Welcome to the December 2003 edition of our family newsletter.

It is hard to believe that the year has gone so fast. Here we are in December already and this is the last newsletter for 2003. In this edition you will find an index for the year plus some fascinating articles supplied by Margaret and David. Once again their contribution to the newsletter has been terrific. Thank you both for all the time and energy you have put into the newsletter this year.

This newsletter also looks at migration. Brangwin descendants have roamed the world and settled in quite a few countries. Even today we see people moving from their birth country to other parts of the globe. I'm not sure whether this means we have gypsy blood or just like to see what is on the other side of the hill. Equally, it may mean that some of us need to relocate for employment - always a powerful incentive for a move.

As the year draws to a close I would like to extend my very best wishes to you and your loved ones.

Contributions to the Newsletter are most welcome. If you find something that you would like to share please send it to me so that it can be included in a newsletter or post it on the family web site. My email address is lwuth@hups.net

Lorraine Wuth

Editor

William Curtis Brangwyn
Architect and Church Embroidery Designer
by David Brangwyn

There has already been a biography of William Curtis Brangwyn in the October 2001 edition of the Newsletter, but it touched only briefly on his work.

Brangwyn was an architect and embroidery designer. He began his career as a clerk and building foreman, working with a number of London architects. At some point in his early life he converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1865 he took his family to Bruges, in order, it is said, to take advantage of that city's low cost of living. While there he carried out numerous church commissions - largely frescoes, murals and other decorations.

Only one embroidery, a banner designed 1865-6, has been identified as a product of his career in Bruges. In 1867 the City of Bruges presented him with a certificate in recognition of the silver medal he gained at the Exposition Universelle de Paris for this banner. The banner was number 565 in the Belgian catalogue and was valued at 6,500 francs. It is of white silk embroidered with gold and silver thread and coloured silks. This banner was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1868, where it remains to this day.

Banner and Stole - 1866

Amongst his other work were designs for rood screens, altar tables, stained glass, fabrics, furniture, monstrances, ecclesiastical pitchers, banners and teapots (teapots!??), pulpits and gravestones. His interest in designing gravestones was demonstrated when in 1862 he published "Gothic Memorials" (Neo-Gothic designs for gravestones and memorials). The University of Wales, Bangor, holds some of his original drawings of designs for church furniture and gravestones. They are delicately detailed and the colours still as bright as the day they were produced.

Interior of the Basilica of the Holy Blood, Bruges

In 1865 Brangwyn won a competition for Best Design of a Parish Church offered by the Belgian Guild of St Thomas and St Luke. He carried out the restoration of the Basilica of the Holy Blood and the Church of Our Lady (both in Bruges). Other designs included the Town Hall, Kruibeke, south of Antwerp, and the reconstruction of part of the Church of St Vedastus, Zerkergem.

Church of Our Lady, Bruges

Whilst resident in Bruges he opened an embroidery atelier, producing ecclesiastical vestments. Amongst the work produced here were jewelled chasubles, a cope with the Last Supper picked out in gold and a stole with Saints placed under canopies.

Brangwyn was a founder, with W H James Weale, Jean Baptiste Béthune and others, of the Antiquarian Society, which later formed the basis of the Gruuthuse Museum in Bruges.

In later years Brangwyn produced designs for an altar frontal for the Church of Grace, Brooklyn, New York and an altar cloth for the Chapel of St Stephen in the crypt of the Houses of Parliament.

After leaving his wife and family he moved to Cardiff and worked on a series of libraries, St James' Church, Newport Road and the National School of Medicine, all in Cardiff.

Notes:
monstrance = a container for the Consecrated Host, having an opening through which the Host can be seen.
atelier = an artist's workshop or studio

Welsh Painters, Engravers and Sculptors, 1527 - 1911
by Rev. T. Mardy Rees

The following entries can be found in the Rev. Mary Rees book. Thanks to Margaret for finding these and transcribing them.

FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A., Painter

The son of W. Curtis Brangwyn, born at Bruges, 12 May, 1867. His father was Anglo-Welsh, and his mother, née Griffiths, a Welsh lady from Brecon. In the late seventies the family removed to London, but our subject has not forgotten Bruges, and its haunting traditions of old Flemish painters, and weavers. In the work of Mr. Brangwyn there is a curious blend of the ancient and modern spirit, and doubtless his early association with Bruges has much to do with this. “In his colour there is mingling of Eastern sunlight with the magic of Welsh hills.” Young Brangwyn was noticed one day by Mr. Harold Rathbone, in the South Kensington Museum, when he was making a copy of a Donatello relief or some other beautiful object, and was introduced by him to William Morris. Soon afterward, Brangwyn entered the workshop of Morris, in Oxford Street, and executed for him a number of facsimiles of Flemish tapestries at South Kensington. He also enlarged several designs for wall hangings, embroideries, and other textiles. Mr. Brangwyn is a great traveller, and is familiar with the Moors, Arabs, Spaniards, Italians, in their homes. His drawings, which appeared in the Graphic, brought him into great prominence as an artist. He is an associate of the Royal Academy, is the corresponding secretary of several Societies of Art, including Japan. His pictures are in Luxemburgh [sic], Munich, Vienna, Prague, Venice, Sydney, and New South Wales.

“Brangwyn’s physiognomy, always so distinctive - gains continually in importance and significance. He is only in his 39th year. One cannot judge a man of this age. What may not be expected from the future of a career, judging from a past notable for such daring and such energy? You have but to look at the man’s physique (quite apart from the artist’s talent), at his well-set vigorous frame, his square-cut countenance, the look of frankness and decision in his eyes, and of the self-confidence in his mouth, to feel convinced that this man of will and enthusiasm and intellect is master of his own destiny.”

PANEL - MODERN COMMERCE. This is at the Royal Exchange, and is the last of the series which begin with Leighton’s “Phoenicians trading with early Britons on the coast of Cornwall.” For reproduction of this panel, vide Art Journal 1907, opp. p. 42.

(See Art Journal, 1903 - Frank Brangwyn).

“In the work he has produced during the last few years, there are undeniably a largeness of sentiment and a depth of feeling which can be not less admired than the brilliant robustness of technique by which it is distinguished. He has passed the stage when the struggle with the mechanism of Art hampers freedom of thought and checks spontaneity of expression; his hand has become so responsive to his intentions that he can trust it to record fully what in his mind. He is a master too of practically all the pictorial mediums, of oil painting, water colour, tempera, etching and lithography, and his drawings are marvels of executive freedom and suggestive power.”

(Vide “Some Examples of Recent Work by Mr. Frank Brangwyn,” by W. K. West, with 28 illustrations. Three supplements in colours also in “The Studio” for Feb., 1911).

The following prints may be seen in the British Museum Print Department:-
“Outward Bound.” A tug boat and sailing vessel. This was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890, and signed F. B. 1888. The autogravure was issued by the Autotype Company, 74, New Oxford Street, Feb. 2, 1891.
Lithographs:- 1, The Mine. 2, The Fruit of the Sea. 3, A Labourer Resting. 4, Loot. 5, Columbus and his Men.
A complete list of Mr. Brangwyn’s works may be found in Mr. Shaw Sparrow’s excellent volume, “Brangwyn and his Work,” recently published by Kegan, Paul, and Co.

NOAH BRANGWIN (1822 - 1858?), Painter

For some time he practised as a medical man, and then gave up his profession and took to Art. He painted landscape and peasant-figure subjects, and shewed [sic] great talent. In 1854 he was living at Henley-on-Thames, whence he sent two pictures to the Royal Academy - “Welsh Sheep” and “The Watchman.” He also sent “The Ploughman’s Meal” (1855), and “A Berkshire Lane” (1856). Mr. T. H. Thomas thinks that he died about 1858.

(Note in “Frank Brangwyn and his work,” by Mr. Shaw Sparrow, and private information).

WILLIAM CURTIS BRANGWYN (d.1907)

The father of Frank Brangwyn, Esq., who distinguished himself as an architect and church decorator. For many years he resided at Bruges, where he worked on painted glass, tapestry, and other artistic decorations. During his residence there he carried out the splendid restoration of the Chapelle du Saint Sang, and other important ecclesiastical works, and was signally honoured. We have examples of his fine artistic power in his work, “Gothic Memorials,” published in London in 1872. These appeared in two series. The second series of sketches he dedicated to the Right Rev. Monsignore Capel as a testimony of the author’s profound respect and admiration. In his preface he states that “in compliance with the respected requests of several subscribers of the first Series of Memorials, published some years since, I have been induced to issue the present second Series of sketches.” Further, “in presenting them to the public I would wish to say they are simply sketches of ideas which from time to time have struck me as suitable for a simple class of Gothic memorials.” At the time of publication the author lived at 16, Goldhawk Terrace, London, W.

He sent a fully embroidered banner from his factory at Bruges to the Exhibition of 1862, whence it was removed to the Collection at South Kensington. (Art Journal, 1903).

Died in Cardiff, in December 1907.

(“Gothic Memorials,” and private information).

Migration

If you have been following the lives of the various people written about in the newsletters over the past three years you will realise that the Brangwins and their descendants have tended to be a fairly mobile lot. Even when we look at the realy references it is easy to draw the conclusion that family members moved around a fiar bit. That said, there are periods when parts of the fmily were quite settled as evidenced by the Hambleden and Long Crendon records. Even so, we have Captain Benjamin Brangwin off in the Indies [see various accounts of Captain ben's life and times in newsletters published in 2002].

Within England, there was movement. Bangwins turn up in a variety of parishes during the through to the 19th century when the migration out of England began in earnest.

With the exception of the seafares, such as Benjamin, the earliest evidence of overseas migration is the family of John Brangwin [son of John Brangwin and Martha Lankford] and his wife Mary Holmes and their three children: John Francis, William Castle and Thomas. The last recorded records for them in England was the baptism of Thomas at Wheatley, OXF, on July 23, 1826. They turned up in Michigan. It is possible that there was at least one more child born to Mary, a son in New Jersey, although the records belonging to this individual are still to be found. This branch of the family appeared to have moved through a number of Michigan counties and were generally farmers. [A future newsletter will look at the Michigan Mob].

Why would John and Mary have left England? There are a heap of possible reasons but generally they come down to the expectation of a better life in the New World.

In the next Newsletter we will look at other family members who have migrated to North America, followed by other migrations in the coming months.

[Editor's note: I became interested in family history when I noticed a decided lack of information about female descendants of Daniel Barnett and Elizabeth Dreweatt. It rankled. To an extent, this is why much of my effort has been spent in tracking down females and their descendants. Some of the men have been hard to find, too, but it is the female lines that are often neglected as being more difficult - and they are. They need more time and patience and sometimes more abstract approaches to finding out just did happen to a woman. I continue to be grateful to those women who left Wills and other documents that have survived.

The following article, by well known writer Juliana Smith, gives some direction on the problem of find women.]

Looking for the Ladies in the Family Tree
by Juliana Smith

With the dearth of records created for women who lived more than a century or so ago, it is often very difficult to find information on the ladies in our family trees. Give her a name like Catherine Kelly, plop her down in New York City before vital records were kept and before women (other than those few that were listed as heads of household) were named on the census, and you have the recipe for a very elusive ancestress! Catherine Kelly was my third great- grandmother, but I am guessing most of you have similar characters in your family trees. So how are we to find these women? Here are some things to keep in mind.

Home Sources and Long-lost Cousins

As with any other kind of research, don't overlook home sources. Family members may have saved old letters, papers, news clippings, and stories that may contain either the exact information you are looking for about a woman relative or at least the clues to point you in her direction. Besides the specific details old letters contain, they often carry the personalities of the writers. Sometimes filled with humor, sadness, and spiced with a bit of gossip (and who doesn't like a bit of gossip now and then!), these letters paint a portrait of the writer and lend light to her perspective on life.

Also, never underestimate the information long-lost cousins may have. (Interview them!) One of my mother's distant cousins was able to tell us that Catherine Kelly had died in Rochester, New York. We would never have thought to look there had it not been for that cousin's information, which we gained from the interview my mother conducted with the cousin. The cemetery record we found in Rochester for Catherine Kelly, with a death date of 1850 at 26 years of age, is one of the few records we have of this ancestor.

Court Records

Court records are often great places to find women because women show up regularly in even the earliest recordings. Probate cases are a natural place to start looking. Probates typically deal with a decedent's will or the distribution of property. Family relationships are usually spelled out in these documents, and you will often find details about women, including their maiden names, places of residence, ages (sometimes), and personalities. An interesting will we uncovered showed that one woman left most of her considerable estate to a couple of her friends, while she gave her own children only a dollar each. Some probate records are so detailed that they provide genealogies of families going back for several generations.

When Catherine's granddaughter died, the guardianship papers that were filed for her children included the addresses of several inherited properties. By tracing the origins of the real estate through property records, we might get lucky.

Cemetery Records/p>

In the cemetery, study all the names of people who may be buried in a family plot. Often, we rely on indexes and happily copy the name of the individuals we know, never looking at the interment records as a whole. Names of grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and other relatives are frequently missed because we rely too heavily on indexes. Also note who is buried in nearby plots. You may find other family members buried nearby, and a name that doesn't mean much to you at first may become an important clue down the road.

Follow the Men

When searching for an elusive female, dig up all you can on the men in her life. Because many of our female ancestresses had few or no legal rights (depending on the time and place in which they lived), they often left very few records of their own. But fortunately, even if they didn't create any records of their own, the records created by the men in their lives-husbands, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sons-often carry a mention of these women, or at least a few clues about their identities.

Siblings Count

Keep in mind that the siblings of the woman you are trying to find could lead you to her. Catherine Kelly is said to have had a brother named James. Granted, there were a whole lot of fellows by the name of James Kelly roaming around New York in the time period we are researching, but if we look for them in the census, city directories, court records, county histories, newspaper stories, military records and other places where men can usually be more easily ferreted out, we may have some luck.

At one point we had our eye on a James Kelly who served in the Civil War. If he had turned out to be the right guy, his records just might have taken us back another generation to his parents. But alas, we were unable to make a connection, and we will have to find another place to pick up Catherine's trail.

Grasp Every Fact You Can Find

This may seem like stating the obvious, but it's important. It also means not relying on databases, indexes, extracts, and abstracts. It means checking original sources, even those where you have come up dry in the indexes or in online databases. There are several important reasons for this. First, the original often contains important information not found in the above-mentioned formats. Maybe it wasn't important to the abstracter to record the names of all the witnesses, but if the witnesses were family members, we miss an important clue by not consulting the original.

Gather Background Information

By familiarizing yourself with the laws and government agencies for a particular time and place, you may find other avenues to explore. Were women allowed to own property at that time? Was your ancestress entitled to a military pension via one of the men in her life? What were the immigration laws for that time period? Did she need to apply for citizenship herself, or could she become a citizen through her husband or father? What kind of regulations existed regarding her marriage? Did she have to be a certain age, and if she wasn't yet that age, could she apply for special permission?

There are a multitude of questions you will want to ask yourself. But the more you familiarize yourself with the time and place(s) in which an ancestress lived, the better your chances are for success.

And More . . .

There are also, of course, a multitude of other sources that should be examined. Church records, heirlooms, photographs, Bible records, old newspapers, records of women's organizations-the list goes on and on. This article can't possibly cover all of them, and each person's research scenario will be different. But with a little creative thinking and some background research, there is hope for even the most elusive ladies in our family tree.

Juliana Smith is the editor of the Ancestry Daily News and author of The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book. She has written for Ancestry Magazine and Genealogical Computing.

The 2003 Index

I hope you have found this edition of the Brangwin Family Newsletter of interest.

I would like to thank Margaret and David for their contribution to this newsletter. Thank you both for your continuing support.

That's it for this newsletter.

If you have anything you would like to contribute to the newsletter it would be most welcome.

Until then next time

Lorraine