Not Much Doing......

....in the genealogy way at the moment, it's been a pretty busy time here so I've not had much of a chance to get stuck in, plus I think I might have burnt out a bit going 100 miles a hour with the latest McDonnell discovery LOL

So I'm recharging my batteries and thought I'd leave this one with you!

Top Tip for BMD Searches

I am a member of a few Rootsweb genealogy lists and have found them to be very helpful in the past. This message came through a few days ago and I wish I'd known it sooner, it would probably be very helpful with quite a few of my ancestors.

I've asked permission to post it up here along with a link to Roy's Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History which is well worth a read.

Anyway, less of me waffling and onto the helpful information.......

I imagine quite a lot of listers will already know this but on the off-chance
that not everyone does, here's a useful little tip for when you are
searching at the FreeBMD website for the entries of births, marriages
and deaths of relatives, etc. This is particularly useful for those running
one-name studies but it can also work for ordinary family historians if they
want to identify possible relatives with an unusual surname where it was
used as a middle name, i.e. possibly the name of a mother or
grandparent, etc.

If you enter nothing at all in the surname field but enter in the first name
field a surname with a + sign in front of it, this produces entries in which
the name was used either as a forename or a middle name. To give you
an example.....

Entering just "Stockdill" in the first name field produces only ONE entry,
for a child called Stockdill Middlebrook registered in 1896 at Dewsbury.
But if I enter "+Stockdill" in the first name field, nothing in the surname
field and choose All Types, this produces NINE other entries for births,
marriages and deaths where Stockdill was given as a middle name. I can
then identify all of these as being either relatives of mine or linked to my
one-name study.

Remember, it's important to put the plus sign before the name and the
more unusual the surname the better the chance you have of finding the
entries. Looking for people with Smith as a middle name will not be very
helpful!

I hope this helps some of the people who end up here looking for information on "how to"

Elizabeth Ann McDonnell (nee Ayre)

Proof of a sort that I was right in connecting Elizabeth Ayre and Ann Ayre - even her children seem confused as to what she was called. Her two sons who emigrated to Victoria, Australia have listed her as Elizabeth, and Ann on their death certificates, well I'm sure they didn't persoanlly, but it does confirm what I thought that she used both on a regular basis and was know as either in life as on certificates.

Louis McDonnell / Louis Park

I am wondering if Louis might be a McDonnell family name somewhere back along the line, or someone closely connected to the McDonnell's.

I have a Louis Desmond McDonnell birth registered in 1909, Sculcoated, he married Ellen Parker in 1933 in Sculcoates.

In 1902 Mary Ann McDonnell and John Park had a son called Louis Walter Park - who I'd guess married Louisa A Pickup in 1930 in Hull.

Perhaps it's co-incidence???? Perhaps there's more to it I'm going to discover at a later date!

SJ's Marriage Witness Index

14 November 1819 - Marriage of William Palfrey and Mary Babb at the Church by Banns - Witnesses - George Babb & Elizabeth Haddon

16 April 1853 - Marriage of William Ayre and Mary Ann Teal at the Register Office, Sculcoates, Kingston Upon Hull - Witnesses - Charles Clapperon (?) and Jane Hildblood(?)

18th January 1870 - Marriage of Jonathan Fowler and Ellen Burn at the Parish Church, All Saints, Monkwearmouth - Witnesses - John Fowler & Margaret Ann Ramshaw.

24th March 1874 - Marriage of Peter McDonnell and (Elizabeth) Ann Ayre at the Catholic Chapel (? Unreadable) in the District of Sculcoates in the County of Kingston Upon Hull - Witnesses - Michael Fox & Mary Ann Fox.

8th July 1883 - Marriage of William Stemp and Caroline Palmer at the Church in the Parish of St James, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex - Witnesses - Alfred Weaver & Harriot Weaver.

1st January 1896 - Marriage of Margaret Georgina Coutts and WIlliam Murrell at The Cathedral int he Parish of St Nicholas, Newcastle - Witnesses - Thomas Colley & Frances Coutts

12th June 1903 - Marriage of Edward McDonnell and Alice Dixon at the Parish Church, in the Parish of Drypool in the County of Kingston Upon Hull - Witnesses - Arthur McDonnell, Harvy Dixon, Jane Elizabeth Spencer & Sarah Jane Longster.

8th August 1905 - Marriage of Peter McDonnell and Nellie Littlewood Brooks at the Brunswick Chapel, Holdness Road in the District of Sculcoates in they County of Kingston Upon Hull - Witnesses - William McDonnell and Alice Maud Brooks

15th June 1912 - Marriage of William James Stemp and Linda Mary Palfrey at St Martine, Kensal Rise in the Parish of Willesden in the County of Middlesex - Witnesses - Arthur John Stemp, George William Palfrey, Lydia Louise Palfrey & Daisy Harriet Stemp.

23rd December 1916 - Marriage of Frederick George Boyd and Hilda Murdy at the Register Office in the district of Sunderland - Witnesses - B Storey & E W Harrison.

17th January 1942 - Marriage of William Pedgrift and Alice McDonnell (formerly Dixon) at the register office in the county borough of Kingston Upon Hull - Witnesses - JL Hammond & O Hammond.

WooooHoooooMcDonnells!!

Ok so the certificate came, and it does indeed prove that it was indeed my Great Grand Uncle Peter McDonnell who married Nellie Brooks. Peter then emigrated to Australia with his son Charles, and I now am in contact with my 2nd Cousins 1x removed - I swear I'd never be able to work that our without my family tree software which tells me how I'm related to everyone!! Anyway, it's been a really exciting and busy week or so finding out about the McDonnell's from Aus.

What I wasn't really expecting was to find other McDonnell's there too, well thanks to above mentioned cousins we have found that not only Peter and Charles emigrated, but Peters brother William and his wife Frances Marian (Turner) ended up there too!

What I wouldn't have thought of in a million years was that Edward, my elusive Great Granddad would be found there too, but he was. There's work still needed to track him down, but safe to say he enlisted in the Australian Army in 1915 - all be it briefly.