I have already written about the Player family of Coventry, England before (here and here). Recently, I have been trying to clean up my files and my research on this family, and I realized that I have much more to write about. As my academic husband always says: unpublished research is the same as research that was never done. I think that this adage can be applied to genealogy as well. I view these blog posts as steps towards the production of something longer about the Player family.

One of the enduring mysteries of the Player family research is the relationship between William and Thomas Player who lived at 9 and 6 Craven Street, Coventry for several decades. The families lived and worked together in this area of Coventry in the watch making trade and it seems very likely that they are related. But how?

William was born on 12 Oct 1794 in London, and his parents were John and Patience. Thomas was born in 1803 in Birmingham according to every census return. One of my fellow Player researchers, a descendant of Thomas, has looked long and hard for a birth or baptismal record for Thomas to no avail. Who were Thomas’ parents? Was he the youngest child of John and Patience or is he a cousin to the family?

There is some circumstantial evidence that Thomas was the child of John and Patience. First, a Daniel Player died in 1803 in Coventry. On his burial record, his parents are listed as John and Prudence and we know that John and Patience had a son Daniel James who was born in 1800. Close enough? That would put John and Patience in Birmingham at the time of Thomas’ birth. But why were they there? Although we don’t know what happened to John Player, we do know that Patience later died in London in 1831 and that her other children married there. So while the family might have been in Birmingham for a time, they returned to London at some point.

Thomas Player was the first Player to live in Coventry. In 1828, he married Margaret McGregor at the Holy Trinity Church in Coventry. Thomas and his family are the only Players living in Coventry in 1841. Thomas was a watch dial painter or an enameller. Birmingham was known for it watch dial painting, and it seems possible that this is where Thomas did his apprenticeship. This evidence, plus the fact that Thomas was the first in Coventry, would mean, however, that he did not live with the London Players for several years.

By 1851, Thomas had been joined in Coventry by William Player and his family. William was living at 6 Craven Street, just doors away from Thomas Player. (Thomas Player would later live in 6 Craven Street for several decades). William’s sons George and Ebenezer where also present in Coventry — both had married in the city in 1847. There is also evidence that William’s eldest son (also William) was in Coventry in 1846 as his infant son died in Coventry at that time. William Jr. and his family returned to London and were living there in 1851. William’s daughter Elizabeth and her husband Joshua Willington joined her parents in Coventry and they were living on Craven Street in 1861.

Although William Player is listed as a watch dial painter on the 1851 census (when he is also living at 6 Craven Street where Thomas and his family would also live), William and his sons were more involved in mechnical aspects of the trade like engine turning. Presumably these two families worked together to make whole watches — each family contributed its special knowledge to the project.

These two families had something else in common: both were involved in non-conformist churches — churches that did not follow the Church of England. William’s children were baptized in the Providence Independent Chapel in London, and I have found records that Thomas’ two elder sons were baptized in the West Orchard Independent Chapel in Coventry. William’s son Joseph was also married in this chapel. Descendants of both families have heard rumours that the Players were either baptists or Quakers. (William’s son Joseph and his family were certainly baptists; but I have never been successful in connecting the family to the large number of Players who were Quakers.) This adds to the strong circumstantial evidence that there is a connection between these families.

I followed the Player families through the English censuses until 1911 and all of the Players in Coventry until that time were descendants of either Thomas or William. Of Thomas’ four sons, his son William seems to have been the most prosperous (living in a named house on Dover Street, Coventry), although his son Thomas developed a reputation as a talented watch dial painter.

Of William’s sons, his youngest Joseph was the most successful. (Joseph is my gg-grandfather, father of Richard Morgan Player). Joseph rode the industrial revolution to prosperity. He was a watch manufacturer (not a watch maker) and he had a factory where workers would construct the watches. By 1871, Joseph was employing 56 men and 23 boys in his factory and by 1881, he and his family were living in Allesley, a town outside of Coventry. The family was living in a large house and employed three servants. Living outside of Coventry meant it was necessary to ride to the factory in Coventry, a luxury for only the well-off. The family suffered a blow, however, when Joseph died in 1895 at the age of 61. His eldest son Joseph William took over the business, and it fell on hard times as cheaper watches were available from America, and after Joseph William attempted to make the world’s most complicated watch for JP Morgan. As far as I can tell, there are no descendants of Joseph Player left in Coventry.

None of this, however, solves the problem of determining the relationship between William Player and Thomas Player. I’m not sure how to proceed next. I think that our best bet will be to find the apprenticeship records for Thomas Player. Anyone have any other ideas?

A timeline of Players in Coventry

1828

• Thomas Player married Margaret McGregor in Coventry

1841 Census

• 5 people
• 1 family
1. Thomas Player

1851 Census

• 12 people
• 4 families
1. Thomas Player
2. William Player
3. Ebenezer Player (son of WP)
4. George Player (son of WP)

1861 Census

• 14 people
• 3 families
1. Thomas Player
2. William Player
3. Ebenezer Player (son of WP)

1871 Census

• 35 people
• 7 families
1. Thomas Player
2. James McGregor Player (son of TP)
3. Thomas Player (son of TP)
4. William Player (son of TP)
5. William Player
6. Joseph Player (son of WP)
7. William Player (grandson of WP)

1881 Census

• 25 people
• 6 families
1. Thomas Player
2. James McGregor Player (son of TP)
3. Thomas Player (son of TP),
4. William (son of TP),
5. Alice (wife of Ebenezer Player, son of WP)
6. Joseph Player (son of WP, living in Allesley)

1891 Census

• 44 people
• 11 families
1. Ebenezer Player (son of TP)
2. James McGregor Player (son of TP)
3. Thomas Player (son of TP)
4. William Player (son of TP)
5. James McGregor Player Jr. (grandson of TP)
6. Frederick William Player (grandson of TP)
7. Thomas Player (grandson of TP)
8. Alice Player (wife of Ebenezer Player, son of WP)
9. Joseph Player (son of WP), living in Allesley
10. William Player (grandson of WP)
11. Ebenezer Player (grandson of WP)

1901 Census

• 65 people
• 14 families
1. William Player (son of TP)
2. Thomas Player (son of TP)
3. James McGregor Player (grandson of TP)
4. Thomas Player (grandson of TP)
5. Frederick William Player (grandson of TP)
6. Arthur H Player (grandson of TP)
7. Joseph Player (grandson of TP)
8. Alfred Player (grandson of TP)
9. Alice Player (wife of Ebenezer Player, son of WP)
10. Eliza Player (widow of Joseph Player, son of WP)
11. William Player (grandson of WP)
12. JW Player (grandson of WP)
13. Ebenezer Player (grandson of WP)
14. William Player (great-grandson of WP)

1911 Census

• 53 people
• 13 families
1. Mary Elizabeth Player (widow of Thomas, son of TP)
2. William Player (son of TP)
3. James McGregor Player (grandson of TP)
4. Thomas Player (grandson of TP)
5. Frederick William Player (grandson of TP)
6. Arthur Herbert Player (grandson of TP)
7. Joseph Player (grandson of TP)
8. George McGregor Player (grandson of TP)
9. Alice Player (wife of Ebenezer Player, son of WP)
10. Eliza Player (widow of Joseph Player, son of WP)
11. Ebenezer Player (grandson of WP)
12. JW Player (grandson of WP)
13. Harry and Edward Player (great-grandson of WP)

Some good Coventry resources

• http://www.coventry-walks.org.uk/conservation-areas/chapelfields.html
• http://coventrywatchmuseum.co.uk/default.asp
• http://cliffjones.zenfolio.com/coventry_in_photographs
• http://www.coventrycollections.org/
• http://webhome.idirect.com/~jdbarron/playerpix.html
• http://www.historiccoventry.co.uk

I was recently facing a painful deadline for a paper that I was writing. It was killing me, and in my desperation, I decided to distract myself (read: procrastinate) by trying to make some headway on one of my most difficult brickwalls: tracing the Burke family back to Ireland. My paternal grandmother was a Burke, and although she knew her ancestors were Protestant Irish (and Orangemen), she had little information about where the family had come from in Ireland. It had been easy to trace the family back to the Canadian patriarch: one David Burk (the ‘e’ in Burke got added in Canada) who had settled in Mariposa Township in Victoria County, Ontario about 1850. (The exact date of his settlement is difficult to determine and made harder by the fact that the 1852 census returns for this township have not survived.)

Finding David Burk also meant finding another branch of this family who had also done extensive research and had perserved some oral family history. These cousins added some important information to the search, information which they pulled together in this biography of David Burk. The key information in this piece was that David Burk had (at least) two brothers–Richard and Joseph–and that one of these brothers had married a Catholic woman, was estranged from the family and moved west; and the other had had lots of children and had moved to Australia. I thought that my best chance of finding out more about David Burk was to find his siblings.

The Burkes who moved west

First I had to do some grunt work. I wanted to make sure that I knew all I could about what happened to David Burk and Elizabeth Pogue’s children. I started tracing their lives through the Canadian censuses. In 1901, I found the three younger Burk siblings (Margaret, Cordelia and Joseph) all living close to each other in Carivale, Saskatchewan. They had clearly moved west when land on the Prairies became available. When I pulled up the original images of the census returns, I noticed something. Living close to David Burk’s children and their families were some other families named Burke, including one Richard Burke, born in 1836 in Ireland. Richard’s descendants had done a lot of work tracing their side of the family and I very quickly learned that Richard and his family had also settled in Mariposa Township, Victoria County, Ontario before they moved west in 1885. Even though the details don’t quite match the oral family history in my side of the family, they are close enough. I was certain that this Richard Burke was David’s brother.

I was very quickly able to find descendants of Richard online (I love meeting new cousins), and I was very happy to hear that this branch of the family had been quite fastidious about keeping their family history. They knew, for instance, that Richard came from County Monaghan in Ireland. Richard’s grandson Delmer Smith Burke even wrote a lengthy year-by-year account of his life in Carievale. In this family history, he mentions that on the way west in 1881, his father Jacob George Burke stayed with his uncle David Graham and that David’s wife was his aunt, a sister to his father Richard Burke. This is music to a genealogist’s ear. Sure enough, I was able to find a marriage record for an Esther Burke and a David Graham. Esther was a resident of Mariposa Township when she married David Graham in Cobourg, Ontario in 1859. But the best news was that their marriage record named Esther’s parents: Benjamin and Jane Burk(e). I had not had these names before, but they do fit perfectly as both David and Richard had a son named Benjamin–not a common Irish name.

Evidence that this is the same family

Although I do not have birth records for David or Richard Burke, there is some powerful evidence that these families are related:

1. Both families settled about the same time in Mariposa Township, Victoria County, Ontario. (In the absence of the 1852 census returns, I’ll have to check land records for the township, but I’m guessing that these families also lived close to each other in Mariposa).
2. David’s descendants remembered a brother Richard and Richard’s descendants remembered a brother David.
3. There were seven families living next to each other in Carievale in 1901: three children of David Burke, Richard Burke and four of his children. It is highly unlikely that this is a coincidence. (See the list below).
4. The names Benjamin and Jane (the parents listed on Esther’s marriage certificate) are repeated in both families.

Burkes living in Carievale, Saskatchewan in 1901:

David Burk descendants

• Joseph Burke (son of David) and Ann Ramsay
• William Kennedy and Cornelia Ann Burke (daughter of David Burk)
• William Cameron and Margaret Burke (daughter of David Burk)

Remaining questions

There are still some things that I would like to figure out.

• It seems likely that the Burke siblings came to Canada during the Irish potato famine between 1845 and 1852. About 100,000 immigrants came to Canada in 1847 alone; 60,000 of them were Irish.
• Did the siblings come together or at different times?
• Did the parents also perhaps come to Canada and die before 1867 when deaths were recorded regularly in Ontario?
• There is a large age gap between David (b. 1824) and Richard (b. 1836) and Esther (b. 1839). This would suggest to me more than just one additional sibling. Did these siblings also come to Canada? Where are they? Were they also in Mariposa Township?
• If Richard wasn’t the brother to move to Australia, was Joseph?

Tracing this family back to Ireland seems daunting, but I’d love to try….

When I was back in Ontario this summer, we had a small family reunion with my mom’s Hird cousins.  One of them brought along a large box of old family photos and memorabilia.  Included in this box was an album of postcards from World War I.  These postcards had been collected by Edward Downard (1881-1841), the husband of Bessie Melville (my mom’s great aunt) and son of George Downard and Mary Vaughn.

During the first two years of the war (1914-1916-ish), Edward was a Staff-Sergeant with the No. 2 Canadian General Hospital.  The postcards are mostly from this time and they show some of the locations in England where the staff of the No. 2 trained (Bulford, Market Lavington and the Salisbury Plain).  More interestingly, however, the postcards document in detail the daily life at the No. 2 General Hospital when it was stationed on the Normandy coast in Le Tréport, France.  They show the daily life at the hospital: life in the wards, life as a wounded soldier, growing a garden, the hospital mascot (Pete the Duck).  They also show some of the extraordinary events which occurred: a storm which blew down the hospitals’ tents in September 1915; a VIP visit from Sir Robert Borden, the Prime Minister of Canada and Sir Max Aitken, later Lord Beaverbrook; the funeral of a major who accidentally fell off a cliff; and Dominion Day and Christmas celebrations.

Many of these postcards were sent to Edward’s fiancé Bessie Melville and are inscribed on the back.  The inscriptions tell the story of Ed’s life at the hospital.  He was in charge of the linen stores.  He distributed the linens to the wards, and he was responsible for having the linens cleaned.  To do this, he would travel twice a week to Dieppe (a name all too familiar to Canadians) where there was a laundry factory which had the equipment necessary to clean the linens.  Ed’s postcards mention some of his friends and colleagues in the linen stores and in the sergeant’s mess: George Harris, Samuel Bartlett, Wally Robinson, and Leon Jackson.

The bulk of the postcards seem to come from a local photographer in Le Tréport named E. Arnault.  His photos also show up in a postcard collection by a Canadian nurse named Alice Issacson. Her collection can be found at the Library and Archives Canada site here.

Around 1917, Ed was promoted and was transferred to the No. 16 Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, Kent.  There are very few photographs after this time, likely because there was no local photographer interested in documenting the hospital as had been the case in Le Tréport.

I was really moved by this album which showed a different side to the war.  My husband and I scanned the entire album and I have uploaded it to Flickr with the hopes that anyone who is interested in it may find it.   We are currently trying to find a good home for the non-virtual album.

You can also find more information about the No. 2 Canadian General Hospital in the Colonel’s and Matron’s Diaries which are posted on the Library and Archives Canada site.

Below are a few choice photos of Edward Downard.

Coming soon though:

- A post on an amazing photo/postcard album from World War I.

- How I think I’m making progress on finding my poor Irish ancestors.

Between 1845 and 1870, several branches of the Bray family of St. Teath, Cornwall, England emigrated to Ontario, Canada or to Pennsylvania, United States. Several of these families were Bible Christians and were fleeing moderate persecution and less-than-moderate poverty.

The Brays who went to Pennsylvania worked in slate mines. Those who chose Canada worked as farmers and aspired to own their own lands.

Below are the emigrations that I have found in two branches of the St. Teath Brays. These families are related. The children in each family are second cousins. While there is evidence that the sons of William Bray and Elizabeth Pethick kept in touch with each other after their emigration, I’m not sure how close they were to their second cousins who had also emigrated.

In Ontario, it was difficult to sort out the relationship between the Northumberland Brays and the Durham County Brays.

Sons of William Bray (1792-1872) and Harriet Inch (1794-1879):

• William Bray (1818-bef 1891) and Ann May emigrated to Ontario c. 1848. William was a farmer in Haldimand Township in Northumberland County. He and his wife had three daughters.
• James Bray (1826-?) and Elizabeth Keat emigrated to Plainfield, Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1870 where James worked as a slater.
• Thomas Solomon Bray (1827-1909) and Elizabeth Ann Stephens emigrated to Ontario in 1850. Thomas and his wife settled in Hamilton Township, Northumberland County where they were farmers. Thomas and his wife had 11 children.
• Samuel Henry Bray (1836-1916)and Anna Maria Male emigrated to Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania in 1866. Samuel worked as a quarryman.

Sons of William Bray (1798-1882) and Elizabeth Pethick (1795-1850)

• John Bray (1823-1905) and Mary Luxon emigrated to Hope Township, Durham County, Ontario and were farmers. They emigrated between 1851 and 1854 (based on the birth dates and places of their daughters Annie and Matilda.)
• William Bray (1825-1908)and Betsey Bath also emigrated to Hope Township where they were also farmers. They emigrated in 1850.
• James Bray (1827-1890) and Mary Jewell moved to East Bangor, Pennsylvania where they were slaters. They moved between 1861 and 1870.
• Richard Bray (1829-1870) moved to East Bangor, Pennsylvania where he died in 1870.
• Joseph Bray (1834-1889) and Louisa Preston moved to East Bangor, Pennsylvania in 1856. Joseph Bray owned a slate mine and died a prosperous man.
• Philip Bray (1837-1883). Philip moved to East Bangor, Pennsylvania between 1851 and 1860 and worked there as a slater.

As you can see from the chronological list of emigrations below, those who chose Ontario did so in the 1850s. Those who moved to Pennsylvania emigrated (with the exception of Joseph) in the 1860s.

1. William Bray (1818-bef 1891) and Ann May to Ontario in 1848.
2. William Bray (1825-1908) and Betsey Bath to Ontario in 1850.
3. Thomas Solomon Bray (1827-1909) and Betsey Stephens to Ontario in 1850. Betsey Stephens is however still in England in 1851 and she is staying at her parents in Poundstock, Cornwall. Perhaps Thomas went ahead?
4. John Bray (1823-1905) and Mary Luxon to Ontario between 1851 and 1854.
5. Joseph Bray (1834-1889) and Louisa Preston to Pennsylvania in 1856.
6. Philip Bray (1837-1883) to Pennsylvania between 1851 and 1860.
7. James Bray (1826-?)and Elizabeth Keat to PA between 1861 and 1870.
8. James Bray (1827-1890) and Mary Jewell to PA between 1861 and 1870.
9. Richard Bray (1829-1870) to PA between 1851 and 1870.
10. Samuel Henry Bray (1836-1916) and Anna Maria Male to PA in 1866.

There were probably several more of the St. Teath Brays emigrated to Ontario or Pennsylvania who I have yet to find. If you know of more, let me know!

You can find my article on the Waterloo 200 web site: http://www.waterloo200.org/after-waterloo-a-veteran-in-the-canadian-wilderness/.

I thought that someone else might be able to benefit from this list.

(The ID numbers refer to the person’s ID in my tree)

St. Teath

- Earliest = William Bray, bap. 09 Feb 1726, son of William and Mary (OPC)

- Stray – William Bray m. Elizabeth Hickes

- Stray – Thomas Bray son of John and Ann bap. 25 Dec 1790. John Bray, 1794, also son of John and Ann.

- What happened to the grandchildren of William Bray and Mary Sloggett? Is it possible that some of John Bray and Mary Lobb’s children are in fact, from this line?

- Stray – John Bray, bachelor of Tywardreath, married Honor Tremayne of St. Teath. Witnesses Moses Sloggett and Joseph Martin. 25 Mar 1805.

Potential Confusions with Camelford Brays

Emanuel Bray, bap 1814, son of John Bray and Mary Porter. ID 551

Emanuel Bray, bap 1833, son of William Bray and Mary Inch. ID 566

Emanuel Bray, bap 1841, son of Thomas Bray and Jane. ID 572

***

Francis Bray, abt 1820, husband of Mary Ann George, ID 577

Francis Bray, bap. 1845, son of Francis and Mary Ann, ID 580

***

Harriet Bray, bap. 1831, dau of William Bray and Harriet Inch. ID 564

Harriet Bray, bap. 1843, dau of William Bray and Ann. ID 579

***

James Bray, bap 1799, son of John Bray and Mary Porter. ID 546

James Bray, bap 1805, son of William Bray and Esther Barber. ID 478

***

James Bray, bap. 1826, son of William Bray and Harriet Inch, husband of Elizabeth Keat. ID 560.

James Bray, bap. 1827, son of William Bray and Elizabeth Pethick, husband of Mary Jewell. ID 166

***

John Bray, abt 1733, parents unknown, husband of Mary Lobb. ID 471. (Marriage license states he is not from St. Teath)

John Bray, died 1737, son of William. ID 531.

John Bray, bap 1739, son of William Bray and Mary Sloggatt, ID 528.

***

John Bray, abt 1760, parents unknown, husband of Ann, father of Thomas and John. ID 540

John Bray, bap 1768, son of John Bray and Mary Lobb, husband of Mary Porter. ID 517

John Bray, abt 1774, from Tywardreath, parents unknown, husband of Honour Tremayne. ID 545

***

John Bray, bap 1794, son of John Bray and Ann, ID 544

John Bray, bap 1796, son of John Bray and Mary Porter, husband of Honor White. ID 537

John Bray, abt 1804, son of William Bray and Esther Barber. ID 441

***

John Bray, bap 1820, son of William Bray and Harriet Inch. ID 556

John Bray, bap 1823, son of William Bray and Elizabeth Pethick, husband of Mary Luxon. ID 130

***

Joseph Bray, bap 1801, son of John Bray and Mary Porter. ID 547

Joseph Bray, bap 1807, son of William Bray and Esther Barber, ID 545

***

Joseph Bray, bap 1827, son of John Bray and Honor White, ID 561

Joseph Bray, bap 1834, son of William Bray and Elizabeth Pethick, ID 218

***

Mary Bray, bap 1793, St Teath, dau of John Bray and Mary Porter. ID 543

Mary Bray, bap 1810, St Teath, dau of William Bray and Esther Bray. ID 479

Mary Bray, bap 1810, Lanteglos, dau of John Bray and Honor Tremayne. ID 582

***

Mary Bray, bap 1830, Lanteglos, dau of John Bray and Anne Matthews. ID 449

Mary Ann, bap 1823, St Teath, dau of William Bray and Harriet Inch. ID 557

Mary Ann, bap 1834, Lanteglos, dau of Joseph Bray and Elizabeth Garland. ID 474.

Mary Bray, bap 1833, St Teath, dau of John Bray and Honor White. ID 565.

***

Richard Bray, bap 1810, son of John Bray and Mary Porter, ID 594

Richard Bray, bap 1818, son of William Bray and Ann Kett, ID 555

***

Richard Bray, bap 1829, son of William Bray and Elizabeth Pethick, ID 217

Richard Garland Bray, bap 1832, died 1837, son of Joseph Bray and Elizabeth Garland. ID 476

***

Susan Bray, bap 1833, dau of Robert and Susanna. ID 567

Susan Bray, bap 1837, dau of John Bray and Anne Matthews. ID 450

Susan Jane Bray, bap 1830, dau of Joseph Bray and Elizabeth Garland. ID 477

***

Thomas Bray, bap 1790, son of John Bray and Ann. ID 539

Thomas Bray, bap 1804, son of John Bray and Mary Porter. ID 548.

***

Thomas Bray, bap 1825, son of John Bray and Honor White. ID 559

Thomas Solomon Bray, bap 1828, son of William Bray and Harriet Inch. ID 562

***

William Bray, abt 1700, husband of Mary Sloggatt, ID 522

William Bray, abt 1705, husband of Elizabeth Hickes. ID 532

***

William Bray, bap 1792, son of John Bray and Mary Porter. Husband of Harriet Inch. ID 542.

William Bray, bap 1798, son of William Bray and Esther Barber. ID 128

***

William Bray, bap 1813, son of John Bray and Honor Tremayne. ID 583

William Bray, bap 1818, son of William Bray and Harriet Inch. ID 554

William Bray, bap 1821, son of John Bray and Honor White. ID 600

William Bray, bap 1835, son of William Bray and Elizabeth Pethick. ID 60.

One of my most difficult challenges has been to trace my Player family relatives back to their London origins and beyond. I’m not alone on this — I know of several other Player researchers facing the same problem.

I have written about my Player family ancestors before. The family lived in Coventry, England and owned a prosperous watchmaking company. Joseph Player, the patriarch in the penny farthing photo, was at least the second generation of watchmakers in his family. His father William Player was variously called engine turner, a watch case maker and a watch dial painter. In other words, he worked with a lathe and made watch parts that required this expertise.

Before the industrial revolution, watchmakers worked from home. They often lived in homes with “top shops” — a well-lit atelier on the upper floors of a residence. Here they would have enough light to work on the small and intricate watch pieces.

There were several watchmaking specialties such as dial painter or case maker and they would each work on their various pieces in their own workshops. The manufacturer would coordinate the process, gather the various parts and have them assembled. Watchmaking required a community and you often find watchmakers living in a particular part of a city. In Coventry, several watchmakers lived on Craven Street and this is where you can find the Player family.

The watchmaking industry in Coventry grew rapidly in the mid-19th century and at this time you find watchmakers from all over the country moving to this city. The William Player family moved from London to Coventry some time between 1841 and 1851.

At least two of William’s brothers were also watchmakers. His brother John Byard Player moved to Reading and opened a watchmaking shop there. William’s brother Horatio remained in London and continued to make watches in the Gray’s Inn part of London.

William, John Byard and Horatio were the children of John Player and Patience Byard. John and Patience’s marriage is well-documented, as is the baptism of their children (with one possible exception). They were married in the Old Church in St. Pancras and lived in the Shoreditch area of London. As three of their sons were involved in watchmaking, I would not be surprised if John Player or perhaps Patience’s family were also involved in the industry.

Unfortunately, however, I have never been able to positively confirm the identity of John’s parents. With newly digitized parish records, there are three possible John Players born in London who could be our guy. I have investigated two of these families (both families are included as John’s parents in my tree) and have not found any conclusive evidence that would confirm a relationship between the families.

Here’s what I know for sure:

- John’s father was likely named John as our John is listed as John Jr on his marriage record.

- In 1791, the year of his marriage to Patience, John was a resident of St Giles Cripplegate in London. This may not mean much, however, as one only had to live in a parish for a short time before being considered a resident).

- John died before 1818. Patience signed the marriage allegation between her daughter Ann Elisabeth and Mortimer Corner (Ann was a minor and required her parents’ consent to marry). Patience is listed as a widow.

Here are some other possible clues to this puzzle:

- In Coventry, a Thomas Player is found living next to a group of other Players. He is a watch dial painter and lists his birthdate as 1803 and birth place as Birmingham. He is the only Player born in Birmingham.

- In 1803, a Daniel Player died in Birmingham. According to the baptismal records, John and Patience had a son named Daniel. The death record for Daniel lists his parents as John and Prudence Player. Pretty close, isn’t it.

- Patience Player died in Jul 1831 and was buried in St Andrew Holborn, although her address is listed on the burial record as St James, Clerkenwell. Why was she buried in a parish other than the one of residence? This could mean that she had a connection to the St Andrew Holborn parish.

- Another descendant of this family found some old family notes from c. 1900 which were copies of information about a Player family from Bristol. There are certainly many Players from Bristol, but I also haven’t been able to find a connection here.

Honestly, I think that the best chance of solving this puzzle is finding information about John’s profession and finding an apprentice document which lists his parents.

When I showed my father a copy of my recent research, he loved the fact that he was related a Methusaleh (Methusalem) Pethick (1801-1881). The name probably tickled my father’s funny bone due to his almost non-existent religious inclinations and the name’s hard-to-ignore religious implications.

As it turns out, Methusaleh was quite a luck name for me. It is an unusual name, and it helped me to establish that Methusaleh’s mother Mary Thomas (1773-?) was the daughter of, you got it, Methusaleh Thomas (1752-1833). This would have been a rather straight-forward connection had it not been for some strange wording on Mary Thomas’ marriage record to William Pethick. The record claimed that Mary was a sojourner in Hartland, Devon, at the time of her marriage. For a long time, I took this to mean that Mary was from Devon. In fact, the record is quite right: she was just visiting. She was actually from St. Teath, Cornwall — you know, that parish where all of my other Bray relatives are from.

Mary’s father Methusaleh (or Methusalem — the variations seem to be interchangeable) was the son of another Methusaleh Thomas (1715-1759). You see, my friends, it pays to name your children something unusual — your ancestors will love you for the unmistakable trail you leave behind. As it turns out, my Methusalehs are a lovely genealogical case study. And for more than teaching me to actually read (and believe) the wording of marriage records!

According to the Cornish Online Parish Clerks (COPC) web site (a must if you are doing research in Cornwall), Methuselah Thomas the Second (my name for him, not official) was either baptized in Feb 1751 or Feb 1752. There are two records. One record is from the parish register and states that Methuselah was baptized in 1752, the other from the Bishop’s Transcripts (a list of records which was regularly created for all of the parishes in a Bishop’s jurisdiction) which states that Methuselah was baptized in 1751. I just ignored this difference, and chalked it up to bad transcription. However, I recently started to pay more attention to the calendar changes that took place in England in 1751. Two important changes happened that year: First, January 1 was declared the beginning of a calendar year (as opposed to March 25). These changes began after December 1751, i.e., 1751 ran from 25 March to the 31 December and 1752 started on 1 January. Secondly, England moved to the Gregorian calendar in order to rectify the errors caused by the Julian calendar. To eliminate the extra days, the days from 3 September to 13 September were skipped. (You can read more about the calendar changes here, if you are interested).

Now, what does this have to do with our Methusaleh? Well, if you look closely, notice that poor Methusaleh could not have been baptized in February 1751, because 1751 did not have any February! Methusaleh must have been baptized in Feb 1752. The Bishop’s Transcripts are wrong and the parish records are right.

The tale of the two Emmas in the Bray family left me with a vague impression about the lives of illegitimate children in the 19th century. I had this sense that they just disappeared into the world with shifting last names and a secret to hide. This week, I finally got around to looking at the third illegitimate child on my family tree, a child auspiciously named “Illegitimate Johnson” on her birth certificate. “Illegitimate” was born in May 1873 and she was the daughter of Mary Ann Johnson. Did she vanish like Emma #1 or did she die young like Emma #2? Was she permanently disadvantaged by the circumstances of her birth?

I found her rather quickly enough in the 1881 census living with her widowed grandfather Richard Norton Johnson in Sydenham, Grey County. Maud — rescued from the label “illegitimate” — had taken on the last name of her step-father George Yates. Maud had three half-sisters: Charlotte, Emma, and Frances Melissa. Tragically, Maud’s mother Mary Ann had died a week after giving birth to Frances Melissa in February 1881. The Yates family was split up after this tragedy. By the time of the census taking in 1881, Maud was living with the Johnsons and Frances Melissa was adopted by another family in the township. (I discovered this fact, by the way, simply by Googling her somewhat unusual name. I found her on the family tree of the adoptive parents). Maud’s step-father disappears from the records for several years and then reappears when he married again. Maud’s half-sister Charlotte married and remained in Grey County. I’m not sure what happened to her half-sister Emma.

Unfortunately, Maud also disappears from the records after the 1881 census. Vanishes. I could find no trace of her in the 1891 census, no trace of a marriage in Ontario, no trace of her death in Ontario. Nada. Sometimes, someone’s disappearance from the records is only an effect of digital blindness. Sadly, not everything can be found on the internet… After bashing my head against the brick wall of Maud’s life for a few hours, I gave up and moved onto filling out the trees of Mary Ann Johnson’s siblings.

The Johnson family seems to have had a predilection for marrying siblings. I am connected to Johnson family twice on my tree. My 2x great grandfather Thomas Glenfield Bray married Mary Ann’s sister Martha. Martha’s brother Thomas Wilson married Thomas Bray’s sister Adelaide. The two younger Johnson siblings followed suit. William Johnson married a Sarah Jane Cleave. William’s younger sister Charlotte married Sarah’s brother William Cleave at the ripe age of 16. These two couples were married on the same day in Owen Sound in 1886.

Sadly, Charlotte Johnson also died young, leaving two children motherless. However, I was able to trace William Cleave and his family as they headed west from Manitoba to Alberta where they settled near Medicine Hat.

Now, Cleave is one of those names that you like as a genealogist. Simple enough that most people spell it right, but uncommon enough that you aren’t inundated with possible matches. As I traced William’s travels, I noticed another Cleave living in Manitoba – a Thomas Cleave whose wife Maud was born in 1873 in Ontario. Could it be? My spidey sense was a-tingling!

Manitoba, it turns out, has a clever little database with birth, marriages, and deaths of genealogical interest. One quick check later and I had “Dora the Explorer” singing “We did it” in my head. [Confession: my three-year old watches way too much Dora!] Yes, indeed, Maud Johnson Yates married Thomas Cleave, brother of William and Sarah Jane, in 1898 in Manitoba. There she was: Maud Cleave, mother of two boys, wife of the postmaster. Her boys both served in the army and led successful lives in Winnipeg. Maud lived a seemingly normal life – the tragedy of her circumstances overcome.

I am relieved.