Genealogy in the Sun 2014 Else Churchill I'm Stuck

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. Where did your ancestors live?
• County
sources
• Local sources
• Parish
registers
• Monumental
Inscriptions
• Census
Indexes
• Directories &
Poll Books

5. Parish &Topographical Maps

6. Widening the search
1. The “ripple method”
2. “Any port in a storm”

7. Indexes
• Broad coverage – national,
countywide
• Census
• Marriage
• Burials
• IGI/FamilySearch
• County Lists of names– eg
Directories, Poll Books, Taxes, Wills
…

8. 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

9. 9

10. 10
John Beckham = Mary….
b1846 b1850
Scavenger
William Beckham =
b1870
Carman
Sarah…
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

11. 1911 William Churchill b BroadOak

12. 12
William Churchill b Herefordshire

13. • 1901 (Wm jr living in Tredegar) Broad Oak
• 1901 (Wm jr living in Tredegar) Herefordshire
• 1901 (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)

17. 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!!

18. 18
Births, Marriages & Deaths

19. FreeBMD

20. Try Local Registry Offices
some on line

21. 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
does not include burials
in its 700m names

22. Check the original

24. Family Search – search parish batch number
24

26. The National Burial Index
& Findmypast

27. 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

29. Localisation
A practical exercise

30. Francis Fewell m. 1861

31. 1861 Census Hope Place
indexed under Quell!

32. Marriage Indexes
• SoG’s Boyd’s
Marriage Index on
British Origins
covers marriages
in most Essex
Parishes

33. Boyd’s Marriage Index
FEWEL etc

34. Plot entries on a map
or use parish locator

35. 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

36. Allegation

37. Faculty Office
Marriage
Licence
Allegation

38. 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

39. Liberty of the Fleet

40. Fleet Marriage Registers

41. 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.

42. 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

43. 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

44. The Lure of London
• Records at LMA &
Guildhall being
indexed onto
Ancestry.co.uk
• Special Collections at
The Society of
Genealogists
• Some on British
Origins
• see also My Ancestors
were Londoners

45. Boyd’s Inhabitants of London

46. Pre 1800
What did they do?

47. 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

48. Apprenticeship Records
• Apprentices of Great Britain 1710-
1774
• City of London Apprenticeships
• Crisp & Clench Collection (original
indentures)
• Local borough Freemen &
Apprentices
• Local parish/poor law
apprenticeships

49. Apprentices of Great Britain 1710-1774
IR 1 tax records @TNA indexed by Ancestry
Exemptions
Families, Poor law & Local Charities

50. London City Apprenticeships

51. Parish Apprenticeships
in parish chest records at CROs

52. Borough Freemen
• Apprenticeship
• Matrimony
• Patrimony
• Redemption
• Bristol, Canterbury,
Coventry, York etc

53. Bristol Freemen

54. Bristol Apprentices

55. 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

56. Search Directories on line
www.historicaldirectories.org

57. 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

58. 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

59. 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.”

60. 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

61. Removal of Mary Hall
Removed from
Woodbridge in Suffolk to
Elham in Norfolk –
presumably her place of
birth – along with her two
bastard children

62. 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!!!

63. 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)