Geoffs Genealogy Update 6 March 2014
Thursday March 6th, 2014 | Geoff
During March the main thought in my mind has been hollidays. Not only have I booked a couple of holiday breaks for the next few months, in East Anglia and in County Durham, but most of my treeing time has been spent updating my Holliday family history files.
The Hollidays were not direct descendants of the half siblings of John Bankes, but they feature in my maternal family history as Charles Holliday (1864 to 1915) was my great grandfather – the father of my grandmother Alice Louisa Holliday (1892-1982). About fifteen years ago I got in touch with a lady named Elizabeth Holliday, who runs a one name study on the Holliday name, to see whether she had any data that related to my Holliday forebears. Imagine my delight when I received her reply, telling me that indeed she could help me, and enclosing a Holliday family tree that extended back in time to a certain Richard Holliday, born Horley, Surrey c1650! This data is the main source for the Holliday information that appears in the tree on Geoffs Genealogy, and it is really the product of the research of other people.
Obviously, it is a massive joy to receive information such as this from other researchers, but I am by nature reluctant to accept the findings of other people as “gospel” without carrying out a few of my own checks to see whether the material stacks up; after all, we are none of us exempt from the possibility of error. Thus, whenever I saw an opportunity to verify this Holliday tree I have done so, and I must say that it has proved to be very accurate. In the last few months this task became considerably easier, as Ancestry Uk have been placing online the Surrey parish registers. As the Hollidays were residents of that county for centuries, I can now see many of these primary sources for myself, and not rely on the IGI or other transcriptions.
Just at the moment I’m busily uploading all my recent finds, and this will take me some time. I’ve been concentrating on the nineteenth century – late eighteenth century records, so this work is far from complete. For the record, the next few generations of my direct Holliday Line backwards from my great grandfather read as follows:
- Charles Holliday (1864-1915) m Alice Butler (c1867-1935)
- William Holliday (c1818-1874) m Louisa Matthews (c1826-c1890)
- John Holliday (c1782-1839) m Maria Johnson (c1782-Bef 1819)
- William Holliday (b abt 1750) m Patience Kent (b abt 1750).
You will recall that in last month’s entry I recounted the research that I had been doing into my Jacobson ancestry. I remarked that I would need to visit Winchester to look at the parish registers for Gosport in order to continue this work. Well, as luck would have it, Helen made a trip to London the other week, and kindly took the opportunity to visit the Society of Genealogists Library for a few hours. Among many other items that she looked up for me, she was able to look at the Gosport parish registers on microfilm, which should save a trip to Hampshire. Helen was able to find the entries that I had identified from my internet research, but that’s where the good news ends , I’m afraid, as the microfilm was pretty much unreadable. A great shame, but there we go. Not much we can do about that.
Incidentally, if you are in London any time, and you fancy a bit of family history research, the SOG Library is a wonderful place to go. The range of the records and other materials that are held there is simply incredible. At one time I was able to make regular visits, and made many great finds there. Alas, those days are long gone.
There are many family history software programs available these days, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. For many years I have used Family Tree Maker to store and organise my records, and so I was delighted when I was given a Family Tree Maker 2014 upgrade as a present on my last birthday. However, I am sorry to report that after quite a few attempts I have not managed to install this upgrade successfully on my main computer. The program seems to run through successfully, and then goes on to download some updates to the program which are, apparently, essential. Once these upgrades have been downloaded and I try to open the program I get an error message, saying that the program needs to be closed. I have looked at the advice on the Family Tree Maker forum, and carried out the procedure that is recommended in these circumstances, but this has not done the trick.
This problem is very frustrating. I keep on going back to the issue periodically, and trying various “solutions”, but to no avail. If anybody reading this is able to help me to resolve this issue I would be delighted to hear from you.
What makes this situation even more frustrating is that the program loaded on my laptop just fine, including the downloads! Now I have different versions on the two machines, and as a FTM 2014 backup cannot be loaded in FTM2010 that is no good to me at all!
I noticed you have Charles Albert Hazeltine b 1881 in your tree. I am interested in him and his wife. I was wondering if you could tell me about him.
Regards,
Jill
Hi Jill.
Thanks for your email. I know very little about Charles Albert Hazeltine, I know that he was a son of Charles Hazeltine and Maria Hein, born 1881. I have traced him on the 1891 census, when he was living at 183 High Street, Shadwell, London and at school, and aslson on the 1901 census, when he was described as an architect and living at 9 Dongola Road, Tottenham, Middlesex in the household of his parents. He had two other siblings, so far as I know. Amy Louise Hazeltine, born 1884 and Arthur Henry Hazeltine born 1885. If you are able to share with me any onthe rinformation about these people I shall be very grateful.
Regards. Geoff
Geoff,
I have been researching Charles Albert Hazeltine and this is what I found. Charles married Janet Kesner on 15 July 1908. Charles died on 27 May 1939. He left a will which left Janet 69 pounds. Janet died in 1979. I found all of this through ancestry.com. I am working on finding out if they had children. Janet Kesner, his wife, was my grandfather’s half sister. No one know about her, so I am extremely curious about her and any children they may have had.
Regards,
Jill
Thanks very much Jill. I can see you’ve been busy!
I’ll add those finds to my records. I just had a look on Ancestry and found only one child of Charles Albert & Janet – Adelaide J Hazeltine registered at Edmonton, Middx Reg District April – June 1912. Mother’s maiden name was included in the births indexes from Sep qtr 1911, so there could possibly be other relevant births that are not so easily identified. Happy hunting!
Dear Mr Culshaw,
I should very much like to contact you concerning Leila Jane Devitt, mother of Pamela, who married John Reynell.
Yours sincerely,
Glyn Gowans
Dear Glyn.
I’m afraid I can’t help you re Leila Jane Devitt, as I have no knowledge of her. My interest in Pamela stems from her marriage to John Reynell, which brought her into the Bankes Pedigree. I have not so far researched her parents and forebears. I’m sorry I can’t help you, and wish you good luck in your research..
Regards
Geoff
Geoff
My name is Maxwell Colin McPhail. My great gf is Joseph Maxwell, son of Lucas Maxwell and Sarah Collyer. He married Annie Maria Sidwell. Thank you for the record you have on this site as it has helped me to extend my family tree. Would you like the information I have collected on Joseph Maxwell’s family in NZ, where he emigrated on the “Jura” in 1859/1860.
Regards
Max
Hello Maxwell. It’s very good to hear from you, and to learn that you found the information on my website hepful. Many years ago I was told by a fellow researcher that he went to New Zealand, but I have no knowledge of your forebears from that point onwards, so I would be very grateful for any information you are able to send to me. Many thanks for the offer. It would probably be easiest if we communicate via email in future. If you contact me via one of the email links on Geoffs Genealogy that will come through to my in box. I look forward to hearing from you, and many thanks for contacting me.
Stuff From Ancestry:
Thomas Haskard (1707 – 1774) and Frances Roberts (1710 – ).
Jonathan Haskard was born 1757 in Stathern, Leicestershire
Jonathan Haskard was married on 23 Jun 1783 Stathern to Mary Smith (1760 – 1790) Issue:
Thomas Haskard baptised 29 May 1785 at Stathern, Leicestershire.
Thomas Haskard was married on 22 Aug 1808 at Saint Peter, Nottingham to Mary Ann Burton. Issue:
John Haskard (1809 Nottingham, Nottinghamshire – 1885)
John Haskard m. Osith Olympe Delafosse (1810 Granville, France – 20 Feb 1880)
Thanks for death date of John
Ever heard of a Timothy Haskard of Florence?
Regards
David
Hello David. Thankyou very much for all the Haskard information you have posted in your comment. That is fantastic. Sadly, I am not able to help you with Thmothy Haskard of Florence. I hope you soon get some success with that. All the best. Geoff