If you study the family tree of Henry Jnr (previous post) you will realise that although he had nine children with Margaret Thompson only three of these passed on the surname to later generations. These are William (b 1883), Robert (b 1887) and Alfred (b 1899).
The William branch of the family (my own) moved away to South Down while Robert and Alfred stayed put.
Robert married Nellie Shields. They had Jim (d 1977), Betty (d 1989) and Desmond (d 1980). I do not know whether Jim had any children. Desmond married Ella and they had a daughter Alison who is a doctor in Wales.
Alfie inherited the family farm in spite of being the last born of Henry’s children. He married Peggie Jackson a teacher from Co Monaghan and they had Jackson and June.
Jackson took over the farm from his father. He married Anne and they had Michael, Andrew and David. Andrew lives in a bungalow just next to the farm. I do not know whether these sons have produced male children to carry the Speedie name on or not. Jackson died in November 2009 and the farm is now in new ownership (Trevor and Paddie Smyth).
June married Desmond (Dessy) Bonar and has two children, Dene and Kirsty. I met June and Desmond on my recent visit to Randalstown.
There is yet another branch of the family still involved in agriculture in Randalstown. Henry Jnr’s younger brother Tommy married Sarah Clark in 1887. They had a large family only one of whom was a boy. Harry was born in 1894. He married Mary Agnew and they had Berty, Peggie and Elsa. Elsa married a John Sloan and they live on the family farm on Ahoghill Road, Randalstown. Peggie married someone named Thompson. Berty married Daisy Chesney who I also met on my recent visit. Daisy showed me two old photos of her husband's father and grandfather. Tommy is on the left.
They had Harold, Wilbert, Heather, Ann, Jennifer and Allister. I met Harold (Harry) also at the family farm at No 70 Tannaghmore Road.
I've done no where near the research you've done, Chris, but I think there is indeed another branch of Speedie's, via A. Thompson Speedie.
ReplyDeleteAccording to my limited research, my grandfather's father is Andrew Thompson.
He would have had atleast 3 children that I am aware of: Murray, Jack and Helen
My grandfather is Murray Daniel Thompson Speedie
Born 1921, Radville Saskatchewan.
Anecdotally, his father did work for the Railroad. My mother spoke of this and I have seen photos of him in uniform.
Thanks for making contact Jerome! We have a photo in the family archive of Thompson in his work uniform on board a Canadian train. A number of his siblings emigrated to Canada, Australia and New Zealand in search of opportunity. So there are Speedies scattered all across the globe including in Hawaii.
DeleteHi! Speedie was my granny's maiden name. We are all lowlands Scots/ulster/donegal going back. I found some speedie graves in Randalstown and would love to know if they're distant cousins...it's been quite a strange journey but I kept getting pulled there and nearly fainted when I saw the name in the graveyard!
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