"Willy" Fitz-Henry - the lost child at the orphanage 1891

One of the nerdy pleasures of doing a one-name study is linking a "stray" to one of your established families.
In the English 1891 census, according to Ancestry.com there is a Willy Fitzhenry aged 3, born in Bearstead, resident at the All Saints Orphanage in Lewisham, South London.
On the actual scan of the handwritten page, the age is 5 and the birthplace is Banstead.
"Banstead, isn't that near Ashtead in Surrey?" I hear you ask.
Yes. It is.
And spookily, at the orphanage is a Rowland Fitz-Henry, born Banstead, aged 11.
There can't be too many Rowland Fitz-Henrys in the world - the only one I've got on my entire database was the son of William FH and Martha (nee Eagles) who lived at Ashtead in Surrey.
Now Rowland wasn't born at Banstead, or even at Ashtead (he was born in Chiswick, London), and the only William in the GRO indexes born in that time frame was born in Paddington, London.

There was only one thing to do - send off for the birth certificate.
And here's what it said:

William Fitz-Henry
Born 30 October 1885, 74 Cambridge Terrace, Hyde Park, London.
Son of William Fitz-Henry (deceased), a landowner and retired army captain and Martha Fitz-Henry nee Eagles.
Registered 8 December 1885

William senior died on 25 November 1885 after suffering a hemiplegic stroke. I'm not sure why Martha went to London to have her baby - perhaps she had hired the services of an obstetrician there.
Martha herself died in 1889 of "alcoholic poisoning and coma", having moved back to her family in Aylesbury. She was only 43.
Of her surviving children, Hester Cordelia went to live with Dr Woodfield Eagles (Martha's brother), Woodfield disappeared from view until the 1901 census when he turns up as a shipping clerk, and Rowland and William ("Willy") went to live at the orphanage.
So... more questions.
Why did the boys go to the orphanage rather than being taken in by the large and wealthy Eagles family?
Why did the boys go to an orphanage so far from either their family home or from the Eagles family in Buckinghamshire?
Where was Woodfield in the 1891 census? He wasn't at the orphanage.
And what happened to Willy?


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Fitz(-)henry DNA tests at reduced prices!

Our Fitz(-)henry DNA study has another recruit!
My United States correspondent, Ann Fitz-Henry, has enrolled her husband. Just how brilliant is that?

And any male Fitz(-)Henrys can join in (if you're a female Fitz(-)henry - badger your male Fitz(-)henry relatives!)

And until the end of August, FamilyTreeDNA have reduced their prices - in fact the 37 marker test (a nicely detailed one) is now as cheap as the 12 marker test was last month. That's US $119.
But you can only get these mate's rates if you order your test through a surname study. Enroll here at the Fitz(-)henry surname study.

Why not subscribe to this blog and get the updates sent to your inbox? Or send me an email about your Fitz(-)henry family links.

Out of Africa - Part 2 - William and Lassie Fitz-Henry

The book "African Dust" has arrived courtesy of the lovely people at Dandy Lion Editions Bookshop.
The only picture in it is the jacket photo of Lassie herself which I've copied here. The book, while being a fascinating insight into the life of the wife of a colonial official in Africa, has very little more about the Fitz-Henry family. Interestingly there was a very small newspaper cutting pasted in the flysheet, giving the death and funeral notice for Lassie.
From the biopic on the dust jacket, Lassie was born in Rangoon, the daughter of a Scottish father and English mother. Lassie married William Cooper in London in early 1918. From the GRO indexes, this gives her full maiden name as Mary Christine MacDonald. They had a daughter Christine (mentioned in the newspaper cutting). William is referred to as Billy throughout the book, and Christine is called Mick.

William and Lassie were posted to the British Colony of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. The book highlights the pain of separation when these colonial families had to leave their children behind in England as it was not thought suitable to take them abroad. The home leave was rare and Lassie mentions how on several occasions William passed up his opportunity of leave in favour of others, and there was no home leave at all granted throughout WW2.
At the beginning of the war, Lassie relates how Christine joined the WRNS in England, and then married "an unknown Canadian". "It was to be nine years before I saw my child again, as by the time I got back to England she had gone to Canada with her husband and two children."

Billy died in 1949, six months after they retired from the colonial service and returned to England. I say "they" retired as Lassie was very active in health and welfare works in Rhodesia, and was awarded an MBE in 1947 for welfare services.
From the newspaper death notice, Lassie died in Plumpton Green in Sussex on 12 October 1971. Her daughter is named as Christine Prendergast. There are no other children named and no indication that Lassie married again after William's death.

Out of Africa

To return to the first marriage of William Fitz-Henry, the Irish soldier, to Barabara Morrison (see the previous posts about the Winchester and Aylesbury branches). They had seven children and it is their son George William (or William George) who is the subject of this post. He became a doctor, qualifying through one of the London Medical schools and married Isabella Cooper in 1887. He is spotted as the Public Vaccinator in Lyttleton , New Zealand later that year. He saw active service during WW1 and rose to the rank of Major. Settling back in England, he continued his medical career and died on 21 November 1940 in London. His last place of residence is given as Streatham Hill in South London so I expect he died of old age rather than the London bombings which rarely went to that part of South London.
He had at least 2 children (and maybe more - to be confirmed!). William Cooper Fitz-Henry (isn't it fantastic that he does the traditional thing and gives the child his mother's maiden name as a middle name?) became the Inspector of Roads in the old British Colony of Rhodesia. William married a woman with the forename of Lassie who wrote the book "African Dust" about their time spent in Africa. I found a copy through Dandylion internet books last night and if it tells me more, then you'll hear it here.
Jack Cooper Fitz-Henry, the other son that I have a positive sighting of, worked as suprintendent of the fire service in Hong Kong and was awarded an OBE in 1946 for his services "during internment". This is all I know about him at present.
The possible third child of George William and Isabella is Ethel Jane Fitz-Henry who was the executor of George's will during the War years (source: The London Gazette). But she may be the spouse of Jack or another son that I haven't found yet.
As usual, any more information gratefully received!

The DNA test is complete, more Australian Fitzhenrys and the gentle madness of cricket....

My Dad's DNA test is now complete - all 67 markers are now sitting on the FamilyTreeDNA site for your viewing pleasure. The tests have come in ahead of schedule which is marvelous.

Lesley has sent me some more Fitz(-)henry sightings in Australia, so it'll be a weekend alone with the database. Good thing that it's typical English summer weather forecast for tomorrow (for the overseas readers this = torrential rain) so I have a reason to sit on front of a computer all day.

And for those of you with a cricketing bent and a few hours to spare, take a look as the low level gentle madness that is the King Cricket blog

Ask and you shall receive! Names from Australia

So back on 10th July, I put out an All Points Bulletin asking for help with finding a William Fitz-Henry in Victoria, Australia. My lovely Australian correspondent Lesley Champion has emailed me a list of 17 Fitz(-)henry sightings in Victoria this evening. Brilliant.

Some I already knew about, but there are others that I would like to share and someone may recognise a name. All credit to Lesley for the following list and if you are recognise one of Lesley's relatives (marked with an *) then I can put you in touch with her:

Here are the lists of Fitzhenrys located in the Victorian Indexes.

PIONEER 1836-1888

FITZHENRY
1853 Stephen (m Mary DAVIS)
Children Edward bn 1853 bap Methodist Church Castlemaine Vic

1859 Henry/John (m Honora DILLON)
Children -John bn North Melbourne 1859 died 1860 aged 3 months Melbourne

Laurence (m Ellen WYLD/WYLDS)
Children - Catherine bn Toorak 1866 died 1868 aged 15 months Toorak
                - Catherine 1869 bn Prahran died 1869 1 day old
                - Nicholas Lawrence bn 1871 Windsor, died 1871 aged 1 day Windsor

William bn Galway Ireland  m Mary CRONIN 1867 cn 532 (Mary died 1906 )
Children - Catherine bn 1868 South Yarra died 1883 aged 15 years Prahran
                - Ellen bn 1869 South Yarra
                - John Thomas bn 1870 Melbourne
                - Alice Maud bn 1873 South Yarra
                - William Edward bn 1875 Melbourne

MARRIAGES
FITZHENRY
1865 William to Louisa COWARD (cn 2517)
1875 Margareta Theresa to Ludwig August Ferdinand VITZDAMM (cn 1122)
1882 Eliza to Henry Joseph WARBURTON (cn 688)

DEATHS
FITZHENRY
1864 Hercules Aged 43 years bn Wex[ford Ireland] parent John and Eliza AITKINS cn 7031
1875 Thomas Aged 43 years bn Wick[low Ireland] parents (unknown) cn 13633
1881 Ellen Aged 43 years parents Stephen WILES and Elizabeth BROWN POD Prahran cn 11604
1885 Laurence Aged 56 years parents unknown POD Prahran cn 2959

FEDERATION 1889 -1901
Only one Fitzhenry entry
Death
1891 William Aged 56 years parents unknown POD St Kilda cn 8291

EDWARDIAN 1902 - 1913
MARRIAGES
FITZHENRY
1905 Alice Maud (pob Windsor) to James HAYES cn 7449
1908 William (pob Sy ) to Jean WILLIS cn 6828R
*1910 Charles William (pob London) to Ahnes PHILLIPS cn 4688
            Children 1913 Jean Agnes Roy pob Brunswick North cn 10116
1910 Mary Ellen (pob Mudgee, NSW) to Rowland Cogand DANDS cn 6370R
1913 Louisa Fitz-Henry to Hervert Elliot CHARLES cn 8216

BIRTH
FITZHENRY
*1911 Eric Arthur pob Richmond parents Herbert Arthur and Helen Beatrice TICKNER

GREAT WAR 1914 - 1920
MARRIAGE
FITZHENRY
1915 Gerte to Thomas Edgar BAXTER cn 6240

BIRTHS
FITZHENRY
*1914 Doris May pob Brunswick parents Charles William & Agnes PHILLIPS cn 28779
*1914 Winifred Mavis pob Richmond parents Herbert Arthur & Helen Beatrice Tickner cn 34891
*1916 Phyllis Violet pob Richmond parents Herbert Arthur & Helen Beatrice Tickner cn 32880
*1919 Stanley Herbert pob Richmond parents Herbert Arthur & Helen Beatrice Tickner cn 22527
                KIA January 1945 RAF (Canadian trained) over Germany.

DEATHS
FITZHENRY
1914 Maria Aged 54 years parents Laurence & Ellen Wyles [sic] d Elsternwick cn 5370
1917 Robert Aged 76 years parents Edward & Mary (unknown) pod Pt Melbourne cn 2702
1920 William Aged 35 years parents (unknown) pod Kew cn 15001

MARRIAGE INDEX 1920 - 1942
FITZHENRY
***1923 Lillian Isobel Julia (pob London) m William CHAMPION cn 3656
1929 Edward William m Hilda Elizabeth HART cn 11023
*1940 Eric Arthur to Jesse Murial Phyllis WILLIAMS cn 12282

*** = my grandparents
* = related to me.

A greyhound called Fitzhenry?

So... I was Googling "Dr Fitzhenry" this evening to find the fate of some of the medical members of the family and came upon this link.
It appears there was a greyhound named Dr Fitzhenry running the Eastern Australian tracks in 2006. And not winning.

A big hello to the Canadian Fitz-Henrys!

It shows that sometimes it pays to go back over all those old posts from places like Genforum and Rootsweb from the days when the web was new and shiny and all text was in the hideous Courier font.

Back in September 2000, Garry Fitz-Henry of Ontario left a message asking if anyone knew about the provenance of the names "Woodfield" and "Eagles" in his family.

Two weeks ago I came across that email again, and now have four contacts from the family of William Fitz-Henry and Martha Eagles (see this post for more about William and Martha). Brilliant!

So a big hello from the nerdy world of the "Fitz-Henry Family History" blog to Garry and his wife Laurie, Brian Dulcombe Fitz-Henry and Annabella Fitz-Henry. If there are any other descendants of William and Martha lurking out there, come and join the group hug!

25-marker results now on the website

FAmilyTreeDNA are getting a move on, and the next batch of results have now been posted to the Fitz(-)Henry project page.
Until there are more participants in the DNA project, these results don't really mean much. But it will get really exciting when men from other family branches start to get tested...

First results back on the first DNA test

More quickly than expected, the initial results for the 12 marker test are in for my Dad's DNA sample.
They can be viewed here:
https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Fitz-Henry
FamilyTreeDNA have sent us the names of over 750 men who also are matches at this very basic level of testing. None are Fitz(-)Henrys, which just goes to show that the basic level tests give a lot of false postives.
However, there is a gentleman by the name of Mr. Paul John Mac Henry, Sr., and I will be watching this name with interest when the more detailed results come in. This may be an ancient Irish variant of the Fitz-Henry name.

New DNA project website

In an embryonic form, the Fitz(-)Henry DNA project website.
Very embryonic.
I'm working on it, honestly.... and we've got a logo.
Come and see.
www.fitzhenrydna.com

More news on my Dad's Y-DNA test

I got an email today from FamilyTreeDNA to say that the test was expected to be finished on the 13th August. Marvellous.
I'll post the results when they arrive.
Anyone else interested in taking part?

William Fitzhenry and Gold Mining in Australia (1860's)

From the Federation of Family History Societies website:
From the Victorian Government Gazettes, Australia
Name - William Fitzhenry State Victoria Location – Year 1861 Subject Unclaimed Letters Page 1988

2. Name – William Fitzhenry State Victoria Location Jericho Year 1865 Subject Shareholders Princess Alexandra Gold Mining Co Page 402

Not sure of the family group of this man, but if anyone has access to copies of these Gazettes, then I'd be most grateful if they would do a lookup for me.

I've created a feed. Now you can subscribe in the comfort of your own home...

At somewhen after midnight, small things can make you feel quite proud of yourself.
I've created an RSS feed, so, dear reader, you can have new posts delivered directly to your screen. It's really quite groovy.

First DNA tests arrive at the lab ...

An email has arrived from FamilyTreeDNA saying that my Dad's test samples have arrived safe and sound in Texas. Jolly good.
It will be another few weeks before they have any results for me.

Hands up and mouths open wide for the great Fitz(-)Henry DNA study!

A lot of things have occurred since I last posted. Apart from a trip to Winchester and Ashtead to follow up on the leads about William, Barbara and Martha Fitz-Henry, the worldwide Fitz-Henry / Fitzhenry DNA study is now up and running.
Or rather taking a leisurely stroll, as so far there's only one participant (my Dad).

So what's the DNA study all about?

If you're male, the thing that makes you male is a Y chromosome. You inherit it from your father. If you're female, you get an X chromosome from your dad along with the X chromosome that you get from your Mum. In the patronymic manner of name giving, the surname goes from father to son along with the Y chromosome. It doesn't mutate very often so the same genetic fingerprint is passed on over many generations.

How does this help in creating an extended family tree and finding out whether different branches are linked?
If you're a Fitz(-)henry in the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland or where-ever, then you may have a common Fitz(-)henry ancestor with me in England. If you have are male, then you can take a DNA test to compare your Fitz(-)henry DNA to the DNA from my tree. If they are a close match, it is very likely that we have a male ancestor in common.

If you are interested in taking part, please take a look at the DNA project page at:
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Fitz-Henry

.. and if you want to discuss anything, there is a direct contact email address for me on there. There's no results on there at present as my dad's test is still being processed.

The study is being conducted through FamilyTreeDNA , a well respected genetics firm based in Texas which is hosting most of the DNA studies from Guild of One Name Studies. Unfortunately if you're a woman, you don't have the required Y chromosome (hence I had to test my dad), but you can badger one of your male Fitz(-)henry relatives to take part. If you have been considering getting tested but the price has put you off, there is a discount if you get tested through a One-Name Study.

The missing Winchester and Aylesbury Fitz-Henrys

I've been piecing together two Fitz-Henry families over the past few months, one based in Winchester, Hampshire and the other in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
The common link is William Fitz-Henry, a soldier born in Dublin in 1830 whose father was a lawyer called Hester Fitz-Henry.
William came to the Winchester Peninsular barracks sometime around 1859, when his regiment the 60th Rifles was stationed there. His wife Barbara was a Scottish woman whose maiden name was Morrison, and had previously been married to a man called Le Sautair (or so it looks on the birth certificate - it would fit as this is a French sounding name and William and Barbara's first child was born on the island of Jersey so they might have met there).
They had seven children but only four survived
Henrietta b. 1855 on Jersey
George b. November 1859 and d.1st quarter 1860
Alexander b. 1st quarter 1861 and d. 2nd quarter 1862
William George b. May 1862 - became a surgeon
Charles Robert b. 1st quarter 1864 and d. 4th quarter 1865
Norman b. June 1865 and still alive in 1881
Annie Eliza not registered but christened in October 1867. At least that's what I thought until this evening when I was scouring the fantastic facility that is FreeBMD, and having put Annie, Winchester and 4th quarter into the search engine it turns out that she had been registered as Annie Eliza HENRY.

Barbara died in 1877 and by the end of the year, William had married again to the splendidly named Martha Eagles from an old monied family in Aylesbury Buckinghamshire. I'll do more about the Eagles family and their legacy to the Fitz-Henry family with regard to their names in another post.
William and Martha had another 4 children, and then seemed to disappear off the face of the earth after the 1881 census.
The children were
Hester Cordelia b. 1878
Rowley Steavens b.1879
Harry Duncombe b.1882
Woodfield Duncombe Thomas b.1883

However, having persuaded myself that William had been posted abroad and died overseas, tonight I've found both him and Martha safely ending their days in the south of England via the FreeBMD search engine. William died in 1885 in Epsom and Martha in 1889 in Wycombe. Somehow I had missed them both when I was hand transcribing the indexes at the Family Records Centre in London. Their certificates have been ordered!

One Name study admin

Today was a tidying-up day for the One Name Study. There was the profile to write for the Guild of One Name Studies (it's very gratifying to see that 16 people have looked at it already - if you're interested, click here), some emails to answer and some more certificates to order. Also I've arranged to go to the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester to look up some records relating to a military branch of the family who were stationed in the Peninsular Barracks with the 60th Rifle Regiment.

Tasmania Fitzhenry - a lifetime of mispelling

Ages ago when I can upon the name Tasmania Fitzhenry in the GRO marriage index (1884 Q2, Newport M. 11a 240), I was struck by how glamorous the name sounded amongst all the Marys and Sarahs. However, the marriage was in Wales and I couldn't find her anywhere else in any other records (including censuses), so she went on the back burner as she didn't seem to be "one of mine".

I've only been able to solve the mystery of Tasmania when I swapped information with Joan Stafford from the Isle of Lewis. Joan had bought a marriage certificate in error, thinking it was one of her Fitzhenrys. It was the marriage in June 1882 between John Joseph Fitzhenry (aged 21, a seaman) and Tasmania Palfrey (aged 16) in Newport Monmouthshire, Wales. Her elder brother Edwin was one of the witnesses.

So Tasmania spent 2 glorious years as a Fitzhenry before she was widowed (I assume John Joseph died at sea as he isn't in the GRO death index) and the 1884 marriage was as an 18 year old widow to Christopher Hendley.

But if you are thinking of looking for Tasmania Palfrey or Tasmania Hendley in other records, you won't find her.
Her GRO birth record in 1868 is as Tesmania Palfrey.
In the 1871 census, the actual record looks like Tasmanea and is transcribed as Tennessea.
In the 1881 census it looks like her mum just put down "Minnie" to confuse us all.
In the 1891 census she's Tasmenia Hendley (still living in Newport)
In the 1901 census she's now named her third daughter after herself, but they are both still mispelt as Jasmenia and transcribed as Lasmenia (now living in Cardiff).
The only way of finding her is to look for the names of her Mum (Elizabeth) and brother (Edwin) and then her second husband (Christopher).
I've not yet found Tasmania's death record or the marriage of her daughter. If any Palfrey or Hendley researchers have any more info or indeed any photos of this much maligned woman, then I'd be very pleased to hear from you.

The Fitz-Henry/Fitzhenry family makes it onto the register of One-Name Studies

Some weeks ago I applied to the Guild of One-Name Studies (GOONS) to register the Fitz-Henry/Fitzhenry names as a one-name study. That application has now been accepted and Fitz-Henry/Fitzhenry is now an official one name study.
For brevity, for the rest of this post I'll refer to the two surnames together as Fitz(-)henry.

What does that mean for any Fitz(-)henry researchers out there?
Well, firstly let me reassure you that it doesn't mean that only I can research the name now! On the contrary, with the backing and resources that the Guild provides, this now becomes a worldwide collaboration with official backing - I'm just acting as a facilitator. If anyone has Fitz(-)henry links and wishes to share them, please drop me a line on the comments section below. Click here to find out more about the GOONS.
And yes, the fabled Fitz(-)henry website (with the gestation of an elephant) is almost ready to roll...