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!

Surname Saturday: Yardley

Eliza YARDLEY came from Dublin, Ireland in about 1803.  For over 20 years she was housekeeper to my ggg grandfather, Adam BUCKINGHAM, and appears in the censuses as such.  Yet, there was never a mention of a Mr YARDLEY, and small children kept appearing.  Adam and Eliza got married in 1869 (why have the children first, and *then* get married?) when the youngest child was in her early 20s, and Eliza died in 1876, with Adam following a year later.

This has provided me with somewhat of a mystery.  Were the small children a result of Eliza doing more than housekeeping for Adam?  Did Eliza really come from Ireland? (another census says she came from Foleshill in Warwickshire, where she was living, and there are YARDLEYs who come from Foleshill, so perhaps she was a part of them?).  Hmmm.  I feel more certificates coming on...

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...

Follow Friday: LostCousins

This site - Lost Cousins - is an unusual concept, but a useful one, and basic membership is free (one of my favourite words LOL).  You enter your ancestors from the UK 1841 and/or 1881 census - and now the 1911 census, and the site matches you with other members who have entered the same ancestors - so they are 'cousins'.  It is private in that nobody else can see your tree, and nobody can even see your email address.

Of course, it's not just the England & Wales 1841 and 1881 censuses that they support (which include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) - it is also the 1880 US Census, the 1881 Canadian Census, the 1881 Census of Scotland, and the 1911 Census of Ireland. They chose these because they are readily available online, and some of them can be accessed for free (there's that word again).

Surname Saturday: Edgcombe

Many, if not most families have a legend that stretches far back linking today's descendants to a noble (or royal) ancestor.  When I began researching my family history, it was the Edgcombe family that was my 'noble' link.  Stories abounded about lords and owners of the Eddystone Lighthouse and surrounding land.

I couldn't find a single link to these mysterious lords, and when I contacted the Edgcombe Family History Society, they had never heard of my branch of Edgcombes either!  I have the sneaking suspicion that I am the product of...well...I'm really not sure.  All I know is that Jephtha Edgcombe, born about 1647 in Ringmore, worked the land at Ringmore and Kingston near Ivybridge, and his sons, and his sons' sons, until my great grandfather became a coastguard (like the family he married into).  Most of great-grandfather John Samuel's children were born in Ireland while he was stationed there - and several of them emigrated to Australia later in life.

Now there are hundreds of Edgcombes in Australia - so our family is truly worldwide.