Thursday 25 January 2018

Use the Heck out of Web Links on Ancestry



While there are a few things about the Ancestry program that irk me, I do like that I can sync with Family Tree maker and I like the layout of the interface.  I like that we can see the timeline, the parents, the wives and children all on one page. I like that images, like those of records, censuses, photos, directory pages, etc are attached to the person. I like that I can add my own source citations (like a record obtained from a local history society or church). 

And another thing? I like that I can add web links to each person as I make a discovery! When I find something that is not on Ancestry, or even another version of what is there, I add the link here. Examples are names of those who took the oath in Devon in 1723, or finding a patent for the company my grandmother worked for and eventually bought. A book on the history of the place where my ancestor lived is another link I like to add.

Here is the profile page of my 3x ggf George King...






You can see that I added 8 web links to this profile. I have the links to the Tithe Apportionments for both Woodleigh and Loddiswell, links to online directories, and a link to all King baptisms in the area at our4bears. I also have a link to information about the Shilston Mill where George lived and worked near Modbury, and where his first three children were born, but it has since been taken down. One of the hazards of putting up links!  I have queries out for more info.  

When you add web links to your profile, you can find that information quickly, and so can people that are researching the same family. Anyone who contacts me about one of my ancestors I always tell them to be sure to check my web links for additional info.

All you who know me, know I am all about sharing.  Share where your information came from as well as the facts and dates. 

Share, share, share!!!!  



Friday 19 January 2018

Who's the Boss?



Do you take an interest in the people your ancestors worked for? I like to look into the lives of their employers and try to get a sense of what kind of people they were. 

Conversely, if my ancestor IS the boss, I like to see about the people that worked in their household or in their business. 

Jane Mavor was my 2x great grandfather's sister.  According to the 1891 and 1901 census Jane worked as a cook for the Crombie family in Aberdeen. She must have been a good cook, as she seemed to be in their employ a long time. Theodore Crombie, his wife Margaret and their children lived at 18 Albyn Place, Aberdeen, next door to the female orphan asylum. Theodore was head of J & J Crombie and manufactured woollens at the Grandholm Mill in Aberdeen. The company supplied gray cloth for the confederate army during the American Civil War, and supplied officers uniforms for the British forces in World Wars One and Two. The Crombie brand is famous for its luxury coats.


As a young man my 2x great grandfather Alexander Mavor and his brother Francis worked as labourers on the farm of Jonathan Whitehead Esq. of Little Methlic, just a short 10 miles from his home in Ellon.  Johnathan Whitehead had his animals listed on 14 pages of the 1855 Coate's Herd Book as a breeder of fine shorthorned cattle.   




When Alexander Mavor immigrated to Canada he worked as a farm servant on Île-aux-Reaux for Doctor George Mellis Douglas, who owned the Island at the time.  Douglas was a doctor at Grosse Île quarantine station in Quebec. When the good doctor committed suicide in June of 1864 Alexander still worked on the island farm until sometime between 1871 and 1874, when he got land in Compton, Quebec.


On the boss side....

Thomas Prowse was born in 1844 in Charleton, Devon.  In 1861 he was 17 years old and was living in the household of my ancestor George King, working as a carter at the mill in Woodleigh. George died in 1864 and in 1871 Thomas was a gunner with the Royal marine Artillery aboard the Penelope at Harwick. In 1881 Thomas is a Leading Seaman aboard the Achilles, moored off neutral ground in Gibralter.



In 1884 Thomas married Margaret Edgecombe from Loddissell, and they had at least four children. On the 1891 UK census they lived in Marlborough and Thomas is a labourer.  Thomas died in 1893.



Usually my farmer ancestors had family living with them, and on censuses were listed as servants. Some were farm labourers working outside and some were domestics working inside. As example we look at John Singleton's family in Preesall, Lancashire. In 1861 in his household are listed Rachel Myerscough, George Hodgson and Thomas Cumpsty. There are too many George Hodgson but I did find who the other two were.


Rachel Myerscough b.1837 was the sister of John's son William's wife, Margaret Myerscough. John Singleton died in 1863 and Rachel went to live with William's family, with her brother John and her sister Elizabeth's illegitimate child William. The three of them were in the Singleton household on the 1871 census. Rachel had two illegitimate children, Mary Ellen b.1856 and Joseph b.1878.  Rachel married Robert Blackburn in 1883. 

Thomas Cumpsty was the son of William and Martha Cumpsty, who lived next door to William and Margaret Myerscough, the parents of Margaret and Rachel. Thomas married Mary Kirkman in 1869. In 1911 Thomas was living with his family in Fleetwood, Lancashire and working as a dock worker for a railroad company.

Sometimes I contact people that are researching these employees or bosses and have a chat with them about our families. Oftentimes they didn't dig us as much info as I did!!

Who is the boss and who is the employee on your family tree? 



Saturday 13 January 2018

I am still here!



Readers...

I am still here. 
I am just taking a break from my normal posts as I try to figure out where I want to go from here.  

When I started out giving links to resources where people can find about their ancestors, I honestly didn't think I would find enough to last blogging for a year, and here we are soon to be four years running. 

This past year was such a busy blogging one, with my Canada 150 series plus regular weekly posts, I didn't have much time for anything else.  One thing I did accomplish this past fall was I wrote and published a short book about Menopause.  With four daughters approaching the age I thought it may be helpful to relate my experiences, with a touch of humour. Now there are a few genealogy projects I want to take the time to explore and get off the ground. 

I do have a couple of family genealogy dilemas I will run by you, perhaps one of my readers will have an idea how to help me solve them. And I will post from time to time, just not as usual or as regularly. For now.


Thanks for following...

Dianne





For continued weekend reading, see what posts these bloggers liked...

Saturday – Gail Dever, Crème de la Crème

Sunday – Randy Seaver, Best of the Genea-Blogs



Saturday 6 January 2018

A negative can be a positive



I just got back from our trip to Bisbee, AZ, trying to find information on my grandmother's aunt Sarah Ann and young cousin Elsie Maud that died there. Bisbee is only a few hours away from where we stay for a few months in the winter, so why not go? I could have emailed, but I am the kind of person I like to see and look for things for myself if I can. 

We combined going to Bisbee with exploring all over the area south of Phoenix in our RV.  My husband is a good sport and he happily sat with our dog in the RV while I did my thing.  I first went to the office of Public Works. They take care of burials in the city cemetery and have info on past burials. The woman I spoke to was very nice and helpful. She took me back to her office and we looked at the database.

In 1908 there was a big fire in Bisbee and the town offices were burned down, with all the records.  The Public Works were able to put together a database with info from newspaper accounts, family papers and other documents. There was not information on all burials.  The database did show the cousin, Elsie Maud was buried there in 1896 in Section E, but no date, no plot number and no headstone. Same as on Ancestry. 
Nothing on her mother Sarah Ann. 

My husband thought I had wasted my time because I didn't find what I wanted. But a negative answer is also a positive.  If I didn't go to Bisbee I would always wonder if I would have found something. I was able to see for myself in the database that Elsie was buried in Section E, and I was able to go to Evergreen Cemetery and take a photo. Sarah Ann and Elsie are most likely both buried there. 





I got to look around the old town of Bisbee and get a feel for how it was to live there, under the shadow of the mountain and the booming copper mine above, which was probably noisy with equipment and blasting.



So now I can positively cross off checking records at Bisbee from my list, and try other methods of finding the dates of death. 




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