ALWAYS cross check other people's research

A lesson I learnt from the research I was doing this week was to: ALWAYS cross check other people's research before you rely on it for definite evidence.

Occasionally when researching your family history, you may come across:

Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley
(Image link: www.wikipedia.org,
Author: Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), 1814)

• A family tree which you great aunt Ethel put together proving that you are the great x8 grandchild of Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington. 
• A family rumour saying you're related to King Henry VIII through an illegitimate line.
• Or a family tree on Ancestry or GenesReunited etc which shows your great great grandmother was one of eight children.

These are all great resources available to aid and guide our research but until the facts are proven by yourself, you do not know how accurate they are, so ALWAYS double check research which has previously been done by others. 

I recently came across some research passed down to me in which my ancestor Sarah Presswood was described as being deceased c1861 when in actual fact she was living with her aunt's family in the 1871 census instead of her own, so had been presumed to have died c1861.

Another instance I have come across is in researching my ancestor John Davidson, a boiler maker who's father was a bandsman in the Royal Marines. I became a little stuck trying to find out more about John's parents and siblings so I viewed a few family trees on Ancestry to give me some clues. In the process of double checking their research I discovered it did not quite match up as his date of birth written in our family bible was after his baptism!!! But looking at their family tree did help me uncover some facts to solve the problem eventually.

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

Browsing The National Archives Discovery Catalogue

The National Archives Discovery Catalogue can also be browsed to find what you might be looking for.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - HOMEPAGE

The browse catalogue is organised by Government Department Reference, so for example, WO stands for records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General and related bodies; ADM stands for records from the Admirality, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard and related bodies...etc

So, in this example we're going to look for a document in the War Office department, so I will click the W from the homepage...

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Browsing the catalogue by Government Department

...it then lists all the W government departments starting with W, you can scroll down the centre of the page to see more, or use the previous 30, next 30 buttons at the top of the page.

You also have the choice with the tabs at the top to browse by hierarchy or reference or click the details tab to see a more detailed description about what records are included in each collection.

I click on the WO collection tab and it opens up more information about the collection...

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Browsing the War Office department

...and it lists all the documents which the War Office collection comprises of on the right, where as on the left of the screen it shows all the divisions of documents within this collection.

If you click the Browse by reference tab at the top of the page, you can browse instead by the reference numbers given to each section of records within this department.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Browsing by Reference

I would like to find out more about the Records of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, so as there are 2 references for the Royal Chelsea Hospital I am going to go back to browsing by hierarchy and click on Division 10.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Division 10 of the War Office 

This opens up and tells me more details about this Division of the War Office collection and all the references to the Royal Chelsea Hospitals on the left and where you might exactly find pensions records or admission or soldier's service documents, etc.

If at this stage you click the details tab it brings up a very detailed explanation of this Division of the collection.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Details of Division 10 of the War Office department records

From either of the last 2 pages above you need to choose which WO xx reference you require and it brings you to a page very similar to the search results page, with a list of records included in that collection. For the purpose of this I have clicked WO 245...

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Browsing Division 10 records

...now you can use this page as you might when you were searching for a document, by refining by date and subject to eventually find something you're looking for.

Click on the record and you see more details about the document listed along with how to order the document, as explained on the previous blog posts.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - A document

REMEMBER:
To tag any documents so as to make them easier to find later for your benefit or someone else's.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

An advanced search on The National Archives Discovery Catalogue

This follows on from last weeks blog post about searching The National Archives Discovery Catalogue online. We're now going to look at performing an advanced search.

Advanced search

On the homepage (first image) under the green search button you can see "Advanced search" in blue below it...

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - HOMEPAGE

...if you click this link it takes you to the Advanced search page.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Advanced Search

On this page you can search:

• a specific phrase, omit or include other words, or all or any of these words
• a specific date range
• all or online collections
• within a specific government department or a reference number
• using a tick box for subject
• catalogue levels
• opening date
• closure status
• and former reference

These extra search options can help you find more specifically the document you might be looking for.

For example, I want to find my ancestor John Davidson who was in the Royal Marines but definitely not in the navy in the early 1800s. The document will most probably be found in the War Office (WO) department.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Advanced Search

The above search actually produces no search results as being too specific is not always helpful.

Once you have your list of search results you can look at the details of the documents in exactly the same way as when doing a basic search and order copies as well.

Please feel free to add more tips for other users or questions, which I may have overlooked then feel free to leave a comment and I will aim to respond as soon as I can.

Next week we will look at another way of using the Discovery Catalogue.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

A basic search on The National Archives Discovery Catalogue

This is the first in a series about how best to use The National Archives Discovery Catalogue for researching your family history.

A quick guide to using The National Archives Discovery Catalogue for a basic name search...

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - HOMEPAGE

Searching with a name or subject or date

Type the name or subject into the search box...and you can choose to search "All collections" or "Online Collections" using the tabs above the search box.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Search

TIPS: Using exclamation marks ("xxx") means that it will search for the WHOLE phrase or name together, for example, "John Davidson" as a complete phrase. 

Use BOOLEAN operators (see BBC website for a short explanation or CSA for some further ideas), for example, AND means it will only search for entries which include the phrase "John Davidson" AND name Charlotte in them rather than all documents with "John Davidson" and Charlotte in them separately.

CLICK ENTER once you have typed in your search and your results will appear...

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Search Results

You can now REFINE your results using the tick boxes on the left of the window by SUBJECT, DATE or GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT until you find the possible documents you are looking for.

To view details about the documents listed in the search results, click on the blue title and it will open another page with details about the document and where it can be viewed.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Details of a document

On this page for this particular document it tells me the records can be found at Ancestry.co.uk if you have a subscription or that they can be viewed free of charge at The National Archives in London.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Details of a document

On another document it has a link to how I can order a copy of the document in question. If you click this link it takes you to another page where it asks if you would like the whole document or just a few pages copying by adding details of what you would like copying. You would need to either log in or register if you're a new user and they will send you a quote via email for the cost of copying the document. For some documents they can copy them digitally and send you the PDF file whereas for others they will send you a hard copy through the post.

You can use the exactly the same process as above for searching a particular subject such as the "Battle of Waterloo" or a name or subject and a date, for example, Ypres AND 1914.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Search results using a date and subject

All documents can be tagged with a word or phrase to make them easier to find later, for example, Ypres or even World War 1 (see document below) or to help your own research with the name of the relative who you might be searching for. You must be registered and logged in to tag a document. You will find the green box to tag the documents at the bottom of the page with the details of the document on it.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Tagging a document

Happy searching...!!! Hope that you manage to find something really useful.

If you have any questions, or would like to add any comments about anything I have missed please feel free and I will try and respond as quickly as possible.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan