RootsChat.Com

Hi, Donna - yes, that's me.  Been carrying on the research from where my dad left off.  Looking at my tree, you must be Kevin's wife - not sure if I ever met him.  I don't even recall meeting his mother, but I knew his grandparents (my great aunt & uncle) well from various family get-togethers.

That's useful info - it explains how James could be considered to come from both Scotland and Ireland.  I'll send you a private message with my email address and hopefully you can send me copies of some of those documents.  I can send you a GEDCOM file with all my Johnston & Thompson stuff.

I wonder if Louisa's death was related to the 'quake - she died only three months after.  The headstone doesn't mention it, so probably not, but it would be interesting to see the death record.

Problem is, we don't know what register (if any) the HOUSOM information came from.  Stuff in the IGI could have come from anywhere.

I've been through the entire Halsham register from 1742, and didn't see anything relevant at the time of Thomas's birth - mind you, we didn't know the name James Marchbanks at that time.  The interesting thing is: the IGI record that mentions HOUSOM and James has the date 6 Mar 1831 - Thomas was baptised 8 Mar, which suggests the HOUSOM record relates to his birth, not his baptism.  If it was the same date, I could have put the whole thing down to a foul-up.

Yes, we've seen a Thomas of the right age with Francis and Margaret in 1841; some people have assumed they were his parents, without noticing the age difference.  It could be the right Thomas, and they might be his grandparents - he could be the son of their daughter Ann (1806).  Or they might be his great aunt & uncle, as he could be the son of Ann (1810), daughter of Francis's brother Joseph (the Acey boys appear to have married the Marshal sisters, same day & church).

We didn't find Joseph or Francis's baptisms, in Preston, Halsham or any of the other Holderness registers we went through at the Treasure House (originals, not BTs), and there's nowt on FamilySearch.  They could be sons of Henry Acey & Ann Forde, but we have not found any evidence for that, as yet.

One other problem is: both Anns just vanish.  We can't find marriages or deaths for either of them.  So trying to find any later connection between Thomas and one of the Anns is tricky.  If his mother had died, it would at least explain why he's living with relatives in 1841, though it wouldn't help in locating his dad.  However, it's the Acey line we're interested in, so connecting him back to any Acey beyond Ann is the goal.

As an aside, notice who's on the same farm in 1851? - Mary Brown.  Assuming it's the same Mary, and the age & birthplace details do match, we guess that's where he met his wife.  I suspect the correction you saw is mine (rossandmads).

Yes, we're aware of the 'Nancy Acey" reference in the old IGI.  Of course, Nancy and Ann can be synonyms (never understood why, but I've seen it more than once).  My problem with anything that comes from the old IGI is that it has zero provenance - it could be based on hearsay and half-remembered half truths.  In this case, there is probably more basis than in others, because it's the likely the original informant was Sarah Jane, and she ought to have had some idea what her grandmother was called.  We've tried writing to Everett Booth and William Norris - the latter came back 'no such address', and we believe the former died earlier this year, but we're hoping for a response from some other family member.

In any case, I've seen the original baptism record (Humbleton PE68/5/1) with my own eyes, and it is definitely "Thomas Ford, illegitimate Son of Ann Acey, Fitline, Spinster" (Fitline is an early spelling of Fitling).  Not Thomas Fred, nor Thomas Ford Ford, nor various other things I've seen in family trees.  And the man who married Mary Brown  on 04 Dec 1851 was "Thomas Ford Acey, full age, Bachelor, Farm Servant, Halsham, illegitimate", not Thomas Ford Ford - we have the GRO marriage cert.

I think people have made too much of the "Ford" - as I noted in an earlier post, there is also a John Ford Acey (b. 18 Jun 1785, Preston), whose name descends from his mother Ann Forde (m. Henry Acey, 24 Jul 1780, Garton).  Thomas's name may well reflect that family link, though we still don't know what the connection is.

However, that still leaves us with Thomas's missing father, and the mention of James Marchbanks and HOUSOM.  Thanks for the links showing where the records are kept; however, it may be a while before we are in a position to try & get to Yorkshire.  And we've discovered that a lot of the Treasure House microfilms are missing or knackered, and apparently there will be no replacements.

Hence my hope that someone might have access to the Holme registers.

We're trying to get to the bottom of a mysterious entry on the 'old' IGI.  Thomas Ford Acey was baptised 08 Mar 1831 in Humbleton, illegitimate son of Ann Acey, spinster, of Fitling.  Unfortunately, there are several Ann Aceys of the right age, and that makes it hard to go further back, so we're trying to gather any information that could identify Ann.  While at the Treasure House in Beverly on a research trip recently, we looked at fiche copies of the old IGI records, many of which have been now been purged from the on-line database on Family Search.  As well as the baptism above, there is the following entry for Thomas Ford Acey:

Acey, Thomas Ford  @ Relative: James Marchbanks  Male  Birth  06 Mar 1831  Housom

The source is recorded as LDS Film 0183423, which a record of baptisms of the dead, i.e. it reflects a decision made by an LDS Church member rather than an original source.  So, even if we could get access to it (and that seems to require a lot of effort since it is a 'private' LDS record), it may not be very informative.

Fortunately, we were told that "Housom" is an abbreviation for Holme Upon Spalding Moor.  How Thomas might be connected to Holme when it appears his mother was living in Fitling, we're not sure - could James Marchbanks have been his father?  We'd like to check the church records of the CofE, Methodist and Catholic chapels in Holme around 06 Mar 1831 to see what, if anything, appears in them.  Unfortunately, we only discovered this information late on our last day and ran out of time to follow it up.  To make matters more difficult, we're not even sure where the Methodist and Catholic records are kept (if they even exist) - the CofE registers are in the Borthwick Institute.

So, could some kind person check the records if they have access, or point us to where we might find them?

Thanks, Ross

Hi rbarkman

I have just got James and Elizabeth's marriage certificate and it says James was born in  country Donegal Ireland. Father James Thompson, mother Margaret Knox (looks like).  Does this mean anything to you.

nmg1

Eh?      I have a copy of his death cert and it says "Where born: Scotland", father James, mother Margaret.  Of course, once someone is dead, you only have the recollections of others to go into the death cert, so it's less likely to be accurate than a marriage record.

Full details on Death Cert:
When & Where Died:  12 March 1925, Mangateretere, Hawkes Bay
Name & Occupation: James Thompson, Sheepfarmer
Age: 85 Years
Cause: Syncope Cardiac Disease, 2 years; Senile Decay
Parents: James Thompson, farmer; Margaret Thompson, not known
Where & When Buried: 14 March 1925, Havelock North (Rev. K E Maclean, Anglican)
Where Born, Time in NZ: Scotland, 23; 62 years  ['23' is his calculated age at immigration]
Where & at What Age Married: Lyttleton, 31  [this is not true - he was 61]
Wife, Age if Living: Elizabeth Taylor Thomas, 75
Age of Living Issue: Male: 51, 48, 43, 40, 38, 36, 32;  Female: 52, 50, 41, 34
Informant: Undertaker

I've tried doing a search for Irish records on Ancestry, but there's no hits; unfortunately, Irish records are pretty poor.  Could you post all the details from the marriage cert?