Edward G DREW, Illogan Highway

[GeoffD]

I am now wondering about these Tallack names. There was that Thomas Tallack DREW, Edward George and Harriet Hannah's big brother. That sort of suggests a TALLACK in the family somewhere back up the line a bit.

So many things to find out!

Something that is definitely odd, too. To have both a sister and a half-sister named Belinda.

(And thanks for that letter. Edward George was a complex person, it seems. Literate, but not all that literate.)

[GeoffD]

Not only has the brick wall come down, the garage has gone and the roof is coming adrift! Actively sought out some 'contenders' in GR, and now I'm convinced I'm related to most of the population of the pointy bit of Cornwall, and especially to just about everybody that ever lived in Mousehole. That includes having a member of the Mousehole/Paul PENTREATH family as a 'spouse of'. (How about that, Cornish language afficionados?)

Multiple marriages, lots of children: however, I've yet to get in contact with anyone who actually has DREW as a surname, but that will come with time. And I've got a few more feelers out.

The two Belinda half sisters mystery has been sorted - the first one died before the second one was born.

The Tallack problem is also solved - there were two different Bennett Drew males of slightly different vintage, both married to a Jennifer. The direct line one was actually married to Jennifer TALLACK, not Jennifer WILLIAMS.
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And they are coming in at a great rate! A whole lot more in emails yesterday and this morning. And still nobody with a Drew surname.

[GeoffD]

Still haven't tracked down the marriage for Samuel Drew and Jane Harris

although I think I might be onto something. Redruth, June Quarter 1865 has both a Samuel Drew and a Jane Harris, but the page number for Jane Harris is illegible. However, what you can see of the page number does not look much like page 462 that is clearly visible for Samuel.

And the plot is thickening! I have access to a written record that Samuel left for foreign shores on 7 April 1867, and I knew those foreign shores were the USofA. Thanks to Ancestry's recent opening of the Immigration files for US, I have discovered that the "North American" arrived in Portland & Falmouth, Maine from Liverpool on 26 April 1867, and that Samuel and Jane Drew were on board. They are described thus:
Samuel Drew, 22, m, miner
Jane Drew, 21, f, spinster.

Curious, indeed. The ages are correct, and a 19 day voyage sounds feasible. But Samuel was a carpenter, not a miner. Jane would have been visibly pregnant with their first child, I reckon, yet the passenger list appears to suggest that they travelled as brother and sister, not as husband and wife.

I need to get into the Maine birth records for 1867, I think. And fork out for the certificate for Samuel, on the off-chance that it is him. Pity you cannot see some of the detail before you click the button to order from GRO.

[GeoffD]

Edward George Jr went on to lead a very fecund life in Mylor Bridge as a Sawyer with his wife Mary Ann Reid. They had a stack of kids, and it looks as if the older girls kept their grandfather's tradition going because as the census years roll on there are grandchildren with the Drew surname living with the family before the boys grow up and leave the nest. Edward Jr was still going strong in 1901, and in the absence of a credible death record I must assume that he is still in Mylor Bridge turning out children! (Just Joking).

It was the first daughter that had a couple of "whoopsies" to produce those stray grandchildren. Birth certificates have arrived - very quick and efficient service from the GRO/ONS to us Colonials, I must say.

[GeoffD]

An email this morning from a descendant of Edward George Drew III! He found me by Googling up this thead.

Ain't the electric interweb marvellous?