Suddenly I have found Sarah’s (or Susara as written on baptismal record) ancestry back to 16th century Amsterdam and Jacques Verkuijl born in 1706, which is actually pretty satisfying.
It now makes it quite annoying that the Anderson family is so sparsely represented.
And no-one can find a record of PJ Robinson’s death.
If you’ve read this, then you’ll know that the name Sarah Cahill was one of the scant fragments of information we had when we started out. I’m happy to say that this particular chapter is now, finally, closed. Sarah Cahill was born Sara Frederika Vercuil in 1860, she married my ancestor Andrew Joseph Robinson in 1877 and bore him two children; my great grandfather, the elusive Philip Joseph, and in 1880 a sister for PJ called Magdalena Catherina. Six years after marrying, Andrew died aged 27 and Sarah married Johan Conradie who died in 1906 after 20 years of marriage.
Knowing at some point she had to have been married to a Cahill, I have finally established who and when that was. James Henry Cahill married the widow Conradie in 1907 but she was wearing black again four years later when he himself died in 1911. Sarah lived until 1945 without marrying again.
The story of Sarah Cahill is now closed as far as I’m concerned. I have no further interest in Mr Cahill or Mr Conradie and Sarah’s own ancestry (probably Dutch) is of only passing interest insofar as actively researching it is concerned. It’s very satisfying to tick that particular box in the initial research file (albeit metaphorically) though, as it neatly rounds off everything Dad started with.
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In amongst some photos a new contact sent me of the Currie family was this; a man holding his hat looking down at what appears to be a flower-decked grave. He doesn’t look like John Tolmie Currie who is in several of the other photos, and he could just be a random mourner, but (and I have no solid reason to believe it) what if this is Philip Joseph Robinson? Wouldn’t that be exciting?
The day after my father died, a book I’d ordered a few weeks ago arrived. The biography of my 4xgreat uncle Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson. Dad would have enjoyed reading it.
A quick reading of the first few chapters reveals some interesting information about the first years of the Robinsons in the Cape, particularly about the character of his father Robert Robinson whose entry looks like it needs some updating.
Sadly my father, Colin Robinson, died today after a long illness. I’ve written up his life story for this site and posted it here.
By way of setting out what is known and not known about Philip Robinson, my 5th great grandfather.
Philip died on 16th January 1820 aged 73 giving a likely birth year of 1746 (unless he was born in the first two weeks of 1747). He was married to Charlotte Erith on 18th October 1774 and they had 10 children between 1775 and 1794. He worked, I believe, in Chatham Dockyard until October 1883 when he was dismissed along with John Brooks for attempting to embezzle goods from HMS Success. Several entries in the pay books show that he was often in debt as his pay would be paid to a third party to relieve money owed.
So far so good. But still no sign of his birth or his parents.
Looking for birth entries in the parish registers for Chatham and surrounding areas shows a curious anomaly: There are a steady number of Robinsons born in the area, sometimes two or three a year, until 1742 when there are none born for seven years until 1749 when the rate picks up again. Of the few Robinson children born during the 1740s*, those to John and Rebecca include two before 1742 and one in 1749, suggesting that that family may have upped sticks to who knows where for seven years but eventually returned to the Medway area. Rebecca died in 1754 in Gillingham.
(*The other 1740s Robinson children include one in 1749 to John and Elizabeth – the first of several following in the 1750s, one to John and Ann in 1741, and one to the unmarried Rebecca Robinson in 1742).
Just as I haven’t been able to find Philip’s birth anywhere in the parish records, neither could I find a marriage for John and Rebecca until I stumbled across an entry in the London and Surrey Bonds and Allegations (1597-1921) – essentially a database of applications for marriage licenses – for the marriage of a John Robinson and Rebecca Bowen on 28th February 1741. The problem is that this marriage licence was for Dorking, Surrey the home of this John Robinson with Rebecca being from Ewell not far away. The second caveat is that the first child of John and Rebecca in Chatham was born only two months later. It is possible that they married quickly before moving to Kent to take up the opportunity of work in the royal dockyard but when initially searching the Surrey parish records for Robinsons, a stark warning bell is sounded: the first result that comes up is for the marriage of Stephen Robinson and Ann Greentree, once wrongly believed to be ancestors through a similar set of assumptions.
I need to find out what was happening during those missing seven years.
What do you call it if your wild goose is caught?
Okay, perhaps “caught” is stretching a point in this instance but I now feel fairly confident that my ancestor Philip Robinson was indeed a rigger at Chatham Yard. I found a little time today to get to the National Archives and trawling both Chatham’s “ordinary” and “extraordinary” pay books for the period, I found that Philip was listed as a rigger for the three quarters before November 1783 (when, you’ll remember, he managed to get himself dismissed for attempting to embezzle supplies from HMS Success) and that before this he had been a rigger’s labourer.
The document retrieval system at Kew does not allow for rapid perusal so I can’t say yet when his employment as a rigger’s labourer started, but I did also notice that he was working alongside one Alexander Erith. Further, if slight, evidence in favour of this Philip being right.
I can’t help it.
I must find Philip Robinson (1746) and I have a straw to which to cling. There remains the slight (and I mean slight) possibility that he worked in the Royal Dockyard at Chatham as a rigger, at least if this letter is about him and not some other Philip. While I have nothing directly to link my ancestor to the miscreant in the letter, equally nothing I have found so far explicitly rules this out. As a bonus, and if I’m going to chase this wild goose to its full extent, he may have even worked on HMS Victory – built at Chatham and launched in 1765 when Philip would have been about 18.
It seems there are employment records for Chatham at Kew (ADM 42) so there may be more to find, hopefully leading to more information about his background. A visit to Chatham Historic Dockyard itself may also be in order. Of course, I’m fully aware that I must link any new clues directly to what is known or it will remain mere speculation for ever more but nothing ventured…
The problem with finding records in South Africa is just that – finding them. Sometimes you have to approach your problem somewhat obliquely, and sometimes you find a record that may possibly be the one you’re looking for but your uncertainty affects your decision to send for it or not. Sometimes you just forget what you’ve seen.
Such a thing happened earlier this year. As you know if you’ve read this blog, I’m looking for my grandfather’s siblings in an attempt to put a lid on my great grandfather’s story, as well as putting the family back together – if only virtually.
In January I get sent a reference to a record in Durban regarding the death notice of a Cornelius De Jager whose surviving spouse is Pauline Edith. I’m not sure why I didn’t pursue it earlier, after all the name is just switched around, and we did believe she had married a de Jager; it’s just the sort of oblique approach I meant. I did spend a little time looking at Cornelius Duggan De Jager and traced his parentage but could not find any further mention of Pauline, especially not a maiden name, and so still didn’t send for the record.
Anyway, by September (2015) I’ve gathered a number of leads I need to follow up and include the de Jager DN. The other requests come through quickly, they were regarding Andrew Joseph Robinson and his erstwhile wife Rhoda and confirmed a number of things, but the de Jager order didn’t come through for another month.
When it does, it’s all there – Surviving spouse: Pauline Edith de Jager, with “(born Robinson)” squeezed in underneath. They have five children; Douglas, Gerrit, Elma, Melva and Edith. They were married on 6th June 1929 when he was about 28 and she roughly 24. He was born in Prieska, they married in Kimberley and he died in Durban in February 1962.
So Edith/Pauline was still alive in 1962 at least, which starts to narrow the search for her demise, and we also have five children to search for in case they know what became of their grandfather.
We now have a developing picture of the lives of four of granddad’s five siblings; Andrew, Ralph, Connie and now Edith, it’s now just Doris we know so little about.
But there was a small breakthrough; a 1983 death notice for Marthinus Swiegers, looking very much like great aunt Connie’s husband. His pre-deceased spouse (1977) was Constance Louisa, no maiden name unfortunately, and daughter Johanna Louisa. All in all a pretty good fit.
So, of course, I spent some time looking for more on Ralph and Edith and anything on Doris but, alas, again to no avail. Very frustrating when you make a minor breakthrough, get all enthusiastic again but find all the old dead-ends are still there.
