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The Incredible Disappearing Augustine Hoy and His Namesakes Galore

Augustine Hoy has provided an enduring mystery for decades. He left many traces of his existence, including a large and fertile family. But then he vanished. His uncommon first name was repeated over and over again through several generations of his descendants, which has been a wonderful boon to research. Namesakes make the job of sifting through copious records so much easier. However, he is one of those ancestors who appear to have been abducted by aliens! There is no trace of him in death, probate or inquest records in the state of Victoria, nor in any other state of Australia. Nor anywhere else in the world that I have been able to find. Augustine, if you’re out there please wave!

What is known about Augustine Hoy?

Augustine Hoy was born in the county of Dublin in Ireland around 1814. No baptism record has been located, so that end of his life is similarly clouded in mystery. A family story survives in more than one branch of descendants that he came from ‘Silveroak Castle’. Of course, there is no such place in Ireland. But let’s take into account the ‘Chinese Whispers’ effect. There is a place known as Slieveroe (which could easily morph into Silveroak over several generations of repetition) near the border of counties Dublin and Kildare. The civil parish there is Newcastle, and yes indeed there are the ruins of a castle in the town.

The Catholic parish is also called Newcastle, and I believe this is his home parish. There were Hoys on land there in the Griffiths Valuation, but this was well after he left the country so I can’t physically place Augustine there. The parish records remain with the local church and are not digitised. I have written to them with no result as yet. So this remains my working hypothesis but further evidence is required before I can be fully confident. I’m currently working on the tree of a Dublin Hoy DNA match to see if I can get there from another angle.

Augustine Hoy Frances McGeow marriage
Marriage certificate of Augustine and Frances

He moved to England, but of course, no passenger lists survive. In 1833 he married Frances McGeow in Eccles, Lancashire. No fathers’ names are given, as this predated civil registration by just a few short years. Together they had three children in England…Ann, Margaret and Augustine, the first of his namesakes.

Augustine Hoy junior's birth certificate
Birth certificate of Augustine Hoy junior.

The Hoys in Australia

By 1841, Augustine and Fanny had decided to emigrate to Australia. They boarded the ship ‘Intrinsic’ on 10th June as bounty emigrants with Margaret and Augustine junior and headed for the recently settled colony of Port Phillip (now the state of Victoria).

Augustine Hoy passenger list
The Hoy family on the passenger list of the Intrinsic.

The date is significant as it was just four days after the 1841 Census was taken. An earlier departure would have meant there would have been no trace of his family in any English census. They settled in the Western District, initially around Belfast (Port Fairy) and later at Grasmere, where he farmed a little land and Fanny raised a rapidly growing brood of children as well as being a cook for local whalers.

Emigration vessel c1840
The conditions under which the Hoy family emigrated.

He was mentioned several times in the diary of another early settler, Augustus Bostock, who eventually took over Augustine’s land when he became insolvent in 1857. The insolvency did not necessarily indicate he was bad with money. Several of the locals found themselves in the same situation following a fire at Bateman’s store in Warrnambool. He, like many, had been paid for his produce in tokens issued by the business. These became worthless when the store was completely destroyed by fire on the eve of Bateman’s business practices being investigated by the bank.

A Bateman’s store token. Credit: Museums Victoria
https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/2569

For many years this was the last I heard of him. His children grew up, and several dispersed around the state – Margaret and Reuben went north to Ararat, Mary Ann even further north into New South Wales, Charles went to Geelong and Joseph went east to Sale in Gippsland. Fanny and the remaining surviving children (Augustine and Thomas) stayed around the Warrnambool area. She died in 1895. Her death certificate indicated she was a widow. The informant was Augustine junior, so this should be reliable information.


So where was Augustine Hoy between 1857 and 1895? In desperation, I purchased all of the marriage certificates of his children. A couple mentioned he was a gold miner, so it became apparent that he had sought his fortune on the goldfields. Not unexpected given the gold rush was in full flight in 1850’s Victoria.

It wasn’t until Trove grew to include a wider range of newspapers that I eventually found him mentioned in the mid-1860s up in Ararat where Margaret and Reuben were living with their families. This was probably where he had been mining, as their rush had started in 1857, just when Augustine had needed to start over. By then he was doing agricultural work as a ploughman. But still, no mention of his death. There was no death certificate issued. There is no record of him being buried in Ararat or anywhere else. He simply vanished.

Augustine’s namesakes

For such an elusive man, his family seem determined to remember him. At least four generations continued the name of Augustine. So far I have found over 20 descendants using his moniker, though often as a middle name. This has proved to be a wonderful way to verify the correct Hoy family amongst several others around the state. Let’s face it, Augustine is unusual, and we’ve already seen the usefulness of unusual middle names! But no one in the extended family seems to have any idea where he went, how he died or where he is buried. If only they could have remembered that!

Did he fall down a mine shaft, where his bones lay to this day? One would think that a total disappearance would have rated a mention in the newspaper. Especially given that the forfeiture of his entry in a ploughing competition in Ararat garnered a mention! Did he leave for greener pastures? I thought he may have followed the gold to the later rushes in New Zealand. His death isn’t registered there, nor any indication of his presence. He continues to baffle and flummox.

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The Legend of Gypsy Blood: Tea Leaves, Burning Vardos and DNA

This week’s 52 Ancestors topic is ‘Family Legend’. When I was little, I always heard that my grandmother’s mother, Leah Swinbourne was ‘born of gypsy blood’. She foretold her own death in quite some detail by reading the tea leaves. But that’s a story in itself, to be told another day. I know my Mum was always very respectful of the gypsy women that would come to our door selling pegs and heather. She always managed to find sixpence to spare, even during lean weeks.

I quite liked the idea of being a gypsy. As a little girl it conjured up all sorts of romantic notions of campfires, dancing and magic. To this day I enjoy the sound of traditional gypsy music.

By Unknown author – “Victor Hugo and His Time” by Alfred Barbou. 1882;, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28275842

It took a while to find any evidence of gypsy blood though. Even now it’s largely circumstantial. Leah’s birth certificate showed her to have been born in a ‘normal’ house in Birmingham, and the family’s census entries showed addresses that weren’t gypsy encampments. There was quite a large gypsy camp in Birmingham at a place known as The Black Patch near Smethwick. This has become rather well known for being the birthplace of Charlie Chaplin according to his family members, so I was hopeful of finding a link there! As it turned out though, the gypsy connection was from another part of the country.

Charlie Chaplin – proud of his gypsy origins.

Leah’s mother Elizabeth (nee Beckett) was born about 1856 in Bath, Somerset. She was the daughter of John William Beckett, a coach trimmer and his ‘wife’, Eliza Kaines. They seemed to avoid officialdom at almost every turn to begin with. There was no marriage to be found, their first-born Elizabeth’s birth was not registered. Nor was she baptised. Same with the next child, Alice, by which time they had moved on to Trowbridge in Wiltshire. Luckily, they eventually began to register the births (perhaps they had copped a fine!) and were visible in censuses, so they weren’t too difficult to keep tabs on. I even eventually found their marriage. In 1878, between the births of their 8th and 9th children, they finally tied the knot in Birmingham.

John William Beckett was himself the son of a coach trimmer, William Beckett. William had married Mary Ann Hayden…and this is where the gypsy blood enters our family line. Mary Ann hailed from Hampshire, also with family in Wiltshire, and I initially had no idea that she was a gypsy. In retrospect, it provides a good theory as to how she and William met. Gypsies, after all, often lived in vardos, the colourful little caravans that would presumably need repairs, maintenance and decorative tasks done on occasion!

I received an email around 20 years ago from a Hayden cousin explaining the family’s background and where we fit into the tree. This gelled well with what I knew and quietly blew my mind! She told me that right into the 20th Century the Haydens were maintaining the gypsy tradition of burning the vardo and all it’s contents after it’s owner died (a la Peaky Blinders!). Sadly, I had a hard drive failure and lost all my emails and therefore contact with this and many other cousins soon afterwards. A reminder to always disaster-proof all aspects of your research and back up regularly. I’m still broken-hearted about that loss two decades later, but older and wiser now.

Around 10 years ago, my mother and my maternal uncle were DNA-tested. Both of them came up with small but significant South Asian in their ethnicity results. This is a strong indicator of gypsy origins in otherwise ‘beige and boring’ completely British subjects. Sadly, it’s washed out of my genome, but at least I know it was there right up until the last generation. This is another reminder – that our genealogical family tree and our genetic family tree are not the same as one another. We don’t get DNA from every single one of our ancestors. How could we? Where would it all fit? This is why it is important to test not just yourself, but other willing members of your family. What doesn’t show up in you may show up in your sibling or parent.

So what signs of gypsy blood in the family have been apparent during my lifetime? My grandmother didn’t set much store by it all, but she’d had all that ‘nonsense’ beaten out of her by the nuns at the orphanage. That didn’t stop her however from having some strongly held superstitions which I think came from her mother. Shoes on the table were banned. I’ve not heard of this superstition anywhere outside our family. People just look at me blankly if I mention it. But it’s been passed on strongly and I cannot bear it if people put a pair of shoes on a table to this day.

My Mum was famous in the family for being great at interpreting dreams. Perhaps this was just that she was naturally intuitive. Perhaps it was that gypsy DNA making itself known. I once played the part of a palm reader at the village fête as a teenager to raise money for the Youth Club. It felt natural, the ‘fortunes’ just flowed and I loved doing it, but I don’t have that DNA. I just love playing dress-ups and had no trouble reading what the customers needed to hear!

Do you have any ancestors who moved about a lot, and seemed to avoid marking significant life events through the official channels? Do census entries show different birthplaces for many of the children? Does the DNA of you or anyone else in your family show more than a smidge of South Asian ethnicity? Consider the possibility that you may have some gypsy blood in your family.

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The Whittall St Explosion – The Demise of Martha Groocock

Memorial card for the 15 victims of the Whittall St explosion who were buried together at St Mary Whittall St.

This week marks a new beginning for me. I have decided to take part in the 52 Ancestors event, attempting to tell a story on a different theme every week. Hopefully, that will get me back into the swing of regular blogging. Let’s see. This week’s theme is ‘beginnings’, which seems a sensible place to start.

The Whittall St explosion of 1859 may sound more like an ending than a beginning. But it so shocked the people of the UK, that it helped bring in the Act of 1860. This governed the way that firearms, ammunition, and fireworks were manufactured and their components stored. In essence, it was one of the first occupational health and safety acts to be enacted. And at a personal level, there were new beginnings in the Groocock and other bereaved families as a result of this disastrous accident.

The Whittall St Explosion

Pursall and Phillips was a percussion cap factory located at 22 Whittall St in the heart of Birmingham’s Gun Quarter. Birmingham was one of the major centres of the global gun industry, employing thousands in the manufacture of guns and ammunition. In 1859 guns had largely moved from using flintlock to percussion caps to ignite the gunpowder. Percussion caps, however, were extremely dangerous. The fulminate of mercury used in the caps was very sensitive to sudden movements or pressure and extremely explosive. Factories in Birmingham at the time were usually small and jammed closely together.

On the 27th of September 1859, the unthinkable happened. A huge explosion tore through Pursall and Phillips mid-morning, reducing the entire factory to flames and rubble. There were around 70 employees at the factory. Many were women and children, who were often employed to do the small fiddly work. Indeed of the 20 people known to have died, 19 were female, ranging in age from 10 to 31 years. The one man who died, Humphrey Wood, had initially survived but ran into the aftermath to rescue his wife Elizabeth who also worked there. He was crushed when the building collapsed on top of him.

The Whittall St explosion captured in an engraving in the Illustrated London News, 8 October 1859

The cause of this (inevitable) explosion was a broken gas main in the basement, which added to an already volatile atmosphere. The three-storey building exploded, burned and collapsed around the unfortunate workforce, many of whom did not stand a chance of escape.

The Whittall St explosion made huge news all around the country, with a collection taken up for the families of those bereaved. The local community gathered together too. Most of the victims ended up being buried together on the same day at the local parish church, St Mary Whittall St. They only remained there until the 1950s however, as they were amongst the many who were exhumed and reinterred at Warstone Lane Cemetery in order to expand the grounds of the Birmingham General Hospital. Ironically, this was where most of the victims had died.

Martha Groocock

Martha Groocock was born Martha Benton around 1829 in Birmingham. She was one of the two eldest to die in the explosion. The other was Fanny Dollman, nee Earp.

Martha was born to John Benton and Mary Ann Wainwright. This Benton family originated from Kings Norton, as in ‘All roads lead to…’ if you are a regular reader! She used to be one of a handful of people in my tree who I was related to on both sides. Or more accurately her children were. She’s still related to my (now half-)uncle, but due to an unfortunate ‘Misattributed Parentage Event’ uncovered by DNA after my first 25 years of traditional research, she is now only related to me by marriage!

Martha married Henry Groocock, who to the best of my knowledge is still a blood relative(!), on Christmas Eve, 1848 at St Philips Cathedral in Birmingham. Henry was a cooper, born in Gilmorton, Leicestershire in 1827 to William Groocock and Betsy nee Boulton. Henry and Martha went on to have two sons, Henry (1853) and Joseph (1856). The marriage was not a successful one. How do I know this? Because Henry was already making new beginnings before the Whittall St explosion even happened.

Henry Groocock’s new beginnings


By the time of the Whittall St explosion, Henry had already bigamously remarried over two years earlier. His second wife was a young woman by the name of Emma Mason. She was in the very early stages of pregnancy with their first child when Martha died. Henry almost immediately married Emma again, legally this time and they went on to have four children together over the next 17 years.

He was not the only one to quickly make some new beginnings following the tragedy though. Remember the other ‘senior’ victim of the explosion, Fanny Dollman? Her husband William George Dollman remarried on Christmas Day 1859 – one of those oh-so-common Christmas weddings of the era. This was to be forgiven, and possibly expected in those times, as there were children who needed a mother. It was common practice to marry again without a long courtship. And at least he didn’t ‘pre-marry’ like Henry did. Although, wait…his bride was none other than the widow of the loyal Humphrey Wood who had died trying to save her from the explosion!

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Hurry Out the Door! Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2020.

accentuate the positive goodbye 2020
Goodbye 2020! It’s time to love you and leave you! Image by Hebi B. from Pixabay

Here we are at the end of 2020. It feels like it’s lasted a decade! Time to reflect on the year and complete Geniaus‘s ‘Accentuate the Positive’ Geneameme again. It’s a bit of a tougher task to complete this year in comparison to last year. We’ve all been challenged in many ways by the year that was. I’m still half-expecting to do a Bobby Ewing-style wake-up to find that it was all a dream. I hope you and yours have made it through 2020 relatively unscathed, if mightily inconvenienced. Here are my thoughts on my genealogical year…

Accentuate the Positive!

smell roses accentuate the positive
Find a way to smell the roses! Photo by Maksim Chernyshev on Scopio.

1.  An elusive ancestor I found was: Hanora Vaughan, my great-great-grandmother. This is the single greatest highlight of my year, as her origins were so difficult to find for several decades. You can read about her arduous journey and what it took to piece it together here.

2.  A great newspaper article I found was: The several I found detailing the unfortunate death of my great-uncle Alfred Mario Barnett, struck by a train as a teenager. I told this tale just a few weeks ago when his ‘rare-in-Edwardian-England’ middle name led me to find his story.

3.  A geneajourney I planned but didn’t take was: Regular trips into Melbourne’s CBD to visit the State Library and Genealogical Society of Victoria‘s library to further my research. Lockdown meant they were each 15km further away from home than I was allowed to venture…and they were closed. They will be sick of the sight of me in 2021 (I hope!), there’s so much I need to do there. Thank goodness for partial access from home (remembering to ‘accentuate the positive’!).

4.  I located an important record: in the home of a third cousin, 12 000 miles away. Without wanting to spoil the Vaughan story, the family bible was a critical though indirect factor. It was also one I did not know still existed. Moral of the story – ask even your distant family what they have!

5.  A newly found family member shared: hmmm, this one is wishful thinking. I located a previously unknown half first cousin recently. He is sure to have photos of our shared grandfather who I never knew. I have written to him in the hope that he will share one with me. Goodness, I hope he does!

6.  A geneasurprise I received was: having a word I coined (‘UnProvid‘) as a bit of whimsical wordplay for a blog added to the Geneadictionary!

7.   My 2020 social media post that I was particularly proud of was: the one where I identified my Edward Girling, railway porter in Rugby as Edward Horatio Girling, boozy snakebite victim at London Zoo. This has since been verified via DNA too! I love a good silly family story, and my family provide so many…

smile accentuate the positive
Keep on smilin’. Photo by Devin Avery on Unsplash

8.   I made a new genimate who: has inspired me to keep on writing outside of this blog, thanks Robbie!

9.  A new piece of technology or skill I mastered was: Evernote. I’ve been kind of using it in a basic way since 2012. But this year I’ve spent some time learning how to wring out every drop of functionality to assist with my genealogy research. I’ve also taken on Trello to organise the to-do lists I live and die by, and I’m working my way through learning Scrivener to facilitate my writing.

10. I joined: several additional family history societies, genealogy organisations, Facebook groups and specialist subscription databases. Some of these I will definitely continue on with. Some I can just say I’ve fully tried out (but let’s just accentuate the positive!). One of my favourites leads me to the next question…

11. A genealogy education session or event from which I learnt something new was: Legacy Family Tree Webinars. They lured me in with lots of exposure to free webinars during the first part of lockdown. I’m a lifelong learner so I found it a great stress relief to just binge on webinars. I’ve now taken out a subscription and really enjoy dipping into learning more about specific niche topics, and also seeing case studies (I love a good story!)

12. A blog post that taught me something new was: I’m going to be a bit vague on this one, basically because I subscribe to a lot of really fantastic blogs. The best of them regularly have some new snippet of wisdom to offer. Even when there’s nothing exactly new to me, there’s often a new perspective offered which is just as valuable. For new information, the blogs that discuss new tools, such as those to help us with our DNA analysis are especially useful. Rather than name a single blog, I will recommend subscribing to Jonny Perl’s DNA Painter monthly newsletter – he provides a great summary of the best of the recent DNA blogs from leaders in the field.

13. A DNA discovery I made was: identifying the origin of Mary Bytheway, my 4 x great-grandmother who I’d been stuck with in Kidderminster for over 20 years. Thanks to a sudden influx of three DNA matches all descending via different routes from a Bytheway couple over the border in Shropshire, my Mary was ‘orphaned’ no more. Of course, it’s kind of turned into a bit of a one-name study as usual. I ended up ploughing through records tying all the Bytheway branches in with one another to eliminate all other possibilities!

14. I taught a genimate how: to access some records she needed via a different route. Sometimes we get used to a particular source used via a well-worn path of bookmarked sites or venues, we are all creatures of habit. Often if we lose access via that route there are alternative (and just as kosher!) ways of getting to that information. So much is to be found in more than just one place these days.

15. A brick wall I demolished was: Since I’ve already mentioned the major ones in my own tree, I’d have to say a highlight was scoring a ‘PB’ in speed to identify a client’s birth parent! Less than 24 hours to answer her lifelong question beyond a shadow of a doubt. However, I do need to acknowledge that she had some helpfully large DNA matches! It was certainly a wonderful feeling to be able to call her and say that I had found his name after warning her it could potentially take many months for the right combination of matches to align!

16. A great site I visited was: soooo many to choose from, but here’s one I haven’t mentioned before and just kind of stumbled across when doing some Irish research. It seems to be way more obscure than it should be. But let’s accentuate the positive. If you have Irish Catholic ancestors it is brilliant for identifying which Civil Parish their Catholic Parish was in and identifying the contiguous parishes. It even provides direct links to the relevant parish registers at the National Library of Ireland!

Screenshot from Swilson.info showing details for the Catholic parish of Passage in Cork (where my Vaughan family originated).


17. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was: ‘A Country Merchant, 1495-1520‘ by Christopher Dyer. This is a marvellous piece of social history around Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire using the account book of John Heritage who was a merchant-farmer in the wool business. It is a very engaging and informative read.

My favourite history book read in 2020



18. Zoom gave me an opportunity to: get to meet other members of the societies and associations that I am a member of and to continue to meet with my genimates regularly. It has been my social lifeline! A special highlight that ticks all my happy boxes was Talking Family History fortnightly on Friday nights. I absolutely recommend this to anyone who wants to keep up with what’s happening in the genealogy world and have a relaxed time with delightful people!

19. I am excited for 2021 because: THIS year will be the one in which I finally crack the mystery of Frederick Seal’s father (my last remaining unknown great-great-great-grandparent)! I’ve recently identified a DNA match at 23andMe as being of that line, which takes me another step closer, I’m getting quite a group of matches across the various platforms. I am determined…

20. Another positive I would like to share is… This year has been a year of consolidation and settling into my new era. In a way it has forced me to do it very thoroughly and without the distraction of ‘normal life’. Seven months of lockdown, when it had to happen, came at the perfect time to have had almost as much of a positive impact as a negative one personally. Onwards and upwards from here for all of us I hope! Let’s continue to ‘accentuate the positive’!

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Quick! Check Again…Is There an Unusual Middle Name?

The Barnett family - no further unusual middle names
The remaining members of the Barnett family in 1913 (LtoR: Leah, Jack, Ted and Annie).

This week once again I’m giving an example of how paying attention to a name helps to overcome obstacles in your family tree. We already saw how naming patterns helped break down a longstanding brick wall. Now, here’s a family story I finally proved after discovering an unusual middle name.

My grandmother Ruby had a difficult childhood. She was orphaned by the age of 7 and spent quite some time in an orphanage until her older half-sister Ann turned 21 and could take her home. Consequently, she didn’t know much about her family background and had very few stories to share. Those she did remember have since been shown to have a grain of truth but became distorted over the years by a child’s fickle memory.

Ruby’s mystery brother

Ruby claimed that one of her brothers died on the railway tracks because he was deaf and didn’t hear a train coming. I knew she meant either one of her half-brothers or one of her stepbrothers, as she was the only child of her mother Leah’s second marriage. Leah’s first marriage had been to a widower with a brood of kids, and they had also had several children together. However, she didn’t know which brother the story referred to, and he died well before she was born. The way she described him seemed to portray him as maybe 5 or 6 years of age. Perhaps that’s the way she imagined it when she was told the story.

Early on in my family history journey, I tried to find out what had happened. I had no name or year of death, a vague guess at an age, knew it was probably around Coventry and the surname was Barnett. Not uncommon. Back in those days, even consulting census records was cumbersome, and these children were all born after the (then) recently released 1881 Census. There was no 1939 Register to see who was still around in adulthood. Baptism record availability was patchy. And newspapers were difficult to locate from 12000 miles away. We are so spoilt now with the immediate availability of such a wide range of resources via the internet, aren’t we?

My research progressed over the years and my focus was further back in my tree as a result. The story of my great-uncle’s death had been abandoned and forgotten after those early attempts to find the truth. I hadn’t really thought about him in 15 years. But I decided to resurrect the search and take my own advice about periodically reviewing my tree.

Two of the seven step- or half-brothers in Ruby’s family were known to have reached adulthood. That left five possibilities to investigate. None of them was noted as being deaf on the censuses, so that shortcut was eliminated! I decided to systematically research each boy as though they were new to me. Joy of joys, I discovered that the baptism records for their parish were now available with images on Ancestry! This was the very simple key to unlock the story after all these years.

Alfred Mario Barnett

Alfred Barnett was William and Leah Barnett’s first child together. I decided to begin with him. This was fortunate as I immediately learnt something new about him from his baptism record. He had an unusual middle name – Mario! While that may not sound odd these days, we’re talking about Coventry in Victorian times. There were not very many people bearing Italian names in Warwickshire outside of Birmingham. I checked for a death record – an Alfred Mario Barnett aged 15 was registered in Coventry in 1912. It had to be him.

Baptism with unusual middle name
A snippet of Alfred Barnett’s baptism record at St John, Coventry revealing his unusual middle name.

So where to next? Why the newspapers of course! The British Newspaper Archive has recently reached the milestone of 40 million pages of newspapers. A young boy dying in a railway accident should be newsworthy. His unusual middle name was eminently searchable. I knew the year and the approximate place, and…

middle name produced newspaper reports
Searching using Alfred’s middle name led to finding the reports of his fatal accident.

…I found him! There were several reports including some very detailed inquest reports…detailed enough to pin down the location of the accident.

scene of accident discovered by unusual middle name
The approximate scene of the accident marked on the 1888 Ordnance Survey map.

How did Alfred die?

Alfred and his friend John Keal went for a walk on the morning of Sunday 22nd September 1912. They were headed for the nearby London & North Western Railway line, although John later denied they were intending any mischief such as putting pennies on the line.

They got to the Folly Lane railway bridge, heading for the iron bridge further down, and decided to cut down the embankment one walking each side of the tracks. Another witness who was on the iron bridge said they were about halfway along when the express train approached. He said there was a strong wind blowing and it didn’t appear that Alfred heard the approach behind him. This may account for my grandmother believing he was deaf. He was hit by the train at between 50-60mph which caused devastating and unsurvivable injuries. The train driver, perhaps fortunately, was unaware he’d hit anyone until he reached Willesden and was informed of the accident.

Train rushing by in location of Alfred's death unusual middle name
A train rushing along the same piece of track in 1910 where Alfred later met his fate.

His unfortunate father had to identify his son’s mutilated body. No doubt it had a lasting impact. William died only 9 months later, leaving Leah and the remaining children in poverty.

Look out for those unusual middle names!

Finding that Alfred Barnett was actually Alfred Mario Barnett made the verification of this family story so much easier. After all these years, within 10 minutes of knowing this extra detail, the mystery was solved. Use names to your advantage. If they are unique, searching is a doddle.

So why Mario? It was an easy matter to check for Marios around Coventry, they were as expected, very thin on the ground. One was William’s former brother-in-law, Mario Veasey. Mario’s wife Maud had been a witness at William and Leah’s marriage, so it appears they were very approving of William’s choice of replacement for Mario’s deceased sister Lucy and the couples were close.

Serendipity strikes again

There were two little pieces of serendipity to this tale:

The next station down the L&NWR line was Rugby, just a few short miles away. This was the station at which Edward Horatio Girling worked when it first opened. This was of course before his unfortunate encounter with a cobra at London Zoo, after his return down south.

When I was 14, the same age as Alfred, I lived briefly in a village just outside Coventry called Baginton. As I was perusing the maps, I realised it was only about 3km as the crow flies from where Alfred had come to grief. I too had wandered as he did with friends at the weekends doing dangerous things (a homemade raft on the River Sowe comes to mind!). It’s amazing so many 14-year-olds survive to become 15 really, but it brought tears to my eyes. I wonder if my mum realised at the time that we were living so close to the scene of her uncle’s demise?

L&NWR brochurethe year of the accident unusual middle name
1912 brochure for the London and North Western Railway
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Black Friday Genealogy Bargains – Time For A Treat?

black friday genealogy bargains
There are Black Friday genealogy bargains galore to be had!

Although Thanksgiving is not widely celebrated outside North America, the associated shopping frenzy of Black Friday has become an annual global event thanks to online shopping. Black Friday genealogy bargains await us all, wherever we may be!

As you may know from previous blog posts, I adore a bargain. It may be my second most favourite passion after family history research! So what better topic for this week’s blog than Black Friday genealogy bargains?

I have found fantastic bargains in three main categories of genealogy so far – DNA kits, subscription databases, and education. Take a look below and see if there’s anything there to treat yourself with! Or maybe you have friends or family you need Christmas gift ideas for? Happy shopping!

Black Friday genealogy bargains

DNA kits

All the testing companies currently offer good pricing on their kits. I have listed them alphabetically to avoid any appearance of bias. Please decide for yourself which is the best for your needs. Most also offer kits with health features, the prices quoted here are genealogy only. See the sites for the reduced prices on the health kits. Also, check shipping costs between companies as they can vary dramatically.

  1. 23andMe (autosomal) – $US79
  2. AncestryDNA (autosomal) – $AU85
  3. FTDNA
    1. autosomal – $US49
    2. mtDNA (matrilineal line) – $US139
    3. Y-DNA (patrilineal line) – from $US99
  4. LivingDNA (autosomal) – $AU119
  5. MyHeritage (autosomal) – $AU65

Subscription databases

  1. MyHeritage – 50% off a 6 or 12 month ‘Complete’ gift subscription
  2. Ancestry.com – 50% off gift subscriptions
  3. Newspapers.com – $US20 off a 6 month Publisher Extra subscription
  4. Roots Ireland – 25% off a 12-month subscription
  5. Irish Newspaper Archive – 50% off all subscriptions
  6. Fold3 (military records)- $US30 off new subscriptions

Education

  1. The Genealogy Guys Learn – 40% off new subscriptions using code ‘Holiday2020’
  2. National Institute for Genealogical Studies – 79% off courses
Black Friday genealogy bargains
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The Deadly Virus Attacking Your Family Tree – Protect It From ‘UnProvid’

The world is overwhelmed right now with the ongoing tragedy that is Covid. The second wave in many countries has sent people back inside where many are taking refuge in family tree research. This keeps them safe and occupied, but there is a family tree ‘deadly virus’ too, especially spread amongst those with less experience at genealogy. I call it UnProvid, and it spreads like wildfire.

family tree deadly virus
All it takes is one infection… Photo by Christopher Rusev on Unsplash.com

What is UnProvid?

UnProvid is information accepted without question. By far the greatest source of infection appears to be other people’s family trees and it really does promulgate like a deadly virus. For example, one person puts something in their family tree. This generates hints to other people who have ancestors with similar names in their trees.

All it takes is one person to accept the hint without checking that it is information about the same individual and that the information itself is valid…and the virus is on its way. Once more than one person has that information connected to their tree, it gains credibility. So more people accept it.

Before you know it, that piece of information looks like the accepted wisdom. At this point almost everyone will see a page full of family tree hints saying the same thing and decide it must be right. CLICK…accepted.

STOP!

NEVER ACCEPT INFORMATION WITHOUT CHECKING IT THOROUGHLY! It will kill that part of your tree if it is wrong. Every further step you take from that point on will be wrong. It will not be your family. It doesn’t belong in your tree. Why would you want that in your tree?

analyse information family tree
Use critical thinking to analyse hints. Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

Immunise Your Tree From This Deadly Virus

Check the sources. These should be cited by the other researchers. Look at the original images yourself if possible.

Are you absolutely sure that this great piece of information is for your ancestor and not someone else with a similar name? Check the context, dates, places, other people mentioned…does it all tally? Critical thinking is one of the greatest skills to develop as a family tree researcher.

protect family tree
Protect your tree with good research habits. Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

I’ve actually gone one step further. You can adjust your hint settings so that you do not even see hints from other people’s trees, and I absolutely recommend it. In this way you still get record hints as a starting point, but the tree hints are tucked away out of sight.

You still need to vet the record hints thoroughly before deciding whether to accept them. However, you are beginning from at least one step closer to the actual evidence than by accepting tree hints.

Do not worry that you will run out of hints. It’s highly unlikely. The number will be less overwhelming (I lost over 14000 hints at Ancestry when I turned tree hints off, phew!), but as you analyse each one and integrate the information you choose to accept, more will be generated.

And remember, you can and should research using your own search techniques and other databases as well. Hints are our friend if used correctly, but they are just the tip of the research iceberg. Used incorrectly, they are worse than useless, and a deadly virus to our family tree.

healthy family tree
Keep your tree healthy and protected. Photo by Rob Mulally on Unsplash
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Genealogist In Lockdown – Days In The Life

Time is passing by so quickly. I have been a genealogist in lockdown for the past 7 months in Melbourne, and I’ve never been busier. A week in lockdown feels like two days in the pre-pandemic world. It’s been a month since my last blog…how did that happen? So what have I been up to? Where is all this time going?

genealogist in lockdown
Room with a view. Good thing I’m busy!

Client work

Naturally, this is my top priority. It is my business after all! This involves genealogy research, writing it up, and meetings with my clients (either on the phone or virtual of course!). A pandemic is not the best time to get new clients – most of them use a genealogist when they are time poor and have a little disposable income available. The opposite is more true for many people during the lockdown. They have more time to try to break down their brick walls themselves, and maybe on a reduced income so they need to budget! Still, the past few weeks have been flat out, so I’m pretty happy.

genealogist in lockdown client phone call
Oh, how I wish I had a pool (and a summer!) in my backyard the past few months for client consultations. The truth is nowhere near as glamorous.

Education

I have been going berserk with all the educational opportunities available. I’ve developed a 2-3 webinar a day habit on the most fascinating and obscure topics, both genealogical and purely historical. Currently, I’ve been working my way through my memberships and catching up with their webinar libraries. Societies and associations such as GOONS, the Society of Genealogists, and the Association of Professional Genealogists have great collections of interesting topics. I finally took out a membership at Legacy Family Tree Webinars so I can still watch presentations when the 7 free days are up!

Often the subject of these webinars will be something I am quite familiar with. However, I invariably take away something new, and it’s always great to hear another perspective. Yesterday, for example, I watched “Wringing Every Drop out of Y DNA” by Roberta Estes. Meg Bate gave a presentation on National and State Archives at the Genealogical Society Of Victoria, and I stayed up late to catch “A Tomb With A View: Medieval Death” by Prof Paul Binski, an art historian via The Churches Conservation Trust.

connected during lockdown
My laptop and headphones have been invaluable, even more so than usual!

I’ve also been reading more, catching up on both my non-fiction backlog and occasionally well-written historical fiction (which provides context for a time and place). This is the only couch time for the genealogist in lockdown! No time to Netflix and chill…

Because being a genealogist in lockdown comes with a free side serving of insomnia, I have been using podcasts to help me relax. The trouble is, if I fall asleep halfway through I want to listen to it again the next day! A particular favourite right now is Dan Snow’s History Hit.

Volunteering

I am privileged to be a moderator at The Genealogy Squad on Facebook, which now comprises over 38 000 members from all over the world. Go check it out if you are a Facebook user and you have not seen it yet. The group is administered by super-respected genealogists, Cyndi Ingle (Cyndi’s List), The Genealogy Guys (Drew Smith and George Morgan) and Cari ‘Genealogypants’ Taplin, with myself and Mia Bennett as moderators. We love discussing genealogical documentary research of deceased ancestors. If this floats your boat, drop in!

Projects

Yes, I’m still plugging away at transcribing the Grand Levy Book, to be followed by the outdoor relief list. I’m also still untangling all the Kings Norton Fields as best I can, as well as the Palmers involved in the wool trade in the Cotswolds. I am determined to get my old Rotton one-name study resurrected and onto a website soon. I retired it when DNA revealed my total lack of a biological connection to them after 25 years of research, but it seems a shame to waste it. My kneejerk reaction to new databases being released is still to check for Rottons first, so I think that’s a sign!

Personal research

After a little neglect earlier in the year, I am focusing on DNA again, fresh matches across all my testing sites are showing lots of new possibilities. I’ve also been trying out the tools at Borland Genetics following a seminar in August that reminded me I hadn’t really done much here. I have high hopes of reconstructing long-deceased grandparents. Well, their genomes anyway. Ain’t no Frankenstein stuff going on in my house! On AncestryDNA I’ve been building a lot of ‘quick and dirty’ trees for groups of shared matches to find the common ancestors. I’ve also been building my Ancestry tree downwards from proven ancestors to capture as many descendants as possible. It blows my tree up enormously, but helps to generate Thrulines and make cousin connections.

Four walls and a ton of research, this is a super-productive year!

Most of my traditional research right now is on the Girling line, since the excitement of a few weeks ago it regenerated my interest there. I’m also still working on the Vaughans‘ county Cork origins after finally getting back to Ireland with them.

As a genealogist in lockdown, I’m loving the discovery that many images at FamilySearch which have the dreaded ‘key over the camera’ are actually accessible from home right now. It’s the luck of the draw, I don’t know how or why it is happening, but I’m clicking away on the off-chance now when I see the key, and striking it lucky quite often. Nom, nom, nom…wills…

I’m still taking advantage of the free access to digitised documents at The National Archives in Kew. These normally cost £3.50 each. Sometimes, I fall headfirst into Poor Law correspondence that has nothing to do with my family…there’s a good chance you will hear about Widow Palmer’s troubles in a future blog!

Writing

Hmmm, this was a big part of my pre-‘genealogist in lockdown’ life. This blog was weekly, and I was writing two books. Has anyone else found their creativity cut off at the knees? I’m hoping this returns to normal as life eventually extends itself to beyond the front door. My books are stalled. The blog is increasingly random. Hang in there with me, I have so many ideas but just don’t quite get there right now!

My creativity has stalled. Sorry for the big gaps between blogs!

Just reading back over this has me realising how the time is passing so fast. 2020 is almost over. I hope lockdown ends soon. I need a rest!

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Your Ancestors’ Occupations – The Secrets They May Uncover

Your ancestors’ occupations can reveal a great deal about their lives. They provide a huge amount of context for the way the whole family lived. So it’s super important to make sure you are paying attention to the jobs your ancestors held.

Often, the occupations of our ancestors are one of the easier facts to find out about them. They are listed on birth, marriage and death records, censuses and wills, some of the most common records we use. Let’s really squeeze what information we can out of knowing what they did for a living.

I’m planning on beginning a series of blogs soon, covering different fields of common ancestral occupations. So today’s blog is just an overview of why investigating your ancestors’ occupations is a valuable strategy for you to use.

ancestors' occupations toymaker
Do you know what a toymaker was? It’s not what you may think. All will be revealed in a future post! From Bisset’s Magnificent Guide of Birmingham (1808).

What are the benefits of exploring your ancestors’ occupations?

They may lead you to record sources

If your ancestor’s occupation was a trade, have a look and see if there are apprenticeship records surviving. These may include his own indenture, or maybe when he was older he was a master who took on an apprentice. There may also be records in the appropriate trade company, for example, freeman’s records. These records can provide all sorts of juicy details including the father’s name, occupation and residence. Were your ancestors members of a trade union? What records survive for their union and what information might they hold?

Likewise, if your ancestor’s occupation was a profession, there might be records of his university education, which can often contain useful details of his background.

Do they appear in trade or commercial directories of the time? A great way to track movement over time. You may be lucky enough to find advertisements from them too!

Check out the Inland Revenue records at The National Archives too…remember it is still free to download digitised records at the moment.

ancestors' occupations military
There are often extensive records for ancestors who were part of the military. For example, sadly here a local paper’s tribute to their fallen. Look at all the Ryles boys from one family on my father’s side.

They may explain migration patterns or reveal the origin of your migrant ancestor

If you are wondering where a branch of your family disappeared to there may be clues in their occupation. Conversely, if you are wondering which part of the ‘old country’ your family came from, the same applies.

For example, coal mining families in the United Kingdom may have come from South Wales, or the Midlands (around the Black Country and North Warwickshire especially), or maybe Yorkshire or Scotland. They won’t be from Kent! If your family were all coal miners and you know your great great uncle emigrated, maybe try looking for him in places like Pennsylvania in the US, where coal mines were extremely common.

ancestors' occupations migration
Where did your ancestors’ occupations ground them or send them?

Ancestors’ occupations may help you distinguish between families

This one is critical when you are researching families with common names. You’re not sure who belongs to who in the records. So how can knowing about their occupations help? If you know one William was a cordwainer, and the other was a glassblower, the two sons named John could be matched to their father by their job. This isn’t completely foolproof but it can help. So one John is a bootmaker, the other is a glass grinder. They don’t have exactly the same occupation as their fathers but they are in the same field. This sometimes requires a little deeper knowledge of the field they are in to provide this context.

Also, if you are looking for your ancestors in newspapers, their occupation was usually included in any reports about them. So with a little bit of luck, you can eliminate the Charlie Smith who was picked up for drunkenness if his job was completely different to your sober and hard-working (of course!) Charlie.

They may reveal the source of family traditions or heirlooms

Do you have any family sayings, songs, recipes, or items passed down that you have no idea about the origin of? They may be related to a family occupation in times past. If you can make the link, you are helping to tell your ancestors’ stories.

ancestors' occupations creative
If you’re lucky you may have had creative ancestors. Is the old painting handed down over the years actually done by a family member? I don’t have this painting by my relative William Alfred Rollason, but I wish I did!

Stop Press!

Coincidentally, the University of Strathclyde has recently expanded its educational offering on Futurelearn, which I’ve previously talked about. There are now short, free courses covering three of the occupational fields that many of us would have had an ancestor or two in. Those fields are railways, coal mining and textile mills.

I found these when I was digging around for information on what my snake-keeping railway porter ancestor would have done in his earlier career!

Here are the links to check them out:

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/working-lives-on-the-railway

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/working-lives-in-the-mining-industry

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/factory-lives-working-in-the-textile-mills

If you have any requests on an occupational field that you would like me to cover in a dedicated blog post, just let me know!

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My Family Darwin Award Recipient – Don’t Drink and Snake

Family Darwin Award - Man vs Snake
Don’t try this at home!

I was planning on bringing you a very sensible and useful ‘how to’ topic this week. But yesterday I discovered a family story too good not to share. These days I think it’s really important not to miss a chance to have a laugh, even if this occasion will be at the expense of one of my relatives!

My lot have included many contenders for a family Darwin Award over the centuries. Just saying. But this one takes the cake. Or should I say…snake!

Edward Horatio Girling, train conductor cum snake charmer

Edward Girling (not the same guy of that name that I’ve previously written about!) worked at the London Zoological Gardens. He was the head keeper of their snake collection. Not that he had any qualifications in animal husbandry.

Edward’s job history was essentially as a railway worker. He had been a ticket collector for several years for the London and North Western Railway at Rugby station in Warwickshire. Soon after the stationmaster died and a new one was appointed, Edward was transferred down to Euston Station where he didn’t last long before being dismissed. He then took up a position as a guard for Eastern Counties Railway. So we can safely presume I think that his exposure to venomous snakes was at best minimal.

Family Darwin Award - Rugby train
LNWR locomotive at the Rugby Shed. Credit: Henry L Salmon

However, geographically, if in no other way, he was suited to the position that came up at the London Zoo. He, like many railway workers of the time, was living in Camden Town, just a short stroll from Regents Park.

Family Darwin Award - Arlington Rd
Arlington Rd, formerly Grove St, Camden Town. Edward lived at number 132.

In approximately April 1851 he was appointed at a guinea a week by Mr D. W. Mitchell, the Secretary of the Zoological Society. Mr Mitchell reported at the inquest that he had arranged for full training, and had insisted that two rules be followed. ‘Don’t touch the snakes’, and ‘Don’t turn up to work drunk’. He’d also provided a bottle of Libama Cedron, said to be an antidote to cobra bites. Just in case. Perhaps he knew there was a family Darwin Award waiting to be earnt.

In addition to his lack of reptile handling experience, he was reported to be fond of the odd drink (can you see where this is going?). His ‘wife’ Sarah was a witness at his inquest. She was asked by the coroner if he was a sober man. “Yes”, she said, then proceeded to say that on days when he was still drunk by the time he had to leave for work in the morning, she would keep him home till he was fit to go!

Family Darwin Award - Reptile House London Zoo 1849
The Reptile House at the London Zoological Gardens. Source: The London Illustrated News, 2 Jun 1849

The Reptile House at the London Zoo was state of the art for its time. It had opened to great fanfare in 1849, and people were enthralled by the glass enclosures which allowed them to get close to the animals in safety. There was an additional safety mechanism that was to protect the keepers as well, a wire contraption that allowed the snakes to be moved from one enclosure to another so their own surroundings could be cleaned or food and water provided. Edward Girling was to bypass all efforts to keep him safe at work though.

A Quick Celebratory Drink…

On the evening of October 19th 1852, Edward and his colleague Edward Stewart went out for a quick drink to farewell a friend who was leaving for Australia. At the inquest, Mr Stewart reported that they had three pints of beer with the friend, before spending the rest of the night at a pub in Shoe Lane during which time they each consumed three quarterns (3/4 of a pint) of gin. They then headed straight to work, arriving at 6 am.

Family Darwin Award - The Gin Shop
The Gin Shop by George Cruikshank.

And Now…for the Cobra!

Our Mr Girling was in quite an excitable state, though apparently ‘not tipsy’ despite their copious drinking and lack of sleep. Mr Stewart was the hummingbird keeper, though part of his role was to bring a basket of sparrows to the snake house as breakfast for them. On arrival with the sparrows, Girling opened a snake cage and brought out a Morocco snake, cried “I am inspired!’ and draped it around his friend’s neck. His friend was not impressed.

For his next trick, Girling announced, “NOW…for the COBRA!” His colleague protested vigorously at this, but it was too late. Edward Girling brought out the serpent with a flourish and stuffed it into his waistcoat. It went around his waist and appeared out of the back. Girling grabbed it about a foot behind the head and lifted it up to his face. Unsurprisingly, the cobra was quite miffed by now. In lieu of his breakfast sparrow, he instead struck at my forebear’s nose leaving 10 puncture wounds.

Family Darwin Award - Cobra de Capello
The Cobra de Capello.

In his panic, Girling completely forgot he had a bottle of antidote. While his friend ran for help, he returned the snake to its cage and wiped the blood from his face. He was transported to University College Hospital but rapidly expired despite the best efforts of the doctors.

Fame at Last!

The newspapers had a field day, as they would in this day and age. I have found reports from all over the British Isles and the US breathlessly reporting the gory details of his post mortem and the inquest.

The jury found, not unexpectedly that Edward Girling’s death was brought about by his own ‘rashness and indiscretion’ while intoxicated.

The Coroner’s idea of a cure. Nose sucking.


Multiple letters to the Times stated that he should have been given large quantities of brandy and forced to stay awake in order to survive. I would argue that he was already primed in alcohol and lack of sleep, and it didn’t do him much good!

Best family Darwin Award ever.