On this day in JANUARY ...

[stonechat]

A bit of a side branch today
Gilbert MacDonald Stewart died today at the Battle of Spion Kop in the Boer War - 1900

He is 2nd cousin twice removed

[terry h]

1st Cousin 4 x R Christina Gilchrist b 24/1/1867, Traquair, Peeblesshire, daughter of Robert & Jane Gilchrist nee Sommerville.

That's it for today!

[Spidermonkey]

I too have a distant ancestor for todays first offering - Henry Verdin, my 2nd cousin 3x removed, died in 1929.

Slightly closer, my 3x gt grandmother Anna Richardson nee Whitup, died in 1904 aged 80

[Trees]

Henry Squire was born 1802 in St Giles in the Wood Devon (The name is almost as long as the village!) He seems to have had an unremarkable life. He married Rebecca Ashplant she is out on a linb of my tree no one nearer though seems to be a day of distant rellies

[LizzieW]

Some distant and some not so distant in both relationship and date.

Elizabeth Houghton Pemberton (nee Caldwell) my g.g.aunt was born in Manchester in 1855.  Her father was a coachmaker.

Ellen Bagshawe (nee Hudson) was baptised in Bradfield, Yorkshire in 1584/85. 

Lucy Stanton my 3 x g.g.aunt was baptised in Heckington, Lincolnshire in 1808.  Unfortunately, she died 17 days later on 10 February.

Priscilla Peat my 7 x g.g.aunt was baptised in Holme Cultram, Cumberland in 1685/86

Nellie Hobson my 1st cousin twice removed died in Crumpsall Hospital, Manchester in 1956.  She was the 2nd daughter of my g.g.uncle’s 2nd marriage.  Mum used to talk about her quite often, and it’s not inconceivable that I met her.  In those days, my mother’s family all seemed to keep in touch, 1st cousins, cousins removed, 2nd cousins etc. even though they’d moved away from their childhood homes, but not too far so that keeping in touch had become unusual.  Nellie was my maternal gran’s cousin and my gran lived with us until her death in 1949.

Gertrude Lynch another 1st cousin twice removed was buried in Agecroft Cemetery, Salford in 1964.  Gertrude was my maternal grandfather’s cousin.

William Benjamin Brand my g.g.uncle married Mary Ann Hanley in The Cathedral Parish Church, Manchester in 1875.  This is another couple in my family where the sister of the groom married the brother of the bride, in this case at the same Parish Church only 4 weeks earlier

[groom]

My grandfather George Andrew died on this day in 1963 aged 82. As my father was the youngest of 6, I dont remember my grandfather as anything but old. He was the eldest son of parents who came to England from Germany before he was born. Although his father was a pork butcher, my grandfather became a typewriter mechanic and was very good with his hands. I remember that one Christmas he made me a kaleidoscope that was the envy of my friends. He was also a very keen amateur photographer and I have a beautiful photo that he took of my grandmother. I cant ever remember seeing my grandfather without a pipe in his mouth or in his hand, and to this day if I ever smell pipe tobacco I think of him.

[Lydart]

Rebecca Ashplant she is out on a limb of my tree

Very amusing .... 

[Seoras]

On January 24th 1929 my great great grandmother Hannah Greer died in Crosscroes, Muiravonside. She was born in Scotland but both her parents were Irish, her father's family came from Ballinderry in County Antrim. She had something of a hard life, her first marriage broke down and her husband remarried and emigrated to America. Her 5th child was born in a poorhouse and she lost two of her three sons by her first husband in WWI, and the third was missing presumed dead for some time. She seems to have found some kind of life with her second husband and had three children with him. His family drive me to distraction as I am having a brickwall moment with them. All I know is he was born in England and that his father was at some time a soldier and later a merchant. But given that his father was in the army, John could have been born in England simply because he was stationed there.

On 24th January 1868 Alexander Wardlaw, one of the only two surviving  children of my 3xG grandparents George Wardlaw and Agnes Torrance, married Isabella Wilson in Shotts. The other survivor was my GG grandfather. His mother died young as did his brother Thomas. His sister died in childbirth with her first child and his father died in a poorhouse. Times sure were hard back then.

[Trees]

Lydart you can see why I'm called trees 
Today the 4th of 12 children was born to James Froud poor little William lived but a few days. James and Ann only lost two children in childhood both little boys named William,( know idea why they were so determined to have a William it is not a name in either of their families before,) so sad but I can tell you a bit about his dad. James was a first child and probably followed the common practice of the time in being born at his grandparent's home. He became apprenticed to a shoemaker or cordwainer and in 1841 was living in East Challow but not in the family home. By 1844 he had moved to Childrey, set up in business at Anne's home (Yew Tree Cottage) and the first of their 12 children had been born. Later he moved the family to The Crown and became a beer retailer as well as a shoemaker. We know he also had 2 cows and sold milk to the villagers. He taught all his sons to be shoemakers and this must have been a cheap source of labour for some years.
James was a master craftsman, employing 1 man, and for 10 years had an apprentice, John Smith from Ardington, a slow learner perhaps as most apprenticeships were for 7 years. Of his children, John was a shoemaker all his life, finally living in the Almshouses at Lyford (see The Length of the Road by Maud Ody), Mary (Froud) Boucher is also mentioned in this book. One of John's sons returned to Childrey to marry the Landlady of The Hatchet and he himself became the licensee. His son, Ken, married a Canadian girl and they live in Quebec.