A Sunday in Salt Lake City

 

                                                       The Entrance to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City

At the time I didn't know it would be the last research trip I would take for a while. I had used a travel agent to book my flights in and out of Salt Lake City. Not until later did I notice that my return flight was in the evening, on a Sunday. Surely there would be something open after I was kicked out of my hotel room. Checking online it appeared that stores were open on Sunday. All good. The Family History Library even had Sunday opening in the afternoon. I would be fine.

My hotel was right next to the Family History Library. Convenient during the week, but that Sunday I realized there was very little around it that was open. Even the restaurants I had visited during the week were closed. October in Salt Lake City always takes me by surprise. It just looks like it should be warmer than it is. It was cold visiting the historical sights which weren't behind closed doors.

I had envisioned a morning of shopping, a leisurely lunch and maybe a couple of hours at the Family History Library wrapping things up. I eventually found an open restaurant and one open store after a long walk. My research time increased. I was at the Family History Library shortly after it opened.

Extra research time is usually a boon. But only the main floor computers were open that Sunday. Not knowing what to expect, I hadn't really prepared. It remains to be seen if I gathered anything new as I finally take a look at the information I gathered that afternoon. My Chambers family was one I remember looking for. Will there be hidden treasure in the data I brought home? 

Taking the hint

                                                                   Ornamental representation of a steam engine

Lately I haven't had much time for genealogical research. Other ways to spend time online have proliferated the longer social isolation has gone on. Time that once was taken up by webinars and virtual conferences now seems to go to Zoom meetings and the fall out from writing retreats. At least Zoom writing sprints have led to me getting more words down.

In a Zoom meeting about genealogy the topic of Ancestry messaging came up. Apparently it has improved. I went on the Ancestry site to see if I had any messages. Nada. So, I checked out my family tree on the site. Green leaves were springing up all over. I have a tendency to ignore them but some were for recent family so I checked them out. I already knew a lot of the information but I went further than I usually do and found some real treasures, copies of original documents in sources I had never though of checking.

Because of where he lived when he was working for the railway, I had surmised that Harold S Chambers worked for the London and South Western Railway. I had never found anything to document that fact. That is, until I checked one of the Ancestry hints. Attached to Harold's name on my tree was a hint that led to a copy of the document for UK railway employment records that confirmed that Harold Strange Chambers worked for the London and South Western Railway. My assumption was correct! The documents was a record of his time with that company.

He entered into service in July of 1900. His age at the time was given as 15. The records also noted his rise in rank and salary as the years progressed. From 1900 to 1906 there were raises every year and then none. He remained in his employment with the railway with no increase in pay for just over another 4 years.

When researching how Harold would have traveled from Bournemouth to Liverpool in 1911 to take the Empress of Ireland to Canada, I ran across mentions of Britain's first railway strike in August of that year. Harold was long gone from England by that time but perhaps employment conditions were behind his resignation from the railway in January of 1911. Then again, he immigrated in March of 1911. Perhaps he needed the time to visit far flung friends and relatives before he left the country of his birth.

 

Sources:

Ancestry hint accessed February 17 2021 UK, Railway Employment records 1833- London and South Wester 1859-1920 Clerical Sta

The Llanelli Railway Riots https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/The-Llanelli-Railway-Riots/

Value added through in person research

 

                                          Gravestone of John Chambers showing his wife and son who died elsewhere

Often research trips don't turn out the way you planned. Sometimes they are even better! So it was when I checked out some of my Northamptonshire family lines. When I reached the village of Little Weldon, I thought how well it fits its name; it was small. It was quiet too. I don't remember seeing anyone when I made my way from the bus stop to the churchyard. It wasn't hard to pick out the church among the sparse buildings at the centre of the village. It was the big building with the graveyard at the rear.

I made my way through the gravestones reading as I went. There were several for my Chambers family. I knew that my ancestor, John Chambers, had died in Little Weldon but I was surprised to see the names of his wife and son on the stone. They had died much further away in Bournemouth. It made me wonder who had commissioned the stone and when it had been erected. I haven't looked for that information yet and don't know if the records would still exist.

But in this case, bricks and mortar still exist. The church where my ancestors worshipped probably looked much the same as when they went there. While I was out tromping around the gravestones taking notes and pictures someone was watching from inside the church. The custodian came out to see what I was doing. When I explained my quest, he asked if I would like to see the inside of the church. That was how I came to see where they would have sat and listened to the minister every Sunday. Now that's an experience that can't be replicated through an internet search! 

                                               Weldon Independent Church is visible at the back of the gravestones

From maps to footsteps

 

   

                                                                            A Map of Northamptonshire

 

It always seems that it takes more research prior to going on a genealogical foray to an ancestral place than it does when you have access to the places and archives while there. Even so, during the preparation you can forget some basics. Before I went to Northamptonshire, I checked out the places I would be staying, the places I needed to get to and public transportation in the area. What I didn't do was look at a map in conjunction with the bus schedules.

I had it in my head that when I left the city of Northampton where the conference had been, I would first get to Kettering and then to the villages of Little and Great Weldon. My plan was to stop in Kettering, check out the graveyard for my ancestor's gravestones and then find the street where my Strange family had lived and run their grocery shop, before moving on to the Weldon villages and my Chambers family. Only the bus schedules didn't allow for that to happen.

Checking maps of the area before my trip along with bus schedules would have shown me that I wouldn't be able to visit both Kettering and the Weldon villages in a day. Fortunately, one of my contacts, a distant cousin, was happy to drive me around to those ancestral places which were harder to get to relying on public transport. It helped that those were the family lines we shared in common.

Successful research on the ground requires changing plans when necessary and being open to new ways of accessing places and information. Another good thing to do is to have contacts in the area, preferably ones which you have been in touch with for a while to build up a relationship. At least that was one thing I had going for me on that trip.

 

Images:

By User: (WT-shared) Paul. at wts Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22746942

 

A journey back to their home county

 

                                                       English Civil War Reenactors

As I write the story about HS Chambers, I'm bringing his tale forward in time which can be counterintuitive to genealogists who are trained to go from the people in current times back into history. But I can remember the voyage of discovery as I took his family lines, both paternal and maternal, back in time. Both family lines took me back to a common place, at least as far as county goes. That place was Northamptonshire, or Northants, as it is sometimes called.

In 2006 when I found out there was going to be a conference in Northampton put on by the Federation of Family History Societies, I knew that I had to go. It would be a perfect opportunity to get to that area of the UK to attend the conference and do some research in the area. I'd attended conferences before but none in the UK where most of my family originated.

The five-day conference was held at the University of Northampton and accommodations were in the student residences. I was a little bit apprehensive based on my own days in student residences, but ended up favorably impressed. We didn't have ensuites back in my school days. Staying on campus made getting to the lectures so much easier.

The theme of the conference was Putting Flesh on the Bones: A Study of the Common Man. It was so interesting attending in-person sessions given by well-known names in English Genealogy, like John Titford, Nick Barratt and Else Churchill, probably old hat to most attendees but I got a kick out of seeing them. Also on campus were reenactors from the English Civil War Society, which makes sense as there was a lot of fighting around Northamptonshire during the Civil War.

The tents of the Time Village with its emphasis on ancient crafts were a draw but I spent most of my time checking out family history goods on offer. Good thing too because I picked up some booklets of graveyard transcriptions which stood me in good stead. More about that later. 

 

                                                                                  Tents in the Time Village

  

DNA Update

 

I began this year with a promise to myself that I would do more DNA posts this year. I figured writing it down would prod me to do more with my genetic genealogy. In the past, I've attended webinars and conferences about DNA where I've taken dutiful notes. The problem was that I just didn't use what I'd learned. I'm hoping to change that.

So, when I needed to interview someone for my writing course, I chose the facilitator for the BC Genealogical Society's DNA interest groups. I thought I might as well kill two birds with one stone. Not only would I fulfill the requirements of the course, but I would also learn more about the subject of DNA and one person's experience in the field.

It was a wide-ranging discussion, touching on what got her interested in DNA, adoptees and search angels, the use of DNA to solve cold cases and TV programs such as The Genetic Detective and Finding Your Roots. The consensus was, that even though research in those programs is shown in an unrealistic light, we still find the shows fascinating.

Something else that we discussed was some emails that she had sent me which compared our GEDmatch kits. At the end of the interview, I asked about the information she had sent which was broken down by chromosome and included other DNA kits as well. I'm currently transcribing the end of the almost two-hour long interview. I think that the details about the information she had sent me will help me to jump start my journey into genetic genealogy.

Deadlines and research

 

                                                                                 

 Sometimes it's hard to delve into just one thing. With the word deadline on the HS Chambers story looming, I had hoped to get the details of his 1911 trip across Canada set. I have the gist of the story and will have to go with that and layer in some of the more evocative details later, once I have found out what they are.

I did run into some luck when I researched Harold's first place of settlement, Craik, Saskatchewan. Gary, a fellow genealogist/family history writer told me about the book Craik - Friendliest Place by a Dam Site which I've sourced in the library of my genealogy society, BCGS. I haven't gone to pick it up yet as the library is currently closed in compliance with public health orders. Gary found out about my interest when I announced that I had found a picture of the train station at Craik in 1911 online at the Canada-Rail website at http://www.canada-rail.com/saskatchewan/c/craik.html#.YAIzfxZ6rct. I don't think the passengers who were used to English towns would have been much impressed by the town of Craik or the station but maybe they would have just been happy to get off the train. The pictures I've seen of the interiors of rail cars for colonists don't look very comfortable!

The other research I've been engaged in this week was for the Tripp family. This time it was for the wife of the founder of the Tripp line in Colonial America, Mary Paine. I'm looking into her English origins but so far, the records in the early 1600s and late 1500s are few and far between.

Another activity this week should help to increase my DNA knowledge. It was an interview of someone I know from the genetic genealogy community. I'm currently transcribing the very long interview. It might take me a while but not too long because I need to write an article based on said interview and there's a deadline on that as well.