Holborow in America

Of Blooms, Blarney and Bigamy …

I have had a million things to take care of in August (and September) – my MA, my counseling course, dealing with the builders for the kitchen renovations to name a few off the top of my head – so it should come as absolutely no surprise that I have, instead, been looking at a mysterious line of Holborows (i.e. neither the procrastination nor the subject should be a surprise).

They aren’t particularly close to my line (the progenitor being my 1st cousin 5 x removed), but they contain(ed) a number of questions. Some of which I have managed to answer – finally!

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Holborow in America 4: O, Canada!

Yes, I’m stretching the definition of ‘America’ again to include continental North America and not simply the USA. There aren’t a lot of Holborows who ventured into the Great White North, although there is an intriguing William “Holbrough” enumerated in the 1870 US census living in Dakota Territory who alleges to have been born in Canada c. 1847. He was later coroner of Charles Mix County, as well as superintendent of schools and then the county collector before being “lynched” by some of his associates, and is buried beside Snake Creek, Charles Mix County, South Dakota. Or at least so his (unsourced) entry on Findagrave says … which is born out by a quick search of Newspapers.com:

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Holborow in America 1: 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: 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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Generations

Do you ever find a family line that has a mix of occupations – and you wonder how much the behaviour of one generation has affected the subsequent ones? I came across one such line recently.

A cousin of mine (7th cousin once removed but, hey, who’s counting?) recently shared a link to an online digital archive of American newspapers, as part of the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America collection. As I always do when faced with a ‘new’ searchable database, the first name I type in is ‘Holborow’. As its such a unique surname I’m always pretty sure that any results have a link back to my family – and I came across some fantastic articles in this archive.

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