Justice of the Peace
Found with Judicious searching. (rolls eyes)
My family history had too many John's, Janes, Jeans, Jessies and James' to choose from so I decided to go with a different J word or two. Quite a few cropped up on this research Journey - Justice of the Peace, Johnsonville, Joy and one or two John's thrown in, all fitted the purpose for this post.
Finding the Justice of the Peace in my family was a Joyous Journey.
That Journey began when I found the 1880 death notice in Trove of my gg grandfather, John Morgan, late of the Cross Keys Hotel in Essendon. John's wife was Alice, maiden name Kelly.
I didn't know there were any members of his family in New Zealand so I Jumped into Papers Past (NZ newspaper archives) and oh what Joy!!
Again in Papers Past I found a treasure trove (oops) of information. The information revealed itself little by little. I only had a birth year for John and Alice Morgan's son Alexander so you can imagine my Joy again when I put "Alexander Morgan and Essendon" in the Papers past search bar and up came the following.
 |
| New Zealand Evening Post 3 October 1904 |
Another J surfaced when it was found that Alexander, at that time, was living in the town of Johnsonville near Wellington.
With assistance from a very helpful lady, Lucy, in one of my favourite genealogy sites Rootschat further searching using the keywords, Kelly, Ohariu Valley, Essendon etc revealed the newspaper notice proving the relationship and showing that Alice's brother was in fact Thomas Kelly and that he was a J.P.
Again a search using Ohariu produced the JP information.
 |
| Wanganui Herald on 14th Dec 1892 |
And finally the obituary notice for Thomas Kelly produced a wealth of information.
My Joyous Journey certainly didn't end there. Many months later, after doing a google search for her great grandfather, Alexander Morgan. I was contacted by a cousin! Her google search had produced the long thread detailing my search and findings in the Rootschat site.
I had all but given up hope of ever finding other cousins who were researching this same family. And she had photos!!
Meet my Mr Thomas Kelly - J.P, and his wife .......................................................................
Juliana
Great J post! I'm Jealous as I can't think of anything J-like :)
ReplyDeleteJournal, Judge, Jailbait, Justify, Juicy any of those Jog your thoughts?
DeleteJolly Good Post.
ReplyDeleteMy inspiration has run dry - hopefully some tech related J thing will spring to mind soon.
How about JILL?
DeleteOh... such a Joyous Journey but often incredibly frustrating as bit by bit we piece together the hidden aspects of our Ancestors lives, I reckon. How lucky we Ozzies are to have Trove, eh Kerryn? So LOVE all those J's you suggested to Fi. Thanks for another most most enjoyable post. Cheers, Catherine.
ReplyDeleteKerryn, what a fabulous "j" topic, and how lucky you are to have so many wonderful reference to your family (the photos and the newspaper recports).
ReplyDeleteWe do Jigsaws everyday but with many of the pieces missing, they are never complete. You have certainly fit alot of the pieces together.
ReplyDelete