Meme: Our Immigrant Ancestors - Thomas King of Arkell Ontario

There is a lot of discussion about immigration in America right now. Tempers have flared, and different groups hold various strong opinions. There is also Brexit, where immigration was a large focus of the recent vote which resulted in the U.K. leaving the E.U.

I've been following this for several months and it occurs to me that those of us in Canada, America, and Australia have immigrant ancestors. Have you researched yours? Do you know who they were, why they came to your country and when? Do you know how they fared once settled in their new land? Were they welcomed? Were they shunned? Was their discrimination based on their religion or ethnic origin? These are all questions that are important, and interesting to discover. With that in mind, I'm the dedicating Saturdays (as many as needed) as the day to join me in discussing your immigrant ancestors.

You will be able to read any you are interested in by using the keyword Immigrant Ancestors. I'm going to share each week what I know of my immigrant ancestors to North America (whether that is USA or Canada)

One of my more recent immigrant ancestors was Thomas King. Thomas, his wife Harriet, their son David and Thomas' brother Lewis King left Suffolk England circa 1831 for North America.

Lewis and Thomas were born in Wenhaston, Suffolk England. In 1817 the brothers married and began raising their families but in 1831 they decided to settle in what was then the wilderness of Upper Canada (present day Ontario). Joining a small group of Englishmen, they sailed to New York and then crossed into Canada. Once in Upper Canada (now called Ontario) they established a new settlement called Arkell, named after the leader of the group. Descendants of the two pioneer brothers settled mainly in Michigan, Ontario, Australia, and Alberta.

A book on the family is available  from Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, or CreateSpace  
8.5x11. 
200 pages
Full Color on White paper 

Victorian Lunatic Asylum Patient Photos - So Tragic

Faces of pain: Harrowing portraits from Victorian lunatic asylum were taken by doctor who believed photos could help 'cure' them - even though many were only there because their husbands had tired of them. These Haunting images give an insight into harrowing lives of women forced to live at Suffolk County Lunatic Asylum

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3131630/Harrowing-portraits-Victorian-lunatic-asylum.html

Oops - I goofed!

I goofed. I assumed something when I should have known better. And my goof almost made me miss out on something genealogically important.

Several years ago I found a record for my 5th Great-Grandfather Thomas Blanden. He was recorded in Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Discharge Documents of Pensioners as being discharged from the British military in 1787 and was listed as a Chelsea Pensioner. 

Discharge Certificate Thomas Blanden
Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Discharge Documents of Pensioners

 I sent for the record and wrote about it on Olive Tree Genealogy blog in Ordering Documents Online from National Archives in Kew England - a Comedy of Errors Part 1 and Ordering Documents from National Archives in Kew - a Comedy of Errors Part 2 

The record consisted of his Discharge Certificate and it recorded him as age 48 and having served as a Drummer in the Suffolk Militia for 28 years. 

A few days ago I wrote about Thomas in a post called 52 Ancestors: 5th Great Grandpa Ordered Out of His Parish with Wife and Family in 1778 After reading the article,  Martha W. wrote to tell me that she found Thomas in Ancestry.com's online Chelsea Pensioner records. I knew Ancestry had these records but I had never searched them. I assumed they were the same records I'd already obtained from the National Archives in England. 

That's right. I'm an experienced researcher but I pulled a novice mistake by assuming two record sets were identical instead of going and checking.
 
You probably know where I'm heading with this story. Martha had kindly provided me with a direct link so on a whim I clicked through. I was positive I would find the same discharge papers I already had.

Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Registers of Soldiers Who Served in Canada, 1743-1882

To my surprise (and delight!) the Ancestry records are not identical. In fact they are a set of records called Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Registers of Soldiers Who Served in Canada, 1743-1882. And there was Thomas. He  is recorded as a Drummer,  age 48  and being pensioned after 28 years because he was "worn out" and had "bad eyes". These records gave me new information - that he had at some time been sent to Canada during his military life as a Drummer. His place of birth in Suffolk England was also recorded. It also gives me more detail to add to Thomas so that I have a better glimpse of him as a person not just a name.  

And now I have a new area of research open to me - to find out more about the movements and battles of the Suffolk Militia from 1759 to 1787 which was when Thomas served. I would really like to find out when he was in Canada and what battles he might have been part of. 

I am still reeling from having pulled such a bad mistake - that of assuming I knew what was in a set of records. It's not like I'm a novice genealogist. I've been researching for over 35 years and have been published in scholarly genealogical journals. One of the traits I pride myself on is being meticulous in my research and leaving no stone unturned. 

I goofed this time. This was a big rock and I am not sure if I would have turned it if Martha had not written. I hope I would have, eventually. In any case I have learned a valuable lesson (which I thought I already knew) - never assume! 

Credits: "Oops" by digitalart on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

52 Ancestors: 5th Great Grandpa Ordered Out of His Parish with Wife and Family in 1778

I'm writing about my 5th great-grandfather Thomas Blanden as part of Amy Crow's Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

On 18 MAY 1778, a Removal Order was served on my 5th Great Grandfather THOMAS BLANDON, DRUMMER in the Western Battalion Militia of Suffolk. Thomas, Mary, his wife, and their children Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Thomas & Susannah were ordered removed from St. James, Bury St. Edmunds and sent to Wenhaston. [Source: Removal Order FC189/G4/14. Suffolk, Ipswich Branch, WENHASTON PARISH RECORDS Date: 1778]

The basis for Removal Orders was the fact that each parish was responsible for any poor citizens. If a person or their family was too much of a drain on the parish resources, they could toss them out and have them sent back to their parish of birth. 

If a person entered a parish in which he did not have official settlement, and if it seemed likely he might become chargeable to the new parish, then an examination would be made by the justices or parish overseers. From this examination on oath, the justices would determine if that person had the means to sustain himself and, if not, which was that person's parish of settlement. As a result of the examination the intruder would then either be allowed to stay, or would be removed by a Removal Order.

Chelsea Pensioner Thomas Blandon

Removal Orders would often take a person or a family back to a place of settlement miles across the country, sometimes to a parish they had only known briefly as a small child. It was not uncommon for a husband and wife to have their children taken from them, each being removed to separate scattered parishes.

In Thomas' case, he and his wife and 5 children ages 1 to 13, were sent back to Wenhaston where Thomas was born. So far no records have turned up to indicate how the family fared, but 9 years later, in 1787, Thomas was pensioned out of the Army, having served 28 years as a Drummer. This entitled him, as a Chelsea Pensioner, to receive a small amount of  money. I wish I knew what happened to Thomas and his wife Mary Jackson but I've not found any more records for them.