Friends - and family?

Twice in the past month I have been chatting with long term friends and got onto the subject of family trees (I tend to wait for it to emerge in conversation organically rather than being all evangelical about it!).

On the first occasion I offered to show my friend Mrs J the online sources I use. One thing led to another and within 40 minutes she was hooked - and we were back to the 1851 census...and a BMD marriage reference including a Bates from Norfolk. There was a pregnant pause as we looked at the screen and considered the ramifications - could we be related?

A little extrea research showed that while my Bates family come from near Norwich (and were probably called Betts before the 1730s), Mrs J's Bates family were from far west Norfolk. So if there is a link, it is way, way back.

Then yesterday I had a vino catch up with Mrs L, a Scottish friend. Talking about her mother's upcoming 70th birthday party she went on to mention her Glasgow grandfather, Tom - Tom Daly.

"Er...any relation to Fred Daly?", I asked.

Fred was my grandad's stepfather, father of uncles Joe & John who both still live in sunny Scotland.

Daly is a relatively common Irish Catholic surname in Glasgow, linked with the shipyards. But could there be a link that makes us not just friends, but family?

Mum's memories

Family history doesn't have to be lists of names from centuries ago. My mum shared some of her childhood memories with me this weekend. We went for a pint in Blackburn and chose a pub that is opposite the shop that she grew up in in the 1950s.

The paper shop that her parents managed (along with 2 more in Blackburn and 3 in Bolton) is now a fastfood takeaway and a cab office. Mum grew up above the shop and played with the local kids in the bank next door while it was being cleaned. She met my dad in the Mecca Ballroom round the corner in 1967 - 'those were boozy days' she said!

She recalled moving to a flat further out of town when her parents got fed up of managing the six shops. Her dad got a job in Matthew Brown brewery (where he stayed until his retirement in 1985) and her mum (after a brief spell making slippers) got a job at Queen's Park Hospital where she stayed until her retirement in 1985. Then they moved to a semi near Shadsworth, and she recalled visits by her Scottish cousins (who ahd a sort of camper van vehicle) and even her Great Aunt Rose from Canada (I had no idea mum had ever met her).

Some great pictures of Blackburn can be found here.

Mum also told me about how she and my dad had to hide their engagement. And how I was taken to visit my own great grandmother and great, great aunty (left) in Lincolnshire as a baby in 1976.

Suddenly the family tree felt very much alive and we had another pint of dark mild.

The joys of genealogy

Sometimes I do feel a bit of a genealogy geek. Everything about family history enthrals me and I am genuinely passionate about it.

So, when asked to research a friend's family tree I jumped at the chance. They offered to cover costs of certificates, printing etc. and even offered to pay for my time. I agreed to conduct two hours of research...ten hours later I was as hooked on theis person's tree as I ever have been on my own!

Today I presented my findings and talked my friend through her family tree, complete with names, dates, information on occupations and locations. I'd even unearthed a link to an infamous Highwayman!

Much more than any financial reward, her looks of absolute amazement, joy and wonderment made all my time and effort worthwhile.

Giving someone their family tree makes a really great, personal gift.

Scotland

My maternal grandfather was born in Glasgow in 1920 but headed south to Lancashire upon his return from the Far East in World War 2 to settle in Bolton. I've never really traced his family - although he had three half brothers, I had met one of them once (at my grandad's fuenral) and spoken to another on the phone once.

Then out of the blue I got a call from my great aunt, wife of one of these half brothers. She said she'd heard that I had done a family tree and could she have one for her husband (now 80!)?

So I wrote up a little story about my great grandmother, mother to the four brothers. And decided to invest a wee bit of cash in finding out soem more about the Scottish clan. I used ScotlandsPeople and found the marriages of my grandad's brothers and the births of their children - my mother's first cousins. I also went back a few generations. All for about £18.

It's grand to see that I carry the same given name as several direct male ancestors, and to see how my middle name came down to me.

If various illegitimate births had been legitimate, by rights I should have Scossa as a middle name!

Is age just a number?

Just discovered that my great grandmother's little brother, the wonderfully named Leonard Frank Silverton Walker (born 1897) married Martha Porter in 1926.

A few searches for her didn't find any relevant births or deaths.

Then a fellow researcher on www.genesreunited.co.uk checked the registers of Whaplode for me. Turns out Martha was 65 years old when she married the 29 year old Leonard. The census records of 1891 and 1901 suggest she was actually born in 1858.

So Leonard married a woman who was 39 years his senior...

Coins

Great to find Criminal Records at www.ancestry.co.uk, especially as my stepmother's erstwhile ancestors appear in more than one as counterfeiters of coins. Ten years in prison for James Sweetman and then a desperate time in the local workhouse for his four children...

More map fun

Family historians are a funny lot. Who else would get excited by the arrival of a death certificate?

I ordered one last week from GRO for my great x 5 uncle (we weren't close, don't worry) John Bates who died in Hackney in 1838 ( I gleaned that from his will). I only discovered he existed beyond the baptismal register last year and was thrilled to find he moved south from Norfolk and made a life for himself as a cabinet maker in east London (quite rural Middlesex in those days).

So, John - born in 1768 in rural Norfolk and the second son of my great x6 grandparents (John Bates, shoemaker and his wife Mary Dunnell) ended his days at 2 Coleharbor Street, in the subdistrict of Hackney Road in Bethnal Green. Aged 70 years he had succumbed to 'decay of nature' (don't we all?) and died at the home of his only surviving daughter, Ann Pank.

Again using Greenwood's amazing map and A Topographical Dictionary of London and its Environs by James Elmes (handily readable due to the wotsit on Google) I can place the street in modern times as under a basketball court immediately south of Bethnal Green itself. It must have been a very different place 181 years ago.

I'm sure my lot would be classed as 'boring' by the Who Do You Think You Are gang (as were Michael Parkinson's) but I still get excited when I find out a bit more about one of them.

Other people's trees - interesting?

Are other people's family trees interesting? Or is the lure of family history the fact it all relates to 'me' - a real ego boost?

Over the past few days I have been researching the family tree of a work colleague - she wants to present an older relative with their genealogy as a birthday gift.

I've found the process as enthralling as doing my own tree - deciphering the family's journey from a rural life through the Industrial Revolution to Lancashire mill towns. And then bingo - they turn up in 1901 in the same street that my grandmother now lives on in Blackburn. I call my friend:

'The family home still stands...'
'Really?'

'Yes, every time I visit my grandma I pass it on the way to the corner shop - it's a two up, two down red brick terrace with a small flagged yard and a red door.'

I am not sure I can deliver such 'personal service' every time, but the precedent has been set!

And now I have got the decorator hooked: she's always wanted to know where her great grandparents came from before they emigrated to South Africa...another project!

Where in the world? The joy of maps

London evolves daily - a quick skyline scan by the Thames reveals thirty or so cranes, busy adding more layers of humanity to this already ancient city.

I have ancestors who came to London from rural areas in the 18th and 19th centuries, no doubt seeking work (it's why I moved here in the 21st century!). One man, William Grix, is noted in his father's will as being a milkman in Stepney. The couple's five children were baptised at St Dunstan's and I found William's widow living in Edward Street in 1841.

Trying to find Edward Street using contemporary maps proved fruitless and then I found a great site that showcases Greenwood's Map of London from 1827 (for free!). Within a couple of minutes I had found Edward Street - and then using Streetmap pinpointed the current location: more or less under a railway line by the Regent's Canal.

Oh, and then of course using Google Maps Streetview, I can see exactly what the street looks like now...

No prizes for guessing where I am off to tomorrow!

New names!

I always like a new name to add to the tree!

Just discovered that my great x 7 grandfather William Margetson of Hackford and Reepham in Norfolk was married to Martha Dewing and that his mother was Ann Lewes. Two new names in one day!

Reepham is a gorgeous market town in Norfolk, and my great x 2 grandmother, 'Granny Bates' to my grandpa and his sister, lived in Market Place for many years.

Dunnell - shoes, ships

Dunnell is an unusual surname, mainly found in Norfolk and Yorkshire. My link is through great x 5 grandmother Mary Dunnell, born and baptised in Weston Longville (that's the font on the left), Norfolk in 1742. She grew up to marry John Bates and lived until April 1814 - she died just a few days before her brother Barnard, to whom see was close.

When a 'new' Dunnell pops up, I carefully comb my records to see where they may fit in. One link I have yet to prove is with the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and her sister Millicent Fawcett, the suffragist. Their mother was reputedly Louisa Dunnell, born 1813, and their aunts Elizabeth and Evelyn Dunnell also married into the Garrett family famous for manufacturing agricultural machinery. The three women were daughters of John Dunnell. Quite a genealogical catch!

However, one link I now believe to be certain of (er, as certain as one can ever be in this game) is between 'my' Dunnell family in Weston Longville and the Dunnell family of Great Yarmouth, later Fritton in Suffolk.

My Mary Dunnell was one of the seven children of farmer Barnabas Dunnell alias Dunning and his wife Mary (born Ingledow); she had one sister, Charlotte born in 1762 just a few months before the father of the family died and who eventually moved to Hackney, Middlesex (left); and she had five brothers: Harry born 1740 (Woodforde employed him as a labourer), Davy born 1745 and died aged 20 years, Barnard born 1747 who became a shoemaker, innkeeper and farmer, Thomas born 1754 who was a carpenter, and Robert born 1756 who also became a carpenter and also moved to Hackney.

Records suggest that a Thomas Dunnell had two sons in Great Yarmouth by a wife called Mary, a David in 1777 and a Robert in 1779. Was this Mary's brother?

The IGI reveals that Thomas Dunnell married Mary Brown at St Andrew in Great Yarmouth in late 1776, so here we have the parents of the two boys. But how could I link these coastal Dunnells with their landlocked namesakes thirty miles away?

On 14 Septemebr 1776, James Woodforde noted in his diary that Thomas Dunnell and Robin Buck ('Mrs Dunnell's man'), helped him with his harvest. Four days later, the diarist was in Great Yarmouth and received a visitor at the Wrestlers in Church Square - Thomas Dunnell (spelled Dunhill in the MS) brought three dozen pencils for which he was paid 3 shillings. Less than a month later, on 13 October, Thomas Dunnell married Mary Brown at St Andrew's church in Great Yarmouth (which I believe to be the church in Gorleston).

Back in Weston (left) the following year, Woodforde notes that Thomas Dunnell and his wife (unnamed) dined in his kitchen with his servants on two dates in February. Woodforde and Dunnell must have discussed greater business than pencils, as by March 1777 the carpenter had been paid £2 15s for making a pair of deal gates for the Parson. So, Woodforde weaves the threads of the story together.

One further mention of Thomas comes in 1807 when his brother Barnard wrote his will and mentions a nephew David, son of his dead brother Thomas.

This David (born 1777) can, I believe, be found in 1841 living at Fritton in Suffolk (not Fritton in Norfolk - confusion due to modern county boundary changes), noted as a shipowner. His wife, Elizabeth, was the Elizabeth Woolby married to a David Dunnell in 1798 at St Nicholas church in Great Yarmouth. Their daughter was Betsy Louisa Dunnell, born 1799 at Great Yarmouth, who married sailmaker William Bristow Sterry in Lakenham, Norfolk in 1819.

David's will is available on the marvellous Norfolk Archives website and states that he was a shipowner of Fritton Hall (!) with property in Fritton and South Town (a trade directory of 1830 named David Dunnell as a shipowner in Southtown). Perhaps there are records of who owned which ships - if there was tax to be paid then there will be!

Written on 28 July 1848 the will makes clear that David's wife and his daughter Mary Ann Stone have already died- and that his daughter Betsy Louisa Sterry and grandchildren by both daughters are his only family.

Elizabeth died in Great Yarmouth district in 1847 aged 68 years which ties in with the baptism of an Elizabeth, daughter of William and Mary Woolby at St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth. Searching wills at National Archives I find that William, a fish curer, died in 1811 and his will names Elizabeth, wife of David Dunnell along with her brother Thomas and sister Mary Lacey.

With David's death in 1849 the Dunnell name in this branch died out. It lived on through his grandsons Robert Dunnell Sterry (died 1870) and Dunnell Stone (born 1839)...I wonder if either of them knew much of their grandfather's shipowning past? Robert, at least, had inherited his grandfather's silver watch.

Ingledow - found 'em!

Some ancestors remain elusive - those tantalising 'dead ends' which we all know and love, and ache to find out more about.

Earlier this year I discovered that my ancestor Mary Dunnell, the woman known to Parson James Woodforde as 'Mrs Dunnell', was born Mary Ingledow - she married Barnabas Duning at St Martin at Oak church in Norwich on 27 April 1740 (thanks, IGI); in her will she referred to herself as Mary Dunnell alias Dunning.

Ingledow isn't exactly an everyday, next door neighbour type name. It's the sort of name you'd need to spell every time you apply for something over the phone...so I thought it might be easier to find the family than if they were Smiths or Browns. Hmmm.

My father and I spent a few days in Norfolk last spring - mainly riding on steam trains, supping ale and enjoying fish & chips. We also spent some time in the Norfolk Record Office where the friendly staff steered us through the catalogue towards a big bundle of documents that related to the property and land owned by our ancestors in Weston Longville. Seeing Mary Dunnell's signature (below) on documents she would have handled and been directly affected by made me really want to find out more about her.

The Weston records reveal that in 1727, Ursula Engledow (the spelling in record sources varies, with Engledow and Ingledow being interchangeable) was buried. The register says she was the daughter of Thomas and Bridget Ingledow while the Archdeacon's Transcripts provided more, saying she was the daughter of Bridget Ingledow of Hethersett. How was she linked to my Mary?

Today, I found out! A search at FreeReg revealed that my Mary was baptised at Hethersett in 1720, five years after her twin sisters Ursula (the girl buried at Weston in 1727) and Bridget (who grew up to marry Stephen Andrews from Weston then cooper William Ames), and three years after a brother called Thomas. Her parents, Thomas Ingledow and Bridget Gowing, married at St Stephen's church in Norwich in 1714. (Some 195 years later I worked at M&S next door!)

This fits in with evidence from the Weston Alderham Court Roll of 1737 which states that William and Ursula Lyng surrendered their cottage and 1.5 acres of land to Bridget Ingledow: Ursula was the widow of Thomas Ingledow (and mother of Thomas baptised 1691 at Lyng, whom I now believe grew up to marry Bridget Gowing) and had married William Lyng in 1707 at Weston. So, Bridget Gowing Ingledow inherited her mother in law's Weston's home and land, which I presume was part of an Ingledow legacy. This means my ancestors were living in Weston for several generations longer than I had been able to prove thus far. Hurrah!

So...Thomas Ingledow married Ursula (surname unknown, the next challenge!) and had several children in Lyng including Thomas in 1691, before moving to neighbouring Weston by 1694. Thomas (senior) died and his widow Ursula married William Lyng in 1707, while Thomas (junior) married Bridget Gowing in Norwich in 1714 and had a family in Hethersett before moving to Weston by the 1720s ('people didn't move much in the olden days' = myth) - where Thomas died in 1734 and Bridget died in 1753.

That means that my great x5 grandmother, Mary Dunnell born in 1742 and later married to shoemaker and parish clerk John Bates, would have known and grown up near (or with) her grandmother Bridget. It's that kind of generational overlap that makes me wonder whether Mary, when she became a grandmother in the 1790s, thought back to her childhood and told her grandchildren stories about her own grandmother.

I feel lucky that my I was able to hear first hand stories from my grandpa's cousin Kath, born 1904, which had been told to her as a small child by her grandfather (he died in 1909) which related to his own grandfather and that family's lucky escape from being caught poaching. I got tales straight from the 18th century!

What sort of stories would Mary Dunnell Bates have told her Bates grandsons, John (b1794) and Thomas (b1796) as they sat on her lap or round her fire?

Woodforde's Mrs Dunnell is well documented in his diaries, and now I feel I know a little more about her - her birthplace, her birth year, her parents' and siblings' names - adding some depth to another generation on the tree.

Here goes

Who cares what I have to say about family history? Or genealogy?

I hope that, over time, someone will! Someone facing a brick wall, someone who's just discovered an ancestor called Golden Balls (or something equally sublime), someone bewildered by their first National Archives visit...someone like me.

I started researching my family tree aged 11. This gave me the opportunity to quiz elderly relatives (already in their 80s and 90s) before they died, provided me with a great hobby to folow with my father and eventually led me to create a tree with over 10,000 people on it.

I'll introduce various ancestors in my posts. And share my frustrations - and possible solutions. I very much hope other family tree addicts (can you go a day without?) will share their own top tips, funny facts and personal progress, but in the meantime it will be more about me and my own.