My grandmother was born a Martyn - with a Y. That was always how it was said to me - a Martyn with a y. I knew her father's name - Joseph and that he apparently came from London (and was a cockney).  I got his marriage certificate a few years ago and found he was born in Hammersmith, London, his father's name listed as Joseph Edward and that he was a wheelwright. His mother's name was Ann Rose.

That was all I had for a while.

Then when talking to an aunt, she told me of a cousin I have never met and is into genealogy, found that Joseph's name in England was Martin - with an i. I decided to make the move and try ancestry.com with their 2 week free deal (but putting in your credit card details and all in case you forget to cancel so they charge you for a whole year!). Within 10 minutes of joining I had the marriage of Joseph Martin and Ann Rose in Chelsea 1852. His father was William and was a gardener and her father was Benjamin Rose and a bricklayer.  I remember being so excited that I had made this breakthrough after 3 years of looking, looking, looking. However there is where the Martin info stopped. I was unable to find ANYTHING more about Joseph Martin - with an i and his family.

I had gathered little pieces of family stories over the years from various sources; Annie Rose was born in Scotland. Joseph senior (wheelwright) was murdered by his business partner and Joseph junior was a ships captain. Now I have found out that none of these things are correct. I have gradually pieced together things over the years to find out that Joseph Martin and his family had a lot of tragedy and bad times in their family.

So Joseph Edward Martin born about 1830 was a mystery to me for a while. I did find one born in Hammersmith to William and Mary but that was all I had and how was I to know if this was right or wrong? I tried to find census records to no avail and anything else. I got very frustrated that a family member living in London could not be found! I had struggled with family in Ireland but LONDON should be easy - shouldn't it?  I thought I made a breakthrough a few years ago with the Martin's. I found a Joseph Martin, wheelwright - a little older than I thought living in London, and that lead me down a path - the wrong one as I found out later. I spent a lot of time looking into this family and adding a sizable tree of information - although I did have a few doubts as some things didn't quite fit in.

Then last year my breakthrough came. I was searching for "William Martin, gardener, Middlesex" on google and came across a post about a John Edlin Martin whose father was William Martin, gardener and was born in Middlesex about 1829. This John Edlin moved to Australia and had a family. I decided to have a go and look for him and his family. I assumed that EDLIN might have been a mother's maiden name and found a William Martin married to a Mary Edlin in Middlesex. I also found John Edlin born to William and Mary in Hammersmith  - and I suddenly realised the same couple I had been looking at as potential parents to my Joseph Edward from years prior WAS the people I was looking for.

I looked on the 1841 England census and found Joseph and John living with a Thomas and Mary HILL - Hill? What was going on?  Thomas was also a gardener and they were living in Fulham - not far from Hammersmith. The boys were both missing in the 1851, but Thomas and Mary were living with other people. I looked into John Edlin's family tree that was online and found he married in 1845. He was supposed to have been born about 1829 so he was only 16 when he married. He emigrated to Australia before the 1851 census so that was why he was missing. But where was my Joseph Edward? Why were they living with Thomas and Mary Hill?  With great luck, I came across a badly transcripted census for 1861 with Josh Martin, his wife Ann and children Josh, John Js and Eliz An - living with them was Joseph Martin Reed, nephew

I looked into the people living with Thomas and Mary Hill in the 1851 census - Sidney Reed- a widower and his 2 children Sarah and William Reed. I expanded their tree and came into contact with a descendant.  I currently had lots of bits of info - some fitted and some did not. With the help of this other descendant and looking at what I found- we both came out with a scenario which fitted:

William Martin married Mary Edlin in 1819 and had Maria, Elisabeth, Priscilla Anne, John Edlin and Joseph Edward. William was born about 1797 in Middlesex and Mary about 1795 in Bathchworth, Hertfordshire. William, a gardener died in 1833 and Mary remarried Thomas Hill in 1834.
This was why the youngest boys were living with Thomas and Mary in the 1841 census. There must have been hardship as the next daughter up, Priscilla had been moved to Hertfordshire and lived with her mother's family - the Ive family (her mother's maternal line). There is no sign of Elisabeth Martin b 1822 and the eldest daughter Maria had married in 1837 (at age 17) to Sidney Algernon Reed. Sadly Maria was dead by the 1841 census, aged only 20 or 21 and he moved in with his mother-in-law and her husband in the 1851 census.  John Edlin also married young at about 16 years and had emigrated to Australia.  Priscilla had moved in with an uncle and cousins. But no sign of Joseph Edward in 1851.  In 1861 Joseph (or Josh in the census transcription) is living with his wife and 3 children and has William Martin Reed, nephew and also a wheelwright living with him.  William's father had died in 1856 so both his parents had died before he was 15.  We don't know how long William Reed lived with his grandmother before moving to Surrey and his uncle. I cannot find where or when Mary Edlin Martin Hill died and I can't find her in the 1861 census so it's possible she died before then.

I have found Joseph Martin born 1853 in Middlesex and John James Martin born 1855 and Elizabeth Annie Martin born 1858 in Surrey  - but after the 1861 census I find nothing on them.

To my surprise I found that Joseph Edward had a child, Annie in 1866 with a Mary Annie Horwood. I realised that Ann Rose Martin must have died after the 1861 census and so another young woman has passed away. Ann was born in 1830 so was only in her early 30's when she died. I can't find when that was either.  To my surprise I found that Joseph Edward died in 1867, only a year after his daughter Annie's birth. I found Mary Annie Horwood in Australia with a family and married to an Evan Davies. No Annie. I assume she died but cannot say as I can't find anything to confirm this. Mary Annie married quickly after Joseph Edward's death and was in Australia and with 4 children. The people who have her in the tree have her marriage to Joseph Edward Martin but no sign of daughter Annie.

So looking back at the Martin line: William Martin died in his early 30's, his wife Mary Edlin lived until she was in her early 50's. Out of their children, Maria died about aged 20, Elisabeth - unknown, Priscilla died in her late 20's and Joseph Edward also died in his late 30's. Only John Edlin lived into his 60's.

I finally decided to get Joseph Edward's death certificate to see what happened. Was he murdered? Weeks of waiting for my certificate to reach me and I found he had kidney issues - definitely not murdered. I did wonder if his father William might have been the one to be murdered, but it's hard to find out since he died in 1833 before records were officially recorded. It's possible but it's also possible he and his other children died of these kidney issues - maybe it was genetic issues?

I looked into the area and found west of London was a great gardening area and hence why William Martin and Thomas Hill both worked there. In his youngest daughter's Annie's birth certificate it says William was a florist so he may have worked more with flowers than plants. The area supplied London with all it's produce, fruits plants and flowers. I found the houses and areas where they lived using the census records and the birth  marriage records.

I have a much better picture of this elusive family than I did a year ago. I still can't find when or where or to who William Martin was born. I did find more on the Edlin and Ive lines in Hertfordshire (and realised I lived very close to where the Ive family were from when I lived in England!). I still don't know about Joseph Edward's first wife Ann and when she died or his daughter Annie with his second wife. Still things to find out and learn about. Still interesting to me!

Blog to family trees

I have always been interested in my family tree, ever since I learnt about a family tree my mother had that went back to 1500. That amazed me that I had family links going back so far in Switzerland, a country on the other side of the world. In addition my father used to tell stories about his relatives that were blown out of context, still contain bits of the truth.

When I FINALLY got my own computer about 6 years ago, the first thing I did was to start a family tree and quickly made headway. I had pottered around with the tree since I was in my teens and had added bits here and there over the years but having a computer and an online tree was a different experience. I could add and delete easily.

When I think back to what I knew then and what I know now, I cringe. I was so eager to add as many names to my tree as I could - and I did. Some parts were easy. I love the Swiss and how they record everything and familysearch.org was great in helping me add more. Facebook stalking helps me with the more recent members of the tree and I have added a lot of people who I have come into contact with over the years with family in common.

Now my tree has over 20,000 names - all in 6 years or so! I have got side tracked with some parts with people not even related to me but it's online - so I take it or people have given me their trees and I add it or there is an interesting story to it, so I add it. Sometimes people have got families mixed up so I have increased a virtually non-related line in order to help sort things out. The more I add the more I have and the more hits I get from other trees and the more I add.

Recently I have been more interested in the family story and a few months ago had some success with a branch I had been trying to sort out for a while. The satisfaction I felt from that was really amazing and I am trying to verify where I can and find more about the social history to get a more rounded viewpoint rather than a name and some dates.

I would like to add stories in where I can which I have found interesting, tricky or just plain fun.