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Degerness and Ross Family History

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Agnes needs a father

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My great grandmother is Agnes Glover Wells born 22 April 1884.  She is listed as Wells on the 1891 census; however, Agnes used the last name Parr from her step-father for most of her life.  She has no known father listed on her birth certificate.  Her marriage certificate uses the name of Charles Glover as the father.  As her step-father’s name is Charles, it is likely she chose that first name “out of the air” rather than any real idea of her father’s name.  This is somewhat confirmed by a letter she received from her Aunt Pollie written in 1947 or 1948 where is appears that Pollie is answering “Aggie’s” question on her birth.  Pollie says she was there at the birth at Mildenhall, but does not know if Agnes’s mother registered the birth anywhere else.  On Agnes’s death certificate her father is listed as “unknown” Glover. 

This quest started with a DNA match to someone on the MyHeritage site.  This person was also a DNA match on the 23andme site, with an X-chromosome match noted on that site.  For our purposes we will call her XM1 (for X-match one).

At first, I did not pay too much attention to this match as XM1 is from Norway and I know my Norwegian line fairly well and I am not searching for ancestors within the genealogical time period where autosomal DNA would be helpful.  However, I noticed on myHeritage that XM1 had the Glover name in her family tree, so I had a closer look just out of curiosity.

Looking closer at her tree, and the date of birth for Agnes Glover Wells, the name John Henry Glover popped out.  He would have been the right age to be Agnes’s father.  In 1883, he would have been 19 when Eliza Wells’ was 20 and became pregnant with Agnes.  So, this made it interesting.  Could I possibly have found Agnes’ biological father?  This might have been too easy.  I had been expecting to find many cousin matches and create many Glover trees before finding him.

Downloading the shared segments to DNA painter, I checked the DNA match against a first cousin on my mother’s side. All four sections of XM1’s DNA matches with sections of that cousin. The X chromosome match to me is in a different location than DT, but as you can see, the other matches are definitely lining up. The total match for XM1 according to the DNAPainter tool is 143.6 cM.

On 23andme, I note that XM1 also matches with a “Selin”, at 23andme who is Agnes’s grandchild or great-grandchild through my grandmother’s sister.  Further confirmation that the X match is from my mother’s side, not my fathers.

Checking the DNA match for reasonableness with this possibility in the shared cM tool I found the following percentages:

54%     H2C 2C1R H1C2R 1C3R

21%      HGG Aunt 2C H1C1R 1C2R

18%      3C H2C1R 2C2R

Viewing XM1’s tree and combining with mine, if John Henry is, in fact, the father of Agnes, we should be H2C1R.  This is not the highest percentage at 18%, but is still a possibility.  I will need to ensure I am not jumping to the solution that best fits what I want it to fit, but must look at all the possibilities for XM1 relationship.

According to the DNA it is certainly plausible and possible the John Henry is the father of Agnes.  DNA can only tell us that we are related, not how we are related, so further research of genealogy records is required.

My next step is then to fill out the tree for XM1 and see (1) are there other Glover surname possibilities for Agnes’s father, (2) are there other possibilities for the DNA match in XM1s tree andAg (3) is it possible the match is from my side of the tree.

Other possibilities for Agnes’s father – Glover surname.

Agnes was born in April 1884, therefore the father must have been alive and capable of children in 1883. 

John Henry has a father and a brother.  Charles, his brother would have been 13 years old at the time, making it extremely unlikely that he was the father.  John Henry’s father is not an X match candidate to XM1.  Therefore, using the Glover surname, the only reasonable possibility is John Henry Glover.

Other possibilities for DNA match, not a Glover surname in XM1 tree.

XM1’s maternal grandfather, George Henry Leech was born in 1891 and therefore too young to be her father.  His grandfather on his maternal side, Joseph Atwood, could be a potential father to Agnes Wells.  He certainly moved around in England a great deal as a labourer.  However, as well as Caroline pictured in the tree, his daughter Ann was born in 1876 and daughter Elizabeth in 1884. They were both born in Crewe, Cheshire, it is therefore unlikely that he is the father of Agnes.

The higher probabilities on the DNA match, as noted above, are that there is a closer match to XM1 rather than a more distance match.  Therefore, it is unlikely to be a match further back in XM1s tree.  In addition, John Crawford died in 1874, therefore cannot be the father of Agnes; and John Padmore, the father of Harriett, lived his whole life in Clawson, Leicestershire and it is unlikely that as a 68 year old agricultural labourer he would travelled to an area in England where he and Eliza could have gotten together.

While I did some work on the Norwegian side and determined that it was extremely unlikely that Ole Kristoffersen Winger (b 1853) could be a DNA contributor; however, that turned out to be not needed.  XM1 informed me that her bio-father is not Norwegian, but Italian.  As there is no admixture in my ancestral DNA that indicates even a possibility of Italian, and he could only have received his X from his mother, I am comfortable with saying the X chromosome match did not come from that side.

Is the match from my side of the tree

As the X match is from my mother’s side, there are only a few we need to look at. 

My grandfather John Johnson was born in 1910 and the only possibility to match with on XM1’s tree would be XM1 herself, this is not likely given her admixture as discussed above.  It is also my understanding that he never left Canada after he moved here in 1926. 

The next option would be Thomas Richard Tomlinson who was born and raised in Canada. 

The third option is Agnes’s unknown father, so we have come a full circle back to the possibility of John Henry Glover.

Determining if John Henry Glover could be the father of Agnes Glover Wells:

In the 1871 census, John Henry was in Scalford, Leicestershire and Eliza was in Burwell, Cambridge.  In 1881 he was in Dalby in the Wolds, Leistershire.  That would appear to make it unlikely that they crossed paths a couple of years later.  However, he was working as a railway labourer in 1871, so he could have been travelling over the next few years with various jobs for the railway.  By 1891 he was settled at Horwich, Lancashire with his new wife Annie (nee Crawford).  I have been unable to find a marriage of John Henry and Annie at this point, so I do not know if they married in Leistershire or in Lancashire or somewhere in between.

Directory searches do not show a John Henry Glover who was working for the railway for the years 1882-1884.  Not unusual as he was a labourer at that time, but it does not provide any confirmation any specific residence.

In speaking with a further contact on that line, John Henry left Scalford/Long Clawson (1881 census) and went north with intention of joining the workforce that was building the Forth Bridge in Scotland where construction started 1882 and was completed in 1890.  At the time, it had the longest single cantilever bridge span.

The family is not sure if he made it all the way to Scotland, or whether he got waylaid on the way. 

The construction of the Fordham, where Eliza lived, to Mildenhall, where Agnes was born, section of the railway started in January of 1883. To me, this confirms the possibility that he could have traveled to where Eliza was during the 1883 period.

It is therefore looking more and more probable that John Henry Glover is the father of Agnes Glover Wells. While I am 90% convinced that we have a match, it is always prudent to receive further confirmation.

So now, I am (im)patiently awaiting the results of a DNA test of a cousin to XM1 along the Glover line to completely confirm if my hypothesis is correct. 

Less than a week after I first wrote this, I was corresponding with KH, the potential new cousin. She pointed out that because she and XM1 were cousins, I may also want to look at other connections to John Henry. What a smart idea, why didn’t I think of that. Probably because I was too focused on waiting for her DNA results.

That good idea was gold!

I decided to focus on Harriet Padmore, John Henry’s mother as that is where he would have received his X DNA.

I searched in Ancestry DNA for links to Padmore in the family tree and found a match that would be a H3C2R with the correct amount of DNA segment matching to be from Emily Dinah (married a Carlton Tinkler), the sister of Harriet, both children of John Padmore and Mary Ann Walker. One confirmation.

Then I went on to MyHeritage and found another with a link back to the same Emily from another person. Second confirmation.

And, a further match on both 23andme and MyHeritage where her online tree links back to Robert Padmore and Mary Hill, the grandparents of Harriet Padmore through one of her uncles. Third confirmation.

So, we have now confirmed that John Henry Glover was the biological father to Agnes Glover Wells.

Interestingly, John Henry had only daughters and also raised three of his nieces. I’ve ordered his birth and death certificates from the GRO, and I am looking forward to writing up his page for my histories.

The inheritance for Ann Bourns

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Sorting out the Woods of King’s County worked out the numerous Richard Woods in the family in Parsonstown, King’s County (now Birr, Offaly).

While completing that project a deed relating to articles of marriage for Richard Woods and Ann Bourns was found.  This 1812 deed was the deed tells us that Ann is the daughter of Charles Bourns and mentions several other parties of interest in referring to other deeds.  This sparked curiosity as Ann appeared to be related to the deceased John Medlicott, but the specifics of that relationship were not clear.  The working hypothesis was that perhaps John was Ann’s grandfather on her mother’s side.  That hypothesis turned out to be incorrect.

Ann was actually the niece of John Medlicott, not a granddaughter as suspected.  She did not receive an inheritance directly from John Medlicott, but it is possible the inheritance ultimately came from him through his sister, Ann’s mother Dorcas.

See more about Ann’s inheritance and the many additional family members found here.

Good Character or Social Standing

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You have to wonder about the difference between two sentences in the 1840s in England. Both started out with drinking (too much) in pubs. One ended with transportation to Australia and 15 years hard labour, the other ended with a fine and a month in jail.

The first story I have told recently in a previous post. In 1844, Elijah Brown had definitely had too much to drink. He and his brother an friend refused to leave the pub. The constable was called and when he threatened them with the cage they they beat the constable severely. The constable was very lucky and did recover. The judge was not lenient and all three men were sentenced to transportation. There was definitely an ugly element here and Elijah was considered to be of bad character and had been in prison before. Elijah was a poor working man who lived in Isleham.

The second story is about the death of William Burman in 1842. William was also from a poor, hard-working family who lived in the rows in Great Yarmouth.

The story starts out the same. William is out with two friends and likely had too much to drink. Though at the trial his friend says he was not drunk, we could probably dispute that. A quarrel ensued over the price of gin and the pub owner and William argued. According to the testimony of his friend, the pub owner threw William down and beat his head on the floor. William never recovered and died from his injuries four days later. The pub owner was charged with manslaughter and allowed bail of £200 plus two sureties of £100. The pub owner stated that it was an accident; and witnesses confirmed that the pub owner did offer to pay for a doctor for Burman. At the trial, as well as the friend, there were two witnesses for the defense who, although they did not see what happened, did hear the argument between William and the pub owner. They both stated that William banged his head on the bar on the way down to the floor. It should be noted that at trial there were also many witnesses for the pub owner’s character, stating that he was a good man. The judge in the trial told the jury to pay more attention to the last two witnesses than the friend of William Burman. The jury came back with a guilty verdict and the judge ordered one month hard labour.

On the same page of the prison registers as the pub owner’s one month of prison for manslaughter is a man who received transportation for 10 years for house stealing; and another who received seven years transportation for two counts of biagmy.

In a quirky twist, Elijah Brown from the first story later became a pub owner in Australia.

So, is the difference in these sentences because of the pub owner’s good character, or maybe influenced by his social standing? Your guess is as good as mine, but the differences remain interesting.

London to BC in 1867

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In today’s world, we can fly from London to Vancouver in less than 9 ½ hours, then hop on a quick flight of less than 1 ½ hours to arrive in Northern British Columbia.  A long day, granted, but we can reach the west coast of Canada from England in less than a full day.

In 1867, however, the trip was much longer and arduous.  Robert Tomlinson was to become a medical missionary in northern BC.  The first nations were dying of Tuberculosis and Robert wanted to help.  He had graduated from Trinity College in the summer of 1866 with a bachelor of Divinity and was interning to become a doctor when he heard the Church needed medical missionaries in the Nass.  So eager was he to help out that he left his schooling without completing his degree.

He left Liverpool on the City of Boston on Wednesday 16 January 1867.  The City of Boston was a screw steamship that first sailed in 1864 and sank in 1870.  

The arrival in New York was recorded in the custom documents. 

The customs agent incorrectly recorded Robert’a age as 35 rather than the actual 25.  Perhaps he seemed older.  

The voyage from England to NewYork took a little over 10 days and Robert recorded in his diary that he had 5 days to remain in New York before the next part of his voyage.

Robert left New York heading to Panama on Friday 01 February on the Rising Star.  The Rising Star was owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company at that time.  

On arrival in Panama, the passengers were put on a train to Aspinwall. 

Robert noted that the crossing of the Isthmus “occupied but a few hours”.

From there, they boarded the SS Montana sailing for San Francisco.  That sailing lasted about 13 days and included two Sundays.

On arrival in San Francisco, Robert rested there two weeks with other members of the Church Mission Society before heading on to the next part of his journey.

Robert sailed from San Francisco to Victoria on the CSN Steamer the Active, the same ship that Active Pass is named after.  They left on 09 March. 

They encountered heavy winds and the run was nearly double the usual time.  They had to put in at Crescent City and again at Port Oxford.  Robert did not arrive until 10:45 on the night of 13 March.

The SS Otter, the Hudson Bay Company’s Steamship running between Puget Sound and Alaska had left Victoria on 28 February and was not due back until May 23.  So Robert had potentially another 2 ½ months to wait.

Luckily, Robert did not have wait for the next trip of the Otter, but was able to sail north on a Schooner called Kate on 23 April. 

If you’re counting, Robert’s trip took more than three months, definitely longer than our current one day.

It should be noted that Robert’s time in Victoria was not wasted as he met his future bride during that time, but that’s another story.  You can read some of it on the history pages for Robert and Alice.

Sarah and Elijah – updated

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In my last blog post I discussed the lives of Sarah Wells and Elijah Brown.

While I am still not convinced on a personal level that Elijah would have left his young children to move back to the UK with Sarah, further document review has only confirmed that it is still possible.

A closer look at the 1881 census indicates that these two were living on Ferry Drove, where Elijah was living in 1841. While that does not confirm they are the same people, it certainly leans in that direction.

Both Elijah and Sarah died in the same place – at East End in Isleham in 1885. That only tells us that these two were most likely the same pair that were in Isleham on the 1881 census.

Elijah’s died on 13 February and the death informant was a lady named Martha Webber who lived in East End in Isleham. So that really doesn’t give us any information either for or against.

However, Sarah’s death information was her daughter Eliza. So we do know that we have the right Sarah. Sarah died on 18 April and was listed as the widow of Elijah Brown, a farm labourer.

I am unable to find information on Elijah’s third wife Esther Hawkins (nee Summerfield) after they married in Tasmania in 1875. His surviving Australian children all lived long lives.

A marriage notice for Elijah’s daughter Lillah Brenda in 1883 indicates that Elijah was in England, and formerly from Franklin, Tasmania. This definitely leads us toward thinking that, in fact, Elijah did return to England and joined again with Sarah.

So, on the weight of probabilities, Elijah and Sarah do appear to have gotten back together in their later lives.