Monday 29 July 2024

Back on the trail still for Charlie Ross

 There is not much progress beyond some researchers say Rostopolous is not a real name and is mistaken spelling for KOSTOPOLOUS. Others say Rostopolous is real and connected to the Peloppenese which is near to Kythera, which I have thought might be a phonetic, heavy accent mistake for the Ithaca which has come down through the family. Ithaca is much better known and with a heavy accent, who can say, Ithaca or Kythera?

I am currently chasing the Port Pirie Greek Society to see if I can find out more and the South Australian Geneaology Society researcher said one of the birth notices Charlie registered, in 1894, and signed, looks like the first letter is either a K or an unfinished R. 

I thought it might be a good idea to repost the material I put up in 2014. 

 

We do not have much new information but every step forward is worthwhile. I have had a researcher doing some more work for me and she has established that he is listed as a fishmonger in Gladstone, from 1885 onwards.

 

Sands & amp; MacDonald directors have him recorded but not in the 1884 edition. But as directories were usually produced in the year following collection of data, he may well have been there in 1884.

 

His 1907 obituary said he had been in Gladstone for 'more than 20 years' which fits with 1884 or even 1883, although if the latter, it is more likely the obit. would have said nearly 25 years instead of more than 20 years. It being the way of journalism and an arrival of 1882 leaving him one year short.

 

So, if Charlie arrived in 1883 and lived in Port Pirie, long enough to be 'remembered' and it being considered important to reprint his obituary from the Areas Express in the Port Pirie Recorder, it's a good guess that he spent a few years in the town. I would say a minimum of five years and a maximum of ten years.

 

This would have Charlie arriving in Australia either in 1878 or between 1873 and 1878. In 1873 he was 24 years old and could still have spent ten years  or more at sea, having joined as young as twelve. And if he was on a British ship for that time, Ithaca being a British Protectorate from 1815, he may well have Anglicised his name many years earlier, as other sailors have been known to have done.

 

A date of 1883 for arriving in Gladstone,  means Charlie may well have known Mary Ross for some years before their marriage in 1888. He may even have moved to the town because of her although why they would wait so long to marry is a question.  A Gladstone business directory first records Mrs E. Atkins in 1878, the year Mary gives birth to her illegitimate son, Edward Welch Atkins.

 

The family story of Charlie Ross jumping ship in Port Germein, which was first 'discovered' as a port in 1840 but the jetty was not built until 1881, may well be true, although Charlie could have arrived earlier because  ships would anchor in the gulf, before the jetty was built, with barges and boats to ferry people ashore.

 

The researcher wrote:

 

I also found a Charles Ross listed three times in the index to (Ships) Discharge Register, able seaman each time, discharged 11.1.1882 from Anna Bell, 8.12. 1883 from Lass of Gawler, and 6.5.1884 from Empress of China. These appear to be small ships that worked round SA and beyond. Details of Empress of China (plus photo) and Lass of Gawler can be found in State Library of SA catalogue online.

I couldn’t be sure that this is your Charlie Ross or not, but it is a likely scenario, and the dates sort of fit, if he was based in Pt Pirie prior to going to Gladstone.

 

The dates of 1882 and 1883 don't quite fit with Charlie being in Gladstone, at least by 1886, to fit the 'more than 20 years, and spending enough time in Port Pirie to be remembered so well a quarter of a century on. But it is possible that he was the Charles Ross listed for Discharge in 1882, with four years in Pirie, a small town at the time, and perhaps enough of a character with a heavy Greek accent to be remembered. Or maybe he was also just such a nice bloke that everyone liked him. His son, my grandfather, Charles Vangelios Ross, was like that.

 

I am going to post again the information written previously because it is so long since it was published and it is easier than wading back through older posts.

 

  Many old Pirieans well remember the subject of this paragraph, which is taken from the Areas' Express :

 

" It is 'with sincere regret " we have to record the death of Mr Charles Ross, of this town after protracted illness from asthma, &c.

 

Deceased was born 58 years ago, and, when a young man left his native land— Greece—and after a roving career during which he had his fair share of adventures, came to South Australia and settled at Port Pirie. Eventually he came to Gladstone, where, - for more than twenty years he has carried on his vocation as a purveyor of fish, &s. Although - taking" no part in public affairs, he,- by his unostentatious but genial manner, won a large circle of friends, who sadly deplore his death which took place on Sunday.

 

The remains were - interred in the Gladstone Cemetery on Monday, the Rev J. Raymont officiating. . The greatest sympathy- Is felt for the widow—-a.daughter of Mrs Atkins —and her, five children." ~

 

 

 

18th September 1907, Port Pirie Recorder from the Areas Express.

 

I have been drawn back to this having found it again on Trove while researching Edward Atkins and Hannah McLeod.

 

While it is good to read that great-grandfather Charlie Ross was well respected and even better, well liked, in Gladstone it also makes me think that somewhere there is an earlier story about him which throws more light onto his 'roving career' and his 'fair share of adventures. I just have to find it when I have a chance to get to Gladstone and go through the copies of the old Areas Express which was the local newspaper at the time.

 

The age of fifty-eight fits with a birth year of 1849 and given that the story says he left his native land as a young man, as opposed to boy, it indicates that he did not join the merchant navy as a twelve or thirteen year old (or younger) as was common, but in his late teens or even early twenties. And that makes me wonder if he was married when he left Greece.

 

Taking twenty as a 'round' age for a young man, it means he left in 1869 and given that he spent more than twenty years in Gladstone, he had to arrive in that town by 1886 and he had to have spent long enough in Port Pirie to be remembered by 'older Pireans.' A minimum of five years, although more is likely, would have had him arrive in South Australia in 1881 and possibly a few years earlier. That would have given him ten years for a 'roving career' which is probably more than enough.

 

So what was happening on Ithaca  and in Greece, during the 1860's which might have prompted a young man to embark on a 'roving career' as a sailor?  Ithaca had come under English rule some sixty years earlier so young Charlie, or perhaps Carolus, would have had a reasonable education.

 

The "United States of the Ionian Islands" was formed, governed by a Constitution imposed in 1817 where Ithaca was represented by one member (in the Ionian Senate). During the years of the Greek Revolution against the Turks, Ithaca offered hospitality and medical care to the revolutionaries and Ithacans took part in the War of Independence of 1821, participating in the Hellenic Revolutionary fleet. "

 

Productivity, trade, private and communal education developed and increased the living standard on Ithaca. The British, as they did in other colonies or protectorates, brought a great deal of good along with the 'bad' aspect of having power imposed by a foreign nation. However, in this instance, the Ithacans may not have thought much about the 'bad' since they had been held by foreign powers for centuries. And overlords and colonial masters who were less enlightened than the British.

 

 

Photo: Gladstone Cemetery where Charlie Ross was buried in 1907.

 

The British may have been patronising, superior and at times oppressive but they also built roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and established trade links as well as developing agriculture and industry. Ithaca became a better place under British rule and young Charlie would never have known anything different. By the time he was born the British had been in charge for thirty-four years and his parents would also have known nothing other than the British as colonial masters. Having taken them from the French, perhaps Charlie's grandfather had welcomed British rule.

 

In 1864 Britain relinquished control and Ithaca, along with the other Ionian Islands, became a part of the new Greek State. Perhaps it was at this point that Charlie Ross decided his future lay elsewhere. He may also have joined the British Merchant Navy and anglicised his name at that point. Although the family story was that he came out on his 'uncle's ship' which could have meant, if there is a connection with the Rossolimos family of Ithaca, this being the most likely Greek surname for him, that his uncle owned ships and found him a job. Then again, his uncle could also have been in the British Merchant Navy and helped his nephew to find a job.

 

Charlie Ross had grown up as an Ithacan during a time of British rule but the Ionian islands, of which Ithaca is a part, had always had a hybrid nature and while culturally there was much in common with Greece, historically, culturally and linguistically there was also much more at work than Greek culture and many inhabitants of the Ionian Islands were not Greek. Nearly half a century of British management, and exposure to Anglo and European lovers of Greek culture in general and Homeric culture in particular, would have influenced the Ithacan people just as they had been influenced by other dominant cultures in the past.

 

For more than four hundred years the islands had been a Venetian colony and later was dominated by the French, the Russians and the Turks, all of whom introduced aspects of their own laws, forms of government, language and culture. During the centuries of Venetian and French rule, Ithacans in the higher stratas of society had inter-married and some had even converted to Catholicism.

 

It was the peasants who held to the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek language and I have no reason to believe that Charlie Ross was descended from a peasant family, despite the potential connection with the rather more illustrious Rossolimos family. I could of course be wrong, knowing nothing much about Charlie Ross beyond the fact that he was Greek, that when he died he was well-liked and well-respected, and given the spelling of some of his children's names in the birth register - Clesanthows, or Cresanthorus for Chrysantheous - he had an atrocious accent, also verified by family stories, and perhaps his reading and writing of English was not as good as it might have been, given his clear failure to correct the clerk in Clare, who took down the details of his son's birth. One would assume, if he had good written English, that he knew how to spell Chrysantheous! NB: Another researcher said the name was written as Cresanthorus not Clesanthows. 2024.

 

But Charlie Ross, like the land of his birth, was something of a mystery and a contradiction. He too had been formed through a variety of influences; that of the culture of the land of his birth; the culture of a sailor who spends years 'roving;' and the culture of the land where he chose to settle, and no doubt, the culture of the woman he married.

 

The Ionian Islands were indeed hybrid: a mixture of numerous influences and contradictions, and  Ithacans, like other Ionians were in many ways a 'mongrel' race where East met West and where the mix of mind and culture was broad and sometimes deep.

 

While admiring Greek culture and Ithaca's Homeric traditions, the British saw the Ionians as very different to themselves. The 'superstition, ignorance, duplicity, violence, excitability and subservience to demagogues were the opposite of industrious and upright Anglo-Saxons who possessed self-control, reason, honesty, love for order and freedom, manliness, domesticity, and respect for the law and sobriety.' (http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/19415/1/19415.pdf)

 

Through British eyes the Ithacans would have been half-civilized and unstable; childlike even, and therefore not capable of looking after themselves. Young Charlie could not have held too many grudges given that he finally made his home in a very Anglo atmosphere, another British colony, Australia.

 

But there were others who saw the Ionians differently and perceived a nobility of character. Whether this was sourced in romantic notions drawn from Homeric history, as was alleged by some, it would still have softened the general view. Some saw them as respectable, possessed of moral virtue, skill and sincerity - not to mention independence of mind, a quality which young Charlie must have had.

How much he brought from the land of his birth to Australia it is not yet possible to say and may never be known. While he had an anglicised name, from what we can find, from the very beginning, he gave all of his children Greek names. One wonders why, having given up his Greek name, he continued a tradition to give his children names which would always set them apart from Anglo society to varying degrees, some names being more unusual than others and unusual first names, being more of a burden than unusual second names such as my grandfather was given in Vangelios. 

His wife after all was Australian of English descent and a devout Anglican from what can be seen and yet either he had the 'power in the house' or she, for some reason agreed because it was important to him, and their five children all carried Greek names in a very Anglo culture. It was not as if Charlie was part of a Greek community in Gladstone as he could or might have been in Port Pirie. He was probably the only Greek in town! It is not so much unusual that he anglicised his name but it is unusual that he did so and then called his children by Greek names. 

There are a variety of reasons why he might have changed his name to an English 'version' and it is an assumption that it was simply Anglicised instead of changed completely: 1. he joined the British Merchant Navy and it was easier with an English name or they Anglicised it for their records; 2. he was 'running away from something' and an English name was harder to trace, 3. he changed his name or Anglicised his name when he 'jumped ship' in South Australia because it made him harder to find.

My gut instinct is that (1) is the correct answer because it would mean he had gotten used to being called Charlie Ross and it was too hard to change it but as part of Greek tradition and in honour of the land of his birth, his long-lost or perhaps now dead parents, he gave Greek names to his children.

 Theory (2) might be possible because we have no way of knowing if his children were given family names which might be traceable. I suspect they were but until we trace his Greek family we do not know.

 Theory (3) seems unlikely because a Greek deserter who has jumped ship and changed his name so he cannot be found is unlikely to draw attention to himself by giving his children Greek names.

 As it stands, it is the names of the children which may yet open the way finding the Greek family of Charlie Ross, particularly if he has followed traditional naming practices, although it is pretty clear, if the information on his marriage certificate is correct, that he was no purist.

 Traditionally, Greeks named their first son after his paternal grandfather, and  if this is correct and if Charlie was the first-born, which we do not know, and his name is an Anglicisation, then his paternal grandfather was Carolus.

 But with Christie given as the father's name on the marriage certificate for Charlie Ross and Mary Atkins, it is clear Charlie was his own man - or perhaps he did not want to draw attention to his family in case there were other Greeks around, for the first-born was John (Iaonnis) Constantinus.

 But if there is any relevance to his naming practices then the first daughter, Georgina Anastasia is named after her paternal grandmother, so Christie was married to an Anastasia or a Georgina but the former is more likely because Georgina could easily be English; the second son, my grandfather, was named after his maternal grandfather, Charles Vangelios, which could either have been Carolus or Vangelios and then we have a third son, Chrysantheous Christus, who shares a name with his paternal grandfather and finally, Spiros Andrew who, as the fifth child, gets one Greek and one English name.

 So questions are raised because Charlie has chosen to use English names and yet has given all of his children at least one Greek name, and he has apparently not followed Greek naming tradition.

 One presumes that the giving of Greek names is in a bid to honour the land of his birth and his family. So why not follow naming tradition? He has Christie as his father's name on his marriage certificate, presumably from Christus or possibly Chrysantheous, but he gives these names to his third son and calls his first John with the Greek Constantinus as a middle name.

The only reason for not following tradition is to make it more difficult, perhaps impossible, for him and his family in Australia to be linked to family in Greece, something any Greek could do, knowing naming traditions and something which would provide identity for an Ithacan, between Charlie and his Greek family, should an Ithacan end up in Gladstone. Given that Charlie had spent a few years in Port Pirie he would know there was a large Greek community in that town and amongst them, a few Ithacans.

 

The rest of the children's names may well follow naming tradition but probably they do not. Although he has, by the fourth child, the courage to use his father's name ... that is if the name Christie on the marriage certificate is correct.

 

There seems only one reason why Charlie would not want clear links with his Greek family and that would be if he had another wife or even children there. Given Greek culture it is hard to believe he would not want his parents to know where he was, but he might not want a wife to know he was a bigamist.

 

Having said that, the fact that Charlie spent a few years, probably at least five, in Port Pirie and it makes one wonder why, if there were a first wife, he did not send for her. Perhaps he was just forgetful and there is nothing manipulative about his naming practices. Time will hopefully tell. Although he would have been the only Greek in town since Greeks did not begin arriving until the 1890's.

 

 


But the absolute facts about Charlie Ross are still few:

 

1. He was born in Greece in 1849. He went to sea as a young man, circa: 1869, sometime between the ages of 17 and 23. The earliest date would be 1866.

2. He became a sailor and spent some years at sea 'roving' and having adventures - minimum of five, maximum of ten.

3. He settled in Port Pirie after arriving in Australia. The earliest date would be 1871 and the latest, circa: 1877, for enough years to be 'remembered.'

4. He moved to Gladstone circa. 1886 and worked there as a fishmonger as he had in Pirie.

5. He married Mary Atkins in 1888. He gave his father's name as Christie on the marriage certificate.

6. He had five children to whom he gave at least one Greek name.

7. He anglicised his Greek name or adopted an English name after arriving in Australia or the Port Pirie report would have included another name for 'old Pirieans to recognise.

8. The Greek names he chose for his children, Constantinus, Anastasia, Vangelios, Chrysantheous, Christus and Spiro are likely to have family connections.

9. He died in 1907 and was buried in an Anglican cemetery.

10. His grand-daughter Flora Ross Swincer was said to be the spitting image of him.

11. He had a very strong accent given the poor phonetic spelling of some of his children's names on birth records.

12. He was obviously an amiable and personable character, as stated in his obituary, given the fact that the death notice was reprinted in the Port Pirie newspaper more than twenty years after he had left the town, for the benefit of those who had known and remembered him fondly.

13. There is no record of him ever taking up citizenship. (Perhaps evidence that he did jump ship.)

 

 


Other possible facts drawn from family history are:

 

1. He was born on Ithaca, one of the Ionian Islands.

2. He 'jumped ship' at Port Germein and so entered Australia illegally.

3. He came out on his 'uncle's ship.'

4. He spoke a number of languages.


So the questions which still need to be answered are:

 

1. What was his Greek Christian name and surname?

2. Was he born on Ithaca? If so where?

3. Is his English name an anglicisation of his Greek name or something he adopted?

4. On what date and just how did he arrive in Australia.

 

Port Germein was established in 1878 and the jetty built in 1881 while Port Pirie was founded as a settlement in 1845 and the town was surveyed in 1871. In 1876 it had 971 people.

 

The Greek presence in South Australia was said to begin in 1842 when Georgios Tramountanas arrived at Port Adelaide with his brother Theodore who went on to Western Australia. George born in Athens in 1822 settled on the Eyre Peninsula. But it would be another seventy years before there was a documented Greek presence in Port Pirie. Naturalisation papers for South Australia have a Peter Warrick, who anglicised his name, working as a carpenter in Port Pirie in 1892. He had arrived in the colony in 1875 but there is no record of where he was living between then and 1892. It may have been Port Pirie in which case Charlie would have had a companion and perhaps one, who, having anglicised his own name, encouraged him to do the same.

 

So the earliest Charlie Ross, given his age, could have arrived in Port Pirie would be 1871 although if the 'jumping ship at Port Germein' story is correct it would have been 1878. This would have given him eight years in Port Pirie before he moved to Gladstone, long enough to be 'remembered' by a few 'old ones' at his death in 1907.

 

Personally I would be happy to have the Greek names which would open so many more doors in the land of his birth. I am still hoping for that one lost photograph to appear with the name on the back. Either that or a distant Greek relative looking to find out what happened to a great-uncle who sailed away never to be seen again.

Thursday 18 July 2024

Perhaps I have been on the wrong track

 Having failed conclusively to make headway on finding out more about Charlie Ross and his Greek origins, I am wondering if I have been on the wrong track for a long time.

 

The family story, from my father and his sister, was that the family name was Rostopolous. The diversion arose because the other family story was that Charlie was from Ithaca where the name Rostopolous does not exist in any native sense. I know from his mistake signing his marriage certificate that Charlie's Greek name began with ROS and because I fixated on Ithaca, the search was for surnames which began with those three letters.

 

I am now wondering if the story about the family name was correct but the story about where in Greece Charlie came from was wrong.

 

A Rostopolous family is registered in the 1940 US census for Massachusetts.  The parents were born in Greece but it does not say where. 

 

James Rostopoulos in the 1940 Census

 

Age        13, born abt 1927

 

Birthplace             Massachusetts

 

Gender  Male

 

Race      White

 

Home in 1940    

 

57 Market Street

 

Cambridge,

 

Middlesex, Massachusetts

 

Household Members                       Age

 

Head      Peter Rostopoulos              42

 

Wife       Anna Rostopoulos              37

 

Son        Alec Rostopoulos 15

 

Son        James Rostopoulos            13

 

Son        Anthony Rostopoulos         7

 

This snapshot of James Rostopoulos's life was captured by the 1940 U.S. Census.

 

When James Rostopoulos was born about 1927, his father, Peter, was 29 and his mother, Anna, was 24. In 1940, he was 13 years old and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his father, mother, and 2 brothers.

 

I am now going to work at tracking down where in Greece the Rostopolous family may have lived.  This may help.

 

 

Looking at the prefix of your Greek last name to determine the meaning

More often than not, by breaking your Greek last name into two, you can easily find out the meaning. Below we examine common “prefixes” or the first half of the surname.

 

Greek last names beginning in Archi–, meaning the first in charge or the boss

Greek last names beginning in Chondro–, meaning fat

Greek last names beginning in Gero–, meaning old or wise

Greek last names beginning in Hadji–, Arabic for someone who has made a pilgrimage (for Christians this was to Jerusalem, for Muslims it was Mecca)

Greek last names beginning in Kara–, meaning black in Turkish

Greek last names beginning in Konto–, meaning short

Greek last names beginning in Makro–, meaning tall

Greek last names beginning in Mastro–, meaning mason or worker

Greek last names beginning in Palaio–, meaning old

Greek last names beginning in Papa–, meaning priest (this is often used with one of the suffixes meaning “son of”)

This says that Rosto was probably the name of the individual whose son became Rostopolous. Rosto is a Portugese word which means face or visage. 

Looking at the sufix of your Greek last name to determine the meaning

The sufix of the surname will often relate to the prefix. See the examples below.

 

Greek last names ending in –akis and –oulis are diminutive (cute or small) forms of the suffix e.g. Theodorakis is the diminutive form of Theodoros

Greek last names ending in –lis and –tis are Turkish for “of” or “from”, usually referring to the place of origin e.g. Politis means someone from the Poli (which is what Constantinople was referred to for short)

Greek last names ending in –idis,  –ides, –iadis, and –iades, meaning son of

 

 

Greek last names ending in –opoulos, meaning son of or descendant of

 

 

Greek last names ending in –oglou and –oglu, meaning son of in Turkish

SO ROSTOPOLOUS IS THE SON OF ROSTO.

How to identify the location where your Greek last name originated

In many Greek last names, you can identify the location it originated by looking at the ending of the name.

 

 

Greek last names ending in –opoulos, likely originated in the Peloponnese

 

The Peloponnese is a peninsula located at the southern tip of the mainland, 21,549.6 square kilometres (8,320.3 sq mi) in area, and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece.

 

However, an island off this area is Kythera and when I first started pondering Ithaca as the origin, given the heaviness of Charlie's accent as recorded, I wondered if it was Kythera and not Ithaca.

 

I have sent the following to the Kythera Genealogy Project.

 

I am trying to find the origin of my Greek great-grandfather, Charles Ross. He anglicized his name after jumping ship in South Australia in the mid 19th century. The family story was the name was Rostopolous and he came from Ithaca. I have had no luck making any sort of Ithaca connection and wondered, given his grandchildren said he had a very heavy accent, if he was saying Kythera and it was heard as Ithaca which is similar in sound and more commonly known.

 

Are there Rostopolous family from Kythera? My great-grandfather was a sailor, supposedly on his uncle's ship, who was probably also a sailor and not an owner, and he spoke a number of languages including Greek and English. Charles Ross would have been born about 1849 and he married in Gladstone, SA in 1888 and had five children, all of which were given one Greek name.

John Constantinus, Charles Vangelios, Georgina Anastasia, Christos Chrysantheous and Spiros Andrew.

 

Charles Ross gave his father's name on his marriage certificate as Christos. I know that there are family connections in terms of naming children in Greece.

Image one is the marriage certificate for Charlie Ross and Mary (Polly) Atkins. 
Image two is a family wedding and my grandfather, Charles Vangelios Ross is on the far right with his daughter Jessie Ross (Sands) in front of him and his older daughter, Flora Ross (Swincer) on the left as the other flower girl.




 

 


Thursday 8 February 2024

Little to report but I am still trying to find Charlie Ross

 It is a long time since I posted anything, years in fact, and that is because I have not had any information to post. 

We had plans to spend a month on Ithaca, the birthplace, or so we believe from family stories, of Greek Charlie Ross but Covid came along and trashed those plans. Family circumstances have not allowed that plan to be restored once the Covid insanity came to an end. 

I did however decide to do a couple of Ancestry tests, despite having little faith in them, after a Greek genealogy blog recommended they can be helpful, particularly 23& Me. So, I did one with Ancestry which came back with zero connection to southern Europe or Greece and was a waste of money. The 23&Me test did show Greek ancestry with a link to the Ionian Islands, i.e. Ithaca, and so I hoped it might bring forth a relative with information about the family. Vain hope, because despite a couple of Greek names appearing, attempts to connect with them achieved absolutely nothing in response. 

That has happened over the past 18 months and while there is a chance that some distant relative might pop up, it is at this point a fruitless quest. Or has been. Ancestry DNA tests are very hit and miss and while they can be useful in connecting with relatives going back 4-6 generations, perhaps, maybe, they are pretty useless beyond that, despite their claims. 

It is also a numbers game where the more people who have been tested the more chances you will get a match. And while another third cousin, Sally Hetherton, grand-daughter of the youngest son of Charlie Ross and Mary Atkins, Spiros, did make contact with a Greek connection on 23& Me, the communication yielded nothing concrete about our family. 

So, for the moment anyway, the DNA experiment has only brought dead ends.  I live in hope that someone, somewhere, sometime may unearth a letter or photo which brings some progress to the search for Charlie Ross. Meanwhile I will repost an image of his grandaughter, Flora Ross Swincer, who was said to be the spitting image of him. Unfortunately while she inherited his looks, she also inherited his asthma, but not his weak heart. 





Thursday 13 August 2020

When no news is not necessarily good news but simply no news

 It has been a long time since I have had any new information. I was meant to be in Ithaca for a month this year but the Covid situation has delayed that plan until next year at a minimum.

I do not have high expectations for time on Ithaca but feel that with the help of a local historian I might find something new, even if it is the fact that Ithaca was not Charlie's birthplace. 

I got in touch with the Ithaca society in Melbourne again but have had no joy on that front either. So, Finding Charlie Ross continues but very, very, very slowly.


Friday 8 June 2018

Bellringers and grave-diggers in the Atkins/Haines family....

Image result for gravedigging victorian england


Most of the following information is a repeat of that which has been previously posted but it came up recently on a discussion site from someone living in South Africa who also has the Edwin Atkins connection. 

Without spending hours, if not days and weeks, going back through it all to see what is repeated, I thought it better to repost on the basis that repeating information, given how convoluted this process has been, is not a bad thing.

It seems some ancestors were undersextons, a role which involved gravedigging.

sexton
ˈsɛkst(ə)n/
noun
  1. a person who looks after a church and churchyard, typically acting as bell-ringer and gravedigger.



The information comes from the Rootschat site, from a member named Capetown.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=250060;PHPSESSID=i44e737bqq4tpkges1f8d6v5q5

This was raised some time ago when an Edward/Edwin ATKINS was found in New South Wales convict Muster and later recorded as working at Yas Plains.


Edward ATKINS 1830 Florentia (on convict muster record but not transcribed to ship record) 24 y Gloucester, compared to
Edwin ATKINS 1830 Florentia (transcribed to ship record) 19 y from Yas Plains  etc etc

The Certificate of Freedom Report on Edwin/Edward ATKINS says he has 
dark grey eyes
sandy hair
a ruddy-freckled complextion
eyebrows meeting
5 ft 7.5 inches tall
tatoo 
HEA on his right inside wrist'
and appears to be a 
blacksmith

Just to-recap, Henry Edwin ATKINS christened at Cirencester 23 February 1812 
So, convict Edward Atkins has the initials HEA, another link to Henry Edwin Atkins.


Siblings:  **: Charles 1810: Rebecca 1811:  (parents: Joseph & Ann)



Joseph ATKINS married an Ann HAINES in 1809 - 

1841 census, Cheltenham
Ancestry: ALKINS)

Joseph - 50 Shoemaker
Ann - 50
David - 15
Marian (Mary Ann)
Eliza - 10*** Christened at Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire

Eliza, daughter of Joseph (Shoemaker) and Ann - born 28 February 1819 and christened 28 February 1830 aged 5 m -

--

This is the 1851 Census for Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire

Ancestry, spelt as ALBIN

ALBIN

Joseph - 67 - Shoemaker & 
Chelsea Pensioner, born Glos Cirencester
Anne - 65 - born Glos Cirencester
Mary A - 25 - daughter born Glos Cirencester
Eliza - 20 - daughter, born Birlingham (BIRMINGHAM, Worcestersh)

*** Will check for records on National Archives for Joseph ATKINS, Chelsea Pensioner)

---

The Gloucester Prison Records on Ancestry for Gloucestershire

describes Edwin ATKINS

Light brown hair
dark blue eyes
fair complexion
long face
6 small moles on his forehead
6 small moles on right cheek
a small mole near right armpit
3 small moles left arm
2 moles on his back
3 moles on the back of his neck
read and write
blacksmith, Height 5' 7"


(The man also on the same charge was William WALKER aged 42, also from Cubberley, he had dark sandy hair and was 5-6")

---


New South Wales Australia Convict Indents

Edwin ATKINS
Civil Gloucester: 
7 April 1830
Arrival Sydney Cove,: 17 December 1830

--

Ancestry:

Gloucestershire, England, Prison Records,

Against the following Sentence of death has been recorded

Edwin ATKINS, Civil Gloucester, 
7 April 1830
Checking on the National Archives and can be downloaded from FindmyPast

Joseph ATKINS, born Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Served in 66th Foot Regiment

Reference: WS 121/88/183

Served in 66th Foot Regiment, Discharged aged 20 after 5 years 2 months of service

Date: 1808
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
This is the 1851 Census for Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire

Ancestry, spelt as ALBIN

ALBIN

Joseph - 67 - Shoemaker & 
Chelsea Pensioner, born Glos Cirencester
Anne - 65 - born Glos Cirencester
Mary A - 25 - daughter born Glos Cirencester
Eliza - 20 - daughter, born Birlingham (BIRMINGHAM, Worcestersh)
Edwin/Edward :

My x Grandfather christened Edwin 1832 in Gloucestershire - also went by the name Edward.  We have  family members who were also in Cirencester at this time and in the 18th century.

Assume you have the Will of Thomas HAINES 21 February 1827, Cirencester, Labourer who mentions his late daughter Jane BROWN and his other daughters Hannah IVIN and Ann ATKINS - Grand-daughter Maria MORGAN (living with him)  and son James HAINES.

Thomas seems comfortably off, but as regards Ann ATKINS, .....  'and I further direct that the share of my said Daughter Ann ATKINS may be paid into her own hands by my Executors Indpendent of her husband for the time being, who shall not intermeddle, therewith, neither shall the same be subject to his Debts Control Interference or Engagement etc. etc.'

(Possibly Joseph & Ann ATKINS disappeared for a while up to Birmingham because of his debts etc)


---

Thomas HAINES (Under Sexton) buried at Cirencester 16 April 1827 aged 83

Jane HAINES - buried at Cirencester 29 March 1820 aged 77

Thomas HAINES married Jane HARBET - 2 November 1767, Cirencester


---

By Googling:  Thomas Haines, Labourer, Cirencester


under the heading:

Cirencester 1540-1945 July 2017 Draft Victoria County History

On page numbered 29

Under Vestry Clerk & Sexton


' STEVENS kept detailed from 1775 of money taken for burials and more intermittently for ringing of the church bells.  He paid a deputy THOMAS HAINES for jobs including dressing the church and cleaning the Chancel'




1841 Census, Cirencester, Cricklade Street

James HAINES - 70 Cordwainer
Mary HAINES - 66
Thomas BROWN - 82, Tailor


On the 1830 Pigots Directory for Gloucestershire (Cirencester)

James HAYNES, Boot & Shoe Maker : Dyer Street
Our family are on this directory in Dyer Street

? Joseph ATKINS may have worked for James

(and 11 Blacksmiths listed)

Still a shopping street today.
UK Poll Books and Electoral Register

1853

James HAINES Jnr. Freehold Houses, Cricklade Street
Thomas HAINS - place of  Abode, Hatherop - Freehold House - Cricklade Street


1861 Census, Glos. Cirencester

James HAINES - Head 53 - Under Sexton - born Cirencester
Ann HAINES - daughter 21 - unmarried born Cirencester


James followed his Grandfather as Under Sexton at St Mary's Cirencester

Chancel arch

Photo: St. Mary's Church, Gloucestershire.


1841 Census, Dyer Ward : District 1

HAINES

James - 35 Shoemaker
Ann - 33
William - 8
Emily - 5
Ann - 3


1851 Census, Cirencester (Ancestry listed as HARRIES)

James - Under Sexton
Elizabeth - wife
William - son
Emily - Milliner Apprentice
Ann -

(ages crossed through)

Held AtGloucestershire Archives
LevelPiece
Alt Ref NoD1388/box9355/H2 part
TitleOffice copy of the will of Thomas Haines of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, grave digger of the parish, made on 21 February 1827 proved on 8 October 1827
Date1827
DescriptionWitnesses: Jno Fowler, William Viner, Joseph Smith
NotesDescription created by a Cirencester project volunteer
Number of Docs[1 document]


Sunday 22 October 2017

Chrysantheous Christos Ross


A family connection in the UK, Cathy Ritter, whose grandmother was sister-in-law to Chrysantheous Christos, sent details of this image of Charlie Ross's third son, when he joined the army in 1916. Both he and Charles Vangelios Ross served in the First World War, and perhaps more remarkable, survived it.

The information cites C.C.Ross as being promoted to the rank of Major, but there is no evidence for this in his military records and it is likely to be an error. And the spelling of his name is wrong but that was the way of it for him from the time that he was born and his father's heavy accent had him down as Clesanthows Ross in the birth records.

The correct spelling was Chrysantheous and it was more likely to be Christos than Christus.

The glass image is available for sale.

Half-plate glass negative of Chrysanthous Christus Ross wearing World War One military uniform, standing outside in front of a stone building. Written in pencil on side of plate: 'C.C. Ross 12/10 12 Cabs and Bro.' Bottom section of glass plate has snapped off.
 
One of a collection of glass plate negatives of South Australian soldiers, likely produced in metropolitan Adelaide from late 1914 to 1916. The majority of the images are single portraits and demonstrate a wide variety of uniforms, accoutrements and weapons, including swords and rifles with and without fixed bayonets, and various backdrops including outdoors, against buildings, and studio shots with a rural idyll woodland background.

 Included are portraits of men in twos or groups of three or more, some with wives and sometimes children and parents. Some portraits feature warhorses, senior offices, a quartermaster, and the crew of a West Spring Gun.

The original paper envelopes of a number of the glass plates have survived, providing the name of the soldier along with details of the types and quantities of prints ordered. One of the envelopes gives details of the maker, Edwards and Errington of 52 Flinders Street, Adelaide. See B 74889-B 75011, B 75104.

 No. 2976 Private Chrysanthous Christus Ross, son of Mrs Mary Ross, was born in Gladstone, South Australia. He worked as a labourer before enlisting with the AIF on 27 January 1916. He served with the 32nd Battalion, 6th Reinforcement, and embarked from Adelaide on board the HMAT A60 'Aeneas' on 11 April 1916, on the Western Front. He was promoted to the rank of Major. Died 14 September 1949.
https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+74911

Cathy also provided the following information:

James Mashford Atkins - Age 24 5/12 on 28.11.1914 Mother Annie Atkins. Has his description on.  He was listed as unfit with a left hernia.
John Raymond Atkins - Age 21 7/12 on 25.2.15   - Mother Annie Atkins.  Noted as absent from parade on 8.4.15.  Drunk and using obscene language. Stkiking a superior officer.  Resisting escort.  Breaking away from guard with loaded rifle.  Awarded 28 days No 2. FP
Missing on 12.8.16.  

I have also found this family tree by Elizabeth Giles on the internet  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Atkins-3680  but James Mashford Atkins is not listed as a brother.  I wondered if there has been a hearing problem along the line and it should be James not Haynes.

Going back to Chrysanthious Ross:
This is the service record I have seen on the Internet where he is shown as a Private and then discharged wounded on 22.8.1920.  https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/records/305980/30

I have found him and Alice buried in Dudley Park Cemetary, Adelaide.

Wednesday 12 July 2017

The Laundress and the Convict.


Elizabeth Mashford Atkins was it seems, nothing if not resilient, and would turn her hand to anything. By 1885, according to her tax returns, she is working as a Laundress.

At the age of sixty-six, with her previous occupation as a servant, perhaps taking in laundry is a less onerous way to earn some money. Although, according to the reports of the times, laundering was arduous and required degrees of resilience and strength.

Water had to be hauled to a wood-fired copper, for which no doubt wood had to be split. Large amounts of at least warm water would be required and more for the rinsing. None of which was likely to be coming from a tap in any laundry.

Bedlinen, table-linen, clothes, all had to be washed by hand, on boards, wrung by hand, which never gets out much water, leaving fabric heavier than we would know it, and then hung on a line.

One reason why those who could send out their washing, did, was because it took up so much time, space and effort.

Although we are used to a weekly wash, these days often daily, by the nineteenth-century it was considered prestigious to own clothing enough to put off laundering for several weeks, again because of the effort involved in getting things washed. In a “well-known chronicle of English rural life” by Flora Thompson it is said of the town postmistress in the 1890s that she:

kept to the old middle class custom of one huge washing every six weeks. In her girlhood it would have been thought poor looking to have had a weekly or fortnightly washday. The better off a family was, the more changes of linen its members were supposed to possess, and the less frequent the washday (24).

Back-breaking was a term often used for laundry work, but it was also something readily done by anyone, since the skills were widespread and the basic equipment readily acquired. The laundry mangle had been around since the late 18th century, but whether they had made their way to rural South Australia by the late 19th century is the question. Probably they had and Elizabeth did have access to monies following the deaths of her older brother and her mother, so we can only hope she had one to use, along with the help perhaps, of her now grown daughters.

Traditionally older women, widows, or divorcees, or married women short of money, were the ones who took up laundering. Washing was something which could be done from home and which allowed attention to be given to personal needs at least, some of the time.

It was an ongoing, sloppy, messy process, but it allowed a degree of flexibility which working outside the home did not. And it may well have been something which Elizabeth and Mary did together, in order to support themselves and Mary’s illegitimate son, since she was not to marry Charlie Ross until 1888.

Laundry work enabled women to remain at home to care for their children while still earning an income.
A laundress working at home would, in today’s vernacular, be an entrepreneur. As such, she was typically not the delicate Victorian lady. The Royal Commission on Labour reported the comment that laundresses were “the most independent people on the face of the earth.” Running a business required more than knowing how to iron a lace collar or having a back strong enough for heaving sodden linen about.

From the photos we have it is clear that Elizabeth was a solid woman and young Mary, a slight little thing. No doubt between them they could handle the demands of laundry work.

This description from Ronald Blythe’s, The View in Winter, of a servant’s life is revealing, although, Elizabeth and Mary at least had the benefits of a more benign Australian climate than British washerwomen had to endure:

She used to wash for the big house and all this linen was brought to her cottage in a wheelbarrow. How she used to manage all this washing in her cottage without the use of anything, I don’t know. She had an old brick copper. She said she’d stand up till two in the morning ironing with a box iron. Sixpence an hour she was paid. He husband was away in the army and she washed. (34)


Photo: Adelaide, in  1839.

Fellow researcher, Luke has been continuing to work on Edward/Edwin Atkins:

“The Police Gazette gave a description of Edward Atkins he was from Cirencester, aged c19 years, 5-foot tall and 6 1/2 inches, an oval face, grey eyes, brown hair, and Blacksmith.

This description matches the Gloucestershire Gaol record for Edwin Atkins.   From Cirencester, a Blacksmith, aged c19 years, 5 foot tall 6 ½ inches, brown hair, this time he has blue eyes, but in a dark prison room an easy mistake to make. Upon arrival in NSW the Convict Indent record gives the same description of 5 foot 6 1/2 inches tall brown hair, grey eyes, etc. it is all the same person.

While I was in Adelaide, recently, I went to the Supreme Court. I was told, or I read somewhere, that a person can go to the Supreme Court and they have an index database of all Supreme Court trials from the 1800’s. I found out where to go and I had a look at the database.

There is a civil matrimonial case lodged by Elizabeth Atkins in 1873. This could well be our Elizabeth Mashford because 1873 is very close to 1872 when she purchased some land in Gladstone.

If this is Elizabeth Mashford it may well be against Edward Atkins for some reason and will let us known why the couple separated. I doubt it is a divorce matter because their names do not appear in the divorce list from the State Archives divorce index list from the 1800’s.

However, to read the court case is not straightforward and may take some time. First of all I have to write to the Register of the Supreme Court and request permission to access the court case as all Supreme Court cases from the 1800s are still restricted.

If I get permission I then have to go to the State Archives and I can only do this in the first Thursday of every month. Secondly I have to then show the letter from the Register to a staff member and then they have to find the particular court case, which in itself is no mean feat. Sometimes they just bring out a big box and then you have to go through all the court cases to find the one you want which can take some time

I will write a letter to the Register and I will keep you informed about the outcome.
As for Edward Atkins there is a newspaper report (Trove) of how he got into a fight along the Para (Gawler) in 1839. The newspapers said he was allowed bail. However just because a person is allowed bail that does not mean they can meet their bail conditions and have to serve their time in Gaol.

 I went to the State Archives and due to the very bad sloppy paperwork which people kept it is not clear how long he was in the old Adelaide Gaol. The newspapers say he was released, but it also could mean with time served. He was in the old Adelaide Gaol it is just a matter of how long. It may have been for a good three months or just for a few days before the court case took place.

However, when I say the old Adelaide Gaol I do not mean the one next to the railways line in Adelaide. In 1839-1840 that Gaol had not been built. The Gaol he was in no longer exists and it use to be in between Government House and the military parade grounds on King William Street.”

This would be about two years after Edward Atkins completed his seven year sentence in New South Wales, which gives him plenty of time to make his way to the fledgling new colony of South Australia, established in 1836.

If he headed West for a new start, it was not a very promising one at this point.

The Trove report:


Thomas Fielding, Joseph Best, and Edward
Atkins, were charged with assaulting Thomas
Wilson at Mr Reed's station on the Para, on the
30th of last month. The Clerk of the Peace,
stated that this was so serious a case that he was
instructed to request his Worship to send it for
trial at the next general gaol delivery.

The 
prisoners were accordingly committed, but allowed
to procure bail. The complainants who presented
a shocking appearance, is an inmate of the in-
firmary, and a certificate from the Colonial
Surgeon was handed in stating that he was suf-

fering from compound fracture of the jaw.