Hello Rowan and Yes, Shizara is so very right. This started out with a tenuous few bits of information and has really taken off. I am amazed at the never ending connections and new Cousins popping up. Some times it seems like months go by and then out of the blue another snippet to add to the puzzle as with you, Rowan. Thank you for making contact. I'll tell Mum and she'll be equally thrilled. Please send my/our regards to your Mum. I do know who she is although I have never met her. I did meet your Grandfather though a couple of times. He was a man with a wealth of stories to tell, quite fascinating. If you have his handwritten account of The Hankins tribe, it would be good to hear more. I started this journey looking at his and My Mum's GrandMother; Agnes Sophia. Now that has been mind blowing. I'm sure she is creaking in her grave to think we are discussing what she barely talked about all these years later.

Gladys is going to be so pleased to make contact with you and I think you will find all information is of interest. This thread started off with some comments then exploded into the results of searching. Putting family history together is a never ending task but extremely rewarding even if there are skeletons knocking on the cupboard door. I can hardly wait for Gladys to make contact with you. This is so exciting.

Hi,

My Mum found this site while googling 'william fitzherbert hankins' and asked me to register and leave a message. Her maiden name is Hankins and Gwynnedd was her Aunt (Great Aunt I guess). My mum can also tell you what happened to the painting that you mentioned.

My grandfather did a lot of research into our family tree and while he was alive he gave me a copy. I still have it back in the UK (although I am teaching in Turkey at the moment), but it may be of interest.

If you want to get in touch you can e-mail me at: *rowancastle*@*gmail*.com (just remove the asterisks so it is all one word - I put them in to stop my e-mail address being picked up by search engines and spammed).

All the best,

Rowan

Hello, I have just come off the phone from the current owner of Pidgeonhouse Farm. Lovely man who is sending me photos etc. He is the 3rd generation to have the farm. This is an amazing journey.

I just wanted to share this link with anyone who is interested. It seems 'we' Hankins were Weston Beggard. It was all listed in 1952 but who by andd why? http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/england/herefordshire/weston+beggard

I am amazed that we can now finely tune and actually pin down our origional roots to this hamlet- its not even a village. Its smaller than that. This is where we come from. If I think about it even more its so weird because the Hankins who left for NZ were 12 in number= Mother and father and thier 10 children or was it 12? I can't remember without getting the file out and they in turn have bred offspring. We're now spread right across the world but this is where we began.

I just wanted to put this link up- some one has found a picture of Hagley Hall. Its a handsome house.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/722707

I've just been given this link- I think this is the church where many Hankins are buried and also this farm may be what was the Family Farm.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SO58904180

Hello All, I have found out from my Australian cousin that our rellies lived at Hagley Hall, Hereford. Does anyone know of it? I'd love to see a decent photo and know abit more about it. I have Google Earthed it but its an ariel view and the British Listed Buildings info doesn't have a photo. It was listed in 1952. I know its a different county but just wondered if anyone goes into Herefordshire from time to time? As I'm in Hampshire, its a bit more than a quick drive up the road.

Hi All, I'm just posting as a mark of respect as it is 113 years today that Sarah WeymssDalrymple died. What an amazing journey to find her. I've had such wonderful help and I am again sending out my Thanks to all who did and to those who showed interest.

It is her- Sarah Dalrymple died alone 14/04/1897 at 26 Camden Street, Balaclava, Melbourne Australia. She was buried 16/04/1897 at Melbourne General Cemetery in a private grave, Section CC 1451 simply marked Dalrymple- Sarah. How sad but at last we found her. What a journey.

The writing on her death registration, the copy of which arrived yesterday is just about as bad as it could be but she died of 3 or 4 things including the word 'apoplexy'. Her age was given as 65.The Informant was some one called 'E Pollard authorised agent' then I can't make out the rest and a 'Campbell' given as the name of father and mother,with a curious scrawl beneath the name which I cannot make sense of because it looks like 'german' but maybe 'servant' which does make sense but the word is written incompletely if that is the case. She is recorded to have been born in Glasgow which we know is wrong and to have lived in 'the colony' 25 years which is also wrong. She and GSWD left England 1863 bound for Melbourne and he then went on to NZ- she went between the two but settled in Melbourne. She is shown to have been married to John George Dalrymple which we know is wrong and her children are listed as Agnes, John, Emilie in that order. Wrong but right children.

Hi All, The lady from Melbourne is indeed a cousin from J H Hankins' sister Alice. I never knew he had one until now nor did my Mum. It transpires that thier father was a vet and he and his wife took their 10 children out to NZ in 1863 from Herefordshire. Their Father John also was son to a Richard Hankins, Gentleman farmer who farmed quite a plot in around Yarkhill, Bartstree, Hereford. Anyway, Great news for those who are interested. It seems some brilliant sleuth in Aus may have found where Sarah Dalrymple nee Thomson is.Will confirm it later but if its her she died 14/04/1897 in Melbourne. See Vic Ref 1897/7024

Poor Dog(s)- it is more often than not the owner with the problem- his landlady had not taught this mut any manners. You're Father obviously did like dogs but didn't quite know how to relate to them in 'public'.
On from this I've had emails from a lady in Melbourne, New Zealand who says she's related to my J H Hankins- he married Agnes Sophia Weymss-Dalrymple in Hokitika, NZ 1872. I can't quite sort out how she is related, I'm either shocked or it is again the Victorian, Georgian habit of repeating names for children so you can't quite understand which generation they come from or which one they actually are. Will keep you posted.

Dad and dogs
shall try to remember some tales my dad told us. As I said, he was sparing with the truth so he may have embroidered it a bit.

When he deserted from the army -WW1- read my other piece for why- he lived in some rough lodgings up in Leeds. His landlady had a big thin scraggy-dog-- he hated dogs-and it wandered around at mealtimes begging food, and jumping up. One day he asked the woman if the dog could have some chocolate. She said yes and he threw it a chocolate hard toffee. It went into a corner and left them alone to eat the meal, while it desperately tried to chew the toffee which stuck its teeth together . Everyone -all the lodgers- were laughing but the landlady wasn't happy(understated) and said as much -any more Antics and you're out, the lot of you.
Back to normal after that and the damn dog got worse. scavenging at the table. You have to remember that these lodgers were all rough working men and even they got fed up with it. My dad said he'd try to sort it. He did . one evening he asked the lady if the dog could have a piece of chocolate and promised that it would be soft-no toffee and showed it to her.. By then she had forgiven them all . He threw th dog the chocolate and it gobbled it down and begged for more. "Have the lot then you greedy pig" he said
He always rolled with laughter as he told us this story. The choc. was something like Ex-lax. He said , "It shot outside and we didn't see the dog for a week"
WE always laughd too- I believe there was some truth in it knowing how much he hated dogs.
- cruel but I still think it was funny.
He had a dog later in life-in his 70s-80s and the dog idolised him even though we thought he wasn't gentle with it and called it all sorts of names. He even made it stand still while he went over it with the vacuumn cleaner rather than brush it becaus e it shed white hairs every where. He'd never have it in the house at his own mealtimes-just shut it in the garden in all weathers til he'd finished, then let it in and it stood on a towel until it was dry, looking up at him with cow eyes We suspected he was soft with it when no-one was around,but he didn't want to lose face.

Hello, nothing back from any of them. Nevermind. I asked about Eliza's (GWD's Eliza) other children; re: The Ramsays/Ramseys. Maybe one of the other daughters became a Ramsay/Ramsey.
My Mum rang today having been thinking about this lot. She told me when she last went back to NZ in 1958 which is news to me because I didn't think she'd been there since she left in 1956. Anyway, she says she walked into Aunt Nell's house where she and Aunt May(Fitzherbert) were living and she now recalls seeing that elusive painting of 'The General' in scarlet dress uniform. This is the painting that really sparked this whole search off. She recalled it as a child in her Granny's hallway-Agnes Sophia Hankins-nee Weymss-Dalrymple and it struck her then. It has been some 8 months since we set out on this so this is really amazing she can place its last hanging place as she can recall it. I am amazed at this- she's shortly on 5th December to become 89 years old. She drives, does lunch and lives independantly. This family is amazing. I thank her for these genes. On from that I have found out yesterday with more of her recollections that my Father's father was a MC- Lieut.Col MC.- Crikes.Royal Irish Fusliers.

MMmm, perhaps I should ask him if there were any Watsons? Obviously now with Data protection he may only be able to say 'yes or no' but not actually who. Bit stumped on this. I tantively looked at Eton Old boys and Winchester Oldwyckens. You can't aceess the latter unless you are one. The Eton site lists notabele old boys but I suspect you have to be one to find any others. Does any one have access to any of this? I also think we need to look at the executors of James' Will. Noorjah did say in her letter of 1871 to HDE Dalrymple that her siblings were sent to England by her Father's executors. These children may have been privately educated by governesses etc at home somewhere. Mud and mire I suspect ahead.

This is where the digging gets more difficult.. Some of the boulders are big. There is also the chance the names were airbrushed away or perhaps transcription errors mean that the names recorded are not as we think. Perhaps a search for "Watson" might produce something - apart from a zillion others with that surname :-P