London Air Quality Shame

Just a quick post, this, to provide a link to Edie's recent article on London air quality and the likelihood that at one site the annual limit on NO2 will be breached any day now. This is shameful.

The link is here.

William James Bawden Continues to Bamboozle

My 2xgreat grandfather has caused me no end of trouble. He seems to have shuttled up and down the south coast from Plymouth to the East End of London. He indulged in a bigamous second marriage. His age in census returns and on marriage certificates varies wildly. His supposed occupations are similarly eclectic.

In the 1901 census he is recorded to be a lodging house keeper at 10 Octagon Street, Plymouth where daughter Hannah (aka Emma) and son Richard were also living (his second wife, Margaret had died by this time). Richard, then aged 9, was supposedly born in Wapping although I have, hitherto, been unable to find any birth registration for him.

The GRO's £6 PDF scheme has encouraged me to splash out on hunting down various relatives. Looking at the online index of births I spotted a Thomas William Richard Bawden, with a mother of the correct maiden name - Dunn, being registered in Caxton, Cambridgeshire. Could this me "my" Richard? I took a punt and, blow me down, it looks right! Father - William Bawden - naval pensioner (that's good) and publican (first I've come across this occupation for him). Mother - Margaret Bawden, formerly Dunn (bang on). But what on earth possessed them to head into Cambridgeshire?

Richard is nowhere to be found in the 1911 census so I took another punt, not such an unlikely one this time, on a Richard Thomas Bawden who died in Plymouth in the 3rd quarter of 1901. Absolutely bang on again - right down to the same address as in the census earlier that year.

It just goes to show that in this family history business you should never make any assumptions!

Austerity and Excess Deaths

I've only recently come across this paper showing that there appears to be a linkage between austerity measures and excess deaths in the UK. The paper shows that between 2010 and 2017 there were some 120,000 more deaths in England than might be expected. Most of these deaths were of people over the age of 65. The authors are careful not too ascribe causality; this cannot be shown from their work. Never-the-less an aging population coupled with constraints on NHS funding is a worrying trend.

And, yes, in my 68th year I do have a vested interest!

A Minor Success - William Kirkton

The further back one traces one's family the less likely is one to find an image of a relative. Having just completed a very brief biography of my wife's great grandfather I was delighted to find a digitised Northampton newspaper photograph of him. It's very poor quality but infinitely better than nothing.

A Family History Marker

This is a step out from the usual rubbish I post here. I just thought I should make a visible record of where my family history research now stands; what I hope for the coming year; and mention a few areas where help is needed.

So, what achievements have there been in the last year or so?

Firstly, having taken a couple of DNA tests I have a myriad of "cousins" to be looked into, and possibly contacted. The first of these - not actually discovered via a DNA match but through a kind of collateral serendipity - could be exciting. My new correspondent has more information on my Campbell line than I had hitherto gathered and, hopefully, I will be able to follow up the sources he has identified.

Secondly, I think I have finally nailed William James Bawden's birth date and place - 7 June 1835, Chagford. It's the combination of an entry in the RN Engagement Books, a matching baptismal record, and evidence from Greenwich Hospital pension warrants that has convinced me. So now I think I can confirm his parents to be Thomas and Caroline.

Thirdly, I have at last started on the narrative of their direct ancestors that I have been promising to create for the boys. I've completed back to their 2x great grandparents so far (apart from Kate's autobiographical notes which I hope she will complete soon). Doing this has been a fantastic spur to cleaning up my direct line records - helped by the GRO's £6 PDFs of birth and marriage records rather than forking out £9.25. (Both still feel extortionate but the monetary difference is not to be sniffed at). Along the way there have been a number of other discoveries that have fleshed out otherwise rather thin histories.

It's been a good year.

What about 2018?

Hopefully I'll have a first draft narrative, possibly back to 4x great grandparents, to give to the boys. The emphasis is on the word "draft"!

I'd like to find Thomas and Caroline Bawden (or Bowden) elsewhere in the records. Is there anyone out there who knows anything?

I must scan more of the heaving piles of paperwork.

Will I be able to track down the early years of Elizabeth Susannah Evens (William James's wife)?

As ever, there's more data cleansing and verification to be done. I'm ashamed at the number of references that I have to other people's databases with no independent verification.

And all those "to be sorted" photographs need to be sorted.

There's a lot to do. Perhaps if I regularly force myself to post an update here I might inject a little discipline into my searches? Watch this space.