Despite the threat of COVID-19, 25 members turned up, duly washed their hands for the required 20 seconds, before coming into our hall to listen to LucyAnn Curling’s talk Missing Person- going on a hunt for my grandmother.
LucyAnn said that she had traced 13 generations back in Thanet for one side of her family but couldn’t get beyond her Grandmother on the other side. Her grandparents had died before she was born and there was no one to ask.
LucyAnn’s first hurdle was the various spellings that her grandmother’s maiden name turned up in an index search: Cohen, Coen, Cowan, etc. the list was extensive. In Ireland there was even the prefix Mc (son of) to contend with. In her research, she used websites such as https://www.rootsireland.ie/ but she also researched in several record offices in various parts of Ireland on several visits over the years. Unfortunately, many Irish records were lost in 1922 when an explosion destroyed the repository in which they were kept. However, there were civil records still in existence and eventually she found Annie’s marriage in the Dublin Registry Office. This gave the full addresses of where the bride and groom were living before marriage. Annie’s father’s forename and occupation were listed but no likely matches were found in a search for Great Grandfather Andrew Cohen.
In the 1911 Irish census she found that her Grandfather Charles Curling had been born in India and that he and Annie had both put ‘Information Refused’ in the census column that asked for their religions. LucyAnn explained that this may have been due to an inter-religion marriage such as a RC/Anglican or Jewish. Such marriages were not received well in Ireland and if they became known, could lead to aggressive acts of disapproval. There were many Polish refugees from the Pogrom in the areas she was researching so might this mean that Annie was a Jew? The family name would suggest it so, LucyAnn got in touch with a local Jewish Society. They were very helpful but found nothing in their records but said that Andrew’s occupation was not a job usually undertaken by a nice Jewish boy.
LucyAnn was persuaded to try the DNA route. She used Ancestry merely because she was a member. She briefly explained how it worked showing maps and percentages about where her ancestry came from. But said she had to query how they came about some of the data as to her the percentages didn’t quite add up. The reply was rather complicated but one of the indicators was how many people had also taken the DNA test. So, she said she was going to try another test with a different company and compare results. However, through her DNA matches, she found she had a cousin living in Thanet that she knew nothing about. This cousin had family photographs and was able to give information about members of Annie’s immediate family.
Lucy Ann ended by saying that she had “been up and down the garden path for Annie” and although she still could not find a birth or death certificate for her, she did at least now know her grandmother Annie’s family.
Report by Tricia Baxter
Next Meeting
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic Canterbury branch committee have suspended meetings for the next couple of months. We will return in the future but currently are uncertain when that will be.