Lest we forget …..

During the past six months I have found some more extended family members who took part in military conflicts.  If you can add anything to any of these or have a photo of anyone I’d love to hear from you. As always any sources can be obtained by contacting me. Previously I have detailed other family members involved with the military that can be seen here: Anzac day, Anzac Day 2015, ANZAC Day 2016 and ANZAC day 2017 – Additional family military personnel.

Robert Collier

Robert was the son of Robert Collier (1797 – 1870) and his wife Elizabeth.  His grandparents were James Collier and Ann Walton.  Robert (married to Elizabeth) was a brother of Francis Collier (married to Mary Wardleworth for the Collier descendants).  Robert (1797 – 1870) migrated to America.  His son Robert was a private in the 50th Regiment in Pennsylvania.  He was discharged on 2 June, 1865 after 1 year.  His wife Charity applied for a widow’s pension which is how we know he enlisted.

Nesbitt and Robert Gregg

Nesbitt and Robert Gregg were two of the sons of William Gregg and Eleanor Nesbitt (we think Nesbitt is probably her maiden name).  They were born near Raphoe in County Donegal, Ireland and migrated to Pennsylvania in the 1840s (at different dates).  They both were in the civil war draft registration.

Spencer Murch Mumby

Spencer was the third husband of Esther Rowe and she in turn was the second wife of Benjamin Scarfe.  Benjamin had been previously married to Elizabeth Johnstone, a sister of Andrew Alexander Johnstone (who married Annie Hood) and daughter of John Joseph Johnstone and Elizabeth Pattison.  Elizabeth died after child birth. Spencer was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Hampshire Corp in 1879.   When he married Esther in 1899 in London he was ‘of New York’ and the son of the late Colonel Mumby, JP.

Edward Harold Row

Grandson of Mary Ann Kent and Joseph Row, Mary Ann was the daughter of Robert Kent and Jenny Pront and Robert the son (I believe) of John Kent and Mary Warren of Tavistock.  Edward was a clerk when he joined the Royal Artillery in 1886 and served in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from 1887 to 1890.

Emil Lyell Joseph Austin

Husband of Vera Selina Stokes who was the daughter of Elizabeth Ann Sims (the Boyd side) and William Henry Thomas Stokes.  Emil enlisted on 21 May 1918 toward the end of WWI and the war ended before he was sent overseas.  He was an engineering apprentice when he enlisted.

David Scott Boyd

David was the son of John Boyd and Jessie Watt and the great grandson of James Boyd who married Mary Brown.  David was a merchant seaman in WWI.

Douglas Gordon Elliot Brown

Douglas was the husband of Evelyn Watt Boyd Young who was the niece of the above David Scott Boyd.  He was a pilot in the 485 (NZ) Squadron, RAF New Zealand airforce and became a squadron leader.

Walter Herbert Castle

Elizabeth Britnell was the grandmother of Walter.  She was the grand-daughter of Jonah Britnell and Charlotte Rush.  Walter enlisted in the army service corp in England in 1917.  He was 38 years old and married to Amy Caroline Bird.

Angus Henry Gregg

Angus was the grandson of Richard Gregg and Catherine McKay and the genealogy connection here is interesting.  Richard was from near Raphoe in County Donegal and Catherine was from the Isle of Skye – who is the connection?  Or is it both?  Angus enlisted in 1917 when he was (probably) 17 years old.  (His birth was registered in 1900 in Victoria so he could have been born earlier).  He was a private with the AIF.  He married Beatrice May Evans in London in 1919 when he said he was 23. When he died in 1973 he was said to be 72 suggesting a date of birth of 1900.

Noel Hilton

Noel was born in Wardleworth, near Rochdale in Lancashire, in 1915.  He was the great grandson of Ellen Collier (daughter of Francis Collier and Mary Wardleworth) and James Hilton. His family emigrated to Australia when he was twelve years old. He enlisted in Adelaide in the RAAF at the outbreak of WWII and served until 1948.  He was an NCO.

Arthur Cuthbert Turner

He was the great grandson of Henry Gardiner Turner and Judith Sloggett (Sluggett) born in 1904 in St Kilda, Victoria.  He married Doris May Stapleton in Victoria in 1929.  He enlisted as a Flying Officer in the RAAF in 1943 when he was thirty-nine years old.  Arthur died in 1989 when he was eighty-five years old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

McKnights, Gregg & Dunlops/Delap from Raphoe, Co Donegal

I’m back after too long without any posts.  I had an eventful 2016 which included two genealogy trips, the second to the UK with my mother.  We visited Donegal and Belfast in Ireland at the end of August on the trail of our McKnight, Gregg and Dunlop families from Raphoe in County Donegal.  I also visited where the McFaddens (on my dad’s side) were from in County Armagh but more about them in another post.

Gregg family from Donegal to Pennsylvania

I wrote earlier of James McKnight and Ellen Gregg who arrived in New York from Londonderry on board the Hannah Thornton in 1849.  Since then I have James’ will which names as his executor his nephew Joseph B Gregg.  This led me to find Joseph’s father, Nesbitt and then his brothers, a sister and parents.  It seems most if not all of the Gregg family migrated to America in the 1840s and that James McKnight, his wife Ellen Gregg, their children and his sister Jane McKnight, followed them.  As usual if anybody knows anymore about any of these families or has photographs, documents etc please get in touch.  I know the Gregg families had large families in Pennsylvania and New York.