Howes your father? - January 2015

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mardler
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Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Howes your father? - January 2015

Post by mardler »

First month of 2015 gone already! Thanks ever so to correspondent Netta Walters from New Zealand who has sponsored two certificates for our collection after our plea last month. When they arrive we hope to have two more puzzles solved! If you'd like to do something similar, please let me know.

Thanks too to others who've responded too by sending pictures of relatives, copies of certificates and more family details. Keep'em coming!

Milestones
Biggest milestone we passed in January was adding our thousandth correspondent, Joan Turner, nee Howes from England. Joan's interest in family history came with the centenary of the start of World War One and the recollection of her grandfather telling her that his father had perished in the war, at the Battle of the Somme in 1917. Joan told me that our site was very helpful to her in researching her Howes forebears back to their Gloucestershire roots. Good - that's why we're here!

We also passed 25,000 people named Howes in the database and 12,500 people named House. As of tonight we have 94,274 people in the database, having added over 1,400 this month.

It's a very, VERY small world
I had an email last night from correspondent John Howes. John lives in the Birmingham area of England and I met him once when he came to Norfolk on vacation and to do a little research. On vacation again, this time in Arizona, when out walking a trail John and his wife struck up a conversation with another couple. Amazingly, they'd also been to Norfolk to do family history and their surname was . . . . Howes! Stephen Howes now has our site details. Hope to hear from you soon!

Love token
Ever seen anything like this picture?
1776HowesMcLocklin.jpg
1776HowesMcLocklin.jpg (105.71 KiB) Viewed 2502 times
It's a British love token, usually given by a man to his love and made either from a half-penny or a blank of similar size, perhaps even a counterfeit coin. The original was just purchased by Jack Howes of Michigan who as especially pleased to find it given that it is the first Howes love token he's ever seen and, of course, by the John Howes name.

A cursory trail through my usual sources hasn't revealed who John Howes and Charlot McLocklin might have been. Can you figure out who they were? Given the year I'm wondering whether John was sent over here to the colonies and never returned but may be I'm just being too romantic!

Hatches, matches and dispatches
Being new year this month there was the usual batch of first new year's baby announcements in the papers. One such was for Isla Howes a new arrival in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Our congratulations to the obviously happy parents: http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/S ... story.html

On the dispatches side I note with considerable sadness that our correspondent Briant Howes of California has passed on. He had been very helpful to us on a number of occasions and had even become my friend on facebook, which is how I learned of his demise a few days ago. Briant was clearly dearly loved by his friends and sadly missed. Our condolences go to his family as they also go to that of David S Howes of Canada who spent much of his life supporting Brock University in St Catherine's, Ontario. David's eulogy is here http://www.brockpress.com/2015/01/david ... es-on-846/ from which you can easily see how much he did for others.

And on a lighter moment, let me point you toward the 68-year old Colin Howes of New Zealand who narrowly missed becoming a statistic in our database by jumping from a moving truck after the brakes failed. You can hear him describe his own story here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming ... re-on-hill. If you like listening to strong regional accents I recommend this one!

FREE resource of the month
Ever tried the British National Archives? http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ I rather think they may be under-selling themselves. Unable to go to Kew, where I know they have a fantastic collection, my only previous interaction with them was rather stodgy and bureaucratic some years ago when I downloaded some 16th century wills at £3 each. However, following a tip from a fellow member of the Guild of One-Name Studies, I tracked down and downloaded 6 files FOR FREE! I've only looked at one so far but it was really interesting. The particular collection is appeals tribunals for appeals against conscription in World War One. Judging by the first one I saw, the appeals were made by employers not wanting to lose a key employee supporting the war effort on the home front. What makes the files useful as well as interesting is that they often contain addresses and details of other family members well after the 1911 census. The National Archives are a huge resource and I'm sure must have a lot more available for download. Worth a look.

Looking ahead
All of that brings me to the last thought for this month. In 1939 just after the outbreak of World War Two, the UK government took a mini-census of the population for the purpose of granting ID cards. The mini-census or "Register" contains names and addresses for everyone and since the 1931 census perished in a fire, it's the only national list between 1921 and 1951 censuses. The register should be published within the next two years. You can "register" your interest to learn more here: http://www.1939register.co.uk/

Apologies if I've missed anything or anyone out. Hope you enjoyed this. All the best
Paul
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Re: Howes your father? - January 2015

Post by mardler »

Hah! It was me whom I'd missed out!

Over the next few weeks I'll be in the following places where you should be able to find me, or avoid me if you are so minded:
Feb 12-14: Salt Lake City at Rootstech - no speaking gig!
Feb 21: 1pm, Jacksonville Genealogy Society - talking about this study
March 8: 2pm, St Simon's Island, GA: Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society - talking about this study
March 14: 1pm, St Augustine, FL: St Augustine Genealogical Society - talking about British records
March 27-29: Brigg, Lincolnshire, England: Guild of One-Name Studies conference - several topics
April 16-18: NEC, Birmingham, England: Who Do You Think You Are Show. Speaking about this study on Saturday, 10:15am

Paul
PatrickCunningham
Posts: 4
Joined: December 31st, 2012, 6:15 pm

Re: Howes your father? - January 2015

Post by PatrickCunningham »

Hi Paul

Whatever went wrong in January affected me, so I'm glad you are now using MailChimp. On the plus side, a double dose of Howes news is great!

Many thanks for all your efforts.

Patrick
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Re: Howes your father? - January 2015

Post by mardler »

Good to have confirmation, Patrick. Appreciate the feedback
Paul
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