Walter Hindmarsh - using enlightened Scottish records for an Englishman

Walter Hindmarsh, like his father and brothers, was a shepherd.  Unlike his brothers who walked the Northumberland hills he left England and hopped the border to Scotland.

Walter was born to William Hindmarsh and Margaret Grieve in a Northumberland farm.  The family home was called Carshope, in Alwinton Parish just south of the England/ Scotland border; he was baptised in January 1792 which wasn't too long after his birth when comparing it with census returns.

I knew from various sources including this one:

Inserted here by desire the children to William Hindmarsh and Margaret Grieve his wife in Carshope, Parish of Alwinton
William son born 7/10/1790
Walter son born 20/1/1792
Thomas son born 6/1/1794
Elizabeth daughter born 25/11/1795
Adam son born 1/10/1797
Jane daughter born 29/4/1802
Alexander son born 29/5/1805
All baptised Harbottle

that Walter was one of seven brothers, but so far I've only been able to confirm the names of five of them: William, Walter, Thomas, Alexander and John (John was noted elsewhere as the 7th son).  They also had two sisters, Elizabeth and Jane; Jane is my great-great-great grandmother. 

Photo of Alwinton, Northumberland, by Peter Reed
https://www.flickr.com/photos/petereed/

I have been using FindMyPast to search for my Northumberland family over the last couple of months.  Their specific record set of transcriptions by Northumberland and Durham Family History Society was one of the reasons I took out a subscription and it's been fantastically helpful.  But sadly I drew a blank on Walter and feared he'd died young.  However I tried searching for him on Ancestry and up popped a reference to an English couple called Walter and Isabella Hindmarsh, living in Morebattle parish, Roxburgh county in south Scotland.

Although this reference came from Ancestry in Utah it says that it had been transcribed from source, the General Register Office for Scotland. However there was no scan of the original document.  This, then, was a job for the Scotland's People website.

Although I'm English, by the time I took up family history I was living in Scotland.  It was pre-internet (olden days!) so I didn't have access to any online resources or any English ones at all so I spent a few fascinating pre-motherhood years learning about my husband's Scottish family from occasional day-trips to the GRO in Edinburgh and a few visits to Argyll.

After a few years away from genealogy my interest was kick-started again and I had the chance to use sites such as Genes Reunited, Ancestry and more recently FindMyPast.

But whether paper or pixels, it's a huge shock working with English records after you're used to working with Scottish ones.  The amount of information provided is so much greater - so much more useful - in Scottish records.

So I found my uncle Walter in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 Scottish census returns, just as I would for his brothers in the English returns, and on Scotland's People could [pay credits to] view a scan of the original document.  But I could find no record of his marriage to Isabella and could not prove that Morebattle Walter and Alwinton Walter were one and the same man. In both England and Scotland at that pre-census time there was no formal registration so I will have to search through parish/non-conformist registers to find their marriage.

In 1841 William and Isabella were barely over the border in Scotland - Kelsocleugh Farm sits in the strange lumpy borders landscape just north of English Alwinton and the Northumberland National Park. There was also another family living at that farm, William Hall and his family.

Towards Morbattle, by Keith Holmes on Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/keith_h/

The 1851 census for Morebattle describes William as an Ag Lab (Agricultural Labourer) and with him and Isabella live a married Ag Lab servant called James Young and an unmarried house servant called Agnes Hall.

Isabella was older than Walter and she died some point between the 1851 and 1861 censuses, I haven't yet identified when and where.

In 1861 Walter is living with his domestic servant called Margaret Fiddes in Yetholm, at the Cross Keys.

And then I hit the jackpot: I found Walter's death certificate.

View of hills from Kirk Yetholm,
photo by Andrew Bowden https://www.flickr.com/photos/bods/

Most obligingly for my purposes, Walter had died in Scotland, specifically in the ancient town of Kirk Yetholm 

Interestingly Kirk Yetholm is on some main roads to England (see this Old Roads of Scotland website) so if he wasn't driving sheep along them, he perhaps trudged or rode them to find work.

Walter didn't make it to the 1871 census.  He died on the fourth of November 1869 at 8am, after being ill for three years with a cerebral spinal disease.  Curiously Margaret Fiddes, the informant, who was present at his death, had her relation to him noted as Inmate.  Looking back at the census returns to write this blog post I see that a Margaret Fiddes was a female servant on Kelsocleugh Farm back in 1841 and his domestic servant in  in 1861. Intriguing....  I'm catching myself looking at the certificate again, seriously wondering if it says Intimate, not Inmate.  Maybe she was just a very loyal servant.

And the identifying on the certificate of Walter's late wife as Isabella Hindmarsh, maiden surname Hall, would suggest that their 1841 neighbours on that farm were Isabella's brother and his family.

But the key piece of information that I was looking for was the names of his parents: father, William Hindmarsh, shepherd (deceased) and Margaret Hindmarsh, maiden surname Grieve (deceased). Proof.  All that information (and more) from one death certificate, it's amazing. Even the English certificates I've spent a tenner on ordering have nothing as comprehensive as this.

My favourite piece of information is definitely the mother's maiden surname - what respect for women, acknowledging they had an identity pre-marriage!

© Original text copyright Lynne Black, 21 February 2015

What Did Your Ancestors Do? – Shepherd Family Carriers in the Braidwood District

Lynn Shepherd III Bullock Team in the Main Street of Braidwood taking boiler to Araluen

In my last post "Visiting Past Connections- a Reflection on the Influence of the Gold Rush on our Family History" I mentioned that my father’s family were involved in the carrier business in the Braidwood district. Last week, quite by coincidence,  I received a phone call from a cousin who advised me that Braidwood was celebrating their “Back to Braidwood 175 Years”.  Deciding that this was too good an opportunity to miss, I made plans to return to Braidwood for the celebrations.  Seven generations of the Shepherd family have lived and worked in the Braidwood District since the late 1840’s and it was a good chance to catch up with relatives and follow up on some family tree research.

Braving a cold wet drizzly day, my sister and I set out to join the community to celebrate 175 years of the old gold mining town of Braidwood.  We had a wonderful day watching the parade which featured modes of transport through the times, even a bullock waggon hauled along by  a band of very content cattle.  During the parade there was a re-enactment of the  local bank being held up by a band of whip cracking bush rangers on horseback.  However, the display that really caught my attention was organised by (coincidentally) another distant cousin in the old Braidwood paper shop.  This display featured over 500 large photos of local families and their connection with local industry.  The Shepherd family featured strongly in this display with amazing pictures of the family members and their involvement in the carrier industry. Photos and a description of my return to Braidwood can be found in my recent post "Thankful Thursday - Back to Braidwood 175 Year Celebration".

A little back ground history on the Shepherd family.  (This is very abridged as the Shepherd Family branches now spread far and wide).  Lynn David Shepherd(I) (1795-1845) came to Australia with his wife Elizabeth Mariner and family in 1825 as a member of the Veteran Corps. When he retired from the regiment he was given an allotment of land at Bongbong.  Following Lynn Shepherd I’s death the family moved to the Araluen a gold  mining settlement in the Braidwood district. Elizabeth Shepherd remarried Richard Chappel in 1848 in Braidwood and they continued to live in the Araluen district until their death.  Initially the family were attracted by farming and mining for gold, however they soon recognised that there was an opportunity to provide carting services within the community and out to other centres such as Goulburn and Nelligen.*  

Lynn and Elizabeth's sons, followed by their grandsons worked together, helping each other in the carrying and logging business, transporting wool, gold, timber, mining equipment and stores between the various settlements, gold fields and even as far as Sydney.

The carriers played an important part in supporting and establishing the economy of the district carrying goods to the mining settlements and in later years the timber cutting industries, carrying produce such as timber, wool to the commercial hubs of Goulburn or to Nelligen for shipment to Sydney as well as the transport of mining equipment and boilers between mining centres.  This was a tough way to make a living, camping by the side of the road and travelling on substandard roads that were no more than dirt tracks.  The road over the Clyde Mountain from Braidwood down to Nelligan was particularly hazardous, with many horse teams coming to grief over the side of the mountain. 

Shepherd Brothers resting before taking their teams over the Clyde Mountain

The horse teams and bullock waggon teams were critical to the survival of the early settlers in the remote outlying areas of this area. They travelled along the tracks through all types of weather, some coming to grief as they traversed the precarious roads. One such incident is described "On the evening of October 11th, 1915, the 11 horse team of Johnny Rogers went over the precipitous side of the Clyde Mountain road, near Cabbage Tree Creek.  In the morning all except for 2 horses were found dead.  Such a tragic accident was nothing new in the history of the district, as the steep mountain ridges and flooded rivers and creeks had been a danger and a barrier since the first days of settlement."** 

They travelled through dust, snow and floods with mud up to the axle of their waggon.  One of these hazardous journey's is described in my blog about Angus Shepherd "Angus Shepherd - A story from TROVE"

Searching through TROVE  there are numerous articles that mention the exploits of the Shepherd Family  and other carriers of the district, describing their arduous journey's, pulling extremely heavy loads and providing much needed supplies for those in the outlying areas.

There are many many stories to tell about the escapades, hardships and adventures that were experiences generations of the Shepherd family in the Braidwood district. They lived in a colourful and exciting time, a time of bush rangers, gold mining and discovery.  They along with the other carriers of the district played an important and pivotal role in the settlement of the district.  

I am sure others have some interesting stories to relate about their ancestors and the industries and work they were involved.  It would be great to hear some of these tales!!!

Waggon fully laden with sSupplies at Nelligen on the Clyde River - ready to make the journey over the Clyde Mountain to Braidwood.

______________
* The Shepherd Book, (2001) compiled by Helen Jamieson.
**Braidwood Heritage (1983) Historical Photos and text by Netta Ellis, p.46.