Latest Backler Post – Margaret Buchanan-Smith née Bowden

Isabel Angela Margaret Bowden is my half aunt, who was always known as just Margaret. She was born on 28th May 1934 in Derbyshire. She is the daughter of my half great aunt Florence Alice Matilda Backler, who was born on 17th June 1904. Florence married Walter Edward Bowden on 4th August 1924 and they had six children. The other five have been mentioned towards the foot of my blog page ‘My Line of Backlers in Warrington’. There is a picture on that page of Bill, Eileen, Ron, Ruth and Roy together at Ruth’s ruby wedding anniversary that is repeated below. Margaret was unable to attend this family event. Written on the back of that photo, my Aunt Betty Brown added a further annotation to the list of names provided by Ruth, “Aunt Florrie’s children” and on the next line she wrote, “another Margaret lost touch”. This photo and the writing on the reverse are shown below and it appears we have now identified a little more about Margaret.

I have a half second cousin relationship with someone who uses the Ancestry name ianbowdey, with a DNA result of 46cM. I am pretty sure this is Ian Bowden, son of Roy Bowden on the right of the above picture. Ian confirmed that his Dad had two brothers called Bill and Ron, plus aunts Eileen and Ruth. Ian shows his father, known as Roy, as Thomas Royden Bowden on his Ancestry tree. He did not provide any information about Margaret. Ian stated recently that he believed that the only one still living is Ruth.

Margaret married Stuart Alexander McIntosh in the third quarter of 1959 in Hampstead, London. This was an unusual location because Stuart came from Edinburgh and Margaret’s family were based in Lancashire. The location of the bride’s family would normally have been the expected venue for most marriages in those days. Stuart was an adventurous soul. In 1954 he had a narrow escape trapped in a blizzard in the Cairngorm Mountains in Northern Scotland. He was a veterinary student and a Captain in Edinburgh University’s Territorial Training Corps. Another Captain, a medical student, J. A. Rae, and their commander, Colonel William Sinclair, were on the same trip. Unfortunately, Colonel Sinclair perished in the incident and the two young Captains were exposed for many hours before rescue. Stuart was a buyer of Icelandic ponies and owned Alnwickhill Stables in Edinburgh. He was on an expedition in 1960, pony trekking in Iceland guiding a party of 34 Sea Scouts. Unfortunately, he was drowned whilst leading the Scouts across the swollen River Bruara as he was trying to cross on horseback. The Scouts made heroic efforts to save him, forming a human chain, to no avail. Shortly before this tragic accident, Stuart and Margaret became parents with the birth of their daughter Fiona Jane McIntosh in the summer of 1960 in Edinburgh.

Fiona seems to have inherited her father’s spirit of adventure. She was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh from 1976-78 and then Fitzwilliam College at Cambridge University. She became a renowned fencer specialising in the foil. She represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games in 1984 in Los Angeles, 1988 in Seoul, Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. Her highest placing was reaching the final in Barcelona. She also represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, wining gold in Manchester in 1990 and a bronze in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia in 1998, as well as many other team medals. She was also British Champion on four occasions in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1994. She emigrated to South Africa and was last recorded as living on the slopes of Table Mountain, near Cape Town. Fiona wrote books “Seven Days in Mauritius”, “Table Mountain: activity guide” and “Dive Sites of South Africa & Mozambique” that reflected her wanderlust. She edited Divestyle Magazine too. She has skied to both the North and South Pole, climbed the highest peaks, dived to the depths and kayaked raging rivers. She summarised the above list as being about right to describe herself as an adrenaline junkie. Fiona is my half second cousin.

The recently widowed Margaret then married the Reverend George Adam Edward Buchanan-Smith the following year on 4th September 1961. George was born on 4th March 1929 and he was the chaplain and a master at Fettes College, where he taught from 1960 until his death. He became Housemaster of Glencorse, where the family lived. George passed away in 1981 at the relatively young age of almost 52. Subsequently, Margaret was shown for many years in the electoral registers as living at 34 Howard Place, Edinburgh. She died on 29th November 2020. George and Margaret had two sons and a daughter, all of whom attended Fettes College:

Hannah Mary Buchanan-Smith born 1962. Hannah is Professor of Psychology at Stirling University, having taken up a full time position there in 1995. She specialises in various aspects of animal behaviour and welfare, including interactions with humans. She attended Fettes College from 1978-80. Prior to Stirling she graduated from St. Andrews University, completed her PhD at Reading and lectured at Lancaster University. She has published numerous papers and is involved in many exterior organisations in her field.

George Adam Edward Buchanan-Smith born 1964. He attended Fettes College from 1975-83 and had an illustrious Rugby Union career, playing for London Scottish and securing two caps for Scotland. He was last noted as a franchise holder of multiple McDonalds Restaurants and is involved in the charity Ronald McDonald House Glasgow.

Stuart Hunter Buchanan-Smith born 1966. He attended Fettes College from 1976-84. Stuart began his career at Lloyds of London in 1988. He is a private client director within the Hampden Group, one of the largest companies involved in Lloyds. Stuart has a DNA connection of 112 centi-Morgans, which is in the expected range for a half second cousin. I have messaged him through Ancestry without reply, but this often happens because people conduct a DNA test to find out more about their ethnic origins rather than for family tree research.

Dame Mary Corsar is worthy of a mention in connection with Fettes College. She was the Reverend George’s sister and a governor of the college from 1982-99. Dame Mary died in 2020 at the age of 93. She was one of the first two female governors of the college appointed on the same day. She was Honorary President of the Scottish Women’s Amateur Athletic Association from 1973-91 and had many other voluntary appointments. It was as Chair of the Scottish Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) from 1981-88 and her further involvement as Chair of the UK WRVS from 1988-93 that she was awarded her DBE in 1993.

The above picture is a general view of Fettes College, Edinburgh. The college was founded in 1870 from a bequest by Sir William Fettes 1750-1836 who wanted to perpetuate the memory of his only son, William, who predeceased him in 1815. It was an all boys school until female pupils were admitted for their final year in 1970, before becoming fully co-educational in 1983. The college keeps in touch with Old Fettesians through an excellent magazine, the source of some of the data in this blog, along with Wikipedia, Companies House and good old Google. There is, therefore, room for error which is usual in this type of research, where it is hard to verify everything. Fettes College is an impressive institution and numbers amongst its alumni one former British Prime Minister – Tony Blair. That seems to be a good point to finish this blog page!

Suffice to say, it has been interesting researching my new connections to the Buchanan-Smiths and their strong connections through Fettes College. I have researched further into the Buchanan-Smiths, but concentrated on the people where I have DNA connections and those most closely connected to them. There are many interesting Buchanan-Smiths, as there are Bowdens, but their stories will have to be told by someone else, because they do not have a “Backler Connection”.

Latest Backler Post: Jane Edwards

In the blog page ‘Edward Edwards’, I noted that he had two brothers who made it into adulthood, Daniel Edwards (senior) and Samuel Edwards. This page is about Daniel’s daughter Jane Edwards and her descendants. Daniel was born on 7th February 1848 in Darlaston, Staffordshire, UK and he married Lucy Thacker there on 5th April 1868. They had two children, one of whom is unidentified and probably died in infancy. The other was the aforementioned Jane, who is the subject of this page. She was born in Darlaston on 8th June 1868. Darlaston is in the heart of the Black Country, North West of Birmingham, a large coal mining and steel manufacturing area.

Jane married Charles Davis (senior) on Christmas Day 1884. They had seven children and they along with five of their children emigrated to the USA. Charles Davis (junior) was born in 1890 and died the same year in Walsall, Staffordshire. Pamela Davis was born in 1888 and married Charles Osborne in the third quarter of 1908. Charles Davis (junior) and Pamela were the two children who didn’t emigrate to the USA.

Charles Osborne (senior) was killed in France in 1916 in the First World War, which put the family into hardship. Pamela and their three children relocated to an institution on Wandsworth Common in London that helped with the children of orphaned soldiers. It was called the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, of gothic design and it has now been converted into apartments:

Oldest daughter Rose Osborne was born on 9th September 1908. She had a son, Dudley John Osborne, out of wedlock, and he married Molly Gill in the second quarter of 1957. I have exchanged emails with Mary Gill, who is married to Molly’s brother. She has given me most of the information about the Osbornes. Dudley was known by his middle name John. He lived in Mitcham, Surrey and then Dorset. His children live in South London and the UK South East. Rose, who was known as ‘Granny Roses’ by one of her grand children, died in May 1993. Second daughter, Gwendoline Osborne was born on 20th May 1910 and she married Donald J Finlayson on 11th August 1949. They didn’t have any children and Gwendoline passed away in the third quarter of 1970 from a brain tumour after having a career at the John Lewis store called Pratt’s in Streatham, South London. Son, Charles E Osborne was born in the first quarter on 1914. He married Louisa V Brown in the third quarter of 1936. He didn’t survive long, passing away in the second quarter of 1951, believed to have been in a road accident.

This chart shows all of these family connections in the UK, as well as the USA that have yet to be covered:

Jane’s and Daniel’s five remaining children were all born in Walsall, Staffordshire and emigrated with them to Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana. Fort Wayne was originally built by the US Army in 1794 for protection as it expanded westwards. It is the second largest city in Indiana after Indianapolis with a population exceeding a quarter of a million. The greater metropolitan area around the city makes a total population approaching half a million. Fort Wayne is situated in the north east of the state about mid-way between Chicago and Detroit. Downtown, the St Mary’s and St Joseph rivers merge into the Maumee River that then flows into Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio. This confluence sometimes caused downtown flooding, but it gave good transport links to the Great Lakes and beyond and helped to create a manufacturing boom, attracting many immigrants. The Wabash and Erie Canal also runs through Fort Wayne. This canal is the longest in North America at over 450 miles. The Wabash River discharges into the Ohio River that in turn flows into the Mississippi. Thus from Fort Wayne, manufactured goods could reach a huge area with these transport links. Alas, overseas competition caused a decline in industry and Fort Wayne became part of the ‘Rust Belt’ championed by Donald Trump in his ‘Make a America Great Again’ election campaign. The city is now again thriving but in more modern industries like pharmaceuticals. The most impressive building in the city is the Lincoln Bank Tower completed in 1930. Fort Wayne is famous for inventing the gasoline pump in 1885 and the refrigerator in 1913. Where would we be today without these in our lives?

Back to Jane’s and Daniel’s children. Son Daniel Davis (junior) was born on 11th June 1886. He married Edith E Lewis on 12th August 1912. Their marriage was short lived because he died on 12th August 1914. Son William Noah Davis was born on 23rd December 1891. He married Nelly Hosch on 31st December 1917. Son Gordon Davis was born on 9th March 1894. He married Elizabeth Burton on 4th October 1911. They had twins James Davis and Dallas Davis on 24th April 1912. Dallas, unfortunately passed away just short of his eighth birthday on 4th April. Gordon and Elizabeth were divorced and Gordon got married for a second time on 1st October 1919 to Emma Berger whose maiden name was Kerber, this being her second marriage too. Daughter Lucy Davis was born on 23 November 1896. She died young on 12th March 1919. The youngest, daughter Mary Davis, was born in 1907. She married James B Ogden and they had two boys, Charles Ogden in 1933 and James D T Ogden in 1939.

Charles Davis and Jane Edwards Davis lived long lives. Charles died in FortWayne on 5th June 1934 and Jane died on 20th March 1941. They outlived all bar three of their offspring. I have yet to find out what happened to Mary Davis Ogden, Gordon Davis and William Noah Davis, who all appear to have survived their parents.

UPDATE – 9th October 2023: Some further research. James Venzel Ogden (not James B as above), died 0n 10th July 1996 in Pasco County, Florida, which is just north of Tampa. Venzel, is an unusual name and it was passed on to his oldest son Charles Venzel Ogden. Charles was born in Washington, Allen County, Indiana on 20th July 1932 and he too died in Pasco County on 30th August 2011. His brother, James Daniel Ogden, was born on 16th November 1938 in Indiana and was last noted as living in the town of Murphy, North Carolina. He passed away there on 16th July 2019. Charles’s and James’s mother arrived in the USA in 1911. James V Ogden had a sister Adeline Louisa Ogden who died on 12th October 2004. More research needed, but this update fills in some of the blanks above. I have a DNA connection of 10 cM to L.S. through Ancestry, who is a third cousin once removed, and a child of James Daniel Ogden.

Latest Finn Post: ‘Darkie’ Finn and McAlpine’s Fusiliers

Thomas Finn wrote a lengthy booklet entitled ‘Cloontia and its People and its Past’ that I have used to aid my research and it is mentioned in other blog pages. A link to it follows. In it he mentions the famous ‘Darkie’ Finn.

http://docplayer.net/101547909-Cloontia-co-mayo-its-people-and-its-past.html

Tom also wrote a very short paper ‘My Cousin The Darkie Finn’. Darkie earned his nickname from his sallow skin and jet black hair. His real name was Patrick Finn and he is also a distant relation of mine and many others, as well as Thomas Finn. He came from a hamlet of five houses in County Mayo called Sheskeen, which is very close to my various family connections in Cloontia, County Mayo, Ireland. Because times were hard, it became the norm for men in the area to travel to England for work. Darkie returned home and persuaded his cousin Tom to travel to England with him, promising he would get a job for both of them. Tom was just short of his eighteenth birthday and they left together on Easter Saturday in March 1937. It must have been tough to leave home at such a young age. Only Darkie’s presence and assurances of a job would have persuaded Tom to travel. Thomas’s grandmother Nancy Finn was the sister of Darkie’s grandmother Catherine Finn McGeever and so they were second cousins.

Tom got work on a farm near Chester and Darkie moved elsewhere for building work. They met again two years later and were working together on a Ministry of Defence building near Buxton in Derbyshire, when the Second World War broke out. Tom returned to Ireland at Christmas 1939 to avoid being called up to the British Army. Darkie, who was some ten years older, was not due for call up, so he carried on with this building work. He survived the war but never did return to Ireland. There is a family gravestone in Carracastle cemetery that just states ‘Patrick Finn (Darkie) – died England’. Sadly, Tom never met him again, but occasionally he did hear of his exploits. Darkie spent his final years with his sister Maggie in East Linn, Norfolk.

Darkie’s parents Patrick Finn and Mary Ann McGeever are at the top of this gravestone. Next is his sister Margaret Finn, the aforementioned Maggie, followed by his brother Edward Finn, then Darkie himself. The last two names are Catherine and Edward, Mary Ann’s parents and grandparents of Maggie, Edward and Darkie. This is an unusual order on a gravestone, particularly as two of those recorded are not in the grave. It took me a while to puzzle out, because I had this photo quite a while before the rest of the research was completed. In the 1911 census Patrick and Mary Ann had been married 12 years and they had five children, all of whom were living. I have been able to identify sister, Kate Finn, who died on 25th January 1930, who does not appear on this gravestone, plus there was another unidentified sibling.

A neighbour called Martin Henry in nearby Rooskey, Count Mayo, wrote a song about Darkie’s exploits. Later Dominick Behan of The Dubliners took many of Martin’s lines and produced the famous song ‘McAlpine’s Fusiliers’. The song mentions Darkie Finn, son of Pat from Sheskeen. The song was about the many Irish labourers (navvies) who left home to work on large scale building projects, including working for McAlpines, Wimpey, John Laing and other large construction companies. It can be found in various recordings on YouTube.

The following chart shows the family connection from the sisters Catherine and Nancy through to the second cousins Darkie and Thomas:

I have two DNA Connections through Catherine Finn’s descendants and four DNA connections through Nancy Finn’s descendants. These are all weak connections at the limit of where a positive result will be achieved. I am aware of many other siblings of those with positive DNA tests, where the DNA results are below the threshold for a positive result, but I am almost certain that they are also distant relatives. It is unusual to be associated with the lyrics in a song and so Darkie Finn lives on through McAlpine’s Fusiliers.

Backler Post – Edward Edwards

I was contacted by Jon Payne in May 2023, because he had a brick wall that had been bugging him for 35 years in his family tree. He had read my blog pages and was interested to know whether Ann Maria Backler (née Smith) had ever lived at 77 Princes Street, Walsall, Staffordshire, UK. He had noted that Ann Maria was having children in Warrington and wondered if I knew of a Walsall connection. Jon’s great grandfather was the above named Edward Edwards, who married his first wife Elizabeth Hawkins on 26th February 1898. They had a son together Thomas Elias William Edwards on 20th November 1898. Tragically, Elizabeth died five days later at 67 Princes Street.

Edward was in need of support and this seems to have come from Ann Maria Backler. She was married to William Backler, a baker, and they had already had six children, two of whom had died in infancy – see the blog pages “Backlers in Birmingham and Walsall” and “My line of Backlers in Warrington”. Ann Maria still had enough energy to take on the care of the young Thomas Edwards. A further tragedy took place though, when the poor boy also succumbed at the age of eight months on 21st July 1899. Ann Maria was noted on his death certificate as having been in attendance at 77 Princes Street, which was presumably her home address a few doors away from Edward. Ann Maria had just become pregnant and may not have been aware of it at the time, but she was to bear my grandfather about nine months later – Frederick John Edwin Backler. He was born on 16th March 1900, with William Backler shown as his father on his birth certificate. The family were living at 77 Princes Street, Walsall, allowing me to confirm this to Jon Payne.

Edward chose to move to Warrington, where his sister Nancy Keating (née Edwards) was living with her family according to the 1901 and 1911 censuses. Edward met Sarah Ann Bates, a widow, who had four daughters and a son living with her. She had lost her husband George Bates and also, more recently, had just seen another daughter Henrietta Bates pass away too. Sarah became pregnant with Jon’s grandfather Frank Bates, who was born on 5th September 1900. Jon could not be sure that Edward was the father. On 13th December 1900 in Warrington, Edward and Sarah Ann entered into their second marriages. It seems likely that Edward would not have wanted, so soon, to take on the responsibility of five Bates children, if he wasn’t Frank’s father.

Ann Maria Backler found herself pregnant again in July 1901 and on 8th April 1902, my grandfather Frederick’s sister Isabel Beatrice Backler entered this world, with her father recorded as William Backler, journeyman baker, on her birth certificate. The family were then living at 8 Key Fold, Bank Quay, Warrington.

Things had begun to get murky in 1901. It was reported in local newspapers that Ann Maria had broken windows at Edward’s and Sarah Ann’s house at 79 Bank View, Fox Street, Warrington on several occasions. This came to a head in a prosecution at Warrington Magistrates Court, reported on 15th November 1901 in the Runcorn Examiner. Ann Maria was fined 40 shillings. She did not appear in court and the prosecution case was presented by Mr Browne. He stated that Edward had formerly lived at Walsall and when his wife died, he engaged Ann Maria to nurse his young child, who died later in Walsall. He continued that Edward had relocated to Warrington and that Ann Maria had followed him there, breaking up her family home, continually harassing him and arguing that he was not really married to Sarah Ann.

Edward’s marriage in December 1900 to Sarah Ann may have prompted the start of Ann Maria’s bad behaviour in early 1901, but it seems likely that the escalation in her bad behaviour was after she became pregnant with Isabel in July 1901. I am not quite sure what her reaction was when Sarah Ann again became pregnant in January 1902, once more overlapping her confinement with Ann Maria. Edward’s and Sarah Ann’s daughter Frances Edwards was born on 3rd September 1902.

In my blog page “Backlers in Birmingham and Walsall”, I wrote that William appeared to have been recorded in the 1901 census twice. This census was taken on 31st March 1901.  The first entry records him along with the rest of his family at 13 Mill Street, St Helens, Lancashire; wife (Ann) Maria 30, William 13, Charles 11, Thomas 7, Elizabeth 4 and Frederick 1. The second entry has him, along with son Thomas 6 and daughter Elizabeth 5, at the home of George H. Francis at 48 Providence Lane, Walsall. George H. Francis, was one of the witnesses at William’s and Ann’s marriage. I originally thought that the census form at St. Helens was pre-completed before William left for Walsall, but armed with the above information, I now believe that Ann Maria was in the process of breaking up the family home at the time of the census – as outlined by Mr Browne above.

At this stage there was no way of knowing whether Edward Edwards or William Backler had fathered Frederick or Isabel or both, plus it was also possible that either of them had fathered Frank or Frances or both. Jon Payne and I came to the conclusion that we would only have further answers if he took a DNA test. I advised him that I had a strong mutual connection at 305 cM to John Blease a confirmed second cousin, whose grandmother was Isabel. We were all surprised when the results came back and Jon had a connection of 164 cM to me and a 149cM to John Blease. This confirmed a half second cousin relationship from Jon to us and that we shared one great grandparent with him. This couldn’t be Ann Maria Backler or Sarah Ann Edwards, because they had overlapped during two pregnancies each. The results did not prove whether the common great grand parent was Edward or William, but it was leaning towards Edward, because of the other information we had above. What was needed was a further examination of our DNA results to see if there were any links to Edward’s parents that by-passed him.

First we needed to understand a bit about Edward’s parents and his siblings. Thomas Edwards was born in Darlaston, Staffordshire in 1817 or 18. He married Nancy Wilkes, who was born in Darlaston in 1819 or 1820 on 14th August 1836. Thomas and Nancy had eleven children, five of whom died very young. Edward had two brothers Daniel Edwards and Samuel Richard Edwards, plus three sisters: Ann Maria Edwards who married Mark Dixon, Rosanna Edwards who married Thomas Aston and Nancy Edwards who married Thomas Keating. A DNA connection through any of these brothers and sisters would mean that Edward Edwards was our common great grandparent. This is a brief summary of their family for the purposes of this blog page. No doubt there will be further information for me to write up in later blog pages on the Edwards family.

Looking through other DNA results I came across a connection of 46 cM to ianbowdey (Ancestry user name) where John Blease has a 53 cM connection. I thought he was a second cousin, but with a really low result compared to that I have with John Blease. Because of the above revelations, I now believe Ian could be a half second cousin, probably via William and Ann Maria Backler. Ian is a descendant of Florence Alice Matilda Backler born 17th June 1904, Frederick’s and Isabel’s younger sister. It is possible William and Ann Maria got over their difficulties, because another daughter Elizabeth Rosamund Margaret Backler was born on 29th March 1911.

Another piece of information was that when Charles Backler joined the Reserve Division of Militia in 1906, his records showed his father William living at Rosemary Lane, Formby and his mother still living in Wellfield Street, Warrington. There was also a court case reported in the Runcorn Guardian in 1907 where William of 45 Rosemary Lane, Formby and his son William Backler of Kimberley Street, Warrington were sued by the Rudge Whitworth Cycle Company Limited for an unpaid debt. William was probably living in Formby between the births of his two youngest daughters and that would explain the largish gap between their births. It also raises the question as to whether Ann Maria may have had another relationship after Edward Edwards.

Looking at DNA that bypasses Frank Edwards we have been able to pinpoint these results. Mark and Ann Maria Dixon had a daughter Rosanna Dixon. Her first marriage was to Thomas Bailey and I have a DNA connection of 22 cM to Jacqueline betty Bailey and Jon has a 35 cM connection. John Blease has a 37 cM DNA connection to Ashley Horobin who is a descendant from Rosanna’s second marriage to Joseph Cresswell and Jon Payne has a 51cM connection. I have a DNA connection of 57 cM to Dennis Densley, John Blease has a 38 cM link and Jon has a 63 cM link. He is a grandson of Nellie Dixon another of Ann Maria Dixon’s children.

Another DNA Connection to me, Jon and John is Christopher Young. My result is 120 cM, John’s is 101 cM and Jon’s result is 94 cM, all in the range of a half second cousin. He is Frances Edwards grandson. The link to Christopher is through her daughter Audrey Faulkner. Whilst this connection is not conclusive, it is unlikely that William Backler was involved in the parentage of Frances.

In conjunction with Jon, I have completed sufficient research to demonstrate with DNA that Edward did, indeed, father Frederick and Isabel. This explains why John Blease has such a strong connection to me and why we don’t have any other Backler DNA connections that go back beyond William Backler, apart from the weak connection to ianbowdey. This leaves John Blease and myself with half connections to Frederick’s and Isabel’s siblings, so Charles and William should be our half great uncles and Florence and Elizabeth our half great aunts.

I have conducted a large amount of research into the Backlers and failed to find any DNA connections to any but those of William Backler. As to tree connections those have failed to find a link to other branches of the Backlers and in our own ancestry, we have to erase the Backler connections to earlier generations that were based on documentation alone that has proven to be wrong. It seems that our branch of the Backlers is akin to Frederick and Isabel being adopted without their knowledge, or ours, come to that. In my own branch there are many Backler descendants from Frederick’s move to East Sussex and I am sure we will all continue to be known as Backlers. There is much research to amend in my blog pages and my Ancestry tree. There is also much to add with all our new Edwards cousins.

Finn Post – Nancy Finn and her Siblings

In my blog page “Finns in the USA” I traced the story of four Finn sisters who had emigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. I noted that I had one weak DNA connection at 8cM to Jess Bazeley, a descendant of the Zieglers through Ann, one of the sisters. The sisters are all descended from James Finn and Nancy Finn, who came from Derrynabrock, the southern most of the four townlands making up the village of Cloontia, County Mayo, Ireland. The problem was that Nancy, just like my grandparents from the same area, had the same surname before she got married. This made it more difficult to work out further family connections back in Ireland because I was not sure whether to follow the paternal or the maternal line.

Jess Bazeley was the fourth generation in the USA and the fifth generation, if you include James and Nancy in Ireland. Five generations is pretty well the limit of the reach of DNA because Ancestry do not report connections below 8cM. According to the Lost Cousins Masterclass on “How to make the most of your DNA results”, the expected cM for 5th cousins is 14cM with a 32% probability of detecting a cousin. This drops to 3.5cM and 11% for a sixth cousin. Many results are below these figures and we are relying, for more distant connections, on the smaller proportion that are above average. I don’t know whether Jess Bazeley is a fourth, fifth or sixth cousin, but I suspect that she is a fourth cousin once removed, because her father is of a similar age group to me being four years older and that would make him my fourth cousin. This would place her Irish connections in the same age bands as my earliest known ancestors in the area and it is unlikely to be earlier than that otherwise there would be no chance of a DNA match. This gives me hope that I may eventually identify the family connection.

I was recently searching through my DNA results, which is a periodic exercise, because new results are being added all the time. I came across a DNA connection to Sean Kelly at 21cM, who is of the same generation as Jess Bazeley. Sean Kelly is descended from Catherine T Finn a daughter of Mick (Tommie) Finn of Derrynabrock, who married Catherine Forkin. Catherine T Finn emigrated to Monroe County, New York State, USA, where the largest city is Rochester on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.

Thomas Finn wrote his booklet “Cloontia Its People and Its Past” in 1999 when the author was 80, so it includes his recollections from, say, 1935 up to 1999. There are very few dates in this booklet, so pinpointing when things happened is hard. Published sources to support any research are Griffiths Valuation, the 1901 census, the 1911 census and the usual births, marriages and death records. However, birth, marriages and deaths can be difficult to use when there are so many similarly named people in the same area. I decided to use the 1901 census as a base and traced every Finn household in Derrynabrock. There were twelve. I then traced these forward to the 1911 census. I chose the 1901 census as a base because ages in the 1911 census were notoriously unreliable. This census was used as part of the introduction for State pensions, so where the birth year pre-dated the commencement of birth registration, many older residents had the opportunity to exaggerate their age.

Combining the details from Thomas Finn’s booklet with these two censuses, yielded the following table, labelled Page 9, because it is part of a set of 15 pages. I have noted on this chart the 1901 and 1911 census connections and the references contained within Thomas Finn’s booklet. This chart captures the family in Ireland before any of the siblings emigrated to the USA. I have now replaced the original hand drawn chart with this one.

Page 1 shows the four Cincinnati sisters and their parents as James and Nancy Finn. Pages 2 to 5 follow the families of each of these sisters. Pages 6 and 7 show James’s and Nancy’s other four children, two sons who died young, another Tom Finn who moved to England and married Gertrude Linley, where they had their son James Finn. The older James Finn, Nancy’s brother, married Marie McGeever and one of their sons is Thomas Finn, the booklet author, whose sister Kathleen Francis Finn married Brian McGeever. I have a DNA connection of 9 cM to their granddaughter Maureen Walker (neė Griffin). This is another fifth generation connection from James and Nancy.

It is now I must introduce Mary Bihn. I first had contact with Mary at the end of August 2022. She gave me the information about Margaret Finn and Anna Finn being Nancy’s sisters. As Nancy’s name is Ann, she also confirmed that Nancy did indeed have another sister called Anna, unusual to say the least. Mary married Edward Victor Bihn, the son of Edward Bihn and Bertha Marie Gorman. Bertha was the daughter of Bernard J Gorman and Bridget M Finn, the oldest of the Finn sisters who emigrated to Cincinnati. The death certificates for Margaret and Anna show their parents as Matthew Finn and Mary Tarpy, although on Margaret’s certificate it is spelt Tarpe. Mary provided this photo of Nancy:

Mary Bihn provided some further information about Nancy’s husband James’s sole sibling, Mary Finn, who emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 1934. This is shown on page 8 and maybe the subject of another blog page. Mary married Peter Higgins in 1887, in Ireland and emigrated with some of her children, but not with her husband. James’s and Mary’s parents were Patrick (Patch) Finn and Bridget Doherty. Pages 10 to 15 lead on from the above page 9 as marked under each column on the chart above and follow the families of each of Nancy’s siblings, so the story of James and Mary will have to wait for another day.

Thomas Finn’s booklet doesn’t mention Nancy’s American sisters nor James’s American sister. The information provided by Mary Bihn has been invaluable in being able to show Nancy’s siblings above. But Mary didn’t stop there. I contacted her again in June 2023 with the fifteen charts mentioned above and asked for any DNA information she might have, plus checking for inaccuracies I may have introduced. She responded with a list of people she knew who had taken DNA tests. Checking through these I was able to identify two further matches. These are Claudette Blozy 8cM, who is descended from the same line as Jess Bazeley, i.e. the Zieglers, and Mary Zuber 14cM, who is from the Gorman line mentioned above in connection with Mary Bihn. Both of these DNA connections are from the fourth generation, whereas the other three already mentioned are from the fifth generation. All of the five DNA connections mentioned above are at the far end of where DNA connections are possible. Because of these five results, I am pretty sure that the rest of the list provided by Mary are also very distant relatives.

Nancy’s sister Catherine Finn was born in 1850 and she married Edward McGeever on 4th February 1867, as shown on page 10. The witnesses were John Finn and Mary Finn, presumably her siblings. Her father was noted as Matthew Finn, which confirms their father in Irish records and not just from the death certificates of the two sisters who emigrated to the USA. According to the 1911 census they had six children all of whom were living. Thomas Finn on page 6 of his booklet states that Edward was married to my father’s aunt Catherine, who was sister to Jack and Nancy Finn, and that Edward and Catherine had 4 or 5 children, of whom he only knew Edward and Mary Ann. The six children have been identified and the others were Margaret, Matthew, Patrick and Kate.

Nancy’s brother Edward (Pincher) Finn married Biddie Conway in 1891 and their family is detailed on page 11. I have not been able to locate a marriage record and this date was extrapolated from the 1911 census and that also shows six children all of whom were living. In Thomas Finn’s booklet on page 5, he states that Edward was a brother to John (Tommie) and Mick (Tommie), but that they had eight children. I have been able to identify six: Tom, Mary, John, Honoria, Edward and Michael to agree to the census. UPDATE Sunday 17th September 2023: Mary Bihn has identified another son, Patrick Finn, born after the 1911 census on 8th February 1913 in Cloontia.

Nancy’s sister Mary Finn was a local teacher in Cloontia and she married Ned (Rue) Finn on 28th January 1872, with their connections shown on page 12. Mary’s father was given as Matthew. The witnesses were Edward McGeever and Catherine Finn. Thomas Finn asserts in his booklet on page 5 that Mary Finn was sister to his grandmother Nancy.

John (Tommie ) Finn had the nickname Jack and according to Thomas Finn’s booklet on page 3, he was brother to Mick (Tommie) Finn. His first marriage was to Ellen Towey on 13th February 1880 and their family is covered on page 13. Their marriage certificate says John’s father was Thomas Finn. Hence, presumably, the use of Tommie in brackets to identify his family. John and Ellen had 8 children and in 1911 all were living who were: Ned, Nora, Catherine, Anne, Patrick, Mary, Michael and Tom, these names agreeing to Thomas Finn’s booklet.

Michael (Tommie) Finn married Catherine Forkin on 11th March 1875, which is shown on page 14. He is noted as John’s and Nancy’s brother in Thomas Finn’s booklet on page 2 as only having two children. The 1911 census stated they had 9 children and 8 were still living, who were: Ned, Mary, Honoria, Bridget, Anne, Catherine, John and Beatrice. I haven’t been able to identify the child who had passed away.

Nancy’s sister Bridget (Tommie) Finn, known as Biddie, married John Finn in 1875 with their family shown on page 15. In the 1901 census he is shown as John (Matt) Finn. In Thomas Finn’s booklet he states Biddie (Tommie) Finn married Mick (Mathue) Finn and he states that there were three boys. The 1911 census confirms that there were three children, all living, with the same forenames Thomas, John and Michael, so it seems that he got their father John’s name wrong. On page 3 of his booklet, he mentions that Biddy (Tommie) Finn was sister to John (Tommie) and Mick (Tommie) and he says Jack was an uncle to his father and his sister Nancy was his Dad’s mother.

To summarise we have Nancy’s siblings, Margaret, Anna, Catherine and Mary where their father is recorded as Matthew. We also have John, Michael and Bridget where Tommie is used in brackets to denote a family connection and John and Edward (Pincher) where Thomas appears as his father in their marriage records. We also have Bridget marrying John (Matt) Finn, so presumably another Matthew Finn exists. This is obviously contradictory and introduces the element of doubt into this research, but whenever was family research ever guaranteed to be exact? Thomas Finn has recorded all of those living in Ireland in his booklet as siblings of Nancy and these are noted across the foot of page 9 above. He was not aware of Margaret and Anna in the USA. He has also made a few mistakes, not surprising given that he was relying on his memories.

In Griffiths Valuation that was taken between 1847 and 1864 across the whole of Ireland, there were nine entries for Finns in Derrynabrock, with the properties being numbered on Ordinance Survey maps 63 and 64. Two were in Shanbally: John at 26 and Thomas at 28. The other seven were in Finn’s Village: Patrick at 50, Edmund at 52, Thomas (John) at 55, Matthew (Thomas) at 57, Thomas (Michael) at 58 and 63, Patrick (Michael) at 62 and Mary at 64. I can’t tie up any of these to the 1901 census and the area of Finn’s Village is larger than recorded as part of Ballahere by Thomas Finn in his booklet. It is interesting though that one of the entries in Griffiths Valuation is Matthew (Thomas) Finn and it may be the explanation as to why three of Nancy’s siblings have (Tommie) inserted in their names. In the 1901 census there was only one house in Derrynabrock occupied by a Matthew Finn and that was House 52. He was a widower aged 65, so born in 1836. This would make his age range 11 to 28 during the Griffiths Valuation period, just about old enough to have his own household at the end of that range. Certainly not conclusive proof of a family connection though.

At least another blog page is needed to cover the later generations of Nancy’s siblings. As can be seen above there is further research needed and I will provide updates to this blog page should more information come to light. If anyone would like a copy of the fifteen charts, I will be happy to send them out, if you email me at ray.backler@capsa.co.uk

UPDATE Sunday 17th September 2023: Mary Bihn asked me to check whether I had a DNA connection to Vincent Curran and I was able to confirm an 11 cM result. From the chart above, Vincent’s great grandparents were Catherine Finn and Edward McGeever. Vincent’s parents were Marie McGeever and Nelson Curran and his grandparents were Patrick McGeever and Delia Kelly. Of the DNA connections mentioned in the original post, four were from descendants of Nancy Finn and one from Mick (Tommie). The importance of the Mick (Tommie) connection is to prove that my DNA connections are from Nancy Finn and her siblings and not from her husband James Finn and his sister. However, with the potential for uncertainty in my research, also mentioned above, Vincent’s result is a welcome second confirmation that my line is through Nancy Finn and her siblings.

UPDATE Wednesday 20th September 2023: Mary Bihn has sent me another DNA match, again descended from Catherine Finn and Edward McGeever. Peter Cherry, whose parents are George Cherry and Teresa J McGeever is an 11cM match. Peter’s grandfather was Matthew McGeever son of Edward and Catherine and he married Teresa Murphy.

Home

The latest posted blog pages are shown under this Home menu. All of the blog pages are grouped under relevant menu sub headings to aid locating the pages most relevant to readers.  The latest posts are repeated as the last menu items under these sub headings.