My ABBAY/ABBEY family went to Russia c.1838 !!

[Myfi!]

baptism: Brayton prs  luckily for us the Dade register was used 

' Matthew (twin of Mark(sixth & seventh sons)) Abba. Poor. Twin children of William Abba of Hambleton in this parish, labourer- son of William Abba of Selby labourer by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Miller of Sherburne labourer.  Mother: Mary daughter of John Hawcroft of Hambleton in this parish labourer by Mary his wife, daughter of Thomas Benson of Cowood labourer, Born January 20th 1785, baptised January 22nd.'

Elizabeth (Matthew & Mark's grandmother) I believe her surname was Milner, not Miller.
Thomas Benson of Cowood think it was spelt wrong should be of CAwood.

The Pontefract & District Family History Society have published booklets for Brayton St. Wilfred parish registers.....well worth investing in 

myfi

[Fel]

To all the Abbey Searchers,

I wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Things seem to have been yery quite. I have been too busy with my woodwdork at craft fairs.  Now those are finished I want to get into searching
once more.

Regards,

Fel

[Jansie]

I am a little late in replying to all these posts but what I have found is great. At this point I will add that Matthew Abbey was the brother of my husbands gggg grand father Thomas. I had heard there was a Russian connection but didn't think it applied to our branch of the Abbey family. It seems that most dates etc have been covered by someone or other but if I can come up with something new I will.

jansie

[hessu]

Hello all.
It really has been quiet around Abbey topic. This is great news. I am still in the process of sorting out old photographs. Many greetings from Finland.

[Jansie]

Hi MSBB,

I think William Abbey found on the farm of William Stickney must be the son of Matthew. There is an google ebook entitled Farmers magazine 1841. In it is an article about the farm of Mr Stickney, which seems to suggest he was a model farmer and interested in improvement. A piece of Russian machinery is mentioned which ties in withe the Russian connection. Maybe Matthew worked for him too?  Have you seem a web site by Dennis Oshea who has posted all the Abbey family from 1680. You may find your John there.

Jansie

[hessu]

My grand mother told me that Abbeys were on agricultural branch in Russia. She ment that they knew some new or at least better methods than russians those days how to cultivate land. Their task was model farming or teaching new methods. I wonder if there were advertisements in newspapers or farmer's magazines or how else did people get the idea to leave England for Russia. Does anyone of you know?

Kind regards
hessu

[Jansie]

         I have just found a reference to Ploughman Matthew Abbey working for William Stickney at Rugemont Burstwick, winning three guineas in a Ploughing competion. this is proof that he worked for Stickney as did his son William. they must have been sent to Russia because of their expertise in Ploughing difficult land.
the reference was in the newspaper the Hull Packet dated 1809

[adrianjohn]

I'd like to join in this fascinating chat!  I've been researching the Abbey family and the  Russian connection.  My research has mostly been based on Alexander Walter Abbey, a mining engineer who was murdered in Spain.  There seem to be some common links with what you have all found, but here's my contribution, for comment etc.  By the way, I looked on the OShea site, but found it very complicated.
Here's a bit more on the family.

I found a line back to a Mary Abbey, born in 1801.  I can't find a spouse for her, but she had six children: Thomas 1828; John Henry 1830; Elizabeth 1834; Mary Ann 1836; Robert 1838 and Francis 1841.

All were born in Lockwood, Yorkshire with the exception of John Henry who was born in Selby.

 He went to Russia! 

He married - I'm not sure who - and had two sons: John William 1850 and Walter 1852.  Both were born in Russia.

John William: again, I'm not sure who he married, but his five children were born in Russia. George 1888; Edward 1889; Elsie Emma 1890; Lucy Alice ?; Alexander Walter 1892 and Alfred Henry 1895.

It's interesting that they were all back in England in 1911. 

More details on George:

George and Elizabeth went to Rhodesia and then to South Africa. They had two sons,  Edward John Abbey 1917-1993 and Desmond 1920-1955.
Edward John had two children who are still living -Lynne Abbey and John Scotson Abbey, but I haven't any more on them at the moment.



Edward is a bit of a mystery (another one).  He died in Brooklyn, New York.  I can't find him anywhere, with the correct roots. The only Edward that keeps cropping up is a ship's steward sailing between Europe, South and North America and a variety of ships over the years.

Elsie Emma died in Sutton Coldfield in 1961, Lucy Alice in Maryland in 1976 and Alfred Henry in Exeter in 1971.

I hope that this will be interesting!

[tiggertwo]

Hi Adrian John

You've got my family tree right down to my brother and me.  Where did you get your info eg birth date for my fathers brother, Desmond Abbey.  Some of it is not totally correct and i will reply to your personal message.

The Edward you refer to is I think, my grandfathers brother.  He was apparently in the merchant navy.  Family rumour puts Elsie in France during the 1st world war and one of the boys being killed in Spain during the  Spanish Civil War (perhaps this was Alexander Walter).  It seems that engineering was in the Abbey blood.

If you look back through this chat site you will see a picture I posted of  John William Abbey and his family in Russia.

Hessu is a mine of infomation as his family used to visit the UK relatives from time to time.