June 2014 - Howes it going?

Regular updates to members, mostly monthly
Post Reply
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

June 2014 - Howes it going?

Post by mardler »

Hello everyone. We added another 1,000+ people to our database in the last month, I'm pleased to say. As I write this, it's a beautiful mid-summer day here in England and I hope the weather is at least clement with you, recognizing that it's mid-winter for some of our readers.

Despite the title, this month has a very strong House flavor.

House that?
Thanks to Roy Stockdill, of the Stockdale One-Name Study and a professional genealogical researcher, I learned that Ricky Gervais's mother was named House, from Reading. So he's now in our study. I know his humor isn't to everyone's taste, but I personally loved The Office series in which he starred. Although you cannot see his entry because of our privacy rule, you can find out more about Ricky from his Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Gervais.

Titanic sinking
While we are on the subject of folks named House, I learned from the facebook page of Victoria House that Encyclopedia Titanica has quite a full entry for "William John House", a steward who went down on the Titanic. As I read the biography, though, it didn't gel with my memory.

So I tracked back the man who married Bessie Rabbetts and their marriage certificate (http://howesfamilies.com/showmedia.php? ... inkID=6495) from which you can see that that he was age 26 when he married, and his father was a "Messenger", not at all what is stated in the Titanic web pages. I'm sure he was William Charles House and have written to the Titanic people who are currently considering their response. It's amazing that after 100 years the identities of those involved are not yet established, but pleasing that we can at least challenge and help put the record right.

Meeting interesting people
I had an email during the month from Tim Howes, who hails from Brisbane, Australia. He'd been in Greenwich at the National Maritime Museum and had noticed a Robert Howes from Great Yarmouth who had sailed on the Cutty Sark to New South Wales in 1887 and had there "jumped ship". Helpfully, Tim had figured out which man it was, making it a quick matter to update his record. It was Robert John Howes 1863.

Tim and I swapped notes and it turned out that he would be visiting his ancestors' "home village" of Lound in North-East Suffolk, a few miles from here a few days later. So last week Tim, his wife and I spent a very enjoyable evening on my boat and in a local hostelry talking family history!

Stoke St Gregory exiles
I've written before about the family of Thomas William House of Stoke St Gregory, Somerset, who moved first to New Orleans and then became one of the founders of Houston, Texas and whose son became a close advisor to President Woodrow Wilson. This month, we spotted another House family from the very same village who also ended up in Houston. This time is was James House 1802. It seems beyond co-incidence that two families from the same village would have ended up in the same place by accident.

Perhaps interestingly, both men were bakers in their early years. We cannot find Thomas William's baptism record, making us think that there was non-conformism in the family, and neither are we sure of James's parents. Can anyone shed any light on either of these families for us, please?

Mel Howse - beautiful glasswork
You may recall that we maintain a list of websites run or managed by people named House and soundalikes, here: http://howesfamilies.com/histories/feature5.php. We do it primarily as a means of illustrating the diversity in the world today, though if it increases our and/or their search engine rankings, that's a bonus.
Anyway, a few days ago we came across this site: http://www.melhowse.co.uk/. Do click on the two sites that Mel maintains and watch the slide shows of some of her work which I think is quite stunning. Few of us ever get the chance to commission work like hers, but if you do, bear her in mind!
By the way, if you know of a website which isn't listed, please do let me know. I'm sure there must be many more House sites out there, but they're more difficult to find with google, for obvious reasons.

Immigration records
If you've ever been through US and Canadian census records for immigrant families, you'll know just how unreliable reported dates of immigration can be. Sometimes they can be very different from the actual date. However, for one father and son we found this month there was little doubt. In the 1911 census in England, as at April 2, Albert William House and his father, William, were in Maidenhead, Berkshire. In the 1911 census of Canada, as of June 1, there they both are in North Norwich, Ontario! It was then a simple matter to find their migration records!

The power of teamwork
Finally this month, I'd just like to repeat something I've said to several correspondents over the past few weeks: no-one researches a family like the people within it!

We at HowesFamilies.com can do the basics, looking at censuses, vital records, military records and so on, but when we come up against a hurdle, we often skip past it and/or go research another family. Researching our own families gives each of us a persistence factor which a large One-Name Study cannot always match.

Three or four times recently we have worked very effectively with researchers to produce a result which neither of us could have done on our own. Sometimes a different pair of eyes can see something obvious missed by another person; sometimes it's a different way of thinking about the data that gets results, but frequently it's the sheer doggedness of people researching their own family that breaks the wall. I'm very proud of the teamwork that led to those outcomes.

Thank you for your continued support.
Helen Carbonaro
Posts: 3
Joined: January 21st, 2010, 9:47 am

Re: June 2014 - Howes it going?

Post by Helen Carbonaro »

Hi Paul,
Just want to let your know that my Aunty Grace had her 100th Birthday 0n 1st July, she is the daughter of Minnie Howes who married Albert Bennington born in Sydney. Although dementia has her mind we still have her and are very proud of her achieving 100 years.

Best wishes to all and as always thank you for this wonderful Howes Famlies site.

Kind regards
Helen Carbonaro
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Re: June 2014 - Howes it going?

Post by mardler »

Sad I didn't see your note until now, Helen. Apologies. Congratulations to your Aunt, who may now see her own details online!
Is it still the tradition to get a telegram from the Queen or Governer-General on one's 100th birthday?
Regards
Paul
Post Reply