Monday, 28 March 2011

Family tree

So far the following

Nations plus associated
Bugles (my wife's) plus associated (Reynes, Savorys etc)
Birds (my mothers) plus associated (Wilberforce etc)
Bishops (my maternal grandmothers) plus associated (Davidson, Crossman, Sprott, Dupre Lamb etc)

I now have 5500 people on my tree back to Edward 1st in a direct line and am related to some 10m others!

Sir Kenneth Barnes - principal of RADA - my 1st cousin 2 x removed


His sisters Dame Irene and Violet Vanbrugh - famous Victorian actresses - my 1st cousins 2 x removed




William Wilberforce Bird - MP for Coventry - my 3 x great grandfather. WWB was an MP for 6 years and then went out to South Africa where he was appointed Controller of Customs. He was very involved in the import export business and had his own ships sailing to and from Mauritius and St Helena. His eldest son, also William Wilberforce was Governor of Bengal and acting Governor General of India.

John Bird Sumner - Archbishop of Canterbury - eldest son of my 4 x great aunt Hannah Sumner (nee Bird). His brother Richard was Bishop of Winchester.







Edward Dupre - Dean of Jersey from 1802-1823 - my 4 x great grandfather



Edward Dupré, Dean of Jersey



William Wilberforce - Liberator of the slaves - my 5 x great uncle, who is buried in Westminster Abbey. All the Bird family thereafter have Wilberforce as a christian name.



Mary Boleyn - sister of Ann - my 12 x great grandmother
Thomas Boleyn - her father - my 13 x great grandfather
Edward 3rd - my 18 x great grandfather
Edward 2nd - my 19 x great grandfather
Edward 1st - my 20 x great grandfather



Also on my mother's side were two remarkable Victorian women, Mary Bird who was a Medical Missionary and who spent much of her life in Persia, and Isabella Bird who was the first woman to be elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Both wrote about their experiences but it was Isabella who was truly extraordinary. She lived in Edinburgh and suffered the most terrible ill health. She almost always had something wrong with her, even in 1850 having a tumour removed from near her spine, but undeterred from all this she set off time after time on another exploration. She travelled all round China, all round Korea and Japan, up the Yangtze and the Han rivers, around Vietnam and Malaysia, then to Persia, Kurdistan and Turkey and twice to America and Canada. She died in Edinburgh in 1904, still planning another trip to China.

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