The Tree of Me

Yesterday I was in my local bookshop and I saw the book, Lady Catherine and the Real Downton Abbey written by Fiona Carnarvon, the Countess of Carnarvon. Highclere Castle - 2005 I had to buy the book, not just because of my love of the series, but simply because one of my family may be mentioned in the book. Sure enough, the index indicated a hit. Page 82 has a mention of Dick Dawson. So even though the reference to Dick was one sentence in the book it had to become part of my personal collection. One of Porchey's first decisions was to build up his brood mares and then send his youngsters to be trained by Dick Dawson at Whatcombe, who trained the Aga Khan's horses....... The horseracing, breeding and training world is full of dreamers and eccentrics, driven men (it is usually men, and certainly was in Porchey's day) whose existence has been overtaken by the hope that one day, one of their horses may win a Grand National, or an Epsom Derby, and become a househ...

Thanks once again to Geniaus for coming up with theAccentuate the Positive 2012  geneameme .  At this time of year many geneabloggers take stock of what they have achieved or not achieved in the previous twelve months and set themselves goals for the coming year. I have been reading several of these posts this week. I feel that a lot of my geneablogging friends are too hard on themselves; several have reported on their successes this year but quite a number have lamented that they haven't achieved as much as they set out to do or that they haven't blogged with the frequency they envisaged. You are a bunch of highly motivated people who have made great strides in the genealogy sphere. Let's share the good news. My response Perhaps I had been one of those who lamented about the lack of progress this year. So for the last hour (or more) I have sat here contemplating my efforts and I have to admit they are not so poor. I just wish I had more time to devote to this ex...

I have written three previous posts about Samuel Cuming Dawson of Cloghran, Swords, Co Dublin, Ireland. The first discussed a letter he posted to Autralia in 1878 when he was a cadet aboard the Conway. The second  showed the honour board when he won the Queen's Medal. The third post discussed information from the Maritime Museum in Liverpool. Today I write what may be the final post for Samuel Dawson. Last year, I visited Swords and found Samuel's headstone at St Columba's Church of Ireland at Swords, Co Dublin. Unfortunately, I couldn't read the date of his death. Headstone of Samuel Cuming Dawson - St Columba's Swords. Today I have been using my NLA card and have been trawling the Irish Newspaper Archives with great success. (However, it's a shame the site is so slow to move to the next result page.) A search for Dawson and Cloghran has come up with 598 results and one of the first ones was an obituary for Mr Sam C Dawson. Of course, his ob...

I have written a couple of posts about Samuel Dawson in the past few weeks. After publishing a letter written by him in 1878 I decided to see what else I could find out about him. I have followed up with an email to the Maritime Museum in Liverpool seeking information about Samuel. Last week I received these images from John Winrow, the assistant curator. I now have more information to include in Samuel's story. He attended the Swords Endowed School which I will have to research further. Under terms of admission it states the fees were £42. It looks as though his father Richard Dawson had to pay for Samuel to become a Conway cadet. Both his naval and school reports while on the Conway were outstanding. In one of my earlier posts I surmised that he won a telescope for either the Chairman of the Conway Committee Prize or the Royal Geographical Prize. I now know his prize was in Geography. Samuel's report comments read: 1877 Gained? class prizes in Geography and Histor...

Last week I posted a letter written by  Samuel Dawson  to his aunt Emma Dawson in Melbourne. The letter gives names of many family members but also mentions other significant information. As a family historian I need to examine the letter for information that can fill in more of the story of Samuel and his family. From his letter the key points included: Samuel was a Conway cadet Going into Merchant Service with the ship British Envoy His sister was studying at Queen's University The potato crop failed in Ireland in 1878 Brother George often leads the deer hunt Samuel goes to the races He mentions a rifle match at Wimbledon Two sisters were staying at a fashionable watering place in Ireland Exhibition in Paris HMS Euridyce had recently sunk I didn't know anything about the Conway so last week, I spent some time finding out what I could about HMS Conway and Samuel Dawson. The  HMS Conway 1859 - 1974  website was a gold mine of information.  In 1864 Q...

Amanuensis Monday  was started by John Newmark in his blog  Translyvanian Dutch  and encourages family historians to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes and other historical artifacts. An amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. Each Monday I hope to transcribe one of the many letters or diary entries in my possession.  Today's letter was written by Samuel Dawson of Cloghran, Co Dublin, Ireland in 1878 to his aunt Emma Dawson in Melbourne, Australia. Emma's late husband, William was the brother of Samuel's father Richard.  Kilronan House Cloghran Co Dublin Ireland Friday 19th July 1878 Dear Aunt Having your last letter I determined to take advantage of the wish you expressed that some of us would write to you it is indeed with great pleasure I write this my first letter to you with the hope that I will either hear from or see you before this time twelvemonth. I am at pre...