Links to the USA

This post updated and rewritten - Dec 17th, 2008, Feb/2009 and May, 2009.

In the last post we looked at links to Hubbersteys in Canada. In this post we will try to see where the "USA" Hubbersteys came from. We actually have at least 4 distinct cases to look at.

Case #1:

The first case begins with an entry here with the arrival of John Hubberstey on the SS Caronia Liverpool, England via Queenstown, Ireland to New York, NY, 30 October 1910

Hubberstey, John 25y; male; single; Machinist (about this
is written: 16-2838);can read/write; Cit: England;
English race; Last Perm. Residence: England,Blackpool;
Relative from Whence Came: Mother, Kate Hubberstey,
4 Leeds Rd, Blackpool; Final Dest: Pa-Philadelphia; no
ticket; pd by self; $50; in US before-no; Joining:
Sister Mary Felix, The Convent, Philadelphia, Pa; in
prison-no; polygamist-no; anarchist-no; promise of
labor-no;health-good; deformed/crippled-no; 5'6-1/2" tall;
fresh complex;fair hair, grey eyes; no marks; Born,
England, Blackburn.

Looking backwards into John's past:
From the 1901 census we have a John and Kate Hubberstey residing in Blackpool, with a son John Joseph (pictured left), then aged 15 (so 25 by 1910). John Joseph had 5 other siblings. His father John was a confectionery shop keeper and his mother a baker. His oldest brother Robert was a beer traveller (I'm not sure what that entailed, but it sounds good to me).

John Joseph's father, John, had married a Catherine Lunt in 1876. In the 1881 census he was listed as a master ironmonger, having come from Clitheroe, though by then residing in Blackburn.

John was the son of Ann Barton and Robert Hubberstey. They married in 1846 and had at least 3 children (James, John, and Catherine). Robert (b. Oct 17, 1820?) appears to have been the son of Anne Swarbrick and James Hubberstey.

(As mentioned in an earlier Samlesbury post, James may have been the son of Robert and Mary Watson, though that is not certain - an interesting point being that Robert married an Ann Barton, and Cicely (daughter of Robert and Cecily) married a Henry Barton. Both were born in Osbaldeston, however the 1941 census record can't be located for the Barton family so we can't make a match yet.)

Looking forward:
From the quote above we can see that John was heading for Philadelphia. We know from US Social Security records that he died November 1970 in Gasconade, Missouri.

The Missouri marriage records show John J. Hubberstey marrying Bertha F. Link (b. Oct 1, 1889). Bertha was his first wife which ties in with his being listed as a Canadian soldier in WWI, with a wife Bertha. In fact, John served with the Canadian Cavalry in WW1, and was at some point stationed in Hamilton, Ontario. There is a death notice for a Bertha Hubberstey (nee Calvert) in St. Louis for November 19, 1918. The copy of the death certificate shows she (Dollie Hubberstey) died from typhoid fever.

Subsequently John Joseph married Pearl (b. March 11, 1897, d. April 21, 1992), a Swiss American, and the 1930 US census shows a John J. Hubberstey, with spouse "Pearl", living in Sedgwick, Kansas.

John Joseph lived variously in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. At some point he owned a ranch with horses at Marland, Oklahoma, the love of horses having continued from his time in the cavalry. He also was for a time in the oil business.

It is interesting that my Dad and my grandfather heard stories from the family about a Hubberstey who had gone to America and done well, even having a ranch with horses where you could ride all day! I guess that is another piece of evidence for some kind of connection between the families (Samlesbury line and Hubberstey/Swarbrick)

Case #2:

This case took a bit longer to track down, but I think we now have a more complete story.

We will use as our starting point the California Death record of James Hubberstey born Feb 12, 1874 in England who died in L.A. on January 8th, 1944 at the age of 69. The listing shows that his mother's maiden name was "Dolphin". This allows us to identify him as the son of James Hubberstey and Ellen Dolphin ( See North Preston, Whittingham 3 for the family story)

The same death records show

• a Thomas Hubberstey, born March 18, 1903, died January 27, 1965 (aged 69), with a mother's maiden name of "Webster".
• a James G. Hubberstey, born Sept 9, 1927 in Washington, died March 6, 1974 (aged 46) in Solana, CA.
• a William Hubberstey born May 29th, 1938 in Texas and died Sept 8, 1982 (aged 44) in Solano, CA
• a Vinette Jospehine Hubberstey born May 29th, 1908 in Texas, died Oct 6, 1955 (aged 47) also in Solano

We know from an ancestry.co.uk posting that James had married an Elizabeth Webster. At the time of the 1901 census they were listed as "Hubberster", which of course is not even a standard variant. Anyway at the time of the census Elizabeth and James were living with Elizabeth's brother (John Webster) and his family in Preston.

Thomas Hubberstey was born in England 3-18-1903. Later we have a James Hubberstey listed in the 1920 US census as living in King, Washington.

We also have from an Ancestry.co.uk post

James G. Hubberstey was born in the US in 1929. His father was Thomas and was born in England in 1903. Thomas' dad was James I. Hubberstey and mom was Mary Webster both born in England . Grandfather James G. also had a brother, his name was Robert T., and was born in the US in 1929. Their mother's name was Minnie Cooper of Washington State. William was born in1938 but he had a different mother.

So Thomas married first Minnie Cooper and had sons Robert (born Bremerton, WA) and James, then married again to (Vinnette Alden ). There was a son William Alden. William married Charlene. Minnie died in Washington state in 1969.

From the Social Security death records we have
James Hubberstey (b. Sept9, 1927, d. March 6, 1974) California
Robert Hubberstey (b. Nov 8, 1929, d. Feb 27, 2003) California

There are a number of current listings for Hubbersteys in California, so it is likely that they are the descendants of Robert, James and/or William.


Case #3:

Thanks to a head's up from a reader in the US we can also fill in another case of England to America emigration.

From passenger manifests we know that in 1921 a "R. Hubberstey", J. Hubberstey" and "W. Hubberstey" left Liverpool, England for Quebec, Canada. They then crossed at Detroit to move to the USA.

Tracing back was a bit challenging but we knew that W. Hubberstey was Wilfred Hubberstey, son of Richard Hubberstey and Jane (Conner) originally from Scotland. Originally I had not picked up Richard in the 1901 census, but I eventually found him in the 1901 Scottish census under "Hubbershey", living in Glasgow and working as a Reed Maker.

Going back to the files I found that there was a Richard in the 1891 census in Preston, of roughly the same age, also working as a reed maker. This Richard was the son of Elizabeth and Richard mentioned in the post HERE.

There is one more interesting part to this story, with a link to Canada. The WWI Canadian service records show a Charles Conner serving for Canada and listing Jane Hubberstey as next of kin. It looks quite likely that Charles was Jane's brother (there was a Charles Conner listed as a younger brother of Jane in the 1891 Scottish census). So it looks like Charles may have emigrated to Canada before Jane.

We also know from a comment on the index page of this blog that Wilfred married Veronica McCarthy and had at least one daughter. He also had a brother Charles (d.1961) who had two daughters (Jean and Esther) with his wife Esther Hattie Denner. The family had a dairy farm in Florida. Jane died in 1945 and Richard in 1948, both in Florida.

Case #4:

We start with a Florida divorce listing for a William G. Hubbersty and Colleen N. Hubberstey....

It turns out that this instance is related, though distantly, to case 3 above. It looks like William is William Gerald Hubbersty, born May 20th, 1928 in Warrington, Cheshire, England. He looks to have married first a Colleen Wong (from Wisconsin??) and secondly Nella (Bach). William Gerald Hubbersty and Colleen Wong apparently had one daughter, who took her mother's surname after her mother remarried.

William Gerald Hubbersty was the son of William Patrick Hubbersty and Margaret A. Marsh (married in Warrington September, 1927). William Patrick Hubbersty was the son of Rose Alice Hubberstey, born in 1901, with Rose Alice being unmarried at the time (so she kept the Hubberstey surname). Rose Alice herself was the daughter of Richard Hubberstey and Elizabeth Horn, and was the sister of Richard in case #3.




Update - May 12/08...And one more...

This one is bit unusual. I don't have access to the journal so for now I can't follow it up...but it does look interesting.

Margaret Hubbersty alias Holland, was the owner of a plantation in Maryland. She was a recusant who, during the Civil War in England, assigned her property to her brother-in-law, a Member of Parliament, to save it from confiscation: see C10/97/55, Hubbersty v. Bell, also C9/27/83. (National Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol. 66, No.3, p.221 (Sept. 1978);

We still have one other Social Security record that need sorting out:

Genevieve (b. March 31, 1916, d. Jan 20, 2000) in California so possibly related to case 2 above. We know that Genevieve was Genieveve Clohe JORDAN and that she was born in Texas and that she married a Hubberstey (Robert or James above???). (But another record shows her born Pendennis, KS). It appears that Genevieve was the wife of Robert Thomas, though that is still to confirm.