The earliest origins of May Day is the Roman festival of Flora, who was the Goddess of Flowers.  It was celebrated as Walpurgis Night in Germanic countries, and as Beltane in Gaelic countries, including Great Britain.  Beltane marked the half way point in the year and involved fertility rites, one of which was the “setting of new fire” where cattle were driven through the flames to purify them, and young couples passed through the smoke to bring them good luck.  After the arrival of the Romans, their own Festival of Flora was gradually integrated with Beltane to produce the traditions that we still see today.

In Great Britain it has long been associated with the maypole dance, morris dancing and the crowning of the Queen of the May, which still continues to this day in some parishes.  These ancient traditions have survived from pagan Anglo-Saxon rites.

Many an English village still has a maypole on the village green, harking back to the middle ages when the maypole would have been brought in from the woods amongst great merrymaking.  Villages would compete to see who could produce the tallest pole.  The pole would remain for a day and then be taken down although in larger towns it became a permanent fixture.  The maypole has a very symbolic tradition.  Trees were seen as symbols of fertility and strength, and when they were cut down for the maypole, a branch would be stripped of branches, with a few left at the top.  It would then be wrapped in violets.

During the commonwealth period, that killjoy Oliver Cromwell banned Mayday celebrations (along with Christmas and the theatre) as being too pagan (you are probably not surprised to know that when I was a member of the Sealed Knot I was on the Royalist side!).  But luckily the tradition survived and was reinstated when Charles II returned to the throne.

If you have English ancestors dating back to the middle ages and beyond then it is very likely they would have been involved in May Day celebrations – and perhaps your 10 x great-grandmother was crowned Queen of the May!

I do not, as far as I know, have any relatives who were on board, but I did do a search of my own surname on the Ancestry lists and found a W. Bott, who was a crew member who perished in the disaster.

I doubt very much that he was connected to my family, but I thought it would be interesting to do a bit of research on him and find out about his family.

There are two records on Ancestry concerning the Titanic for W. Bott.  The ship’s crew record, and the deaths at sea record.  According to the crew record on Ancestry, he was born in about 1868, so he was 44.  He had previously served on board the Olympic (one of the Titanic’s sister ships), and his job was a greaser.  This means he would have been responsible for greasing the ship’s engines to keep them moving.  We also know he was born in Hampshire.  The Deaths at Sea record also gives his occupation, age and address.

I also found this excellent resource for information about everyone on board the Titanic:  The Encyclopedia Titanica, which is a compendium of Titanic facts, and includes lists of passengers and crew with biographies for each.  It tells me that as a greaser he would have earned £6.10s per month, and that his body was never identified.  It also had a photograph of him – with a rather handsome moustache.  Here is the link to his page:  http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/w-bott.html

I next searched for him on the 1911 census and found that his name was William, and that he was a widower.  He was living at 6 Nichols Road, and with him is one servant, a lodger – and a six year old child described as “adopted daughter”.  Now, whether this is William’s adopted daughter, or the lodger’s, is slightly ambiguous, as there is a line that seems to connect the girl’s name with the lodger.  William is described as “ship’s fireman”.

I looked for William in the 1901 census – but he seems to be living in Portsmouth as a wood block maker, and is boarding.  He is married, but his wife is not in the household.  Also his date of birth is about four years earlier.  Did he give a younger age later when he was applying for work on board ship?  Or is this a different William?  Perhaps our William was already working on board a ship and was at sea.

From further searches using civil registration indexes and census records, I found that he was married in 1890.  His spouse was either Elizabeth Ellen Taylor or Mary Maud Wheeler – but as I cannot find them together on the 1891 or 1901 census, I am unable to clarify which it is without ordering the marriage certificate.

He was baptized at St. Mary’s, Southampton on 28 February 1869, the son of William and Elizabeth Bott.  His middle name was Thomas.  His father was an engine fitter who had been born in Nottingham.  This makes sense, as the Bott name is much more common in the Midlands than it is in the southern counties.  His mother, Elizabeth Morgan, was born in Southampton.  In 1871 William and Elizabeth had five children, including William.  The others were Margaret, Mary, Lucy and Emma.  By 1881, William senior had died, and Elizabeth was working as a needlewoman, and the young William as a tailor’s errand boy.

William senior had moved with his family to Southampton when he was still young, and his own father (also an engineer) had come from Leicestershire – where there are quite a lot of Botts still today – but not my lot I’m afraid.

So, to summarise, I was able to find that the William Bott who died in the Titanic disaster had come from a family of engineers, was a widower with several brothers and sisters.  Over the 19th century his family had moved from Leicestershire, to Nottingham, and finally to Southampton, where William eventually found work on board ship, and was, I imagine, delighted to be employed on the largest ship in the world on her maiden voyage.

This was just a little exercise to see how far I could go with just a name from the disaster.  The online sources available are excellent, and anyone who had ancestors on board the Titanic should be able to find at least some information in using these sources.

That’s all about the Titanic from me!  I think we’re all suffering from a bit of Titanic overload, so with a last salute to the victims, we’ll move on…

It was told to me by someone I have been in contact with recently regarding her family history and she happened to mention this story and I asked her permission to publish it here.  It made me smile….

One can only imagine the look on Mr Smith’s face when this woman turned up on the doorstep – and I can understand why the poor girl wouldn’t want to step foot on a ship ever again!

At some point next week I’m hoping to post something about one of the more unfortunate victims of the disaster – one by the name of Bott, but no relation as far as I know.  Watch this space!

This led me to thinking about the history of anaesthesia and surgery.  While we may often have a rather romantic view of the past and perhaps sometimes wish we could go back in time to our favourite period, it is times like this when I am very glad I live in the 21st century!  A brief look at surgery before 1900 should be enough to stop anyone getting into their time machine without a thorough health check and being sure one is in 100% healthy condition!

Anyone who has had any kind of surgery, whether it was life saving, or to ease an uncomfortable or dangerous condition, should give a thought and much gratitude to the pioneers of anaesthesia who made it possible to undergo surgery without pain (well – at least during the actual surgery anyway).  We should also spare a thought for our ancestors, who did not have access to the wonders of modern medicine.

William Thomas Green Morton was a dentist who gave the first demonstration of the use of ether to remove a lump at Boston, Massachusets in 1846.   After this, surgery began to change dramatically.  Before this, surgery was a terrifyingly traumatic and painful process, which could only be undertaken as a last resort to try and save a life.  Ether also began to be used in dentristry in order to remove teeth without pain.

Ether was replaced by chloroform, which had been discovered by James Young Simpson.  The use of chloroform gained royal approval when John Snow, who had pioneered the use of both ether and chloroform, administered it to Queen Victoria at the birth of her last two children in the 1850s.

Obviously the use of anaesthesia has much improved since these early days, when it was still highly dangerous, and it would be easy to take it for granted that surgery can be pain-free.  But we should not forget these early pioneers who have enabled millions of people to live longer, healthier lives through surgery that would otherwise not have been available.

Anyone who can trace their ancestors back to these physicians should be very, very proud!

The heroine of the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale never married, and had no children.  However, the Nightingale family has links with several illustrious families which are fairly well documented, so if you have any of the following surnames, it should be fairly easy to find out whether you are connected with The Lady with the Lamp.

Surnames connected with Florence Nightingale are:  SHORE, NIGHTINGALE, CHEETHAM, EVANS, SMITH, DIGGLES, WALKER, COAPE, MOORE, PRYOR, and LUDLOW.

NIGHTINGALE

The surname Nightingale actually comes from Florence’s paternal great-grandmother’s family; her father’s name was SHORE, and he took the name NIGHTINGALE when he succeeded to his great uncle Peter Nightingale’s estates.  I have come across other cases where a childless landowner passes the estate to a family member, providing they take on the family name of the testator.

Anyone with the surname Nightingale therefore, is only likely to have a connection to Florence through the family of her great-grandmother Anne, and her brother Peter.  Peter was born in 1736 in Lea, Derbyshire, the son of Peter Nightingale Esq. (1705-1763) and Anne CHEETHAM.  While Peter junior did not have any children, this line can be traced back at least another century, and there could be links to this earlier line as well as the names CHEETHAM and BOWLER.  Any Nightingale ancestors of the 17^th century and earlier around the Derbyshire area could therefore be traced down to Florence.

Florence’s only sister, Frances Parthenope, became the second wife of Harry VERNEY, 2^nd Baronet in 1858, and became Lady Verney.  She was a writer and essayist.  However, the couple did not have any children (Harry did have children from his first marriage), and so there are no descendants.

SHORE

Florence’s father was born William Edward SHORE in 1794 in Romsey, Hampshire.  He was the only son of William Shore and Mary EVANS (the niece of Peter Nightingale).  William and Mary also had two daughters, one of whom died in childhood, and the other, Mary, marrying Samuel SMITH (see below).  William married Samuel’s sister, Frances SMITH, and as well as Florence, they had one other daughter Frances Parthenope, but no sons.  Therefore, in order to find any SHORE links to Florence, we would need to go further up the line.

William Edward’s father, William SHORE, was born in 1755 in Tapton, Derbyshire, the son of Samuel Shore and Margaret DIGGLES.  Samuel and Margaret had 13 children:  Robert Diggles (1736), Samuel (1738) (married Lydia FLOWER and Urith OFFLEY), Margaret, Jane (1740), Thomas, John (married Gertrude BINKS), William (1755-1822) (details above), Joshua (1748-1766), Sarah, Hannah (1754) (Married Thomas WALKER), Ann, James and Elizabeth.  I am sure there must be descendants to be traced from some of these children.

EVANS

Mary EVANS was the paternal grandmother of Florence.  She was born in 1760 in Cromford, Derbyshire,  the daughter of George EVANS and Anne NIGHTINGALE (the sister of Peter, the mining entrepreneur who left his estate to William Edward).  George and Anne were married in Ashover, Derbyshire in 1756.  Because the surname is common, it is difficult to accurately trace this family, but we do know that Mary had at least one sister, Elizabeth, but I do not know if she married.

If you have any EVANS family that can be traced back to this area of Derbyshire, it may be worth checking the connections.

SMITH

Obviously, anyone with this name can have a problem tracing their name back as it is the most common name in the UK.  However, this particular family have some well known and interesting people in their tree, so could be easier to trace than most.

France’s father was William SMITH MP, a well known abolitionist and social reformer, and an associate of William Wilberforce.  He and his wife Frances COAPE, had at least nine children: Benjamin Leigh (1783-1860),  Frances (1789-1880), Joanna Maria (1791-1884), Samuel (1794) (who married his sister-in-law, Mary SHORE), Octavius Henry (1796), Frederick Coape (1798), Julia, Anne and Patty.

His eldest son Benjamin Leigh Smith was also an MP, and had four illegitimate children by his mistress, Anne LONGDEN.  One of these was Barbara Leigh Smith, who married Dr. Eugene BODICHON, and became famous as Barbara Bodichon, a leading activist in women’s rights and founder of Girton College.  She was Florence’s 1^st cousin.  I do not believe they had any children.

Benjamin’s other children by Anne Longden were Benjamin Leigh SMITH (1828-1913), an explorer, Bella Leigh (c.1831), Anne (c.1832) and William Leigh (1833).

Benjamin Leigh Smith married Charlotte SELLER, and they had one son, Philip Leigh SMITH (1892), who married the nuclear physicist, Alice Prebil.  I believe that there were children and therefore living descendants of the Leigh Smiths.

Anne Smith did not marry.

William Leigh SMITH married Georgina Mary HALLIDAY, and they had at least five children, Amy Leigh (1859), Georgina F Leigh (1862), William Leigh (1867), Bella Leigh (1879) and Sophia (1882).

I could not find a marriage for his son William Leigh, or any information for Georgina.

Bella married either a FERMOR or a WYNNE but I cannot find her in the 1911 census, so more research needs to be done here, nor can I find any further information for Sophia.

MOORE

Amy Leigh SMITH (daughter of William Leigh SMITH junior) married Sir Norman MOORE and they had 3 children: Sir Alan Hilary MOORE, 2^nd Bt (1882), Ethne Philippa (1886) and Gillachrist (1894-1914).

Gillachrist was killed in action in the First World War.

Alan Hilary MOORE married Hilda Mary BURROWS, and they had 3 children.  These children are still living so I will not give their names here.

PRYOR

Ethne Philippa MOORE married Lieut. Col. Walter Marlborough PRYOR.  They had three sons: John Marlborough (1911-1984), Mark Gillachrist Marlborough (1915-1970) and Robert Matthew Marlborough (1917-2005).   Any children of these children would be the 1^st cousins 4 times removed to Florence Nightingale.

LUDLOW

Bella Leigh SMITH (daughter of Benjamin Leigh SMITH MP) married John LUDLOW in 1859.  John Ludlow was a major general in the Indian Army.

They had at least three children (there may have been more): Annabel (c.1861), Henry J. (c.1862) and Milicent B. (c.1868).  Bella died some time before 1881.

I have not been able to find out whether Henry J. Ludlow married or had children, but if you have LUDLOW ancestors in the Sussex area it may be worth checking to see if there is a connection.

Neither could I find any further information for Annabel.

Milicent married Sir Norman MOORE, 1^st Baronet, in 1903, who had previously been married to her 1^st cousin, Amy Leigh SMITH.  I do not believe they had any children.

Not surprisingly, Florence Nightingale had family connections with some very interesting people, and particularly those who campaigned for people’s rights – including William Smith MP, and Barbara Leigh Bodichon (nee Smith).  There are certainly living descendants of the Smith family, and there may be some from further up the line.

If you would like me to carry out any research involving a possible connection with this family, please review my services page.

Further Reading

Florence Nightingale: The Woman and Her Legend

Florence Nightingale : a biography

Florence Nightingale at First Hand: Vision, Power, Legacy

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However, there are ways and means of breaking through these brick walls, and I thought it would be useful to list the most common problems and describe the strategies I personally use to break through them.  Of course, I cannot guarantee they will always work, and there are ancestors who remain stubbornly elusive, but sometimes just a little bit of determination, imagination and knowledge can help you to that wonderful “I’VE FOUND HIM!!!”  moment that makes all the hours of head-banging frustration seem worth it!

One thing I will always say for any of the following problems, and that is:  Remember that your ancestors were human!  Human beings are not robots – they are not always accurate, they have dodgy memories, they might lie, make mistakes, be elusive, be cunning or sometimes they just don’t know much about their origins themselves.  We should never expect tracing them to be straightforward if we understand that human beings have never in the history of the world been straightforward!

1.  Variations in Name Spellings: It is probably the most common discrepancy you will find when searching documents, and there are several reasons:  a) the name has been badly transcribed and indexed by modern search engine indexers, b) the name was written down at the time of the document as the writer heard it,  c) the name has naturally changed over a period of years or d) the name was changed on purpose.  You have to remember that until surprisingly recently surnames did not have a standard spelling, and as many people were illiterate and also did not have the hundreds of reasons to write their name as we do today, very rarely wrote their own names.  Therefore names were often written as they were heard by another person. 

Solution: Don’t always rely on the Soundex box in search engines – these do not catch every possible variation of a name.  Use your imagination – try saying the name out loud in a different accent, or mumbled, or with a cold!  If you still can’t find the person in the main ancestry search engines, try searching using other criteria (e.g. The Ancestry.com/co.uk search engines are very useful in that you can search with all other definite criteria, such as first name, date & place of birth, spouse name etc – but without using the surname box.  This can be very useful if you have enough information about the person already, and as long as the name is not a common one.

2.  Too Many Results with the same name. If I had a pound for every time I came across this one…..  It’s probably worse than not getting any results at all because you know that it’s very likely that your ancestor is there – but which one is he?

Solution: This is a situation where you need extra information, such as names of siblings, parents, children etc.  Find out as much as you can about the person’s family and then search for brothers and sisters, parents etc.  If you are searching the census, you might find that they are living near to family, or even with family.  Sometimes a sister might live with a brother as a housekeeper, or a widowed parent may live with married children.  Children are sometimes found staying with aunts, uncles or grandparents on the night of the census.  If it’s BMD certificates you are looking for, trying backing up your search by using FamilySearch.com and finding a baptism or marriage that fits.  These records will give the names of parents and/or spouses and can help you to establish which is the correct entry in the BMD indexes.  If there are just a few names, then sometimes you can eliminate some by finding the marriages or deaths of the other contenders.

3.  Conflicting Information in documents. This happens much more often than you might think, and is particularly annoying!  If it’s the age that differs, don’t get too hung up on that – people have been known throughout history to lie (sometimes radically) about their age for all kinds of reasons.  What is really frustrating is when two documents that seem to be about the same person, give two different places of birth (my grandfather always gave his place of birth as Staffordshire in the census, but he was actually born in Manchester).

Solution: First, make absolutely sure that you have the right person in both documents.  Back up your information by finding other appropriate documents (such as birth certificates etc).  Look at the documents you have and try to work out which is likely to be more accurate.  Why might one of them have the wrong information?  Did your ancestor have a good reason for giving that answer – or might someone have answered for them (such as a landlord in the census) and made a mistake?

4.  My ancestor is not in the census! Sometimes you’d think they might have left the country or even the planet!  But before international travel became easier and cheaper, it was very unusual for people to leave the country unless they definitely emigrated.  It is unlikely (unless they were a mariner or had some job that involved a lot of travel) that they would be away on census night due to a holiday (which is more likely in the 20th and 21st centuries).

Solution: First, make sure you have tried every name spelling you can think of, middle names, and every possible search criteria.  Then, as you might if you were a real detective – try knocking on their families’ doors.  Visit the census entries for parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc and see if you can find any clues (are they living with family with a name variation?).  Search in newspaper archives (try the British Newspaper Archive), and carry out general searches on Ancestry and the National Archives’ A2A website.  Are there any clues that could lead to criminal activity or trouble at home – if so, it is always possible they have changed their name?  This might make finding them difficult, but they can still be found, if you are confident enough about all other information about them (place & date of birth etc).

5.  The Records have been destroyed, lost or damaged. This is a common occurrence once you have got back beyond the census and BMD records and are having to rely heavily on parish registers (PRs) and older documents.  PRs can go back as far as 1538, but very often these earlier ones have been lost or destroyed (by fire for example).

Solution: There are many other records that your ancestors may turn up in.  However, the wealthier they were, the more likely they are to have left a paper trail, but you can still find the poorer people if you know where to look.  First of all, if it’s the parish register that’s missing, check to see if the Bishops’ Transcripts still exist.  These were copies that were sent to the diocesan registry (the bishop), and are available in diocesan record offices – and some county record offices may keep copies.  Often the transcripts may be available if the PR is missing.  Other documents, such as apprenticeship records and settlement orders can give details of family relationships – and of course wills are a very good source of information – and not always just for the wealthier classes.  For the middle and landed classes, then land records can give useful information.

6.  Unable to find one or both parents. This can happen sometimes when a child was not staying with parents on census night, or the father’s name is missing from a marriage or birth certificate (usually when the child is illegitimate).  This can be frustrating because it’s always great when you take a step into the next generation.  If it’s a fairly common name, it can be very difficult to back up the information through BMD, for example, if you can’t be sure you’re looking at the right document.  When you go further back into early parish registers, often just the father’s name is given in baptism records.

Solution: If a child is staying with another family member, you may be able to find the parents by searching for the baptism records of those family and looking at siblings – FamilySearch.com is useful for this.  Try also searching for the wills of other family members as the parent may be mentioned as a sibling or child of the testator.  It might also be that one or both parents had died, so always search death/burial records in this case.  In the case of a missing father when the child is illegitimate, sadly this can be a dead end.  However, it is always worth checking to see if there may be bastardy orders held at the appropriate diocesan record office.  If the child is given the mother’s surname, it may be unlikely that the father will ever be known – but if there are middle names, then these could be a clue to a father’s identity.  My great-great grandfather was John Walker Bott.  He was the illegitimate son of John Walker and Elizabeth Bott.

7.  Confusing Information. Sometimes, you can be driven mad by various clues leading you all over the place and round in circles.  A person might turn up on the census with a wife and children, then turn up later with a different wife, and give his place of birth as a different village, but when you find the most probable birth record it’s in a completely different place with the same siblings but a different mother, then later you find he died in the workhouse, described as a milkman, when all along he said he was a farm labourer.  Have you got the right person – or should you throw everything up in the air and start again?

Solution: This kind of thing can really give a genealogist a headache.  Some cases get so complicated it’s like trying to unravel a huge knot.  Sometimes, the best solution is to go  back to basics.  Write down the absolute facts – the ones you can absolutely verify to be true, and try to eliminate any information that is misleading or contradicts the facts you know.  Then take each piece of information you have found one by one, and try to see how it could fit.  Remember what I said about ancestors being human – why might they have given a wrong answer or made a mistake?  Could they have been trying to hide something?  As with most problems – always look at the family for any extra clues.

8.  Place of Birth is too vague (e.g. “Scotland”) This is especially annoying if the name is a common one.  Looking for a James McDonald somewhere in Scotland could have you giving up before you’ve started.

Solution: Make sure you have traced all possible census entries for this ancestor – as sometimes, especially on the later census records, you might find that they have actually given a more specific town or village.  And again – ask the family:  look for the ancestor’s siblings or other family on the census and see if they have given any more specific places of birth.  While it might not be exactly the same as the subject you’re looking for, it may give you a clue at least to a county or area.

9.  You can’t read the document. Obviously this is more of a problem with very early 16th or 17th century documents – but sometimes handwriting can be extremely bad even in the 19th or 20th century!

Solution: If it’s just one word you’re having difficulty with, try looking at the rest of the document for letters that look similar in words you can read.  However, in the cases of earlier long documents such as wills, then it can sometimes look like a foreign language and impossible to read at all.  Actually, by learning a few basics, you can start to read old handwriting quite quickly.  The National Archives runs an excellent – and free – paleography tutorial on their website which you can access at the following address:  http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/ If you don’t have the time to learn, you might need to hire someone to transcribe the document for you.  Most professional genealogists can do this – and there are some who specialise in transcribing old hand – or Latin.

10.  You’ve tried everything but you just can’t find them! Really – it happens to the best of us.  Losing an ancestor is not carelessness – it’s just part of the journey.  It can happen any time – but as you move back further in time finding ancestors becomes more difficult, particularly if the family moved a lot.  Before the census started, there are not many documents that will tell you where a person was born, so if they disappear from the parish registers you can be left wondering where they came from without any clues.

Solution: Make sure that you have tried all document searches: wills, apprenticeships, newspapers, settlements etc – and check the National Archives’ A2A search engine.  Sometimes a google search can come up with something you haven’t seen before.  If you are searching before the census, check to see if your ancestor married by licence, and then look for the marriage bond – this may give a clue to place of origin.

It’s a very good idea to take a break from an elusive ancestor and go and search another line for a while.  Sometimes, when you come back a few months later, your brain is refreshed and you might see clues and possibilities that you didn’t think of before.

If all else fails, then why not try hiring a professional genealogist?  It may be that they will look at what you have done and say, well, there’s probably not much else I can do – but on the other hand, they may have other ideas you have not thought of, and sometimes have access to records that you may not know about.  They are also usually knowledgeable in local and/or national history which can help in working out possible movements of ancestors.  Most professionals have a lot of experience in breaking through brick walls and it could be worth paying for this service if they can find that elusive ancestor.  Of course, you will have to pay for their time even if they are not successful, but at least you will know that you have tried every possible alternative.

My own professional service for the UK is detailed on my Home Page.

These are certainly the most common genealogical problems I have come across.  If you think I’ve left anything out (whether a problem or a solution) – please let me know!

I am not going to give an overview of his life and work here, as that has been done elsewhere, but if  are interested to know whether you might be related to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then here are some of the surnames that are connected to him, either in direct relationship or through marriage:  BRUNEL, KINGDOM, LEVEBVRE, SPRY, HORSLEY, JAMES, NOBLE, MADAN, CAMPBELL, JEBB, HAWES, HURST, MACCARTHY, HARRISON.

I have not found a published tree of Brunel, but I have done a little bit of research myself to find his ancestors, his direct descendants, and descendants of his siblings.

DIRECT DESCENDANTS

If you are interested in living descendants of Brunel, then here is a summary of Isambard’s direct descendants:

BRUNEL

There do not seem to be any direct descendants of Isambard with the surname BRUNEL.  Isambard and his wife Elizabeth had three children: Isambard Brunel, Henry Marc Brunel (also a civil engineer) and Florence Mary Brunel.  Isambard junior married a Scottish woman, Georgina Geils D NOBLE, but they do not seem to have had any children.  Henry Marc does not seem to have married at all.

JAMES

The line of descent can therefore only be traced through Isambard’s daughter, Florence Mary.  In 1870 she married Arthur Coleridge JAMES, a housemaster at Eton College.   They had two daughters, Celia Brunel and Lilian S.  As there were no sons, there are no living JAMES direct descendants.

NOBLE

In 1891 Celia Brunel JAMES (granddaughter of Isambard) married Saxton William A NOBLE (another successful engineer) and they had four children, all born in Newcastle upon Tyne: Humphrey Brunel NOBLE (b. 1892), Marjorie Florence NOBLE (b. 1896), Marc Andrew Patrick NOBLE (b. 1897) and Cynthia NOBLE (b. 1898).

Humphrey Brunel NOBLE married Celia WEIGALL in 1926 in London, and as far as I can see, they had three children.  I am not naming these here as they may still be living, and if they had children these are the NOBLE direct descendants of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Marc Andrew Patrick unfortunately died in World War I in 1917, and was not married.

MADAN

Marjorie Florence NOBLE (great granddaughter of Isambard) married Geoffrey Spencer MADAN.  They had at least one child, Nicola MADAN.

CAMPBELL

Nicola Madan married Gordon CAMPBELL, Baron Campbell of Troy, and they had three children.  These CAMPBELLs are the direct descendants of Isambard.

JEBB

Cynthia NOBLE (great granddaughter of Isambard) married Hubert M G JEBB (politician) and had at least two children, who may be still living and have issue.  These JEBBs are the direct descendants of Isambard.

DESCENDANTS OF SIBLINGS

Isambard had two surviving siblings, Sophia Macnamara BRUNEL and Emma Joan BRUNEL.  A third sister died in infancy.  There were no brothers.

HAWES

In 1820 Sophia Brunel married Benjamin HAWES (Whig politician) in Chelsea, London.  They had six children, Sophia Brunel (b. 1822), Benjamin (b. 1828), Sarah Fox (b.1830), Isambard Brunel (b. 1831), Arthur Briscoe (b. 1833) and Maria Gurney (b. 1834).  Isambard died in infancy, and I have only been able to find two marriages for the other children – though it is possible there were more.

Arthur Briscoe HAWES carried the line of descent through by marrying Susan CATTELL (born in India) and having 11 children: Arthur Reginald Murray (b. 1855 in India), Susan E. B (b. 1857 at sea), Florence M. (b. 1859 in London), Sarah M H (b. 1862), Frederick Benjamin Oliphant (b. 1863), Godfrey Charles Browne (b. 1866), Edmund G C (b. 1867), Ivan H. S. (b. 1869), David Marc A. G. (b. 1870), Percy Frederick B (b. 1872) and Winifred Mary B (b. 1874).

Amazingly, most of these children do not seem to have married and several of them were listed in the 1911 census as single people.  One or two of them may have emigrated and so these descendants need further research.

Of all of these I was only able to find one marriage and continued line of descent.  This was through Godfrey Charles Browne HAWES who married Ellen Wyndham LEWIS in 1895, and had at least three children : Benjamin Wyndham Brunel (b. 1897), Marguerite Vernon Brunel (b. 1900) and Ernest Isambard Brunel (b. 1905).  As you can see, the Brunel connection is still proudly borne in the names of these children.

I am not sure whether Godfrey and Ernest married, but if they did their children would be the great-great grand nephews and nieces of Isambard.

HURST

Marguerite Vernon Brunel HAWES married Harold E HURST in 1931.  However, I could not find any children for them.

MACCARTHY

Sophia Brunel HAWES (Isambard’s niece, and daughter of Sophia) Charles Justin MACCARTHY (Governor of Ceylon) in 1848.  Obviously, they traveled quite a bit, and I have only found one son, though there may be more: Richard H. MacCarthy (b. 1849 in Ceylon).  Unfortunately, I was unable to find anything else about Richard and whether he married, so this is a line that needs further research, possibly outside of the UK.

HARRISON

Isambard’s other sister, Emma Joan, married George HARRISON (curate)  in 1836.  I have found one son for them: John HARRISON (b. 1844 in Brentford, Middlesex).  I think that John married and had children, but unfortunately, because he moved around on the census (not always with his family), and also because this name is so numerous, I have not been able to definitively place his wife or children.  He may have married a Harriet.

It is quite likely, therefore, that there are further HARRISONs who are direct descendants of Isambard’s sister, but this would need some extensive research, including the ordering of birth and marriage certificates.

ISAMBARD’S ANCESTORS

If you have the surname BRUNEL, KINGDOM or LEVEBVRE, there could be a connection with Isambard’s ancestors, but further research is needed:

BRUNEL

Isambard’s father was Marc Isambard BRUNEL (also a prominent engineer who designed the Thames Tunnel), and he was born in Hacqueville, Normandy in France in 1769.  He was the son of Jean Charles BRUNEL and Marie Victoire LEVEBVRE.

I can find not other children on the IGI, and as I do not have access to any other French records, then further research would be necessary in French archives to find BRUNEL or LEVEBVRE connections.

KINGDOM

Isambard’s mother was Sophia KINGDOM, and she was born in 1775 in Plymouth, the daughter of William KINGDOM, an army and navy contracting agent.  I believe that William was married to Joan SPRY, and they had numerous children.  However, I have not been able to absolutely verify the marriage or children, and this would need further research to make any connections with any living descendants.

CONNECTION BY MARRIAGE

HORSLEY

Isambard was married to Mary Elizabeth HORSLEY.  Her father was William HORSLEY.  William was a musician who wrote many symphonies and songs, including the hymn, “There is a Green Hill Far Away.”  Apart from Mary Elizabeth, he also had two sons, Charles Edward HORSLEY (also a musician) and John Calcott HORSLEY, a painter, who I believe designed the first Christmas card.

John Calcott married Rosamund HADEN, and they had at least several children (Walter Charles, Hugh John, Victor Alexander Haden, Emma Mary and Fanny Marian.  Of these, Victor  became a famous scientist and professor and was knighted in 1902.  He married Eldred BRAMWELL and they had three children, Siward, Oswald and Pamela.  Further HORSLEY descendants may be traced via these children.

I have not researched the other children of John and Rosamund, so it is quite possible that there are further lines of descent to be found through these lines.

Charles Edward Horsley was also married, but needs further research to trace a line of descent.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

Tracing Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s family has been a fascinating project.  His children and extended family were successful in their own right, and the female members of the family seem to have married into very prominent and successful families.  If you think there may be a connection with your family, I would be happy to carry out the necessary research (my fees are listed on my Research Services page).  If you would like a copy of the tree I have compiled, please email me at info@tracingancestors-uk.com.

Please also let me know if you have any preferences for my next famous person in my “Genealogies of the Famous” series.

Books About Isambard Kingdom Brunel:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel by L. T. C. Rolt

Brunel: The Man Who Built the World (Phoenix Press)

Brunel: The Life and Times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel

More books about Brunel…

This is from the 1st chapter of Bleak House, and wonderful setting in which to visualize your London ancestors:

LONDON.  Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.  Implacable November weather.  As much mud in the streets, as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.  Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft, black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes – gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun.  Dogs, undistinguishable in mire.  Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers.  Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas, in a general infection of ill-temper, and losing their foothold at street corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if the day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest.

Fog everywhere.  Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.  Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights.  Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats.  Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ‘prentice boy on deck.  Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all around them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds.

I love the way the word ‘fog’ is repeated over and over again, to make the reader feel it creeping in on him in a claustrophobic way – and it is a marvellously symbolic opening to this particular story, about the ‘foggy’, over-complicated and incomprehensible dealings of the law in the Court of Chancery.

But enough of the literature lesson!  Here are a few facts about Charles Dickens that you may or may not know:

• He was christened Charles John Huffam Dickens, the son of John and Elizabeth, at 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, Portsmouth.
• His first published story was entitled A Dinner at Poplar Walk (later re-named Mr. Minns and His Cousin), and you can read a copy of it HERE.
• When Charles Dickens was 12 his father was sent to debtors’ prison, and Charles was sent to work in a blacking factory – an episode of his life that had a profound effect on him.  His experience of visiting debtors’ prison was famously re-created in Little Dorrit.
• David Copperfield was Dickens’ most autobiographical work, and also the author’s favourite.
• Dicken’s novels were published in monthly instalments, and many, such as The Old Curiosity Shop, were as eagerly awaited as today’s audience have waited for the next Harry Potter.  ‘Is Little Nell dead?’ was probably as much on everyone’s lips then as ‘Who Shot JR? in the 80s!
• Dickens loved the theatre and was involved in the production of many plays, both professional and amateur.  There is a wonderful few chapters in Nicholas Nickleby when Nicholas and Smike join a travelling theatre company, which totally expresses Dickens’ love and knowledge of the theatre world.
• Despite having 10 children, Dickens’ marriage was Catherine Hogarth was not ultimately a happy one, and they were separated in 1858.  Charles had been having an affair with a young actress, Ellen Ternan, and this relationship continued privately until his death.
• Dickens and Ellen Ternan were passengers on the train that crashed in the famous Staplehurst rail crash in 1865.  Ten passengers were killed in the crash, and Dickens became somewhat of a hero after his efforts to help the injured and dying.  He was nervous about rail travel for the rest of his life.  He died five years later on the exact same date as the crash.
• He died on 9th June 1870 of a stroke.  He was in the middle of writing the thriller, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the last word he ever wrote was “appetite”.  A rather fitting final word for a man who lived with such energy and love of life.

I could go on with many more interesting facts – his nightly walks around London, his visit to America etc, but this would end up being a very long post.

Whatever you may think about his personal life (and let’s face it, none of us are perfect), any writer should be inspired by Dickens because he brought many social issues to the public consciousness and had a direct influence on the improvement of schools and was certainly one of the many ‘voices’ who helped to change the lot of the poorer classes.  Furthermore, he has informed our understanding of the Victorian world, and the word, ‘Dickensian’ is part of our vocabulary.

I will just end by saying that despite the rather dismal way he treated his wife (the psychology of his relationships with women has been much debated), he is still top of my fantasy dinner party list.  I think that he probably made any party fun and interesting – and hopefully would get on with my other guests – Jane Austen, Katharine Hepburn, Mahatma Ghandi, Stevie Wonder and William Shakespeare (though I’m not sure Katy Hepburn would be his kind of woman!).

Happy Birthday Charles!  I will be raising a glass to you on the 7th.

More Charles Dickens facts and information can be seen at these websites:

Charles Dickens Museum

David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page

Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum

Charles Dickens Fellowship

Dickensian London:

Dickens and London

A Journey Through Dickens London

Whilst my genealogy services cover the whole of the UK, I do not actually have much access to Scottish records, which are often very different to English or Welsh records.  I therefore use the services of Jo whenever I have a client with Scottish ancestors, and I know I will get a good, friendly service and fully researched results.

Just for fun, I am copying here Jo’s most recent post about the haggis, including the great haggis hunt, a bit of haggis history – and even where you can find a vegetarian haggis!  (Between you and me, and think she may have had a wee dram already – the observant among you may spot a bit of traditional Scots humour…):

Seriously – if you have Scottish family history and you want a professional and friendly service, then go to Jo’s main research website.

Enjoy your Burns Night Supper!  Scots Wha Hae!