Sunday, March 21, 2010

Buller family

Every once in a while I search on my Buller family. My grandmother, Ellen Rosina Buller was born 20 May 1886 at Birmingham Warwick the daughter of Edwin Denner Buller (b 8 Apr 1850 Birmingham) and Ellen Taylor (possibly born 9 Oct 1859 at Birmingham). Edwin had a brother Clement Charles Buller born Dec quarter 1856 Aston nr Birmingham. I found a short newspaper clipping from Uganda in 1888 which mentioned Clement Charles Buller (released from bankruptcy). I know that Clement Charles Buller was a Jeweller's clerk on the 1871 census but until now I knew nothing more about him from that date onwards. He literally disappears from the British Census after 1871 so it would appear perhaps that he went to Africa. Is there a clue in that for Edwin Buller? Edwin looked like he was a gunner at Woolwich in the Royal Artillery but Find My Past has now put up the records for the men who were chelsea pensioners after 1885 and the individual at Woolwich is Edwin Baller (mis read as Buller) who was actually born at Westmoreland but enlisted at Birmingham and claimed his birthplace as Aston and birth year as 1850. Why he did that is a mystery but he is still alive on the 1901 census so can not be my great grandfather who died in 1899.

That was good news and bad news. Bad because the Edwin Buller at Woolwich made my life easier although I couldn't find information until now on him :) . The good news is that I can continue looking for information on my great grandfather to try to solve the puzzle of where he was from the 1861 census where he is with his grandmother Sarah (Cheatle) Welch to the 1886 birth of my grandmother and he is on the 1891 census at Birmingham.

My grandmother had told me about this tall gentleman who walked with a cane from a leg injury (and the military aspect suited that but he never claimed to be a Chelsea Pensioner). I have stories that he was a policeman and I shall perhaps pursue that thought now. But I do know his occupation on the 1891 census of drover and journey soap maker. He always seems to have two occupations and my grandmother did say that he worked very hard.

Enough of that for today though I think. I always have this vague tale that he was in Africa so perhaps was there with his brother but returned home to England in the mid 1880s.

I have also been working on some of the French Canadian lines of our son in law. I have made a few good breakthroughs where it appeared like a dead end in terms of searching. One of my most recent finds was the parents of Octavie Lavigne who married Jean Baptiste Lagarde dit St-Jean 8 Nov 1875 at Ste Scholastique, Deux-Montagnes. Her parents were Hyacinthe Lavigne and Josephte Potvin. I could not find a marriage for this couple initially but finally did find that Hyacinthe's surname was Lavigne dit Poudret and Josephte's surname was d'Amour dite Potvin. They married 1 Oct 1838 at St Benoit and their marriage revealed the names of their parents.

Hyacinthe Lavigne dit Poudret parents: Augustin Poudrette dit Lavigne and Josephte Labrosse dite Raymond who married 18 Feb 1811 at St Benoit. Their marriage lines revealed the names of their parents.

Josephte d'Amour dite Potvin parents: Nicolas d'Amour dit Potvin and Rosalie Marie Beauchamp who married 14 Feb 1814 at St Eustache. I have read the names of Nicolas' parents from the marriage registration.

Nicolas d'Amour dite Potvin parents: Pierre d'Amour dit Potvin and Marie Anne Legault dite Deslauriers and they married 22 Oct 1770 at Lachine.

Augustin Poudrette dit Lavigne parents: Joseph Marie Poudret dit Lavigne and Marie Angélique Ranger dite Laviolette who married 17 Jan 1774 at Ste Geneviève.

Josephte Labrosse dite Raymond parents: Joachim Labrosse dit Raymond and Judith Marie Groulx who married 7 Aug 1775 at St Laurent.

I will continue searching back on these lines but it was indeed a good breakthrough for me as this has been a brickwall that I couldn't appear to solve. Interestingly the breakthrough came as a result of looking up the marriage of Jean Baptiste Lagarde dit St-Jean and Octavie Lavigne on the LDS Family Search website. I then went back to Ancestry and pulled the marriages.

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