It Pays to Help Others!

[Sue Mackay]

Well! You reap what you sow I guess. Yesterday I got up at 5am and took the train to London to the new newsroom at the British Library to photograph extracts from the Grahamstown Journal. I have been transcribing BMD extracts from South African newspapers for years but had come to a bit of a halt once I ran out of papers at Kew, and Colindale shut. It was a bit nerve wracking to see whether original newspapers being shipped from Yorkshire would meet up with a lady from South Wales at the appointed time and place, but they did, and once I had discovered the menu to turn off the focus bleep on my camera I was allowed to take 700+ pics.

I wasn't expecting to find anything for myself, but suddenly I found myself looking at an announcement of my great great grandfather's marriage in King William's Town in 1856. I had looked in vain for this marriage at the Cory Library amongst the records for Trinity Church (where it turns out he did indeed get married), and for years I didn't even know who my great great grandmother was until a friend found the marriage amongst the military chaplain's records for KWT, which told me that Edmund GILSTAIN married Mary SHAW, so at least I had a name. I still had no idea who she was or where she came from, but the Grahamstown Journal announcement yesterday told me she came from Atherstone in Warwickshire.



Edmund left his wife and son behind and moved to the Western Cape. Previously all I had known about Mary was a line in her son’s obituary for 1889 which said “For many years he had been the mainstay and support of his aged mother”. I don’t know about aged, as I later discovered she died a year after her son, aged 54!! I have today looked on Ancestry and they have the original image of a baptism in Atherstone for a Mary Shaw, daughter of John and Mary, on Feb 9 1834. Can I hope that she was 56 when she died? If anyone knows anything about the Shaw family in Atherstone, please let me know! Mary's father on the 1834 baptism is described as a Victualler, whereas I had assumed he must have been a soldier garrisoned in KWT, since Mary was married by the military chaplain (Edmund at that time was an apothecary at Grey Hospital in King William's Town). Every little breakthrough brings more questions! Still, it’s great to have an avenue of my own to wander down after so long!

[cicilysmith]

Congratulations. That's wonderful and a reward for hard work, cicilysmith

[Pam Downes]

700 plus pics!!!!!!!
You deserve to find something after taking that many.

As it obviously wasn't her son who reported Mary's death, then depending who did, they may well have got her age wrong by a couple of years.

Pam

[Sue Mackay]

I have today looked on Ancestry and they have the original image of a baptism in Atherstone for a Mary Shaw, daughter of John and Mary, on Feb 9 1834. Can I hope that she was 56 when she died?

It IS her!!

I had noticed some years ago when I found my great grandfather's baptism in King William's Town that his godparents were William and Sarah SUTTON, and that my great grandparents Edmund and Mary GILSTAIN acted as godparents to a SUTTON daughter baptised on the same day. Following my breakthrough the other day I put a post on a South African mailing list, and was contacted by someone researching the YOUNG family. To cut a long story short, Sarah SUTTON's maiden name was SHAW and she was my Mary's sister. Sarah ran off with a man called YOUNG and had several children with him in the Orange Free State, eventually marrying him many years later after William SUTTON's death. I now have a copy of Sarah YOUNG's South African death notice, which states that she was born Sarah SHAW in Atherstone, Warwickshire to John SHAW and Mary PIERCY, and was previously married to William SUTTON. What's more, the death notice for William SUTTON Junior, who predeceased his mother, says that he was born in Derbyshire in 1852 and his mother's maiden name was SHAW.

So the marriage certificate I sent for the other day of William SUTTON to Sarah SHAW in St.Peter's, Derby in 1851 (Family Search says her father was John) looks to be the right one. It just shows you can't always jump to conclusions. I had assumed that because Mary and Edmund were married by the Military Chaplain that her father was part of the garrison. It now looks as if Mary went to join her sister and brother-in-law, who must have emigrated between 1852 and 1854, when they had a child born at the Cape. The Military Chaplain must have filled in for the incumbent at Holy Trinity and then forgotten to enter the marriage in the Holy Trinity register. Thank God he kept a record in his own book!

So I now have four new direct ancestors; John SHAW, Mary PIERCY and her parents, William PIERCY and Martha MELLOWS from nearby Mancetter in Warwickshire. I can't remember when I last had a new direct ancestor!

[Pam Downes]

It IS her!!

So I now have four new direct ancestors; John SHAW, Mary PIERCY and her parents, William PIERCY and Martha MELLOWS from nearby Mancetter in Warwickshire. I can't remember when I last had a new direct ancestor!

Why are direct ancestors like buses?
Because you wait forever for one - and then four come along at once.

Seriously, I am so happy for you, Sue. (Currently living up to my user-tag, because I'm sitting here with a huge grin on my face!)

How are the knees bearing up with all the happy dancing you're doing?

Pam

[almach]

Congratulations ............... and very deserved.