Author: Dominic

I like to write. I like to create worlds and mould people. I possibly like the creating and the backstory more than the story-telling .... I also enjoy photography, and am still learning. I prefer 'raw' photographs - I don't feel drawn to any kind of manipulation, but that may changes. My other main passion in life is genealogy.

Holborow in Australia 4: Not A Tale of Two Brothers

Cain and Abel. Romulus and Remus. Groucho and Zeppo. We all love a story about brothers (this isn’t one of them!). Although, presumably with fewer beatings. This post is about two such brothers people – Daniel and James Holborow – who both left England and made two very different lives for themselves in Australia.

Warning: long read ahead!

UPDATE: Further evidence (here) has come to light that Daniel and James were not brothers, nor particularly closely related. This is the way of research. You think you have it right, do your checks but … nope – sometimes shit still goes wrong! Whilst James was the son of William Wraxall Holborow and Jane Greenman, Daniel was the son of William Holborow and Jane Day.

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Interregnum

Before I get back to something that may approach situation normal around here, I thought that I would offer up something close to an explanation for my … 6 week absence.

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52 Ancestors: Newsworthy

The parish and village of Easton Royal is close to my heart as it is where I was born (well, actually I was born in Swindon, but I think you know what I’m saying …) and where I spent the first seven years of my life. So when looking for newsworthy events for this week’s 52 Ancestors post I thought I’d take a look through the British Newspaper Archive for Easton Royal events.

And I found one from 1894 (admittedly quite a long time before my family was living there) which made me smile.

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Angells In The Outfield

I’m sticking with the changeable surname theme with this post, although I’m swapping my husband’s tree for my own, and Surrey for the comfortable, green-leaved familiarity of Wiltshire.

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52 Ancestors: Multiple

This week’s 52 Ancestors post is, as you might have guessed, on the theme of multiple. As opposed to last week’s solo post. But multiple what…? Multiple children? Multiple births (although twins seem to be a pretty rare circumstance in my family)? Multiple marriages (definitely less rare!)?

How about … multiple identities …?

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The Kerry Bull’s Calves

This post has been a long time coming – yet it is one of my favourite things I’ve ever researched, and one that I am inordinately proud of (probably second only to finding my husband’s [adopted] aunt’s birth family … or tracking down my paternal grandfather’s family). Some of it might be a bit squirrelly but bear with me …

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52 Ancestors: Solo (Updated)

I don’t think that there is one solitary only child in my tree. Not anywhere. Even all the spinster aunts and bachelor uncles seem to be found in close proximity to their niblings in later years, and several of them make clear provision for them in their wills and testaments (yes, you may have several cauldrons of tallow, dear nephew …).

So I had to take a bit of a different tack with this week’s challenge and take a look at a line that’s just been hanging out for a while now. On it’s own. Kind of … solo.

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Holborow in America 3: New York, New York

I thought it only fair to officially start my next set of geographically-themed Holborow posts by looking at Holborows who have emigrated to America and their families. And I say officially as technically I’ve already started, with one historic post and another much more recently!

But onward and backward (only not as far as you might imagine) …!

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52 Ancestors: Holborow in America 2: Unexpected

So this week’s 52 Ancestors post – on the theme of Unexpected – is a bit of a three-for-one special.

Yes, it’s a 52 Ancestors post. It’s also a sort of … Ethelbert Update post (which doubles the unexpected side of things as I didn’t have any intention of doing another one – despite what some people might tell you …!). And it’s also part of the nascent Holborow in America series.

That’s a lot for one post. Oh, and there’s also some timely discomfort. Let’s get to it …

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An Ethelbert Update – Part II

At the end of May I was having a a chat with my friend, fellow researcher, ex-colleague (and self-confessed ‘bad blogger’) Carole from over at Davies of Mold and Ancestry Examiner and we got to discussing the status of certificate ordering from the GRO in the current … environment.

Whilst the website says that certificates shouldn’t be ordered unless for official reasons, I wondered if this was true for PDF versions of birth and death certificates or if ordering them would be a bit of a … dick move. We both decided that as the scans are on a central server, the archivists working from home could access them without too much hassle or – more importantly – risk to themselves or others. And if it was small order then there shouldn’t be a big problem. So I did.

Remember Little Ethelbert? His certs were the ones I ordered, so this post is a little addendum to his story!

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