It's a small world.
I'm short of sleep at the moment. I sleep well - it's not insomnia, no, it's a self inflicted lack of sleep caused by curiosity at one of those 'small world' coincidences that crop up in genealogy.
My mother's mother (you'll see shortly why it's important to draw a distinction between grandparents) believed that Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (the first woman to get a formal medical qualification in Britain) was a fairly distant cousin of hers. As my grandmother's mother was a Garrett, and her family a few generations back came from the same area in Suffolk as Elizabeth Garrett's (as she was before she married) family, it seemed quite possible.
So, this being nan interesting family tale, when I got into genealogy, it seemed something worth investigating.
Last year I found the family link - working back up the Garretts...
...from the other side (which had been researched by quite a few people already)...
Elizabeth Garrett
d.o. Newson Garrett & Louisa Dunnell
s.o. Richard Garrett & Susan Balls
s.o. Richard Garrett & Elizabeth Newson
s.o. Richard Garrett (1733-1787) & Elizabeth Gall
s.o. Richard Garrett & Elizabeth Baxter
s.o. Richard Garrett & Mary Lewis
s.o. John Garrett & Mary
s.o. Harmon Garrett & Susan Tofts
s.o. John Garrett & Marion Dawson
or
of from my mother's family's side...
Kathleen Justina Gay
d.o. Geoffrey Herbert Gay & Lilian Emily Garrett
d.o. George Frederirck Garrett & Emily Arnold
s.o. Charles Garrett & Susan Booth
s.o. John Garrett & Ann Hanton
s.o. Thomas Garrett (1737-1816) & Elizabeth Snow
s.o. Richard Garrett & Elizabeth Baxter
etc. - we've hit the link.
Richard Garrett (1704-1784) & Elizabeth Baxter (?-1785) had about 11 children. Richard (1733) was the third, their first surviving, and Thomas (1737) their fifth. Based on this information, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was 4th cousin, 1 x removed, from my grandmother.
And so, satisfied that I'd found the link I stopped looking and wandered off to look at another part of the tree.
Until a couple of days ago.
I'd vaguely noticed that Elizabeth Garrett's husband, James George Skelton Anderson was Scottish, and was a shipping magnate. Reading something about the family I noticed that his father Alexander Anderson, was a church minister, and something caught my eye. At one time (1830-1843), aged 21+ Alexander had been the minister at the parish of Boyndie - Whitehills, a small fishing village in the north east of Scotland.
This was horribly familiar territory to me - Boyndie caught my eye because it is the parish that my father's mother - my other grandmother, and her family had come from for generations, her maternal grandmother was christened there in 1833, the rest of that generation, in that quarter of my family were born and christened in the years immediately before Alexander Anderson became the minister there, and married in the years soon after he left. Quite a feew of my paternal grandmother's grandparent's siblings were born during the time he was minster there.
So - there's the small world syndrome. A non-blood relative on my mother's side of the family from Suffolk had direct connections with the church minister in the parish of a good part of my father's family, on the north east of Scotland.
So far all I've been searching for is looking for direct links where the minister may have been involved. Next comes trying to work out how the 400 mile jump from Boyndie to Suffolk happened. My guess is that it is through shipping - James George Skelton Anderson joined his Uncle's firm Anderson, Thomson & Co in 1854 and became partner in 1863. There is a long tradition of fishing families from the north east of Scotland moving and settling down the east coast of England, notably in Lowestoft, and I'd not be surprised to find some the Andersons from Scotland settled in Suffolk as a result of the fishing trade.
So = that's the little 'small world' side track that's had me sitting up late into the night, searching through the internet looking for proof - a real side trek, but one that's amusing and interesting to me.
My mother's mother (you'll see shortly why it's important to draw a distinction between grandparents) believed that Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (the first woman to get a formal medical qualification in Britain) was a fairly distant cousin of hers. As my grandmother's mother was a Garrett, and her family a few generations back came from the same area in Suffolk as Elizabeth Garrett's (as she was before she married) family, it seemed quite possible.
So, this being nan interesting family tale, when I got into genealogy, it seemed something worth investigating.
Last year I found the family link - working back up the Garretts...
...from the other side (which had been researched by quite a few people already)...
Elizabeth Garrett
d.o. Newson Garrett & Louisa Dunnell
s.o. Richard Garrett & Susan Balls
s.o. Richard Garrett & Elizabeth Newson
s.o. Richard Garrett (1733-1787) & Elizabeth Gall
s.o. Richard Garrett & Elizabeth Baxter
s.o. Richard Garrett & Mary Lewis
s.o. John Garrett & Mary
s.o. Harmon Garrett & Susan Tofts
s.o. John Garrett & Marion Dawson
or
of from my mother's family's side...
Kathleen Justina Gay
d.o. Geoffrey Herbert Gay & Lilian Emily Garrett
d.o. George Frederirck Garrett & Emily Arnold
s.o. Charles Garrett & Susan Booth
s.o. John Garrett & Ann Hanton
s.o. Thomas Garrett (1737-1816) & Elizabeth Snow
s.o. Richard Garrett & Elizabeth Baxter
etc. - we've hit the link.
Richard Garrett (1704-1784) & Elizabeth Baxter (?-1785) had about 11 children. Richard (1733) was the third, their first surviving, and Thomas (1737) their fifth. Based on this information, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was 4th cousin, 1 x removed, from my grandmother.
And so, satisfied that I'd found the link I stopped looking and wandered off to look at another part of the tree.
Until a couple of days ago.
I'd vaguely noticed that Elizabeth Garrett's husband, James George Skelton Anderson was Scottish, and was a shipping magnate. Reading something about the family I noticed that his father Alexander Anderson, was a church minister, and something caught my eye. At one time (1830-1843), aged 21+ Alexander had been the minister at the parish of Boyndie - Whitehills, a small fishing village in the north east of Scotland.
This was horribly familiar territory to me - Boyndie caught my eye because it is the parish that my father's mother - my other grandmother, and her family had come from for generations, her maternal grandmother was christened there in 1833, the rest of that generation, in that quarter of my family were born and christened in the years immediately before Alexander Anderson became the minister there, and married in the years soon after he left. Quite a feew of my paternal grandmother's grandparent's siblings were born during the time he was minster there.
So - there's the small world syndrome. A non-blood relative on my mother's side of the family from Suffolk had direct connections with the church minister in the parish of a good part of my father's family, on the north east of Scotland.
So far all I've been searching for is looking for direct links where the minister may have been involved. Next comes trying to work out how the 400 mile jump from Boyndie to Suffolk happened. My guess is that it is through shipping - James George Skelton Anderson joined his Uncle's firm Anderson, Thomson & Co in 1854 and became partner in 1863. There is a long tradition of fishing families from the north east of Scotland moving and settling down the east coast of England, notably in Lowestoft, and I'd not be surprised to find some the Andersons from Scotland settled in Suffolk as a result of the fishing trade.
So = that's the little 'small world' side track that's had me sitting up late into the night, searching through the internet looking for proof - a real side trek, but one that's amusing and interesting to me.