17th JANUARY

1883 - James Johnson Sill & Alice Amies Dando were married 129 years ago. Alice was the grand-daughter of my 3 x great-grandfather, Joseph Dando, the younger.

1884 - exactly a year later, Alice's brother wed. Thomas Stotesbury Dando & Helena D Jones were married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. They were first cousins.

1854 - Catherine Emma Dando, daughter of Joseph Dando (above) and Harriet Catherine, nee Williams, died. The Bristol Mercury published the following announcement:
"DIED. Jan. 17, aged 5 months and 9 days, Catherine Emma, daughter of Mr. Joseph Dando, jun."

19th JANUARY

1878 - Richard Fryer died, aged about 32, and was buried in Chepstow Municipal Cemetery.

20th JANUARY

1933 - Richard Fryer's wife, Rebecca (nee Fisher), died 55 years and one day after her husband. She too, was buried at Chepstow.

1791 - 221 years ago, Susanna Dando was born in Dursley, Gloucestershire. She was the daughter of Stephen Dando and Elizabeth, nee Jones.

1811 - Louisa Dando, daughter of my 4 x great-grandparents, was born in Bristol.

1829 - and another Dando birth - Adelaide Dando was born in Norwood, Surrey. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Dando, the elder, and his second wife, Caroline, nee Hewitt.

21st JANUARY

1856 - Thomas Stotesbury Dando was born in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He later ran a printing and publishing company in Philadelphia.

22nd JANUARY

1917 - Thomas Dando's mother, Beulah Dando, nee Parker, died in in Cheltenham Township, Montogomery Co., Pennsylvania, USA.

24th JANUARY

1793 - Edward Worgan & Sarah Banister were married at Tirley, Gloucestershire, 219 years ago. Edward was the son of my 6 x great-grandparents, John & Margaret Worgan.

25th JANUARY

1881 - my great-grancher, James Geake, was born at Wapsworthy Farm near Peter Tavy in Devon. Family legend has it that for many years, he celebrated his birthday a couple of days adrift of the actual date and it was only when he obtained a copy of his birth certificate some years later that he realized he was born on the 25th.

1816 - Isaac Summerhill & Phoebe Fryer were married at Saul, Gloucestershire. Phoebe was the daughter of my 5 x great-grandparents, John Fryer & Phoebe, nee Taysum.

26th JANUARY

1907 - Emma Jane Smale, nee Friend, died, aged 42, at the Cottage Hospital in Tavistock, Devon. The cause of death was pneumonia, premature labour and exhaustion.

27th JANUARY

1831 - David Davis & Ann Fryer were married in Gloucester, 181 years ago. David was a widower from Chepstow and one of the witnesses at the wedding was Ann's half-sister, Elizabeth Robinson, nee Hall. Ann sadly died the following year.

29th JANUARY

1869 - Charles Joseph Dando died at the age of 26 and was buried in the Spiers family vault in Kensal Green Cemetery, West London. Charles was the grandson of wealthy silk manufacturer, Joseph Spiers (1781-1865).


Inscription for Charles Joseph Dando
on the Spiers family vault in Kensal Green Cemetery
(Image: copyright © Joseph O'Kelly, Hygra.com.)
31st JANUARY

1905 - George Powell of Coldharbour Farm, Uley, Gloucestershire, died leaving £890 18s. 8d.

1686 - 326 years ago, my 7 x great-grandparents, Arthur Pitcher/Pitchard & Ann Ansley, were married in All Saints Church, Newland, Gloucestershire.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

Family Tree section

• Added names and notes for my 6 x great-grandparents, Michael Bragg, the younger, & Jane Lake, plus their children.
• Added names and notes for my 7 x great-grandparents, Michael Bragg, the elder, & Deborah Shapton, plus their children.
• Added the name and notes for my 8 x great-grandmother, Jane Bragg.
• Added names and notes for my 8 x great-grandparents, John Shapton & Jane Burnbury, plus their children.
• Added names and notes for my 9 x great-grandparents, Thomas Burnbury & Rebecca ? This is the first set of 9 x great-grandparents that I've discovered and documented to date.

Relevant place names: Thornbury and Great Torrington - both in North Devon.

Resources > Family Tree Reports section

• Updated the Maternal Family Tree reports plus the Ancestors of Phyllis Grace Weaver report.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

My latest acquisition is a new external hard drive. I'm careful about backups and I keep more than one backup of my system and files, so when my spare 250 Gb external drive recently gave up the ghost I decided it was time for a new one.

I've always owned LaCie drives in the past. Mine have been chunky desktop ones and usually live on top of my computer. I don't have a particular need for a portable drive, as such, and this has always suited me. However, when I recently discovered my aunt's Western Digital 'My Passport' drive, I was smitten and decided to get one to replace the drive that was defunct.


The Western Digital 'My Passport' Essential Portable Hard Drive
Here's what I like about it…

• When it comes to operation, the 500 Gb Western Digital 'My Passport' Essential Portable Hard Drive doesn't rely upon a separate power supply and is just as convenient as using a memory stick in a USB port. It also comes with fast USB 3.0 connectivity and is backwards compatible to USB 2.0.
• The drive is so small and neat and is, quite literally, portable. This, for me, means I don't have to keep it plugged in to my PC all of the time but can disconnect and store it away quickly and easily. In the event that my PC gets a virus or suffers an electrical surge, then it wouldn't affect any backups if the hardware wasn't physically connected at the time.
• Because of its size and weight, you can easily slip the WD 'My Passport' into your laptop or netbook case, or even your pocket, and go. When not in use, you can put it away in a desk drawer.

The WD My Passport Essential Drive is so neat and small
Formatted for Windows, if required, the drive can be reformatted to operate on a Mac. Larger capacity models are also available and you can choose to make use of password protection and encryption for added privacy and security.

I've chosen to keep my 1Tb LaCie drive attached to my PC for daily backups and use my new 'My Passport' drive for additional backups. The 'My Passport' comes with a program which, once set up, will automatically and continuously back up vital files such as your Documents, Pictures, etc. and even your emails, whenever you add or change a file and will keep up to 25 different versions of a file if you choose to. If you make changes without the drive connected then it will perform the backup as soon as you attach it once again. You don't have to think about it at all so, for the technically challenged, this is a doddle. I've tried the software out but, after upgrading to the latest version, it kept continually catagorizing the files and using up lots of system resources so I've uninstalled it. You also need to bear in mind that the software doesn't allow for a full backup of the whole computer system. Nevertheless, I saw on my aunt's Windows 7 computer a Backup program within Windows which did this very thing. I'm still using XP and have been using Acronis True Image Home software for all of my daily, weekly and whole system backup solutions and will continue to use this on the LaCie drive. I will simply use Copy & Paste from time to time to back up data to the 'My Passport'.


The WD My Passport Essential Drive on top of my LaCie Drive
I can rest easy in the knowledge that all of my family history files and photos are safe, not to mention all of my business data too.

Disclaimer - this is my own personal opinion and I have no affiliation to Western Digital.

[Why Tech Tuesday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

1st JANUARY

1757 - 255 years ago, my 7 x great-grandfather, John Fryer, died. He was buried at Arlingham, Gloucestershire, three days later and his tomb still stands in the churchyard today, although it's looking a little worse for wear nowadays.

2nd JANUARY

1731 - John Fryer's mother-in-law and my 8 x great-grandmother, Margaret, the wife of Thomas King, died and was buried at Fretherne, Gloucestershire.

3rd JANUARY

1870 - another winter death - Mary Horn (nee Chapman), died at the age of 86 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in Black Torrington, Devon.

1807 - Jehoiada Dando & Lydia Bridgeman were married 177 years ago in St Philip & St Jacob, Bristol.

7th JANUARY

1836 - John Oliver & Sarah Woodall, my 3 x great-grandparents, were married in Doncaster, Yorkshire.

8th JANUARY

1907 - Sarah Fryer (nee Watkins) died, also aged 86, and was buried in her husband's grave in St Mary the Virgin's Churchyard in Arlingham, Gloucestershire.

9th JANUARY

1782 - my 4 x great-grandparents, Samuel Cotterell & Elizabeth Lewis, celebrated their marriage 230 years ago in Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

10th JANUARY

1918 - the 10th January sees the anniversary of the death of my 2 x great-grandfather, William Elbert Dando, who died in West Kensington at the age of 74. Probate was granted to his 'widow' within the month. He left a total of £78 12s, 10d which doesn't seem very much considering the wealthy, middle-class life he'd led. Judging by his track record, I wonder if he'd syphoned the money off somwehere beforehand!

11th JANUARY

1888 - my great-grandmother, Florence Smale, was born on 11th January, 124 years ago, at Heathfield, Tavistock, Devon. She shares her birthday with her grand-daughter, my mum, who isn't quite so ancient!!

12th JANUARY

1867 - Alitea Waldegrave Barnes, was the illegitimate daughter of my 2 x great-grandmother, Sarah Louisa Oliver, and she was born at Bay Street, Brighton, Victoria, Australia. A short time later, Sarah and Alitea found themselves "in London towards the end of 1869 without money or friends". Sarah then hooked up with William Elbert Dando, to whom she'd previously been engaged before she'd skipped off to Australia on the SS Great Britain with the man who subsequently turned out to be Alitea's father, John George Waldegrave Barnes, who himself went on to have several wives and numerous children, living much of the time in Australia.


A First Class Cabin on the SS Great Britain
1879 - Mary Alice Weaver, was born in Curry Rivel, Somerset, 133 years ago.

1769 - 1 month old, Stephen Dando, died and was buried in the Cemetery at Rodborough Tabernacle near Stroud, Gloucestershire. Stephen was the son of my 5 x great-grandparents.

13th JANUARY

1748 - Mills Gwinn & Mary ?, were married in Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire. Mary was my 6 x great-grandmother and was the widow of my 6 x great-grandfather, James Pitcher.

15th JANUARY

1828 - 184 years ago, my 4 x great-grandfather, Richard Fryer, married Ann Bailey Pitcher, who was his second wife. They married in Uley, Gloucestershire, which was the home of the bride.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

Family Tree section

• Added more notes for my 3 x great-grandfather, Philip Martin. More to follow.
• Added more notes for Philip's first wife, Maria Bate.
• Added the children of my 4 x great-grandparents, Richard Martin & Mary Courtis, plus notes for both the couple and their children.
• Added Richard & Mary's daughter, Elizabeth Martin's (b abt 1801), two illegitimate children, Mary and John Martyn, plus notes.
• Added Richard & Mary's daughter, Grace Martin's (b abt 1815), husband, Thomas Hamlyn.
• Back further, added Richard Martin's siblings, Grace (b abt 1769), Daniel (b abt 1771) and Philip (b abt 1774) Martin, all illegitimate children of my 5 x great-grandmother, Elizabeth Martin. Also added notes for the family.
• Added a few more notes for my 4 x great-grandparents, Roger Bragg & Ann Brock, and their children.
• Added Roger Bragg's second wife, Mary Squire, and their three children, with notes, plus daughter, Elizabeth's husband, Thomas Short.
• Added Roger Bragg's parents, my 5 x great-grandparents, John Brag & Joanna Dennis, and their children, plus notes.
• Added Roger Bragg's brother and sister-in-law, John Bragg & Mary Skinner, and their children, plus notes.

Relevant place names: Bradford, Thornbury, Milton Damerel, Langtree, Shebbear, Black Torrington, Sutcombe - all in North Devon.

At this point, I'd like to thank Judy Adams, the OPC (Online Parish Clerk) for Bradford, Thornbury & Black Torrington, for her invaluable assistance in helping me further my research into my North Devon ancestors.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover how far back the name, Grace Martin, goes. My great-great-grandmother was Grace Martin, daughter of Philip Martin & Mary Bragg. It seems Grace had an aunt and a great-aunt of the same name. My gran's middle name was Grace, presumably after her grandmother, my great-great-grandmother mentioned above, who looked after her for a few years after my gran was orphaned. I was going to give a daughter of mine Grace for a middle name but I had a son instead.

Resources > Family Tree Reports section

• Updated the Maternal Family Tree reports plus the Ancestors of Phyllis Grace Weaver report.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software is very efficient for use in converting the printed word into editable, machine-encoded text. But how do we deal with old, handwritten documents? My husband bought a dictation machine a few weeks ago and I thought I'd put it to the test by transcribing my 5 x great-grandfather's 4-page, handwritten will.


The Olympus VN-8500 PC Dictation Machine
and a copy of James Rice's Will
(Click the image to see a larger version.)
The gadget is the Olympus VN-8500 PC Dictation Machine with Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking Recorder Edition software. Purchased from Argos, the machine itself is amazingly small and as light as a feather......Read more »

Family Tree section

• Added notes for my 5 x great-grandparents, George Arnold (b. abt 1755) & Jane Orton and also added their children besides their son, George.
• Added my 6 x great-grandparents, Thomas Arnold & Lucy Jeffery, plus some notes and their remaining children.
• Added the names of my 6 x great-grandparents, Thomas Orton & Ann ?
• I acquired the marriage certificate for my 3 x great-grandparents, Philip Martin & Mary Bragg, and discovered that Mary's surname wasn't Brogg as listed by the General Register Office. I therefore updated their page with these details.
• Added Mary's parents, Roger Bragg & Ann Brock, together with their other children plus notes.
• I added a few more notes for my 5 x great-grandfather, James Rice.

Relevant place names: Nuneaton in Warwickshire, Thornbury, Shebbear & Bradford - all in North Devon, and Slimbridge & Coaley in Gloucestershire.

Resources > Biographies section

• Having finally transcribed the will of James Rice, I added a biography page for him which includes the full transcript.

Resources > Family Tree Reports section

• Updated all the family tree reports. This is a work in progress and further additions are made as and when time permits.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

A couple of months ago, I created and ordered a book from Shutterfly.com and gave it as a Christmas present. I couldn't blog about it before as I didn't want to give the game away.

Anyhow, I thought I'd write about how pleased I am with the product - the finish is excellent. I ordered the 8x11 inch hard photo cover book and created a Custom Book rather than using the Simple Path. Although a bit fiddly and time-consuming because everything is done over the internet, the results are absolutely worth it. The pages are glossy and my photographs came out exceptionally well.

Called 'Ancestral Trails - Pathways to the Past', my theme for the book was the homes and districts where my paternal ancestors lived and worked using modern day photographs. I'd taken most of the photos on family history trips. I also added text and labels to explain the pictures.

Because I live in the UK, the postage and packaging almost doubled the cost but I can highly recommend the product and the service and I'm glad I ordered an extra copy for myself.

So, without further ado, here are some images of the book.


Front Cover

(Click the image above to view a larger version.)

(Click the image above to view a larger version.)

Even this close-up doesn't quite do the actual quality of the book justice
(Click the image above to view a larger version.)

Back Cover
Disclaimer - this is my own personal opinion and I have no affiliation to Shutterfly.

[Why Follow Friday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]