How your mood can change when researching

[ElizabethHerts]

Today I have solved a long-standing mystery regarding one branch of my family and I have been feeling pretty chuffed.

My great-great-grandfather John Quintrell and his wife Fanny Ada named their first child Fanny Eddy Quintrell. Their subsequent children were given second names that had family connections, so I have always been fairly sure that "Eddy" was a family surname, not necessarily an ancestor as they took surnames from favourite contemporary relatives, such as a brother-in-law, for example.

When the Cornish records were available to browse I was able to piece together a lot more of the history of this branch. John Quintrell's mother was Elizabeth, nee Daddow. I researched her family quite considerably. She had a sister called Mary Rundle Daddow who married James Ray. However, Mary died in 1824. She and James had just one child, Sarah Noble Ray.

Today I discovered that Sarah married Stephen Eddy, a mining engineer. I have been researching their children and found lots of descendants. I have been feeling fairly happy with all the new information.

However, one of their sons, James Ray Eddy, had two sons, Stephen and Charles Edward. I noted that Stephen and Charles both died in the same quarter in 1880, same area. Their parents are still alive on the 1911 census and it says they had 2 children, now dead.

I have been searching the on-line newspapers and I found this:

"Melancholy Deaths by Drowning"
Stephen Eddy, student, Pembroke College, Cambridge, and his brother, who was visiting the University, went out in canoes yesterday on the river above Cambridge, and in the afternoon the canoes were found empty near Grantchester. The body of Stephen has been found, but that of his brother has not been discovered."

How sad. They were 19 and 17.

[Sabrina]

That is very sad Elizabeth. It's strange isn't it, that however distant the relationship, you can still feel their pain?

A good piece of detective work though! :)

[maggie_4_7]

Well done it is satisfying when you clear up a mystery.

[Ammanda Schutz]

Good detecting and a new branch to follow. Well done, indeed.

[Nell]

Elizabeth

We never know what we are going to find when we hunt for our ancestors. Although what you discovered is deeply sad, you now can ensure these brothers aren't forgotten.

[ElizabethHerts]

I have found the inquest report:

"Last evening an inquest was held at Grantchester on the bodies of two unfortunate gentlemen who were drowned on Thursday while boating. Stephen Eddy, the elder of the two, was 19 years of age, and was a student at Pembroke College, and his younger and only brother, Edward (sic), called at Cambridge on his way back to Clifton College, where he should have arrived to-day (Saturday). On Thursday afternoon, about three o'clock, the two went up the Granta in two canoes with sails. Mr. Gidnall, a gentleman residing at Grantchester, was going in a boat with some young ladies to Easingfield and wehn he arrived at the bend beyond the railway bridge, his attention was called by one of the young laides to a man in the water. He looked and saw they were about a boat's length from the stern of a canoe turned upside down. At the same time the body of the elder deceased, just under the water, passed his boat and sank. He backed the boat, but could not find the deceased. Assistance was procured, and eventually the body of the elder deceased was found, buy the body of Charles Edward could not be got.

The next morning the body of the younger deceased was found about six or seven feet from the bank, and lying face downwards. The policeman produced the watch of the younger deceased, which had stopped at ten minutes past four.

The canoe in which Charles Edward started was found at the side of the river, while the other was turned upside down.

Mr. Wherry, surgeon, said the cause of death was drowning. The nails of the younger deceased were full of mud, while in his right hand he had some weed. - The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death", expressing sympathy with the parents. The father, who is a mining engineer, of Carleton, in Yorkshire, was present.

Our Skipton correspondent writes that quite a gloom has been cast over the district of Carleton, Skipton, upon the receipt of the intelligence of the deaths of Mr Stephen Eddy and Mr Charles Edward Eddy. They are the sons of Mr. J. Ray Eddy, Carleton, near Skipton, agent for the Duke of Devonshire. The younger of the two boys only left his home at Carleton on Saturday last to join his brother for the remainder of his vacation at Cambridge. Much sympathy is felt for the distressed parents at their great loss, the unfortunate boys being the only children of Mr and Mrs Eddy"


With the death of these two boys, the Eddy line appears to have died out. They were the only grandchildren from eight children of Stephen Eddy and his wife Sarah Noble Eddy.

[marquette]

Such a sad thing, you wonder how the parents coped.

In my family I found five death index entries with running numbers - you just have to investigate don't you ? Such a tragedy, five members of the family, parents and three children, drowned in a flash flood, but the sixth was saved. I felt so sad for her and wondered how she coped, although I think she was quite badly injured and shocked.

I felt quite chuffed too, when yesterday I found an obiturary for Alexander Kethel - it said his father died when he was 8, and he was apprenticed at sea when aged 12, after he had spent 3 boring years as an errand boy for his shoemaker grandfather. All of which confirmed what I thought I knew from the various on-line sources, IGI, census etc. His later life in New South Wales and Australia explained a lot about what was going on in my husbands family. (Alex was his gg grand uncle).

Di

[Olde Crone]

Yes, you DO wonder how the parents coped.

I am reading a novel set in the 1600s and the heroine has just lost both her babies to the plague. Her mother shouts at her and says "I TOLD you not to love your babies. You don't love them till they are walking and working. That way your heart doesn't hurt".

Although it was nearly 300 years ago, I wonder how my 6 x GGM coped when she lost 16 of her 19 children and outlived them all by 16 years. She must surely have wondered what was the point of it all.

OC

[Kit]

Congratulations on the discovery and commiserations on the deaths of the boys. It is good to solve a mystery though.

OC I'm not sure you 6xGGM had time to cope. I'm flat out with 3 children. The thought of giving birth to another 16 is awful and that is not even contemplating raising them.

[Merry]

I have a man on my tree who had two marriages and just one child by each wife, born about 20 years apart. The first child was killed in WW1 aged 19 during the pregnancy of the second wife. The second son was killed in WW2.

I have another man who lost four wives in childbirth, three of them in their first confinement.

[ElizabethHerts]

My great-great-grandfather had 4 wives, all of whom predeceased him. He married them and they died within the space of 20 years. He died of Cirrhosis of the Liver, and I'm not sure whether his alcoholism was to do with the tragic life he had. He was left the head of the family when his father died when he was just 18. His family had moved from rural Berkshire to Bury, Lancs. and 4 of his siblings died young after arriving there.


With respect to the Eddys, I was sad to see that the line had died out. It would have been great to have found some descendants around today.