THE DORANS FAMILY GRAVE IN CALCUTTA INDIA

THE DORANS FAMILY GRAVE IN CALCUTTA INDIA

MY ANCESTORS

Dear Ancestor
Your tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished, marbled stone.
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
So many years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you.


POEM AUTHOR UN KNOWN
THANKS TO THE POET
FOR SUCH LOVELY WORDS

RUFUS SANDFORD AND MARY

RUFUS SANDFORD AND MARY

THE SANFORD CONNECTION

My grand mother was married twice ,
Ryan and Sanford.
Sanford was evidently the step father as my moms name was Evelyn Phyllis Ryan,

during her life time my mom mentioned that Sanford was a missionary and his mission was in Vizanagram in south India,and that he was from America she also mentioned a name Lottie. Later after searching the net came across the name Lottie who was his daughter from his first marriage, Sanford's wife died in1903 and prior to her death she was eight years in the States while Sanford was in India Sanford died in the thirty's, so it is possible he married a second wife after the demise of his first wife,
I suppose it was during this period after her death he may have married again, though I cannot say if it was a fact as I have not yet come across any evidence of his marriage accept my mom and her relatives words . Patsy who is still alive and is my mother's brother Herbert Ryan's daughter who is now settled in Australia , I shall continue this search following is the life of Rufus Sanford researched till the time of his first wife's death.


LAMONT (Lemont), MARY E. (Sanford), Baptist missionary; b. c. 1842 in Billtown, N.S., daughter of Joel Lemont and Rebecca — ; m. there 20 Aug. 1873 Rufus Sanford, and they had three children; d. 17 or 18 July 1903 in Madras, India.

Born and raised in a predominantly Baptist community, Mary E. Lamont “professed faith in the Saviour” and was baptized on 2 June 1867. About the same time she was sent to the Grand Pre Seminary in Wolfville, N.S. There she was greatly influenced by Hannah Maria Norris*, who in 1870 began the successful organization of women’s missionary societies in the Baptist churches of the Maritimes. It was probably at Wolfville that Lamont met Rufus Sanford, a former student at Acadia College and then a teacher at Horton Academy, who had already decided on a career in the field of foreign missions. On the afternoon of 20 Aug. 1873 Sanford was ordained as a foreign missionary, and that evening he and Lamont were married.

In October the Sanford's, George Churchill and his wife, Matilda M. Churchill, William F. Armstrong, Flora Eaton, and Maria Armstrong left for Rangoon (Yangon), Burma. Known as the “serving seven,” the group arrived on 12 Jan. 1874 and took up work among the Karen people, where they struggled with the difficult language and the even more difficult climate. Although funded by the Baptists of the Maritime's, the “serving seven” worked under the board of the American Baptist Missionary Union. By the mid 1870s, however, Maritime Baptists no longer considered this arrangement acceptable, and they strove for a mission station of their own. In 1875 the missionaries were ordered to leave their work and proceed to Cocanada (Kakinada), India, to open a Maritime Baptist mission. There they were to labour beside the missionaries of the Ontario and Quebec convention among the Telugu-speaking peoples.

Some of Sanford’s fellow missionaries had reservations about the decision, but she was clearly delighted, and wrote to the press in Nova Scotia that “we are well assured that the Lord has sent us to this people.” She had detested the long rainy season in Burma, and found the climate of the west coast of the Bay of Bengal much more to her liking. The Sanfords’ arrival at Bimlipatam on 4 Nov. 1875 marked the start of the Maritime Baptist involvement in India, which has lasted to the present. The couple had to battle heat, language and cultural barriers, famine, lack of supplies, and the almost impenetrable caste system. Mary concentrated on women and children, establishing schools and a system of “Bible women” designed to reach and teach other Indian women. Rufus worked with the men, attempting to set up a small network of trained native preachers.

The effort involved in her programs, the births of three children and the death of one due to inadequate medical supplies, the discouragingly low number of conversions, and the climate seriously affected Sanford’s health, which had never been robust. She and the children were forced to spend from 1881 to 1886 in Nova Scotia on furlough. By 1891 the health of both Sanfords had been broken, and they had to return to Canada. After a furlough of four years Rufus went back to India, this time to the more promising Vizianagaram station, a few miles from Bimlipatam.

Mary Sanford returned to India for the last time in 1899. Shortly after the reunion held to mark the 30th anniversary of the “serving seven,” she died in Madras, a victim of the ill health which had plagued her during her missionary career. Aided by their daughter Lottie A., Rufus continued work until his death at Vizianagaram in 1932. Mary Sanford was in many respects typical of the missionary wives of the late 19th and early 20th century. She worked quietly and faithfully among the women of India, bore and buried her children, and shouldered burdens which at times were tremendous, but she received little recognition or credit, then or later.

Barry M. Moody

Saturday, December 5, 2009

GEOFFREY C RYAN LETTERS TO ME

Hello,GeoffreY

Let me introduce my self my name is Nanette Doran and I live in India.
I was searching roots web to find any information about the Ryan's who are related to me.

My mother maiden name was Evelyn Phyllis Ryan, her moms name was ? Ryan and father name Herbert Alexander Ryan(as my mom named her first son John Warren Conway) Evelyn Phyllis Ryan had a brother whose name was Herbert Ryan and a sister named Daisy Ryan, DAISY died young and unmarried and is buried in Coonoor in the Nilgiris, that is in the same hills as Ooty, which you have mentioned by the way my mom did tell me she was very much in ooty, her brother Herbert was a forest officer in south India, Herbert children, Patricia (Patsy Hazel Gereldine and (Ruby Pearl)have all immigrated from India,and Patsy is now in Australia.

Patsy while in Calcutta was looking after the Mission of the Welland Gold Smith School in Calcutta, a school at that time for orphan girls.



? Ryan my grand mother is buried in Chennai (Madras)kilpauck cemetery she died of cancer.

Herbert Ryan and my grand father buried in Calcutta , he was service in the Calcutta jail, (i do believe of a bullet wound.
My mom was married twice she was first married to a British soldier John Daniel Conway,who was listed as missing in action, she had one son by him called John Warren Conway and was given up for adoption, to St Georges Homes Keti in the Nilgiris that to is very near to Ooty.

I am very interested in my family tree and I have been searching for the last three to four years, I even wrote to the British Military regarding John Conway, hoping to find some clue of my grand parents, my grand father I think was Irish , my mom would always sing the Irish lullaby, and my grandmother was from south Africa.I could be wrong.

I might have a step brother living some where out there.

The names Ooty Madras and Calcutta ,and the name Ryan might just be co incident, but I hope and pray it might be the same roots we are searching for, do look forward to your mail.

Regards,
Nanette Doran.


Sincere apologies for this rather late reply to your enquiry about the Ryan family. If I had already answered this, again kindly forgive me. A busy life and nearly 75 so I do sometime get my wires crossed!

I checked the information that you had forwarded and none of it has any link with my Ryan family as far as I can see. Ryan is a fairly common Irish name so there could have been a number who were out with the Army in the days of the Raj. Do hope you find some rewarding clues as you seek to trace your family.

Kind regards

Dear Nanette,

Good to hear from you again. Sorry to disappoint you, but none of the Ryan names that you included in your e-mail fit any of my Ryan forebears. I had heard of Ryan folk in Madras/Chennai but as my Ryan’s were in Calcutta, as far as I know none of them wandered down to the South.

Sir Edward Ryan (1793-1875) my Gt.Gt.Gt.Grandfather was a lawyer and came out to Bengal in 1827, and finally became Chief Justice 1833 He returned to England in 1843. He and his wife Louisa did have 12 children, some of them dying in India. Their eldest son Edmund Burke Ryan also in the law, was my Gt.Gt.Grandfather. He married twice, and although he and his first wife Emily Letitia Udny had a few children, unfortunately they all died young. One one son Edward Henry Ryan survived and he was a Col. In the Bengal Army and returned to England.He died in 1929.

The eldest son of Edward and Louisa, was my Gt.Gt.Grandfather Edmund Burke Ryan. He married a second time to a lady called Susan Lydia Rutledge and they had as far as I can trace four children.
Their only daughter was Ellen Harriet Mary Ryan and she married a Ross, so there are no further Ryan links there.

Henry Edmund Ryan (1846-1923) my Gt.Grandfather was their eldest son. He married a lady called Bell, and they has just the ONE DAUGHTER, My Grandma Mabel Amy Ryan/Bonnar.

The only possibility of your Ryan family having any link with my Ryan family, might be through the two other sons of Edmund Burke Ryan and Susan Lydia Rutledge.

These two sons were Charles William Ryan Christened 27.2.1848 (don’t know when be was born), and George Augustus Ryan b. 4.7.1848. I have not followed them up as yet, as there are not in my direct line, but I will one of these days. Now it is very possible they stayed on in India, married and had families but I have no documentation to prove that at present.
The family lived in Calcutta, so I presume that they may also be buried there or could have moved out to some other part of India. Just a possibility that your Ryan family could be descended from the children of these two men, but that has to be at this stage just speculation, until we prove it. Maybe you could work on these two brothers.

Poor Edmund Burke Ryan my Gt.Gt.Grandfather, died aged 35 in 1850 and is buried in Calcutta.

Now to the Williams family. My Williams were Madras based and again I have some material on them, however the name Daisy does not ring a bell. I shall try and send you my Williams information in the not too distant future, if it helps.

Happy hunting,

Kind regards,

Geoffrey.






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