Arundel King - 52 Ancestors #2

Week 2's theme for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is King. Seeing the theme, I thought it might be a good opportunity to do some more research on someone in my family tree with the surname King - and there aren't too many of them at the moment. I chose Arundel Sidney Arthur King. He is not one of my direct ancestors, but we do share some. Arundel (also spelled as Arundle) was a great grandson of John Gill & Sarah Fielder - my 5x Great Grandparents. Arundel descends from their daughter Dinah (who married John King), whereas my ancestor is their son Silas.

Arundel was born in 1877 in Morpeth, New South Wales. His birth registration on the New South Wales Births Deaths & Marriages Index is recorded as the following...

Birth Registration of Arundel King
[Source: NSW BDM]

I had already known his parents names from his death registration which you can see below - Earl James King & Isabella Jemima Card. When I saw the birth registration I immediately had questions. Why is Earl James King not listed as the father? Why does he have his mother's surname?

Death Registration of Arundel King
[Source: NSW BDM]

I decided to double check Earl & Isabella's marriage which I already had recorded.

Marriage of Earl James King & Isabella Jemima Card
[Source: Australia Marriage Index, 1788-1950; Ancestry.com.au]

Of course! They married in 1878. The year after Arundel was born. That makes a lot more sense now. Why it did not click with me originally I do not know. I also have a copy of Arundel's baptism certificate which states that his father is Earl. Anyway, let's continue with Arundel...

Arundel married Mary Jane Gill in 1907 in Maitland, NSW. Until this week, I did not have Mary's parents listed. However, this intrigued me because a majority people with the surname Gill in the Maitland area at that time are connected to me in someway. That and Arundel's ancestors were also Gill's which I mentioned previously. Our common ancestors John Gill & Sarah Fielder who lived in England had three children who came to New South Wales - my ancestor Silas, Arundel's ancestor Dinah, and William. William and Silas both had over 10 children, so there are A LOT of Gill cousins out there. Hence, I wondered if Arundel and Mary were cousins somehow.

After some researching, I discovered that Mary was the daughter of George Gill and Sarah Andrews who married in 1885 in Maitland. I went through the George Gill's in my family tree to see if I had any that fit the bill. I landed on George Gill (1851 - 1916), and what do you know, I had a note for a possible marriage to Sarah Andrews (1862-1898). Funnily enough, George Gill was a GRANDSON of my 4x Great Grandfather Silas Gill.

I think it is pretty safe to say that Arundel and Mary were cousins. Second Cousins 1x Removed in fact.

Family Tree of Arundel King & Mary Gill

Getting Creative with Genea-Graphics

I was very excited to watch DearMYRTLE's (a.k.a Pat Richley-Erickson) recent Wacky Wednesday video on how she creates her graphics. I listened, watched and took a page full of notes as she demonstrated how to create them using PowerPoint. Truth be told, I had never thought of using PowerPoint and completely forgot you could even save PowerPoint slides as an image. 

I was feeling quite inspired after watching the video (which you can watch HERE by the way) and had a play around in PowerPoint creating a couple of images. I have an older version of PowerPoint, thus, I do not have as many themes available as Myrt does, but I still managed to find something I like. Please also note that I am not a whiz when it comes to graphics. I did Information Technology (Computers) in High School, however a majority of what I learned seems to have left my little noggin. This might be because we used advanced programs which I have not used since High School...and which would cost me a whopper to use at home, haha.

So far I have created the following graphics/images in PowerPoint...

Image 1 - Created in PowerPoint by me

Image 2 - Created in PowerPoint by me

I am not entirely sure if I am 100% happy with them, or what I would use them for at the moment. Your comments are thoroughly appreciated! I also created one to use at the end of my YouTube videos, but you won't see that one until my next video, hehehe.

While watching the video, Jill Ball (Geniaus) mentioned that she uses Canva. I had never heard of Canva, so naturally I headed to the website to check it out. Result: I love it!!! Canva lets you create images/banners for social media with the dimensions for your relevant social media platforms available. However, you can also pop in your own dimensions if you feel the dimensions they have are not suitable to your image creating needs.

I created the following banner on Canva using the Facebook Banner dimensions. I am quite in love with it and it is currently the banner on my personal Facebook profile. 

Facebook Banner created on Canva by me

I am going to see if Heather, my partner in genea-blogging-crime at Young & Savvy Genealogists is interested in a couple of graphics for Y&SG. That would be pretty cool to do.

On another note, I just thought of the word genea-graphics. Another word to add to the GeneaDictionary, Jill? 

Have you created any graphics for your genealogy profiles, talks or other things? Did you use PowerPoint, Canva or another program? I would love to hear your ideas! :)

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #1: William Gow

I’m giving myself a new challenge this year - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks which is run by Amy Johnson Crow from No Story Too Small. I noticed many blog posts from people who took part in the challenge last year and thought it would be something fun to do in the future. Plus, I’m hoping it will help me identify areas for further research.

The theme for Week 1 is Fresh Start. When I think of a fresh start I think of my Great Grandfather William Gow.

Born on the 21^st of May, 1868, William was the youngest of 5 children to parents William Gow and Jean Drummond. He grew up on his family’s farm at Cairn, Muthill, Perthshire, Scotland. Sadly, his father passed away the day after his 6^th birthday in 1874. William remained on the farm until 1886. By then, his siblings and mother had all relocated, including his brother Robert who had immigrated to Sydney in 1884. In 1886, when he was just 18 years old, William made the long journey to Sydney arriving on October 5^th, 1886. William did not have any family with him when he made this trip, so it must have been quite daunting! 

William Gow in 1889, aged 22.
[Source: Personal Collection]

When he arrived in Sydney, he lived in Potts Point, an inner-city suburb. William had worked as a gardener in Scotland, and continued to do so in Sydney. In his diary for the year 1887, William recorded what he did each day. Some entries are detailed, others are not. On January 17^th, he was “cleaning [garden] beds in front of the house and watered them and pots at the door and veranda.” Potts Point is also situated on Elizabeth Bay. On February 6^th, William “got out the boat and went over to Darling Point and had another row around Elizabeth Bay.” In quite a few entries he mentions doing some gardening at a Bush House. I currently have no idea where Bush House is/was but it would be interesting to find out. According to William’s obituary, he also worked as a gardener for Sir Adrian Knox. Perhaps Bush House could have been something to do with Sir Adrian Knox? Some investigating to do here I think.

In 1896 William became a police officer, and in 1897, after the 12 month probation period, became an Ordinary Constable. 

William Gow's Police Appointment on NSW State Records

On the 14^th of December, 1904, William married Elizabeth Croal. They lived in Stanmore (inner-west Sydney) where they had two children – Adam Gow (1905 – 1905) and William David Drummond Gow (1910 – 2003). 

Wedding of William Gow & Elizabeth Croal, 14th Dec 1904, Sydney
[Source: Personal Collection]

In 1905, William became a 1^st Class Constable. I actually have all this wage sheets from his career as a police officer which I got from the New South Wales State Records! William became favourably known throughout the Sydney Police Traffic Department, and when he retired in 1912, he was asked to reconsider. However, William believed that gardening was his true calling. With that in mind, in 1913 William, Elizabeth & their son William Jr moved to Gumma, a small town near Macksville on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales. William became well known for growing tomatoes and he thoroughly enjoyed working on the land. 

Article from Farmer and Settler, 1 Nov 1929
[Source: Trove]

William passed away on November 28^th, 1943 at the ‘Jalna’ Private Hospital in Macksville at the age of 75. He is buried in Macksville Cemetery. When he died, William had been living at Gumma for 31 years.  I feel that moving to Gumma gave William a fresh start. His obituary states that he was “a very kindly Scotsman who nevertheless was ever ready to speak his mind and defend what he considered was right and just.” Now that, that makes me very proud.

William Gow's death notice, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 Dec 1943
[Source: Trove]