Genealogy Chat

If your rellies hit on hard times, you may find them applying for parish relief. These records make fascinating reading. Mine unfortunately were a bit dull and only getting on in years, but others in the same records had been injured by a runaway pig, had scandalous love-lives and strings of illegitimate children or refused to stay in the workhouse because they 'didn't like it there'. Well worth a trawl.

Thank you everyone...XX

It's great when you find ancestors who have gravestones or make wills. If they were poor, or looked as if they might become poor, they also left records. The douments that are really useful, where they survive, are settlement examinations. Typically, these will tell you where someone was born, roughly how old they are, what their occupation is, who they have worked for and where, name of wife and names and ages of children. The detail varies, but it can take you to a different county, help find a missing marriage, or help fill in the personal details that other records omit. On the subject of parish registers, some Norfolk burial registers in the 1780s provide more useful information than death certificates in the 1880s, so take heart: it needn't be all doom and gloom pre 1837.

Sometimes memorial inscriptions just turn out to be only from the memorials INSIDE the church. Okay, fair enough if you are looking on a free website, but I paid money to buy a microfiche of memorial inscriptions and only found out when it arrived. Needless to say my ancestors were not grand enough to have a memorial inside the church so it was useless! Kate.

You're welcome. I think that you are about to join the ranks of us other folks who consider a great day out to be spent in the corner of a county records office pouring over old bits of paper!!

Thanks Angela

Yes, memorial inscriptions are just the writing off the headstones in the churchyard transcribed. They may give other clues other than the date of death as they could name other family members. If you can, it is best to follow them up with a visit to the churchyard as it is very easy for the person doing the transcription to have misread the information if the stone is very worn, or to have missed bits out.

Thanks Angela .... I hadn't paid much thought to wills so will track down some wills, hopefully! I never really understood what memorial inscriptions are? Are they the same as tomb/headstones? Suzanne

Yes, the same name syndrome drives you crazy. Ive just spent the last hour trying to sort out my tree as I somehow muddled the 6 John Steers in a row and have sat here scratching my head what Ive done wrong. Worked it out now but so annoying.

Always a tricky one, Suzanne, and a question that I could have asked myself!! I think that it is just a case of getting as much information as possible and piecing it together like Sherlock Holmes. Other than the information from the parish registers (which can get a bit confusing if your families all called their children by the same christian names as mine did) there are other sources that can give you a clue. Copies of old wills can be a goldmine, as they often name quite a few relatives and give relationships. I have knocked down a few brickwalls from these. You could also look into apprenticeship records, property deeds, school records, memorial inscriptions and tax records. If your rellies lived to a ripe old age, you may also find some born in the 18th century on the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

Hi everyone Ive done the easy bit for all my branches back to the 1837 cut off point. Now Im onto Parish registers...UUGGH! Can anyone advice on how to get as much collaborating evidence that a parish entry I find is my rellie? It seems a nightmare! Suzanne