Always hoping...

Ramsgate,Kent, England

 The citizens of Ramsgate  hoping and watching for loved ones to return is how I like to interpret this painting.

My 4th great grand father Jonathan Edwards 1770-1819 and his wife Mary Gifford 1773-1862. 

Both born in the parish of St Laurence, Ramsgate were the parents of eleven children.  Many years of research had resulted in finding very little as far as their children and descendants.

This past  week the waiting and hoping finally paid off!

Charlotte Edwards 1821-1900 their youngest daughter and last child surfaced on another family tree with her husband and children.  All I had was her marriage to Richard Honey in Kent.  Now I have all five of her children  and a couple of photographs.

Richard and Charlotte's 3rd child and second daughter Ellen Kebble Honey born in 1848 in
 Oxford-shire, England married Zachariah John Crow born at Broadstairs, Kent ,England .

         

        They had two sons    Augustus Benedict Crow born 1872 died in Oregon USA.

                                        Sydney Wilfred Crow born 1875 died 1875 Prescot, Lancashire, England.

Sydney Wilfred Crow married Teresa Mary Williams in Wales...

They had four children...

Basil Sydney Crow 1899
Muriel  1904
Augustine Zachariah
Wilfred John crow 1972
Margery 1911

This is Basil Sydney Crow he emigrated to Canada
and he looks like he is enjoying the cold and snow!

Augustine Zachariah Wilfred John Crow and his wife Mary Burns.... all this on a line I thought was...

                                

Correction...

Awhile ago I did a Post on Richard Edwards my Great Great Grandfather who left England and went to Australia. Since I posted it I have recieved some great advice from two cousins living in Australia. It seems their are two Picton's in Australia and I managed to mix them up big time. Today I went back in to the Post and removed my error.
Although most of my followers would not know I had made a mistake it was bothering me.
I really appreciate my cousins for pointing that out.
Australia sounds good this time of the year the weather is horrible here today, so cold and lot's of snow.

Richard Edwards - Part Three

I will probably never know why Richard Edwards made the decision to leave England and half of his children and his grandchildren and travel 0ver 10.000 miles to an unknown land, knowing he may never see them again.

As a Railway Steam Engine Driver with a large family I am certain he was considered "lower class."

From what I have read Victorian Society did not recognize that there was a lower class, "The Poor" were invisible.  The attitude was that the poor deserved the way they lived, if they would have made better choices they wouldn't be living the way they did.

Although "Poor Laws" were put in to place it wasn't until after the Victorian age that the "lower classes" was  able, through education,technology and reform, to raise itself in some cases literally, out of the gutter.  Victorian Society could be pleasant but only depending on your financial status.

Richard and his family settled in Picton in South Queensland about 60 miles from Sydney. I recently learned from a descendent of his daughter Harriet that he was the Sexton at St Marks Anglican church. 

Richard Edwards -Part Two

Richard and Eliza moved from Ramsgate right after they were married in 1855.

http://www.picturesofengland.com

Ramsgate, what a History! You can take an online walking tour with http://www.bbc.co.uk. I did and found it interesting, informative with lots of pictures and great stories.

The Belgic people arrived there 100 BC. Followed by the Romans, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons.  During the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815) Ramsgate became a Garrison Town.  Tens of thousands of troops embarked and disembarked through it's Harbor.

King George the  Fourth declared Ramsgate the only Royal Harbor in the United Kingdom instead of Dover.  Reason being that he hated his wife Caroline and Dover had given her a very big Welcome at one time when she visited.  They lived apart   after the birth of their only child Charlotte.

After King George's death William the Fourth was King until 1837  when the throne passed to Princess Victoria who ruled until 1901.  In 1840 Victoria married her cousin Albert and they had nine children.

In the sixty one years of her reign she had two Prime Ministers. Benjamin Disraeli whom she loved for his Conservative Views.

Next was four time Prime Minister William Ewert Gladstone who was famously at odds with the Queen for most of his life.   She once complained "He always addresses me as if I was a public meeting"  One of my links to him is that one of my fourth cousins Rosamund Anne Hambro married one of his great grand sons. Rosamund was the daughter of Sir Cecil Beaton's  sister Barbara Jessica Hardy Beaton known as "Baba."

 

Anyway back to Richard, he left Whitehaven for Picton , Queensland Australia during the reign of Queen Victoria after 1881.  The ship below was built in 1883 in Whitehaven, I hope the voyage was not as rough as this one appears to be.  Richard and his family could have travelled by early steamship.

The "Australia Run" could take up to 3 months, many emigrant ships did not make it or be one day out from harbor to be smashed on the rocks.  It is recorded that in Victorian times almost fifteen million people left the British Isles for a better life. Most ships sailed from Liverpool and emigrants would often have to wait in lodging houses nine or ten days before the actual departure.  Generally only first and second- class passengers names were recorded by initial and surname the rest of the passengers were not listed.

Family History has been compared to eating an elephant.  You do it one bite at a time.  Looks like Richard Edwards is going to take at least one more bite.  This Is all can handle today I keep stopping to read huge amounts of history.

Richard Edwards 1835-1915

Richard was my Great Great Grandfather  my mother's Great Grandfather.   To her knowledge and memory she knew nothing or ever heard mention of him.   As I did research on him he was very easy to trace through Census Records from 1841 through 1881 along with his Parents his wife and children. He was born in St.Lawrence on the the Isle of  Thanet in Kent England.

No one knows why St. Laurence Parish Church  and St. Lawrence Village and District are spelled differently it is confusing.  The church was built in 1062 as a chapel, it was enlarged in 1175 and again in the 1200's.  St. Lawrence was made a separate  parish in 1275.   A major restoration was done in 1888.

Richard and his wife Eliza Spain had one child born in Ramsgate, Kent, England in 1856, his other nine children were born in Whitehaven and Harrington in Cumberland, England from 1858 through 1876.

My Great Grandmother Caroline Jane Edwards born  1862 being one of them.

His wife Eliza Spain has no Father listed on their marriage Certificate.  Richard was the son of Thomas Edwards and Elizabeth Packer.

The reason for him moving so far away from his birthplace are obvious, his occupation was a Railway Engine Driver.  Ramsgate got the Southern Railroad in the 1840's.  In 1871 the Station was named Ramsgate & St Lawrence- On- Sea.  Whether he was transferred to Whitehaven by his Company or from his own choice, I don't know.

He and several of his children were not found in the 1891 Census and for years I looked and could not find them.  My first thought of course was Immigration  but to where?  America? Australia? Canada? New Zealand?  I was up against a brick wall.

Then one day I received an email from a lady in Australia telling me that she was married to the Great Grandson of Richard Edwards through his daughter Harriet Eliza born in 1874.  So Richard and Eliza had emigrated to Picton, Queensland, Australia after 1881.  Problem solved, since then I have been in contact with other descendents and have got quite a lot of information on his life in Australia.

Enough for now I think, I will have to do Part Two on my interesting Great Great Grandfather.

Down Under...

Picnic at Bald Rock



Opening of the Railroad



Rover Tin Mine



First School

A few weeks ago I was in contact with yet another cousin from Australia. My mothers Great Grandfather (Richard Edwards born 1835) emigrated to Picton, Queensland, Australia with several of his children before 1881. Some of his children did stay behind in Cumberland England, his daughter, my Great Grandmother (Caroline Jane Edwards) being one of them. His oldest son Walter R Edwards also stayed behind. His eldest son Thomas W Richard Edwards emigrated to Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia.

As I was researching this location I came across a great site at http://www.bonzle.com It has many pictures of pioneer times and places in Australia. Hard for me to even fathom how hard life must have been for these early pioneers. Even harder for them to know when they left the shores of their homelands that communicating with loved ones on a regular basis would be near impossible. Can you imagine no emails, no computers, No Blogs. What a different world from the one we enjoy.

These Pictures were taken in Stanthorpe around the mid 1800's. I especially love the ones of the school children.

Caroline Jane Edwards My Great Grandmother

My Mother told me what a kind and loving person she was. When my Grandmother Eliza Mary Williamson Longrigg passed away in childbirth my mother was only 5 years old. She remembers the night it happened and my Grandfather George came in the bedroom and woke up the older children and took them in to her bedroom where she was dying. (no blood transfusions in those days) My Mother tells the story of how white she was, as white as the sheets on the bed. She was holding the new baby in her arms and wanted to say goodbye to her children. Afterwards Caroline Jane took care of them all for quite some time. She was married to John Williamson