Tag: mariner

family history, WorkLeave a comment

Word-Smithing from Smyrna or Lyrical lines from Lydia {2}.

Cutlock & Co

A year ago, ‘Hanging by a thread‘ traced the delicate strands which led to establishing the family of John Harper Smith junior, master mariner {1}. I speculated that the reasons he and his spouse couldn’t be found in 1871 and 1881 England census was that they could be on voyages out of British waters.

Now there is some indication of this, in the shape of a poem of his penned from port:

(Read by clicking on any image and navigating – increase browser size for larger view or use the ‘full image’ link.) » Continue reading “Word-Smithing from Smyrna or Lyrical lines from Lydia {2}.”

Baptism, Census, family history, London, Norfolk, ResearchingLeave a comment

Hanging by a thread Discovering the Smith family

Cutlock & Co

Discovering more about the Smith part of the family tree has proved remarkably easy, after having put off looking for ages due to the very common surname.

See Entirely to the Water from Birth for first stages.

Now it was time to find great great grandmother Harriet Smith’s siblings and their immediate offspring. The practice of using the mother’s (or grandmother’s) surname as a middle name was very helpful –jane bacchus smith baptism1818_crop Bacchus for two of the girls, Harper (the grandmother’s name) for one of the boys. » Continue reading “Hanging by a thread Discovering the Smith family”

Neal, Norwich, Records, Work2 Comments

Entirely to the Water from Birth The nautical Harper Smiths

Cutlock & Co

It is not often nowadays that an article in Who Do You Think You Are? magazine sends me off immediately to follow it up. But the March issue, received yesterday, has a Focus article on ‘Masters and Mates Certificates’ {4} which indicated it was worth checking to see if the 3 x great grandfather who had the title Captain could be found. He was born in the 1790s, so was already a master mariner when certificates came in from 1850. » Continue reading “Entirely to the Water from Birth The nautical Harper Smiths”

America, Census, Cutlock/Cullum, family history, Migration/travel, Work3 Comments

All at sea with a new cousin

Cutlock & Co

So this makes the nice large wall chart of dad’s family “out of date”, if that’s the right phrase for having newly discovered historic information. With a bit of help from the Ancestry Facebook page {1}, I’ve downloaded the 1911 census form for my ‘half great great uncle’ William John Cullum from the actual Ancestry site. And yes, there is another offspring who was not recorded in the 1901 version. I had guessed there would be two, so I won’t make any great claims here. » Continue reading “All at sea with a new cousin”