About

Ruminations on how this one-name study came about…

For more information on one-name studies, see the Guild of One-Name Studies site, in particular What is a One-Name Study?

F for Foxtrot

I grew up in the late seventies in St Mary’s Platt, a small village in Kent which fell under the Tunbridge Wells Area of the BT telephone directory. I was always curious to see we were the only Furney in the book. “Furney”, I’d hear my mother explain on the phone, “F for Foxtrot, u, r, n, e, y - we’re the only one in the book”. One day staying at a friend’s house, I happened upon their neighbouring Maidsone Area directory (how exotic) and tentatively checked the Fs. No Furneys! Years later at college in Bristol, having moved into lodgings, I checked the BT directory in the house there - surely some Furneys in Bristol? But again none.

After college I had a job working a night shift for the Royal Bank of Scotland processing a tidal wave of new Tesco Bank savings account applications. As part of the application process we had to check the applicants in the electoral register or the phone book to validate identity. (This was pre the internet going mainstream as well as the majority of people getting fed up with cold calls and going ex-directory). We had access to a U.K. wide BT database. How many Furneys would I find here? I did a surreptitious search one night. Fifteen… - only fifteen! Even allowing for some people to be ex-directory, only a handful of families in the whole of the UK.

Dawson Furney

I like having an uncommon surname (it makes up for having a tragically common first name), but when I first came across the Free BMD database online, it was actually my second middle name, Dawson, I was interested in finding more about. My full name is Claire Louise Dawson Furney. Myself, my sister, my father and his sister were all named Dawson Furney. The same Dawson Furney combination continues up the generations on my father’s side and I was curious to know where it had come from and how far back it went. Using Free BMD, I traced back from my father (Richard Edward Dawson Furney), to my grandfather (Lewis George Dawson Furney), my great-grandfather (George Dawson Furney) and finally my great-great-grandfather. His name turned out to be Philip Henry Furney. The Dawson had disappeared already. Disappointed to find it had stopped so soon. Philip Henry Furney’s wife’s maiden name wasn’t Dawson and there were no other references to Dawson in any other ancestors. I wasn’t sure where the name had come from, but at least I now knew when it had appeared.

Philip Henry Furney seemed to have led one of the more interesting lives amongst my ancestors. He was born in Glasgow in 1840, moved all over the country, married three times, had twelve children, spent some time in America as well as some time in one of the workhouses of London. His job is variously recorded in censuses as soap buyer or travelling salesman. I randomly sent off for the marriage certificate for his second marriage to Lizzie Swaine, George Dawson Furney’s mother.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, certainly not to see the word Dawson on the marriage certificate - but there it was…!

Married in the Church of the Saviour according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the United Christians by Licence by me, George Dawson, Minister, Alfred Cooper, Registrar

George Dawson was the minister who had conducted the marriage ceremony! And for some reason Philip Henry had decided to name one of his son’s after him (and he, his son etc)! I googled George Dawson and it seemed he was a bit of a local celebrity of the time.

On to Furney

Having quashed the amuse bouche, I now starting trying to trace Furney back further. Philip Henry Furney’s father was also a Philip Henry Furney, an Inland Revenue officer born in Monmouth in 1810. He had 3 brothers and sisters all of whom lived in and around Monmouth. His father was James Furney. He was born in Lea on the Gloucestershire Herefordshire border in about 1771 and was a hatter (a popular profession in the area at the time). He owned a shop at 28 Agincourt Square in Monmouth for a number of years.

The earliest record I can find for James Furney were the details of his marriage to Elizabeth Jarrett. A transcript of the Lea Parish registers shows they were married on 17th September 1799 at Lea Parish Church. The transcript was taken the following year on 4th August 1800. A record of the “marriage allegation or bond” has also been transcribed online, available at: https://forest-of-dean.net/joomla/index.php/marriage-allegations (search for FURNEY). This is dated 16th September 1799, the day before. James’s age is noted as 23.

However I have so far not been able to find details of this birth or baptism. There are various other Furneys baptized around the same time, so potential brothers, sisters and cousins, but nothing I was able to piece together into even a meaningful hypothesis.

All the Furneys

It was at this point I had the idea of collecting information on all the Furneys I could find (since there were managable numbers) and trying to track back further that way somehow.

And hence the one-name study.