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.