Changing Transport, Changing Land

 

                                                                                      Abandoned railway track

Recently I saw a presentation about the early settlers on the Coquitlam River. This area of British Columbia was settled relatively late. The waning years of the 1850s saw the first pioneer claiming land. This, of course, was the story of European style settlement. There were already people on the land as it was the territory of the Kwikwetlem First Nation.The first peoples' relationship with the land was different than that of the European settlers. 

When settlement by the Europeans began there were no roads. Transport was by water. That meant those early settlers took up land and built on the banks of the river; river banks which were differently placed than today. In fact, a map of the early settlement showed that one of the pioneers took up land on an island in the Coquitlam River which is no longer there.

The river and the land around it have changed so much over the years that it is doubtful that the early settlers would recognize them. A city has grown up around the waterway's new course (actually two cities) and the river has been dammed. All of these factors are a reminder to anyone studying the history of the area that it would be best to consult old maps and photos to better understand the lay of the land.

Land use changed in other ways too as new avenues of transportation were built. This was more obvious in the less populated lands of British Columbia, but I'm reminded that even a more built-up country, such as England, was also changed by new forms of transport.

The first week of the Future Learn course "Working Lives on Britain's Railways: Railway History and Heritage", gave a potted history of the rise of railways in Britain. Railroads allowed people and goods to get around more quickly and easily. They also changed the landscape as miles and miles of track were laid. I'm eager to learn more about what my ancestors who worked on the railway did in their jobs.

As with most new technology, however, the push for new railway lines abated once the heyday of railway expansion was over. In some places there was also retraction, leading to abandoned towns and disused tracks, another alteration of the land. 

 

Sources:

Drew, Ralph. Coquitlam Pioneers: First Settlers on the Coquitlam River - presentation given to the BCGS April 14 2021

 

Lives touched by religion and crime

 

                                                             Dr Williams Library houses nonconformist records

I knew I was in trouble as soon as I read the first question on the exam. Tests based on multiple choice questions are generally held to be among the easier types of exams. There are some people who can make even those more benign tests diabolical. I was reminded of this when I took the test for the NIGS course on English non-conformity. I had taken tests from the author of the course before. As in those previous tests, I squeaked by this time as well but the final score was way below my average.

It's too bad, really because the course covered the material really well. I would recommend the course, but just beware the sting in the tail. Now I have more ideas about how and where to further research my dissenting ancestors. The non-conformists go back far in my family lines. This presents a challenge but those challenges can lead to some interesting stories.

It's sad in a way that the people who did what was expected leave fewer interesting tales to be told. It is the nonconformists, the criminals and those who followed their dreams who reward us with stories and catch our imaginations.

This was underlined in an event I saw recently at a festival put on by mystery writers. In one session the topic was true crime and how it inspired the authors to write both fiction and nonfiction stories based on real events. It reminded me of how crimes and misdeeds had touched my own life. I wonder if I can uncover similar incidents in my ancestor's lives and more stories to be told. 

DNA Update

 

I finally got to take one of my family lines back further because of a DNA cousin! I didn't think that would ever happen. What's more, I contacted this researcher over Ancestry's messaging system and they responded. That doesn't happen every day. Of course, this is not on the family line that I have been writing about so I got sidetracked again.

When tracing my Welch line, I'd been able to take that family and some of the families who married into it quite far back but there was one wife's family that I didn't know anything about. Who were the parents of Elizabeth Long who married George Welch in 1827 in Southwark, Surrey?

My DNA cousin was able to supply that information and more besides. Included in the information were the names of William Long's employers in Cheshunt, Herfordshire. William Long was Elizabeth Long's father and George Welch and Elizabeth also lived in Cheshunt for a while.

In my previous research on the Welch family, I had great success when I found out more about the employers of some of the Welch family. The movement of a factory provided reasons for the family to have moved at one point. Maybe finding out more about the employers would provide clues on the Long family as well. That led me to a search of the wills in Cheshunt. I hoped for a will for William Long or wills for the men who had employed him. That search sent me over to the National Archives site where the PCC wills are still available for download for free. No luck with William Long but I think I found the wills of two men who employed him at different times. Now I just have to transcribe those challenging documents.

This latest DNA discovery sent me back to regular genealogy research. I don't think that's how it's supposed to work. But we'll see how this pans out. BTW the National Archives sites says they will be reopening soon. No word about what will happen with the free downloads at that time.

Genealogy education at the click of a mouse

When I first started to do family history research, I eagerly attended classes and conferences furthering my education. It was so interesting and new. At that time, I hoped to master the techniques being taught and to gradually be done with learning about my new endeavour. That was over 30 years ago. I still continue to learn.

Little did I know that things would change quickly when the internet took off. The genealogical community adapted as each new opportunity came along. For a pastime which is rooted in the past, genealogy is surprisingly ready to adapt to new technology and ideas. Its practitioners aren't tied to doing things the way they have been done throughout history.

Proof of this can be found in the growth in the area of genetic genealogy. The use of DNA in family history research is one that I always want to find out more about. Something tells me that I should actually do some hands-on work with the information I already have. Maybe that would be better than signing up for the next webinar on the subject. Those webinars make it look easy but somehow, they don't make as much sense when confronted with my own matches.

Now that everything has moved online, it's so easy to sign up for even more webinars and conferences. I was trawling through the latest offerings this morning when the blank screen for this blog post had been staring at me for too long. My picks are complicated by the fact that I'm a writer as well as a family historian. That means literary festivals and writers conferences are added to the mix. Fortunately, the literary event I bought tickets for doesn't interfere with the Ontario Ancestors conference in June which I was looking at. That conference does occur at the same time as a BCGS virtual seminar I signed up for though. I'll have to juggle something to fit them both in.

That's the trouble with everything being available with the click of a mouse. The fact that everything is available. It's hard to pick and choose when travel and distance aren't a part of the equation. Now we can have it all, or near as, I feel that my attention is scattered. Attending an event in person gives my thoughts focus. I miss that. 

Searching for a Huguenot Link

 

                                                 Costume designs for the original production of Les Huguenots, 1836

 

I love a good mystery. Right now, I'm reading Final Account by Peter Robinson, one of the Inspector Banks series. In spite of having at least 5 other books on the go, I have a hard time putting the mystery down. Every once in a while, a family mystery absorbs me in the same way. I'm working on one of those family puzzles now.

It was probably inevitable that the NIGS course I'm taking about English Non-conformist religions would lead me astray. I was meant to be working on my Chambers family but I'm running behind in the course modules and haven't gotten to the Congregationalists yet. I got waylaid by the Huguenots.

Two surnames in my family tree make me suspicious that they are of French origin; those of Arment and Argent. Many Huguenots in England brought their skills in silk weaving to their new country. A strange connection that, given the story of the two Thomas Arments, father and son, who were tried in the Old Bailey for receiving stolen cloth. This blog covered that story in a series of posts which starts at http://genihistorypath.blogspot.com/2018/08/ with the title Adding to the Family Story: London Criminal Records.

It was one of those posts which led to email correspondence with a fellow Arment researcher. He outlined how he believed my line went back from Thomas Arment senior to a Huguenot who immigrated to London from what was once the Dauphine region of France. We found the same parents for Thomas who was born in Bramfield, Suffolk in 1787 to Samuel Arment and his wife Alice (formerly Puttock). Now to see if I can get back closer to the Huguenot Arment immigrant to London.

As for the other possible Huguenot line, that of the Argents, looking at a map I was struck by how close (at least by car) Halstead, Essex, the home for a time of the Argents, was to Bramfield, Suffolk where the Arments were. Both of them were also not far from Ipswich, which, my course work tells me, still has Huguenot registers in existence.

 

Images: 

Huguenot costumes -  By Unknown author - http://www.bnf.fr/, Public Domain,  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76317233

Churches and Trains

 

                                                                        Yelvertoft First Congregational Church

 Lately, my time for research has been taken up with other things. Developing a writing habit has been good but time consuming. It helps to grow the narrative nonfiction story about my family that I am currently working on. But the deeper I get into the narrative, the more about that line of the family I want to find out. You would think that would lead to more research not less. But not in this case.

That's because sometimes it pays to lay the groundwork for research. Probably more often than we like to think as we go haring off after clues not pausing to find out what is available or which sources will provide the best answers. What is that advice we are given? Something to do with having a research plan?

Even before planning research, a better understanding of the subject might stand the researcher in good stead. At least that's what I tell myself as I slowly work my way through some of the NIGS (National Institute for Genealogy Studies) courses. The one I'm taking currently is English: Non-Anglican Church Records. Very appropriate as the family line which I'm currently researching and writing about was nonconformist for many generations. How many generations, I have not yet been able to ascertain.

Most of my lot were Congregationalist but some, the early line that went from Horkstow in Lincolnshire to Rhode Island via Boston, may have been Puritan at some point only to become Quakers. One of my lines, however, was proud Church of England but the family came from Ireland. A suspicion that they may not always have been C of E, or C of I if it was in Ireland, had me sign up for a March 27 presentation on the Catholic Family History site https://catholicfhs.online/  about Secular and Church of England Records which may contain information on Roman Catholics.

There are plenty of chances to learn more about all kinds of subjects. More than there are hours in the day sometimes. The other day I received notice of a new Future Learn course which fits right into the ancestor story on which I am currently working. Working Lives on Britain's Railways: Railway History and Heritage looks like it will add to my knowledge of my ancestor's working life. But could I add another course to my schedule? I was happy to see that it starts the same week that my NIGS course ends. So, I signed up. I'll get to the research on my family one of these days. Mustn't forget about my RootsTech playlist though.

Placing Family Roots in the Bigger Picture

 

                                                                           Not all trees have strong roots

Sometimes it's good to look at the information you have in different ways. I recently read a book about demography, The Human Tide: How Population Shaped the Modern World, and thought that I would see how my Chambers family fit into the population trends outlined.

The British population started to grow due to earlier marriages which allowed for more births per woman. At the same time, people started to live longer and infant mortality decreased. The key factors I will be looking for will be age at marriage which by the 1850s was 23 as opposed to the average of 26 of the early 1700s and a birth rate that fits in with the rate of 6 births per woman by about 1800 and was still the norm, from what I can make out, until about the mid 1870s.

So the parameters to look for in my Chambers family data are:

• age of marriage close to 23 after 1850

• birth rate of about 6 per woman after 1800

This is the information I have so far:

 Looking for "age of marriage close to 23 after 1850", there was only one person who married at the age of 23. That was William Strange Chambers in 1880. Not only was that the male of the couple which doesn't affect fertility rate per woman, it was also later than the 1850s. Apart from that most of the other family members getting married were between 28 and 33. That didn't change for this family line from the early 1800s to the late 1800s.

As for "birth rate of about 6 per woman after 1800", there was a slight up tick in the number of children born to John Chambers and Mary Strange who married in 1850 and had 4 children which compares to the average of 2 for the earlier and later couples. This was not up to the average for the time of 6 children per woman.

What was obvious from the data shown, was the young age at which many of the family died. So, while this family line didn't fit with the norms which were sited in the book, it did point to some further lines for study. Checking through the information which I had on hand for this family reminded me of what I have and what information I need to see if I can take the family back further. It also gave me ideas about different ways to use this and other data that I have gathered. It goes to show that it can pay to manipulate the data in different ways to show gaps and possible avenues of research.  

 

Sources:

Morland, Paul. The Human Tide: How Population Shaped the Modern World. Hatchette Book Group, New York, NY 2019