Skip to content

  • Search

  • Search

My great-great aunt, Margaret Anne Skottowe Parker, was born on 9 September 1802 at the family home, Waterview, in Passage West, county Cork. At the age of 28 she made what must have appeared to be an advantageous marriage to a lawyer from a prominent family in Cornwall. 13 May […]

Margaret Anne Skottowe Parker and Her Unfortunate Marriage

2 comments

It is unusual that we get to see inside the marriages of our ancestors, especially those who died over 400 years ago. But I was afforded just such a glimpse as I laboured at transcribing some of the many Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills belonging to my Norwich ancestors […]

True Love as Revealed in a Will

“It is a Better Country for Girls Than Home:” Chain Migration at Work

One of my favourite pieces of family memorabilia is a letter written in August 1877 by my great-grandmother, Mary Hamilton, to her friend, Jeannie Kirkwood, who was still back in Scotland. Mary had recently emigrated to New Zealand with three of her siblings, having sailed from Glasgow on the Marlborough […]

“It is a Better Country for Girls Than Home:” Chain Migration at Work

Catherine Anne Parker, my 3X great aunt, was born about 1813 in Passage West, County Cork, Ireland, probably the fourth daughter and twelfth child of Richard Neville Parker and Margaret Skottowe. The Parkers were a prominent Passage West family, but by the 19th century were no longer financially well off, […]

She Ran Away With Her Music Teacher

2 comments
Portrait of Sarah Catherine Martin

SARAH CATHERINE MARTIN (c.1768 – 1826) My 4x great-grandaunt, Elizabeth Ann Parker (abt 1737 – 1808, daughter of Harding Parker and Catherine Neville of Passage West, County Cork, Ireland) and her husband, Sir Henry Martin, (Comptroller of the Navy and MP for Southampton, England) had a most surprising daughter. Her […]

Sarah Catherine Martin

3 comments

Navigation

  • About Me
  • My Books

Posts

  • Margaret Anne Skottowe Parker and Her Unfortunate Marriage
  • True Love as Revealed in a Will
  • “It is a Better Country for Girls Than Home:” Chain Migration at Work
  • She Ran Away With Her Music Teacher
  • Sarah Catherine Martin
  • My Books

Categories

  • Hamilton Family
  • Kinsman Family
  • Martin Family
  • Parker Family
  • Passage West
  • Sotherton Family
  • St. John Maddermarket, Norwich

Tags

Elizabeth Parker Henry Martin Jeannie Kirkwood Margaret Skottowe Parker Mary Hamilton Old Mother Hubbard Robert Jope Kinsman Sarah Catherine Martin Sotherton

About me:

Marian Press, Toronto, Canada
I have always been fascinated by genealogy and have spent many years tracking down the many strands that make up my family history. In recent years, I have become particularly interested in writing up in story form all the information I have gathered and publishing it in genealogical society publications, in book form, and in my two blogs.

Contacting me:
To comment on something I have written on my blogs, please use the form at the end of each article. That way your comment is linked to the article.

My other blog:
The Misses Skottowe of St. Helena

The Skottowes of Norwich: From Merchants to Gentlemen

The Parkers of Passage West

Education and Ontario Family History: A Guide to Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians

Family History Blogs I Follow
Where the Story Takes Me
Anglo Celtic Connections
Ancestor Discovery
Mew-Sings: Tales from my Family Tree

© 2025  – All rights reserved

Powered by WP – Designed with the Customizr theme