Lilian's Tree

While I was away I picked up these two books, to help with my research. Atlas of Irish History has five parts, Origins, The Conquest of Ireland, Reformation and Restoration, From Splendour to Famine and Modern Ireland. These parts have chapters and maps outlining such things as Post-Famine Emigration and The 1798 Rebellion. The Little History of Kent, is along the same lines as the Irish book but it doesn’t have maps. Starting with In the Beginning and ending with Modern Times 2000-, it tells the history of Kent.

                        CHARLOTTE CHASMAR. [Whilst I hold copies of some documents, marked * , others have been sighted, using microfilm, at the Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, February 2016 and they are marked * .] CHASMAR has been found spelt in several different ways, Chasmer, Chasmur, Chapman and Chasman. I have chosen Chasmar, as this is on most of the documents I hold. Charlotte Chasmar was christened 23 December 1821, in the Parish Church of Benenden, Kent, England * . She was the daughter of Robert Chasmar and his wife Elizabeth Gardiner. Robert was a brickmaker. I next find Charlotte as an Unmarried Female Immigrant, arriving on the Cornwall, 1 September 1839 * . Her date and place of birth are given as 11 December 1821 and Benenden, with her parents listed as Robert and Elizabeth. She could read and write, was a Protestant and a Farm...

Today I'm looking at my Chasmar line. Some times I see it spelt Chasmer and figure they weren't that literate back then.  I used the Surname Database to find the meaning of Chasmar  and discovered that  this unusual surname is of early medieval English origin. Something I didn't know.  It gives seven different ways that is can be spelt and also mentions Benenden, Kent, where my Chasmars' came from. My ancestor, Charlotte Chasmar was born in Benenden, Kent around 1821 to Robert Chasmar and his wife Elizabeth Chasmar, nee Gardner. Her Christening record show that she was christened on 21 December 1821. I'm going to jump around here and just do Charlotte and then add other details. Charlotte arrived in Sydney on 1 September 1839, on board the 'Cornwall'. The spelling of her surname was given as Chaperance. (With the spelling conventions, of that time, the letter p might well have been an S.)  She was 18 years old, a Protestant, from Benenden and was se...