Figuring out what Francis Cavanagh's 1854 convict records mean

 

                                                             Google map of Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour

I'm still on the track of Francis Cavanagh, my 3 x great uncle, who disappeared from records in London due to the fact that he was transported to Australia in 1838. I've been able to track him through convict records and newspaper articles in Australia but was left with a conundrum when I found that he was issued with a Ticket of Leave in 1854 and also sent to Cockatoo Island to perform labour in the same year. Did one cancel out the other?

Cockatoo Island was established as a penal station for reoffending male convicts in 1839. It was in Sydney Harbour. Using convict labour, buildings were begun at that time to house the prisoners, those who were to guard them and also for the officials to run the site. Convict labour was also used to build Fitzroy Dock on the island in a project that began in 1847. As the dockyard wasn't finished until 1857, Francis Cavanagh may have worked on that project. The penal station on Cockatoo Island closed in 1869.

Trawling online, I found the answer to the conundrum about Francis Cavanagh with his Ticket of Leave and his assignment to Cockatoo Island in an article in Epoch Magazine. The article explained that European prisoners who had conditions on their freedom such as being tied to a certain district, were often sent to Cockatoo Island. This fits with the Ticket of Leave awarded to Francis Cavanagh in 1854 as there was a district included, that of Yass. So his freedom was indeed conditional. But the record from Darlinghurst had indicated that his period of labour on Cockatoo Island was to last for 4 years. Was he then unconditionally free and will I be able to find out what happened to him after 1858?

 Sources:

Cockatoo Island information https://www.cockatooisland.gov.au/en/learn/island-history/convict-penal-establishment/ 

Australian Convict Sites Booklet https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3997467e3c3a94b303bbd0/t/61c0194aed71ef2513556f06/1639979386613/Australian+Convict+Sites+Booklet+WEB+.pdf

Epoch magazine  https://www.epoch-magazine.com/post/diversifying-a-digital-dataset-cockatoo-island-convicts

Matching Francis Cavanagh to the right newspaper reports

 

                                         Hyde Park Barracks where Francis Cavanagh and other convicts were housed 

I've made progress in my hunt for Francis Cavanagh in Australia. From the MHNSW website, I learned that much of the information about New South Wales convicts is on Ancestry. I had a deeper look at what's available and found the New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930. A search for Francis Cav* turned up lots of entries including ones for the last name Cavey and also for Fras Cavanagh. They all seem to relate to the man I'm looking for especially as a convict's ID included the name of the ship he or she came in on.

The entry for the Description Book >Darlinghurst > 1841-1849 (Darlinghurst was a gaol or jail) had entries for John Cunningham, Francis Cavanagh and Darby Corr or Carr all following each other with the entry numbers of 605, 606 and 607. Those three men were named in newspaper accounts from 1845 as the accused in the robbery of a cash box at Government House. All three were from Hyde Park Barracks, a place for male convicts at that time. Subsequent reports stated that Cunningham and Carr were found guilty but there was no evidence against Cavanagh who was discharged.

I need to make a closer study of the rest of the newspaper accounts and compare them to the sketchy timeline I've made for Francis Cavanagh based on the New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930. I'm not sure what happened to Francis in 1854. On one hand there's his Ticket of Leave with the Remarks - District Yass; Tried Sydney 1854. Does that mean he obtained his Ticket of Leave that year? On the other hand one of the Entrance Books for Darlinghurst records that he was admitted for labour for 4 years to Cockatoo Island on 23 Aug 1854. Does admitted in that case mean sentenced? I need to figure out what it all means.

Sources:

Ancestry              New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930

MHNSW             website

Trove                        https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/

Images:

Image of Hyde Park Barracks from Wikimedia commons

By Unknown author - https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/digital/4NOW6xjk4kMO0, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=135791690

Doing the math on Francis Cavanagh's Australian records

 

                                                        Trying to make sense of Francis Cavanagh's convict timeline

I've spent more time digging around in online sources for Australian research looking for information about Francis Cavanagh, the young man transported from London in 1838 at the age of 19. As part of the research, I also watched a webinar on the MHNSW website about their State Archives Collection. Their website also has a Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration which researchers can leaf through online. It explained that the certificate of freedom indicated the end of a convict's sentence. Francis Cavanagh received his Certificate of Freedom May 11, 1846. He had been sentenced to 7 years on March 13, 1837. He arrived in New South Wales on February 9, 1838. It appears that only the time after landing in Australia counted toward his sentence.

Even with a Certificate of Freedom, he was still included in the penal system of New South Wales. It doesn't seem fair, but I suppose the colony would have been hard to keep in order if every one of the transported convicts was allowed to wander free after their sentence was up. The next item up in a convict's progress appeared to be the Ticket of Leave. According to the Guide to New South Wales State Archives, there was a set timetable on which these tickets were issued. It depended on how many years a convict had served with a master. The timetable for the granting of tickets could vary from 7 years to 14.

The Ticket of Leave for Francis Cavannagh appears to have been issued in 1854 as the remark on his ticket reads: District: Yass; Tried Sydney 1854. But this would mean it took 16 years for Francis to qualify for his ticket, a little longer than the timetable outlined in the guide. What had happened to cause the delay? Looks like more digging will be needed.

Sources:

MHNSW        Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration p 41

MHNSW State Archives Collection https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/  Convicts index 1791-1873

Hunting for Francis Cavannah (Cavanagh) in Australia

 

  The places in New South Wales where the various reports came from about Francis Cavanagh (the red place marker is Tumut)

I'm still on the hunt for records that show what happened to Francis Cavanagh in Australia. It turns out that there actually were censuses for New South Wales, one for 1841 and one for 1891. Unsurprisingly, I didn't find him on the 1891 census, that I know of anyway. He could have been one of the many John Cavanaghs who were enumerated if he decided to be known by one of the other names he was christened with. In 1891 he would have been 74 which would have been something to go by if there were ages recorded on that record. No ages were recorded. The 1841 census only named the head of household. I found a promising entry for Francis Cavanah in the Singleton District of Patrick's Plains. But once I parsed out the information given under the heading of Civil Condition, it didn't match the information for the Francis Cavanagh I was looking for as my Francis hadn't received his Ticket of Freedom until 1846 and that would have been evident under that heading.

I also hunted for Francis Cavannah (and variations) in Trove, the digitized newspapers of Australia which are a great source of information. In my hunt I turned up records of a bar fight in which Francis Cavanagh lost his life. Was that my guy? The report on the fight was picked up by a lot of newspapers and it didn't stop there. The other man involved in the fight, George Ross, was eventually tried for manslaughter. He was not convicted but the accounts also mentioned the young man's heartbroken mother - so definitely not the man I was searching for. Besides the incident happened in 1874 by which time the Francis I was looking for would have been in his late 50s, so not the young man described by the report in the newspaper.

There were other mentions of Francis Cavanagh in the newspapers, one about a theft involving a suspect of that name along with a J. Cunningham and D. Carr. The men were involved in moving furniture at Hyde Park Barracks when suspected of stealing. The two other men were found guilty but Cavanagh was discharged. The report was from 1845 and would probably not have interfered with the Ticket of Freedom that Francis was awarded in 1846 if they were the same man. Another story had a Francis Cavanagh charged with stealing a silver watch. This incident happened in 1848 and this Francis was also found not guilty. Then in 1860, The New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime reported a theft from John Bennett by John Hannan and Francis Cavanagh. The report added a description of Hannan and information about his age, wife and family. Unfortunately, there were no such details about Cavanagh who had been apprehended and released on bail. Then there were the reports from East Maitland of a Francis Cavanagh charged with letting a vicious dog roam. Was he the same Francis Cavanagh charged with letting his cattle stray into the streets, or the one charged with being drunk and disorderly in 1864? Those reports were also from East Maitland.

There is nothing in the information that I have found that I can actually tie to the Francis Cavanagh that I am hunting for. I have my suspicions about the reports from the 1840s about the man who was found not guilty of two different thefts as well as the report from the 1860s. Those could be about the man I'm looking for but there is nothing to really make the connection. I think it's time to check Legacy Family Tree Webinars to see if there are relevant webinars about searching in Australia.

Sources:

Ancestry – New South Wales 1841 and 1891 censuses

Trove - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ 

Tracing Matilda's younger son, Francis Cavannah

 

                                                 Will I be able to add anything to Francis Cavanagh's part of this tree?

In the hunt for records about Francis Cavannah, the younger son of Benjamin and Matilda Cavanagh, I became aware that there were two men with the same name of approximately the same age; one in London and one in Liverpool. There were criminal records for the Liverpool Francis as well. Perhaps Benjamin and Matilda's son was out of the picture because he had moved to a different part of the country? The man in the Liverpool area was slightly older though but I wasn't sure which one was correct until I had a close look at all of the criminal records for the Francis Cavannah sentenced at the Old Bailey. One of those records recorded a description of the prisoner "5/4 ? ? blue slender Holborn. Holborn must have referred to his place of origin. That was the clincher. The Francis Cavannah I was tracking was the one sent to Australia.

New South Wales Convict Arrivals on Find My Past, showed Francis Cavannah arriving on 9 February, 1838 on the ship Emma Eugenia. After that finding, I checked Public Family Trees on Ancestry to see if any likely trees had further information about Francis Cavannah and his family but no such luck. None of them had anything further than his name indicating he was one of the sons of Benjamin and Matilda.

It was time to follow Francis to Australia. I've researched families there before. It's tricky because there are no census returns to rely on. They did keep records of convicts, however. The MHNSW database had records for Francis which included his Certificate of Freedom of 11 May, 1846. His Ticket of Leave indicated that the district was Yaas and he was tried in Sydney in 1854. I need to look into those records further to understand exactly what they mean. Perhaps there is more to learn about this errant member of the family.

Sources:

Ancestry                 Public member trees

FMP                       Various databases including New South Wales Convict Arrivals

MHNSW               MHNSW State Archives Collection https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/  Convicts Index 1791-1873

An unexpected twist in the search for Matilda's family

 

                                                      My London ancestors sometimes end up in court

While I haven't been able to find out anything more about Matilda Cavanagh or her husband, Benjamin, I have been able to find out more about their youngest son, Francis. When I couldn't find an entry for him in the 1841 census, I thought he might have left town. Because I've been down this road with London ancestors before, I checked out the Proceedings of the Old Bailey on the off chance. There I found an entry for the trial of Francis Cavannah, Matthew Pearson and Margaret Pearson for theft and housebreaking. 

Criminal records are so wonderful. There are so many of them, keeping a record of the trial and then, later, keeping track of the prisoners and writing down different information about them. One record that I found even gave his description and recorded that he was from Holborn. So I had a young man of around the right age, from the correct place. Not only that, I had a reason why I couldn't find him on the 1841 census. He was the only one of the three on trial found guilty and he was sentenced to transportation.

The New South Wales Convict Arrivals show that Francis Cavannah arrived on the ship the Emma Eugenia on 9 February, 1838. No wonder I wasn't able to find him on the 1841 census in England! Now to see if I can find any more records for him.

Sources:

 

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey https://www.oldbaileyonline.org 

FindMyPast – Record Set: England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935

More on the search for Matilda and family

 

                                                     I haven't found any information to add to this family tree yet

There are no extant census records between the 1815 marriage of Benjamin Cavanough and Matilda Fletcher and the first major census of England in 1841 - at least not that I know of. Over the years I haven't been able to find their son Benjamin in the 1841 census of England, the first one that is widely available. However, I was able to find him in the 1851 census when I tried the Find My Past website. By that time he and his wife, Sarah, were shown with 7 children and it was possible to track their moves through the birthplaces given for each of their offspring. The first 4 were born in St. Luke, Middlesex, the next in Aldgate and the the last two, twins, were born in St George, probably St Georges in the East.

So son Benjamin and his family didn't stray from their London roots although their mother, Benjamin's wife, Sarah, came from far away Norfolk. But what happened to Benjamin's birth family? What of his parents, Benjamin and Matilda? It's quite likely they died before the 1851 or even the 1841 census were taken. Then there's Francis Mark John Cavenaugh. I trawled the 1841 and 1851 census looking for him but had no luck.

At this point, I've only been able to track Benjamin Cavanagh, Benjamin and Matilda's first son. I have no idea where or when Matilda and the first Benjamin died. I don't even know how old they were when they got married or had their children. I'll keep digging to see if I can find out anything more. I may have a lead on their second son, Francis, though. More on that later. 

Sources:

Find My Past   1851 census for England, Wales & Scotland – St. George in the East, London & Middlesex, England

Starting the hunt for Matilda

 

                                             The Benjamin Cavanagh/ Matilda Fletcher part of my family tree

As I wrote last time, I'm starting my search for the Matilda Fletcher who married Benjamin Cavanagh on May 29, 1815 in Saint Andrew Holborn by licence. Information on marriage entries in those days was even sketchier than that found in the civil registration entries which became the requirement in July of 1837. In England in 1815, marriages were required to be performed in the Church of England. This became a requirement after the Hardwicke Act became effective as of March 25, 1754. So it didn't matter what denomination the couple was, they had to get married in the C of E, unless they were Jewish or Quakers (there's always some exception to the rule.)

The fact that the marriage was by licence, might mean that they were nonconformist or it might not. In any case, it meant that the banns weren't called in the church for three weeks as they would have been done for a couple who married by banns. A licence could also be used to married in haste, say if the bride was already pregnant.

Finding that out got my suspicious mind going. There was also something else that didn't seem right. The baptisms of Benjamin and Matilda's two sons were odd. The entry for their first son, Benjamin, stated that he was baptized in the parish church of St. Andrew Holborn on February 11, 1820. A note on the entry indicated that Benjamin was actually born on February 11, 1816. In the case of the next son, Francis Mark John, his baptism took place on September 8, 1823 in the same parish as his brother and, like his brother, he was also born in a different year from his baptism. His entry indicated his actual birth date was September 8, 1817. Why didn't both baptisms happen at the same time if they were late anyway? Francis would have been born before the date of Benjamin's baptism.

What if the timing of the first baptism was due to the fact that Matilda was pregnant at the time of the marriage? They then waited until later for the first child, Benjamin, to be baptized. No one would be counting the months after 4 years had passed. Then the couple waited to get Francis baptized because the sizes/maturity of the boys would obviously not go with their ages if they were seen together. The dates of birth are strange as well, both being the same days as the actual date of the baptism in each case. 

So I'm going into this search with a great deal of skepticism. It will be interesting to see if I can discover anything conclusive!

Sources:

Ancestry.ca     1815 marriage entry for Benjamin Cavanough and Matilda Fletcher in St. Andrew Holborn, London, England Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1941

                        1820 baptism entry for Benjamin Cavannaugh in St. Andrew Holborn, London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1925

                        1823 baptism entry for Francis Mark John Cavenaugh in St. Andrew Holborn, London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1925

 

Searching for Matilda

 

                                                        Benjamin and Matilda: a part of my family tree I want to expand

My own personal family tree is pretty solid back to the 3 x great grandparent level. It should be, I've been working on my tree for a long, long time. Some of my family lines I've taken back even further with some confidence. Others are more of a challenge. One of those challenges includes my paternal line. Once I hit the fourth great grandparent level on that line I ran into some challenges. My third great grandfather, Benjamin Cavanagh, was the son of Benjamin Cavanagh but I've searched in vain for more information on the first Benjamin. It doesn't help that he made his home in London, a genealogical quagmire if I've ever seen one. To top that off, I have no idea if the first Benjamin was born in London or perhaps was from Ireland as his name might indicate?

I've spent years trying to find out more about my fourth great grandfather, Benjamin, but now I've switched gears. Surely it will be easier to dig back further into my paternal fourth great grandmother's line. That grandmother was Matilda, Benjamin's wife. The marriage entry showed that Benjamin Cavanough married Matilda Fletcher, so hunting down Fletchers should put me on the right path. Not so fast. The marriage record also stated that Matilda was a widow at the time of her marriage to Benjamin Cavanough and AI informs me that a widow would go by her married name. So Fletcher was probably not the name she was born with. My task, as I see it at this point, would be to expand upon the information that I have for Matilda and maybe by doing that I might also find out more about her husband, Benjamin. And so it begins.

Information gleaned from the marriage entry

Help with my genetic genealogy journey

 

                                                                  Richard III lying in state in Leicester Cathedral

It's strange how things come to you when you state an intention. A few days ago I walked into a book store (that's not an unusual occurrence). Heading to the left after I entered the store I saw a book on the top shelf facing out to entice shoppers. It was about DNA, entitled The Secrets of Our DNA: How Genetics Has Changed the World. One of the shop employees asked if I needed help - of course I did, it was on a high shelf. When it was in hand I realized the author's name rang a bell.

The name was Turi King, and that brought me back. Remember all the excitement about the discovery and identification of Richard III's remains? I do. In fact, I made a side trip to Leicester to see for myself what the fuss was about. Turi King was one of the people involved with IDing the skeleton they'd unearthed. The collaborative Richard III project is one of the subjects she talks about in the book. She also covers many other DNA related subjects. There's even a chapter about epigenetics, I checked. What's more, the book was published in 2026, a plus in the ever evolving world of genetic discoveries and genealogy.

Sources:

King, Turi, The Secrets of Our DNA: How Genetics Has Changed the World, Doubleday Canada, Toronto, 2026 

Time to find out more about epigenetics

 

                                                                          Some of my books about Epigenetics

I've been researching my family's history for many, many years now. My quest began so long ago that I can remember ordering films from the LDS church in Salt Lake City through my local Family History Centre, then waiting weeks for them to come in. Finding genealogical links was a lot slower in those days.

When I think back to why I started on my genealogical journey though, it was the stories that intrigued me. I've always had a thing for mystery stories; devouring Agatha Christies in my early teens. But even more intriguing were the mysteries involving my own family many of which I half overheard when my mother was chatting with her mother.

It's those stories that told me what my ancestors were made of and the consequences of their actions, many of which would be far reaching. What was even more intriguing was when genealogy became enhanced by DNA testing and eventually connection was made between our genetic inheritance and those stories. It showed how our genetic makeup influences how we react and what paths we take. It's a fascinating subject I want to know more about. Looks like it's time to actually read those books about epigenetics that I've collected. 

Checking misinformation on public family trees

 

                                                  The children of Samuel Tripp as determined by my research

I received an email from FamilySearch about ancestors' weddings in this month and signed in to the website. Their interface has changed a lot and there is now a box encouraging you to build your family tree. Clicking around, I happened on a tree that included my great grandmother, Charlotte Tripp only her name was spelt Sharlot. Looking into the information on the tree further, I saw that Sharlot was listed as the eldest child of Samuel Charles Tripp and Mary Ann Roden, on the FamilySearch tree. Well, the father was correct but not the mother. Samuel Tripp had at least one child with Catherine Matheson, my 2 x great grandmother. I'm not sure which woman was the mother of Samuel's second child, Sarah May. The mother could have been Catherine, perhaps she died in childbirth, or Sarah May could have been the first child born to Samuel and Mary Ann.

It seems likely that the source for information on the family could have been the 1871 census for Fenelon, Victoria North, Ontario. The information on the entry for the Trips (sp) shows Samuel, wife Ann, daughters Sharlott age 5, Sarah age 2 and Mary 9/12. Sharlott disappeared by the 1881 census but there were more children to take her place. It would be easy to infer that Sharlott had died. But Sharlott, or more properly, Charlotte (often called Lottie) happened to be recorded twice in the 1871 census. She was also living with her grandfather, Keneth Mathison, in Fenelon, Victoria North, Ontario. Her uncle Angus (written as Agness) and aunt Heneretta Mathison were also part of the household. By the time the 1881 census was taken, Charlotte Tripp and her aunt, Henrietta Matheson, were living with the Thompson (sp) family, with another of Charlotte's aunts, Margaret Thomson.

It was a confusing situation to parse out originally and I was happy to see the family situation playing out in the official records. Now it appears that I will need to keep an eye on the information put on the FamilySearch tree so that misinformation doesn't take over the legitimate facts. Maybe it's time to check out WikiTree more fully too to make sure there is no more misinformation being entered about this family line. 

From Norfolk to the Big Smoke

 

                                                     Some of the Norfolk ancestors I've added to my family tree recently

There are always plenty of webinars to sign up to watch related to various areas of interest to genealogists. So many in fact, that it has been a long time since I watched any of the sessions available on Legacy Family Tree Webinars, a site to which I subscribe. I'm not sure what triggered my memory of the site, perhaps an email or some other mention, but I signed in and checked out what was on offer. That's when I saw a set of webinars called "England Counties Research Series". My ancestors came from many of the counties in England so that series looked promising.

I started with the session on Norfolk as I knew my 2 x great grandmother, Sarah Minister, had come from there. I took notes as I watched the webinar so I'm hoping that I'll be able to delve back further into my Norfolk family roots. Not that I've done anything much about that yet. It also made me realize that I hadn't filled in the information on Sarah's siblings, nor had I found the death of her father or mother. There's lots to be done on this family line.

Remembering that I wanted to branch out my family tree, I started adding Sarah's siblings. It appears that Sarah was the youngest, born in 1814. She had two sisters, Mary Ann born 1807, Eliza born 1818, and one brother, William born 1813. Interestingly, Mary Ann appears to have moved to London. Sarah also moved there. Both sisters also married in the big city. I wonder if their families got together and reminisced about life in Norfolk comparing it with life in the colossus that was the main city of England.

So I've made a start finding the descendants of this family and the surnames the women and children now went by. I'll see how much further my research takes me into their future before I start seeing how far back I can get into my Norfolk roots.

Sources:

Legacy Family Tree Webinars “England Counties Research Series” https://familytreewebinars.com 

Picturing the past

 

                          Google map image of Puslinch where a new chapter in the life of Alexander Mathison began

I've been researching my family's history for the better part of three, almost four, decades now and I've been able to take a few of my family lines far back in time. But the thing that I'm most interested in, the treasure hunt that has me going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, is the search for stories. My ancestors were a fascinating lot, at least to my eyes. They were there when history unfolded and were a part of social movements both intellectually and physically, as in moving from place to place. Moves that encompassed villages, towns, countries and sometimes vast oceans and endless lands on continents that were new to them. 

While uncovering some of those ancestral stories, I've also sought to hone my writing skills. To that end, I've attended various webinars put on by The Family History Writing Studio. The latest session was held this week. The students were led through a session on how to develop "Cinematic Scenes". It was a very effect session. It also made me realize that I needed a better visual of my work in progress to be able to convey the cinematic version. I haven't developed the story of Alexander Matheson, my 2x great-granduncle, very far but it's one that I find fascinating. Imagine losing track of your family for 40 years - but hey, there was no internet back then, not even any phones or phone books to help track people down. I've realized that my starting scene needs to bring 1850s Puslinch, Ontario to life for the reader. Presently that's difficult as I don't know what the area looked like so now I'm on the hunt for some views of Puslinch at that time. I need to picture it myself to be able to bring it to life for the reader. 

Filing in family information on Jersey

 

                                                                    Google map of the Island of Jersey

There are different venues to search for family information depending on where your ancestors were living. Searching for family information on Jersey is a bit of a mixed bag. I was able to find my ancestor on the 1881 census for the Channel Islands through Ancestry. It's written in English. FindMyPast also has various census years which can be found under "Channel Islands, other Britain and Ireland". I also found an earlier census for 1788 for St Lawrence Parish Inhabitants on FMP, not that I had any ancestors that I know of living on Jersey at that time.

I was unable to find the death of either William Chubb in 1877 or his son, William John Stainer Chubb, in 1878 at FindMyPast or Ancestry. Church of England records for the major life events appear to be available on both of the major genealogy sites. For information on your nonconformist ancestors it's best to check out https://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/ . So far I've obtained information about the burials of Chubb, father and son, in St Helier's General Cemetery. The entries are very sketchy containing the ages of the deceased, the date they were interred and by whom. They are also in French.

The lack of information on these burial records makes me question whether it would add anything to my knowledge if I obtained the official marriage record of William S Chambers and Sarah Ann Conway Chubb. Newspapers seem to be a better bet for finding information as I found an article in the Jersey Independent and Daily Telegraph for March 14, 1885 about the defective drainage on Mrs. Chubb's shop on Queen Street in St Helier.

Sources:

FindMyPast Newspaper collections

 

https://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/

An elusive marriage record

 

                                                                             A modern take on newspapers

I've recently started reading a book set in Jersey, Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis. It's for an online book club and reminds me of the surprising family links that I've found to the island. It also reminds me of another brick wall that I encountered. I had searched for the marriage of William S Chambers and Sarah Ann Chubb for years. Their son, my grandfather, was born in Harborne, County Stafford in 1884, but they hadn't been married in the same place. Nor could I find a marriage record in any place that I had traced either of my great grandparents to before they were married. Many checks of the GRO registers turned up nothing.

Maybe they hadn't married at all or, like other couples in my family, had been married to someone else but left them to cohabit with each other. Divorce at that time was way beyond a working couple's reach. There was also the possibility they'd married after my grandfather's birth. But nothing showed up in the GRO records after 1884 either.

Then one day I checked out the newspapers on FindMyPast. It was The Northern Mercury of Saturday, November 13, 1880 that carried the marriage announcement that I sought. William Strange Chambers of Nuneaton had married on October 28 in St. Heliers, Jersey. His bride was Sarah Ann Conway the eldest daughter of the late Wm Chubb, of St. Heliers. So if a marriage record proves elusive, it just might help to trawl newspapers online. 

Sources:

FindMyPast Newspaper collections

Finding Brick Walls

 

I am a member of several genealogy groups, one large society and a smaller, more intimate one where participation is encouraged. Our meeting will be soon but the topic of our get together has been emailed to us already. We're going to be discussing brick walls and any ways that we've tried to get around them.

I've been going family history research for decades and have run into my fair share of snags in that time but once I've found a way around them, it's hard to retain the details of what I was seeking and how I found it in the end. I do have some current conundrums that I'd like to solve though so maybe I can mention those.

Many of my family lines ended up in London, a place from which it is very difficult to figure out a person's or family's origins. Although I did trace my Argent family back to Halstead, Essex but how I figured that out has been lost along the way. I do have a clear recollection of finding where the Arments hailed from. Yes, the two families were joined by matrimony in 1840 when James Arment married Ellen Argent. James gave his father's name as Thomas Arment, a carman. This occupation was to become more dubious when Thomas and his son Thomas were brought before the courts. The criminal records for the elder Thomas supplied a lot of detail about him and recorded that he came from Suffolk. That was how I found were the Arments had come from.

Then there were the brick walls in Canada and the US. Most of them hinge around the Matheson family. I'd really like to find something to confirm my great grandmother's birth to Catherine Matheson and Samuel Tripp but the only information I have comes from their daughter's marriage certificate which places her birth in Bobcaygeon, Ontario before 1869. I have been looking for a birth record for a long, long time. Confirmation of Catherine's death would also help and might even provide a clue as to who was the mother of Samuel Tripp's second daughter. Was the mother Catherine or his second wife, Mary?

Another brick wall for this family involved Alexander Matheson, the man who left home then looked for his family for 40 years. When he died in 1920 in South Dakota various people were mentioned in his obituary. I'd like to be able to identify and track these people in order to determine if and how they were related to Alexander. Just who were Mrs. J. Ruhe of Sioux Falls, S.D. and Mrs. R.L. Eagen of La Crosse, Wis who were named in his obituary? Mrs. Eagen has proven to be particularly elusive as I've tried tracking her through newspapers and directories but have had no luck so far. Looks like I do have a few brick walls to bring up at the meeting. 

Searching for further criminal records

 

                                            The first Arment family petition submitted after the trial of the two Thomases

It's almost unbelievable how many genealogy magazines I had stashed in boxes and stacks around the lower level of my place. Probably the smartest thing to do would be to take the stacks and recycle them all at once but it would pain me to do so remembering how much I spent on every single one of those imported magazines. While they are dated, they also prompt me to look at various records I haven't checked out in a while. A case in point was an article entitled "Victorian convict records go online". Of course this is not really news anymore because it appeared in the November 2010 edition of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine. 

I suspect that I didn't read about the newly available criminal records back in 2010 nor did I read the article before I wrote multiple posts about my own criminal ancestors back in 2018 which started with  https://genihistorypath.blogspot.com/2018/08/ and followed the trials of the two Thomas Arments, father and son, and their co-accused, Henry Samuel Chester. Some of my prized documents from this research are the petitions that family members wrote regarding the accused, the first from the elder Thomas's wife and the rest from the younger Thomas. I hunted those documents down in The National Archives at Kew.

The gist of the petitions allowed me to pinpoint the death of the elder Thomas. But when I read the words of the younger Thomas (if indeed he was the actual author of the petitions sent in his name. Were there clerks/lawyers who edited and wrote out the words of the inmates?) Whoever wrote the petitions it wasn't clear from the text if the young criminal was single or married. After reading the article in WDYTYA magazine, I searched the "UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951" on Ancestry for Thos Arment. In the records for Pentonville Prison > Register of Prisoners > 1849-1850 I was able to find the entry for Thos Arment age 28 which included the information that he was married and gave his wife's name as Harriet and included her address. Now I have another person to track down.

Sources:

Ancestry, “UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951”

The National Archives, Kew – Registers of criminal petitions

Who Do You Think You Are? On the Record: “Victorian convict records go online”  

Reminded of my search for a Chelsea Pensioner

 

                                                  The article that caught my eye in "Your Family History" magazine

I'm still going through my backlog of genealogy magazines. Much of the news and many of the links are way out of date but some are still relevant like the article I found in the May 2010 Your Family History magazine. The article was about the release of a new collection (at that time) of soldiers' records on Find My Past, the Chelsea Pensioners. It reminded me of the search I had done looking for the father of Benjamin Cavannaugh (sp), my 3 x great grandfather. I was looking for another Benjamin with the same or similar last name among those who had received a pension for military service. There were in pensioners as well as out pensioners. But I didn't get as far with those records by searching Find My Past as the magazine article reported was possible. I did, however, search for Chelsea Pensioners on FamilySearch by checking the catalogue for the subject Chelsea which brought up "united kingdom Chelsea pensioner's service records". I came up with some possible matches but I'll need to get to an affiliate LDS library to see the original documents from which the index was made. That was my search for army men but perhaps he was more of a seagoing type. I found a distinct possibility at Find My Past in the records of "British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records, 1704-1939". 

But then I started thinking of why I was looking for a military Benjamin Cavanaugh as the father of my known 3 x great grandfather. I had no record of birth for my known relative. No way to know that his father was named Benjamin, only an educated guess that the name was passed down as my 3 x great grandfather named his own son Benjamin. Maybe it was time to shelve this research and work back from what I had already proved to my own satisfaction on this family line. 

Sources:

FamilySearch, “United Kingdom Chelsea Pensioner’s Service Records”

FindMyPast “British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records, 1704-1939”

Your Family History “Genealogy News Agenda” Chelsea Pensioners Online,  May 2010

Distracted by a match during a DNA webinar

 

                                                                       A snippet from the Welch part of my family tree

I was watching a DNA webinar the other day while idly checking out my DNA matches on Ancestry. Dual screens provide plenty of distractions, sometimes a good thing but not always a great aid to retention for the information originally tuned into. On that occasion, my attention was definitely divided and became more so when I found a new-to-me cousin match. It was high, 179 cm and predicted to be a half 2nd cousin. The match list indicated that my match had a public linked tree but that's not what showed up when I clicked through. It showed one profile picture with private written beside it. That's still what I saw when I clicked through on "view full tree". However, there were two profile pictures on the bottom left of the mostly blank screen and when I clicked on the leftmost of those pictures the actual family tree showed up.

Good thing that it did because I could see right away that my link with my match was through the Welch family, the family of my paternal grandmother. One of the Welch names on the match's tree was even familiar and yes, Benjamin W. Welch showed up in my family connections as well. Then I noticed a complication because Benjamin W. Welch, my match's link to the family, married a woman with the last name of Welch. That might complicate the amount of DNA between me and my match. It also reminded me of a strange connection I found when looking at the military records for one of my George Welches. George wasn't the only Welch listed and I wondered at the time if there was a link between the two Welch names in that military list. I'm not sure if I ever wrote anything about the possible connection between those two recruits or if I explored the possible link further. So I now have another intriguing thing to check out and then there is my DNA match to explore further as well. It never ends, does it?

Overwhelmed and trying to keep up

 

                                                           Battling the Reversing Rapids, Sunshine Coast, BC

Do you ever run into those periods when everything seems to be coming at you at once? The last week has been like that for me, so busy that I had to look at the calendar on my phone to reconstruct how the flow of events had gone. All of that, of course, meant that I didn't get much of my own genealogy done.

When last I updated my Chambers family members on my Ancestry family tree, I had a look at ThruLines to see if adding more family members to the tree had caused more matches to show up with links to my Chambers ancestors. No such luck, I still see one match only, my own offspring. So no big breakthrough yet. I'm starting to wonder if there ever will be. Still, I'll keep at it.

The lack of progress did make it easy to get distracted. The week before, Your DNA Guide had put on DNA Rush Week and I wanted to make sure I saw the webinars from that a second time to catch anything I might have missed or disremembered. There was also another genealogy group's meeting to check out, since the usual meeting for my local group which is usually on the same night, had changed for this month. Our group was welcomed by the Maple Ridge genealogy folks and they had an interesting presentation by one of their members. In the discussion afterwards, the speaker mentioned researching gamekeepers. My ears perked up at that and I now have ideas for other records to search for my gamekeeping folks, Elias Maidment and family. Even distractions might prove useful.

A will to continue my Chambers research

 

                                                           Chambers' documents including Joseph Chambers' will

My time to explore my Chambers family has been limited so far. I did find the 1785 will for Joseph Chambers and, as part of my preliminary study of it, I extracted the names of the legatees and their relationships as stated in this legal document. I seem to remember that my lot were Joseph's grandchildren by his deceased son John. These children were named as John, Joseph, Charles, James and Elizabeth who were to come into their inheritance of £5 each once they reached the age of 21. From this I surmised that the children were all minors in 1785 when the will was written. There were no changes made when the will was proved in 1786. After the 5 grandchildren were named along with their portion, Joseph Chambers named their brother, Thomas, to whom he left 1 shilling. It was an intriguing detail. Had Thomas already received something from his grandfather or was he in disgrace? Besides his grandchildren, the children of his deceased son, John, Joseph Chambers also named his own son, Thomas, as well as two daughters, Mary Smith (might be a bit hard to find more info about her with a name like that) and Susannah Killinger. Those names should help expand my family tree outward.

It has been difficult to keep to this research. Because my ancestors are far flung, relatively speaking, I tend to watch webinars about various genealogical interests as well as those about DNA for family history. There have been a lot of those lately over and above the ones on my RootsTech playlists. I really need to make some time to watch some of the sessions on my playlists soon. But, before I get off track again, I recently borrowed Everything is Tuberculosis from the library. I'm hoping reading that book will keep me on track with my Chambers research because that family, at least in my grandfather's generation as well as his parents' generation, was adversely affected by that disease. In fact, I believe it changed the trajectory of my grandfather's life. 

Sources:

Green, John Everything is Tuberculosis, Crash Course Books, Penguin Random House, New York, 2025

Northamptonshire Country Record Office: Ref: Peterborough Wills – Joseph Chambers, husbandman of Weldon, 28 – 7 – 1786 Copy Photo, Peter Moyse, A.R.P.S. Helpston, Peterborough

Digging up further info on Northamptonshire ancestors

 

                                                            Weldon Independent churchyard, Northamptonshire

After the webinar about weather brought Charles Pratt Chambers to mind last week, I entered him on my Ancestry family tree. Then I went looking for any documentation I already had. I dug deep into this family in the past. I even included them in a report that I wrote on the Strange/Chambers family from information I had found. 

I was able to take my Strange family back quite far because the Reverend Thomas Strange (1723-1784) was a well-known nonconformist minister with links to other nonconformists in England and there was a lot written about him. My research into this family was also helped along in the early internet days through RootsWeb which brought together various Strange researchers. I didn't get nearly as far with the Chambers family line.

Because both the Stranges and Chambers in my family appeared to be concentrated in Northamptonshire, I explored the county and its documented sources in person at one point. The Chambers were also nonconformists, unsurprising when considering the location and family connections. At one point they lived in the village of Weldon but had they been in that location for generations or had they come from elsewhere? This looks like a good time to review the information I've been able to dig up so far and then see if I can get any further back. I'll be sure to add more people to my Ancestry tree for this family line as I go along. Now to interpret the report that I left for myself on the Chambers family. It starts by citing a 1786 will for Joseph Chambers. Looks like one of my first steps should be finding that will among my documents. 

Inspiration from a Highland Historical lecture

 

                                                                            Fields on Islay in modern times

Some of my ancestors came from islands on the west of Scotland, Islay and Skye and maybe some others too, if I ever find a link. That's why I'm interested in many of the lectures put on by Highland Historical Research – see lectures@highlandhistoricalresearch.com if you're interested in what's on offer. Most recently the lecture was Climate Change in the Highlands 1810-20. These were years of cold and rain (snow in August was mentioned), a hard and deadly time in an agrarian society. The years before and many decades after weren't the best for farmers either.

I wanted to watch because my people in the area would have been greatly affected and perhaps that's why they eventually left and went to Canada. Strangely, as the lecturer presented her subject, my Skye and Islay ancestors didn't come to my mind first although they came from the area. My first thought was of the older brother of my great grandfather William Strange Chambers. Charles Pratt Chambers (the Pratt middle name was probably a surname from an ancestor much like William's Strange middle name) was interested in the weather. I have copies of some of his lectures about weather phenomena.

So I had to check Charles Pratt Chambers' dates but I didn't have him on my Ancestry tree. Turns out that Charles wasn't born until 1852 which was not in the time directly affected by miserable weather but the climate change did affect the land for long after the period highlighted in the talk.

So it was a presentation that left me wanting to see how the challenging weather had affected my families on Skye and Islay. I know that some of them at least, worked the land and scarcity of food and the resultant depressed economy would have been hard on others in the community as well. That was a natural result expected from the topic of the talk. But the fact that I now want to update the Chambers part of my family tree because it invoked the memory of my grand great uncle's weather interest was an added bonus. You never know what historical talks might inspire.

Sources:

Society of Highland and Island Historical Research   https://www.highlandhistoricalresearch.com Lecture 34: Climate Change in the Highlands 1810-20 by Karen Dean (unpublished thesis)

Finding family history through place

 

                                     

                                     The Congregational Church at Kilsby where Rev Thomas Strange and family lived                                                                                 one of my Greater London to Southern East Midlands family connections

So far I've only attended two of the RootsTech sessions for 2026. The first was a session on how to use the FamilySearch Research Wiki. In this session the viewers/attendees were advised not to search by name, a common default among genealogical researchers, the wiki gives information about place or locality. So an idea of the area where the family being searched for lived or came from is needed when seeking information from FamilySearch's very informative wiki.

The second session I attended was Diahan Southard's initial DNA presentation. She advised us that knowledge of place and time was key in finding information about ancestors who passed on their DNA to us. So place also matters when building our family trees to make sense of our DNA matches. The various DNA testing companies have different tools to point us in the direction of what places our DNA is related to. At Ancestry they are called ancestral journeys. She also showed us how to toggle through the timeline of these journeys as the migration patterns change over time.

Immediately after the session, I checked out the journeys on my Ancestry account. They can be found under DNA in the Origins section. I now have 3 ancestral journeys which make less sense to me than the original communities or whatever they were called in previous DNA updates. I used to have one that included Ontario which fit in well with the known whereabouts of a branch of my family. Now I have Virginia & Eastern Kentucky Settlers which is no help with my family lines that I can see, Greater London to Southern East Midlands which contrary to expectations is on my maternal side (my Dad's family lived in London for generations) and Eastern Australia which is on my paternal side although the family line which I've traced to NSW is on my maternal side.

The Greater London to Southern East Midlands made sense when I looking into it further as it included Northamptonshire and various people from my family tree were also included although not all of them were from the maternal side of my family tree. The timeline for the Eastern Australia journey only had one entry, no change from date to date. It does remind me that I should track down the family connections on my father's side to see who ended up there. The ancestral journey that still baffles me is the one for Virginia & Eastern Kentucky Settlers but I'm encouraged by Ancestry to keep adding to my family tree and, if I enter a relevant family connection on my own family tree, they will show up in the information for that ancestral journey. Maybe it's time to add more connections to the part of my family tree that could possibly be relevant. 

Ready for RootsTech?

 

                                                            Snow at the Salt Palace site of RootsTech March 2025

Have you signed up for RootsTech yet? It's that time of year again when the big conference happens in Salt Lake City. It didn't used to be such a big thing. I remember someone in my genealogy society talking about going to the RootsTech conference some time ago back when my society used to meet in person. (I miss getting together like that.)

Back then, when that person talked about attending RootsTech, I thought it would be interesting to check it out someday. Then I remembered that it snowed in Salt Lake City and the conference was in early March so I put it off. So I didn't get to see any of the conferences in the beginning years. Since then they've grown exponentially as we moved online during the COVID years and now the RootsTech conference reaches viewers in many corners of the world through the magic of technology.

I finally did get to check RootsTech out in person in 2025. There were many classes to choose from and sometimes I wondered if I would be able to get from one end of the Salt Palace Convention Center to the other in time for my next class. Planning distances became part of my strategy for the sessions I chose as well as figuring out which classes I would be able to follow up on later and which ones I could only see in person. And yes, it did snow while I was there but it disappeared quickly and I spent most of my time inside. 

Wikipedia distraction

 

Last year at this time, I was trying to make sure I had everything ready for a two week long family history foray. It had been a daunting task trying to get everything together. I've reached the point in my research where I've gone beyond the easier initial steps of filling in family knowledge. Now it's a case of picking some particular family branches to find out more about. That in-depth research requires more time and thought but, with the advances that have been made in what is available online, so much more history can come to light. Often that's where the stories hide.

I was in search of those stories when I sat in front of a computer at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City. As I had prepared, I started with the research I'd planned. I was disciplined at first, taking various family lines further into the past but then, as so often happens, I got sidetracked. I stumbled on a line of ancestors who had Wikipedia pages! Oh, I know I could have done that research at home instead of spending my precious hours at the library leaping from page to page on Wikipedia but the hunt was on!

I did get back to my research plan eventually, but finding those stories written about people who were connected to my family tree was a thrill. Finding information written about my various Hinton connections felt almost like discovering a gateway ancestor to the past similar to attaching a family line to noble or royal lines whose histories were recorded. Although finding a real gateway ancestor would probably open up more doors into written histories. If only I could get back that far!