British Genealogy Services

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Ros

Genealogy has changed.

Twenty years ago, when I was just starting in this business, tracing your ancestors was something that was carried out in archives and record offices, and if you had ancestor who lived miles away from where you lived (which is the vast majority of us!) you had to employ someone in that place to access the documents for you.  You might have a computer, but it was just used for something to type up your findings and write letters on.  As a professional researcher, my work was carried out by spending two or three days a week in my county record office, researching records for people who were unable to travel to Northamptonshire, where I lived.

Then the internet arrived, and over the following years, the nature of genealogical research changed drastically.  The International Genealogical Index became available to search online, the BMD indexes became available to search for an ancestors by just typing in a name, and then, slowly, each census record became available to search and view without any need to leave your living room.  Over the last few years, more and more historical documents, including some parish registers, wills and other records so useful to the genealogist, have become available to search, view or download.

This means, of course, that many people who had to rely on professional researchers in the past are now able to do it for themselves.  With popular programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are? and Heir Hunters, tracing your ancestors or living relatives has become an extremely popular hobby.  Websites such as Ancestry and FindMyPast have become some of the most visited sites on the internet.

So what does all this mean for the professional genealogist?

On the one hand, it means that we are losing work.  People no longer need to use a researcher to go to the relevant archives to look at census records.  It’s possible to build a creditable family tree using online records alone.  On the other hand, as experts we have so much to offer to the amateur family historian.  Instead of bemoaning the fact that tracing a family tree from scratch is nowadays a rare request, we need to be moving with the times and looking at what we can offer to those people who are doing it for themselves.

Tracing ancestors is full of pitfalls.  The amateur family historian soon finds that finding ancestors is not quite as easy as it looks on TV.  On the other hand, some fall into the trap of finding published trees on Ancestry that mention their ancestors and think that is the job done.  Unfortunately, many, many trees, published or otherwise, are full of inaccuracies and the wrong people.  While the internet has made tracing ancestors a lot easier, it has also made it easier to make mistakes.

As professionals, we need to be offering services that support and help the DIY family historian, making sure that they are viewing original records, covering every possibility, using every source that is relevant and available, backing up their information with historical knowledge, helping with reading old documents and guiding them in what to do next when they hit a brick wall.

To that end, I have changed the focus of my own genealogical services, and as well as full British Genealogy research services, I am now offering genealogical support services, including:

  • Advice on getting through brick walls
  • Will reading
  • Photography
  • Living relatives searches
  • Background research
  • Ancestral biographies.

For more details, go to my HOME PAGE and then click on each link to go to a page where each service is explained in full detail.

I am still in the process of editing these, so please be patient, and if you notice any links that are not working please let me know!  I would also be very grateful for any comments or suggestions.

Tracing your ancestors is one of the most interesting and satisfying pastimes there is – so let’s make sure that you are getting the most out of your British genealogy searches.

Posted in Search services | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Genetic Testing & Ancestry

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Ros

Genetic Testing ancestry(Updated 1st April 2015)

I have been thinking a lot recently about DNA testing for genealogy.  The discovery of Richard III’s skeleton, confirmed through a genetic link with a living descendant of his immediate family, brought one of the benefits of DNA to the public view – and now the king has recently been buried, bringing the subject to light again.  A few months ago the UK’s Eddie Izzard made an excellent programme about how DNA testing enabled him to trace his (and many of our) ancient ancestors from their earliest roots in Africa.  I have occasionally been asked by clients about how DNA testing works, so it is something that I need to keep up with, and know what potential benefits it may have for the genealogist.  Just exactly what can we find out?

In traditional genealogy, we use written documentation to provide evidence of our heritage, particularly those called vital records: birth, marriage and death.  It is very specific, and no professional genealogist would take a client down a family line without making absolutely sure that their evidence is sound.

There are, of course, several problems with this.  The main one being, of course, that documentation has a habit of being unreliable.  Documents get damaged, lost or destroyed.  Human beings write in them, which means they are vulnerable to distortion of facts for various reasons (e.g. bias, vanity, loss of memory etc).

Also, with traditional research, the further back you go, the more difficult it is to find documentation for the common man, so much of our research will end somewhere in the seventeenth or, if we’re lucky, the sixteenth century, unless we have ancestors in the aristocracy.

But even then, there is the huge problem that traditional genealogy relies solely on the surname to trace generations back.  Unfortunately, surnames did not come into mainstream use until the middle ages, and before then it was Norman barons who used a surname to denote their origin (e.g. d’Arcy or de Bourg).  So before the Norman Conquest we cannot trace single family lines unless our ancestors were royalty.

So, can DNA testing take over at the point where traditional research fails?

There are various testing options for DNA, and you need to research these to find out which is the best option for your needs.  Basically, they fall into the following categories:
Discover yourself at 23andMe

Y-DNA:           This follows the male Y chromosome, which, because it only follows the male line, is quite attractive to genealogists as it follows the surname (unless there are illegitimacies that change that.  My own male line, for example would follow the BOTTs back to the early 19th century, and then a line of WALKERs…).  To get this tested I would have to ask my brother or my nephew as it is only passed from father to son.  Unfortunately, I would not be able to test my mother’s paternal line as there are no living descendants that we are in touch with.

These tests rely on markers to distinguish different lines, and also groups of people who have joined surname studies.  A match with a living person with that surname will prove that you have a common ancestor – but is no more specific than that.  However, this can be helpful if that person has done more work on their ancestry and you may find that you are able to connect your ancestry research with theirs and get further information.  This could help you to get through a brick wall, for example, where you have not been able to sort out which of many possibilities is your specific ancestor.

 

mtDNA:  This is testing that follows the female line, although both male and females can take the test as the chromosome is passed to sons, but only daughters pass it on.  According to academic research, there are just seven women that 95% of Europeans are descended from between 10,000 and 45,000 years ago, and with this test you can find out which of these you descend from and when your branch of the world’s population migrated from Africa.

At present, although this is fascinating information, this does not help us at all with more recent genealogical information.  However, recent scientific research is revealing that this type of test will be of more use in the future as there is more variety in mtDNA genetic signatures than had been thought.

Ethnic Testing and biogeographical tests can give an indication of your geographical heritage, and what approximate percentage your DNA has of European, African, Asian and Native American.  These are interesting, but are not at present very specific or accurate to any fine degree.  However, advances are always being made and it may be that in future you will be able to get a more refined breakdown of your ethnic heritage.

I am still a little dubious about how useful DNA testing is to genealogists at present.  It seems to be a bit too hit and miss, though I expect that it will improve over time, so I will be keeping an eye on this.

It would not help me to sort out the bewildering amount of BOTTs in Staffordshire that have had me stumped at around the 18th century – because, as I have said this name has come to us through a female on the ‘wrong side of the sheets’.  It could, however, help to sort out the even more bewildering amount of WALKERs that are rather more numerous everywhere  – as long as there is a WALKER somewhere who has put themselves on the database.

You can get tested through Ancestry – but at present it is only Ancestry.com, and not Ancestry.co.uk that offers DNA testing.  You can find out more HERE. Another company that looks very good is 23and me.


If you want more information from a UK company, then http://www.oxfordancestors.com/ is probably a good place to go, or you could try rootsforreal.com. For America try familytreedna.com

If you have tried DNA testing for ancestry and had interesting results, do please leave a comment.  I would be interested to know what kind of experiences people have had.

(Image use by courtesy of  Zephyris at the English language Wikipedia)

Order 23andMe DNA kits for the entire family. Each additional kit is now 20% off.

Posted in Resources, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Who was Richard III?

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Ros

Who Was Richard IIIHistorians and genealogists have been much excited in the last couple of weeks by the confirmation that the skeleton found underneath a car park in Leicester is that of King Richard III.  But who was Richard III, why was he under a car park and what can this find tell us about this much maligned king?

Firstly – the facts.  He was born on 2nd October 1452 at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire, the son of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and Cecily Neville.  Richard Plantagenet was the great-grandson of Edward III through Edward’s fifth son Edmund of Langley, Duke of York.  Cecily Neville’s maternal grandfather was John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who was the third surviving son of Edward III.

Richard, therefore, had a good claim to the English throne.  But at the time of his birth the Wars of the Roses were raging over the throne between the Lancastrian line (symbolised by the red rose) and the Yorkist line (symbolised by the white rose).  The Lancastrians were descended from John of Gaunt, and therefore believed they had a stronger right.  However, through marriage the Yorkist line could also claim descent from Edward III’s second surviving son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and so believed that their claim was stronger.

The Lancastrian Henry VI was a peace-loving king who suffered periods of mental breakdown.  This left his throne vulnerable to attack from the Yorkist line, and eventually the Lancastrians were defeated, and Richard’s older brother became Edward IV.

Edward had two sons, Edward and Richard by his wife, Elizabeth Woodville.  Edward had married Elizabeth in secret, as she was an unpopular choice amongst his family and friends, and some believed the marriage to have not been valid.  On Edward’s death, his first son became Edward V.

This is where the character of Richard III begins to get a bit shadowy.  Upon his brother’s death, Richard seized the throne for himself, claiming that Edward’s sons were illegitimate and therefore not in line.  The young Edward and his brother were sent ‘for their protection’ to the Tower of London, and then they mysteriously disappeared, presumably murdered.

Richard III has always been the main suspect for their murders, but there has never been any strong evidence other than it was convenient to him for them to be out of the way.

But now a new threat to Richard came from Henry, the son of Edmund Tudor who was also able to claim descent from John of Gaunt from both of his parents.  Henry famously defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth, and thus founded the Tudor dynasty, becoming Henry VII, the father of Henry VIII.  In order to unite the two warring houses, he married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV.

We know that Richard III was killed during the Battle of Bosworth, probably from a blow to the head.  But how did he end up in a car park?  After his death he was buried in a hastily dug grave underneath Greyfriars Church in Leicester without any coffin or shroud.  During Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, Greyfriars Church was demolished and as the area developed its location was forgotten and built over.

The big question for all historians, and one which may never be fully answered, is whether or not he was the villain he has been made out to be.  Much of our image of Richard comes from one of Shakespeare’s best plays, Richard III.  However, we have to remember that Shakespeare was writing under a Tudor monarch, and writing anything that would undermine the validity of the dynasty would have been an extremely dangerous act indeed.  It is also very likely that, just over a century after his death, the common consensus would have very much been very much against him.  It is sometimes only centuries after an event that we can become objective.

The question of who killed the princes in the tower is possibly one of the greatest murder mysteries of all time.  The blame certainly pointed towards Richard, being their uncle and ‘protector’, and one who had a vested interest in them not existing.  But, on the other hand, was Richard the victim of a very clever set-up – one that would not easily be disproved?

What is certain is that Richard’s recent re-appearance after over 500 years is going to open up the debate for new historical research and re-assessment of his character.  Perhaps it’s time for us to ask again, who was Richard III really?

Posted in Genealogies of the famous, History | Leave a comment

Two more research packages

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Ros

I have just added two more research packages to my services page.  This includes a gift package and a full research and writing package.

While it’s too late to order the gift package for this Christmas, it does make an excellent birthday present for a member of your family who has perhaps always expressed a desire to find out more about their family, but have never got round to it.

Here are some further details:

Gift Package (£700). This is basically the Full Package plus a few extras.  This includes research back as far as possible (usually to at least the 17th or 18th centuries) with copies of birth, marriage and death certificates, parish register records and any other documentation that can be found, such as wills or military records.  On top of all this, there will be a report on the family written chronologically, with images (where available, according to copyright law) and family tree charts, and all will be presented in a bound folder for you to give to your loved one.

IMPORTANT:  You need to give me at least TWO MONTHs’ notice before the required delivery of the gift package!

Research and Writing Package: (£1000).  This again is the Full Package plus a whole lot more.  On top of the genealogical research, I will research the locations where your ancestors lived, their occupations and any other aspects of their lives to provide you with a fully comprehensive report which will show you how your ancestors lived.

For this package I will research:

  • Village and town history
  • Local, national and world history
  • Occupational history
  • Education, costumes, and other background information
  • Any information available on the house your ancestors lived in

I will then collate all this information and use it to write a full biography of the family I have researched, using images (where available under copyright law) and copy documents – and present it in a bound folder.

Both of these packages could make excellent gifts!

For more information and to discuss payment arrangements, please email me at info@tracingancestors-uk.com.

Posted in Search services | Leave a comment

Could you be a part of the Bronte Family History?

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Ros

Could you be part of the Bronte Family History?  The surnames BRONTE or BRUNTY, MCCLORY, BRANWELL, and CARNE, may all have links to the Bronte family of Yorkshire, particularly if you can trace ancestry back to Ireland or Cornwall.

The Bronte sisters of Haworth in Yorkshire, along with their brother Branwell, are well known in literature for their intense, dramatic novels and poetry.  Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is one of the great classics of English literature, along with Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.

Of the three sisters, Emily, Anne and Charlotte, only Charlotte married, but none of them had children, all of them dying tragically young.  Charlotte had been pregnant when she died.  Branwell also did not marry, and became an alcoholic after a possible affair with a married woman, dying of tuberculosis at the age of 31.  Tuberculosis was the given cause of death for all of the siblings, and the description of Helen Burns’ death in Jane Eyre shows Charlotte’s familiarity with the disease.

Two elder sisters, Elizabeth and Maria, both died before reaching adulthood at the ages of 12 and 10.

For anyone living to be connected with this family, we must therefore look at lines descending from the siblings of the parents.

BRONTE/BRUNTY

Their father, Patrick Bronte outlived all of his children.  He was Irish, and was born in Drumballeyroney in County Down in 1777, the eldest of ten children.  The family name was in fact BRUNTY or PRUNTY, though various spellings are possible.

His nine siblings were: William, James, Jane, Hugh, Mary, Rose, Walsh, Sarah and Alice.

His parents were Hugh BRUNTY and Elinor Alice MCCLORY, but I have no information about Hugh’s parentage, except that they may be traced to the Irish clan O Pronntaigh.

The ability to trace the marriages and descendants of Patrick’s many siblings in Ireland is beyond the scope of my searches.  However, if you have the name BRUNTY, BRONTE or PRUNTY and are of Irish descent, then it may be worth while searching for a link to this family from County Down.  The same goes for the name of McClory.

BRANWELL

Patrick Bronte married Maria BRANWELL in 1812.  Maria was born in 1783 in Penzance, Cornwall, the daughter of Thomas BRANWELL and Anne CARNE. She was one of 12 children, though only six of these survived childhood.

Her siblings were Anne (1769-1792), Margaret (1770), Thomas (1771-?), Elisabeth (1772-1772), Jane (1773-1855), Benjamin Carne (1775-1818), Elisabeth (1776-1842), Thomas (1778-1779), Alice (1780-1780s), Margaret (1789) and Charlotte (1791-1848).

The only surviving male, Benjamin Carne BRANWELL, married Mary BATTEN in 1799 in Penzance.  They had eight children: Thomas (1801), Mary Batten (1803), Emma (1805), Benjamin Batten (1806), Lydia (1811), Amelia Josepha (1816), Elizabeth and John.

I think Thomas may the Thomas B BRANWELL living in Brixton, London with wife Sarah in 1851.  He has three sons at this point, George W. B, Charles H. J. and Ernest W.  So there may be a line of descent through this family, though this needs double-checking to make sure he is the right Thomas.

Mary seems to have died in 1874 without having married, and Emma also seems to have died a spinster in 1891.  Benjamin does not appear to have married and is living with his mother and sister Lydia (also unmarried) in 1851.  He died in 1893 and Lydia in 1878.  Amelia Josepha also remained unmarried and died in 1892.

There is a possible marriage for Elizabeth in 1852 in Bodmin, to Henry Rowe, but I think it may be more likely that she is the Elizabeth who died in 1856 in Falmouth.

I am not sure about John.  It looks as though he also married (Lucy) and went to live in London, in Islington.  He has a daughter, Emily, but further research needs to be done to make sure this is the right family.

It is possible therefore, that BRANWELL living descendants may trace their line via London back to Cornwall.

CARNE

Anne CARNE was the wife of Thomas BRANWELL and the maternal grandmother of the Bronte sisters.  The CARNE name is quite numerous in Cornwall, but it seems likely that she is the Anne CARNE who was baptized in Penzance on 27th April 1744, the daughter of John Carne.  However, I cannot find any definite siblings for her, so any connection to this family would probably be further back.

There seems to be a distinct lack of marriages within the extended families of the Brontes, and this may mean that there are few living people who can claim a link to the famous sisters.  However, if you have Irish or Cornish ancestors with any of the names above, it may be worth looking into.

For help with any research, please see details of my services and fees on my home page.

Posted in Genealogies of the famous | 16 Comments

Genealogy Course in Warwickshire

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Ros

Tonight will be the 8th in my 10 week course on tracing your ancestry, which has been running at Stratford on Avon College in Warwickshire since the beginning of October.  So far, it seems to have gone very well, and I will be running another one from 8th January, as long as we have enough enrolments.

If you know of anyone who lives in the Stratford area and would be interested in learning how to trace ancestry from scratch – here’s a run down of what I cover in the course:

  • How to use the internet to carry out searches.  The advantages and disadvantages of searching on the internet.  What you can and can’t find on the internet.
  • Civil Registration – how to search for and order birth, marriage and death certificates, and what they can tell you.
  • How to chart your family history, and how to organize your records.
  • Census records – the history of the census – how to search it, and what information you will find on it.
  • Parish registers – how to search the registers, where to search them and what information you can find.
  • How to use County Record Offices and archives
  • Wills – how to search for them and what information they can give you.
  • Old Handwriting and Latin – a few tips and exercises on reading old hand and some basic Latin for family historians.
  • Information on other resources – e.g. newspapers, land records, criminal records, military records etc

Half way through the course I arrange a guided tour of Warwickshire Record Office (there is a small fee for this) – which includes a talk by one of the archivists, a tour of the record office including the strong rooms, and a selection of documents for the students to look at.

We hold the class in the computer rooms and we have internet access every evening, so students actually get to carry out research during the course, and have me to help them.

It’s been great fun – and I’m very much looking forward to running the next one.

For more details, here’s the link: Family History – Find Out the Mystery of Your Past

Posted in Getting Started | 1 Comment

How Did Our Ancestors Celebrate May Day?

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Ros

May BlossomFor many of us today, it is no more than a welcome bank holiday here in the UK, but to our ancestors, May Day was an important festival welcoming the start of summer.  Given our current weather, summer feels a long way off yet, but we can still recognise the turning of the seasons with the beautiful tree blossoms and the blooms of bluebells and mayflowers in our woods and hedgerows.

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.

May Day CelebrationsMany 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!

Posted in History | Leave a comment

Titanic Crew Members – a Case Study

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Ros

With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic last weekend, there seems to be a a kind of Titanic fever here in the UK, with TV and radio dramas & documentaries, articles, pictures and blogs wherever you turn.  For genealogists, there is the excitement of the Titanic records of crew members and passengers recently released on Ancestry.co.uk.

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…

Posted in History | 2 Comments

A Titanic Survivor

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Ros

Titanic survivorI love hearing family stories and legends.  We have a few in our own family, and although we have to treat them to a certain extent with a pinch of salt, it is always interesting to speculate about where the story came from – after all, there’s no smoke without fire.  As this weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (in case you hadn’t noticed!), I thought I’d write a couple of posts on this topic.  This one is about a Titanic survivor.

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….

I was actually going through the papers to find out more about a Titanic story (since the anniversary is upon us.) It’s just a story that has been passed down but I wanted to check on any leads – mostly out of curiosity. Apparently my Uncle’s father (W. Smith) was quite a character. He and his wife lived in Glasgow. Rumor has it that on one of Mr. Smith’s trips to England (???) he had a fling with a young girl. A few months later this young girl showed up at the home of the Smiths in Glasgow. She rang the doorbell… Mrs Smith was home at the time. This young lady had found out that she was “with child” and wanted to speak to Mr. Smith. Mrs. Smith was HORRIFIED!!! Mr. and Mrs Smith could not afford the embarrassment if this news were to get out to their friends. Soon after, Mr. Smith purchased a ticket for her to go away quietly to have the baby and gave the young woman a large sum of money.
She was set to sail on the Titanic to America. Once she got settled in America, Mr Smith would send her the rest of the money they had agreed on. Mr Smith saw her off thinking his reputation would be saved (somewhat.)
Well, you would think that would be the end of the story… But apparently months (?) later this young woman reappeared on the Smith’s doorstep holding a baby. She had actually been one of the survivors! She told her story to the Smiths, and of course she wanted to go back to England. Mrs. Smith was not happy, but came to accept the fact that this young woman and her baby would be closer than she had hoped.
I do know (from my Aunt.. Dad’s sister) that the Smiths remained married until Mrs. Smith died many years later. Needless to say, their marriage was “strained.”

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!

Posted in History | 5 Comments

A Thank You to Morton, Simpson and Snow!

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Ros

In case you were wondering, I have been rather absent from this blog of late.  This is due to have had major surgery to have a couple of benign cysts removed.  As I’ve never had any hospital treatment beyond the diagnostic stage, I have to admit to being rather apprehensive about the whole thing beforehand, and neglected my blog.  The week since the surgery I have been resting up.  All went very well, and I am pleased to say that the general anaesthesia process was not as alarming as I had thought it might be (though the recovery process, I have to say, is a bit like getting over a very bad hangover).

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!

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