Remind me to send those family reunion invites to Charlemagne, Nefertiti, and Confucius...

"You can ask whether everyone in the Western world is descended from Charlemagne, and the answer is yes, we're all descended from Charlemagne. But can you prove it? That's the game of genealogy."

-- Mark Humphrys

I'm still playing that game... without much success. I wonder if there is a list somewhere of English surnames that are most likely to be linked with the royal families of Europe, or perhaps some of the families who came over immediately after 1066. It would be helpful to know whether one particular family name is likely to be linked to royalty or not; chasing peasant lines for decades (and running up against the inevitable brick walls) seems like a bit of a waste of time... at least for this particular purpose.

Another brick wall...

I have so many brick walls. Some of the trickiest to smash through are (for some reason) those at around 1800. I'm not sure why. I would've thought that those around 1837 or 1855 would be more difficult...

In any case, this brick wall has been troublesome for a while now. I'd love to find more information on a man named William Withers. Census records state that he was born in Earley, Berkshire around 1801. He married Elizabeth Collins in 1821 in Tilehurst. Five of their six children were born in Tilehurst; the other was born in Earley.

There are a number of baptisms for William Withers in Berkshire on FamilySearch... but none are even close to Earley.

I have no idea how to smash down this brick wall.

A very mobile shoemaker?

I still haven't been able to find much information on my ancestor David Horn(e). I know he was born in Makerston, Roxburghshire in 1793. He appears on the 1841 census in Edinburgh. He's probably dead by 1851. But other than his baptism record, the 1841 census record, and the baptism records for two daughters (Isabella and Agnes), I can't find anything. This has led to quite a few questions and a lot of frustration.

I cannot find a record for David's marriage to Isabella. The only record that I could find for a David Horn(e) at around the right time was for a shoemaker named David Horne who married a woman named Janet Wilson in 1822 in Glasgow. The occupation is right, the date is plausible, and Janet's maiden name also fits into the picture (David's eldest son is James Wilson Horne; I'd assumed the "Wilson" was from David's mother, Agnes Wilson, but perhaps there's another explanation here...). Also, if David was married to Janet before he was married to Isabella, it might help explain why there is a six-year gap between James and his next younger sister (the subsequent children are all separated by three or fewer years). James Wilson Horne's death registration does state that his mother was named Isabella... but James may not have remembered his real mother, and the person who registered the death probably never would have met Isabella or known the real story. So I'm thinking Janet could be a real possibility...

... except for the Glasgow bit. It seems odd to me that a shoemaker would move around that much. From Makerston to Glasgow to Edinburgh? A soldier or a merchant or a seaman... okay. But a shoemaker?

Missing Horne found?

It seems there are quite a few stories in this branch of the family that aren't quite true. James Wilson Horne and his wife did not both tragically die in the same year, leaving their children orphaned (they died about three years apart). Their children were not all taken in by James's brother Robert, nor were they taken under the wing of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh (wishful thinking!). As far as I can tell, the orphaned children were split up, since they ended up scattered around the globe:

Margaret Kinnimunth Horne ended up living in Linlithgow, where she died in 1923. Various censuses show her as an unemployed boarder. One census even lists her as an imbecile! I can't find any evidence of her being a schoolteacher, as the family stories claim.

David Horne was supposedly the captain of a ship (highly unlikely, since he would've been a teenager at the time) and went to sea. Family stories say he disappeared in San Francisco some time before 1873, most likely the victim of murder since he had a temper and probably got himself into trouble. More about him in a minute...

John "Jack" Stafford Horne married a woman named Mary Brown, and their son, James Wilson Horne, was born in Glasgow in 1881. Jack ended up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada... and is buried in the same plot with two of his brothers. I have no idea what happened to his wife. His son married Margaret Crawford in 1906 in Glasgow... and then the trail goes cold.

Isabella Horne, the first baby girl to have this name, died at the age of six months.

James Wilson Horne was said to have gone in search of his older brother, David, and was washed overboard near Cape Horn. No... I'm not kidding. I'm sure the poor kid didn't appreciate the coincidence in his last moments, though.

Stafford Horne left Scotland and had a few kids in Illinois before bringing his family to Victoria. He's another of the brothers buried in the aforementioned plot.

Isabella Horne, the second child to bear the name (the family seemed to adhere to the Scottish naming pattern, so I guess they needed an Isabella) married one of the sons of Barry Sullivan (the actor) in Lancashire, England in the 1880s. They later moved to Australia.

Thomas Henderson Horne was supposedly one of the children in need of guardianship, but I lose track of him between 1871 (on the census just before the death of his mother) and 1881 (where he turns up working on a farm in Ontario, Canada). He moved to Victoria and raised his family there. He's the third brother buried in the aforementioned plot.

William Stafford Horne was another baby who only lived a few months. I didn't even know about him until I found the birth and death records. Family stories never mentioned him (though they did mention the first Isabella); I don't know why William was forgotten.

Now for David Horne (see above)... Obviously, an 18-year-old as the captain of a ship is pretty unlikely. Getting oneself into trouble because of a bad temper... more likely, but probably a dramatic story that was made up because nobody knew what actually happened to David. Thanks to the Internet, the mystery may now be solved.

There is a David William Horne, born c1855 in Scotland (our David was actually born in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, but he was raised in Edinburgh from the age of 3... so perhaps he thought he was Scottish), who was living in Sonoma County, California (not too far from San Francisco) from the 1870s onward. The censuses say he arrived in either 1870 or 1871. This could very well be our David. Perhaps he decided to settle in California. It's said that he was never heard from again... but if we think about this, we can see that that doesn't necessarily mean he was killed. If he'd written home in 1871, who would've been there to receive the letter? His parents were gone and his siblings were scattered about. The children on both sides of the Atlantic most likely never knew what had become of their siblings. How sad!

David William Horne (1855-1939) married a woman named Elizabeth Watts (1860-1910) and had seven children:

Jessie Elizabeth Horne (1880-1961)
Marian "May" C. Horne (1881-?)
Hadie Watts Horne (1884-1955)
Richard William Horne (1886-1960)
Jeanie R. Horne (1888-?)
David J. Horne (1894-1970)
Archibald Charles Horne (1897-1957)

Since these are fairly recent dates, I haven't been able to find much. I've only found three descendants in the next generation, and they're all from the girls; I don't even know if the boys married. I would dearly like to know if there are more Hornes out there... and if so, find out what their family stories say about how their ancestor, David Horne, arrived in North America!

Possible link-up of the elusive Horn(e)s

Try as I might, I haven't been able to find much information on my 3x great-grandparents, David and Isabella Horn(e).  David was born in 1793 in Roxburghshire, Scotland.  Isabella was born in approximately 1801 (according to the 1841 census, which of course rounds off the ages), but somewhere other than in Midlothian.  Both appeared on the 1841 census with their children (and David's father, James) in Edinburgh.  But by 1851, they had disappeared.  David and Isabella's three sons were living in Berwick-upon-Tweed under the care of the eldest (James Wilson Horne, age 24); their daughter Isabella, age 18, was working as a house servant in Edinburgh; and their daughter Agnes, age 16, was living with her uncle in Edinburgh (also James Wilson Horne... and there are more besides those two in this family!).  Despite spending money on Scotland's People and scouring the records available on Ancestry.com and on FamilySearch.org, I have not been able to find any records of David's and Isabella's deaths.  I'm assuming they died; the only other possibility is that they abandoned all their children and left the country in the 1840s (which seems unlikely).  Since their deaths would've been before 1855, I probably wouldn't get much from the death records anyway... but at least I would know what happened to them.

David's wife, Isabella, has been a bit of a mystery.  First of all, her maiden name appears to have been Horn(e) as well (this is according to the death registration of David's brother, James Wilson Horne -- the uncle mentioned above).  The family appeared to use the Scottish naming pattern, so I'd assumed that Isabella's parents would be Robert and Isabella.  I couldn't find any families that matched... though I did find an Isabella Horn, born 1802 in Orwell, Kinross-shire to Robert Horn and Catharine Hunter.  I might have dismissed this possibility until I noticed that this Isabella had a brother named Henry.  This is a name that didn't appear on David's side of the family.  So, if this is indeed Isabella's family, it would account for the boys' names that didn't really seem to show up in David's family.

What's even more interesting, however, is that I poked around a bit more and found that the only Robert Horn I could find in the right time and place was one born 1762 in Cleish, Kinross-shire, making him the son of David Horn and Isabel Westwood, and the brother of James Horn... who is also (I believe) David's father.  All of which means (if I've corrected all the dots correctly) that David and Isabella Horn(e) were first cousins as well as husband and wife.

Whew!  This would be interesting if it proved to be true.  Mathematically speaking, it's impossible to have all unique ancestors; some of the branches have to join back together further up the tree.  It's surprising to me that this is the first instance of a first-cousin marriage in my direct ancestry that I've found.

Hiding in Essex...

It seems that many of my ancestors either weren't truthful about a) their last name, or b) where they were born. Or maybe they just didn't do the whole baptism thing. I've been looking through the Seax site and getting thoroughly frustrated. Aside from the ancestors that I found there before on one branch of my family tree, I'm coming up with nothing. I've gone nearly cross-eyed from trying to decipher those old registers... and all for nought.

I'm seeking birth/baptism/parentage information on the following people who were supposedly born in Essex:

Eleazer Willsher, born c1575 (his children were born at Scripps Farm in Coggeshall... I couldn't find them, either)
Susannah Clarke, born c1640 in Coggeshall
William Fisher, born c1640 (daughter Elizabeth was born 1664 in Coggeshall)
Joseph Lambert, born c1645 (possibly in High Easter)
Henry Hobro, born c1655 (wife was Mary; daughter born in Great Wigborough)
Edward Saitch/Sach, born c1695 (married in Messing)
Mary Hayes, born 1703 in Bradwell Juxta Coggeshall
Elizabeth Jordan, born 1708 in Coggeshall
James Wheeler, born c1730 (married in Messing)
Joseph Hills, born c1740 in Epping
Elizabeth Bull, born c1745 (married in Manuden)
Joseph South, born c1745 in Essex (wife was Rose; daughter born in Messing)
Martha Steele, born c1755 (probably in Essex; buried in Great Easton)
Susanna Bassott, born c1771 in Wivenhoe
William Chiddock, born c1778 in Great Bentley
Joseph Wincle/Winkell, born c1789 in Kelvedon

If you have any information about any of these people, please leave a comment!