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Since opening this site I have been amazed by the response, having recorded worldwide interest. Here are some of the contacts that have been made over the past months.

Following up on a 25 year old address in an old letter amongst my late father's papers I was delighted to make contact with Bob in Canberra. He emigrated to Sydney in the 1960s as did his sister and parents at a later date. Our fathers were cousins, but having never met in the past we have had great pleasure in communicating by E mail over the past months and sharing many family stories, photos and pieces of history.  He also gave me the name of another second cousin Jane of whom I had no previous knowledge. We too have been in regular contact and our first very special meeting in London resulted in a record 6 hour lunch!

My thanks to Katrina in Australia who has passed on details of her branch, which grew from the descendents of John Shobbrook (1827) and Hannah Hooper of Okehampton who emigrated to Australia in 1851. They left from Liverpool on June 10 on board the Reliance, together with their baby son Thomas.

Dianne from Devon also sent details of her tree which is a close offshoot of Katrina's. Her family descends from Thomas Shobbrook (1818)  and Ann Quick. Interestingly both her grandfather Frederick and her father Kenneth were musicians and organists at Exeter and at Ide.

Richard contacted me as a descendent of Edward Randall who married my father's cousin Elsie and I was able to forward his details on to Elsie's family.

Right now I am trying to confirm the link between the Shobbrooks and one Ethel Morey who is being researched by Gillian in Queensland. I believe her to be Emily Shobbrook's niece(Emily being my great grandmother). She was the daughter of Emily's older sister Anne Morey (nee Gough). I have photos of Ethel in my archive and will scan and pass them on to her.

Through the magic of Facebook I have also managed to trace John whom I have not seen since 1965 and we have been able to exchange details of the many additions to the family tree that we have both accrued in the intervening 45 years!

After receiving a message from Ancestry.co.uk that someone else was researching Charles Gough (Emily Shobbrook's father) I left an on-line message for them.  I received an E mail from Angela who is the grandaughter of Susan (Susie) Shobbrook and Robert Grigg. Since Susie died in 1928 long before Angela was born she had little information about  her, so I am pleased that I am able to forward some photos, including some of her marriage. And what a pleasure to find another 2nd cousin!

I have just had the pleasure of receiving a communication from a descendant of Samuel  Shobbrook (eldest sibling of Walter Shobbrook whose name I found on the war memorial in Avoch). Since finding this branch I have been unable to find any information as to what happened to them after leaving Scotland, but  Emma is the granddaughter of Estelle Shobbrook (Samuel's daughter) and was able to give me some most welcome information/dates regarding their later history.

Via Ancestry.co.uk I have had a message from Tim in USA who is a descendent of William Shobbrook (coachman of Avoch) whose family I discovered in Scotland. William's eldest son Samuel had 5 children, the second one being Walter (named after his great uncle who died in the Great War). Walter , born in 1919,  later emigrated to USA  and is Tim's father. I am delighted to have made contact and hope that between us we can fit together a few more pieces of the family puzzle.

 May 2011

I have just returned from a trip to Scotland and whilst we were there we went back up to the Rosehaugh Estate at Avoch.  The only part of the great house left standing (it was demolished during the late 1950s) is the coach  house and stable block which now serves as the estate office and workshop. However that is of particular interest to me as it is where Walter Shobbrook's father worked as a coachman and where the family lived.  When we arrived we met an estate worker who, after hearing my story, was only too pleased to show us around.  The stabling area is now generally cluttered with the detritus of the various estate departments, but there are still relics of past times there, and the tower where the coachmen used to wait for orders still stands tall, as do the rooms above the stables where the families lived.  It brought the whole story alive for me and I shall be pleased to be able to pass photos on to members of that particular branch of the family with whom I have been in touch.

Gill Sims McLennan

 

 

A  Special Family Reunion

I am pleased to report that in June I was delighted to host a very special reunion of 2nd cousins. I received news from Bob in Australia that his sister Valerie and her family who live in the USA were coming to the UK for a wedding and would love to make contact.    After a flurry of activity to get things organised the final gathering consisted of Jane and Clive, Valerie and  David. their son Peter and his wife Shannon, Jane's brother Richard and his wife Jean, plus me and my husband John.  Most of us had never met before, but what a lovely meeting it was and we all felt that we had made some new and very special friends.

 

Solving a Mystery

For a very long time I had been researching my great grandfather's brother Emmanuel Shobbrook, without success. I knew that he had gone to Australia and that he had died  there, but could find no record of his movements after the 1861 census.   I have recently been contacted by a family researcher/author in Australia who found this website during the course of his research and he has been able to pass on lots of information about Emmanuel.  I now know that he married Frances Lane Christie in London in 1871, had 3 children -Frank Victor, Susan Frances and Florence and that the  family went to Adelaide at the end of the 1870s.  It rather appears that the marriage failed as Emmanuel died alone in Adelaide  and there is no record of his wife on the death certificate. She died several years later, also in Adelaide.

I have found no record of Frank Victor having had any children, and his sister Susan did not marry.   Florence  however did marry and so it is possible that there may be  living descendents.....fingers crossed!!

 

Finding Treasure!

I have always hoped that one day I might find more evidence of my great grandfather's foundry.  My father told me that he made kitchen stoves but the likelihood of ever locating one remained just a pipedream.  However the pipedream has become a reality and I now have just the front panel of one of his small stoves bearing the all important inscription T SHOBBROOK  NEWTON !!  I plan to restore and mount it as a decorative item which will have pride of place in my kitchen. I feel very blessed to have found this item that has such an important family connection.