In
putting together information for my post last week I went back to try to find
some information on a cousin that I had lost. Actually she was not “lost” but I
just had not spent much time looking for her. There is always someone else, or
some other branch, closer in terms of a personal connection, that seems to take
my attention and energy, so I lose track of other people I want to learn about or
forget to keep the search going for them.
That
was true for Thomasin/Tamzine Julia Jane Short, a 1st cousin, 4X
removed. She was the daughter of a 3rd great-grand-aunt and
granddaughter of my 4th great-grandparents. As it turned out she was also the last in
her line.
I
went back to my mainstay databases, Ancestry
and Find My Past to see if I had
missed anything in previous searches or whether new information had been added
that might help.
Firstly,
her mother was Thomasin Shepheard, daughter of John and Jane Treby Shepheard.
That’s how she was identified on her 1807 baptism record in Cornwood, Devon.
She married John Short in St. Andrew, Plymouth in 1839, as Thomasine Shepheard,
although she made her mark on the register indicating she could not read or
write. She died in 1841, in Plymouth, shortly after giving birth to her
daughter. Both her death certificate and burial record show her as Thomasin.
She was buried back home in Cornwood on 6 June 1841.
Thomasin
Julia Jane was baptized on 6 June 1841, the same day as her mother’s burial, in
Cornwood. I do not have her birth certificate so cannot confirm that is the
name she was formally given.
 |
1841 baptism
record for Thomasin Julia Jane Short in Cornwood Parish, Devon; image used courtesy of Plymouth & West Devon
Record Office
She
appeared on the 1841 England census with her father as Thamsin Short. On the 1851
England census she was living with her aunt, Jane (Shepheard) Pinhey, in
Buckland Tout Saints, Devon as Tamsin Short. I thought the spelling of her name
might just represent how it was pronounced rather than the exact spelling. On
the 1861 England census I found an individual I think is her, Tamsin Short, age
19, working as a servant and living in St. Andrew, Plymouth.
In
my search this week, I finally found a marriage record for Tamzine Julia Jane
Short. She married Charles Grape Watson, a private in the Royal Artillery, in
St. Andrew, Plymouth, in 1869. I’m not sure when the record was added to the
Find My Past database but Devon BMD information has been expanded over the past
few years. Anyway, there can be no doubt this is my cousin, with her full name,
shown and her father named as John Short.
 |
1869 marriage record
for Charles Grape Watson and Tamzine Julia Jane Short in St. Andrew, Plymouth
Parish, Devon; image used courtesy of Plymouth & West Devon Record
Office
Now
I thought I had it made. I should be able to find
Thomasin/Tamzin/Tamsin/Tamzine without much trouble since she had a husband
with what I thought was a unique name. While Charles was a common forename and
Watson was probably not a rare surname, how many men with a second name of
Grape could there be?
In
spite of being married in 1869, they were not to be found on the 1871 census.
There was a child named Charles Grape Watson born in 1877 and I did find
Charles G. Watson on the 1881 England census but his wife was Eliza who had
been born in a totally different region of England. I figured this had to be
the right Charles, but where was Tamzin?
I
then looked for military records, since Charles had been a soldier according to
the marriage entry. And there on Ancestry
was his service record in the Royal Artillery, but just as Charles Watson, no
Grape. Unfortunately it did not list a next of kin but did list his birth place
(1857, Ely Parish, Cambridgeshire), occupation (driver), postings, discharge
date (1880) and intended place of residence (Woolwich). It also indicated he
had spent 19 years at Home and two years in East India. Curiously the record
did not mention he had been married but at least now I had several other
references I could use to look for the family. The 1881 census with wife Eliza seemed
to be correct as the family was in Woolwich, the man was a pensioner and he had
been born in Ely Parish.
Once
again, where was Tamsin? Did they divorce? Had she died? A search of FreeBMD resulted in nothing for her, under
either the names Watson or Short, between 1869 and 1881, the outside dates I
had from the marriage and the Woolwich census. But a search back on Find My Past for Tamzin Watson found a
death in Bengal, India in 1870.
Ah
ha! This had to be her! The website even had a copy of the burial entry which
showed her husband as “Driver Watson” who was with the Royal Artillery. That
date also fit with his service record, as he had been “invalided to England for
Change” in 1872 and probably been out of the country for the previous two years shown as being in East India. That
fit exactly with his marriage in Devon in 1869.
 |
1870 death record for
Tamzin Jane Watson, in Kamptee, India; retrieved from Find My Past website 9 August 2016
Tamzin
Jane Watson died 15 September 1870, in Kamptee, Bengal, India, of “Effusion of
the brain.” (Definition: a collection of fluid trapped between the surface of
the brain and the outer lining of the brain…) When I looked back at her
mother’s death certificate it said, “Tubercular disease of the Lungs and an
effusion of water in the Pericardium.” While the causes of death were not the
same, how curious it was to see the same word used relating to water.
This
was one of those star-crossed families, with a mother and an only child dying
so young and ending a family line that started with so much promise.
All
the pieces seemed to come together for this family this week. Whether they were
there online all along or had been added since I last looked, I don’t know. The
main result was that I finally found this lost cousin. [Note to self: always
check back on databases because you never know what you might have missed or
what might have been added.]
Wayne
Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in
England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has
published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy in several
family history society journals. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting
services through his business, Family History Facilitated
