S is for Surname Studies, Statistics, and South Pool

I have to keep to a routine.  I have four surname studies, one One-Place study, ten websites/blogs, my own genealogy, a Facebook group - and a day job.  So I reserve specific days for specific tasks: like today (Saturday) is usually South Pool Saturday.

South Pool, in Devon, England, is my One-Place Study.  I am collecting everything I can find about the place (can anyone say ebay?) and building small trees of the people who lived and worked there.  I have also started a South Pool One Place Study within the branches of WikiTree.  I am transcribing its parish registers and slowly putting the results up on WikiTree, as well - and I am pleased to say that today (25th June 16) I have put all its baptisms from 1664 to 1699 on there, linking the individual's profiles.  There are now 569 profiles linked into the Study.  The Murch Name Study has 316 profiles (with plenty more offline), and the Blagdon Name Study 287.

Did you know that 49.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot?

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

WikiTree: One Place and One Name Studies

Diving back into WikiTree again this month.  If I am going to have an online tree, then I definitely prefer this one, because of the Honor Code (even though they can't spell LOL), the levels of privacy, the emphasis on providing sources - and, of course, it's FREE (my favourite price).

Over a year ago in July 2014 I set up the MURCH One-Name Study (to be my WikiTree version of

murch.org).  At the moment, a lot of them are my own ancestors (!), but I am slowly creating profiles for all the MURCHes on murch.org as well.  Now I'm thinking of doing the same thing for the BLAGDON surname.


Exactly a year ago I set up the South Pool One-Place Study to link up all the profiles where the ancestors have something to do with South Pool, Devon, England. 

 

© 2015 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

On This Day: 14 June

On 14 June 1696, my 8 x great grandmother, Joanna STONE was christened in the small village of South Pool, Devon, England.  Her father was called Edward, and her mother Jone.

And this is where things get confusing.  I mean, I know about spelling in centuries gone past: whoever was doing the recording wrote the names down the way he thought they should be spelt, and most of our ancestors were illiterate, so they wouldn't have known the difference.  Then again, spelling and writing weren't as important to them as they are to (present-day) genealogists like you and me.

So, baby Joanna (spelt 'Joanna' in the baptismal register) was 'Joan' by the time she married in 1722, and 'Joan' when she was buried in 1763.  Her mother was 'Jone'.  My 2 x great grandmother MURCH was 'Johanna' at her baptism in 1844, 'Joanna' at her marriage in 1869, and back to 'Johanna' on her death certificate in 1875.  And then back to the mid-1600s, when my 8 x great aunt is 'Johane' BLAGDON.  No wonder I can't find her baptism.  The search engine has finally given up hope at all these spellings!

My question is: how are all these pronounced?  'Jone' I can manage.  But the first clue I had that 'Johanna' didn't have a spoken 'H' in the middle was when she was married as 'Joanna'.  The search engine isn't the only one around here that's confused...

© 2015 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

Names which repeat

Have you ever been confused by the same name cropping up again and again in your family tree? I don't mean the surnames - that's part of the reason behind it all! - but surnames coupled with given names.  It can be very useful - after all, it is easier to trace Otho POPHAM and his son, Otho POPHAM - or Archelaus EDWARDS and his son, Archelaus EDWARDS - but how about if the name is not so unusual?

Take, for instance, my great great great grandfather, John ELLIOTT.  Baptised in 1785 in South Pool, Devon.  On This Day, incidentally: he was baptised on 29 January 1785.  His father was also John ELLIOTT.   And his grandfather - John ELLIOTT.  And his great-grandfather - John ELLIOTT.  And his great great grandfather - John ELLIOTT - all in the same small village.  I received a GEDCOM a few years back, where the researchers who had contributed had obviously got completely confused by all these John ELLIOTTs - and the result was such a tangle that it took me months to try and work it out.


And, BTW, the first John 1785 had a son - yes, you've guessed it - called John.  I'm so glad I descend from his sister, Eliza...except she went and married a man called John...

On this Day: 18 January

Several of my ancestors had this day as their special day:


John Henry BLAGDON, born 18 January 1902 in Millbrook, Cornwall.  I remember "Uncle John" (although in reality he was my great-uncle).  No child was ever allowed to go into "Uncle John"'s room, and always had to do the seen-and-not-heard thing around him.  Apparently, he was my Nan's older brother and it was his house; she had been promised it after his death.  He was the son of John BLAGDON and Susan Emma FARLEY.

George EDGCOMBE, my great-great-grandfather, was born on 18 January 1838 in South Milton, Devon.  He married his cousin, Mary Ann EDGCOMBE - their fathers were brothers.

Richard HARLEY, christened on 18 January 1794 in South Pool, Devon, was my 1st cousin 5 times removed.  He was the son of James HARLEY and Deborah GOODYEAR.

Honor ELLIOT was my 7th great-great-aunt, and was christened on 18 January 1678 in Modbury, Devon.  Her parents were William ELLYOTT and Margery BEERE.

Matrilineal Monday: Eliza ELLIOTT, the mantua maker

Eliza ELLIOTT (1818-1908) was my great-great-grandmother from South Pool, Devon.  A dressmaker on some censuses, on the 1841 census she is described as a "mantua maker".  Intrigued, I looked up a description of mantuas and their makers...

Mantuas were loose gowns worn over a petticoat and open down the front (what a relief, after all those stays!).  They were usually made of damask or brocade and were worn when an occasion required something a bit special.  Although they were loose and open, they were slightly fitted - they just didn't have the dreaded stays.  From Ancestry.com:

"[T]he mantua was constructed from a single length of material, with few if any cuts. Our image of dressmaking is cutting out a variety of pieces from the fabric, some small, then sewing those pieces together. Mantua-making was not at all like this.

One of the things that identifies a true mantua is that it did not have a separate skirt and top. The material was one continuous piece from shoulder to floor. Mantuas fit the figure, yet had a very full skirt. This was accomplished by shaping the material to the body with a series of deep, outward-facing stitched-down pleats that flared gracefully below the waistline.

This single-piece construction with few unreversable actions meant that gowns could be altered for changes in fashion, weight, and ownership. A skilled mantua maker could, literally, disassemble a mantua and remake it into a new garment, saving the beautiful material.

Depending on the current style and the mantua-maker's construction, the rich fabric might be longer in back, almost forming a train. The mantua was not closed at the front (usually just caught at the waist, sometimes belted), exposing the shirt of the lightweight petticoat (you will recall from the earlier article that this could refer to a dress-length garment), which was often of silk. As you can imagine, this allowed interesting and attractive contrast in color and fabric. It also permitted more freedom of movement. I can practically hear the swishing sounds as mantua-wearing women made their social calls.

A stomacher was often worn with a mantua. This was an elaborate, decorated, ornamental piece, shaped in a V to help create the illusion of a slim waist."

Surname Saturday: Distin

My DISTINs came from Holbeton, Devon, by way of Malborough, and eventually to South Pool.  Jane DISTIN, my 3 x great grandmother, married into the BALL family, and she was the final DISTIN in my direct line.  Born in 1801, she lived until she was 92, and my own grandmother, Minda Mary Edgcombe BALL, remembers her.  However, looking at the dates, Jane (or Jenny, as she was known) died a year before Minda was born...so it must be another old lady that grandma remembers.

Jane produces another mystery.  I have tried to track her in the censuses but, unfortunately, once she was married and became Jane BALL - well, that is a fairly common name, and there is another Jane BALL who seems to have something to do with a farmer named DADDS.  A mysterious son, George, appears, so I am now not sure whether 'my' Jane lived with someone else, or this other Jane is someone else entirely.

And yet another mystery - Jane has an older sister, also called Jane.  Well, ordinarily I would think it was the Victorians habit of calling a child after the name of one who died extremely young - but the elder Jane lived to be 70! so what was going on here?

DISTIN, a surname that proliferates around the South West of England, is one of the few names in my tree which also appears in France, although none of my ancestors is recorded as French.  Perhaps, if I go far enough back?

Way Back Wednesday: Richard BALL and Susanna STONE 1777

I found Richard and Susanna when searching for the parents of my ggg grandfather, Jacob BALL.  I traced them through the excellent CD produced by the Devon Family History Society (they produce quite a few) which is a set of PDFs of parish registers.  In this case, I looked on the "Deanery of Woodleigh" CD, which has registers from Aveton Gifford, Bigbury, Buckland-Tout-Saints, Charleton, Chivelstone, Churchstow, Dodbrooke, East Allington, East Portlemouth, Kingsbridge, Loddiswell, Malborough, Moreleigh, Ringmore, Salcombe, Sherford, Slapton, South Huish, South Milton, South Pool, Stokenham, Thurlestone, West Alvington and Woodleigh.

Richard and Susanna were married in South Pool on 6 May 1777.  Richard was born about 1755 - and here I am confused: where is North Poole?  Is there a village in Devon? or is this something to do with Poole in Dorset?  He died on 11 Feb 1830 in South Pool.  Susanna STONE was christened on 1 Jan 1752 in South Pool, and died on 3 September 1829 there as well, only six months before Richard.  Maybe Richard couldn't live without her?

Their first child, James, was born only 5 months after the marriage, and since there is another James later, it is a thought that maybe the first James died as a baby (that seems to happen a lot in my family tree).  A mysterious gap in the christenings between 1779 and 1786 (they christened every two years, otherwise) suggests another avenue: was there a war on during those years, and Richard was called away?

The biggest breakthrough moment I had (producing a "genealogist's happy dance" LOL) was when I discovered that the second James I mentioned was actually another ggg grandfather!  I had been searching for parents for James BALL christened 8 August 1802 in South Pool, and a welcome email from an Online Parish Clerk pointed me in the direction of the transcribed registers held on Ray Osborn's gem of a site regarding the South Hams of Devon.  Why had I not thought to look there before?  Anyway, there was James, and his siblings, and a confirmation of the information I had got from the DFHS CD.

1802 may not seem very 'way back when' - but for me, it broke through a brickwall that had existed for several decades, and has taken me back into the late 1700s.