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.

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!

These vouchers will be available all year round whether it's for Christmas or a last minute birthday gift.

One of these vouchers would make a wonderful introductory gift for anyone who has expressed an interest in looking into their UK family history.

Here's how it works:

1. Choose one of the vouchers below and click on the Paypal button to be taken to a safe payment page.
2. I will send you the appropriate voucher by email, which contains a unique number.
3. You can either print the voucher and give it or send it, or you could forward it by email to the recipient.
4. When the recipient is ready, he or she just sends me an email with the unique voucher code.
5. I will then make contact with them and get all the details I need to carry out the research.

If you order before December 31st 2011, you will be eligible for my Christmas 20% discount and therefore each voucher will provide more hours of research than usual.

Here is what each voucher will provide (details are approximate, and may vary depending on requirements and availability of sources):

_______________

Voucher 1 - £100

• At least 4 hours of research (5 hours if ordered before 31st December 2011)
• Copies and transcripts of census records for one family line
• Copies of 2 birth or marriage certificates
• My detailed report

__________________________

Voucher 2 - £150

• At least 6 hours of research (8 hours if ordered before 31st December 2011)
• Copies and transcripts of census records for up to 2 family lines
• Copies of 3-4 birth or marriage certificates (or other documents where available)
• My detailed report

___________________________
Voucher 3 - £300

• At least 10 hours of research (12 hours if ordered before 31st December 2011)
• Copies and transcripts of census records for 2-4 family lines
• Copies of up to 5 birth or marriage certificates, and other documents where available.
• My detailed report

___________________

If you would like to discuss the vouchers with me, or have any questions to ask before buying - or you would like another kind of genealogy gift, please email me at info@tracingancestors-uk.com and I will be happy to help.

For more last minute gift ideas for the genealogist, visit My History.

Firstly, let’s travel back to the middle of the 19^th century.  Here are some facts about the situation of women at this time:

• Women could not vote.
• They were excluded from most jobs apart from low paid domestic service or menial work.
• A woman was legally ‘owned’ by her husband.
• She could not divorce.
• Everything she owned belonged to her husband.
• She received less education than men.
• The only other way for a woman to be independent was to be a rich widow.
• Her sole purpose in life was to marry and reproduce.

While she did not support the female vote, Florence Nightingale did have some strong views on women’s rights, and said:

‘Why have women passion, intellect, moral activity – these three – and a place in society where not one of the three can be exercised?

Middle class women were expected to pursue gentile activities, such as embroidery.  The only job a middle class girl could aspire to would be as a governness – a very low-paid, demeening job, only taken if the woman remained unmarried and the family fell on hard times.  However, working class women had to do tough menial work, as well as bring up often large numbers of children.

When you look at married women in the census records, you may often notice that the occupation column is often left blank.  This does not always mean that they did not do some kind of paid work.  It really means that a married woman’s work was unrecognised as long as the man had a job.

The status of women was sanctioned by church, law, custom and history.  It was therefore very difficult to rebel against such a situation, and if any woman did, she was swiftly and easily crushed by fathers, husbands or brothers.

All this sounds dreadful – but actually most women accepted this state of affairs as normal.  If they did feel inhibited, it was with a sense of resignation.

The early feminist movements.

At around this time there were women who were beginning to rebel against this state of affairs.  Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon wrote a pamphlet in 1854 and formed a committee with other feminists to try and change the law giving married women rights to their own property.  They formed a petition which they presented to the House of Lords with 26,000 signatures in our year, 1856.  This was the first organised feminist action in the UK.  It was, of course, rejected.

Yet, a year later, with further pressure, the Married Women’s Property Bill was passed in the Commons.  This meant women could now keep their own property after marriage.  After this, the women’s suffrage movement was born, and continued to develop, with the support of MP and philospher, John Stuart Mill, and dominated by the work of Lydia Becker and Millicent Fawcett.

Over the following years, further Acts were passed that improved the lives of married women.  They could divorce on grounds of cruelty – and have custody of their own children.

More work opportunities also became available, particularly after the invention of the typewriter in the 1860s.  If you find that your female ancestor had an office job from 1861 onwards, it may be that they were very forward thinking, and possibly active in the campaign for women’s suffrage.

The suffrage movement gathered pace in the 1860s, with one of the main aims being for women to have the vote.  Of course, there was a great deal of resistance, and not just from men.  Many women did not actually want the vote, and believed that men and women should function in two separate spheres.

In the early years of the 20^th century, the movement became split, and the militant phase of the suffragettes started, led by the Pankhurst family.  Beginning with negotiations, demonstrations, hackling MPs during public meetings and attempting to enter the House of Commons, it soon moved on to throwing stones, setting fire to pillar boxes and attacks on golf greens.  Sometimes the houses of cabinet ministers were attacked.

When the 1911 census was taken, many women who supported the movement refused to take part, staying away from their homes and sleeping rough on the night of the census so they would not be included.  If you cannot find a female ancestor on this census, it could be a clue that your relative was a supporter.

In 1913 it looked as though a bill supporting the female vote was about to be read in parliament, but when it was dropped because of this inclusion, the Women’s Social & Political Union stepped up their aggressive campaign.   Active suffragettes were arrested and sent to gaol, where they went on hunger strikes and underwent forced feeding.

In political terms it can be argued that this militant phase did very little to improve the cause.  Furthermore, there were disagreements and splits within the organisation.  Many women did not agree with the autocratic way the Pankhursts ran the organisation.

The tactics of the militant movement alienated many working men and women, and furthermore, their cause was eclipsed by various political crises, such as strikes, prospect of an Irish civil war and a naval race with Germany.

Feeling let down by the Liberal Government, many suffragists moved the allegience to the Labour party, which at that time had a small impact in parliament.

The First World War

When the First World War began in 1914, it looked at first that women’s suffrage would be overshadowed by events.  The militant campaign was brought to an end, and the Pankhursts involved themselves in a war recruiting campaign.

However, it helped the cause more than anyone could have foreseen.  Firstly, it brought Lloyd George to leadership, a man far more sympathetic to female suffrage than Asquith had been.

Secondly, the contribution that women made to the war effort made people more aware of their capabilities.

The General Election of 1918 called for a review of the franchise.  Many householding men had been called to war, and had lost their ability to vote, so reducing the electorate.  The enormous loss of life further compounded the problem.  This led to changes in the system, and it also meant that they looked again at the reform Bill of 1913 – including the enfranchisement of women.  A concession was given – and women over the age of thirty, who were on the local government register, or who were wives of men who occupied property, or graduates of university, were given the vote.

This meant that over 8 million women were enfranchised: 40% of the new electorate.

However, many of the women who had campaigned for the vote, or who had contributed to the war effort were under 30 – so still could not vote, which caused some dissatisfaction.  It was not until 1928 that women had the same voting rights as men.

If you think you might have a suffragette in your ancestry, it would be useful to look at newspaper archives, which are increasingly online now.  The new British Newspaper Archive holds a range of newspapers from across the UK.

The National Archives also have a large collection of suffragette records, including a list of suffragette prisoners 1905-1914.

If you do find that you have an ancestor who supported female suffrage, then you have a great reason to be proud.  Also, if you had a female ancestor who did a job that was usually only thought of as man’s work, or who had some academic achievement – then you should feel equally as proud.  These brave and free-thinking women paved the way for women of today to have the choice of a career and a political voice.

So Here’s to my Great Aunt Maud, who I believe was Head of a Department at Lewis’s of Manchester in the 1900s.  I do hope she was a supporter of the Suffragettes movement!

For research across the UK, take advantage of my December discount, details HERE

Moses was my maternal grandfather’s maternal grandfather.  I first came across him when I was searching for Francis Manley’s mother, Margaret Jane Stickney, and her origins.  Margaret’s baptism in 1831 in Liverpool showed her to be the daughter of Moses Stickney and Margaret O’Rourke (yet another Irish connection!).

Unfortunately, I have never found Moses on the census, and Margaret appears to be on her own with her daughter in 1841, which led me to think that Moses had died.  Further investigations led me to Moses and Margaret’s marriage in 1825 in Liverpool, and told me that Moses was a mariner.  They married by licence and Margaret had the consent of her father as she was a minor. For the moment, it was interesting enough that Moses was a mariner, as I have always loved the sea and those old sailing ships, so it was very exciting to know that one of my ancestors had been a sailor!  Not only that, I myself have very fond memories of the Liverpool Docks from our many journeys to see family on the Isle of Man when I was a child.  Interesting how these places associated with our ancestors seem to hold a certain significance, long before we know the connection.

I then ordered the certificate of Margaret’s marriage to my great-grandfather, John McEwen, and sure enough, her father’s name was Moses Stickney, and this time the occupation was shipwright.  Again, very interesting.

I could find no other Stickneys in this area and very few in Britain at all, but a search on Ancestry led me to a published family tree which showed a wealth of Stickneys in Massachussets, and on this tree a Moses Stickney who the owner believed had emigrated to Liverpool!  This was very exciting indeed – but being always cautious of all trees published on the internet, I did some further searches to try and confirm this fact.

I was lucky enough to find, on the American Ancestry site, a list of passengers on the ship, the Marathon, bound from Liverpool to Boston, Moses’s name as a member of the crew, aged 35 – which was about right.  And written in the margin were the words: “Stickney was sent home by U.S. Consul, Liverpool.”

Well, this has to be my Moses, and explained why I had never found him on the census – but why on earth had he been sent back to America?  I have searched newspapers and other online records, but nothing has turned up.  Furthermore, I have no idea what he did after landing back in Boston or whether his wife ever saw him again.  The only Moses Stickney I have found on the American census of the right age appears to have married again and become a painter.  As I have found no further records for his wife, either in the death records or immigrations records, Moses’s story is now a complete mystery.  Was he a bigamist?  Did his wife join him years later?  Did they travel elsewhere?  If anyone with access to American records can help solve this mystery I would be more than grateful!

As far as I can see, Moses was probably born in Newburyport, and may have been the son of John and Jane Stickney baptized in 1802 – but as the Stickney name is quite common in this area, and there are at least 3 Moses’s, I have never been quite sure.  Whatever the case, the family seems to have been in Massachussets since the 17th century and were originally quite a wealthy family from Lincolnshire.  Looking into the local history of Newburyport, I found that there was a big fire in the docks in the early 19th century which affected the jobs of many shipwrights, so it made complete sense that Moses should come to England to work.

So my American ancestor remains a bit of an enigma.  I have mixed feelings about him; I am not sure whether he was a villain or a victim.  He disappeared from my view just when I felt I was getting to know him.  But whatever his story, I am very glad that he is in my tree: a tree that is very much dominated by English, Irish and Manx ancestors, and Moses adds just a little touch of glamour and intrigue!

I now have some special vouchers that you can send by email, or print and deliver yourself.  For more details of this go to THIS PAGE.

This gift would be great for someone who would love to look into their family history, but have not been able to afford it or spend the time, or for someone who has already done some research but has come to a full stop because they can't get to the UK archives.

For the seasoned family historian who prefers to do their own research, you might find some more unusual Christmas presents at the great store My History or order one of the great books on the right from Amazon.

If you have any questions regarding genealogy gifts, then please email me at info@tracingancestors-uk.com and I will be happy to help.