for Priscilla Lidstone, and Elizabeth Cranch, and found marriages and children for Mary Hurrell (Philip Goodman) and Elizabeth Hurrell (William Morris or Morrish).

Just proves that patience is a virtue for a genealogist.....I've been searching for YEARS for this Aunt and trying to piece this family together, and now that patience has been rewarded with a plethora of new names and lines to follow!

Hurrell family of Devon

Oh, the Hurrell family.......
a long source of frustration and confusion in my Family Tree!!!  Most confounding for years has been the fact that Devon records were so elusive. Most Parish Registers were not filmed and available online, necessitating trips to Exeter or the Society of Genealogists in London to actually view them!! Rather a long trip from the West Coast of the US!  This was the early dark days of genealogy, but I became a better researcher for having to do the hard work!

For years I collected as much information as possible about the Hurrell family of Stokenham, Devon. This is where I could trace my 3rd Gt Grandfather Thomas Hurrell's birth to.  Luckily his parents names (William ad Mary) were found on a headstone at the Parish Church, which gave me some dates and names to go on.

Headstone for William Hurrell d. 2 Feb 1800 and wife Mary Shepherd Hurrell d. 25 April 1816 - Stokenham, Devon (my 4th Gt Grandparents)


By chance, Mary Hurrell also left a will with lots of information on downstream ancestors, and a puzzling clue about an Aunt, who left a legacy (that's another story!)

There were multiple Hurrell families in the general area, scattered in neighboring Parish's, but in my limited time in Exeter  and London, I wasn't able to research EVERY surrounding Parish manually (no digital images or indexes to help!!).  Thus, I couldn't put the families together and try and work out their relationships or travel up the tree from my 4th Gt Grandparents William and Mary Hurrell.

So, for several years I've put the Hurrell's aside and worked on easier lines, where I could search Parish Registers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or online.

The long drought of Hurrell information  has finally come to an end, with the release of Devon Parish Registers on Findmypast earlier this year!!   This has led to MANY late nights researching and putting the puzzle together!  It was like going back to the early days of joy and discovery with each new ancestor I found.

I am now back to 6th and 7th Gt Grandparents in the mid 1600's on this line, and have added countless downstream ancestors.  Using Findmypast in conjunction with Ancestry I've discovered whole new branches of the family, Royal Naval ancestors, and emigration to Canada.and Australia.

Baptism of William Hurrell 1713 in the Parish of Sherford, Devon (my 5th Gt Grandfather), showing his parents William and Elizbaeth (my 6th Gt Grandparents)

I hope that other researchers will now start working on their Devon lines, so there will be more collaboration.  At present the few family trees with Hurrell's are often full of wrong information due to the limitations of records in the past.

And now I'm on to further Devon research on the PEARSE family of South Brent.......stay tuned!

Irish Court Records.......a fascinating look into the lives of our ancestors

I've spent a fair bit of time reading through the Petty Court session records for County Galway, Ireland of late.  While you might assume that your poor peasant farmer relations wouldn't have been involved in any court or legal actions -- but not true!  The English were so concerned about the Irish peasantry that they kept them under scrutiny with all sorts of laws, and the Irish themselves spent a fair bit of time accusing their neighbors of various offenses!

Reading through the records are not just an interesting social and cultural adventure -- there are also of great genealogical interest.  By studying the court records I've been able to establish the name of my Gt Gt Gt Grandmother, the approx death dates of several relatives, and found some interesting familial connections that the records seem to prove.  I've also been able to confirm some old family stories.

Beyond the Court records, there are also the Prison Registers -- so if your ancestor was unable to pay their fine or committed a serious offense, they may have ended up in the Galway County Gaol.  This can be especially valuable, as there is a physical description of each prisoner (so they could identify them if they escaped).  I found my Gt Grandfather - and confirmed his height, weight, hair & eye color, and complexion (including a red nose, which I seem to have inherited!!!).

These records put "flesh on the bone", and really show you the day to day life, and give you an insight into how they quarreled with their neighbors, celebrated a bit too much (public drunkeness!), ran afoul of the authorities (having an unlicensed dog), and tried to supplement their meager income (making poitin' - the local moonshine).

It's interesting to note that some of the neighbor disputes and in-fighting was referred to the Parish Priest to settle the dispute, instead of the Courts.  Hitting each other with sticks and stones, really did happen, and there were many occasions of stray cattle and sheep trampling a neighbors potatoes or turnips.

Many instances of cutting the landlords bog, taking someones seaweed, fishing during the closed season, etc.

The records start in the late 1850's and go up to approx 1916.

52 Ancestors in 52 weeks --- Thomas Mell Toulson

The original Toulson immigrant!

Thomas Mell Toulson --- one of the original immigrants in my family, and one of the few Toulson's that left England.  He emigrated in 1856 from Lincolnshire to Iowa, at the age of 22.  He arrived into New York City, from Liverpool, on June 25th.  He was from rural Lincolnshire and had a life as an Agricultural Laborer ahead of him......so I assume her was attracted by one of the emigration schemes that were advertised at that time in rural England. Go to America, there is land to be had!!

By 1860, he was in Clinton, Iowa and in 1862 he married Matilda "Tillie" Jane Mell.  I only recently discovered her maiden name, which has led to lots of head scratching! Was she a cousin, distant relative? She was born in Ohio, but it appears her parents were born in England.  Another line I must chase down!  On their marriage application (below), he lists his middle initial as L, so possibly he didn't want it know that his middle name was his wife's maiden name??!!

Tillie and Thomas had 5 children, with all of them dying as infants. It appears Tillie may have died in childbirth in 1872. 

In 1873 Thomas remarried a Martha Langley. She died sometime before 1880, and he married for a third time in 1881 to Catherine "Katie" Louisa Gill, who was an Irish servant, living in the same household as Thomas in 1880.

He also sponsored his nephew, George Henry Toulson (my Grandfather), who emigrated in 1903. George worked in Clinton, Iowa for about 3 years on a golf course.  Another nephew, also named George Toulson, was living with he and Matha in 1885.

Both Thomas and Katie led long lives, with Katie dying in 1912 and Thomas in 1918 at the age of 85. He held various occupations in his life; farm servant, laborer, working at a horse stable for the railroads, and blacksmith.

Over the years, I've slowly made progress on finding records documenting his life. It was easy to find him in the Federal Census, and even the Iowa State Censuses, but finding his marriage records was a recent discovery.  I'd love to find more records documenting his five children's birth and burial.  I have names for two of the children (Francis E. and Anna) and burial info for one (Francis E. in 1868).

In my mind, he is the pioneer of the Toulson family in the USA.  He set the example that you could come and make something of yourself here.  The other Toulson's that followed, settled in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Utah.