Getting a list of military ancestors together

 

                                                   A book of military ancestors put together by the members of BCGS

The next meeting of one of my local genealogy societies has recently started inviting the other members of the group to share information about their research and/or ancestors based on certain topics. Last session we were looking at occupations. Next meeting will be military ancestors. I've researched a few of those and even written about some of them. Now to come up with a list.

Then I remembered that I had a copy of the 2023 Book of Remembrance that the British Columbia Genealogical Society put together for that year. Some of the entries are about my relatives and the book itself will be great to take to the meeting to show the other members as I don't think many of them are also members of the BCGS. I believe there are more ancestors that I wrote posts about so I'll have to have a trawl through my blog to see if I can come up with additional entries over and above the BCGS book. 

Occupation - engraver

 

                                                        Josiah Taylor was involved in the design of this advertisement

My search for more information about the Hinton family line brought me to another well-known family, the Taylors of Ongar. I had never heard of them before but it was another family line that, while remote, could prove to be interesting to research. The link to the Taylors came through James Hinton, the son of Thomas Hinton and Mary Strange. This James Hinton (there are a few of them) married Ann Taylor. Ann belonged to the Taylors of Ongar, a well-known dissenting family, an appropriate bride for James Hinton, minister of the Oxford Congregational Church.

The bride, Ann Taylor, was the daughter of Josiah Taylor the engraver, according to the book about James that I was able to access online. My immediate thought was that Josiah Taylor worked engraving metal such as silver. But the fact that he was known as the engraver rather than an engraver, meant that he was probably well-known. So I went looking for some of his work.

The images I found weren't of metal objects which confused me until I looked up the trade in A Dictionary of Old Trades, Titles and Occupations. Apparently engravers didn't just work with metal with one of the main mediums they were known to engrave being printing blocks. It's amazing the information research can turn up.

Sources:

Hopkins, Ellice Life and Letters of James Hinton Ballantyne Press  https://archive.org/details/lifelettersofjam00hintiala/page/n5/mode/2up 

Waters, Colin A Dictionary of Old Trades, Titles and Occupations Countryside Books, Newbury, Berkshire, 2002

Images:

By Print made by: Josiah Taylor (?)Lettering engraved by: E Gullan - https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_D-2-312, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90226464

Census information can raise many questions

 

                                                              The present day building at 82 Wentworth Street

It has been hard to sustain the push I felt to extend and/or prove the information on the family tree sent to me by a cousin many years ago. Somehow there isn't the same amount of time to devote to genealogical research once back on home turf. Besides, I've been intrigued by the information that took me to London so I've started to look at the research that I've gathered on my East End relatives to see where the gaps are.

When I look at the 1891 census records for 82 Wentworth Street, I see an extended family which means collateral relatives to add to my family tree. The entry also brings up questions. I can identify everyone at number 82 as being related in some way except for one couple, William McArthur and his wife, Mary R. Did they have some as yet unknown family connection to the rest of the people living in that dwelling? My great grandmother Charlotte's sister, Mary A. Wright, is head of her part of the household but she is listed as married. Where was her husband Thomas James Wright? I also would like to know when she and her children moved into the same residence as her sister and family. Was it before or after the spate of killings made life in neighbourhood even more precarious?

I'm still reading up on the effect of the Ripper murders on the East End. It must have been difficult for them. Perhaps that was why the family were all living in such close proximity in 1891.

Sources:

Ancestry.ca  – 1891 England Census 

 

The joys of meeting in person

 

                                   The BCGS Library, one of the places where in-person meetings sometimes take place

These days many, if not most, genealogy society meetings take place on Zoom. The BCGS, the larger local society that I am a member of, pivoted to the online platform during COVID and found that it attracted members from outside the immediate area. Perhaps that is why they never went back to meeting in person. That, and the money saved by not having to rent a meeting room.

 That makes the decision to continue meeting online understandable but at the same time I miss the people I used to sit with and the conversations we used to have. There isn't that ability to really connect with people especially when some want to have their say all the time so everyone else's contributions are basically drowned out.

All the Zooming makes me really appreciate the in-person meetings that are still being held. Perhaps that is why I've joined so many groups that meet face to face. Many of those groups are genealogy groups. I was especially stoked when I made it to the PoCo Genealogy group's meeting this week and got to participate in discussion on occupations. There were a wide variety of jobs that were discussed both by the in-person attendees and by those who joined us on Zoom. It is nice to be heard!