Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - rram

Pages: [1]
1
The Common Room / Re: etiquette for uniquely identifying namesakes?
« on: Friday 10 April 09 00:38 BST (UK)  »
Quote from: behindthefrogs on Monday 06 April 09 16:47 BST (UK)
The problem with the Roman Numeral solution is what do you do when you get back another generation and find the father was yet again called Thomas?  I have learned over the years to never number anything starting form the top of your tree you always find another one and then have to decide whether to deal with the trauma of renumbering.

It's essentially a database question.  The database solution is to have a unique key for each entry in a table.  The key is not normally visible in query retrievals, usually being kept behind the scenes.

In written histories, I think the birthyear solution is fine.  I note one person in this thread has a firstname with a year number appended, but in a history, one could write something like "Jane (1905)" or Jane-1950, as has been suggested.

2
Travelling People / Re: CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell
« on: Tuesday 07 April 09 19:53 BST (UK)  »
I have some autobiographical notes from my father (deceased) but little if any genealogical info from the 1900s-1930s era (or any previous era) other than what I've posted.  I'd rather not post his notes in a public forum.

It is possible that Lyle came to South Africa first, and the other family members followed.  By process of elimination, I surmise that they all came to S.A. from England except William Marr, who must have remained behind.

3
Travelling People / Re: CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell
« on: Tuesday 07 April 09 19:41 BST (UK)  »
Thanks.  Could be, but the birth date seems too young.  I think my Frank was the youngest of the brood and thus born no earlier than about 1894.  However, Frank Marr was in Pretoria in the late 1930s and was employed at times as a tin-smith and a mechanical handyman.  His wife was Lena.

Sorry, I have no documents.

4
Travelling People / Re: CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell
« on: Tuesday 07 April 09 18:46 BST (UK)  »
I shouldn't be spending time this way right now, but found this:

The Boswell Wilkie Circus, run by the respondent, is the product of an amalgamation in 1963 of two circus businesses called respectively "Boswell's Circus" and "Wilkie's Circus". Boswell's Circus has quite a long history. In about 1911 four Boswell brothers, Jim, Walter, Sidney and Alfred, the sons of James Boswell, a circus and menagerie proprietor in Britain, came to South Africa to work for the circus of a Madame Frank Fillis. When the Fillis circus broke up in 1913 the Boswell brothers started their own circus under the name and style of "Boswell Brothers Circus". This circus thereafter continued to operate in South Africa in association with the name Boswell. In 1948 a company, Boswell Brothers Circus (Pty) Limited, was incorporated to run what was then styled the "Boswell Circus" or, sometimes it would seem,"Boswell's Circus". This company was "owned" by the Boswell family.

 -- from http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZASCA/1985/64.html

Biography of Brian Boswell:  http://freddevries.co.za/archive/2006/11/23/Brian-Boswell.aspx

There was a Boswell Bros. Circus operating in 1962 in the USA, headquartered in North Carolina. [on edit: nothing to do with S.A. Boswells.]

5
Travelling People / Re: CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell
« on: Tuesday 07 April 09 18:09 BST (UK)  »
Boswell-Wilkie Circus, don't know when or where.

6
Travelling People / Re: CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell
« on: Tuesday 07 April 09 17:43 BST (UK)  »
Quote from: deb usa on Tuesday 07 April 09 17:30 BST (UK)
I can't find Lyle in the censuses ....  :-\  Do you know who her parents were?

Father was John Henry Marr.  Mother was named "Mort" or similar; not sure if that is a surname or a given name or a nickname.

She had a brother also named John Henry Marr.  She was the first born in a large family, so probably the father was born roughly 20 years earlier (just guessing).  Other siblings: Thomas, Albert, Herbert?, Nellie, William, Lilly, Frank, possibly others, some others died in childhood.  Most or all were born in England (Lancashire/Cheshire), many emigrated to South Africa around 1905 give or take a few years.

That's as far back as I have.  I'd love to trace more.  Thanks for looking!

7
Travelling People / Re: CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell
« on: Tuesday 07 April 09 14:49 BST (UK)  »
Lyle was born in Lancashire, sometime before 1892.

I uploaded a picture I have, as my avatar, obtained I forget or know not where, of Lyle Marr in some wild-west type of show, probably Texas Jack's.  She is second from the left.

I think that Lyle and Thelma returned sometime around 1930, give or take a few years, very vague, because they were living in Johannesburg and Durban in the 1930s.

[Added on edit] I found this caption for the picture:  Texas Jack, his common-law wife, (Lil or) Lyle Marr, Clarence Cook and Will Rodgers. "... Dr Jack Boswell, son of the eldest of the four Boswell brothers who founded Boswell's Circus and whose uncle, Walter, married Jack's widow. During the long tedious journey of the circus train from dorp to dorp (before he was sent to King Edward's School in Johannesburg ), she would reminisce to the bored boy about Jack and Rogers." ZA Sunday Times

8
Travelling People / Re: CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell
« on: Tuesday 07 April 09 14:10 BST (UK)  »
Thanks for the info.  I'll try to get that post count incremented!  The stupid system won't even let me read the PM that was sent to me.

9
Travelling People / Re: CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell
« on: Tuesday 07 April 09 08:27 BST (UK)  »
Quote from: JStockley on Thursday 08 January 09 04:38 GMT (UK)
Regarding Lyle Boswell......... she was married to Texas Jack. He ran a circus in South Africa in the early 1900s and once, assisted by Will Rogers and Clarence Cooke, roped and rode a wild zebra for a bet ! When Texas Jack died in 1905, Lyle (nee Marr) married Walter Boswell.

Lyle Marr is in my genealogy.  My records show she was the eldest sibling and had at least six brothers and two sisters:  Nellie and Lilly.   Lyle had a daughter Thelma by Walter Boswell.

Lyle apparently was the circus sharpshooter in Texas Jack's show.  She had met him in England, where she was born.  Her daughter Thelma became a tightrope walker.  Lyle got religious in later life when she lived in Johannesburg and later Durban.

I couldn't find a way to send a PM to JStockley, so I made my first post here.  Please let JStockley know.  Thanks.

Pages: [1]