The prompt for this blog is “favourite name”.
I have a few favourite names in my family tree, Parthenia
Wines Flower being one, but Parthenia was not my direct ancestor. So, I have
chosen to write about my ancestor Comfort Maisey*.
Comfort Maisey was born around 1713, in Bagendon, Gloucestershire, England, and was baptised in the parish church on 21 June 1713. Bagendon is a picturesque Cotswold village.
The prompt for this blog post is “DNA”.
For many years, my ancestor, William McDonald of Glasgow,
was something of a mystery to me.
What I did know was that William McDonald married Margaret
Bowie of Hutchesontown, Glasgow, on 11 December 1824 in Gorbals. William and
Margaret had three children: Elizabeth Harvey* McDonald (my ancestor), Salis
Schwabe McDonald and Margaret McDonald.
Salis Schwabe was named after a German Industrialist who had businesses
in Glasgow and Manchester. Sadly,
Margaret McDonald nee Bowie died sometime between 1833 and 1838, leaving William
a widower with three young children.
This story is inspired by the 52 Ancestors prompt “Migration”, and it also covers the recent prompt “Surprise”.
Joseph Lees was born 23 August 1830 in the village of
Gomersal, in Yorkshire, England. Baptised
on 10 October 1830, in Birstall Parish Church, he was the son of William Lees,
a clothier, and his wife Rachel nee Gomersal.
A clothier was someone who made and sold cloth and it was a common
occupation in West Yorkshire; I have several clothier ancestors. With the growth of mechanised mills, William
eventually moved to working in a mill as a billy spinner.
Joseph Lees was the youngest of six known children of
William and Rachel. His older siblings
were Mary, William, Samuel, Rachel Gomersal and Sarah. Joseph would not have known any of his
grandparents, three died before he was born and the fourth died when he was
less than a year old.
The Lees children all appear to have been educated, those
who married signed the marriage register with a confident signature.
In 1841, Joseph and his brother Samuel were living in the
household of a Thomas Sigston, a retired Cloth Manufacture. Next door was their
uncle, Edward Gomersal, Rachel’s only known surviving sibling. The rest of the Lees family, except for
brother William, lived on the other side of Uncle Edward. Brother William was newly married to Martha
Firth.
This post is inspired by the 52 Ancestors prompt “Challenge”.
Martha Guntrip and her family have been a challenge to
research because of an uncommon difficult to spell surname. I have come across quite a few variations
including Gunthrip, Gunttripp, Gunthorpe, Gantrip and others. Also complicating matters, the family lived
near the border of two English counties, Oxford and Buckinghamshire, so record
in both locations need to be searched.
Martha Guntrip was born around the end of 1772 or early 1773
in Bicester, Oxford, England. She was
baptised on 27 January 1773 in Bicester Parish Church. Her baptismal record was indexed under the
name “Cundiff”, although I think it is fairly clear that it is indeed “Guntrip”
in the original record.
Martha was the daughter of Thomas Guntrip and Elizabeth Rhodes (or Roads), one of four known children. The other three were Thomas, Elizabeth and Richard. I have not yet found Elizabeth’s baptismal record and I wonder if the spelling or indexing is problematic.
Bicester was and is a busy market town and it was developed
extensively during Martha’s lifetime, including the building of the New
Buildings where she lived. The town was also important for horse racing and
hunting, so would likely have had the rich and famous of the time passing
through.
On 1 May 1797, Martha Guntrip married Joseph Elston in
Bicester. Martha signed the marriage
register with a confident signature, so she must have had some education and
was used to writing. I have previously
written about the evolution of the Elston surname.
Joseph Elston was either a sawyer (according to the 1851
Census and his newspaper death notice) or a surveyor (Martha’s newspaper death
notice). I can see that the two
occupations would look similar in cursive writing, I am not sure which is
correct – another challenge.
Martha and Joseph had at least 4 children, Joseph, Elizabeth
(my ancestor), Ann and Harriet. All four
survived infancy, married and had children.
In the 1841 Census, Martha and her husband Joseph appear to
be living apart. Whether that was
because they were separated, or for family, health or financial reasons, I
don’t know. It is challenging and
frustrating to find records that give a hint of an intriguing story but no more
than that.
Martha was living with her 4-year-old granddaughter Theresa
East, daughter of Harriet, in New Buildings, Bicester Market End. They were part of a larger household that
included her daughter Elizabeth and her husband glazier John Smith, along with
their children Charles, John (my ancestor), Thomas, Elizabeth, and baby
Emma. So, Martha may not have been
living with her husband, but she was surrounded by family.
Joseph Elston was also living with a granddaughter, Harriet
Smith, aged 13, and was surrounded by family in 1841. They lived in Launton, a village near
Bicester, next door to his and Martha’s daughter Harriet, her husband butcher
Henry East, son Caleb and baby daughter Rhoda.
Marth Elston nee Guntrip died on 22 Dec 1844, age 71 and was
buried a Bicester.
Joseph Elston outlived his wife by nearly 10 years, dying 22
June 1852, age 80.
In spite of the challenges, I have been able to piece
together some highlights from Martha’s life.
Notes on linage: Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith
> John Henry Smith > Harry Smith > John Smith > Elizabeth Elston
> Marth Guntrip
This post is inspired by the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt “immigration”. In addition, I have been investigating the Shephard family recently after finding some DNA Matches with some distance cousins.
My ancestor George Shephard was born in Charleton, Devon,
England on 4 September 1835. He was the fifth
child of John Camp Shephard and Priscilla Goodyear. I have previously written about Priscilla. John and Priscilla’s other children were
Jane, Susan, George (who died age 2 in 1829, so the name was reused), Mary Ann
and Samuel. Prior to marrying Priscilla,
John was married to her sister Susanna.
Marrying a dead spouses sibling was a forbidden degree of affinity at
the time but it happened, anyway. John
had 5 children with Susanna, John, Maria (died age 2 in 1817), Maria (born shortly
after her sister of the same name died), William and Phillip.
It is a while since I have posted a story and this ones comes with thanks to close relatives who have done DNA tests.
Mary Head’s origins were unknown to me until I solved the
puzzle using DNA*.
May Head was born about 1768 in Willingdon, Sussex, a village just north of Eastbourne. Willingdon is thought to be the setting of George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm”. Mary was the daughter, and oldest child, of Edward Head and Elizabeth Balcomb**. Her siblings, also born in Willingdon, were Edward, James, William, Henry (or Harry), John and Elizabeth. My uncle and I share DNA with descendants of Edward and John. Curiously, Edward and his family lived very close to where I now live.
As it is Women’s History Month and was International Women’s Day this week, I thought I would share stories about a couple of my more prolific female ancestors. My first subject is Caroline Rideout, another will follow in a week or so.
Caroline was the eighth of nine know children of James
Rideout and Caroline Bennett. Caroline was born 4 April 1844 in Menangle near
Camden, New South Wales, Australia. Her
parents had arrived in Australia six years earlier and I have written about them previously. Her oldest surviving
sister, Martha, married when Caroline was just 2 years old.
