Desecendants of Peter Ramsay and the Hon Susan Mary Belhaven Hamilton

It’s funny as the only people in my family that seem to be remotely interested in family history are my eldest brother, mother and my cousin Hamish Maclaren, although I’m not sure they bother to read this blog though. The reason I continue to blog about my ancestors and related families, is because every so often I’m contacted by distant relative or interested party that has some great story, photo, or new information. I was recently contact by Dr Christian von Westarp in Canada. He contacted me in response to my Peter Ramsay loose ends post and mentioned that the portraits of Peter Ramsay and The Hon Susan Mary Hamilton (see below) looked down on him as a boy eating his morning breakfast! Their daughter Agnes (sister of Dr Robert Hamilton Ramsay friend and colleague of Lord Lister) married his great grandfather Francis Beck. I explained that Jana Ramsay Best had been in touch (see here) and found Old Parish Registers records for Births & Baptisms of Peter Ramsay (innkeeper) senior (b. 15 Feb 1727) and William (of Barnton) Ramsay (b. 2 August 1732), sons of George Ramsay Stabler in the Canongate and his spouse Agnes Thom. So I think George and Agnes are our common ancestors. He sent me a wealth of information about the descendants of Peter Ramsay and The Hon Susan Mary Hamilton, including a family tree and photographs.

Mary Polly Walker of Ayneham Towers?

Mary Polly Walker of Ayneham Towers

I scanned the following photograph my mother gave my younger sister. I think it’s her grandmother Mary Polly Walker, (b. 16 Feb 1857, d. 4 May 1898 Pleasington, Lancs.), of Ayneham Towers, Preston. Believed to be a relative of Sir Robert Peel, her first memory being of sitting on his knee in an open carriage, being driven through cheering crowds in Preston, Lancs. There doesn’t seem to be much information about the Walker family nor Ayneham Towers that I’ve found through relatives looking into our ancestors or on Google. However, my mother had a DNA test, which established that this female line is the same as “Ötzi The Iceman – found frozen in a glacier in the Alps died 5.300 years ago, possibly of hypothermia, on the Hauslabjoch pass, which cuts over the main Alpine ridge dividing Austria from Italy at 10,500 feet above sea level. He was found 1991.

UPDATE
My mother says Molly is her grandmother married to her grandfather, Frederick Marwood of Pleasington Lodge. She died when my grandmother was seven. She doesn’t know much about the Walkers. One brother was the agent to Lord Sefton, one (possibly Leo) went to Africa either as an explorer, or an ivory-trader, and was murdered there. Her mother had a cousin Marjorie who may have been a Walker, who married a charming man called Bertie Swanson (or Swanston) and they lived in some style near Morpeth, Northumberland. He had lost a leg in the 1st world war. I think there’s also Swanson connection on my dad’s side of the family through his Birley ancestors.

Happy New Year and resolutions

Happy New Year 2009

I’ve been designing and producing Christmas, Birthday and other cards for about 5 years now, initially with the help of Glynn Ellis, but more recently with the help of Photoshop, my wife Bridget and kids Beth and Max. Here’s the latest New Year card which was inspired by the recycling of kids TV characters The Wombles – Beth and Max are big fans. Anyway, happy New Year to anyone following me and particularly those that have helped me with my genealogical ‘research’ over the last few years.

Happy Christmas From Aunt Lilla 1947

Christmas Card from Aunt Lilla 1947

My mother recently sent me and the family this Christmas Card by our Aunt Lilla (aka I.M.Birtwistle) from 1947. I’ve mentioned it before but there’s a interesting obituary about how she was an “Inspiring poet and gallery owner who nurtured young artists despite losing her sight’ in The Times.

Capt Roddy George Maitland-Kirby Mysterious Death?

Just got back from two week business trip to Australia and before heading home I had an email from Jeremy Bird via George H. Graham whose site contains information on my great uncle Capt Roddy George Maitland-Kirby. Jeremy mentioned that his late grandfather served in 1941 with Capt Roddy George Maitland-Kirby at Whaddon Hall in Buckinghamshire. He wondered whether any remaining Kirby family members might know anything about the circumstances of Roddy’s death because his grandfather said that some events that happened at Whaddon were far from straightforward.

Ernest Francis Fitzherbert Wright (1919–2007)

Ernest Francis Fitzherbert Wright was my great uncle and was always called Francis , possibly because his father was called Ernest (FitzHerbert Wright), and possibly because he didn’t like the name Ernest despite being fond of his father. He died in 2007, and is much missed by our family. I’ve included the tribute made by my elder brother at his Funeral Service at Chelsea Old Church in October 2007. There was also a Memorial Service at the parish church in Ebbesborne Wake, Wiltshire (where his ashes were interred with those of his wife, Betty).

Finally I’m using Family Tree Maker software

I’ve finally succumbed to using a family tree make software. I’ve chose iFamily for Leopard for no other reason than it works on an Apple Mac. OK it came with a Royal GEDCOM file, and I was able to link into it in a few places, but real reason is that I have so many notes now that I need to get a bit more systematic about how and where I sort them. I’m allergic to subscription sites like Ancestry.com because I think family history should be both open and collaborative like the Wikipedia. I’m also not a collector of copies of Birth Certificates and original census records. I looked a Genes Reunited as well and it’s family family tree builder is at least free to use and looked user friendly. It also separates out the buying of copies of ancestral records which Ancestry.com doesn’t do. Downside is your family tree is hidden from Google as you have to log in to use it, and their search just isn’t as good as Google at helping me find others researching similar trees because it’s too structured. What I would really like to see is an open and collaborative family tree platform like the Wikipedia, but with the ability to be able to buy related ancestral records. Until that comes along I’m going to just use Google as it’s free and my iFamily for Leopard> software as it works on a mac and is relatively cheap compared to an ongoing subscription. I’ll going with this blog as every now and then someone gets in touch and as mentioned above it the connecting and collaborating I like even if there’s no open platform to it. I’m not going to bother about buying any copies of ancestral records because I think the should be free and in the public domain. However, I may go quiet here, while I enter all the notes I’ve collected.

Rev. Robert Dorrien Kirby Update

I’ve been in touch with Father Michael Blain about how the Rev. Robert Dorrien Kirby was killed by cannibals. Father Blain edits The Blain Biographical Directory of Anglican Clergy in the Pacific and has added a terminal note Robert Dorrien entry. He mentions that Bishop Feetham would have noted if Robert Dorrien was there in New Guinea as a priest, or functioning as a priest while employed in government service. So he thinks it is puzzling to see him in the other list as a military or naval chaplain. As he points out once a priest always a priest, but if not licensed at the time of his death, his being ordained is not directly relevant to the biographical account. He also pointed out that his clerical years are fragmentary – so he gets the impression it did not work out well for him. He’s also sent a message to the compiler of the ‘Cable Clergy Index’, for this
has details of all priests who held a licence in the Australian Anglican church. As the CCI presently does not have Kirby, he suspects that he is not in fact within that category.

My great grandfather faced Court Marshall

I just found an update on the The AIF Project database that says that my great grandfather George Henry Kirby faced a Court Marshall in WW1. There’s a whole host of correspondence from his wife Elsie (Alice Marie Maitland), his father Alfred Octavious and mother-in-law Theresa Maitland, at the National Archives of Australia. So it’s definitely him and he even had tattoos.

Rev. Rev Robert Dorrien Kirby killed by cannibals but not eaten?

George Graham had asked me previously about one of my distant relations, Rev Robert Dorrien Kirby. He was the son of my great great great uncle Augustus George Kirby (1847-1926). George assumed that Robert Dorrien had been buried in New Guinea, but wondered what cemetery, e.g. Military. It’s just that the The Times death notice below, seemed to imply that he was wounded due to war actions, so he wondered why is there no reference to him in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission data base (Civilian or Military)?

The Roll of the sons and daughters of the Anglican Church Clergy throughout the world, and of the Naval and Military Chaplains of the same, who gave their lives in the Great War 1914-1918, mentions that Rev. Robert Dorrien Kirby, son of Rev. Augustus George Kirby, Vicar of South Weald, Died at Yule, Illama, New Guinea, April 29, 1916.

Well, I knew from the The Blain Biographical Directory of Anglican Clergy in the Pacific he been adjudged bankrupt in Jun 1911 before heading off to New Zealand, but by 1915 he was no longer on Crockford’s Clerical Directory. Seems like he ended up in New Guinea as a missionary as I have just chanced upon an account of the death of a missionary called Richard Dorrien Kirby, who was killed by the Kikos of the village of Bagama, on the Kikori River, in an An account of a visit to the New Guinea Mission in 1916 by The Right Reverend J. O. Feetham (Bishop of North Queensland) called From Samarai to Ambasi – “IN THE WHITKIRK”. I’m assuming that the Richard Dorrien Kirby being referred to is the same person as the Rev. Robert Dorrien Kirby, and so have included the relevant section from the account including the ‘Cannibal Feast’ below: