Did you know?

The Family Record Centre sends out a newsletter on a regular basis. Via the newsletter I found the information that will be of interest to researchers in family history and are going to make a visit to London. If you are coming up against the brick wall that we all manage to collide with at some time or other then the following could be an answer. The FRC now holds regular Family History Surgeries on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The surgeries are intended to help family historians who have come to a halt with their research. Their expert members of staff are on hand to suggest ways of getting around your personal brick walls. Each surgery lasts for half an hour with sessions starting at 10:30, 11:00, 12:00 and 12:30. If you would like to book a family history surgery please phone 0208 392 5300 or send them an email.
While on the subject of the FRC. They have an online exhibition of famous people and the data linked to them. There are famous names from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries being put in the exhibition. Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Emmeline Pankhurst, Ellen Terry, Walter Tull, Virginia Woolf and Sir Henry Irving are the nine personalities to be featured. The Lewis Carroll exhibition is now available online. This, together with the exhibitions featuring Charles Dickens, Emmeline Pankhurst and Ellen Terry can be accessed via the links at www.familyrecords.gov.uk and the FRC Extra. The site gives examples of the various official documents available to the researcher.
An unusual name has come to me from Richard in South Park Lincoln on the subject of his g-g-grandfather James ecob who joined the police force at Louth in 1859. In 1861 there are five James ecob individuals in the area. One born in Leicestershire lives in Lincolnshire, one born in Lincolnshire lives in Leicestershire and a third is born and lives in Lincolnshire. With only 77 ecob individuals turning up and almost every single one of these has a link to Leicestershire one must assume that they are all related. Of these there are two that are named James that could be the person mentioned by Richard. The first James is born in 1801 in Leicestershire and the second James is born in Lincolnshire in 1829 but was in Leicestershire for the census. You can get a copy of either of these entries via the ancestry.co.uk website. Another place to check out is that of genealogy.com where there are a number of ECOB family members listed from this area carrying out research. Rootsweb has even more information. James ECOB born 1801 in Ingoldsby married Elizabeth ANNISS at Plunger in 1824 and over the next 25 years they had 13 children. James is thought to have died between 1861 and 1871. Elizabeth was alive in Melton Mowbray until 1886. this name also turned up the ever present problem of those who write down the details are human. A number of the family are born at Goadby Marwood, Leics. but the 1881 census says that they are born at GOODLY, Lincolnshire. So far I have not found the origin of the name but will carry on the search. Watch this space.
Bits and Bobs
LRSM – Nov 11th 1800 - To Clergymen and Others who have the Care of Registers: Whoever will certify to William GRESSWELL of Burgh in the Marsh, in the County of Lincoln, the Marriage of Richard GRESSWELL, late of Metheringham near the City of Lincoln, deceased, shall be rewarded with Five Guineas for their Trouble, by the said William GRESSWELL. ´Tis supposed that the aforesaid Richard GRESSWELL´s Marriage was solemnized in some Church or Chappel in the neighbourhood of Metheringham aforesaid, or at Sleaford, in the same County, between the years 1705 and 1720 as the Baptisms of his Infants were at Metheringham regularly registered.

Illustrating Your Family Tree

Herbert Ingram came from Boston and was the son of a local butcher. He became its MP and there is a statue of him in St Botolph’s church in Boston. His claim to fame is that he was the founder of the Illustrated London News which has an archive on their Web site www.iln.co.uk/iln/ and very interesting it is too. If you like to illustrate your family tree with pictures from the time then this is worth a look. I thought Herbert might be someone to look at for the column but when I checked against the 1881 census he couldn’t be found. My initial reaction was that he must have died before this date as he would have been 70, however there was more to it than that. Born in 1811 he moved to and worked in London before starting his own business in Nottingham. He noticed that every time a publication had an illustration it increased its sales so decided to bring out his own. With just sixteen pages and two illustrations per page he was soon making £12,000 a year. He became MP for Boston in 1856 and was attacked for running his campaign in the ILN and the Punch magazine. Four years later he took his family to America to find material for the ILN and while on board the Lady Elgin the ship collided on Lake Michigan and sank he and drowned almost all the other passengers. The name Ingram has three areas of high concentration. One in Scotland, one in Wales and the third is in the Dorset area of England. Originating from the Old German Engel-rammus, Angle raven, there are many people recorded in the Yorkshire area with the name in the 12^th century no doubt coming from invaders.

The recent couple of columns have generated some phone calls to clarify a few points. The first answer needed was for Mr Wright for the telephone number to contact Ancestry.com. This can be found on the web site and is 0800 404 9723 (free phone) Representatives are available from Monday to Saturday, 9am to 12pm.

Mrs Young would like to find the place to get a copy of the book, Volume 94, recently sent out by the Lincoln Record Society. The best place to find it is the society itself. The books are not cheap and the most cost effective way of purchasing a copy is to join the society. They have a website from which the membership application form can be downloaded. The secretary can be reached at the Cathedral Library, The Cathedral, Lincoln.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM - August 21^st 1795 - MARSTON FEAST - We the inhabitants of MARSTON, near Grantham, having duly considered the bad consequences attending Country Wakes and Feasts, which, tho originally intended for Religious Meetings, are now quite perverted, serving chiefly to encourage Drunkenness the Inlet of Vice and Prophaneness; and further considering that the present alarming high Prices of Provisions, must nearly involve every poor Family in insurmountable Debts and difficulties; which to prevent and keep our Parishioners from such Embarrassments, as well as to check the rapid Growth of Vice and Immorality, we have unanimously agreed to discontinue our ANNUAL FEAST and to give this Public NOTICE, of our Resolution to abolish it. Given under our hands this 16th day of August 1795. (signed) Thomas EDINBOROUGH, Alexander Wright, William GEESON, Thomas WORTH, Richard HARMSTONE, Samuel HUCKERBY, Noah ROPER, William WING, D METHERINGHAM.