RootsChat.Com

Hello All,

I'm taking a shot here as I have next to no information.
I have been doing Ancestry for a few years. I also recently opened an account on myheritage.com.
as I knew there were a lot of Greenslades on that site and I am related to them.

My #1 DNA match is a woman called Dorothy Holland. All the information available is that she is from the United Kingdom. She created her account on 7/24/2017 and last signed on, on 11/21/2017.
I tried reaching out to her but no answer.

My #2 match is a woman from the Greenslade family who died in 2021 at 108 (perfectly healthy I'm told.) So, I am assuming something happened to Dorothy thinking she was probably elderly.

As I said, all of my significant DNA matches with Dorothy are Greenslades and no one has a clue who Dorothy is.

I have tried searching on 3 web sites and nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas? There is a long story with my wanting to know this.
I believe I told it in my last post a few months ago but it involves the true identity of my Grandfather.

Greatly appreciate any help or ideas.

Puka

Yes, you will keep me very busy.

Plus my newly found cousin in England gave me the Loxdale names going back to the 1600's.

I like to make spreadsheets and add in little tidbits to try and bring some life into it.
I am also making a home made book. In addition to what I have downloaded from sites and newspapers etc, I have sent for birth, marriage and death certificates from all across the US, England, Ireland and Canada.

The thing I like the best is that in these crazy times, I have met so many wonderful people (like yourself).
Not just from sites like these but places like the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston (where I learned about dispensations), the military (where I learned about military Cemetaries) the Historical Society in Halifax as well as one of the clerics in the Methodist Church up there who gave me permission to access certain records.

I like to share with others what finds I make.

Puka
That was the nickname my Mother had for me. Got me into a few scrapes circa 1960.
In 1950 there was a movie called Harvey starring Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy played Elwood whose best friend was Harvey, a 6 ft 3 1/3 inch tall invisible white rabbit. Harvey was a puca. I have no idea what the connection was with me!
But it makes me feel that I am signing my name.

Hi Neale,

Sarah is on my list but thank you.


Two things though if you are so inclined. I needed to organize, and this is what I have that is very confusing to me.

So yes, James Earwaker moved to Denver, CO and married Sarah Creasey from Detroit, Michigan on 1/14/1886.

His obituary said he had one son, Robert James Earwaker and one Grandchild, Roberta.

He married Viola Bartow on 7/6/1921.
Robert died on 6/1/1985 in Denver.

(Roberta married Sloan Grover but died in 1947 at ~ 22).

Next up is James' brother Henry, baptized 7/21/1851.
He married Susan Horlock on 8/2/1880.

I have their first born as Robert James Henry Earwaker born Q3 1881 and baptized 9/25/1881.
He married Jean McClean Armstrong on 8/20/1924 in Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario.
He is listed as 43 and she is listed as 20. 43 fits with the 1881 birth date.

The marriage certificate lists him as Henry James Earwaker and Parents are Henry James Earwaker and Susan Horlock.
It also lists both Father and son as being born in Denver.

However, it's Uncle James who relocated to Denver and James' son Robert was born in Denver.

His death certificate dated 3/19/1935, lists him as Harry with Henry Earwaker and Susan Horlock as his parents.

For the rest of Henry's kids I have:
Harry/Henry
Percy
Olive
Mabel
Edward

How did you find out that Robert was adopted and I was trying to figure out if that figured into the above conundrum?

The next question involves Eliza, Mary Bushel's daughter not sister.
Eliza married George Jerred born ~ 1937 in Whiteparish, Wiltshire, England. Parents were John and Mary Jerred.
They married on 11/23/1959. On this marriage certificate, Eliza lists herself as Eliza Hamblen.

In the 1861 census, they are living with Mary and James "Humblen" and Jerred is spelled Jurred.
Eliza and George had Geroge Henry James on 4/6/1866.

One of my other new found, cousins who lives in England, helped me try and find out what happened to George Jerred. He disappeared off the face of the earth.

When, Eliza married Thomas Loxdale, she is listed as Eliza Bushell and a spinster.

Any ideas how to find out what happened to George?

I had mentioned that Lionel Loxdale moved to Halifax with an older half brother and that was George Henry. At some point George Henry changed to Loxdale and most places, even his death, list him as George Henry Loxdale.
George Henry stayed in Haliflax and had 12 children. Of the 12, only 2 had children. Several accidental deaths.

I thank you,

Puka

Dear Neale1961,

You are amazing.

Mary also had a daughter Harriet. I have followed her line and have several DNA matches.

I have not checked out the sons yet. I tend to go back and forth between lines because I find that I can get tidbits that way that help me understand the family relationships. I also find it a bit more exciting that way.
This has all been so new. This is an entire family that we did not know even existed.

History repeated itself with Eliza. Her husband died in his 30's and she died in her 40's. They were in Bermuda then as Thomas was in the Royal Engineers.
Thomas was a Loxdale. I have a huge amount of DNA matches to the Loxdales on 3 continents.

Lionel Loxdale is the person we believe to be our Grandfather. We have so much evidence but lack a picture. We had signatures to compare but the hand writing expert said that the sample was not big enough to be conclusive but he could only say there were similarities.
I have pictures of his two sisters, brother and half brother but no one seems to have a picture of Lionel.
Lionel's sister Rosina married a Greenslade in Bermuda. I also have many matches with Greenslades.
His other sister was married twice and I have DNA matches with Rhoda's descendants from both marriages.

I communicate with a cousin in Bermuda who lived with her Grandmother Rosina for many years.

The story that I believe to be true is... We know that after they were orphaned, Lionel and his brother (about 8 and 10) left for Halifax with their half brother (20 or 21 or so) when they were orphaned. Lionel married a woman there who was pregnant at the time. They lied about their age. They were 19 and Canadian law said you had to be 21 to get married without parental consent.
Their marriage certificates say they were 21.

Before their daughter was born, Lionel abandoned them and came down to the Boston area. His other sister lived there at the time. I live outside of Boston.

I found a newspaper article in a Halifax newspaper about how Lionel was suppose to get married but the woman smelled a rat and went to Halifax in search of information. She found the minister who married them so she left and went back to Boston.
Apparently Lionel told her the marriage wasn't valid. That may be true but when his wife remarried, it says divorced on the record.

This all happened in the late 1890's. Then Lionel disappeared.
Rosina told her granddaughter that Lionel was killed in the Boer War and don't go looking under rocks.

He ended up in the Lexington/Bedford area and worked on a farm for a few years. This area is famous for a lot of the Revolutionary War. The Shot Heart Round the World as they say.

We think this is where he changed his identity to Charles Henry Davis from Northfield, Vermont. There are reasons for his choice of name and location.

He ended up in Somerville, Massachusetts and met and married my Grandmother.
Neither my Mother nor her 3 sisters were ever told of or met any family.
There is no mention of any family in Charlie's obit. The only personal thing it said about him prior to meeting my Grandmother was that he worked on a farm in Bedford before moving to Somerville.

Meanwhile, his sister Rhoda who lived in Boston, lost her husband and abandoned her infant son to an Asylum for children. She left and lived in England and Bermuda.
I found a missing person's report from 1926 placed by Rhoda in a Boston newspaper that she was looking for her brother Lionel Loxdale who was last seen in Lexington in 1899.
Charlie showed up in Somerville in 1903. He died in 1924.

There are so many things about this story that make me sad. One of the biggest is his daughter Effie who he abandoned. It sounds like she had a good life except for the fact that even though her Mother remarried, she didn't have more children. Effie lived about 2 weeks past her 100th birthday and next of kin was listed as a neighbor. Effie lived about 40 minutes away from our large Irish (and English) family and we would have embraced her.

So without a picture, I am a bit obsessed with DNA matches and knowing the family that two generations did not know existed.

You have given me much work to do here and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

PUKA

Hi All,

My first post.
After well over 50 years of searching, last summer we discovered the true identity of our Grandfather.
He was not from the US but from England and Bermuda. Half of his siblings were born in England and half in Bermuda.

I have met many new cousins and have gathered a lot of information.

I am stuck at the early life of my Great Grandmother and Great Great Grandmother.

My Great Great Grandmother was Mary Bushel/Bushell.

I have two Baptism dates for Mary. 3/26/1821 and 3/26/1822 in Bighton.
Parents are William Bushel and Susannah (no last name anywhere).

I have that Mary gave birth to Eliza Bushell on 3/17/1843 in Old Alresford.
Eliza was baptized on 4/16/1843 and the record states that she is the illegitimate daughter of Mary Bushell. On the Baptism record it states that Eliza's name is Eliza North Bushell.
This is the only place that I see reference to North.
It appears Mary was at the Workhouse when Eliza was born.
Eliza was my Great Grandmother.

Mary married James Hamblen on 7/20/1843. They were living in Old Alresford.
Throughout her life, Eliza used both Bushell and Hamblin as a maiden name.

Mary also had a daughter Harriet Hamblin and I do have DNA matches to Harriet's descendants as well.

Mary had a sister Eliza Bushell. She was born to William and Susannah on 5/8/1819 in Bighton and baptized on 7/18/1819.
I have Eliza marrying Robert Earwaker on 11/24/1849 in Cheriton.

My issue with the above Eliza is that I have been tracking her descendants to find DNA matches.
I have been disappointed that I have not found any yet. That said, I have only identified one that I was able to reach out to. He was in fact from the Robert Earwaker line but not a DNA match.
I have spent a lot of time researching this line so beginning to wonder if I have missed something.

Thankful for any help that I can find.