My direct maternal line

I can now go 8 generations back on my direct maternal line. All of the ladies listed here were born in Northumberland, England. As you can see they did not apply much imagination to naming their daughters. I am grateful my mother decided there had been enough Margarets and Marys by the time they got to me.

My mtDNA haplogroup is U5a1b1*. The asterisk indicates that there are not enough people tested who share the exact mutations to be able to assign the next level. The last three on the list are shown with “unknown confidence” as I do not yet have DNA evidence to confirm my paper trail. 

Calendar Comments – October 16th

Margaret Jane Webb (1921-1999)

Today would have been my mother´s 95th birthday. She was born at Radcliffe in Northumberland on 16th October 1921. This photograph was taken in her late teens on 30th January 1940, a couple of years before she married my Dad, George William Crackett.  As the third in a line of Margaret Janes, she went by the name of Peggy to distinguish her from her mother, Meggie.

 

Chasing Carrs

One of my matches on AncestryDNA has indicated a connection through our respective Carr lines. This has prompted me to do some checking on the integrity of the Carr information in my tree and to develop further some of the lines that descend from my 3rd great grandfather Caleb Carr.  Caleb was baptised at Longbenton in Northumberland on 23 Feb 1772, His parents were Adam Carr and Jane Nesbitt.

My efforts today have taken the total of Caleb’s children to 17 and I am still not sure I have found them all. The mothers of these children were:

• Mary Vardy (no marriage found)
• Elizabeth Young (marriage 1796)
• Elizabeth Hume (no marriage found)
• Rachael Smith (marriage 1808)

At the moment I am not sure if Elizabeth Young and Elizabeth Hume are one person or two.

The result of today’s Carr activity is over 40 new Carr people in my tree plus spouses for several of them. Pleased with the result of this Carr chasing stunt, but I know I still have a long way to go to document this very prolific branch of my tree. They did not apply much imagination to naming their children either, so the repetitive names and similar dates and locations add to the confusion in resolving this puzzle.

 

Calendar Comments – March 12th

George William Crackett (1916-1978)

My Dad, George Crackett, was born 100 years ago today in Amble, Northumberland. He was the eldest of the three children of George Crackett and Ellenor Turner (Nellie). He went to the Duke’s Grammar School in Alnwick and made the break away from our mining heritage when he took a clerical job in the offices of building contractors R. Carse & Sons Ltd. He married Margaret Jane Webb (Peggy) in 1942 and then served in India for 3 years during the war, leaving his young bride at home with her parents. On his return from India they bought a house in Central Avenue, Amble where they raised my brother and I. Dad continued to work for Carse in clerical and management positions for the rest of his working life. We lost him much too early, when he was just a little older than I am now.

Calendar Comments – January 19th

My family history event for January 19th is the birth of Percy James Crackett in 1899 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was one of 8 children, some born in London and some in Northumberland. His parents were David Crackett (1862-1924)  and Sarah Alice Meadows Gillies. By 1911 the family were living in Stakeford. I have traced this line back to Lowick in the late 1700s/early 1800s, but have still not managed to make the paper trail connection to my own Cracketts who were living in the same area at the same time.

Calendar Comments – January 18th

My family history events for January 18th include:

1950: Death of Lily Evelyn Crackett (née Lily Evelyn Allison) at Barrington in Northumberland. Actual date of death is a little uncertain as this was a curious case of manslaughter. Lily was killed by her husband David Robert Sinclair Crackett. If you would like to know more about this tragic tale then you can read about the “Murder at Barrington“. She was last seen alive in November 1949, but her death certificate states body found 18th January 1950. The court returned a verdict of manslaughter, not murder.

1789: 227 years ago today was the baptism of my 4th great uncle, Ralph Bainbridge, at Longbenton in Northumberland. Ralph was the son of William Bainbridge and Mary Coxon.

Calendar Comments – January 17th

I have several family history events for January 17th. The most significant is the the marriage of my great grandparents:

1874: 141 years ago today my great grandparents, Leonard Crackett (Cracket) and Mary Parkinson, married at Morpeth in Northumberland. The banner picture at the top of my blog shows Len and Mary and their 10  children who all reached adulthood.

1900: My first cousin twice removed, James Edward Doleman Simmons, was born at Amble in Northumberland.

1916: Nora Graham, the wife of my first cousin twice removed Edmond Hanson, was born.

1794: 221 years ago today my 4th great uncle, Thomas Bainbridge, was born in Longbenton, Northumberland. Thomas was baptized two days later on 19th January.

Pruning progress

As usual with tree pruning it is easy to get sidetracked. Although I was planning to tackle marriages first, I found it easier to jump into tidying up death records. Of course, any death record requires further analysis and so losing focus is par for the course.

However, despite the loss of focus, it has been a worthwhile effort:

• 10 new people added to the tree
• Current person count reduced by 5 where I have found enough information to comfortably merge duplicates
• Found death records for 15 people who were showing as living
• 69 citations added to confirm that I am on the right track
• 5 new sources added
• Amendments to 36 individuals
• 6 people who do not belong have been deleted

Not bad for a weekend’s effort, but still a long way to go with the pruning.

Pruning plans

I have identified two areas where I need to do some pruning and tidying of my tree:

I realised that I have been losing some ancestors from all profiles when importing gedcoms to Genome Mate Pro. This is due to inconsistencies in my registration of marriage records in the tree. I am now planning to review direct line marriages this weekend to resolve this issue.

Looking at the statistics for my tree on Ancestry today I noticed it is time for a review and update of death records. I have a number of people still showing as living who are unlikely to still be with us. I am going to start by reviewing all of those who would now be centenarians if they are still living, then perhaps cover all of those born before 1920.

 

 

Calendar Comments – January 15th

My family history event for 15th January is the marriage of Jane Cracket and William Jordison in 1862 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I am still researching whether or not Jane belongs in my tree. She is the daughter of John Cracket and Elizabeth Dixon and was baptized in Tynemouth in 1832. Family Christian names would suggest there is a connection, but I have not yet figured out who John’s parents were.