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

Genealogy Do-Over Week 13: Review and Reflect

This is the final week of the first 'Genealogy Do-Over'.  It actually finishes on Thursday 2 April 2015, and starts again the very next day with 'Week 1'.  I thought I might not do the next cycle of 13 weeks, but on reflection, I just might.  The reason is that I learned so many new things during this cycle, that I need (at least) another cycle to revisit them and shore up my learning.

Although the topics looked enticing, I soon realised that to try and apply them to my entire family tree would very quickly drive me crazy, so I looked at it and decided to apply the Do-Over to my BLAGDON line, as that was the one that had the least work done on it.  (BLAGDON was the maiden name of my paternal grandmother: Elsie Beatrice BLAGDON, 22 July 1908-2 Feb 1975.)  The research I had done on that particular line had taken me back to 1800 - and there I had stopped.  Too many mysteries along the way, too many people with the same name - and I was making such great strides with my other ancestors on other lines, that these others became BSOs (bright shiny objects - the sort you drop everything for and go off chasing here, there, and everywhere).  So I buckled down to it, and plunged into the BLAGDON line.

Immediately I began noticing success.  

• I wrote out a Research Plan 
• and a Research Log (If you're reading about this for the first time, I strongly recommend you take a look at the Do-Over, and its companion group on Facebook)
• I revamped and rebuilt my Research Toolbox
• I investigated genealogy education (on- and offline)
• I made checklists and applied them to each person

And, most important of all?

I SLOWED DOWN.  AND WROTE IT DOWN.

Truly, I didn't realise I was moving so fast.  Now, I'm not saying that 'fast' is all bad.   In certain cases, you want 'fast' (like if you are having a heart attack, you want the ambulance to get to the hospital fast).   But I was going so 'fast', I was skipping over and entirely missing important information.  And I wasn't writing it all down, which meant that I was doing the same search twenty times over (and doing it fast) because I wasn't sure if I had already done it.

Who knew?  I'm 55; a grown woman with many years of experience behind me.  I teach people how to make a start on their own genealogy!  I advise strongly against the 'scattergun approach' or dipping here and there - fast.  Why has it taken me 35+ years of research to realise that I needed to Slow Down and Write It Down?  I think I know why.  It's because I want patience...and I want it NOW!

and the BLAGDONs?  More mysteries, more people with the same name - and a new dilemma: a potential link to a wealthy family going back to the early 1600s - but are they 'mine'?  The ancestors I had found previously were humble dockyard workers, brickmakers and farm labourers.  Am I right in thinking I am linked to gentlemen landowners?  But this hasn't put me off.  Now, I feel more confident in my researching methodology.
 

© 2015 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

Motivation Monday: Grandparents

Julie Boucher of the Angler's Rest blog, has started a 15-month set of weekly prompts to create The Book of Me, Written by You.  She describes it as "...not just about genealogy or family history. It is about a personal journey; a journey of rediscovery of yourself and perhaps your loved ones through your eyes."

This week's Prompt is for you to write about your grandparents.

• What were their names? Edmund George HAYWOOD, Elsie Beatrice BLAGDON (my paternal grandparents), William Hubert BALL, and Minda Mary EDGCOMBE (my maternal grandparents).  Yes, they were married, but as a genealogist I have grown so accustomed to noting ladies down with their maiden names...

• Where were they from?  Edmund George and Elsie Beatrice were from Millbrook, Cornwall, UK; William Hubert was from Kingsbridge, Devon and Minda Mary was from Ringmore, also Devon.

I wrote about them in my post on 3 February here.  I was in the middle of another year's "Family History Writing Challenge" (which happens every February), writing "Faith and Silk" and stumbling AGAIN.  So writing about my grandparents was a fresh start.

"The Family History Writing Challenge is an opportunity for all genealogists, to set some valuable time aside for the next 2[8] days and commit to writing their family history stories. No more excuses. There are so many benefits to writing your family history."
http://familyhistorywritingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/welcome.html

I like challenges.  Perhaps I should like motivations first...

Wordless Wednesday: John BLAGDON and Susan Emma FARLEY

John BLAGDON and Susan Emma TAPPER (nee FARLEY) - married 30 May 1896 Devonport, Devon, UK

My paternal great-grandparents

Fearless Females 2013: Day 24: Physical Traits

Do you share any physical resemblance or personality trait with one of your female ancestors? Who? What is it?

That's an easy one...and one which makes me sigh.  When I was a baby, I had gappy teeth - and so did my paternal grandmother (although the gaps weren't in the same places).  Now that I am in my fifties, I have her excess weight...

Elsie Beatrice Blagdon (Haywood) McNally, my paternal grandmother, was born on 22 July 1908 in Millbrook, Cornwall, and died 2 February 1975 in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire.

RNH and Elsie Beatrice BLAGDON 1960

Once again, in honour of National Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog presents Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.  I know this is really US-centric - but that's not going to stop me honouring my own Fearless Females...

Fearless Females 2013: Day 6: Heirloom

Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor.

Elsie Beatrice Blagdon HAYWOOD (1908-1975)

The only thing I have inherited is my grandmother's eternity ring.  Elsie Beatrice Blagdon HAYWOOD (1908-1975) - known to me as Nanny McNally - was my father's mother and lived in Millbrook, Cornwall.  One day, when I was in my early teens, she called me to her and gave me an obviously-treasured possession: her gold eternity ring, studded with tiny chips of garnets and diamonds.  She said that her fingers had got too fat to wear it any more: a distinct possibility, as her hands had swollen due to her diabetes.  She also said that she wanted to give it to me before she died, as when she passed on, everyone else would descend on her possessions and I probably wouldn't get anything, being a mere insignificant 14 year old.

So she gave me her ring and, although I wore it every day, I did not care for it quite as well as I should have.  By the time I had reached my twenties, almost all the precious stones had gone.  I went to a local jeweller and asked how much it would cost to have the chips replaced.  His answer? that it would cost more than the ring itself was worth.  But to me, the ring was precious beyond mere money.

Now I am older, and fatter, and the ring no longer fits me.  But it stays in pride of place in my jewellery box, a reminder of a grandmother's love.

Once again, in honour of National Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog presents Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.  I know this is really US-centric - but that's not going to stop me honouring my own Fearless Females...

Family History Writing Challenge: Day 3: A Fresh Start

Day 3 of this Challenge, and a reply to my forum query has produced startling results.  There were plenty of helpful suggestions on writing about ancestors who existed in living memory, such as your grandparents etc.  But I was frustrated! because the earliest of 'my' ancestors I would be writing about was born in 1687, and the 'youngest' or latest was born in 1844 - and I certainly didn't remember them, nor could I interview relatives who knew them.

So once again, my dreams of finishing 'Faith and Silk' seemed more like obstacles.  Until at last somebody suggested that I might not like to write something so full of guesswork and speculation at first.  That somebody was Lynn Palermo, the Armchair Genealogist who has initiated this Challenge.  Why didn't I think of that before? why did I beat myself up year after year for not having finished a project which was too difficult for me?  'Faith and Silk' will still happen - just not yet.  Let me get a little more comfortable writing family histories first.

William Hubert Ball

Edmund George Haywood

So I have started a new project.  'The Big Four' is going to be about my four grandparents: William Hubert BALL, Minda Mary EDGCOMBE, Edmund George HAYWOOD, and Elsie Beatrice BLAGDON.  Some of them I knew better than others - but I knew them all.  Although they are all deceased, they lived in recent enough times that there are photos of them, and events they lived through (like World War One) which have a plethora of things written about them which I can research, if I can't remember.

Minda Mary Edgcombe

 

 

Elsie Beatrice Blagdon

Already I feel much more relaxed about this Challenge.  More keen and eager to get started, more enthused about trying, more likely to progress.

Scrivener, here I come!

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.

On This Day: 17 December

1776 - Samuel TOZER is baptised/christened in Nymet Tracey, Devon, England.  My 4 x great-uncle.

1881 - Caroline Harriet MOULE is baptised/christened in Plymouth Charles, Devon, England.  My second cousin twice removed.

Both link into the BLAGDON family line.

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...

Fearless Females: Elsie Beatrice BLAGDON

I am participating in the Fearless Females theme for 

National Women's History Month

Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor (wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.) If you don’t have any, then write about a specific object you remember from your mother or grandmother, or aunt (a scarf, a hat, cooking utensil, furniture, etc.)

When I was 14, my paternal grandmother (Elsie Beatrice Blagdon HAYWOOD) called me to her and gave me her eternity ring.  She knew she was going to die fairly soon, and she also knew that "the vultures would descend" (her words) and I would be highly unlikely to get any of her property.  But she wanted me to have her ring, which she kept in its little velvet box because her fingers had grown too fat for her to be able to wear it.

It was a band of gold, studded with tiny chips of diamonds and rubies (well, I thought so at the time, anyway).  About 10 years later, some of the "real diamonds" fell out, so I took it to a jeweller to have him quote me how much it would cost to replace them.  He told me that it would cost more to replace them than the entire ring was worth, as they were not diamonds and rubies, but zirconia and garnets, and the ring itself was fairly inexpensive.

But to me? even the holes they sat in were precious.

Sentimental Sunday: I Want You to Have It

When I was 15, my grandmother (Elsie Beatrice Blagdon HAYWOOD) died.  When I was 14, she pulled me aside and gave me her eternity ring.  She knew she didn't have long to live, and she said that, when she died, 'the vultures would descend' (her words) and I would get nothing.  So she gave me her ring, a treasured possession.  Because her fingers had grown so fat with her illness, she could no longer wear it, and it nestled in its small velvet box, a gold band studded with tiny rubies and diamonds (or so I thought). 

After her death, I wore it constantly.  So constantly, that the gold wore down and the gems fell out.  I went to a jeweller to ask for a quote to put them back in.  "Hmmm," he said, "garnet chips and zirconiums.  Quite frankly, it would cost more to put them back than the entire ring did in the first place."  I could have been disappointed; disappointed that the gems were not actually rubies and diamonds, disappointed that the ring itself was hardly the most expensive thing in the world...but to me, the Queen of England doesn't have something as valuable as that ring.

Now my fingers are too fat to wear the ring, and I have no children nor grandchildren to pass it on to.  But it is still precious...

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)

Surname Saturday: Farley

My FARLEYs came originally from the small village of North Tawton in Devon, where FARLEYs are described as being "thick on the ground" - ie that there were a lot of them, rather than that they were stupid!  There is a nearby crossroads called 'Farley's Grave'; usually, only thieves were buried by a crossroads, which does make you wonder...

In the 1850s, however, my FARLEYs moved to Millbrook, Cornwall, and married into the BLAGDON family (then later the BLAGDONs married into the HAYWOOD family).  From working almost exclusively on the land, the family turned to being labourers, so maybe they too had something to do with the nearby Plymouth Docks.  I have found evidence of some of them having entered the Royal Navy on the HMS Champion, and the HMS Defiance (torpedo school ship) and working in the merchant service, so this seems likely.

The surname itself is more widespread in Australia, and much more common in the US.

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.

Sentimental Sunday: Scrounging Bag

One of my favourite stories that my mother used to tell to me was one about my paternal grandmother, Elsie Beatrice Blagdon. 

We were quite poor when I was small, and I can dimly remember visiting my grandmother's house with its outside toilet (she wasn't exactly rich, either).  Later, my mother recounted to me one of our first visits there without my father.

Grandmother asked where mother's "scrounging bag" was, to which my mother, puzzled, asked "what is it?".

"Ye never come here without yer scrounging bag, my love," answered Grandmother, and proceeded to open all her kitchen cupboards and pull out whatever she could find - a cabbage here, a packet of biscuits there, a box of cereal and so on.  She piled them all up on the kitchen table and tucked them into a large empty shopping bag.  Yes, it was charity (and my mother was a very proud woman), but by calling it a "scrounging bag", it got around the pride and made it seem as though my mother was looking out for herself, rather than having handouts given to her.

We have continued the tradition, which is now layered over with a laugh, and when I was away at school, was called a "care package" - a box of totally unrelated goodies that my mother would put together for me to take back with me after I visited.  She never forgot Grandmother's kindness to a young daughter-in-law who was too proud to ask for help.