Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Your opinions! I want them!

It's spring cleaning time! And I see no reason for my blogs to be excluded from this time-honoured tradition. Therefore, I've put together a short survey, in hopes of getting some feedback from my readers on what could use some cleaning up around here. It's totally anonymous, and basically asks your opinions on the blog's content and appearance, but there's room for you to comment on whatever you like.

So, if you'd be so kind, I'd love it if you could take a few moments to give me your comments and constructive criticism. The survey is here. (I tried to embed it, but it was too big.) Please and thank you! Oh, also, all the questions are optional, so you don't even have to do the whole thing if you don't want to. Every little bit helps!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Ann Beaumont - Brick wall smashed!

Ann Beaumont was my 3x great grandmother. She was an exciting name to discover, because this revealed the origin of the name Beaumont, which runs in my mom's family. Ann had a son named Beaumont Jackson, Beaumont's grandson (my grandpa) has the middle name Beaumont, and my uncle has the same name as my grandpa, including the middle name Beaumont. So it was very cool to learn that that came from the last name of my great great great grandmother!

What I knew about her as of this morning was this: She was born in about 1841. On January 1, 1860, she married John Jackson in Kirkheaton, West Yorkshire. They had a son named Beaumont, who moved to Manitoba. Eventually Ann also moved to Manitoba (between 1911 and 1916, I think).

Today I discovered the site Beaumont Family History, which specifically says it studies the Beaumonts of Yorkshire! I was so excited! So, I sent them an email telling them what I knew about Ann Beaumont. Within a few hours I got an email back from Diana Beaumont, telling me that Ann lived in an area they hadn't covered in detail yet, but still giving me two census records, which give me the names of her parents, and 4 siblings. She also provided the exact dates of birth and baptism. I nearly fainted with joy.

So, here's what I know now: Ann was born on February 5, 1841, and baptised in Kirkheaton on May 16, 1842. Her parents were John Beaumont, a surgeon, and Mary (ooh, looks like I've got another brick wall to chip away at!). In the 1841 census, they lived in the household of Joshua and Ellenor Inman, on Stafford Hill (perhaps this street; check out that street view: beautiful!). Next door was a 60 year old John Beaumont, who could possibly be Ann's grandfather. Here's what the censuses contain:

1841 Kirkheaton Census, HO 107/1278/3
At Stafford hill
Joshua Inman 40 farmer
Ellenor Inman 40
John Beaumont 30 surgeon
Mary Beaumont 30
Ann Beaumont 4 months

John Beaumont 60 farmer
Charles Stancliffe 25 cow dealer
Joseph Beaumont 7
 
1851 Kirkheaton Census, HO 107/2294
At Hill Side #123 on schedule
John Beaumont H 43 surgeon Kirkheaton
Mary Beaumont W 43 Kirkheaton
Tom W Beaumont S 14 scholar Kirkheaton
Ann Beaumont D 10 scholar Kirkheaton
Maria Beaumont D   8 scholar Kirkheaton
Alfred Beaumont S   5 scholar Kirkheaton
Ada Beaumont D   3 Kirkheaton
 
This is so exciting! I'm not very good at working with UK records, but at the very least I can take this information to the library and search the Ancestry database, and hopefully find even more details.
 
I'm so grateful for the genealogy community! I only hope I can be this helpful on someone else's brick wall one of these days! :)