Re: Hanser/Hancer, Suffolk, England
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In reply to:
Re: Hanser/Hancer, Suffolk, England
Cindy Huffaker 12/14/06
From Dot Hancey (who isn't on-line):
To all my Hancey family,
A week ago, while I was going through all my old cards and letters I have had for over 12 years, I came across a letter that had been written to me from Doris Reed of Logan who passed away a couple of years ago. We had corresponded for many years.In this letter, she was talking about Hancer/Hancey and asked whether I had seen Hancer in the on-line IGI for Germany and Austria. Because we didn't have very good computers in our family history centre back then, I put the letter away.
After rediscovering the letter, I went to the FHC and performed the search that she suggested and found lots of entries of 'Michael Hanser' in Austria. While sitting at the computer thinking about this, I remembered my Dad's eldest brother, Fred Hancey, telling me the following story.
It was 30-35 years ago when he spoke of his returning to England in 1929-30 to see the folks. On each such occasion, he was accustomed to visiting an elderly cousin of his father Fred Hancey (my grandfather). This cousin often told him that he was spelling his surname incorrectly, and that it should have been 'Hanser'. She was probably in her 80s at the time.
Since 1924, the Hancer/Hancey families have gone over and over the records in Suffolk without finding anything about Michael Hanser's parents or siblings. I think that this relative that Uncle Fred told me about would have known where we came from as she would have been born in about the 1850s. My feelings are that Michael Hancer moved from Austria to England as a young man and there married Mary Clutton.
A few weeks ago, before I found Doris' letter, I was saying to my daughter, "It's a wonder Doris hasn't 'stirred the pot'" (which means that she wanted to share with anyone the large amount of family history that she knew).
So what do all of the Hanser/Hancey folk think of this?
When I was remembering Uncle Fred telling me of his trips to England, it was just like he was right there again standing beside me speaking to me.
Sadly, Uncle Fred never told me the name of his father's cousin and at the time I never thought to ask.
Years ago, Doris and her genealogist (Lily?) went to England for months but even armed with my family history information they found nothing. They searched all of the records in Suffolk for Michael Hanser/Hancey but with no results. Hence, Doris, Lily and I came to the conclusion that Michael most probably arrived in England from elsewhere.
Regards,
Dot Hancey.