Category: Fun stuff

Genealogy: A New Perspective from A Discovery of Witches

Next to genealogy, my favorite pastime is reading. I enjoy a variety of genres of fiction, as well as non-fiction on occasion. Recently, intrigued by the ads for the second television season of A Discovery of Witches, starring Teresa Palmer as Diana Bishop and Matthew Goode as Matthew Clairmont, I read the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness (A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life).

With an historian, who happens to be a non-practicing witch, researching Alchemical ancient manuscripts and a vampire geneticist, it hit a couple of my reading and genealogy sweet spots. I gobbled up all three volumes as fast as I could. Then I binged the first season of the show so I could be all caught up before the new season started.

In season two, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to England in 1590 in search of a witch to teach Diana how to use her magic. Drama and adventure ensues.

While I’m enjoying the show, I was not prepared for the sense of connection I feel. Knowing that I had an ancestor who I can identify by name who was living in London the very year the show is portraying added an unexpected dimension and gave me a new perspective on his life.

Richard Dungan

My 13th great grandfather Richard Dungan died in St. Martin-in-the-Fields in 1609 and was buried as a gentleman with “a hand-carved coat of arms on his coffin.”1 He was most likely born in Ireland either in Dublin or Dunganstown in County Wicklow.

AGAS map of London, circa 1560s, showing St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. Paul's Cathedral, Somerset House and more
AGAS Map of London, circa 1560s

When he died, he was living at a house referred to as the Horseshoe in St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Prior to that, however, he lived and owned properties on Little Britain street in St. Botolph’s parish in Aldergate, just outside the London city walls.2 [see image above] There were also associations between family members and St. James Clerkenwell, St. Sepulchre, and Christ’s Church. In Shadow of Night, the basis of season two of A Discovery of Witches, Diana and Matthew spend time in the Black Friars section of London. But I imagine that Richard’s environs were not that much different.

In 1590, Richard was granted “the place of Master Plasterer to the Queen” after the death of John Symmonds, in place of Symmonds’ partner who had recently died.3 When Symmonds died in 1597, Richard was elevated to the position of Queen’s Master Plasterer on July 4th.4 He served as master of the Plasterers Company in 1601/2, 1604/5 and 1606/7.5

As such, Richard worked on a number of Crown projects at Whitehall, the Royal Palace at Greenwich, St. James Palace, and Somerset House, among others.6 He also did private work, including for Robert Cecil, son of William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Elizabeth I, who appears as a character in the show for whom Matthew was working as a spy. It’s a second-hand connection, I know, but if Richard did work for the crown, then I imagine he might have had some contact with agents of the Lord High Treasurer, too.

Dungan coat of arms
Dungan Coat of Arms
1598

In 1609, Richard did work at “Brittains Burse” also known as the New Exchange for Robert Cecil’s agent.7 The New Exchange was a center for the purchase of luxury goods, including perfumes. This is important because it—along with Richard’s residence at the Horseshoe, helps to tie Richard to his grandson William Dungan (c1600-1636) of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, a perfumer, who rented space in the Burse for two shops and a small residence8 from at least 1628 through 1637.

After William’s death, his widow, Frances (Latham) Dungan, and their children left England with her new husband, Capt. Jeremy Clarke, and settled in Rhode Island. My 10th great grandfather, William and Frances’ son, Rev. Thomas Dungan (1635-1688), started the first Baptist church in Pennsylvania at Cold Springs, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His descendant Rachel Jones’ pedigree is—to the best of my knowledge—the only line on my mother’s side of the family which is not of German heritage.

Watching this TV show has unexpectedly given me a deeper feeling of connection to my little explored English roots and especially to my London ancestor, Richard Dungan.

Happy New Year, 2021!

May the new year open doors to new opportunities for good health, happiness, and much success to you and yours! Happy New Year from my family to yours.

~Kris

Tax Records Say the Darndest Things Wordless Wednesday

You can learn interesting things about your ancestors in the most unexpected places. Take this entry from a 1779 Hereford Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania tax assessment.

Hereford Tax Record

The third line refers to Daniel Bobb, my 5x great grandfather: “Danl Bob a Miller drinks too much.” Then there’s the next line about John Bower who apparently has a young hooligan for a son.

Tax records can include the darndest things.

I’m Late for a Very Important Date!

1980 Mad Hatter Costume Class

As kids, my sister and I—along with our pony Christopher Robin—competed in a number of horse shows at the farm our aunt managed. This is a photo from the summer of 1980 from the Costume Class. I was the Mad Hatter (left), Christopher was the March Hare, and my sister was Alice. We hung a tape recorder around Christopher’s neck with a recording of “I’m late! I’m late for a very important date” and played it while we were in the ring.

Christopher could be as stubborn as a jackass, but he was a really good sport about the costumes. At various times we were 49’ers with our mule (California or Bust), Alice & crew, three blind mice, a rabbit (Christopher) & two carrots (kids), Dumbo (Christopher) & friends, and so much more. And that’s just with us. Christopher had a long career as a class horse for kids who took lessons at the barn and he competed with most of them.

Happy New Year 2017

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous new year! May 2017 be the year of breaking down barriers—whether that barrier is a research brick wall or something else that’s holding you back.

Happy Holidays

Whether you’re celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or one of the myriad of holidays and festivals this season brings, I wish you many joyful times and good cheer with family and friends!

 

How Many Surnames in Your Family Tree Database Sunday Morning Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings has a weekly blog meme called Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. I never tune in until Sunday morning, though, so I shifted it a bit. 😉 This week’s challenge is to determine the surname count in your family tree database.

I use Reunion for my genealogy database. There is a menu item under “List” for “Last Names.” It will create a table of all the surnames in the database. According to its tally, I have 4,805 unique last names in the database.

Reunion last names list

Some of those names actually represent alternate spellings—for instance Hocker vs. Hacker, the top two names, or Houdeshell vs. Howdyshell.

It also shows me I need to do some clean-up. When I started researching, I used ––?–– for unknown surnames. As I gained experience, I started using the (___) that is used in genealogy periodicals. Time to go back and fix that…

It also shows the earliest and latest date associated with records for a surname and how many people in the database with the surname are still living. The date fields are a little deceiving. I’m not quite sure what fields that information is from. Obviously, it includes more than just birth and death dates and also includes empty fields.

The top 25 surnames are:

  1. Hocker – 1851 people, starting in 1756
  2. Unknown [combining ––?–– and (___)] – 1536 people, starting about 1601
  3. Hacker – 860 people, starting in 1642
  4. Hoover – 379 people, starting about 1735
  5. Houdeshell – 371 people, starting about 1787
  6. Walker – 347 people, starting about 1747
  7. Wieder – 325 people, starting in 1721
  8. Stober – 284 people, starting in 1626
  9. Weidman – 276 people, starting about 1618
  10. Miller – 261 people, starting in 1775
  11. Howdyshell – 234 people, starting 1760
  12. Landis – 217 people, starting about 1666
  13. Smith – 193 people, starting 1766
  14. Askey – 186 people, starting about 1727
  15. Mulhollan – 152 people, starting about 1752
  16. Zimmerman – 150 people, starting about 1646
  17. Davis – 149 people, starting in 1721
  18. Shirk – 143 people, starting in 1711
  19. Klein – 142 people, starting in 1655
  20. Krauss – 138 people, starting in 1706
  21. Hershey – 134 people, starting about 1696
  22. Haushalter – 124 people, starting about 1620
  23. Mayes – 124 people, starting about 1753
  24. Long – 123 people, starting 1754
  25. Yeakel – 113 people, starting 1659

I’ve italicized my direct lines. Surprisingly, a number of the top 25 surnames in the database are for collateral lines.

How about you? What are your top surnames?