Some Updates

I'm so far behind on this blog I have no idea what to write. I started a new job last summer and as much as I love it, the additional hours spent commuting have eaten into my family and leisure time, so genealogy is taking a back seat more and more often. Not that it particularly matters: except in cases of zombification, the dead likely will stay that way, and the longer I wait, the more records become available on-line.

So here are some updates on previous entries:

The Blank at the Top of The Tree

Way back when I started my family tree, and also when I started blogging, I looked at my McKenzie ancestors and wondered how far back I could go. Thanks to this post, a fellow McKenzie researcher got in touch. Although we don't appear to have any family connection, he had a copy of this baptism from Cairnie by Huntly:

Alexr: McKENZIE Baker in Keith had a Son in uncleanness with Christian MACKIE in Ordbrae the 28th of March 1803 Called William before Witnesses Robt: DAWN & Elspet MELLIS both in Boggiesmuir

Cairnie was partly in Banffshire at the time and Ord Brae just 300 yards from the Aberdeenshire-Banffshire border. William McKenzie on the 1841 census was living in Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire, but was not born in Aberdeenshire, and his age was given as 35-39. William was a miller in 1826, then worked in a brewery (1835) and later a distillery (1836) before becoming a publican and innkeeper (1841): any link to Alexander McKenzie's profession as a baker? Both worked with yeast... This record is a strong possibility for William's baptism, so I'll be looking into this further.

Two Burials: A Mystery

Within an hour of publishing this post, it was picked up by a local paper in Sutton Coldfield and they contacted my colleague to do a story to help her solve the mystery. Unfortunately, though, no further leads developed, but it just goes to show how quickly news can spread these days, and how helpful other people can be.

Unable to Connect

In this post I speculated about the possible connection between Susan Barnes, daughter of Edward Barnes of Fincham, Norfolk and mother of Samuel Griggs who married Emilie Bond, and Ellen Barnes, daughter of Henry Barnes of Fincham, Norfolk and stepmother of the same Emilie Bone. In this case, the matter could have been solved by looking at Ellen's original marriage certificate rather than a transcription of unknown provenance: the original marriage certificate gives Ellen's father's name as Edward, not Henry, making it far more likely that she and Susan were sisters rather than cousins. A reminder to me not to jump to conclusions and always to search out the originals.

In terms of finding the original, I'm once again delighted with Essex County Council's SEAX / Essex Ancestors site, with scans from the original parish registers (not the registrar's copies at the General Records Office). For anyone with Essex Ancestors, the website (and £75 annual all-you-can-research subscription) is fantastic.

Regarding Henry

Ancestry.co.uk has recently published Civil Divorce Records 1858-1911, which helped fill in some blanks not covered by the newspaper reports of the divorce of Edwin Denne Collard and Frances Ann Groombridge, in which my ancestor's cousin Henry Walker was named co-respondent. In the scans of the actual case are the answers to the various charges, including Frances' allegation that her husband had neglected and deserted her; had committed adultery with Miss Holt of the Refreshment Rooms, Normanton, Yorkshire, with Mrs Daniel, a married woman of Upstreet, Kent, and with one other; and Frances' denial that she had given birth to an illegitimate child in 1861. Also included were Henry's denial that he and Frances committed adultery and that she bore a child. None of these details were in the press reports, possibly because the jury found in favour of Edwin Denne Collard.

New Year's Resolutions

Well, all those still hold true today and I predict I'll be making the same resolutions again in 2014. I'd rather think of them as New Year's traditions rather than resolutions.