Many of our family stories are those of migration, often over great distances with little chance of ever again seeing those left behind. When a personal tragedy meant one family reconsidered their plans to travel on the Titanic, a descendant wrote a powerful song about it that is featured in a video on the website of the Davenport One-Name Study. “Grandma’s Empty Arms” is an original composition by Sue Davenport, sung by her, accompanied by her brother on guitar and recorded by her nephew. The illustrations were from a book her grandfather created, drawing scenes and recounting stories from his life. This is a marvellous account of how they were saved from boarding the Titanic by a family misfortune. https://davenport.one-name.net/showmedia.php?mediaID=216 To learn more about the Davenport study, follow the other links on the site.
I recently watched a movie where a family honored their relative, Sarah, who had recently passed away, by opening a bakery, as that was what she had always wanted. There was a song at the end of the movie entitled For the Love of You (written by Tony Momrelle and Emiliano Pari). https://youtu.be/So6pyREAF6Q?si=3L9kxmcdbBwpg8CF The singer sang about a loved one who died way too soon and that we are all the branches of their tree. I was moved by this! As a genealogist who has recently received my DNA test results, studying my matches, working on my tree and deciding to do a One Name Study (on the name Geary), I have been thinking a lot about where I have come from and who my ancestors were and what their lives were like. All the events recently and the movie have me thinking about the Sarahs in my family. I
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Marguerite Whipple Stoddard, originally from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, who died in 1979, is identified as a remarkable women in the Whipple One-Name Study. While she clearly admired her own early American ancestors, including Achsah Page (Tenney) Whipple, a woman who died at the age of 100 in 1887, Marguerite herself was recognized for both her war work and her business endeavours. You can read her story here. https://whipple.one-name.net/individuals/75876marguerite_whipple_stoddard.html Marguerite and her ancestor Achsah each have a memorial on Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/159902737/marguerite-w-stoddard https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107407870/achsah-page-whipple For more information on others named Whipple, see the Whipple One-Name Study site. https://whipple.one-name.net/
Like many people studying surnames, most of the individuals whose stories I have explored have been male. However I came across the item below on the Devon Family History Society website and thought I would try to find the further information they were looking for. I’m pretty sure the lady in question was Ermance Henrietta Anna Du Maine Tickell, also known as Emma, born in Lavender, Buckinghamshire, England on 12 October 1848. Her father was Reverend Henry Tickell. He married Ermance Angelique Theodora Geraldine DuMaine in Berne, Switzerland, in 1847. In addition to Henrietta, the couple had a son, Henry Edmund DuMaine Tickell, who also became a clergyman. He was the vicar at Dunsford, Devon for many years. Henrietta is shown on the 1911 census living in Ilfracombe, a seaside town and parish on the North Devon coast. She was 63 years old and living off her own means. The Anti-Suffrage
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Belva Ann (Bennett) Lockwood was born in New York state in 1830. As a young widowed mother she defied convention to pursue postsecondary education. Belva has been recognized by the issuing of an American postage stamp and highlighted in the Lockwood One-Name Study. https://lockwood.one-name.net/Belva%20Ann%20Lockwood.htm Originally a teacher, Belva became a lawyer, the first woman admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, and an advocate for women’s rights. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Belva-Ann-Lockwood You can learn about other Lockwoods here. http://lockwood.one-name.net/
Many One-Name Studies (ONS) have given attention to those who served their countries during times of war. An outstanding example of research into the military history of those with a given surname is the Blencowe ONS. For over a decade Roger Blinko has focused on the military contributions during WWI and, more recently, WWII of those named Blencowe and its variations. Roger has written specifically about women’s participation in the First World War. In addition to identifying those who served in Nursing, he names two Blencowe women who joined the newly formed Women’s Royal Air Force and several who were employed as Munitions Workers. Read here about Blencowe Women at War. https://ww1.blencowe.one-name.net/about/blencowe-women-at-war/#Blenc-Women Learn more about the Blencowe name, its variations and its people with a search on the Guild of One Name Studies site. https://one-name.org/
Genealogy research often surprises us! I’ve been working on trees for some Canadian Lewises (and Scottish ones too) for a while now for the Lewis Co-operative One-Name Study. But the last few months I’ve had a personal project – to catalogue the interesting older books that I’ve collected or been gifted over the years. As I opened up one to look at the illustrations, I realized there was a signature and address on the flyleaf. Since this included a British Columbia, Canada address, likely that was one reason I bought the book. But at that time. Lewis was just an ‘ordinary’ surname to me. Now “Miss J A Lewis” , living in Victoria, BC, is someone in the Lewis study! I had learned more about her and her family. She was born in Cornwall in 1907 to Mary Alice (nee Segeman) and William Henry Lewis and came to Canada in
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The lady below is my great-grandmother. If it wasn’t for her making the voyage from Ireland to New South Wales, I, like so many others, wouldn’t be here. Mary married a chap called Thomas ABBERTON and as such has contributed many to my One-Name Study on the ABBERTON family. Mary TORP(H)Y Mary was born 17 Dec 1834 in Ballyinakill, Co Galway, Ireland to Matthew Torp(h)y and Bridget Good. Bridget and four of her children, including Mary, arrived in Australia in 1850 on the ship Lloyds; her three other children would arrive in 1853. My next record for Mary is when she marries Thomas ABBERTON in St Peter and Pauls church, Goulburn on 22 July 1854. As Thomas was also from Ballyinakill, I could guess that they knew each other back home. Mary was a farmer’s wife and helped run the post office at Mummel, near Goulburn. In 1914 she travelled to Sydney for
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“When the weather was too bad and we could not possibly go on the land, there were always plenty of indoor jobs to keep us busy, such as: grinding cow cake and other foodstuffs for the animals, mending sacks – none of us cared for this job – oiling, greasing, and care of machinery, sharpening and cleaning tools. One time we had to whitewash six pigsties, we had plenty of fun over this. As each sty was ready, we had to get the pigs back into them, and of course one pig always had to be difficult and lead us a merry chase. By the end of the afternoon we were covered in whitewash and quite exhausted.” Read Audrey’s full story, “Land Army Days”, on the Byatt One-Name Study website: https://byatt.one-name.net/showmedia.php?mediaID=2
A Saggers One-Name Study researcher found a touching story in a local newspaper describing the scene as four Saggers daughters began their journey from England to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The story one of their descendants told was that their father thought they’d find more suitable husbands in Canada, although one might stay single and look after their parents. As it happened, all did marry in BC. Here is a photo of the family before its first traveller, brother Bert (hand on hip), left to make his way alone to Canada. To see another view of the family and read more of the story titled New Beginnings….bittersweet, follow this link to the Saggers One-Name Study website. David and Sarah Ann (Staines) Saggers and their children at Berton End Farm, Stansted, Essex, England, c 1906.
