Catching up

Well over a week has passed whilst unable to post, due first to pressure of work and then to losing broadband in the storms of last Thursday. During this time have heard that two Y DNA Test Kits have been returned to FamilyTreeDNA. Now to await the results!

Have also received enquiries about the Y DNA Tests from a few other people, so hopeful that some more will be ordered soon.

Other emails include two from fellow researchers who have found R entries in the course of their own researches; confirmation of William ROWBREE's place of residence (Gresford) from the Thetford RD Marriage Challenge; some sad news from Ted Rowbury that one of his brothers-in-law has died; one email enquiry; two email updates; five general emails from Rs; one email offering copies of two R death certificates; one from a fellow GOON about a query for ROBREY in Ross in this month's Family Tree Magazine and finally one in reply to a contact sent through GenesReunited on 10 Dec 2006.

The postman brought some splendid cuttings from a New Zealand magazine showing Anna ROWBERRY's new baby - they will go alongside similar previous ones detailing her wedding in Fiji to Jeremy STANLEY [New Zealand Family, ROWBERRY Tree Two].

Finally time once more for the periodic check of new R entries on GenesReunited. Again (amazingly!) found 70 new entries of which the majority were added by previous contacts. Found 10 new contacts who between them had added 19 new entries. Emailed them all and have already heard back from seven of them. Several have been able to fill in details on their trees - however small these are all very useful.

More contacts

Over the last few days two more replies to the GenesReunited contacts. One was connected to the Liverpool Family of RUBERY Tree One and the other to one of the Cornish oddments.

This evening an email with a scan of burials from the Worcester News of 10 Jan 2007, with Edward John ROWBERRY's burial listed. He is probably the one on the Bromyard Family of ROWBERRY Tree One.

Also today, a phone call from a lady in Cornwall who is on the RUBERRY of Cornwall Tree. And in checking that this link worked OK found that some of the tree images on the web page had gone missing so uploaded them again. No-one seems to have noticed!

Updating the trees

Well the "job for tomorrow" took two days (in between all the other things, like work!) and so I have only just finished updating the trees with the data from the 2005 GRO BMD indexes. All the marriages and deaths were identifiable and have been added to the correct trees (hopefully!), but of the births 16 remain "orphans" out of a total of 38. Help in adding them to their correct trees would be much appreciated!

Fame at last...

Whilst in London yesterday bought a copy of the new book Genealogy Online for Dummies, mainly because the editor had sought permission to use a screenshot of the RONS Website in it. Was interested to see if it had been used, and found that it had:

No wonder the hits have gone up!

The 2005 GRO indexes

Today was a long one, spent in visiting the Family Record Centre in London to check (amongst other things) the 2005 Birth, Marriage and Death indexes for all the R variants. These were the results:

Now to update the Trees, but that is a job for tomorrow!

GenesReunited

Time for a periodic check of new R entries on GenesReunited. Found 70 new entries of which the majority were added by people that I have previously contacted - not that they have always replied! However found 7 new contacts who between them had added 16 new entries. Emailed them all and await their replies with interest.

30 minutes later: two replies already!

Someone's watching...

Thought there was nothing to report today but logged on anyway and find my first comment from Ted. Thank you Ted, you've made my day! When the DNA Test results come they will also make my day.

Y DNA Project - Take 2

Ted emailed to say that his test kit was on the way to FTDNA. I have realised that I forgot to post the link to the Project website yesterday, so have done that now.

Note that the Y DNA Project also covers males with the surnames GOMERY, GUMERY and GUMMERY, as many of my male-line cousins carry this name today as our origins lie in the ROWBERRY alias GOMERY Tree found in Woolhope, Herefordshire.

Y DNA Project

Ted Rowbury [Oldbury Family, ROWBERRY Tree Three] emailed to say that he has received the test kit that he ordered from FamilyTreeDNA. He is going to take the test and return it tomorrow. It will be so exciting to get the results of this first test.

Thanks to a generous donation from Iain Rovery Smith [ROVERY Tree] (not to mention a gift of $30 from FTDNA themselves) another test kit has also been ordered. Now to find someone to use it!

If you are male and your surname is any of those mentioned in the Welcome note above, please consider joining the Y DNA Project. You can find more about it via the link given to the right.

ROWBERRYs in Sheffield

Received an email from Annette Maynard, a GenesReunited contact, whose mother is a ROWBERRY. She has been able to help fill in a few gaps on the Sheffield Family's tree, and I was pleased to send her a copy when I had updated it. Imagine my feelings when she told me that some of her uncle's children had "had a family tree done for his birthday a couple years ago and unfortunately who ever they paid £300 to do it got most of the information wrong."!

Later on when she confirmed safe receipt of my free tree, I sent her the Hanley Castle and Welland Family Tree, which is the next step back. Both belong to the second largest of the trees, ROWBERRY Tree Two, with its origins in Leigh, Worcestershire in the 1600s.

I have also had an email from Sally-Anne Chambers, another GenesReunited contact, who is looking for the link to her tree (part of the Essex Family on ROWBERRY Tree One) on the RONS website, so I was able to help her with that too.

Finally as a result of the Thetford RD Marriage Challenge I received the details of the marriage of William ROWBREE and Mary Ann ARNOLD on Christmas Day 1864 at West Tofts, Norfolk [ROWBREE Family, ROWBERRY Tree One] from fellow GOON John Pepperdine. However he was not sure of the residence of William.

The RONS Blog

The aim here is to share small research breakthroughs and other items of news as they happen - not big enough for the ROWBERRY List maybe, but exciting to me nevertheless. I hope that some of you will join me in this voyage of discovery into the origins of our families.