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Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.
From Ray Norval in Brisbane, Queensland:
‘Can you help me? I am searching for any information as to the ancestry of my maternal grandmother Nellie Buckley Formiston. We think she was born in 1880, birthplace unknown, but lived in West Hartlepool. Family legend has it that she came from a seafaring family and that her father was a ship’s master and died at sea. She spoke of a brother Geordie. In the census we found a George Formiston who was born about 1875, was a seaman and died in the Throston Road Workhouse in 1902.
We can find no record of Nellie leaving England but we know she married John Frederick Towers in St Mary’s Church Woodstock Capetown in March 1905. The record of marriage does not contain any reference to parents of either party. Her husband emigrated to Queensland in 1889 with his parents and enlisted with the Queensland Imperial Bushmen to fight in the Boer War.
He returned to Australia with his contingent in 1902, presumably going back to South Africa in 1905 to marry Nellie. They returned to Australia where the first of their four daughters was born near Ipswich in 1906. Nellie died in Brisbane in 1956, her early life a mystery to her family. Her husband died in a gold mining accident in 1937 - Nellie never remarried. Any tips or clues would be gratefully received.’
Stephen says:
‘Thanks for your intriguing question.
The first thought that struck me was that I had never heard of the last name Formiston before and that it might be a variant of another name. After a little research, it is clear that it certainly exists in its own right (very locally, in Cheshire, for example) but I believe that the original version of the name for this particular family was Formstone. On the 1881 census there is a family named Formstone including children David (aged 7, born Fleetwood, Lancashire), George (aged 5, born Rock Ferry, Cheshire), Ellen (aged 4, born Birkenhead, Cheshire) and Rosette (aged 1, also born Birkenhead). If I am right, Ellen will be your Nellie.
They are residing at Back Cottage in Church Street, Thornton, in the Fylde, Lancashire. The census reference is RG11 piece 4255 folio 128 page 8 (use this reference to go straight to the right page on findmypast.co.uk’s census reference search. I also noticed that there was a Rose Formiston on the 1901 and 1911 censuses in Hartlepool who was born circa 1879/80 and who, therefore, matches the 1881 Rosette (even though she claims later to have been born in Kilburn or Paddington, London – this may suggest that the family moved to London when Rose was a child).
One tip for searching the censuses is to progressively subtract letters from the end of the last name and use an asterisk (*) for a trailing wildcard search. In other words, if you get no relevant results with an expected spelling, such as Formiston in this instance, start by removing one or more letters from the end of the name, using your judgement as to what might have been either different in the original spelling or, for that matter, misspelt by the census enumerator or mis-transcribed during the process of digitisation. Each time you remove one or more letters, you will multiply the search results returned to you. Searching under Form* will, therefore, bring back all results for last names beginning with these letters, including those relevant to this case (you might also wish to consider replacing the first vowel, i.e., names beginning Farm- rather than the expected Form-).
In any event, the mother of this family is Margaret Formstone, a 25-year old widow and charwoman, a British subject born in “Hindustan” (i.e., British India). If she was the mother of David, then the 1881 census suggests that she had her eldest child when she was little more than 18 years of age. I searched on the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk website and found two references to the family: 21-year old mariner Henry Formstone (son of Richard) married 19-year old Margaret Craig (daughter of John) on 11 February 1873 in Fleetwood and their son David was born and baptised there three months later, on 9 May 1873.
Hopefully, with this information, you can resume the search for your ancestors.
Incidentally, I can let you in to a secret. Our plans for imminent new record set releases include two different types of records of merchant marines, plus a significant collection of records for the county of Cheshire. Both of these may well contain records of value to your Formiston/Formstone family history research. They should all be online within the next three months. Good luck with your research!’
If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!
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From Ray Norval in Brisbane, Queensland:
‘Can you help me? I am searching for any information as to the ancestry of my maternal grandmother Nellie Buckley Formiston. We think she was born in 1880, birthplace unknown, but lived in West Hartlepool. Family legend has it that she came from a seafaring family and that her father was a ship’s master and died at sea. She spoke of a brother Geordie. In the census we found a George Formiston who was born about 1875, was a seaman and died in the Throston Road Workhouse in 1902.
We can find no record of Nellie leaving England but we know she married John Frederick Towers in St Mary’s Church Woodstock Capetown in March 1905. The record of marriage does not contain any reference to parents of either party. Her husband emigrated to Queensland in 1889 with his parents and enlisted with the Queensland Imperial Bushmen to fight in the Boer War.
He returned to Australia with his contingent in 1902, presumably going back to South Africa in 1905 to marry Nellie. They returned to Australia where the first of their four daughters was born near Ipswich in 1906. Nellie died in Brisbane in 1956, her early life a mystery to her family. Her husband died in a gold mining accident in 1937 - Nellie never remarried. Any tips or clues would be gratefully received.’
Stephen says:
‘Thanks for your intriguing question.
The first thought that struck me was that I had never heard of the last name Formiston before and that it might be a variant of another name. After a little research, it is clear that it certainly exists in its own right (very locally, in Cheshire, for example) but I believe that the original version of the name for this particular family was Formstone. On the 1881 census there is a family named Formstone including children David (aged 7, born Fleetwood, Lancashire), George (aged 5, born Rock Ferry, Cheshire), Ellen (aged 4, born Birkenhead, Cheshire) and Rosette (aged 1, also born Birkenhead). If I am right, Ellen will be your Nellie.
They are residing at Back Cottage in Church Street, Thornton, in the Fylde, Lancashire. The census reference is RG11 piece 4255 folio 128 page 8 (use this reference to go straight to the right page on findmypast.co.uk’s census reference search. I also noticed that there was a Rose Formiston on the 1901 and 1911 censuses in Hartlepool who was born circa 1879/80 and who, therefore, matches the 1881 Rosette (even though she claims later to have been born in Kilburn or Paddington, London – this may suggest that the family moved to London when Rose was a child).
One tip for searching the censuses is to progressively subtract letters from the end of the last name and use an asterisk (*) for a trailing wildcard search. In other words, if you get no relevant results with an expected spelling, such as Formiston in this instance, start by removing one or more letters from the end of the name, using your judgement as to what might have been either different in the original spelling or, for that matter, misspelt by the census enumerator or mis-transcribed during the process of digitisation. Each time you remove one or more letters, you will multiply the search results returned to you. Searching under Form* will, therefore, bring back all results for last names beginning with these letters, including those relevant to this case (you might also wish to consider replacing the first vowel, i.e., names beginning Farm- rather than the expected Form-).
In any event, the mother of this family is Margaret Formstone, a 25-year old widow and charwoman, a British subject born in “Hindustan” (i.e., British India). If she was the mother of David, then the 1881 census suggests that she had her eldest child when she was little more than 18 years of age. I searched on the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk website and found two references to the family: 21-year old mariner Henry Formstone (son of Richard) married 19-year old Margaret Craig (daughter of John) on 11 February 1873 in Fleetwood and their son David was born and baptised there three months later, on 9 May 1873.
Hopefully, with this information, you can resume the search for your ancestors.
Incidentally, I can let you in to a secret. Our plans for imminent new record set releases include two different types of records of merchant marines, plus a significant collection of records for the county of Cheshire. Both of these may well contain records of value to your Formiston/Formstone family history research. They should all be online within the next three months. Good luck with your research!’
If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!
More...