Week 4 (Jan. 22-28): Overlooked

How easy it is to overlook vital information, useful websites, and other resources in our family history research.

I blogged earlier this week (see this week's Trove Tuesday post) on getting the maximum information from the death notice of my great grandfather William Pummeroy - which included his address, children's names, number of grandchildren, age at death and length of time in the colony.  Other resources can provide similar information if you pay close attention.

For example. below is the 1851 census for Isaac Green.

Isaac Green is a farmer, age 58, living in Fordham, Essex.  This census record tells me that his household consistes of his wife Betsy 57, son William 17, and servants Maryann Blakeley 45, Harriet Clark 30 and Betsy Woodward 17.  Looking in the "Where Born' column, I learn Isaac's wife Betsy was born in West Mersea, 10.5 miles distant.  This helped me find the couple's marriage, Betsy's baptism and continue tracing her family.

Interestingly, if you look at the household directly beneath Isaac's in the census, you find Edmund Woodward 59, wife Rebecca Woodward 55 and mother (actually mother-in-law) Rebecca Fairclough 77.  Edmund is a labourer - and yes, he works for Isaac Green and Isaac's servant Betsy Woodward is Edmund's eldest daughter who has gone into service up in the big house.  Following through the census, Betsy Woodward stays on working for Isaac Green for decades, through the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses until Isaac's death in 1882.

It would be all too easy to overlook this information and simply concentrate on the main family, noting family members and occupations and overlooking all that lovely extra information.

Proposal to Destroy Original Wills Overturned

The British government has announced it will not proceed with controversial proposals to digitise all copies of post-1858 wills in England and Wales and destroy the originals.

The proposal was introduced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) under the previous Conservative administration in December 2023, stating that the move was necessary to address the £4.5 million a year cost of storing the 110 million will documents.

The proposals were widely condemned by historians and genealogists. A petition to Parliament opposing them was signed by 15,793 people.

The MoJ has now published the results of its public consultation into the proposals.  It said that the consultation received almost 1600 responses, of which “The large majority of responses vehemently opposed any destruction of original wills”.

In its response, the MoJ said: “The Government is very grateful to everyone who responded to the consultation. It was very clear from the large number of responses and the very heartfelt nature of those responses that the issue was one which engaged high levels of public interest and concern.

“There was strong opposition to any destruction of original wills or other documents. This was for a variety of reasons in terms of both a national historical resource and also for individual legal challenges. There was also a strong emotional response to the consultation, typified in the comments received on the unique nature of wills as a record of a living person’s wishes for the distribution of their assets.”

“The Government accepts the compelling case that has been made by respondents… and has therefore determined not to proceed with any reforms that involve the destruction of original wills and supporting documents currently designated for permanent preservation.”

However, it noted that the decision to preserve the wills “does not address the concerns about the large and increasing costs of preserving the very extensive original will archive”.

It therefore warned that the government will “be giving further consideration to the fees charged for copies of wills and grants of probate”, particularly the current £1.50 cost of ordering a copy of a will.

This is very welcome news to family historians and we will be watching to see if any changes are made to the access or cost of ordering copies of wills.

Trove Tuesday - Death Notice of William Pummeroy 1889

It is sometimes amazing just how much information can be included in the few lines of a death notice when you pull it apart.

The notice below was for the death of my great great grandfather William Pummeroy, who died 6 October 1889.  The notice was published in the Melbourne Leader on Saturday 12 October 1889 and The Age on Monday 7 October 1889.  Both are available through Trove.

These few lines tell me so much about William and his family.  Firstly, it gives me his address, providing a head start on researching the house history.  It names all his surviving children, the sons and unmarried daughter by their first names and his married daughters by their married names - which in turn helps me confirm the marriages of his daughters.  It notes that William is the grandfather of 53 (!!)  It then gives his age, allowing me to calculate his approximate year of birth - if he is aged 71 in 1889 then he was born around 1818.  Finally, the notice states he was a colonist of 41 years.  This not only tells me William was not born in Australia, it also tells me he arrived in the colony in about 1848, at the age of 30.

So much information in just a few short lines.

Historic Graves Ireland

 
The Historic Graves project is a community focused grassroots heritage project. Local community groups are trained in low-cost high-tech field survey of historic graveyards and recording of their own oral histories. They build a multi-media online record of the historic graves in their own areas and unite to form a national resource. The project outlines a system and sequence which helps to co-ordinate and standardise an historic graveyard survey.

• Community groups are trained to use digital cameras and smartphones to survey historic graveyards.
• Both new and old survey records are combined with locally recorded audio and video stories to form a multi media record of a graveyard.
• By curating and publishing the survey records centrally the individual community graveyard surveys combine to form a national resource where the value of each survey is compounded by its association with others.
• The website allows visitors from Ireland and across the globe to freely explore and search the growing database of multimedia records and stories.
• It allows communities to self publish historic graveyard surveys and the related multimedia stories.
• The surveys are being funded by a number of Local Development Partnerships through LEADER funds and are supported by Local Heritage Officers, County Archaeologists and Local Authorities.

 The project currently focuses mainly on Ireland, although it also lists a few locations elsewhere in Britain, such as St Chad in Manchester and the Necropolis in Glasgow.

Family Tree UK

The latest issue of Family Tree UK magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue :

• 1921 Census now on Ancestry
• Hull City Council Records now available on Deceased Online
• New general manager at FamilyTreeDNA
• Introducing the Archives Liaison Officer, the new role at the Family History Federation
• DNA news
• New National Trust paint laboratory
• Finding Your Way with Historical Maps (part 1)
• Beyond Irish birth records
• DNA workshop
• The search for George : evidence in the Parish Registers
• Where was my ancestor finally laid to rest?
• Exploring a treasure trove of family letters
• Photo corner
• Six things I wish I’d known then 
• And more...

Family Tree Talk

Family Tree Talk is a series of podcasts by Family Tree UK magazine.

 

The website describes the series :

"Nathan knows nothing about his ancestors. Helen knows almost everything about family history. Join them as they delve into Nate’s family’s past. Will there be any skeletons in his cupboard?

Join us for genealogical facts, figures and how-to information, heavily laced with speculation, surmise, stories and waffle as Family Tree Designer Nathan Ward embarks on his family history journey aided and abetted by Family Tree Editor Helen Tovey. 99% family history guaranteed."

New episodes of Family Tree Talk go live every Monday and the podcasts are available on all major platforms.

Week 3 (Jan. 15-21): Nickname

Nicknames might be one of the most difficult snippets of information to discover about our ancestors, especially is there is no one left alive to tell us about them.

My father's second eldest brother Ernest was known to all as Squib.  Long before this nickname described someone born to wizard parents lacking magical abilities (Harry Potter), a squib was a type of firecracker, or a person who is scared to take a risk or backs out of a challenge.  I'm not sure how Ernest gained the nickname Squib - Dad would never tell me, and as he was 16 years younger may not actually have known himself - but I never heard any of the siblings refer to their brother by any other name, and only learned his actual name when I began my family history research.

Dad himself was nicknamed 'Bluey' by his siblings, because of his bright red hair as a child.  As dad was mostly bald and what hair he had was grey when I was a child, the knowledge that he had red hair came as quite a surprise when I overheard one of my aunts use the nickname.

While perhaps not quite a nickname, one of dad's sisters, Muriel Phyllis Argent Green was always known by her second name, Phyllis.  It was several years into my family history research that I learned her real first name was Muriel.

On my mother's side, several of my great aunts were known by nicknames, or truncated versions of their real names.  Priscilla was known as Illa, Elizabeth as Peggy and Thelma as Lalla.  Also on my maternal side, I noted in this week's Trove Tuesday post that my German ancestor, Carl Friedrich Beseler, was known in Australia as Frederick Beseler.

While most official records used their correct names, other sources did not, so knowing the name people were commonly known by can be essential to finding all the available information about them you can.