Genealogy in the Sun

I’m Stuck Ideas for Climbing Brick Walls

Else Churchill

Society of Genealogists

14 Charterhouse Buildings

Goswell Road

London EC1M 7BA

www.sog.org.uk

Developing Research Strategies

• Identify the gaps

• Where is the missing information?

• How do I access it?

• What are my priorities?

• Determine the logical and practical order

Vital Questions?

• Who?

• What are you looking for?

• Where ?

• When

• Why are you stuck?

• Type of person – Aglab or Lord of the manor?

• Baptism, Marriage or Burial?

• Parish, county, country, world?

• 16th-20th centuries?

• Too many or too few possibilities

Where did your ancestors live? • County

sources

• Local sources

• Parish registers

• Monumental Inscriptions

• Census Indexes

• Directories & Poll Books

Parish &Topographical Maps

Widening the search

1. The “ripple method”

2. “Any port in a storm”

Indexes

• Broad coverage – national, countywide

• Census

• Marriage

• Burials

• IGI/FamilySearch

• County Lists of names– eg Directories, Poll Books, Taxes, Wills …

Census Name Indexes all published

and most online indexes at SoG • Ancestry 1841-1911

• Findmypast/Genes Reunited 1841-1911

• BritishOrigins 41, 61, 71

• The Genealogist

• 1911census.co.uk

• Familysearch

• Free Cen

• Local FHS

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John Beckham = Sarah….

b1846 b1850

Scavenger

William Beckham =

b1870

Carman

Harriet…

b1873

m ca 1891

Artificial Florist

Martha Mary John William Edward Bertha James

b1892 b1897 b1898 b1900 b1902 b1905 b 1906 Dressmaker

David Beckham’s GtGtGt Grandfather

? I living

2 dead

1911 William Churchill b BroadOak

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William Churchill b Herefordshire

• 1911 (Wm jr living in Tredegar) Broad Oak

• 1901 (Wm jr in Tredegar) Herefordshire

• 1891 Wm Jr in Tredegar Broad Oak

• 1891 (Wm Sr in Broad Oak,St Weonard) Herefordshire S

• 1881 (Wm jr in Llanvihangel, Mon) Herefordshire Broad Oak

• 1871 & 1861 (Wm sr & jr Living St Weonards) Herefordshire St Weonard

• 1851 (Wm sr Living Llangatttock) Herefordshire St Weonard

• 1841 (James in St Weonard)

• 1841 William Church aged 15? Son of James?

William Churchill (1858-1924) s/o William Churchill (1825-1905) s/o James (1775-1845)

Index search tips

less is more – you may not need to complete all the boxes

be aware of transcription errors

can you use character replacements?

first letters are often misread

abbreviated forenames may not come up

search under forename, age, place of birth etc. rather than surname

enumerators made errors too!

search all indexes available – results can differ

local expertise may recognise local names and places better

don’t always rely on indexes!!

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Births, Marriages & Deaths

FreeBMD

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Are there previous marriages? Prothers Churchill – Ellen K Close Solihull 1944

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Try Local Registry Offices some on line

Parish Registers

• Baptisms

• Marriages

• Burials

From 1538 in England & Wales

From c 1660 in Scotland

Originals in local record offices

Copies at SoG

Many indexed on IGI on FamilySearch.org which largely does not include burials in its 700m names

Check the original

Family Search Batch Number

Family Search – search parish batch number

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The National Burial Index and other local FHS work on Findmypast

Nonconformity?

• No baptisms in parish where parents married?

• Nonconformists could only marry in Anglican church 1754-1837 (Jews & Quakers exempt)

• Biblical names

• Many records on IGI & BVI

& BMD Registers.co.uk. At TNA in RG4 - RG8

• Quakers RG6 (not on IGI) see Quaker Digests

Localisation

A practical exercise

Francis Fewell m. 1861

1861 Census Hope Place indexed under Quell!

Marriage Indexes

• SoG’s Boyd’s Marriage Index (formerly on British Origins now on Findmypast and SoG Data online) covers marriages in most Essex Parishes

Boyd’s Marriage Index FEWEL etc

Plot entries on a map or use parish locators etc

How did your ancestors marry?

• By banns?

• Separate banns books from 1754

• Banns called in both parishes

• Tells you where the other party lived

• By licence?

• 3 Documents issued

• Bond

• Allegation

• Licence

• The production of a licence does not prove that a marriage took place

Allegation

Faculty Office Marriage Licence

Allegation

Places free of the Bishop of London • St James Dukes Place (1664 -1691 =

40,000 marriages) nb in 1686 the rector of St James Dukes Place was suspended for three years for marriages without banns or licence

• Holy Trinity Minories • Tower of London • The Mint • Liberties of the Fleet Prison

–Taverns, alehouses and brandy shops –See also list of chapels in J S Burn

Registrum Ecclesiae Parochialis The History of the Parish Registers of England 1842 and History of the Fleet Marriages

Liberty of the Fleet

Fleet Marriage Registers

Licensed Clandestinity?

• Surrogates issued with blank licences from the Diocesan Registry notoriously abused their position. St Boltoplh Aldgate curate empowered to grant grant licences for the Bishop of London

• Licences to marry in “foreign” [distant] churches

– E.G. William Sweetapple Rector of Fledborough in Nottingham

• 1712-28 6 marriages in parish

• 1728-54 488 marriages by licence.

Vicar of Tong’s penance for clandestine marriage

“Dishonoured my ministry by a

constant & habitual course &

practice of marrying all sorts of

people both of my own and other

parishes … Without banns or

licence” Consistory Court of

Canterbury

Marriage search strategy Registers

• PR where child baptised

• PR of mother’s family parish

• PR of father’s family parish

• Immediate neighbouring parishes

• Foreign marrying parishes?

Finding aids

• IGI

• County Marriage Indexes

• Boyd’s Marriage Index/Pallot Marriage Index

Try London

• Vicar General/Faculty Office Marriage Licences

• Bishop of London & Lower Court Marriage Licences

• Pallot (London 1800-37) & Boyd pre 1754

• Fleet Registers

The Lure of London

• Records at LMA & Guildhall being indexed onto Ancestry.co.uk

• Records of Westminster o FMP

• Special Collections at The Society of Genealogists

• see also My Ancestors were Londoners

Boyd’s Inhabitants of London

Pre 1800

What did they do?

Who What Where & When?

No list of ag labs!

People move for jobs

Craftsmen once regulated

More mobile & less skilled = fewer records

Self employed easier to trace

Apprenticeship Records

• Apprentices of Great Britain (IR1) 1710-1811

• City of London Apprenticeships

• Crisp & Clench Collection (original indentures at SoG)

• Local borough Freemen & Apprentices

• Local parish/poor law apprenticeships

Apprentices of Great Britain 1710-1811

IR 1 tax records @TNA indexed by Ancestry & SoG

Exemptions Families, Poor law & Local Charities

London City Apprenticeships Abstracts 1442-1850 now on FMP

Parish Apprenticeships in parish chest records at CROs

Borough Freemen

• Apprenticeship

• Matrimony

• Patrimony

• Redemption

• Bristol, Canterbury, Coventry, York etc

Canterbury Freemen

Bristol Freemen

Bristol Apprentices

Directories of Cornwall at SoG

• 1783 Bailey’s western directory

• 1797 Universal British trade directory

• 1823 & 1830 Pigot’s directories

• 1840 Robson’s directory

• 1852 Slater’s directory

• 1856, 1873 & 1889 Kelly’s directories

• 1890, 1895 & 1900 Eyre’s Plymouth & Devonport district directories

• 1893 & 1897 Kelly’s directories

• 1901 Venning’s east Cornwall directory

• 1902, 1906, 1910, 1919, 1923, 1930 & 1939 Kelly’s directories

Search Directories on line www.historicaldirectories.org

Poll Books • Act of 1696

introduced published poll books designed to prevent fraud showing how electors had voted. Returning officers allowed printers to publish poll books commercially

The Poll for the Knights of the Shire to represent the county of Leicestershire 1775

Genealogy of the Submerged Records of the Old and New

Poor Laws

• Settlement Examinations • Settlement Certificates • Removal Orders • Bastardy Bonds • Post 1834 Workhouse admissions and

punishment registers

Found in local county record offices

The Settlement examination of William Bridge, a militia man in the Sussex

Regiment of Militia taken upon oath the 4th February 1779.

“This examination saith that he was born in the parish of

Childeridge in the County of Essex.That upon new michelmas

day in the year 1776 he bargained with Mrs. Beard of

Frittenden in the County of Kent for a year from the Old

Michaelmas day following being allowed one day for holiday for

eight guineas wages. That he accordingly served him a full year

in Frittenden & rec’d his wages agreed for and then bargained

again with his said Master for another year but served only eight

days since which he hath not done any act to gain a legal

settlement else where.”

Settlement Certificate of Daniel Martin

Daniel Martin,

His wife Winifred,

Children William & Daniel

Issued by Fordingbridge (Hants)

Sent to Mereworth (Kent)

Overseers acknowledge he is settled in Fordingbridge

Certificates in both Winchester & Maidstone ROs

Removal of Mary Hall

Removed from Woodbridge in Suffolk to Elham in Norfolk – presumably her place of birth – along with her two bastard children

Evidence only becomes proof through a reasoned and logical analysis and an argument capable of convincing others that the conclusion is valid

Quality not Quantity!!!

Genealogical Proof Standard

• A reasonably exhaustive search for all pertinent information (Have I searched hard enough?)

• A complete and accurate citation to the source of each item used (Can someone else repeat this?)

• Analysis of the collected information's quality as evidence (Does my theory hold up to scrutiny?)

• Resolution of any conflicting or contradictory evidence (Don’t delude yourself)

• Arrive at a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion (Make sense)