Genealogical Oddities (XXXIII): A Scot in Settles Down in 19th Century Galicia

On 10 October 1850 in the Galician seaport of Carril, Juan Salvador Newport, stated to be a convert to Catholicism, a native of Scotland and the son of Juan, deceased, and Isabel 'Magage', married a Spanish girl named Josefa Barcia. This couple had at least one daughter, and her baptism record sheds additional light on her father's origin. Matilde Newport was born on 23 September 1851, to Juan Salvador Newport and Josefa Barcia; her paternal grandparents were identified as Juan Newport, deceased and Elizabeth Macgee, residents of Grenoch in the Kingdom of Scotland.

This indicates that our expat in Galicia was the son of a John Newport who married an Elizabeth MacGee or McGee, and that he was born in Greenock, Inverclyde. His age is not given in either record; presumably he too would have been christened as John Newport, the 'Salvador' likely an addition at the time of his conversion to Catholicism.

SOURCES: Diocesan Archive of Santiago, Records of the parish of Carril (Pontevedra): Marriages 1792-1858, P. 167; Baptisms 1826-1852, P. 249.

Genealogical Oddities (XXXII): An English Cook's 1887 Death Shipboard Off Ibiza

While conducting research in Ibiza recently I came across the death record of William Alliston, who was taken ill and died aboard a yacht there on 3 April 1887. The record states that 'Guillermo' Alliston, native of Blandford in the county of Dorset, aged 43, married and a cook by trade, died aboard an English vessel, the name of which is unclear - Joam, Joan or possibly Foam? The informat for the record was Don Guillermo Wallis y Valls, an Ibizan gentleman.

A quick search of the IGI suggests that the deceased was probably William Frank Alliston, Christened at Blandford on 31 July 1842, the son of Robert and Charlotte; and who married, at Buckland Newton on 2 July 1863, Sarah Kingman. This family, with daughter Mary Charlotte Alliston, appears  on the 1881 census at Northwood on the Isle of Wight, which may indicate that the vessel aboard which William met his fate sailed from Portsmouth or Southampton.

SOURCES: Deaths, Book 14, P. 182, a copy of which is in the Arxiu Històric d'Eivissa; IGI, at www.familysearch.org.

Genealogische Kuriositäten (XXXI): Eine Pilgerdatei

Ein unerwarteter Fund in der Taufbücher des Dorfes Figueroa in Galizien: Der Taufschein enthält die Taufe von José Simon am 19 Februar 1783, Sohn eines Pilgerpaars, Maria Magdalena Bolschen und ihres Mannes Juan Niderlander (oder Niederlander) – die sicherlich auf seinem Weg nach Santiago waren. Der Ehemann war Soldat des Regiments „Ultonia“ der spanischen Armee und sie wohnten in der Stadt mit königlichem Sitz La Granja von San Ildefonso. Der Taufschein informiert uns auch über die Nahmen der Großeltern des Getauften, die waren auf der väterlicher Seite Bernard Niederlander und Rosina Minguien, Einwohner von Konstanz, Deutsches Reich, und auf die mütterlicher Seite Johann Bolschen y Ana Clara Chlen aus „Treberis“ (das heißt aus Trier) ebenfalls Bürger des Deutschen Reiches.

QUELLE: Historische Diözesanarchiv von Santiago de Compostela, Pfarrbezirk San Miguel de Figueroa, Buch der Getauften 1646-1800, S. 216

Recent updates - armorial.es - Actualizaciones Recientes

I have just added 15 entirely new pages to my armorial.es site, and updated the pages of 4 cities with photos of additional coats of arms.

Acabo de actualizar mi sitio armorial.es, añadiendo 15 páginas enteramente nuevas, y fotos adicionales para 4 ciudades más.

Pidiendo Ayuda: Linajes Palacios y Allué, de Linás de Broto - Siglo XVII

Como sabrán los lectores de este blog, suelo compartir a través de él datos genealógicos curiosos, inesperados, cosas halladas accidentalmente donde nadie las pensaría buscar: soldados Flamencos fallecidos repentinamente en algún pueblo por el que pasaba su regimiento, hijos espúreos bautizados a varios pueblos de distancia de donde residían sus padres... Hoy quiero pedir ayuda, con la esperanza de que alguien sabrá orientarme con un dato parecido.

El 3 de mayo de 1800 casó en la Parroquia de San Pablo de la ciudad de Zaragoza un tal Clemente Palacio(s), con una joven de orígen francés. Entre los muchos legajos de Expedientes Matrimoniales que atesora el Archivo Diocesano no se ha hallado su expediente matrimonial. Sin embargo, de la partida de matrimonio y los bautizos de sus sucesivos hijos, se desprende que Clemente era natural de Linás de Broto, en la provincia de Huesca y diócesis de Jaca; sus padres fueron Domingo Palacio(s), natural del mismo pueblo, y Orosia Allué, al parecer también natural del mismo lugar aunque algún documento la hace natural de Fanlo.

Los libros sacramentales de Linás de Broto fueron destruidos, además de los de muchas otras parroquias del entorno, asi que avanzar con este árbol no parecía fácil.

Hace unos años hallé en el Archivo Diocesano de Huesca una Dispensa por Consanguinidad del año 1801, y que brevemente me dió esperanzas; en el se alude a un Domingo Palacio residente de Linás de Broto, pero que casó en 1762 en Fragen con una tal Esperanza Lardies. Acaso Orosia Allué fue otra esposa del mismo Domingo, y el Ramón Palacio que en 1801 solicitaba permiso para casarse con su prima María Allué era pariente de Clemente Palacio(s) por partida doble.

Muestro en la tabla que sigue, de manera gráfica, lo poco que se sabe del orígen de Clemente y los datos extraidos de la Dispensa solicitada por Ramón Palacios en 1801.

Llegados a este punto, ignoro qué otra fuente puede haber para o bien enlazar a Clemente con la suculentamente detallada genealogía que se proporciona en esta Dispensa, o bien establecer la verdadera ascendencia de Clemente. ¿Algún pleito, una capitulación matrimonial, una dispensa en otra localidad...?

Agradezco toda información o sugerencia que me puedan proporcionar. 

FUENTES: Parroquia de San Pablo, Zaragoza, Matrimonios 1789-1808, Fº 354 vº; Archivo Diocesano de Huesca, Dispensas por Consanguinidad, 2-4-2 88/23

Another One Bites The Dust

 

I discovered last month in the course of a rare foray to Madrid's Flea Market, the Rastro, that a building I photographed in August 2008 for my collection of armorial stones is no more. By coincidence, Google's Street View car ventured into the area in the same month that I photographed it, so the building's ghost can be conjured by typing its address - Embajadores 18 - into Google Maps.

Intrigued by its absence I searched for further news, and found this article in Madrid daily El Pais by Esther Sánchez, which - in queasiness-inducing detail - leaves no doubt as to the grim fate of the building's heraldic device. She quotes architect Álvaro Bonet as having spoken to the workmen who demolished the building; they told him the arms had smashed into pieces after falling to the ground in the course of their demolition. Score one for preservation, then.

While the building had been recorded as being derelict way back in 1963, city hall did not begin expropriation proceedings until 1999, and did not assume legal ownership of the building till 2011, according the the article. It appears that since then, employing a tactic beloved of property spivs and slumlords the world over, Madrid city hall simply allowed its new asset to languish with no maintenance at all, before suddenly deciding that, hey presto, it was at risk of imminent collapse and so must be demolished at once. It seems odd that not even a few fistfuls of Euros - or pesetas, given how long the building's state had been known to be precarious - could be found for preservation, when during the same party's uninterrupted tenure in office since 1995, it has found bucketloads of cash to incinerate on 3 Olympic bids in twelve years (two of which failed, an achievement the city now seeks to make into a hat trick). Untold millions also went into a pharaonic refurb on the city's main Post Office at centrally located Plaza de Cibeles to turn it into a city hall worthy of the then Mayor; his successor, the current Mayor, showed the nature of her austerity by promptly closing a museum, the Museo de la Ciudad, so that the entire building could be given over to more office space for city bureaucracy.

To end this entry on an appropriately sour note, I need only echo the closing of the El Pais article, which points out that having seen how well this strategy works for getting rid of unprofitable ancient real estate, city hall is now eager to do the same for a nearby derelict mansion house, the 19th century residence of the Dukes of Sueca. The current administration having given ample evidence of its benign stance towards property speculation, one could be forgiven for assuming that more armorial stones are in danger of imminent reduction to dust. Unlike the knights' shields they represent, they provide no defence against rapacious hostility.

Genealogical Oddities (XXX): An English Mariner's 1859 Death in Barcelona

On 28 August 1859 an English mariner named Francis Gibbs, aged 48, died of chronic gastroenteritis in Barcelona. He was described the husband of 'Isabel' Tidbury (Elizabeth Tidbury, I presume) and the son of 'Guillermo & Isabel' - surely one William Gibbs and his wife Elizabeth.

Francis' precise origin is unclear but a possible error in the death record provides a clue. The full name of the deceased is given as 'Francis Gibbs y Newbury' and he is stated to be a native of 'Becr, Inglaterra'. Under Spanish naming customs this should indicate that his mother's birth surname was Newbury. Perhaps though there was some confusion after Francis' death, and the entry actually means that he was from Newbury, Berks.?

SOURCE: City of Barcelona Deaths 1859, Volume 4, Entry 252, Barcelona Municipal Archive