Three years ago, I deciphered the name of a witness to my great-great grandparent’s marriage: Minchin Lewis. I suspected he was related to my great-great grandmother as she shares the Lewis name. Then, having found out a little more about him I learned that he had named their first born son James Abbott. My great-great grandmother’s first son also was James Abbott. That seemed like more than a coincidence!
Now I’m trying to find out a bit more about Minchin in the hope that they are related and it will lead me to more information on my great-great grandmother’s origins in Ireland.
Minchin married Martha Peoples in Victoria, Australia in 1890 (almost thirty years after the birth of the first of their nine children together!). I have obtained the marriage certificate.
Both Minchin and Martha were born in Ireland. Can you make out Minchin’s birth place in the top line?
Minchin’s father was John Lewis and his mother (second line) was Fanny _____? I think I know what the name is but I would like some opinions that are not biased by what I think it may be.
Can you help? Or even better, are you related to this couple?!
Hi Shelley my guesses would be Roscrea for the place and possibly Loyd for the surname and sorry I'm not related to them! Good luck with solving it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shauna, I'm not familiar with Irish place names but your guess looks right to me. I was hoping other people would see the surname as Loyd.
DeleteRoscrea jumped out at me too. It's familiar because I have ancestors from Roscrea, Tipperary.
ReplyDeleteThe name looks more like Royds to me - but I'm not at all competent in this field.
Thanks Jill. That's two votes for Roscrea!
DeleteShelley, I have solved similar problems by using CuriousFox.
ReplyDeleteThanks Judy. I was signed up to CuriousFox for a while but didn't get any results from it. I might have to give it another shot.
DeleteShelley, two hints from my experience with CuriousFox: (1) Delete your entry every now and again and immediately resubmit it (updated if necessary) so that it reappears near the top of the list. I did this recently, and within 24hrs a local historian contacted me and offered to send transcriptions of land records for that surname/town! (2) If you are a 'free' member, people who could help you may be unable to contact you. Entries added by free members have red envelopes, and only paid members can contact them. Also... I think the third line of that entry says 'Londonderry'. Perhaps the first line is the name of a farm or townland rather than a town/village.
DeleteI agree with Shauna, I think the place is Roscrea and the name Loyd . good luck with the puzzle. curious Fox can be very helpful as Judy mentions.
ReplyDeleteThat's tree votes for Roscrea, two votes for Loyd then.
DeleteI've only done the bare minimum of Irish research as I've been hampered by the lack of place names. So many of them are just from "Ireland". Hopefully this might get me a foot in the door - if you can say that about a country!