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From: "Jennifer Smit" <>
Subject: Re: [ZA-EC] Thompson/Kelly/Goold/Hawkins research
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:14:55 +0100
References: <MWSJHBMC013600d2d027cd4434955c4daaa2bc5c60@MWSJHBMC01><8DABF3DF919C4530AAF05C531E4FA778@lib><AANLkTikq44xmxMAwP+k1eX_GBJ2er-iGFFto9aQ31Gy1@mail.gmail.com>


Thank you so much!

Now that I have the basic root and branch, I will be adding leaves to the
tree, so this will go in there.

And thank you for your earlier help too.

Regards
Jennifer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray Forsberg" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 7:05 AM
Subject: Re: [ZA-EC] Thompson/Kelly/Goold/Hawkins research


> Hi Jennifer,
>
> What a lovely story! I too have the Thompsons and Hawkins in my tree
> through the marriage of James Humphrey Hawkins and Charlotte Locker, who
> was
> the daughter Thomas Locker and Ann Wild; Ann Wild b. 1821 was the
> daughter
> to Abraham Wild and Ann Thornton, my 4 x g-grandparents.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carol
>
> On 22 September 2010 02:06, Jennifer Smit <> wrote:
>
>>
>> Two and a half years ago I set out to find out about the South African
>> side
>> of my family - my father's parents, and who they were descended from.
>> Luckily I quickly found these lists and archives and an interesting
>> journey
>> began, leading me to the knowledge I now have. It may be of interest
>> those
>> who were so generous with their help, suggestions and possible
>> connections
>> to know the results, and how they came to light.
>>
>> At the start, all I knew was that my grandmother was Martha THOMPSON,
>> daughter of WJ (or G) Thompson, who was Customs Guard at East London when
>> she married my grandfather Philip KELLY there in 1903. Their children
>> were
>> Catholic but family rumour had it that her family was Methodist, that the
>> Thompson's came from Plymouth, and that there was something about a
>> Spanish
>> connection. We heard that the Kelly side had came from County Cork, but
>> how
>> why or when we didn't know. And that was all - precious little to go on.
>>
>> I tackled the Kelly side first and luckily my ggrandfather's baptism
>> certificate came to light showing that it was his father and mother who
>> had
>> came to SA from Ireland - not Cork, but N Ireland and Dublin. Further
>> delving and immense help from Jordan Beagle who had also researched this
>> family, showed that the progenitors, William and Hanna Kelly came with
>> the
>> 27th Infantry. They remained in Grahamstown after his discharge where
>> William worked as Messenger of the Court, and they both died there.
>>
>> My grandfather's maternal grandparents turned out to be Irish too - they
>> were Patrick and Ellen GOOLD from County Cork (eureka!), and Patrick was
>> also in the 27th. Both these comrades- in- arms remained in the Colony
>> after discharge and two of their children married each other. Digging in
>> the
>> Archives I found that Patrick Goold formed the Kingwilliamstown Veteran
>> Volunteer Force in 1877 and later became a Member of the Legislative
>> Assembly. I even found a portrait of him in the Archives and it was quite
>> a
>> thrill to get a copy. He and Ellen lived and died in KWT.
>>
>> The Thompson's were a hard nut to crack - mainly because there are so
>> many
>> different Thompson families and sorting them out is like trying to
>> organise
>> a can of worms. I spent many many months barking up the wrong branches
>> of
>> the wrong Thompson trees, convinced that my ggrandfather had to fit into
>> one
>> of them somewhere, especially when what turned out to be William John
>> Thompson could have been William James Thompson, or William George, or
>> Walter even.- enough to do your head in.... especially when one William
>> James Thompson had a wife called Martha!
>>
>> Then suddenly, in one week in August I met Debbie Hawkins online, and
>> grandmother Martha's baptism certificate was found out of the blue by a
>> cousin, showing that her father was definately William John Thompson and
>> her
>> mother was Jane Elizabeth HAWKINS. Debbie had all the Hawkins
>> information
>> to pass on to me. It was like Christmas! The Plymouth story turned out
>> to
>> be Portsmouth, they were Anglicans not Methodists, and the Spanish
>> connection was because Jane was born in Gibraltar to a military family in
>> the Royal Engineers. So much for family lore!
>>
>> So, the mystery of Martha's mother was solved but I still didn't know
>> where
>> her father hailed from. On the DN of one of William and Jane Thompson's
>> children Debbie gave me, it stated that the father was deceased and had
>> been
>> in the Royal Artillery. Bingo!
>>
>> I got the discharge papers from the British National Archives and there
>> it
>> was - he was not a South African Thompson after all. He was born in
>> Norfolk, entered the Army at 18 and came to the Cape with the 7th
>> Artillery
>> Brigade ending up at the Kingwilliamstown Battery - where he remained
>> after
>> discharge, married, raised a family and started a whole new Thompson
>> line -
>> just to confuse me, his descendant. The family moved to East London at
>> some
>> time during the 1890's along with James and Mary Hawkins his wife's
>> parents,
>> who had also settled in the E Cape. After the Army William was by turn a
>> platelayer, an Inspector of Quarries and Customs Guard. They all died in
>> East London.
>>
>> In all, eight of our ancestors arrived in the Eastern Cape in the 1800's
>> in
>> or attached to military units, something I had no idea about before I
>> started the research.
>> I only wish I had done this years ago before my father died - he would
>> have
>> been so interested, having served in the RAF in WW2.
>>
>> I am glad to have found a new cousin in Debbie Hawkins, and sorry not to
>> be
>> connected to the helpful and generous people researching the name
>> Thompson,
>> especially Elaine in Mossel Bay. My thanks go to all of them and to the
>> professional researchers and historians who have helped me along the way.
>> And to Rootsweb and its administrators my eternal gratitude, it would not
>> have been possible without you
>>
>> With best wishes,
>> Jennifer Smit (nee Kelly)
>> Folkestone, Kent
>>
>>
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