Where and when are you right now?

[Ylfa]

Anyone up for a little general family history chat? I’ve been stuck for a while in 1864 in a notorious Virginia prison with a great great great uncle and fancy a change of scenery.

1810, in a fire in the old Edinburgh Mint building.

By this date it was being used as workshops by metalworkers and cabinetmakers. Forges and wood shavings were an unfortunate combination...

I have also recently survived the 1824 Great Fire of Edinburgh.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Edinburgh

It's a fascinating event in itself, but had the bonus that I learned about the city's pioneering firemaster, James Braidwood. He transformed the fire service, amongst other things by recruiting a mix of expertise so that the service included skilled carpenters, masons, plumbers and seamen. He was then headhunted to found the London Fire Engine Establishment (later the London Fire Brigade). He was killed in 1861 in a huge fire in the London docks, while taking the brandy ration round his men.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braidwood
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1861_Tooley_Street_fire

Although I'm planning to spend tonight in Adam Smith's house off Canongate, in 1810 occupied by the widow of one of my cabinetmakers.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panmure_House_(Edinburgh)

What a great thread, I can't participate but I think it's interesting, and it's made the MN add generate throw up "Visit Kentrucky" adds!

Wow that great fire of Edinburgh really was a serious fire 😯 well done for getting out of there and into a different fire 😀 poor old Braidwood, can’t decide if that was a fitting sort of end or not. Is he an ancestor of yours or do you get quite absorbed in general peripheral stuff?

Cork, Ireland in 1890s wondering whether the family legend of a welsh boy escaping the workhouse in the Rhondda by joining the navy and running away to sea are accurate. Difficult when said boy is called edward jones and doesn't have consistency on his place of birth, none of which have matching records.

@dudsville

What a great thread, I can't participate but I think it's interesting, and it's made the MN add generate throw up "Visit Kentrucky" adds!

😀😀😀

@Bobbobbobbing

Cork, Ireland in 1890s wondering whether the family legend of a welsh boy escaping the workhouse in the Rhondda by joining the navy and running away to sea are accurate. Difficult when said boy is called edward jones and doesn't have consistency on his place of birth, none of which have matching records.

Where do you even start with something like this? Do you look up every person with the same name and eliminate one by one any that are definitely not him?

I've found some things that don't tie in with the story- said Edward was born to an Irish mother (Annie) and a soldier from the Fermoy Barracks (also called Edward Jones). The 1901 census has him and his mother living with his Irish grandparents, place of birth England. In 1911 he's still there, but his mother isn't and place of birth is listed as Cork.

Wales is definitely in the mix somewhere- DF remembers him and he did have a strong Welsh accent. He was also protestant. At the moment my hypothesis is that Edward junior and his mother followed his dad back to England/Wales and were bringing him up there, before they died/went into the workhouse/ended up in prison and he came back to his Irish grandparents. I'm trying to find out what regiments were stationed at Fermoy at the time of the marriage to narrow down a search area. I've tried all possible combinations of their names but there's thousands of the buggers!

I've also done loads of dna test on various sites and trawl regularly for possible distant cousins that might help us tie him into a particular branch of Joneses.

[quote TressiliansStone]Although I'm planning to spend tonight in Adam Smith's house off Canongate, in 1810 occupied by the widow of one of my cabinetmakers.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panmure_House_(Edinburgh)[/quote]
Don’t set fire to it

@Bobbobbobbing

I've found some things that don't tie in with the story- said Edward was born to an Irish mother (Annie) and a soldier from the Fermoy Barracks (also called Edward Jones). The 1901 census has him and his mother living with his Irish grandparents, place of birth England. In 1911 he's still there, but his mother isn't and place of birth is listed as Cork.

Wales is definitely in the mix somewhere- DF remembers him and he did have a strong Welsh accent. He was also protestant. At the moment my hypothesis is that Edward junior and his mother followed his dad back to England/Wales and were bringing him up there, before they died/went into the workhouse/ended up in prison and he came back to his Irish grandparents. I'm trying to find out what regiments were stationed at Fermoy at the time of the marriage to narrow down a search area. I've tried all possible combinations of their names but there's thousands of the buggers!

I've also done loads of dna test on various sites and trawl regularly for possible distant cousins that might help us tie him into a particular branch of Joneses.

More and more people are testing now so I really hope that a helpful match pops up somewhere soon. It sounds seriously challenging and now I want a happy ending for your Edward Jones!

Don’t set fire to it

I absolutely get sucked into peripheral stuff! Or, Important Background Research, as I tell myself while I whoosh down another rabbit-hole.

This is actually true in the case of the Great Fire! I'd never heard of it before, and it must have been a major event in the lives of many of my Edinburghers. Come to think of it, the fire may explain why some of them moved from the High Street.

I was doing smugglers in Kent.

But just got distracted by the 1921 census and have gone off to find out about the mystery I've waited over 10 years to try and find out more about.

Two boys in 1911 seem to have been abandoned in the work house by their parents who had run off and got new partners and started new families.

Can you imagine just being dumped at the work house by your parents who then have second families?

Just found out where they are - both adopted - which is brilliant but also only raises even more questions!

YES! It's 1921 census day! So many questions saved up!

I've been letting you all have first dibs, as I suspect the servers may be taking a pounding right now.

How awful about your abandoned boys. Now you've got me worried for them too.

Mind you, I've seen a family where the sibling who was properly abandoned – and thus adopted by a loving family – was definitely the "lucky" one, compared to what happened to his brother.

I recently found myself in a pickle.
Apparently my 11x G grandfather was born in 1600 in Kilmarnock but apparently (and I genuinely don’t believe this) died in West Virginia after 1633…..yet all his children were born in Kilmarnock.
Why would he go to America at that time? There was no way (I think) that he was rich.
It’s very odd and it’s annoying me!

Kilmarnock? Wouldn't be at all surprising if he were seafaring, either as a merchant sailor or in the Royal Navy.

It's not uncommon for seafarers to settle in one of their ports of call.

1633 is pretty early though. Not a period I have a grasp of, although I associate early Virginia with tobacco, which became a major industry for Glasgow (and possibly other Scottish west coast ports?).

@FelicityPike wrong timescale, but still thought this was interesting Kilmarnock, VA

@TressiliansStone

Kilmarnock? Wouldn't be at all surprising if he were seafaring, either as a merchant sailor or in the Royal Navy.

It's not uncommon for seafarers to settle in one of their ports of call.

1633 is pretty early though. Not a period I have a grasp of, although I associate early Virginia with tobacco, which became a major industry for Glasgow (and possibly other Scottish west coast ports?).

I never thought of the Navy. Well, I’m saying 1633, that’s when his youngest son was born. I did message the user who posted these details ( it was a hint to me), but they haven’t answered…..typical.

Poop….name change fail.

Currently on a ship sailing between Shanghai and London, somewhere off the coast of Madagascar. Looking into the story of my gg uncle who was from a very small village in southern Scotland and who went to sea in the 1860s. Sailed all over the world - south America, South Africa, Chima, Australia. Away for months or years at a time. Died on board a ship in 1868 and was buried at sea. Recently discovered the digitised captain's logs which detail half the crew absconding at Sydney then my relative's illness and death.

The sights he must have seen.

Could he have been an indentured servant for a few years @FelicityPike?

@TressiliansStone

I absolutely get sucked into peripheral stuff! Or, Important Background Research, as I tell myself while I whoosh down another rabbit-hole.

This is actually true in the case of the Great Fire! I'd never heard of it before, and it must have been a major event in the lives of many of my Edinburghers. Come to think of it, the fire may explain why some of them moved from the High Street.

Important Background Research is one of my best things, it’s the only way to really understand and bring it to life.

@RedToothBrush

I was doing smugglers in Kent.

But just got distracted by the 1921 census and have gone off to find out about the mystery I've waited over 10 years to try and find out more about.

Two boys in 1911 seem to have been abandoned in the work house by their parents who had run off and got new partners and started new families.

Can you imagine just being dumped at the work house by your parents who then have second families?

Just found out where they are - both adopted - which is brilliant but also only raises even more questions!

So heartbreaking, you can’t imagine. Do you see any echoes of it in subsequent generations?

@MarshmallowFondant

Currently on a ship sailing between Shanghai and London, somewhere off the coast of Madagascar. Looking into the story of my gg uncle who was from a very small village in southern Scotland and who went to sea in the 1860s. Sailed all over the world - south America, South Africa, Chima, Australia. Away for months or years at a time. Died on board a ship in 1868 and was buried at sea. Recently discovered the digitised captain's logs which detail half the crew absconding at Sydney then my relative's illness and death.

The sights he must have seen.

It must have taken years to get anywhere too? I get really queasy just thinking about it.

@Bobbobbobbing a lot of Welsh people get recorded as being English in overseas records. I don't think a lot of places saw Wales as a separate country. I have plenty of extremely Welsh family who were definitely born in Wales who show up in far flung places and their place of birth switches between Wales and England.