Shake the tree and nuts fall out!

From Amy Johnson Crow - Our ancestors were no strangers to hardship and loss. We should remember those stories as much as we remember the stories of triumph. Our ancestors faced any number of disasters — natural, personal, financial. Perhaps you've had a disaster in your research. How did they (or you) overcome it? (Or maybe they didn't?) Where I thought last week’s theme was hard this weeks has been even harder. I honestly couldn’t think of any “ disaster ” linked to any of my family. Yes, I had Irish ancestors but none that I could link to the potato famine, I haven’t found any that were on sinking ships like the Titanic, no bankruptcy that I knew of and I was very close to saying “this theme is a “ disaster ” as I can’t do it.” Then as I was really losing all hope of being able to do a good story, I received a “ hint ” on ancestry linked to a distant relative – the husband of my 3 rd Great Aunt, George Cousins to be precise. Now I know not all ancestry “ hints” are ...

Welcome to my family history blog. I will be adding  stories and things to it  about my family. Please feel  free to browse and  leave me comments. Oh yes, this is certainly true! Haha, definately   If you have any information  linked to anyone or any name  mentioned in this blog, please  get in touch with me either on  the contact me tab or via email:   purple.roses.4eva@gmail.com

Week 8 (February 19 th -25 th ): Prosperity From Amy Johnson Crow -  Do you have an ancestor who seemed to do well for himself? What about a family photo showing a big car or fancy dresses? How about an ancestor with a "prosperous" name like Wealthy or Fortune? This week’s theme of “ prosperity ” has had me thinking and struggling, as I couldn’t think of any of my ancestors that were prosperous or wealthy. I had no surnames linked to this theme either. Then at about 3am it came to me – Abner Haylock, the Australian Pioneer. Abner Haylock is my 2 nd cousin 4times removed via my mothers side of the family (she was born a Haylock). There had been tales passed down that some of the Haylock family had gone to Australia during the goldrush but no-one knew any more than this. Abner was t...

My 2nd great grandmother was Mary Jane Jackson born 1845 kilmore Ireland. According to her marriage cert her father was Thomas Jackson - all good and easy. However, her father is not such an easy task to sort out as there are not many records linked to ireland surving. From what i have found online linked to him it is different information on every site, that aside its not totally different just bits of it. Take for instance the 3 wives and 16 children - ignore wife 3 for a moment, wife 1 has 10, wife 2 has 6 yep makes. Then i find a 3rd wife and she has a combination of the children. So i'm now back where i was ages ago and have no idea of who his wife actually is. 1 i found the records on family search and also linked to family trees on ancestry, the 2nd i found again on family search and via irish baptism records and the 3rd ive found on a personal website linked to the family. This is so hard to find out, the kids names are not all common and some of them my 2nd great gra...

From Amy Johnson Crow - What is the neatest thing you've found while exploring your family's history? What makes you smile even now thinking about it? This has been a really hard theme, and 1 I have had to think long and hard about. Neither the title or the prompt info was proving helpful. I spoke to my children and they said the same as prompt what have I found that makes me smile etc? and I couldn’t think of anything. It was only after my middle son started asking questions about cousins and cousins removed that I clicked on a few in the tree and 1 of them had an interesting story linked to him, so I decided to use him for my “ favourite discovery ”. So, for my “ favourite discovery ” I have chosen to use my 1 st cousin twice removed, Clemett Harrison Wragge Lackey. He was born in 1909 in Chester-le-street, Durham uk. He was the 3 rd child of his parents Thomas Jackson Lackey and Edith Mary Wragge, and their 2 nd son. However, he also had 3 older half siblings fr...

Week 6 (4 th -11 th February)– same name  From Amy Johnson Crow - Were you named after an ancestor or maybe you just happen to have the same name as someone in your family tree? Is there a name that keeps getting repeated? You could also write about how you sorted out an ancestor from someone else with the same name. People’s names are a significant part of family history research, and one that will trigger loads of problems. The variant of how names are spelt or transcribed, family members changing their names between census records and on them, generations passing the name same down, and cousins/siblings all naming their children the same thing at a similar time and ancestors naming a 2 nd (or 3 rd ) child by the name of a sibling that died as a baby or young child are a big headache for researchers. Luckily for me I don’t have many of these issues in my main lineage. The name being passed down doesn’t really happen except in side branches. I do have quite a few sib...

An article written by Amy Lackey for Family Tree Forum online magazine in September 2008 After my dad died in 2006, my sister and I had to sort out his bungalow. While doing this we found an assortment of old photographs from the 1940s and 1950s, some of which had names and dates on the back. I knew from what my dad had said that some of the family were in Surrey and, as I had some names, I searched the birth, marriage and death indexes on  Ancestry  for entries for that area. At around the same time I asked for help with researching my Lackey family on FTF’s Research Board and member, LangleyValeSue, asked me if I was related to the Lackey family near to where she lived in Surrey. I told her that I thought that I probably was, but didn’t know for sure, so set out to prove it either way. I found a marriage on the BMD indexes on Ancestry’s site; I was intrigued, as I knew that it was the key to proving or disproving my link to the Surrey Lackeys. I ordered the certifica...

An article written by Amy Lackey for Family Tree Forum online magazine july 2008 The cathedral city of Peterborough is situated on the River Nene in the heart of Cambridgeshire, 80 miles north of London. Whilst it is self-governing, it forms part of the county of Cambridgeshire for ceremonial purposes. The area is flat and low lying, with the Fens lying to the east of the city. Human settlement in the area dates back to before the Bronze Age (2300-600 BC), and evidence of this can be seen at the Flag Fen Archaeological Site, in the Fengate area of the city. The city’s railway station is on the East Coast Main Line, which terminates at London in the south and at Edinburgh in the north. It also connects with the stations of the east coast. It was the coming of the railways in the 19th century which led to the rapid increase in the population, which resulted in the market town becoming an industrial centre, particularly in brickmaking, due to the vast supply of local clay deposi...

  An article written by Amy Lackey for the Family Tree Forum online magazine in January 2008 My mum was born a Haylock and there were family tales that some of the Haylock family went to Australia during the gold rush of the mid 1850s. A while after I started my dad’s side of my family tree I hit a brick wall and moved onto my mum’s side. Whilst searching on the internet I found information on the family of my 3x great grand uncle and aunt John Haylock and Ann Guymer on Great Wratting Guymers. Looking more closely I found the following:- Elijah Haylock, Ann & John’s eldest son, had arrived in Adelaide aboard the ‘Catherine’ on 26th May 1851. The Haylock family spent 7 months in Adelaide before making their home in Kingston, Victoria’ So maybe the tales of them going to Australia were correct. I now had the name of the ship on which John and Ann’s son had sailed on, so off to Google I went. Typing in the ship’s name, I got quite a few hits and eventually ca...