Latest discoveries ...

•  I have tracked the Swan line of my tree back to the parish of Norham and the area around the village of Cornhill in Northumberland through the census returns and it turns out to quite a little enclave of Swan families in the 19th Century.  The hamlet of New Harper Ridge  and Plough Inn including a place called Donaldson's Lodge is particularly interesting as there are still Swans there when the Hamlet came up for sale in 1882.  What's more I have managed to obtain a copy of the auction details for the sale - fascinating - as it gives the names and addresses of all the tenants including the Swan families.  An excellent excuse for us to return with the caravan to Northumberland to explore, not that we needed an excuse!!
   
• Having discovered that my great grandfather was born at Llanarmon near Ruthin in Denbighshire, and not as we thought in Wrexham, we have gone on to find his birth place and his father and mother.  William Williams, there's Welsh for you, George's father lived at Cae Gwyn and he was a farmer and a miner according to the documents of the time.  Looks like we will be exploring the Ruthin area as well.
   
• I have been able to follow up my Scottish ancestry from my great grandmother's (Mary Bell) birth certificate which was left to me through my grandfather.  Through the census returns and her parents marriage certificate I have been able to find my 3x Gt. grandparents including Elizabeth McKinnon who hales from Perthshire and George Bell from Linlithgo.  The records in Scotland provide much more information than English records and so it is much easier to be sure of the family line but then the records are not quite as accessible as they are in England, at least not yet!
   
• My Irish ancestors are proving as illusive as ever and it wasn't helped by my great grandfather changing the spelling of his name and not by 'Deed Pole'.  There was chaos when he died because his birth certificate did not match his current name when it came to sorting out his death certificate.  Never mind it was sorted and now I am trying to use the census returns to sort out the Irish connection and exactly who and when that branch came to England.
   
• I do have some English ancestors and in fact my 2x Gt. grandfather John Turner claims to be from Black Dog in Devon though to date we have not managed to find his birth certificate.  Yet another excuse to go travelling!!!
   
• I must take this opportunity to thank my cousins Joyce, Valerie, Dorothy and Richard and  Aunty Jessie  for all their help and encouragement with the tree.  Through Richard I am now in touch with our American branch of the McCue family which is fantastic.  Now I must work on trying to link up with my Canadian cousins through the Herron branch of the tree.  Its been great to be in touch with them all and I can only hope more will be linking up in the future.
   
• Here's my ancestral chart:

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Last modified: 02 January 2008