Black Sheep Sunday

Black Sheep Sunday - David Watson Bush.


David Watson Bush, my 3rd Great Grand Uncle born 8 April 1792 Norwich Norfolk England
David was a house painter living in London who on 9 December 1811 was convicted of Larceny,he stole clothes and was sentenced to life as he had previously offended. In May 1812 he was transported to Tasmania on the Indefatigable.
Two years later in 1819 he married Ann Guy described as a "free woman".
David and Ann had four children,Margaret born 1815,Mary Ann born 1817, John born 1818 and David Watson Bush Junior born 1832.
David worked as an incumbent to Reverend Robert Knopwood and became a model citizen and later quite the entrepeneur - working as a wine merchant,keeping the Tasmanian Inn which he owned.
Quoting from the Trove newspaper it reads  "In the course of a prosperous and creditable career as a city Tradesman, Mr Bush aquired by his unassisted exertions a considerale amount of household property in Hobart Town.
It seems then that David Watson Bush was a model citizen and one wonders if the Reverend may have had a part in turning David's life around.
David died in 1866 aged 74 in Hobart.

Surname Saturday - Strangleman

Back in 2010 while researching the Norfolk England branches of my tree I discovered that my 2nd Great Grandfather John Skinner born 1799 Marsham Norfolk  had married a Margaret Strangleman  in 1831  in Heigham St.Bartholomew.
Margaret was the daughter of Samuel Strangleman and Alice Goss and she was born in 1802 Runton Norfolk.
I was intrigued by this surname and  questions formed in my mind such as;
Where had it come from?
What was the meaning?
I was getting distracted from other research as I couldn't stop thinking about this surname so I decided to do more research.
. I found that the surname in the early censuses and indexes was  found mainly in the Norfolk England area and recently have found people with the surname on social networking sites from different parts of the world.
I consulted different surname classification books even the Dictionary of British Surnames by P.H. Reaney but could not find a meaning for the name.

I decided to start a One-Name Study into the surname and have registered the surname with the Guild of One-Name Studies. The study is ongoing albeit slowly but I am determined to find out as much as I can about it and hopefully hear from others with information on the surname.

Tuesday's Tip

Index Cards

A great way to record basic  facts and information about people you are researching is to use lined  Index Cards with alphabetical guide cards so that you can store them alphabetically or by surname. These are double sided and can fit nicely into 5Litre boxes with lids that are stackable.
I find using these cards useful when visiting a records office in that you can just take the cards relevant to your searches that day.

The Launch of Beaumont-Jones Genealogy Services.

I had several ideas of names for my new Company, and tested them on family and friends. Some they liked but others were a bit corny and one I really wanted I decided not to have as there was a Company with the same name in the USA. Could have been confusing getting each others jobs!!

I decided on Beaumont-Jones Genealogy Services - the names being my maiden and married names joined together. 

Well busy times ahead - Registering with the Tax people - they have been quite helpful actually, Bank account, registering on  social networks, getting business cards printed ( some of which I carry around) and even getting a polo shirt and hoodie with my company name on it. It is surprising the interest that generates in the Supermarket queue!! Some do not know what Genealogy is so I explain and hand out a business card.So now I have been in business 22 months. Have had quite a few small research jobs over this time  and have enjoyed doing each one of them.

My love of history and work

In 2008 I was successful in getting a job  in a Visitor Centre in beautiful Stanley Park Blackpool. This job involved looking after displays, knowing the history of the park and looking after the visitors many of whom came from other areas in the UK and from abroad. As I loved history this job was perfect for me and would sometimes get people in whose ancestors had been employed in the park or at Blackpool Tower or on one of the many attractions in the town. One day a lady came in and we got talking about  the past and she was trying to find out about a certain ancestor - well I offered to help her with resources that I had available to me. She was impressed by what I knew about how to do research and asked me if I had ever thought of doing this kind of thing as a job. It hadn't crossed my mind at that point but later on in 2010 my job came to an end due to Council job cuts and after a little while of being unemployed and not finding anything suitable I decided to give it a go and started my own business in Genealogy.

Relocation

We couldn't afford to stay in Hertfordshire where we had lived for the past 18 years so in the summer of 2004 we decided to move a lot further north - to Blackpool Lancashire. We had a short holiday/house hunt during that summer and found a house while we were there.
We moved in to the house in the August of 2004 and for the first six months or so felt  a bit like Tourists - visiting the attractios and seeing the sights. We settled down and went about our daily life - now doing more research. How ironic to find that my Mum's paternal side had come from Norfolk and maternal side from Essex - in hindsight I should have researched my Mum's side first as Norfolk and Essex were not too far away from Hertfordshire. More ironically my husband and I had been on holiday with his parents  and our children to West Runton Norfolk which I have since found out to be the place where a lot of my Norfolk ancestors came from.
Looking back - when I was in my teens I remember visiting Norwich Norfolk with my Mum and an Aunt and sitting on a grass bank being sure that I had been there before but I hadn't - Deja vu!
My Mum's maternal side had originated from Little and Great Easton and Dunmow areas of Essex all places I could have explored earlier.
A cousin on my Mum's side contacted me out of the blue a couple of years back - she was also doing the family history and quite often visited Chelmsford Record Office - how lucky for me is that! She has been very helpful to me as she has been able to confirm information from the original records there and of course I have shared information with her.

The Research takes off!!

In my last blog I wrote about the Forefathers book written by Diane and Michael Beaumont.
Although we haven't yet  found a link between Michael's Beaumont branches and my own -we do still email occasionally.
So the research of my Yorkshire side took off quite steadily - i have made some other connections along the way adding distant cousins to my contact list and helping others where I can with their research.
Taking a break from that side I decided to start looking into my husband's side of the family who on one side were Jones and Whitelock from Swansea Wales and Gooding from Suffolk. Managed to find quite a lot of information which my husband found quite interesting and which spurred him into doing some research of his own. Well his interest grew with the help of distant relations that he found through the internet,some through Ancestry who have kindly shared their information with him and who keep in touch still.