The Ancestry of Granny Isabelle Bane
(1917-1993)
Through my granny Isabelle Banes family tree I am linked to ancestors in London, Ireland and Norfolk. Others lived a while in Barbados, being of a colonial military family. Some were quite well off, and some so poor that they were in and out of the workhouse. The Irish lineage settled in Greenwich in south London as immigrants from County Kerry, escaping the potato famine. More than a few of my ancestors were sailors, fishermen, watermen and lightermen on the Thames river and the far seas. There were terrible deaths from tuberculosis and crimes committed. One ancestor fought at the Battle of Trafalgar. The unravelling of this section of my family tree has been most interesting and fascinating even though sometimes shocking. With my granny Isabelle being of the maternal line, it is through her and all our mothers as far back as I can go, to an Elizabeth Minsham in London, that is passed an interesting rare matriarchal DNA of the almost extinct haplogroup N1B1A2A which is not even of a European type but is of the Middle East and the Caucasus Mountains.
An N1b sample of my matriarchal DNA has recently been extracted from the ancient remains of a little boy child, making him my furthest back known ancestor so far, at between 11,000 and 9,000 BC, found in a cave still being excavated in northern Israel, the Rakefet cave on Mount Carmel. It is identified as being of the Natufian culture, who were the first Paleolithic peoples to abandon nomadism, making permanent homes, before the emergence of farming. They gathered almonds and pistachios, hunted gazelles, carved adornments and sacred figurines of both humans and animals from the local limestone, and lived in round semi-subterranean dwellings in which they slept on a bedding of herbs and sedge grass.
Being the youngest of the children, Isabelle who was known as Belle, was as if the princess of the family
Granny Isabelle was to be considered crazy, but I loved her anyway and she loved me. I was young and in my eyes she was a delightful eccentric. She sat laughing for no real reason, which I rather liked, and ate far too much.
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Wartime mothers were effectively single mothers, raising children without a husband around. Isabelle's daughter, Joanna, got such a surprise the first time she saw her father, a man who was a stranger to her. Joanna, aged two, was on the landing when she spied her mother kissing and cuddling a man in khaki. 'Who's that man?' she asked. 'That's your daddy' Isabelle replied.
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The parents of Isabelle were D'Auvergne and Mary Ann, both Londoners who had moved to the seaside. D'Auvergne was said to be a man of class from a colonial army background, the family story being that he eloped with a maid, she being none other than Mary Ann who was of far humbler origins. She was half Irish, from a family who well knew the challenges associated with poverty, tough survival, crime, fatal diseases and the workhouse.
D'Auvergne Bane was named after a cousin, D'Auvergne Barnard, who was known in the musical world as a famous composer.
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While a girl, observing the consequences of drink among the poor around her, Mary Ann made a pledge to be teetotal.
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Family life was musical, with songs sung altogether around the piano. D'Auvergne loved to sing and played the piano with a fine touch. Mary Ann loved animals, always having a cat, a dog and a bird, and regularly bringing stray cats home.
SUSIE HARRISON----------JOANNA INKSTER----------ISABELLE BANE----------D'AUVERGNE BANE & MARY SEAGROVE
Mary Seagrove's parents were Thomas Seagrove, his surname originally being Sugrue (revealing his Irish origins) and Maria Harrison. Both Maria and Thomas, as children, had spent time in the workhouse. They tried to make good of a new life together, but had enough challenges of their own.
Thomas Seagrove's parents, both from County Kerry in Ireland, who immigrated to England, were Bartholomew Sugrue and Catherine Sheehan:
The Irish immigrant influx into England, among which were Mary Ann's paternal grandparents, the Sugrue's, was a source of fear and annoyance to most English people who believed their country was being overrun.
It was in the orphanage that Maria Harrison's mother, Eleanor Barton, first encountered the dreaded tuberculosis, when one of the other girls there died from it. For nine months Eleanor herself, at the age of 33, wasted away from this fatal and all too common malady.
D'Auvergne's parents, Richard and Hannah Bane, alias Beane, settled a for the earlier part of the married life on the island of Barbados, colonised by the English since 1625 and nicknamed 'Little England'
D'Auvergne's cousin, Edward Beane, was on the famous fated journey of the Titanic. Luckily, he was one of the survivors.
London slums & the life of a sailor
(who was at the battle of Trafalgar)
(who was at the battle of Trafalgar)
Eleanor Bartons parents, Philipe Barton and Hannah Bunney, lived in the very heart of London, later moving the family south of the river to Greenwich.
There were themes to be seen in these London locations in that they were colourful but unsafe places,
they were haunted, and the dark side of life was much on show.
they were haunted, and the dark side of life was much on show.
Robert Bunney & Sarah Harbridge
(Hannah Bunney's parents)
(Hannah Bunney's parents)
Robert Bunney grew up in central London where he came to love a teenage girl named Sarah Harbridge, seven years difference in age and rather young. When they married he was 21 and she was only 15, which was anyway fine for the times. In politics Robert supported Charles Fox who was a radical whig anti-slavery campaigner, advocating individual liberty and religious tolerance.
I am an amateur genealogical researcher, Susie Harrison, and this is my family, the study of which has been one of the passions of my life. The thrill of the detective is here, unravelling mysteries of the past, uncovering that which may otherwise have been forever forgotten. This is a compendium of stories and a history I am naturally deeply involved in. Without these ancestors I would not exist, for which I greatly appreciate and unconditionally accept every family member, whether or not they had shadows. Through this study I reconnect with each and every one of my known ancestors and come to know more my roots.