The final resting place of Carolina Friederichs

I've been trying to work out what happened to Carolina Helena Maria Friederichs née von Holst for some time now.

Recently I've been working on the Tourrier branch of the family - Carolina's sister Constantia married a Tourrier, and I'd found that her husband Jean Furcy Tourrier may have been buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

I sent off a query and hit the jackpot:

Jean Furcy Tourrier was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in 1867 in grave 20207, square 105, row 10. Also buried in that grave were Constance Tourrier in 1877, Albert Charles Millet in 1878, Alfred Holst Tourrier in 1892, and Caroline Fredericks in 1884.

Constance Tourrier was Jean Furcy Tourrier's wife - baptised as Constantia - with Constance obviously an anglicised version of the name.

Albert Charles Millet was the husband of Ida Sarah Tourrier, one of Jean Furcy and Constantia Tourrier's daughters. I don't know where Ida was buried - she died in 1919, after three of her four children, so perhaps she was buried with at least one of them.

Alfred Holst Tourrier was one of Jean Furcy and Constantia Tourrier's sons. He never married.

Caroline Fredericks was Carolina Helena Maria Friederichs née von Holst. Realising that she might have lived under an anglicised version of her name I searched through the English censuses to see if I could find her. The last time she was listed under the spelling of Friederichs was in the 1851 census. But there she was in the 1871 and 1881 censuses, as Caroline Fredericks. She was noted as widowed, and lived with a servant, or boarded with another family. So she was buried with her sister and some of her sister's family. It suggests to me that her husband, Joachim Friederichs, died overseas, and then she returned to England to live out the rest of her life. I'm glad I finally tracked down where she ended up, and her final resting place.

The Merrick family of Sligo

I've been contacted by a Merrick relative - my third cousin once removed - so I've been delving into the Merricks back in Ireland again.

William Merrick was my great great great grandfather. William was married to Jane, and they had at least seven children: James (1845-1911, my great great grandfather), Samuel (1849-1913), Anne Jane (1862-?), John Thomas (1864-1959), Mary Ellen (1867-?), William (dates unknown, but apparently died as a child), and Esther (dates unknown). Considering the early children were born around the time of the Irish potato famine, I can't imagine life would have been easy for the Merricks in those early years of their family.

I don't know when William Merrick was born or died, or even who his parents were, but he certainly lived in Sligo, County Sligo, Ireland during his life. The first address I have the Merricks living at was in 1845, recorded on son James' baptism record, in Ramseys Row, with William noted as a shoemaker. On the baptism of son Samuel, in 1849, and in 1862, at the baptism of daughter Anne Jane, the family was in Williams St, and William was again noted as a shoemaker. In 1858 William Merrick was noted in the Griffiths Land Valuations as occupying a house, office and garden of 17 perches on the south side of Georges St, Town of Sligo. There is also another record, the same year, for a William Merrick occupying land (no buildings) of just over one acre in Derrydarragh or Oakfield, Parish of St Johns, but I'm not sure that this is him. Again in 1867 the family was living in Georges St, at the time of daughter Mary Ellen's baptism. In 1870 William was listed in the Slaters Directory as a shoemaker, and also as the keeper of the Fire Engine Station, in John St, Sligo. William was also the village sexton at the time they lived in John St, apparently in the Sexton's House. I have found reference to the fire engine being kept on the premises next door to the sexton's house in John St, as the vestry was responsible for the repair and upkeep of the engine, being a public service. This certainly fits with William being both the keeper of the engine and the village sexton.

James and Samuel followed their father into shoemaking and emigrated to Australia. John Thomas was a carpenter and also emigrated to Australia. Both Anne Jane and Mary Ellen married. Esther also married but has also gone down in a corner of literary history. Apparently the Merricks were neighbours of the Yeats family. In his childhood the famous poet William Butler Yeats was taught spelling by Esther Merrick and she also took it upon herself to read poetry to him. Yeats' father later said it was Esther Merrick who made a poet out of young William, though he was kind enough not to credit her with his son's appalling spelling!

And that is about all that is known for certain of my Merrick family in Sligo. There were plenty of other Merricks in Sligo. My Merricks were Protestant though there were some in Sligo who were Catholic. Interestingly, a Samuel Merrick was the sexton in Colry (Calry) parish, Co. Sligo in 1860 - possibly a relation. I'm sure there were lots of Merrick relations in Co. Sligo, I just haven't been able to straighten out all the relationships!

Jean Furcy Tourrier

Jean Furcy Tourrier was born in about 1799, apparently in Paris, France. He arrived in England some time before 1830, when he first advertised French classes:

METHODE-JACOTOT. - The great success that Mr. Jacotot's Method meets with on the Continent has induced Monsieur TOURRIER, Professor of French and Drawing, not only to give it a serious study, but to try it in one of his establishments, and from the rapid improvement, especially in the pronunciation, he no longer hesitates to adopt it, and intends forming CLASSES, either at home or abroad. He will form on the 15th of August an evening class in the city. Mr. Tourrier has in the press a Treatise, in which he will display verbatim la methode Jacotot. Apply at 41 Great Portland Street, Portland Place, on Mondays and Thursdays, till 12 o'clock; or at Mr. Price's 7 Cateaton Street. The Times, 2 Aug 1830, Issue 14294, p.2.

He married Constantia Eleonora von Holst at St Pancras Old, St Pancras, London, on 20 June 1833. Jean was about 34 years of age, Constantia 28 years old.

As well as teaching French, Jean Furcy Tourrier also wrote many books about learning French, the first one published in 1830, the last one in the 1860s, and many are held by the British Library. He was apparently known in France for teaching in London using the Jacotot method - a method of teaching languages devised by Joseph Jacotot. Jean Furcy Tourrier apparently built up quite a good career in London and taught at many different colleges (such as the Westminster School - apparently for 14 years, London Academy of Music, Cavendish College, Northumberland College for Ladies, and Notting Hill College for Ladies). He also taught day and evening classes in many locations across London (e.g. Islington, Highgate, Notting Hill, Kensington, Hammersmith, Richmond, plus his own residence) and offered private lessons, both in London and abroad.

Evidently a claim to fame, according to the introductory pages of a number of his publications, Jean Furcy Tourrier was French Master at Westminster School for 14 years, and reader to HRH Princess Sophia. I puzzled over this idea of being a "reader" to a princess for a day or two (what did it mean?) until I remembered something I had read about Princess Sophia - she was blind for over ten years before her death. Perhaps he was simply her reader - someone who read things to her because she herself could not. How he might have landed a job like that is an interesting question!

Jean Furcy Tourrier was also an artist and taught drawing. As far as I know, none of his works have survived. I have found that he exhibited a fair number of works in the exhibitions of the Royal Academy in 1838, 1839, 1843, 1845 and 1846. All the works were landscapes, most of them entered in the Drawing and Miniature category - I suspect they were all drawings. Two of his sons were also artists - Turban Holst Alfred Tourrier (known as Alfred Holst Tourrier, many of his works have survived) and Gustave Leon Furcy Tourrier (apparently not as well known or prolific as his brother). Both the sons painted in oils, though I'm sure their father would have given them a good foundation in drawing.

Jean Furcy Tourrier also seemed to be a bit of an inventor, and twice registered petitions for patents for wildly different ideas. The first, with his petition registered on 16 February 1859, was for the invention of "preventing oscillation of the last carriage of a railway train, and giving rigidity and steadiness throughout the train" (London Gazette, Issue 22236, p.1012). The second, the petition registered on 21 January 1862, was for the invention of "an improved method of, and apparatus for, warning adjoining houses by means of air chambers attached to grates in the party walls dividing houses" (London Gazette, Issue 22596 p.667). It makes me imagine him sitting at home, or on the train, thinking, dreaming up new ways to make things better.

Although Jean Furcy Tourrier was from France, it is possible he had a sister living in London at least for a time as well. Louise Aglaée Tourrier married Louis Charles Emiland Manneville at St Anne's Soho, Westminster on 16 December 1827. Louis was himself born in England, but possibly his parents were both French (Louis Athanase Manneville and Catherine Jauvet). Louise was born in France - I have seen a record of her arrival in England, returning after 5 years away, from Boulogne in France, and she is recorded as a native of France, her occupation "Lady". I have nothing concrete to prove this assumption that she is Jean Furcy Tourrier's sister, apart from the fact that the dates are similar, and a variation of her middle name was used for one of Jean and Constantia's daughters - Georgiana Eleonora Aglae Tourrier.

Jean Furcy Tourrier died on 26 January 1867, aged 68, and was buried in Kensal Green. He apparently worked right up until his death, as the Northumberland College for Ladies was still advertising him as their French teacher a week before his death.

2012 - The year in review

I had thought that this past year hadn't been quite as successful as the previous one based on exciting finds, but in reviewing all my work for this post, I'm not so sure that's correct. True, there haven't been as many well-known/famous people popping up in the family tree, but I've still found out huge amounts, but with a lot more hard slog.

I thought for my review of this past year's research I would focus on the most useful resources I've used. Not the ones that anyone can plug a search into and find info - like Ancestry or Findmypast, but the ones where it takes much more patience, but in the end can be so much more rewarding because you discover a titbit of information which no one else has known about perhaps since the time the relevant person and their close relatives died.

I love research and have no problem trawling for hours through parish records or newspaper articles to find useful information. Often it involves the use of Google Translator to translate things from French or German, but that's just more of the fun! So here are the most useful resources that I've used this year for finding obscure bits of family history information:

FamilySearch microfilms
I am enormously grateful to Pauleen Cass for putting me onto this wonderful resource. Although on FamilySearch you are able to search for records online, the Church of the Latter Day Saints has microfilmed thousands, possibly millions, of parish records from across the world, which you can borrow for a limited time for a small fee, and access through your local Family History Centre. You can find the records available for borrowing through their catalogue search. Through this service I have searched through many for baptism, marriage and burial records for lots of Beringers this year, as well as some of the Baumgartens in Germany. There is no way I could have accessed all of those as easily if I were trawling through the same records in the local archives in Germany. Here, I can take down the information, go home and translate it, and then go back for more when I know who else to look for. As well as the vital records I also checked out a merchant navy record for someone who turned out to not be a relative. Looking through parish records takes a lot of patience, especially when they are written in other languages, but you can find out so much that you just can't get anywhere else.

Gallica
Gallica is a search engine for French documents. Although you can choose to have the search page in English rather than French, the results are in whatever language the document was published in - most often French. From Gallica I have, over time, found an awful lot of information about the Weiss' and my research this year on William Baumgarten was definitely aided by Gallica. Usually when I use Gallica, I find any articles which appear to reference the person I am interested in (because I can't read French), then type the relevant paragraph(s) into Google Translator to work out if they actually are about the person I am researching. It's a slow painstaking process, but can be quite rewarding.

British Newspapers 1600-1900 (Gale)
These British newspapers are what I return to time and again when I am researching my English and Scottish relatives. As a resident of NSW I am eligible to be a member of the State Library of NSW, and in their e-resources I have access to this database (through a password), from the comfort of my own home. If your relative won any "biggest turnip" competitions at the local fair, got in trouble with the law, had possessions stolen, played in the local cricket team, advertised their business, etc, there's a chance they got their name in the paper. Once again it is a slow painstaking process checking through sometimes hundreds of articles to see if any of them actually refer to your own relative, but you can find some gems. I have found lots of references to my musical relatives importing instruments, advertising music lessons, their latest published music, or write ups of concerts they were in. If the felt they were important enough (or rather had the money to pay for it) they might also have placed birth, death or marriage notices. However I also have many other relatives who seemed to keep their heads down, out of mischief and never rated a mention. It can be a real mixed bag.

UK National Archives Documents Online
The UK National Archives can be a goldmine of information - well what would you expect?! Through their catalogue you can search all collections or just online collections. With the online collections, for a small fee you can download the document straight away. It is very useful for wills and military records. The family line that I myself have traced back the furthest - the Peisleys in the 1600s (through the Weiss', Baumgartens and Joynes) - it was mainly because of information in wills that led me back so far, as the parish records that far back don't contain much useful family history information. Be prepared to decipher difficult handwriting.

So there's my top options for finding obscure information about your ancestors. Happy 2013!

Mademoiselle Leonora Tourrier

This particular bit of research was prompted because two Australian Tourrier relatives contacted me quite recently. So I thought I'd do a bit more Tourrier investigation for them!

Georgiana Eleonora Aglae Tourrier was born in Marylebone, London, England, on 19 December 1844 to Jean Furcy and Constantia Eleonora Tourrier (née von Holst), the third youngest of (by my count) ten children.

She was baptised at All Souls Church Marylebone on 12 July 1846. She was noted in the 1851 English Census as living at 69 Charlotte Street, Marylebone, with her parents, and a sister, two brothers and two servants.

I have not been able to find the Tourrier family in the 1861 Census. Perhaps they were in France visiting relatives - Jean Furcy Tourrier was born in Paris.

The next we hear of Leonora, as she was often called, was in a periodical article about a musical soirée to inaugurate the opening of the "Young Ladies College" in Regents Park in January 1865 (The Orchestra Musical Review, No. 70, 28 Nov 1865, p.279). "Mdlle. Tourrier", as one of the soloists, was to sing a cavatina "La Sonnambula" by Bellini and a song "Leggiero Invisible" by Arditi.

It would seem that Leonora made a small career out of singing before her marriage. In November 1867 she was a vocal soloist at a pianoforte recital at Westbourne Hall, Westbourne Park, Westminster (The Orchestra Musical Review, No. 216, 16 Nov 1867, p.117). In December of the same year she performed in a second recital at the same place, and was encored in her performance of a serenade (The Orchestra Musical Review, No. 221, 21 Dec 1867, p.196). She also sang at a concert in the Beethoven Rooms in July 1868, and at the inauguration of a new branch of the Marylebone Penny Readings in Paddington Green in February 1869. In June 1869, as a pupil of Madame Therese Leupold (well known in musical circles in those days), she performed some classical songs at a musical soirée of Mme Leupold's. "The singing of Madlle. Tourrier in Glück's "Chè farò," was in every respect excellent... the duet, "Voga tonio," by Madlle. Tourrier and Miss Goodall, and two vocal trios, in which the above mentioned ladies were joined by Miss Ogle, were received, as they deserved to be, with the most spontaneous applause." The Musical Times, 1 July 1869, p.148.

By 1874 Leonora was married, to Anthony Charles Montague Jellicoe, a former soldier in India, China and the Cape of Good Hope. They were married at St Matthew's Brixton, Leonora aged 29 and Anthony 33. Anthony was listed as a "Gent", and they both lived in Acre Lane - and at a guess they lived together - they had four children together, all boys, with their first child born two years before they married.

I do wonder what calibre of "Gentleman" Anthony Jellicoe actually was - he was made bankrupt in 1866 and apparently spent time in the Debtor's Prison, he got Leonora pregnant before they were married, and eventually, when he died in 1895, he left all his money (£300) to some spinster named Annie White even though he was still married to Leonora!

Anyway, Leonora lived out her days with her sons (at least for some of the time), until her death in the fourth quarter of 1923, her death registered in Brentford, Middlesex.

Samuel Wickham, butcher of Linton

Samuel Wickham (born about 1749, died ?) was my 5x great grandfather. Samuel was baptised at St Peters Tunbridge (also known as Tonbridge), Kent, England on 17 May 1749. His parents were Samuel Wickham and Ann Humphery. My research shows that Samuel was the youngest of six children, though there may well be other children I haven't uncovered, but all the known children were baptised in Tunbridge.

Samuel married Ann Duddy, from Hunton, on 16 November 1776 by licence. Samuel, a bachelor, was noted as a butcher in the village of Linton, and Ann was a spinster.

Samuel and Ann had six children all presumably born and definitely baptised in Linton - Rebecca (born about 1777, baptised 10 Aug, 1777), Thomas (my 4x great grandfather, born about 1778, baptised 27 Dec 1778), Samuel (born about 1780, baptised 14 Aug 1780), Edward (born about 1782, baptised 10 Feb 1782, buried 24 Feb 1782), Ann (born about 1783, baptised 4 Apr 1783), and Mary (born about 1784, baptised 14 Jul 1784, buried 4 Sep 1784).

Samuel's wife Ann died in Dec 1784, and was buried in the St Marys Hunton churchyard on 17 December 1784.

What happened to Samuel then is a matter of guesswork. I have found a marriage (by licence) record for a Samuel Wickham and a Mary Duddy in Lambeth, London, on 25 May 1785. Both Samuel and Mary are noted as living in the parish of Lambeth St Mary, and tellingly, Samuel is a widower. If this is my Samuel, the fact that he married a woman with the same surname as his late wife suggests she may well be a relative, perhaps Ann's sister.

I have also found a record for a child named John Wickham, born to Mary Duddy and "Wickham" (no first name noted), who was baptised in Hunton, Kent in 1785.

So if this is my Samuel Wickham, marrying his sister-in-law, or at least his late wife's relative, I wonder what they were doing in Lambeth, London? Did baby John come before or after the wedding? That they married in London and later returned to the Linton-Hunton area suggests to me that perhaps John was conceived before they were married, they went to London to hide the pregnancy from the locals of Linton-Hunton, then returned, married, with a new baby. I'd be interested to know where Samuel's other children were while all this went on. Of course, this is all my guesses - I don't know for sure that it was my Samuel Wickham, but I suspect it was.

As for when he died, there are many family trees on Ancestry which suggest he died in 1802, but I can find no evidence for this.

The Baumgartens of Germany

The other day I wrote about looking up the marriage records on microfilm (1189776) for a couple of Baumgartens in Lahr, Baden, Germany at the local LDS Family History Centre.

I have transcribed the records as best as I can, though there are a few words that I just can't decipher.

The marriage of Juliana Ernestina Baumgarten and Johann Friedrich Haberkorn:
Johann Friedrich Haberkorn, zeitlicher Cantor und Praeceptor Secundarius und Wittwer dahin und Juliana Ernestina, Herr Nicolaus Baumgarten der zeit Cantoris und Praeceptoris Secundari zu Usingen, eheliche ledige tochter.

The marriage of Christian Leopold Baumgarten and Maria Salome Dieterlin:
Christian Leopold Baumgarten Praeceptor und Organist zu Altensenn(?). Herr Joh. Nicolaus Baumgarten Cantoris und Praeceptoris zu Usingen, ehelicher ledigen Sohn und Jgfr [Jungfer] Maria Salome, Jacob Dieterlin das ...... ......... und Weiss E....s, und Stadt Musici ehelicher ledigen tochter.

I was talking to a German friend, who has studied Latin, about the Latin words in the records, which apparently refer to occupations - Cantoris and Praeceptoris Secondari(us). She did a bit of research for me and found that Cantoris is likely to refer to a music teacher, and Praeceptoris means someone who teaches Latin. Secundari(us) is likely to refer to the fact that the Latin teacher is not the head teacher, but a lower ranking teacher of Latin.

It's the musical bit that interests me the most. Samuel Baumgarten, my 5x great grandfather, could be the son of Johann(es) Nicolaus Baumgarten. Samuel, being an apparently talented bassoonist, might well have inherited some musical talent from a music teacher father. It certainly appears that the family moved in musical circles.

So I'm chipping away at this Baumgarten mystery. My thanks go to Miriam for her Latin help!

Not him

I recently was able to look at the Register of Seamen's Tickets 1845-1854 (LDS microfilm 1482525), which included the ticket (no. 56694) for one William Rich of Bridgwater, Somerset. I hoped it would answer the question of how my great great grandfather William Rich reached Australia.

Unfortunately, it didn't help me - my William Rich was born in about 1832. The William Rich of seamen's ticket 56694 was born in 1818 and first went to sea as an apprentice in 1835. Shame. So my William Rich must have swum here after all!

The Baumgartens from somewhere in Germany

Quite some time ago I found out the names of the siblings of my 5x great grandfather the bassoonist Samuel Christian Frederic Baumgarten, according to the will of their brother John Henry Baumgarten. Although both Samuel and John lived and died in England, it has long been believed that Samuel was of German birth (according to musical history sources), but no one knew exactly where he was from. Once I knew names of Samuel and John's brothers and sisters I hoped that information might help me narrow down where the Baumgartens came from. The names were Leopold Baumgarten, Frederick Baumgarten, Gertrud Schwein, Magdalen Schmied, Julia Haberkorn, and Frances Baumgarten.

My best hope was FamilySearch, so I plugged all the names into FamilySearch, focusing particularly on the married sisters - this was because I had an extra name to work with - not just the maiden name but also the married name. I possibly found something with Julia Haberkorn - a marriage record for a Juliana Ernestina Baumgarter to a Johann Friedrich Haberkor in a protestant church in Lahr, Offenburg, Baden, Germany on 17 February 1757. Despite the slightly different spellings I thought it was enough to order the microfilm of the parish records for Lahr in to my local LDS Family History Centre.

The microfilm arrived this week and I was able to make the time to have a look. I found February 1757 and looked for the names Baumgarten and Haberkorn. I was confused to find an entry for Christian Leopold Baumgarten rather than Juliana Ernestina Baumgarter/n. But she was there as well, only her brother Christian Leopold was married ten days before her.

Going back to Juliana though - in the parish records her surname was actually Baumgarten, not Baumgarter, and Haberkor was actually Haberkorn - they have evidently been transcribed incorrectly by the FamilySearch transcription volunteers. Although I haven't quite worked out exactly what the entry says (it's written in German language in the German Kurrent script), it does tell me that Juliana's father's name was Nicolaus Baumgarten, and seems to suggest that both he and the groom - who was a widower - were possibly secondary teachers (Praeceptoris secundari)?

The entry for Christian Leopold Baumgarten's marriage to Maria Salome Dieterlin on 7 February 1757 shows that his father was Joh. Nicolaus Baumgarten, with the same occupation as Juliana's father. I'm pretty sure that means they were one and the same father. Interestingly, if I'm translating it correctly, it suggests that the father Johann(es?) Nicolaus Baumgarten was from Usingen (...Joh. Nicolaus Baumgarten Cantoris und Praeceptoris zu Usingen...).

So the question is: are Juliana Ernestina Baumgarten and Christian Leopold Baumgarten siblings of Samuel and John Baumgarten?

• Names: Julia could well be a diminutive form of Juliana, and with the baptisms of his children Christian Leopold was sometimes named as Leopold Christian.
• Church: that they were married in a Protestant church rather than a Catholic church fits well with the fact that Samuel Baumgarten's children were baptised in a parish of the Church of England.
• Usingen: if Johann(es) Nicholas Baumgarten was from Usingen that gives me a link to Samuel Baumgarten's daughter Marie, who was, according to the Burgerbuch of the city of Mulhouse, from Nassau-Usingen. As far as I know, none of Samuel Baumgarten's other children were born there, so what were they doing there if they weren't visiting family? It is possible he could have been on a music tour, but there is little evidence that he did anything like that - apparently only being well known as a musician in England. And would you take your apparently heavily pregnant wife with you on a music tour anyway?

So if these are Julia Haberkorn and Leopold Baumgarten, sister and brother of Samuel and John Baumgarten, where are the rest of the siblings? I haven't seen the baptism and burial records for Lahr to see if the Baumgarten siblings were born/baptised in Lahr, or if their father/parents was/were buried there. That may be my next step. And I also need to investigate the Usingen link and see where that takes me. So the circumstantial evidence points to them possibly being the siblings of Samuel and John, but there is nothing at this stage that indisputably links them. More work needed!

Trove Tuesday: An unexpected hotelier's license

LICENSING BUSINESS
The license of the Exchange Hotel, King-street, was transferred from James Merrick and Samuel Harper, executors under the will of the late Edward Sadler to Joseph Gordon.
1874. Licensing Business, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December, p. 5, viewed 17 November 2012. http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13338044.

I've been putting old searches back into Trove of late, as they've been adding a whole lot of new newspapers into their databases. I was quite surprised to find this notice in the Sydney Morning Herald. I had no knowledge of there being any hotelier's licenses in the Merrick branch of the family - even if only briefly. Samuel Harper was married to James Merrick's wife's sister. Edward Sadler was the previous owner of the Exchange Hotel, where James was apparently a regular. There is an article in The Empire about a man up on charges of assault, and one of the people deposed was James Merrick, who carried on business locally in King St as a shoemaker. Apparently he was in Sadler's hotel with the accused, and swore he ate oysters with him some time around midnight, as was his custom to eat oysters at night (The Empire, 25 May 1874, page 3). This was after his first wife Mary Ann had died (Jan 1870), before he married Eliza Jane Ball (1875). I do hope that after he married Eliza Jane that he didn't stay out till all hours of the night like that!