The Tucker New Zealand and Australian Family

I am still doing research on the English Tuckers. While I was doing research for my paper on my Great Great Grand Uncle William Tucker, I made contact with a cousin whose family had immigrated to New Zealand in 1877 He was a descendant of the grandchild (Mary Ann Emily) of my Great Great Grand Uncle Job Tucker. He contacted another descendant of the other grandchild (Florence Grace) who was part of the family that had moved to Australia.

I just finished doing a USB drive for the Australian cousin and am trying to finish Family Group Sheets for her to use to track everyone. The two granddaughters of Job were abandoned by their father Job Jr. and their mother Emily Hampton Tucker. The couple with the two youngest children Percival and Herbert disappeared off the face of the Earth. Not one of the four has ever been found anywhere.

Her grandmother, Florence Grace Tucker, was born at Church Street, Godalming, Guildford, Surrey, England in 1873 and so was just three years old when she traveled to New Zealand. Their way was paid as part of a movement to bring settlers to New Zealand. Job Jr. had worked as a laborer and most probably knew nothing of farming. It is believed that he gave up farming at the time he disappeared.

The family story is that the sisters were found abandoned at the Marton Railway Station some time after Herbert was born in May 1878 and before September 1879. Neither girl spoke much about their parents and there seemed to be a lot of resentment. During times of hardship it was not unusual for other families to take in children who were not their own so it might have been that and not abandonment. The fact remains though that there are no records anywhere for Job, Emily, Percival, and Herbert after that time.

What does a Bored Kitty do In the Middle of the Night?

In addition to knocking anything that he can move off of counters (which he is not allowed on) or the coffee table, it turns out that he pulls things out of drawers from said counters.

 I must have left the drawer open just a bit or something sticking out.

 He pulled out all of my grandsons' sponge animals.

 They were everywhere. My son said the silly cat spent the day knocking them around.

If he sees you put something back then he jumps back up to knock things off almost faster than you can put them back. When we moved the couches the carpet underneath was covered with pens.

I have Eight Ancestors to Finish

My 2014 Blog Posts for 52 Ancestors - needs eight more ancestors done. I actually have more than that I could do, but I think I will do the eight and then go on to do expanded versions for certain people.

Right now I have started revising some of the 44 Ancestors that I have already done because I have found more information to fill out their stories.

I would like to write about the rest of John and William Tucker's siblings. Their sister Sarah was a widow who lived in total poverty without even bread to feed her children at times and died at age 52 or 53 because of breathing issues.  At least I know where I my asthma comes from.

I also have two large volumes on my dresser about the Crimean War (made famous in the poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade") - it was the first war fought with modern technologies - explosive naval shells, railways, and the telegraph - and it was also a complete logistical, tactical, and medical failure due to gross mismanagement - and in spite of that - the English, French, and Ottoman Empire won. Russia was doing then - just what it does now - attempting to take over territory belonging to someone else. Two of William and John's brothers fought as marine gunners in the Crimean War - Isaac died from disease in horrible conditions and Job survived. I have already ordered their military papers from the UK National Archives.

William Tucker: A Life of Hard Work and Hardship in the Victorian Era

I have been completely lost without a paper to write. I don't know what to do with myself!

When I picked up my paper, the first words out of both of my teachers' mouths was "you should publish your paper." I kind of didn't pay close attention to the publishing class session, luckily
other members of my class want to publish their papers so hopefully we can get together to work on it.

I have some minor punctuation and formatting to fix, and a little editing here and there and a few things that I really want to change now that I have had a chance to step away for a month. I was working on it right up to the night before I had to turn it in. I have also found more information on William's siblings and the nieces and nephews that I want to add.

I have properly cited all of my sources, but I will need to get permission to use some of the maps and pictures. I worked so hard on this paper I need to do something with it!

Class is Over and Paper is Done

I just finished a nine month three hour Thursday night class at the University of Washington in Genealogy and Family History. I turned in my research paper Thursday night - the paper was 74 pages long and with footnotes, bibliography, appendices etc it was a total of 220 pages. I have a mess to clean up, a house to clean, flower beds to weed and a garage to clean out. The class was great but it took a lot of time. I wouldn't mind taking it again though, but it would be a lot easier to do retired.

I learned a lot about research and new ways to search the internet and even got back to searching microfilm images which is what we did in the 1980s. A lot of information still hasn't been indexed so it is still the only way to find some of the records.

My paper was on my Great Great-Grand Uncle William Tucker. My Great-Grandfather William was named after him. Uncle William joined the British Army in 1845 (you enlisted for 21 years) and my Great-Great-Grandfather John immigrated to America in 1851 and came to the gold fields in California in 1852. John then helped settle Lewis County in Washington Territory in 1865.

My paper is titled "William Tucker: A life of Hard Work and Hardship in the Victorian Era." Twenty-five per cent of England's population lived in poverty and life was a struggle for them. Ever since I first read the family letters in 1999 I have wanted to tell the story of the family John Tucker left in England.

Altered Family Book

I took a class at Mad Scrapper in Issaquah a little over a year ago and just finished my Altered Family Book today. I almost finished the book at the Impress last Saturday night. I just had a couple more flowers to glue on and the pictures to print out which I did today.