Menzies Leaps and Bounds

I’ve made some great advances in researching the Menzies line of my family! I’m very excited about what I’ve found. This adventure started when I decided to sign up for a 7 day free trial of World Vital Records. I thought maybe this would be a cheaper way of being able to access the UK records I’ve been holding off on. Well, after a few hours of trying to get some of the image viewers to work, I just went ahead and upgraded my Ancestry.com membership. Even if I only have the World Membership for one year it’ll be worth it to me! I’m still going to check out World Vital Records for the rest of my trial, but I’m just more comfortable with the Ancestry format. I’ll probably do an entry on navigating World Vital Records at the beginning of next week to test it out some more.

Once I upgraded my Ancestry, It was like being let loose! I went right to work. If you’ve been reading for awhile you’ve seen a small amount of progress being made on the Menzies front. You can read that progress by clicking the Menzies tag in the sidebar, or you can just take a quick peek at the more informative entry: Menzies Mysteries. That entry will show you that I’ve found where the Menzies immigrated to America in 1854. They briefly stayed with son (presumably), Alexander, who had already immigrated and set himself up as a ‘Druggist.’

My first find was in the 1851 England Census. With the Menzies immigrating in 1854, this census should be a great start for me to continue “across the pond.”

I found the family (you can click the image for a full size view if you’d like) in Liverpool, England. That is the exact city they sailed from in 1854. From this census, I learned an awful lot. First thing is that John was a Sawyer before leaving England. I don’t know if he picked the profession back up in America, because I haven’t found him beyond the 1860 American Census. What I like about this is that it confirms for me that Alexander is in fact John and Jane’s son. Here he is listed as 21 years of age and an Apprentice Chemist & Druggist. This information lines up perfectly with his 1860 New York information for both age and occupation. This census also confirms the “brother James” mentioned in a letter William wrote to his ‘Dear Sister Jean’. Having such great luck on this level, I decided to test my luck and go for the 1841 census. The family should still be living in Liverpool if the children’s birthplaces here are to be believed.

Once again, I got really lucky! Here are all my usual suspects, except I have a few extras. Margaret was present when the family sailed to America. However she wasn’t listed with the family in 1851. I’ll have to try and figure out if she was married before going to America. If she did that’ll make a possible 3 marriages for her! Helen, aged 10 is a great find for me. In the letter from William he talks quite about about Sister Ellen and her troubles, including her husband Charlie being away when their little son passed away. Charlotte, aged 4, is a mystery to me. This is the first I’ve heard of her. I’ll have to see if she married young, or unfortunately passed away young. Either way something happened to her. She wasn’t mentioned in William’s letter, so I’m assuming she passed away because she didn’t sail with the family to America.

Overall, I think finding these census records makes me fall in love with the letters passed down through the family. Being able to prove these people in the letters actually exist is a great triumph for me. I think I’ll be talking about it for a long time yet!

Another Menzies Letter

I’ve got another Menzies letter here. There was quite a bit of correspondance between the cousins/siblings in America and London. I’m certainly not complaining! I couldn’t quite make out the date of this letter, but if it is 1888 (I think it might be), I imagine Jennie Menzies-Love’s home life is starting to deteriorate. This would lead up to what happens in 1890. I’m going to get my hands on an article of that as soon as possible!

Glencoe May 8, 18??

My Dear Cousin,

What ever is the matter with you, is any of you sick, or are you tired of your country cousins, please drop me a card and let me know, I wrote you a long letter, and I sent one of my Husband’s photo, but no answer yet -. I could not wate another day, I thought prehaps you were sick – I have had a very hard winter with cough and pain, but thank god I am now a great deal better. I walked to our Church yesterday. I was so pleased to be able to walk that distance and Bob was just as proud as if I had went five miles, he said it meened good to have me along again, and today I am going out to make a few calls, every one was so kind to me when I was sick, if I keep gaining I am going to London next weak to have my photos taken. Then I will send you one dear cousin Jennie.

After you left it seemed to me that I had not seen half enough of you, but perhaps we will meet again, I would like you to send me Mr Loves, yours and some of the childrens photos. I just got Maggie’s today it is a splendid one. I had a letter from Bell last weak. They are all well. Jessie has moved to [Kathleen note: maybe 20] miles away near Mr Peels shop – I am going down there in June also over to Charlies at the Lake shore near Sarnia. I will write you from there. I wish you could visit there with me, they have a large house right at the Lake. Bob says if I gain ten pounds this summer he will bye me a gold watch and chain. I am going to try but I do not want a watch as my health is so poorly that it would seem foolish. Sister Agnes was here three weaks, I had a letter from Harry Cormack he is in San Francisco, he has gained five pounds lately. Jane is away at London next Saturday. I don’t know when she will be home, Andrew is busy the children are well Jennie Simpson is with me yet is going  to leave in the fall. Bob is kept very busy, is going to take a holiday and visit Charley this summer if he can get a man for a while. Sister Mary Ann was down lately they are all well. Also Aunt Armstrong poor old Ladie blind but very well, Harry Ferris & Jennie are getting along nicely at river also Mary Clanahan there, Mrs Allen & all your river friends. I wrote a long letter to Aunt Margret in N? today, she has been poorly lately. Bob joins with love to Mr Love yourself and family, kiss Aggie and pray for me, write soon.

Yours lovingly,

Maria S Clanahan

Overall, my Menzies research is really coming together now. I just need to get my hands on some of those New York Marriage Records to be sure. So hopefully next week, I can get some more answers!

Menzies Mysteries

One of the many mysteries I’ve always had with my family tree is the Menzies family. Yes I’m pretty sure they came from Scotland, though some lived in England also. When I got my boxes of documents and photos, one of the many things in there were a whole bunch of miscellaneous articles about Menzies people. Nothing ever said how each person was linked. The closest I got was the Menu Tree.

Now that I’m getting better at researching, I think I may be starting to fill in some blanks, literally. The only clue I had to my Menzies connection to start with was Jennie Menzies’ mother, Jane Farris-Menzies, living with Jennie and her husband William W Love in 1880. That gave me a starting point. That’s what clued me in to how these random Menzies articles could be important. One was an Obituary for Alexander G Menzies. Another was an article about a ‘London Strangler’ who murdered a Lady Menzies and her daughter one night in February 1954. I still don’t know how those people are related but I am getting closer.

Yesterday I was searching for the Love family on Castle Garden. I was hoping to find William W Love in the time period that was indicated on the 1900 and 1910 census. Hopefully he would have been coming over with his mother and father so I could verify that. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything that was definitely him. I then decided to take a walk on the wild side and plugged Menzies into the search, just for fun. I didn’t have an immigration date as my Jane/Jennie Menzies-Love died in 1890 (wait till I find the article chronicling that!). I did however know her mother’s name and estimated birth date. I found the above Menzies in my search. My next step was trying to locate this particular family to see if it met up with my Menzies family or if they were two separate families.

Continue reading “Menzies Mysteries”

Castle Menzies, how I wish to visit you…

I’m going to make it clear before I even get started. I’m not in the habit of assuming things about genealogy. I promise. Okay, I don’t officially assume things. Just because I haven’t proven it yet, doesn’t mean that I won’t eventually right? Well in any case, I don’t make a habit of it. Sometimes though, in the case of things that involve my other passions, I can’t help but keep the door open. Those passions I speak of are Ireland, Scotland, Brooklyn, and architecture. You don’t know this because you don’t know me, but I actually took Computer Aided Drafting and Design in high school. I always loved looking through house plan books and passing through small towns where the buildings are old and a mixed variety from different eras.

I completely understand if you immediately shrug this off as one of “those” things young genealogists do. They take everything for truth and don’t bother documenting and verifying. Trust me, I will verify this when I begin taking genealogy trips. Being the first generation of Southern Maryland Moores, it’s difficult that all the history surrounding me does nothing for my family research. Though trust me there are some Maryland “coincidences” that make me feel what a small world it is.

This is what i spent hours doing last night. It was a quiet, cool night here. So I was just relaxing in my fluffy pajamas tooling through Scotland on Google Earth‘s Street View. If you aren’t using this for genealogy purposes, please do it now!

It was as I was pining for a trip to Scotland that a thought struck me. It’s been years since I looked up Castle Menzies on Google Earth. The last time I looked, it was a blurry overhead view that didn’t rate a second glance really. Americans are mighty spoiled with the high resolution abundance.

When I got the area that Castle Menzies is supposed to be, I found the same blurry low resolution picture from before. The wonderful surprise was that Street View was available for the road that the castle is on.

Thanks to Street View I feel like I was able to quench my thirst to visit for just a little longer.

It’s on the top 5 lists of places I want to go. I will connect my Menzies from Scotland to these Menzies. It just hasn’t happened yet. Trust me, when it’s supposed to happen, it will.

Visit the Castle Menzies website

Download Google Earth


Credit: All credit for these images goes to Google Earth. I did not take any of these pictures. I only visited Scotland from the comfort of my home, in my fluffy pajamas, while eating pizza. Please do not sue me, I have nothing except for my fluffy pajamas and cold pizza.

Favorite Things: Books, and more Books

I’m sure you’re all familiar with what we genealogists go through to find our family history. I was putting together a blog about a Duggar-sized family in my family tree, then I realized that it was going to take me longer than this afternoon to finish. So maybe by Monday, I’ll have my facts and funny repertoire together enough to actually finish that post. Now I’m going to talk to you about another favorite thing of mine. It just happens to be books.

When I say books, I of course mean all books. I read just about anything you put in front of me and I’ll devour it in one sitting if my family would let me. It’s just one of those things I can’t live without. I happen to have a small collection of genealogy books that I’ve been meaning to sit down and go through one by one. Some I’ve looked at and read, but didn’t really utilize what I’d learned. That’s a crying shame too, because these books are pretty awesome.

This is one I’ve really got to finish reading. It was actually this book that inspired me to make the blog! The book tells you to sit down and decide what type of family history you are trying to write. Do you want a collection of pure facts? Were you suckered in by the fascinating, but not so well documented Roots? In the book there are 7 different types of family history genres they tell you to think about. When I thought about what type I would be interested in writing, I decided on number 5. It’s basically a Family History Memoir. Just the word memoir made me think how conceded I’d gotten, just by deciding to write a book! Who am I to have a memoir? Well, why shouldn’t I have a memoir! Thinking back to all the conversations I’ve ever had with relatives or even acquaintances I realized something big. More than the actual stories I was telling, I mostly enjoyed just sharing the experience. I also find that when I discuss the fun hi-jinks my research pushes me into, the people I am telling enjoy the story that much more. So that’s my goal for life. To write my Family History Memoir. I don’t know anything else about it, except I want to call it something that is a play on my last name. How can you have a last name like Moore and not use it for fun?

Oh how I wish I had the gusto and unlimited time to actually become an Accredited Genealogist. Someday I might even see about going back to school for History or even Family History. BYU offers that. I know because I looked. It’s just a thought. This book really outlines the process you should take if you are even thinking about becoming a professional genealogist. I know nothing about the professional side of things but I’m sure reading and following the advice in this book can’t hurt.

This book I have spent many an hour reading and pouring over the pages of pictures. If you know me, you know I have an unhealthy obsession with Ireland. If only my dream Irishman would come and sweep me off my feet already! In a close second to my Irish obsession is a love of all things Scottish. This is actually another one of the ‘coincidences’ that I don’t believe in. All my life I’ve been obsessed with Ireland, Scotland, and Brooklyn. Even before I knew where any of them (yes even Brooklyn) were on a map. When I started researching my Dad’s family, I found many ties to all the things I’d always loved and obsessed over. It’s scary sometimes with those ‘coincidences’!

This book feeds that love I have for all things Scotland. What I love about this book is it gives information about the clans in relation to Scottish historical events. I don’t know about you, but I certainly want to know when my ancestor’s clans were involved in history.

I won’t deny I got all kinds of excited to see Menzies in the book. Of course they were in the book as they are a clan, but for some reason I was worried I’d open it and they wouldn’t be there. I didn’t get a good picture of it, but it shows you all the different tartans of a lot of the clans. I was aware that there were different kinds of tartans for different reasons (Dress, War, Regular). What I wasn’t aware of was how different these tartans could look! It’s quite an experience to really delve deep into something you thought you understood.

Ahh, here are the MacKinnons! The Love family were a sept (basically another branch of the family) of the Clan MacKinnon. If you think I found that out, you’d be wrong. I did verify it later, but I actually learned that little nugget of information from my Aunt Lori. She was sitting on a bench in her hometown and a random stranger came up and gave her a family history lesson! That’s how we roll guys. Love it or hate it, we randomly collect relatives.

Yes please? I’d really love to break down my brick wall. William H. Moore left Ireland for America in the late 1850’s. He was a young man at the time, only a teenager if I have his age right. One day I will bridge that gap to Ireland, and then I will find an Irishman to sweep me off my feet. Sorry, it’s a sickness. It really is.

All joking aside, this book is going to be very helpful. This chart is great to show you how your Irish ancestors can be identified from Census information. Gosh do I love the Census. Thanks to the 1900 census I was able to find out William H Moore immigrated in 1857. Then in the 1910 census I discovered he was Naturalized in 1859. I really should start looking for that Naturalization record somewhere. I’ve been hoping to find his death record for a birth date though. It’s just the thought of finding William Moore, from Ireland, in Brooklyn… It doesn’t even need to be said, in fact I can’t even think about it right now. I was lucky to find him in all those census records so far!

This book is going to be so much fun to explore. In fact, if you don’t see me for 5 months it’s because I’ve devoured the book and my Irishman finally swept me off my feet.

Believe it or not this book was a gift. From my sister no less. I’m really proud that she would know that brick walls, burned courthouses, and those blasted same names (William Moore, William Mays, I’m looking at you), was something I would be in desperate need of. Maybe I’d actually have solved all those problems if I’d open this book! Why do I do that to my books?

Now this is just mean. All this time, I could have had organized research! The truth is, I read this book immediately and thoroughly. However when I thought about applying some of these methods, well it wasn’t pretty. They are quite helpful and I’m sure they’d work… If I had a complete office setup and a million dollars to devote to nothing but file cabinets and printer ink. The thought of printing out all the records I have saved on my computer makes me break out in hives. Eventually I’ll do it though. It’s going to be wonderful.