Tracing Family Branches

 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...

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...

 A lot of happy dancing has been happening here lately, as I have finally broken down the brick walls around my husbands grandfather William Allardice/Allardyce Martin, who it turns out should have been known as William Wallace Martin.  I have previously posted about William here , here , here , here , here , here ,  here , here , here , and here . I discovered some years ago that there was a problem with William Allardyce/Allardice Martin's personal history, in that the real William Martin born on the 16th August 1900 in Glasgow to William Alexander Martin and his wife Elizabeth nee Allardice was alive and well living in Canada long after my husbands grandfather had died in Singapore.  This information led me to two different options either William Martin was using someone else's identity or there had been a serious mix up somewhere along the way.  I am happy to now report that it seems there had indeed been a serious mix up at some point early in William'...

  Today's post concerns the engagement of my husband's paternal Grandparents William Allardyce Martin and Violet Helen Marguerite Murray in Singapore in July 1927. The engagement is announced between William Allardice, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Martin, of Scotland, and Violet, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Harvey Murray, of Singapore. Source: NewspaperSG.  The Straits Times, 29 July 1927, Page 8.  Retrieved from  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19270729-1.2.36.2

 Today's post involves my husbands paternal Grandparents and their wedding in Singapore on the 14th April 1928.  More posts involving this couple can be found here , here , here , here , here , here  and  here . SINGAPORE WEDDINGS Mr. W.A. Martin and Miss Violet Murray. On Saturday at 8 a.m.at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, a pretty wedding was solemnised between Miss Violet Helen Murray, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Murray, of Singapore, and Mr. William Allardice Martin, of the Prison Dept., Straits Settlements, only son of Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Martin, of Glasgow. The bride, who was given away by her father, looked charming in an Early Victorian frock of satin with the train was also of satin with a lover's knot of georgette and orange blossoms, and carried a bouquet of white lilies and clematis.  The bridesmaid was Miss Molly Murray, sister of the bride, who was becomingly gowned in blue satin charmeuse with hat to match.  The duties of the best...

  While researching my husband's Uncle William Allardyce James Martin I found a newspaper article mentioning the departure to England of William, his mother Violet and brother Ronnie in December 1933.  Sadly young William, who was known as Jimmy, would never return from this trip as he died in Barrow in Furness, England on the 5th March 1934.  PASSENGERS HOMEWARD The following passengers are proceeding per Chitral sailing at 9:30 a.m. to-morrow (Friday), for Penang, Colombo, Bombay and Europe: ....Mrs. V.H. Martin child and inft. ... Source: NewspaperSG. The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 7 December 1933, Page 2.  Retrieved from  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/singfreepressb19331207-1.2.29.1 More posts involving Jimmy can be found here , here  and  here .

Today’s photograph is another of the priceless treasures that Barbara Cooper was wonderful enough to send to us after reading my blog and getting in touch with me.  This is the only photograph I have seen of my husbands paternal Grandmother Violet Helen Marguerite Martin nee Murray together with her sons William Allardyce James Martin (1929-1934), Ronald Kingsley George Martin (my husbands father) and Alan Edward Raymond Martin.  Violet was the Granddaughter of Baron Raimund Von Stillfried Rathenitz and his Japanese partner Nishiyama Haru through their daughter Helen (see more posts on this here , here  and  here ). We are extremely grateful to Barbara and her Mother before her for keeping this photograph and the others safe and in such wonderful condition since the 1930’s, especially as everyone in the photograph is now deceased.  With William dying not long after this (see here ) and Alan being raised by Violets sister Molly and her partner, the photograph is ...

Today's photograph is of my husbands Uncle William Allardyce James Martin, who was known as Jimmy and it has quite a story attached to it! Jimmy was the oldest son of William Allardyce Martin and his wife Violet Helen Marguerite nee Murray.  As I have written about previously (see here ) I spent nearly twenty years researching the wrong William A. Martin and his family due to being given an incorrect primary source document.  This year thanks to Barbara Cooper discovering my blog post and getting in touch with me I am finally researching the right family and working on some fascinating new leads!  More than this however Barbara has sent me three absolutely priceless, precious photographs of my husbands family that will be treasured by our family for generations to come.  This photograph of Jimmy is one of the three and has been in Barbara and her family's, especially her late Mother's, safe keeping since the 1930's in England.  Thanks to Barbara, it has now tra...

Today’s snippet involves my husbands grandparents William Allardyce Martin and his wife Violet Helen Marguerite nee Murray. Mr. W.A. Martin, of the Prisons Department Singapore and Mrs. Martin sail for Malaya on October 21. Source:  Untitled, Malaya Tribune, 20 September 1938, Page 13.  Retrieved from  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/maltribune19380920-1.2.81

I am having a genealogy long weekend and as I had been making new discoveries about my husbands paternal family line I decided to chase up to see if there was anything new in the Singapore Newspaper Archives (see here ) that would give me any new information about this branch of his family.  I wasn’t disappointed as new newspapers have been added that provided me with the death notice for James Harvey Murray, who is my husbands paternal Great Grandfather.  We now have more questions than ever of course (as is the nature of genealogy) but it is another vital piece of the puzzle and a very interesting find.  Why his death was advertised in this paper and by whom we do not know. Deaths at this time in Singapore were not a rare occurrence, so why was his the only one listed?  Was the fact that his wife was Eurasian with a Japanese mother influential? The request for Java papers to copy this makes sense in that his wife Helen Murray nee Stillfried Rathenitz, daughters Dor...

I am very excited to say that thanks to the University of Cambridge Digital Library (see here ) I have finally found some records pertaining to my husbands Grandfather William Allardyce Martin and his time as a civilian prisoner of war at Changi during World War Two.  William was a prison officer at Changi before the fall of Singapore and while he was captured, he did manage to get his wife and son safely out of Singapore with them ultimately living at Barrow in Furness in England for the duration of the war.  William survived the war and in 1945 arrived in England on the Tegelberg , the stay was not a long one as he returned to Singapore in mid 1946 on the Mauretania .  With his health ultimately compromised from his time as a prisoner of war he died at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore in August 1949 and was buried at Bidadari Cemetery. Changi internment camp: nominal roll of internees, June, 1942 This record mentions that his wife was Eurasian and was p...

Today's birth notice is for William Allardyce James Martin who is my husbands Uncle. MARTIN. - On Feb. 18, 1929, at the Maternity Hospital, Penang, to Mrs Martin (nee Violet Murray) wife of Mr. W.A. Martin, a son. Source: The Straits Times, 23 February 1929, Page 9.  Retrieved from  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19290223-1.2.38.3 Unfortunately William did not have a very long life as he died in Barrow-in-Furness, England in 1934 aged five.

Today's death notice is for William Allardyce Martin who was my husbands grandfather. WILLIAM ALLARDYCE MARTIN Aged 47 years, formerly of The Prison's Dept. Singapore, passed away at Tan Tock Seng Hospital early this morning.  The cortege leaves the T.T.S.H. at 3:45pm to-day for a service at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd at 4 p.m. and from thence Bidadari Cemetery. Source: The Singapore Free Press, 23 August 1949, Page 8. Retrieved from  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers

I have been dealing with an interesting issue lately involving my husbands grandfathers family tree. Working with details I had been given about his life I was happily researching what I believed to be his family.  I had his birth certificate so I was working from a primary source and was steadily adding facts, dates, people and places and quite happy with the results for a while. I had been told that he spent a good part of his childhood in Glasgow and that he had served in the First World War and had been a Prisoner of War.  Then in the 1920's he took up a job as a Prison Warder in Malaya.  He became engaged and in 1928 married Violet Helen Marguerite Murray in Singapore.  The stories were that the marriage was greatly affected by the death of their oldest son and broke down although they didn't divorce.  When Singapore fell in 1942 he was working as a Prison Officer at Changi and while he got his wife and son Ronald on a boat to England he remained behind. ...