Tracing Family Branches

Well it has been a very long time between posts!  Life has been busy with house renovations, homeschooling and family illnesses and will probably continue to be again this year but I do hope to research and post more over the coming months.  I apologise to anyone whose comments I have not yet responded to, my iPad and Blogger do not seem to want to work together at the moment. With the New Year comes new goals and this year I have quite a few;  - I want to get more information on my husband’s grandfather William Martin and his family, including ordering a photograph from Singapore of him.   - I want to try and knockdown the brick wall with James Harvey Murray’s origins and real name?   - There is a file in the archives in the UK regarding Helen Murray that I want to order.  -  I want to uncover more about George and Margaret Wallace and their family. - I want to update and organise more of my online trees! - I want to connect DNA matches to people and ...

 In a recent post I was finally able to reveal my husbands Martin family connection with Canada (see here ),   My husbands great grandfather William Martin, his first wife Mary (nee Adams) and their children James, Alexander and Margaret departed Liverpool, England and arrived in Quebec, Canada on the ship Brooklyn on the first of October 1879. Canada, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1865 - 1935 Name Birth Year Arrival Date Arrival Port Departure Port Vessel Maggie Martin 1 Oct 1879 Quebec, Quebec, Canada Liverpool, England Brooklyn Mrs Martin abt 1855 1 Oct 1879 Quebec, Quebec, Canada Liverpool, England Brooklyn James Martin abt 1877 1 Oct 1879 Quebec, Quebec, Canada Liverpool, England Brooklyn Alex Martin abt 1878 1 Oct 1879 Quebec, Quebec, Canada Liverpool, England Brooklyn Wm Martin abt 1855 1 Oct 1879 Quebec, Quebec, Canada Liverpool, England Brooklyn Source: Passenger listings for Martin. Canada, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1865 - 1935.  Retrieved from  Ancestry.com Af...

 As it is currently school holidays here, I have had a bit more time for genealogy and have been very lucky to uncover some more information about my husbands Martin family tree.  It turns out that his Grandfather William Martin was not the only child of William Martin and his wife Caroline nee Wallace.  On the fourteenth of February 1904 in Glasgow his brother John Wallace Martin was born prematurely, without any medical attendant and sadly did not survive.  John’s death was registered by his father William Martin on the sixteenth of February 1904.  We have now added John to our family trees where he will be acknowledged and remembered from now on. Further posts on William and Caroline Martin and their son William can be found  here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here  and  here . Birth registration for John Wallace Martin. Source: Birth registration for John Wallace Martin retrieved from Scotlands Pe...

My husbands Great Aunt Kathleen Murray died on the 22nd of December 1919 off the Sultan Shoals, Malacca Straits on board the ship Ipoh with her cause of death being recorded as dyspnea following a badly ulcerated throat.  Kathleen was only ten years old and had been a border at the Penang Convent along with her three sisters Violet, Molly and Dolly, until she had fallen ill.  Her mother Helen had gone to Penang and was bringing Kathleen to their home in Singapore when tragedy struck.  Kathleen was buried in Singapore on the 23rd of December 1919. Death at Sea record for Kathleen Murray As I have previously posted (see here ) her death was reported in The Straits Times newspaper on the 23rd December 1919, which can be found here .  The Straits Times, 23 December 1919, Page 8 Untitled 'A sad occurrence took place on board the Ipoh on the voyage from Penang to Singapore, Miss Kathleen Murray, the second daughter, age 10, of  Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Murray of Singapo...

M y husbands Uncle William Allardyce James Martin (known as Jimmy) died aged five in Barrow in Furness, England on the 1st of March, 1934, while his mother and siblings were visiting relatives of his father there. Jimmy was the eldest child of William Allardyce Martin and his wife Violet nee Murray and had been born at the Maternity Hospital, Penang, Malaya on the 18th February 1929.  His father William was a Prison Warder in the Straits Settlements and Jimmy spent most of his life with his family living in Penang, Malaya. Now, thanks to a recent birthday present from my son, I have Jimmy’s death certificate and we know that Jimmy sadly died of Broncho-Pneumonia and Measles at 70 Thwaite Street, Barrow in Furness, where the family had been staying, with his mother present. Death certificate for William Allardyce James Martin Jimmy Martin Violet Martin nee Murray with her sons from left Jimmy, Alan and Ronald   I have previously posted about Jimmy here , here , here  and...

Life has been busy with house renovations, helping with the four grandchildren's home schooling and my husbands health issues of late, which has meant that this blog has been sadly neglected.  I have not been completely idle though, as I have been sorting out my family trees and chasing up DNA matches here and there. Excitingly I was recently contacted by an American distant relative of my husbands Martin line, through him seeing some of my blog posts.  This has resulted in Richard filling in some important missing pieces of the puzzle for me and has helped me to knock down a major brick wall I had with the Martin line.  I am so very grateful that he reached out, as it has led to so many new discoveries for me, which I will share in future posts. If you have read some of my former posts,  here  and here , you will know that this line has taken me on quite the journey over the last twenty seven years!  There was a family story about a connection with Ca...