Sunday 29 January 2017

Immigrant Ancestors -- Thomas Tupper (1578-1676)

The way back machine is still on: this week's immigrant ancestor is another 9th great grandfather, Thomas Tupper (1578-1676), who was born in Bury in Sussex, and died in the town he helped to found, Sandwich, on Cape Cod.

As a young man, Thomas was a ship's carpenter by trade. Sources report that he likely came first to New England in 1621, then again in 1624 and finally in 1631, when he remained. I descend from the 1634 marriage between Thomas and his third wife, Anne Hodgson (abt 1588-1676), who is described in multiple sources as a widow. Hodgson was her husband's last name. Her own maiden name is lost. Their only child -- both being in their 40s when they married -- was another Thomas Tupper (1638-1706), my 8th great grandfather.

In 1637, Sandwich, which had been part of Plymouth Colony, became the first town established on Cape Cod (scroll down to the heading, A Brief History of Sandwich). Thomas is listed in documents as one of ten men granted proprietorship of land that formed the settlement of  Sandwich.

The original Tuppers in England were reportedly of Saxon descent. By the 17th century, my Tuppers were Puritan in their earliest days in America. Some of Thomas' descendants later became deacons or ministers in their churches -- faith was very important to early North American settler families, especially the Tuppers, where you see the biblical names Eliakim and Elias used from generation to generation. This much older source tells a bit more of the Tupper family and Thomas' life in Sandwich.

North America, Family Histories
My own Tupper line migrated from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, among the New England Planters. Descendants of the first Tupper in North America, are scattered across Canada today.

One notable descendant is my 3rd cousin 5x removed, Sir Charles Tupper (1821-1915), who was one of Canada's Fathers of Confederation, premier of Nova Scotia, and for ten weeks, Canada's prime minister.

The never ending story continues....


© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

Friday 27 January 2017

Our Canada - Your family: building a nation

I belong to the Ontario Genealogical Society, which has the distinction of holding Canada's largest annual genealogy conference.

I'm so pleased to be a member of this year's conference social media team.

The theme for this year's conference is explained in its title: Our Canada - your family: building a nation.

From time to time over the next five months, I'll post information about this year's conference, being held in our nation's capital, Ottawa, which is so fitting since this year marks Canada's sesquicentennial--that's 150 years in plain language.

Bear with me here as I post periodic blurbs about this year's conference. Check out the program here.

The never ending story continues....


© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

Wednesday 25 January 2017

The Weatherburns of Spittal, Tweedmouth and elsewhere

Some say Weatherburn, some say Wedderburn. My connection to the Weatherburn family is through my 2nd great grandmother, Margaret Weatherburn (1833-1879).

I've traced my Weatherburn line in Northumberland back to a Henry Weatherburn, who married Agnes Tindal in 1742. His origins aren't completely clear, according to research I've read. But I'll continue to research.

There is a book about the history of the Wedderburns/Weatherburns that covers the period of 1296 to 1896 -- 600 years! I'm still perusing it from time to time, but it's easy to get distracted. The Weatherburns all had large families. So far, I have only Margaret as an ancestor, which considering the numbers of Weatherburns, Youngs and Knoxes in my ancestry is somewhat remarkable, I think.

I have a Weatherburn DNA match with one person, with whom I share 4th great grandparents: (another) Henry Weatherburn (1777-1858 and Agnes Milvin or Melvin (abt 1776-1832).

My Wedderburns/Weatherburns lived in Spittal, Tweedmouth, Norham and several other small places in and very near Berwick upon Tweed. They were primarily working class -- fishers and related occupations, and then railway or industrial-type work in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Spittal (or Spital--the spelling seems to vary, but Spittal seems the most common) is a small village across the Tweed River from Berwick. Its name is interesting, and according to this source, it is a shortened form of the word "hospital". Or, for viewers of Coronation Street, 'ospikle. Read a more detailed history of Spittal here.

Tweedmouth is, as its name implies, at the mouth of the Tweed River and borders on Berwick and Spittal. Read more.

The never ending story continues....


© Margaret Dougherty 2016 All rights reserved

Sunday 22 January 2017

Immigrant Ancestors -- John Webster (1590-1661)

I've been easily led astray and distracted by more genealogy research again recently--so many bright shiny objects--but here we are back again.

John Webster (1590-1661) is yet another of my 9th great grandfathers. Born in
Leicestershire, England, John arrived at Massachusetts Colony in the early 1630s, most sources seem to generally agree, with his wife Agnes Smith (1585-abt 1655) and their surviving children.

John was of the first settlers of Hartford in 1636, and served one term as governor of  Connecticut Colony. He is mentioned among the names of Hartford's founders here and is name is included on a founders' monument.

from Find a Grave
In addition to my 8th great grandfather Thomas Webster (1616-abt 1686), John's many descendants include my 6th cousin 4x removed, Noah Webster (1758-1843), the lexicographer who compiled dictionaries, including his first, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. This evolved into Webster's Dictionary, which is still updated and published today. Wordsmithing is an old family trait it seems.

Another of John's descendants, my 5th great grandfather Abraham Webster (1737-1812), migrated from Connecticut to Nova Scotia with my 5th great grandmother Margaret White (1732-1803) as a New England Planter in about 1760, and received a land grant in Cornwallis. My New England roots in Nova Scotia are deep, thanks to my several Planter ancestors.

The never ending story continues....



© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

Wednesday 18 January 2017

The Berwick Workhouse

Thanks to my Find My Past subscription, I've spent the past several days perusing yet again 19th and early 20th century back copies Berwick-upon-Tweed newspapers, and have found lots more information there about my ancestors. Berwick was home to my ancestors for a just a couple of hundred years.

What strikes me -- and with great sadness -- are the number of reported deaths in the local workhouse in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Berwick was, and is still today in the 21st century, a small town. There were many families with large families. Many of those families were inter-connected through marriage.

As I've done my reading, many questions came to mind. If someone had to go to the workhouse, why was this the last resort? Why couldn't that person's debts be repaid and that person taken into one of his or many relatives' homes to live out there remaining days? In some cases, those relatives were workhouse inhabitants' own children or siblings.

Turning to Google, I learned lots about the Berwick Workhouse here and also about why people ended up in workhouses here. Reviewing the censuses of inmates also found on those pages, I found that many "inmates" were elderly, some were "feeble minded", "imbecile", blind. Other younger people were classified as vagrants or paupers rather than inmates. Regardless of those classifications, each person had an occupation included with their information.

The never ending story continues.....



© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

Saturday 14 January 2017

Immigrant Ancestors -- Samuel Eddy (1608-1687)

My 10th great grandfather was Samuel Eddy (1608-1687) was born in Cranbrook, Kent, to a vicar, William Eddye and his wife Mary Fosten. He is yet another of my many ancestors listed in my favourite little book.

Samuel likely arrived in Plymouth Colony on 29 Oct 1630 with his older brother John, on the Handmaiden, which set sail from London on 10 Aug 1630 as part of the Great Migration. Some sources note that two of Samuel's sisters also migrated to New England.

Samuel was a tailor. He arrived in New England unmarried, but by 1636 had married Elizabeth Savory (abt 1607-1689), who had arrived from Wiltshire, England with her family in about 1633. Samuel and Elizabeth had at least four children who lived to adulthood, including my direct ancestor, their son, John Eddy (1637-1715). The Eddy family name joined with other immigrant families including my Daggett and Newcombe ancestors,

When I was a child, the Eddy Match Company was a well known Canadian company based in what was then called Hull, Quebec (now called Gatineau). I suspect that its founder, Ezra Butler Eddy, is one of my Eddy relatives.

More about Samuel Eddy's life and family is here. They and several other family members are buried in the Eddy Cemetery in Swansea, Massachusetts, which borders Rhode Island.

There are many Eddy descendants in North America today. In fact, there is an Eddy Family Association. Their website is something else for me to explore at some point -- it has lots of interesting items, to be sure.

The never ending story continues....


© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

Tuesday 10 January 2017

The Ancients -- Britain's Royal Families

Another favourite go-to resource for me is Alison Weir's magnificent book, Britain's Royal Families, the complete genealogy. I thumb through it from time to time, and my eyes always find a new entry that I haven't read before. First published in 1989, this is a very handy resource.

One of the many things on my genealogy to-do list is to go through this book and annotate my relationship to many of the people listed, next to their entry. That would take so much time. Sigh.

Alison Weir is one of the world's foremost British royal historian and authors, with many titles to her credit. Whenever I read one of her books, I'm reminded of my stated ambition in my high school graduation year book biography: to be a historian. You can read more about Alison here.

The never ending story continues....


© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

Thursday 5 January 2017

Finding Aggie Pate and expanding my DNA pool

One of the stories I remember my mother and aunt telling was about their cousin Aggie Pate, who lived in California but visited Montreal, and by all accounts, was a ton of fun. But as usual, any specifics about her life were absent from those stories. I wondered often if she was my mother's auntie Aggie, but was assured decidedly not -- Aggie Pate was not at all like auntie Aggie.

As usual, the repeated use of the same names in my family often caused confusion in trying to keep it all straight. In the case of the name Agnes, this came from my 3rd great grandmother, Agnes Cowe Young (abt 1800-1866), who was called Nancy. None of her several grand daughters and daughters named Agnes had Nancy as a nickname. All were called Aggie. Confusion all around!

My most recent lost in genealogy research day--there can be many--came about inadvertently. Don't they all?

Berwick Advertiser
13 Jun 1882
A few days ago, I was researching my Youngs in really old issues of the Berwick Advertiser on Find My Past when I came across the 1882 marriage notice of one of my grandmother's aunts, Elizabeth Young (1857-1930) to Matthew Cockburn (1856-1914).

After adding this information to my tree, I found so much more on Ancestry and Find My Past, that I soon had added their eight children born between 1883 and 1901, only two of whom died in early childhood. It's interesting that although Lizzie and Matthew were married at the local register office, they had all of their children baptized at the local Anglican church.

Matthew Cockburn died in 1914 in Berwick upon Tweed, but before he died, his eldest surviving daughter, Agnes or Aggie left for better opportunities in Canada, arriving in 1911 in Montreal, where my grandmother, her cousin, Dorothy was by then living. One brother followed in 1914, and the rest of the siblings, including their mother, arrived in 1920 and 1922, never again to return to live in Berwick upon Tweed.

I can well imagine that they saw my grandparents, mother and aunt often during the 1920s in Montreal. Five married in Montreal, in all cases to men and women from Scotland. One, Peter Young Cockburn (1892-1949), served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, signing his attestation papers in Montreal just a few short months after he arrived from England in 1914. All but one of the Cockburn family, including great auntie Lizzie, moved on to California, settling and staying in the Los Angeles area for the rest of their lives.

Among those who married in Montreal was Lizzie and Matthew's daughter Agnes Young Cockburn (1884-1953), or Aggie, who married a man named Tom Pate in 1914. I had found Aggie Pate. It's one of those ah hah/sit back in your chair and push away from your keyboard to feel the enormous satisfaction of finding a lost relative. That feeling never gets old.

Here is Aggie's 1928 certification of naturalization signed in Los Angeles. American records like these are big finds, especially for women, who are so often overlooked. Aggie was petite, just 5'2".

Aggie and Tom Pate travelled to Los Angeles from Montreal with my grandmother's Auntie Lizzie in 1927. Sadly, Auntie Lizzie died less than three years after that move, in 1930. She was able to know her three small grandchildren though.

I've added all of these Cockburn cousins and their spouses to my tree. Several were childless though, including Aggie and Tom Pate. The two who had children? They had small families. All the Cockburns and their spouses are buried in the same Los Angeles-area cemetery. Still, in adding all of these new relatives to my tree, I'm hoping that my DNA matches will increase.

These discoveries reminded me--not for the first time--to remember to go through newspapers online for clues.

The never ending story continues....



© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

Tuesday 3 January 2017

The Ancients -- John of Gaunt

Over the holidays, much of what you hear or read in the news tends to be less hard and sometimes much more interesting. On the weekend, a widely reported news item noted that Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are 16th cousins 1x removed and share a common ancestor, John of Gaunt, who is Cumberbatch's 17th great grandfather.

Well, hello cousin Benedict! John of Gaunt (1340-1399), first Duke of Lancaster, is my 18th great grandfather. As Duke of Lancaster, he led the Lancastrian forces against his Yorkist cousins in the Wars of the Roses. Yes, John is another of my Plantagenet ancestors, and today's royal family are also his direct descendants.

John fathered at least eight children by three different mothers, including my direct ancestor, John Beaufort (abt 1373-1410), whose mother was Katherine Swynford (abt 1350-1403). Katherine is another of my fascinations. She bore John four children. They married in 1396, and their children were later legitimized by Richard II and the Pope, but were barred from inheriting the English succession.

John of Gaunt was buried with his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster at Old St. Paul's Cathedral, which was destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire of London. Read more about Benedict Cumberbatch's and my great grandfather here.

The never ending story continues....


© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

Sunday 1 January 2017

Because it's 2017 and there are more DNA discoveries to come

Happy new year to everyone. I'm starting this year excited anew by DNA discoveries to come. Over Christmas, both my younger brother and eldest first cousin on my father's side activated their AncestryDNA tests. Earlier in December, a 3rd cousin on my mother's side also did her DNA test through Ancestry. Their results will add to my knowledge of my DNA past.

As a bonus, my brother is my first male relative to test. His Y chromosome might lead to new discoveries. Are we Doughertys descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages? Will we learn more about our Scots DNA?

My first cousin will say that she knows that she is Irish through and through on both sides, but what will her DNA test reveal?

As I wrote here, last year, my sister did her DNA. I can hardly contain myself, waiting for my brother's and cousin's DNA results.

The never ending story continues....



© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved

About the Family of Robert Young and Isabella Knox

I wrote about my great grandfather, Robert Alexander Young , here . Now it's time to write about the family he and my great grandmother...