A while back I wrote about Douglas Lionel Horace Leonard Hyde, my Auntie’s husband and a real mystery man to boot. I put what little knowledge I had of him (namely the two marriages and the name of his father) on Ancestry.com and really did not expect to find anything new.
However, Ancestry.com came up with a clue – a link to a workhouse record of admissions featuring an Arthur Henry Hyde and four children, one of whom was named Horace.
I have spent considerable time hunting through records to find out more but could not definitely link this child to Douglas Hyde – until now, when I suddenly found that the GRO official record of the first marriage names him as Horace L Hyde and indeed he signed his first marriage certificate the same way!
So, now I can start to try to make sense of all the information I have gathered – it is a mishmash of changed names, missing people, somewhat dubious record-keeping and general confusion, mine as much as anyone else’s!
It’s moments like this that make a genealogist smile!
Today I have decided not to keep updating my original genealogy program i.e. the Master Genealogist. It is an old program, no longer supported by its distributors and usable only on my old Windows 7 computer. This in turn is kindly supported by my son, but its days are numbered I think.
I have two other sites where I keep all my information (Ancestry.com.au & Tribalpages.com), plus I keep printed files, so I think that is sufficient.
Still, it does feel like a break-up with an old and trusted friend, it has stood me in good stead for many years!
My Auntie Doff married the same man twice. The first marriage was in 1931 at a Registry Office in London and the man she married was named as Douglas Lionel Horace Hyde. He signed the register H.L Hyde.
The second marriage was in 1933 at a church in Basildon in Essex – the man was named as Douglas Lionel Horace Leonard Hyde and he signed the register L. Hyde.
This Len Hyde (as I seem to remember that was what he was called in the family) was quite a mystery man. I can find very little trace of him in the records (a possible birth registration) and indeed he eventually disappeared entirely, leaving wife and son.
Naturally, this has peaked my interest – there are all sorts of possibilities to pursue, but I am forced to wonder if anyone in the family knows anything more about this. If you do, please contact me – I am consumed with curiosity!
Ancestry.com is coming up with some very interesting collections. The latest one to catch my eye is a Catalogue of Knights appointed between 1660 and 1760. Whom should I find therein but a William Hooker of London. My Dad would be quite amused to think he may have descended from such heights š
I have just rediscovered the 1939 England & Wales Register. I had previously come across it but not realised its potential as a source of information. Indeed I was puzzled and discouraged by the number of redactions in it.
I think Ancestry.com best explains how it works –
Naturally I could not resist looking up my parents in this register –
The three redactions are of course my three older siblings – of those the oldest is 86 so there is a bit of a wait before they are visible to the public – myself and my next oldest sister were not yet born in 1939. so no black line for us.
Who says genealogy is boring?
Recently I was looking for one of the “ancient rellies” and managed to find her in the parish records of Allhallows in Kent – baptised in 1908. When I looked at the other people on the page, whose should be the next baptism after hers but my mother’s! Of course I knew Mum was born and baptised in Allhallows, but I suddenly realised how long ago that was and that Mum was indeed “an ancient relly” – and in fact, at nearly 76, I am rapidly heading that way myself. Talk about intimations of mortality!
Yes, I am still plodding away at digging up my mother’s family history, nothing specific to report, but noticed it is almost a year since I last wrote, so here I am. I am currently researching a great great great grandfather called Stephen Fry and his wife Mary Allen, both born in 1776 in Kent. I have found a number of people on Ancestry.com who have information on these two but none of them mention the one child (out of ten) who happens to be my ancestor. I have spent 3 weeks on this so far and have established links between the other family trees and my own – but I have an uneasy feeling I might have it wrong. Perhaps I have been manipulating the available information to show what I want it to. That is an easy trap to fall into and can lead one way off the track. I have looked for an alternative Stephen Fry with no results but I think it is time to step back for a while & then to come back and look at it with fresh eyes. If only I could convince my brain to stop pondering the matter!
Further to the story of George, it seems that after attempting to commit suicide on the 12th June 1886, he was admitted to the Medway Union workhouse. Then on Tuesday 15th June he was “taken by a Police Constable to the County Magistrate’s Office”. On the 1st July he was convicted and on the 2nd July he was certified to be insane. He was admitted on the 5th July to the Kent County Lunatic Asylum at Barming, near Maidstone. I am not sure if he remained there or if he was released at some stage. The next record I can find for him is from the Kent County Asylum records which show he was admitted on 18th October 1889 and remained there until his death in March 1898. This period of time from 1886 to 1898 may have been one period of incarceration with yearly continuation orders keeping him there. To ascertain that I would need to access the records of Kent County Lunatic Asylum.
Point of interest – Elizabeth & George had been together since about 1861 (first child born then) but had never married. There is a question mark over the parentage of the last few children (including my grandfather Aaron) as the father is not named on their birth certificates – indeed, there was a rumour that their father was an Irish eel fisherman!! but I can find no evidence of that. I think it much more likely they were fathered by a local man. In fact, in 1887, one year after George was incarcerated, Elizabeth married James Eaton Barty, a local widower.
Yes, I’m finally back after a long break and immediately found something interesting to report. I knew my great grandfather George Hutchings died in the Maidstone Lunatic Asylum (as it was then called), but did not know why he was admitted. Then I came across this picture (courtesy of lenaandrews1 at Ancestry.com) and all was explained. Those were hard times!
Although the resultsĀ may not beĀ apparent, I am still plodding away at the family research. I have decided, for a while, to pursue the hints which pop up on Ancestry.com, so am not just sticking to one family line, but researching individuals as they get a mention. This makes researching a little more interesting, albeit random,Ā but it does mean that I am not writing up the results on other sites such as this blog.Ā Eventually I will do so, in the meantime, if you are desperately waiting for an update, please contact me.
Family matters. 