Genealogy Network Blogs

England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790-1976

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:11:09 +0100

This unique card index was compiled in England from the 1790s until about 1970 and features a collection of notices from newspapers and various official sources, such as the London Gazette. Approximately 250,000 cards include announcements of births, marriages, obituaries, and deaths abroad; notices of wills, unclaimed estates, and filings under the Colonial Probates Act [...]

Midlothian (Edinburgh), Scotland, Extracted Parish Records

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:07:42 +0100

his database is a collection of historical parish registers from the county of Midlothian (Edinburgh) in the country of Scotland. The 549,800 records in this collection can range in date from the early 1500s to the mid- to late-1800s. Some non-parish records may be included from as early as the twelfth century. Parish records–primarily baptisms, [...]

Find Your Ancestors!

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:03:15 +0100

Get Instant FREE Access to: More than 4,600,000,000 Names 400 Million Names from Family Trees Worldwide Birth, Marriage, Death, and Other Vital Records More than 100 Million Pages of Newspapers, 1739 to Present Huge Historical Map Collection More than 8,000 High School, College, and Military Yearbooks Millions of Tombstone Inscriptions and Tombstone Photographs for more [...]

Search new Plymouth and Devon records for 3.5 million people

Sat, 26 May 2012 11:31:39 +0100

Search new Plymouth and Devon parish records covering 3.5 million people and five centuries on findmypast.co.uk These records include baptisms, marriages and burials from 1538 to 1911, making it easier than ever before to trace your Devonshire ancestors before the first census and the start of birth, marriage and death records in the 19th century. [...]

How the Wild West REALLY looked: Gorgeous sepia-tinted pictures show the landscape as it was ...

Sat, 26 May 2012 11:28:31 +0100

These remarkable 19th century sepia-tinted pictures show the American West as you have never seen it before – as it was charted for the first time. The photos, by Timothy O’Sullivan, are the first ever taken of the rocky and barren landscape. At the time federal government officials were travelling across Arizona, Nevada, Utah and [...]

Oregon Teens Work to Preserve an Historic Cemetery

Sat, 26 May 2012 03:04:59 +0100

Just in time for Memorial Day in the U.S., an article by Lori Tobias in The Oregonian Newspaper describes the work of a group of teens taking care of a historic cemetery next to their school. The article also has a link to the Oregon Commission on Historical Cemeteries. I'd suggest that all teens should read the article at http://goo.gl/q08f7 about contributing to your local community. My thanks to Dee Passmore for telling me about the article. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with others. Tweet it, share it on Google+, Facebook or on your preferred social network....

Sepia Saturday 127: Everyday life in Victorian photos

Sat, 26 May 2012 01:11:00 +0100

I haven't got off to a very good start with my return to Sepia Saturday, having missed last week's edition, but hopefully I'll manage to submit this week's in time. Alan's choice of image prompt depicts a vibrant, busy market scene at Ballybricken Green in Waterford. The photograph was taken by A.H. Poole in 1910, and is full of people, animals and character.

My own contributions this week are a carte de visite and two other mounted photos of similar size, but trimmed. All three are from an album that I purchased a few years ago on eBay. The carte de visite shows a man in working clothes, sturdy leather shoes and peaked cap in the act of filling a metal bucket with water from what appears to be a hand pump encased in wood, set against a brick wall. The pump looks to be fairly new - at least the casing's been freshly painted. The man's clothing is obviously not his Sunday best, and the brick wall looks somewhat decrepit.

With no photographer's details or an inscription to identify the subject, it's a little difficult to date, but I estimate it was probably taken in the late 1890s or early 1900s, a decade or so prior to Waterford market scene. I've chosen it for today's post because, even if posed, it represents something not often seen in family photos from this period, an accurate, natural and matter of fact depiction of everyday life.

The other two photographs have been trimmed to roughly CDV size, presumably to fit in the album slots. One shows a young man, again in trousers, shirtsleeves, waistcoat, leather shoes and flat cap, standing outside a stable, with a horse poking its head out. The walls of the very high-ceilinged stable look in substantially better trim than the wall seen in the first photo. There is a water trough made from a wooden barrel at lower left, with a tap for refilling it, and a cast iron grating - presumably a drain cover - can be seen at lower right.

Again there are no identifying marks to indicate the location or the name of either the photographer, the young man - or the horse, for that matter.

The third photograph is a silver gelatin print mounted on grey card with a slight fabric "grain" on the reverse, and was possibly taken some years later, although it is difficult to be more specific. It depicts a man, perhaps middle-aged, with a rather splendid white moustache, apparently interrupted while gathering in the hay. He is dressed, once again, in working clothes, but this time wearing a wide-brimmed fedora-style felt hat and carring a two-tined pitchfork.

The man stands in a field bordered by stone walls, and in the background a rural scene and collection of houses can be seen.

At the time I purchased the album, the only clue to its contents was an inscription in the front. There was not a single inscription on the photos themselves, or any annotations on the album pages. However, a good proportion of the portraits in the album were by Derbyshire studio photographers - indeed, that is what attracted me to the album in the first place.

Allestree
August 25th 1894
In Rememberance of past Kindness,
With Best Wishes from
Henry Mitchell

I had little success in tracing Henry Mitchell - it was just too common a name to be sure I had the right one. However, in February 2007 I posted images of several of the portraits by Derbyshire studios in the respective profiles on my Derbyshire photographers web site, including a CDV and cabinet card by W.N. Statham of Matlock Bridge. Some time later, I was very excited to hear from Marilyn McMillan and Betty Jane Rotteau, from Ontario and British Columbia respectively, who had identified some of the individuals in these portraits.

Henry and Ann Jane Statham
Image © & courtesy of Marilyn McMillan
Actually, an enlarged, coloured and framed version of one of the portraits, depicting her great-grandparents Henry and Ann Jane Statham, hangs on the wall of Marilyn's home, so there could be no doubt whatsoever about the identification.

Henry and Ann Jane Statham
I wrote an article about this exciting discovery here on Photo-Sleuth in February 2008. Apart from the information sent to me by Marilyn, I had done some of my own research into the family, because it turned out that not only were they closely related to the photographer W.N. Statham, but there was also a distant connection with my own family - one of the Statham photographers married my grandfather's sister-in-law, Jessie Louisa Hogg. However, I still had been unable to discover any links to a "Henry Mitchell."

Statham family of Matlock
Click image for a larger version
Then, in January last year (2011) Betty Jane Rotteau emailed me with details of a break through:

Just to give you a bit of our Statham ancestry to help make sense of this. Isaac Statham married Sarah Carline and they had 6 children who lived to adulthood. Isaac married in 1873, Henry was our gr-grandfather who you know about, Louisa and Caroline never married but lived together their whole lives, William was with Louisa & Caroline until 1911. I am still looking for a marriage and/or death for him. Then there was Clarissa. She married Henry Mitchell in 1882 and they had 3 children. I think this is the Henry who wrote the above message. From what I can figure Allestree was near Derby at that time, whether this is where Henry & Clarissa were living I don't know for sure. During the 1891 and 1901 census Henry, Clarissa and family were living in Derby area, Quarn Street and Elm Street. Their children's birth were all registered in Derby.

View Larger Map
Both Quarn Street and Elms Street are just off Kedleston Road, in a north-western suburb of Derby. In fact, both addresses are now shown as part of the same cul-de-sac, the road system having been modified somewhat over the last century or so. It is not too far from present day Allestree, which nowadays is really just another suburb of Greater Derby, although separated from it by the A38 motorway.

Masson Farm, near Matlock, Derbyshire
from Ordnance Survey One-Inch Map, Buxton and Matlock, 1947
My immediate thought was that Henry Mitchell could have been giving the album to his parents-in-law, but of course Sarah Statham was dead by that time. Isaac Statham died at Masson Farm, Matlock on 13 November 1894, less than three months after the inscription was made, and by 1901 the three remaining single children were all living at Masson Farm. Betty had an idea:

This just raises more questions. I wonder who Henry was referring to when he wrote his message. Could it have been a message to his sister-in-laws, Louisa and Caroline who took care of their father until he passed away in November, 1894.

I think it's quite possible that Henry gave the album to either Isaac Statham senior or Caroline and Louise, but most likely to his sisters-in-law. When Caroline died in 1931, the executors of her will were Frederick Lewis Mitchell and Edward Mitchell, the two sons of Henry and Clarissa. It seems very likely that either they or their sister Clarissa Zenobia, by then married to Thomas Hayes, inherited the album, perhaps along with other family effects.

That is, of course, just a wild theory. However, it would explain how photographs from Loughborough and Leicester found their way into the album, since I note that in the census records Henry Mitchell states that he was born in Loughborough. Most of the photographs are from Matlock, Matlock Bath, Chesterfield and Derby. It is important to note that there are many portraits which were taken well before the album was purchased and inscribed in 1894, so they must have been inserted afterwards. It is tempting to theorise that many of the older Derbyshire portraits could be of other members of the Statham family.

View from Salter's Lane, Masson Farm, near Matlock
Image © and courtesy of Google Earth Streetview
I am also intrigued by the possibility that the portraits of the man by the water pump, the horse hand, and the haymaker could all have been taken at or near Masson Farm. It's possible that all three may be the same man, Henry Mitchell's brother-in-law William Statham (1864-1944).

William Nathan Statham (1863-1940)
Image © and courtesy of Chris Statham
In May last year Chris Statham, grandson and great-grandson respectively of photographers Percival "Percy" Joseph Statham (1894-1977) and William Nathan Statham (1863-1940), was in touch with me. Subsequent emails have revealed that he has in his possession the family photo album of Abanathan "Nathan" Daffin Statham (1823-1874). Among other interesting items of information about W.N. Statham's career, Chris also sent this imposing portrait of the photographer in his Freemason's regalia. I am most intrigued, and the next step will be to ascertain whether any of the people who appear in the "Mitchell/Allestree" album also appear in the "Abanathan" album. In particular, my primary task will be to identify the man/men in the three farm portraits.

The other contributions for Sepia Saturday this week may not have chosen a similar theme to mine, but you can sure they will be well worth a visit.

Remembering Family on Memorial Day

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:04:11 +0100

Memorial Day weekend is upon us and we encourage you to have fun with friends and family, and also to take pause to remember and honor those who have died in military service. The origins of Memorial Day trace back to the years just after the Civil War, when towns across the nation began to memorialize those who had fallen in that conflict. Eventually Decoration Day, as it was originally...

Help For Finding Your Ancestor in the 1940 US Census

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:01:15 +0100

While waiting impatiently for the indexing of the 1940 US Census to be completed, I have been periodically checking to update its status and also searching for help in narrowing down the number of...

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Follow-Up Friday - Reader Comments and Tips

Fri, 25 May 2012 20:02:00 +0100

I have had several useful and informative reader comments and research tips over the past three weeks, including:

1) On Tuesday's Tip - English Parish Registers on FamilySearch.org (posted 15 May 2012):

* Geolover offered: "For a great deal of information about what parish registers exist, together with dates, some publication data and links to many helpful websites, this site is invaluable:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/contents/#Search

"Use and drill down into the location links at top of this gateway page. It is an extremely deep and broad site. One can search for specific locales and get lists of area churches, for example."

* Catherine noted: "... last night I perused the Hampshire records, from here in South Australia, and not only had my suspicion on the parentage of my GGGrandfather confirmed but discovered another 4 of his siblings! Am smiling to think that his marriage certificate will arrive, by post, next week which certainly should confirm my on-line discovery :-) "

* Howard Swain said: "Diana Trenchard mentioned last Jan. on the Gen-Medieval email list that there is a new site with an update to the info on Hugh Wallis' site. See: http://www.archersoftware.co.uk/igi/index.htm"

My comments: Thank you all for the very helpful links.

2) In Chronology Report in Legacy Family Tree 7.5 (posted 22 May 2012):

* Tessa noted: "I have added timelines to my Legacy program - including timelines for Newfoundland, Ireland, Nebraska, Washington and Oregon. You can add the "title," what appears in the Chronology Report, and then add as much detail/description as you want as well as your source citation (which does not need to print) for purposes of your Report.

"It is important to add events/facts to your peoples because this will flesh out their story in the timeline. I find it very helpful for finding my holes and/or giving me ideas of new places or events to research. I think we are all guilty of not taking the time to learn our software and certainly we are not aware of how robust these programs can be. Thanks for sharing how you do it."

My comment: Thank you, Tessa, for the idea of adding to the Historical Events list. I wonder if someone can show how to do this? If not, I will try to do it in a future post. Maybe when Geoff gets back from his cruise he can demonstrate it.

3) In FTM 2011 Source Citations in Legacy Family Tree 7 - Mangled? (posted 19 January 2011):

* Tenaciousone noted: "I agree that the GEDCOM standard needs to be updated both from a technical and a technological standpoint. It also needs to be monitored and updated on a continuous basis. But the aspect that I haven't seen covered, (at least in this posting), is that standards need to be set for sourcing and equally applied in each free standing program. Being a Legacy user, I know that there Source Writer follows the Elizabeth Shown Mills standard. Having been at this for over 20 years now, I have learned the hard way the value of accurate sources. Having a preset model in place, without having to take the time to look it up each time I needed to cite a source, has made me a better documenter of facts. I understand that each company wants to be unique in its product offerings but this is one area where they should all comply."

My comment: Source citation formatting is one of the problems we've been discussing for several years now. My hope is that all involved - software providers, online tree providers, and users can agree on a GEDCOM-like standard that seamlessly transfer source citations created using a number of standards (e.g., Evidence! Explained).

4) On Surname Saturday - LEWIS (England > RI > NY > Canada) (posted 25 June 2011):

* Mike Lewis commented: "You forgot to mention that Jonathan Lewis, born 1658 in Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island, United States; was not only married to Jemima Whitehead but was later married to Deliverance Townsend. I am a descendant of Johnathan and Deliverance by their son Joseph."

My comment: Thanks, Mike. I didn't forget, but I didn't add it to this list. For these Surname Saturday posts, I am showing only my direct line families with full siblings, rather than all marriages and all children of my direct line ancestors. My choice...

5) In Looking at Della's Ancestry Hints (posted 9 May 2012):

* Russ Worthington offered: "I think, sometimes, it pays to look at the Ancestry.com Knowledge Base website: http://ancestry.custhelp.com/. Search for article 4995. This statement "possibly match the individual in your tree", for me, is based on DATA within the Tree. (AMT or Family Tree Maker). Ancestry doing some searching for you. That is very different, I think, then Doing a Search on your own. (no leaves involved).

"Hints are helpful, but only that Hints. WE need to go beyond the Hints. To me it's like starting with a broad search and narrowing the search down, or starting a narrow search and removing some of the terms in the search. To me, the Leaves are the Narrow Search."
* Anonymous said: "Ancestry's hints only catch the "low-hanging" fruit. Best to always do your own search to be complete."

My comments: Than you for the comments. I see another blog post coming up - what records did the Ancestry Shaky Leaves miss?

Some observation: The knowledge of my readers complements my blog posts every week. I thank all readers for making comments that help me, and other readers, perform better and more complete genealogy research! Communication and collaboration are powerful tools!

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/05/follow-up-friday-reader-comments-and_25.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver