Friday, August 25, 2006

Your Lincolnshire He

Your Lincolnshire Heritage
Hazel has told me that The Lincolnshire Family History Society will be just one of 80 events showcasing the Lincolnshire Heritage during the Open Days from 7th – 10th September 2006. The theme for this year is ‘Homes & Families’.  The Research Centre at Unit 6 Monks Way, Monks Road, Lincoln is to be open on Saturday 9th September from 10.00 a.m. until 4.00 p.m. and Sunday 10th September from 2.00p.m. until 5.00 p.m. for visitors to come along to discover how to start researching their ancestors.  All the LFHS research facilities are to be available for you to use.  Throughout both days demonstrations will be running giving a brief introduction to genealogy – so pop along for a visit – who knows they could help to break through that brick wall.  Further details are available from 01522 511548.
Paul WHITELAM is writing an article for the Echo on the series of county council events in September.  His starting point is what spurs people on to carry out the research and the effect that the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are? has had on genealogy in Lincolnshire.  Watch out for it.  He thought that as he was writing for the Echo readers he might just take a look at his name via the column.  The surname WHITELAM in 1881 according to the Surname Profiler is Lincolnshire based with very few elsewhere.  Moving on 110 years and while the name has spread out over the whole country the major concentrations are still in the east of England.  The top area for both of the times is Lincoln.  The origin of the name which can also be spelt WHITLAM and WHITLUM is from a nickname.  Now whether this nickname came about because the person was associated with the sign of the white lamb as in the public house of that name, perhaps a shop or maybe the person just used a white lamb as an advertisement.
Mrs REANEY of Crowle has presented the most difficult of problems in family history.  That of finding a person alive today.  There are databases on the internet which can be searched for a fee and the main one to be used for Where are they now? is the electoral roll.  One of the easiest to use is that of www.tracesmart.co.uk.  Sadly the name that I put in showed two results in 2003 but only one in 2006.  Could the one I am looking for still be alive. It costs around £20 to find out.  I could check the GRO index and see if there is a death certificate for this name.  The GRO from 1837 to 2003 can be searched at www.192.com and at www.1837online.com and here again there is a cost but it could be cheaper than getting the car out of the garage.  The most cost effective is the 1837 site.
Bits and Bobs
Grantham Petty Sessions - 20 April 1849 - Edw. FREESTON, of Doddington, (formerly a butcher at Barrowby), was ordered to pay 1s 6d per week and the usual expenses towards the maintenance of the illegitimate child of Ann SWAIN, of Barrowby. The amount was laid low, (though FREESTON was an old married man), in consequence of the female's having had three children previously.
Market Rasen Petty Sessions - 16 April 1849 - John ROBERTS, of Legsby, labourer, appeared upon summons to answer the complaint and application of Charlotte ROBINSON, of Claxby, for an order of maintenance upon him of her bastard child: the girl having had four before, an order of 6d per week only and costs was made.
Both of these came from Ann on the net.  The woman seems to be the guilty party in these cases.  Being a serial producer of illegitimate children is obviously frowned upon with the amount being drastically cut  by the Market Rasen sessions.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

A Name with STYLE

A Name with STYLE

Winifred  STEGGALL has written from Reepham and thinks that the time is ripe for me to check out her unusual surname which has its local dialect to thank for the spelling.  This is not a Lincolnshire name but neither has not travelled very far over the years.  Originating in the Suffolk area it is a locational name.  There are somewhere in the region of twenty different spellings for STEGGALL and the only thing all these have in common is that they all start with ST and have an L in them. The spellings include STEGGLE, STECKEL, STYGLE and finally the one that it all started with, STILE.  One of the first references to the surname is in the 13th century and we find Reginald atte STIGHEL when the Old English stigol was the word for a stile  but took a century or three to get to the Middle English stegele  and eventually the surnames STYGLE and STYLE.  Reginald therefore was a dweller by the stile or steep ascent.  As you can see from the example I have given above, with a broad accent, they can all sound very similar and G is easily changed to a C sound. However as usual there is an alternative explanation.  The surname STILE might originally come from the Old English stiell which was a dweller near the place to catch fish..
The arrival of the new Lincolnshire Family History Society magazine brings with it the information that Mrs Smith of Lincoln has come across the family bible belonging to the SONDOR family.  Try as I might I can’t find this in my books.  Originally from Great Rissington which is not far from Oxford there can’t be many families with this name in Lincolnshire.  A search of the Surname Profiler gives no indication of where they came from because, as there are less than 100 in the country, they are nor picked up.  Still, a look at the 1881 should give a hint, however  I was out of luck here as well for there were none listed.  I shall have to have a more thorough search during the week. Watch this space.
The surname PINDARD below is a corruption of the occupational surname PINDER.  This was necessary work in the villages when the fields were less enclosed than they are today.  The stray animals would be rounded up and put into the pinfold under the care of the pinder who was a village officer and he would then charge for their release.  The name comes from the Old English word pyndan which was to impound or shut up.
Bits and Bobs
PINDARD, of Boston, plumber, for payment of 2s 6d a week and costs towards the maintenance of a bastard child belonging to Barnett SMITH......The case occupied the court for a considerable time, and involved a nice point, the woman having been married, and it was unknown whether her husband was living or dead. [A witness claimed he had seen the husband in Grimsby more than a year ago, and at the last Boston fair, but BS swore she hadn't seen him for two years & she had been informed he was killed on the railway near Syston] etc.

Genealogy

Genealogy

Saturday, August 05, 2006

OUSE

?OUSE

Passed on via the internet was the following information that I thought interesting having never come across the MOUSE family name. Family bible undated but first family entry is 1846 belonging to the GROOBY family from around the Long Sutton area.  It  is a bit worn and a few pages are torn but most of it is intact as are most of the colour plates which are very nice in their own right. The entries for the GROOBY family date back to 1846 starting with the birth of William GROOBY he married Emma MOUSE [I think it is "M"] on Oct. 20th 1870 at Long Sutton church.   However some research into the GROOBY family tree turns up the information that William is in fact from Helpstone in Northamptonshire according to the 1881 census and his wife is from Gedney Dike.  Who was Mrs GROOBY?  There is a number of MOUSE family members but these  all live in Bedfordshire.  Using the wildcard ‘?’ search we have as a result DOUSE, HOUSE and ROUSE individuals and of these only William and Mary ROUSE are living in Gedney and they have children born in Long Sutton.  Also from  Helpstone and living in Spalding with Spalding wives are a couple more GROOBY families and the oldest of all these is Solomon who was born in Spalding.  The family liked biblical names for this was the son of Zachariah GROOBY. There must be a story here as to why the family flits backs and forth apart from the fact that there would be relatives in both places.  Almost all occurrences of the GROOBY name are around the Fens and it is of a locational origin. The village in Leicestershire that goes by the name Groby is pronounced as Groobi and it is here that they all came from.  
MOUSE is unusual and  found almost exclusively in Bedfordshire. It is not in the dictionary but of those that had mouse in the word seem to be linked to the colour grey.  ROUSE on the other hand is numerous and found south of a line drawn between the Bristol Channel and the Humber.  Again its origin is from the colour and the Ancient French word rous or red.  
The name HOUSE was concentrated in the Dorset area with an outcrop in the highlands of Scotland.  It is believed that the name came from the person concerned being employed at ‘the’ house which was most likely of a religious nature.
Finally the name DOUSE or DOWSE or one of the other variations.  The Old French dous or doux meant pleasant or sweetly smelling and was also used a female Christian name. It was also used occasionally as a male name along the lines of Hilary and Leslie.
The National Archives who run a family history service at Myddleton Street in London has decided that the time is right for the whole of its service to come together at Kew.  However the Office of National Statistics has no plans at present to close or move its part of the Family Records Centre.  What difference will this make to the family tree researcher?   I suppose it all depends on your reason to visit Myddleton Street. If it is for the certificates then no change but if its for the census then Kew will be the place.
For those of you who are just starting out on the family history trail and would like to know more about how to go about it and the data sources that are available to the family researcher then the workshop being held at Grasby Village Hall on Sept 10th is just for you.  For more information please give me a ring on 01652 628337 or send an email to ifor@familyroots.org.uk
Bits and Bobs
What the Papers Said - Sept 28th 1792 Marriage - On Thursday se’nnight was married at Carlby in this county, Mr James GLENN, farmer, to Mrs HODGKIN, a most disconsolate widow for 20 days.