My boss Mr Nick Barratt polled his twitter followers last month on their genealogy goals for the New Year. I posted some short suggestions. Here’s my expanded list for 2012.
1. Bones - A 1903 newspaper clipping reported on how my great-great grandfather recovered a complete mastodon skeleton in Montana and tells us that he was hoarding old bones. “Jack Ducie, the well-known mining man…has a collection of fossiliferous bones at his home which would no doubt be highly prized by institutions of learning…” He died in 1917 and I want to find out which institution got the bones. My 12 year-old nephew wants to be a paleontologist. I would love for him to be able to study Jack’s bones.
2. Babies - Jack was born in England to Irish parents fleeing famine in Mayo, Ireland. There were at least eight children. Our family knew of four who later emigrated and I’ve found another four that didn’t make it through childhood. Were there more? They were Catholics and some years ago I tracked the local records down to an archdiocese archive in Birmingham which is begging for a visit.
3. Bigamist – Another great-great grandfather – English born and bred – legged it to Canada in 1910 with his son-in-law’s sister on his arm. They had a daughter born in Montreal and two grandsons. Auntie May was a bit of a looker – we have an amazing picture of her – but grandpa Arthur remains our mystery man. Could the boys [same age as my parents] in Canada have a picture? Having spent last summer working as a people searcher, it’s time to turn my new skills on my own distant cousins. I hope they’re friendly guys and obsessive hoarders of family memorabilia.
4. Baron – An obit in The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1822 purports that my 4x great-grandfather Charles Baron of Hitchin, Hertfordshire died in his hundredth year. Did the monarch send centenary birthday greetings in the 1820s? Probably no, but there must be more information about this chap and I mean to find it. Also, we don’t know his origins. But there are an awful lot of Barons up north. Could I secretly be one one hundred and second Northern?