Bill's Genealogy Blog

Bill Buchanan is a long-time genealogy enthusiast, living in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada. This blog will describe my experiences as I research my family history and help others.

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Location: Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada

I am a retired online school teacher. I love family history. From 2007-2020, I spent much of my time providing part-time support for the world's largest free family history site https://familysearch.org This is very rewarding. I have helped others with the Family Tree and related FamilySearch products.
In 2010-2018 I served in the Edmonton_Alberta_Riverbend_Family_History_Centre..I have a FHC blog at Bill's Family History Center Blog Since 2020 I have been a family history consultant for Edmonton Alberta North Stake. For information on the Latter-day Saints and family history click https://www.comeuntochrist.org/

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Response to a query from a distant relative

Dear Bill and Judy,


I recently have started doing my family tree. I think it is Samuel William Lanham Bradbury who is my grandmother's eldest brother. Their grandfather was William Lanham Thomas who was a surgeon in Horsham Sussex England. Hence where the name Lanham comes from. My grandmother was one of seven children and the youngest born in 1878 in Crawley. Her parents were Samuel William Bradbury and Elizabeth Fanny Bradbury nee Thomas.

My grandmother died in 1964 never meeting any of the elder siblings only two younger sisters who looked after. My grandmother was told her father Samuel William Bradbury went to Australia and had something to do with Sheep dip and disinfectant and was quite successful in what he did and his eldest son joined him.

I cannot find Samuel William Bradbury or his wife Elizabeth Fanny Bradbury place or year of death. I do not know if he came back to England with his wife or stayed in Australia.

My grandmother had a very old photograph of her mother Elizabeth Fanny Bradbury which i can forward to you .

Hope you have some more info,

regards,
....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear ...


I see that the Samuel William Latham Bradbury in my database is shown married to an Ann Rolland. My connection is that his daughter Ruby married my cousin Adwick "Stephen" George Waller in 1918 in St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia.

I am wondering whether one of these might be yours.
http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/
Registration Number Last Name Given Name(s) Father's Given Name(s) Mother's Given Name(s) District
11234/1908 BRADBURY SAMUEL W SAMUEL BRIDGET RYDE
2944/1913 BRADBURY SAMUEL JOHN MOSMAN
11444/1968 BRADBURY SAMUEL SAMUEL ALICE EMILY ST LEONARDS
14290/1946 BRADBURY JOHN SAMUEL SAMUEL LUCY WOOLLAHRA
26050/1940 BRADBURY SAMUEL ENOCH FRANCES BULLI

A little of my info on this family comes from:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=jinxz&id=I38624

I wonder if this might be a brother, as he is married in the same district in about the same time:
Registration Number Groom's Surname Groom's Given Name(s) Bride's Last Name at Time of Marriage Bride's Given Name(s) District
17376/1915 BRADBURY VICTOR W EDENBOROUGH COEVINEY D ST LEONARDS

This seems like a match in FreeBMD.org.uk, Ruby was born in Croyden in 1897.
Births Jun 1893
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Bradbury Victor William Croydon 2a 245

These are from FreeBMD.org.uk. They look like the same family.

Surname First name(s) District Vol Page
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Marriages Sep 1869
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BRADBURY Samuel William Horsham 2b 437
THOMAS Elizabeth Fanny Horsham 2b 437

Births Sep 1870
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Bradbury Samuel William L Brighton 2b 201

Surname First name(s) District Vol Page
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marriages Sep 1892
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Bradbury William Samuel L Croydon 2a 377
Rolland Annie Croydon 2a 377

This last couple are the parents of my cousin's wife Ruby Annie Bradbury.

Births Sep 1896
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BRADBURY Ruby Annie Croydon 2a 226
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I hope this helps. You should have success as you search these sources and the census for England and Wales (1841-1901 at ancestry.com or 1841-1911 at findmypast.co.uk) Both can be viewed online for free at your closest Family History Center. This link will let you look up the closest one.
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

Good luck in your research.
--
Bill Buchanan

Sunday, October 09, 2011

Farewell Mr. Jobs

Yes, this is a genealogy blog, but this time I am writing about the genealogy of the computer. I received an AppleII+ many years ago as a prize in a computer programming contest.

I remember using the 512K "Fat Mac" at work in 1985. It was a whole different type of computer. The small gray-scale monitor seemed like a big step backwards from other computers I was using. The keyboard was terrible (bouncy and totally lacking some keys, including cursor keys ), but the graphical interface and the copy and paste function were brilliant! And the bundled software included Mac Write with its multiple scalable fonts. What you saw on the screen was really what you got! You could create high quality wedding invitations right on your computer.

I liked the fact that the Mac eliminated the cryptic text commands, the menus that differed from one program to another, and the need to have a separate printer driver for every piece of software.

I continued to own an IBM and other computers over the following years, and watched as one-by-one they copied the Macintosh user interface. The much quoted line "Windows 95 is just Macintosh 84!" was very true of the user interface. Microsoft stumbled through 3 versions of Windows before on the 4th try they had finally copied the Macintosh sufficiently to have a user-friendly interface. By this time the Mac itself had a world class keyboard, color monitor, sound, and a wide range of software. I also remember using a Mac IIFX at work with a 21" monitor at a time when a 12" or 14" monitor was still standard on most other computers. Like most computers, newer Macs keep getting better and better.

Thank you Mr. Jobs, for making the computer an "appliance" that anyone can use!


DISCLAIMER: I am a satisfied Windows user, but let the credit go the one who deserves it.