RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: Daryl_P on Sunday 17 June 07 03:29 BST (UK)
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Hi Everyone. I hope you can give an American cousin a little assistance. ;)
I ordered the 1841 death certificate of Robert Honey hoping to find a very old man living in Lambourn, Berkshire and prove him to be my direct ancestor. Instead I found Robert Honey listed as a soldier age 24 that died on the 7th of February 1841 at the Lambourn, Berkshire workhouse. The record is hard to read but seems to say he died of phlebitis. The name and location makes me think he is probably a previously unknown relative.
Now I have questions and hope somebody here can point me toward some answers.
How can I find military records for Robert Honey? Would the military records give a birth location and / or family info?
Why would a soldier be found in the workhouse? Does this mean that he was considered to be disabled? Would there be a record of when and how be ended up in the workhouse? Does his being in the Lambourn workhouse prove that he probably came from that area?
Any help on any of the above questions will be greatly appreciated.
Daryl
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Hi Daryl,
A workhouse often had an infirmary ward where the very sick could be taken, the soldier you found may have died in such a place, possibly due to injuries sustained while in the Army.
I don't know if this is the same man, but there are Army records for a Robert HONEY at TNA Kew, the time scale is right for him.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01nm/
Jebber
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This Robert Honey - soldier
WO 97/874/32 ROBERT HONEY Born UPHURSTBOURNE, Hampshire Served in 76th Foot Regiment Discharged aged 22 1835-1839
was probably the illegitimate son of Sarah Honey
Robert Honey/Heron
baptised 21st April 1816 Hurstbourne Tarrant Hampshire
the son of Sarah Honey
reputed father Thomas Heron
Regards
Valda
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Lambourn burials
Robert Honey
17th August 1808
wife Honey
15th April 1803
possible parents of
JOHN HONEY
Christening: 06 MAR 1778 Lambourn, Berkshire
Father: ROBERT HONEY
Mother: SARAH
ROBERT HONEY
SARAH PARISS
Marriage: 28 APR 1766 Lambourn, Berkshire
ROBERT HONEY
Christening: 15 JUN 1740 Lambourn, Berkshire
Father: JOHN HONEY
Mother: JANE
This appears to be the only Robert Honey is the Lambourn parish registers who lived into the C19th.
This website gives you easy access to specific parish registers on the IGI for baptisms and marriages which will allow you to see all the occurences of the surname Honey in Lambourn relatively easily.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/
Regards
Valda
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Thanks everyone. That soldier sure looks like a match so he may not be as close a relative as I thought. I still think he and most people named Honey in that general area of England are probably all relatives at some level.
The John Honey born to Robert and Sarah Honey in 1778 is presumably my Great-Great grandfather but that is not proven. I assume that is also the John Honey that died in 1860. I ordered his death certificate at the same time as the certificate for Robert Honey but have not yet received John's record.
I need to work with the websites you provided but they look interesting. I am right now looking at Hugh Wallis's web site and finding it very helpful.
Thanks again. Daryl
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The 1851 census gives just over a thousand (1,047) indexed Honeys in England and Wales across at least 23 counties. The majority are in the south of England, but that is a wide dispersal from Cornwall in the south west to Kent in the south east (in the 'general area of England' by 1851 the population size was nearly 17 million. I believe in the 'general area of America' it was just over 23 million - comparing land size and population size you therefore have to be much more specific about areas in this country, because population size is so much larger and 'contained' in a much smaller land mass).
From experience of a one name study which has slightly less numbers in 1851 (860) and with a less widespread dispersal pattern by the same date, if they are all connected, to prove it I would have to take each tree back to at least the C15th. As it is I have over 20 trees, some very large with well over a thousand people only following the male line, but including spousal names.
Currently Honey has just under 3,000 people holding the surname in this country (excluding Scotland). It ranks as the 2,592 most popular surname (present population about 58 million so thousands and thousands of different surnames).
http://www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/search.php
From my experience since that is over a thousand more present day Honeys than the one name study I research, it means the surname is not rare - merely reasonably unusual and as it appears to be locative (with a focus of origin in the south of the country) you should expect to see (since you are looking for them) quite a few Honeys and not necessarily expect to find they have any obvious immediate connection, if any, especially since there are several variations Honey, Honeycombe, Honeybourne, Honeyman etc. all probably associated with the south of the country because of the warmer climate. A place name origin, an occupation origin, or a nickname origin may be the start for anyone of these potential Honey lines which at anytime could have been shortened from some of the other variations of the Honey name, so I would think it was more doubtful there was one derivation for the surname because of the 'widespread' locations of the surname in 1851.
Regards
Valda