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Tag: familystories

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The More the Merrier! Multiple Births in Your Family Tree

multiple births twin feet
Credit: Michael Fallon at Unsplash

I was a twin. All through my childhood, while most were fantasising that they were adopted or actually princesses, I only ever felt like I had a twin somewhere. That I had been part of a multiple birth. There were no other children in the house of the same age, so why did I feel this way? There has been much written about twins having some kind of connection. I always thought that there was someone else out there that I was connected to in this way. I felt daft though. How could this feeling have any basis in reality?

My mum broke the news when I was eighteen years old. She’d been told she was expecting twins. It was her first pregnancy and the labour was dreadful. I was not only breech, but sideways rather than even just feet first. They never resorted to a caesarean delivery which would have changed the course of our family’s history. Finally, my mother was presented with me. Just me. Three weeks overdue but only just over 7lbs. Yes, I was an overcooked twin.

There was no mention of another baby, and she was too exhausted and overwhelmed to ask the question. Somehow, however, when she eventually told me, it all made sense. With it came the knowledge that not only had I had another brother or sister, but that I had killed them by barring their entrance to the world. My first action as a human being and I feel irrationally guilty to this day.

Two’s company…

Twins run in families and are not uncommon. However, it’s only fraternal (non-identical) twins that do this. Identical twins are an accident of fate. This is why I know my twin could have been either a brother or a sister. Because twins do run in our family. When checking your family tree for multiple births, check on the mother’s side. The gene for this is a maternal one.

I had a great aunt Peggy and a great uncle Ron who were on my mother’s side. Going further back on that line Norah Vaughan also gave birth to twins. They both died, and I only discovered their existence through their names being listed in the family bible. Twins are not hugely uncommon. In natural pregnancies, 1 in 250 or so will be twins, so there are sure to be some lurking in your tree somewhere. There may be mention of surviving babies being twins in their birth or baptism records. However, this was not universal, so if it is not mentioned don’t assume it wasn’t so. If the birth dates match though I think it’s probably safe to make a bold assumption!

multiple births simpson twins
The family bible revealed the births and deaths of the Simpson twins

Another hint, the older the mother was, and the more children she had already had, the greater likelihood that she would have twins. In my family branches, twins were quite frequently the ‘grand finale’ of the mother’s childbearing life!

…three (or more) is a rare crowd!

I have found no evidence of larger multiple births, e.g. triplets or quadruplets in my family though. But this is not unexpected. Firstly, they are rarer. Triplets naturally occur in about 1 in 10 000 pregnancies and quadruplets in around 1 in 700 000. Back in the early days, it was unusual for multiple births to have a successful outcome, either for the babies or the mother. They were often miscarried, or very premature and both the pregnancies and the labours were more complicated, perhaps leading to the deaths of all involved.

multiple births pregnancy

When they were successfully brought to term and delivered, newspapers and magazines of the time often covered these families extensively. So if you know of triplets or even bigger multiple births in your family, be sure to check at least the local papers and perhaps even national ones for that coverage! Some of the websites you might try depending on where the families were from may be the British Newspaper Archive (UK and Ireland), Trove (Australia), Papers Past (New Zealand), or Newspapers.com (USA).

What is the greatest number of babies from a single pregnancy that you know of in your family?

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A Fine Yorkshire Romance – The Ellams’ Wedding Night

Yorkshire romance? Given that the good folk of Yorkshire are proud of their plain-speaking and pragmatic ways, is this an oxymoron? Given that I missed the ‘Valentine’ theme associated with Valentine’s day for the 52Ancestors challenge, I decided to think a little more laterally for my late contribution than to talk about the day itself.

I recently made a little breakthrough with finding a record that solved part of a mystery about our Ellam family. Firstly, a little background. Neither one of the couple in this article was born in Yorkshire, but life brought them there. Several generations of their descendants lived there and were proud Yorkshiremen (and women!).

William Ellam

William Ellam was born in 1839 in Whitechapel, London to Samuel Ellam, a gunmaker and his wife Ann (nee Barnes). Sadly, Samuel died when William was just 11, and by the time of the 1851 Census William was living as a pauper inmate of the St Marylebone Workhouse. His mother was no longer an inmate, but was living alone very close to the Workhouse and working as a nurse, quite probably in the Infirmary there. Still there in 1853, he left the Workhouse to take up a parish apprenticeship with George Stubbs of Barking on his fishing vessels. This was the making of William, and when his apprenticeship was over, he headed north to Hull in Yorkshire where there was a thriving fishing industry.

Ann Maria Herbert

Ann Maria Herbert was born in 1840 in Coventry, Warwickshire. Her father was William Herbert. He never married her mother Jane Perkins, who was 26 years his junior, though they were all living together in the 1841 Census, she using her maiden name. By 1851, great upheavals had happened in Ann Maria’s life. At some point, they had moved to Hull, where William had collected a new ‘wife’ before moving on to York. Ann Maria remained in Hull, where she was a 10-year-old servant in the household of Mr John North. No trace of her mother has yet been found beyond 1841.

Yorkshire romance?

One could understand these children being hardened by their early circumstances. Nonetheless, they found one another and married in 1861. Try as I might, I could not find them on the 1861 Census. Then I noticed the date they married. April 7th. Census day. “AHA!!!”, I thought. “A bit of ‘Yorkshire romance’ was taking place, it was their wedding night!” And I stopped looking for this document for many years…

William Ellam Ann Maria Herbert marriage 1861
Marriage of William Ellam and Ann Maria Herbert, census day 1861

…until I checked on The Genealogist. I remembered this weekend that they’re very good for anything to do with people working on boats. I was actually looking for other items about William and up popped his entry on the 1861 Census under ‘Crew Lists’. Many other sites don’t have this category for the censuses, which is why he still doesn’t show up on searches on those other sites. This is much like the breakthrough I got when I found a census entry for Nora Vaughan that was missing from Ancestry but was on FindMyPast and ANOTHER reminder for us to check all the sites!

William Ellam 1861 Census
William Ellam, finally found on the 1861 Census, spending his wedding night aboard a fishing boat!

It appears that William said his ‘I do’ then immediately rushed off to board the ‘Huntsman’ for a fishing voyage! Here’s where the romantic bit comes in. This census document is probably the first document where he ever described himself as a married man. Nawww.

I probably shouldn’t be poking fun at William racing off like that. These were hard-working folk beginning their lives together. Squeezing in their wedding between fishing trips was probably as good as he could manage at the time. At least he married her!

Yet more Yorkshire romance…

But perhaps there is a bit of true romance in the story after all. As you may recall, I am partial to a little FAN clubbing. The witnesses to William and Ann Maria’s marriage, James Hodgson and Eliza Vant married the following year. I like to think that maybe they met at the wedding, one his friend and one hers, and their courtship began after sharing their duties as witnesses.

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Rescue the Spattered and Tattered Recipes!

Often some of our strongest family memories take place around food. Celebrations and other get-togethers invariably involved plenty of eating and drinking. There were always those within the family who had their own specialties, their ‘secret recipes’ that made the fare unique in some way to each family.

If we’re lucky enough we may even have tattered recipes from the ‘old country’! Image by Klaus Beyer from Pixabay 

Some people are lucky enough to have those secret tattered recipes. Perhaps they were handed down by their mother or grandmother. Sadly, too often those grotty pieces of scribbled-on, food-splattered paper are thrown out when a loved one dies. Please, if you ever get the opportunity to rescue the tattered recipes of your family, do so! Just because they contain no genealogical information, it doesn’t mean they have no value. Sooner or later someone, even if not you will pick up that paper again. They will recreate those flavours and smells that will take you straight back to grandmother’s kitchen. And with food come stories.

Here are a couple of memories not too far back in the distant past, that the ‘In The Kitchen’ 52Ancestors topic brought up for me last week… I’m just sad that I have no tattered recipes from past generations, but I will be passing some on when I ‘pop my clogs’.

Both my mother and my mother-in-law have their own forms of legendary status within the family for their culinary skills. Both had some pride in that status, though with vastly different approaches.

My Mum relished, even promoted, her reputation as a bad cook. We would never have known if she hadn’t announced that she was once again about to inflict something inedible upon us. She was determined that she wouldn’t be defined by her household management skills. Okay, so some things were not the standard restaurant quality, but by and large, she was a far better cook than she let on. I still miss some of her specialities (no one made better lasagna!). There is more than one tattered recipe that I wish had lived somewhere outside of her brain.

A particular favourite I have experienced nowhere else was a tart made with grated apple, sultanas and lots of lemon juice and zest to make it tangy. It was often accompanied by custard, which wasn’t a strong part of her repertoire, but I loved it. To the point that I do not enjoy custard that doesn’t form a thick skin on the top and have multiple lumps in it.

Her most famous annual disaster, which she almost revelled in, was The Birthday Cake. The cake itself could be anything, technically a sponge or a fruit cake, or…something. It was often very flat. It was invariably coated in some fluorescent layer of icing which was of a runny consistency. The icing would spread itself across the cake, plate and sometimes the table as we gazed on in delighted horror. Birthday parties were interesting if there were attendees who didn’t already know we were an eccentric lot.

My brother just loved his Mum-style cake!

Oh, how I wish we had captured some of these for posterity. I have not a single photo of her efforts. However, I did attempt to replicate her skill for my brother when he turned 16 so can offer a poor facsimile…it doesn’t do her cakes justice though as it almost looks like a real one.

My mother-in-law Brenda, on the other hand was a bona fide, traditional country woman, from a conservative town packed to the gills with the same. All and sundry passed judgment on the quality of one’s fare and the annual Show was where reputations were made and lost. Brenda was too down to earth to play the judgment game, and let’s face it, far too busy with a large brood of children to really care about entering the Show. But her baking was goooooooood. I had a special love for her neenish tarts and chocolate ripple cakes, but her specialty was her fruit cake.

My wedding cake, made by my mother-in-law

Not only did she do a fabulous Christmas cake every year, but any time the family acquired new members (either spouses or children), she would rustle up a beautifully decorated, rich, moist cake for the occasion. She made both my wedding cake and my son’s christening cake. Oh, and my 21st birthday cake too! Sadly, she has just turned 94 and her vision is too poor to continue safely baking, so we are living on the memories of those cakes now.

I cannot however think of Brenda’s cakes without thinking of the interloper that destroyed our traditional attempt to keep part of our wedding cake to use as the christening cake for our first child.

When we first moved to Melbourne, we lived in a large old double brick walled unit in a beautiful leafy garden in Ivanhoe. Above the stove was an exceptionally large, deep cupboard. It wasn’t easily accessible, so was the ideal place to store things that didn’t need to come out often. Such as (we assumed), the carefully protected top tier of the wedding cake.

One night we heard scratching sounds coming from somewhere in the kitchen. We investigated but found nothing. Again, a couple of nights later, ‘scratch, scratch, bump’. The third night it happened, we finally discovered what the noise was. The door of the cupboard above the stove was open, and fur was visible behind the microwave. The noisy brushtail possum had jammed himself behind the microwave and was now trying to convince us he was either dead or invisible. Carefully, he was wrapped in a tea towel and removed outside.

The cakemunching possum!

The next night we were ready and captured this photo. He had indeed managed to make his way into the cupboard again. Grabbing a stepladder, we peered into the depths of the cupboard and worked out how he was getting in. Right at the very back, one of the bricks had been dislodged. He had been making his way down between the two layers of brick and coming in that way. He had also managed to break open the container holding the fruit cake. Not a skerrick remained. We think he’d begun venturing out of the cupboard in search of more of Brenda’s amazing baked goods.

Our son Jacob was born four years later. We celebrated his christening with a freshly baked brand-new fruit cake from Brenda’s kitchen.

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Her Personality Bursts Through! My Favourite Photo.

My favourite photo cropped to show my grandmother’s face. Read on to see the whole of my favourite photo and find out why it ‘s the one of her that I love the most!

As I continue through 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, this week’s topic is a shorter and more visual one – ‘Favourite Photo’.

What makes a good family photo? It falls beyond the technical aspects, and beyond the artistic aspects. When it comes to genealogy it’s great to find a photo that shows you more than just an ancestor’s face. Any surviving photo is a good photo to have. But if I can get a glimpse into the personality of my family member it’s a massive bonus for me.

My favourite photo was not difficult to choose. It popped into my mind immediately. I present to you my paternal grandmother, Louise Taylor (nee Seal). She is on the left, and her sister-in-law Florence (nee Powell), is on the right.

favourite photo Louise Seal

I remember my grandmother as someone who enjoyed life to it’s fullest. Even my mum, who didn’t always get along with her, said she could make any occasion fun. Doesn’t that just shine through in this photograph? It really brings her personality to life.

A fun-loving woman, ahead of her time!

You can see she was a bit of a trailblazer. The photo must have been taken in either the late 1920’s or very early 1930’s. It was most unusual in those days for women to wear trousers and singlets. I suspect it was in the summer of 1930 or 1931. Summer for two reasons…England would not usually be warm enough to just wear a singlet in other seasons, and they appear to be standing on a beach.

It would be out of the ordinary to visit the beach outside of summer in those days if you were from Birmingham. It’s about as far away as one can get from the English coast! The most common seaside place for Brummies (natives of Birmingham) to visit was Weston-super-Mare, and I think this is probably where the photo was taken.

You can also infer from the photo that she would do just about anything for a joke. Those are not their own clothes. Tiny Louise especially is drowning in those massive trousers, and she was otherwise quite a fashion plate. It appears the hilarity is because they wore their boyfriend’s/husband’s clothes for the photo. I wonder if the clothes were actually swapped. If so, no photo survives of my grandfather wearing my grandmother’s clothes. This will be an eternal mystery!

Your turn…What is your favourite photo and why?

When you look at your family photos, try to look beyond the occasion or the date. Try to place it into a deeper context of where, when, why and who. And not just who were they with. Who are they themselves? Who is behind that face? What can you see about THEM?

And then…does any of that correlate with what you know about yourself or their other descendants? Do they have the same twinkle in their eye as your Dad? Do they look like they are ambitious, hardworking, lazy, funny, serious…and what clues in the photo are telling you that?

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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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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.

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Ferdinando Kuffeler – Sheep of Many Colours?

Kuffeler galleon

For the past couple of weeks, I have dwelt on the darker side of our family histories. The black sheep and the shame they brought to their families at the time. Sometimes looking at their actions through our current day values rehabilitates them and shows them just to be human. Sometimes what they did will remain a dark stain on the family tree for all time.

Occasionally, however, it is difficult to know whether someone was a black sheep or just had a very exciting and unusual life! I have an ancestor who I am hesitant to label a black sheep using the limited amount of information I have. I have my suspicions he wasn’t always the ‘good guy’ but suspect his full story will never be known.

The glimpses into his life that I have found have intrigued me and left me wanting more. But for a man who clearly lived his life to the fullest, he left remarkably few records of it. Okay, that’s probably not true. There will be records somewhere. It’s just time to pull out all stops to find them. And perhaps I shouldn’t be writing about him till I’ve done that, but he irresistibly draws me in while we’re on this topic of ‘outrageous ancestors’!

Captain Ferdinando Kuffeler

Ferdinando Kuffeler was born in 1646, the son of Johannes Siebertus Kuffeler and his wife Catherine Drebbel (daughter of Cornelis Drebbel). I am yet to find evidence of his baptism. He may have been born in London where his father operated a dye works in Stratford-by-Bow. More likely he was born in the Netherlands, where the family also had dye works in Katwijk and Hulckenstyn near Arnhem, and where his younger brother Edward was baptised. My next step in locating his baptism records will be to do a deep dive into Dutch records around these areas in particular.

The first official records I have of his existence appear in 1668. On 22nd October, a marriage allegation is completed in London, showing him to be a bachelor of St Margaret’s Westminster, and his intended bride Katherine Graves of St Clements Danes. That very same day, they rushed off to the Chapel of the Holy Trinity in Knightsbridge and got married. In that same year, he is listed as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber of Charles II. This is somewhat unsurprising, given that his grandfather had been at the court of James I, and his father had been involved in attempting to develop an exploding torpedo for Charles II.

Marriage allegation Ferdinando Kuffeler
Marriage allegation between Ferdinando Kuffeler and Katherine Graves.

Bigamist or widower?

At some stage, probably in the early to mid-1770s his wife bore him a daughter, Catherine. No baptism has been found, but she married in 1697 at St Margaret’s Westminster, to a John Burchett. I have found no evidence of Ferdinando and Katherine having any other children together.

Recently I found a Dutch book of pedigrees published in 1760 which contained the Kuffeler family, including Ferdinando. Known names and dates tallied well and it provided the names of several additional siblings to Ferdinando that I had not known of. It even stated categorically that Ferdinando had one child.

Kuffeler dutch genealogy
Genealogy of the Kuffeler family published in the Netherlands in 1760. Ferdinando is stated to have one child…

I flipped the page expecting to see the child listed as being Catherine. But no…it was a Leonora! Herein lies another mystery. Was he widowed and did he remarry in the Netherlands? If so, why would the book not show both sets of offspring?

I am slightly suspicious that Ferdinando may have had a family on both sides of the sea. I have not found a marriage for him yet in the Netherlands, nor is his Dutch wife named in this document. No burial record for Katherine has yet been found.

kuffeler dutch genealogy
…but this child is not the one he had he had in London!

Interestingly, Leonora’s son Abraham Engelgraaf was living in London at the time of his death in 1775, which names the same wife as in the document shown above – so the family definitely had links with England. Whether or not the Engelgraafs and Burchetts knew one another is yet to be discovered, however!

Privateer or Scammer?

Now here is where I get really mystified as to how so little has been written about Ferdinando. Look at the advertisement below, found in a compendium called Rariora. The story sounds like an Errol Flynn-style swashbuckling adventure! Interestingly he is referred to as Captain Kuffeler, hinting at some kind of military, perhaps naval career. No evidence has been found so far that this is the case.

Kuffeler galleon
Broadsheet advertisement for sale of shares in the Spanish Galleon booty found in ‘Rariora’.

There are a couple of possibilities here. Ferdinando really was taken prisoner and learnt of the wreck of a Spanish Galleon loaded with treasures galore. Or he made it up. Did he really swear an oath in Chancery? He may have, but it hasn’t turned up in the catalogue of the National Archives. Still digging. Did he really get a licence to fish for the wreck, or is it some elaborate hoax? Still looking. Regardless, at least one person bought shares…

Kuffeler Gostwick bill of sale
Indenture of Assignment of a grant of 120 shares in the Spanish Galleon wreckage to Charles Gostwick of St Giles in the Fields.

Mr Charles Gostwick, a gentleman of St Giles in the Fields bought 120 of the 1000 shares from Ferdinando. If the expedition was successful, presumably he ended up an extremely wealthy man. I suspect he didn’t.

We know the Ferdinando Kuffeler selling the shares was the same Ferdinando as the one married to Katherine Graves (as if the strikingly unusual name wasn’t enough!). Take a look at the bottom of the Indenture and you can see his faint signature. A great match for the one on the marriage allegation.

I have as yet found no further mention of Ferdinando in records of the time, official or unofficial. He seems to have disappeared completely though he managed to remain partially obscured for most of his life.

Forgive me for doubting his integrity, but at this stage, I am unconvinced that he does not for one reason or another, deserve the black sheep title. Either way, he’s definitely a fascinating ancestor, about whom I hope to learn much much more…

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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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Cornelis Drebbel – Inventor, Renaissance Man, Ancestor

Cornelis Drebbel was my 10 x great grandfather and is one of my most intriguing ancestors. Drebbel was once an inventor as famous as Da Vinci or Edison, but he has now faded into obscurity despite his many achievements. Any readers who have visited the Living Seas at Epcot in Disneyworld, however, will have been greeted by a display of Drebbel’s likeness (below).

Drebbel Epcot
Drebbel at Epcot

Whilst here in the Netherlands, I am taking the opportunity to visit Cornelis’ hometown of Alkmaar. Therefore I decided to dedicate this week’s blog to sharing a little bit of his story with you.

A Short Biography of Cornelis Drebbel

cornelis drebbel
Portrait of Cornelius van Drebbel with his signature beneath. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

Cornelis Drebbel was born in Alkmaar (about 30 minutes north of Amsterdam on today’s trains) in 1572. His father was a local burgher and a landowner, so Cornelis received some education before being apprenticed to Hendrik Goltzius of Haarlem. Goltzius was a well-known painter and engraver, as well as an alchemist. He taught Cornelis much of what he knew about all of those arts. Although Drebbel’s early career was mainly in engraving, he obtained his first patent in 1598. This was for the invention of a water supply system, and for a self-winding clock. In 1602, he also obtained a patent for a new design of chimney.

Around 1604, Cornelis and his young family moved to England where he was installed by the newly-crowned King James I into Eltham Palace. His role was to provide entertainment at court with his many and varied inventions. His most famous invention at that time was the Perpetuum Mobile, or perpetual motion machine.

cornelis drebbel perpetual motion
The perpetual motion machine of Cornelis Drebbel.

Drebbel’s inventions

He also achieved notoriety through several other inventions and displays of genius, such as:

  • automatic and hydraulic organs
  • light projections from magic lanterns and camera obscura
  • fireworks displays
  • the clavichord, a solar-powered musical instrument
  • optical instruments such as compound microscopes
  • pumps for mining and fountains
  • thermostats, leading to his ‘circulating oven’ for incubating eggs
  • a demonstration of air-conditioning for the King in the Great Hall of Westminster Abbey.
  • a dyeing method which allowed for scarlet to be set with cochineal allowing red cloth to be mass-produced for the first time
  • sulphuric acid manufacture
  • weaponry such as water mines, water petards and fireships
  • drainage schemes to reclaim marshlands
  • and most famously…the submarine!

The Submarine

In 1620, Cornelis Drebbel invented the submarine. It was “covered in greased leather, with a watertight hatch in the middle, a rudder and four oars. Under the rowers’ seats were large pigskin bladders, connected by pipes to the outside. Rope was used to tie off the empty bladders. In order to dive the rope was untied and the bladders filled. To surface the crew squashed the bladders flat, squeezing out the water”.

cornelis drebbel submarine
Drebbel’s submarine travelling beneath the river Thames.

The illustration of his grand demonstration for the King in 1626 (above) shows the third of his submarines, which had six oars and could carry sixteen rowers. The demonstration had the submarine do a 3-hour return trip from Westminster to Greenwich and back. This scene was captured in comedic form in the movie “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”. This movie is sadly as far as I know the only Hollywood depiction of Cornelis Drebbel ever attempted!

Drebbel’s later life

Although Cornelis had a genius for invention and was clearly a great showman, his ability to make a profit was less well-developed. This wasn’t helped by the champagne tastes of his wife Sophia (sister of his early mentor Hendrik Goltzius), who spent far more than he made. He rarely patented his inventions. Indeed he wrapped them in a layer of secrecy to protect his exclusivity. In his final years the money ran out and he was reduced to operating an alehouse in London. He died in London in 1633. In his will, he left his paltry estate to be divided between four of his children. I am descended from his daughter Catherine, who married Johannes Siebert Kuffeler.

Cornelis Drebbel – Alkmaar’s Greatest Son

In 2013, Cornelis Drebbel was declared Alkmaar’s greatest son after a vote was held. I was contacted as a known descendant and interviewed by the local paper, which felt like a great honour. In 2019, I am walking in his footsteps through the streets of Alkmaar.

Cornelis Drebbel Alkmaar Courant
The Alkmaar Courant 26 January 2013. Cornelis Drebbel is pronounced Alkmaar’s greatest export, and his 10 x great-granddaughter gets her first newspaper front page!