Bridget Hayes -graduation

Our daughter Bridget graduated yesterday at Athens University as a Master of Theology (I think).

Pictures here (the pictures are on Facebook, and you have to be logged in to see them).

Hailee Growden in volleyball team

As I've said before, I don't know if any how Hailee Growden is related, burt here's a snippet of news anyway.

clipped from www.herald-mail.com The Hagerstown Community College volleyball team underwent a changing of the guard Thursday at the HCC athletic complex. Three Williamsport players signed Thursday - middle hitter Katie Koontz, outside hitter Hailee Growden and setter Lindsey Kneisley. Growden, an All-Area Second Team selection last season, averaged 2.01 kills and 3.32 digs and served 50 aces for the Wildcats. She also was Williamsport's fiery leader. "I love playing the leadership role, trying to fire up my team," Growden said. "I'm ready for any challenge, any position." "She's going to be one of our emotional leaders," Domenico said. "She's a versatile player so we might try some different things with her."

Simon's birthday

It is our son Simon's 30th birthday today, and to celebrate he didn't go to work.

Here he is with our puppy Fluffy Lumpkin, three and a half months old.

Found! Ida Carolina von Lilienstein, wife of Henry Green

One of the long-enduring mysteries of the GREEN family history has at last been solved, thanks to Ione Evans of New Zealand.

Henry Green, the British Resident of the Orange River Sovereignty in the early 1850s, came to South Africa some time in the 1840s, as did several of his siblings, including Fred (Val's great great grandfather), Edward, Charles and Arthur.

It was known that Henry Green married Ida Carolina von Lilienstein, daughter of Count von Lilienstein, but little was known about her parents. Many of their descendants have tried to find out more, especially her mother's name, but without success.

Ione Evans asked a researcher to check German records, and and finally found:

Congregation of Itzehoe, Christenings in the year 1836, daughters, page No 11, born on 4 December 1835, christened on 24 December 1835 Ida Caroline Johanna, legitimate daughter of local constable at the regiment of light dragoon, Carl Arthur Count zu LILIENSTEIN and Catharina Elise née STAEKER, christened by me at home. God parents: Carl von BARDENFLETH, colonel and head of the regiment, Martin von WILEMOOS SUHM, Premier Major, Johannes von EWALD, major (translation)

This will be especially good news for descendants of Henry and Ida, as Ida's ancestors will be theirs as well, but for the rest of us too, the irritating gap waiting to be filled by "Spouse's mother" can at last be filled.

In the course of our researches into the Green family we have met several descendants of Henry and Ida, and corresponded with many more. Some of them have been enthusiastic researchers into the family history, and many of them have helped us a great deal with our researches. We were in correspondence for a while with Hal Green in Swaziland. Jack and Peggy (nee Tapscott) Stokes visited us when we lived in Melmoth in Zululand, and stayed several days with their caravan in our back yard, and we spent many evening poring over family records, trying to sort out chronology and relationships.

One of the longest-standing mysteries (to us, at any rate) was what happened to Edith Susanna Green, daughter of Henry and Ida. She had married Ernest Borwick and then, apparently, disappeared off the face of the earth. Then we made contact with Ione Evans, a descendant of that branch, who filled in several generations. Ernest Borwick farmed in Kenya, and several of their seven children lived there, and some married and moved to other countries. Ione Evans is still following up some of the descendants, but has also been working backwards on the von (or zu) Lilienstein side as well, for which we are all grateful.

My Heritage web site

I got a strange e-mail message today saying that several people's family trees had matches with mine.

I went to the linked web site, where i was apparently a member, and my family tree was there, but with several thousand more people than it actually has. I have no recollection of joining the site, but I had a look at it, and some of the matches seemed interesting, though some of them seemed to have just nicked data from my family tree!

Anyway, if anyone is interested, have a look at it here.

Some Stooke descendants added

I've just entered some data that sent in e-mails from Mike Gouge and Barbara Cox.

Mike Gouge sent information on descendants of George Frederick Stooke (4590) and Alfred Thomas Stooke (4592), including information on the Hanna, Matura, Kymer and Brennan families.

Barbara Cox sent information on Richard Elworthy who married Annie Stooke, and settled in Australia.

Family visits

Val's sister Elaine Machin (nee Greene) came from Durban on the bus to visit family in Gauteng over Christmas, and we had tea with her and her son Greg and granddaughter Abby this afternoon.

The picture shows Greg with Abby, Elaine and Val.

Val's birthday and name day

It was Val's birthday and Name Day today (St Katherine of Alexandria), and we had a pretty busy day. First we went to the Hours and Readers Service at Mamelodi, and then went to the annual prizegiving at St Athanasius School in Tembisa, with the monks from St Thomas's Orthodox Church in Sunninghill. Here is Val with Fr Evsevije (Eusebius).

At the prizegiving just about all the children got certificates for something, and several of them presented plays or sang songs.

For a fuller report see my Khanya blog.

Ogilvie family and other news

Yesterday we had a letter from Andy Blum in the USA, asking about a David Ogilvie who was mentioned in a family history newsletter from Blue Earth, Minnesota, USA.

This David Ogilvie (1852-1943) had a fairly interesting life, and Andy wondered if he was related to the Ogilvie family of the Eastern Cape, from which Andy himself is descended.
We couldn't trace any connection, however.

The Ogilvie connection is through Emily Ogilvie (1827-1912) who married Edward Lister Green (1827-1887), who was the brother of Val's Great Great Grandfather Frederick Thomas Green (1829-1876). The Green brothers were born in Montreal, Canada, and came to South Africa with their widowed father in the 1840s.

Edward Lister Green was a soldier who served in India, China and Ireland, and eventually moved to New Zealand, where he died in 1887. Some of their children moved to the USA, and Emily died in California where she was living with her daughter Maud Ogilvie Jowett.

Emily was the daughter of William Ogilvie (1795-1850) who fought at Waterloo and came to the Cape Colony with Lord Charles Somerset, the Governor. He married Mary Maria Hollings, who was governess to Lord Charles Somerset's family. They had four sons and four daughters, but none of them seem to have had Minnesota connections, other than some of Emily's descendants. William Ogilvie had a hardware store, and sold Westley-Richards rifles, and two members of the Richards family came from Birmingham to Grahamstown and married two of the Ogilvie daughters. Andy Nation of New Zealand had Edward Lister Green's diary and sent us a copy of it with some family history notes he had made. We have transcribed it on to computer, and can send copies to interested family members. There is more information about the Ogilvies in Some frontier families by I. Mitford-Barberton and Violet White (Cape Town, Human & Rousseau, 1968).

Edward and Emily Green had 6 children, and among their descendants are the Nation, Rutherfurd, Mocine, Lewis and Blum families.

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In more immediate family news, our dog Ariel recently had puppies in her old age. For anyone interested, there is a report and pictures on my tribal blog.

Hailee Growden chosen as queen of the Mummers Parade

Does anyone know where Hailee Growden fits in to the family?

clipped from www.herald-mail.com Miss Maryland Shana Powell, left, crowns Williamsport High School's Hailee Growden as the 2007 Alsatia Mummers Parade queen. (Photo credit: Joe Crocetta / Staff Photographer) Williamsport High School’s Hailee Growden was chosen as the queen of the parade at the Alsatia Club’s headquarters earlier in the day. Growden won the crown over nine other local high school homecoming queens by selecting a box with a golden necklace inside.

Romange Growden objects to cemetery party

Romange Growden has objected to a Halloween party in Palmetto, Florida. Not sure if she's related.

clipped from www.myfoxtampabay.com Romange Growden says she's mortified the place where her husband and mother are buried -- and the place she'll eventually be -- is the site for a Halloween party. "I just don't see why a cemetery would get involved in Halloween. Just the thought of it! What, do they want to raise the dead?" she asked.

Hayes, Dunn, Doddrell

Louise Doddrell left a message in the Bravenet Message Forum (see sidebar for link).

She is descended from Gertrude Hayes who married Robert Seymour Dunn, and we're looking forward to an exchange of family history information.

Hospital

I took Val back to Sunninghill Hospital yesterday, and they checked her arm, said it was healing, but she now needs to visit a physiotherapist, and must be weaned from the sling gradually.

Accident

Val went to a course for work in Johannesburg on Monday and Tuesday, and fell down the stairs at the Balalaika Hotel in Sandton on the way down to the parking garage. When she got to the car she found her arm wasn't working, so she phoned me and Jethro to come and fetch her, as she couldn't drive.

I took her to Sunninghill Hospital on the way home, and they put her arm in a sling and did all sorts of X-rays, and asked her to come back and see an orthopaedic specialist the next day. So yestyerday I took her back to the hospital for that, and she got an even more fancy cling, and they said a bone in her shoulder is cracked, so she will be sort of incapacitated for the next six weeks or so.

And you thought your family had skeletons in the cupboard

And you thought your family had skeletons in the cupboard?

How about this: Yes, I'm related to that Himmler.