Emigration of Ancestors--post Colonial

 My interest in genealogy stems from 2 questions:  What were Grandma Wicker's roots? Why did my ancestors emigrate?  Previous blogs identify many of Vennie's roots but I recently started thinking about my 2nd question.

When I began, I had no idea how far back my roots went in American history.  I knew that my g-g grandparents in Dad's family had immigrated from Germany and England but I didn't really know why.

Louis Reiter

According to my dad's cousins, Louis Reiter came from Germany to avoid being drafted in another German (Prussian) war.  The irony was he arrived just in time for America's Civil War in which he fought for the Union side.  This coincides with another Reiter family (DNA connected) who had a narrative about their family.  click here to read.  So, Louis reportedly came for political reasons probably around 1854 when we found a Ludwig Reiter on a passenger list into New York.  He was a blacksmith and possibly tried to settle in Pennsylvania where family lived.  We know he was in Missouri by 1862 when he enlisted in the Union army.

Eliza Tyrey

His wife was Eliza Tyrey whose mother was a Kilpatrick from Tennessee with Colonial roots.  But, her father, Jacob Tyrey, was from Prussia: Schwemlingen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.  We don't know why he left but do know he was living in Wisconsin in 1836 according to the census there.  He was later identified as a miner so possibly he left for economic reasons.  But, he also probably left for political reasons since this area became Prussian in 1816 and Jacob (born in 1810) would have been subject to the draft also.

Louis Reiter and Eliza Tyrey's daughter was my great grandmother Mary Celecy Reiter McKee who married Thomas Long with Colonial roots. My other great grandparents were Henry Maupin (also Colonial roots) and Annie Reed whose parents were recent immigrants from England.

Seated:  Frances Glanville Reed and Annie Reed Maupin

Annie's mother's family John Glanville and Frances Hancock came from Camborne in Cornwall England sometime after 1841 but before my g-g grandmother (Francis Glanville) was born in 1843.  Having watched the series Poldark on PBS, I have a very good idea why they left: the mines were closing. The mines in Cornwall had been producing for thousands of years (click here) and it was becoming more and more difficult to mine, so they came to Valle Mines, MO where there was plenty of lead that was needed for bullets if nothing else.

William Farncombe/Reed

Annie's father, William Farncombe/Reed, was also from England:  Pyecombe near Brighton.  William Reed (aka Farncombe) is so far the only immigrant I have who left because he was in trouble (click here)  We don't know why he left England other than one of his sister's descendants saying he "left under a cloud".  Personally, I suspect bigamy or getting a young lady "in trouble".  He was married in 1850 to a woman in Kent (at 15 years old?)---this information was written on the back of his marriage certificate in French Village, Missouri to Frances Glanville. He was still living with his parents in 1851 according to the census in England, but was in the United States by 1860 living in Valle Mines, Missouri.

So they emigrated for economics, politics, a possible prison record which probably accounts for most emigration, however I have at least one from the Colonial era who came for religious reasons.

William Reed/Farncombe

While in De Soto Library recently, I was looking through their files and found this. It was a very faded copy---this is actually more readable than the original. It was stapled to a lot of genealogy of local French families---Roussin and Lalomondier are two that I recall. I don't know who wrote it. It is slightly different from the other story that other Reed cousins had. I'm going to try to transcribe it to the best of my ability without making comments. But, before beginning I want to be clear that William Reed was not royalty---his father was a "Chelsea pensioner" having retired from the British army before he was born (and he wasn't an officer, either). Please click on the "Lables" to the left on Reed or Farncombe for other stories.

William Reed's Death

We've known for some time that William Reed (AKA William Farncombe) died by accident Feb. 24, 1891 (it is on his tombstone). I suspected fire because he was a blacksmith and that was confirmed by the funeral home records that just went on-line in 2009. They stated "accidental burning" as the cause of death. I felt pretty smug having guessed the cause of death until a cousin Catharine McComb contacted me. Here are Catharine's mother, grandfather and great-grandfather:

William J. Reed (Farncombe)

William Farncome: 35th Regiment

Barbados

If you are interested in genealogy, a great occupation for an ancestor is the military--records are kept of their every move. One of my ancestors was in the British army, and we know where he was every year. Double click on the photos, maps, documents to enlarge, then use the back arrow to come back. Pauline Reid, a distant cousin in England, has researched our common ancestor William Farncombe who was Annie Reed's grandfather:

As I mentioned Alasdair (my husband) and I visited The National Archive at Kew last Friday specifically to see the muster rolls for William whilst he was in the 35th Regiment. I got such a thrill from handling documents that are now 200 years old - even if they are rather musty.

Anyway, William enlisted in the 2nd Battalion at Lewes, East Sussex on 19th November 1805, when he was 14 years, 6 months old. He got the huge amount in those days of £16, 6 shillings on enlisting - the army were desperate for recruits because of the ongoing Napoleonic war.

Map of the Seige of Flushing

He seems to have stayed in this country and mostly in the south of England until 1809 when the Battalion was involved in a battle at Flushing in Holland.

Following this William and a lot of other men were transferred to the 1st Battalion and from May 1810 to June 1813 he was on Zante, a Greek Island in the Mediterranean. He was promoted to corporal on 13th June 1813.

Two More Reed-Farncombe Family Stories

These are both from Kathleen Weaver, our Wisconsin cousin who initially contacted me about William Reed's identity. To read this, double click on the document. To come back to this page use the back arrow.
As with the other "Family Stories", there are some things that are true and some which probably aren't. We don't believe William and Mary were married in St. Thomas Virgin Islands although they may have lived there. Pauline Reid(pictured below) is an English cousin descended from William Reed/Farncombe's brother Edward. She has seen the church records and says they were married in St. Thomas, Winchester, England. Below, Pauline is standing beside the grave of one of William Reed/Farncombe's brothers.

Mary Reed Farncombe

This photo is of Mary Reed Farncombe---Annie Reed Maupin's grandmother, William Reed/Farncombe's mother. We have so many stories about her. . .some are true and some probably aren't.

We think she was born in Malta in 1801 and believe her father was probably in the military, too. We are pretty sure she was Irish---she visited siblings in Ireland and William Reed/Farncombe (when he first arrive in the United States) stated he was from Ireland.

According to a family story, Mary Reed married young (15 years old)--May 1, 1816 to William Farncombe who was in 35th Regiment. Although we thought she was married in St. Thomas Virgin Islands, an English cousin saw the marriage records.

William Reed/Farncombe (AKA Holcombe)

[Photo is of Pyecombe, Sussex, England---where William Reed/Farncombe---father of Annie Reed Maupin--- was from]

As I mentioned in a previous post, Carol Keller whose husband is the great-grandson of William Reed/Farncombe had a document that she'd received from one of his cousins. Some of it has no basis in truth (as far as we know), but some of it may in fact be correct. We haven't really checked it all out, yet.

"Genealogy Report Taken From Original Dated 1861 in London, England Reed-Holcombe [Carol and I think someone mis-understood the name Farncombe]

Sir Edward William James Reed-Holcombe born Sept. 20, 1830 at Sheerness, England. At age 23 was designer of various vessels for the British until he denounced Royalty in Dec. 1856.[William Reed/Farncombe was not SIR anything and his birth was not accurate either. He was, however, a blacksmith/engineer and did emigrate from England in late 1856 or early 1857]

One brother remained in England.[seven out of nine siblings remained in England] Sir Thomas German Reed-Holcombe born at Brighton June 27, 1817---died March 1888.[none of this is accurate excepting the family was from around Brighton, England]

Farncombe and Reed photos

Kathy Weaver, in Wisconsin, sent photos which her family had of 3 of William Reed/Farncombe's siblings. Seeing those photos was all I needed to be persuaded that her story was true. The first photo I saw (above) was Kathy's ancestor Mary Farncombe DiVall. I was shocked at how much she looked like my aunt---Mary Long Wassmund. I sent the photo to various people and said, "Who does this look like?" They all said, "Mary" The Mary above would be Mary below's great-great aunt.

The one thing that Mom always talked about were Annie Reed Maupin's light blue eyes.
Here is her aunt Elizabeth---her father's sister:
The last recognition I had was William's brother Edward Farncombe:
Not as similar in looks as the women, here are his great-nephews Walter and Harry Maupin (sons of Annie Reed Maupin):
And, great-nephew Ralph Reed son of James Reed (son of William Reed/Farncombe)
And Charles Maupin (Harry's son)

The photos were pretty convincing that William Farncombe did indeed come to the United States and change his name. Carol Keller, married to Williams's great-grandson did find the document she'd received from a cousin (now deceased) which confirmed the story. Come back in a few days for that installment.

William Reed AKA William Farncombe

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my family has a "plague" of common names making genealogy study very difficult. DNA helped with the Williams and Long names, but I still had William Reed (William James Reed was Annie Reed Maupin's father, Vivian Maupin Long's grandfather, my dad's great-grandfather) who was born in the early 1800's in England----hundreds, if not thousands of candidates. I thought about trying to locate a distant cousin for DNA, but got an interesting e-mail through a genealogy web-site before I had to do that:

"I would be interested in contacting you as I have information on William James Reed's parents that I think you would be interested in. His real name was Farncomb and his parents were William Farcomb and Mary Reed. I am a very distant relative of yours and have been working on the famly for a number of years. William's sister Mary Farncomb married Frederick DiVall and moved to Lancaster, Wisconsin. Kathy Weaver"

I don't think I need to tell you how much easier William Farncomb(e) is to research than William Reed, but first I had to be SURE that this wasn't a hoax. So, I asked for more information:

This story has been handed down in our family. The story goes that William got into some kind of trouble. I never heard what the trouble was. He changed his name from Farncomb to Reed which was his mother's maiden name. He moved to the St Louis area. He was born in Pycomb, Sussex, England in 1835. He was christened 17 Dec 1835. We did have in our early records that he had two children, William and Anna. Other than that I did not know anything about him until I found the 1880 Census record for him. William's parents are William Farcomb and Mary Reed. And Wlliam's grandparents were Henry Farncomb and Elizabeth.
His father, William Farncomb was born in 1791. He was christened at Pycombe, England on 26 Jun 1791 He died 21 Feb 1880 in Pycombe. England. . .

This exchange of e-mails is one of the reasons I began this blog---thank goodness the DiVall family handed down the stories of "the black sheep" in the family. I feel so fortunate that Kathy Weaver contacted me. I wish their family had passed down the story of WHAT William did that prompted him to leave England and change his name. Which brings me to my next problem---just what should I include on this blog? There's a fine line between gossip and family stories and yet I really wish I knew more about William's story.

What she said in her second e-mail checked out with what I knew---his birthdate, he was from England, his first two children were William and Anna (Annie). Also, I contacted another Reed cousin about this and she re-called hearing that he'd changed his name, too. But, it was seeing the photos that made me a believer. Come back in a few days for the photos.

Annie Reed's Obituary

(Double click on photo above or read my transcriptions below.)
March 24, 1944 (Name of newspaper not known)

Mrs. Annie Maupin Passed Away Last Friday

Mrs. Annie Maupin, nee Reed, age 78, died at the home of her son, Harry, on Friday afternoon. She had been in failing health for several years. Funeral services were held on Sunday, March 19 with interment in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Mrs. Maupin was born on February 22, 1866 at Valle Mines, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Reed [Farncombe]. Her family moved to De Soto when she was a child , and it was here that she was married to Henry W. Maupin on May 7, 1884. Mr. Maupin preceded her in death by 14 years, having died in July, 1930.

Annie Reed--early years

Annie Reed was born in Valle Mines, Mo (Jefferson County) on Feb. 22, 1866 to William Reed (Farncombe) and Frances Glanville. She was their second born child (after William, Jr) of 9. I have a distant cousin to thank for this precious photo of Annie. According to the records, she was 100% English---her father was born in England and her mother's parents (William Glanville and Frances Hancock) also emigrated from England. Another distant cousin says her name was Anna, but we only knew her by Annie Reed (even after she was married, the family called her "Annie Reed")