My family tree - now as old as the telescope!

[cybereye]

... well almost.

I've been doing a bit of genealogical research on-line and I discovered that someone - I guess somewhere down the track we must be related - had done quite a bit of research on one line of my maternal grandmother's side of the family. I guess this would be a good time to say that I'm only half Italian, the other half being of Irish descent with a smattering of English.

It seems that the English side has been traced back to a certain Dr. Thomas Coxe who was born in 1615 which is only 6 years after Galileo produced his telescope. If I can find good ol' Tom's father or mother the line would go back to before the telescope. In the words of Effie - "How very excitement!!" From what I understand I have little hope of easily tracing the Irish line back this far and the Italian side is another matter all together.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this snippet with you all as I found it quite interesting considering the date.

:astron:

Cheers,
Mario

[LewisM]

Is being half Italian like being half pregnant? ;)

I guess then I am 3/4 Krautish :)

[Kunama]

Nice one O'Mario,

Its interesting to backtrack the family tree, we are back to the year 1455
(the Finnish are great record keepers) our tree was traced by a distant cousin in a rather different way in that he started with one of my ancestors in the year 1455 and has compiled 3 volumes totalling 1300 pages of that person's descendants, thousands of names dates birthplaces and marriages are recorded.

My sister has since done the more conventional "backtrack" of the family.

[cybereye]

Never having been pregnant I'll pass on that question! :D

Cheers,
Mario

[cybereye]

Matt,

Funny you should do that to my name as many years ago I had a parcel sent to me addressed to a certain "Mr. Murray O'Vecky"!

Cheers,
Mario (Vecchi)

[LewisM]

Got 5 family claim to fames:
1. mother's side were chronometer makers, and apparently those chronometers were on the First Fleet or with Cook (cannot remember which now!)
2. Mother's side again: violinist for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the 1930's
3. AGAIN mother's side: one of the first female journalists in Australia (cannot remember her name)
4. Mother's side (getting a picture? :) ) - family name Hunsley - one of the founders of Hobart and surrounds
5. Father's side: sent to Australia as P.O.M.E/convict, for stealing lead from a church guttering and downpipes :)

My mother did always say from day one her side had been whipping his side...

[cybereye]

Wow, it seems Dr. Thomas Coxe was relatively famous! I found this link (http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/1044) just now...

I find it interesting that he got his doctor of medicine in Padua, Italy which is only 80kms from where my father's family is from - it's such a small world really...

[LewisM]

Matt, interestingly when I asked my mother in law of any WW2 military history, she did mention one of her uncles was in the Winter AND Continuation Wars against Finnland :) It was interesting how she commented he was UNFORTUNATELY given command of a Ukrainian battalion, who reportedly turned tail and ran half the time from the sounds of creaking larch and spruce, thinking it was an en-mass attack of Suomi! He never apparently had a good word to say about Ukrainians/Hohols till his dieing days.

Who knows, our Grandfather's could have stared each other in the face in Karelia :)

[cybereye]

Our major claim to fame is on my mother's father's side. I was second cousin to Cardinal James Freeman...

[Ric]

Hi Mario

You have a family mix similar to me, I'm half Italian on my fathers side and half English on my mothers side.

I always say that that I have my dad's good looks and my mothers wit and sense of humour. :D

[cybereye]

Ric,

I look like my dad but I'm not sure I'd say that they were "good looks"! As for what I got from my mum's side of the family, I inherited all the really good stuff - grey hair, cataracts and rosacea!

Back to the matter at hand, I've managed to find two more generations of ancestors for Dr. Thomas Coxe and so have managed to push the family line to before the invention of the telescope. That took me about 10 minutes searching on the web at lunchtime...

Cheers,
Mario

[tlgerdes]

Does that mean when you are upset, your are a "sour kraut" :shrug:

[cybereye]

Ok, I've added one more generation back but have, quite literally, hit a wall! His name is Thomas Wall from Somersetshire in the UK. So giving 25 years per generation this would put him being born in the mid 1500's, well before the invention of the telescope. All very interesting - for me anyway!

It's just occurred to me that besides astronomy, I also enjoy palaeontology and now looking back at my family tree. Does this smack of trying to work out where I'm from, how did I get here? :question:

Cheers,
Mario

[Gem]

I traced my family back to around the 1650-1700s on most lines... until discovering one line that a cousin had traced back to AD 350!!!!! Easy to trace royalty it seems and we are descended from King Harold of 1066 fame. :)

[cybereye]

Choking on my coffee I read AD350!.... I would have to say in the tracing back stakes, you win hands down!! :D

Cheers,
Mario

[Gem]

Vigo of Saxony 355-446 from whom the line of Wessex king are descended... down to King Harold then his son Godwine Haroldsson, etc... from which we slowly marry down the chain to the become commoners by the 1800s. Not much more common than me! :D

[Octane]

I love reading stuff like this. It is so very fascinating. Sadly, I don't think I'll ever be able to do this as I have a feeling that records weren't really well kept where my folks and their ancestors are from. Bugger!

H

[LewisM]

I guess during the English/East India Company domination H they may be available?

[tlgerdes]

Out earliest Australian import was John Thorpe, sentence to life here in 1836 aged 23.

Here is an extract from his court martial.

John Thorpe (Thorp), Military Convict
2nd Battalion 1st Royal Regiment of Foot
By the right Honourable Charles Kinsal Bicske,
Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

Whereas it is notified down in writing by the General Commanding in Chief that John
Thorp a private soldier of the Second Battalion of the First (or Royal) Regiment of
Foot was by need at a General Court Marshal holden at the Royal Barracks, Dublin
on the Twenty-sixth day of February One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-six
tried and found guilty upon the following charges

Vide licet “For being absent without leave from tattoo roll call at Enniskillen on or
about the night of the 3rd February, 1836 and not returning until brought back by the
party sent in search of him at or about half past eight o’clock the same night.

For insubordinate conduct at Enniskillen on or about 3rd February, 1836 in having
when ordered to the guards room made use of disgusting language towards Colour
Sergeant William Sineth No. 219 Light Company 2nd Battalion The Royal.

For Making away with or losing through neglect between 30th January and 3rd
February, 1836 the following articles of his regimental necessaries viz.
one pair of boots 8/- and one shirt 4/- amounting in all to twelve shillings.

For insubordinate and outrageous conduct towards Lieutenant Augustus Howard
Ormsby 2nd Battalion the Royal the Subaltern of the day in the execution of his duty at
Enniskillen on or about 5th February, 1836 in telling him he did not give a damn for
him and throwing the bread brought for his breakfast into the Barrack Square after
the said Lieutenant Augustus Howard Ormsby 2nd Battalion or Royal.

For insubordinate and outrageous conduct towards Sergeant John Gordon No. 393
No. 2 Company 2nd Battalion of the Royal the Sergeant of the Guard in execution of
his duty at Enniskillen on or about 3rd February, 1836 and crushing his hand in a
threatening position and telling the said Sergeant John Gordon to be off with himself
and that he would kick him if he could get at him and throwing his bread at him and
striking him with it, the said Sergeant John Gordon “For having at Enniskillen on or
about fifth February, 1836 would for offering violence to Sergeant John Gordon No.
393 No. 2 Company 2nd Battalion the Royal when in the execution of his duty to be
sentenced to be transported as a felon for the term of his natural life and whereas
Caution of the said Court Material the King intends should be carried into Execution
I do therefore herby order and direct that the said John Thorp be transported as a
felon to New South Wales for the said term of his natural life pursuant to said
sentence and his Majesty’s pleasure thereupon as aforesaid and according to the
statute in such case made and dated this 28th day of March 1836.

[cybereye]

Ok, an update on my searches.

Through a bit of detective work I've been able to latch on to some gentry in England and now have a family line back to 1189! A certain A. de Barnardiston, who lived around that time, is my Greatx22 Grandfather, and is one of the, mathematically, 16,777,216 Greatx22 grandparents I have!

All very interesting.... but now the clouds have gone I can get back to looking further back in time by a couple of orders of magnitude!! :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Mario

[cybereye]

Well, I stumbled upon some work that a very distant relative in the States had done and it seems I'm a descendant of William I aka William the Conquerer!! Grant, I guess it's a bit late to apologise for that little misunderstanding between our relations at Hastings back in 1066? It also seems that because of the route to William I'm also related to Kenneth MacAlpin, the first King of the Scots (Picts) and Margaret of Wessex, aka Saint Margaret of Scotland... Hmmn, I wonder whats on my Italian side... a Pope perhaps?

All very interesting but it hasn't cleared the cloud...

Cheers,
Mario

[GrahamL]

Its interesting reading isn"t it Mario, I had no idea where my family name came from until a woman rang me out of the blue to ask me who my family were, turns out the original was laffiette ' which was changed and shortened after the owner had served his time out here
which wasn't uncommen back in the day to avoid the stigma of being a convict.

My wifes family names spelling was changed to avoid a mail mix up with another of the same name down the road and 100 years on its still the same. :0


Whats a little concerning in all this stuff is that I read somewheres was the experts for a long time couldn't fit the population models of the past to the current numbers off us , seems they left out an important
little bump in the maths, in that Grandma way back didn't always just love Grandpa , somtimes things developed and families were a little closer related than we all would like :D

[cybereye]

The name change was a problem I came across in my research. One of my ancestor's surname was originally Melmoth but when William came to Australia in 1849 it somehow got corrupted to Melmouth. Most of his children were Melmouth although two have the original spelling on their birth certificates. It makes it all very confusing... :question:

Just on my relationship to William the Conquerer, I've been looking at a website devoted to the ancestors of William I and it is easy to see that there would be literally millions who could find a line back to him. 5 to 6 children surviving each generation for about 24 generations and I think you get the picture!! :lol:

Cheers,
Mario

[Gem]

All is forgiven! :)