Week 6 - Favorite Name - Ellen Edwards

So the prompt this week is Favorite Name.  What is your favorite name in your family tree?  One that makes you smile? Or an unusual one.

Unlike other weeks, I didn't have an initial thought when I read the prompt.  Usually I see the prompt and know exactly what I want to write about.

I guess my initial thought is my great-great-great-great grandmother.  Her name according to records is Ellen Hughes Byrne McEvoy Edwards.  The reason I first thought of her was that I don't know her parents.  I don't have any record of her before she was sent to Australia.

I have her on the Ship Asia in 1830.  She was initially sentenced to 7 years for stealing butter to provide for her kids.(no record if that is one child or two).  I can find a request that she made once in Australia to be allowed to marry again.  (It was denied).  I can also find her official release paperwork.

She was married to my great X 4 grandfather, Robert Edwards in 1832.

So why is this so difficult?  I don't have any record of her in Ireland.  No birth records, no census (too early) or christening forms.  I don't even know her maiden name.  I assume Hughes, but I don't know.  I have a date range for her birthday, but nothing more.

She came over to Australia with at least one son, whose surname was McEvoy.  So did she marry in Ireland?  Did she marry more than once?

No records of this at all.

I wish I could find even just one.  I would love to find her parents, siblings, etc.

So thats the story of Ellen Hughes Byrne McEvoy Edwards.

Week 5 - In the Census, Tom Clarke

This week's prompt is In the Census.  What intriguing find have you made in a census?  Or what is something interesting that you found?

My first thought when I saw this prompt was a census for a distant relative, Tom Clarke, who lived in Somerset, England and was born in 1872.

The reason I thought of Tom first, was because I was researching Tom and his family around the time that I wanted to get my kids more involved in genealogy.  I sat down with my daughter, Aimee who was 12, and wanted to teach her how to search for people, what to look for and what to do when something was found.

We started with Tom's family on this 1901 England census form:

If you want to view it in its full size, the link is here.

What this census record shows is Tom with his wife Mary and lists three kids, Elfie, James and Eveline.  Nothing out of the ordinary.

When we found the 1911 census, however we learnt a lot more.

Again, the link to the full size is here.

What this record shows is that Tom and Mary had 7 kids, 1 of whom died in infancy.  We only had record of three, and James didn't show up on this census record.  Only 5 of their kids are there.

I showed Aimee how to search for birth records in Somerset and we were able to find 6 of the 7 kids. 

What a learning experience for her and myself.  I had never noticed this column before and now it is one of the first things I look to see if a census record has it. 

We still haven't found the 7th child.  We are working on it and Aimee searches every now and then.

So, these two census records are really the two that opened my eyes to the value of census' and helped teach me and my daughter.