William Henry Longrigg 1871-1952

William Henry Longrigg

My grandfather's brother. I never met him only heard my mother mention him.  He had emigrated to Canada in 1910  with his wife Hannah Elizabeth Ewebank story had it that my grandfather did go and visit him in Canada and was so impressed had considered emigrating there himself.  I don't know when this was, if it was before his own marriage and children then I could be writing a very different story now or none at all.

Last week I came across the grave markers for William and Hannah....

They were buried in ...

...the tiny graveyard of St Micheal's and all Angels Anglican Church in Chemainus, Vancouver, B.C. Canada.

Hannah's grave-marker I noticed says "ever remembered" I wondered by whom as they had no children.

I spent awhile reading up and watching you tube videos on the charming and historic town of Chemainus...

 Chemainus

A town now famous for it's murals

#41 is in the process of being painted and will be ready soon,  here are a few of my favorites..

visit the website to see the others and read the stories behind each one.

Not only did I get a better feeling for my grand uncle and his wife but started to think a little trip to Canada would be most enjoyable.  Along with the Murals their were also sculptures  and the one below had me wondering if maybe my grand aunt and uncle posed for the artist...

I enjoyed remembering you both!

Dr Tyson Longrigg 1827-1873

What a lovely surprise! I received this picture from my cousin in New Zealand a couple of weeks ago. Several researchers including myself have spent many hours gathering information on Tyson and his family.

Back in March of this year I mentioned him after finding some information on the burial place of his wife Rachel Hodgson, I wish I could have had this picture then. Having this image certainly makes this

1st cousin  4 times removed much more interesting.

His education to become a Doctor and move from the sleepy rural area of Appleby, Westmorland, England find a wife in Canada then move to the bustling city of New York right before the start of the Civil War suggests to me a man of great ambition.

New York City was a very different place in the 1870's than it is today...

Over one million inhabitants no wonder he was a little hard to find.  I found Dr Longrigg's death in a newspaper death Index.  Another researcher found him being sued for selling some kind of cough medicine. He and his wife had three sons two of which seemed to be adopted.  One son John, is found in Census and Military Records as living in Wyoming and places him there right after Custer's Last Stand.

After Tyson's death his wife Rachel continued to live in New York and is found in several City Directories living with one of her sons and then alone. It seems their is no know issue from this family.

Another mystery solved...

A few years ago after sending an email inquiry off to an unknown  cousin in New Zealand I received this chart in the mail.  Wow! what a gift!  Some of it I had but most of it I did not.

Since then my cousin Patricia and I have become good friends and we work on this Direct Line of ours together and share new information whenever we can.

You can imagine the many little mysteries and connections that go along with this many ancestors.  The families who stayed in one place for centuries were quite easy to trace but the ones who moved around, well, that takes some detective work.

One such ancestor is Tyson Longrigg 1827-1873, born in Appleby, Westmorland, England.  The son of Joseph Longrigg and Mary Hodgson his father was a Farmer and an Innkeeper in the lovely town of Appleby.

Tyson became a Doctor and by age 33 he was married and living and practicing in the Bronx, in New York City.  We know from other researchers on his wife's line that he stopped in Canada and met and married Rachel Hodgson 1828-1885. She appears to have been a cousin on his Mother's Line.

Other researchers lost track of Tyson and Rachel except for saying that Rachel would visit her sisters from time to time and bring them lovely dresses from New York.

My research has found them in several City Directories two Census Records and two Catholic Church Records and two burial records...

Their two eldest sons are listed in Catholic Baptism records in the Bronx.

This past week Patricia contacted me and asked me where I had found the death date for Tyson and that sent me off on another search.  I had found his death in an e-book on Google from the New York Herald. Decided to look a little more on this family and came up with a new burial record for his wife Rachel and was directed from ancestry.com to a Cemetery web site in the Bronx. Not just any cemetery but a very famous Historical one...

Green Wood Cemetary

One more piece added to the puzzle!

Kirkoswald- Longrigg's...

this weeks research led me to featuring several "Picture's of the Week"

Kirkoswald,Cumberland, England. Castle ruins.

Desmense Farm, Kirkoswald, Cumberland, England

 Longrigg's lived in this old farmhouse, which of course wasn't too old when they lived  there in the 1800's.  When I would see this address as their abode in the Census Records I wondered about the name.  The house was built in 1622 and an inscription over the door reads.

Thomas Bartram and Benet Bartram made this house "Gods wills it"

Desmense is an old term meaning "home farm" (French)

I would think that the Longrigg families who lived here were tenant farmers not owners.


 "Part of the demesne lands are the property of Timothy Featherstonhaugh, Esq., who resides in a neat mansion, called the college, from the estate which formerly belonged to the collegiate church. 

 Mr. Featherstonhaugh,Esq., was beheaded in 1641 by William Cromwell so would not have been my ancestors next door neighbor in the early 1800's.


Kirkoswald


Derived it's name after King Oswald

St Oswalds Church, Kirkoswald, Cumberland, England

Interior

 Kirkoswald Bell Tower was rung to warn the people in the village if the Scots were attacking.

Kirkoswald in the present

Cumbria's oldest Oak Tree.
On the road to Kirkoswald.

Hodgson...

Is a name that crops up a lot on my family tree  some I have a blood relationship with, others  my ancestors married in to.  One I have been following lately is of a Rachael Hodgson born in Hudson, Quebec, Canada.    Rachael married Tyson Longrigg one of my 1st cousins 4 times removed in Montreal, Canada in 1850.  Tyson was born 24 June 1827 in Appleby, Westmorland, England

Records show he may have been related to the Hodgson's through a cousin. His Mothers maiden name was Hodgson.

Tyson was the son of Joseph Longrigg and Mary Hodgson  who were Landlords of The Kings Arms in Bongate Appleby.   Tyson became a  Doctor.  After getting married to Rachael they moved to New York City where they had two sons.  Not much more is known after that on this family. I suspect the sons died without having any issue.

I have recently learned quite a lot about Rachael.  Her parents were among the first Cumberland, England immigrants to settle in Vaudriel, Quebec, Canada.   John  came with his wife Rachel Wilson and their eldest daughter Jane to clear and farm a plot of land in Cote St. Charles in 1820.

  A cluster of houses on the Main road sprang up around the Hodgson Family who operated a Saw Mill and came to be known locally as the "English Villages".

John  Hodgson and Rachel Wilson had eight children born to them.

(Found this on ancestry.com along with several more pages of notes on this family).

  Rachael's brother Joseph born in 1821 married an Elizabeth Awde they had eight children.

  Their eldest daughter Jane married John Serson Melvin and they had ten children.  I was fortunate enough to find a picture of this family on a descendents family tree on ancestry.com and use this with her permission.

 

This is their eldest daughter Mary Elizabeth Melvin

Picture of her with her husband John Larmour and her children probably taken about 1900.

Life would have been very hard for the early pioneers of Canada.

After clearing the land their first home would no doubt have been a Log Cabin built without mechanical equipment and their own hands.  

It must be Spring

At least for one day then more rain and snow mix I heard. Today when I drove in my Driveway the first thing I noticed were my Tulips in Bloom and a large envelope by my door. My friend Ingrid in England had mailed me a very large picture of my cousin Eric Longrigg born 1913. It was too large to fit in the mailbox. I took a Picture of it and the Tulips.

I have been quite busy the last couple of day's communicating with 3 different cousins on three Different Family Lines and have found out lots of new leads. That always makes me happy. But I must admit the thing I am most happiest about today is Spring, yeah!!

Dicovered Treasures ...continued