Genealogy Chat

I've over 400 people in my tree but little more than BMD or ocupation. Can anyone suggest sites where I can find more. A Will would be nice ! Thanks, Elly

You can try the A2A site - I found a fascinating document about my gt gt gt grandfather there. It gives the reference, but you have to go to the relevant records office to get the original document. I learned that in 1819 my gt x 3 grandfather was evicted from the parish with his wife & 3 daughters, and sent to his home parish. He gave evidence about how much rent he paid, how he kept pigs, his father-in-law's name, etc etc. Or you can visit the relevant records office/local history centre where your rellies lived - you can find all kinds of info there, look at old maps (maybe locate where they lived and go and see if any of it is still the same), look in electoral rolls, street directories, read local newspapers to see what was happening at the time. nell

Thanks Nell I've tried A2A, none on there I've only manged to visit GRO twice, and then only looked at the fiche. Think next time I will ask how to look at other records Wonder what your rellie did to get evicted ?? Thanks Elly

It was a settlement dispute. He was born in Aston Rowant in Oxfordshire, but married in Farnham Royal, Bucks where he had 3 children and initially lived with his father in law. He moved to Stoke Poges when the ceiling of the Farnham Royal house fell in. Stoke Poges parish didn't want to be liable for maintaining him and his family, so sent him back to his birth parish, Aston Rowant. Aston didn't want him and went to court. The magistrates decided he should stay in Stoke Poges. He was in a privately endowed almshouse for over 20 years (found info about it from a report in The Times online) where he lived with 2 other men and 3 women. The almshouse had a private chapel, the inmates grew their own veg, had a shilling each per week to buy meat and also received a new pair of shoes regularly. My ancestor died at the age of 93. nell

If your ancestors were ever in the workhouse, apprenticed, employed by the armed forces, or involved in something illegal/newsworthy, then there may be records. You can tell from the occupations whether or not there are likely to be records, so perhaps start there.

Nell / Twinkle Interesting story Nell - it's stuff like that I want to make a more interesting read - might actually get the family intersted!! Twinkle, I'm going to keep searching. I have railway workers, famers and cobblers, one military connection so I might find something at the GRO Thanks all for the advise Elly

Elly, Which areas are you interested in? And which periods are you talking about? I've found the nineteenth century quite easy to research. Any of the resources suggested above might reveal some interesting details.

Hi Susan Mine are all in the Northamptonshire area Spencer Felton Jeffcoat Bliss Cobley Dickens Eales Eden Essam Farrow Giddens Haynes Lewin Newitt Pearson Swallow Walker White Yorke Take your pick! I have to admit to only looking up the Spencer, Felton & Jeffcoat but nothing found as yet Elly

have you tried the PCC wills on the national Archives site?? There are several for Bliss in Northamptonshire (didn't try the other names!)......cost £3.50 each to download..... Merry

Thank Merry Off to take a look Elly

Elly You will find a lot on Northants once you can get to the CRO at Northampton. I am doing all sorts of Northants Research which brings up further names. Northants is steeped in history. We celebrate 400 years of Guy Fawkes shortly and many of the plotters lived in Northants and Warwickshire. Any connections to the Treshams via your ancestors working for them in the various villages is very interesting research. Unfortunately I can only get my ancestors back to 1633 and need another 30 years research back for the Gunpowder Plot, but my ancestors are working for the Treshams in the house where some of the plotting took place! There are many famous families in Northants and the Spencers, Treshams, Vaux, Brudenells are just names of a few of them. Your ag labs/carpenters/grooms/bailiffs etc will probably have worked for at least one of these families on their huge estates and there is a wealth of knowledge on the internet on all the papers available through the Finch Hatton Papers in the Northants CRO. I have not had time to touch these yet! Lord Cardigan of Crimea War fame is steeped in the Northamptonshire Militia and Regiment and that is a project in itself. I have so much material from Northants which I am trying to organise into projects. I have found wills made by my humble ag labs and Apprenticeship Indentures and Settlements Certs back to the 1700's which are goldmines for details giving ypu places where they worked and married and who they worked for,a 1699 Marriage licence and many of my ancestors working in the villages/hamlets in the area and a study of the hamlets where my ancestors lived have proved really rewarding. I belong to the Northants FHS and also the Northants Record Society and buy all the books on the villages of my interest which number quite a few now as well as the various Census CD'S for Northants. I have found shoemakers and of course Northants was the hom,e of the shoemaking industry. Also Northants was featured very much in the English Civil War of !645 and I have done some research into that and found a marriage during the Commonwealth Period which was fascinating to find the beautifully written marriage in the 1550 register. If you can get back to the 1500's in Northants then you are into the plotters of Mary Queen of Scots and look where that could take you! Believe me there is a lot of flesh you can find once you have got off the boring tree!! I just hope I have enough time left in my life to do some more research and to be able to organise all the projects that I have on hand. I only have about 150 names on my tree on this site but my tree has many more names in my various files. Many of the parish registers in Northants go back to the 1500's. Be prepared for your ancestors to be hopping over the border into Beds/Hunts/Rutland/Warwickshire for a marriage and hopping back to Northants to have their children. Also many of the servants travelled with the big families to the London seats and so there will be London marriages and back to Northants for the children.The only snag you need a week's holiday in the area to just touch the surface!! I have found at least one convict to Oz so his history of poaching game in Northants was fascinating. I tend to home in on about 4 very interesting families from Northants in my genealogy and never cease to be surprised at how much there is. A day for me at Northants CRO seems like 5 minutes and we get there early, the last to leave, still making notes as the archivists are shutting all the machines down and we are shunted out the door still trying to look at a document I've just found! I always come away with so many more mysteries to solve. Ah well next time! Happy Hunting. Janet

Have you been through all the censuses? You often pick up things like an in-Law, Uncle, Nephew that can all give information on the family. You can then track all these relations through the censuses etc etc. MB

Martin Thanks for the tip, however I don't seem to have a problem finding people, I've 465 so far I now want to put Meat on the Bones! lolol Elly