A Prussian soldier in a Netherlands garrison town

I've been researching further back in one of the German parts of my family. The surname in question has many variations: Völker/Voelker, Volcker/Völcker/Voelcker and Voelke, and probably other permutations as well.

Charlotte Eufemia Arnoldine Völker was my 3x great grandmother, "married" to Adolph Mondientz (I've never found any marriage record for them).

Her parents were Franz Michael Völker (dates unknown) and Catharina Susanna Arnoldina von Renesse (1793-1847). Franz was an artist, two of his artworks, from which lithographs were made, are represented in the digital collection of the Museum Kurhaus Kleve (Cleve, Cleves, Kleef), Germany. Franz was a drawing teacher at the Royal Gymnasium, Cleve from 1819, and also illustrated a guide book to Cleve in 1826.

According to his marriage record from the evangelical church in Cleve on 20 October 1819, Franz was a kunstmaler (artist) from Heusden, a town in the Netherlands. 

I have not been able to find a birth record for Franz Michael Völker in Heusden, however, I have found a marriage record there for his parents, Conrad Voelker and Alida Kühne (Kune/Kunen/Cune/Cunen/Cuunen), on 19 July 1791, and a baptism record for a son, Franciscus Xaverius Voelcker, supposedly legitimate, on 30 March 1791. Was Franciscus Xaverius actually Franz Michael? Who knows.

The marriage record for Conrad and Alida is interesting. It says that Alida was born in and a resident of the town of Heusden, but that Conrad was a soldier, residing in the town at the garrison, but born in Kirchheim, Duitsland (Germany). 

What was a Prussian soldier doing in a Netherlands garrison town in 1791?

Heusden is a fortified garrison town, formed by a geometric moat with ramparts built in the 1300s to form a star shape, situated beside the Maas River.

The star shaped fortified garrison town of Heusden, Netherlands.
Image from Google Maps, accessed 8 June 2026.

It was a strategic area, in mediaeval times the location of where three borders converged, a major defence post against the Spanish in the Dutch War of Independence, and a critical stronghold during the Batavian Revolution.

In the 1780s, the Batavian Revolution began when the Dutch Patriot movement actively worked to diminish the authoritarian rule of Stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange, and the town of Heusden was a focal point for local Patriot activity. William V's wife, Wilhelmina, was the sister of the King of Prussia, and after she was stopped by Patriots from travelling to The Hague, she appealed to her brother for help, and he obligingly sent 20,000 Prussian soldiers to help suppress the Patriots.

One must assume that Conrad Voelker, a Prussian soldier in Heusden in 1791 was part of this bid to suppress the Patriots. Considering he married a local girl, Alida Kühne, she probably was seen to be siding with the enemy by much of the Patriot-aligned townsfolk. Interestingly, Alida's father was also a soldier. The Prussian regiment stationed at the garrison was part of the forces that surrendered in 1795 to Patriots working with the invading French revolutionary army.

Little wonder that by his early- to mid-twenties, their son Franz Michael was living and working in Cleve in Germany. It is not known what became of Conrad Voelker and his wife Alida. Had they left Heusden before the surrender to the triumphant Patriots, or were they caught up in it?

Where was John Wilkey born?

My 3x great grandfather John Wilkey died in August 1877 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, aged 65. He was a tobacco pipe maker. He married Elizabeth Bath at St John the Baptist, Bedminster on 11 March 1833. 

My biggest question is where John was born. 

The 1841 Census has him living in Great George Street, Bristol, with his family and two other families, including his in-laws. It gives his age as 25, though the 1841 Census ages for adults are rounded to the nearest 5 or 10. It says he is from Out of County - therefore he was not born in Gloucestershire.

In 1851 the Census lists John and his family living at New Street, Bristol. His age is given as 38 and he was supposedly born in Bath, Somerset. The rest of his family are all listed as born in Bristol, Gloucestershire.

The 1861 Census has John, his wife Elizabeth, son John, and grandson James living in Prospect Place, Bristol. John is aged 48, and his birthplace is given as Bath, Somerset.

The 1871 Census has John and his wife Elizabeth living together, gives John's age as 58, and once again his birthplace is listed as Bath, Somerset.

One would think this is all pretty compelling evidence that John Wilkey was born in Bath, Somerset in about 1813. Unfortunately, I cannot find any record for a John Wilkey born around 1813 in Bath. 

Searching using FreeReg, I widened the search to the whole of Somerset, in 1813, which produced one record - a baptism for John Wilkey in 1813 in Taunton, Somerset, to Joseph and Susanna Wilkey. Widening the search further, for Somerset between 1810 to 1815 found three baptism records, John Wilkey (as above), William Wilkey, in 1811 in Wilton (part of Taunton), who was John's brother, and Mary Wilkey, in 1814, to William and Diana Wilkey, in Templecombe. The distance as the crow flies from Bath to Taunton is about 65km, and from Bath to Templecombe is about 40km - neither place being particularly close to Bath.

For good measure, I searched all counties in England on FreeReg between 1810 and 1815 for Wilkey baptisms. This produced eight records, from Devon, Somerset and Cornwall. The only John Wilkey was the one from Taunton, Somerset in 1813.

I changed the setting to names that might sound like John Wilkey and it produced the following:

Name	Baptism	Place
John WALLIS	20 Feb 1813	Frome
John WELCH	18 Apr 1813	Kilmington
John WELLS	12 Jun 1813	Shepton Mallet
John WILLS	27 Jun 1813	West Chinnock
John WILKEY	25 Dec 1813	Taunton

The fact that there is only one John Wilkey makes me choose him as the most likely option.

I realise that FreeReg doesn't have a comprehensive record of all parish record baptisms in England, so I searched FamilySearch for a John Wilkey baptised in 1813 in England. Once again, the only John Wilkey baptised in 1813 in the whole of England in their records was the one baptised in Taunton to Joseph and Susanna Wilkey.

So we could assume from all this that our John Wilkey was born in Taunton, baptised at Taunton St James on 25 December 1813, born to parents Joseph and Susanna Wilkey. However, there is still the chance that our John Wilkey's baptism hasn't yet been transcribed, or even that he was never baptised, hence no record of his baptism in Bath. I haven't found any evidence of a Wilkey family living in Bath at that time, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.

For now, though I have decided to assume that our John Wilkey was born in Taunton to Joseph and Susanna Wilkey, and will continue to wonder whether it is actually correct or not. I guess the only way to definitely know might be through DNA, which so far, I haven't delved into.

And then, of course, we wonder what made John Wilkey move to Bristol and settle there...

The life of Adolph Mondientz

I’ve done some further research on the Mondientz family recently, and thought I’d do an update on Adolph Mondientz, my 3x great grandfather. I've cited all sources for the information I've found.

I managed to find a birthdate for him - he was born on 27 May 1820, in Hamburg¹, to Johann Ludwig Mondientz and his wife Anna Catharina née Kuntzmann. He appears to have been the eldest child in a family of at least seven children. Adolph’s father was the Markt Vogt (Market Bailiff) of the Neustadt in Hamburg.

In January 1842 Adolph was conscripted for military service in the Hamburg Citizen Militia². The term of service was 3 years, but after training, if it was peacetime, they were given 11 months leave per year, and had compulsory weapons training for the remaining month. It is likely that Adolph would have been required to assist during the great fire of Hamburg in May 1842, assuming he had finished his training.

The next we hear of Adolph was in December 1843, aged 23, when he fathered a daughter (Emma Auguste Bertha) to Auguste Borsch³. Baby Emma was baptised in St Jacobi church, Magdeburg, on 1 January 1844. Adolph was named in the baptism record as the father, but it is unknown whether Adolph was ever in Magdeburg or whether the baby was conceived there. There is no evidence that Adolph and Auguste ever married, and Auguste and Emma remained in Magdeburg, while Adolph continued his life without them. Did he even know of the existence of his first child? Further research has revealed that Auguste apparently moved to Berlin with Emma, and married and had further children with another man.

Since there wasn’t really a family business for Adolph to follow his father into, Adolph ended up working as a Dekorations Maler (decorative painter) in theatre productions. He also worked as an Inspicient (stage manager), and sometimes acted in productions as well. Whether the work in this field was not terribly steady, or Adolph had itchy feet, he moved around a lot, mostly in towns and cities close to the Rhine River, from what is now north-western Germany down to the Frankfurt area.

On 11 June 1844, the mother of Adolph’s future children, Charlotte Eufemia Arnoldine Völker gave birth to her first child, Gottlieb Völker⁴, in her home town of Cleve. Unfortunately one half of the page of the parish record for Gottlieb’s birth is not available on FamilySearch, so I don’t know whether there is any father listed for Gottlieb’s birth. There is no evidence that Adolph was in Cleve at this time, therefore we must assume that Gottlieb’s father was not Adolph. However, once he arrived in Cleve (late 1847/early 1848?) and partnered up with Charlotte, he apparently took on Gottlieb as his own.

Adolph first appears in the theatre almanacs for the year 1845, when he was 25 years old, once he had finished his military service. He worked as the Inspicient (stage manager) and Decorateur (decorator), at the Osnabrück Theatre, as well as performing in various acting roles when required⁵. 1846 saw him working at the Hanau and Offenbach United Theatre as stage manager⁶. In the 1847 season, Adolph was the decorative painter and theatre master in Mülheim an der Ruhr⁷.

By 1848 Adolph had arrived in Cleve, apparently shacked up with Charlotte Volker, and she’d given birth to their first child, Adolphine Franciska, on 22 September⁸. Adolphine was baptised on 10 October 1848 at the Evangelical church in Cleve. The baptismal record states that her parents were resident in Cleve, and she was the second child (after Gottlieb?) and first daughter of her parents. I have not managed to locate a marriage record for Adolph and Charlotte, and it is possible they never officially married and were able to get away with it because they moved so often.

In 1848 Adolph applied to have his Hamburg citizenship dismissed. I’m not totally sure what actual benefits (or negatives) there were for Adolph, being a citizen of a city that he no longer lived in. Did it mean he had to pay tax there? He’d already completed his military service, so he wasn’t trying to get out of that.

28 December 1849 Johann Ludwig born in Iserlohn, baptised 12 Jan 1850⁹. He died in Bonn, where the family were living, on 6 July 1856 when he was six and a half years old¹⁰.

In 1851 an interesting “Explanation” was published in the Bonner Zeitung¹¹, whereby Adolph Mondientz gave a grovelling apology to Herr Director Wilhelm Löwe (at the time the director of the Köln Theatre), with whom he had apparently been in dispute. I’m not sure how exactly they intersected as Löwe was only at the Theatre in Köln for the 1850-1851 season (apparently his time there was not successful) and Adolph is not listed in the 1850 theatre directory. According to the “Explanation” it seems that Adolph had been using Löwe’s name to obtain work in private homes, possibly in Bonn, and Löwe appeared to have a very low opinion of Adolph’s decorative painter abilities. So from this we might deduce that Adolph had been working as a decorative painter in a residential setting, as opposed to in a theatrical setting, during this period.

Later in the year the Mondientz family moved on to Elberfeld, where he worked as a performed at the Elberfeld Theatre. On 19 September 1851 daughter Emma Johanna was born in Elberfeld¹².

In 1852, the Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach listed both Herr and Frau Mondientz as Abgegangen (departed) from the Aachen Theatre¹³. However, an advertisement for the Aachen Theatre in the Echo der Gegenwart expressly notes that the set decoration for a performance of Under der Erde was painted by decorative painter Herr Mondientz¹⁴.

After that, Adolph didn’t work in the theatre for a few years. Did the situation with Herr Director Löwe have a big impact on his work? The family seems to have settled in Köln during this time, and son Georg Friedrich was born there on 14 October 1853¹⁵. The family was listed in the 1854 Köln Adress-Buch as living at Kleiner Griechenmarkt 70, and Adolph was working as a painter (Maler). The family was listed in 1855 as living in Catherinengr. 30, and Adolph as a decorative painter.

By the 1855 theatre season, Adolph was back, working as a performer in the Cleve and Arnheim Theatre¹⁶, presumably while visiting his wife’s family in Cleve. The family only stayed up north in Cleve for one season, and then moved back south to Coblenz, where Adolph was the stage manager at the Coblenz Theatre for the next theatre season¹⁷. It would seem that during their travels south, sadly their son Johann Ludwig died in Bonn, on 6 July 1856, aged six and a half¹⁸.

Some time around 1856, daughter Sophie Friederike Wilhelmine was born. I have not found a birth record for her, however, this vague date of birth is calculated from her age of 33 when she died in January 1889¹⁹.

Adolph is not listed in any theatre almanacs in 1857, so we can only assume he was working privately. On 9 October that year, daughter Caroline Mathilde was born In Coblenz. Once again, I have not found a birth record for her, this information instead coming from her marriage record²⁰.

Adolph was working at the Offenbach Theatre as the stage manager in 1858²¹. Adolph’s world changed when Charlotte died in Bockenheim on 28 September 1858. Adolph put a notice in the Kölnische Zeitung advising relatives and friends of her death after a long period of suffering, from pulmonary tuberculosis²². The notice said he and their six underage children mourned the passing of his dearly beloved wife. In October, not even a month later, a benefit concert was held for Adolph in Bockenheim, where they were living²³. In December another benefit performance was held for Adolph in Giessen²⁴, as he had moved on to Offenbach Theatre for work (which was also linked with the theatres in Gießen and Marburg)²⁵. Clearly, despite struggling to care for his six children, the show had to go on for Adolph. The eldest child, Gottlieb, was only 14 at the time of his mother’s death - was he sent out to work to help make ends meet? One assumes Fanny (Adolphine Franziska), aged 10, was put in charge of looking after the younger children, including Sophie and Caroline, who were both still infants.

Adolph moved on to Düsseldorf next, where he worked at the Düsseldorf Theatre from 1859-1861. Some theatre posters for the time have survived, and show that as well as Adolph being involved, his daughters Fanny and Emma sometimes performed when child roles were required. What better way to mind your kids while working, than to have them there with you, involved as well! As well as his own children, there was also a “Marie Mondientz” who was a child actor in a couple of productions. I have written about her here.

It would seem that the children’s maternal extended family were concerned about Adolph’s ability to provide for his children as well. According to an auction notice in the Clevisches Volksblatt²⁶, they (Charlotte’s sister, brother-in-law and brother) brought some sort of legal case against Adolph in his capacity as father and guardian of his underage children, and as a result handed down in the regional court in Cleve on October 19, 1861, there were four properties put up for auction. It's not clear to me exactly what was going on here, but I can only assume that the money from the sale of the properties was going to be used for the care of the children.

From some time in 1861, Adolph moved his family to Krefeld, in order to work at the theatre there. Interestingly, in September 1861 (before the court case above was finalised), there was a benefit performance held at the Crefeld Vaudeville Theatre for Mondientz and his children²⁷. In the theatre, Fanny and Emma continued to act in productions when child roles were called for. By 1865, Adolph appeared to have found someone to help him look after his family, as a woman named Anna Catharina Geurts gave birth to his child, Louise Emily, on December 10²⁸. Did they marry? I have found no record of this. I do not know what became of Louise, or her mother.

It is unknown where or when Adolph Mondientz died. According to his daughter Caroline Mathilde’s marriage record in 1880, he lived in Siegburg, working as a decorative painter, but I don’t know if this was his current residence at the time or where he lived when he died. I suspect it may have been his current residence in 1880, because it does note that her late mother’s last residence was Bockenheim (zuletzt wohnhaft zu Bockenheim)²⁹. I have found someone’s genealogy records online that suggest Adolph died in Siegburg in 1862, but he was definitely alive after 1862, working and fathering a child!

I get the impression that Adolph was perhaps the black sheep of his family, choosing an unusual career path for the day. I wonder if he ever returned to Hamburg once he left to strike out on his own? I think he was a generous person, and felt things deeply. He may have been a bit of a player (children to three different women, none of whom he was known to have married), but I believe he was loyal to those he cared about. He took on a child who was not his own, and was heartbroken by the death of his wife Charlotte. He transported a gaggle of children around with him, even after Charlotte died. He may not have lived the most orthodox existence for his time, but I think his character was generally good.

I do wonder for his children though - the only one I know anything about was his daughter Caroline Matilda, my great great grandmother. She married into a Catholic family, even though she was Lutheran, they emigrated to Australia, had a good number of children, and then she committed suicide when she was 38 years old. I believe, had he known of this, Adolph would have been greatly distressed. However, I do think he would have been extremely proud of his grandson George, Caroline’s son, who was a silent movie actor known as George Beranger.

---

1. Hamburg.de, Bestand 332-2, Generalregister 1816-1866. The register doesn’t have any details of the birth/baptism, just details of where to find the record. I haven’t been able to access any actual records for the correct parish in Hamburg at this time.

2. Hamburger Nachrichten, 21 January 1845, page 5.

3. Ancestry, Saxony, Anhalt, Anhalt-Bernburg, Anhalt-Dessau and Anhalt-Köthen, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1890. Auguste’s full name was Louise Sophie Auguste Borsch.

4. FamilySearch Film 8210290, page 22, lefthand side not photographed, righthand side: image 369.

5. Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst 1846, Berlin, p247.

6. Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst 1847, Berlin, p163.

7. Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst 1848, Berlin, p248.

8. FamilySearch Film 8210290, page 43, lefthand side: image 497, righthand side: image 390.

9. Archion, Iserlohn Oberste Stadtgemeinde, Taufen für 1849-1857, Band 14, image 21.

10. Bonner Zeitung, 13 July 1856, p6.

11. Bonner Zeitung, 19 April 1851, p4.

12. FamilySearch Film 108257378, image 402.

13. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1853, Berlin, p34.

14. Echo der Gegenwart, 18 December 1852, p4.

15. Kölnische Zeitung, 19 October 1853, p4. In “Civilstand der Stadt Köln, Geburten”. The name given in the notice was Friedrich.

16. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1856, Berlin, p427.

17. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1857, Berlin, p408.

18. Bonner Zeitung, 13 July 1856, p6.

19. Düsseldorfer Volksblatt, 25 January 1889, p4.

20. Ancestry, Hesse, Germany Marriages 1849-1930, p314, no.1014.

21. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1858, Berlin, p302.

22. Kölnische Zeitung, 2 October 1858, p4.

23. IntelligenzBlatt der Freien Stadt Frankfurt, 2te Beilage, No 250, 22 October 1858.

24. Anzeigeblatt für die Provinzialhauptstadt Gießen: Amtsblatt des Kreises Gießen, 29 December 1858, p4.

25. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1859, Berlin, p153.

26. Clevisches Volksblatt, 28 December 1861, p3.

27. Crefelder Anzeiger, 7 September 1861, p3.

28. Ancestry, Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898, Film 996110.

29. Ancestry, Hesse, Germany Marriages 1849-1930, page 314, record no. 1014.

Who was Marie Mondientz?

I've recently been doing more research on the Mondientz family, particularly Adolph Mondientz and his career in theatre.

I have found that Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf has, in their digital collections, some theatre posters for the Stadt Theatre in Düsseldorf for the years 1860 and 1861. Amongst these are a number which reference members of the Mondientz family, namely Adolph Mondientz, Emma Mondientz, F. Mondientz, and Marie Mondientz.

Adolph Mondientz is listed for all the acting roles he performed in many different plays, his daughters Emma and F (who would be Franciska) play child roles in a few of the plays, and then we have Marie. I can't work out who she is in the family because Adolph did not have any children with Marie in their name. She is only in one of the plays that have posters in the digital collection: Die Waise aus Lowood (Jane Eyre) where she performs in two productions, as Adele; the character being a young child of about 9 years old. So she must have been a child, but whose?

I suspect she might have been a cousin of Adolph's children, either a daughter of one of his brothers, or of one of his sisters, out of wedlock (hence the surname Mondientz), though I haven't found anyone that fits the bill yet. I haven't managed to find any birth record--or anything else, for that matter--for a Marie Mondientz at this stage either, so we are left to wonder. 

Samuel Baumgarten’s parents

I have been struggling to learn more about Samuel Christian Friedrich Baumgarten’s parents for quite some time. 

My research suggested that his father was a Cantor in Usingen, and that his name was Johann Nicolaus Friedrich Baumgarten. I had no information at all on his mother - not even her name. I guessed that they were Lutherans rather than Catholics, based on their son Samuel getting married in a Church of England parish when he was in England. It’s not a foolproof assumption, but sometimes you just have to make a guess in order to move your research forward!

Having trawled Google Books (which is often more useful for historical records, turning up information that you won’t necessarily find in a normal Google search) for references to a Cantor called “Baumgarten” in Usingen, I had found a few, most of which I realised actually referred to Johann Nicolaus Friedrich’s son, Johann Friedrich, who was a cantor in Usingen after his father died. One potentially useful search result showed a book only available with snippet view, which referenced a Nicolaus Baumgarten, who apparently was the Cantor (and a stocking maker) in Usingen, was from Sachsen, and died in 1754, and his son Johann Nicolaus Friedrich Baumgarten (Bonnet, 1965). Being a snippet view, I was unable to see the actual section on the son, and I’ve not been able to track down a hardcopy of the book to read it. I assumed that Nicolaus Baumgarten was Samuel’s grandfather, and Johann Nicolaus Friedrich Baumgarten was his father. 

Snippet from “Die Lehrer des Kreises Usingen”

I hoped that if I managed to access the relevant parish records for Usingen I might be able locate Nicolaus Baumgarten’s death/burial record in 1754, and might be able to find out a little more information on him.

FamilySearch did not have any records that matched this particular event, so I searched in their catalogue to see if there were parish records available for Usingen for that time period. I had already accessed the church records for the period of Samuel’s baptism and many of his siblings, though it did mean reading through many many German language records, mostly in a different script to that which is used today. FamilySearch did have the records, but they weren’t available to access online. I sent a record query to them, and it came back with the answer that (for whatever reason) those records had restricted access. I booked an online consultation with a FamilySearch German family history expert to see what could be done about that. He gave me the bad news that my only options would be to either visit the FamilySearch headquarters in Salt Lake City (not a feasible option for me) or engage an expert there to do the research for me. He did also suggest I check out Archion, a paid online search engine for German church records. Being the sort of person who likes to do research, rather than employ someone to do it for me, I decided a month of access to Archion was the best option for me, once I had checked they actually did have the records for the Lutheran church in Usingen. 

I was extremely disappointed that there was no record of a death/burial for any Baumgartens in Usingen in 1754. I began to suspect that the information in Bonnet (1965) about the Baumgartens wasn’t completely accurate. Having bought a month’s worth of Access I decided I had nothing to lose searching through the Usingen church records for any reference to Baumgartens - it wasn’t a common name in the parish, seemingly only for Samuel Baumgarten’s relatives. 

In June 1758 I found a death record that named the parish cantor, Nicolaus Baumgarten, and also referred to “Ana Martha”. It took me quite some time to make sense of the script (it should have been law that all scribes must have possessed exceptionally neat handwriting) but eventually I managed to work out that it was the death/burial record for Nicolaus Baumgarten’s wife Ana Martha. It is possible that her maiden name was Schwein, though the word isn’t written very clearly. It was also recorded that she was from Kirchhain, Hesse-Cassel, and she was 67 years, 2 months and 8 days old when she died, on June 27th. This allowed me to work out her date of birth - 19 April 1691.

Further searching revealed another death/burial record referring to Johann Nicolaus Baumgarten, Cantor, in November 1758. Because, as cantor, he was a reasonably important person with the parish, there was quite a bit of information recorded about him, all written in the same slightly illegible handwriting as his wife’s record. Patient deciphering revealed that Samuel Baumgarten’s father was 74 years, 1 month and 6 days old when he died on 13 November 1758 (allowing me to work out his birthdate - 7 Oct 1684) and had been at Kirchhain, serving as conrector, before the growing family moved to Usingen. He was cantor for the Usingen parish for 35 years, until he died. Much of the rest I haven’t yet been able to decipher. 

So I now have much more info on Samuel Baumgarten’s parents, Johann Nicolaus Baumgarten and Ana Martha Schwein(?). Since I haven’t been able to read Bonnet (1965) I don’t know what his source material was for the information he published about the Baumgartens, but I do think it needs a few corrections. I also think it is possible that the Nicolaus Baumgarten referred to by Bonnet is actually Samuel’s father (based on the close-ish to accurate year of death), and the Johann Nicolaus Friedrich Baumgarten, son of Nicolaus, is actually Samuel’s brother Johann Friedrich - I’ve never seen any historical record with “Nicolaus” in his name though. As for Samuel’s father, I’ve not found any other reference to him being a stocking manufacturer, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t. 

And now I have to do some research in the parish records of Kirchhain!

References

Bonnet, R. (1965). Die Lehrer des Kreises Usingen. Germany: Degener.

The Baumgartens of Usingen

It’s been so long since I last did some family history research worth writing up, but with the passage of time, I thought it might be worth a look on FamilySearch to see if they had any new films online worth trawling through. Bingo!

I’ve suspected for a while that Samuel Christian Frederick Baumgarten, my 5x great grandfather, was related to a Baumgarten and his son whom I had found references to working as cantors (church choir leader) in Usingen, Germany. A number of things lead me to believe this, including family members named in wills, and various snippets from historical newspapers etc. 

I strongly suspected that Samuel’s father was one of the cantors in Usingen, but I had yet to find evidence. I found it today!

I believed that Samuel had siblings named Leopold Christian, Juliana Ernestina, John Henry (anglicised, presumably Johann Heinrich), Frederick, Gertrude, Magdalen and Frances. Today I found references to all of them, bar John Henry, in church records from Usingen, including Samuel’s birth record, which I believe has never been identified before. I now have the name of Samuel’s father, Johann Nicolaus Baumgarten, though disappointingly, Johann’s wife, the mother of his children, was not named specifically. 

In the Usingen birth records (1685-1734) I have found the following records for the children of Johann Nicolaus Baumgarten:

• Samuel Christian Friedrich, born 31 January 1725, son of Johann Nicolaus
• Christian Leopold, born 10 April 1727, son of Johann Nicolaus, Stadt Cantor (city cantor)
• Johann Friedrich, born 1 April 1729, son of Johann Niclas
• Juliana Ernestina, born 22 April 1732, daughter of Cantor zu Usingen (cantor to Usingen)
• Francisca Dorothea, born 31 March 1734, daughter of Herrn Cantor.

The birth records for 1735 onwards are not currently available online in any form, so I’ll have to see if I can get access to the film of them at some stage. I suspect John Henry was born after 1734.

As well as these births, I found a record of the confirmations of both Anna Gertraud Baumgarten and Anna Magdalena Baumgarten in 1730 in Usingen, suggesting to me that they are the eldest children in the Baumgarten family, the only ones who had reached the age of confirmation (traditionally around the age of 14 in the Lutheran Church) during this period of records. 

I searched for a marriage record for Johann Nicolaus and his wife, but there was none in Usingen between 1685 and 1734. I deduce from this that they were married elsewhere (where?), and arrived in Usingen within a year or two of Samuel’s birth, the first Baumgarten birth recorded in the parish. 

So there we are. I can confirm for the first time ever that Samuel Christian Frederick Baumgarten, bassoonist of London, England, was born in the town of Usingen, in the principality of Nassau-Usingen (today in the state of Hessen in Germany) on 31 January 1725.

Aachen and Charles Nicholas Weiss

We went away for a few days up north, to Aachen. I didn't know really anything about the place before we visited, but learnt that it is known for its links with Charlemagne, and has a beautiful cathedral. 

Glass mosaics in Aachen Cathedral

We were buying tickets to see the Cathedral Treasury when I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks. The name of Aachen was written on some signage in different local languages, the French rendering being Aix-la-Chapelle. And I remembered this from Sainsbury (1824, p503):

Charles Nicholas Weiss had been on tour to Aix-la-Chapelle in 1821! This anecdote is a direct quote from a letter that Weiss sent to Sainsbury, for inclusion in his book. I love the bit "His name was not unknown to the officers" - seems like a humble brag to me!

During our short holiday in Aachen I managed to get some time to go to the Stadtbibliothek (city library) and spent an hour and a half skimming through the Aachener Zeitung (a newspaper of the day) for 1821, looking for anything about a concert Weiss might have performed there. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to do a very thorough job, but amongst the news from around Europe and advertisements for horses or houses for sale and the like, I didn't find anything. But at least I tried. 

Sainsbury, J.S. (1824). A Dictionary of Musicians. Sainsbury and Co, London.

Who was A.S. Weiss?

Four years ago, whilst trawling through old newspaper advertisements, researching Willoughby Gaspard Weiss, I found an advertisement that referenced some waltzes by an A.S. Weiss. There is no one in my family tree who has those initials, so I was stumped. I filed the information away in a corner of my brain, ready for another day when I might uncover who A.S. Weiss was.

This advertisement was placed by Willoughby Gaspard Weiss in The Liverpool Mercury on 14 February 1843. It gives details of new music that he has available at his music saloon in Liverpool England, including "a set of beautiful waltzes, by A.S. Weiss of Mulhausen".

Yesterday I was researching Willoughby's youngest sister, Rosine Angélique Weiss, who was born and lived in Mulhouse. Apparently Rosine usually went by her middle name - she certainly seemed to prefer Angélique to Rosine - both her daughters had Angélique in their name - one as a first name, the other as a middle name, and she gave the name Rosine to neither. She married Jean Georges Schmaltzer in 1826, and it appears that at least in business, after his marriage, he often used the surname Schmaltzer-Weiss. This is not the first time I have seen a husband's surname tacked onto the surname Weiss - it appears to be a surname you would have wanted to be associated with in Mulhouse.

Putting this all together, it is possible that Rosine might have used the name of A. S. Weiss - Angélique Schmaltzer-Weiss... being born into the Weiss family there is every chance she also inherited the musical talents of her father and other Weiss relatives. Did she compose music? Surely a brother (Willoughby) might sell waltzes that you had written, capitalising on the surname Weiss (rather than Schmaltzer-Weiss), especially a brother who liked you enough to name one of his own daughters after you...

I have no concrete evidence that A.S. Weiss was actually Rosine, but there is a chance, and currently this is my best guess as to who A.S. Weiss was.

Who was Jane Wise?

For the past week or so I have been down a figurative rabbit hole, trying to prove that Henry Wise (1653-1738), royal gardener to Queen Anne, was the father of Jane Wise (?-1740), who married Bartholomew Peisley (1683-1727) stone mason of Oxford. I haven't managed to do it, and have thus concluded that without concrete evidence to prove it, Jane's father was not Henry Wise.

Why did I leap to that conclusion in the first place? Circumstantial evidence - he's the right-ish sort of age to possibly be her father, he worked at Blenheim Palace, as did Bartholomew (and also his father Bartholomew as well), plus Jane and Bartholomew had a daughter named Patience - the same name as Henry's wife.

I researched the names of Henry and Patience Wise's children, and found details of eight of a possible twelve children. None called Jane, and perhaps tellingly, none who named any of their children Jane, after a possible aunt. I read wills of family members, including distant relations, and none clearly referred to a Jane as a daughter of Henry and Patience. Both Henry and Patience's wills named all their living children, and grandchildren, none of which included Jane or any of her children. I delved into all the parish records I could, all the historical records regarding the family that I could find, particularly focusing on records of the day, but there was nothing.

And yet, there is still the possibility Jane Wise is related to the family of Henry Wise, though I have concluded it is more likely that she is a niece of Henry's. To explain why I think this, I will set out all the information I know about Jane.

It is not known when or where Jane Wise was born. She married Bartholomew Peisley in 1717, on a date soon after 2 October, when their marriage license was issued in the Diocese of Canterbury. The location of the marriage is unknown, however the marriage is not recorded in the parish records for St Michael's at the North Gate, Oxford (LDS British film 416724), where some of their children were baptised and some were buried. In the table of information for their known children below, dates in italics are inferred dates, and note too that spelling in the parish records is variable.

Date of birth	Date of death	Name of child	Parish record entry
~1717-1718	1718	Bartholomew	Burial: 1718, July 3, Bartholomew Peizly, jnr. in ye church
~1717-1719	Apr 1719	Thomas	Burial: 1719, April 8, Thomas, son of Bartholomew Peizley, in ye church
1721	unknown	Patience	Baptism: 1721, June 3, Petience d. of Mr Bartholomew Peisley a stone cutter and Jean his wife
1722	1781	Bartholomew	Baptism: 1722, June 10, Bartholomew s. of Mr Bartholomew Piesley, stone cutter and Jane his wife
1724	unknown	Richard	Baptism: 1724, April 27, Richard son of Bartholomew Peisley, stone cutter and Jean his wife
~1727	1727	Sarah	Burial: 1727, November 4, Sarah, dau. of Bartholomew Peisley, infant, in ye church

Jane's husband Bartholomew Peisley died aged only 44, on 29 August 1727. The Oxford diarist Thomas Hearne wrote in August 1727 "Yesterday died of a feavor, or rather (as I hear), of the Gout in the Stomack, after 4 or 5 days illness, Mr Peisley, a noted wealthy mason, that lived in New-Inn Hall Lane in Oxford, leaving a wife (a very pretty woman) and three Children, and his wife is big again. ... This Mr Peisly was looked upon as a very courteous well behaved man." Obviously Jane was pregnant with Sarah at the time her husband Bartholomew died, and Sarah then died in November as well.

When Jane remarried in 1731 in Oxford, to George Huddesford, Hearne wrote "On Thursday last, Mr Hudsford, President of Trinity Coll., was married in that College chappel to the widow Peisly (who has three children living by her former Husband, a Mason) a very pretty woman, of Oxford." Jane and George Huddesford had a son William, born in 1732.

Jane died in Oxford in 1740, and was buried on 2 March 1740, possibly at St Mary Magdalen's churchyard, Oxford.

So why do I think she was related to the Henry Wise family?

Henry Wise's will (dated 1739) mentions a niece Jane Hunsford. I can't work out who that might be, apart from Jane Huddesford, complete with spelling difference.

Jane's brother, Reverend Bernard Paisley (1689-1738), in his will, mentions his nephews Richard and Bartholomew Peisley (Jane's sons), and leaves an amount of money to each of them, and if they are still minors at the time of his death, in trust for them to Mathew Wise Esq and the Reverend Mr George Huddesford. George Huddesford is their stepfather, and Mathew Wise Esq happens to be the son and heir of Henry Wise. So that really does suggest that Jane is related in some way to the Henry Wise family, if Mathew is partially in charge of the inheritances of Jane's sons.

And then there is the naming of Patience Peisley, perhaps after her maternal great aunt.

I shall keep searching for links between Jane Wise/Peisley/Huddesford and the Henry Wise family, but I think I may have exhausted all current evidence available on the internet. Further research I'd like to do at some stage is to visit graveyards in Oxford, and also to thoroughly scour Oxford parish records for information relating to the Peisleys and Wises.

The burial place of Thomas Ball

Thomas Ball, my 4x great grandfather, died on 12 January 1873, at his residence - Francis Cottage, Highgate, England. I have been unable to find a record for his burial, but I have always suspected that he might have been buried in Highgate Cemetery, mainly because of the close proximity of his home to the cemetery. 

The Highgate Cemetery website requests a payment of £40 to look up a burial for someone. Considering I was looking for Thomas, and also hoping that his wife Sarah might also be buried there, I wasn't about to spend £80 on just a hunch. 

There was one other option though: the Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre at the Holborn Library holds burial and grave registers for Highgate Cemetery. And you can visit a library for free! Perfect. 

The indexes to the burial registers are ordered by year, and are partially in alphabetical order - only to the first letter of the surname. And I found Thomas relatively easily, because I knew the year he died. 

The entry in the index said that Thomas' burial number was 42405, his grave number was 4383, and that his place of death (abode) was Pond Square, Highgate, St Pancras. 

The following is the entry in the burial register: 

The entry in the grave register contained a lot of information, including all the other people buried in the same grave. Unfortunately, that didn't include Thomas' wife Sarah. Seven people in all - mostly Thomas' grandchildren, with the following comment written at the bottom "This grave is quite full." I'll say.

The final thing I was able to find out was the actual location of the grave in the cemetery. 

The grave register noted that the grave was in section 53 of the Old Ground. This is in the West Cemetery, which you can only access by appointment, and if you give them two weeks notice they can go and find the grave, clear access to it, and then take you to it. Perhaps one day I'll be able to organise that. 

The problem with Thomas' wife Sarah not being there (it would have been really convenient if she was) is that I can't actually find her death date. She must have died between the 1861 Census and the 1871 Census, but that's as much as I've been able to narrow it down. And if she's not buried with her husband, who IS she buried with? Her parents? Her daughter? I'll have to keep looking.

The Monument to the Joynes family in St Marys Churchyard Hendon

"...my Will is that I may be buryed in London Church Yard in the said County of Middlesex at the East End of the Chancell Building in a Grave of eight ffoot in depth to lye next to the Coffin of my late dear and beloved Wife Mary Joynes who was buried there in the beginning of September 1746 and that a Monument of Portland Stone may be set up there according to a draught prepared by me..."

So willed my 5x great grandfather Henry Joynes (abt 1684-1754) before his death. I had the opportunity recently to visit St Mary's Churchyard Hendon, where this monument now stands. I guessed it was a reasonable sized monument and it has Grade II listed conservation status, and therefore I was hopeful that I would be able to find it. And I did!

St Marys Churchyard Hendon

I spent some time transcribing the inscription on the monument, which actually commemorates five members of the extended Joynes family. I'm glad I managed to do this, because the inscription for Henry Joynes was extremely weathered and very difficult to see - I had to use my fingers to gently trace the shape of the letters to work out what they were. And the weathering will only get worse. It had also sunk on an angle, but at least didn't look likely to topple over any time soon.

The southern-facing side of the monument was dedicated to Henry Joynes himself:

Near this place lyes the Body of

HENRY JOYNES Esqr.

He was Comptroller and Conductor

of the Building of Blenheim House

in Oxfordshire from 1705 to 1715.

He was Surveyor of

Kensington Palace and Gardens

from 1715 to the last of his Days.

He was Many Years Surveyor of

the Sewers in Westminster.

He departed this Life the 2nd Day

of July 1754, Aged 70 Years.

The side facing east had the most inscribed on it. In the top section was an inscription for Henry's daughter Frances:

FRANCES JOYNES, Departed

this Life the 3rd Day of May

1749, Aged 28 Years

In the lower section of the east-facing side was an inscription in honour of Henry's wife Mary, and below that, her sister Elizabeth (noted as Henry's sister, but technically his sister-in-law):

Westward of this monument

lyes the Body of MARY

the Wife of HENRY JOYNES Esqr

who Departed this Life

the 29th Day of August 1746,

Aged 60 Years,

leaving three Sons,

SAMUEL, THOMAS & HENRY,

and two Daughters FRANCES & MARY.

Also the Body

of ELIZABETH PEISLEY, his sister,

who Departed this Life

the 30th Day of September 1746,

Aged 63 Years.

On the northern side of the monument, in the top section, was an inscription for Henry's son Thomas:

THOMAS JOYNES Departed

this Life the 14th Day of Dec

1750, Aged 28 years.

This news article from the London Evening Post (Dec 13-15, 1750) explains the sorry circumstances of Thomas' death:

"On Thursday Night last, between Ten and Eleven o'Clock, Mr. Thomas Joynes, Son of Henry Joynes, of Kensington, Esq; and Brother to Mr Joynes, of the Middle-Temple, going along the Strand, some Villains stopp'd him, and took from him his Hat and Wig, then knock'd him down, and robb'd him of what Money he had in his Pocket. He got home to his Lodgings, went to bed, and the next Morning, the Family not hearing him stir at the usual Hour, went into his Room, and found him dead in his Bed."

These are not the only family members buried in the churchyard at Hendon, but disappointingly, I was unable to locate the others, being Samuel Joynes, son of Henry and Mary - "Mr Joynes, of the Middle-Temple" noted above, and also Mary Baumgarten née Joynes, daughter of Henry and Mary Joynes, and her husband Samuel Christian Frederick Baumgarten. There are many gravestones which are too weathered to read, and perhaps some of these commemorated these other ancestors. 

The Battle of Fromelles

This is the gravestone of Amy Selina Weiss née Blanch, and Walter Herbert Weiss, her husband, in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney. The gravestone also commemorates three of their sons - Frederick Albert Weiss and Erle Victor Weiss, who both were killed in action in World War 1, plus Harry Blanch Weiss, a POW in World War 2, who died while working on the Thai Burma Railway.

I am focusing here on Frederick Albert Weiss because he died in the Battle of Fromelles, which took place 100 years ago. Fromelles is a small village in France which, in 1916, was behind German lines. On the evening of July 19 1916 Australian and British forces attacked the German forces at Fromelles. By 8am the next morning the Allied forces withdrew, after the loss or wounding of some 5500 Australian and 1500 British soldiers. 

Private Frederick Albert Weiss, service number 3578A, was born at Anna Bay, NSW, in 1892, the second child and eldest son of Amy and Walter Weiss. Like his father, Fred was a school teacher - at the time of his enlistment he was an associate teacher at West Wyalong Public School, where his father was the headmaster.

He joined up at age 22 and he embarked for The Front in September 1915. After spending some time in northern Africa, Fred arrived in Marseilles on 28 June 1916. He was killed less than a month later on July 19th. An eyewitness from his battalion, Percy Dickson, stated that Fred was shot in the stomach, and then was probably blown up by the enemy's heavy shelling. They were unable to retrieve his body at the time due to the shelling. He was officially listed as missing in action on July 28, and this was updated to killed in action on September 2, 1917. His body was never recovered. DNA testing is being carried out on remains found in mass graves at Fromelles, and DNA from two Weiss family members has been submitted.

I am pleased that yesterday a close relative of mine was able to visit VC Corner at Fromelles, where Fred is officially commemorated, on the 100th anniversary of his death to pay her respects.

Hints and Tips: Latin word resources for family history research

I've had photos of German Roman Catholic parish registers for ages that I've been meaning to go through and translate, and I'm finally getting around to it. Many old Roman Catholic registers are written in Latin, as are these.

My Latin knowledge extends mainly to those words used to describe plants (I'm a botanist), but not so much to those words which might be used in a parish register. However, I've found three very useful resources, which used in conjunction, I have been able to make sense of much of the entries I've been looking at so far.

The first one is the Latin Genealogical Word List from FamilySearch. It gives a great general overview of words that might come up in your family history research. 

The second one is a list of Latin place names. Without that I would never have guessed that Moguntiae actually meant Mainz, Germany.

The last one is Parish Register Latin: An Introduction, by C. Russell Jensen, available on Internet Archive. This one is a lot more comprehensive than the first resource listed here, and you could possibly teach yourself how to read the Latin reasonably well with it, if you had the time or inclination. For me though, the most useful part was the Latin-English Word List, starting on page 385. Often I can work out some of the letters in a handwritten word, and being able to look at words which might be used in the same context and/or start with the same letters can often help me decipher the likely word. 

Hopefully these resources might help you to make better sense of your Latin parish register entries as well!

The Beringer mill

We were visiting friends up north, and on the way back we took a detour to visit where the Beringer family came from, in the Eltville area near Wiesbaden.

We found the old mill that used to be in the family on a street named "An der Lochmühle", on the way into the resort town of Schlangenbad. It has been rebuilt since my ancestors lived and worked there, though the general layout of the buildings on the land is very similar to what it once was. However it was good to see where it was, and imagine my ancestors there, and to walk past the creek that young Beringer children might have played in in summers of years gone by.

This plaque was on the side of the building behind the mill wheel. It reads:

"Lochmühle 

Als Mahlmühle erbaut 1698

Neu errichtet 1937 durch

Hein A. Moeller"

which translates as "Lochmühle. Built as a grist mill 1698. Newly built in 1937 by Hein A. Moeller."

As well as seeing the mill, I checked out some of the local cemeteries, to see if there were any remaining headstones of long gone relatives. I wasn't expecting much, because in Germany graves can be recycled every 30 years or so, but I was rather hoping they might have kept old headstones. I checked three local cemeteries - Rauenthal, Martinstal and Schlangenbad, but sadly nothing there appeared relevant. Rauenthal had only new headstones, Martinstal had a couple of older ones amongst all the new, and Schlangenbad was a very quiet cemetery, way off up the hill from the town, with a number of headstones remaining from the time of my Beringers, but still there was no luck. 

I could have done much more exploring in the area, but we still had a good number of hours' drive before we would be home, and the kids were getting restless so I had to leave it at that. Maybe another time... 

Walter McIndoe part 2

I'm still trying to sort out Walter McIndoe. I truly suspect that the Walter McIndoe born to Robert McIndoe and Bethia Duncan in Strathblane, Stirlingshire on 7th July 1763 is NOT the Walter McIndoe who lived and worked on Ladrishmore Farm, Kilmaronock, Dunbartonshire.

The Parish of Strathblane and its inhabitants (Smith, 1886) states on page 46 that "Walter McIndoe, son of Robert McIndoe and nephew of James McIndoe, last [laird] of Carbeth, was a merchant in Virginia, US, and died unmarried." 

According to A Dictionary of Scottish Immigrants to the USA (Whyte, 2009, p286), Walter McIndoe, nephew of James McIndoe of Carbeth, Stirlingshire, settled in Petersburg, Virginia, before 1821, and worked as a merchant. 

Walter McIndoe is listed for Petersburg in the Personal/Property Tax Lists for 1790 and 1799. As a result of the American Revolution a Loyalist Claim was placed by a W. McIndoe in Virginia in 1806 - it wouldn't be unheard of for a Scot to side with the British Crown. Walter McIndoe was still living in Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, in the 1830 US Census, but no longer there by the 1840 Census, presumably because he died during that decade. Although none of these particular records  confirm this Walter McIndoe is Scottish, it all certainly fits in the timeline.

So, I am willing to provisionally accept that Walter McIndoe, son of Robert McIndoe and Bethia Duncan, did emigrate to America, and therefore that Walter McIndoe of Ladrishmore Farm is not the son of Robert McIndoe and Bethia Duncan. 

So this means I need to make some adjustments to my family tree, and find new parents for Walter McIndoe of Ladrishmore Farm. I'm not expecting it to be easy!

Walter McIndoe

I've never really done a lot of research on the MacIndoe/McIndoe family in Scotland, because I am aware of so many others who have done the research already. However, I've been going through my family tree, checking info, just to make sure there is enough evidence, in my mind, for these people.

And I've come across Walter McIndoe, my 4x great grandfather, who was married to Jean Andrew, and lived in Dunbartonshire, but was supposedly born in Strathblane, Stirlingshire, to Robert McIndoe and Bethia Duncan, on 7 July 1763. Jean Andrew was allegedly born in New or East Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire, to William Andrew and Jean Reid on 7 August 1761.

However, I want evidence. I can't find a marriage record for Walter and Jean, which might have given me further information on where Walter was from (though quite possibly not). I also can't find a death record, nor any will which might list brothers and sisters and where they live, and thus show any links to Strathblane.

The children of Walter and Jean that I have found records for are in the table below (with some large variations on the spelling of the surname!):

Date	Name	Parents	Location
23 Jan 1784	Jean	Walter McIndoe, Jean Andrew	Cloberhill
28 Apr 1789	Margaret	Walter McAndue, Jean Andrew	Ladrishmore
10 Sep 1791	Walter	Walter McAndue, Jean Andrew	Ladrishmore
14 Sep 1793	Walter	Walter MacIndoe, Jean Andrew	Ladrishmore
12 Feb 1794	William	Walter Macanduie, Jean Andrew	not specified in record, but recorded in Kilmaronock parish
5 Feb 1796	Hugh	Walter Macanduie, Jean Andrew	not specified in record, but recorded in Kilmaronock parish
2 Mar 1801	Agnis	Walter Macanduie, Jean Andrew	not specified in record, but recorded in Kilmaronock parish
8 Apr 1805	John	Walter McCandie/Macandie, Jean Andrew	Ladrishmore

I am reasonably willing to accept that the Jean Andrew married to Walter McIndoe may well be the one born in 1761 to William Andrew and Jean Reid, partly because one of the kids is named William, but largely because the first (known) child was born in the same parish as where Jean's parents lived. Cloberhill was a farm in East/New Kilpatrick, situated on current-day Cloberhill Road, Glasgow.

Within five years the family had moved to the Kilmarnock parish, as the tenants on a farm named Ladrishmore (or Lederishmore), almost next door to the farm where their son Walter built Ashfield House years later.

There is nothing in the records that I have found that points to Great Great Great Great Grandfather Walter McIndoe being the son of Robert and Bethia McIndoe. In fact, I tend to think that the absence of any children of Walter and Jean's named Robert or Bethia supports my guess that they may not be Walter's parents. There is also information that I have found saying that Walter McIndoe, son of Robert and Bethia, actually emigrated to the US.

I haven't located any other potential parents for my Walter McIndoe, but that doesn't mean there weren't some. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who could prove or disprove this theory of mine. Please get in touch if you think you can help!

James Sheldon's ancestry

I love it when everything falls into place, after struggling to make sense of something!

A distant relative contacted me recently - a descendant of James Sheldon, who was married to Adelaide Catherine Gustavia Martha Weiss, the first child of Charles Nicholas and Benigna Catharina Weiss. James Sheldon was a Church Missionary Society missionary in Kurrachee, India (now Karachi, Pakistan). I've been able to find out a reasonable amount about him and his family in India, and then in England, after they returned from the mission field, but not much of his ancestry. Just that he was from Walsall, Staffordshire. So armed with a little bit more information from James' descendant, I went digging.

I collected so many bits of information from all over the place that I put it all into a timeline in a spreadsheet, to try and make sense of it all. I coloured-coded information about different people, to make it easier to note where the information about a certain person seemed to end (helps to target a timeframe for a death/burial notice).

We knew that James Sheldon was born in Walsall on 7 Oct 1828, and from his marriage record, that his father's name was also James Sheldon (henceforth "James Sheldon senior" here). We also suspected his mother's name was Ann Hannah Middleton. I had found him in the 1841 Census living with James and Ann Bullock, and his sister Mary, and brother Humphrey Jarvis. Humphrey was still living with James and Ann Bullock in the 1851 Census, and was named as their grandson. I also found information that suggested James Sheldon had a brother called John.

So we had to make sense of the surnames of Sheldon, Bullock and Middleton. On FreeReg I found baptism records for the four known Sheldon children, which confirmed that their father was James Sheldon, publican, their mother was Ann, and they lived in Park St during the period those children were born. The Sheldon family seemed to be involved in running pubs in Walsall (of which there were many), so I focused on that. I found information from historical directories - it turned out there were Middletons and Bullocks running pubs too - and put it all in my timeline. I also found info on a very helpful website about the historical pubs of Walsall (and other areas in Staffordshire). 

After I had found all the information I could about who ran which pub, I started searching in historical newspapers for any information on either Joseph Middleton (who apparently ran the Royal Oak before James Sheldon senior took it over), James Sheldon (senior), and James Bullock. And that was where I really struck gold. Advertisements about James Sheldon senior selling land, pubs, goods, going bankrupt, then dying "in the prime of life", and then Ann taking over the pub he was running before he died. Apparently James wasn't too good at running a business, and perhaps the stress of it killed him. 

Further research revealed an application for a marriage license for Ann Middleton, widow, to marry James Bullock. Ann Middleton was widowed... who was she previously married to? The penny dropped... Joseph Middleton? Had he already died by then? Yes! I searched for a marriage record... yes! Was the Ann who was married to James Sheldon senior actually Ann Middleton, daughter of Ann and Joseph Middleton? Yes! I haven't found any information on her having a middle name of Hannah, so we'll discount that middle name. I searched further and found marriage and birth records to corroborate what I suspected. I also found that James Sheldon senior's widow Ann remarried, to a Charles Holmes, and they went on to have children of their own. This helps to explain why her children with James weren't living with her in 1841, but instead with her mother and stepfather. I also discovered that the maiden name of Joseph Middleton's wife Ann was Jarvis. And she happened to have a brother called Humphrey - there's the answer to the mystery of the strange name of James Sheldon's brother "Humphrey Jarvis Sheldon".

Now I just have to work on James Sheldon senior's branch of the family tree. I suspect his father was John Sheldon, and his mother Margaret, but I haven't yet found proof.

William Rich, Crimean War Veteran

My great great grandfather William Rich was, according to his funeral notice, a Crimean War veteran.

Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 1927, p11.

And according to the funeral notice under the one his family placed in the paper, he was also a member of the United Imperial Navy and Army Veterans' Association of NSW. What was that? I've never heard of it!

I did some research on Trove, and also in the Sydney Morning Herald archives (1955-1995). The first mention in the Sydney Morning Herald of the the United Imperial Navy and Army Veterans' Association of NSW was in 1908, and the last was in 1960.

From the research I have done, it appears that the organisation pre-dates today's Returned Services League (RSL), which was formed in 1917. The RSL is for those who served or are serving in the Australian Defence Forces, whereas The United Imperial Navy and Army Veterans' Association of NSW appears to have been for any British veteran who had seen service up to and including 1885. Members of the latter organisation had served in many different conflicts including in the Crimea, the Sudan, and India. I contacted the RSL and they confirmed that they are unrelated to the United Imperial Navy and Army Veterans' Association of NSW. It seems to me that the United Imperial Navy and Army Veterans' Association of NSW possibly just died out once all the old veterans had died.

A write-up of the Veterans Christmas Dinner of 1923 mentions William Rich; "Nine of those present were over 80 years of age, two of the oldest being Mr. William Rich, 89, who fought at the Crimea in 1854, and Mr. Charles Kidd, 80, who fought in the Indian mutiny three years later." (Sydney Morning Herald, 24 December 1923, p10). At a veterans gathering for Empire Day in 1926 "The Governor General was the principal speaker... [and] hailed as "comrade" the hardy old soldier, William Rich, who served in the Crimea, and is marching - if more feebly than of old - towards his centenary." (The Telegraph, 29 May 1926, p12.) At the Christmas dinner after William Rich died he was mentioned: "Since the last dinner their oldest member, William Rich, who had served in the Crimea, and almost reached 100 years, had died" (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 1927, p10).

From these articles we learn that William Rich was in the Army, not the Navy, as he is referred to as a soldier, not a sailor, and that he fought in the Crimea in 1854. One wonders why it was only 1854, as the British were still in the Crimea in 1855 - was he invalided out?

I also learnt in my research that William Rich lived at the Veterans' Home at La Perouse, on Bare Island. This explains why he did not live with his wife towards the end of his life - a question that I have wondered about for some time. 

The gravestone of William Rich, at Waverley Cemetery, Sydney.