Sunday, June 19, 2016

The Fish that saved a Ship - The voyage of the Crusader in 1874 to Lyttleton

In last weeks post I mentioned the ship Crusader which carried quite a few of the Allington family to Lyttleton in 1874. The journey was not an uneventful one and from what it appears it is quite lucky that it got to New Zealand at all.

The Crusader bought several generations of the Allington family from Warwickshire to Canterbury in 1874 when George Allington was persuaded to lead a large group of agricultural workers to a new and better life in New Zealand.
This is a true story as told by Captain C.M Renaut, son of the Captain of the Crusader. This happened on the voyage which carried the Allington family from Gravesend to Lyttleton in late 1874.
After leaving the Azores  the ship began to leak. and she was making as much as two and a  half inches per hour, so the skipper was sorely tempted to put into one of the ports on the South America coast, towards which ships used to keep in order to pick up the trade winds; but the ships doctor ( the late Dr. Guthrie, of Christchurch) advised against this as yellow fever was rife in the South American ports at the time, and he did not like taking the risk of getting the scourge among the immigrants, of whom there was a large number on board. Captain Renaut, therefore kept on, and by the time the ship was nearing the Cape of Good Hope the leak took up and no water was coming in so it was deemed there was no need to put into port.

When the ship had passed the Cape, and it was too late to beat back to Cape Town, the leak got as bad as ever it had been off the South American Coast and everyone had a most anxious time.
There was nothing for it, but to hold on, and eventually the ship made port, still leaking badly.  A sail had been rigged under the hull, and other precautions were taken when the leak broke out after passing the Cape of Good Hope, because no one knew what was going to happen. The boats, fully provisioned, were swung out to be in readiness whatever happened.
Owing to the amount of work the pumps had to do, the pump leather supply gave out when the ship was in the southern seas. One day an American ship was sighted, and the Crusader signalled her, asking for some leather, but not the slightest notice was taken of the flags, and there was nothing for it but to make shift with whatever could be found. A bucket brigade was formed from young men among the emigrants, to supplement the pumps. It  was a most anxious time for everyone on board. The incident shows how easily something unforeseen may happen at sea, and also , possibly gives us the key to some of the mysteries of the sea- mysteries surrounding the fate of gallant ships that have sailed away and never been heard of again.
After the emigrants were landed and the cargo discharged, the ship was docked. A hole was located in the ships bottom and inside was the skeleton of a fish that had got in through the hole. It is possible that when the leak took up off the Cape of Good Hope, the fish’s body was blocking the orifice and prevented the water from flowing in freely. A photograph of the hole and the fish skeleton was taken by Mr de Maus, a noted photographer of ships , at Port Chalmers.
The Crusader was an iron ship, but she had previously been engaged in carrying copper ore, and it was thought that a lump had been left in the bilges, got wet and gradually wore, or corroded a hold in one of the plates.
Story taken from :The clipper ship Crusader, built 1865, broken up 1910 : memories and records of over fifty years' pioneering. With special reference to voyages 1874-1879 / Published 1928.





Monday, June 13, 2016

A Possible New Ancestor Discovery by DNA Connection- Thomas Sandall

I originally had my DNA tested at Ancestry.com to try and solve a few of my family tree brick walls and mysteries. Namely who was my 2x G Grandmother Mary Ann Gleeson, and also was my 2x Great Grandfather William McClellan actually William McClelland Secombe. Sadly to date neither of these brick walls have been smashed but I will say that my results, whilst confirming some lines of my family tree, has created a lot more mysteries than it has solved!!

I also tested my mother, and since then 1 distant paternal cousin has tested and  3 maternal cousins have also tested and one more is waiting to be processed.
My mothers results have proven the most help, but also the most mysteries.
The biggest mysteries resulted from the 9 NADs or New Ancestor Discoveries that popped up on her DNA profile . These are suggestions from Ancestry. They suggest because my mother has DNA connections to multple others who are all descended from that person, that perhaps she is also descended from him/her.
In most of these instances its almost impossible to see how there could be a relationship. Many of these NADs are families of long time US residents, with little or no history traced back to the UK let alone New Zealand.

However one NAD popped up recently that had an interesting connection.

In fact it is a group of NADs -



A quick bit of research indicates that Edwin Ford is the husband of Emily Sandall, and Ann Hill is the wife of Thomas Sandall who is Emily's father. Its clear here the connection is actually with the Sandall family and not the spouses.
The other clue is that there is a common birth location between the trees of Thomas Sandall and my maternal tree.

My mothers 2x G Grandfather was Henry ABBOTT.  He was born in 1837 ( baptised 10 September 1837) in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
Thomas Sandall was also born ( in 1818) in Kidlington Oxfordshire.

Henry's marriage certificate states his father is one Richard Dickson.

I have looked extensively for this Richard Dickson but have found no trace of him or any other Dicksons in Kidlington.

What I did discover today though was this.

Below is a clip from the 1841 Census for Kidlington  and there in Church End Martha Abbott and her son Henry is living right next to William and Mary Sandall and their children. Thomas, who was 22 at this time had left home and was living in Surrey at the time.

Martha goes on to have one more illegitimate child - Mary, in 1843, in Woodstock Oxfordshire, before marrying John Matthews in 1844, but by 1851 the Matthews, and all their children, including Henry and Mary are living back in Kidlington right next door to Thomas Sandalls parents again.

I doubt we will ever get paper proof that Thomas Sandall was Henry Abbotts father, and therefor my mothers 3x G Grandfather and my 4x G Grandfather, however the DNA connections are telling a fairly convincing tale

My mothers DNA profile is liked to 8 people descended from Thomas Sandall - 2 of them share 100 cM with her which is actually more than what you would expect from a 1/2 3rd cousin relationship.

Below are my mothers relationships with some descendants of Thomas' daughter Emily

As you can see there is a vast difference in the amounts of DNA.  In addition to these  , there are 2 more who dont appear on Emily's Circle but appear on her father Thomas's circle 
This is because they descend not from Thomas' daughter Emily but one  from his son Joseph and one from son Thomas. 
This combination of various descdendants of Thomas Sandall do appear indeed to confirm that a young Martha and Thomas Sandall - both born 1818 had a liason in their late teens which resulted in the birth of Henry Abbott. 

I found Thomas's life described on Family Search 
Thomas Sandall Sr. was born July 9, 1818 in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, England. He married Ann Hill the 27th of September 1842, at the St. Andrew's Church in the Parish of Ham, in the county of Surrey, He was a gardener by occupation and worked very hard to care for his wife and family. Two children were born to Thomas and Ann, they were named Thomas Jr. and Emily. When Thomas Jr. was four years old and Emily was two years old, Thomas Sr. was called by the English Government to go to South Africa. His mission was to teach the colonists how to care for their gardens and how to farm. Arriving in South Africa, they settled in the Town of Uitenhage. There he continued the work he loved best, gardening. The vegetables not needed by the family were sold to the natives. The climate was warm and the soil was rich so the two crops of vegetables would be raised in one year. They found wild grapes, the vines up and over trees fifty and a hundred feet high. There were wild figs, myrtle, apples and wild plums. They lived well by hard work. They had to be on the lookout at all times for the Coffers, these were what the natives were called. Some were friendly and some were savage. Thomas Sr. had to set traps for the monkeys because they destroyed their vegetables, especially the pumpkins. The Thomas Sandall family lived in South Africa about twelve years and while there five more children were born, they were Joseph, William, Annie ,Lucy and Hyrum. In 1858 the Sandalls and their friends were visited by two Elders from the Church of Je-sus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by the names of John Stock and John Wesley. The families were converted and were baptized into the Church. They had a strong desire to come to Zion. On March 22, 1860 in a company with about 70 of their friends, they left South Africa. The friends included: the Wiggills, Talbots, Greens, Bodilys, and Dawsons. The Sandalls got a chance to come to the United States with Robert Bodily and family. Thomas sold all of his belongings and boarded with his family, the ship "Alacrity" sailing from Port Elizabeth around to Cape Town, then over to the Isle of Helena. They were months on the water before they landed in Boston Harbor. While in Boston Harbor, their children took sick with the measles and their baby Hyrum died on the 9th of July 1860 at the tender age of eleven months. They left Boston and came west to Florence, Nebraska and remained there a short time. They started for Utah, with four hundred other saints, in the company of Captain William Budge. Their trip across the plains with ox team and covered wagon was the same as other pioneers. They had many hardships to endure with sickness, experiences with Indi-ans, and had very little food. Their daughter Lucy took sick and died at the age of 3 years old. They couldn't stop long enough to dig a grave deep enough to hardly cover with dirt, and they knew the wolves would have her out in a few hours. She was buried in Mr. Bodily's bass violin case for a coffin. Her parents were heartbroken at the loss of their daughter and under such horrible circumstances. This made two children buried since leaving South Africa. They were grateful to Brother Bodily for the violin case, otherwise she would have been wrapped in a blanket, or something of that nature. They arrived in Salt Lake in 1861 and settled in what was then called Kays Creek in Davis County, Utah. It was while living there that their oldest daughter, Emily, met Edwin Ford. She married him on July 12,1862 in plural marriage and went immediately to the town of Washington in Washington County, Utah. Thomas Sr. brought a large amount of ground in the Central part of the town and continued his occupation as a farmer once again. Two more children were born while they lived there, Jim was born and died while a baby. About this time the site of Kays Creek was divided. The north side of Kay’s Creek was called Layton and the south side, Kaysville. It was on the north side where Thomas Sandall had made his home. Baby Jim was buried in the Kaysville, Layton Cemetery, but all traces of his grave have been lost. John Sandall was the next child and was the baby of the family as Ann was getting into middle age at this time. The children grew up helping their parents where they could and getting married when they were old enough. They had childhood and games and dances such as all other pioneer children had along with schooling.

And below, here is a photo which is apparently Thomas Sandall, Mormon Pioneer  my 4x G Grandfather!
 


Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Allington Family - Warwickshire to New Zealand

Ive been doing a bit of research about the Allington branch of my family this week. It turns out a lot more of the family emigrated to New Zealand than I had originally discovered. In particular I found out a lot about George Allington and will be doing several pages about him in the near future.
To recap my connection to the family - Sarah Ann Allington was my 3x G Grandmother. She married Henry Abbott and her daughter, my 2x G Grandmother Louisa Abbott married William Grant. Their daughter Annie Elizabeth Grant married William McClellan, and their daughter Bettie McClellan was my grandmother.
George Allington was Sarah Ann's brother. The family is quite convoluted as there are several illegitimate births, however it appears all of these children joined the family in New Zealand as well.

John Allington (1806-1875) and Mary Moss had the following children

George Allington 1832-1913 ( Emigrated  in 1874 to  NZ on the Crusader) - George's wife Hannah Robbins had an illegitimate daughter, Mary Robbins who married James Watson and this family also emigrated to NZ on the Crusader with George and Hannah)
Mary Allington 1835- 1859
Charles Allington 1840-1913 (The only living child who remained in the UK, dying in Cheshire)
Sarah Ann Allington (1841-1912) Emigrated in 1874 to NZ on the Tweed) with her husband Henry Abbott and children
Charlotte Allington (1843-1913) Emigrated in 1874 to NZ on the Crusader) Charlotte had 2 illegitimate sons, Charles and George. Both emigrated to NZ on the Crusader with Charlotte and her husband Daniel Lindon. Charles is listed in the passenger list as Charles Allington but George is listed as George Lindon, however later in NZ is known as George Allington
Elizabeth Allington (1847-1859)
Lucy Allington (1849-1943) Emigrated in 1874 to NZ on the Tweed with her husband James West and children




When George Allington led a party of  over 200 agricultural labourers  and their families to New Zealand aboard the SS Crusader in 19874 he was not the first in his family to arrive.  In fact just 3 weeks before the Crusader left Plymouth for Lyttleton, his sister Sarah Ann with her husband Henry Abbott, and their children,  and his sister Lucy and her husband James West and their children had arrived in Otago.  It would be certain that George had already made the decision to come, before receiving word from his sisters as to the suitability of life in their new home.

George, Sarah Ann and Lucy had 2 more siblings living at the time of their emigration, Charles (who was in the Army and the only sibling to remain in the UK) and Charlotte, who with her husband Daniel Lindon, her two sons born previous to their marriage, and the couple’s own children joined George on the clipper ship Crusader on 25th September 1874.

George invited his adult son Charles to join him on the voyage, and Charles accepted, marrying Hannah Wright just 2 days before the family left for Plymouth.
Additionally George’s wife Hannah Robbins had a daughter Mary born before her marriage to George. Mary Robbins married  James Watson, and they too boarded the Crusader on 25th September 1874 with their infant son Charles who sadly died on the arduous ocean voyage.  Mary was pregnant when she boarded and gave birth on board to son Ernest Watson on December 16th 1874.
Based just on these two voyages,  31 people, nearly 2 complete generations of  Allingtons left all they knew for a new life in the Antipodes.

Arrived on the Tweed 3 September 1874

ABBOTT     Henry         38         
                     Sarah          36        
                     Louisa         16        
                     Frederick     14        
                     Sarah           13        
                     Phoebe          9        
                     Arthur           5        
                     Lucy              3        
                     Mary            8 months

WEST          James         28            
                     George         6        
                     Edward        4        
                     William        9 months    

Arrived on the Crusader 31 December 1874

ALLINGTON George          43    
                        Hannah         43        
                        Charles         20    
                        Hannah         21
                         Emily          17    
                         Elizabeth     14    
                         William       12    

LINDON         Daniel         30    
                        Charlotte     31        
                        George          9  (Allington)
                         Edward        6        
                         John             3
ALLINGTON  Charles       12

WATSON         James           35    
                         Mary           24        
                         Charles W     1   dies on board 19/11/1874
                         Ernest               Born on board 16/12/1874