"A letter from James" Tarling
Mona Anderson 1972 Reed 
ISBN 0 589 00709 2

If you have not already done so, please see the Tarling Family History home page.
 

The wonderful book  "A Letter from James"  by Mona Anderson MBE (nee Tarling) is about a Tarling family emigrating from the U.K. to New Zealand in 1880 and their progress from then on.  The book is out of print and difficult to find, but you may get a copy from your library (or try Amazon or ABE). The book was published in 1972 by A. H. & A. W. Reed Ltd. (of Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Sydney and Melbourne). The ISBN number is 0 589 00709 2.   Part of the dust cover is illustrated on the right (original by Conrad Frieboe).

For the details of our researches into James Tarling (including the latest updates) please see further down the page
 

The James in question (shown on the left, from the book) is James Tarling from Wales (the author's maiden name is Tarling), so we thought we'd just look up some of those Tarlings.

The book says that the James Tarling in question married Susanna Painter in Abergavenny in the autumn of 1872 and their son James Tarling was born on 18th. June 1873, and a younger brother William was born 17th. January 1875, and a third son John was born about 18 months before they sailed in November 1879.  We also find that James's sister Sarah Tarling married John Harris "towards the end of summer" 1871.

 

 
The family of James Tarling (according to the book)
We know little of James's family. It says that as a boy he lived in a village overlooking Cardigan Bay, and was a miner from the age of 11.  His mother was alive in about 1871 and they lived in Crosskeys. What little we know of the children is:
  • Bob Tarling, older than James was a sea captain.
  • Sarah Tarling married John Harris. They emigrated to New Zealand before James and Susan.
  • James Tarling married Susan Painter in Abergavenny - their children and subsequent life is the basis of the book.
  • Tom Tarling was a Bootmaker who lived in Garn Terrace.
The family of Susan Painter (according to the book)
We know more about this family, especially around the 1870s in Blaenavon, as summarised below:
Parents: William Painter (a brewer) = Maria ? (orphan, lived with an Aunt, married age 18)
Children: Tom Painter = Gwen ? (married before 1870, living in the Cardiff area by 1871)
Ceinwen Painter = Will Hughes (married before 1870, son John born by xmas 1871)
Lissabeth Painter (? married: not at home by 1870)
Martha Painter = James Jewell (married around mid 1870s, emigrated with James & Susanna)
Sophia Painter (never married)
Ann Painter (? married: not at home by 1870)
Gwladys Painter = Davy Powys (married before 1870)
Susanna Painter (youngest but one) = James Tarling
Harriet Painter = George Biggs (married before 1870, witnesses at Susanna and James's wedding?)
 

Our research into James:

So in the BMD indexes we find:
The Marriage of James Tarling to Susan Painter registered SQ 1871  in Abergavenny - yes 1871
The Birth of James Tarling (Jnr.) registered JQ 1873 in Abergavenny
The Birth of William Tarling registered MQ 1875 in Abergavenny
The Birth of a John Tarling registered JQ 1878 in Abergavenny
The Marriage of Sarah Tarling to John Harris registered MQ 1873  in Westbury-on-Severn - yes 1873
 

The marriage certificate of James says that on 31st. July 1871 James Tarling, bachelor, a Collier age 26 of Llanfoist (father Thomas Tarling, a collier) married Susan Painter, spinster, age 28 of Llanfoist (father William Painter, a bootmaker) and the witnesses were George Herbert Pugh and Margaret Colley.

    1871 census: Since James and Sarah married at the end of July 1871 and both gave their residence as Llanfoist (close to Blaenavon) we took a look at the 1871 census for Llanfoist, and found, on two adjacent pages:
 

RG10 5314 F78 p37  Llanfoist  at  New pit row







James  Tarling Lodger Unm 25
Coale Maner Glouster Tinglish Bicknot









RG10 5314 F78 p38  Llanfoist  at  Hill pit row







William Painter Head Mar 69
Banker Salop Lebothood
Marhia Do Wife Do
58 Brinkers Wife Mon Blaenavon
Susan Do Daur Unm
28
Breconshire Llanelly
Harriet Do Do Do
26
Do Do
William Do Son Do 21
Coal Miner Do Do
Martha Do Daur

16
Mon Blaenavon

     Glouster surely must mean Gloucestershire.  The enumerator's writing is fairly clear (even if his spelling leaves a little to the imagination) and the microfilm copy is not too bad, so Tinglish Bicknot or Tinglish Bichnor really does look like the reported place of James's birth - as illustrated below.

    We assume that Lebothood might be Leebotwood (about 8 miles south of Shrewsbury), and the rest is fairly clear.  In the book it is reported that a friend of James and fellow miner named James Jewell subsequently married Susanna's sister Martha Painter and emigrated with them to New Zealand. Martha is reported in the census to have been 16 in 1871. Stuart Moverley kindly sent us a copy of the New Zealand obituary of James Jewell which says "He was born in Devonshire, England, in 1850".

    1851 census: IF James's ages at both the wedding and the 1871 census are perfectly correct (and he had had a birthday between the two), then James would be aged 5 at the 1851 census.  We can add in that he was born in Tinglish Bicknor, Gloucestershire, as reported in the 1871 census, and that his father was Thomas Tarling (a collier in 1871) as reported on the marriage certificate, and add in the names of his siblings from the book, to get more detail. So we can take a look for a James Tarling in the 1851 Gloucestershire census age 5, father Thomas, a collier, possibly with a sister Sarah (and perhaps brothers Bob and Tom). Only two possibilities appear in Gloucestershire.  The first is in Ashurst, where we find a James, age 7, born Northway (close to Tewkesbury), but his father is George, an agricultural labourer and he has no helpful siblings.
    The only other possibility is in West Dean where we find a  James, age 4, born West Dean, father Thomas, a shoemaker.  This James also has a sister Sarah and a brother Thomas (who was staying with an aunt and uncle in Lydney at the 1851 census). Furthermore although there is no Bob there is an older brother Nathaniel - and James and Susan's fifth child was named Robert Nathaniel after Bob.  This latter James is a part of the hunting ground of the Stuart Moverley and Mike George band of Tarling-spotters and well researched.  Of course our James may well have been born in Gloucestershire in the mid 1840s, but then gone with his family to Wales or elsewhere before the 1851 census perhaps, and not be either of the entries reported above.

    So out with the atlas to reveal: English Bicknor, which is close to West Dean, making it more likely that James Tarling in the book is the same as the James Tarling in the 1851 census reportedly born at West Dean. Well thanks to new information from Stuart Moverley is seems the Thomas Tarling that he is interested in (in Lydney in 1851) may well be a brother of James of the book.

    Birth of James Tarling: IF James's ages at both the wedding and the 1871 census are perfectly correct (and he had had a birthday between the two), then he was born between 4th. April 1845 and 31st. July 1845.  The closest possibility we could see in the indexes was a rather poor match with a James Tarling born SQ 1844 Tewkesbury (ref. XI  437).   Of course our James might have been mis-indexed or not indexed at all; we are going to take another look at the indexes...
 

    This entire comparison - between the book based on the distant memories of older relatives and what is recorded in various archives is a salutary lesson to all those of us tracing our family histories.

Added July 2004: thanks to FreeBMD we can now also see:
1) the marriage of James Jewell to Martha Painter in DQ 1876 in Abergavenny district (Martha would have been about 21).
2) the marriage of Harriet Painter to George Biggs in DQ 1871 in Abergavenny district (Harriet would have been about 27, and this was after James Tarling and Susan Painter's wedding - so who were the witnesses at the wedding?).
3) the birth of Susan Painter registered SQ 1842 in the Crickhowell district.
4) the birth of a William Painter registered JQ 1849 in the Crickhowell district.


To the Tarling Family History home page.
 
 

URL: http://www.tarling.net/james.html    Latest update: 25 Jul 2004