Nixon's......

I know that I have a 4th Great Grandmother named Elizabeth Nixon.  She was born about 1734 in the vicinity of Grantham, Lincolnshire.  She and her parents have proven elusive. There are multiple Nixon families in the general area, all with similar common names, so that I cannot definitely sort out the family that Elizabeth belongs to.  I know she married in 1763 at St Wulfrum's Parish in Grantham, and is listed as "of the Parish".

But, recently I got a DNA hit -- at first there was only the names Hewson and King, which didn't mean anything to me, but when I did some checking the King line was from Fulbeck, Lincolnshire! Aha, I have direct Toulson ancestors in Fulbeck -- so there must be some connection.  I did some further research, and although this DNA match had a family tree -- it seemed to connect this Hewson/King family to another part of Lincolnshire, which I think can be disproved (two Elizabeth Kings born about same year - one from Pinchbeck and one from Fulbeck; and their family tree was going up the Pinchbeck trail).

When I followed the Elizabeth King of Fulbeck, I found her Mother was Sarah Nixon, the dau of Philip Nixon and Mary Musson (who married in Somerby, which is near Grantham).

The Somerby records start about 1730, and I don't see my Elizabeth Nixon in the records -- but it could be that I need to look at the surrounding parishes, such as Ropsley.

The DNA match is a distant cousin, so it's possible that Philip Nixon is a sibling to Elizabeth Nixon's father. Need to sort through the generations and make sure I'm lineing them up correctly.

I'm hoping I can solve this Nixon conundrum, because I've never been able to add anything to her line.  The other family I need to sort our is the MUSSON family, as Elizabeth Nixon's son Michael marries a Mary Musson.  I have her ancestors up two generations, but have had trouble tracing her siblings.

Now that there are some good Lincolnshire records on Findmypast. com --- this may become easier!

Gt Gt Uncle Samuel Pearce --- Found at last, in New Zealand!!!

My Gt Grandfather's brother Samuel Pearse/Pearse has always eluded me.  He is last seen in the 1871 English Census, in Liskeard, Cornwall as a single, 23 year old Farm Laborer.  I always suspected that maybe he joined the Navy, since I have never been able to find him in subsequent censuses.  I wasn't able to find him in Navy records, either.....so sort of put him on the back burner, and moved on to other ancestors.

After a bit of a lapse in membership, I re-upped my Cornwall Family History Society membership, and had a quick look through their website.  Under the Monumental Inscriptions section, I put in Hurrell and Pearce in St. Ive.  I found some of my ancestors, that I already knew about, and then decided to look for Susanna Hurrell and her husband Henry Carew Pearse/Pearce, since I've never found their burials (despite having death registration dates).   No luck on Susanna, but lo and behold I found a Henry Pearce!!!

Henry PEARCE late of St Ive who died 26 Nov 1892 aged 78

erected by his son

Samuel PEARCE of New Zealand

What a gold mine!!!  This is clearly my Henry, as date and age and place make sense!  And to find out that son Samuel was in New Zealand approx 1892 has helped solve a long standing mystery. 

From there, I started searching for Samuel Pearce's in New Zealand -- found a few interesting possibilities. There is a assisted emigration for Samuel Pearce, age 25 of Cornwall, a Farm Laborer, and his wife Ann, age 29. They emigrated on "Salisbury" on 5 Oct 1873 from Plymouth.  This all makes some sense -- date and age wise. And to add to this, there is a marriage of a Samuel Pearse and Ann Hitchens in Liskeard Reg Dist in 4th Q 1873.  Ann Hitchens was a servant in Liskeard in 1871, born in St. Blazey --- so that makes sense also.  So, did they marry and then immediately set out for New Zealand, paid by the assisted emigration scheme???

I have sent off for the GRO Certificate for the marriage, to confirm Samuel's father is Henry.   UPDATE: Yes, his Father is listed as Henry Pearse, Farm Laborer on the GRO Marriage Certificate.

There is a possible burial in Sydenham for a Samuel and Ann, who appeared to have 2 daughters. Samuel's probate is online also.  

There are other possibilities in Electoral Rolls, and another possible burial in 1917 in Te Henui Cemetery in New Plymouth, NZ (North Island) in 1917 at age 69, which fits with his YOB.

More to follow....but so  excited to have finally found him!!

Here's a colorful ancestor!!! John Mabbot, divorced by wife for taking up with her niece!

My Mabbot family from Lincolnshire isn't too remarkable -- most of them stayed in Lincolnshire, worked the land and had lots of kids. So, as I was going back through some of the family research that I had done long, checking for new records -- I stumbled across an Ancestry hint for John Mabbot, for a Divorce in London in 1874.

Divorce? In 1874? And in London?  This seemed like it couldn't possibly be my family......

Turned out it was a VERY interesting story! He was living in London in 1871, where he was a Horse Keeper, but his wife is listed as Jane.  The divorce document was filed by his wife, Mary in 1874, and details some pretty appalling behavior on his part --- drinking, physical abuse (including trying to strangle her in bed), desertion,in 1862, etc.

But the real shocker was that he had "habitually committed incestuous adultery" with Jane Gaby, Mary's niece.

Hard to say what the real story was -- but ultimately John and Jane had 5 children and married in 1875 after the divorce was final. Four of their children were born before the marriage, and one after. John lived on to the age of 76, and Jane to age 80......so maybe they ultimately had a happy life.

A Civil War Soldier in MY TREE????? But I'm Irish and English!

I'm a 2nd generation American, with all four of my Grandparents emigrating from England and Ireland just before World War One.   I have many Cornish ancestors who emigrated to Australia for the Gold Rush, and some Irish ancestors who emigrated after the Famine, but in general it seems my people tended to stay "home".   I've only found a few of my Lincolnshire ancestors that left the UK for Canada or the US.

So, imagine my surprise to run across an Ancestry tree for my ancestor Isaac Lindsey.  They had all sorts of exotic information (and photos) for this man.  Seemed hard to believe at first, but it all is well documented with sources to back it up.

He emigrated from England in 1854 or so,  from Liverpool to New York, listed as a Farmer.  He then shows up in Minnesota in 1870 Census.  Perhaps he was attracted by the advertisements for free land that appeared in England, to entice emigrants to the frontier.

His wife followed, and she must have perished, he joins the Union Army as a 40 year old Private in 1862, and is discharged for disability in 1863, and then returns to Minnesota and marries a widow with 3 children in 1869.   He and his new wife Louisa Jane Culver go on to have 9 children (the final child was born when Isaac was 69 years old).

And for some unknown reason, the entire family relocates sometime between 1885 and 1900 to Louisiana!

I think this just proves, you never know who in your family may have "up and left"!!  I have many an ancestor that just seem to disappear off the face of the earth, without leaving a death record, and maybe it's because I'm not looking broadly enough!

Isaac Lindsey left a huge number of descendents, and thankfully some of them have put his family tree online for me to discover my 2nd cousin 4 x removed!!!

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.....