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Month: November 2019

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Edward Girling – Black Sheep

Edward Girling is my three times great grandfather, and one of my grimmer black sheep ancestors. Last week I wrote about the spice that can be added to your family tree when you research the people that didn’t quite fit the mould of the rest of the family. In many cases, it can bring interest, joy and even humour into the tree. But at other times it can also be confronting and unpleasant to see the results of your forebear’s choices in life. I have two such ancestors, both named Edward (you’ve already heard the tale of Edward Field) and both responsible for the death of an immediate family member.

 

Who was Edward Girling?

Edward Girling was born in 1811 in Sandiacre, Derbyshire. He was the son of a self-described ‘quack doctor’ named William Girling, and his second wife Charlotte (nee Wilkinson). There is rarely a Girling in my tree who is not somewhat eccentric at the very least!

At the age of 21, he married Mary Boot and soon after the young couple and their daughter Charlotte moved to Birmingham where Edward worked as a scale beam maker. Three more children were born to Edward and Mary during the next twelve years.

Along came my great great grandmother…

Then in 1850 my great-great-grandmother Eliza was born. This child was different from the rest, however. Her mother was not Mary Boot, but Sarah Girling, nee Bytheway! Sarah had been married to a William Bennet Girling of London, but he had left her for another woman a few years previously, whom he subsequently and bigamously married. Sarah named Edward as the father of Eliza, and DNA matches have confirmed that we are linked to the Sandiacre Girlings. I have yet to connect the two Girling branches but it seems odd that both men that she bore children to shared the same unusual surname.

By that time, Edward’s younger brother Reuben had also moved to Birmingham with his family, taken up the same trade as Edward and lived nearby. One of his sons founded Girling Brakes, so they’re not all a bad lot!

The Death of Mary Girling

Fast forward to 1885. On the 15th of June Mary Girling was found dead in the marital home. Following an inquest held on the 19th June, a warrant was issued for the arrest of her husband. Mary’s cause of death had been deemed to be ‘syncope, consequent upon chronic bronchitis’. Edward was accused of wilful neglect of his wife during her illness, and charged with manslaughter.

The Birmingham Calendar of Prisoners (see below) outlines the bare bones of Edward’s case. But as I mentioned last week, black sheep often provide us with further sources of information.

Girling Calendar of Prisoners
Edward Girling’s entry in the Calendar of Prisoners.

Edward Girling in the News

Even by today’s standards, this was a sensational case. It was seized upon not only by the local press but all over the country. Newspapers from the Aberdeen Evening Express to the Luton Times and Bedfordshire Advertiser were reporting on the ‘deplorable character’ who was Edward Girling. And as is the situation today, not everything they said was accurate. Some of it was worse.

It seems that Mary had been living out of the marital home earlier in the year, as their youngest daughter was dying. Mary was living with her to provide nursing, comfort and assistance around the home. The daughter passed away in February and by Easter Mary had moved back in with Edward.

Girling inquest

The inquest of Mary Ann Girling, as reported by the Birmingham Daily Post, 20 June 1885

The newspapers had reported that by this time he was living with his brother’s widow Fanny. Shocking stuff. Except that none of his dead brothers had been married to a Fanny. The brother that lived in Birmingham was still alive and married to a Lavinia. The newspapers either didn’t know (or decided not to report) that Fanny was actually his daughter-in-law, not widowed and they had been living together on and off as man and wife since at least 1871, when they are together on census night! Fanny’s children/Edward’s grandchildren were raised from early childhood by their father John. Edward and Fanny reportedly spent much of their time carousing at local drinking establishments.

Mary suffered from chronic bronchitis. In the weeks preceding her death, she had become bedridden and required assistance and medical attention. Her granddaughter Caroline and a neighbour Emma Layton had been trying to help her by visiting and bringing food and medicine. Mary had said she was being starved and beaten, and indeed the neighbour had been threatened with a stick when she brought some broth around for Mary resulting in police intervention. However in the fortnight before she died, no one had been able to see her, as Edward and Fanny had taken to locking her inside when they went out drinking for the day. When asked to provide a doctor they always said they were going to but didn’t.

The Trial of Edward Girling

Girling trial

Report on the trial of Edward Girling. Birmingham Daily Post, 7th August 1885.

The trial had been delayed when Fanny ran off in early July. She was charged with absconding to avoid giving evidence. The reason she gave was that she was being threatened by relatives of the deceased. I have as yet found no documents to support her having suffered any consequences of either this or for the death of Mary.

When the trial finally took place in early August, the ‘decrepit old man’ had obtained no legal counsel and defended himself against prosecutor Mr Etherington Smith. Unsurprisingly, given the shocking evidence provided by Henry Hawkes the coroner and multiple witnesses, it was a short trial. He was found guilty by the jury and received 18 months of hard labour at Winson Green prison in Birmingham. It would have and should have been a longer sentence, but the judge took pity on him because of his age. Nonetheless, he died soon after he did his time. I’m not sure he would have been mourned by anyone other than perhaps his daughter-in-law and girlfriend Fanny.

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The Black Sheep Ancestor: Take One Family Tree, Add a Dash of Spice…

Black sheep
Where are the black sheep in your family?

What is a black sheep ancestor?

A black sheep ancestor is one who brings shame to the family. The term originates from black wool being traditionally less valuable than white because it is unable to be dyed.

It may be as simple as being a little eccentric or rebellious in a family that is otherwise highly conformist. It may be a young woman who gave birth out of wedlock. Or it could be a family member who commits a crime. Regardless, the black sheep is a disgraced family member who is often shunned by the rest.

Why are black sheep ancestors so interesting?

It is human nature to be intrigued by people who live outside of society’s norms, whether they be criminals or people who have unusual or extreme lifestyles. Look how popular true crime, crime dramas, murder mysteries, reality shows, and soap operas are on TV. Some of the most popular authors are those who write about criminals, fictional or not. Historical criminal figures such as Ned Kelly, Al Capone and Jack the Ripper intrigue us to this day and are unlikely ever to be forgotten.

Black sheep also add colour to our family history and every family has at least one! The great thing about discovering a black sheep ancestor is that there is often a lot of information available about them!

Skeleton in the cupboard
Every family has skeletons in the cupboard. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

How do we find out about them?

The first hint we get of a black sheep is often the absence of open information within the family though. Perhaps the great-uncle that older family members only whisper about. Maybe the cousin no one speaks about. Perhaps an entire line of the family tree is not discussed. The black sheep is not usually what you are going to hear about when collecting oral history (unless you’re really lucky!). People like to keep the family skeletons in the cupboard, not bring them out to be talked about. Whatever you happen to pick up or overhear is likely to be inaccurate and incomplete. Make sure you cross-check every detail for clues and construct the best timeline you can. Then you need to verify and fill in the gaps using information from outside the family.

Luckily, the more notorious or outrageous the black sheep is, the more information is available. And even if the wrongdoing was only minor, there is likely to be documentary evidence somewhere.

Some sources to consider

A great place to look is in newspapers. Crimes are often reported on both at the time and when the trial occurs, and these reports tend to be a lot less dry to read than the formal documents. Depending on the paper they can actually become quite lurid, for example, the ‘penny dreadful’ illustrated papers of Victorian England.

Some of the sites to check out for newspapers include the British Newspaper Archive (also available through FindMyPast), Newspapers.com (also via Ancestry), Trove (free site for Australian newspapers), and Papers Past (free site for NZ newspapers). Also, do not neglect looking for local history books.

Black sheep reporting
You may be lucky enough to find a dramatic and illustrated version of your ancestor’s misdeeds in a ‘penny dreadful’ newspaper!

For the actual facts about the crime, trial and punishment, there are multiple sources of information such as inquests and coroner’s reports, police gazettes, court records, gaol and prison records and multiple forms of convict documents (about which expect a future blog!). Pictures and/or physical descriptions of the black sheep are not uncommon in several of these documents.

If they left the country, you may find them on passenger lists, or they might have passport applications you can consult.

Illegitimacy black sheep
Young woman accusing married man of fathering her unborn child. Credit: Wellcome Collection

The parish chest can also be revealing. Poor law records such as removal and settlement examinations and orders can provide a lot of information. For illegitimacy see if any bastardy bonds are available. DNA can also be a useful modern tool for validating paternity!

One place where family members might speak out a little is in their will! And if there were legal quarrels in Chancery all sorts of family gossip can be found if you know where to look!

All the feels…

Finding a black sheep ancestor can stir up all sorts of mixed feelings. It is natural to want to feel proud of your family, and believe they are good people. It can be quite a blow to realise that some of them just weren’t likeable (remember my Edward Field?). This doesn’t apply to all, or even a majority of the black sheep though. People were often just doing their best to survive in harsh times.

Remember they were living in different times, with different societal expectations. Most of us today would be considered black sheep if we were transplanted into the 19th Century! Don’t be quick to judge. Take into account the time period and circumstances, and put their story into context. Was it really so wrong to steal food during a famine? Wrong enough to potentially be hung or transported across the world?

At the same time, it is important to be sensitive to the potential ongoing feelings of shame or embarrassment in living relatives who are of an era incompatible with the actions of the black sheep (e.g., unwed mothers, convict ancestry). Do not hide the truth, or worse cover it with white lies. However, be careful how excitedly public you go with information if someone still with us can be hurt.

Convict black sheep
Have you found any convict ancestors? (A.k.a Australian ‘royalty’!)

Next week, I will tell the tale of one or two of my many black sheep, as I have written far too much this week already! In the meantime..who is YOUR black sheep and what did they do?

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Walking the Streets of My London Ancestors – The East End

Wilkes St, Spitalfields
John and Sarah (nee Morter) Rigby were living here at Wilkes St, Spitalfields in 1861, when the census was held and when their son John married Charlotte Teague.

While I was in London attending RootsTech, I put aside a day to go wandering. Not so much tourist-style wandering, but ancestral wandering. A maternal branch of my family has strong roots in the East End of London, so I decided to walk in the footsteps of my London ancestors for a day! It is something I heartily recommend you do if you get the opportunity. However, as with trips to the archives, preparation is key. If you know exactly where key events occurred in your ancestors’ lives, or exactly where they lived, and worked, you can literally stand where they stood. An amazing feeling!

Preparing to visit your ancestral neighbourhood

Go through the documents you have collected for the ancestors in the area you will be visiting. Look for addresses, landmarks, churches, workplaces, schools etc. Make a note of the addresses. I made a spreadsheet so I could sort by street name, ancestor, event and so on. I added an additional column for ‘current street name’. Why? Because street names change more frequently than you might think! London was extensively bombed during WW2, and also underwent a lot of growth prior to that. Many many old street names were lost. I found this site invaluable in finding the current day names for 19th-century London addresses.

The next item I looked for to help me was an old street map. By using a street map from the era of your ancestors you can see not only where the streets are in relation to one another but, for example, how comparatively rural the area may have then been. Over the decades, streets may have been partly demolished, changed course or extended. I found a map from 1853, another from 1882, and even one from the late 1700s. I printed all these out, highlighted the relevant streets and attached my spreadsheet. Now I was ready to visit my London ancestors! Using Google Maps on my phone once there I could chart a course for my East End wandering.

The local church

The first place I stopped was St Matthew’s church in Bethnal Green. It wasn’t the only church used by my London ancestors. They often got married down the road at Christchurch Spitalfields. But for baptisms, burials and regular Sunday worship, this was their main church. When I arrived, to my surprise it was open, an unusual thing these days! Then I remembered it was Sunday. I tiptoed inside hoping to get a quick look at the interior, but I was spotted by the small congregation and ended up attending the service (and having a cup of tea with them afterwards!)

St Matthew's church, Bethnal Green
St Matthew’s church, Bethnal Green

The church had been badly damaged during the war, so the inside was quite modern. The old font that many of my family had been baptised in was gone. But it was lovely to spend a little time in the space where so many of their significant life moments had occurred. A little later in the day I popped into Christchurch Spitalfields too.

St Matthews Bethnal Green plaque inside church
Plaque commemorating the bombing of St Matthew’s church in Bethnal Green.

The neighbourhood

Leaving the church, I followed the trail on my map and began seeking out the addresses my London ancestors had occupied. My main people from this neighbourhood were the Morter, Rigby, Teague, Townley, and Wright families.

Turning onto Brick Lane, I was suddenly confronted by market stalls, buskers, crowds and the smells of delicious foods! Brick Lane Market is held on a Sunday. I love markets! The sun was shining, I was on a genealogical adventure whilst simultaneously experiencing a market. Could life get any better?

Bacon St, Shoreditch
Bacon St, Shoreditch. Formerly Thomas St, this street is the epicentre of my mid-1800’s London ancestry. John and Sarah (nee Morter) Rigby lived at number 5 in the 1861 and 1871 censuses, and Sarah’s mother died there in 1866. Enoch Teague as at 17 at the 1851 Census, his wife Sarah (nee Townley) having died at number 19 in 1842. Their daughter Charlotte was at 23 in the 1861 census living with her married sister Emma.
Cygnet St, Shoreditch
Cygnet St (formerly Swan Yard and Swan Terrace), Shoreditch. Between 1815 and 1820, John and Sarah (nee Wright) Morter were giving Swan Yard as their address as they were baptising their children, including their daughter Sarah. By 1841, Sarah junior was married to John Rigby and they were living in Swan Terrace at the time of the census.

Some of the original buildings at the addresses could still be found, however by no means all of them. Many old houses had been bombed and since replaced by office buildings, a school and a park. This was especially apparent when I visited New Inn Yard in Shoreditch, where hardly an old building could be seen.

New Inn Yard, Shoreditch
New Inn Yard, Shoreditch. When John and Sarah Morter left Swan Yard, they moved here and continued baptising several more children. From this we know that they lived here for at least 16 years. Nothing remains of the buildings of the time.
10 Hanbury St, Spitalfields
This was formerly 10 Brown’s Lane (now Hanbury St), the home of Charlotte Teague in 1861 when she married John Rigby. The blue plaque at number 12 is to commemorate the birthplace of Bud Flanagan in 1896. Just across the road, Jack the Ripper claimed his 2nd victim, Annie Chapman at number 29 (long since demolished).

Get walking!

I recommend walking in your ancestors’ local area if you get the opportunity. If nothing else it will give you a feel for the relationship of the addresses and landmarks to one another and the local geography. This will give you better insight when researching.

In my case, I truly felt a sense of belonging as well. I felt happy there. This feeling often occurs when I visit places that my family inhabited. I wonder if it is as simple as enjoying being there and seeing how my ancestors lived. Or is it something deeper? Is there something to epigenetic memory inheritance? Does it feel like home because part of me recognises it as such?

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Rootstech London – Yes, Another Genealogy Conference!

genealogy rootstech

Last week marked the end of my epic genealogy road trip. What better way to see it out than by attending RootsTech London, the third and final genealogy conference of the trip?

RootsTech is normally held in Salt Lake City in Utah, USA and is organised by FamilySearch. RootsTech is the world’s largest family history technology conference, and in this, its 10th year, they decided to hold their first international conference in London, England.

The Venue

The venue was ExCeL, a massive exhibition centre in the Docklands area. It was so large in fact that ExCeL were also able to simultaneously hold a Comic-Con on the second and third day of RootsTech! This was possibly the most unusual combination of conferences to hold in one venue. At least we didn’t have to worry about accidentally going in the wrong door, the two groups of conference attendees could not have looked more different! Common ground was found, however. Family trees were posted outside the RootsTech hall for Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and The Simpsons which generated lots of interest from strangely dressed people!

RootsTech London Excel
ExCeL London – site of RootsTech London

Keynote Speakers

There were keynote speakers on each of the three days, each giving their own perspective on the importance of family history in their lives.

On Thursday, historian Dan Snow told an extraordinarily moving tale of an ancestor of whom he was not proud, and the part he played in the unnecessary deaths of thousands of soldiers in World War 1.

Friday’s keynote speaker was Kadeena Cox. She is a British Paralympian with a truly inspiring story of courage and perseverance. Although she had not really worked on her family tree as such, both her immediate and extended family played a huge part in her success. Her tales of her West Indian heritage were full of warmth and humour. She was genuinely thrilled when she was given the gift of some further generations of her family tree and some DNA kits!

On Saturday, Donny Osmond revealed that not only was he an entertainer, but also an avid family historian and keeper of the Osmond family genealogy. He spoke and sang to an enthusiastic crowd. Sadly the queues were so long to meet him afterwards that I missed out on being one of the lucky ones!

RootsTech London Donny Osmond
This was as close as I got to Donny Osmond!

The Program

I was spoiled in the previous couple of conferences I’d been to. The first had three streams of concurrent sessions and the second was a single stream. At this conference, for every timeslot, there was a choice of about 10 talks to attend. I’d narrow it down to two or three then really struggle to decide which to attend! I ended up going with talks that covered topics that I’d not been exposed to so much in the previous conferences on this roadtrip.

On Thursday I attended several talks on Welsh genealogy. Given that I have Welsh ancestry on both sides of my family and there are unique challenges in researching the Welsh, these were very useful indeed. I also attended a class on online church court records by Colin Chapman because, well…Colin Chapman! What a legend, 70 years in the profession and he’s still as enthusiastic as ever.

Friday was a bit of a mixture of topics for me, but with a definite Irish flavour predominating. Same on Saturday – workhouse records, DNA, and a bit of fangurling again, this time Nick Barratt talking about legal sources.

Exhibition

It’s always good to spend plenty of time in the exhibition area. Firstly, as a refugee from the corporate sector I know what a huge investment companies make to support these conferences and how much that keeps the prices down for consumers. Also, it’s great to see what’s new or improved from companies whose products I use, and from companies I have not experienced before.

RootsTech London sponsors
An event like this would not be possible at an affordable price without the support of sponsors.
RootsTech London exhibition area
RootsTech London exhibition area
RootsTech London Exhibition area
RootsTech London exhibition area

There was plenty to explore in the Exhibition hall, and I especially enjoyed looking at the latest tech offerings for analysis of DNA.

Sadly, I also came to the conclusion that my fondness for books is perhaps straying into the realms of addiction. I ended up purchasing six books from the excellent Pen & Sword range. This meant having to dispose of several items of clothing and footwear to get them in my suitcase. However the conference special price meant that I was getting six for what two would cost me back in Australia!

I also took advantage of conference specials to take out long-considered memberships of the Society of Genealogists and the Guild of One-Name Studies. I can’t get wait to start digging around in their online resources, and to register at least one of the One-Name Studies I’ve embarked on over the years!

Networking

Sounds so clinical doesn’t it? It’s such an integral part of every conference, meeting new people and catching up with old friends. In the last couple of months, I feel like I’ve forged several new and wonderful friendships which I hope to continue growing. The genealogical community is a warm, welcoming and friendly one. Ironically, you immediately feel like family. I believe there were around 5000 attendees at RootsTech London. I absolutely did not meet everyone, but those I did meet were lovely!

All in all, RootsTech London was excellent, and I do hope they continue to hold international RootsTech conferences!