Lincs To The Past

www.lincstothepast.com

Do you have any Lincolnshire ancestors? Well, if you do the LincsToThePast website is the place to go for parish and local records and what is great is that it's FREE to use.

I have used this website a lot as my Presswood family have lived within the same area of Lincolnshire for 200 years.

Unfortunately not all the parish records are available to view online and they are not transcribed but most of the parishes of Lincolnshire are small and rural so if you know which parish your ancestors resided in and the approximate year of their birth, death or marriage, then you can quite easily browse the images to find them.

When using the site to look for great, great, great, great grandfather, William Presswood's burial record in the parish of Stow-in-Lindsey I found out something really interesting...

...so I am going to run through how I found his record on the site.

Firstly, I had established an approximate date of death of c1841-3 for William from researching the family on the censuses and birth, marriage and death indexes. In 1841 the family was living in a hamlet called Bransby, Lincolnshire in the parish of Sturton by Stow or Stow in Lindsey.

On the website I searched "Stow in Lindsey burials"...

Lincs To The Past search (Link)

...which turns up the results below...

Search results (Link)

The results show all the records relating to the parish of Stow in Lindsey and burials, as you can see the records are split into books for certain years but not all record books are always available online, if there is an image next to the record description it means the images for that record set are available to be viewed online.

Click the book you want to look at and then browse...

Browsing the document (Link)

You can look through page by page, or jump a few pages on to find the date range you're looking for and use the toolbar to zoom the image.

1841 is found on page 29 where my ancestors burial is recorded...

My ancestors death record in the parish burial records for Stow in Lindsey Parish, Lincolnshire (Link)

Thanks to the curate who recorded his burial for he has added extra notes which inform me that William Prestwood (notice difference in name spelling) of Bransby "hanged himself, verdict of the Coroner's inquest, Being of unsound mind", which opens up more avenues of research...but more to come about William and his family in The Presswood Story.

At the bottom of the page you will notice that if you register with the website that you can tag or transcribe the documents, which means that you can find people easier next time by just searching a name to see which records are flagged up.

I find it is not always the best or easiest website to use for viewing images but I have spent many a happy hour browsing possible parish records for my ancestors and even transcribed a few. The website contains many different records related to Lincolnshire so depending on what you are looking for, you might find other records of interest to you and your research.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

My ancestors were... Nonconformists

Low Mill Wesleyan Chapel, Knott Lane, Rawdon
My grandmother was born here, as her father was the caretaker

A nonconformist was a person or group of people who did "not conform to" the state religion which was the Anglican church (otherwise known as the Church of England) or Roman Catholicism.

My family history is full of nonconformist ancestors, mostly Methodists or Baptists, but I also have a few Salvationists (Salvation Army followers) as well.

There are many nonconformist groups or denominations, some of the common ones in the UK are:

• Baptists - believe in the "believer's baptism"(baptism after professing one's faith) rather than infant baptism. It is commonly performed with full immersion. The denomination was started in the early 1600s by John Smyth. (Wikipedia - Baptists)
• Methodists - came out of the Church of England in the mid 18th century, from a small group who methodically studied the Bible. The Wesley brothers, John and Charles were a part of this small group which travelled the country preaching the Gospel. (Wikipedia - Methodism)
• Congregationalists - believe in each congregation independently running their own affairs. The whole congregation would be involved in teaching, they believe there is no need for a priest to intercede between them and God. They believe to be the most like the early church and the movement began in the late 1500s. (Wikipedia - Congregational Church)
• Presbyterians - the roots lie in the European Reformation of the 16th century influenced by the theologian John Calvin. They were against the hierarchy system of the state church and are governed by individual courts of church elders. (Wikipedia - Presbyterianism)
• Quakers - separated from the Church of England in the mid-17th century and they believe that "Christ has come to teach his people himself". They are well known for silent worship, teetotalism, conscientious objectors and plain dress. (Wikipedia - Quaker)
• Unitarians - encourage their followers to find their own Spiritual path rather than follow a religion. They believe in one God and that Jesus was a prophet rather than God itself. (Wikipedia - Unitarianism)
• Salvation Army - sought to bring salvation to the poor, destitute & hungry. Founded by Catherine & William Booth (a Methodist minister) in 1865. (Wikipedia - Salvationist)

My great, great Uncle Ted in the Salvation Army Band c1901

How does knowing whether our ancestors were nonconformists help in the research we do?

Our nonconformist ancestors may not have been baptised, married or buried at their local parish church, but instead at their own place of worship. It is more common for parish records to be kept in full and still be available for us to view today. Nonconformist denominations often kept records also but perhaps not as fully as the Parish Church and if a church has shut down the records in the past may have become lost of even destroyed.

Baptism

The different denominations have different views about baptism, which can mean that your ancestor was not baptised always as an infant. Some believed in the "believer's baptism" which meant that your ancestor would not be baptised until they felt ready to profess their faith, often in their adult lives.

Marriage

Marriages before 1754 could take place in any place of worship but there were many "clandestine" (secret and illegal) marriages taking place.

In 1754, Lord Hardwick's Marriage Act was introduced to do away with "clandestine" marriages. For nearly 100 years all marriages had to take place in the Parish church by an Anglican vicar with the exception of Jews and Quakers.

In 1837 with the introduction of Civil Registration, it all changed again and Nonconformist places of worship could apply to become registered as a marriage venue, but the local Superintendent Registrar would have to be present to authorise the marriages until 1898. After this the church would have had an Appointed Person who would be responsible for maintaining an official marriage register.

Hedon Road Cemetery, Hull

If your nonconformist ancestor attended a non-registered place of worship they would have to have the legal marriage at a Registry Office followed by a religious ceremony at their place of worship.

Burials

Some nonconformist churches have their own burial grounds, but not all. By the Victorian era there were often local council cemeteries so some nonconformists may have been buried in them or even in the local Parish church burial grounds if there were no other options available.

Some useful websites to take a look at for nonconformists records are:

• Find a church on Rootsweb
• BMDRegisters
• GENUKI or GENUKI search
• London nonconformist registers are available on Ancestry

Other places to look for records:

• Ask minister in charge of church if church still open
• Local record offices
• The National Archives
• Some churches have their own record depositories

Some information for this blog post came from:
YOUR FAMILY TREE magazine 127
Wikipedia - Nonconformist Register
Wikipedia - Nonconformism

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

An unexpected find can change your research entirely...

Graveyard of the church in Ripley village nr Harrogate

A few months ago, I had a lovely email from a distant cousin who is also interested in researching her family history. She had a found a photograph on the internet of the grave of a common ancestor of ours, James Poole.

I already knew some information about James Poole:-

• Born c1837 in Bradford, West Yorkshire to Joshua Poole and Sarah nee Messenger.
• In 1841 he lived on East Brook Lane, Bradford with his mother, step-father and half-siblings.
• In 1851 he lived on Manchester Road, Bradford with his mother, step-father and half-siblings and the family were employed in the woollen industry.
• Married Sarah Hannah Rooks in 1858 at Bradford Parish Church.
• In 1861 he lived at 17 Royal Street, Bradford with his wife and was employed as an iron pudler.
• In 1871 he lived at 35 Birk Street, Bradford with his wife and four children and he was employed as an engine man.

James disappears to the records after the 1871 census and I had presumed
that he had probably died, but had never looked very hard for a death record for him.

The web link my distant cousin sent me (FindAGrave.com) revealed some very interesting information about the latter days of our ancestor that neither of us had previously known. The inscription on the grave stone (found on FindAGrave.com) stated:

"In loving memory

of 

SARAH HANNAH,

beloved wife of JAMES POOLE,

who died May 17th 1922 in her 82nd year.

"At rest"

Also of JAMES POOLE,

husband of the above,

died at Melbourne, Australia.

Also of FRED POOLE,

son of the above, 

died April 8th 1948,

aged 87 years."

James had emigrated to Australia ALONE, leaving his wife and children behind in Bradford. He left the UK from Liverpool in 1874 and latterly died out there in 1882 in Melbourne, Australia.

Finding this grave stone has given me new avenues of research to investigate and has created more questions that now need answers:

• why did he go?
• was he a convict that was transported to Australia?
• why did he go alone?
• was he trying to seek his fortune?
• did he miss his children and wife?
• did they not have the money to follow him?
• how did Sarah Hannah manage alone with four young children?
• as well as many more.......?

Onwards we go with the research...it is addictive and you never find the end!!

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Questions to ask...?

When we begin researching our family history one thing we must do is talk to older relatives, they will have snippets of information that will really help you in the process of researching your family tree.

If you are just starting out it can be overwhelming to go and see and elderly relative you may not have seen for many years to ask questions about their family, so below are a few questions you can ask to get the conversation rolling.

Questions to ask?

• What were the names of your parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles?
• When were people born?
• Where were people born?
• Where did people live?
• What jobs did they do?
• Was "Polly" their real name or a nickname?
• What were they like?
• What did they enjoy doing?
• What did they look like?
• Do they have any old photos you can scan or take a photo of?
• Was there a family bible?
• Did they fight in the world wars? If not was there a reason they were exempt?

Great, Great, Great Uncle Ted with a work mate

You may find people are happy to talk about their family and come out with facts you would never have thought to ask, but other people may find their family background painful and not as willing to talk about it. Remember to be sensitive as you are talking about ancestors as older relatives will remember them and may even still be grieving for them. There can be facts in which you find interesting but to another relative they can be shameful, especially if great uncle Albert was a bigamist or spent time in jail.

Always take notes as you are chatting or even take something in which you can record the conversation to listen to at a later date. It is amazing what you forget afterwards or may get facts mixed up later on. Verbal facts will later need to be verified with records, do not take your relatives memories as fact until you have found records to back up your evidence.

My great, great grandparents
Edward Davidson & Martha Davidson nee Hair

Looking at old photos with elderly relatives can trigger memories and can help you put faces to names for future generations.

Important facts which you will require about each person are:

• Name
• Birthday
• Year of birth
• Place of birth
• Date of marriage
• Place of marriage
• Date of death
• Buried or cremated? If buried, where?
• Occupation

TOP TIP: Do not delay speaking to relatives, as time goes by facts are forgotten, elderly people can develop dementia or even pass away unexpectedly which can leave a wealth of information lost for future generations.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Finding a death certificate for your ancestor (post-1837)...

In 1837, the National Registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced to England and Wales so "technically" if your ancestor was born, married or died after 1837 there should be a record to find for your ancestors...although some ancestors will always remain elusive.

There are numerous ways of finding records for your ancestors but I will focus this blog entry on the resources I regularly use for finding a death certificate.

Finding a death certificate:

I have ordered only a few death certificates for my ancestors, but I do intend to order a few more soon. They can tell you a lot about how your ancestor died and who was present at the time of the death or who was the next of kin.

We will search for the death certificate of Frederick Sutcliffe, my great, great grandfather. (We searched for his birth certificate a weeks ago...see previous blog post).

Using the censuses we can find the last census that our ancestor is mentioned in, which can help us figure out a little more accurately which decade your ancestor may have died in, unless the last census they are mentioned in is 1911 and then it could be any time after 1911.

Frederick Sutcliffe is listed in the 1911 census so could have died any time after 1911. We know he lived in Leeds at the time of the 1911 census and from talking to relatives we established that Frederick probably passed away in the 1930s and he was born in 1860.

1911 census return for Frederick Sutcliffe and his family

NB Since 1866 the age of the deceased individual is listed in the registration transcriptions, so it makes it much easier to find your ancestors death.

Using FreeBMD site you input the information you have and know and do a search:

Search details for Frederick Sutcliffe's death registration

The results listed a number of men who died in the Leeds area in this time period in the Leeds area:

• Frederick SUTCLIFFE, Sept 1912, Aged 66, Volume 9b, Page 446
• Frederick K SUTCLIFFE, June 1923, Aged 75, Volume 9b, Page 424
• Frederick W SUTCLIFFE, Dec 1932, Aged 73, Volume 9b, Page 377
• Frederick SUTCLIFFE, Mar 1938, Aged 78, Volume 9b, Page 389
• Fred SUTCLIFFE, Mar 1939, Aged 60, Volume 9b, Page 653
• Frederick SUTCLIFFE, Dec 1945, Aged 69, Volume 9b, Page 457

Matching the ages of these gentlemen with the age of our ancestor can only make one of the above our ancestor - the entry registered in March 1938.

Now we have this information we can order a copy of the death certificate at the General Register Office (GRO) website. They require you to register on their site and remember to have your credit card to hand to pay for the certificate, the cost is £9.25 for a standard delivery of a few weeks or £23.40 for a priority delivery of a few days. You will need the following details to order the certificate:

• Year of death 1938
• Surname of deceased  SUTCLIFFE
• Forename(s) of deceased Frederick
• Age of deceased 78
• Registration district Leeds North
• Quarter of registration March
• Volume of registration 9b
• Page number of registration 389

A few weeks later the copy of your ancestors death certificate will arrive through the post...

Death certificate for Frederick Sutcliffe

This certificate is particularly useful as my great grandfather was the next of kin and the informant to the authorities about the death. Interestingly, Frederick remained at the same address from 1911 to the time of this death twenty seven years later.

Problems you may have in finding your ancestors:

• name misspelt or variations of spellings
• transcription errors
• registered under a name which the person was not called regularly....nicknames or middle names were used as a first name
• mixed up first names and surnames or middle and first names/surnames
• the birth, marriage or death was not registered
• age of death is inaccurate

Useful websites: Ancestry - Birth, Death & Marriages, FindMyPast - Birth, Deaths & Marriages, The Genealogist, FreeBMD, GenesReunited - Birth, Marriage & Deaths...and many more.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Visit graveyards in your ancestors locality...

Ripley village church nr Harrogate in North Yorkshire

I love church graveyards.

You may think me quite strange but they're often so beautiful and peaceful and are a great place to sit and meditate for ten minutes or a few hours.

Church graveyards are adorned with carved headstones, flowers and often have large yew trees casting shadows over the stones. The stone church buildings are also usually beautifully decorated with gargoyles and stained glass windows.

I like wandering through churchyards looking at the information of the people who lived there before us. Who they were, what they did, how old were they when they died, who did they leave behind them...?

A large Yew tree in Ripley Churchyard

You can often pick out the richer members of the community with their large carved headstones or monuments, unless of course they're buried in a tomb inside the building.

From wandering through the graveyards you can figure out the common surnames within the community, or the families that have remained in the same place for many generations. You can find out information about the locality, was it agricultural, or whether there was a certain industry that took prominence?

The gravestones can tell you a lot about the people buried beneath them, such as:

• how much money they had...is there a headstone? is it big or is it small?
• their dates of death or burial
• who they are buried with which can shed light on their closer family members
• their dates of birth
• how the individual died
• who they left behind
• how old they were when they died
• their occupation
• what sort of person they were

Old photo of my ancestors grave (circa 1897)

Finding the final resting place of your forebearers can give you a real tingle down your spine. I often stand and reflect for a few minutes, imagining the other family relatives stood around this grave side at the time of the burial and also later to lay flowers on significant anniversaries.

There are various ways of helping you find the graves of your family:

• Searching through old paperwork to find newspaper cuttings, burial records, photos etc
• Visiting the village graveyard
• Searching online for an image or inscription, DeceasedOnline is a good website for this
• The Church or authorities which run the Cemetery will have a map of all the grave plots if you want to find someone and there is no headstone

REMEMBER: Not all graves have a headstone.

One of the graves I have sought out was that of my great, great grandparents, John and Jane Davidson nee Redwood, who's story you can read about in Chapters 7 & 8 on the Davidson page of this blog.

Same grave as above approximately 110 years on (2011)

My father had come across the above old photo of a grave when searching through his grandfather's papers many years ago and after asking a few questions he established that it was at Hedon Road cemetery in Hull.

A few years ago my father and I returned to Hull for his aunt's funeral and decided to visit the cemetery to find this grave. Thankfully the original photo helped us search out the grave by its shape and size.

The trees surrounding it are now much larger and the stone a little greener than they were at the time of the original photo but the wording can still be read as clearly as 100 years ago. It is amazing how well it still stands especially as the cemetery took a direct hit in World War Two during the Hull Blitz.

Since I found this grave I have been able to take some other relatives to this site and show them the place where their ancestors also lie, one of the cousins wanted to clean up the stone work so perhaps next time I visit there will be another photo of a cleaned headstone.

We know that John's son, Edward was also buried at the same grave yard and we have the paperwork (see below) with the number of the burial plot on it but have never found a headstone for him. One day I intend on visiting the local burial board to see if they can help me find the location of his grave.

Document of the purchase of a burial plot at Hedon Rd Cemetery, Hull

To finish off I would like to leave you with this photo of a grave I saw at Ripley in North Yorkshire, as an example of how gravestones and their inscriptions do not always stand up to the elements for years to come...

A weathered gravestone

Have you any stories to share about graves you have found? Thanks for reading...

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Comparing the Subscription sites...

In my previous blog posts I have mentioned the BIG SUBSCRIPTION sites quite a lot, as they're a resource I use a lot.

The chart below is a year old now but it may still be useful to those of you who're considering what subscription to get or even what site to subscribe to.

My advise would be to have a look at what records you might use for your research or records that you may find helpful.  For example if you know you had ancestors who moved to the colonies you may want a subscription to include the passenger lists and overseas records, in which case the best one may be the Ancestry Worldwide.

Please remember to leave your comments and feedback on the blog and feel free to suggest ideas for blog posts. Is there anything you would like to see here? Thanks for reading :)

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Transcribing...

Yes, I finally took the plunge after more than ten years of researching and did it?

What have I done, you may ask....?

I have signed up to the FreeReg website to become one of their many transcribers*. I will be soon able to give something back to the world of researchers, as up to now I have solely taken information off these free websites.

The FreeReg website has been a vital tool for me in researching my family tree back beyond 1837**. It offers FREE access to parish records which have been transcribed by their team of volunteer transcribers. The only problem with the website is there are missing parish records which still need transcribing, so this is one of the reasons I have decided to become a transcriber, to help fill some of these gaps.

A baptism record from the Woolwich Parish records - the sort I will soon be transcribing

Recently, I have been researching my ancestors from Hull, East Yorkshire and have found it frustrating going back further than 1837** due to the lack of transcribed parish records for Hull on FamilySearch.

There are other websites available to search parish records online too, many of the big subscription websites such as Ancestry, FindMyPast and TheGenealogist to name a few and another big free website is the Church of the Latter Day Saints family history website FamilySearch. The subscription websites often offer a high quality digital image of the transcribed page as well, where as the free ones often don't BUT a huge number of parishes are still unavailable to search. FamilySearch is useful due to its range of records on offer but it often lacks all the transcribed details such as the father's occupation, any extra notes etc which can be vital when faced with two or more people with the same name, baptised in a similar period of time and in a similar geographical area. 

I am looking forward to starting the transcribing, although I have to go through a period of training first. They need to make sure I have the required skills to do the job properly and in detail. I will also have to learn to read old fashioned handwriting. I have already received my four test pages, which I will hopefully get around to transcribing soon!!

Once I have passed the training period I will be able to choose a parish of my choice to start transcribing. The parish I choose must be un-transcribed, the records need to be available to me and it must be within my chosen county. I will choose a county and parish of my choice related to my own family history research which means I will be able to transcribe alongside researching my own family roots!!!

*A transcriber is someone who types up (transcribes) what is written in old documents into a format upload-able for search engines so that family historians like myself, can search for their ancestors parish burials, baptisms and marriages by just typing in a name, date of birth and other vital information.

**1837 is a vital date for family historians, as this was when it became compulsory to register births, deaths and marriages with the General Registry Offices around the country. Before this parish records are the major resource for delving back to discover more about our ancestors lives.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Pre-1837 Parish Records

This weekend I have discovered the website below....

www.freereg.org.uk

An amazing site, easy to search on and well transcribed.

Copyright © 2012 Ruth Hogan