The ongoing search for my ALLEN ancestry

I recently returned to looking at my mother's ALLEN ancestry.  The research on this line hit a 'brick wall' some years ago, with an Edward ALLEN, born about 1786 who moved into London from Hertfordshire, probably sometime around 1840.  He appears in Lambeth in the 1841 census, with his wife, Sophia, and four of their eight children, all of them recorded as born outside of the county.* 

The connection back to Hertfordshire had been made (after many years of searching!) following the discovery of the baptism of Edward's son, John Prosser ALLEN, my 2x great grandfather, in the parish of Thundridge, on one of the LDS Vital Records cds.    

In the later censuses, once the family are in London, they never seem to put their parish of birth, merely the county, and, in several of the census entries, it reads more like "Herefordshire" than "Hertfordshire".  Hence the long search for where they had come from.

Having finally identified the relevant parish, I'd viewed the parish registers on microfilm at my local LDS Family History Centre. The register for John's baptism gave the family's address as High Cross, Standon - which is actually a hamlet in the adjoining parish to Thundridge.  Working through the register, I found the baptisms of the other children who appear in the censuses, as well as discovering the burial of Edward and Sophia's eldest daughter, Louisa, in April 1841, with the address recorded as Lambeth. So that helped to confirm the connection.

But attempting to take the family line any further back stalled with the discovery that there were two Edward ALLENs born around the same time - one Edward born 1785, son of a John and Jane, and the other Edward born 1787, son of an Edward and Ann - and no obvious way to confirm which one was 'mine'.  

ALLEN is quite a 'popular' surname and so, with other activities to deal with at the time, it was easiest to pause the research there.  Returning to it again recently, I first refreshed my memory by grouping the various entries, which I'd previously collected in a spreadsheet, into families.  John and Jane had four children between 1779-1785: William, Ann, Sarah, and Edward, with a possible fifth, an Elizabeth, christened with parents, John and "Jenny", in 1789.  Edward and Ann had six children between 1781-1791: George, Christian, Hariott, Edward, Richard and John Canfield. [Note: two spellings of this name, "Canfield" and "Camfield," appear in the records so, for any references below, to searching for the name, I will have checked both versions.]  

Since the two couples were having children in the same place, over similar time periods, it seemed possible that Edward and John might be brothers.

The John Canfield ALLEN later used the middle name of "Canfield" for his first two sons, and then the middle name of "Kilham" for two others, but at least three other sons had no middle name.  In view of the fact that my Edward also only gave one of his seven sons a middle name, that seemed intriguing.  But, since I knew that this John Canfield ALLEN was not my ancestor, I had not paid a great deal of attention to him before.  

However, this time, I decided to research him, since he was the brother of one of the Edwards who 'might' be my ancestor.  Following him through the censuses - I promptly realised that, in 1851, he has his brother Edward living with him!*  Maybe I saw this and didn't realise the significance before, or maybe it wasn't available then (we forget how many records the genealogy companies have added over the years).  But, since I know that 'my' Edward had died in Lambeth in 1849, this obviously means that I can now discount the baptism entry for Edward, the son of Edward and Ann.  

So, potentially the Edward, son of John and Jane, could be the correct one for my line.  

But how could I be sure? 

As well as searching for John Canfield ALLEN on the genealogy sites, I'd looked in the National Archives catalogue, since the combination of his three names was likely to be easy to identify.  There I found a couple of relevant references, for example "Henry Allen of Wadesmill, Thundridge, son of John Canfield Allen, farmer..." and a conveyance to him of land in High Cross, Standon.

Then I tried just "Canfield AND Allen" - that resulted in a reference to a Court Roll in April 1744, which was described as "Admission of Mary Allen, widow, under will and surrender of Andrew Camfield."

Since this item is held by Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, I switched to their catalogue, where I found another interesting and very informative entry:

Title: Waggon and Horses

Description: (Formerly Gun and Catherine Wheel, formerly Gun), blacksmiths shop and yard; messuage abutting on its north side; 2 other messuages all in High Cross, copy will, Andrew Canfield of Highcross blacksmith proved 15 Sep 1741; copy will and codicil, Edward Allen the elder of Highcross, blacksmith, 29 Dec 1791; probate John Forster of High Cross, labourer, 1 May 1746; copy will, Edward Mason of Stanstead Abbott, cordwainer, proved 16 May 1788 (74)

Aha! Relevant names in the relevant place.  And, what was particularly interesting to me, they were both blacksmiths.  Because, although John Canfield ALLEN's occupation is generally recorded as farmer, or corn factor, the occupation of my ancestor, Edward ALLEN, was that of a blacksmith.  

Back on FindMyPast, I found a burial for an Andrew Canfield, blacksmith, in Great Hormead on 20 August 1741, which seemed to be the only one that fitted the Will reference.  Another entry among the results caught my eye - one, dated 1740, for an Andrew Canfield in the "Essex Wills Beneficiaries Index, 1675-1858"  Checking the details indicated that he was the father-in-law to the testator, a "W Allin", of Great Hormead.

The Essex Wills Beneficiaries Index is, as one might expect, an index of the beneficiaries in Wills - but there are a few 'unexpected' features.  It just covers Wills held in the Essex Record Office and primarily only lists beneficiaries who have a different surname from the testator.  The place given might be for the testator, and not the beneficiary.  Also the date given is the date of the Will, ie when it was written, not the date when it was proved, which could be some years later.  I found helpful information about the Index on the "Essex and Sussex Surnames" site at, https://essexandsuffolksurnames.co.uk/essex-wills-beneficiaries-index/ 

Having found the entry referring to Andrew CANFIELD, I then searched for ALLENs in the Beneficiaries Index and found the following, potentially relevant, entries:

BR22 383, dated 1731, testator: A Canfield [Standon] listing ALLEN beneficiaries of Mary (dau), William (son-in-law), and then William, John and Edward, all grandsons.

MR12 50, dated 1752, testator M BANGS [Standon] listing ALLEN beneficiaries of Jane (daughter) and John (son-in-law).

MR12 50, dated 1755, testator W BANGS [Standon] listing ALLEN beneficiaries of Jane (daughter) and John (son-in-law).

So, based on the first entry, Andrew CANFIELD had a daughter, Mary, who married a William ALLEN.  They had children, William, John and Edward.  Could the John and Edward be the two men in the "Edward and Ann" and "John and Jane" couples above?

At this point, several issues dawned on me:

• The marriage of Jane BANGS to John ALLEN (of Braughing), which, according to FindMyPast, took place in Standon in 1749, was not in my spreadsheet. Therefore my spreadsheet must be incomplete.
• If that's the John and Jane ALLEN having children between 1779-1785, then that's a long gap between their marriage and having children.
• Likewise, since Andrew Canfield listed his grandsons, William, John and Edward, when he wrote his Will in 1731, that John and Edward would have to be aged around fifty before having children, if they were the fathers in the two families I listed above. 

So clearly, despite the occurrence of the "right" names and occupations, the entries are unlikely to fit together in such a straightforward way as it initially might appear - which is why this is an "ongoing" search!

Next steps:

• Extract more of the parish register entries into my spreadsheet, widening the search to other parishes beyond my initial selection.
• Obtain copies of the relevant Wills, transcribe them, and confirm the relationships between the  individuals mentioned, as well as look for any further identifying features.
• Check out the tithe records relating to land and properties owned, and occupied, by the ALLENs to establish exactly who was living where.
• Explore, in more detail, the entries in the various archives' catalogues relating to land and property ownership.

The following is just a screenshot of a quick map, drawn in Google Maps and then opened in Google Earth, in order to show the relationships between the various places mentioned above.  The linear pattern is interesting, since I remember visiting an historic "Smithy" once, where it was mentioned that blacksmiths' workshops would often be along a main route. Had the family established themselves along a main route from London to Cambridge? [or is it just an artifact of how I produced the map! 😊]

* Additional information about sources:

1841 Lambeth census for Edward, Sophia and 4 children: HO107/1058/9/13/20/2387 (Piece/Book/Folio/Page/Schedule) Union Street, St Mary Lambeth, London.

1851 census for John Canfield ALLEN and his family: HO107/1705/570/1/3 (Piece/Folio/Page/Schedule) Plashes Farm, Standon, Ware, Hertfordshire, England

TNA Entry relating to the Court Roll: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/2e9b8cb6-8ad3-48ac-98bc-c9b0d1636a79

Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies entry about the Waggon and Horses: https://www.hertfordshirearchives.org.uk/collections/getrecord/GB46_CDESb_1_1_40_2

First look at the 1921 census

 I haven't done much family history research over the last couple of years.  But the release of the 1921 census on FindMyPast seemed a good opportunity to dip in to it again, to see what information the census could add about some of my closest ancestors, people I had actually known.  

I'm not normally one to 'rush in' as soon as a database is released - there's often too many issues to make it worthwhile, better to wait until demand has settled down a bit and any initial technical problems have been resolved. But, with a short priority list, I reckoned a late night/early morning finding them would mean I could then get on with other activities again.

So that's how I found myself, counting down to that midnight deadline:   

So this was my list of priorities:

Grandfather: Donald Martin PARRY, (1904-1980)

Grandmother: Elsie May THOMAS, (1902-1982)

Grandfather: John William Frederick ALLEN (1892-1967)

Grandmother: Maud Emily Alice DOWDING (1896-1971)

Great Grandparents: George THOMAS (1871-1955), with wife, Rose Hannah (1874-1958)

Great Grandparents: John Prosser ALLEN (1866-1945), with wife, Caroline (1866-1953)

Great Grandparents: Charles Henry DOWDING (1865-1933), with wife, Minnie Louisa (1865-1934)

2xGreat Grandparents: John THOMAS (1843-1929), with wife, Priscilla (1846-1932)

2xGreat Grandparents: George HAYNES (1855-?), with wife, Caroline (1855-1933)

(This was the point at which I realised I still have eight death dates for various 2xGreat grandparents to identify.  A talk by Jeanne Bunting, on the importance of "burying your ancestors", at a Guild of One-Name Studies seminar, flashed briefly across my brain.)

Donald Martin PARRY, (1904-1980)

Finding Donald was easy - he was exactly where I expected him to be, in Rowleston, Herefordshire.  I have already written about him in my "Favourite Photo" post at https://notjusttheparrys.blogspot.com/2018/01/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks-week-2.html  Orphaned when he was 14, he and his sister were separated and sent to live with 'relatives'.  I knew this was a WILLIAMS family for Donald, but now, finally, I know which WILLIAMS family - a Joseph Henry WILLIAMS, with wife Gertrude, and children, Geraldine, William, Henry, Irene, and Gwendolyne.  

A quick search revealed Gertrude's maiden name was THACKWAY, which hasn't appeared in my research so far, and, although I do know about various connected WILLIAMS families, this particular one isn't one I have come across before.  So investigating how they might be related to us has gone onto my "ToDo" list.  

Elsie May THOMAS, (1902-1982) and her parents, George and Rose Hannah THOMAS

After the intial success with Donald, I was feeling positive - but disappointment soon followed, when I searched for Elsie.   Despite trying various search tactics, I was unable to find her.  Her parents were easy to find in Collington, Herefordshire, along with six of her siblings still at home.  But Elsie and three other siblings are absent.  

It's not surprising - they were all old enough to be working (or married) and, as females, would often be 'living in', in service somewhere.  That perhaps increases the possibility of errors in recording or transcription, as the census entry will probably have been completed by a non-family member, who might not get the name correct, or a transcriber not spotting the variations in a household's surnames.

More work needed there, unfortunately.

John William Frederick ALLEN (1892-1967), and his parents, John and Caroline ALLEN

Initially, there was more frustration when I searched for my other grandfather, John.  There are a lot of John ALLENs in London!

Again, I tried a variety of tactics - parts of his first names, birthplace variations, other members of the family.  I wasn't sure whether he would be with his parents - although I did know he was widowed, with a young son who his parents had looked after while John was away in the army.  

Fortunately, when looking at entries in the index, by hovering over the 'payment' options, it is possible to see some of the other people in the household.  So, finally, having searched for Caroline, and checking out an entry appearing in the index as just "C ALLEN", I found them.  Yes, only John senior was recorded by name - all of the others, Caroline, my grandfather, 'John', another son, Robert, and the son of my grandfather, 'John Frederick", are all recorded with just one initial!  Not only that, both my grandfather and his son are shown with the initial "F" - I always knew the son was referred to as "Freddie", but I didn't expect that for my grandfather.

All the other details match up - John senior was a toy maker, working for himself, my grandfather John, was widowed and in the paper trade, and the other son, Robert, was a decorator - so I am quite content that this is the 'right' entry.   The address is also 21 Lambeth Walk - which, if  I had thought about it, I could have used as a search term, since I did know that was their address from at least 1911 until many years after 1921.   And, having now tried the address search, just to check out how it works, I can see from the index that there is another family at the same address - it's the third son of John and Caroline, Albert Edward ALLEN, with his wife, Alice Irene, and baby daughter, Doris Irene.  An interesting contrast between the two families, with even middle names recorded fully in Albert's household, yet most of my grandfather's household recorded with just first initials.  

I'm sure my mother would have found that amusing - she always said her dad could be an "awkward 'so & so'" 😄

Maud Emily Alice DOWDING (1896-1971), and her parents, Charles Henry and Minnie Louisa DOWDING

DOWDING is not such a frequently occurring surname as ALLEN, THOMAS or PARRY are, and there were only a few 'Maud DOWDING's of the right age, so my grandmother was easy to find.  She and her younger sister, Ethel, were living with their parents in Pratt Street.  

The 1921 census gives more occupational details than has been recorded in previous censuses and, although I knew that my grandmother worked in a tobacco factory, it is great to have the name of the factory, "Faulkner & Co", and location, "Blackfriars Rd", as I can now investigate more about them, where exactly the factory was, how large it was, what working conditions were like etc.  All of that detail adds 'colour' to the lives of my ancestors.

I was also interested to see that Maud's sister, Ethel, was a machinist for a "theatrical costumier", H M Raynes, of Waterloo Rd.  That conjures up images of glamorous, extravagant, costumes - definitely worth further research.

 So who did that leave from my priority list - just two sets of 2xGreat Grandparents.

John THOMAS (1843-1929), with wife, Priscilla (1846-1932)

Fortunately, by this age, my ancestors were a bit more 'settled' - and, not only did I find John and Priscilla in Stoke Bliss, where they'd married over forty years before, but with them was one of their daughters, Lilly, and also one of their granddaughters, Edith, who was one of the four daughters 'missing' from George and Rose Hannah's family.

George HAYNES (1855-?), with wife, Caroline (1855-1933)

Again, George and Caroline HAYNES were easy to find, having been living in Sheep Street, Bromyard for many years and still there in 1921.  There's nine in the household, a mixture of family, both children and grandchildren, as well as a couple of boarders.

And, for the first time from any of the 1921 census entries, I have some new family information, since there's a married daughter, Annie PULLEN, as well as two, previously unknown, grandchildren, Ellis Thomas PULLEN and Lilian HAYNES. 

Clearly, I do have a lot more research to carry out now, adding the new members of the family to my files, as well as recording the additional information about occupations etc from the census.  

As well as not finding my grandmother, Elsie May THOMAS, I was unable to find Donald PARRY's sister, Rosina Jane PARRY, despite trying the variety of names she was known by.  I did identify an entry for their aunt in Hereford, who I believe Rosina was sent to live with after their father had died in 1918, as well as possible entries for the aunt's two daughters, who had moved to London by 1921.  Unfortunately, according to one of Rosina's daughters, Rosina also moved to London when she was about 16 - which would be in 1921 - so she could be almost anywhere that year! 

But, overall, I felt this was a fairly successful set of results for my first foray into the 1921 census (and I wasn't that late to bed, either!)

Ancestry DNA matches - passing 200 "4th cousins or closer"

I was planning to post an update to my Ancestry DNA match numbers when I reached 200 4th cousins or closer.

But clearly someone, somewhere, has a sense of humour!

Having been slowly creeping up towards 200 over the last few weeks....

....yesterday when I checked, the total had jumped from the previous day's 198, up by three to 201, thus missing out 200! 😀

An increase like this is what one might expect, when a group of family members all decide to test at the same time.  The closest match is a predicted third cousin to me and then the other two are both predicted 4th cousins.

I think it's the first time I've received such a batch of close matches, all on the same day.

Initially. all three matches showed with unlinked trees - but at least they were trees that featured, not just one of my surnames, ALLEN, but also the similar use of a particular middle name.   The trees have since been linked to the matches, so I can now identify the relationships between the three of them.

Another good thing was that, out of the nine other DNA matches shared between myself and the closest new match, I have already identified a common ALLEN ancestor with seven of them, and another one connects to the ALLEN surname, although we've not proved who the shared ancestor is yet.  The ninth match has two other shared matches, creating an isolated group that I hadn’t been able to link into an ancestral line, so perhaps these new matches might lead to the opportunity to do so.

One would think that, with all this information, the connection to the new matches should be obvious, but I didn't recognise the oldest ALLEN ancestor in their line. 

However, following some research today, I have now written to the match.  Potentially, if there is any doubt about the connection between their oldest two generations, then I might just have the answer. 🙂

2020 52Anc. Wk 3: John William Frederick ALLEN (or was it John Frederick William ALLEN?)

This post is about my grandfather, John William Frederick ALLEN.  There's so much to record about the ancestors we actually knew, and I am already behind with the "52 ancestors in 52 weeks" so I am going to keep this fairly short and just introduce the key facts.  I am sure I shall be returning to John many times!

John William Frederick ALLEN, with 'Jack'

John was born on 17 February 1892, in Bethnal Green, London.

He was the second of four children to John Prosser ALLEN jnr and Caroline NAYLOR.  His siblings were Amelia Bessie, Albert Edward and Robert.

Their names caused some confusion for my mother, when she first began her family history research.  Amelia had always been "Aunty May", and her uncles had always been referred to as "Bert" and "Bob".  It might seem obvious now which is which but, when starting from the shortened versions, especially "Bert", which can represent several names, the early research was not easy.

And, of course, they are all common first names.  Combined with a fairly common surname, as well, identifying the correct civil registration entries was quite a problem for Mum - in fact, it is only since the advent of the GRO's own online indexes, with the inclusion of mother's maiden names before 1911, that I have finally managed to identify Albert's birth registration.

Even my mother's Dad's name caused her an issue when she was younger - it was discovered that, whilst he always seemed to be known as "John William Frederick" and that is what is on my grandparents' marriage certificate, his birth certificate actually shows his name as "John Frederick William".

Thinking that this might mean the marriage was not legal, I gather Mum asked, "Does that make me a b......?"

She told me that comment earned her a "clip round the ear"!

We all have our own perspectives on other people, based on our experiences.  To me, my grandfather was a happy man - in all the photographs, he seems to be smiling and having a good time.  I have memories of him and others together in my grandparents' house, larking around on an out of tune piano, (frequently singing a song that involved “more beer”!)

He passed away in 1967, when I was still a child.

So it was only when I was older, speaking to Mum about her experiences growing up, that I learnt about other aspects of his life and possibly why there might have been more to the "more beer" song.

Grandad fought in the 1st World War.  He had actually enlisted before the war, in 1909 and served with the Colours for three years before being transferred to the Reserve.  He was then mobilised and served again from 1914 - 1919.  For some reason, he was recalled to the Colours again in 1921 and served for another five months. 

At some stage, he met his first wife, although he didn't marry her until their son was almost four.  Sadly, she died in 1918, of TB, barely nine months after the wedding.  John was serving in Salonika at the time - Mum believed he did try to get home, but was told by his officer "there's no point, she'll be dead by the time you get there".  And when he asked what would happen to his son, he was reportedly told not to worry - he'd be put into an orphanage!

Fortunately, John's son was not put into an orphanage, but looked after by John's parents - but would it be any surprise if Grandad felt bitter towards those in charge?

I don't know when John met my grandmother, Maud Emily Alice DOWDING, but they were married in 1926.  My mother was their only child.  She's passed on a few stories of her childhood, being brought up by 'older' parents, and effectively as an only child, since her half brother was seventeen years older than her.  But they can wait until another time.

John William Frederick ALLEN with his daughter.

Another potentially identified DNA connection

Isn't it nice when things just work out?

I haven't done much regarding DNA over the past month or so, due to other activities.  But I have tried to keep up with the "new" events, such as the MyHeritage changes.  I'll write more about my results at that site at another time - this post is about an Ancestry find.

Late last night, (probably too late, I should have been on my way to bed, but you know that thought, "I'll just check one more thing" 🙂) I decided to look at how many '4th cousin and closer' matches I have on Ancestry.  I thought it would probably be 81, which is what it went up to a week ago. But the numbers have been increasing more rapidly recently, with five new matches in that category since the beginning of the year, so I am ever hopeful of an increase.

The total was 82!

I quickly searched for the new match -  no tree and only a 'good' confidence level, with 22.7 centimorgans shared across 3 DNA segments.  That could mean three segments at about 7.5cM each, or it could be one longer segment and a couple of smaller ones.  I won't know unless they transfer their data to another site.  Still, it would be worth following up when I get time.

But then I looked for any shared matches.  Often there are none, as shared matches only show for matches in the "4th cousin and closer" category so, if this match also matches some of my more distant matches, the more distant ones won't show up on this person's profile.  But, this time, there was one shared match shown, predicted 'high confidence', with 38cM shared across 2 DNA segments.  And with a tree of eleven people.

I keep a running total of the numbers of matches I have, as well as noting the names of new matches and anything interesting about them (like whether they have a family tree, or a surname in common with me). So I could tell that the shared match had appeared on the 9th of January and, at that time, was not showing a family tree.  So I am fortunate in that it looks like they are interested in finding out more about their ancestry, as they have taken the trouble to add some family details.

There were two surnames in common with me, LEWIS in Wales and ALLEN in London.  The Welsh one was not in one of "my" counties, so I took a closer look at the ALLEN first.

There were no dates, just the location for the one female ALLEN's birth in London.  But her marriage was shown, so that gave me her husband's name.  Armed with that information, I was able to identify their marriage, in 1926, on Ancestry.  London records are well represented on the site so I didn't just find the civil registration index but also an image of the actual parish register.  That gave me the bride's father's details, Herbert Henry ALLEN, a poulterer.  As the bride's age was shown on the certificate, it didn't take long to find the family in the 1911 census, Herbert Henry (33), with wife, Ada (32), and children, Edward (12), Florence (11), Herbert Henry (10), Frederick (7), Joseph (6), Dorothy Violet (5), Cyril James (4), Bessie Maud (3) and Frank Reuben (1).  From there I checked the 1901 census, which showed Herbert and Ada, along with the two older children.  Herbert's birthplace was Lambeth in both censuses.  Ada's and the children's varied from Lambeth to Brixton and Stockwell, but these are fairly closely connected areas in south west London, and all familiar from my own family.

The next step was to identify the marriage of Herbert Henry ALLEN to Ada - I used FreeBMD for that and found that the most probable entry was in September 1898, in Camberwell.  Back to Ancestry to search for the church records.  Yes, again the entry was there - Herbert Henry ALLEN, aged 20, married Ada SPRINKS on September 12, 1898.  Herbert's father was a John ALLEN, Perambulator Maker.

Now that's exciting - because my John Prosser ALLEN, snr, was also a perambulator maker. And, on February 10th, 1878, my John, with his wife, Sarah, christened their son, Herbert Henry ALLEN!

Obviously, I need to continue to work through the details, and check for my John and Sarah in records such as the censuses, to make sure their Herbert is with them, or not, as appropriate, and that there's no evidence to suggest this isn't the right connection to my DNA match.  I also need to contact the shared match who appeared on my list yesterday, to confirm whether or not they connect to the same family line.  And, of course, it would be great if both matches transferred their raw data to one of the other DNA sites, so that we can check exactly where we match on the DNA.  That would also mean I could look for more evidence, for or against the connection, amongst my other DNA matches.

ALLEN is a fairly common surname, so I don't follow up general references to it on my DNA matches' surname lists - but, who knows, if these two matches do transfer their data, perhaps there'll be others matching over the same segments and with the same surname.  I'd certainly be following those up then!

Just going back to the quantity of DNA shared - 38cM is the average for 4th cousins (based on Blaine Bettinger's Shared cM Project*) whereas we actually appear to be 3rd cousins.  So the shared DNA is a bit on the low side, but well within the range.  The match with 22.7cM could be more distant, but I am hopeful that they will still be within the range of my genealogy!

(And I did eventually get to bed last night - although it was 'today' rather than yesterday!)


*
Blaine Bettinger's Shared cM Project - https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/
Interactive Tool by Jonny Perl - https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcm