It's Live!

Much excitement here at Piece of String HQ.  My husband has managed to wangle his work diary to enable me to go to Who Do You Think You Are? Live!

 

I suspect that I am going to be quite underwhelmed when I actually get there - such events are often quite frustrating due to the crowds.  However, I will not let that spoil the anticipation.  [He works away and it is usually impossible to pin down a whole day when he can take over dog, children, children's social lives, etc.  Trying not to think about the number of times he has changed his plans at the last minute...]

 

I am highly amused by the use of the term Live for the show, I must say.  I mean, it is a show about, mostly, searching for people who are anything but live.  However, it appears that this title is justified by the celebrity visits - people who have had their family trees done for the television shows.

 

And one of my main reasons for going is, in fact, to try to see the interview with Alistair McGowan on the Friday.  It was his episode of WDYTYA? back in 2007 which gave me the first real leads into my Anglo Indian ancestors.  I had had a lifelong interest in my family tree and as a child, had interviewed grandparents and others.  But despite some cursory searches online, I had not got very far with my dad's family.  It all felt a bit needle in a haystack and I had abandoned those lines for a quite a while.

 

The McGowan episode was a real turning point though, as mentioned before on this blog.  I had watched so many previous WDYTYA? programmes just out of interest.  I watched that one with a pen and paper in my hand.  McGowan genuinely had no idea that he had any Anglo Indian blood from his father.  It was fascinating. (Look on YouTube and you can see his reactions if you have not seen his show.)  As soon as the programme ended, my dad called to ask if I had seen it.  He couldn't quite believe it either.  I was already online at that point!

 

Being so inexperienced in genealogy then, that was my first foray into British Library India Office records!  (http://indiafamily.bl.uk/ui/home.aspx).  I only found one or two mentions of the surname Shaller but it was enough to give my search fresh impetus and spur me on to look for new online resources (Family Search, Families In British India Society, etc) which had not really existed when last I had attempted that particular line.  Strangely, my brickwalls on Shaller are now mostly back in the UK as they are pre-1837.  The Indian bit is as complete as I could have ever hoped.  Always looking though and open to new sources.  Plus I obviously have a number of other Anglo Indian surnames to work on and they are proving harder to crack.

 

I am not really sure what seeing Alistair McGowan Live is going to contribute to my research, come to that, but it feels important to hear what he has to say - if only because he was lucky enough to go to India to see his dad's home and meet some relations.  So, a day of mooching around family history exhibits, and hopefully attending the interview and some workshops, awaits me.  Well, got to get your genealogy kicks where you find them...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Kingdom for a Boy

 

 

This weekend my adored nephew was staying with us.  Apart from the fact that he was born nine weeks early and is none the worst for it, he is no different to any other child.  All children are by turns adorable and frustrating - particularly your own - and all children are special.

However, my nephew appears to be the last holder of my family name - Shaller (see previous blog posts!).  Me being female and married, my children bear my husband's name (we were terribly traditional about the whole thing).  My cousins on that side of the family are all female and married and likely not to use their maiden name for their children.  So my brother is the one male on our horizontal tree line and his son too is the one male.  My sister in law having no nieces and nephews, my nephew/her son is also the only child on his horizontal line on their tree.  No pressure then, kid!

When we look at our family trees, the general trend is usually for families to have dwindled in their numbers of siblings since birth control became possible.  No longer did a woman have to risk having six children when she actually only wanted (and could cope with!) two.  Of course, big families were not seen as a bad thing in, for example, the Victorian age.  Partly people aspired to the standard set by Victoria and Albert's huge brood of prince and princesses, partly (sadly) not all children were expected to survive childhood.  A woman may go through eight births but only half of these children might survive.  And for the poor, a big family was both a blessing and curse.  Many mouths to feed and people to clothe but later, extra workers to contribute to the family pot and live-in childcare for those children still too young to work.

It is unimagineable to us - brought up with the NHS and medical breakthroughs and knowledge of infection and so on - that you might lose a child every couple of years.  But on my Anglo Indian family tree, there are a number of examples where a couple have produced three or four children and none or just one have survived.  I have not looked as closely yet but I imagine that there will be similar situations on my maternal side.

 

There are still cultures in the world which prize male heirs above female.  Even in the UK, it has only just become possible for a first born royal female to inherit ahead of a younger brother.  Of course, William and Kate have obligingly managed to produce a boy first time so this is probably not ever going to be an issue anyway!  But our long reigning queen was actually the bottom of the heap - no more boys to inherit instead of her - the same with Elizabeth I and Victoria.

 

If I was to imagine that my family tree were heirs to a great estate or a throne (!) and these principles still applied, my father would be king, followed by my younger brother and then my nephew.  Despite being the eldest, I would be bypassed, as would my children and grandchildren unless something awful happened to my brother's line.  This is where you can begin to feel sympathy with all those medieval princesses, Tudor queens and various princes for their scheming (although not for their methods!).  Sometimes they must have been so close to the throne that they could almost feel it and then another baby would come along and  oh, not your turn next, sorry.....  Of course, the flipside of this was, as with the Tudors, the pressure to produce male heirs....

 

And on that note, to return to my lovely nephew, I have gone through most of my family tree now for five or six generations (at least) of the Shaller name and I suspect that the nearest holders of the surname who are related to us are in America.  I have not yet got access to US records (Ancestry and others charge separately for this typically - don't get me started...) but we believe that one male may have died in Vietnam.  It remains to be seen if there is another line.  My grandfather had three sisters but his father had brothers and one of these seems to have emigrated to America well before the Partition of India.  A whole new mystery to explore.  But not until I have the current mass of information under control (see previous posts!)....

Tardis Required

 

 

 

I have decided that today is Time Travel Tuesday.  I had wanted to blog about the definitions applied to the Anglo Indians in British India but it is rather statistical and official and definitely needs more research.  So whilst pondering for a theme for today, I took to the idea that if one could time travel (preferably with David Tennant's Dr Who, sorry Peter Capaldi!), which ancestor would I most like to go and visit.

 

I have been to London a couple of times quite recently and was amazed at the changes in places that I had not visited since leaving in 2003.  I have always wanted to experience London in another age.  Pre Blitz, with all the little alleyways and courts and so on - so few of which remain today.  So I think I will ask the lovely David to take the Tardis to eighteenth century London.

 

Joseph Shaller Sr was apprenticed to Benjamin Pickering, a brandy merchant by his father Edward.  The indenture was paid on 18 April 1753.  The original document for this can be seen on Ancestry.  From the records I have found online for their parish church in Shoreditch, it appears that Benjamin Pickering was known to Edward Shaller personally.  They served together on parish committees.  [This was another example of how googling/fiddling about/ whatever you want to call it can produce unexpected results.  I tried Edward Shaller's name with the baptism church's name and managed to find references to the Shaller family (this site is a great place for such research too http://www.british-history.ac.uk).  I was of course helped by the unusual surname!

 

I would love to know the family's circumstances.  They would seem at first glance to have been reasonably well off and Joseph Sr was able to marry as soon as his apprenticeship was finished, going on to have six children with his wife Susanna Slade.  However, I have not as yet managed to find any reference to property so it is highly possible that although they had reasonable livelihoods and supported families, they did not actually own any "bricks and mortar".

 

Would I recognise anything about these Shallers or their personalities?  Could any characteristics have made their way this far down the family tree?  What did they wear, for surely that would have been an indication of their place in society?  Well to do?  Or just keeping their heads above water?  Would an apprentice brandy merchant have been taught to read and write?  There were four sons and two daughters.  Joseph Jr was not required to sign the surviving muster list which recorded his joining up with the army in 1804 so I don't know if he could write either.  According to the muster, though, Joseph Jr was a staymaker (a profession looked at during Mary Berry's Who Do You Think You Are? last week, as it happens - corset making!).

 

The difference in father and son professions raises endless questions.  Did Joseph Sr leave the booze trade?!  Did he and his eldest son have a falling out?  More importantly, how did Joseph Jr end up in the army?  I have a suspicion that my whole paternal line stems either from someone escaping justice or someone who got drunk with the press gang and woke up the next morning in uniform!  Carole Divall, who has done a huge amount of work on the history of the 30th Regiment of Foot (where Joseph found himself!), has told me that London was not a usual recruiting area for that regiment.

 

So from the Tardis, I will need to visit 1778 when Joseph Jr was born and then periodically wander into their lives until 1804.  And David Tennant will be helping me!  Must not get distracted.  I suppose a basic survey would be very useful, if they could be persuaded.... questions like dates, birthplaces, ancestors and relations would be brilliant for checking my research so far!  Yes, time travel is definitely the answer for genealogists.  The possibilities would be endless.

 

 

Great (Travel) Expectations

The school holidays are upon us once again.  The mind automatically turns to travel (even though one is not going far this year!).  Everyone is talking about where they are going, how they will get there and what they will see when they arrive.

We know so much about so many places these days.  Often, before we arrive at our destination, we have made restaurant bookings, booked outings, even taken virtual tours of our hotels or the sights around the area.  There are, of course, many places where you might not know quite how it will be upon arrival, even in these highly internet connected days - the Antarctic, the desert, the jungle, certain bars (!).  However, for most people, they do at least have some idea what they can expect once they have booked a holiday.  And you tend to want to talk to your travel company if your travels do not live up to these expectations!

Which leads to one to wonder what it must have been like to take months to get somewhere whilst all that time not knowing what you are in for.  One of my ancestors joined the army in around 1804, when Napoleon was emperor of France, George III (the one who lost the plot somewhat) was on the British throne and the general population really had no concept of foreign travel.

Joseph was a "staymaker" from London (ie he made corsets!).  On the enlistment roll, no reason for joining up is given but he joined the 30th Regiment of Foot, the Cambridgeshires - as mentioned on a previous post.  By April 1806 he was on his way to serve in India. 

It would have taken four to six months to get there at least - actually the battalion stopped to help with the taking of the Cape of Good Hope on the way!  The conditions on the ship must have been awful.  And then there was the worry of what awaited him and for how long.

As it happened, Joseph never saw England again.  The First Battalion 30th Foot remained in India until 1829.  Much to their frustration, it seems.  Life in India was hard and there were long periods of tedious garrison duties.  Their opposite numbers in the Second Battalion got to fight in the Napoleonic Wars... far more exciting for professional soldiers presumably.

The picture above shows Cannanore (also called Kannur) in South Western in India - in Kerala, actually.  The regiment had landed in Eastern India and had lived and worked on that side of India since arrival.  However, in autumn 1811, they were ordered to march (!) to the strategically important Cannanore.

It was in Cannanore that Joseph's eldest two year old son, who had apparently accompanied the regiment, died and his second son was born.  Joseph himself died in Hydrabad (back on the east coast again) in 1822, having worked his way up to Sergeant and had four Anglo-Indian children along the way. 

Imagine taking months to get somewhere that you have not even seen in a picture.  Imagine finally making a life there and then being ordered to walk hundreds of miles to start all over again.  Actually, it is hardly possible to imagine, for most of us.

The idea of international travel is taken for granted these days.  You only have to look at the list of the poor passengers on the Malaysian airliner that was apparently shot down this week.  They were (mostly) not on the way to start completely new lives in unknown lands.  They were holiday makers, people travelling for work, people visiting family or friends.  Short, planned trips that would have been laughably impossible in 1811.

We are very lucky to have such opportunities as those people thought they were taking - to travel, experience new places whilst being able to return to easily to our roots if we so wish.  It is unbelievably sad for those families who have lost their loved ones this week that what should have been easy and routine travel has ended in tragedy.

Where there is a Will, there is a way

Tomorrow I am venturing to London Town for the first time in a long time.  Sometimes I think that I must have dreamt living there for ten years of my life as it seems so far removed from my current existence.  Actually, it is probably that I drank and partied away ten years, if I am being honest.  I did work very hard but pre children, one could also party hard with little discernible effect...

Anyway, I am off to London to see Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies at the theatre.  A lot of theatre in one day but it was the only way to see both plays (And by the way, if by some miracle Hilary Mantel should read this small and insignificant blog, please please please Hilary, hurry up with the third book of the trilogy!).

Preparing to go today, I realised that the last time I had been to London was to visit the National Archives (NA) for research.  It was a fascinating visit and I cannot recommend a visit highly enough if you are able to get there and have found things online that it would be worth you checking out for your own research.

My own visit came about because I stumbled upon a wonderful website run by an historian named Carole Divall (actually called www.caroledivall.co.uk funnily enough!).  The 30th Regiment of Foot is Carole's particular interest and she has written a fascinating and ongoing online diary of the Napoleonic years in its existence.  I had been searching for information about that regiment as the original adventurer to India from my own family,  Joseph Shaller, had enlisted with it.  I then decided to read Carole's fabulous book,  Inside the Regiment, about the daily life of the 30th Foot - postings, family life, education, discipline and so on.  It looks at the battalions in both Europe and India.

So I was reading the book and suddenly Joseph's name leapt out at me from a page!  Carole had used him as an example of how the soldiers were encouraged to write basic Wills to ensure that any monies due to them were passed to their children.  She detailed Joseph's bequests and noted that he had left everything to his three children.  She also stated that she had seen the Will and that all three had signed it to confirm receipt!

It was an amazing moment for me as it confirmed a sibling name that I had been pondering over but more importantly, there was a document available to see and touch which had been in India and had been signed by my great great great grandfather in 1822.

So that was it.  I was determined to find it!  Except that I had no idea how to go about seeing the paper for myself.  Then Carole Divall very kindly replied to a post on her site, explained how to find the Will at the NA and also gave me some further information.  I read up on the NA rules and regulations on its website (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/) and off I went, filled with trepidation.

Sometimes I think we are frightened of places like the NA.  They seem so quiet and serious and quite beyond the reach of "ordinary" people.  However, the whole experience was fantastic (if you like that sort of thing - and frankly if you don't, I am surprised that you have read this far as I wax lyrical!).  It is easy to find, easy to use and the staff could not be more helpful.  There are some incredible documents available and they detail quite normal lives - they are not all the Magna Carta or Cabinet papers or such like!

I was able to view the Will and touch my 3xgreat grandfather's signature.  I also saw enlistment rolls and documents relating to other family tree brick walls.  Sadly, the pictures I took are on a defunct phone so unless I can retrieve them, I am going to have to visit again.  Do let me know if I can help you with anything while I am there.... any excuse for another day...