Visiting ‘Mecca’

Due to unforeseen circumstances on Saturday I ended up giving out the seeds to grow your own family tree for Zoë Tomlinson and Lindvm Heritage at the Lincolnshire Archives. I was rather dubious giving the talk at such short notice because part of it usually includes an introduction to work on the internet and carrying out research thereon. We managed to get over it and the staff at the Archives were at their usual friendly and helpful best. If you want helpful people, go to the archives. During the day I was helped by the students asking their questions at just the right moments. Although they all insisted they were beginners they seemed to have already carried out work on their trees quite ably.

Louise Gardner is looking for Hearley/Hurley of London in 1880. At that time the Hurley family was concentrated in the Cardiff and Taunton areas. The London contingent seems to be mainly to be born in county Cork, Ireland. We can see from this surname how it is pronounced. It sounds like here-ly as opposed to her-ly. The name comes from a place by the same name. The English version is the village of Hurley just outside Maidenhead.

Chris & Alan Flintham are working on the Goodwin line and especially that in Nottinghamshire at the turn of the 19^th century. The flintham family that I found in Nottinghamshire had many links to Lincolnshire. Several of these are born in Upton or Althorpe. Meanwhile in Lincolnshire the flintham families are in many instances living in villages around Lincoln. This is another that originates from a place name and they haven’t moved very far over the centuries with the village being just outside Newark. Goodwin however always makes me think of the time before the conquest and the fight between Saxons and Normans. The name was originally a font name starting as Godwine from the Old English god, god and wine, friend, protector and lord and is to be found on a number of occasions in the Domesday Book.

Marie Nicholson is looking for Solomon Nicholson of around 1860. Assuming this is the right man there is only one entry in Lincolnshire for 1881. He was a Joiner and lived in Pelham Cottages, St Marks. Born in Thurlby he was married and his wife Sarah is a Lincolnshire lass from Cherry Willingham. Nice and easy origin. This was the son of Nicholas at some time in the past.

Sheila Bradley has her problems with her family tree having roots in Derbyshire. The Farnsworth family came centuries ago from one of the two villages called Farnsworth on the coastal edge of Lancashire. By 1881 the concentration has moved to Derbyshire and in decreasing numbers throughout Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. The village gets its name from the farmstead where the ferns grow according to the Oxford Place-Name Dictionary.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM – 30^th Oct 1818 - On the 16th instant died at Coningsby, James BAKER, shoemaker. On the day after his burial, his disconsolate widow went to be married to one John FOY, an Irishman. The number of persons assembled at the Church to witness the ceremony became so disorderly that the parties could not be married, but the clergyman ordering two Peace Officers to attend the next day, the ceremony was then performed. Some of the rioting multitude, when the newly married couple were returning from Church, endeavoured to get a halter around the bride´s waist, and they pulled the poor woman about in such a manner that they actually broke one of her arms, to the utter disgrace of themselves and the spectators.