9th: "Tedious courtship"

Another chuckle from some general searching in some online newspapers using Thornham as a keyword.
Up came a completely unrelated Thornham in this marriage entry reported in The Manchester Times and Gazette (Manchester, England), Saturday, November 3, 1838; Issue 528.
"On the 25th Ult. at Prestwich Church, Mr Samuel Cheetham, manufacturer of Shaw, to Miss Schofield, of Thornham, after a tedious courtship of fifteen years."

Reason for looking?
The ALGAR family of Devon is taking up most of my research interest and time at the moment.
One descendant was an Elizabeth (dtr of Samuel & Wilmot ALGAR), who is shown on the 1920s chart as marrying farmer William MEDLAND.
Extracted records from the IGI provide them with one dtr, Elizabeth Algar MEDLAND.
A tree on Rootsweb, and the IGI provide a marriage of Elizabeth MEDLAND to a William PEARSE, 1811 at Ivybridge, (both of Modbury, witnesses William PEARSE and John MEATHREL), and four children, the eldest being William baptised Ermington 1813, another being Henry Medland PEARSE.
Census records provide a likely candidate for this 1813 William who mostly says he was born Modbury, but by 1891, reverts to saying he was born Ermington.
If he is the right chap, this is the PEARSE family of Thornham that handily feature in many documents extracts of which appear online on the UK National Archives website.
Linkages above remain to be proven but the dates and places fit, including an 1826 marriage of William PEARSE to Catherine Charlotte HOOKEY which post-dates Elizabeth Algar nee MEDLAND's 1824 death, and this couple's presence in the 1841 census at Thornham, with William's assumed son William born between 1811 and 1816.
I do admit to some doubt however in that there's also a lease from Samuel & Elizabeth PEARSE to William PEARSE, carpenter of Yealmpton. If this is some property being kept in the family, William's occupation should be farmer, as the two generations of Williams were farmers of Thornham, and the next William (William Henry Dunning PEARSE, born 1847) a bank clerk.

Also found several more earlier ALGARs in New England, but this time voluntarily. Brothers Andrew & Arthur ALGAR, of Richmond Island in Maine by 1635ish (from Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33, by Robert Charles ANDERSON)
Data relating to these families is also recorded in a history from the other side of the Atlantic in The New Maritime History of Devon: From early times to the late eighteenth, found on Google books.

27th: PEEK /HELSON et al

With a couple of separate sets of information and new contacts re the extended PEEK/HELSON family of Devon it was time for a catch up.
Thelma left a note in my GuestBook. She is related to Elizabeth THOMPSON, wife of David COOPER, son of Ellen Jane HELSON (Ontario) and provided a couple of family write-ups from the ?1970s? and a photo of Ellen and two of her sisters.
Peter on GenesReunited found me and provided a link to his tree which is the line from Thomas HELSON and Elizabeth PEEK via son John (married Elizabeth HORTOP).
All of which reminded me that I don't think I've ever mentioned the local ALGAR link that surfaced back in May and led to an interesting exchange of emails with Richard, a 5th cousin twice removed who lives just up the road.
It led to a re-examination of my 5*great grandmother, Elizabeth ALGAR, wife of Richard PEEK, who appears in the tree as Mrs Elizabeth ALGAR, from my interpretation of this entry

in the Walkhampton Parish Registers.
Richard disputes the Mrs, given that he's sure he can claim Elizabeth as sister to his x greats grandfather, Samuel (and take Samuel's line back several more generations, mostly in Yealmpton).

PEEK descendant chart updated, as is Elizabeth PEEK nee ALGAR's page.

Also updated OneGreatFamily with the last few weeks of updates to anyone already on-line in any of my databases or web pages.

23rd: Devon DAWEs

Brief flurry of activity on some of the Devon DAWE families, prompted by emails to/from Val and a long overdue filing session.

Main family to benefit from the attention was one of the many Isaac DAWEs as I tried to find the family in 1911, not always successfully.
It makes sense that the Isaac married to Amy FOLLETT, and Thirza STEVENS, is the 64 yr old whose death is registered Dartmouth 1917. But if so, where on earth was he in 1911? Found several of the children, but as yet, no Isaac.
NB Val provided the information that Amy didn't die in childbirth as I'd thought was likely, but was kicked by a cow, his narrative has been updated.

The DAWE/DAW Surname dna project would very much like to recruit a representative of (m)any of the Devon DAWE/DAW families to see how they may inter-relate, and whether or not those in Newfoundland are our (distant) relations.
All you have to be is a direct male line descendant of any of the Devon DAWE families, the more the merrier.

Read all about dna testing, and see the existing Newfoundland family at the Summary pages on the WorldFamilies network, and supplementary information on the DNA Projects Portal pages.
(Other projects have had great success in both proving and dis-proving relationships not able to be determined by paper trails).

27th: McADIES

Big brother, my main family tree web site, has been updated. Needed to fix a few broken links, realised I hadn't included my McADIE direct line as yet, despite linking to it from the McADIE Surname dna project pages.
This update should also improve some of the Google map links from the place index. I understand that Google changed something that made the links not open at the correct place, and an update has been provided from John Cardinal of Second Site (developer of my web page generation software) that should overcome this until Google come up with a fix.

Other updates that may show:
A few extra twigs on the tree of James & Mary Bell/Mabel (THOMSON) FAIRBAIRN.
Thanks to the efforts of Gordon in BC and Andrea, and Facebook, a couple of the mystery lines have been advanced, Robert Henderson FAIRBAIRN having been confirmed as the one in Vancouver in 1958, and finding that his son moved to Denver.
Still looking for his brother John's son John Douglas FAIRBAIRN however.

Pending updates include the line of David H COOPER, a PIKE/HELSON descendant (see Guestbook), and some updates to the Devon line of Fred WARE, thanks to MyHeritage SmartMatching.

28th: "Newfound" dna match

The DAWE DNA project has had its first set of results in, and a match with another person tested with FamilyTree DNA.
Didn't take long for him to reply and tell us where he fitted. Another Newfoundland branch - so we're still looking for representatives of the Devon branches.
Follow the DAWE DNA project diary for what all changed, where/when.

5th: TURNBULLs (and excitement ) squared

What, December already? Doesn't time fly when you're having fun. Which I am.
Still working thru all the new Americans being added to the Devon TOZER branch (probably wont show up on the bottom end of the KING chart as mostly too recent).

And as if that isn't enough excitement for one week, but along comes a wonderful coincidence.
On the TMG Conference Cruise, I met up with Chaye from Sth Australia who was researching her mysterious OLIVER and TURNBULL couple who had the misfortune to die where death certs are not very informative.
I was very interested to note that one of the sets of parents she was investigating for her Elizabeth TURNBULL was a couple by the name of James and Agnes (ELLIOT) TURNBULL. They appear on the IGI as having children in the geographically challenging area of Dykehead, Kirkandrews, Canonbie, Dumfries.
Well, I suppose the submitter wanted to hedge their bets, and certainly the couple did too as they lived in Dykehead (which just happens to be the place of the comment "some more of those Americans dear" from the Nov 28th entry), in Kirkandrews Parish, Cumberland, but their children were baptised in Canonbie Parish, Dumfries, across the Border in Scotland.
Must be something about the air over there in this Turnbull family.
Anyway. I'd parked this as intriguing info to be investigated at some stage to see if there was any connection with my Robert TURNBULL, joiner of Dykehead, of about the same timeframes.
Today, that got raised up the priority list somewhat following receipt of an email from Robin in Canada asking about my Robert in Dykehead.
Yes, he was a descendant of said James and Agnes (ELLIOT) TURNBULL (but cannot solve Chaye's Elizabeth mystery, more's the pity).
We quickly decided that James and Robert could not be brothers. A 1764 baptism of a legitimate son to Walter and wife in Dykehead, just didn't fit with Walter, Robert's father, marrying as a bachelor in 1774.
However, James' likely mother was Betty also TURNBULL. Not that his baptism said so, but there were a string of Canonbie baptisms to Walter and Betty, several of which stated "in Dykehead", so it was an easy stretch to continue the string of children with the 3 "and wife in Dykehead".
That was James handily placed, but the connection to Robert still unsolved.
And then I examined a list of Canonbie baptisms Robin had downloaded from Scotland's People and noticed that I hadn't all the children of Walter and Betty (TURNBULL) TURNBULL after all. There were two sons I'd missed, a Robert and a Walter, which latter, got me quite interested in a hurry.
Sure enough, his baptism clearly showed he was the son of Walter TURNBULL and Betty TURNBULL in Dykehead, Parish of Kirkandrews. And what's more, a 1745 date dovetailed very nicely as a really good age to be marrying in 1774 and having children in Dykehead, to continue the family tradition.
No wonder I'd not been able to find a suitable baptism for him in England.
TURNBULL chart updated

Aug 23, 2008: FAIRBAIRN descendants wanted...

Still plugging away trying to find living descendants on a couple of FAIRBAIRN lines to try and prove my theory of a relationship to Robert FAIRAIRN and Kate SCOTT of Napanee/Richmond Ontario and to my Archibald etc.
Anyone out there a descendant of the family of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Jane BLAKEY? From Northumberland to Ontario.
Son Archibald was in McMurrich Township, Parry Sound, another, Robert FAIRBAIRN married Martha HUSTON and settled at Vegreville, Alberta.
Another line of interest is that of William FAIRBAIRN and Katherine MORGAN.
Known sons: Archibald Goodison (married Lucinda ROBINSON and Margaret AULD, lived North Fredericksburg for a while); Robert (married Alberta GARRISON and last sighted in Qu'appelle, Saskatchewan); William (married Minnie ANDERSON), still in Richmond, Lennox & Addington, Ontario in 1901; Wellington.

Devon inter-related families strike again.
When I started checking further on the TOOP family (see 21st), I realised that further back up the TOOP tree most people with this lot in their online trees seem to think there's a John TOOP and Sarah WILLCOCK(S). This Sarah being of an age to the the dtr of Walter WILLCOCK and Mary MORRELL, and therefore more of my BARTER descendants. The BARTER connection being dependent on the correct id of the Ann BARTER who married Walter's father Walter.
Along the way I found another OXENHAM married in, and lost Thomas Reed DAWE. Anyone seen him after his 1872 marriage to either Ellen DAWE or Mary Gill WILLCOCK? This Mary Gill WILLCOCK is the dtr of Jane OXENHAM and Henry WILLCOCK, butcher of Horrabridge, and I stumbled on the family because Richard TOOP was with them in the 1851 census.
The other groom in the 1872 marriage page was a Henry LANGMAN, but at the moment I cannot find who married whom via census or death data.

Apr 22, 2008: Devon letters ctd

Another letter added to the Devon letters pile, and assorted ROWE family members pages' updated as a result.
Behind the scenes I'm playing mix and match with several fragments, letters that begin and don't end, or end and don't begin, trying to figure out from the context where they all fit.

Sep 21, 2007: Pays to advertise

A Feb 2007 posting about ANDREWS/COATH has elicited a response from a 2*great grdson with some updates. Mind you, the relationship does rather depend on the right Ann BARTER being selected from the records as another contender has been found. They have an old family tree drawn up some years ago, which I wont get an update from until after a return from holiday. Hope it matches my diggings.

July 30th, 2007

30th: Processed several small updates to assorted Devon CREBERs, DAWs and HAMLYNS being prompted by a few post-its added to my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson by a fellow researcher. Main ones were to the CREBERs in Vale, Guernsay, although one of the DAW twigs finally got a name, Nancy Tremain DAW and several others were advanced 10 yrs in age as I finally got round to looking for them in assorted census records.
Thanks to Robert some of the SCOTTs that stayed in Scotland have also been followed thru a bit more with accurate death dates/places.
None of the above are yet online however.