Nickname; A Lost Letter, & Some Detective Work

Last  year, whilst visiting with my parents, my mother and I went through a file of paperwork and photos relating to my grandparents. Amongst these papers I found a letter dated 18th May, 1922. The letter was a mystery to my mother and I, as it mentioned names many of which we did not recognise. Names which, as it turned out were mostly nick names. We were able to discern one or two names, which at least allowed us to work out to which side of the family the letter was related. I made it my mission to investigate; to find out who all these people were. Next month we have a writing prompt 'story teller' and I will save the body of the letter for that post, as there really is a great story or two in the spaces between the lines of its pages. But this week I'll focus on the pet names for one particular branch of my family. The most confusing thing about the letter was that it was from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. As far as we knew, we had no family in Canada, until my husband and I moved here! The letter was addressed to 'My Dear Little Scotch Mother', which would have been a clue if I had know the nationality of this particular ancestor. The writer refers to people named Liston, Doc, Mussa, Nelly, Madge, Percy, Daisy, and Freddie. I had no record of any such names in my tree, but knew where I should start; my great grandparents Ruth and Ted were also mentioned.

McLaughlin Brothers was a dry goods store in Yarmouth, which operated from 1875- 1932.

With some help from my mother I started to build a picture of my great grandfather's family. I had never before known that he was from Scotland. Born in the port district of Leith, in Edinburgh, Scotland George Edward Newell was one of six children born to an American ship's captain, Frederick Newell, and Scottish born Christina Hall Main. This resolved the question relating to the identity of the letter's recipient. The 'dear little scotch mother' was my 2x great grandmother. She was born in 1847, in Edinburgh, to James Main, and Sarah Liston Clark, which gave me a clue as to who Liston might have been.

George Edward Newell was known to friends and family as Ted.

I've discovered that it was common practice for parents to use last names as middle names, when naming their children. This practice turns out to be a nice clue for genealogists when trying to match ancestors to records. It's not a big stretch to consider that sometimes a familial last name might be used as a first name, and that seems to be the case here. Going back several generations I found my 5x great grandmother; Sarah Liston. She was born in 1768, in north Leith, and married John Hall in 1788. Sarah Liston was Christina Hall Main's great grandmother, and it seems that she and Frederick Newell decided to name their second child Liston, presumably in her honour. My mother knew nothing about this granduncle, which is not a surprise since he died during WWI. (More on that ancestor's story another time.) As it turned out the name Liston, whilst a mystery when first reading the letter, was not a nickname but just a long forgotten ancestor.

A view of Leith, circa 1841.

The nicknames Doc and Mussa I will explain in the 'story telling' week, as they are pertinent to the tale I shall tell then. But I suspect you can guess at the profession of 'Doc'! I continued to put together the family, and all of Ted and Liston's siblings. Ted and Liston, it seems, were the only two sons out of the six children. Their sisters were Sarah Beatrice, Hellen Sophia, Freda Genevra, and Madge. Obviously this explained who Madge was! I had fully expected Madge to be a nickname for a daughter named Margaret. What a surprise to find it was her legal name. I shall write more about Madge in a future blog post, but suffice to say that she was born in 1885, in Leith, and died in Poole, Dorset, in 1969.

Madge Kendal was a famous actress at the time of Madge Newell's birth.

Freda Genevra was born in February 1881, but sadly died in July 1882. She was aged just 1 year and 5 months. A tragic loss for any family, of any era. So, I was left with Sarah Beatrice, and Hellen Sophia, to try and match with Daisy and Nelly. My research told me that Hellen Sophia was born in 1879, in Leith, and had married Matthew Percy Galloway, a native of Edinburgh, and born in 1876. Together they had lived together on Inverleith Terrace, Edinburgh for many years. Nelly is a common pet name for people named Hellen, which resolved the identity of the letter's Nelly, and on further discussion with my mother she could recall her great aunty Nelly, and her husband Percy, who obviously went by his middle name, and not the given first name, Matthew.

The famous opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba, made the name Nelly a popular pet name in the 1880s.

I had one sister left, Sarah Beatrice, and two mystery names; Daisy and Freddie. The letter writes about them;

"I was so sorry to hear of all the sickness you have all been through, poor Daisy she surely has had more than her share of worry, she has my sympathy, I hope little Freddie will soon be well and strong again." The letter was written in 1922, just a few years after the end of the Spanish Flu epidemic. I don't know what the sickness was, to which the letter refers, but it is possible that there were members of the family that had been ill due to the 'great influenza'. Clearly the letter's Daisy had been concerned about the health and well being of 'little Freddie', which suggested that they were mother and son. On researching the last of the Newell siblings, Sarah Beatrice I discovered that she had indeed had a son named Frederick. Sarah Beatrice was born in Leith in 1877. She married Frank Bucher, and together they had a child named Frederick Newell Bucher, aka 'little Freddie'. As it turns out, Daisy (or Sarah Beatrice) need not have worried so much about Freddie's health. He survived whatever it was that had ailed him, and in 1939, at the age of 30 he married Lydia Griffith. He died in 1964. I had solved the mystery of the most shrouded names in the letter; the mist was gone and the letter was understandable at last.

Francis Evelyn Greville, Countess of Warwick, was known as Daisy, and was a British socialite and philanthropist. It is said that she was referenced in the popular Music Hall song, 'Daisy, Daisy'. Perhaps it was the song, or the Countess that attracted the family to call Sarah Beatrice Daisy.

Whilst researching Sarah Beatrice I stumbled upon a second Sarah Newell, also the daughter of Frederick Newell, and Christina Hall Main; Sarah Liston Main Newell. Firstly I had to make sure that she wasn't the same person as Sarah Beatrice. Scotland's People affirmed that Sarah Beatrice was indeed born in 1877, and Sarah Liston Main was born in 1873, the same year as brother Liston. On closer inspection I realised that they shared the same birth date. Sarah and Liston were twins! Sadly, Sarah Liston Main did not survive. I don't know if she lived for a short while, or if she died at or shortly after birth, but she did not survive the year. This is so sad, but also a symptom of the era, where babies from multiple births were less likely to both survive.
One of the reasons I enjoy genealogy so much is the detective work involved, and at last my detective work was done! (At least, in relation to this letter.) Names, and having a knowledge of naming traditions and common nick names given to certain traditional names are all important tools to any genealogist. The use of the name Daisy was definitely a curveball, but knowing that a sister, also named Sarah, had died in infancy might explain why a different nick name was used for her. Once all the sleuthing was done I was able to focus less on the unknown people, mentioned in the letter, and focus on the stories found therein. Stay tuned for these tales, coming up later this summer.

The cover says it all!

#Newell