Tempting links to take a tree back

 

                                            Both of my grandfather Henry's lines have been hard to take back beyond his grandparents

In an effort to find out more about Matilda Fletcher, who I wrote about in my last blog post, I took a look at the family trees on Find My Past. There was one that looked very promising, taking Matilda's ancestors back a few generations. The hitch (of course, there was a hitch) was that the tree's creator had assumed that Fletcher was the name that Matilda was born with. I wasn't so sure. When I looked further into that particular tree, I noticed more names that were in my own family tree. The only problem was that my grandmother was entered with her first husband's last name and she was given unrelated ancestors. Hmm, maybe it wasn't the best researched tree.

My strategy has changed. I decided to look for Fletcher children with a mother named Matilda born before Matilda's 1815 marriage to Benjamin Cavanagh. Perhaps then I could find the death of the first husband and, more importantly, the marriage for that husband and Matilda which would give the last name she was born with. I'm not sure how far I'll get but it's worth a shot. I just hope she was only married twice.

Sources:

Ancestry.com

FindMyPast.com

Chipping away at a brick wall

 

                                                                                           London Bridge

There is one family line that I keep returning to time after time. There are reasons why it is hard to find information further back for this family. The earliest record I can be sure of is the marriage of Benjamin Cavanough (sp) to Matilda Fletcher on May 29, 1815 in the parish church of Saint Andrew Holborn by Licence. He was listed as a bachelor and she was a widow. She signed her name while he made an X. The witnesses were James Hayes and Susannah Chapeu (sp?).

The next record I have is the baptism of their son, Benjamin Cavannaugh in Saint Andrew Holborn on February 11, 1820. The date of birth was also given. It was February 11, 1816. Their abode was listed as Whites Alley and the father's occupation as Chancery Lane. Why did they wait 4 years to have their son baptized? There were no other children of the couple baptized at the same time so it wasn't a batch baptism.

Unfortunately, this all takes place before there were censuses that named the inhabitants. I've previously searched for information about men with the surname of Fletcher dying in the area presuming that Fletcher was Matilda's married surname. The occupation of Chancery Lane for the elder Benjamin is one I should look into further. Hopefully I'll find more clues from that search and whatever other potential searches I can think up and maybe I should also check out FindMyPast, there's a thought.

Sources:

Records from www.ancestry.ca 

Ancestry's Origins

 

According to Ancestry's Blog, their Ancestral Origins, which details the regions that a tester's DNA comes from, will be updated soon. It means that those of us who have done a DNA test at Ancestry will likely have their ancestral regions changed once again. It also gives me hope that there may be a correction to my own regions.

As I complained earlier in one of my posts, Ancestry added Cornwall origins to my regions with the last update (I have yet to find anyone from Cornwall in my family tree) but at the same time they demoted my Irish region to 1%. My son also tested his DNA at Ancestry with a much larger result in the Ireland regions, 7% of which was received from me. How can this be when I only have 1% to give? The math boggles my mind. I'm hoping for more clarity with the new update but we shall see.

Family pride of place

 

                                                                                                  London Bridge

Often where you're from defines you. We have these preconceived notions about the character of people from certain places. I was reminded of that recently on a UK Who Do You Think You Are? episode which featured Lisa Hammond who, among the other roles that she played, once had a recurring character on the EastEnders. She was proud of her East End roots, the gritty down to earth characters of her ancestors came from the right place with them being born in various neighbourhoods of London's East End. She cheered every time a new London birthplace for one of her forebears was revealed until, as was inevitable, there was an outlier. Her original London ancestors had started out in Wales. That was a surprise which made Lisa rethink some of her family's past.

In my own family many, many of my family lines ended up in London, a fair portion of them in the East End. They came from all over, although I haven't found any that came from Wales yet, nor the ones from Cornwall that Ancestry says I have. (I'm not sure what's up with that.) Still, I feel a sense of pride with my London background even though I wasn't born there and never lived there. Still I am but one removed so I come by my pride honestly. Then again, I also feel a sense of pride at having lived in various cities in Canada, getting a sense of each which can only be obtained in walking the streets of a city in which you live. When it comes right down to it, leaning about the places in which they lived can tell you a lot about your ancestors.