Having neglected this site for over 2 years I’ve decided to blow the dust off and re-vamp it.  It’s probably going to be a week or two until everything’s back to normal so please be patient.

When I established Mary's maiden name last week I still wasn't able to find her baptism on the IGI but I did find a likely couple for her parents. The arrival of Mary and Thomas's marriage certificate confirmed it. Her father was Edward Helas and he was a gardener.

I heard from the researcher in Scotland who’s doing some lookups for me.  One of the things she sent is the 1851 census return for my great-great-great-grandfather, William Howieson, and his family.  There was a child on there I’d not come across before, James Howieson, aged 4.  Unlike the rest of the children, who were born in Smailholm, he was born in Kelso and hadn’t shown up on the IGI search.  I decided to follow him up as I had some credits that needed using and have found out quite a lot about him.

I received Urban Wain Ridge’s birth certificate this week and discovered that his mother’s maiden name was HELAS.  When I first saw the certificate I thought it might be Helar but when I started searching on the surnames at the LDS site I realised that there were several Helas families in the area she came from (Wyton, East Yorkshire).  I’ve ordered the marriage certificate for her marriage to Thomas Wain in 1866 to double-check it and see who her father was.

I was surprised to find that no father is named on Urban’s birth certificate.  Thomas and Mary are shown as living at the same address on the 1851 census and Urban was their 3rd child.  I’d expected that Thomas would have gone with Mary to register the birth and be shown on the certificate as the father, I wonder why he didn’t?

I’ve found Isabella Henderson.  I was lucky in that her mother Mary Miller was living with her in 1891.  This allowed me to track her down on the 1881 census, although I’ve had no luck finding her or her family on the 1901 census - so far!

I think I may also have found her brother, Walter, married and living in London.  I found a Walter Henderson, aged 40, born in Edinburgh on the 1901 census.  I’d missed him on the 1891 as his place of birth is given as London.  I’m not 100% sure yet about this one as in 1881 he’s a stone mason yet later on he’s a baker - a bit of a career change!  In 1891 he has a son also called Walter and there’s a birth registration for a Walter LOUIS Henderson in Camberwell in 1866.  My great-grandfather’s middle name was LEWIS (he would have Walter Jnr’s cousin) and this seems like too much of a coincidence.

As yet I’ve not been able to trace David Henderson, the brother of James, Walter and Isabella although I do have a possible lead for their youngest sister, Mary Ann.  I need to do a little more digging on that lead.

The 1871 census for Scotland has been published on the General Register Office for Scotland site.  I was able to find my great-great-grandfather, James Henderson, and finally have a place of birth for him.  According to the census he was born in Dumfries, which I suspected but had no confirmation of.

Today I visited the Sheffield General Cemetary looking for 5 graves that are recorded as belong to various members of the Howgate family. 3 of the sections I wanted to look at are so overgrown that if the graves weren't at the edge I was never going to find them; the fourth section I wanted to look at had been paved over but with the fifth grave I struck gold. I found the grave owned by George Howgate. In it were George himself, his wife Caroline, their son William (who was the only person I knew for sure was in there), George's grandson's first wife Edith and their only child, Edith Lillian, who I didn't even know existed. In addition I was able to get the dates of death from the headstone. You can see all the particulars here.

I’ve started transcribing all the census data I have.  I’m starting with direct ancestors first, then will transcribe peripheral families.  So far I’ve done 1871 and 1881 for the Howgate tree.  You can see the transcriptions via the Histories & Documents page.

In 1864 The Dale Dyke Dam at Bradfield burst flooding Sheffield and killing over 200 people.  The Sheffield Flood Claims Archive has recently become available on line and there is a claim made by my great-great-great-grandfather, Samuel Howgate, for damage to the stock of his shop and household furniture.  Until I came across this claim I never even knew that the family had kept a shop!  On the 1871 census the family are living at a different address in a different part of the city.  I have only ever seen Samuel’s occupation described as a Steel Melter.  I shall have to visit the archives and check out where they were in 1861, up until now I have only checked the 1861 index.

I've spent most of the day scanning certificates, creating sources and uploading information. All the documents I have are now available to view in the Histories & Documents section. There are new documents for both the Garside and Howgate trees. I've also got about a dozen certificates on order but as the GRO has been inundated with orders following the BBC programme on Family history I don't expect them to arrive until the end of the month. The images are quite large (about 100+ Mb) so if you're on dial-up you probably don't want to look at too many!

This page has been viewed 11821 times
Page rendered in 0.3644 seconds
Total Entries: 539
Total Comments: 17
Total Trackbacks: 0
Most Recent Entry: 07/16/2007 07:01 pm
Most Recent Comment on: 08/20/2008 05:41 am
Total Members: 28
Total Logged in members: 0
Total guests: 2
Total anonymous users: 0
Most Recent Visitor on: 08/20/2008 08:38 am
The most visitors ever was 172 on 03/27/2008 09:43 am

Referrers