Andrew Hook (1778/9 - 1881)

I found this article in the Alnwick Mercury, dated 1881 about an Andrew Hook who died about age 103.

Although it doesn't mention the parents by name, it mentions that he was born in Belford, Northumberland about 1778 or 1779 and that his father was a Northumbrian shepherd. Could he be a son of Andrew Hook and Elizabeth Logan? The date and location match, and Andrew Hook the elder was a shepherd. It might be a clue.

X00047 The Sir Slade Connection

Family lore has it that our Slade line is descended from a "Sir Slade" somewhere along the line. So far, I've only managed to trace the Slade line back to a William Slade (born 1800) and his father, a Robert Slade.

I had a search of the last name Slade in FindMyPast's Britain, Knights Of The Realm & Commonwealth database. All of the occurrences of the surname Slade were born after 1800 except one: a Sir Thomas Slade 1703-1771 who was a Naval architect.

According to WikiTree, Sir Thomas Slade lists only one child in his will, dated 1760 and that child is Thomas Moore Slade 1749-1831. WikiTree hasn't identified any spouse or children for Thomas Moore Slade. If the family lore store is true, then it would likely have to be the case that Robert Slade is the son of Thomas Moore Slade. It's just a matter of proving things one way or the other.

X00093 Elizabeth Logan Hook Death Information

Elizabeth Logan was my 5th Great Grandmother, and the wife of Andrew Hook. I had some difficulties in tracking her down later in her life, partly because I didn't have much to go on, and partly because the name of Elizabeth Hook is not that uncommon.

I found a few death certificate candidates and a few candidates in the 1841 census - including ones living in Belford, Northumberland, England. I had figured that the person in the Belford death record and 1841 census record was the most likely candidate, but wasn't 100% sure, until I found this news article in the Newcastle Courant:

The date corresponds with the date of death in the Belford death record and provides a link to Andrew Hook, and so I'm now confident that I have the right one.

On a side note, she's living with an Isabella Kinghorn in 1841 (born in 1820), and the witness to her death in 1847 was an Isabella Bromfield. Could it be the same person? Could Isabella be a granddaughter?

X00219 George Milford Birth - Solved!

Tracking down the birth information for George Milford presented a bit of a challenge. I had a birth year of about 1850 from census records, as well as a location of Devonshire, England. But I couldn't find anything that was a good fit in the England birth registration lists.

So, I expanded my search to include more years which give some possibilities, but also created a new challged in that it created a number of possible candidates.

I did know the names of his parents - James Milford and Eliza Beard - from George's marriage records, so I checked the GRO's indexes (because you can search by the mother's maiden name as well) and looked for the maiden name of Beard. I still didn't find anything.

So I next took out the first name to see if I could find something under a variant first name. I found an entry for a Milford without a first name, so I decided to take a chance and order the certificate:

It turns out that it was the correct one - it appears that the baptismal name was added after the fact.