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Archiver > SOUTH-AM-EMI > 1997-04 > 0862352169


From: Roger V. Lewis< >
Subject: Re: From Britain to Falkland Is./ Patagonia
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 1997 18:16:09 -0400


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From: H.R.Henly <>
To: South American Emigrants genealogy list
<>
Subject: RE: From Britain to Falkland Is./ Patagonia
Date: Saturday, April 26, 1997 5:09 PM

Hi Roger,
I was very interested in your letter regarding your ancestors' emigration
to South America with the Rev bridges. Are you aware of the book which
Bridges wrote viz.
Main Author: Bridges, E. Lucas
Title Details: Uttermost part of the earth : Indians of Tierra del Fuego
/ by E. Lucas Bridges ; introduction by A. F. Tschiffely

Publisher: New York : Dover Publications, 1988
ISBN/ISSN: 0486257517

Subject(s): Bridges, E. Lucas
Bridges, E. Lucas, 1874-1949
Fuegians
Ranchers - Tierra del Fuego (Argentina and Chile) -
Biography
Tierra del Fuego (Argentina and Chile) - Description and
travel
Document Type: Autobiography
Language: English

Holding Libraries: Cambridge ; Oxford

You should be able to borrow it via the Inter-library loan scheme. I
checked the above details on Cambridge University's On-line catalogue but I
am sure there are other locations.
Also I should be interested if you find any contacts on the falkland
Islands as I have noticed in the census (1871 or 1881) for bremhill in
Wiltshire that there were several people born there and I have often
wondered what the connection was -- probably military service.
have you seen my web pages; I have several references there to research in
Argentina and uruguay which might help you. It is at:-
http://homepages.enterprise.net/hrhenly/
Cheers
Bob Henly
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Hello, Bob,

Many thanks for all your information. Yes, I know the book "Uttermost Part
of the Earth"; in fact I have a copy given to me by my late cousin Douglas
Pole-Evans. My great-grandparents are briefly mentioned on pages 52, 57 and
67; my family's opinion is that the author, E. Lucas Bridges (Rev. Thomas
Bridges' eldest son), did not really give his father's helpers the credit
they deserved - in other words, that the Lawrences, the Lewises and Jacob
Resyck (or Rissik, as it has also been recorded) did a lot more for the
mission than is described in the book (e.g., Bridges flatly states that
Frank Ushuaia Lewis was born on Keppel Island; the Lewis family tradition
has always been that Eleanor Lewis *sailed* for Keppel, but that
great-uncle Frank was born on board, and in the confusion the captain
omitted to log the vessel's position at the time of the baby's birth. This
later caused the problem with establishing his nationality, since the
waters of Ushuaia bay were at the time disputed between Argentina and
Chile, and the schooner was British. Also, my great-grandfather was not
just "a carpenter", as mentioned by Bridges, but was by trade a joiner - a
couple of skill steps above a carpenter - and also taught mathematics and
bricklaying at a trade school in Bristol; Rev. Bridges is reputed to have
met him through his wife, as Mary Varder Bridges and Eleanor Britten Lewis
are said to have been close friends well before their marriages). I am
inclined to be a little more charitable about E. Lucas Bridges, since he
had to base the early part of the book on his father's journals, and these
were probably rather abbreviated; it would have been very time-consuming
for the Rev. Bridges to record every little incident of daily life, and
Lucas Bridges could not depend on his own memory for the story of those
very early days, since he was not even born yet.

Yes, also, I found your web pages - in fact, it was from them that I got
the SOUTH-AM-EMI list subscription information. Unfortunately, I am in a
position that is all too common today: the company I work for has become so
"lean and mean" that I have no assistant, secretary, or anyone like that,
and consequently have almost no spare time in which to indulge my hobbies
(such as family history). The web at least gives me a chance to do little
bits and pieces whenever I have a couple of minutes to spare.

I will be sure to let you know if and when I make any contacts in the
Falklands.

Cheers,

Roger Lewis

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