A Random Act of Kindness

It was old and battered and forlorn and its spine was falling apart. A bit like the writer, really. But there the resemblance ends, because this was—a Family Bible published in 1776.

None of us knew that we had a Family Bible, let alone one over two hundred years old that included some family names with their dates of birth written into the initial pages. When my eldest sister found it while rummaging through some old boxes she was as excited as I was. Her immediate kind reaction was to tell me, as the family historian, and to send me scans of the inscriptions inside the Bible, with the book itself following in the post.

The Inscriptions

So what was written on those fly pages?

Well, the most impressive inscription was a manuscript dedication in the most beautiful calligraphy. It immediately reminded me of another example of similarly beautiful hand-writing in the family, although that was of a rather later date and from another branch—the BISHOPPs.

The dedication reads:

Richard Osmond

The Gift of his Uncle

GEORGE GODDARD

And who was Richard OSMOND? Well, if his uncle was George GODDARD, then presumably his mother was also a GODDARD. As it happens I have a Richard OSMOND, 1804 - 1878, whose parents were John OSMOND and Mary (also referred to as Molly) GODDARD. Bingo! That makes him my great great grandfather and George is (to me) a new member of the family.

The next two pages have a list of the children of Richard OSMOND and Ann For some reason the left-hand page has a copy of the names on the right, with a couple of additions. No, I don't know why, either.

Left-hand page	Right-hand page
Richard Osmond Born Decr 29th 1804 Ann Osmond Born July 3rd 1803	Richard Osmond born Decr 29th... Ann Osmond Born July 3 18...
Children of the Above	Children of the Above when Born
Edmund Osmond Born Novr 16th 1827 Alfred Osmond Do. Feby 26 1829 Do Do Died May 15 1831 Sarah Osmond Born Novr 26 1830 Mary Osmond Do Novr 2 1832 Do Do Died Novr 23 1837 Emma Osmond born March 7 1836 Elizabeth Osmond Born Novr 25 1837	Edmund Osmond Born Novr 16th 1827 Alfred Osmond Do. Feby 26 1829 Do Do Died May 15 1831 Sarah Osmond Born Novr 26th 1830 Mary Osmond Do Novr 2 - 1832 Do Died Novr 23 - 1837 Emma Osmond Do March 7 - 188... Elizabeth Osmond Born Novr 25 - 18... Maria Osmond Do Jan 7 - 18... William Osmond Do Sept 2 - 18... Do Do Died Novr 26 18...

Let's have a look at those two parents.

Richard OSMOND

Richard OSMOND's date of birth is given in the Family Bible as December 29th, 1804. This ties in nicely with the date I already have from the record in the Hurstbourne Tarrant parish registers (now kept at the Hampshire County Record Office) which records his baptism on 30 January 1805 and where he is described as 'Richard Osmond sn of John and Mary bn 29 Dec last'.

He was described as a butcher:

• At the time of his sons Edmund and Alfred's baptisms in 1827 and 1829 respectively in the St Mary Reading parish records,
• In the 1851 census when he was living at 58 Hurstbourne Street, Hurstbourne Tarrant along with Ann and his children Edmund, Ann and Maria,
• At his son Edmund's wedding in 1854,
• In the 1861 census also at Hurstbourne Street with Ann, his children Ann and Elizabeth, and his grandson John Hooper OSMOND, and
• In the 1871 census, by now at Sheepward Street, Hurstbourne Tarrant.

Was this his marriage?

So when did he marry, and what was Ann's maiden name? The only record I could find of a Richard OSMOND marrying an Ann in the period 1822 - 1832 was on 21 August 1827 at St George's, Hanover Square where he was named as 'Richard Osmond, a bachelor of this parish' and she was named as 'Ann Pullin, a spinster of the parish of Caversham in the County of Oxford'. Could this be the right couple? If so, then they were a long way from home, though that might have been explained by the four months between their marriage and the birth of their first child.

Bishop's Transcript of Marriage of Richard Osmond and Ann Pullin,
21 Aug 1827, St George Hanover Square, Westminster

Then I found a record on the FamilySearch web site of the death their daughter Sarah [Osmond] ROMBALD [sic] on 22 March 1932 in Chatsworth, Livingston, Illinois, USA. Bingo! again. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that her parents were named there as 'Richard Osmond' and 'Ann Pullen' [sic]. So the St George's, Hanover Square marriage indeed appears to be the likely one. This just goes to show the importance of researching collateral lines as well as the main line.

I will be posting more details of Sarah and her marriage and emigration to the United States here soon.

In Remembrance

He and Ann, as well as three of their children, are remembered on a headstone in Hurstbourne Tarrant which reads:

In Loving Memory of
Ann Osmond wife of Richard
born 1806 died 1869
and Alfred died 1831 aged 2 years and 3 months May 20th 1831
Mary died 1837 aged 3 years Nov 28th 1837
and William died 1841

On the kerbing at the bottom:

Richard Osmond died March 22nd 1878 aged 73 yrs

The dates of death for Alfred and Mary differ slightly from those in the Bible; perhaps those on the grave refer to their burials.

Reading Mercury - Saturday 30 March 1878

Ann

As for Ann, her date of birth is given as July 3, 1805. Again, this ties in nicely with the approximate date that I already had from the 1851 census of about 1804 at Kintbury in Berkshire.  The Family Bible now gives us an exact date.

Reading Mercury - Saturday 23 January 1869

The Children

They all have their own stories; I will tell what I know of their stories in a later post here.

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So thank you, sister, for this contribution of yours to the family records!

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

AESOP, The Lion and the Mouse

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An OSMOND Loses Out...

...but was he one of ours?

From the Police Gazette for Monday 6 July 1863

The furthest we have traced our OSMOND line back is to Stephen OSMOND, 1657 - 1713, of Ogbourne St George in Wiltshire. From the beginning to the middle of the nineteenth century the family were in the area of Hurstbourne Tarrant in Hampshire, some fifty miles or so north east of Okeford Fitzpaine, so no close geographical connection to William OSMOND. I have six William OSMONDs in my records but none looks a likely match to this William OSMOND.

A project based at University College London (UCL) that is investigating the distribution of surnames in Great Britain, both current and historic and displays its results at the publicprofiler web site. The Distribution of OSMOND surname in 1881 page shows the OSMOND name appearing in 1881 across the south western counties of England, as well as some in South Wales and, of course, London. The South Wales connection is probably through coal mining - there were coal mines in northern Somerset until recent times and mining families from there would move to the more prosperous South Wales coal field in search of better wages.

By Keith Pickering (Own work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

As you might expect, the OSMONDs had spread out across the country in the more than one hundred years between 1881 and 1998. However, the Distribution of OSMOND surname in 1998 page shows that they are still mainly in the South of England although there is an isolated bunch in the Galashiels area, just north of the border between England and Scotland. What was that all about? There must be an interesting story behind their appearance as a little island so far from the south of England.

And, of course, there is said to be a family of rather well-known singers in the United States with the surname OSMOND, though I understand that their roots are in Oxfordshire...

So I have found no direct connection between our family and William OSMOND - a pity, as that watch, if it had ever been found, would have made an heirloom with an interesting story behind it.

What's Your Score?

People love a score. In competition, this shows who's winning; in life; it shows how well we are achieving. But in family history? Surely, that's about quality, not quantity. It's about how well you know your ancestors: when they lived, where they lived  and what they did. We can get all this from both personal and official records. Better still, you may have some way of telling even more about their feelings: their hopes, their triumphs and their disappointments. You may have some of their letters, their diaries or even their photographs or paintings showing some of their character in their face. Surely, no chance of adding a score there?

Perhaps there's another way.

OK, let's start with the blindingly obvious. You have two parents. Yes, I know that advances in medical science have produced the three-parent baby, but we're talking about family history and as I write, in 2015, none of our ancestors were born after 2000. So, two parents. And each of them has two parents; four ancestors so far. Eight in the next generation, sixteen in the next, and so on. By the time we have reached ten generations, we have got 1,022 ancestors whom we can thank for our existence. Quite a lot, eh?

So how far back is ten generations? Taking an average of between 25 and 30 years as a generation, that takes us back only 250-300 years, so quite a reasonable time to hope to trace back. But over a thousand people? How many of these have we identified? Do we know their names? Putting a figure on this might give us a useful score; one which would point us at the empty spaces which need filling in—our brick walls.

In 2012 Crista Cowan in her Ancestry blog post titled 'What’s Your Number?' proposed a solution. Why not put your known ancestors into a table, with a row for each generation? Each row would show the generation followed by the number of possible ancestors for that generation; the number of known ancestors; and the former as a percentage of the latter. OK, that sounds complicated, but look at the image below. Quite simple, really.

In 2014 Randy Seaver reminded us of this idea in his Genea-Musings blog and repeated his suggestion a year later.

My Score

So, what's my number? 116 out of a possible 1,023 - 11%.

Not bad compared to some others, but could be better. So, plenty more opportunity for research there. It's interesting to see how the percentage tails off as we go back through the generations. This highlights the point at which I should concentrate my research; the sixth generation. Wouldn't it be satisfying to move that nearer to 100%? That might also make opportunities for pushing back another generation or two with their ancestors.

How did I produce the figures? By using a simple spreadsheet on Google Drive and capturing the result as an image using ABBYY Sreenshot Reader. Other screen capture software and spreadsheets are available...

The eagle-eyed will notice that the figure 1,023 includes myself as my own ancestor; a biologically unlikely situation. However, this does make adding the totals simpler in the spreadsheet and if you reduce the totals of the Possible People and the Identified People columns each by one you will find it makes no effective difference.

My Known Ancestors

This diagram, produced on Progeny's Genelines programme, shows where the gaps are—and they look pretty big!

James and Jack's Score

What about my grandchildren, to whom this blog is dedicated. First let's look at James and Jack, my son's sons.

I know 15% of their ancestors to the 10th generation. That looks a lot better than my own figure of 11% but this is to be expected. My 5th generation, to which I know all of my ancestors, is their 7th. This shows that there is still much to be done though it should be easier since we will not need to go so far back in the records. However their mother has asked me not to research her side of the family as she would like this to be her privilege. I have included the names I already know but in respect for her wishes I have done no further work on that side. This would bring the number of possible people from my point of view to 32 in the 7th generation, 64 in the 8th, 128 in the 9th and 256 in the 10th, making the final percentage almost 30% according to the figure below. Not bad but, from my own figures, more for me to do on their generations 8, 9 and 10.

Helen and Emma's Score

Next we can look at my daughter's daughters.

Not quite as good as James and Jack's revised figures but still showing almost 800 people to be identified. No laurels to be rested on there!

So, this gives us some focus on where to concentrate our energies on the genealogical side. As the gaps are filled and the ancestors identified we can develop the family history aspect: their stories and the times and places in which they lived.

Finally, if any family members would like to know their score or if you would like to add to my research, do let me know.

Who knows what our Ancestral Scores will be this time next year?

Piercy's Purple Prose

While I am researching our family history, occasionally I come across a little gem that has nothing to do with my research. Here's one - I know of no direct connection between Samuel and our family. He was an actor on the West Coast of the United States and died on January 9th 1882. Prose doesn't come much more purple than this...

They just don't write 'em like that any more!

Sport and the Habitual Drunkards Act

What on earth does the Habitual Drunkards Act 1879 have in common with sport? Well, they are both connected to my great grandfather Henry Ellidge RICHARDSON who was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on the 6 January 1848. And, no, he was not the habitual drunkard!

He was the eldest son of Henry Yarker RICHARDSON; his mother was Emma Oakes ELLIDGE from whom he inherited his middle name. Henry Yarker RICHARDSON was described as a 'clerk' at the time of his son Henry Ellidge RICHARDSON's birth - later on he was to enter business on his own account after working for Robert Stephenson who built the famous locomotive Rocket.

Henry Ellidge RICHARDSON was only twenty two when his father was killed in the 1870 Brockley Whins railway accident - his father by then had a paper-making factory in Sunderland. His mother died shortly afterwards.

Henry Ellidge RICHARDSON
Click on any illustration to  view full-size

In 1863 he had been sent to Shrewsbury School where he stayed until 1867. At school he had excelled in athletics and he won the school Senior Steeplechase in 1865 as well as being awarded a silver cup in 1866 for coming first in the school mile. After matriculating at Shrewsbury he went up to Magdelene College, Cambridge, to read Law where he continued his athletic interests and was awarded another cup at his college, also for the mile, in 1868. His athleticism did not end there; later on when in his 50s, as well as walking the half mile or so every day to work and back he would regularly swim at the City Baths in Northumberland Road.

1866 Shrewsbury School 1 mile winner's cup.
It is 250mm high and inscribed
'Shrewsbury School ATHLETICS 1866 THE DERBY 1 Mile
Presented by the Mifs Kennedys
WON BY H E Richardson'

Judging by the 1871 census, after his parents' deaths he seems to have taken on the responsibility of bringing up his siblings. In that census he appears at Sunderland, in the north of England, as head of the household of seven siblings between the ages of three and twenty one and one servant age eighteen. He is described as being an Undergraduate at Magdelene College, Cambridge. Meanwhile he must have returned to his studies as he graduated from Cambridge with a BA degree on 2 March 1872.

Marriage

In  1877 he married Alice Maude HUNT, daughter of William HUNT and Harriet WINGRAVE at the Dunstable Parish Church, in Bedfordshire - William HUNT's story appeared here in the post Almost Two Centuries Ago... on 29 November 2013.

After their marriage they set up home at 19 Westmorland Road, Newcastle upon Tyne. This address does not appear in the 1871 census so it was probably a new building when they moved in. He lived there for about twenty years - the last reference I have to him there was in 1897 - but by the 1901 census he had moved to 20 East Parade in Elswick, not far away. He was still there by the 1911 census though East Parade is now no longer on the map, no doubt swept away by the post World War II development of this area. Some time after this he moved yet another short distance to 27 West Parade where he lived until his death in 1918.

His homes at Westmoreland Road and West Parade, and his office at Market Street
Acknowledgements to Google Maps

These were the homes at which he brought up his four children:

• Henry Robson RICHARDSON ('Rob') who later emigrated to Canada after fighting in the Boer War.
• Alice Wingrave RICHARDSON who was my paternal grandmother.
• Elsie RICHARDSON who married John William MUSE, a friend of Rob's who had served with him in the Boer War and who also emigrated to Canada.
• Mary RICHARDSON, a considerable character in her own right. She was awarded medals in both World Wars, including the Military Medal for bravery in the first World War; and was adopted by Lord RUNCIMAN as his niece.

Henry Ellidge RICHARDSON's three daughters, left to right:
Mary RICHARDSON, Alice Wingrave RICHARDSON and Elsie RICHARDSON

The Law

While he was bringing up his family he followed his profession as a solicitor from premises at 26 Market Street in Newcastle as H E Richardson and Elder. He was admitted as a Solicitor in 1875 and was appointed a Commissioner of Oaths in 1883. Among the cases he had to deal with was one in 1897 under the Habitual Drunkard’s Act that I mentioned earlier - today's equivalent would be a stay at a rehab clinic. In his own words from a letter written in October 1897 to his daughter Alice Wingrave:

'Just as I was going to dinner, i.e. about 12.45 a telephone message came from a client that he wanted me to prepare the necessary papers for the admission of a young man to an inebriate’s retreat, under the Habitual Drunkard’s Act, which allows a man to practically shut himself up in prison for such time as he himself specifies & consents to, & then won’t let him come out till the time has expired.  As he was going off by the 5 train I was to have the papers ready & be at my client’s office as soon after 3 as possible.  Hardly had I received my instructions when callers began to pour in, & I had not a moment to spare till nearly 3 in which to prepare the papers.  

At last I got them done, & started for the office, which I reached at 3.20, only to find that my client was out.  As I had had nothing to eat since 8.30 a.m. I rushed into the nearest restaurant, & fed fiercely, I might say, returning at 3.35 to find that I had to meet him at a livery stable in Clayton Street.   

There I waited for nearly an hour, but at last he came, bringing the poor young fellow with him.  The latter was about 30, handsome, well off, living in a Hall, with a wife & 4 children, but a hopeless wreck through drink.  He said he had more than once heard me preach in one of our country chapels some time ago, but had gone the wrong way since then.  I saw him off at the station, & was introduced to his wife, poor thing, who was saying “Goodbye” to him for months.  It was a sad sight, and I was glad when I could get home & forget it for a short time.'

I suspect that most of his work was rather more mundane, though the reference to the 'telephone message' is interesting coming only twenty years after the opening of the first telephone switchboard in Bolton in 1877. He was obviously an early adopter of the new technology!

Also less mundane was his friendship with William Snowdon ROBSON who at the time was Recorder of Newcastle and who later became a Member of Parliament and Attorney General for England and Wales. A niece of mine has a silver tea service given by him to the family.

W S ROBSON with Elsie RICHARDSON

W S ROBSON 1906
Acknowledgements to Wikimedia Commons.

Relaxation

He was a keen fisherman and when he was on a fishing holiday in Newcastleton, a village on the Scottish Borders, he was able to show off more of the latest in new technology:

'The village policeman met me at the corner of the Square, & was greatly astonished & edified by my electric flash-light, which I bought a little time ago, to aid me in finding out the numbers of doors, & avoiding broken-down staircases, in my visiting.  It is a very handy instrument, & particularly useful in Newcastleton, where, as you may remember, they economise lamp-light at the expense of unwary strangers.'  

He obviously had a mischievous sense of humour. An extract from a 1910 diary says:

'15th June. Since the last sentence was written I've been to Whittle Dene with Stanley in his new motor. My! What a pace we went every now & then! It won't be long before Stanley gets his licence endorsed for “exceeding the limit”, I fear. But I quite understand the fascination of a motor-car. The motion is so smooth, & the sensation so pleasant, that even mother would suggest the top speed, I fancy, & I can't say more than that. All the same I acted as a constant, & most necessary brake on Stanley, not because I didn't want to go fast, but because I remembered my attitude as a pedestrian towards motor-cars, & didn't wish my pleasure to cause annoyance or danger to others. I had one eye on the road & the other on the speedometer all the way, & it was amusing to see how suddenly the needle mounted from 20 to 25 or even 30 – a mere oversight on Stanley’s part, of course.'

A solicitor in trouble with the law! What next? Stanley, by the way, was his friend Stanley Haggie of the Hood Haggie rope-making business, later taken over by British Ropes and now known as Bridon. They had an office in Peterborough, Ontario which still stands. No doubt Stanley was little troubled by the idea of a speeding fine...

About the same time Henry wrote:

'Stanley phoned me today, & I asked him, as a joke, if he had been fishing lately. He laughed, &  replied that he had only once -  by night & with a light – but only saw one salmon & missed that. So he is becoming a first-class poacher, to my great amusement. Wouldn’t it make a fine paragraph. “Salmon poaching extraordinary. Mr S. S. Haggie of Newcastle was today fined £20 & costs, or in default one month’s imprisonment, for night poaching at Rothbury. The prisoner appeared in the dock with a black eye & a beaming smile, & when asked if he had anything to say, replied that he was sorry the keepers had come just then as they make him miss a fine salmon, which could be at least 15 lbs. The fine was paid.” What with motor driving to the public danger, & salmon-poaching, Stanley is going it, isn’t he?'

Stanley was obviously not worried by a poaching fine, either.

Henry Ellidge and Maude Alice RICHARDSON at Allendale

As well as fishing Henry had a cottage in Allendale to get away from the pressures of work. There was a river nearby where he could fish, claiming in 1909 that 'on Tuesday I caught 39 trout, the biggest catch I have ever had at Allendale.'

He also followed the local football team and in 1909 he wrote:

'Newcastle United  are doing very badly, so far, this season. They are certainly not up to last year’s form, & the question is whether they ever will be. Of course it is early in the season yet, but they are so slack, & at the same time, I fear, conceited, that they may never make up their lee-way. It doesn’t matter much to me, except that I like “ma ain toon” to do better than any other.  But I fear that nothing but comparative failure will wake them up.'

Some things never change! However, it was not always thus; I do remember being one of a huge crowd who turned out to see them bring the Cup back to Newcastle and parade it through the City Centre in the 1950s.

Methodism

Henry Ellidge RICHARDSON was a staunch Methodist. In the 1881 census he describes himself as a Wesleyan Methodist Local Preacher and both he and his son-in-law Frank Piercy were said to have preached 'on the stump' at the Big Lamp, at the junction of Westgate Road and Elswick Road. He had a close connection with the Rye Hill People's Mission whose records are in the Tyne and Wear Archives. Perhaps he is mentioned there. His daughter Alice Wingrave RICHARDSON was married there.

Big Lamp in 1900
Note the lines for horse-drawn trams
Acknowledgements to Newcastle City Libraries

His Wesleyan connections and his professional standing meant that in 1891 he was instructed by the Wesleyan Trustees, of whom he was the solicitor, to undertake the negotiations for the site for a place of worship in Blaydon, at the southern end of James Street where it joined Shibdon Road.  The foundation stone was laid in 1892 by Mr James Joicey MP but the building was since destroyed by fire in the 1960s.

Death

Left to right:
Rob, Elsie, Mary, Alice Maude, Henry Ellidge and Alice Wingrave RICHARDSON, Frank PIERCY
about 1895

He died in 1918 at at his home in West Parade aged 70. He was survived by his wife Alice Maude and was buried at Elswick Cemetery.

In his will he left almost £3,000, between £120,000 and £886,000 in today's money according to the method you use to calculate it.

Henry Ellidge RICHARDSON and his close family

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'Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.'

Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834)

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