Friday 12 December 2014

Thomas Urquhart - Constable to Immigrant

There's new newspapers on Findmypast today, including some more for Aberdeen. My grandfather was born in Aberdeen and so I re-searched (I have searched before) for Thomas Urquhart my great grandfather (that's him in the top right photo on my blog header).

Now searching for Thomas Urquhart does have it's problems mainly due to a rather famous Sir Thomas Urquhart always filling the search results even though he died in 1660. Even limiting the search to 1900-1949, with a keyword of "Zealand" still brings up entries including Sir Thomas.


However further down the page there was an entry for my Thomas, which lead to the Aberdeen Journal, 24 May 1935.


So even though he had left Scotland 11 years previous, his death (which actually occurred in January) was reported in the Aberdeen newspapers.

I have details of his immigration to New Zealand, including the death of his wife.



Did I learn anything new... well yes... in particular the part about him being well known in the harbour and Rosemount districts.

I knew that he had been in the police force from the birth certificates of his children, so last year I contacted the Grampian Police Museum and got a wonderfully prompt reply including Thomas's career information from the Aberdeen Police register and a photo of him.



Having been a Mason, he was appointed to the Police force in March 1907 and resigned in July 1924. His record gave not only his date of birth, but that of his wife and all of his children (these being added to during his career). I also know what ailed him during those years with his leave for sickness being recorded.

He had one punishment recorded for which he was fined 10/-, for being "Drunk on duty at 2am on this date"... the date being 12 Nov 1918... I think we can forgive him.

Lessons learned:
1. Sources get updated all the time, it pays to try them again.
2. Follow blog's etc. for sources so that you know when updates are made. In this case Findmypast.com.au News lead to my discovery of new Aberdeen newspapers.
3. Look for news items not only in a country of death but also in a country of birth, allowing for time delays for the news to get home.
4. Check for more unique sources, in this case following his occupation as a police constable lead to the Grampian Police Musuem which lead to his career and family details.



Saturday 15 November 2014

I've finally found it.

Thank you FindMyPast!
Thank You South West Heritage Trust and Parochial Church Council!
Thank you to whoever indexed this record and got the surnames right.

With news of the new additions to the Devon parish record collection on the FMP website, I thought it was about time to have another look through for my elusive three x great grandparents, William Thorn and Mary Hill's marriage.

For my whole researching life (that's 30 years plus) I have known their children's baptism dates from the family bible that came to New Zealand with their son Edmund Hill Thorn, but never their marriage date. First child, John Hole Thorn was born in 1850.

Looking up the marriage indexes (on fiche originally and later on the internet) there was no marriage that matched for William Thorn and Mary Hill and specifically none in their home parish registration district of Okehampton, Devon.

So tonight I looked up marriages in Devon for William Thorn 1848-1850, with a keyword of Hill. Just one result appeared with the bonus of having an image attached.


How quick can you click on a camera button..... very quick, and there it was, after a 30 year search. There might have been some whoops of delight and my husband telling me to breathe.


A close up of the names and of course now that I see it, I can also see how William's surname has probably been indexed and wonder why I never saw it before.



Trying those marriage indexes again and "Yes" there it is:


Lessons learned:
1. Write surnames in your own handwriting - tidy handwriting, messy writing, swoopy loopy writing and then see what the letters look like.

2. Keep track of what is being released on websites for your areas of interest, they may include the brick wall breaker.

Database and files to update now... but I wonder what else I could find tonight.

Postscript: Of course now I have also worked out why my ancestor, their son, is called Edmund, which appears nowhere else in the family. The marriage took place at St Edmund's, Exeter.


Sunday 2 March 2014

Ferdinand Koch

So it's school project time for my daughter and she has finally got to the family history assignment.

She's made a beautiful 3D family tree and I got to go teach her class how to get started on their family history research which was fun.

Now she is up to her inquiry project which is to write a narrative about one ancestor in particular. Does she pick one that I have lots of info and stories about...No! Instead she picks the one ancestor that I have been stuck on for years but who I recently bought a death certificate for and found that he was killed by a falling tree... which of course it the most fascinating thing about him as far as she is concerned and the sole reason he was picked for her project.

So Ferdinand Koch, step into the spotlight as this month you are going to have a lot of research focused on you and in particular to what your life was like.

Just in case anyone reads this and wonders if it is their Ferdinand Koch...

Name: Martin Christian Ferdinand KOCH
Born c 1831 Penkun, Germany son of
Son of Johann KOCH and Maria STADTLANDER
Died 1869, Tarampa, Queensland, Australia

Married c1858, Berlin, Germany to Louisa Augusta Amalie MEYER