William McMurray goes down with the Titanic

I was surfing the web recently and discovered that one of my 1st cousins went down on the Titanic. I never could find him on the census, it was because he was a steward on steamships that crossed the ocean. He was on the steamship 'Republic' in 1909 when it was struck by the Steamship 'Florida' off the coast of New York and sunk. The nearly 2000 people on the ship were able to evacuate. William received an award on that occasion. I remember watching a documentary on the cause of the collision on PBS. William is now part of history displays and information can readily be found about him on various websites due to his fate on the Titanic. He must have been very good at his job, since he was on two of the premiere steamships of that era. What a coincidence, both sank.
familysearch.org has now indexed Cheshire parish registers and now I have his birth date as well as those of his siblings. They were all born in Birkenhead which is just across from Liverpool where there was shipyards. He married Clara Jones in 1902 in the Liverpool area. They had three children; May, Ivy, and Ernest. From a website I learned that Ernest was on the 'Laconia' in 1942 when it was torpedoed by German submarines. This is a well known incident, not only for the large loss of life but how the allied bombers responded. The submariners started rescue operations as they were unaware that 1800 Italian prisoners of war were on board. The submariners were bombed so they ceased rescue operations and changed there future policies on rescue operations. Ernest was lost. I have learned about this from web pages. I do not have any documentation nor access to it as it would be at the National Archives at KEW. The genealogy of William McMurray is on my website.

Google Earth uncovers Brown Homestead in Dry Fork Canyon

David Emanuel Brown (1851-1927) was a most remarkable man. He was a carpenter, builder, and farmer and left a mark in every community that he lived in. By wagon he traveled from Georgia to Monroe, Utah then to Marysvale, then to Dry Fork Canyon in Uintah County, Utah where he homesteaded land next a Utah State Monument, 'Remember the Maine'. It is a painting on the side of a cliff. The family arrived the same year that the painting was completed, 1898. I have the homestead case file describing the land. His nine children all lived in Uintah and Duchesne counties and have written a history of their times there. I hope to get in on the website soon. Their lives are interwoven with the lives of the Philip Scogings and Mary Elizabeth Brown, his daughter. David moved his family to Marysvale and this is where Mary met Philip Scogings. Soon after David move to Uintah County, Philip and Mary followed. Were talking a lot of cousins growing up in rural Utah, over 40. After 10 years in Dry Fork Canyon he then homesteaded the land of his daughter, Martha Jane in Cedarview. Cedarview was about 35 miles west of Dry Fork. By visiting Cedarview one can get an idea of the hardships and the wear the land had on its occupants. It was in Bennett, Utah, not far from Cedarview that the family of Philip Scogings and Mary Brown homesteaded.

Dumfries Newspaper

Dumfries first newspaper started in 1777. The newspaper article about Aucheninnes came from the Dumfries and Galloway Standard. I put a transcription of the newspaper article yesterday on my website dated January 7 1856. The key to using the newspaper is the paper index that is available. When I was at Ewart library in Dumfries, I couldn't image anyone trying to read the newspaper on microfiche. The print is small and somewhat blurry. The index gets you on the right page and cloumn.
The newspaper covers the Galloway region. The index on this page is Mckenzie's in the area in the 1840' and 1850's. In the parish of Urr there was only one Mckenzie family, that also included Dalbeattie. Dalbeattie was the most populated place in the parish. The Mckenzie's had a long lease on the Aucheninnes farm that apparently ended in 1856. I'm uncertain how long they were on the farm. The voters list for 1835 indicates that they were on the farm in 1835, so they were their at least 20 years or more. Lets hope that they digitize the Dumfries Newspaper soon and put it online.

Mckenzie's immigrated to Canada

Some of my Mckenzie ancestors immigrated to Canada in the 1850's. John Mckenzie was a farmer near Dalbeattie Scotland. He farmed a 200 acre farm called Auchenninnes. The lease on the farm ended in 1856. The family of 11 are recorded in the 1851 census in the parish of Urr. In the 1861 census the family is no longer recorded. Robert and Grace, two of their children, are found in later census years, but the others I have wondered about for over twenty years. Many years ago someone submitted three of the missing to the pedigree resource file; William, Agnes, and Anne. They used the abbreviation for Scotland as 'SCT'. Since the search engine did not recognize 'SCT' as Scotland they remained missing until now. I made the connection on newfamilysearch that connects people by relationships. I have been looking for direct evidence that connects the three to my line. Ancestry.com has indexed the Canadian census records and many vital records, so I was able to search for them quite easily. I found William, the oldest, in the 1901 Ontario census. The 1901 census records a birth date and it is the same as that recorded in the parish registers in the Parish of Urr, Feb 9 1830. The evidence does connect them to my Mckenzie family in Urr parish, Scotland. Agnes married 14 Nov 1861 at the age of 18 to Alexander Gibson in the St. John's, Queen's Road Presbyterian Church in Newfoundland. Their are no Newfoundland records on Ancestry.com.
The remaining three children, John, James, and David Mckenzie, I image would have settled in Canada somewhere. John was born 4 Dec 1833; James was born 26 Oct 1835; and David in 1846. If they lived to 1901 I may be able to identify them in the 1901 census. I think their descendants are going to have to find my website, as their are to many to search.

Suffolk and Galloway drovers 1600's 1700's

Sometime ago a Scoggins cousin told me that they had Scottish customs in their family, and it was thought that they originally came from Galloway. (Galloway refers to Wigtown, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries counties in Scotland) I have consulted some books listed below that verifies the connection between Galloway and Suffolk. It is reasonable to assume that some of the Scotch would have settled in Suffolk.

On the agriculture of Suffolk By William Raynbird, Hugh Raynbird, 1849 "Culley, in his work ' On Live Stock,' observes, that the Suffolk duns are nothing more than a variety of the Galloway breed, originating in the intercourse that has long subsisted between the Scotch drovers of Galloway cattle and the Suffolk and Norfolk graziers who feed them. This opinion is, I think, incorrect; the breeds agree in nothing else except in their small size and being polled."

Coddenham and Badingham are pointed out as dairy centers. The 20 mile by 12 mile area is where the Scoggins are found, and it provides a reason that a branch of the family settled in Badingham in the 1770's.

General view of the agriculture of the county of Suffolk: drawn up for the ..., 1797 "The country, which is more peculiarly, but not exclusively, the seat of the dairies, is marked out by the parishes of Codenham, Ashbocking, Otley, Charlsfield, Lethei ingham, Hatcheston, Parham, Framlingham, Cransford, Bruisyard, Badingham, Sibton, Heveningham, Cookly, Linstead, Metfield, Wethersdale, Fressingfield, Wingfield, Hoxne, Brome, Thrandeston, Geslingham, Tenningham, Westrop, Wyverston, Gipping, Stonham, Creting; and again to Codenham, with all the places within, being a tract of country of 20 miles by 12. The limits cannot be exact, for this breed of cows spreads over the whole county; but this space must be more peculiarly considered as their head-quarters."

This points to a place where further research can be conducted. The first Scoggins to be found in the parish registers is in Helmingham in 1694. Helmingham is next to Otley parish and near Coddenham. How many Scoggins families came from Scotland? Was the surname spelled the same? Were the Scoggins drovers?

1844 Suffok Gazetteer on my website from Google Books

I have started to add a new feature to my website for the places I have in Suffolk County, England. I have 148 parishes listed in Suffolk. With a click of a mouse you can go to the 1844 History, gazetteer, and directory of Suffolk, and the towns near its borders ... by William White. It gives a short description and principal residents of each parish in Suffolk.

The text above is a hyper-linked to the gazetteer where you can read the complete listing for Badingham and every other parish in Suffolk.

Now by going to a place on the website, such as Badingham, there is a google map of the area, a link to the 1844 gazetteer, and every person who was born, died, or married there. I have a lot of people associated with Badingham parish.

Scoggin's from Coddenham

I have added my latest research of the Scoggin family established in Coddenham to my website. My direct line first appears in the parish registers some five miles away in Framsden and Helmingham about 1700. I suspect this is where the Coddenham branch links into mine, but I cannot find any entries in the parish registers to establish the connection. Philip Scoggin married Mary Tyler in 1755 in Coddenham. This is when they first appear in the parish registers. Their first two sons Philip and James descendants becomes what is known as the Scoggin’s from Coddenham. They all lived to old age. Philip died in 1820 at the age of 94. He was a thatcher. He left a will in 1821 naming five children. Philip (1756-1837), James (1758-1837), Thomas (1762-1836), Mary (1764-1826), and Robert (1760-1829). Philip’s (1756-1837) will mentions a son- in law in London, Thomas Hawkes; his brother, James; and wife, Jane. The value of his estate is 5 pounds. James’s (1758-1837) will is valued at under 100 pounds. He was a gameskeeper. Thomas’s (1762-1836) will indicates that he was a thatcher, and the value of the estate was under 200 pounds. There is no indication of a marriage as he leaves it to his brother, James who dies a year later. The family started using the spelling Scoging in the 1800’s.