My Story: Charlie Bird
{Series 1}
To begin with, Charlie knew nothing! He wasn't particularly close to his parents, which meant that the unearthing of his family tree was a real revelation to him. All he had to go on was the vague belief that his grandfather Timothy Bird had come from Bermuda.
Knowing the names of his paternal grandparents in Macroom (Timothy Collins Bird & Jane O'Shea), we were able to find birth records for their six children, including Charlie's father and another Charles, who died of cholera & meningitis in infancy. (GRO)
The 1901 & 1911 Census confirmed that Charlie's grandfather was born in Bermuda. One oddity was that in 1901 he was calling himself Thomas, but by 1911, he had reverted to Timothy. Why? (Census)
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
The Marriage Register in the local Catholic Church confirmed that he went by the name Thomas when he first arrived in Ireland. It also gave us the information that he had “recently converted to the faith” (i.e. Timothy was originally a Protestant, but converted to marry local girl Jane O'Shea). Finally, the register also gave us the name and supposed residence of Timothy's parents: Charles Collins Bird & Lavinia Guest of Manchester, England. Without the original marriage register we could not have learnt any of this: it contained much more information than the basic State Marriage Certificate. (Marriage Certificates / Local Church Registers)
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy/church.html
Old Council records in Macroom gave us valuable insight into turn of the century Ireland. They showed that Timothy Bird did arrive in Cork to help with installing street lighting. They also showed that he progressed to generating and selling his own electricity, even to his own wife, who was landlady of the Railway Hotel! The payment books showed that you could buy electricity just for a specific event, like a wake or a dance. (Council Records)
http://www.designinglibraries.org.uk/view/index.php?id=42f8b5737aafc
The search in Bermuda was always going to be difficult: records do not last long in the Island's heat & humidity, and many of the documents to do with Bermuda's Naval history are actually in the UK's National Archives... But although few original records survive, there are a couple of invaluable reference books compiled by A.C. Hollis Hallett, which bring together births, marriages and deaths for the Island over the past 200 years.
Finding a listing for the birth of Charlie's grandfather Timothy confirmed the names of his parents (which we'd already seen in Macroom Catholic Church): Charles Collins Bird & Lavinia Guest. But it also gave us Charles' occupation: he was gatekeeper at the Naval Hospital.
Local journalist and researcher Ruth O'Kelly Lynch was able to unearth one of the few original records that survive on the island: a Marriage register from the mid 1800's. It recorded, in very flowery & faded hand-writing, the marriage of Charles & Lavinia (Charlie's Great-Grandparents) in the Parsonage of the local church. Why did they marry in the back room of the church, not the main building? Well, Ruth also discovered that their first child was born two months later, so the idea of a very heavily pregnant bride walking up the aisle obviously didn't appeal to the local vicar!
The other real revelation uncovered by Ruth was that Charles Bird didn't emigrate to Bermuda, he was born there! And the reference book of births took us back another generation: Charles' parents were Timothy & Jane Bird...Since there were no birth or marriage records for them, we surmised that they were the generation which came to Bermuda.
Ruth also uncovered a death certificate (and a death notice in a local paper) for Charlie's Great Grandfather. It showed he died of heart failure, aged just 39. He left a young widow, Lavinia, and four children...
With no other records on the island, Charlie opened up his laptop: there's an enormous amount of UK genealogical information available online. Having full names and birth dates really helps narrow your search, and within minutes, Charlie had uncovered two vital facts: first, from the 1861 Census, it appears his Great-Great Grandparents, Timothy & Jane, left Bermuda and retired back to Portsmouth. He was listed as a “retired ships painter”. Second, and more crucially, the widowed Lavinia and her four children show up in Portsmouth in the 1881 census, 6 years after her husband's death – they are all living with her late husband's brother, Edward.
In Portsmouth, another leg of Charlie's search begins... He sits down with archivist Diana Gregg, at the city's Records Office (although some of this could also be done online). On her microfiche, the 1881 census confirms that Lavinia and her four children are staying with her late husband's brother. But ten years later, in the 1891 census, she's married to him! This is confirmed by an online search of the UK's General Register Office Records, which shows their wedding in 1890 in London – with a hotel listed as their address, it was a bit of a Dirty Weekend!
http://www.portsmouthrecordsoffice.co.uk/
www.gro.gov.uk
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
But why sneak away to London to get married? Well, because it was illegal! Up until the early 20th Century, you were not allowed to marry the brother or sister of a deceased spouse...
The Portsmouth Records Office also has a pristine collection of original local birth & marriage registers: Diana is able to take Charlie's family tree back another generation, from Timothy the retired ships painter, to his parents: Timothy Bird & Amelia Reading. And this Timothy is listed as an officer on HMS Racoon.
Because Charlie had a name, a date, and a ship, he was able to order Timothy Bird's service record from the UK's National Archives at Kew. Naval Historian Iain McKenzie was able to interpret them, and it turns out that Timothy served under Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Not only that, his father was an Officer too – so there is a long and proud Naval tradition in the family. As Iain McKenzie says, “it's something most modern Admirals would give their left arm for!”.
As an officer on the HMS Racoon in 1795, Timothy Bird would have written a personal log, and we were lucky enough to find it at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich. There were no great revelations within it, but just holding and turning the pages of a diary written by an ancestor more than 200 years ago was a precious moment for Charlie.
After a long trawl through his family history, there was only one big question left for Charlie. How did his grandfather end up in Ireland, and why did he change his name from Timothy to Thomas for the first few years in Macroom?
Laura Berry, one of our main genealogists for the series, was able to find one mention of Timothy in South London, in the 1891 census. He's listed as a bachelor and as an electrical engineer, born in Bermuda. That's our man alright... So Laura concentrated her search on South London, and uncovered another certificate, from a year later, 1892. It was a Marriage Certificate!
Timothy Collins Bird married 17 year old Agnes Smith in London in 1892. But eight years later, he arrived in Macroom and married Jane O'Shea, saying he was a bachelor, and calling himself Thomas...
We found no divorce records for the first marriage, which isn't uncommon: divorce was the preserve of the wealthy classes, and very much frowned upon. It seems much more likely that Timothy & Agnes went their separate ways, and he called himself Thomas for the first few years afterwards, just in case...! But remember, you can only be a 'Bigamist' if you are charged, tried and found guilty of bigamy.
And in case you are wondering... we searched, but did not find, any children from the first marriage of Timothy Collins Bird to Agnes Smith. There may have been a skeleton in Charlie's closet, but no cousins!
