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

On This Day: 13 June

13 June 1813: my great great great great great uncle was born.  Samuel MURCH, born to another Samuel MURCH and Margaret Marshall Littley MURCH in Ottery St Mary, Devon.  He was baptised on Boxing Day of that year: 26 December 1775, also in Ottery St Mary.
 

And here he is again in the Bishop's Transcripts, a little more neatly written

Seems fairly straightforward, don't you think?  Except someone sixty years ago said that he also died and was buried on that same Boxing Day - and I can't find a record to back this up.

Then came my direct-line ancestor - yet another Samuel MURCH, born to the same parents 11 April 1778 (Ottery St Mary) and baptised 1 January 1778/79.  Since he was also called Samuel, it is pretty logical to think that the Samuel born in 1775 had died.  But had he?  Definitely a genealogical mystery to solve.

© 2015 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

The Roll of Honour

 This is a wonderful idea - and makes me all choked whenever I hear of it.


It is an event happening during September, October, and November 2014 to mark 100 years since the beginning of World War One.  Every evening, the Last Post will be played at the Tower of London, and the names of soldiers who died in the War will be read out.  (You write in and nominate names.)

Today I submitted the names of Livingstone MURCH, Angus MURCH (his brother), Eli BALL, and Walter Harold BALL (his brother).  The MURCHes were my 1st cousins 4 times removed on my father's side of the family, and the BALL brothers were my great-uncles on my mother's side.


The moat itself is being filled with 888,246 red ceramic poppies (one for every death in the British forces), and, even at the start was impressive:

UPDATE: The four names were read out on 23 September 2014 at sunset.
Reader: Yeoman Warder Rob Fuller
Last Post: Drummer McKenna

Then came the verse from the poem by Laurence Binyon 'For the Fallen':
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Then the Last Post was played.

One month a GOON

Today marks my one-month 'anniversary' of being a GOON.  The dictionary describes a goon as 'a stupid or deliberately foolish person'.  Yes, some would say that describes me perfectly!  But I am a particular kind of goon.  I now belong to the Guild of One-Name Studies; the surname I have elected to study is MURCH.

Indeed, I am already beginning to think I was a 'stupid or deliberately foolish person' to take this one-name study on.  But this is overshadowed by the excitement I feel; the anticipation of great things to come.

[x-posted from murch.org]

Murch One-Name Study

[Most of this is reposted from my new blog murch.org]

I've done it!  I've taken the first step - or can it be called a giant leap?  I have been researching my own family tree for 37 years, and now I am moving to another level.

Today I became a member of the Guild of One-Name Studies and registered the surname MURCH as the one I am going to research - possibly for the next 37 years.  Oh, that doesn't mean I am going to ignore the names in my own ancestry, but this is branching out in a different way.

A One-Name Study studies - well, one name.  Not a given name like John or Elizabeth, but a surname.  And it doesn't limit itself to one place, either, such as all the John MURCHes in a tiny village in a corner of one county in one country. No, I will be looking for MURCHes everywhere - and I mean everywhere.  As in 'worldwide' everywhere.

*hops from foot to foot in excitement*

On This Day: 30 October

This snippet from Exeter & Plymouth Gazette, 30 October 1841.

Column devoted to the Agricultural and Industrial Association Dinner at Subscription Room, Canniford's London Tavern:



"To the Journeyman who has worked longest in the employ of the same master, £1. - Samuel Murch, Sen., 38 years employed in the Ottery Factory, 18 years during the time of the present respected proprietor, Mr. Newbery."

Motivation Monday: Setting Genealogy Goals

This prompt on Geneabloggers says: Do you have a set of genealogy-related goals you want to tackle? Do you have tips on getting motivated?  I haven’t actually got any genealogy goals.  I need motivation in order to set them! 

When I started out (back in 1977) my goal was just to discover as many names, dates and places of as many ancestors as I could find.  So, in a way, I am well on track with this goal!  I teach short courses in genealogy, and one of the things I always say is to focus yourself on a goal (or goals); the scattergun approach just doesn’t work.  I am only too aware of this (and maybe you are too).  I spend an entire Sunday afternoon going aimlessly from ancestor to ancestor. In the end it’s like trying to find your way through a maze without the key: you end up hitting more brickwalls than you care to meet, and getting so frustrated you start muttering about how you’re not doing THIS again...

 So, which line of your ancestry should you choose? Or, indeed, should you choose a single person?  I am in the middle of writing a book on my paternal great-great-grandmother’s line – the MURCHes – called ‘Faith and Silk’ (because they were the one line who seemed to be looking for a different religion, plus they were all woolcombers/weavers/silk workers).

I’m still writing it.  I’ve been writing it for several years.  And at the same time, I am continuing to look for names, dates, and places of everybody else on my tree.  I can’t seem to stop looking everywhere, and focus myself somewhere.

Does anybody have any advice?  My ancestors and I need help!

On This Day: 21 July

21 July 1744 was the marriage date for my great great great great great great grandparents: Gideon MURCH and Elizabeth BASTIN.  And it was a Tuesday.

Gideon was born in Ottery St Mary, Devon, in 1721, in the last few years of George I's reign.  He lived through the reigns of two more Georges, but only a year after Gideon and Elizabeth's marriage came the attempt to put Bonnie Prince Charlie on the throne.

In later records, Gideon is described as a weaver.  Throughout his lifetime, there were several improvements in looms and weaving in general: one of the first was the 'flying shuttle', which made its appearance in 1733.  John Kay, who invented it, placed a shuttle at each end of the loom, and one single weaver could knock the shuttle back and forth with amazing speed (previously it had been pushed backwards and forwards, and often needed two weavers).  Gideon would have been 12 when the 'flying shuttle' appeared, and was probably an apprentice.

Further innovations in weaving came throughout Gideon's life; he saw the beginnings of how everything had to go faster, be bigger.  The 'spinning jenny' came in 1764, the 'water frame' shortly afterwards (a powered textile machine). 

Gideon appears in numerous nonconformist records, baptising his children as Protestant Dissenters.  He was definitely looking for something.  I wonder what his wife thought?

Fearless Females 2013: Day 19: Surprising Fact

Have you discovered a surprising fact about one of your female ancestors? What was it and how did you learn it?

One of the witnesses to the marriage of my paternal great great grandparents - John HAYWOOD and Johanna MURCH - on 30 September 1869 in Ottery St Mary was a lady called Jane PAGE.  I had never heard of her, but thought perhaps she was a friend of the family.

Johanna died young in 1875, aged only 31, from complications following childbirth.  John, with three small boys to look after, one of whom was an infant, quickly remarried, this time to a lady called Eliza DREWS.  The couple stayed married until Eliza died in 1902, aged 56.

Then the 1911 census was released, and I searched it to find John - only to find that he had married for a third time.  I searched other records for his marriage, and found that he had remarried only a year after Eliza had died - to a lady called Jane PAGE, the witness at his first wedding (the one to Johanna).  Was she more than just a family friend, then, I wondered?  She was born in North London, Middlesex.  What was she doing in Devon?

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 14: Newsmaker

I just loved this newspaper advert which I stumbled upon quite by accident while looking for something else!  If you are a fan of "Lark Rise to Candleford", and know who Miss Pearl and Miss Ruby are, then you will also enjoy this snippet about my Miss Emily.

From "The Western Times", published in Exeter, Devon - Saturday 12 April 1884:

This is my great great great aunt Emily Murch, born 1837 in Ottery St Mary, Devon.  She is my current shining star as detailed in today's Fearless Females posting.

[This post originally appeared in Fearless Females 2012]

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 11: Martha Randle and Johanna Murch

Did you have any female ancestors who died young?

Martha RANDLE (my maternal great great great grandmother) was christened 29 August 1802 at St Lawrence's church, Foleshill, Warwickshire, and married Adam BUCKINGHAM on 11 June 1821 in Astley, also in Warwickshire.  Why are they in a blog devoted to Devon and Cornwall?  Because they are my ancestors, that's why, and their line eventually wandered down to the West Country.

However, Martha died young, aged only 33, and was buried 7 June 1835.  She had already had five children, and the date of birth of the sixth, my ancestor Joseph, is also 1835.  I wonder if this birth was too much for her.  This reminds me of Johanna Murch HAYWOOD (my paternal great great grandmother), who was born 4 February 1844 and died on 17 December 1875 from exhaustion 8 days after the birth of her third child, Ernest.

Martha died before the beginning of civil registration, so there is no death certificate I can get from the General Register Office to show her cause of death.  Is there anywhere else I can look?

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 10: Religion

I am participating in the Fearless Females theme to honour National Women's History Month.  Today we were asked what role religion played in our families; as far back as I have researched on the MURCH line, women either married into a Nonconformist religious atmosphere, or were searching for the truth themselves.  Here they are in Ottery St Mary, Bovey Tracey, and Chudleigh (all in Devon), beginning with my 6th great-grandmother::

• Elizabeth Bastin: bap 1720, married Gideon Murch 21 July 1744
• Margaret Marshall,: b abt 1749, mar Samuel Murch, previously married Richard Littley (very religious family who appear regularly in the Nonconformist records) on 26 December 1774
• Eleanor Bending: bur 1834, married to Samuel Murch 14 March 1791 (2nd wife after Margaret died)
• Mary Bending: baptised on Boxing Day 1785, married Samuel Murch 16 September 1799
• Johanna Yeates married Samuel Murch 5 August 1828
• Johanna Murch and John Haywood, married 30 September 1869 in Independent Meeting House, Ottery St Mary, Devon, UK.

This post originally appeared in Fearless Females 2011 on this blog.

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...