Compliments of the Season

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter/summer solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted Calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that any given country is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting the follwing terms:
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawl. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes forher/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Have a good one, cousins Jack and Jenny.

Geoff

Welcome, Steven

Although, as I type this, his name has not appeared on the list of contributors^*, Steven has accepted our invitation to join. Steven has a mass of information on NICHOLLS names, mainly from Gulval but wider spread than that. He also has numerous contacts with Nicholls researchers. Ann and Mary, I note, are already members of Steven's Nicholls Forum.

So, Steven, welcome to this small experiment in simple, easy to administer, communications amongs people with similar family research interests. One day, maybe, I'll investigate something like your Nicholls and Friggens fora.

Geoff

^* Though by the time I'd finished, it had. Isn't it always the way?

Anniversary

Today is the 25th anniversary of loss of the Penlee Lifeboat "Solomon Browne" and its crew.

I quote from the Penlee Lifeboat website (http://www.penlee-lifeboat.ik.com/):

On 19 December 1981 the Penlee lifeboat 'Solomon Browne' was lost with all hands in hurricane conditions while going to the aid of the Coaster 'Union Star' which had engine failure and was being swept towards the southern coast of Cornwall. The coaster was also lost and there were no survivors. Coxswain William Trevelyan Richards was posthumously awarded the Institution's Gold medal while the remainder of the crew, Second Coxswain/Mechanic Stephen Madron, Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman, Emergency Mechanic John Blewett, crewmembers Charles Greenhaugh, Kevin Smith, Barrie Torrie and Gary Wallis were posthumously awarded Bronze medals.

Looking at the names, then and now, associated with the Penlee Lifeboat there are many that fit somewhere into our Drew family bramble bush.

An Interesting Contact

As I mentioned in my addendum below, I have had an e-mail from Steven here in my home town of Brisbane. Looking at his on-line tree, I find that there are many points of contact between our assorted branches and twigs and his. I have invited him to join the blog, and will be asking his permission to put his tree in our links list.

This also proves that people outside our membership group are finding and reading the Blog, so who know what else will appear out of the woodwork.

Of course, this extra information source makes the compilation tree I sent out this morning somewhat obsolete, as there are quite a few new lines of descendants of Robert Drew to be added in, and there also seems to be potential for linkages through assorted new 'spouses of' - familiar surnames are appearing all over the place.

Oh well, keeps me off the streets.

Pre-Holiday Ramblings

1) I have received a message from Peter Nicholls, who found my contact details on the Ballarat Genealogy page.
I quote:
"My father William Bona Nicholls was born in Bendigo in 1904, His father was Henry , and I know he was from second marriage. I was told that his family originated in Cornwall , my father also had six or seven brothers and sisters. Henry Nicholls worked on the Gold mines."
I have suggested that he visit Mary's web page for a look at Nicholls names, and said that we will keep a sharp eye out for William Bona.

2) Welcome to Janet, who has recently accepted an invitation to join the Blog. She is my 3rd cousin and, with Chris and Graham and that bunch of ex-Southampton cousins, the closest Drew relative I have outside Australia.

3) I am preparing the latest version of Descendants of Robert Drew, and will be ready to send it out soon. I have found a few little lines to add in, the latest being some descendants of Matilda DREW and Francis Thomas ANGWIN (m. 12 November 1838, Madron). This descendant line introduces the rather risque surname of FRIGGENS into the tree, as a 'spouse of'. Also among this lot is an apparent move of Angwins to Pennsylvania and New York.

Would you believe it? I've just received an e-mail from a person here in Brisbane whose wife has the FRIGGENS in her tree, and he looks as if he has more info on the branch that descended from William NEWTON and Frances DREW (Kathryn, take note when you return from your Cornish sojourn). I will make a post about this new info once I have had time to peruse the links he gave. I am inviting them to join as a member.

Old Mousehole

From an original painting by Kevin Platt

I feel I have to share this story with everyone. The image above is from a card that Chris sent me for my upcoming 60th. She bought it in Cornwall many years ago, she says, before she knew of any connection between herself and Mousehole. How very sweet of her to pass it on to me.

I have looked at the photographs, as old as 1893, of Mousehole on the Frith Collection website, and Mr Platt has certainly caught the 'feel' of the place.

http://www.kpds.co.uk/gallery.htm
for more of Kevin Platt's Cornish scenes.
http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/cornwall/mousehole/photos/mousehole_photos.htm
Frith Collection Photos of Mousehole

Welcome Gary

Gary has joined us today. He is the 5^th great grand-nephew of Grace Hoyte (or Hoite), my 4^th great grandmother (and Chris, Janet & Graham's).

My Legacy software has calculated that Gary is therefore my 6th cousin once removed.

Mary Ann Watkins

I think I might have found a lead to Chris, Janet and Graham's Great-grandmother! I was looking at the Census records for Bennett Drew, during the time he was at St Mary's Newington, Surrey, and in 1861, guess who was in the household?

Mary Ann Watkins, Servant, 19, Servant, born Middlesex (which is at odds, I admit, with the ages and place of birth (somewhere unintelligible in Monmouthshire, Wales) given in the later census records where she is married to John Drew of Illogan Cornwall)

(Whoops, I was one generation out! Must be the advancing years.)

Bennett Drew of Walworth, Surrey

The 1881 Census has him as a "boot and shoe maker", but maybe he wasn't always financially flush.. I came across this snippet in a London Gazette of early 1862:

NOTICE is hereby given, that the following is a copy of an entry made in the book kept by the Chief Registrar of the Court of Bankruptcy for the registration of Trust Deeds for the benefit of Creditors, Composition and Inspectorship Deeds executed by a Debtor, as required by the Bankruptcy Act, 1861, sees. 187, 192, 194, 196, and 198: — Number—661.

Title of Deed, whether Deed of Assignment, Composition, or Inspectorship — Composition and Release.

Date of Deed—5th January, 1862.

Date of execution by Debtor—5th February, 1862.

Name and description of the Debtor, as in the Deed — Bennett Drew, of No. 7, Richmond Place, East Street, Walworth, in the county of Surrey, Boot and Shoe Maker, of the one part

The names and descriptions of the Trustees or other parties to the Deed, not including the Creditors — And the several creditors of the said Bennett Drew whose names and seals are thereunto subscribed and set, of the other part.

A short statement of the nature of the Deed — A deed of composition and release, on payment of a composition of two shillings and sixpence in the pound to the creditors of the said Bennett Drew, who shall execute the said deed within twenty-one days from the time of such execution thereof by them.

When left for Registration—10th February, 1862, at 2 o'clock afternoon.

WM. HY. WHITEHEAD, Chief Registrar.