Genealogy of our Crones

Holloway Ancestor Photos
(including the Mysterious Holloway Album)

"The Crone is all races and all generations. She speaks through our ancestors, our grandmothers and will, in time, speak through ourselves and our descendants. Her face is often hidden to us, knowable only when we seek without preconception and prejudice."

My name is Susan Casey and I'd like to welcome you to my web page.  This site is devoted to the families of those women who are part of our history, part of what we are today. Many of them never reached the point in their lives when they could call themselves "Crone" but each of them, I’m sure, had their own wisdom. This site covers the genealogy of our maternal line, starting with our grandmother, Caroline Louise HOLLOWAY who married a Canadian soldier during the first world war and immigrated to Nova Scotia with him and their first two children in early 1921. Although Caroline was born while her father was working in Barrie, Wales, her roots are English and our quest to trace her ancestors has taken us, thus far, to eight different English Counties: Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Sussex, Oxfordshire and Northampton with excursions into Hampshire, Middlesex, Cheshire, Lancashire and, as I said above, Wales.

Surnames in our Family Tree.

Contact Information

RESEARCHERS

        There are three of us involved in researching the HOLLOWAY family; my sister Judy, myself and our mother's second cousin, Jane. In May of 2001 Judy and I took advantage of the seat sales and visited Jane in England. We spent two wonderful (though short) days researching at the Trowbridge and Taunton record offices; the rest of our week was spent exploring some of the places where our HOLLOWAY ancestors lived during the 19th century thanks to Jane and her husband, Henry. The photos below depict two such places.

        Peake's Farm: This photo of Judy and Jane was taken in front of Peake's Farm, Sedghill, Wiltshire where the Holloways were found on the 1841 and 1851 census. Although the farm buildings are located in the hamlet of Sedghill, according the a booklet on the history of the parish (written by Francis Farmer) approximately 90% of the farm land is located within the boundries of the nearby Dorset village of Motcombe.  I believe it is still a working dairy farm today.

Royal Oak Pub: After our branch of the HOLLOWAY family left the Wiltshire/Dorset area they eventually ended up in Withington, Gloucestershire. Although William HOLLOWAY was listed as a Farm Bailiff on the 1881 census for Colesbourne, by the time his son, William George, married in 1888 the family was running the Royal Oak Pub in Withington. On Sunday we visited the pub and enjoyed a lovely meal and, of course, a pint of the best local.

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to give my thanks to the many people who have contributed to my passion for family research starting with my sister, Judy, who first got me involved in this fascinating pastime about three years ago. I would also like to thank some newly discovered cousins for their contributions, most specifically to Jane Thomas for sharing her resources, her home and her family mementos. Thanks also to Carole Hiscock and Barbara Wyant for providiing some of the more recent information on the line of Thomas and Barbara Louisa Holloway (nee Harris), to Pat Tuffin and Gordon Pearcy for their contributions to our TUFFIN line, to Denise Palmeri and David Turner for their contributions to the Barrett lines, to Jan Cox for her contribution to our MILLS line (which is not included on this site) and to our newest Holloway cousins in British Columbia who are beginning to help us fill in some very valuable information on our Grandmother's siblings.

Genealogy in the 20th century became an interest of many and has been greatly influenced by the internet. I would, therefore, like to say a very special thank you to my fellow researchers on the genealogy mail lists for the counties mentioned above some of whom you will find mentioned in my sources. Many have unstintingly given, not only of their advice, but also of their time in helping others with their research. Without their willingness to share resources and do lookups in places not accessible to many of us, much of the information I've gathered would not have been possible.

A HOLLOWAY MURDER

  In early July of 2002 I replied to a message on the Dorset List posted by Carole Hiscock whose surname interests included 3 which matched names some we are researching (Holloway, Wright and Hiscock).  Unfortunately, her search was centered around Wimborne and although our Holloways, in particularly, had a tendency to roam, I politely thanked her and said I didn't think any of them had ever been in that area.  Luckily for me, she provided just an additional sentence on each family in her next email which included the info that her Holloway was connected to a double Murder at Walford farm in 1930. This piqued my interest because when I was visiting England this year in May, Cousin Jane briefly mentioned her 96 year old mother remembering something about a murder.  She couldn't recall any details, only that there had been something in a newspaper which had prompted Jane's Grandmother to say "That's our Tom!".  With that tiny bit of information, I'd assumed that some Tom Holloway (we've had 12 that I know of) must have murdered someone at some time in the early 20th century so I quickly emailed Carole back to ask about details.  Several emails flew back and forth but I still couldn't see a connection although there were similar names, most notably Thomas and William, but they are such common names I still thought it must be a coincidence.  Then she sent me the details on the murdered man's parents and, like our long lost ancestor, I said "THAT'S OUR TOM!"  If you'd like to read the story of the Holloway Murder, click here.

Surnames in Our Family Tree

MASTER SURNAME INDEX

The "Index" link above will provide a complete list of all surnames found to date connected to our Holloway family research; there are over 234 known surnames so far plus a whole bunch of "Unknown"s.  The vast majority of them have not been researched beyond their connection to the Holloway family because they occur in side branches; the surnames below all represent direct lines which have been researched to varying degrees.  If you find a name of interest in the Index or the list below, feel free to contact me (email address below) for further details.  

Holloway*	Whittle*	Sherring*	Hickman	Parham	Adams	Stickland*
Cooper*	Goodwin*	Kail/Coyle*	Smith	Erps	Aught
Pavitt*	Downs*	Chisholm/Chisman	Trowbridge	Sutton	Barrett*
Harris*	Butler*	Tuffin**	Horder**	Spicer**	Sims**

*Links to descendency charts

**Tuffin and related information can be found in Pat Tuffin's file on Rootsweb GenConnect.

Copyright 2002 Susan J. Casey - Last updated 8 Mar 2010
I would be happy to share or receive information with anyone who has an interest in the above surnames or those listed in the Master Index provided all source references are used and appropriate credit is given.

Contact Information

twoloons@bwr.eastlink.ca