The Guzmán’s of Mendoza - acclaimed classical musicians

During the 19th century in Chile and for three generations, the Guzmán’s were acclaimed classical musicians. The literature indicates that their patriarch Fernando Guzmán and his son Francisco arrived in Chile from Mendoza, Argentina in about 1822. There is little or no information regarding their heritage, origins and the correct composition of their large family. There are many errors and assumptions in the literature as to the number and paternity of several of them; it is intended to correct the misinformation and provide documentary evidence of the family origins, heritage and composition. The research makes use of the Mendoza Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths Parish Books from the 18th and 19th centuries, legal documents, and published material. It is confirmed that Fernando Guzmán was born into slavery, one of five children of Maria Juana, an African slave owned by the Santo Domingo Convent of Mendoza. Fernando married Juana Agustina, also a slave of African descent, owned by the Molina Sotomayor family. Fernando and Juana Agustina had 13 children, several of whom were also born into slavery. The Guzmán’s were a family of classical musicians par excellence. To celebrate their life and work, this research identifies and reports how the family was composed and how it evolved.

Fella Feige Drut

This article is the story of Fella Feige Drut, who was born in Rovno, Ukraine in 1923 and who in 1939, at the age of 16, was arrested by the Gestapo in Würzburg, Germany because she was Jewish. She survived six years in various concentration camps and work camps, eventually ending up in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Here, she gave birth to a daughter. Her ordeal and that of her close family members are reconstructed using documents from the International Tracing Service’s (ITS) archive and from other sources. Unlike many of her co-religionists, whose family life ended during the Nazi years (1933-1945), Fella Feige Drut was able to live on. Her resolve manifested itself in her fight for compensation from the German government for herself and her daughter, despite the bureaucratic hurdles placed in her way, and her resolution to leave Germany and to build a new life in the USA.

Interpreting choices: what can we infer from where our ancestors married?

This article analyses a sample of 1,052 weddings reported by family historians as taking place between 1837 and 1952 in order to build up a picture of the characteristics of those marrying in a register office or registered place of worship under the Marriage Act 1836. It situates this data in the context of the national-level statistics in order to provide a more nuanced picture of the religious affiliation of those marrying in a registered place of worship and to determine whether those who married in the register office exhibited different characteristics to those who did not. It also analyses the changing legal framework in order to show how this determined the options that were available to couples at different times. Finally, it identifies what inferences can be drawn from the wording on the marriage certificate, for example whether a marriage is recorded as being conducted ‘by’ or ‘before’ a particular person or ‘according to the rites and ceremonies of the parties’.

Families in the Riveli di beni e anime of Gallodoro, Sicily during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

This article examines the riveli di beni e anime of the small town of Gallodoro, located in northeastern Sicily about halfway between the cities of Messina and Catania, to examine the history of the town’s families during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by tracing the prevalence of surnames recorded in these documents. The growing proliferation of certain surnames suggests a longer presence of these families in Gallodoro, while the increasing diversification of surnames as a whole suggests a dynamic population comprised of new residents. Despite the diversification of surnames in the riveli for Gallodoro, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the majority of the town’s population held only a relatively few different surnames.

Genealogy of the Morleys in South Wales: Tracing the Pearce Connection in Cornwall

The origins of individuals or families who moved to Glamorgan from Cornwall during the Industrial Revolution are often unknown, as official records did not appear until 1838 and often the older parish registers are incomplete. This study is concerned with the study of the origins of one such family, called Morley, which was well established in Glamorgan by the mid-nineteenth century. In 1848 in the parish of Michaelston-super-Avon, Thomas Morley, a roll turner in the Copper Miners Tinplate Company located there, married an Anne Pierce who came from Ludgvan in Cornwall. The lineal descendants of their large family, and the antecedents of his family, have been discussed in detail previously, but very little is known about the origins of Anne’s family in Cornwall. This account attempts to correct this omission by exploring her antecedents using the accepted English genealogical practice of tracing the family by following the sequence of family Christian names. This process has enabled the antecedents of her family to be unearthed in southwest Cornwall. Her father, John Pearce (M)1 has been unequivocally identified as a miller from Ludgvan, who was born in 1766 and died in 1827. He married Margaret Winnan of St. Erth in 1800 and they had nine children most of whom were born in Ludgvan. Tracing the identity of John’s father has proved more difficult, as there are several possible candidates born in the expected timeframe. With, it is thought that he was a William Pearce of Gulval who married Elizabeth Gilbert of Helston in 1765. His father in turn was a John Pearce (L) who married Triphosa Donithorne of Gulval in 1727 and they had nine children. The identity of John’s father has not been established with the same degree of certainty and there are two possible contenders, both called John Pearce (K), one born in Lelant in 1692 and the other born in Paul in 1699. On balance, it is thought that the person born in Lelant was the antecedent of John (L) and it is suggested that his father in turn was a John Pearce (J) who was also born in the same parish.

The student record cards of the Lincoln Diocesan Training College: A genealogical and demographic evaluation for the periods 1862-1871 and 1892- 1901

The Lincoln Diocesan Training College (LDTC), now Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), trained women as elementary school teachers. The student records, in the form of handwritten cards, are located in the BGU archives. This study set out to determine the genealogical value of these records. To this end, a sample of the records for 1862-1871 and 1892-1901 were examined and compared.1 The two periods cover the first ten years of the first and second principals’ respective tenures at LDTC. A study of the genealogical information on the cards, for both periods, showed that there were very few serious discrepancies between this information and online genealogical records. In addition, many of the cards provide information that would not normally be found in other genealogical sources. Other online teacher records collections were analysed for information relating to the individuals in the two samples and found to apply to a very small group of LDTC teachers. The demographic analysis of the students was compared to other teacher-related studies. The differences between some of the findings for the two periods, like marriage age and probate effects, were found to be significant.

Gisela Kriebel: A History of a German War Bride

Among the tens of thousands of GI war brides after the Second World War, a small fraction of them were German women who left their defeated and devastated homeland behind. The war story of Gisela Kriebel explores how her circuitous move from Berlin to Los Angeles, half a world away, meant the virtual severing of family ties and cultural connections that would leave her descendants with scant information about her genealogy and the fate of her family members in the war. Barriers of distance, language, and accessibility of records have made genealogical research particularly difficult concerning this specific population of war brides of defeated nations. The article explores Gisela Kriebel’s family, and specifically how she was conscripted into service in the war, began a career as an interpreter and secretary, and was swept up in two love affairs—one tragic and the other life-long—that, in the end, brought her to Los Angeles. Throughout the article, genealogical sources will be used, such as newly available online military records, to demonstrate how researchers can discover the rich family history of war brides separated from their war-torn homelands.