Private Tree on Ancestry

I have still elected to have my family tree private on Ancestry. Not because I have any living members on it other than my husband and myself but I still have a couple of lines that I feel are tentative and I do not want to add to any errors that are circulating about with respect to a few of my lines. Tracing myself back to my 3x great grandparents has been relatively straightforward and I believe that all of these lines are quite accurate except for my maternal grandmother's grandparents on her mother's side. I continue investigating the Taylor family at Birmingham with each release of any information looking at any and all Ellen Taylor births in order to be sure that I can eliminate them in favour of the particular one that seems the most likely.

My great grandmother Ellen Taylor had an illegitimate child 24 Dec 1879 at the Aston Union work house Erdington (I know this from my grandmother and from records I have acquired). Florence Taylor still appears to be at the workhouse on the 1881 census and is listed there (Florence Taylor and near to her Ellen Taylor - 2 years and 20 years respectively). I am not sure if the Ellen Taylor listed there is her mother because of the age listed (20 years old). The Ellen Buller who was buried in 1897 (my grandmother's mother) was said to be 37 years old (death registration 27 February 1897) and my grandmother also said her mother was only 37 years old when she died of pneumonia. Possibly her date of birth could have been 9 Oct 1859 if she was the child of Thomas Taylor and Ellen Roberts and this would have made her 37 years old (plus four months and some days). Would she have lied about her age in the work house? I always doubt that somewhat as people were usually too frightened to lie about details of their life to the authorities I suspect. The question is where was Ellen Taylor between 1880 and summer of 1885 (my grandmother was born (20 May 1886)? I have not yet found the marriage of Edwin Denner Buller (my great grandfather) and Ellen Taylor although all births to this couple are recorded as children of Edwin Buller and Ellen Buller whether registered by the mother or the father. Taylor is not an easy name to trace although in Birmingham this family belonged to a large family of shoemakers for a couple of generations back. By 1881 census, Thomas and Ellen Taylor are living in Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire and they appear to have moved there initially in the late 1860s returning to Birmingham by 1871 where they are found on the census and their last child William is born. Marion their last daughter was born in 1869 at Ashton Under Lyne. A mystery that have not solved from the very beginning of my research as I knew the names of my great grandparents from childhood; their occupations; where they lived and when and how they died. The family lore of Thomas being a shoemaker was passed down to me by my grandmother. The resultant family lore and accumulated information points very strongly at the Thomas Taylor/Ellen Roberts family and I can trace this family line back one more generation at Birmingham and then further back but not very deeply I still do not feel I have sufficient evidence to claim them without a doubt.

My mtDNA H11a2 only has matches that trace back to Argyll Scotland or County Antrim Ireland and the Country Antrim people are known to be Scot Irish. The Roberts and then Lawley family are found in the Midlands - Birmingham and Shropshire before that back to the late 1700s. When did my line arrive in the Midlands from Scotland/Ireland? Well there was a lot of movement between Scotland into the Midlands and from Ireland over to the Midlands in this time period with lots of jobs available. I have not yet looked at the Lawley family to any great extent but again I am always looking at the wife of  and in this case the wife of Joseph Lawley. Every once in a while I think through this set of families to see if I am missing anything that might be helpful. First and foremost I need to find a marriage between Edwin Denner Buller and Ellen Taylor. Family lore is very mixed up on this couple with tales of being married in Paris France and other such incredible stories.

Finding Clement Charles Buller (younger brother of my Edwin Buller) working in South Africa as a jeweller proved to be rather an interesting thought and Edwin Denner Buller is missing from the 1881 census (as is Clement Charles Buller). Could Edwin have gone to South Africa with his brother (their uncle was a jeweller in England and on the 1871 census Clement is listed as a jeweller assistant)? Was Edwin there in 1871 as he is missing from that census? Did he come back home without permission? The marriage was not overly popular with the family and the reasons were also mysterious so I have tended to dismiss them somewhat although keeping them in the back of my mind. Where did they marry? it would appear not in Birmingham as I have had a search made. No marriage has been listed in the GRO that is likely this couple.

Some of my reasons for maintaining my tree on ancestry as private. I can contemplate parentage of Ellen Taylor but I do not wish to be placing that into a tree that is then taken to be accurate. I still need to find more proof!

My husband has recently made a couple of trees public on ancestry which will assist a number of researchers. The one tree was prepared by Herman Whithoff who is now deceased and in his memory the tree is now made available to researchers of his many lines. Sixty years of research went into his family trees and they are extensive links back into early New England and New York. His own research goes back over fourty years and he has the most complete list of Kip/Kipp family material available. He welcomes queries and is busy now extracting all of the census material from the US and Canadian Census through the years. Watching him work through his Kipp family has inspired me to take on and do hopefully as well with the Blake family.