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Messages - Tril

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1
Surrey / Re: James Austen, Godalming
« on: Saturday 05 June 10 17:40 BST (UK)  »
Thank you so much, Tuppy!  This is wonderful.  I look forward to your post about the Austens in South Africa.

I'm so excited, I'm trembling!

2
Surrey / Re: James Austen, Godalming
« on: Saturday 29 May 10 03:29 BST (UK)  »
Hi, Bert, and thank you for your post.  I was very excited to read it.  Little by little, the mystery surrounding my great-grandfather James Austen's family is being lifted, which is thrilling.

I've sent you an email.  I'd like to be invited to join your MyHeritage website.

Thank you!

Eleanor Austen DeHaai   

3
Surrey / Completed
« on: Saturday 28 November 09 16:21 GMT (UK)  »
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread pertaining to my great-grandfather, James Austen.

A special thank you goes to Jane Masri for all the extra research she did for me, and for guiding me down the right pathways.

You all are wonderful!   :)

4
Surrey / Re: James Austen, Godalming
« on: Saturday 28 November 09 00:37 GMT (UK)  »
Liz, in my will, the letter L looks like S too, and the e's are odd - and in mine, the d's look like b's.  Once I get all the letters figured out, though, I think I'll be able to read the will as slick as a whistle.  :D   

5
Surrey / Re: James Austen, Godalming
« on: Friday 27 November 09 16:10 GMT (UK)  »
Liz and Jane, yes, the more I study the will, the easier it is to make out the words.  Amazing.  I'd all but given up.

Jane, if Frederick is the middle name I couldn't read, it would be yet another clue.  My grandfather's and my dad's  middle names were both Frederick.

Yesterday I contacted the St. Louis Public Library in St. Louis, Missouri, and requested a search for James Austen's immigration records, or his name on a ship's passenger list.  I said he would have emigrated from England sometime between an unknown date in 1851 and  September 1862, when he enlisted in the Union Army.

The Library offers this service regardless of where the immigrant settled in the U.S., but it so happens that St. Louis is where James's son, my grandfather, made his home and brought up his family.

I wonder if James would have had to have been naturalized as a U.S. citizen to enlist in the army and/or to remain in the States after the war.  Maybe he maintained dual citizenship.  I'm going to see what information I can find about this.

Would LDS refer to Latter Day Saints (the Mormons)?  If so, no, I'm not near a center, but I found a weblink for the research website.  I will see what I can accomplish there.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Another Australia connection!  I wonder if the Milns's daughter and child went there to stay with the son of Isaac who'd gone there instead of to South Africa.

I too have been wondering if James was estranged from his father.  James's history gets curiouser and curiouser.

 

6
Surrey / Re: James Austen, Godalming
« on: Wednesday 25 November 09 23:59 GMT (UK)  »
Isaac Austen's will was very easy to download, but it's certainly not easy to read!  I can make out enough of the words, though, to know that the name, James, isn't on the document.

Isaac bequeathed everything to his wife, Mary Ann, and appointed Mary Ann "to be Guardian of My Infant Children."  He appointed Mary Ann, his daughter Martha Austen and his son George (can't read middle name, but it doesn't look at all like Durrant) Austen as executors.  Witnesses are Henry Austen (can't read what is written in smaller script after his name.  It looks like "Bronckly") and George Durrant Austen, Soliciiter, 28 Laurence Lane, Lo???ton.

The date of the will is June 17, 1857. 

No James.  I wonder if he had already emigrated to the States.

7
Surrey / Re: James Austen, Godalming
« on: Wednesday 25 November 09 22:20 GMT (UK)  »
Thanks very much for the information, marimerclark.   :)  I'll order the will now.

Tril

8
Surrey / Re: James Austen, Godalming
« on: Wednesday 25 November 09 22:03 GMT (UK)  »
Jane, I'm now waiting to hear from TNA as to how I, an American, can pay for a copy of Isaac's will.  I don't know if my credit card will work in England.

I filled out a free family tree at Ancestry, but I got nothing except notices that to find out more about the possible matches, I'd have to pay.  If I had the money to do so, I would, but it's out of the question right now.

I've emailed the St. Louis Public Library in St. Louis, Missouri for James's immigration date.  The Library offers such look-ups, even for immigrants arriving in states other than Missouri.  It could take several weeks to get the information, but I think knowing when James emigrated from England could be very helpful.

What an awful tragedy about Isaac's daughter Ellen and her husband Henry dying as the result of a fire!  Glad the Milns children survived, but how sad about their parents.

So, it appears that S. Africa was indeed in the picture.  Interesting!

I think I should probably wait to see what Isaac's will says regarding heirs before I request information at the Kent board.  I, like you, feel sure Isaac was my great-great grandfather, but to avoid embarrassment if it turns out he's not,  I'd first like to make absolutely certain he is, if I can.

9
Surrey / Re: James Austen, Godalming
« on: Wednesday 25 November 09 17:51 GMT (UK)  »
Jane, I've emailed my cousin to see if she has a copy of James's marriage certificate.  Now I'm going to try to find information on Isaac's will that would indicate James's whereabouts.  Thanks for suggesting that at least one of those sources might give some answers.

My, it would be something if it turned out that I'm a distant cousin's of Jane Austen's.   All this time while searching for "Austen" on the Internet, I'd been typing "-Jane" into the search slot, so that web sources containing her name wouldn't appear and distract me.  Yes, it would be something, all right.   I'd like that. 

So, Isaac's shop was at the bottom of High Street.  Yesterday at the Godalming website, I saw that a web cam was set up on High Street.  Just for fun, I'm going to have a look.  All this information is so exciting for me! 

During an Internet search, I found Isaac Austen mentioned in this article, "Methodism in Normandy":

http://normandyhistorians.co.uk/aandp17.html

(snip)  "He [James Horne] later took over preaching at Pinks Hill with Isaac Austen of the Sevenoaks Circuit, who had come to Godalming to work with the local preacher Mr Golding."

~~

Isaac Austen is also featured (starting on Page 6) in an article called "The Church in the Wilderness," which too is about Wesleyan Methodist preacher James Horne:

http://normandyhistorians.co.uk/library/pw27.pdf

In the above article, there is mention of a Wesleyan missionary program in South Africa.  I wonder if the missionary program could be what led Isaac's family to emigrate there after his death.

Thank you so much for all your help!

Tril 

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