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    CLAN BOYD INTERNATIONAL

                               Russian Boyds
                                             (photos below)

The story begins with Samuel Boyd (b. 1816, Burnside, Portstewart, Northern
Ireland, d. 20 Nov 1856) who married Elizabeth (b.1810, d. 18 Dec 1896).
Nothing is known about Samuel and Elizabeth - what work Samuel did, how
many children they had etc.  Samuel died at age 40 and Elizabeth lived alone for another 40 years.  It is known that they had at least one child, Felix (b. 1843) who married Martha Jane Hemphill.  Felix and Martha had six children - Samuel O'Neill (b. 12 Jun 1863), Charles (b 23 Nov 1866), William, Elizabeth, Janet and Mary.  Felix worked on dredgers in Portstewart harbour and also the River Bann in Northern Ireland.

When work became difficult to find in the late 1880's he went to Russia on 12 April 1890 to do similar harbour and dredging work.  He took his wife, Martha and three children, Samuel O'Neill, Elizabeth and Janet. His other two sons, Charles and William had obtained jobs in England and his other daughter, Mary had just got married in Northern Ireland to Mr Towell (Christian name unknown) and all remained behind.  Over the next 23 years, Felix worked in Archangel (Northern Russia), Petrograd (now Leningrad) on the Baltic and Ocakov, Nikolajev, Ker'c, Temr'uk, Mariupol (now Zdanov) on the Black Sea and Azov Sea on dredgers, in port workshops and as harbourmaster.

Felix's son Samuel O'Neil married a German lady, Antonia Bertha Ennulat, in the Church of England church in Odessa in 1893.  Samuel was also involved in harbour work.  Over the next 16 years, Samuel and Antonia had 5 children, Janet, Charles Samuel (b 1898), Nellie, William Felix (b 1905) and Woldemar Edward (b 1909) and all were born in Russia.  Children born overseas of British ex-
patriots usually are registered at the nearest British Consulate and can be found by searching the Consulate records rather than the births, deaths and marriage offices in London, Belfast or Edinburgh.  Due to the large distances from the Consulate in Russia, none of the children appear to have had their births registered at the time in Russia.  The absence of a birth certificate can cause difficulties later in
life when it is necessary to prove your nationality etc.  For example, the lack of a birth certificate might cause a problem in re-entering the UK. Similarly in death, a birth certificate might be required for the purpose of proving wills and probate.  In this regard, a birth certificate for Charles Samuel was issued 61 years later in 1959 at the Foreign Office by statutory declaration of Samuel John Towell (son of Mary Boyd and ? Towell, therefore a cousin to Charles).

Felix returned to Northern Ireland in 1913 with his wife (his two daughters returned in 1903) and bought a small acre farm in Larkhill, Portstewart.  Felix died on 29 Aug 1915 and the farm was run by his two daughters (they never married) until they died one in 1951 and one in 1956 (it is not known when Felix's wife Martha died).

By coincidence, Felix's son, Samuel was found dead in a hotel bedroom in Petrograd on 18 Aug 1915.  His wife, Antonia and children were probably living in Nicolajev as news about his death didn't reach her for some days.  Some photos (below) taken between 1896 -1905 by Russian photographers in Nicolajev of Martha and son Samuel O'Neil, Samuel and Antonia and 4 of the 5 children and Samuel, Antonia and Samuel's sisters, Elizabeth and Janet exist and are in remarkably good condition.  One of the stories about Samuel is that he used his harbour and shipping connections to help Russian dissidents escape from the Tzar's police and army during various uprisings and civil disturbances during the early 1900's.  There is supposed to be a monument or some other recognition of his activities in Mariupol.

Antonia and the children continued to live in Russia and over the next few years all married Russians.  William Felix married Juliana Olga Liakh and one child was born in Russia.  William continued the marine activities of his father and  grand- father by going to Moscow University to study marine engineering.  Charles Samuel married Ekatarina and two children were born in Russia.  Woldemar married Vera and their only child was born in Russia but only survived 3 months.  Nellie married an officer in the Russian Imperial army and during the Russian revolution moved to Bulgaria.  It is not certain what happened to Janet.

In July 1938, Antonia, William and Juliana and child, Charles and Ekatarina and two children and Woldemar and Vera returned to England. Nellie having married a Russian officer had become a Russian citizen and could not leave Russia.  When they arrived in England their main language was Russian and it is known that in the case of William and Olga and their subsequent two children born in England, they continued to speak Russian at home although the children were perfectly bilingual.

Most of this information was obtained from Vera who is still alive. I'm now looking for any Hemphill or Towell in Nth Ireland that might be able to add to the information on Felix Boyd who married Martha Hemphill and Mary Boyd who married ? Towell. 

This is a more detailed story of the Russian Boyds followin my trip to England during January when I met two of the Boyd descendants.  I found a family grave in Burnside, Portstewart, much overgrown and hardly legible which records the death of Samuel Boyd 1856, his wife 1896, his son Felix 1915 and grandson Samuel 1915 who died in Petrograd - there is no mention of Felix's wife Martha or of Samuel's wife Antonia so they must have been alive when the headstone was engraved.  I tracked down an interesting birth certificate.  I obtained some photos of the Boyd families taken in Russia between 1896-1905 (based on the children in the photo and those obviously not yet born).

Dave Roberts
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Photo on left (our left)-- Seated: Samuel O'Neil Boyd and wife Antonia. At rear, Samuel's sisters
Janet and Elizabeth. (which is which is not known). Photo taken by Y.M. Goldenerga in Nikolejev
on the Black Sea circa 1896.

Photo on our right--Right to left, Samuel O'neil Boyd, Nellie in the middle, wife Antonia with William
Felix on her knee; Janet and Charles in the back. M. Maksumovya is photographer. Photo taken on
the Azov sea circa 1905.

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