House your father? - November 2015

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mardler
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Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

House your father? - November 2015

Post by mardler »

Hello everyone. We have a variety of stories for you this month. Hope you enjoy them.

"They also serve who only stand and wait"
I was reminded of the above words of Milton as, during the month, we found two of our number who served other, more famous people in their work. Caroline Elizabeth Howes of Walcott in Norfolk, England was, in the 1911 census, a servant to the novelist John Galsworthy who wrote the Forsyte Saga. In the 1871 census, Emma Howes (1849) of Wymondham in Norfolk was a servant to the Cavell family in the nearby village of Swardeston. Among the family members was a 5-year old Edith, who would later be shot by Germans in Brussels in the First World War. In the past we have come across a Samuel Musgrove Howes, who was Sir Winston Churchill's driver. Who else am I missing/forgetting?

1939 Register
I had a small poke around on the 1939 Register, the British census equivalent hurriedly taken at the start of the Second Word War. I'm sad to say that I have been rather disappointed. So far I have seen the original records for three families, two correspondents having sent us original copies from their own family for us to transcribe; I bought one myself too. Each family had at least one error in birthdates - on average an error rate of about 30%. To be fair to the data provider, two of the four errors I saw were in the original rather than being poor transcriptions. And in the course of our work, I've been surprised at the number of people that I have been unable to find, which may indicate some errors in the name field also.

Given that the provider charges for each family viewed, 30% is quite a high error rate. And though I stress that I'm looking only at a small sample, it may make people hesitant to purchase the few records they are interested in, just in case they pay for the wrong one. I have a few credits to use up but am hoping that once the hubbub dies down the information will be available within a regular annual subscription.

That said, there are some things that you can find out from the Register without paying and if I get some time over the Christmas holidays I will make a web page on the topic. If a woman married subsequently for example, her new married name will be shown and if the person died before 1989 their date of death may be noted too.

And in some cases, buying the record can pay off in other ways. Looking for one particular ancestor, a correspondent sent us an image thinking it wasn't her man because the birth date was a few years 'off'. We were able to prove that indeed it was her man. He had married a second time late in life and started another family. Our correspondent is now on the hunt for the two previously unknown half-brothers to her family!

A polygamist among us?
If a person who marries again before being widowed or divorced is a bigamist what do you call a man who marries six times? I suppose it must be polygamist, but that has a sense of willingness by all the participants, whereas I'm not sure that's the case here. Here's a little table of one man's escapades in the romance department:
Marriage_Year__Status______Ceremony__________Comments
- 1 . . . . 1917 . Bachelor . Register Office . . . . Wife remarried in 1930 to a Davies and children took his name. Was there a prior divorce?
- 2 . . . . 1932 . Bachelor . Catholic
- 3 . . . . 1933 . Bachelor . Register Office . . . . One child, died young
- 4 . . . . 1934 . Bachelor . Methodist
- 5 . . . . 1939 . Bachelor . C of E . . . . . . . . . . Wife died within a few months
- 6 . . . . 1940 . Widower . C of E
The man was named Joseph Thomas Leslie Howes and you can see all six of his marriage certificates here: http://howesfamilies.com/getperson.php? ... ee=Onename. He died on active service in 1941.
I'm certain there is a story here but cannot figure out what it might be! Making it more difficult is that most of the wives had given names which make it difficult to trace their subsequent history. Can anyone shed any additional light on what might have happened?

Somerset ancestors?
We like to pass on news of free sites where we can. This one, http://www.somersetremembers.com/research.ashx is marvellous. It's a collection of information from memories, photographs, war memorials and electoral registers, many with servicemens' details added. I was able to add military service details for about 20 men named House from the county, given that we already had all of them in our database already.

A portrait is going free
Do you know the lady in this portrait?
AnneHowze2temp.jpg
AnneHowze2temp.jpg (56.65 KiB) Viewed 2516 times
Her name is Anne Howze and she lived in Perry County, Alabama in the mid-19th century. She married a man named Joseph Thompson. A distant niece has told us that she is prepared to donate the original of the portrait to any descendant of Anne who comes forward. Please do get in touch if you know such a person. You know my email address.

Howes in the news
Can anyone tell us anything about the people in the following news items?
- George Andrews Howes whose young life was cut short in Vietnam - actually, we have researched this man and his ancestry, but this is such a poignant story, if you read only one, try this: http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/lo ... f8418.html.
- Howes Drugstore in Milford, Connecticut in business for over a century: http://www.milfordmirror.com/51546/howe ... f-service/
- Australia's "Tennis Senior of the Year", Bob Howes who beat John Newcombe 60 years ago and is still winning tournaments! http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inne ... 3c7495bc3c

For the record
We added 1,150 people this month, ending with about 103,750 people in the database. Mike, one of our volunteers, has now completed his work on Birmingham and Warwickshire marriages and is about to move on to Gloucestershire.

And before I forget, let me wish all of our correspondents all the best for whatever holidays you choose to celebrate at this time of year.
derek howes
Posts: 2
Joined: June 2nd, 2010, 10:35 am

Re: House your father? - November 2015

Post by derek howes »

Hello,
I firstly must thank you for all the hard work you and your team have done since I joined the Howes Forum in 2009. To date I am still stuck trying to find my William Howes born Hingham Norfolk in 1810. One day I'm sure I will find him and continue my Howes family history. One Question please ....where can I look at the Birth registers for churches in and around Hingham Norfolk?
May I wish you and all member a Happy and Warm Christmas!
From Derek (Howes) in a very sunny :D South Africa (+30C today).
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Re: House your father? - November 2015

Post by mardler »

Hi Derek. Thanks for the kind words. Despite it almost being the start of winter, it was 28C here in Northern Florida today!

The primary online sources that I personally use for Norfolk records are as follows:
- FamilySearch Norfolk parishes: https://familysearch.org/search/image/i ... /waypoints - not indexed
- Familysearch Norfolk Bishop's/Archdeacon's transcripts - go to the Wiki page for Norfolk and follow the links
- FreeReg2 - http://freereg2.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/new - transcriptions of course, but comprehensive and a good way to point you toward registers to look at to check the original
- Norfolk Family History Society: www.NorfolkFHS.org.uk - same comment as for FreeReg2

If there are Online Parish Clerks for Norfolk, there can't be very many.
Hope this helps.
Paul
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Re: House your father? - November 2015

Post by mardler »

And I forgot one thing: use http://maps.familysearch.org/ to find adjacent parishes and other important stuff.
Kind regards
P
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