Chynoweths in Mexico

This week I've gone off on a tangent but it has taken me to Mexico and back so it has been interesting!

While hunting Chynoweths I spotted one Maria Chynoweth born in Mexico about 1830. This sparked my interest and I resolved to find out more.

In 1841 census she is living in Helston with William and Mary Allen and their children at the New Inn. I suspect they are relations.

In 1850 she marries Thomas Priske of the Railway Inn in Penzance and in 1851 census they are living in Penzance where he is an innkeeper.

By 1861 she is a widow with 2 children and is an innkeeper at the Red Lion back in Helston.

In 1871 she is the manageress of the Metropol Tavern in London which is owned by her older brother William Chynoweth.

In 1881  aged 50 she is described as a bargirl back in Helston at the New Inn owned by cousin Lavinia Lory. This is where she was in 1841 and Lavinia turns out to be daughter of William Allen and Mary Harris born 1841 after the 1841 census. More of Lavinia in a future post.

Now to work out who her parents are.  Her  mother must be either an Allen or a Harris. Being born in Mexico there is no birth record.
But her brother William was born in Cornwall about 1824.
Using Cornish Parish Records online I find  William Chenoweth born 1824 in Helston to John Chenoweth carpenter and Grace (no maiden surname) but with Helston it sounds good.
I look for other children of John and Grace and find several with the middle name Harris. I think she is Grace Harris! The oldest is Grace Harris Chenoweth born 1819. I look for a marriage prior to 1819 and find it in December 1818.  She is from Helston but he is from Breage. And two witnesses are named Mark Shephard and John Chynoweth. I file this info away in my head!

Now to explore the Mexico connection.  Some  judicious googling leads me to find out he worked at the Real del Monte silver mines in Mexico and died there is 1837. His wife and 5 children come back to Helston. Grace died in 1839 in Helston. You can see the family tree here

 Their daughter Grace (b 1819)  married and stayed in Mexico. Son William (b 1824) went back as a civil engineer before becoming a pub landlord in London.

I love that you can get Cornish pasties in  Real del Monte (now called Mineral del Monte  twinned with Redruth.)

The Cornish in Latin America project

BBC story from 2008

Maria's family tree

Kedzlies from Scotland to New Zealand

This time last week I had one Kedzlie on my tree. Now I have upwards of 30 and rising! A comment left on my tree led me to contact a friend of a living Kedzlie in New Zealand who had been trying to find out where her family came from.

May Irene Kedzlie born 1901 in New Zealand married Colin George Sievwright.  This information from a cousin in New Zealand and it checked out on NZ records. Her father was Alexander Charles Kedzlie, born 1866 but parents were not recorded. At this point many would give up, but I am determined.  Kedzlie is not that common a name - I had never heard it before so I searched for all the Kedzlie births in New Zealand and entered data into an excel spreadsheet so I could sort them by year of birth.

I could see that the only Kedzlies recorded having children between 1857 and 1871 were John and Elizabeth and decided to assume that they were the unrecorded parents of all three with no parents.

I had a wee look on familysearch for Kedzlies and saw that there were a lot in Inveresk and Musselburgh, Midlothian, Scotland  near Edinburgh

I then looked for a marriage of John Kedzlie to Elizabeth. Nothing on familysearch but ancestry gave a marriage to Elizabeth Cossar in Australia in 1854. Hadn't I just seen "Cossar" on the list of births? This was sounding good despite being Australia. Familysearch had one child Ellen Janet born to them in 1855 so they must have come to New Zealand between 1855 and 1857.

I turned by attention to Elizabeth Cossar and looked for her death on NZ records to get an idea of her birthdate. Found Elizabeth Catherine Kedzlie died 1915 aged 79 giving a DOB of 1836.  Some googling and looking on family search, other family trees and  censuses leads me to believe her to be the daughter of George Cossar a tanner from Edinburgh who married Susana Gallet in Hanley Castle in Worcestershire. Elizabeth was born in Tewkesbury and the family moved back to Edinburgh by 1851. Other Cossars are found in Australia too.

I am suspecting by this time that John Kedzlie is the son of butcher George Kedzlie in Inveresk censuses in 1841 and 1851 but there is no John to be found in the censuses with the family or anywhere else.

The biggest breakthrough though was in online newspaper archives New Zealand's papers past and Australia's trove.

I found an obituary in the Otago Witness (scroll d0wn about 3/4) for John Kedzlie who died in 1903. It recounts his birth in 1821 in Musselburgh, that he left for Australia in 1849, married Elizabeth Cossar  there and moved to New Zealand in 1856. I found a record for the latter journey too.

I also found a baptism on 6  Sep 1821 to George Kedzlie and Helen Cleugh in Inveresk and Musselburgh. 

And his death is reported in the Northern Star in Australia as well; he is the eldest brother of Alexander Kedzlie which supports my theory of him being the son of George Kedzlie the butcher. Alexander was born in Musselburgh in 1831.

All this research took about 3 days (well it's been raining here) and I did it all on my laptop at no additional cost to my ancestry subscription.  I had a lot of fun looking and what a great feeling of satisfaction when it all ties in.


John Kedzlie on my ancestry tree  I f you have an ancestry account, you should be able to see this tree. If it is not a UK account you have change the url from .co.uk to .com or .au or whatever.