Anzac Day 2019: Remembering Andrew Crawford

Today I remember Andy Crawford, mum's cousin - B2455, ANDREW CRAWFORD, SERN Major, Tatura VIC. 8th Light Horse Regiment, A Squadron; part of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade.
I have written a full story (click here), of Andy's war service.  (warning it is very long - 29 pages).

2019. #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks; Week 16 Prompt: ‘Out of Place’

Week 16 Prompt: ‘Out of Place’

LOUDEN

This time I have decided to look at a name that seemed out of place.  

My father was born in Peebles in 1904.  He was christened William Louden Pearce.  Years ago when I wondered if Louden was a family surname handed down, I asked my father where did the Loudens fit in? 

He laughed and told me – “they don’t, he was the minister who christened me!”.  

When speaking with my new found relatives in New Zealand last week (April 2019) I discovered that one of the women had also been given a middle name Louden, and the family story was the same – she was named after the minister in the Congregational Church in Innerleithen who christened her in 1915.  

NB: The Congregational Church was started in 1848.

I tried to research who this popular minister was. The only possibility I found was T.S. Loudon a minister with the Congregational Church, who was preaching at Muirkirk in Scotland in 1899.  Muirkirk is 1½ hours drive east from Innerleithen. 

If this is the same minister maybe he moved on to Innerleithen some time between 1899 and 1904. The reference to his being at Muirkirk is in a book which, unfortunately, only covers up to 1900.

Reference:https://archive.org/stream/historyofcongreg00ross/historyofcongreg00ross_djvu.txt

The Old Manse, previously the Manse for the Congregational church in Leithen Road, Innerleithen,  
This is where Reverend Loudon would have lived as Minister of the Congregational Church.

2019. #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks; Week 15 Prompt: DNA

Week 15 Prompt: DNA

A couple of years ago my husband and I decided to have DNA tests done. We used Ancestry first of all and then Family Finder. It was interesting to see which countries our ancestors came from.  But that was not our main interest.  It was to have a record so that hopefully at some time our ancestors would be traced in a proven manner.

Although I have saved on file many helpful documents on how to utilize the DNA results, and attended interesting presentations, at this time I have not had time to follow up. 

When the results first came, I was keen and contacted those other people DNA tested, who matched me. Sadly, most did not reply. Of the few who did, we were still unable to identify the connection, as it was probably too distant. 
I have saved my results on 'My Heritage' and 'Gedmatch' as well. 

There are a couple of ‘Brick Walls’ that I do hope to break down in the future when more people have tested and I understand it better.

2019. #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks; Week 14 Prompt: 'Brick Wall'

Week 14 Prompt:  'Brick Wall'

In Week 11 this year, I wrote about an ancestral family with a large family  – The Bartons and their brood.

In the process, I discovered that there were a few facts unverified and my tree began to crumble all around them.

I started to try and make sense of all the Bartons and Burtons with their names intermingled and I couldn’t get very far. The trouble was finding documents to verify the relationships. 

I am now stuck at whether Elizabeth SIMMONS 1750-1812 is a daughter of Esau SIMMONS  1730-1798 and Elizabeth BARTON 1730-1794 or maybe his wife was Joane GALLOP.

I have left them all in my tree at the moment and developed a notice that I have put in as their profile photograph:  

Hopefully, this will deter anyone from copying this information to their own tree.

And hopefully, I can knock down this brick wall in the near future.