gathering dust

If you've read this blog before you must know how much I love these things. They aren't that much help when it comes to the nitty gritty of hunting dead people but I do love them so. And as more people test the closer they start to align with what my dead people are telling me. Lets start with Ancestry: And then MyHeritage: And finally FTDNA: I've tested my parents, all three living grandparents and a great aunt now as well as myself but my Maternal Grandfather's is by far my favourite: It's just so delightful. And I can associate it with dead people for the most part. Nigeria? That one completely confused us.

So I am in quarantine. My lovely NZ Cruise was ended early by the COVID-19 global pandemic and today we received notice that there were cases aboard the ship . So now instead of a preemptive quarantine, I am a close contactee. I am fortunate in that work is setting me up to work from home and for the moment I feel well (if a little paranoid), but the situation did remind me that I am certainly not the first of my family to be quarantined after a ship board outbreak. Charles Robert Muffett, alias Robert Moffitt (c. 1811- 23/11/1890) was one of the unlucky souls aboard the Bussorah Merchant in 1828, the first ship quarantined at what would become the North Head Quarantine Station. I do not know whether he was one of those with small pox or whooping cough or if he, like me, was one of the relatively healthy ones.  My journey was however a much more delightful one than that of my ancestor, a voluntary one that included 3 course meals and scenic tours of New Zealand. Robert's ...

While I have been chatting to my maternal grandfather's cousins about that side of the tree, my dad has been chasing birds. Not the feathered variety, but those of his maternal ancestry. See our line in Australia stems from Robert Bird born c.1819 most likely in Norfolk to - if his death certificate is correct - Richard Bird and his wife Susan nee Frost. In 1837 he was caught stealing a horse with Robert Greenwood and transported out here on the Bengal Merchant in 1838. We have a reasonably clear picture of his descendants, I don't think it is completely exhaustive but for the most part we know the lines of his 10 kids for at least a generation or two. However, speaking to Nana (who at 101 is still sharp as a tack) and her remaining sisters there are all these cousins  all these other Birds who they remember fondly from their childhoods that we just cannot place as descended from Robert. So there are a couple of possibilities. They aren't actually related by blood...

So I was terrible at the 52 weeks challenge. Are we surprised? Nope. But anyway, with the increase in it's database Ancestry's DNA estimates are being refined so I thought I'd have a look and see what these new estimates look like compared to the old. So Me: Mum: Dad: Given what I know of our geographic ancestry none of these changes are particularly surprising, except for that giant purple blob added to Mum's that represents the Baltic States.  Challenge Accepted Ancestry DNA. 

It was a challenge to narrow down this week's subject because many of my ancestors have proved elusive in one way or another and are thus a challenge, or have themselves faced what can be considered challenging times. But today we consider Jesse Friend who "disappeared and was probably murdered by aborigines in the St Clair region near Singleton" Well, at least that's what the family stories say. Jesse Friend was born in Salehurst, Sussex in 1817 to Jesse Friend and his wife Mary (nee Crittenden) and one of seven children.  Records suggest that the family was often at the mercy of the Poor Law Union and it was thus that in 1839, Jesse the younger, his wife Mary (nee Baker) their child of 6 weeks and various other relations and in laws were shipped off to New South Wales as part of the 99 souls sent by the Salehurst Poor Law Union on the Neptune.  The couple settled in the Maitland area of New South Wales and a second child, Sarah, was born in 1854...

There are many firsts that I could pull out of my research to discuss in this topic, our 'first convict' the 'first person I researched', instead we will go with a different and notable first:   "The first  white  boy born in this colony was born of  black  parents." -  Sir. J. H. Fisher   I have blogged about this little nugget before , and it is of course much disputed as these things are, but I thought it might be interesting to discuss who exactly this white boy of black parents was. William Josiah Black was born on the 2nd of February 1837 'not far from the old gum tree' to William Edwin Black and his wife Mary Ann (nee Bird). The couple had married a few years earlier in 1833 in a recently completed St Dunstan-in-the-West . In September 1836 the couple embarked on the Coromandel bound for Adelaide, South Australia with their 22 month old daughter and William's brothers James and Thomas and their families . The ship arrived in Ho...

Nana's 100th birthday was on the 7th of October and at a party of 130 odd people, the question most often directed at me was "Are we related to Nancy Bird?" My answer - "Well Nana says so but I am not sure how" was met with little satisfaction on the part of the questioners, so for those who wished for further elucidation on the topic, here is a more extended answer. Rita Muffett (nee Bird and her brother Neville Is this Nancy Bird's place in the background? For those of you who may not know, Nancy-Bird Walton was a pioneering Australian Aviator who operated an Air Ambulance service in Outback NSW, founded the Australian Women Pilots' Association, was patron of numerous charities and was one of those people considered to be national treasures. Basically she is the the kind of person that if you find in your tree you tell everyone. So yes I have done some digging, and Nancy Bird's tree - as near as I can figure -looks like this. Nancy ...

Every New Year I make the same resolution - I resolve to be more organised. To actually start writing things down, to stop relying on my often scattered memory (thanks thyroid) and to be a better correspondent  (ie actually reply to people, instead of just thinking I have).  I can't guarantee that this resolution will stick this time because I really am rather terrible at it but I have started yet another Notebook to substitute for my brain and 3 days in to 2017 am still remembering to write down ALL THE THINGS, so chances are if you contact me within the next week you may actually get a response. Hey I may even manage more than 4 blog posts a year if I actually get organised in my research (and stop being a post work zombie)!

This time of my paternal ancestry. I threw the kit at Dad and told him to spit. So from Ancestry: No surprises there; well actually I was expecting it to be a little more homogeneous because his first cousin's looks like this: The German on Dad's maternal side makes all the difference it seems. What did surprise me is how similar mine and Dad's FTDNA maps are. His: Mine: The southern European that I assumed must all be from my maternal side; seems to reflect what I am guessing may be from Dad's maternal as well. I think I may have to throw my other half's science brain at the problem because numerical data analysis is not my strong suit.  

I have mentioned before that the Sinclair branch of my family tree has links to a certain iconic Australian biscuit maker , but it seems that same branch also has links to another iconic Australian . Samuel Robert Sinclair b.1882 d. 1964 - the (half) nephew of Monica Sinclair, the first wife of William Arnott - a Blacksmith at Bermagui was the inspiration for this logo Well, at least according to a footnote in this book . So there you go, Arnotts & Tooheys. Biscuits & Beer.

On the train home from work tonight I checked my email and was happy to see that the NAA had finally completed digitisation of the Naturalisation papers I requested. When I got in I immediately fed the cat (I value my life too much to not feed her straight away) and then grabbed my laptop.  Happy became grinning stupidly. Then ringing my mother at quarter to nine at night to inform her that grandpa doesn't really look like her grandpa. Which she knew. But anyway. A nice chat later I've hung up and looked at my grandpa (her dad's) papers.  Yep. Back on the phone. "Grandpa's mum's name is Francesca Josephina and she was Maltese"  Sometimes, it is the little things that make you ridiculously happy. Like working out your Mum was kind of named for her grandmother :)

I will admit that everything fell to the wayside last year when I found myself working full time with a 3hr round trip daily commute. I love my job but doesn't leave much time for anything other than sleep and housework on the weekends. So with a week or so off at the end of December/beginning of January I was looking forward to settling in and getting some prime genealogy and crafting time in. If I have a limited number of days to devote to research I really want the most bang for my buck. Now this is Shetland . Current population: 25,000ish. Historic population: about the same. The biggest island; that's Mainland . The one directly above it; that's Yell . Current population: 800ish. Historic population: 1000 in a good year.  Yep; having had generations of ancestors born and raised in Yell - or more specifically North Yell - is like shooting fish in a barrel. 2 days, 240 scotlandspeople credits and not a single miss.  Ok. I admit I didn't go into the ...

In yesterday's post I mentioned that the daughters of Jane Clifton and Frederick Charles Brown were were raised by their father's relatives on his maternal side, including someone known as 'Grandma Fibbins.' I'm not sure exactly who Grandma Fibbins is. Well, I know what she looks like. This is Gran Fibbins and Ethel Brown/Clifton. And this is Gran Fibbins and Dorothy May Brown/Clifton. But who exactly is Gran Fibbins? Frederick Charles Brown (b. 1861 d. 1936) was the son of John Brown (b. c1814 d. 1881) and Mary Ann Fibbins (b. c1835 d. 1901). The daughters depicted in these photos were born in 1890 and 1897 respectively. So Gran Fibbins is not Mary Ann, likewise Mary Ann's mother Sarah Ann Watkins (b. c1814 d. 1890) is ruled out. A postcard sent to Ethel from her sister Lola (b. 1893) shows that Ethel at least was living with David Fibbins, either her great uncle or his son. (Lola is marked with the x) If only we could make out a date...

I've mentioned before what a great resource Trove is for fleshing out those little anecdotes my family is so fond of dropping into random conversation. The not married couple in this case was my paternal grandmother's grandparents Jane Clifton and Frederick Charles Brown. Now it was Nana who told me they weren't married but she didn't know the whole story - and it's a good'un. Frederick Brown and Jane Clifton never married because Frederick Brown was already married to Jane Hollege. A rather shotgun affair in 1878, which resulted in 4 children and desertion within the next 5 years. The divorce takes just a little longer. "47 YEARS."  Evening News  (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931) 26 Mar 1930: 10. Web. 22 Sep 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article125975218>. Jane Clifton meanwhile had had two children (father unknown - son registered to her parents as she was only 15, daughter born 3 years later died the same year) prior to her taking up w...

After I got my AncestryDNA results my mother was so excited that she ordered her kit straight away. Well her results are in and SURPRISE I wasn't switched at birth (no chance of that really with how much we look like each other but it does ruin my dreams of being a fairy princess) and her DNA mapping is really interesting. It makes me want to bail up my grandpa and make him spit into a tube, so without further ado - AncestryDNA:  FamilyTreeDNA: I really do want to know more about my grandfather's side of the family now other than a vague mention of his mother having Romany heritage. 

My AncestryDNA results are in and one of the things I have been looking forward to is comparing what my DNA map looks like compared to my genea-map. My genea map, plotted using google maps and the earliest ancestors I have been able to trace looks like this: My AncestryDNA map: And not being satisfied with that I transferred the raw data to FamilyTreeDNA to have a squizz: So overwhelmingly European is the not unexpected results then.

My first introduction to you was a baptism record from Wellingham, Norfolk in 1806. I was rather excited as I had just found your parents marriage and finding you, the sister of my first Muffett in Australia was an added bonus. I was a little confused when I later ran into you in East Dereham, Norfolk being baptised again six years later. But researching what 'publicbly baptized' could mean I decided that yes, this was your christening - the one with family and friends - and being around 20 kms from your original appearance was happy with my reasoning. But last night, last night you threw me a doozy. Another baptism, 6 November 1808 at St John the Evangelist, Smith Square in Westminster of a Jane daughter of Robert & Sarah M*ffet also born the 6th of November 1806? Is this you as well? Your brother does claim to have been born in London and when he informed the registry of your younger brother's death he stated that he too was London born. Their c...

I am trying to pin down my 4th great grandparents, Mary Clifford and John Green. They are ongoing vexations and I've written a little about my searches previously .  Right now I am trying to track down Mary's death which I am assuming occurs sometime after her arrival in the colony in 1833 and John's death in 1868. Thirty-nine Mary Green's died in the colony between those years. Some can be immediately crossed out given their age listings but that still leaves a lot of Mary's to seek out and discount. She's not listed in the family bible, on John's death certificate or Louisa's marriage certificate. I'm waiting on Louisa's death certificate and trying to track down the death of the other daughter Ann. Their son Thomas died in Tassie as a convict so he is no help in this instance. This may take awhile.

If every there was a reason to not ignore the non-related associates when researching your family history... In my research they serve up the juiciest stories. A few weeks ago I was following a lead on my maternal side for my 5th great grandmother Mary Ann Gunther (b. 1815 d.1903), the baptisms of her and her siblings in the Wesleyan Church in 1821, when I noticed an seemingly associated record and as I am want to do, followed the breadcrumbs. It seems that Mary Ann's father Ebenezer Brown Gunther's (b. 1785 d. 1827) second wife - Charlotte von Escher - was a widow. Nothing terribly unusual, but google, fabulous google, threw up this fabulous tidbit for her first husband from the Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser : INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT, April 23. EXTRAORDINARY CASE. General John Maximilian Von Escher was opposed by Mr. ANDREWS and Mr. ADOLPHUS, for three creditors. The prisoner, examined by Mr. Andrews, staled, that he had come to England in February, 181...