Thursday, March 24, 2011

Ancestry hint points me in the right direction

I was looking at 'people with hints' in my ancestry tree.  My great grandmother Margaret HUDSON had a hint to her death record in the Australian Death Index. I've had her death certificate for a while so wasn't too interested.  But I noticed
  • mother's name Jane Fitzsimm*   
and that gave me an idea - to search the Australian Death Index only giving mother (I used the * after fitzs) & father name in the hope I may find any brothers/sisters of Margaret who had also immigrated to Australia.  And it paid off for I found:
  • Annie SKELLY
  • Mary Jane TATTON
I thought I had done this type of search before on the Queensland births, deaths and marriages search site.  
In fact this is how I had already found Annie Skelly and obtained some certificates to verify she was the sister of my Margaret Hudson.  So why had I not previously found Mary Jane Tatton? 

Looking back at my records I can now see I was only able to seacrh to 1929 on the Qld BDM site at the time I searched ....Mary Jane lived to 1953.  In any case you have to enter a family name now in the Qld BDM site to search for a death which is no use if you don't know the married name.

So the lesson - whenever a new database becomes available check it, even if you've done a similar check in another database before.   And follow through on the ancestry hints, it's not that time consuming to just ignore those that are no use.

I'm busy now researching Mary Jane TATTON - I have obtained her death certificate and first marriage to Edward SHIELDS so know I'm on the right track.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

John Beere, Waterford, Ireland

My great great grandfather John BEERE (1817-1878) was a land steward at Woodhouse, Waterford, Ireland.

 
Woodhouse, near Stradbally Waterford

 

 
John and his wife Mary (nee EVANS) had the following children

 
Policemen:
  • William BEERE (1845-1968) - member Metropolitan police, London
  • Richard BEERE (1857-1889) - member Royal Irish Constabulary
  • George BEERE married Hannah POWER - member Royal Irish Constabulary, then lived in England
  • Leger BEERE married Katie ROGERS - member Royal Irish Constabulary, then migrated to USA, living Connecticut in 1900
  • John BEERE - member Royal Irish Constabulary, otherwise no information - speculate may have migrated to USA (Connecticut) but needs some proof
  • Mary BEERE married Thomas CRANWELL (member Royal Irish Constabulary) - immigrated to USA (Connecticut)

 Navy

  • Henry BEERE married Mary Ann LANGMAID - joined Royal Navy at 15 and then lived in Suffolk, England
  • Annie BEERE married Thomas LANGMAID (brother of Henry Beere's wife Mary Ann) - lived Suffolk, England
 Other daughters
  • My great grandmother - Maria BEERE married Hugh O'BRIEN - children migrated to Australia & USA with one staying in Ireland
  • Jane BEERE married George BATER - lived in England before immigrating to Canada
  • Martha BEERE - no information following baptism in 1849
  • Margaret BEERE - no information following baptism in 1843
 If you are connected to any of these BEERE children it would be wonderful to get an email from you.

Friday, March 11, 2011

One Lovely Blog Award

Thanks to Aillin of Australian Genealogy Journeys for nominating this blog for One Lovely Blog Award.  Being such a new blog I was most surprised!

The rules for accepting the award are:
  • Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link.
  • Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered.
  • Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
In starting this blog I looked at many blogs to get inspiration.  Here's a few of the blogs that have caught my eye; and for whatever reason be it layout, content, location, blog name, I liked them. 

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Fearn Jackson

Fernie, or Harriet Esther Fearn FLETCHER (nee JACKSON) 1903-1985 was my grandmother Maria O'BRIEN's first cousin.   Maria arrived in Brisbane from Tipperary, Ireland in 1913 with her father Hugh, brother Richard and sister Ellen.  I understand they stayed with Hugh's sister Mrs JACKSON & family at Spring Hill.

I was not sure when I first heard it what Fernie might be short for.  But it didn't really matter as when browsing the Toowong Cemetery monumental inscriptions in my local library I found
  • Beatrice JACKSON d 8 March 1914 aged 21, erected by Mother, Willie, May & Fernie
I obtained the death certificate for Beatrice (registered as Britto) & knew once I saw the mother was Mary O'BRIEN that I was on track & this has been further confirmed with
  • marriage certificate of Mary O'BRIEN and John Thomas JACKSON at Roma, Queensland in 1882 showing Mary's parents as  Michael O'BRIEN & Bridget Mackay ( surely the same as the way the Irish say MULCAHY) 
  • more recent release by Queensland Archives of the index to persons nominated as immigrants naming Mary's son-in-law John James MCKEW as nominator for Maria's brother Hugh & sister Bridget who arrived in Brisbane in1912
It looks like Fernie's name (FEARN) is the maiden name of her father, John Thomas JACKSON's mother Annie Fern.  It seems that Fernie had some other cousins on her father's side who also used Fern or Fearn as a middle name including
  • Annie Easter Fern Jackson who married Thomas Patterson in 1908; and 
  • Harriett Esther Ann Fearn Jackson who married William Farrell in 1905 in Queensland.

 
Fernie became a dancing teacher and I have found several articles about her - she seems to be often mentioned in the social and advertising pages.  It is her bridal picture in The Queenslander on 13 June 1935 that is the most impressive:

Fletcher- Jackson The wedding took place at St. Brigid's Church, Red Hill, Brisbane, of Mr. Percival Fletcher (youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Fletcher. Lerin. Kelvin Grove) and Miss Fearn Jackson(youngest daughter of the late Mr. T. Jackson, and Mrs. Jackson, of Menzies Street, Petrie Terrace), The Rev. Father Masterson officiated. The bride, who was given away by her brother (Mr. W. Jackson), wore a frock of ivory satin cut on classical lines, featuring a cowl neckline, and long sleeves cut to give the cowl effect on the upper arm. Her skirt, which showed side panels of diagonal tucking, finished in a long train, the centre panel of which was studded with flesh coloured seed pearls. Her hand-embroidered veil was worn with a coronet of orange blossoms, and she carried a bouquet of roses. She was attended by two bridesmaids —Misses Tib Fletcher (sister of the bridegroom) and Beatty McKew (niece of the bride), who were attired in pink mariette tightly-fitting dresses inlet with frilled godets, with hat to tone, and carried bouquets of pink roses. Frances Ubank (flower girl), was dressed in pink organdie, and carried a basket of pink roses. The duties of best man were performed by Mr. Syd. Fletcher, and Mr. Jack McCarthy was groomsman. Mrs.Jackson (mother of the bride) wore a frock of black marocain with hat to match, and carried a posy of carnations. Mrs. Fletcher (mother of the bridegroom) wore a black crepe de Chine dress with hat to tone, and carried a bouquet of red roses. On leaving for the honey moon the bride wore an ensemble of brown crepe de Chine, with hat with shoes to match.