Charles Edward Fitzhenry - 9th Battalion Australian Infantry Forces

Gary Wemyss sent me an email after he had taken a trip to France and found the mark of a Fitzhenry in an unusual place.
He writes:

I came across this tourist brochure a while ago in France. The brochure is for the Caves of Naours an underground city built in the 3rd century and used during the 2 world wars by the Australians during WW1 and the Germans during WW2. Not terribly interesting on a first look but one of the pictures shows some graffiti from the WW1 made by members of the 9th Battalion Australians. What's interesting is the name of one of them being C Fitzhenry.

Full text is:
9th Batt Australians
C Fitzhenry
Paddington Sydney NSW
1916 July

Alistair Ross
Lismore
July.

It is possible that this could have been made by Charles Edward FITZHENRY?
(b. 1889, Sandy Ck,Casino NSW, son of William Herbert and Elizabeth Fitzhenry. Occupation shearer, d. 21 Aug 1918, France, buried Aug 1918, Le Treport, France. Memorial of death found on parents grave at Waverley. NSW.)

I think this indeed the same man. Charles Edward Fitzhenry is a member of Alan Hagenson's Fitzhenry tree and Alan's information about him supports him being there in France at this time. Interestingly Charles Fitzhenry enlisted and served as William Doyle.

Gary has put a super photo of the graffiti on his website, and also scans of the front and back of the brochure.


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"Dwarf Overwhelmed by Snow"

... is not a headline that you come across too often.

From the New York Times March 7 1900

BUFFALO NY - March 6:- "Major" Fred Fitzhenry, the dwarf, who has travelled with Barnum's Circus for a number of years, was found buried up to his neck in a snowbank early this morning, more dead than alive. He was sent to the station house.

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Henrietta Fitz-Henry, daughter of William Fitz-Henry of Ashtead

When I obtained the will of William Fitz-Henry of Ashtead (1830 -1885) I wondered why his eldest daughter Henrietta (by his first wife Barbara Morrison) was not mentioned, even though she was still alive. All his other living children by Barbara (George William, Norman and Annie Eliza) were provided for, and his four surviving children by his second wife Martha Eagles were still too young to be independent from her.

Brian Bouchard, who has done extensive research onto the local history of Ashtead sent me the text of William's army service record. This showed that Henrietta was born in 1855 but William and Barbara were not married until December 1856.

I knew that Barbara had been married before, so I asked the Channel Islands Family History Society to have a search around and this is what they came up with.

Barbara was originally married to Charles Le Sauteur who was a merchant in Jersey from an old Jersey family. He died of a fever on 11th October 1855.
They had at least 2 children. The elder Elizabeth Morrison Le Sauteur died on 23rd May 1855 aged 19 months.
The other was Henrietta Le Sauteur born 25th February 1855 in St Nicolas in the parish of St Peter, Jersey.

William and Barbara were married in St Saviour December 12th 1856. Here's the details from their marriage certificate:
William Fitz-Henry
aged 27 bachelor, Colour Segt. 60th regiment, resident in St Peters
Place of birth St Marys Dublin
Father: Robert Fitz-Henry, linen draper

Barbara Morrison, widow of Charles Le Sauteur
Aged 28 Widow resident in St Peters
Place of birth Inverness Scotland
Father Charles Morrison, gardener

This partially answers the question as to why Henrietta was not mentioned in William's will (although I can't believe this is the whole reason) as she was not actually his daughter. However, from the 1861 census onwards she is always referred to as Henrietta Fitz-Henry and referred to as a daughter rather than a step-daughter. She did not marry as far as I am aware, so I can't check on a marriage certificate if she knew who her father really was.

The other striking thing is the name and occupation of William's father. In this marriage certificate, his father is Robert a linen draper. In his second marriage to Martha Eagles from the wealthy and socially superior Eagles family, his father is Hester a Dublin lawyer. I have several other anomalies like this in my research - in fact my great great grandfather was a dock porter in the East End, but all 5 of his daughters put on their wedding certificates that he was a master butcher!

I also wonder if there was another Fitz-Henry child between the marriage and the birth of George (1859) as this pair were quite prolific. If they had another child in this 1856-1859 gap, this child would have died before 1861, as he or she is not mentioned in the 1861 census when the family are resident in the Winchester barracks.
In order I have so far:
George 1859-1860
Alexander 1861-1862
George William 1862-1940
Charles Robert (knowing the names of William and Barbara's parents this now makes sense!) 1864-65
Norman Edward 1865 -1901
Annie Eliza 1865 - after 1885 (mentioned in her father's will)


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Can I mention the cricket now?

No.
Because that would be rude and insensitive to our Australian readers (including one of my co-authors) and completely bemusing to most of our other subscribers.
Just to say that Swann and Broad are Nottinghamshire lads, and that makes me very happy.

(For those who have no idea what I'm rambling on about click here.)


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Miles Fitzhenry, cowkeeper in Birmingham (Fites Henry - another deviant spelling of the surname)

From the Wright's Directory for Birmingham 1869
FITZHENRY Miles, Cowkeeper, 68 Warwick Street

So where was he in the 1871 census?
Firstly in the intervening 2 years he had moved - to King's Norton in Worcestershire.
Secondly, the enumerator had written his name (in beautiful handwriting) as
Miles FITES HENRY, and all the other members of the household as "(Forename) ditto".
Ancestry copied this inaccuracy throughout the family.
When FindMyPast got hold of it, Fites became Miles' middle name so he is found indexed as
Miles Fites HENRY, with all the other members of the family indexed as (Forename) Henry.

So where had this variant spelling come from?
Looking at Miles' marriage to Betsy Young in the 1st quarter of 1859, his surname is correctly spelt as Fitzhenry.
Their eldest daughter was also born in the 1st quarter of 1859 and she is registered as Esther FITESHENRY
The next child is Edward and I can't find him registered under any variant of Fitzhenry, but putting "Edward" and "Aston" as the registration district (which was where all the subsequent children were registered) I found an Edward MILES registered in September 1860 (Aston 6b page 224 if anyone has the certificate and wants to share). The other children were all registered as Fitzhenry (when there is a registration listed for them).

Here's the corrected version of the census entry.
1871 census England
FITZHENRY, Miles
Head M 35 1836 Ireland county Galway milkman

FITZHENRY, Betsy (nee Young)
Wife F 32 1839 Worcestershire Northfield

FITZHENRY, Esther
Daughter F 12 1859 Worcestershire Northfield Scholar

FITZHENRY, Edward
Son M 10 1861 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, William
Son M 9 1862 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, Thomas
Son M 7 1864 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, Jane
Daughter F 4 1867 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar

FITZHENRY, George
Son M 1 1870 Warwickshire Birmingham

FITZHENRY, Betsy
Daughter F 3 months 1871 Warwickshire Birmingham

RGnumber:RG10 Piece:3080 Folio:118 Page:13
Address: 52 Thomas Street, Kings Norton County:Worcestershire

Missing from this list are 2 children who died in infancy:
Mary Ann Fitzhenry born and died in the 4th quarter 1867
John Fitzhenry born and died in the 1st quarter 1869

Miles Fitzhenry himself died in the 2nd quarter of 1893. His age of death was given as 68 which would have actually made his date of birth 1825 rather than 1836 as was stated in the census.

Are any of these Fitzhenrys your family? Drop us a line and let us know.

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Daniel Fitzhenry - rugby league legend ... and some more cricketing Fitzhenrys!

It's not often when you're doing the Sunday ironing with the sports channel on the radio, that the name "Fitzhenry" breaks through your half-time* lapse of concentration.
Daniel Fitzhenry had just scored the winning try for the English rugby league team Hull Kingston Rovers.

This prompted me to open up the laptop and do the first of several pieces that will be posted over the next few days. We don't often do posts about the living members of our family, but everything that is here is on the web (so no secret).

This first bit is from Wikipedia

Daniel Thomas Fitzhenry born 8 December 1979 in Macksville, New South Wales, Australia.

Macksville is a small town of about 2600 and (again according to Wikipedia) has a noted rugby league team, the Macksville Sea Eagles. However Daniel started his rugby career at Dorrigo & Nambucca Heads. He made his pro debut for Wests Tigers in 2002 and played for them until 2007 after which he moved to Hull. Apart from the various rugby league stats pages, there's not much else on the web about Daniel. He hasn't even updated his myspace page since 2007!

Googling Macksville and Fitzhenry, I found Adam Fitzhenry playing cricket for Nambucca-Bellingen. Another cricketing Fitzhenry! And completing the whole rugby league - cricket crossover thing, we have Andrew Fitzhenry, the former Parramatta rugby league half back described as "an accomplished keeper/batsman" by the Australian Times On-line.



* it was half-time between Tottenham Hotspurs and Liverpool. Regular readers know of my allegiance to Spurs, as my family have been supporters since the early 1900s when two of my great -great uncles allegedly had trials for the club.... something that the club has no record of at all.
And in the time it's taken me to write this entry Spurs have won 2-1. Hurrah.

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Christmas weddings

Dennis Miller wrote to me to tell me that I had made a mistake with the marriage of his great-grandparents John Joseph Marney and Ellen Fitzhenry.
I had recorded that they were marrried on 20th December, when actually they wed on the 25th December 1897.
Dennis commented that this was the sixth Christmas wedding in his tree. I have 3 couples in my database who were married on Christmas day - my great-great-great grandparents Michael Fitz-Henry and Sarah Phillips in 1839, Edward Clement and Mary Fitzhenry in 1862 (from Lesley Champion's family tree) and the Marney/Fitzhenry marriage as metioned above.
I'm sure that I read somewhere that weddings and baptisms were done free of charge on Christmas day which was why it was such a popular date amongst the working classes. The couple were also likely to have one of their rare days off work together on this date.
From previous trawls through parish registers, I imagine the churches must have been busy places on Christmas day!


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The Thin Shadow of Patrick Fitzhenry

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In the ongoing search for the connections of my mysterious Michael Fitzhenry, only one other Bristol based Fitzhenry appears to have left his gossamer trail. Patrick Fitzhenry, a trader and adventurer of fleeting - and dubious - success, is recorded in the Bankrupcy records from the 1790s. However, recently a small entry referring to the afore mentioned Patrick came to light, which not only tells us a little bit about one of his business adventures, but names another probable family member.
The book " Bristol Privateers and Ships Of War" by D.Powell (published by J.W Arrowsmith Ltd Bristol 1930) has a chapter dealing with the French Revolutionary War (1793-1815), in which the ship LANGRISHE was mentioned. The owner of this 266 ton ship was none other than Patrick Fitzhenry. The following declaration was made 5 March 1793 in relation to this ship by Captain John Fitzhenry. "In May it was reported that the Langrishe had taken the French ship Double Union from Martinque to Marsaiiles, with a cargo of sugar, coffe and cocoa, and sent her to Gibralter. The prize arrived at Kingroad [the area of the Severn estuary leading into the mouth of the Avon River on which Bristol lies] on 8 June and was sold the following month. The Langrishe was wrecked at Montego Bay, Jamaica on 21 October 1793".
Who was Captain John Fitzhenry ? It beggars belief that there was no family connection between the owner - Patrick - and Captain - John Fitzhenry.
Clearly Patrick ("late of Bristol, for ten years past a merchant trading in England, Africa, Newfoundland, and Ireland") had displayed his success through his purchasing of property at Westbury on Trym, Bristol, as the bankrupcy proceedings required him to sell off his Mansion house, coach house, messuages and tenements, pothouse, pottery, closes, pieces and parcels of land, to settle some of his debts. The enforced auction took place 16 April 1793, raising the not insubstantial sum of 3550 pounds (assessed as being around 400,000 pounds today). His major creditor was listed as John Chivers, and a John Fitzpatrick (should they be Fitzhenry?) received a further 1000 pounds.

So though frustratingly limited, we now have a little more meat on the bones of the mysterious Patrick Fitzhenry, but also a new connection - naval Captain John Fitzhenry. The search continues!

John Fitzhenry - born in ?Wolverhampton in 1828 to Australia

Alan Hagenson sent me some details about another unrelated (to him) Fitzhenry line which his sister had put together and I put on the Blog in June. Here it is.

I was intriged that the origin of this line John Fitzhenry came from Wolverhampton, now part of the great metropolitan conurbation of Birmingham in the West Midlands. But in 1828 was an up and coming but still relatively modest industrial town in the County of Staffordshire. Fitzhenrys didn't come from there.

So today I had a road trip to the County Archives in Stafford.

In 1828, Wolverhampton had one Anglican church (St Peters) and one Roman Catholic church (Ss Peter and Paul). I started off with the first - I've found it's always easier to track down Anglicans(!) but he wasn't there, allowing for a couple of years each way.
As Fitzhenrys around this era were more likely to be new immigrant Irish and therefore Catholics, I looked in the range 1826-1832 for the Ss Peter and Paul registers. It did help that the Catholic population was considerably smaller than the Anglican one (and therefore fewer entries to wade through), but still no John FH.

So...checking his life in Australia, I found that he had married Julia Carter in Scots Church Sydney which is a Presbyterian church. Were the family non-conformists? I'd never spotted a non-conformist Fitzhenry this far back, but there were a scattering of Presbyterian, Methodist, Independent Congregation and Quaker chapels and meeting houses around the Wolverhampton area.

Unfortunately the Fitzhenry family didn't seem to attend any of these chapels either.

John may have been born in Wolverhampton but either it was outside the time span I was searching in or he didn't get baptised or otherwise recorded in the area. Any pointers to this man's origins gratefully received.

As an intersting side issue, the records for the Quaker births were interesting - not only was there a witness to the baptism of the child but there had to be a separate witness who had seen the child being born. And the marriage records were just lovely - each page was a written record of the words used by the couple plighting their troth and then everyone at the wedding signed the marriage certificate.


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More about Norman Fitz-Henry in Portland Oregon

The past month has been hectic with work and the cricket season, but now at least work has lightened up a bit...
The wonderful Brian Bouchard who is a local historian covering the Ashtead, Surrey area has given me another lead with Norman Edward Fitz-Henry, last seen working in Portland Oregon and dying in Tahoma, Washington in 1901. (Brian has also been an invaluable source of leads for other aspects of the Ashtead Fitz-Henrys)
The entry that I found in the Portland Commercial Directory for 1897 read:
"Norman E FitzHenry (Portland Ptg Co) 204 Stark, bds 29 4th N."

Brian wrote:

I suggest the abbreviated word is "Portaging" and Norman was involve in the portage round Celilo falls on the Columbia River - see Oregon Steam Navigation Co history.

Which may explain why Norman was up in Washington when he died.

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We're going to be archived by the British Library

I had an email today from the British Library Web Archiving Programme. The British Library Archive is extending its remit, and now instead of just preserving printed matter, it is extending the archiving process to other contemporary forms of documentation. Websites and blogs are now included in their archives.

They have chosen this blog and the FitzhenryDNA site for archiving, so we will be preserved as long as the British Library exists (and it's got a pretty good record for longevity, having started in 1857 as the British Museum Reading Room).

Anyway, all this deserves a big Hurrah!

Here's more about the Web Archiving Programme at www.webarchive.org.uk

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The elusive Norman Edward Fitz-Henry turns up in America

In April last year, I did a posting on the Winchester/Ashtead families of William Fitz-Henry and concluded that there were a few of William's children that I had not managed to trace once they had reached adulthood.

One of these was Norman Edward Fitz-Henry, born to William's first wife Barbara Morrison in Winchester in June 1865.

Neither he or his parents were found in the 1871 census, but I believe that this was because William was stationed with the regiment in the East Indies at the time (personal communication from Brian Bouchard). However the older children (Henrietta and William George) were being schooled in Winchester.

In the 1881 census, Norman himself was at school at the Churchill House School in Merton Surrey, near to Ashtead where his father and new wife Martha Eagles were living. And until recently, that was where we had lost Norman. Lesley had previously looked for him in Australia and New Zealand - she found a Norman, but not the one in question.

This was until we found William's will of 1885 in which he left "to my son Norman Edward presently residing in Texas Three hundred pounds."
(If you want to see the transcription of the rest of the will it is here on the FitzhenryDNA website)

In 1884 Norman had sailed from Liverpool to New Orleans on the British Paddle Steamer "Texan" of Liverpool. He travelled in steerage with no other members of his family.

In 1897 he was living in Portland Oregon - here is the extract from the Portland City Directory:
"Norman E FitzHenry (Portland Ptg Co) 204 Stark, bds 29 4th N."
If some-one would decipher the abbreviations for me I would be most grateful!

And on March 5th 1901 Norman died in the "FP Hospital" Tacoma of a brain abscess. He was noted to be 34 years old, single but no occupation was given. His burial was organised by Hook undertakers in Tacoma. The FP or Fannie Paddock Hospital later became the Tacoma General Hospital and there's more about its history here

Norman seems to have evaded both the 1890 and 1900 US censi, so any more details about that part of his life would be very gratefully received.

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More discount prices on DNA testing for July 09

The June discount offer from FamilyTreeDNA has now ended, but here's the July offer hot on it's heels.

FamilyTreeDNA say

We have decided to offer for the month of July a variation of our recent promotion:

Y-DNA37 – promotional price $119 (reg. price $149)

Y-DNA67 – promotional price $199 (reg. price $238)

mtDNAPlus – promotional price $119 (reg. price $149)

IMPORTANT: since this promotion will run through the month of July, we encourage you to spread the word starting now, as the natural tendency is for people to order at the last minute, and we will not extend it beyond this month.

I've highlighted the Y-DNA37 test as this is the standard test for our type of One-Name study testing.

If anyone out there is thinking about DNA testing for family history purposes, please email in complete confident if you have any nagging doubts or queries

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A Blog of "consistently high standard" says the Guild of One Name Studies...

I've taken the title a bit out of context, but it looks good.
Back in February I entered the Blog for the Publication Awards of the Guild of One Name Studies (GOONS).
The awards for the various categories have been made. We didn't win, but to quote the citation in this month's journal:
"Weblogs: Eight entries of a consistently high standard.... This made it very difficult to pick a winner and we debated backwards and forwards for some time before selecting the PASK/PASKE one-name study blog".
Click here to visit Teresa and Stuart's Pask(e) blog.

Next year .... next year.....


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Extension to the DNA test offer

From FamilyTreeDNA, the company that does our Fitz(-)henry DNA project tests:

In the last few days we have received several e-mails from group administrators asking us to extend our "Unparalleled 50% Promotional Discount" Y-DNA37+mtDNA for $119 (the regular project price is $248 – a reduction of more than 50%!!), as many people are only now becoming aware of the promotion.

We have decided, therefore, to extend it until June 30th, 2009. Kits must be paid by July 7, 2009. Use this link to place your order and link your results to our Fitz(-)henry study:

www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Fitz-Henry&Code=S67778

What else can I say, except "Go for it chaps!"

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Yet another Australian Line - Wolverhampton England to New South Wales Australia

In the course of his research into his own Fitzhenrys, Alan Hagenson has also pieced together this tree. Wolverhampton (near Birmingham in the West Midlands) isn't a place where you would expect to find Fitzhenrys, so sometime soon I'm going to have to visit the archives there to see if I can find out more about this family in the days before civil birth registration and the census.

John FITZHENRY, occupation steward married Catherine (unknown surname).

One child that we know about
John FITZHENRY b. 1828 in Wolverhampton ENG, d. 1900, Maclean Rv, NSW. Selected land at Palmers Is., nr Grafton, Clarence River NSW in 7/3/1867. 86 acres, Co.Clarence, parish Taloumbi, lot D, portn.160. sale at Grafton. NSW.
He married Julia CARTER, in12 Apr 1860, at Scots Church, Sydney NSW. She was b. 1838, Oxford, ENG, d. 1891, Maclean NSW.

Their six children were:
William C FITZHENRY, b. 1861, Maclean NSW, occupation carter, Maclean, NSW, d. 1930, Maclean NSW.

John FITZHENRY, b. 1865, Grafton NSW, d. 1867, Grafton NSW.

Thomas FITZHENRY b. 1870. See below *

Catherine E FITZHENRY, b. 1872, Grafton NSW. She married Charles James PHILP, on 17 Feb 1891, in Maclean, NSW, (He was b. 12 Jan 1868, Hexham, NSW, d. 1 Sep 1955, Sth Tweed Heads NSW.)

John FITZHENRY, b. 1877, Grafton NSW, d. 1878, Grafton NSW.

Allen Eugene FITZHENRY, b. 1879, Maclean NSW.

Third Generation

* Thomas FITZHENRY, b. 1870, Grafton NSW, occupation farmer, Palmers Is. NSW. He married Bridget UMSTEATTER in 1893, in Maclean, NSW.

Their children were:
Catherine FITZHENRY, b. 1895, Maclean NSW.
Patrick Edmund Miles FITZHENRY, b. 1902, Maclean NSW.
Mary E FITZHENRY, b. 1904, Maclean NSW.
William J FITZHENRY, b. 1905, Maclean NSW.
Margaret FITZHENRY, b. 1898, Maclean NSW.
John FITZHENRY, b. 1900, Maclean NSW, d. 1902, Maclean NSW.

Does anyone recognise any of these people? And what of the Wolverhampton connection? If some kind soul is planning a trip to the Wolverhampton archives, would they mind doing a look-up on John Fitzhenry's birth/baptism in the parish registers in 1828 please? Thanks.


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Another Australian lineage - Ireland to Queensland

Last month Alan Hagenson from Queensland Australia sent me the Fitzhenry family line that his sister had married into. (Sorry it's taken this long to get it up on the Blog, Alan!)
This is being actively researched so if anyone recognises the people in this line or wants to be put in touch with Alan or his sister please drop us a line.
I've put the first three generations of Alan's tree here - there are more recent generations with living individuals, but you will have to contact Alan to share these.

Martin FITZHENRY, occupation Labourer.
He married Julia DOYLE, b. Clohasta Ireland (daughter of Patrick DOYLE and Bridget RYAN) occupation Servant.
Julia came alone to Australia in 1854; her son was born while she was detained in the immigrant's depot.

Children:
Martin John FITZHENRY b. 1845.
Bridget FITZHENRY, b. 1846, Co.Kilkenny, IRE., d. 22 May 1865, St.Vincents Hosp. Sydney, buried: 24 May 1865, Sydney, NSW.
Michael Herbert FITZHENRY b. 7 Oct 1854.

Second Generation

Martin John FITZHENRY, b. 1845, Graiguenamangh, Kilkenny, IRE, occupation teacher,Tomki, Casino, NSW, d. 28 May 1917, Murwillumbah, NSW.
He married Caroline ASKEW in 1873 in Richmond Rv Nth NSW (daughter of Isaiah ASKEW and Louisa Bridget DAVIES) occupation Hospital matron, Casino NSW, d. 1942, Casino, NSW.

Their children were:
Julia Bridget FITZHENRY, b. 1874, Sydney NSW, occupation certified nurse at Casino, NSW.

Alice Mary FITZHENRY, b. 1876, Adelong, NSW. She married Thomas G PIDCOCK, in 1899 in Casino, NSW.

Mary FITZHENRY, b. 1879, Grafton NSW, d. 1879, Grafton NSW.

Martin Gerald FITZHENRY, b. 1881, Grafton NSW, d. 1962, Sutherland, NSW.

Charles Ambrose FITZHENRY, b. 1884, Grafton NSW, d. 1975, NSW.

Caroline A A FITZHENRY, b. 1890, Adelong NSW.

Eileen K FITZHENRY, b. 1893, Casino, NSW, d. 1893, Casino, NSW.

John F FITZHENRY, d. 1932, Murwillumbah, NSW. He married Letitia E LAYCOCK, in 1916, in Murwillumbah. NSW.


Michael Herbert FITZHENRY, b. 7 Oct 1854, Parramatta NSW, occupation Innkeeper at Casino, NSW, d. 5 Feb 1910, 520 Bourke St, Ultimo, NSW.
He married Elizabeth Mortimer MADDEN, 23 Nov 1878, in Casino./ St.Pats, Parramatta? NSW, b. 1858, Wollongong, NSW, (daughter of Patrick MADDEN and Ann FLANNAGAN) d. 7 Jul 1919, Paddington NSW.

Their children were:
Patrick Michael 'Sunny' FITZHENRY, b. 1880, Casino NSW, occupation tram guard, d. 1 Sep 1935, Burwood NSW, buried: Waverley NSW. Boer War veteran. He married Eleanor S BENTLEY, date/place 1920, in Burwood NSW. No issue.

Andrew Gregory FITZHENRY b. 1881.

Mary Mabel FITZHENRY, b. 1882, Casino NSW, d. 1 Apr 1945, Paddington, NSW. She married Frederick Granville ROSE, date/place 1933, in Paddington NSW, d. 1943, Paddington NSW.

Gertrude Florence FITZHENRY, b. 1885, Casino, d. 3 Sep 1965. She married William J KING, in 1921, in Paddington NSW.

Martin James FITZHENRY, b. 1887, Casino NSW, occupation stockman, d. 14 Sep 1968, buried: Waverley. family grave. Archon(deacon) Sacred Heart , Kensington.1942 late 1st AIF.

Charles Edward FITZHENRY, b. 1889, Sandy Ck,Casino NSW, occupation shearer, d. 21 Aug 1918, France, buried Aug 1918, Le Treport, France. Memorial of death found on parents grave at Waverley. NSW. served as William Doyle (More information may be found on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.)

James Francis FITZHENRY b. 1891.

Madeline 'Madge' FITZHENRY b. 1893.

Arthur Augustine FITZHENRY, b. 1895, Casino NSW, occupation Soldier, d. 14 Oct 1920, Paddington NSW, buried: Waverley, with 3 brothers.
________

To Alan's tree, I could add the following information:
From the website:
http://www.kilkennygenealogy.com/rc/graigb1838.htm
Graig or Graignamanagh Roman Catholic Parish Records, Baptismal index 1838
Mary Fitzhenry
dau of Martin Fitzhenry and Judith Doyle
bapt 8 Dec 1838

Is there a decendant of Mary out there as well?

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The Newest FitzHenry

I'd like to welcome the newest FitzHenry into the world. Enoch FitzHenry's great-great-great-great-great granddaughter, Jaclyn Elizabeth FitzHenry, was born Wednesday, June 17, 2009.

I'm an aunt again. :-)


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The wrong Anastasia Welch ...

Some while ago Wendy Rutter sent me some information about the family of Michael Fitzhenry and Anastasia Welch that she had had passed to her from another Fitzhenry researcher.
I was quite excited about this, as the information said that Michael Fitzhenry had been baptised in St Peter's Church, Nottingham in April 1793.

Now Nottinghamshire (where I live) is one of the most Fitzhenry-less places in England, so have even one record to dig out of our local archives would be fab.
St Peter's Church is right in the middle of the city centre and is the oldest building in Nottingham in continuous use. It may not be as grand as St Mary's which is cathedral-like in its architecture, but for hundreds of years it has been the church of the working people of Nottingham. Here's more about it.

So I was really excited about taking this family back one more generation. All of the parish records for Nottinghamshire are on fiche at the local archives. Unfortunately the fiche for St Peter's baptisms 1780-1794 looked as though it was the "go to" fiche that all researchers started with, manufactured in the 1970s, very faded, very scratched and a little warped.
Although the writing was very faint indeed, there was nothing that approximated to Michael Fitzhenry for April 1793 .... or the whole of 1793 .... or even for the whole of the fiche.

Perhaps this wasn't the St Peter's in Nottingham, but somewhere in Nottinghamshire. Using the archives' parish directory I found that throughout Notts there are 26 parish churches dedicated to St Peter (including 5 Ss Peter and Paul). And Michael wasn't in any of these registers either.

And I also checked the registers of the two other old churches in Nottingham, St Marys and St Nicholas ... and the very small number of Catholic pre-1800 records.
Nothing.

So I went back to the original St Peter's fiche. And cleaned it down with my glasses cleaner, cleaned the fiche reader lens .... and then sat and stared at April 1793 again.
And then it became apparent -

14 April 1793 Anastasia d. of John and Mary Welch (upholsterer)

A eureka moment - further searching on the fiche found

Samuel son of John and Mary Welch (upholsterer) baptised 30 January 1792.

And then on the marriage fiche

John Welch of this parish and Mary Lawrie of this parish were married in this church by licence this twenty seventh day of April 1790 by me Jeremiah Bigsby
In the presence of Ann Lawrie and A Lawrie.

Well, at least if I hadn't found Michael, at least I'd found his wife and her parents....

But you can't let a good find get in the way of facts.
If this indeed was our Anastasia, this would mean that she was in her thirties before she started having her children and her last baby would have been born when she was 47. She would have also been 57 when she died in 1851, although her death certifcate said she was 45.

So reluctantly I've come to the conclusion this is not "our" Anastasia Welch, and that Michael Fitzhenry was not baptised in a St Peter's church anywhere in Nottinghamshire. But it does show the value of going back to the original records and checking things out for yourself.


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DNA Project testing prices reduced for June '09!

Our Fitzhenry/Fitz-Henry DNA Project is just over a year old.

We have 2 results in so far, which show 2 completely different male lineages for 2 different Fitzhenry family groups.

If you're a male Fitzhenry and are thinking about joining the study*, or a female Fitzhenry and want to badger a male Fitzhenry relative into joining the study*, then now is the time as the prices have just been reduced again for the month of June.

As study co-ordinator for the Fitz(-)henry DNA Project, I received an email from FamilyTreeDNA (our testing company) today:

Offer summary:
• Y-DNA37+mtDNA for $119. (The regular project price is $248 – a reduction of more than 50%!!)
• The promotion will begin on June 9, 2009 and will end on June 24, 2009
• Kits ordered in this sale must be paid for by June 30, 2009

So click on this link to get to our study page and read about how to join up:
www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Fitz-Henry

or if you want more information about the whole testing process click on this link:
www.familytreedna.com/

And when you've joined the Great Fitz(-)henry DNA Project, why not let us know by leaving a comment attached to this post?
We have a sister website dedicated to the Fitz(-)henry DNA Project at:
www.fitzhenrydna.com

* sorry, it's only the chaps who can actually take part in the testing as they have the male chromosome which is tested.

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