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Exploring Anglo-American genealogy

2012-11-12T16:54:58+00:00

Now that the days are shorter I find myself spending more time indoors and able to devour the newspapers in their entirety. While browsing through the obituaries recently one entry caught my eye simply because of the occupation.

Peter Wilson Coldham died on 2 September 2012. His obituary describes him as an "indefatigable genealogist". There can’t be many people in the world who have earned such a description.

According to Wikipedia Peter Coldham was born in 1926 and during his career as a British genealogist he was awarded the Bickersteth Medal in 1991. He was also a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists and Fellow of the Society of Genealogists.

He wrote over 26 books and multiple monographs and magazine articles, including many standard works on Anglo-American genealogy.

The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage 1607-1775 focused on a time when more than 50,000 English men, women, and children were deported to the American colonies.

People were deported for crimes ranging from the theft of a handkerchief, to bigamy or highway robbery and sold as indentured servants for between seven and 14 years, depending upon the crime against the crown.

Mr Coldham’s passion for cataloguing this information was to run over the course of 40 years. He produced the most comprehensive published list of the men, women and children transported to the colonies, the charges against them, the dates and places of sentencing, the ship names, and the places of arrival in the colonies to America between 1607 and 1776.

This is truly a remarkable and invaluable reference source for North Americans, enabling them to trace their European roots by providing them with a genealogical bridge via which they can trace their family history over the Atlantic.

Copies of Coldham’s various books are still available via the main bookselling websites but they are also in CD format and you should be able to access it at your main library. However, you can also look at digitised versions thanks to Ancestry and Google. Which is of course what I did.

And this has left me wondering quite how the lives of these people turned out.

What became of Richard Traverse, was a vagrant brought in from Leadenhall, born in Bridewell, Montgomeryshire and sent to Virginia on 12 September 1618? Presumably his only crime was being a vagrant.

And what happened to "Thomas Markham, a lewd boy that will not be ruled by his parents but continually cometh away, to be sent to Virginia on June 2nd 1621"?

But if you’ve lost an Abraham Smith from your tree I’ve just found him buried in November 1640 in the Ragged Islands after travelling onboard the Master of the Rebecca from London to Virginia.

Rather helpfully Coldham decided to include the details from assorted notes lodged in amongst the lists of those transported and these provide a cultural and historical flavour of the time.

22 April 1624 - Sir Thomas Smythe appeals for the clamorous tongue of John Bargrave to be stopped.

26 July 1624 - John Bargrave is to refrain from vexing Sir Thomas Smythe by suits in the Star Chamber.

28 April 1624 - A letter to John Harrison explaining that his brother George Harrison has died after a duel with Richard Stephens and could he please send instructions on how to distribute his estates in Virginia and the West Indies.

Emily Baker celebrates her 100th birthday

On a different note altogether, another newspaper article that caught my eye was the story of Emily Baker who celebrated her 100th birthday as normal with a card from the Queen. However, Emily was very surprised when the card arrived four days early (or so she thought).

After obtaining a copy of her full birth certificate it turned out that the Queen was indeed correct. Emily was in fact born on 24 September but had always celebrated four days later on the 28 of the month.

Staff at the care home where she lives said: "No one is sure how it happened, but we think it might be because she was born at home in a remote Lancashire village and it took her parents a few days to walk into the nearest town to register the birth."

This often happens when researching family history, but more frequently it occurs on the death certificate once a person has died, rather than when they are alive. Emily has decided to keep up the 100 year tradition of celebrating her birthday on the 28th.

African holiday for Welsh osprey

2012-02-07T10:52:52+00:00

There's a nice update here from the Dyfi Osprey Project. The first chick to leave the nest last year was called Einion and thanks to GPS tracking, we know that he's alive and well and currently holidaying in West Africa.

Einion set off in the morning from Mid Wales on 31 August and by late afternoon was already in Plymouth. The following day he was in Brittany and the next, northern Spain.

Thanks to satellite technology the team at the Dyfi Osprey Project have been able to track Einion - the first osprey chick to leave the nest in July 2011.

After a week he'd arrived in sunny Gibraltar and two days later was in Morocco where he stayed for over two weeks, half way between Casablanca and Marrakech.

Four weeks after leaving Wales he had reached Senegal, arriving on 29 September and is still there.

Find out more about this amazing migration story in the Dyfi Osprey blog.

Winter visitors

2011-11-21T10:50:43+00:00

The more exotic looking winter birds are beginning to arrive in Wales now and as usual, our Flickr group members have been first on the scene. Here's a taster of what we've received recently.

These shots of an Isabelline wheatear on North Gower have caused quite a stir amongst 'twitchers' as these birds are extremely rare visitors to Britain. Only 27 have been recorded since the 1800s and this is only the fourth sighting ever, in Wales.

An Isabelline wheatear by Tony Llewellyn.

Isabelline wheatear by Moses Davies.

Meanwhile snow bunting are arriving at certain beaches along the North Wales coast. These large bunting are moving south now from their Arctic haunts along with a resident Scottish population.

They will be with us now until February/ March time, so head north to Kimmel Bay, Rhyl if you want to see them.

A snow bunting on the beach in north Wales by Joe Wynn.

Meanwhile, closer to home, I was lucky enough to witness a huge starling 'murmuration' overhead as I made my way down through Kenfig Nature Reserve for a pre-work surf last week.

They flew in from Port Talbot direction and caused quite a few dog walkers to stop and stare skyward, as they danced in the skies above.

It won't be long before we're getting the Aberystwyth Pier birds putting on their spectacular aerial displays.

Black-headed gulls are now in full winter plumage and Linda Edwards snapped this lovely shot at Gallow's Point up in North Wales:

Black-headed gull by Linda Edwards

Your first swallow of the year

2010-04-08T12:21:58+00:00

They're out there... swooping into farmers barns and out buildings as we speak, buzzing along cricket pitches and showing off their latest aerial displays - learnt on the wing in Africa.

So have you seen your first swallow of 2010? If so, have you managed to capture one on camera yet?

Not sure what to look for? Watch some video clips.

'Steve B' from Cardiff snapped this one rummaging in the mud in May 2009:

We've had our first sand martin pic sent in and had a few reports of house martins and swallows arriving...but no evidence.

If you've snapped one or just seen some, then get in touch and leave a comment. The login process is dead easy and takes seconds to complete.

Any pics can be submitted to our Flickr group as usual and I'll feature some of the best ones. Alternatively you can e-mail your pics to me here at wales.nature@bbc.co.uk

It'd be nice to try and build up a picture of their movements as they return to Wales and see when and where they arrive first.

Gull

The Midwinter merry-go-round

2008-12-22T09:54:46+00:00

It was in fact a blackcap, which by all rights should have left our shores and migrated by now.

However this female blackcap (actually identifiable by the gingery rather than black feathers on its head) had either decided to stick around or more probably was a visitor from colder climates in Europe.

There's a funny sort of merry-go-round in winter as some birds leave our shores for warmer weather while others arrive here through the wildlife revolving door from colder countries to the east.

This time of year also sees the papers doing their annual reviews, from lists of top albums and films to people and moments of 2008. This got me thinking about what would be among my moments of the year in wildlife terms.

Was it seeing a leatherback turtle in the Atlantic or experiencing the stunning beauty of the river Wye on a glorious spring evening. Seeing a badger in Bristol city centre recently was pretty strange while during Autumnwatch I developed a new found fondness of muntjac deer and ravens.

Let me know which wildlife moments made their mark on you in 2008.

See a salmon spectacle

2008-11-28T14:15:28+00:00

Look out for flashes of silver as the females make nests called redds in the gravel to deposit her eggs. You can pick out the position of the redds in the river as the gravel is much lighter than the surrounding river bed. This is caused by the salmon effectively cleaning the silt off the gravel as it excavates the small trench.

Large males can also be seen defending territories and seeing off would-be suitors. One thing I've also found interesting is the story of the aptly named 'precocious parr'.

Parr are small male juvenile salmon. They remain in freshwater for one to four years, feeding on insects before changing into 'smolts' and heading for the ocean during spring of their second, third or fourth year.

The 'precocious parr' have a cunning tactic of getting in with the females. Due to their small size and sneaky manoeuvres, they're able to dart unoticed under the much larger mature spawning salmon and fertilize some of the newly laid eggs.

Why not check out some salmon spawning for yourself this weekend? The Wye and Usk Foundation are hosting a river walk this Sunday to witness this event and there are still places available. Give them a ring to book.

You can also check out our amazing archive clips of leaping salmon on the river Dee.

So, where are the other hotspots across Wales for watching salmon? We'd love to hear from you if you've caught a glimpse of their amazing acrobatics this autumn so drop me a line with your recommendations using the comment form below.

The eel's mammoth journey

2008-10-09T09:05:06+00:00

Unknown to me it had just made the journey all the way from the Sargasso Sea (south of Bermuda) and now it was in my hand, measuring only eight centimetres or so.

Eels are one of the truly great animal mysteries. No-one has ever witnessed or found them spawning. It's puzzled people for many years: Aristotle thought they came from rotting seaweed and even Sigmund Freud kept one to try to find out the answer.

It has been deduced that they spawn in the Sargasso Sea and make their way across the Atlantic as tiny creatures using the oceans currents such as the gulf stream.

They then travel up rivers, climbing weirs and other obstacles to make it to into the river system, an incredible effort for such a small fish.

They will spend most of their lives in fresh water and grow in size until it comes to the time when as an adult eels (now a pretty hefty creature) start heading downstream (and across land even) and head out into the ocean to start the journey back to the Sargasso Sea.

This will be one final journey to spawn and start the cycle again.

All epic stuff, and in an age of technological advances where people communicate each others' locations using a raft of devices, it's amazing to think that we still don't really know where the eel goes on its journey.

So why am I talking about them now? Well autumn is the time when the adults start their journey and start moving out from the rivers out to sea. It's dependent on rainfall and the stages of the lunar cycle but across the country they are starting their long and final swim.

On a more sober note over the last 20 years there has been a 90% reduction in the population abundance in Europe and this is serious news for our slivery tourists.

There are a number of factors involved: netting, fishing and barriers to migration, not to mention possible disruption from climate change to the currents that bring them across the Atlantic as young.

It is also sad to think not everyone likes eels. Another recollection I have was the attitude from a minority of anglers who took a dim view of eels and persecuted them for tangling their lines up. It's a practice I hope has stopped.

Like many things in wildlife they are inspirational and I'd like them to not go the same way as salmon and disappear from some of our rivers. Best of luck Eels - have a good trip.

And here's a sneak piece of information for you: we hopefully should be meeting some conger eels in this year's Autumnwatch, these huge sea creatures can reach up to three metres long - watch this space!