Sightseeing in London, Genealogist Version

Just a mile and a half from our London hotel, I couldn't pass up this piece of  family history serendipity...

My great grandfather, Charles Henry Smith, served a mission in England from 1900-1902. On August 22, 1900, Charles noted in his journal that he went to see his grandmother, who lived in Westbourne Grove. He had a nice visit with her.

That grandmother was Ann (Barrs) Altrop. Having been widowed in 1891, she was living with her son. William Alfred. In the 1901 census, here is the family, living at 138 Westbourne Grove.

Just over 119 years after my great grandfather's visit, I went back to pay my respects to my third great grandmother.

One of the Marys

There's a thing in family history research called the GPS and it doesn't have anything to do with location. The letters stand for Genealogical Proof Standard and one of the tenets of the standard is to conduct a reasonably exhaustive search of the available resources. Why? One reason is that our ancestors were, shall we say, conservative in choosing given names for their children. Deciding who is who becomes even more difficult with a common surname. For instance, I'm currently communicating with someone who has a John Smith in her family (as do I). There are at least two John Smiths christened on the exact same day, although, fortunately in different places. It requires more research to figure out which John Smith is related to who. Just finding "John Smith" in a document does not mean he is related to us!

The other challenge is the desire of some to paint a picture of the entire landscape of our ancestors while looking through an embrasure. The picture becomes so much clearer if you can knock some more holes in the wall, or even leave the fort and walk around outside for awhile. Going to England is like that field trip for me!

So we come to one of the most common given name in England: Mary. George Norman was married to two women named Mary (not at the same time, but close). The second Mary was Mary Radley, who is my second great grandmother.

Mary Radley was christened 16 August 1812 in the parish of East Buckland, Devon. I have a life sketch, the author of which is unknown, who says: "[Mary] was an educated young lady and a devout member of the Presbyterian church...  There was but one church in Combe Martin at that time." Well, that one church was certainly not Presbyterian!

The sketch goes on to say that: "Mary was the presber's right hand girl. She was not only a servant to his household, where she lived, she kept the church records in order and took care of the minister's correspondence. . . All her life she was a devout church worker. . .respected by everyone."

It is true that Mary is listed in the 1841 census as a servant in the "parsonage." The Old Rectory in Combe Martin is an historic building to this day. But I don't know how the rest of the information in this sketch was obtained. Was it something told to our grandparents when they visited England in the 70's? While a lovely portrait, is it accurate?

We can say that Mary had her share of challenges. Having married a much older man, she was a widow for many years. We know from the censuses that she supported herself as a "market gardener" through the years of her widowhood, probably until she couldn't physically do the work anymore. Two of her sons, George and Richard, went to America, but son James stayed close. There is a story that son Richard visited Combe Martin years later but his mother didn't recognize him. She didn't believe he was her son until he showed her a scar on his leg from an accident with a scythe in his youth.

Remind you of anyone?

 Mary's death certificate says she died in 1901 of "senile decay" and "exhaustion." The life sketch said that she is buried on the grounds of the church where she spent much of her time as a young woman. I don't recall finding her grave marker there, but we'll certainly take a closer look on our field trip!

A Life of Snapshots (and Marys)

Genealogy is relatively easy. Records tell us names, dates, places and relationships. What's harder is understanding the daily lives of our ancestors. An individual's life must be extrapolated, extracted and guessed at. From tiny moments in time and volumes of information that may or may not apply, we try to fill in the blanks of decades of life. The farther back in time we go, the smaller the clues and the more removed we are from understanding how a person might think, feel and live.

As we take an ancestral step back to the 18th century, we shift from Combe Martin, birthplace of my great grandfather, to Brendon, the place where George Norman, my second great grandfather, was christened.

Proceeding sheepishly in Brendon

Even to the present day, Brendon is quite rural, but of course, there is always a church and we come to our first snapshot of George. He was christened in this very church in 1783.

Parish church at Brendon in a moment of sunshine

Entry in the Brendon parish register 1783.

Here's another view of the church, the tiny figure is Lenore getting soaked in the rain.

(For those who are traveling with me to Devon, this photo was taken on 24 September 1999, when I noted that it was "rainiest day yet"! Be prepared. Also, now that I'm looking closely at this picture, I'm wondering if the little blue spot farther down the hill is Jeff.)

As is typical for this time period, virtually nothing is known about George's young life. He had an older sister, a younger sister and a younger brother. When his younger sister, Mary, was christened, there is a notation that his father was a pauper.

There is no such notation for any of the other children. Was this a temporary condition of the family or an ongoing issue that was simply not noted again?

Zooming forward to our next snapshot, the 1841 census, George is living in the village of Combe Martin and is married to "Mary." He was a farmer, and well enough off that he employed a servant by the name of Mary Pugsley. (Are you beginning to think that everyone is named Mary?)

Census day in 1841 was 7 June and by the end of July, George's wife had died of a "paralytick seizure." There seems to be some controversy about the identity of this Mary and whether she had children or not. I (and others) have been unable to resolve this mystery by resort to the parish registers. I am suspicious, though, that the mysterious first wife is Mary Cutcliffe.

George quickly remarried another Mary, Mary Radley. (Getting ridiculous, isn't it.) This marriage is unusual for a few reasons. First, George was 58 and Mary Radley was 29 when they married on 15 December 1841. Note that this is less than 6 months after George's first wife passed away.

The other interesting thing is that they were married by license. Most people were "married by banns" rather than by license. Banns are notices of the couple's intention to marry, read out in the church for the three Sundays prior to the wedding. The choice of banns over a license was most often due to the cost of obtaining a license.

I have read of three supposed reasons for obtaining a license: impatience - no waiting for three weeks while the banns are read; privacy - avoidance of the publicity of the banns; and pride -  a status symbol for those that could afford it. We can only guess if any or none of these reasons tell us why George and Mary chose to wed by license.

George Norman

This union produced four children, including the youngest child, Richard Norman, who was not quite a year old when the 1851 census was taken. George at that time was "a farmer of 24 acres" with a man working for him, had a "house servant" by the name of Eliza Watters and resided in a place in Combe Martin identified only as "Holmes." By the 1861 census, George was 78 and was down to 20 acres. George didn't make it to the 1871 census, but left his last snapshot: a certificate in 1870 that records his death of "natural decay" at the age of 86.

From these tiny bits of information, we can piece a few things together. Is there more? I'd love to find out. But we still won't have even "a hundredth part" of the life of George Norman (although I hope we are done with people named Mary).

In Chains

One of the ways we bond with others is through shared experiences. "Do you remember the time that we ....?" "Wasn't that funny when we ....?" "I can't believe that actually happened to us!"

On my last trip to England, we didn't spend near enough time in Combe Martin, birthplace of Richard Norman. One of the things that made an impression on me, however, was looking up the hill to the parish church. It occurred to me then that seeing the church was an experience I shared with our ancestors.

St Peter Ad Vincula in Combe Martin in 1999

The parish church in Combe Martin was typical of many we saw in the North Devon area. Most are ancient buildings and portions of "our" church date to around the 12th century.  The building is dedicated to St Peter Ad Vincula (St Peter in chains, alluding to the miraculous escape of Peter from prison described in Acts 12). The dedications are apparently not meant to be original, as the church in the Tower of London has the same name.

Several Normans buried here

As is typical, the area around the church was full of headstones. Fortunately, the grounds of St Peter are well-kept: I recall visiting one church (possibly in Ilfracombe) where a machete would have been required to find anything.

In some ways, it is hard for us as Americans to grasp the role of the church in the lives of our ancestors. The ecclesiastical parish was the "government" of the people, levying taxes in the form of tithes, providing relief to the poor, building and maintaining roads and having its own courts.  Until 1837, the births of children were rarely recorded - rather, the baptism or christening of the child would be noted; likewise the date of burial in the churchyard is remembered rather than the date of death. The church basically controlled lawful marriages. It would have been a center of social activity. While other religious beliefs were tolerated more or less (depending on the period of time), most of our ancestors would have attended the parish church every Sunday.

Perhaps as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have a better feel than other US citizens for a church that is not Sunday only. The difference, however, is that we choose the role of the church in our lives, whereas our ancestors were shackled to the church and its leaders as a way of life. I'm not sure that's an experience we can completely share.

Building the Bridge

Do kids talk about ancestry anymore? When I was (much) younger, I can recall some sort of discussion about where you were "from" or what you "were." My answer at first was telling people I was English. Later, I figured out that I ought to add Dutch. I have no recollection, however, of how I knew this. And if I was English and Dutch, how did I end up in the United States? I'm sure I never even thought of that question.

Over the years that issue has become increasingly important to me as I look at who my ancestors are and why I'm here. 

Richard Norman

One of the reasons I am here is because of Richard Norman.  He was born 168 years ago, in 1850 in Combe Martin, Devon, England.

Copy of birth certificate

 He was christened in the parish church shortly after his birth.

There are several stories about Dick's youth. He attended school, but not for long. It seems certain that he went to work at the Nap Down mine in Combe Martin when he was quite young. He also stowed away on a ship bound for the Mediterranean. That may have been a sign of his wanderlust, as he later roamed England, Wales and Scotland working as a miner. Or it may be that he left home as a result of breaking his mother's favorite vase as reported in some other histories.

Both his experience as a miner and his wanderlust eventually led him to the United States with his brother, George. They sailed from England to the United States on the ship Limerick in 1872, thus becoming a cable on my bridge "across the pond."

Portion of the ship's passenger list

Dick and George worked for awhile in New Jersey and Pennsylvania mines, but then received a letter from home telling them that some former associates from England were in Bingham, Utah. Dick pawned a suit and his watch to pay for a railroad ticket to Salt Lake City.

Dick eventually met my great grandmother, Minnie Hansen in Mercur, Utah and they were married in American Fork in 1896.

Many years later, in contemplation of a trip to Devon, I made contact with a resident of Barnstaple, Devon, who, in enthusiastic response to my letter, wrote "I have been collecting info on Combmartin miners for well over 30 years and Dick Norman was one of the first I became interested in." I hope we will be able to meet this mining enthusiast in September.

Our Mormon Pioneer Ancestors

Thomas Harris, Jr., Pioneer Ancestor

The LDS Church History Library and Family Search have combined resources to provide links to information about our pioneer ancestors - meaning those pioneer ancestors in our own family.  If you'd like to take a look, this is the link that will go to a list of those pioneers of which Family Search is aware based on our family tree on Family Search.

If anyone has to give a talk or do a history paper, this might be a good place to start!

Independence Day-One Day for Us, A Changed Life for Others

From the state papers of New Hampshire, Revolutionary War Records: "Abijah Perry five months at the Tie in 1776 personal"

In honor of Independence Day, I'm going to write a little about my sixth great grandfather, Abijah Perry and his involvement in the Revolutionary War.  I posted previously about Sarah Mariah Perry who was alive during the Civil War, but far removed from the action.  Abijah, her great, great grandfather, did not wholly escape the war of his time.

Abijah was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1742. Around 1764, he moved about 60 miles to Wilton, New Hampshire, where property records show him having purchased land from his father.  He may have met his future bride about this time, marrying Phebe Boutelle at age 23 in 1765.  Their first child (and my fifth great grandfather), Abijah Perry, Jr. was born in Wilton on October 25, 1766. More children were born to the Perrys: Phebe in 1768, James in 1769, Tryphena in 1771 and Nathan in 1773.

Meanwhile, things between the British and the Colonies were heating up.  On July 7, 1776, an American Council of War met at the ruined British fort at Crown Point, New York to plan to defend against a possible invasion of the British from Canada.  Of particular concern was the ease of access through Lake Champlain. Plans for defense included fortifying Mount Independence and Fort Ticonderoga.

A militia regiment for this purpose was mustered under Colonel Isaac Wyman. Abijah Perry from Wilton was among those mustered.  He left his wife and children behind, including his new two month old baby.

According to the Diary of Lieutenant Jonathon Burton, the "Wilton Men" joined the regiment under the command of Captain William Barron on Tuesday, July 23, 1776. They were ordered to march to Fort Ticonderoga ("The Tie"), a distance of over 150 miles.  It appears that they had lodging along the way until August 2nd, when they had to camp in the woods.  Lieutenant Burton wrote: "Now we begin to Experience what it is to be Soldiers in the Wilderness."


By Sunday, August 6th, 1776, they had reached their temporary "home" on Mount Independence in Vermont, across Lake Champlain from Fort Ticonderoga.

From our visit to the site in September of 2015

View from Mount Independence across Lake Champlain towards Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga in the distance

Many of the company were already sick and "Now we begin to See Sick men laying on the cold ground without anything to cover them but their Blankets."  By August 20th, "28 men sick and unfit for duty."

On Mount Independence, those who were not too sick to work engaged in building physical support.  Entries by Lieutenant Burton mention the construction of fascines (bundles of sticks or straw to provide or strengthen defensive walls), the building of roads, and a log boom to prevent access by British ships on the lake. It is likely that Abijah engaged in some of this labor.

Civil war fascines, probably similar to those built by the "Wilton men" in the Revolutionary War

Although the men on Mount Independence heard gun and cannon fire and were twice ordered to "Man the Lines", it does not appear that they ever came under fire themselves.  More than 20 men died from illnesses and some were killed by Indians, but there were no casualties as a result of British forces.

On Thursday, November 21st, "we Rose very Early this morning and after Puting up our things and takeing our Breakfast we took our Leave of Mount Independence and our Little camp where we had Rested So many Nights and Days and we march off with the Remainying Part of our company....." As was typical of militia service of the time, the militia men served only a limited time and often returned home for the winter.

Abijah marched back to Wilton and resumed farming. For reasons unknown to me now, however, much of the Perry family later moved to Elizabethtown, New York.  There Abijah died and is buried in the Old Post Cemetery, along side his wife.