| The Officers and Committee of the Dalton Genealogical Society extend New Year Greetings to all readers of "Daltons in History", which is published monthly on this website. This monthly newsletter is now entering its ninth year of publication and first appeared back in January 1998.
As Millicent Craig explained in her footnote in the December 2005 issue, the editorship of the newsletter is being handed over to Elizabeth Cameron with effect from 1 January 2006 and I want to take this opportunity to thank Millicent for all the work that she has undertaken as editor since 1998. The website was Millicent’s creation and the Dalton Genealogical Society was amongst the first of the one name societies to have its own website. Millicent set herself the ambitious target of putting a new newsletter up on the website each month from the outset and, without fail, her target has been met month by month. Such is the richness of the resources that have been created that we are now progressively uploading all the back issues of "Daltons in History", so that these are available on line to our readers. We hope that you will enjoy accessing and searching these. As many of you will know there are links on the home page to The Dalton Data Bank, the Index of DGS Journals, and the Dalton International DNA Project. Many of you will, by now, be very familiar with these resources, but if you are new to this website, please take time to explore these additional pages which contain much of interest and value to anyone who is researching Dalton family history. All of these resources have been part of Millicent’s vision during these past eight years and her skill, her dedication to the task and her determination to succeed have turned her vision into reality. The Society is very proud of the resources that we now have on line and accessible to all – on behalf of us all, thank you Millicent.
Although Millicent is handing over the editorship of this newsletter, she plans to continue and expand her work in the other wide-ranging roles she performs on behalf of the Society. These include her position as American Secretary keeping in touch with all the North American DGS members, as coordinator of the Dalton International DNA Project with the exciting plans for its development during 2006, as organiser of the first American DGS Gathering which is taking place in New England in October 2006, and as manager of the associated websites including the very important Dalton Data Bank. In addition I know that Millicent will be a regular contributor to "Daltons in History" and to the DGS Journal, so she is planning to keep extremely busy for the benefit of us all.
In conclusion, I want to wish Elizabeth Cameron all success as your new editor. Like myself Elizabeth is a great great great grandchild of John Dalton and Hannah Neale and we are fourth cousins. Elizabeth lives in Strathtay in Perthshire, Scotland and she is a niece of the late Joyce Parker, who served on the DGS committee from 1979, when it was first formed, until her death in 1995. I am delighted that Elizabeth has agreed to take on the editorship and I know she is looking forward to bringing "Daltons in History" to you in the coming months and years. I am sure I can count on support for her from all our readers and I hope that you will communicate with her and provide Dalton family history material, which can be shared with us all. This is your newsletter and its continuing success does depend on a steady stream of material from readers. The Society wants to keep it as your newsletter, so do please contact Elizabeth by email on lizathope@aol.com.
Chairman and Honorary Life President of the Dalton Genealogical Society |
| Venue: Farm Cottage, Catherington, Hampshire PO8 0TD (the home of Sir Geoffrey and Lady Jane Dalton) Tel: 023 9259 2369 Email: daltons@screaming.net
Program for the Day
From 10.45 am Delegates arrive – coffee is served
11.15 am Annual General Meeting – see agenda overleaf
1.00 pm Buffet Lunch is served
2.30 pm Daltons and The Drapers Company – a talk by Geoffrey Dalton
4.00 pm Tea
It is hoped that many Society members and their families will be able to attend. In addition to the Annual General Meeting and the talk by Geoffrey Dalton, there will be plenty of opportunity during the course of the day to meet the officers and committee informally, to meet other delegates and to have discussions about Dalton family history.
There will be a Dalton Family History display set up, which will be available for viewing throughout the day.
A charge of £5 per head will be made for the buffet lunch. This will be collected on the day.
Please return the attached slip to Geoffrey Dalton to indicate your intention to attend as soon as possible, and no later than 15 May 2006.
Agenda
Commencing at 11:15 am 1. Welcome and opening remarks by the Chairman
2. Apologies for absence
3. Minutes of the 2005 Annual General Meeting and matters arising
4. Chairman’s report
5. Treasurer’s report
6. Secretary’s report
7. Election of Officer and Committee
8. Editorial Team report
9. DNA sub committee report
10. Australian Secretary’s report
11. American Secretary’s report
12. Forthcoming Gatherings and AGMs
13. Any other business
14. Close |
| Submitted by Millicent Craig
Gaynor Gibson of Houston, Texas shares her childhood recollections of Thurnham Manor in Lancashire, England, ancestral Dalton home. This branch of the family has been the subject of many articles in the DGS Journals and the theme of The Dalton Book by Mrs. Frances Edith Leaning. The English principals in the letter are William Henry Dalton, Lord of the Manor, his wife Lady Emma Cook Dalton and their children. Emma who was from Texas met William in Brazil, they married and returned to England to take up residence in Thurnham Hall. This letter provides a few intimate insights into the family and a visit to relatives in Texas.
Shortly before World War II, my paternal aunt took a trip to Europe. After her travels on the continent, she went to England to visit her cousins at Thurnham Hall. At that time, there were three in residence there. There was Edith, Alzira, and their brother, whose name I have forgotten. In a rather typical, eccentric, English way, they each had separate quarters within the Hall, and met for dinner together weekly. My aunt stayed there until the German U-boats began sinking passenger ships, and she decided it was time to leave.
When I was a child, during the war, I found the "snapshots" she had taken with her Kodak fascinating. After the war, Cousin Alzira came to Austin, Texas to visit, and to pursue her genealogy of lateral branches of the family, etc. She stayed with grandmother for a year or so, and I was constantly asking her questions about a multitude of things, Thurnham Hall and England.
Many years later, Alzira who was the sole survivor and moved into the carriage house, and I thought she had turned the Hall over to the National Trust.* She lived a long time, and the last picture I saw of her was when she gave an ancient chest to the local museum in Preston.
I cannot tell you the exact relationship of our families, but I was told that the Daltons at the Hall were my fourteenth cousins. That is beyond my imagination, but my grandmother was not at all in doubt about it. I cannot be sure, but It seems probable that my relation to the Daltons would be through the Cook line. Although it has been years since I have heard any of the old stories, the name Cook definitely rings a bell. I seem to remember a military man of that name being in the Cherokee War in East Texas. This would have been early on in Texas history; most of my forebears came from East Texas (it is capitalized down here), and on my paternal grandfather's side they settled in and around what is now Cherokee county.
The siblings' father had visited the United States just after World War I to purchase farm machinery for the estate. He was shocked when an American relative suggested that he buy a lot of it to take back home to sell. The very idea, a gentleman engaging in trade!
The name Dalton is a common given name in my family. My cousin has pursued our genealogy, and I will try to obtain a copy of it.”
* Thurnham Hall has actually been sold three times since Alzira relinquished control and later died. It currently is a thriving time share property. |
| This data was extracted by DGS Archivist, Michael F. Cayley
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| From DGS member, Mike Dalton of Oregon
A flax processing industry was established in Northern Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries. By mid 19th century, the manufacture of textile goods from flax had evolved from a cottage industry throughout Ireland to industrial textile mills in the northern counties. The government scheme of June 1, 1796 was designed to encourage growth of this enterprise. Applicants with up to 5 acres of suitable land for flax cultivation were entitled to receive one spinning wheel and an additional wheel for every additional 5 acres. There were some 56,000 applicants, with mostly one wheel granted. A complete listing of this database is available on fhl microfilm # 1419442.
County Fermanagh Andrew Dalton, Derryvullan Parish - 1 spinning wheel. Richard Dalton, Derryvullan Parish - 1 spinning wheel.
County Longford Barony of Abbeyshrule: Andrew Dalton - 2 spinning wheels. Thomas Dalton - 1 spinning wheel. James Dalton - 1 spinning wheel. Barony of Ardagh: Michael Dolton - 1 spinning wheel. James Dolton - 1 spinning wheel. Thomas Dalton, Ardagh Parish - 1 spinning wheel. Christopher Dalton, Ardagh parish - 1 spinning wheel (2 entries later). Barony of Granard: Matthew Dalton - 3 spinning wheels. John Dalton - 1 spinning wheel. Thomas Dalton - 1 spinning wheel. Patrick Dalton - 1 spinning wheel. Barony of Moydow: Matthew Dalton - 1 spinning wheel. Barony of Rathcline: James Dalton - 1 spinning wheel.
County Meath: John Dalton, Oldcastle Parish - 1 spinning wheel. Luke Dalton, Oldcastle Parish - 1 spinning Wheel (2 entries later).
County Offaly (Kings): John Dalton, Kilcumreragh Parish - 1 spinning wheel. Robert Dalton, Tisaran Parish - 3 spinning wheels.
County Roscommon: Francis Dalton, Kilglass Parish - 1 spinning wheel. Peter Dalton, Termonbarry Parish - 1 spinning wheel. John Dalton, Termonbarry Parish - 1 spinning wheel (next entry). Henry Dalton, Kiltrustan Parish - 1 spinning wheel.
County Sligo: Hugo Dalton, Dromard Parish - 1 spinning wheel.
County Westmeath: John Dalton, Kill Parish - 4 spinning wheels. John Dalton, KIll Parish - 4 spinning wheels (3 entries later). Laurence Dalton, Kill Parish - 1 spinning wheel. John Dalton, Killare Parish - 1 spinning wheel. James Dalton, Rathgarve Parish - 1 spinning wheel. |
| The following obituary was sent by DGS member Dave Edwards of New York. Gordon Dalton led an exciting life so a bit of research was undertaken by your American secretary to learn the origin of his family. It reveals that Gordon’s father, William, was born in England about 1887 and immigrated to the U. S. in 1910. The 1920 U. S. Census enumerated this family in Bridgeport Ward 12, Fairfield, Connecticut. Gordon whose age was estimated at 3 years had a brother, Roger or Rodney who was estimated to be 2 years of age. The birthplace of Gordon’s mother, Minnie Richardson appears to be Connecticut. Minnie was born about 1885.
According to the 1930 Census, the family was living in Oneida County, Oneida, New York. There were two additional children: Donald about 8 and Elizabeth (age unclear) and both were born in New York. There may be relatives in England who can relate to this family. William’s middle initial was A. and the information below states that Gordon left a biological sister. A search of http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ reveals that there were five Daltons with the given name of William in the birth records of 1877: one in Ashton Under Lyne, Lancs; one in Westminster, London/Middlesex; and three in Yorkshire – East Riding and North Riding. Entries for birth records in 1876 (an alternative birth date) may be found at the same web site.
From the Hamilton Alumni Review, Fall 2005 (Hamilton College, Clinton, New York)
Gordon John Dalton, Class of 1938
Gordon John Dalton, a former travel agent in Panama, was born on June 14, 1916, in Deer Creek, IL. A son of William A., a Presbyterian minister, and Minnie Richardson Dalton, he grew up in Oneida Castle, NY, not far from Clinton, and came to the College from Oneida High School in 1934. Gordon Dalton joined the local fraternity Beta Kappa and ran cross-country and track, becoming captain of the track team in his senior year. Called “indispensable to the Neutrals in maintaining athletic prestige”, he also participated in a variety of interclass sports. He worked his way through Hamilton waiting on tables in Commons and earning his board as a Chapel bell ringer, a duty in which he took great pride.
Following his graduation in 1938, Gordon Dalton obtained a job at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. When the Fair ended, he became a trainee-messenger for the central Hanover Bank & Trust Co. in Manhattan. He was sales manager for Air Reduction Co., an air conditioning business, in 1942 when he obtained a purser’s license from the Coast Guard and went to sea with the U.S. Merchant Marine in the midst of World War II. As a purser sailing on “rust buckets” , Liberty ships and various other cargo vessels, including two that were torpedoed, he helped transport supplies to Allied forces across both the Atlantic and pacific.
After the war and brief employment by a travel agency in New York City, Gordon Dalton went back to sea as a purser for the Panama Line, which ran between New York and Panama. He was on the S.S. Cristobal when he met Margaret Stapelton Posey, a passenger aboard who was a longtime resident of the Canal Zone. They were married in Balboa on September 30, 1947. The Daltons settled in Panama, where Gordon vastly improved on the Spanish he had learned from Professor Wentworth D. Fling. He also found employment selling jewelry wholesale.
In 1964, Gordon Dalton (known as “Flaco”—Spanish for “Slim”—by his friends) was manager of a travel agency in Panama when he decided to open his own agency specializing in an innovative array of group tours of Latin America. The business prospered, and it gave him the opportunity to travel widely, which he greatly enjoyed. In 1973, however, he and “Maggie” decided to retire, sell the business, and move back to “Yankee land”. They bought a home in Pinehurst, NC, and moved there the following year. Later, as Pinehurst became congested with golfers, they joined the Country Club of North Carolina and built a new home on its grounds. While Maggie gardened and played bridge, Gordon enthusiastically took to golf. In recent years they continued to reside in Pinehurst, but in smaller quarters.
Gordon H. Dalton, an ever faithful and supportive Hamiltonian, died in Pinehurst on March 25, 2005, of cancer. In addition to his wife of 57 years, he is survived by a stepson, Carl A. Posey, and four step grandchildren and a sister. |
| John Dalton, editor of the DGS Journal has sent the Contents list for Journal 43. John states that Journal 43 will be mailed in mid-January 2006.
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