Genealogy comments or questions from Jennifer Topham

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  1. Henrietta CROSS nee RISDON Her date of death on Tom’s website quotes a death notice in the Milwaukee Sentinel dated 27 May 1922, giving her date of death as 27 May. This would definitely appear to be incorrect, so I will amend my records to 22 May 1922 as per Albert’s information.
  2. Still on Henrietta, I have two birth dates for her, namely 24 or 30 November 1840. I do not have a birth certificate for her, and neither have I found her baptism, as yet.
  3. Henrietta CROSS nee RISDON had a daughter Henrietta Cecilia born 10 December 1869 at Milwaukee. This child married Charles Henry WYLIE on 17 September 1892 at Lake Geneva, WI, and had a son Ralph Alvin in 1893. I have no further info on descendants etc.
  4. Henrietta CROSS nee RISDON was outlived by Jemima and probably Eleanor
  5. In the USA 1900 census, Jane RISDON born 1809 says she had 10 children 5 of them still living. I have only found 7 children from Tom’s website and from www.familysearch.org. Can you account for the other three, please?
  6. Alberta asks if I have any photos regarding any of your American family of Risdon descendants. Unfortunately the answer is no I don’t. I’ve only very few of my own immediate relations. One or two cousins have been kind enough to give me a few copies of their branch of the family, but that’s all, which is a pity. I have downloaded copies of the photos on Tom’s website which is super - thanks to all of you!
  7. I have found George and Jane RISDON on the UK 1851 census, and have given you this information previously.
  8. I will contact Julie Harper, as it appears her husband is a Risdon descendant, so maybe they are interested in attending the Risdon Descendant Day (RDD) in 2006.
  9. Barbara. In your e-mail of 16 April you say you have attached the Harris Family information. I do not appear to have received this. Is it possible for you to re-send it?
  10. Regarding the children of George and Jane (nee HARRIS) RISDON, Edwin born 10 January 1836 is Edwin Harris RISDON born Romsey, Hampshire. For Jemima Jane RISDON wife of G B Burdick we appear to have differing dates of death. You say 1 May 1936 whilst I have 2 January 1936. Henrietta RISDON born 1840 did not have a second forename Eleanor RISDON was Eleanor Harris RISDON. I have her date of marriage to William J FOSBINDER as 6 November 1869 whilst Barbara says 1870. Neither George nor Jane had middle names.
  11. In the 1851 census for Birmingham 3 Edmund Street there is the following:
    George T. RISDON / head - / 40 / Commission Agent / Old Cleeve Somerset
    Edward RISDON / son / Unm / 14 / Timber Merchants Clerk / Southampton Dorset

    Although the names are slightly wrong, I suspect the “T” was added for effect. Several of George’s siblings (brothers and sisters) had the second name of Torrington given to them, after their mother’s maiden surname no doubt. Edward and Edwin are easily interchangeable in the strong dialects of west Somerset and Birmingham, so I am 100% sure these are “our” men.

  12. Lastly, but by no means least, whilst playing around on the internet a couple of days ago, and using the search engine Google, I found the following:

    Ancestry.com Message Boards
    Subject Eleanor R. FOSBONDER
    Mauston Star, Mauston, Juneau Co, Wisc July 21 1921
    Eleanor Risdon FOSBINDER was born in Lincolnshire, England April 29 1845 and died July 18 1921, after a long lingering illness
    Her father came to this country when she was about 6 years old and settled in Milwaukee county. From there the family moved to Juneau county settling on a farm near Lond Rock. After teaching several terms in the schools in Juneau county, she was united in marriage to William J. FOSBINDER. Besides her husband, 5 children are left to mourn her, Mrs A.M. MICHEL, Mrs A.F.OTTO, Sarah, Dr H.R. FOSBINDER of Los Angles and C.R. FOSBINDER of Viroqua. Also 3 of her sisters survive her Mrs Jemima BURDICK of Milwaukee, Mrs Henrietta CROSS of Chicago and Mrs Levi COLE of this city

    and

    Subject William J. FOSBINDER
    Mauston Star, Mauston, Juneau Co WIS Sep 10 1925
    William J FOSBINDER died at his home in this city Sep 6 1925
    Mr Fosbinder was born at Rochelle, Ogle Co, Ill Jan 6 1849. His parents moved here the following year, settling on a farm in Stewart’s settlement, Lindina, and he lived there until shortly after his marriage when he decided to quit farming and moved to this city.

    On Nov 6 1869, he was united in marriage to Eleanor RISDON, who preceded him in death about 2 yeara ago. Seven children were born to them, 5 of whom survive, Mrs A.M. MICHEL and Mrs August OTTO of this city. Sade of Milwaukee, Harry J of Hollywood, Cal and Charles R of Tomah. Burial in the Mauston Cemetery

    Then on another site of newspaper obituaries, I found
    OTTO, Lucy (Fosbinder)
    5 September 1926, Mauston
    who would appear to be the Mrs OTTO mentioned in the above articles, whilst there was also a Charles FOSBINDER died 9 August 1996 at Tomah Monroe, WI. I wonder if he is the son of Charles R in the above articles? Do you know anything about these folk?

Well, I think that has given us all enough to think about for the moment, don’t you?
Good-bye for now to you all
Jennifer

Jennifer Topham, 2 Orchard Court, Arches Lane, Malmesbury SN16 0ED Wiltshire
jennifer.topham5@virgin.net

[email dated 7 Aug 2004] Hello everyone.

Sorry I have been quiet for so long, we've had a difficult period familywise, apart from me having my elder grand-daughter Zoe (aged 9) to stay - for the first time! It was super and we both enjoyed ourselves immensely. Consequently no family history has been done for a while.

Tom [McFarland], your CD arrived safely, thank you very much! My younger daughter Adele has also enjoyed looking at it too.

Barbara [Johnson], I have re-searched both my Risdon indexes and the GRO indexes, plus familysearch.org plus a name search in Google search engine. I can find nothing regarding a child called Mary, and feel this is probably a transcription error in the shipping registers. My "gut" instinct tells me this should read Charles, especially as the word infant usually refers to a baby ie under one year of age. If there was a Mary born in c1849 she would be walking and would then definitely not be an infant. George and Jane seemed to be good about registering the births of their children, but they also moved around alot, so if they did have additional children then I feel sure that they died very young. Without buying all the birth certificates for every Risdon/Risden for the dates between George and Janes marriage and their departure for USA, there is little chance that we will pick up on any possible "missing" children.

With difficulty I have managed to open your attachment and find the Harris information which is very interesting, especially the bit about the Symons of Dragon House. The Risdon family married into the Symons family some of whom I have traced but am having problems with other descendants. Is it possible for you to send another copy of the death certificate in a smaller format, please? As it is currently, it won't even fit onto an A3 sheet, so is not suitable for my files. I can find no way of reducing the size.

I will send some more family info per an attachment hopefully later today. Bye for now and best wishes to you all

Jennifer

[email dated 7 Aug 2004] As I have already given you the details of George’s brother and sisters, I will go on to his parents generation.

Edward born September 1762
baptised 8 September 1762 Old Cleeve (St Andrew’s)
died August 1825
buried 3 August 1825 Old Cleeve
will PCC

married 16 November 1789 St Decuman’s (Watchet)

Joan TORRINGTON
born 1768 Stream, St Decuman’s parish
daughter of Hugh and Jane
baptised 4 December 1768 St Decuman’s
died 19 March 1838 Dragon, Old Cleeve
buried 24 March 1838 Old Cleeve
will PCC

The parents of Edward were:

Edward born 1724 Old Cleeve
son of Philip and Rebecca
baptised 1724 Old Cleeve (date illegible)
died 15 May 1773 Escott, Carhampton
buried 18 May 1773 Old Cleeve
will PCC

married 30 September 1748 Old Cleeve

Betty EVETT buried 3 July 1785 Old Cleeve
no further information yet found on Betty

Edward and Betty had the following children

Mary born 1750
married 1780
Edward BULLER
7 children

Elizabeth born July 1752
died April 1767

John born August 1754
died May 1828
married 30 November 1791
Susannah MORLE nee BULLER 1760-1827
8 children

George born April 1756
died October 1831
married No

Rebecca born 1758
died 1826
married 1780
Richard VEYSEY
8 children

Joan born August 1760
no further information, believed died as a child

Edward born 1762 see above

Jane born 1765
died 1833
will PCC
married 1793
Robert LEIGH
possibly three children but none surviving at the time of her death

Going back another generation, the parents of Edward born 1724 are:

Phillip buried 9 October 1769 Old Cleeve
married 1 Rebecca -?-
married 2 Joan WILLIAMS
will PCC

Rebecca (surname + date of marriage unknown)
buried 17 September 1767 Old Cleeve

Joan WILLIAMS born circa 1733
buried 25 January 1812 St Michael’s church, Minehead
will PCC

The children of Phillip and Rebecca are:

Jane born circa 1716 Carhampton illegible
Joan born circa 1718 Carhampton illegible
Mary born circa 1720 Carhampton illegible
all three above believed died young

Elizabeth baptised 18 September 1721 Old Cleeve
married 18 October 1743 Old Cleeve
Benjamin PRING
possibly one son survived to adulthood

Rebecca baptised 12 --- 1722 Old Cleeve illegible

Edward born 1724 see above

George baptised 3 April 1727 Old Cleeve
buried 4 January 1754 Old Cleeve

John baptised 30 August 1728 Old Cleeve
died before 8 February 1773
married 19 April 1756 Old Cleeve
probably no children

Hope this makes sense to you. It is a bare outline of all the information that I have. In some cases I am able to enlarge on details, but pre the days of censuses and tombstones, not to mention newspaper articles on individual persons, it is difficult to find more than the barest details.

In case you are not familiar with the wills situation in Somerset, here is the position. In 1939 at the onset of WW11, all the Somerset wills plus other various papers were removed to Exeter. The authorities thought there was more likelihood of Taunton being bombed than Exeter. However the Germans thought otherwise and bombed Exeter very severly, whilst Taunton was spared. However, in our family we are lucky, as several members had PCC wills. They are Perogative Court of Canterbury wills, in other words proved by the (at that time) highest probate court in the country. I do have copies of all the PCC wills that I have mentioned above, and could send copies if you would like them.