Category: Genealogy

Irish Petty Sessions Court Registers, Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland 15 Nov 1899

William Basquil and his wife, Anne, were my 2nd great grand uncle and aunt. John was their son. It’s impossible to figure out the order of events, but there were multiple assaults by William, Anne, and John on various Byrnes, a Byrne fence thrown down, and a charge of cruelty to animals against a Byrne for beating a Basquil cow.

I keep repeating that it’s important to pay attention to addresses, when researching old records. I add them to the database, so they’re trackable. I use Family Tree Maker for my own family and track all the various Basquills in an old copy of Cumberland Family Tree, both of which allow global searching. Both programs also allow browsing all the people associated with a given location, which is invaluable for making connections.

Which brings me to Katie Basquill and 974 Locust Street, Fall River, Massachusetts.

The only Katie Basquill I’m aware of who was born in Fall River is Catherine, the daughter of John L. Basquill and Mary Critchley, and the address given on the baby’s death certificate is the same as John’s and Mary’s. Katie was born in 1896 and would have been just barely 13 years old when this baby was born. Obviously, that would have made her 12 years old when she became pregnant.

I can’t find any trace of Henry Sampson after 1908. Possibly for very good reason.

In my searching for Henry Sampson, though, I found four women who died in Fall River whose parents were Roger Reynolds and Mary Basquill. More stray Basquills? The Fall River strays were all born around 1830 in Ireland, and because they were Basquills, that meant County Mayo. Irish records from before mid-1800s are spotty at best, and even more so for women, so I wasn’t optimistic about fitting these women into the part of the puzzle I’ve already got pieced together. What I did know, just from the birth dates, was that these could not be part of Denis Basquill’s and Ellen Carney’s immediate family. Denis and Ellen were John L. Basquill’s parent’s (grandparents of young Katie), but they were both born in the 1840s, so I felt it was likely that they were cousins of the stray Basquill women. How to prove that, though?

I’m not sure there is any kind of proof, but I do think we can make a pretty good guess. A closer look at the death certificates of the strays showed that two of them had been living on Locust Street when they died. Hm. So they all–both groups of Basquills–were living in the same neighborhood. I’ve seen some strange coincidences, but that beggars belief.

I decided the next step was to take another trawl trawl through Pat Deese’s website. Maybe coming at it from the Mayo end would be helpful? BINGO! I found a Roger Reynolds and Mary Baskwell, living in Cloondacon, Aughagower Parish, County Mayo. I couldn’t find birth or baptism records for the girls who moved to Fall River, but I did find baptism records for three of their boys: Patrick, John, and Michael. AND, I found a record of Roger and Mary as the baptismal sponsors for Thomas and Bridget Baskwell’s daughter Judith/Julia. Thomas, who was the brother of my 3rd great grandfather, Michael. Mary Reynolds was also the baptismal sponsor of 3rd great grandfather Michael’s and wife Margaret’s son, John.

My best guess is that Mary Basquill who married Roger Reynolds is the sister of Michael and Thomas, which would make her my 3rd great grand aunt. I can’t prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, but I think it’s a reasonable conclusion.

I don’t think I will ever be able to connect this Thomas Baskwell with my people. He was born in the right place (Westport, County Mayo), but there just aren’t enough records surviving from the time period to fit the puzzle together properly. He surely is one of my people, though. Born about 1769, he served for eighteen years in George III’s army, before he was discharged at age 48 for “being worn out.”

When you start digging into your family history, you take the good with the bad. That’s just part of the bargain you strike. Walter, bless his little heart, was my great great grandfather. Patrick was his son.

On the other hand, if you were living in a three room house (pdf) with 7 other people (pdf) you might be a little testy, too. Not that that’s any excuse for beating your neighbor’s ass, so to speak.

And who’s your mommy, too? Because clearly someone is confused.

Marriage Record of Forrest Richardson Eaton and Bridget Ida Basquil

From this record, it would appear that not only is Bridget’s middle name Ida (no, I don’t believe that for a minute), but that her parents were Michael Basquil and Mary McGuire. Also, all three of them were born in England. No. Way.

Compare, please, to Bridget’s entry over at Findagrave. Her middle initial there is A. For Agnes. You’ll see that she was born in Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland. Yes. Yes, she was. And her parents (also born in County Mayo, of course) were Thomas Basquil and Catherine Morely. You can see the whole happy family here, in the 1901 Census and the 1911 Census.

So what is going on with that marriage record? It’s clearly for this Bridget, as she did, indeed marry Mr. Eaton. We have no idea who provided the information for the marriage record or whether it was vetted by Bridget. We don’t even know when it was actually created or by whom. If there were no other information on this couple available, you’d have to go with the marriage record, but stacked up against all the other facts we do have, I think we can assume that either the informant was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrongity, wrong, wrong, WRONG, or that two records were conflated after the fact. Perhaps Michael [some other last name that is not Basquil] and Mary McGuire belong to the bride or groom of the previous or next marriage record the clerk filled out?

And where did that “Ida” come from? The name is not at all common in County Mayo. Searching the 1901 Census, there are 11 Idas in the county (counting it as a first name as well as in combination with all other first names; never once does it occur with Bridget), compared with 21 Bridget Agneses. And there is just one Bridget Ida in the entire country, in County Antrim. Nationwide, there are 151 Bridget Agneses. There’s just no reason to believe that our Bridget Basquil ever used the middle name Ida. Perhaps the mysterious Michael [some other last name that is not Basquil] and Mary McGuire had a daughter named Bridget Ida [some other last name that is not Basquil]?

You just never know what you’ll find in old documents. This was from a ship’s manifest. (Yes, it says “Partially descended testicle.”)

I’m never quite sure if it’s a blessing or a curse that most of the surnames in my family are uncommon. It means that somehow, anyone out there with the same surname is a fairly close relative. I don’t have to wonder if John Smith is the John Smith who married my great-great aunt. When I find a marriage license for Margaret Basquill and Sterrett Pooser, I have a high degree of confidence that these are my people.

On the other hand, spelling. Spelling is more of an art than a science. Even fairly recently, people didn’t seem to be too attached to a particular spelling for their name. For example, my great-great aunt Margaret. Her middle name was DeSales, but for some reason, on her marriage license, it’s spelled DeSails. Now, given the uniformity of the handwriting, we can guess that a clerk filled out the form, not Margaret or Sterrett. Still, presumably one or both of them were present and could have given the correct spelling?

Anyway, weren’t they adorable? Margaret died when I was six or seven, and she was pretty much bed-ridden before that, so I don’t remember her well. I get the impression that she had a great sense of humor, was adventurous and unfussy, and was close to her sister Nell (my great grandmother).

Sterrett Pooser, Margaret (Basquill) Pooser, Dot Coleman, Frank Coleman, 1920s
“Pablo Beach FLA”

Great-great Uncle Adolph Russell Thompson’s World War I draft registration card

All fingers on right hand off at or near wrist. That’s what it says. I don’t know what it means, but that’s what it says.

So, I’ve been making up scenarios in my head for how he lost his fingers (or, rather, HAND). NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, y’all, and I need plot ideas. May as well mine weird family history for them, right?

I don’t know about you, but I find this sort of thing to be not very helpful.