GenieQ

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

S is for Sarjeant (#AtoZChallenge)

S is for Sarjeant. (#AtoZChallenge)

S could be for Samuel, after all I have thirty-three of them in my family file. It obviously was a very popular name in my family. However, I am going to write about a recently discovered family line in my tree, the Sarjeant line.

As I have written before I have a fascinating family connection to Barbados through my 3rd great-grandmother, Mary Sarsfield Donovan, descended from Johannis Proverbs, my ninth great-grandfather who died in Barbados in 1685.

So while exploring the Barbados family history I came across my 4th great-great aunt, Jane or Jean Proverbs who married James Edghill. Now the Edghill name occurs here and there in the family tree, so I thought it worth investigating, as you do. Jane's son William Bracey Edghill (Bracey is another recurring family name) married Sarah Elizabeth Archer in St Phillip Barbados in 1829 and their daughter Frances Elizabeth Edghill married, wait for it, Joseph Courier Saramento Lewis Sarjeant- also known as Joseph Saramento. I had more or less ignored this line; after all, it is peripheral but being a bit bored recently I decided to explore, again, as you do.

What I found was an interesting, indeed fascinating group of people who moved between, Barbados, Trinidad, United Staes and Venezuela. It has become quite absorbing to trace their movements across the United States, many ending in California.

I have thought about their movements and related them to my Australian families that moved to Australia from Irelan, England, Scotland, and Portugal. Just yesterday I found that a 5th cousin once removed, Richard Maxwell Sarjeant died in Adelaide, South Australia in 1990. It appears that Richard, his wife and his widowed mother Elsie Violet Maude Sarjeant moved to Australia shortly after his father died in Barbados in 1964. Another connection, albeit a distant one. A new resolve to visit Barbados ...

This post is part of the 2015 Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme is Names: First Names from My Family File. Stay tuned for the rest of the alphabet, and if you'd like to check out the other A to Z participants, simply click here

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

R is for Rebecca (#AtoZChallenge)

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ...

This is the opening line to Daphne du Maurier's most famous novel Rebecca. I love all of Daphne du Maurier's stories but Rebecca is probably my favourite, I often reread it. I am obviously not alone - there were 2,829,313 copies of Rebecca sold between 1938 and 1965, and the book has never gone out of print (Wikipedia).

For those who have never had the pleasure of reading Rebecca, let me tell you a little about the book and later 1940 film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.

The story is a psychological thriller/drama. A naïve young woman, whose name is never mentioned, is in Monte Carlo working as a paid companion when she meets the aristocratic widower Maximilian "Maxim" de Winter. They fall in love, and within two weeks they are married.

She is now the second "Mrs. de Winter"; Maxim takes her back to Manderley, his country house in Cornwall. The housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers is domineering and cold and is obsessed with the beauty and sophistication of the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, all things that the new wife is not.

I could have written about one of th thirteen women named Rebecca in my family file but thought Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca much more interesting. What do you think? Do you also love the story of Rebecca? Maybe I will read Rebecca agin this weekend ....

Monday, 20 April 2015

Q is for Quest (#AtoZChallenge)

Quest: a long or arduous search for something (noun, thefreedictionary.com). Does that sound like genealogy and family history? It certainly does for me. The quest to find one elusive ancestor, one more bit of proof that I need to confirm that Mary is indeed my 6th great grandmother, the burial place of my WWI cousin, the occupation of my paternal grandfather, what was happening in history when my great-great-grandfather left Ireland.

I think one of the reasons I love family history is that as a child I loved puzzles, loved solving mysteries, a trait that continues to this day. Give me a psychological thriller and I am lost for hours. I especially love those that aren't solved until the last few pages. No wonder I love family history The quest to find answers to the family history puzzles are so rewarding when I find an answer and so frustrating when I do not.

Onward with the quest ... it is certainly a never-ending journey.

Saturday, 18 April 2015

52 Ancestors #16 - Dorothy May Thomas - my maternal grandmother

This post is for Week 16 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge - 2015 - by Amy Johnson Crow from No Story Too Small. Prompt for Week 16 - Live Long - time to feature a long-lived ancestor.

Dorothy May with her mother

For this post, I will feature my maternal grandmother, Dorothy May McCann nee Thomas. Dorothy May, Nan, lived to the age of 98 years and three months when she passed away on the 8th December 1996. She always said she wouldn't make 100 and Nan was right as usual.

Dorothy May was born in Eton outside Mackay, Queensland in 1898. She was educated in Eton and Brisbane, at Duporth Private School at Oxley and trained as a nurse at the Brisbane General Hospital where she met the love of her life, George Douglas McCann. They were married in January 1924 in Brisbane and were happy together until Doug's death at Easter 1969.

Nan was active in the Country Women's Association, Queensland Branch and enjoyed cooking, craft and sewing. Her pastry and scones were legendary, she always scolded me for 'playing' with the dough too much, saying 'your hands are too hot' as usual she was right.

Dorothy May aged about 94

In her later years, Nan lived at Lady Small Haven retirement village at Benowa in a self-contained unit where she enjoyed craft mornings and bus trips - how she enjoyed those bus trips! I was always amused when she told me about visiting the 'old folks' at the nursing home or hostel - they were usually younger than her. But then, age is a matter of mind really.

Nan passed away peacefully at 3:30 am on the 8th December 1996 and was cremated, and her ashes interred with her husband and youngest daughter, Joan, at Toowong Cemetery. There is a space there for me when the time comes.

I miss Nan almost every day especially when doing my family history research. I inherited all her photos and memorabilia and lots of her notes and musings. Nan was the repository of all things family and knew just when cousin so and so was married, divorced or died. As I have said before, Nan is my genie-angel.

P is for Peter (AtoZChallenge)

P is for Peter McCann, my 4th great-grandfather. Peter McCann is my first ancestor to come to Australia, and not of his own free will, I might stress.

Peter was born in County Monaghan, Ireland c1769, a rebel from the 1798 rebellion, tried Monaghan 1798 - sentenced to 7 years - transported on the Minerva departed Cork, Ireland on the 24th August 1799 - arrived Port Jackson on the 11th January 1800. Peter was a Catholic.

He married Mary Fitzgerald, an Irish Catholic convict lass, on the 9th January 1804 at St John's Church of England Parramatta by the Rev Samuel Marsden.

There were two children of the marriage:

Nicholas born on the 20th November 1803 in Parramatta (Nicholas was baptised on the day of their marriage) and Catherine born in July 1805 in Windsor.

Peter McCann had been assigned to the Government Farm at Castle Hill and was involved in the 1804 Castle Hill rebellion and sentenced to 100 lashes for his trouble.

Painting depicting the Battle of Vinegar Hill (Wikipedia)

The Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804 was a rebellion by convicts against colonial authority in the Castle Hill area of the British colony of New South Wales. The rebellion culminated in a battle fought between convicts and the Colonial forces of Australia on 5 March 1804 at Rouse Hill, dubbed the Battle of Vinegar Hill after the Battle of Vinegar Hill of 1798 in Ireland. It was the first and only major convict uprising in Australian history (Wikipedia).

Peter McCann died on the 21st October 1806 in the district of Richmond/Windsor - this was recorded in the "Sydney Gazette" dated 26 Oct 1806, page 1: "Peter McCann, a labourer, was unfortunately drowned on Tuesday night at Hawkesbury, in attempting to swim across Rickerby's Creek".

Peter's body was not found, obviously swept away with the flood waters. So my 4th great grandfather only survived the Colony of New South Wales for six years but in that time laid the foundation for a large family from his son Nicholas McCann.

O is for Olive (#AtoZChallenge)

O is for Olive - Olive McCann - Aunty Ol. Catherine Olive Annie McCann was born on the 23rd September 1895 in Ballina, New South Wales. She was my great aunt.

Olive was a great businesswoman and entrepreneur. She started a fashion business shortly after the family moved to Brisbane in 1922, working at a shop in Fortitude Valley and running a salon in Queen Street Brisbane called Davids. Ol would catch the tram up from the Valley with her pay to pay the girls in Davids. The salon soon became successful and Olive left her Valley job and concentrated on her salon. Olive involved other members of her family and soon had another salon at the Adelaide Street end of the Brisbane Arcade, called Pauls Frocks. This morphed into a shop in Ruthven Street Toowoomba and one in Elizabeth Street Sydney. By then they had established a factory in Burnett Lane Brisbane called Model Manufacturers of Queensland. My grandfather, Olive's brother, was the Managing Director of the businesses.

Olive was a woman before her time. She travelled overseas in 1937 with her sister Gladys, attended the Coronation and spent some time in Europe, particularly Paris. Apparently she purchased model gowns in London & Paris, removed the labels, sewed her labels on to avoid customs duty and returned with the garments to Brisbane where they were copied.

Olive also bought and sold racehorses and was not averse to large wagers on the same. It was reported in The Sydney Morning Herald that - Miss Olive McCann was successful in betting £10,000 at 3 to 1 on Babillard. The largest bet by a woman on the Sydney racecourse - this was in 1941.

Sadly Olive died in a car crash near Glen Innes on the 22nd July 1952, her sister, Aunty Pat, was driving and never got over the trauma of causing Olive's death. I remember Aunty Ol as smelling lovely and always having a special suprise for me.

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