#52Weeks, High House, St Bees, Cumberland, England

 I spent years trying to trace my g grandfather John Robert Fox's family. He was born in New Zealand but came to Australia before marrying. I had his birth certificate but back then they just listed his parents, not where they came from or when and where they married etc. We are very lucky in Victoria with this information recorded.

High House, St Bees Cumbria photo Jill Coulthard

Then came the internet! I had gone into the library one day determined I was going to find Charles James Fox and his wife Harriet Pollard. It appeared they never married in New Zealand so I started on the English IGI, which at that stage was still microfiche by county. Then I remembered that the Mormans now had this on CD and may be quicker and can do a sweep of all counties.
I made my way up there the following day and advised the Librarian what I was looking for. She pulled out the Victorian BDM? I had just told her New Zealand!
But there it was, the marriage of Charles and Harriet! in Victoria. From there things went crazy. I purchased the marriage certificate and found that Charles was in fact living in New Zealand but Harriet was at that time in Castlemaine. But now I had their parents names, Harriet was the daughter of Robert Pollard and Mary (Hart) while Charles was the son of Rev John Fox and Faith (Huddleston) both of Cumberland, England.
There was a Rootsweb group started for the Fox Family. I put up my names to see what would happen. Within hours someone from Texas contacted me to say she had gone to Cumberland seeking her Fox family and passed on the information of the Fox Family of St Bees Cumberland.

Here was a family history that went back to 1500s! and yes on checking this was my family. I was then able to go to the GRD (Genealogical Research Directory), this was published each year for people trying to find links. It was here that I was able to find Jill Coulthard who was also researching this family. I wrote to Jill sending her copies of evidence that I had linking my family to hers. I also sent her my email address. Within days I had an email. She was very excited as she had never had a reply to her entries.
Research shows that Antonii Foxe was living in High House when his son Gwalfridi Foxe was born in 1544. Antonii is my 11x great Grandfather. Since then all these generations of the Fox Family have grown up at High House.
One family member visited there once and was shown through the house but was advised, "this is not the original house, it was rebuilt about 300 years ago"! This came from the then current occupant Anthony Fox, the name still carries.
Part of the property has now been sold off and one of the cottages has been turned into a holiday rental. I will have to visit that one day.

This is New High House photo Jill Coulthard 

My last ancestor there was Charles James Fox who was the son of the Rev John Fox, who was the minister of Haile, Cumberland but also Headmaster of the St Bees College for some 12 years. The family have a very strong presence in the school from its inception.
Charles James Fox went to New Zealand, came to Melbourne and married Harriet Pollard before returning to New Zealand where their three sons were born. It was after the youngest of those sons died from croup that they returned to Australia where Charles died of pneumonia aged 42 years and is  buried at Chewton, Victoria.  The eldest is my grandmother's father, she was Olive Cecilia Fox and she had 2 brothers whose families carry on the name here in Australia, and other families have also come to Australia.
There  is a massive history for this family just in this house.

A Haunting Photo

It is only a photocopy of the original but is still quite haunting. Baden Powell Barwise poses here with his younger brother Horace. These are two of the sons of Henry William Barwise and Florence Lily (Pearce). Baden was born in Prahran in 29 May 1911 and  was the first child for Henry and Florence. At that time Henry listed his occupation as Timber Carter. 

Baden Powell Barwise and his brother Horace 

WW1 started when Baden was only  a toddler and on 19 January 1917 his father who appears to be going  from job to job, joined the forces to help protect his country and possibly be able to bring in a steady income. Baden was not quite five years old, his brother Horace only a year younger and a third brother Leonard 2 years younger again, and their mother was to find she was again pregnant after their father had left to go overseas to fight for his country.  http://livinginballan.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/henry-william-barwise-1882-1948.html

I wonder if this photo was taken for Henry to carry with him to war? People often did not smile in photos back then but these little fellows look like they are really not happy. 

People seeing off the "Arcanius" in Melbourne. Was Baden here seeing off his father.  

Henry was hospitalised with influenza at one time but within a month he was again back on the fields of France as a driver. 

However on the 9 May 1918 Baden was admitted to the Alfred Hospital suffering with Diphtheria, he had already been ill with for 3 days . He was only a few weeks from his seventh birthday. Two days after being admitted he passed away. His mother had him buried at Coburg Pine Ridge Cemetery on 13 May 1918. She was now at home with three other children, possibly worried if they too would come down and meet the fate of their older brother.  In the hospital admission book there were 15 on the page, 14 had this horrible disease of which Baden and another had died.  

Families were often devastated by the deaths of their children to these now preventable diseases. This is just another example of how mothers having to be strong and carry on alone while their men were at war. 

Two months later his father takes ill and is suffering from neurasthenia, and other Post Traumatic Stress type illnesses. There is no mention of him receiving the news of the loss of a son in his records but  it has been said through the family that he took the news badly. The timing matches with he getting the news and him taken down with these illnesses depression and myalgia. He was also suffering  from Rheumatism which probably made him feel more helpless. 

Baden never lived to meet his other 3 siblings and his father never recovered from his mental health issues. This carried on through all the children, most ending their childhoods in orphanages as their mother spent time in and out of hospital and his father living on the streets, unable to cope with "normal" living, and was eventually found dead in a farm shed where he had died from heart failure. 

• Birth Certificate #14373 1911
• Record of Patients admitted into the Queens Memorial Infectious Disease Hospital 
• Death Certificate # 4513 1918
• Australia WW1 records, 1914-192
•  http://www.gmct.com.au/deceased-search/

I have just signed up for #52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. I did have a plan but this has gone by the wayside this week. I had contact from a man whose son in Law is the grandson of one of my Dad's cousins. There is not a lot on this side of the family so it was good to hear of them. It has put me back on track for the search of John Johnson, our original ancestor who made his way and settled in Australia. My paternal great great grandfather. Oh and what a merry chase he is leading me on.

I was only about 9-10 years old when I first learnt of him. We were studying the gold rush and our teacher asked if we knew were our ancestors came from. I had always had a fascination with people who came from other countries and saw my family as pretty boring really. My teacher came to my desk and said "your name is Johnson, so you are probably English". Even that sounded boring.
So I went home and asked Mum and Dad where we had originated from. Mum was all English and Irish but it was Dad who said his had come from Sweden. I remember Mum being rather shocked and telling him not to be so ridiculous. But Dad insisted, John Johnson was Swedish. That made my day, how exciting, an ancestor that was other than English or Irish.

However, when I started my research I found John Johnson was not so easy to trace. I purchased books on Swedish Genealogy and would pick up anything that would help me in this search.
His marriage certificate gave his age as being born c 1839, in Gothenburg Sweden and his parents were Peter and Albertine. He named his only son Peter so his father's name of his fitted well.

John and Anne Johnson (nee Farrell)

I then found that John had been Naturalised. The records gave his date of birth and the fact that he came to Australia via "Triton" and of course he was born in Gothenburg Sweden. Shipping records did not find anything for the "Triton" coming to Australia in 1863, the year he quoted on his naturalisation papers. I have since found the "Triton" a merchant ship, or cargo ship, leaving Warnambool on its way back to Sydney the night before the date John gave as his arrival in Australia.

Only this week I have found a number of records for different ships with John Johnson (Sweden or Gottenburg) leaving Melbourne for Sydney. On one he is listed as Carpenter, which is what Uncle Jim (Dad's Uncle) told me he did. Said he came out as a Ship's Carpenter. His marriage and his son's birth certificate list him as a labourer. He did live in the shipping type area, Williamstown, Fisherman's Bend, South Melbourne. Did he just see himself as a labourer who picked up work where he got it. Later years he is listed as a fisherman, deep sea?

The other interesting thing is that when he gave the informations for his wife's death he gave her the middle name Horsdlt. This had me puzzled until Bob Frears (my new contact) pointed out that there is a John  Horrsdadt Johnson, Fisherman, at Fisherman's Bend listed on the electoral rolls.
The death notice in  The Age (Melbourne, Vic : 1854 - 1954) on 3 June 1891 also has this middle name for Anne.

Is it possible that this is his real surname? I have asked the question on a Swedish Genealogical site and still waiting on an answer at this time. It is like John has sprinkled little hints all over but trying to interpret them to find him is another story.

My Brother's YDNA test has not come up with anything even close to Sweden! But he is definitely descended from John as family photos prove. It is amazing how we can pick such likenesses through the centuries. 

I will continue to search for John and who he really is as I go along. 

John Horrstadt Johnson with grandson (my grandfather) Jack registered John Royle. 

Please read my other post on this family, Curiosity! We found John's family!