CLOSE one-name study

Early years  In the course of my CLOSE one-name study I came across the family of Robert Richard CLOSE (1819-1892), from Hexham, Northumberland, a schoolmaster who married Sarah FRENCH (1818-1886) in Allendale, Northumberland on 11 October 1841. Their first three children – John (1842-1846), Thomasin Ann (1844-1889) and another John (1847-1922) – were all born in Allendale. This second John CLOSE is the central character of the story.  It would appear from the 1851 census that around that time Robert moved to a new teaching job just a few miles away in Hunstanworth, Durham. He was enumerated there boarding with a farmer’s family, whereas Sarah and the two surviving children were still living in Allendale. However, by the early part of 1852 the family were evidently reunited and settled in Hunstanworth, since three more children – Mary Elizabeth (1852-), William Backhouse (1855-1934) and Dorothy Hannah (1855-) were all born there.  No doubt the family would have been proud of their

The Guild of One-Name Studies has suggested the topic of "House and Home" for its April blog challenge.  That prompted me to relate the story of my search for the home of my CLOSE ancestors in Swaledale, North Yorkshire. My 3g-grandfather James CLOSE married Ann HARKER at St Andrew, Grinton, on 5 April 1790.  They settled in the Wigan, Lancashire, area, as evidenced by their children's christening records, of which those from All Saints, Wigan, helpfully name not only the mother's name but also the names of her parents, Simon and Ann (Nanny) HARKER. Unfortunately, James' burial record at St Wilfrid, Standish, does not give an age, which left me with several James CLOSEs from the Grinton area as a possible husband of Ann HARKER.  Having eliminated some of the other James CLOSE baptisms which matched Grinton burials and/or memorial inscriptions with recorded ages, I became more and more convinced that the likeliest James was the one christened at Grinton on 15 Dece

Just recently, whilst researching the descendants of Goodman John CLOSE (c1600-1653) of Fairfield, Connecticut, in connection with the Guild of One-Name Studies' March theme of 'New Beginnings', I came across evidence which sheds a fascinating light on the involvement of  some of John's descendants in  the American War of Independence (1775-1783).  This was not only a new beginning in terms of American history, but also resulted in an enforced new beginning for some of John CLOSE's descendants. Revolutionary Soldiers Descendants of Goodman John CLOSE were involved in bringing about a major new beginning in American history: these included John's great-great grandson Odel CLOSE (1738-1812) of Horseneck (Greenwich, Connecticut) who served as a Lieutenant in the 9th Regiment, 4th Brigade of the Connecticut  Militia, serving in support of General Washington against the British in from 1776 onwards.  By 1779 he had been promoted to Captain in the Militia Regiment. He

Having taken a year out from this blog, I'm making a fresh start as part of the Guild of One-Name Studies 2021 challenge - to write at least one item a month on a given topic - and appropriately enough for me, the topic for March is "New Beginnings".  A fresh start There are many families in my CLOSE/CLOSS one-name study who chose to emigrate and make a fresh start in life in many miles from their original home.  The family I'm focusing on here is that of John CLOSE, who is believed to have emigrated from Swaledale, North Yorkshire, along with his wife Elizabeth and four children, to Greenwich in what would later become the county of Fairfield, Connecticut, USA.  The children were born in Yorkshire between about 1630 and 1637, and since, according to the  History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield  (ed. Donald Lines Jacobus), "Goodman John CLOSE" was mentioned in the will of another early Fairfield settler, William Frost, in 1645, the implication

Image: Betty Wills / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) On the St David's Day weekend I had to choose a Wales-focused topic for this blog post!  The following item is based on an article I wrote in 2015 for the Glamorgan Family History Society journal.   In the course of my CLOSE one-name study I have been researching a family which migrated to the Cardiff area from Gloucestershire in the 1840s, no doubt attracted by the availability of work associated with the coal industry.    Gloucestershire origins The family which moved to the Cardiff area from Gloucestershire in the mid-1840s consisted of William CLOSE, b 19 Feb 1819 in Stoke Gifford, his wife Sarah THOMAS, b 1815, and their two sons Edwin, b Marsh Common 1843, and Jesse, b Marsh Common 1844.   Sadly Sarah died of typhus fever in 1845 at the age of 30, and in 1849 William married again, to Caroline REED, producing two more children: Kish, b Cardiff 1850, and Louisa Mary, b 1854 in Cardiff.

On February 14 th , the obvious people to feature from my CLOSE one-name study today are three members of one family named Valentine CLOSE.   Valentine CLOSE (1747-1822) At the head of the family is Valentine CLOSE (the family possibly originally used the German surname CLOSS) who was born in 1747 in Neukirchen, Hessen, according to submitted records in Familysearch.org – yet to be verified from original sources – although his March 1822 obituary gives an age of 76, indicating a birth year of about 1745. Neukirchen    - photo by Judith Kieling – google.com/maps Thanks to a lengthy obituary in the Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, Volume 30, details of his colourful life have been preserved for posterity.   Valentine was born of Christian parents belonging to the Lutheran church.   At the age of about seventeen, in order to escape military service, he left home, as the Evangelical Magazine reports, “with, at most, but the partial consent of his parents” with