Fearless Females 2014: Marriage Record: Minda LEY

The copy of the marriage certificate for Joseph BUCKINGHAM and Minda LEY which is in my possession has caused me a number of genealogical headaches over the years.

Joseph BUCKINGHAM and Minda LEY, 21 January 1872

• If they were married in 1872, why do they not appear on the 1881 census?
• Why does Joseph say he is 29, when actually he was 27 - or even 37?
• Why is the bride named 'Minda' - when some sources call her 'Amanda', and others 'Aminta'?  Her birth registration has her as 'Amelia Melvinia'!
• Who are William Charlick and Mary Yeo, the witnesses?
• Was Adam a labourer, a weaver, or a chimney sweep?
• Was he, in fact, Joseph's grandfather, rather than his father?

Over thirty years later, and I am still wondering...

Thomas Francis BUCKINGHAM, born 1880

Today I have been thinking especially about my great great uncle, Thomas Francis BUCKINGHAM.  Thomas was born in 1880; later censuses have him as being born blind, while the 1911 census has him as being blind from age 1.  I have followed him through the censuses; he had a fairly dull life (some might even say miserable): I can't find him in the 1881, but in the 1891 he was in the workhouse, a pauper; in the 1901 he was still in Plymouth workhouse as a basket weaver, and in the 1911 he was at least boarded out somewhere, and worked as a news vendor.

The reason I have been thinking of him is because today (Friday 11th October) I took part in the RNIB's
'Read for RNIB Day' (RNIB is the UK's Royal National Institute of Blind People).  I wanted to do something for charity, but realised that I am not exactly built for running up mountains LOL, but here was something I could do.  Last year, I did a readathon of Star Trek novels.  This year, my work colleagues challenged me to learn basic Braille in 6 weeks and read something in Braille on The Day.  RNIB kindly sent me two copies of "We're Going On a Bear Hunt" (children's book), one in print and one in Braille, and I read the entire book out loud today at work.  Braille was developed in 1824.  I wonder how much access Thomas Francis had to it?  I am so blessed to have the gift of sight.

Thomas was born in Plymouth and died there in 1930, aged 49.

A-Z Challenge: P is for Plymouth

"Often quoted, rarely acknowledged" is the tag line to the excellent Plymouth Data website run by Brian Moseley.  Containing over 2,000 pages of information on such varied subjects as churches, chapels, public houses, convents, nunneries, schools, roads, streets, and much more, this site is well worth a visit - and a long stay! (if you can ever tear yourself away from such intriguing pages as those devoted to sports, lighthouses, charities, air services, ambulance services, electricity, and earliest residents...)

The site does not restrict itself just to Plymouth.  Also encountered are Devonport and East Stonehouse, and also the ancient parishes of Saint Budeaux, Eggbuckland, Tamerton Foliot, Plympton Saint Maurice, Plympton Saint Mary and Plymstock, which make up the modern City of Plymouth, within the County of Devon, in the United Kingdom.

Annie Marian Buckingham EDGCOMBE and Transport

Annie Marian Buckingham EDGCOMBE was my great grandmother (1873-1961).  The first horse-drawn tram in Plymouth, Devon, UK, appeared the year before she was born, she went to County Mayo in Ireland in the 1890s with her coastguard husband and small children, and she travelled to Australia in 1926, where she lived in Sydney, New South Wales until she was 88 years old.

Other transport events of note:
In 1869 (four years before she was born) the Suez Canal was opened.
When she was 12, Karl Benz invented the first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine, then Gottlieb Daimler built the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle.
In 1894, the same year that she got married, the Manchester Ship Canal was opened.
By the time she was in Ireland (1900), the zeppelin had been invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
When she was aged 30 and had 5 small children (1903), the Wright Brothers invented the first gas motored and manned airplane
Only 4 years later in 1907, the very first piloted helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu
And of course in 1912 - the Titanic sank...

Annie Marian Buckingham EDGCOMBE

Since the small child on her knee is probably Frederick Charles, the photo was probably taken just after World War I, which ended in 1918 - she was still in the UK at this stage!

Fearless Females: The Brickwall Belles

A brickwall in genealogy usually means that you have looked everywhere, but still can't get any further on in your research into a certain individual.  My Brickwall Belles are females in my family tree that have made me stop short in my research - because I don't know where to look in the first place.

It''s not that I have 'looked everywhere' and got stuck.  I haven't looked, because I don't know where to go.  Each lady seems to have her own distinct difficulties, but the main one is that she has the sort of name which was immensely popular (and therefore which one is she?) such as my great-great-great-grandmother, Mary WEBBER.  I have her marriage certificate to James LETHBRIDGE (14 July 1839 in East Stonehouse), and on it is her father's name - John (really unusual).  Oh, and she is 'of full age'...

Mary's daughter, Mary Ann, married John BLAGDON, whose mother was another Brickwall Belle. Another great-great-great-grandmother: Elizabeth Thomas HALL, born in 1800 in Plymouth (Devon), married John BLAGDON on 9 July 1817 in Stoke Damerel, and died in 1876, also in Plymouth.  But I have no idea of her parents or siblings.  At the moment, she is still just a name.

And, unfortunately, there are quite a few more.  One thing that this month's blog posts have taught me: I know little or nothing about many of my female ancestors.  Time to remedy that, methinks...

Surname Saturday: Hall

The only time the HALL surname appears in my family tree is when it belongs to my ggg grandmother, Elizabeth Thomas HALL, who was born about 1800 in Plymouth, Devon, England.  The fact that her middle name - Thomas - is usually thought of as a man's name, suggests that it was actually a surname itself.  So maybe her mother's maiden name was THOMAS?  But wait, I have heard of people being caught out like this before.  They take huge genealogical leaps without any concrete evidence.

Now, I know there are times when leaps can become clues, but only if you treat them as such.  If I were to take Thomas as a clue to THOMAS, for instance, and therefore it would make me keep my eyes open for a suitable family, then that's OK.  What is not acceptable is me saying Thomas must be THOMAS, and therefore I will not accept anything else!  I have found that in my own family history.  A child was given the middle name of 'Cornish', but that particular name does not appear anywhere in my tree as a surname/maiden name.  Perhaps it was just the surname of a family friend, or (as often happened), the surname of a wealthy individual, and the family hoped that, by giving their child the wealthy person's name, they would inherit!

So Elizabeth Thomas HALL, who married into the BLAGDON family in Stoke Damerel in 1817, had 10 children, regularly appeared in censuses for thirty years, and died in Plymouth in 1876, remains something of a mystery as regards that Thomas name until I can get to the records that may shed some light on her birth and her parents.

Surname Saturday: Lethbridge

Mary Ann LETHBRIDGE's birth certificate was one of the first I bought (if not *the* first!): 2 November 1845 was the date she was born, in an unfamiliar place near Plymouth, Devon (I couldn't read it, and neither could the GRO clerk who had painstakingly written it out).  She was my great great grandmother, and her certificate gave me information on her parents, James LETHBRIDGE and Mary WEBBER.  I found their marriage certificate for 14 July 1839 (they married in East Stonehouse, Devon) - and that's where I encountered my first brick wall. 

A 'brick wall', as every genealogist knows (and cringes at the mention of) is where you have searched and searched and searched, and found big fat nothing.  Your ancestors just seem to have come out of nowhere, never been enumerated on a census, never registered anybody or anything, and vanished back into the thin air from whence they came.

James and Mary are like that.  I have their marriage certificate - and that's it.  James and Mary are fairly common names, so trying to track them down among all the other James and Marys... are they the couple who baptised in Jersey? or Teignmouth?  James LETHBRIDGE's father is Richard.  Mary's is John.  Sigh.  They don't exist, either.  I was thinking of putting the certificates on this blog, in case anyone could recognise their names - but now I can't even find the certificates.  Oh, well, Scanfest isn't for another couple of weeks. Those certifications are certainly at the head of the queue! (if I ever manage to find them).

Mary Ann went on to marry John BLAGDON on 15 February 1863, and from then on I can document her nicely.  But prior to 1863, she doesn't exist.  Born in 1845, she should appear on the 1851 and 1861 censuses.  Except she doesn't.

My head hurts. ;o)

Maritime Monday: From Carpenter to Shipwright

Samuel AVERY, married in 1806, was a carpenter in East Stonehouse during the Napoleonic Wars.  One of his sons, George, christened 30 September 1814, became a shipwright - and later, a ship's carpenter.  By the time he was an adult, the Napoleonic Wars were over, but George's services as a shipwright in HM Dockyard at Plymouth were still needed right up until a few years before his death in 1878.  One of George's granddaughters married into the HAYWOOD family - and the tradition of working in the Dockyards continued, with varying occupations - including shipwright.

Surname Saturday: Buckingham

The BUCKINGHAM surname appears first with my maternal great grandmother, Annie Marian nee BUCKINGHAM later EDGCOMBE.  I say it appears first, because I am working backwards from myself.  Oh, and by the way, Great-Grandma appears sometimes as Annie, sometimes as Marian, and sometimes as Mary (!) Although I think I can explain that last one, because all the Marians in our family are called 'Marie' for short, descending perhaps from my great great great aunt, who came from Ireland, where the name is often pronounced 'MAHree'...easy to see how the official from Dr Barnardo's wrote Marie down as Mary (just before her youngest brothers, Archie and Ernie, were sent off to Canada as orphans.  Well, it had to be better than the workhouse in Plymouth: imagine a workhouse in Prison Road!).

But then the provenance becomes more interesting - and departs from the Devon and Cornwall of this blog.  The 18th and 19th century BUCKINGHAMs came from Foleshill in Warwickshire, with some venturing as far as Coventry, Astley and Bedworth.  There is a hint of religion in there, too - John and Ann BUCKINGHAM named their children Adam, Eve, Habbakuk, John and James.  Perhaps I should just be content with Annie Marian.

All this could also be part of the 'Madness Monday' strand, where you write about research that has driven you mad!  Family legends: "he was a well-to-do coal merchant" translates into 'chimney sweep' in official records; ancestors being 'creative' about their age by knocking 10 years off when it suited them; ancestors changing their given names because they didn't like the ones they were given...

Surname Saturday: Avery

Samuel Avery was a carpenter back in the early 1800s.  His son married into a family connected to the sea, and soon the AVERYs were known for building and designing boats and ships.  Later, the AVERY name is found in its highest concentrations in Canada and New Zealand (interesting to note that it is found mostly in the New Plymouth district of NZ - all my AVERYs came from Plymouth and the surrounding area.

Kingsand, Cornwall

'My' AVERYs lived in the villages of Cawsand, Kingsand, and Rame, in Cornwall, England.  When my great grandmother Emma Maud AVERY married into the Haywood family, although they stayed in the same place, one of her sons (my grandfather) became a shipwright.

The surname itself is Gaelic.  Cornwall (where my AVERYs came from) is well-known for its connections with Ireland, and some of my ancestors on my mother's side were either Irish themselves, or served in Ireland as coastguards.

Follow Friday: Plymouth Data

This, site - Plymouth Data - presented by Brian Moseley in partnership with the Plymouth Local Studies Library, and the cooperation on the Plymouth & West Devon Record Office, is one of those gems you occasionally find when trawling the Net for your ancestors.  It calls itself the Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History, and it is just that: it has 1,874 pages on subjects as diverse as wharves and piers, convents and workhouses, lord mayors and mechanics.

The information ranges in date from Saxon Plymouth, through the Domesday Book, via the Siege in 1643, World War II and on to today.

U.S. cousins might also be interested in the pages on the Pilgrim Fathers and American Prisoners of War in Plymouth.

If you are trying to build a history around your ancestor-spotting, and some or all of your ancestors came from Plymouth, this site is definitely worth a look and even a bookmark.

Surname Saturday: Blagdon

Most of the Blagdon men worked in and around the dockyards of Plymouth, Devon, UK.  Another mystery to be solved: the Blagdon surname originates from Northumberland and Somerset, and stretches as far back as the 14th century as a surname.  Since 'my' Blagdons were working in Plymouth dockyard, it may well be that they had something to do with the ship design and repair that the Dock was famous for.  (Further back in the Haywood past - the family they married into - many of the men were shipwrights).

As far as the Docks themselves are concerned, much information is available on the Plymouth Data website (more will be revealed during my post on this Follow Friday!).  The first stone dock was completed in 1698 at a cost of approximately £70,000 (approx 5 and a half MILLION pounds today).  It covered 24 acres.

(financial data from The National Archives converter)

I am sure some of my Blagdon ancestors worked there from 1698, but the first I have found is John Blagdon, born about 1797.