Saturday, November 3, 2012

SATURDAY NIGHT FUN - Sarah SMITH France BUNN

Ohhhh, Randy Seaver, - you do love to give us reasons to go digging into our ancestors' lives!!

Here's Randy's "rules"":
1) What year was one of your great-grandmothers born?  Divide this number by 90 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."
2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel" - your software will create this - use the "Ahnentafel List" option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?
3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."
4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

1. My greatgrandmother, Amelia Ann "Millie" PETTYGROVE was born in Oregon Territories in 1844, giving me a number of "20" for my Ahnentafel list of ancestors.  I'd love to write more about her - but another time, perhaps.

2. #20 on my Ahnentafel list - thank you RootsMagic5  for making this so easy - was Sarah SMITH France BUNN.  That is, her maiden surname was SMITH, she 1st married a France, then married 2nd to a BUNN.
Her Vital information:
Born:  25 Nov 1820, Netherton, Worcestershire, England; to parents Thomas SMITH and Elizabeth (unknown).  Thomas SMITH was listed as a coal miner, deceased, on her marriage registration with William
Married:  1st:  Thomas France, 4th Quarter 1837, Dudley, Worcestershire, England; Thomas died about Dec 1851; the couple had 7 children.      2nd marriage:  20 Nov 1854, Dudley, Worcestershire, England, to William BUNN (his 2nd marriage as well - 1st wife died within one year of marriage): 1 child, a boy (my greatgrandfather).
Died:  after 1891, in Barrow in Furness, Lancashire, England (still to determine final death date, burial).

3.  Three facts about Sarah:
*  Sarah was born in Windmill End/Netherton, Worcestershire, England; no other siblings are known to date
*  Sarah's eldest daughter, Elizabeth France (b. 1839) had an illegitimate son, Thomas France, b. 1859, who was raised by Sarah and her 2nd husband William alongside their only Bunn child, George BUNN, b. 1857.  (George's grandchildren mistakenly thought he had been adopted by the France/Franz family, and wrote it up as facts about George Bunn and his unknown ancestors!)
* Sarah apparently moved up to Barrow in Furness around 1891 or so, to live with her son George BUNN and his family; her grandson and his family, Thomas France, also had moved up to Barrow.

I have so much still to find out about Sarah.

When did she move up to Barrow?  With, or without her husband William?  Did she live with her grandson's or her son's family?   Her son George BUNN came to Canada with my grandfather in June 1911, but became sick and returned to Barrow, dying a few years later.      How did she know William BUNN? - he was several years younger than her, had no children, and when he married her, she had 7!  A very challenging family to take on, I must say.

Life must have been very hard for her - and I haven't been able to find any relatives in my searches, who might have supported her.  Thomas, like her father, was a coal miner, and likely died from a coal mining accident of which there were several around the time that Thomas died in 1851.

Thanks Randy - once again, I find myself with more questions - or was that your intention!?

2 comments:

Diana Ritchie said...

Hi Celia ~
I know what you mean about more questions...Randy's challenges ALWAYS seem to point out the holes in my research!! Oh my :-)

Celia Lewis said...

Thanks Diane, glad I'm not the only one! The known holes I'll find are usually the excuse I use for NOT doing his challenges!

Welcome!

Family, friends, and others - I hope you enjoy these pages about our ancestors and their lives. Genealogy has become somewhat of an obsession, more than a hobby, and definitely a wonderful mystery to dig into and discover. Enjoy my writing, and contact me at celia.winky at gmail dot com if you have anything to add to the stories. ... Celia Lewis