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Some Special Interests => Travelling People => Topic started by: Gypsy Scholar on Friday 11 September 09 04:32 BST (UK)
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I have an ancestor named Ellenor (Eleanor) Beasley. Her parents were Joseph Beasley and Susanna Davis, who were married at St Leonards, Shoreditch in 1801. Eleanor was born in Coventry in 1808. Family tradition has it that Eleanor was part Gypsy. The names of her children (including Mazeppa, Zenobia and Zoe) seem to support this claim. She married William Owen Kitchener Dent in 1831. William's parents were not happy about this. I suspect that his family sponsored his move to South Australia in 1839 to join the new colony of free settlers. Somewhere along the line it was said that we would never find William's roots. However, I am a determined soul. I wonder if anyone else has heard of this story, or has data on Eleanor and her parents?
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Hi
Welcome to Rootschat!
Sounds like you're in for an interesting time!
There are some good posts about gyopsies on here, and some links to some good resources. You can go to search Rootschat and search for gypsy or whatever you think.
~I don't know this family, but I have enjoyed following athe family of a friend who had a similar story. We did prove they were gypsies.
We tried various things. For example:
Looking at baptisms, at the father's occupation. Look for potter, basket maker, besom maker, tinman, earthernware dealer, horse dea;ler, and similar, and obviously hawker, traveller etc. These may suggest travellers but not necessarily gypsies.
Look at censuses, and camping behind hedge, or similar may come up!
Look for any gypsies on censuse. They had favourite places, so keep checking them.
Get to know the surnames of the gypsies and travellers in the area. If you find one you may find the others.
I'm sure some of the expert sites will help you but I'll come on at a civilised hour for this country and tell you how our story ended.
Best wishes
Emms
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:) Hello Please forgive me as I am new to this. I live in Western Australia and have just started researching my family history. Basically I am a relative of William Owen Kitchener and Ellenor Dent. I am not sure what info you have but they arrived in Aus on the John in 1840. Try this for the passenger list www.slsa.sa.gov.au/fh/passengerlists/1840John.htm and this for some more info I managed to find http://boards.ancestry.com.au/surnames.dent/571.1/mb.ashx
I hope these work for you but if not let me know and will chase this up.