Genealogy

Transported for chopping down the family tree

2011-11-28T15:36:00.002Z

In Australia today it is a matter of pride that one of your ancestors came over as a convict in the 19^th century. Most of those transported were not hardened criminals but ordinary people on the poverty line trying to feed their families, for example by sheep rustling. Some were transported for the oddest of reasons. At Clixby in 1847, Joseph Frow, who was a tenant, chopped down 58 apple, 6 cherry, 3 pear and 6 plum trees and was given seven years transportation at the Lincoln Assizes. Not all who were given this sentence actually arrive in Australia but served their term on a hulk awaiting a ship to take them off to the colonies.

Sadly (some genealogists would say) Ian Seward, of Bracebridge Heath had an ancestor that went to Australia who was not a convict. Ian e-mailed me asking how to get information on his grandfather who emigrated from Lincoln in 1895 after the death of his wife. While it is not easy to find information on emigrants there are several avenues to explore from the UK. As Ian is on the Internet the easiest place to start is at www.rootsweb.com where many lists will be found that covers all interests throughout the world with many links to matters Australian. These range from Australian History through Military History to Genealogy in the various states of Australia. On the net is also the Lincoln list which has a number of subscribers from Australia who are searching for their Lincolnshire roots. Subscribing to a list gives you access to people all over the world on a similar search to yourself, and in the main they are very friendly and helpful.

At the Public Records Office , Kew Gardens, there are many documents concerning emigration including the census of convicts from 1788 to 1859, passport registers (bearing in mind that it was not necessary to have a passport in the 19th century) and passenger lists from 1890 to 1960.

Places to look a little closer to home are the school log books. The Head may have made an entry when the children were removed from school to emigrate and there could also be an item in the local newspapers such as this one from Clixby

Lincolnshire October 21st 1887

CAISTOR - Mr Edward Smith, son of Mr G W Smith, of Clixby Manor, near Caistor, set sail for Buenos Ayres, to take charge of a very large herd of shorthorns formed there by Mr Campbell, Mr Smith's family have been favourably known for several generations as breeders of shorthorns, principally of the highest dairy qualities,

A few entries for Australia can be found on the IGI but the numbers are small compared to the those for Britain. There are new compilations coming out from the LDS under the title Vital Records Index and there is I believe one for Australia which might hold more information and can be ordered in the UK.

And finally, your search could be carried forward by joining the Lincolnshire Family History Society who maintain a list of members interests and may put you in contact with someone who may have already traced the family in question. There are also many Australian members listed who might be willing to help in the search. When you join you have the opportunity of putting your names of interest into the magazine which is then sent to all members. In the magazine you can also find items such as At Sandhurst, Australia on 3/2/1868 Mr Richard Millhouse, harness maker, formerly of Spalding, which was in the September 1999 edition and is full of items of interest including an in-depth article on the Internet as a genealogical resource.

Bits and Bobs Nothing changes

Lincoln St Benedict - Burial Register - John Patrick, age 12, lost his life by fireworks being accidentally lighted in his pocket on 5^th November. Buried 19 November 1823

From FHS Magazine March 1996

No village too small

2011-11-28T14:41:00.000Z

Having drawn up your family tree it looks a bit on the bare side with all those dates and little else. Its now time to start looking for the fruit on it. As well as for your own interest this will enable you to put some flesh onto the bones of any skeletons found in and out of the cupboard.

There are many sources available but the two main ones easily found at the Reference Library in Free School Lane and in the Lincoln Archives are Kelly's and Whites Directories. Depending on where you live governs the amount of information contained in each publication. For a large town or city such as Lincoln or Boston there may be a complete street by street index of all inhabitants but if you are unlucky enough to have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer and who lived in a village - and most of us are - then information is not so easily come by. The Directories normally only list the principal inhabitants such as landowners, farmers and those in trade. An entry which is quite typical is this one for Sotby of 1856 from White's Directory

Directory

Coote George, carpenter

Goddard Thomas, parish clerk

Tripp George, shoemaker

Tripp John, vict. Nag's Head

Weatherhog Joseph, shopkeeper & smith

Post from Wragby

Farmers

Baggerley Thomas

Borringham William

Curtois William

Scholey Edward

Scholey Thomas

Stovin George

Frederick Kelly published a Post Office Directory for Lincoln early in the 19^th century and it has carried on until recent years. Don't forget the point I made a few weeks ago that you can't believe all that is written without checking on the original source. As you look through the many years of directories you will notice that what is written does not change a great deal from year to year and with so many villages in Lincolnshire it was not easy for the publishers to check the data. One Kelly's Directory recorded that the was a church in the village of Grasby in 950AD. Over the years I have tried to find the original source of this information without success, but out there somewhere there could be a reference which someone found and putting two and two together came up with three. Information in one directory was sometimes found in a rival publication.

The majority of the population were of course, labourers working on the land and in the mam this multitude was not recorded. To be included one needed a trade or to own land. Reprints of some Directories are still available. Whites 1856 Directory of Lincolnshire and more recently Whites 1872 Directory both make interesting bedtime reading. For those in trade Pigots and Bennets are both good sources with reprints still coming out. Inside you can find adverts such as:-

Cross Keys inn - Grasby

George Roskilly - proprietor.

cyclists & parties catered for. also horsebreaker &

waggonette proprietor. runs to Brigg Thursday

waggonette & dog-cart for hire.

The information found in a directory will include the population taken at the last census, area of land and its rateable value, and items of interest about the village such as:-

SOTBY, an old village of thatched houses, on an acclivity, 5 miles east of Wragby, has in its parish 152 souls, and 1604 acres of land, mostly the property of Robert Vyner, Esq. Lord of the manor. The church (St Peter) is a discharged rectory, valued in the Kings Book at £9 0s l0d, and now at £193 per annum. The Lord Chancellor is patron, and the Rev, John Bainbridge Smith, of Ranby, is the incumbent.

Even the smallest of places gets a mention and they don't come much smaller than this:-

MORTON, in the vale of a rivulet, 9 miles S W by W of Lincoln, is an extra parochial house and estate, containing 6 souls and 710 acres of land belonging to Mrs Solly, and occupied by Thomas Pilgrim, farmer. It anciently belonged to the Knights Templar of Eagle Hall., and usually returned with Swinderby parish.

LDS Tops the Popularity Charts

2011-11-28T14:27:00.000Z

Whatever your religious persuasion amongst genealogists one of the most popular groups of people are those of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, who have undertaken one of the largest projects ever conceived,.- to index and produce for use by genealogists everywhere, all the marriages and baptisms in the world - yes - all of them. The reason for this mammoth undertaking, and I apologise to LDS members for my simplicity, is to allow the retrospective baptisms of all Mormon family members whenever they were born.

The first product of their labours was the IGI or International Genealogical Index which is on microfiche. It is not complete by any means and there are a number of mistakes but it is of enormous value if you do not know the whereabouts of ancestors. Unfortunately not all Lincolnshire parishes are included and neither are all their registers. If however your search of the IGI does not produce the desired result at least, after checking those parishes and registers which are included, you can now concentrate your efforts on the excluded ones. The IGI has recently been updated with the new material being put onto a CD-ROM.

What can we find out by using the sources already mentioned? Let's look at the IGI and pick a name. Thomas Lilley the son of John and Mary Anne Lilley was baptised on the 12^th November 1820 at North Carlton. Other members of the family are also mentioned at North Carlton but we'll follow up on Thomas. By the time of the 1851 census Thomas, an agricultural labourer, aged 29, had married Sarah, who was born in St Pauls, Lincoln, and they live in North Carlton with their four children. In the preceding seven years or so they have moved around following the work. Moving from Carlton to Lincoln, St Nicholas then Nettleham and in the last couple of years back to Carlton where their youngest son George was born.

By the 1871 census Thomas and Sarah have settle permanently at North Carlton with five new members added to the family, the youngest being Thomas aged 4. Thomas senior is still an Ag Lab now aged 50. Twenty years later in 1891 Thomas is still at Carlton, but now on his own, a widower, with Elizabeth Wakefield from Scredington acting as his housekeeper. The final entry is from the North Carlton parish registers.

North Carlton Parish Register

30th August 1919

Thomas Lilley, of the Bede Houses in Burton by Lincoln buried. Aged 99 or 100.

Said he was born in the same year as Queen Victoria.

Baptised November l2th 1820.

You can see how easy it is from just these limited sources to build a picture of family life during the last century. Further investigation would unearth the maiden name of Sarah and her parents and more items of interest can be added using others sources such as the directories for Lincolnshire.

Bits & Bobs

Navenby Parish Register

Original Gabitus, Codder, buried August 10^th 1779.

A Codder was one who worked with leather such as a saddler; his name was Original,

2 - Great-Great-Granddad was a Cordwainer?

2011-06-05T15:01:00.000+01:00

The census is one of the most useful tools available to the genealogist. Since its inception in 1801 it has been carried out every 10 years with only one exception -when the second world war got in the way. The first useful census for our purposes is that of 1841 but this is limited in its information. It holds the names and the ages of each person in the household with the ages of the adults rounded to the nearest five years. From 1851 it also lists the place of birth of each inhabitant and this is the information we are after.

We are very lucky in Lincolnshire as there is a very active Family History Society who, over the years, have indexed all the censuses (or should that be censii!!). This makes it very easy to find anyone of your surname at ten year intervals through the 19th century. Copies of the index are held at the Reference Library, Free School Lane, and at the Archives in St Rumbold St.. If you want to be able to work at home they can also be bought through the FHS. Be prepared though, while some of the enumerators had wonderful copperplate handwriting a few of them could spend their time today writing out doctors prescriptions!!

Census material is held at Lincoln Archives apart from the 1841 which is in the Reference Library. So, armed with the reference numbers from the index to the relevant census, it is an easy matter to check on the entry which interests you. Staff at both places are very helpful and will show you where the films/fiche are kept and how to use the viewers. It is advisable to book in advance as there is only limited space.

The poor of the 19th century were very suspicious of the census thinking that the information could be used against them. When asked the question by the enumerator they could be quite evasive in their answer. Sometimes of course they did not know the answer as the elderly then could be unsure of their age and occasionally the enumerator would 'guess-timate'. Great-Great-Great-Granddad, who moved to Branston from Great Hale when he was but a few months old would have given his place of birth as Branston as "I have always lived here". The moral to this is don't believe implicitly in all that is written. The enumerator and the residents are only human and mistakes are sometimes made.

Most of the Lincolnshire population in the 19th century were involved in farming and the majority of these are classed as Ag. Lab (Agricultural Labourer). Over the years old occupations disappear and new ones replace them. In 1881 William COOLING, aged 67, born in Branston, married and living with his family at Branston gives his occupation as Cordwainer. Later this is replaced by cobbler or shoemaker.
With the family information and census material, with luck, we should now have a line of ancestors back to the early 1800s. The next thing to do is to join all the pieces of information together and for that we will use the Parish Registers.

Bits & Bobs

Croxby Baptisms

5th May 1861 - Emma daughter of John & Emma Taylor of Croxby - Labourer.
In the margin *God-Mother made a mistake and gave the wrong name — it was to have been Eliza.

Start at the beginning

2011-06-05T12:55:00.000+01:00

Who, When and Where?

So you have decided that you want to draw up your Family Tree but you're unsure on the place to start? The answer is no former than your nearest elderly relatives, but is also happens to be one of the major snags with tracing a Family Tree. No matter when you start it always seems to be ten years too late. Remember Auntie Hilda from Hatcliffe? Passed away aged 98 - now she knew all the family members and what stories she used to tell. Each of our relations have a unique insight into the family most which is not written down. While we can draw up - if you are really lucky - the Family Tree all the way back to 1538, it will be as dry as dust if you are unable to add in some personal information of the ancestors.

We need information from our relatives to take us back to the last century. The magic date to aim for is that of the last census for which information is available (census information is not released for one hundred years) and at the moment this is 1891. To do this all that is needed - hopefully - is long chats with the family members. Genealogy suffers from reverse ageism. The older the relative the more important can be their contribution. Back to the heading - Who, When & Where? The line you are tracing - be it Mother's or Father's - you need to know - Who were they?. When were they born? Where did they live? Did they go on holiday and stay with a relative? What did they do for a living? The list is almost endless. The fact that they went on holiday and stayed with grandparents in Skegness may point you to the area they came from. A really good method of bringing the memories flooding back is to go through the old photograph albums with the person you are 'interviewing' and try to identify the subjects and who they were related to. Try never to ask a question which needs a yes or no answer; chatting on one subject can open up memories on a whole range of items which might be of interest and provide a key to linking in another family group.

Having got this far try to draw up a small tree for each family group. These can then be used like a jigsaw to connect each family together with the father/mother of one family are the son or daughter of another. There are forms available to help make it easier and these will be found advertised in the genealogical magazines. The Church of the Latter Day Saints also do a form to record family members and it can be bought from your local LDS Family History Centre.

Were you successful in getting the line back to 1891? Unsure of the dates? Never mind. Over the coming weeks I hope to cover all the main sources of information that can be consulted and used to make up the Family Tree. The information is out there and it is just a matter of finding it. It does help of course, if you know what is available and where it is kept.

Bits 'n Bobs - Don't forget your local newspaper is a source of information.

Clixby - December 7th 1837 On Saturday last an inquest was held at Clixby, before George Mams Gent. Coroner on the body of William Booth, a servant in husbandry to Mr M Jackson, late of that
place who was found dead in bed.
Verdict - Visitation of God.

Ag. Lab. or Pawnbrokers Apprentice

2007-12-11T20:57:00.001Z

Peter HERRON has several questions to answer concerning his families of interest. The father was Albert Henry NICHOLLS who died in 1961 aged 77 was therefore born around the year 1884 and his wife was a BUTTERY who is believed to have originated from the Bourne area. The first of the children was born in 1912. With this information we can say that it is likely that Albert would have married not earlier than 1901 and before 1912. Albert's wife was younger than him by a few years so the marriage dates can be narrowed down to between 1904 and 1912. According to the 1901 census there are 30 individuals called Albert born between 1882 and 1886. Discarding those with an initial that is not 'H' and all those from 'down south' we end up with two people. Albert born 1882 in Leven who was a waggoner and Albert from York born 1886 who was a pawnbrokers apprentice. The most likely candidate here is Albert the waggoner as he ended life working on the land. Leven is not far from Beverley and Albert is living, according to the 1901 census at Durington. Could this be a mis-spelling for Dunnington which is less than 5 miles from Leven? Using FreeBMD to check out the births there is just the one Albert Henry registered in 1882 and this was in the Rotherham district. Just to make things a little more interesting there is a parish near Rotherham called Dinnington.

I think that the only thing to do is to try and find the marriage certificate which would answer so many of the questions and give that all important link back to the census materials. FreeBMD gives two possibles for the marriage one in Rotherham and one in York.

Another name that has come to light during the week is that of Howsley. Although this one does not turn up in the dictionary it does split nicely in two. The –LEY element is from the Old English leah, a wood or clearing while the first part HOW- can easily be the personal name of the owner which is a form of Hugh. Just as simple could the Old English hoh, a hill, spur of land etc.

One of the things that the LDS is famous for amongst the genealogical fraternity is the amount of data that is held by them. Many of the larger towns have a Family History Centre at the Mormon Church and here you can view virtually everything that they hold. But what do they hold? With a little spare time you could go to London and look through the catalogue at the Hyde Park Family History Centre. This is the largest centre outside North America. Luckily for us there is an on-line link to it at www.hydeparkfhc.org/home.php and you will find what can be ordered for viewing. There is also a list of all the talks on genealogy that will be given and in a number of instances the talks are available as an article to download and read at your leisure.

Bits and Bobs

Grimsby Guardian – 26^th August 1858 – William Appleby was charged by Samuel Parker Story with depasturing cattle in West Marsh Lane on the 24^th inst. Contrary to the Bye Laws of the Borough. It appeared that Appleby, who is an old offender, was watching his cows in the lane and Story had got secreted in a cart that was driving past and sprang out for the purpose of taking them to the pound, but the beasts were forced over a drain into a field. Fined 5s and costs

Lincoln Linx

2007-12-11T20:55:00.001Z

Working with the Wolds Learning Network in Horncastle gives me the opportunity to go to their offices which is situated in Joseph BANKS House. The house has been totally rebuilt it appears from the outside but being staff I am able to root about in the top floor where the original parts of the house are still in view. This is a fascinating house. The name of the house tells of its claim to fame. Sir Joseph BANKS, 1st Baronet, (1743-1820) was an English naturalist, botanist and science patron. He took part in Captain James COOK'S first great voyage and around 80 species bear BANKS' name. He is credited with the introduction to the West of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa, and the genus named after him, Banksia. BANKS' father died in 1761, and when Joseph turned 21 he inherited the estate of Revesby Abbey, becoming the local Squire and Magistrate, and sharing his time between Lincolnshire and London. Pop in under any pretext to have a look at the house. Sympathetically renovated, modern and ancient building gives it a surprisingly welcoming feel to it. The abbey had had few owners in its lifetime. In 1142, William De ROMARA, Earl of Lincoln and lord of the manor at Revesby, founded an Abbey there for the Cistertian monks. In 1538 it was granted to Charles BRANDON, Duke of Suffolk, and it thence passed from his family to the HOWARDs, Dukes of Berkshire, and from them to the BANKS family.

This week the names I shall look at come from my visit to Horncastle and the Linx Housing Trust. The first name I shall look at is ALLENDER. There are very few examples of this in Lincolnshire. In general the name appears in the middle of the country with the highest concentration in 1881 being in Wolverhampton. By 1998 the centre has shifted to Sheffield and it is here that Jack ALLENDERs mother was born around 115 years ago with the maiden name HARRINGTON. Without research going back as far as the changes in spelling it is difficult to say what the origin of ALLENDER is. However a very similar name is that of ALLENDE and the Old Spanish allende meaning someone who lived some distance from the main habitation.

The name BRUCKSHAW is as you will have noticed a variation on BROOKSHAW. Again this is a name that is not originally from Lincolnshire. Mainly from the Crewe in 1881 we find the Lincolnshire variation BIRKENSHAW throughout the county. This comes from BRUKENSHAW and the two words have the Old English origin of bruc being a brook and scaga that became shaw and was a copse and so we get the dweller living by the copse near a brook. One interesting thing about the name is that when I put the surname into the census search engine it returned not one single Ag. Lab. I am sure that this was purely due to the places that the families lived. A few farmers were listed but in the main the occupations were town based and the type of thing that we now associate with a factory. Put in any Lincolnshire name and 90% would be returned as labouring on a farm.

Bits and Bobs

1341 Royal Inquest in Lincolnshire – Gilbert de LEDRED, sheriff of Lincolnshire, in 14 Edward III had a royal commission to collect wool and took 20s from Thomas de LEKYNGFELD of Barton upon Humber not to take his wool. Likewise on the same day similarly took 20s from Thomas del BANK. – Lincoln Record Society Vol 78.

There is very little today that is new. Shouts about sleaze are likely to go back to Noah building the ark and whether the timber bought was kosher.

Allis in Wonderland

2007-11-19T11:20:00.001Z

This week it was my pleasure to attend the confirmation of a friend in Brigg. Amongst the couple of dozen or so candidates were the usual names that turn up everywhere such as MARSHALL and MILLER. There were also the few that are particular to local areas such as PETCH and BRUMBY plus those that originate with place names such as FEATHERSTONE, SHIPLEY and WALKEDON. The other main supply of surnames is from Christian names and these were well represented along with those such as MURCH which I recently wrote about.

Anyone who has looked through the really old registers will have seen my first name to look at. It would appear as Als or Allis and is to be found in Wonderland as Alice. The Brigg surname is ALLISS. In its original form of Adalhaidis it was then contracted down to Alis and a variation of its original form is to be found today as Adelaide.

The Christian name Giles may end up as a surname but this is an odd one with several very similar surnames having different roots. Taking it's start as the name of a saint and the hermit St Ǽgidius becomes Gile and Gille. However the surname GILL was to be found in the Domesday book but came from a dweller by the ravine and the word is still used today. A diminutive of GILL is GILLEAT which along with its numerous spellings is a name that can be found in this area of Lincolnshire.

The name PETCH is one of those local names and was listed by GUPPY as peculiar to Yorkshire. The name came from a nickname and was used, I feel, in a similar way that some one who was short would be called lofty. The word originates from the Latin peccatum evolved to the Old French peche and pechie, a sin. Way back in 1123 Robert PECCEO, the Bishop of Coventry, was nicknamed Peche; another name that comes from the same root is PEACHEY.

Those nice people the Latter Day Saints have a new website where you can say thank you for all their work that resulted in the IGI. If you sign up to do some indexing for them you will get a single page of work to transcribe along with a small program in which to type your transcript. All projects being administered by FamilySearch Indexing and participating genealogical and historical societies are listed. Each project is posted with a unique set of indexing guidelines and interesting facts. To do your bit visit http://labs.familysearch.org/ and say thank you. There are lists of the projects completed, underway and to come. These are mainly in the Americas but there are a few Irish items to work on and a Glamorgan that I couldn't access.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM - 23rd May 1800 - If the Legal Representatives of Charles FOWLER, Son of Joseph FOWLER, formerly of Goltho in the County of Lincoln. Gent, deceased and of Selina FOWLER, daughter of the same Joseph FOWLER, will apply to Mr BALDWIN, Attorney at Law in Lincoln, they will hear of something to their advantage. The said Charles FOWLER was bound Apprentice in the Year 1773 from Christ´s Hospital, London to a Captain RATCLIFFE, who then traded to Jamaica: was afterwards in the Year 1777, a Midshipman on Board one of His Majesty´s Ships then lying at Spithead; and in the month of February 1779, was in Quebec in Canada. The said Selina FOWLER married a Mr SPENCER, supposed to be a Sea-faring Man, and died about the Year 1769.

Sauce for the Goose

2007-11-14T14:14:00.001Z

There was a recent exchange on the internet concerning the PERRIN surname. I, like many others, instantly think of LEA & PERRINS sauce when the surname is used and have often wondered who they were. The story goes that Worcestershire sauce itself is of cross-cultural origins. In 1835, Lord Marcus SANDYS, who was the ex-governor of Bengal, approached chemists John Wheeley LEA and William PERRINS, whose business in Broad Street, Worcester, handled pharmaceutical's and toiletries as well as groceries. He asked them to make up a sauce from a recipe which he brought back from India. While his lordship was apparently satisfied with the results, Messrs LEA and PERRINS considered it to be an "unpalatable, red-hot fire-water" and left the quantity they had made for themselves in the cellars. During the stocktaking and spring clean the following year, they came across the barrel and decided to taste it before discarding it. To their amazement, the mixture had mellowed into an aromatic, piquant and appetizing liquid. They hastily purchased the recipe from Lord SANDYS and, in 1838, the Anglo-Indian LEA & PERRINS Worcestershire sauce was launched commercially. So now you know.

The surname PERRINS has a number of origins and all the spellings interchange with each other so that the only way to find the exact origin is to follow the line back to its beginning. The various spelling of PERRIN, PERRON and PEROWNE are respectively the diminutive of the French Perre (Peter) and this works with the various endings such as –in, -el or –un and appears in PARRELL and PERRIN. The name PEROWNE belongs to the Huguenots. A Lincolnshire example is that of Geoffrey PERRUN who was linked to the Templars in 1185.

Lincolnshire has its own origin for LEA. With the various spelling of LEE, LEIGH, LYE and LAYE one can assume that there are numerous beginnings for this surname. A search through any gazetteer gives you any number of villages that include the surname. The Old English word leah was used for one who dwells in the area by a wood or in a clearing. The same word by the time of the Middle English became leye or lye and it is from this that some of the other variations come. The same origin, same meaning but of a later date.

I have received an e-mail from Cynthia TUPHOLME in Canada. Further to her request last week on the surname it seems from her email that it was just one family that had left Lincolnshire years ago and settle in the Ontario area. This is another of those instances where history comes full circle. Tupholme was the island of sheep down in the fens originally. Cynthia and her family "live on one of the most amazing islands in the world, known for it's quality of lamb and we are breeders of registered Suffolk sheep!" If TUPHOLME is your name then get in touch with your long lost cousins at www.geocities.com/cerdinen4stock/

Bits and Bobs

Lincoln Lindsey Petty Sessions 2 May 1851 - Hannah DENMAN, of Torksey, applied for an order of affiliation on Alfred DALTON, of Wiseton, Notts: the frail fair one, however, admitted that her favours had been bestowed on three different men; and one wit said, "Thou knowest, Hannah, thou was very enticing, and that he did not know that the child was not his".

Anne on the 'net.

CARR HOLME

2007-11-14T14:13:00.001Z

This is as Lincolnshire as a surname can be and it belongs to Cynthia TUPHOLME who lives in Salt Spring Island, Canada. Back at the time of the first millennium the area around the fens and up to Lincoln was large swamp with small islands by the dozen. These could be Carrs or Holmes and generally meant a bit of dry land in a swampy area. The first part of the name - TUP - is still in use. Have a chat to your local shepherd. At some stage during his year he will be putting the Tup in with the sheep and when you see a blue or red mark on a sheep's rear then you know that the Tup has done his work. The Tup is the ram. Tupholme was the island that had sheep on it. A good place to check this out is the LincsHeritage site which has a very nice article on the Abbey. "In the middle of the twelfth century, a newly elected Abbot and twelve canons set out from Newsham in North Lincolnshire to found a new Premonstratensian Abbey on the 'island of the sheep' at Tupholme." Many of the holders of the name are to be found in the south of the county with the earliest register entry I found being the baptism of William TUPHOLME in 1565 in Boston. In 1175 it was spelt TUPEHOLM so really hasn't changed a great deal over the years. Mind you due to the accent there are a few TUPHAM families about. In the Whites 1856 Directory the township of Tupholme had 73 people living there and there is no church listed.

A name that I put in the column last year is that of HADDELSEY. I have been known to put the column onto the Grasby.blogspot occasionally and it is here that Brian HADDLESEY came across it. It was Mrs Armstrong who had first brought up the subject of the HADDELSEY surname and if either she or anyone else researching it would like to contact Brian on hzr3zr@yahoo.com he would be delighted to hear from you. He has a large database on the family and is interested in sharing his data.

One of the things that was needed was someone to take on the restoration of the stone monuments in churchyards and one that has taken it up and contacted me recently is Stephen TOOP of Grimsby. The name I thought sounds Dutch to me but when I had a look at the National Trust Surname site I found that the main concentration for the name in 1881 was in Devon, Dorset and Somerset. By 1998 an enclave was to be found in Lincolnshire and the name could now be found throughout the southern counties. A quick peek at the Family Search website confirmed the findings with hundreds of TOOP individuals to be found in the south west from the 16^th century onwards. Some of the very earliest use of the name are to be found in the Domesday Book and are in Lincolnshire. The Domesday Book mentions one Ulf TOPE. The name most likely comes from the Old Danish name Topi.

Bits and Bobs

THE LOUTH & NORTH LlNCOLNSHIRE ADVERTISER - 1st June 1872 - A meeting of the friends of Mr Thomas KIRKHAM of Biscathorpe House, near Louth, the celebrated ram breeder, was held at Lincoln yesterday (Friday) week. when it was resolved to present that gentleman with a portrait of himself. A subscription has been entered into for carrying out the purpose. and when completed. will be presented as a token of esteem for the services he has rendered to agriculturalists in having so successfully devoted himself to the importance of the breed of Lincolnshire sheep, and as a testimonial of the regard in which he is held.

Bye Rod

2007-10-27T09:48:00.001+01:00

Way back in March 2000 Rod NEEP had a bright idea; now that the technology was available why not scan in rare books, directories and census returns and put then onto CD; before Rod knew where he was the CDs were being produced in the UK and soon in USA, Canada, Australia, Holland and Ireland. There are now over 2,500
old and rare books on CD for sale to historians and genealogists. Sadly as Rod NEEP has decided to retire – again - Archive CD Books will cease taking new orders and the company will be closed down. The company is not being sold. I mentioned in this column recently that the company had a closing down sale and the profits from this are being used in the Archive CD Books Kenyan project; as Rod says "I am donating £20,000.00 from the proceeds of the GB closing down sale to the funds to build another new school in Kenya. (Would I like to keep that as profit? Sure! But there are others who can gain immense benefit from it). Everyone who has purchased our CDs can take some pleasure in that too". I for one shall really miss this resource but we will still be able to get disks from the other countries still working and Ireland is not so far away. Looking at one set of disks that I recently bought I notice that the Isle Wight census of 1861 is available for €17.17 plus €2.25 postage etc instead of £12.93 plus £2 p&p which at today's exchange rate looks like a bargain to me.

While on the subject of the Archive CD Books there are a series of indexes that you can download from the site. Along with Lincolnshire 1841 Pigots Directory and a number of other counties directories, there are seven 1841 censuses place indexes, numerous Visitation books, but not Lincolnshire. You will have to buy one from the Lincolnshire Family History Society who has indexed all the censuses plus just about everything else.

We have just rung a quarter peal at Elsham and wandering around the churchyard I came across the Yorkshire name ETTY. This one occurred mostly in the East Riding but by 1998 the highest concentration moves from York to Lincoln. The Lincolnshire families seem to come from the Sleaford area in 1881. A very similar name is that of ATTY and where ETTY came from the Old English word eata and Yorkshire, ATTY is from further north and from Old English teag, an enclosure.

Bits and Bobs THE BRITISH FREEHOLDER & SATURDAY EVENING JOURNAL - 18th January 1823 - DEPLORABLE OCCURRENCE - On Friday last, 10th inst., a melancholy circumstance occurred in the neighbourhood of Broadholme near Lincoln. Mr. COCKING, a respectable farmer of that place, in company with a visitor went out for the purpose of shooting rabbits. Whilst in pursuit of their game, a rabbit offered a good opportunity for a shot, by passing in a direction which, however, was obstructed by Mr. COCKING´S friend standing in that quarter. Mr. COCKING presented his piece over the head of his friend, who accordingly crouched down a few paces off - the trigger was pulled - the powder flashed in the pan, - and as the gun did not instantly go off, the young man who stooped conceived that the piece had missed fire, and arose from his bended position, when, shocking to relate, the contents of the gun were exploded within a few yards of his head, which was so dreadfully shattered, as to cause his immediate death.

An Interesting Snippet

2007-10-07T21:40:00.001+01:00

The Parish Registers of Whaplode - Memorandem - January 27th 1820 - At the last summer assizes, John BIMROSE, of this parish, was capitally convicted of wilfully firing a gun about midnight, into the chamber window of William Wilders, of the Star public house. He supposed that his wife, whom he had turned out, was there: for which offence the said John BIMROSE received sentence of death, & was left for execution on Friday the 6th day of August 1819. But on Sunday: August 1st, myself, the Churchwardens, Overseers of the Poor, & almost every Parishioner, signed a petition for commutation of punishment: at the same time setting on foot a subscription to defray the expenses of sending a special messenger after the Judge, to Derby, for that purpose, which was happily effected: & the messenger arrived back at Lincoln Castle with a reprieve on Wednesday Aug 4th at about 10 o'clock at night... Ultimately he was transported for life N.B. The whole expense was £21

It ought not, by any means, to be omitted recording that, among the principal people of this Parish, shooting into houses, breaking open doors, demolishing windows & such like transactions, in the night, has been, for some years, a common drunken frolic: which was always made up in a day or two, by paying for the damage done, & spending a few shillings, by way of a treat!!!....It might have been reasonably supposed that the narrow escape of this poor culprit would have proved a wholesome example: & effected a moral reformation in the Parish, but, alas, the grosser acts of violence are only restrained! The same spirit of notorious impiety, profligacy & licentiousness continues to prevail. And a great many are triumphantly bringing up their children in the same contumacious manner!!! That God Almighty may turn the heads of the disobedient, into the wisdom of the just, thro Jesus Christ our Lord Saml OLIVER. It was in the registers of Samuel OLIVER that the fact was noted that the parents of the child were 'stark raging Ranters'. The name BEMROSE seems to have started out in the Lincolnshire area wsere it was highly concentrated in the 1881 census. It is thought to have originated from the name of a now vanished village.

Whilst on the subject of prison. The archive books CDs are at half price and I have just purchased the 1861 census for the Isle of Wight. On one disk is the prison and if one of your ancestors was here then you will have trouble pinpointing him as they are only listed as for instance - J. B. – Prisoner – U – 17 – Tailor – Lincolnshire – Boston or J. B. – Prisoner - U – 12 – Labourer – Lincolnshire – Frampton and these two do exist as above. Best of luck.

Bits and Bobs

The Times (London) 17 Jul 1908 - Prizes for large families - At the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society's annual show, opened yesterday at Sleaford, prizes were offered to the agricultural labourers who had brought up and placed out the largest numbers of children, without having received parochial relief. The first prize of £4 went to George FARMERY, of Hemswell, Lincoln, who had 23 children, 17 of whom were brought up, and 14 placed out. The second prize went to John ELSEY, of Lusby, near Spilsby, who had 14 children, 14 of whom were brought up, and 11 placed out. The third prize-winner was William BELL, of Croxby, Caistor, with 14 children born, 11 brought up, and the same number placed out. The five men competing in the class had a total of 78 children.

A couple of months later it was listed in the New Zealand newspapers. He won again the next year and received another £4. With wages being 15 shillings a week the winnings would have been a nice addition to the family budget.

Posted by Alan MOORHOUSE

A Hidden Agenda

2007-09-21T13:02:00.001+01:00

There is a new list on the block; well it sounds good and street wise but they are calling it the hidden BMD index. Typical newspaper type talk and ever so slightly exaggerated. They are talking about the new site set up using data from the National Archives. The data that is included is from the Non-parochial and Dissenters Registers to be found under the National Archives reference numbers RG4 & RG5. The aim of this site is to provide you with access to various unpublished registries from 1534 to 1865, which can usually provide records of three generations of a family or more. Usually proving to be the only record of the event, these previously unpublished records are a fantastic resource for the family historian. The site says that birth, marriage and death records are the most important way of tracking down your ancestors. The trouble is the BMD records in the General Record Office main index only go back as far as 1837 and even then many events are missing from these records due to the nature of the material. The hidden birth, marriage and death records have been compiled from various unpublished registries and many unusually include records of three generations of a family. These are a fantastic resource for the family historian and often prove to be the only record of the events. But they are not all the BMD entries to be found what of those in the C of E registers? At the end of the day the vast majority of people that lived in the UK were and still are today nominally CofE and their records are to be found (if at all) in the church registers which means that generally you will have to go to the local archives and trawl through unindexed registers until something of interest turns up. I hate to be a kill joy but until the rest of the country is working as hard as Gordon on the Lincolnshire parish registers and the Lincolnshire Family History Society in getting everything in the Lincoln Archives indexed then we still have to do some work for ourselves. Thank goodness. It is rather boring when it is all laid out for you. Work on the Isle of Wight branch of my family tree consists of going to Newport Archive office and opening a large drawer full of index cards, getting out the Barton section, this is my research carried out because everything I need is there. All the parish registers have been copied and entries put into alphabetical order. In addition, never take anyone’s word for anything, always check it out for yourselves. Take a look at www.bmdindex.co.uk/ it does have some interesting links to other sites connected with genealogical suppliers. Oh and I almost forgot. As usual you do have to pay to view most of the details. Before you do pay up though have a quick check of the IGI because many of the entries have already been put on line by the LDS and are available for you to look at for free.
Bits and Bobs
The Old Bailey – 17th July 1728 - Ann Hatfield, alias Pack, alias Selby , was indicted for feloniously marrying William Pack , her former Husband Francis Selby , being alive . It appeared that the Prosecutor came from Stamford in Lincolnshire to look for his Wife, and found her at the Horns in Rosemary-Lane, where he was informed she was married to another Husband, but the latter Marriage not appearing plain, she was acquitted.

It’s a New one on Me

2007-09-09T21:45:00.001+01:00

Becoming involved with a new set of clients and one comes into contact with new names. Occasionally one finds something new and this last week I was lucky enough to meet Joanne ISSOTT. This is not a surname that I have ever come across in Lincolnshire and a search of the 1901 census shows why it is so rare. While the various family members seem to have been born in a number of places they were all to be found in St Peter at Gowts or St Swithins. Could these be the start of the Lincolnshire family of today? Hardy ISSOTT is born at Hitchin and putting Hitchen as place of birth into the search of the 1901 census a number of other family members turn up. This time there seems to be several links among the people. Some are tailors and includes another that is living in Kent is a tailoress. Most interesting is the fact that the eldest person in the list is that of Joseph the tailor and he was born in Normanby. Another unusual occupation is that of Louise in Lincoln who is a manageress of a penny bazaar. I wonder where that was. The name ISSOTT is one of a great many variations of a name that dates back to the Domesday Book. Generally the first vowel is always the letter I but the SS can also be Z while the O might be E, A or I and finally the TT might be RD or LT. Permutate any of these and you will find a spelling for the surname ISSOTT. The name comes from the Old French Isalt, Isaut or Ysole
My local history programme has arrived from the Nottingham University. Some of the Day Schools will be held in Lincoln at Edward King House. Did you know that 2007 marks the 850th anniversary of Henry II wearing his crown at Wigford? The event was commemorated by a banquet at St Mary’s Guildhall. To follow on from this a Day School which starts at 9.15am has been set up to take a closer look at the 12th century and its effect on Lincolnshire’s history. The civil war coming to an end and St Hugh of Avalon will take up the morning then after a buffet lunch the Day School will focus on architecture and a detailed examination of (it says here) the ‘Crazy Vault’ in the cathedral and a look at Bishop Hugh’s master mason. The final part of the day which finishes at 5pm is a reconsideration of the role of Lincoln Castle in the years after the Norman Conquest. To book a place or check out the lectures at Jubilee Campus in Nottingham contact the office at 01159514390.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM - 10th November 1809 - On Wednesday the 1st instant JOHN CODD, groundkeeper to Mr Ald GIBBESON of Lincoln, having been at Newark Fair, left the White Swan Inn in that town about three o’clock in the afternoon on his return home: his horse was found about a mile from Newark with one stirrup gone and the bridle broken: the rider has not been heard of since.
Lincolnshire Family History Society Extracts

Coming Your Way

2007-08-19T12:53:00.001+01:00

The Lincolnshire Family History Society has set up a series of workshops that start from the very beginning of your research. These workshops have a limited number of places so I suggest that you get in quickly if you would like to attend. All the events will be held at the society research room at Unit 6 Monks Way, Monks Road. For those that attend all five sessions there will be a very large reduction in the price. The Beginners’ Workshop on Sept 22nd lasts from 9.45 ‘til 3.15 and will tell you all you need to know to get started. Giving you enough time to digest all that you learnt here - the next session is on Oct 21st from 9.45 – 1.00 when you can get you hands onto the Internet side of things. The next sessions will build on this by looking at the National Archives and the Lincolnshire Family History Society website and more on-line on Nov 17th at the same times as the previous session. The Internet workshops may be repeated in the New Year if the demand is high enough. There will also be further workshops that will include Poor Law and the Workhouses. I will put out more details in November on this.

Jan from New Zealand put a query onto the internet and it was one of his family surnames that caught my eye especially after the recent column on the names to be found in Charles DICKENS books. The message was fairly plain with Jan saying “my relative Ethel May PACEY married George Arnold in New Zealand. She was born in Hemswell, Lincs in about 1880”. Ethel can be found in the 1881 census along with the rest of the family living in Hemswell. Several of the people living in the house were born in Osbournby. I wonder if any of these had been familiar with the gentleman mention below in Bits and Bobs? But I digress as one does. However the name that had caught my eye was the GRINDROD family name. The family is thought to have emigrated to New Zealand from the Louth or Sleaford areas. The reason for this though seems to be that each member of the PACEY family married in New Zealand the person they married came from families they seemed to have a connection with in UK. The main concentration of the GRINDROD surname is on the west of the country in the area of Lancashire with a small outpost in both Suffolk and Cornwall. The index for 1881 backs this up with most of the names being linked to Lancashire so it seems that if they did go to New Zealand from Lincolnshire they may have only been passing through on their way to somewhere else. The PACEY origin is from the Pacy-sur-Eure in Normandy and no doubt we have William the Conqueror to thank for the arrival. GRINDROD is thought to be a locational name that is in the locality of Rochdale and started out as GRENEROADE. A plainer version of this is the surname GREENROAD and it would have been near this green road that the person lived.

Bits and Bobs
LRSM 13 December 1850
Grantham County Petty Sessions 6 December
Chas. TOWNSHEND, of Osbournby, was brought up on a charge of not contributing towards the maintenance of the illegitimate child of Ann MUSSON, of Pickworth. The parties stated they had agreed to settle the dispute by getting married: the case was adjourned for a month, to see if Townshend fulfilled his promise.
No sign of a marriage in FreeBMD but in the 1881 census there is a Charles Townsend of around the right age and born in Sewstern, Leicestershire who is married to Hester from Exton and all of the places mentioned are in the same general area. Could this be he? Let me know if you know different.

Our Rodney

2007-07-26T20:54:00.001+01:00

I have just had the delightful opportunity to get to know – slightly – some of the travelling ladies of Gainsborough. Preconceived ideas went out of the window and a unique way of looking at life came in. The event was a workshop to look at family trees with the emphasis on the Romany/Gipsy/Traveller records. Most people will say that there would be little that can be found on the traveller but when I looked up the only gypsy that I know – Gypsy SMITH born in 1860 – he said in his book that gipsies always had their children baptised as it was a matter of business and so are recorded. After a short pause one of the ladies mentioned, in a matter of fact way, that Gypsy SMITH had come up with the “Gypsy Gospel Wagon” as part of the Salvation Army into which he had been invited by General BOOTH and was her great-great-Uncle. The event was set up by Elizabeth TAYLOR and Paul BOUCHER. Both of these are occupational names. The TAILOR we all know but BOUCHER comes from the Old French bouchier and thence to Middle English boucher and the more familiar butcher. Another occupational name is that of BIDDLE. This is a just a change in the spelling of the official known as the Beadle. The job was made famous through Charles DICKENS books.
Some of the names that came up were highly concentrated into specific areas. One of the least spread out was that of RICKER. Found in one small area in the middle of England this is a variation on the Christian name Richard which makes it odd that there are so few. Another centralised name is that of CALLADINE. Found mainly in the Nottingham and Derby areas this name is of unknown origin but thought to be connected in some way to CARWARDINE. CARWARDINE does have an origin from the place in Cheshire called Carden which in the 13th century was spelt Kawrdin.
One of the things I noticed was the Irish accent that was prevalent. Not really surprising really as most of the travellers have Irish links of one kind or another but some of these links are many years ago. Two names of Irish ancestry turned up even though one of these was a helper and not a client. The first was DUFFY. This has links to Scotland as well as Ireland with dubh - duff being the gaelic word for black. The Gaelic O’DUBHTHAIGH would have been a descendant of someone with the name Dubhthach and this was borne by a 6th century saint from Armagh. The name we now have as O’FARRELL also comes from a forename and the ‘correct’ spelling was O’ FEARGHAIL and this time was the descendant of Fearghal .
A locational name next. HALLAM which is in a regional name around southern Yorkshire is thought to be of the same type root at ALLAM and the name ALLUM. These two come from the south of the country and the place name Alham which is in Somerset.
And finally a nickname. The Old Norse frio meant seed and this evolved into offspring, child or small person. In fact just a small FRY.
Bits and Bobs
Thanks to the Internet the information that there is a Lincolnshire burial to be found in Tuddenham St.Mary Suffolk parish registers - 10 August 1628 John WALKER of Wigstoft Lincs, a traveller – and is passed on to interested parties by Margaret Taylor who lives in Toronto.
The ease with which data can be found and passed around the world continues to astonish me.

Where Has All The Money Gone?

2007-07-15T15:32:00.001+01:00

The question everyone wants to know the answer to is what happened to John ROLLITT who disappeared with a load of money in 1808? Perhaps not everyone but Helen ASH would be interested as he is on one of the branches in her family tree. I believe that John was eventually found for he is recorded in the 1841 census. Aged around 80 years of age (the 1841 census rounds the age of adults down to the nearest 5 years) this would put is birth date at approx 1761. The newspaper said that he was aged 45 years old in 1808 which gives a birth date of 1763. This looks like the man we want. He is listed as being of Independent Means on the census so this indicates money from somewhere. It does not say whether the Elizabeth aged 53 years who is living at the same house was his wife or daughter. It is unlikely that any of us will take our wealth with us when we pop our clogs so a search of the Lincolnshire Archives Wills should say what is left behind. The only John ROLLITT Will I found was dated 1905 and he was a grocer in Navenby. The surname has a somewhat complicated history. Beginning with the spelling ROELET in 1280 in Hampshire it was a variation on the Christian name Rowland. The similar sounding surname variation RAULOT in Sussex has originated from Raul or Ralph. The thinking is that due to the popularity of Rolland and instead of the English version developing as RAWLETT it ended up at ROLLETT

The Petty Session at Lincoln in 1850 showed the rather anti-traveller bias that was felt in 19^th century Lincolnshire. This was partly due to the fact that if a parish was not careful it could find itself liable for the upkeep of poor people from other parts of the country. Lincoln City Petty Sessions - 12
September 1850 - Joseph TURNEY, fellmonger, of Ashby de la Zouch, was ordered to pay 2s weekly towards the support of the illegitimate child of Eliz. FORMAN. It was stated that the poor woman had been under the necessity of pawning her clothing to raise the means of fetching the man up to Lincoln. TURNEY said he had to pay nearly 2s weekly to the fund of his own trade towards the maintenance of tramps. The Mayor said he had better give over paying, as it was only encouraging an idle set of scamps to prowl about the country, and there would always be tramps while people supported them.

Bits and Bobs

Have you lost a relative – you just never know when they will turn up.

From a Waukesha newspaper, Wisconsin, USA - ROBERT BRAY, Pewaukee; is a native of Lincolnshire, Eng.; was born in the town of Winterton, Jan. 10, 1853. In his native town he learned the mason's trade; Sept. 6, 1872, he married, in Lincolnshire, Emily KENDALL They emigrated to this country in 1873; located in Pewaukee, Waukesha Co., Wis., where they have since resided; they have three children. Mr. Bray takes contracts in brick and stone work, and, being a thorough mechanic, he is steadily engaged. He was Village Marshal in 1879.

Robert returned to England with their three US born sons in 1884 and they are to be found on the Yorkshire 1901 census. However they did not stay and in 1808 they entered the US at Ellis Island on their way "home" to Winnipeg which suggests that they came to Canada earlier. Certainly one of Robert's sons, George Matthew Bray, arrived in Canada in 1905. George Matthew died in Los Angeles.

Have Horse Will Travel

2007-06-22T10:55:00.001+01:00

Neil read the column recently concerning the CHAMBERS family at Wragby. This family connects into his family tree with George and Henry being the elder brothers of his great-great-great-grandfather Robert. Sadly this is where the trail goes cold for Neil; this is his brickwall. If you have any links please let me know and I will pass them on. Another name that comes into the conversation at this point is that of BOOTH with Elizabeth CHAMBERS marrying George BOOTH the son of John & Mary. Brickwall number two. In 1856 there were 466 souls living in the parish of Benniworth which is just six miles north east of Wragby and although Neil just says Holton I assume that he means Holton cum Beckering, with its 185 souls, which is two and half miles to the north west. The family does seem to be nicely compact and grouped into a single area. One of Neil's family lines is that of CREASEY. The CREASEY family came from Heckington and the story goes that they owned a number of horses and that these were stolen sometime before 1739. The thief was no other than Dick TURPIN and the theft was part of the trail that led to York where he was living under the name of John PALMER. After 'Googling' Dick TURPIN and reading some of the websites dedicated to him it seems that the tales of daring-do carried out by TURPIN were actually rather squalid affairs. What should Neil do next? He has traced some of his branches back to 1547 and so one can assume that he will know his way around the parish registers; it is here that the digging takes place. One aid in the search can be found on the BENNETT Family website at www.parloc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Download the freeware parish locator to be found there. Using this very useful little program enter a central parish in your search area then print out the parishes within ten miles or so. Then it's off to the archives to start the trawling of the registers.

The name CHAMBERS is from the same root and meaning the same as the official called the CHAMBERLAIN. The chamber would have been in a rather grand residence. The BOOTH name on the other hand was decidedly further down market. Still used further north the booth comes from the Old Danish word bōth which was a herdsman's hut. Today it would be called a bothey and what would probably have been used as a shepherd's hut has been restored and is now used by walkers.

CREASEY was very much a name belonging to the eastern coast of England. Very common in Lincolnshire and the fens and could be found right through to parts of Kent. The name is of French origin and no doubt everyone will have heard of the battle of Crecy and it is from this location that the name comes. By the 1180s Alexander de CRECY could be found in Lincolnshire and his name recorded in the Gilbertine Charters.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM -1st July 1808 - On Saturday se´nnight died at Sutton near Hull, aged 94, George RYSTON, an out-pensioner of Chelsea Hospital, who was in the Battles of Dettingen and Culloden, and at the taking of Belleisle. He twice gave up his pension to be actively serviceable to his King and Country. He was married thirteen times, and six of his wives were alive at one time.

A veritable glutton for punishment with thirteen mothers-in-law!!

Look at it this way.

2007-05-26T18:21:00.001+01:00

Why is it that whatever the name someone can come up with a new way of using it? Whenever you look at the census you have to be aware that the name you are looking for might not be the one that is listed. The change might be down to the daughter of the house having the name Margaret but being known to all as Peggy. Mind you my mother was a Peggy but she was christened as such. Names of today are being used rather differently to those of the past. In many cases what was once a nickname is now the given name. If your ancestor was an Elizabeth then she could be listed as Betty, Liz, Lizzie or Eliza. It's not just the Rev. Samuel OLIVER who didn't know the names. He made it clear that he was unsure by putting down all the variation at his disposal. However I am unsure how he managed to guess at the name being HEWERDINE or CASTLEDINE or even HAWKIN or SOUTHERN or SOUTHERAL. And you think you have a problem because you have a couple of Williams in the family.

A name that I have been looking for recently is that of BLYTHIN. A variation can be arrived at by putting a 'g' on the end and making BLYTHING. The surname concentration for BLYTHIN is in the Flint and Wrexham area. BLYTHIN is considered to be the English version. The Celtic version is BLYTHING and has the same concentration plus the Merseyside area. In 1881 there were just 311 individuals with the name and almost without exception they all have links to this area. I am unsure of the meaning for this surname but there seems to be a possible change to BLEDDYN and into the mysteries of the welsh language. A search on the internet produces the site www.surnamedb.com. This interesting site gives the information that "Recorded as BLETHIN, BLEYTHIN, BLEYTHING, BLYTHIN, and others, this is a surname which has Welsh royal connections. It derives from the Ancient British personal name "Bleddyn," translating as the son of Little Wolf. The name is much associated with early Welsh royalty, Bleddyn ap CYNFAN, being the prince of Gwynedd in the 11th century. The early recordings are all associated with Wales, although the variant spellings have often been English. Meredith ap BLETHYN was given as being a Welshman or Briton, who in what was then known as "The Survey" but later became the famous Domesday Book, is recorded as holding the manor of Oswestry."

Bits and Bobs

LRSM - 2nd October 1801 - Marriage: On Tuesday, the 15th instant at Bottesford, Lincolnshire, John KIRK an occasional preacher in the Methodist Connexion, to Susanna SEATON of Burringham, a Mantua Maker. The patient Bride had kept company near two years with a Blacksmith of the same place, and was actually Published with him in the Church (Banns) the very Sunday preceding her marriage; but for reasons best known to herself, eloped next day with the Preacher; so true it is that we know not what a day may bring forth.

It’s a Grave Situation

2007-05-06T17:15:00.001+01:00

Did you read the recent article on old graves? It seems that many of the older graves are going to be reused due to the shortage of burial plots. The largest cemetery in the country is the one at the City of London where at least 1000 graves have been reused with, in some cases, the old gravestones being put face down and inscribed with the new occupants details. The New Scientist has pointed out that the problem is even worse in Singapore where the graves site is only guaranteed for 15 years before the resident is dug up and the grave reused. Occasionally the occupants of two graves are combined. What would your thoughts be on finding that your relative is now buried with a total stranger? The visitors to the City of London cemetery are now coming across notices which read "This memorial has been identified for possible reclamation. If you visit this grave please contact the Conservation Team." Keep a watch on your family monuments for they could end up being recycled.

I noticed that the General Registry Office at Southport is reaching its goals 100% of the time. When this is 2,000,000 certificates in one year I find that impressive. If you would like to know how it is done then you could always visit the office on the Open Days in June just contact the Public Relations Unit on 0151 471 4530.

During some research on the registers of Folkingham I found an item of interest. The entry said "The Most Noble John Marquis of Granby & Peer of Folkingham buried May 17^th 1790. A Pauper & died by Dancing once a slack rope." Any idea what the slack rope was? It wasn't dancing on the end of a rope by any chance?

For sale on eBay recently was a document for WIGTOFF for the Lease of two parcels of land John NEWZAM of Wigtoff, Farmer and George CASSWELL of Wigtoff, Grasier and is dated 16 August 1809 in the 49th year of the reign of King George III. It refers to All that piece of pasture land in Wigtoff called Low Catherine or Low Cattering Toft of 5 acres, abutting on Staggot's Lane. Also a piece of pasture land in Wigtoff called High Catherine Toft and Davis Green of 7 acres abutting on a Division drain between Wigtoff and Swineshead. The name NEWZAM is fairly local and a variation of NEWSHAM. Originally coming from places such as Newsham, Newham or Newholme. CASSWELL has a great many variations from KERSWILL to CRASWELL to CRESSELL and any combination you can think of. The original holder of the name was a dweller by the water-cress stream and comes from the Old English cærse wiella and survives today as the name of many villages throughout England.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM - 5th October 1821 - Whereas, William MIDDLETON, late of East Kirkby in the county of Lincoln, labourer, did about 4 or 5 weeks ago, desert his wife, who is since become chargeable to the Parish of Spalding, in the said county. Whoever will apprehend the said William MIDDLETON, and give notice to Mr. Thos. NORTH, Assistant Overseer of the Parish of Spalding, shall receive Two Guineas Reward. NB. William MIDDLETON is a jollyish man, about 5 feet 6 or 8 inches high, with dark hair inclined to grey and is upwards of 50 years of age.

Still at School

2007-04-25T22:58:00.001+01:00

Having spent the afternoon working at Grasby Primary School building 'affordable homes for birds' I was beginning to wonder about the subject for this week. Then Julie came to the rescue with a request to look at her name of interest – URWIN. This is an ancient name that goes back to the time of the Conqueror's invasion and the Domesday Book. EUERUINUS was living in Hampshire in 1066 and twenty years later when the Domesday Book was written Gilchrist filius ERUINI could be found in Norfolk. Although the name had its origins down south the main concentration for it in 1881 was in the area of Durham. During the next hundred years plus the main concentration moved just a few miles up the road to Newcastle although there are pockets of URWINS throughout the country, it is from Newcastle that Julie's family came. Not a very numerous name and in the 1901 census there were less than 140 individuals in Newcastle. The greater number of these lived in Elswick. Not many were straight forward labourers but were clerks of one sort or another. They worked for banks, builders, ironmongers, railways and the Cooperative. One piece of information that Julie gave me was the family tale that the URWINs came from Ireland. In the 1901 census there is but one person with Irish ancestry and this is Margaret aged 63 and born in Ireland. Her husband, Thomas H, was a Dental Surgeon. I wonder if this is the family. The name is derived from the Old English Eoforwine which means a boar-friend although I must admit I am unsure what that means but I think that sincerity and trustworthiness comes into it.

The name I have been working on just recently is that of HARMSTON. The family comes from the Folkingham area and the search is on at the moment for the marriage of John & Mary. Thus far there has been a distinct lack of success for there is no mention of the marriage in the Lincolnshire Family History Society fiche for 1754-1812. The mention of John being married to Mary comes from the baptism of James so there is always a possibility that there is an error in the register if the priest filled it in at a later date. A look at the Bishop's Transcripts might resolve this. The problem here is that you do not know if the BT was taken from the register thus perpetuating the mistake. A check of the registers for another birth could help especially if there is no burial of a Mary but this is a burial at some stage of the wife of John.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM -1st January 1875 - Public Notice; Whereas I, John NUNDY, of Wispington, Farmer, have raised a report calculated to injure the characters of the Sons of Mr Joseph WALTER of Barsey Walk, Farmer, and Mr Andrew EVISON of Wispington, Farmer, by charging Mr WALTER´s Sons with taking my Pigeons, and Mr EVISON with receiving them, knowing them to have been so taken. Now I do hereby publically declare that such charges are utterly untrue and without foundation, and I regret having said anything that could reflect on the honesty of either Mr. WALTER, his Sons, or Mr. EVISON, all of whom I believe to be perfectly honest and honourable men. Signed this 29th day of December, 1874. John NUNDY; Witness R. CLITHEROW, Solicitor, Horncastle.

NEWTON was Here

2007-04-23T16:56:00.001+01:00

Sondra HALLIDAY emailed me at Ifor@familyroots.org.uk asking for information on a windmill at Colsterworth. In 1772, when Samuel PICCAVER died, his will mentions the fact that he is the owner of the village mill. Is there any evidence of this mill today? Arthur MEE's Lincolnshire doesn't mention any mill but if you take a look at old-maps.co.uk you will find evidence of three mills in the vicinity two of which are quite near Woolsthorpe manor. In the church at Colsterworth there is a memorial to Sir Isaac NEWTON who was the lord of the manor of nearby Woolsthorpe and baptised in Colsterworth church. This is also the burial place of the NEWTON ancestors. One item of interest that was at the church in 1919 was the sundial that NEWTON made when 9 years old and the penknife he used for whittling wood. In an article I found on NEWTON there is mention of a windmill being built near his school. He watched day by day with great interest the workmen engaged in constructing a windmill in the neighbourhood of the school, the result of which was that the boy made a working model of the windmill and of its machinery, which seems to have been much admired, as indicating his aptitude for mechanics. Could this have been the building of the mill later owned by Samuel? By 1919 however the miller is listed as being Ralph Henry NETHERCLIFT – miller (steam) so it looks as though the village has kept pace with modernity and the windmill was no more. HALLIDAY the surname comes from the fact that at one time this would be given to those born on a Holy Day such as Easter or Christmas. NEW-TON however is from one who lived in a New Town of which there were many and this also applies to NEW-PORT and NEW-CASTLE.

The surname CRAMPTON, which is the one that Sheila FROST is interested in, is not very common around Lincoln and is concentrated more towards Nottinghamshire. William CRAMPTON can be found on the 1841 census and he was born in 1817 in the parish of Washingborough but where did he come from? One of the best aids to research you can get is the series of indexes on microfiche that are produced by the Lincolnshire Family History Society. These cover just about everything in the marriage line from 1700 and work is going on to complete baptisms and burials for the county. There are few entries for CRAMPTON but one that might fit the bill is that of John who marries Ann TALKS in 1807 at Canwick the next door parish. The origin of CRAMPTON is unsure. With the –TON ending one must assume that it derives from a place name. This would be OK except that there is no place listed. The same can be said for CROMPTON as this is a variation. If one adds in the accent then there could be a candidate in CRUMPTON and then the explanation is from the Old English crump. Have you heard of the musical instrument - a crumphorn? There is also the rhyme which mentions the cow with the crumpled horn. This is named so because the meaning of crump is something which is bent or crooked. A town with a bend or corner in the middle.

Did you pick up on the item in Bits and Bobs last week? Was the item put into the original newspaper as a hoax? If you don't know what I mean just try writing out the inscription that was found on the bowl and then alter the spacing a slightly.

Bits and Bobs

Friday 21^st April 1809 – On Tuesday the 11^th inst. as William BOROUGHS of Marston near Grantham, was passing through the Churchyard there, he was struck to the ground by lightning, and it was a considerable time before he recovered his senses. His clothes were much scorched, but he was not personally injured.

Lincolnshire Family History Society Journal February 07

What Does One Do?

2007-04-10T09:32:00.001+01:00

I have a little book, a Ready Reckoner, dated 1807 which I bought for a few shillings some time ago and realise that I should really sell it on as it is part of someone's tree. The name inside is George WILES, Louth, and at the time of his acquiring it I feel that he was about 13 years of age. My reason for thinking this is that there is a date inside for the year 1823 and on the inside at the back there is written July 28^th 1810. He also wrote, as one does at that age, on the inside. "The Rose is Read, the Grass is green, the days is past That I have seen and when I am dead Go toul the bell and Take This Book and use it well." This has been written several times. Other items of interest are the name Francis SPENCER on the same line as is written Horkstow and another name that might be, although it is difficult to say for sure as it is mixed in with other writings, Martha HOED or HOOD or HOCKNEY. A quick search has turned up George, I think, in the 1881 census. He is aged 71 and born in 1810 which links in to the date in the book and lives with his wife Jane, born Bigby. He was born in Little Carlton and farmed in Ludborough and both of these places are in the Louth Registration District. The name WILES is thought to come from an occupation such as a trapper of fish or especially eels. The Middle English wyle was a wicker trap.

Jayne SUMMERS lives in Telford and has a Lincolnshire ancestry. Her maiden name is ELDRED and through her research has managed to get back to a James at around 1762 in Thurlby. The name ELDRED goes right back to at least 1066 and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The origin of the name is as a counsel either Ealdræd as the old counsel or Ǽoelræd and a noble counsel. If this family is one on your tree then get in touch with Jayne at jasummers@btconnect.com who is waiting with bated keyboard for your email.

Bits and Bobs

4th November 1882 - Louth Advertisers - Mr Editor: The object of this letter is to inform you of a curious fact which I think will be interesting to many of your readers. The Sexton of our Church was engaged a day, or two ago, digging a grave in the Churchyard. When at a depth of four feet his spade struck something which repelled it. He at first thought it was a stone, but he discovered the object was round and had a rim of dark colour; in shape something like that of a pudding basin. The Sexton carefully dug around the object and at last succeeded in disclosing a large round vase, of ancient design, more than two inches thick and of a very brown earthy colour. Around the vase were a great many cabalistic signs picturing men in armour etc. The vase must be Roman, from the following inscription in half-worn letters around the rim: ´ITI SAPIS SPOTANDITIS AB IGONE´. The vase has been sent to a Gentleman in Louth interested in antiquarian relics for his opinion. I am, etc J.B., Laceby, 30 Oct 1882.

Where is it now and what was it?

Do Your Bit For The Environment

2007-04-02T09:21:00.000+01:00

This week sees the start in Grasby of a series of mini-projects financed by CSV Action Earth and Morrisons. The amount of money is small but it is just enough to put on an event that can make a large difference. The criteria are that it must be environmental so could be bird cakes, boxes, feeding stations or planting wildflowers. If you are interested then go to the website and get an application form and enjoy the community work.
The names that came up during the first mini project consist of font-names and locations. BENNETT for example comes from the Old French Beneit that became the quite common Christian name Benedict in the 12th century. ROBERTSON along with the hundreds of other names ending in -SON very nearly all come from a Christian name such as Robert, Richard or William whose male offspring became ROBERTSON, RICHARDSON and WILLIAMSON and so on down through the centuries. Still on the subject of William as a Christian name we have in Grasby the name GILLMAN. Although it does not look much like it the name William is the origin here. The French for William we twinners know from Sillè le Guillaume which is the town next to our twin village in France. The surnames from the same root are many and various and include such as WELLMAN, WILLIMAN and the one nearest to the original, GUILLERMAN. On the other hand HASWELL is a locational name and comes from the dweller whose home was at a well that had lots of hazels around it. Similarly a prime site on which to live was one that was good enough to be labelled a fair field and naturally enough that resulted in the surname of FAIRFIELD. A slightly different type of location is that of LAYCOCK for this is a parish by the same name. In this case it is most likely to be Laycock in the west riding of Yorkshire.
A question of interest that appeared recently on the ‘net is that of Kath HEYWOOD who is looking for the youngest children of Mary & Robert GOLLING of Grantham. The mystery comes about by the death of the parents in 1842. William aged 10 years just disappears and is never seen again it seems for neither the death nor marriage can be found. Susannah age 6 years is thought to have lived in Lancashire for some time and where she had an illegitimate daughter in 1864. Where did they disappear too? Drop me a line if you know. The name GOLLING is another of those with a Christian name origin. This has the same origin as JOLLANDS and GOLLANDS. All these are from Joel-in which is the diminutive of Joel.
Bits and Bobs
THE GRIMSBY GUARDIAN AND GENERAL ADVERTISER - 25th September 1855 - Christopher HARPER, apprentice to Joseph APPLEYARD of Cleethorpes, tailor, John ROBINSON of Cleethorpes, fisherman, Thomas GRANT of Cleethorpes, fisherman and George DABB, carrier between Cleethorpes and Grimsby, were summoned at the instance of Superintendent CAMPBELL, who caught them in a garden in the parish of Scartho, on Sunday night, the 16th instant, stealing apples. They were each fined 10s and the costs, in each case amounted to 12s

Immigration is not new

2007-03-24T17:06:00.001Z

Win FEARNLEY has written to me on the subject of her maiden name. PICKAVER is a very rare name in Lincolnshire with just the one family in 1881. Win’s grandfather came from the village of Wymondham in Leicestershire and a check of the census shows that this village had links to several of the families. A rather nice touch was the finding of George Robert PICKOVER who was living in Derbyshire which showed the manner in which the locals pronounced the village name. His place of birth is listed as being Wyeham in Leicestershire. The PICKAVER family history includes the possibility that the name might be Huguenot in origin. This I feel is unlikely for the following reason. The main flood of Huguenot immigrants came at the middle of the 17th century when something like 50,000 arrived. These had to fit in with an English population that is estimated at six million people. At that time the population had already set out the surnames that we use today. The origin of the name PICKOVER according to the dictionary is as a nickname meaning to pick oats from the Middle English pikken. The name was in use in England in around the year 1255. Try ‘Googling’ the word Huguenot. For more information on the Huguenots there are some good links at the National Huguenot Society web page. The nearest surname to PICKAVER you can find on the web page is PICKENS and PICKON. FEARNLEY has a nice simple history. There has been little change over the several hundred years that it has been in use. Back in 1200 it was spelt simply FERNLEE and came from the ‘dweller in the fern covered clearing’ and the possible village that grew up there that took the name Farnley.
David WILKINS emailed me via ifor@familyroots.org and mentioned that he had two unusual names in the family tree. The first mentioned is that of BAZLINGTON. This changes easily to BASLINGTON and one would think that this is simply a village somewhere or other. Sadly this is not the case as there is no sign of a village by this name even though there are people with the BASLINGTON name all across the world. The national index for 1881 census gives just five families throughout England and Wales. Could it be from the same root as Basing and Basingstoke which are connected to the man called Basa who first lived there. Lastly there is the name GABBITAS and a similar one which I have found locally to the Caistor area. This Yorkshire name comes, I believe, from a font name. The pet form of the name Gabriel is GABB and the diminutive version of this is GABBOT or GABBUT. The local version is GORBUTT. One of the first mentions of this name is with John GABYTUS in Newark at the end of the 15th century. For everything you ever wanted to know about the GABBITAS family go to www.gabbitasgenealogy.com/ and take a look at the family tree.
Bits and Bobs
The Times - 9th September 1808 - General News: The mysterious disappearance of Mr John DEWHIRST, of Sothy, Lincolnshire, who left his family on Saturday the 17th of October last, (1807), and was supposed to have been murdered on his return to Horncastle Market, is at length accounted for. His friends have lately received a letter from him, wherein he states that he is in good health, in the Island of Jamaica, that he has got a place of £160 per year, and he hopes his wife will go to him. He adds, that he ´left his family to acquire property enough to support old age´. The letter was read to many persons on Saturday in Horncastle Market. Two men were in Louth prison last week, charged with the murder of Mr DEWHIRST.

One Fat Pig

2007-03-11T19:43:00.000Z

During the week I came across a leaflet which was a purchase agreement from December 1928 between D J Dodds who agreed to sell to G W Robinson one fat pig weighing in at about 30 stones dead weight. G W R was buying the pig on what seems to be hire purchase of six shilling per week payable every Friday. This was witnessed by C Portess. Some conversions for those reading this column that don’t understand real weights and money. The 30 stones the pig weighed will convert to around 190 Kg and this was paid for at 30p per week. The shape of pigs has changed somewhat since 1926. One website gives the following information. Pigs are also referred to as growing pigs (40 - 125 pounds), and finishing pigs, weighing from 125 pounds to market weight--usually about 230 pounds. Probably because of the liking for a leaner meat the weight is now nearer 100kg almost half that of 1926.

My quest this week has been to link a marriage certificate from Liverpool in the name of bomford to an entry in the 1881 census for bamford in the parish of Windle. Many of the people concerned could not be found in several of the other censuses available and had not yet been entered into the FreeBMD database. The husband on the certificate is Alfred Barry Bomford – a grocer. The head of household on the 1881 census is Alfred B Bamford, born Cheltenham, who is the manager of a Cocoa Room, plus his wife and his children who were born in St Helens. The ages and christian names are about right but how does one prove a link between the two? Firstly, and for no apparent reason, it does not look as though the couple signed their certificate because the handwriting seems to be that of the minister and there is no evidence of ‘their mark’ so it could be that the minister just made a mistake as to the spelling. A search for the children was more successful. The youngest that turned up was Edith who was registered in the district of Prescott. The Alfred Joseph B Bamford was also to be found in Prescott and the likelihood of this combination of Christian names turning up is remote. The clincher is that of last name I found being registered. William Barry Bamford was registered in Prescott in 1863 and this was the third age that agreed with the data I had and the middle name coincided nicely with that of his father. So one can be fairly sure that the bomford is just a misspelling of the name bamford. The district of Prescott includes St Helens and Windle which was later transferred to St Helens. The Bamford name can be found in Lincolnshire but the main concentration is from the Midlands level with the Wash in a line up to Liverpool. The name comes from the ford that had a beam as a footbridge over the stream.

Bits and Bobs

To be found at www.ancestordocs.co.uk/lincolnshire - 160/4 Atkinson, James of Snitterby dated 1877. A probated copy of a Will in parchment along with certificate of Probate which has a wafer seal attached. Listed are the daughters Mary Jane (w/o Joseph Thomas of Snitterby), Martha (w/o Matthew Swallow), Elizabeth deceased (w/o George Wilkins of Lewisham, Kent) and her children Charlotte Elizabeth, George, James, Mary Ann, Emma, Martha Matilda, Harry & Jane. Several pieces are missing (having the appearance of burns) from the bottom edge which does not affect the text. There is one small hole in text with loss of 2 letters. £17

Unknown Unknowns

2007-03-06T19:13:00.000Z

Anne of internet fame along with a small group of Lincolnshire Family History Society members has a new mission. Once a month they congregate at the archives and check through the BTs. BT is short for Bishop’s Transcript, which is a copy of the parish register that was sent annually to the Bishop. They can be on parchment of various shapes and sizes, illegibility and condition. There are over a thousand pages of BTs sitting in the Lincolnshire Archives which do not have a name of a parish on them. The group is attempting to identify the parish to which they belong and in fact there are a few that don’t have a date either. This work will benefit all those with Lincolnshire ancestors. None of these BTs have been filmed and consequently the events in them may not appear on the IGI. They have so far positively identified about 50 different BTs. For more detailed information Dr Mike Rogers, Archivist in charge of this project, has written a short piece for the next Lincolnshire Family History Society journal about the project and what will happen to the BTs once identified. Anne came up with the bright idea of passing the transcript of some of the BTs that they are stuck on to the Lincolnshire List. She explains that “Where there is a burial of a child on a BT, but no baptism, the IGI is invaluable - finding the baptism usually leads to the correct parish, but not always. The census can be used for place of birth from BTs after about 1770, assuming that the child baptised lived to a good age. We are also using the marriage indexes (but need further verification from Parish Registers of Baptism & Burial on the same BT), Wills indexes, marriage bonds, names of vicars, curates etc. However, your combined personal knowledge may lead to short cuts.” To further the work she is sending details of some of the BTs for everyone to work on. An example BT is this - The year is 1765/6 and there are only two events on the BT. Ann daughter of Antony & Izatt Spur baptised 29 December 1765; Ann wife of William Barsley buried 4 Jan 1766.
The only one that I can find on the IGI is the baptism of an Anthony son of Daniel & Elizabeth spurr at High Toynton in November 1738. On the next item I have found the baptism of a William barrsely the son of William & Ann in 1748 at High Toynton. Could this be it? Or do you know better!! To carry these further I would need to check out the parish registers.
The main concentration of the SPURR surname can be found in Cornwall. There is a secondary concentration in the Doncaster area. I wonder why these two areas are so far apart? The surname comes from the holder who was making spurs for sale.
Barsley is more local with most of the people living in the fens. The indications are that it originates from a place name but I have been unable to find any likely candidates.
Bits and Bobs
THE TUESDAY EXPRESS – Kent - 7th January 1908 - A JANUARY HARVEST: The almost unprecedented sight of harvesting corn crops in January was seen in Lincolnshire on Saturday. Several fields of wheat, barley and oats in the Branston Fen, have been sold by auction as they stood in the fields. A Heckington miller purchased the cropping, and the frozen condition of the land enabled him to use the reaper with such good effect that the bulk of corn was gathered in on Saturday. It is proposed to celebrate the novel event with a harvest supper to the men engaged in the unseasonable work.
An early sign of global warming perhaps!!

Interested in the Loft

2007-02-24T14:26:00.000Z

The new Lincolnshire Family History Society magazine has arrived and one of the items I liked this time was the article on General Loft who had visited Grasby. This is written by Tinribs in addition to which there is the view from the family side written by John Henry Lofts great great grandson. The articles remind us that the Lincolnshire Family History Society has transcribed the notebooks of General Loft and published them on a CD. Loft’s claim to fame for the genealogist or village historian of Lincolnshire is through his travels in the county between 1826 and 1844. He recorded anything and everything that took his fancy and noted both the churches and families. Many of the items he recorded have now disappeared and some of them never existed but were just the local gossip. Items such at the “I was told at Barton St Mary that Elizabeth Walker was a Lady of easy virtue who raised a good property by that means”. If she is in your family tree then she is definitely worth investigation. A second item that is worth a mention is that of the robber named bailey who was one of the outlaws of ‘Kippy Koppy Wood.’ Where did that name come from? This is just one of several extremely interesting articles but you will have to get the Journal to read the rest.

Helen dodd, who lives in Woodall Spa is looking to put on a workshop for the children and to take a look at surnames. One of the names that she mentioned is that of priestner. Now every one of the names that has priest in the word is linked to a man of the cloth. Priestman is a servant of a priest, priestland lives on a piece of land that belongs to the priest and priestley dwells in the clearing in the priests woods, except that I can’t find priestner in the dictionary. Could it be that the word was just a corruption at some time in the past? It might be from Prester which is thought to be a nickname for someone that was either priest like in bearing or the complete opposite somewhat along the lines of calling someone that was BIG by the name LITTLE.

Dodd was a personal name that seems to have been used throughout the whole of the country.

Bits and Bobs

Tuesday Oct 25^th 1898 – Long Sutton – On Wednesday last Mr Charles biggadike drove into the White Lion Yard with a load of pigs from Spalding; and as soon as he had jumped out the horse bolted. The cart was upset and the pigs scattered in all directions. The animals, very young ones, went scampering all over the Market Place and the search for them lasted most of the night. One pig was found in Mr neaverson’s at the Crown and Woolpack Hotel sitting against the back kitchen fire!

Lincolnshire Family History Society Journal

Hammerton of Hammerton

2007-02-17T20:49:00.000Z

Last week, if you remember, I mentioned documents concerning Messingham then Richard hammerton contacted me for some further data as he has family tree links to the WASS family. One of the things we talked about was his tree that goes back to 1781 and I must wonder if this is a specific item because a search of the Latter Day Saints’ website familysearch also gives a family tree going back to the same date. A coincidence? Perhaps. While I keep repeating myself by saying don’t believe everything said or written because we are only human I did find a family tree on the site that went back to the origin of the name and the village of Hamerton in Yorkshire. The earliest entry in the tree is that of Richard Hamerton of Hamerton Yorkshire born around 1141 according to the Familysearch submitter. The line goes through a number of generations getting to Aukburgh (Alkborough), and Gervase Hammerton born 1597 who is assumed, according to the entry, to have married Jane gildas of Barton “abt 1627”. At around this point people carrying out research should have access to the registers and can verify the facts. By the 19^th century the hammerton family had settle in Wragby. George was born there in 1836 and was a bricklayer but lived in Melville St, Lincoln with eight children. There was a lot of travel undertaken by this family for his wife was from Warwickshire and two of the children had been born in Sheffield. A likely brother, John, was born Wragby in 1834 but was now a builder living in Buckingham with his family of six children and listed on the birthplaces are again some links to Yorkshire. The surname profiler puts the highest concentration of hammertons in London but there are a large number just to the west of the Humber in 1881. By 1998 the name has spread throughout the country. The village of Hammerton gets its name from the town or tun being near or on an Old English hamor or hill.

The name gildas later became regularised as gilders or gelders. A similar looking spelling is that is difficult to separate is gilder for the name could be either. One answer to the origin is that of the occupation of gilder and to gild and the other is also an occupation this time as the caretaker of a guildhall. As we all know it is so easy to leave off or put on an‘s’ that it would be hard to say which is which.

On March 17^th at Bracebridge village hall will be the event you have waited all year for. The Lincolnshire Family History Society Family History day and it starts at 0945. the varied program will be looking at Gravestones, a history of dialects and the history of newspapers. As if that is not enough there will also be the bookstall which will have an index for just about everything. Contact Mrs Robson, 135 Balderton Gate, Newark, NG24 1RY to book your seat as there are a limited number of places available.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM - 2nd December 1825 - Awful Instances of Mortality - On Sunday evening last, 27th November, aged 36 years, Mr. William HANSON, grazier of Butterwick. On Monday evening, 28th November, aged 62 years, Mrs. HANSON, wife of Mr. R. HANSON, a very respectable wool-buyer, grazier, etc., of that place, and Mother of Mr William HANSON: And on Tuesday evening, the 29th November, aged 40 years, Elizabeth, wife of the above Mr William HANSON, leaving seven orphans to lament their loss. All died after a short illness.

Legal Eagle

2007-02-11T20:40:00.001Z

While it is highly likely that there will be a long queue to check out the following documents it might be an idea to get your name down now for a viewing. Rex Johnson had put the following information onto the internet forum concerning the deposit of documents into Grimsby Archives because the Scunthorpe Museum has insufficient room for the mass of documents involved. A Scunthorpe solicitor, Mr Hett had decided to have a clear out and instead of throwing away 17^th documents, something that I know has taken place in the past by others, had offered them to the museum service. A large pat on the back to the solicitor and will other holders of documents please take note. When a friend of Rex asked him to look at a sample of the documents to see what was available he ended up with four large boxes relating to Messingham and it is supposed that this is a fraction of what is being held. The opening of the boxes revealed a treasure trove of documents that included original Wills, Deeds, Conveyances, Mortgages, Land Disputes etc. and Rex reported that he had “never seen such a collection of vellum, parchment, original papers”. It is supposed that there will be as wide a coverage of many other villages. The papers are not indexed so who knows, this might be a job for the Lincolnshire Family History Society and I am sure that an index on fiche may eventually be produced by their valiant volunteers. If you would like to know more about access to these documents then contact Grimsby Archives and John.Wilson@nelincs.gov.uk. Rex has put a list in his email of some of the people mentioned in the documents that he saw. There were Wills for John Martyn gent., 1628-9; Ralphe Rowbottom, 1638; Francis Rowbottom of East Ferry, Yeoman, 1655/6; Wm. Hood 1658; Jane Hood, 1658; Helen Little wid., 1662; Wm. Atkinson 1794. An original will of William Smith 1763. Will of James Holland 1808. Administration of Goods of William Clarke, late of Ashby, 1834. Lease of Abraham Stocks. Wm. Kendall and others, land to Wm. Walker 1834. John Hall mortgage 1834. Abraham Stocks mortgage to Frances Pilfoot 1849. Elizabeth Wright 1851. Copy of Amelia Sowerby's baptism certificate. Will of Thomas Sowerby proved 31 July 1818. Names in other documents related to: Samuel Simpson, John Dauber, Hannah Nicholson, Hannah Mason, Edward Hannath, John Bennet, Thomas Freer, William Whaplate, Mary Toft, John Wray, Edward Westoby, George Benson, John Cawkwell, Thomas Mundy, Mary Hammond, Charlotte Richardson, Robert Hide, Thomas Bird etc. etc. What a fantastic spread of data. Over two hundred years of history saved. Alan Wass who originally found out about the deposit did so because he asked the Archive if there was any information about Windmills. He, and several other Messingham residents, have just produced a booklet called “A Brief History of Messingham”. Rex is currently transcribing Messingham parish records to put online at FreeREG which a site is collecting parish material for people to trace ancestors at the parish level without having to subscribe or pay for the data.

One name that is new to me is that of pilfoot. It is not in the dictionary and neither is it on the surname profile website. By 1901 just one holder of the name is listed. Charles pilfoot was born in Goxhill and lived in Sculcoates. John Sherwood pilfoot is listed as living in Hull with his wife in 1881 but there are no other entries for this family. As John and Elizabeth didn’t died until around 1910 just where were they in 1901?

Bits and bobs

LRSM - 17th February 1832 - Marriage: At Spilsby on Wednesday the 8th February, Mr COUPLAND of Skendleby to Mrs DALES of the former place. - The Bridegroom became dissatisfied with his bargain before midnight and shortly after supper left his Bride to mourn her absent Lord.

French for Barrel?

2007-02-02T17:12:00.001Z

During my time on the lookout for the funding of the Grasby project I have come across many names and a number of them have ended up in this column. One that has turned up just the once is that of beharrell. The name also came up again recently on the internet with the question “Could the BEHARRELL surname have turned up as BARRELL?” A search soon turns up a history of the BEHARRELL family, along with the information that they came to England from Northern France and Holland in 1626. The first recorded instance in England of the name BEHARRELL was in 1587 when a family of that name was living in Canterbury, a town on the south coast close to the English Channel and France. There is no record of the continued existence of this family. Almost all BEHARRELLS in England, the USA, Canada and Australia can trace their origins to the three BEHARRELL families of French Huguenots (Walloons) who arrived here in 1626 as part of a larger group of 85 families, to carry out drainage work in the Isle of Axholme, and the marshy area on the border between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The Huguenot community in France had become subject to religious persecution and as a result of this some of the community left France and fled to Holland, settling down in the town of Middleburg on the small island of Walcheren immediately north of the border with France.
It is thought that the Middleburg community went as a body to Sandtoft in the Isle of Axholme. The BEHARRELL families in England must have kept contact with their friends and relatives in Walcheren because in 1794 Anna BEHARRELL (d. 1794) widow of Abraham (b. 1702 d. 1776) bequeathed 25 pounds to her daughter Elizabeth GRABOURN "now settled in Flushing in Zealand". Flushing is on the island of Walcheren about 6 miles south of Middleburg. After the drainage of the Isle of Axholme was finished, the families split, one group moving south about 70 miles to the Fens around Peterborough. The other moved a short distance of 10 miles north to the area around Snaith and Drax, then moving some 30 miles east to settle in Wawne in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Research was carried out in 1989 to 1991, with a small addition in 1995 and added to work already done by John BEHARRELL (1893 - 1956), Sir George BEHARRELL (1873 - 1959) and by Gordon and June BEHARRELL of Shrewsbury and the results can be found on the internet. However Frank DICKENSON has been looking for the last ten years and is still looking for one important piece of information. This is the date and place of birth of Robert BEHARRELL who was born between 1705 and say 1720 probably in Wawne or a nearby parish. He died in 1790. There are still BEHARRELLS in the area today. I have been unable to find the meaning of the name but it does occasionally get spelt BARRELL.
Bits and Bobs
LRSM - 23rd May 1800 - If the Legal Representatives of Charles FOWLER, Son of Joseph FOWLER, formerly of Goltho in the County of Lincoln. Gent, deceased and of Selina FOWLER, daughter of the same Joseph FOWLER, will apply to Mr BALDWIN, Attorney at Law in Lincoln, they will hear of something to their advantage. The said Charles FOWLER was bound Apprentice in the Year 1773 from Christ´s Hospital, London to a Captain RATCLIFFE, who then traded to Jamaica: was afterwards in the Year 1777, a Midshipman on Board one of His Majesty´s Ships then lying at Spithead; and in the month of February 1779, was in Quebec in Canada. The said Selina FOWLER married a Mr SPENCER, supposed to be a Sea-faring Man, and died about the Year 1769.

Chalk to Cheese

2007-01-28T19:27:00.001Z

Whilst running a genealogical workshop in the village I came across a couple of new names; the first is, I believe, a corruption through the Lincolnshire accent that changes farrington to forinton. There are several indications for this with the name also being spelt forington and forriton. The only snag is that the name does go back to the end of the 18^th century and before the census and GRO index so it looks as though it will have to be a trawl of the registers in the Boston area. There does seem to be just the one family with this name and no others in the area with the farrington surname. The surname concentration is on the west side of the country from as far north as Lancashire down to the Welsh border. I am sure that this is just to compensate Heather for the problems that she will have as she carries out her research into the SMITH family tree! In the IGI there are 750 Aarons with the smith surname which is almost as bad as my problem with the William Jenkins of Wales that I have to contend with. It is as though to prove my mention of the concentration correct that it turns out that the origin of the name is from the village of Farington in Lancashire which is the ‘ton’ where the ferns grow.

According to FreeBMD one of the forinton family married a Passable but I can’t find any that look like that in the dictionary; the nearest I can get to sound like it are Perseval and one spelt passifull which is not far from passable and it and wouldn’t take a great deal to change the sound to fit.

I must apologise for the next item which Anne put on the internet and I know it is rather long but if you are interested in fleshing out your family then it just shows how detailed the newspaper reports can be. I must say that it does go into just a little bit too much detail.

Thrashing Machines and Penalties for Negligence. - On Friday last, Mr. Hitchins held an inquest on the body of Wm. Jow, aged 13, in the employ of Mr. Newton, of Nocton, who had been killed by a thrashing machine: the head and left side of the body were found dreadfully fractured, and the left arm and left thigh broken. The machine was in a barn, with the tumbler-shaft passing through a door-board, and uncovered, - the box which ought to have covered it, and thereby rendered it safe, lying near. The coroner observed that this was another instance of death from sheer neglect. Mr. Newton's foreman remarked that there should be an Act to compel those in the care of machines to put on the box, and then all would be obliged to do it, but at present there was not one in fifty that did. The coroner said he believed such was the fact, for in nearly all cases the neglect was the same; but as to an Act, there was one against riding on shafts, and it did not prevent servants from doing so. The deceased, it seemed, was employed in clearing away straw, but for some reason went to the other side, when his slop caught, and he was instantly whirled round, his head, arms, and legs hitting against the ground and the machine: it was immediately stopped, but before he was extricated the youth was quite dead, having neither cried nor spoken. - The coroner, in summing up the evidence, censured the not putting on the box, and said that if the Jury thought a deodand necessary, it ought not to be a nominal one, but such as would be a "pocket-remembrancer". After consulting for some time, the Jury returned a verdict in conformity with the above evidence, and recommended Mr. Newton to have the danger obviated, expressing their opinion that no thrashing-machine ought to be worked without having the tumbler-shaft covered. Before the coroner left, the board was cut as recommended by him, and the box put on - a work of only a few minutes. [LRSM Friday 6 February 1846]

Top of the Tots

2007-01-07T15:30:00.001Z

The Office of National Statistics has brought out its end of the year report on Christian names. The top few names change only gradually with the top places swapping over time and again. This year is no exception with the boys but it is all change for the girls with Olivia and Grace moving up to join Jessica in the top three. Jessica is now the third most popular name for a girl with nearly four and a half thousand registrations last year. With them in the top five there is the ever green Emily and new comer Ruby, a name that is making a comeback, climbing 69 places. A couple a new names are Summer with nearly nine hundred entries and Autumn with just fifty-five although it is noted that there are no girls named Spring or Winter. Still blossoming in the top thirty are Lily, Daisy and Poppy.

With Jack being given to almost seven thousand babies last year it still reigns as the number one Christian name, along with Thomas and Joshua these continue to be the three most popular boy’s names. Just beneath these is Oliver then Harry making this the first time since goodness knows when for James to be out of the top five.

Events around the world influence the names that children get given. Victoria and Albert came to prominence during the 19^th century but today it is television and sport that shapes the registrations. Theo has arrived in the top one hundred. Could this be as a result of the football fan and Theo Walcotts appearance in the World Cup? Celebrity children have given the UK a number of new names. Who knows where Shayne, Cruz, Maddox, Jayden, Lexie and Peaches came from? And why Ordinary Boy Preston? If you would like to know more then go to the ONS at www.statistics.gov.uk.

As a document the 1911 census remains well and truly closed until 2012 due to the contents being of a personally sensitive nature. However in response to a Freedom of Information request the Information Commissioner’s favourable decision means that The National Archives must supply some of the information it contains. With the continuing rise in people’s interest in family history The National Archives is developing an online 1911 census service, covering most parts of the census and a searchable database should be ready by 2009. Until then there is a basic service that you can use to get specific information from the 1911 census. It does not have a surname index therefore the only data that can be readily provided is from an address. My advice though is to wait a while until the database comes on line. The cost of a search for a single address is £45 and there will be no refunds.

Bits and Bobs

LRSM – March 20^th 1818 - Two paupers named BAXTER residing at Duddington near this place [Stamford], lately made a complaint to the magistrates of the refusal of the Parish Officers to allow them proper means of support. The Officers, confident that the application was an improper one, for their own justification, instituted a search in the cottage occupied by the complainants, and actually found, wrapped in old stockings, rags, etc, and secreted in the roof and other parts of the tenement, no less a sum than £92-8s-1½d, in silver and half-pence. The paupers (who were sisters) and their Mother had received Parish Relief for nearly 40 years!

(The exchange rate for today would be about £68,300) www.measuringworth.com

Did you know?

2006-12-21T16:37:00.000Z

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

2006-12-16T11:17:00.000Z

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.

Visiting ‘Mecca’

2006-11-26T16:20:00.000Z

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.

From Fosdyke to Traf

2006-11-24T16:56:00.000Z

From Fosdyke to Trafford
After my report on the arrival of the latest Lincolnshire Family History Society magazine a reader of this column decided that he would like to get hold of a copy and rang me up to find out how.  The magazine can be obtained by filling in a membership application form and sending it with £10 to Mr D Mosley, Whitby Crescent, Woodthorpe Notts, NG5 4LY.  The forms can be found at the above address, the Archives or the Monks Way Research Centre.
My caller was also at the archives when we did the tour last week and while there carried out a search for Herbert Fowler TRAFFORD of Metheringham.  It turns out that his parents were William and Kate who had five other children according to the 1901 census.   Although William was Metheringham born and bred his wife was born in Middle Rasen.   With a middle name FOWLER one has to wonder if this was from Kate’s side of the family. TRAFFORD has a placename for its origin, FOWLER is an occupation.
Penny FORSDYKE is looking for her ancestor who came from Cambridgeshire at around 1880.  A check of the 1881 census shows that although they might have come from Cambridgeshire and Linton in particular they had not been there very long.  The eldest head of family is Jesse who came from Debenham in Suffolk and worked as a Joiner in the same place is Alfred who might be a possible brother is a journeyman butcher.  According to the book the name comes from the Lincolnshire place name Fosdyke which is quite close to the Wash and Norfolk and seems to be the only one on the map.
The next name is one of the most famous.  When anyone asks what name goes with ROYCE we all know the right answer.  ROLLS has its main concentration in the Dorset area with a small outpost in London which is the area that Harriet ROLLS is interested in. the surname rolls has a myriad of spellings and these range from ROLL to ROWLES via ROLF and ROUFE plus a dozen more.  One of the first mentions of this name is that of a peasant in Lincolnshire going by the name of Rolf of Ormesby in 1147 but there is mention of a Rolf in the Domesday Book.  The name is Scandinavian in origin and started its life as the Old Norse name Hrolfr.  It became a common name in Normandy as ROUL.
A final name is that of SPENCER for Susan THORNALLY.  The name SPENCER is a popular surname with high concentrations throughout England.  The reason for this popularity is due to the occupation of a SPENCER or as was listed in 1204 as Robert le Despenser from the Ancient French espenser, the dispenser of provisions therefore a butler or steward.
One thing I would have liked to have started is that of Archive CD Books -  producing CDs from out of print books by scanning into the computer then sell at a reasonable price.  The company now has bases in a number of countries and is producing their works for the genealogist.  Last year Archive CD Books built a school in Kenya, the Dago Kokore Primary School, from scratch. They fitted out the whole school, paid for resources, and also paid the modest fees for all of the children to attend.  In January 2007 there will be another batch of students starting school.  The 40 children will cost £25 each for three years education and they are already three-quarters of the way to the target.  To give your help just buy your CD of the Lincolnshire census etc.
Bits and Bobs
Horncastle News - September 12th 1903 - The Board of Trade has received through the Foreign Office, London a silver cup for Mr Arthur SMITH, Master of the steam trawler ´Stratton´ of Grimsby, awarded to him by the King of Denmark in recognition of his services for rescuing the crew of an Icelandic fishing boat from the Westmanna Islands, in April this year.

Too Many People Call

2006-10-31T14:39:00.000Z

Too Many People Called Mary

A recent visitor to the area around Grasby was Jane POTTER from Grantham who was looking for evidence of her ancestors.  The family it is said have come from ‘who knows where’ and in the main at the end of their lives came to be buried in the parish of Searby.  Jane’s problem at the moment is the lack of data on the parents of the Searby family, Joseph & Mary SMALL.  By 1881 only two of the offspring are in evidence, neither of whom live in Searby and Joseph & Mary have been dead for some time.  Going back a further 20 years to 1861 we have a more successful search.  Living in Howsham Lane we find Joseph & Mary.  Joseph the Grocer is born in Northampton and Mary comes from Barrow in Lincolnshire.  Mary is the younger of the two by 15 years and is listed as being born in 1808 and so one must assume that she would not get married until she was at least 15 years old in 1823. However the first baptism for the family is found to be in the Searby register that of son William in 1820 when, according to the dates in the 1861 census, Mary is only 12 years old.  I suggest that the register is correct with the year as they are unlikely to get the date wrong when filling it in. therefore it must be the census.  The burial register has two entries for persons with the name Mary SMALL.  The first is for Mary aged 40 buried in 1829 and the second in 1870 aged 65 so it is conceivable that either could be the wife of Joseph.  A search through the 1851 census or the marriage might give a pointer to which of these is the right one, it is possible that one might be the sister of Joseph. The origin of SMALL could be from the diminutive size of its original holder.  The Old English word smael meant someone that was small slender or thin.
Carol BATTY has written to me.  Her father comes from Yorkshire and wants to know the background of her maiden name JESSOP.  The Jessop name can be found dotted throughout the county but there is now doubt that this is a Yorkshire name through and through. The reason that this surname is JESSOP is entirely due to the fact that it is a Yorkshire name, and that the Yorkshire accent has altered the name JOSEPH to the spelling JESSOP.  Simple isn’t it.  Oddly enough there is a similar origin for Carol’s surname.  Not many of the surnames that have a present day derogatory meaning started life as such.  One only has to think of the present day use of the word that has been hijacked to point out sexual orientation – gay.  BATTY comes from the pet form of the Christian name Bartholomew and its short version Batt.
Bits and Bobs
Extracts relating to the operation of the Poor-laws. - Printed in the year 1833. - HOLBEACH, LINCOLNSHIRE.  Informants, the Overseer and Master of the Workhouse.  Many illegitimate children; ten or twelve every year; bastards increasing; order from 1s. to 2s. 6d. and above,—depends on the circumstances of the father. An unmarried girl, upon leaving the workhouse after her fourth .confinement, said "Well, if I have another child, 1 shall draw a good sum from the parish. and with what I can earn  myself, shall be better off than any married woman in the  parish;" and the master added, that she had met with the good luck she hoped for, as she told him, a short time before I was at Holbeach, that she was with child I  asked him what she had for each child ?  He answered 2s;  And that women in that neighbourhood could easily earn 5s a week all the year through.  Thus she will have 15s a week.
This book can be accessed in the Google books section on line along with thousands of other that mention Lincolnshire.

Distant Research

2006-10-26T11:27:00.000+01:00

Long Distance Research
Francis PAYNE from New Zealand is rather stating the obvious when he says that he finds it rather difficult to carry out research prior to the 1841 census and the 1837 cut-off point for registration of BMD from a position 12,000 miles away.
WROOT is well known to the people of Lincolnshire being a place name in the Epworth area.  It is rather a nice touch that the family story is that it came over with the Dutch and drainage and I must admit it does look rather Dutch in nature but the answer is much earlier than this.  The name originates by the village being in the marshes and the Dutch did carry out a lot of work in this area.  The Old English word wrot was a trunk or resembling a pig’s snout and was a spit of land, a headland in the marsh.
A second placename in the family is that of WADSLEY.  This is a parish in the West Riding of Yorkshire.  The -LEY in this instance is a clearing in the woods belonging to Wadda.
A member of the WROOT families in Long Sutton married a BETTINSON from Flintham, Notts but the BETTINSON name originates much further south.  In Essex around 1285 could be found an entry in the Feet of Fines of Adam le fit BETUN.  It might have been this Adam the son of BETUN that regularised the name to BETUNSON which eventually became BETTINSON.
The FamilyTreeDNA site asks “Are all TOYNBEES related?” This site is using DNA to find the origins of families.  This rare surname originated in the county of Lincolnshire,  but many TOYNBEES emigrated from the 18th century onward and there are now TOYNBEES all over the world. The most famous of this family is the historian Arnold J. TOYNBEE (1889-1975).  The variations of the name also turn up as TOINBY and TENBY and there might even be a link in to TUMBY.  This is most likely a place name from the same area as one of the TOYNTON parishes.  The parishes get their name from the fact that the TUN belonged to someone with a name that became TOYN and no doubt it was the same forename that owned the homestead in TOYN-BY.
Last but not least is VERDEN.  Another continental sounding name and another placename.  The English Channel, is also known as La Manche and the district in France with this name is the home of the parish of Verdun.  The surname can be found in Buckinghamshire soon after the Norman Conquest with Bertrannus de VERDUNO being listed as owning land.
Bits and Bobs
While looking for a bit for Bits & Bobs for this week I found the site www.victorianweb.org and if you are interested in how some of your ancestors lived then take a look. It may be American spelling but it’s well researched for all that. The Speenhamland allowance scale enacted in 1795 effectively set a floor on the income of laborers according to the price of bread. When the gallon loaf cost 1s, the laborer was to have a weekly income of 3s for himself. The per pound cost of bread at 1s/gallon is 12d / 8.6875 pounds. Weekly wages of 3s are equal to 36p / 7 days or 5.14 /day. Dividing wages by the cost of bread gives 5.14 /day / 1.38 d/pound = 3.72 pounds of bread per day for a single laborer. This is the Speenhamland allowance. As a pound of bread provides about 1100 calories, the allowance gave the laborer a total of 4100 calories per day. An agricultural laborer doing 8-10 hours of vigorous work can easily require 3000 calories/day. It is evident that the Speenhamland allowance provided just above the bare means of subsistence. The Speenhamland scale also provided an allowance for family members. For a laborer, his wife, and two children, the weekly allowance was set at 7s 6d. Performing the above calculation for the family gives 90d/week / 7 days/week / 1.38 d/pound / 4 persons = 2.33 pounds of bread per day per person for the family of four.

Our Eleven Days

2006-10-20T10:12:00.000+01:00

Still Waiting for Our Eleven Days
Have you ever wondered why the tax year starts on April 6th? The answer was posted on the internet the other day. The reason is primarily historical and has its origin in the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. During the 16th century is was calculated that the Julian calendar had lost nine days since its introduction in 46 BC. Most of Europe changed to the new, more accurate, Gregorian calendar in 1582, but England continued with the old one until September 1752 by which time the error had increased to 11 days. These 11 days were removed from the calendar altogether - September 2nd was then followed by September 14th which did not go down very well with the populace. There was rioting in the street to demand the return of the missing days. The government did not wish to lose 11 days tax revenue in that tax year, so the authorities tacked the missing days on at the end, which meant moving the beginning of the tax year from the 25 March, Lady Day, (which you will remember from a previous column was the year ending in the parish registers) to the 6 April.
Do you have a famous ancestor? Well the first place to find out if he/she is in the top echelons of ancestry the place to look is in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Due to a recent agreement with the library service it is now possible to use the ODNB www.oxforddnb.com from your home computer. The only requirement is that you have a library card. Enter the number with LIN in front of it and you then have access to 55000 biographies. The sort of thing you will find is LAMBERT, Daniel (1770–1809), the most corpulent man of his time in England, was the elder of two sons of a Daniel LAMBERT who had been huntsman to the earl of Stamford. He was born in Blue Boar Lane, Leicester, on 13 March 1770 and was apprenticed to Benjamin PATRICK of Messrs TAYLOR & Co., an engraving and die-sinking firm in Birmingham; but in 1788 he returned to live with his father, who was keeper of the bridewell in Leicester and Daniel succeeded to his fathers post in 1791. It was at this time that LAMBERT began to amass the bulk for which he was later to achieve fame. By 1793 he weighed 32 stone, despite his athletic enthusiasm for activities such as walking, swimming, and hunting. Moreover, he drank only water, and slept less than eight hours a day. He was at Cambridge in June 1809, and proceeded to Huntingdon and Stamford, where, according to a newspaper, he ‘attained the acme of mortal hugeness’. He died at the Waggon and Horses inn, 47 High Street, Stamford, on 21 June 1809. His coffin was built on two axles and four wheels and required 112 square feet of elm wood for its construction. His body was rolled down a gradual incline from the inn to the burial-ground of St Martin's, Stamford Baron. At his death he was 5 feet 11 inches in height, and weighed 52¾ stone (336 kg). If you can’t be bother to use the library access you can always buy your own copy and fill up 12 foot of shelving! A snip at £6500. The name LAMBERT was popularised during the 12th century and was likely to have been introduced from Flanders with the veneration of St Lambert. Its most probable origin is from the Old German word Lambert meaning land bright
Bits and Bobs
April 29th 1808 - If John PALIAN of Helpringham still intends to persist in calling himself a Quaker, he is desired to produce the Minute of the Monthly Meeting by which he was admitted into the Society, as without such a Minute of Admission, no person who was not born in the Society, can become a Member of it. By producing, or failing to produce this proof of his assertion, it may be known whether or not he is in reality such ´A Lover of Truth´ as he professes himself to be. The advertiser repeats that John PALIAN never is, nor never was a Member of the Society of Quakers.

Its News

2006-10-09T09:13:00.000+01:00

It’s News

Maddy TICKNER has found a relative amongst the reams of newspaper reports on the area surrounding Grasby that I have put onto my website.  She would like to know if there are any more items out there on the DANBY family.  The DANBY family came from Middle Rasen and it was of Elizabeth DANBYS suicide that the newspaper spoke of.  Further information given was that her sister lived in Grasby and that she was staying there after leaving her employment at Audleby.  The paper gives the verdict of insanity but today the condition would be seen as medical and appropriate drugs given.  Newspapers have always been a good resource for family information and a second question Maddy asks is would they appear in any 17th century newspapers.  Sadly the answer to this is no.  The earliest continuous coverage begins in 1714 and is with the Stamford Mercury.  This is listed as being historical and political observations of the transactions of Europe, together with remarks on trade 1714-1732, which later became the Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury.  There were many others that had a short history and these can all be found listed via the GENUKI website.  There is a link here to the newspaper library at Colindale and it is at Colindale that the details can be found.  it is worth reading the different editions of old newspapers as the same incident is presented differently in accordance with the newspapers political affiliation.  Much the same as today really.
There are other links to be found at the site.  These are of work carried out be people of some of their local newspapers.  This is the sort of thing you will find.  1896  - former Boston MP, Mr H.J. Farmer ATKINSON was now the owner of a 'Wicked Bible’, which was auctioned at Sotherbys, on March 3.  Only 5 copies are known to exist.  So called because the 'NOT' is left out of the 7th commandment.  "You shall not commit adultery". In the main the focus is on all the articles with names in them that have been recorded.
The name TICKNER is supposed to come from a locational name.  The Old English word twicen was a crossroads or fork in the road.  Due to my lack of evidence I can’t ague with this but it does seem that there are a great many crossroads and forks in the road but very few TICKNER family members who were all concentrated in the Kent region in 1881.
DANBY on the other hand is very much of this area being from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.  There are several parishes with Danby in the title.  The Danby is listed in the Domesday Book as Danebi and is the BY or homestead belonging to the Dane.  The others all have a river name attached to them as in Danby Wiske
Bits and Bobs
"Hull News" 23 April 1864  - ACCIDENTS. - On Wednesday, a man named CASS, in the employ of Mr DEBEER, Ropery Street, had his knee severely crushed by his rully passing over it, in Lister Street. - About the same time a youth named JOSEPH WHITE fell from a window in Dock Street, to the ground, a distance of twenty feet, and was most severely injured.
This is the first time that I have seen the word ‘rully’ used in a news item.  It is still in use today with those of ancient Lincolnshire extraction carrying on the tradition of swapping constants around ie lorry to rully and signal to single.

Heritage Weekend

2006-09-22T09:59:00.000+01:00

Heritage Weekend

We had our own version of the Heritage Weekend at Grasby.  It started with the thrills of a walk around the village with Richard Clark who gave us all an insight into the whys and wherefores of the siting of Grasby village along the spring line of the wolds which joins villages by the dozen in a similar point in the landscape.  We now know how to tell the oldest houses in the village just by looking at the chimneys.  Finishing just in time to go into the Village Show for a cup of tea, at which moment it felt as though the ancient village life was alive, well and carrying on in spite of modern attitudes to living.
On Sunday was the Family Tree Workshop and how to get hooked on a life long hobby.  During the day I picked up a few new names to look at and passed on the advice to the students that if you want to know anything on the county (any county) then join a local Family History Society.  I have only ever been linked to the excellent Lincolnshire Family History Society and I feel that they have the family tree data fairly well covered with indexes for everything even though I am still waiting for the baptisms index (.  I would be interested to hear if there is something that you know about other societies that Lincolnshire could have a go at.
The name GIRLING is a rather surprising sort of name with its original spelling being quite different present day look. Nowadays one says GIRLING and many of us think of brakes.    The only break that would happen in many places with this one is a tooth. The word for a small apple in many counties is a codling but in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire this is the name for a small cod. Quite natural really with Hull and Grimsby being the biggest fisheries for a very long time.    For  some reason  it is thought that the French coeur-de-lion or lion hearted is linked to the solid centre of the apple and with the accent changes to GIRDELION and later to GIRDLING and GIRLING.  Further south the name became QUODLING and QUADLING in Norfolk and Suffolk.  It is all down to accents again.
Another name is that of BEMMENT.  This one for Suffolk if said with a strong accent will soon lead you to the origin.  Delightful view of a hill it may be but it is usually  spelt BEAUMONT.  There are five places in Normandy that  could  the original home of the name but I am afraid it is up to your research as to which is which.
Bits and Bobs
Thomas SHARPE, a regular customer, was charged by Policeman No. 3 with being drunk and riotous that morning at three o´clock, against the Fourteen Houses. The Officer stated that he heard the prisoner when at a great distance from him, making use of the most horrible obscene language to some girls, who would not admit him into their house, and such was his violence that he disturbed the whole neighbourhood. He was drunk, but not without a knowledge of what he was doing. Prisoner denied that he was drunk, and asked the officer if he did not tell him he was sober when he locked him up. He said that in this town he got punished for things of which he was not guilty. Their worships told him the sooner he left the town the better and fined him £2 and costs, or two months in prison, from which he only came a few days ago.
No doubt his mother didn’t love him!

Selling the Family Silver

2006-09-22T09:58:00.000+01:00

Selling the Family Silver?
With  the introduction of online access in the reading rooms at Kew, The National Archive finds that it has a certain number of redundant microfilms and is offering these free on a first-come, first-served basis.  The batch is of the Women's (later Queen Mary's) Army Auxiliary Corps: Service Records, First World War 1917-1920 and to be found listed in CatRef WO 398.  There are 240 reels and it is a single organisation that gets the batch.  If you know of a deserving home for these then get them on line to the National Archives before October 2nd, and if you feel the need to take a look at WO398 before making a request for the film then the easiest way to get to Kew Gardens is with Pam and the  Grimsby Family History Group  coach trip.  You do not need to be a Family History enthusiast to use this bus.  All the genealogists have reserved their seats so the group is throwing the final few seats open to those who might like to visit Kew Gardens. They will be starting from Immingham at 4.15 am then  Grimsby - Caistor - Caenby - Lincoln getting to Gt Gonerby for 6.30 a.m. Contact Pam  for details on 01469 560152.
While at the Kew you might like to look at the photographs of the Victorian Prisoners.  On the website there is a link to one of Julia Ann CRUMPLING aged seven.  She was given a weeks hard labour in 1870 in an adult prison  for  stealing a baby carriage.  Ah the Good Old Days.  I can’t find mention of the CRUMPLING surname in the dictionary.  There are too few of them for a mention in the Surname Profiler as well.  Both of the names CRUMP and CRAMP mean curved or hooked so one assumes that one of their children would be the diminutive adding - LING on the end.  The curved or hooked item might have been a physical item as with King Richard Crookback.  The only link I find in the search engine is the one to the National Archives and there certainly weren’t  any   in Lincolnshire in 1881.  They all seem to have lived in Hampshire.
Still with Kew I found a link that took me to the 1871 census for Albert Square., East End at St Paul’s Shadwell.  It is no laughing matter but one has to smile when one reads that the head of the household is a brothel owner and the majority of the female occupants living in the square are listed as having ‘fallen’ as an occupation and most of the males are down as ‘sailors’.  One of the occupants is Thomas FLINN who was a costermonger from Ireland. Being Irish but living in England means that the ‘O’ is dropped from O’FLINN and back in Ireland  anyone could have told you that the should be the descendant of FLANN.  Coming from the  Irish O FLOINN this was a nickname meaning red.
Bits and Bobs
Boothby Graffoe General Register – Jun 6th 1736 – Mary daughter of Lydia saunders, a travelling woman was baptised, whose husband died at Halifax.  Peter, the father of Mary saunders and Lydia Carter were married at White Chappel, London and legally settled at Norwich but in which particular Parish the said Lydia did not remember.

Your Lincolnshire He

2006-08-25T13:48:00.000+01:00

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.

A Name with STYLE

2006-08-15T20:04:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-15T19:43:00.000+01:00

Genealogy

OUSE

2006-08-05T15:33:00.000+01:00

?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.

American Trail

2006-07-25T15:43:00.000+01:00

American Trail

During a search this week for a COCHRAN individual who was born in Canada and lived for many years in Massachusetts I rediscovered the problem of countries holding the census at different times.   The first time I find George F he is married to Ada and in the US 1910 Census they had been married 10 years.  It is easy enough to work out that they therefore married in around 1900.  According to the census Ada, who was born in Beverley, Yorkshire and entered the States in 1898, so why are they not to be found on the US 1900 census?  Could it be they were away in Canada on honeymoon?  By the time they come back the census is over and it is another year before the census takes place in Canada where they can’t be found either.  One of the handy items to be found on the US census is the nationality of the parents and of the individual.  In George’s case this is Canada on all three and this allows (assuming that the nationality doesn’t change) one to discount those that do not fit.  They both were naturalised in 1916 and this is listed on the 1920 census.  If you use Ancestry.com you can sign up for a trial period for free.  The  name COCHRAN and its many variations all come from Cochrane the place in Scotland
The first COCHRANE recorded in Scotland was one Waldeve de COVERAN who witnessed a charter in favour of the 5th Earl of Menteith in 1262. Tradition traces the COCHRANE ancestry to a Viking warrior who settled in Renfrewshire where his descendants took their name from the lands of Cochrane near Paisley.  The 10th Earl of Cochrane pursued a naval career during the Napoleonic Wars and became popular due to his expertise in capturing larger ships, and his ingenuity for discomfiting the enemy. Later, as MP for Westminster, he became a victim of party politics, and with his services largely unrecognised, in 1817 he accepted command of the Chilean Navy and assisted that country gain its freedom from Spain.
A new name came my way this week with a letter from Stephen ALLEN who is working on the name FENN.  The name as it suggests does come from the fenlands.  In the 12th century it could be found as Ralph de FENNE or Thomas atte FENNE. As you can see the name has quite a long history. It originated from the Old English fenn, which was a marsh or fen.  If you were living in the far southwest of the country it might be a corruption of the place name Venn.
Bits and Bobs
Vellum indenture dated November 28th 1588, being a grant of messuages and lands at 'Strabbie' (now Strubby), as well as a manor, grange, etc., called 'Shepewasshe' in Sheepwash and Canwick, Lincolnshire, signed amongst others by Sir Julius CEASAR, written in a remarkably legible hand, lacking seal but otherwise in fine condition. An extremely interesting document which makes it clear that the grant, to William HENNEGE of Benniworth, by Nicholas WILLSON of Sturton,., was in settlement of a £1,000 debt following a King's Bench judgement against WILLSON, after he had breached the terms of a marriage settlement. The colourfully named Sir Julius CEASAR (1558-1635) rose to Chancellor of the Exchequer under James I
Sold by Auction 2002

Much Ado About Nothi

2006-07-20T16:25:00.000+01:00

Much Ado About Nothing

There are just two returns given when Lincolnshire is put into the search engine for the Victorian Prisoners Photographs at the National Archives site.  Louisa MITCHELL who was born in 1844 in Grimsby stole a watch in Surrey and was given three months hard labour in 1873 for doing it. In 1872 John ARCHER was given six months hard labour for stealing three brass balls from his master.  The descendants of these can get a copy of the photo from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ using their visa. While we consider it a bit of luck to find such things I am fairly certain that the ancestors concerned would not have viewed it in this light.
The surname MITCHELL was rarely used as a Christian name for this was normally Michael but it is from this that many MITCHELLS have come.  However there is a link in one family back in the 12th century when Michael de Middleton was the Keeper of the Kings Wolfhounds.  Twenty years later the keeper was William MICHEL and later still Richard MICHEL.  It is thought that this was the father passing on the post to his sons.  The second possible origin is from the Old English mycel and the Middle English michel and muchel. These translate to the word big.  Most of us have heard of this one without realising it.  One of the outlaws with Robin Hood was Much the Millers son.  We know John nicknamed Little was big and so it is likely that the Millers son nicknamed Much was little.
It is coincidental that the second photo is of John  ARCHER and who knows perhaps he is descended from one of the archers with Robin HOOD. Some of the earliest instances of the surname were spelt L’ARCHER with it being an occupation.
Another very interesting site I came across recently is that of www.durtnall.org.uk/.  This is the family site of Mike Durtnall.  What Mike has done is to collect the details of ancient documents and put them on his web site.  Some are for sale now while others have been on eBay.  The following is the sort of item I found 63/7 Searby - 1827 - Disposal of Half of Manor of Searby by Mary Ann Roadley to John Walter Dudding and John Iles. 4 sheets parchment - signed and sealed by  Mary Ann Roadley and witnessed by John Ferraby and Chas. Smith. Contains details of all properties and land included in the sale, and the tenants. Names mentioned - Berry, Bristow, Brown, Clark, Cousin, Dauvatt, Day, Dixon, Drewry, Duislake, Ferraby, Field, Gibson, Hall, Hargrave, Hilton, Jacklin(g), Jackson, James, King, Kirkland, Medley, Mumby, Nicholson, Petch, Platt, Portas, Radley, Rands, Scutterby, Sharp, Smith, Taylor, Trow, Walker, Wakefield, Weston, Wildbore.  £58.
If you do not know the area then something along the lines of the next item that was for sale in 2002 can happen. Archive of fifteen indentures on paper, 1750-1803, dealing with land and property transactions in the Manor of Somerby and Searby , Lincolnshire, all in fine condition. An important archive of documents for local historians and genealogist. Somerby is today the village of Somersby and Searby is the village of Swabey, both lying between Horncastle and Alford.   They have just moved the village of Somerby 30 miles south.
The last one I do not have a date for.  Did anyone see this item?  Up for sale were the marriage registers for 1812 -1837 for the villages of Saxby and what seems to be Firsby.  How did they become saleable items?  I checked the Archives list of deposited Registers and there is no mention of any being missing.  The Saxby register has one page used and the Firsby has eight.  Not an earth shattering omission to the data available unless it is a marriage of your family.  Where did they go to, does anyone know?
Bits and Bobs
Court Report – Tuesday Oct 5th 1858 – William Plaskitt of Cabourne was charged with refusing to attend and be sworn as a parish constable.  Discharged on his consenting to be sworn into office.
A policeman’s lot never was an ’appy one                              Lincolnshire Family History Society 1997

Research al Fresco

2006-07-15T20:27:00.000+01:00

Research al Fresco

Wendy PANKHURST sent in the following information that St. Peter's Church at East Halton will be holding an Open Day for family history researchers.  They will get the opportunity of looking at the Parish Records and Bishops Transcripts where they were written and a map of the graveyard will also be available.  The great day is on Saturday 19th August and at the same time you can enjoy the refreshments that will be available.  Perhaps other churches will follow East Haltons lead.  The surname PANKHURST along with PENTYCROSS and PERRYCOST all come from the Old French Pentecost and were generally born during that festival.
Sold recently was a Mortgage of an estate in Winterton, Lincolnshire, between John THOMPSON of Winterton, plumber and glazier, and Isaac LEVI of Barton upon Humber, silversmith. It was dated 25th March 1818 in the 58th year of the reign of King George III.  The LEVI surname was not regularly found in Lincolnshire. By 1881 there were just two and these were both immigrants.  One is from Russia and the other from Poland.  The name LEVI means "attached" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament Levi was the third son of Jacob and Leah, and the ancestor of one of the twelve tribes of the Israelites (the tribe that eventually became the priests of the Israelites). In the New Testament this is another name for the apostle Matthew.  Tending to be of Jewish origin the occupation also hints at the same conclusion.  I wonder what happened to him? Isn’t it odd how one can get sidetracked?  I looked up George III in Wikipedia as I was unsure as the veracity of his reported 58-year reign.  Then I moved back in time to the Jacobite Rebellion of the 18th century and thought about who, if anyone, was claiming the English throne today through their descent from Bonny Prince Charlie; and there is someone.  I found that Francis II of Bavaria is the present claimant.  The  heir presumptive of Franz, Duke of Bavaria, is his younger brother Prince Max of Bavaria. Then his daughter Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein, and then her eldest son Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein, born 24 May 1995 in London. Prince Joseph is first heir in the Jacobite line born in the British Isles since James III and VIII, The Old Pretender in 1688.  Well I found it interesting and by the way George III was on the English throne from 1738 until his death in 1820.
Bits and Bobs
Humberstone (more recently spelled Humberston) is from the Old English Humbre+stone for "the boundary stone in the River Humber". In the 1086 Domesday Book, it is rendered in its original form as Humbrestone.   May 5th 1815 – Death – Lately at Humberstone, near Grimsby, aged 83 years, Ann KILLOCK: she had performed the duty of Clerk to the Parish church for 20 years and followed four husbands to their grave, and left 60 children and grandchildren behind her.  Lincolnshire Family History Society Magazine 1997.
This must be an unusual occurrence for a woman to have been the Parish Clerk in the 19th century.  Her surname is thought to have originated  from the village of Kilnwick in Yorkshire.

What's It Worth

2006-07-09T12:14:00.000+01:00

What's It Worth?

Back in 1680, employing a craftsman for 13 days would cost you the equivalent of just one hour for a modern plumber. In 1270, for the same amount, you could add five extra days of craftsman work, 14 lbs of wool and a bale of wheat.  How do I know this?  Well I found the converter on www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency  At The National Archives the new currency conversion program where you can convert old money into new equivalent values, and at the same time you can also see what the relative buying power of money was in days gone by. For example, did you know that Jane Austen left £50 in her will in 1817?  That sum is approximately equal to the spending power of £2,096 today. It would have bought her beneficiary:  318 days of craftsman labour or,53 stones of wool or, 8 quarters of wheat or, 9 cows or, 4 horses.
Grasby had a visit from a gentleman who lives in Hykeham and more years ago than he would like to remember his address here was the same as mine is today.  He was kind enough to let me scan a postcard he had with him which was of our house in the very early part of the 20th century.  What is it about these old postcards that makes them so much more evocative than the coloured ones of today?  When these visits occur always try to get a name and contact number.  Me? I forgot!  Hopefully he will get in touch again.
A document recently for sale dated 6 April 1773 in the 13th year of the reign of King George III and for the Release of land in Wigtoff, Lincolnshire, between John GAINSBOROUGH of Swineshead, Lincolnshire, yeoman and Mary his wife (nee WATERS) and Samuel FOSTER of Swineshead, yeoman. The property is All that piece of land in Wigtoff called the Fore Fen of 4 acres lying South East of the turnpike road from Boston to Donington (No 49 on the Inclosure Map).
By 1881 the FOSTER family seems to have disappeared for the FOSTER that is living in Swineshead comes from Stamford and has his father in law Levi DAYBALL staying with him.   The  name FOSTER,  so the book says, might come from Middle English foster as in cild-foster, a foster parent or nurse.  However having seen the name FORSTER, FOSTER and FORESTER being used for the same family I feel that it is more likely to be the occupational name of a person who works in a forest.
The Mormons with the IGI lump all the DIBBLE, DYBELL, DAYBALL, and DABBLE together as having the same root. Just about all of the elder members of these families came from Norfolk according to the 1881 census.  I seem to spend this week disagreeing with the book; it says that DAYBELL is a nick name that came from the practise of ringing a bell at dawn which was called imaginatively enough the day-bell.  The alternative, and the one I prefer, is the ease with which some words can be changed by using a D instead of a T.  The name Tibbald was represented in Old Saxon as Dibald which started off as the font name Theobald.  It is not very far to go to get DIBBLE or DAYBELL from DIBALD.
Bits and Bobs
LRSM 8 December 1848 - Spilsby Petty Sessions 27 November - Ruth DAWSON, of Bolingbroke, applied for an order upon Wm. STENNETT, of Revesby, to prove that the defendant (who is cousin to the plaintiff) had sent her money not to swear the child, plaintiff had called a second Wm. Stennett, also a cousin; but upon examination he swore positively that he had never spoken to the plaintiff upon the subject, and so prevaricated in his statements that it was clear he had been tampered with. The magistrates expressed their strong disapprobation of the witness' conduct, and of the defence which was attempted to be set up. Order granted for 2s 6d weekly and expenses.

Its The Accent What

2006-07-01T07:54:00.000+01:00

It’s The Accent What Does It

My searches just recently have been for the PETT family of Spalding who left the county to live in the Doncaster area in the early part of the 19th century.  In the parish registers we only have the PITT surname and the occasional PIDD. Usually this can be explained by the fact that the PETT that is giving his/her name to the vicar has a strong accent which the vicar then translates as PITT.  The books agree with me here (which doesn’t help) for under PETT they say to ‘See PITT’.  So the question is how do you prove that they are one and the same.  What one hopes for here is a change in the vicar and hopefully a change in the name.  To illustrate this take that of the gentleman who discovered a comet; most people pronounce the name as HAYLEY or HALIE but is this right for I have seen in one register the name spelt HALLEY and HAULEY.  This indicates that the first element is pronounced HALL. Where does this leave PETT research?  To be as sure as one can be the only thing one can hope for is to carry on looking for an entry with a change of spelling where the two can be linked together.  In addition to the spellings above the book also has putt and they all come from a location.  It is the dweller by the pits or hollows and is from the Old English pytt.  There is village with the name Pett in Kent and one called Pitt in Hampshire.
A phone call set me on the trail of GUENIGAULT & COSFORD of London.  What an opportunity we have to get the spelling wrong when it comes to a French name and an English accent.  These are Huguenots that had been here a while but in the 1881 census there is but one head of house and that is Charles who was born in London.  Could this be the one and only link to today’s families? A swift rummage on Google and up comes the www.tolliss.com/ site where can be found 84 GUENIGAULT individuals.  A number of these should be living in London during 1881 so why aren’t they listed? The father of Charles, Louis Stephen GUENIGAULT, can be found on the Tollis site along with half a dozen of Charles uncles.  Many of these had children. A French genealogical site also has GUENIGAUD as a spelling. Swapping a few letters around gives a few more individuals by the surname GUEINGAULE living in Battersea.  The family is still there today with Mary GUENIGAULT working with the Liberal Democrats in Southwark.  There is a hero in their midst for during the First World War amongst those lost on the raid on Zeebrugge was Able Seaman GUINIGAULT. Charles William GUENIGAULT was 19 years old and the son of Frederick William and Hannah of Essex Road.   My books are deficient as to a meaning.  The second however is a place name and  comes from the person called Cossa who had control of the ford over a river.
Bits and Bobs
Fiona of the Grimsby FHS was at the Lincolnshire Family History Society AGM and was one of those lucky enough to hear John Wilson, archivist at the North-east Lincolnshire Archives speak on the Lottery funded project which involves indexing the Crew Lists held at Grimsby and Hull. While there is a lot more Grimsby data the Hull index has beaten them to the punch and they are on line at www.hullcc.gov.uk/.  Go to the online catalogue and using DPF as a reference type in your name.  She will let those on the internet know when Grimsby is up and running.

Greetings from New Z

2006-06-17T10:06:00.000+01:00

Greetings from New Zealand
Pauline Allen from New Zealand has an aunt that lives in Lincolnshire. Just to show you what good taste aunt has she sends Pauline cuttings from the Lincolnshire Echo. The name she is interested in is that of MORPHUS. Apart from the origin of the name she is trying to find out what happened to George William who was born in Bulwell in 1899. The only family detail that she has is that he might have died in 1947 but where. In 1881 there were just three families in the whole of the country with this name so there is a good chance that this is a change of spelling due to the accent used. The website FreeBMD although not yet finished gave me the information that there was a George aged 0 who died in September Quarter of 1902 in Nottingham District. A few months later there is the death of Emma aged 35. The mother perhaps dying due to infection. Marriages on FreeBMD of which there are few gave me Emma PIDDUCK marrying Samuel MORPHUS in 1889 in Basford. There are a total of 8 births in Nottinghamshire - all boys. However three of these are after the death of Emma. Did Samuel marry again? The name is most likely to be MALPASS and as the name is most prevalent in the west country my guess is that as the two Nottinghamshire MALPASS heads of family came from Gloucestershire this could be the original area for the family. Malpass arrived around the 13th century as the French gave places that were difficult to travel over the name. The Old French mal pas is a bad passage.
A book recently sold on eBay that I would have liked to buy is that of the life of Thomas LIDGETT printed in 1908. It is described as One of Lincolnshire's best known men as written by himself. Modest too! LIDGETT was born in Rothwell, a village near Caistor in 1844, and wrote this book shortly before his death in 1908. This is a wonderful historical account of Lincolnshire life in Victoria times. He became a preacher and travelled widely, including to Switzerland. "About the age of three and a half, I went with my mother to Moortown station to go to Hull. I thought when in the train we were not moving, but that the stacks, trees etc., were running past us in a desperate hurry". "At sixteen years of age I went to live with a farmer in Thoresway Parish named Surfleet". This 55 page book has 5 b/w photographs of LIDGETT. I’ll bet there aren’t many copies of this one about. The early references to the LIDGETT name all use the additional de or atte. This confirms the idea that it is from someone who lived near a swing gate from the Old English hlidgeat.
Bits and Bobs
Spilsby Petty Sessions - 25 September 1848 - Sarah HOUGHTON, of Wainfleet All Saints, applied for an order in bastardy against Luke WALKER of Ingoldmells. Mr. MERRIFIELD appeared for the defendant, and Mr. THIMBLEBY for the plaintiff: after hearing the case (which evinced considerable depravity on the part of the defendant, who is a widower with a family of nine children, while the plaintiff is a poor half-witted girl of seventeen), the bench made an order for 2s weekly and expenses.

Staff Discount

2006-06-15T10:17:00.000+01:00

Staff Discount?

Ian BARNSLEY works for an extremely well known newspaper in Lincolnshire and, having seen the column come out for the last 348 times, has decided that it is time for me to look at his surname.  The surname comes from the place of the same name.  Remember that this would only have been his name when he was away from home; everyone knew who he was otherwise.  The other thing to remember is that just because someone has the same place or occupational surname as you does not mean they are a relative.   The reason that there are so many people with the surname SMITH is down to the fact that this was one of the most popular occupations during the time that surnames took off.  If you are lucky and your ancestor is important enough to get listed somewhere he could have more than one name.  James de BARNSLEY being someone with a bit of get-up-and-go moved his business to the nearby village of Dodsworth.  To the people of Penistone he is now James de DODSWORTH not James de BARNSLEY.  Barnsley  by the way gets its name from the fact that the –leah or grove belonging to Beornheard.  A similar name is that of Barnsdale which was the hill belonging to Beornheard.  Towards the end of the 19th century there was just one family of the surname Barnsley in Lincolnshire.  At the same time there were dozens of families living in Birmingham from whence Ian’s grandfather Cyril came.  Ian mentions the fact that there are few BARNSLEY families now living in Barnsley.  Over time they may have moved back but, as I have already said, at one time those that lived in Barnsley would not have had BARNSLEY as a surname unless they left the town.
Roger TINDALL has written asking for information on John TINDALL who he believes was born in the Rasen area.  There is one John TINDALL who was born around 1760 in Coleby but this is not the one.  He married Sarah FARROW of Middle Rasen in 1794.  The family then moved around the area,  married at Owmby and had a child, Thomas, born at Tealby who later died in Searby in 1879,  do you have any links to this family for Roger.  Let me know and I’ll pass it on.
Bits and Bobs
For sale at eBay - Vellum Indenture -1854 Deed - Messingham,  Transfer and Confirmation of Mortgage of a Messuage Maltkiln and Hereditaments at Messingham, Lincolnshire for securing £400 and interest. The document also has two receipts on the back signed by William CHATTERTON for the repayment of the moneys in two parts dated 6 November 1862 and 23 May 1867 - Parties: William CHATTERTON, George FRANKISH, George KIRKLAND, Harriet KIRKLAND, Richard KIRKLAND the younger, Sarah KIRKLAND the elder, Sarah KIRKLAND the younger, William KIRKLAND - Other names include: William BARNARD, Rev Henry Vincent BAYLEY, John KIRKLAND, Richard KIRKLAND , Rev George Daniel RENAUD, Mary Ann SMITH (nee KIRKLAND) Richard SMITH, Mr SOWERBY Document signed by: George FRANKISH, X The Mark of Sarah KIRKLAND, George KIRKLAND, Richard KIRKLAND, Sarah KIRKLAND, Harriet KIRKLAND, William KIRKLAND  Witnesses: Thomas FREER, Thomas WILSON

Saw or Taw

2006-06-05T08:45:00.000+01:00

Saw or Taw

Maria TUE has recently moved to Lincolnshire and started to do the family tree but, without knowing it, she is a yellow-belly descendant because her father’s side of the family comes from Heckington. Her earliest record to date is that of Jacob & Joseph Chadwell BEEDON who are the sons of Daniel & Elizabeth,  born at the start of the 19th century.  Here we have another example of the change in the name through the accent.  This time it is interchangeable with BEETON.   The question is which one really comes first.  BEEDON the surname comes from Beedon the village which is just off the M4 in Berkshire.  On the other hand BEETON comes from Beton the diminutive for Bete  (Beatrice) and was in use as a Christina name in Cornwall in the 17th century.  The descendants spread out over the county moving to Vauxhall House in Boston, a Militia House in Grantham via a spell in the 22nd Regiment of Foot,  and lastly to Horncastle.  The question that Maria would like answering is where did Daniel and Elizabeth originate from and where did they end their lives?
Maria TUE and her present surname do present a slight problem.  With the TUE spelling there is a blank, but in Northamptonshire in the 19th century there are a number as TEW.  This is from the village of Tew in Oxfordshire.  There is a Middle English word tewe, which was to taw.  And someone who tawed was a tawyer and later became a surname.  TAWYER is an occupational name and was to prepare white leather.  Exactly the same as one who sawed became a SAWYER.
I had occasion to make a telephone call to the Scotland GRO to order a birth certificate.  The experience was something that all Archives should aspire to (Lincolnshire of course excepted).  I gave the date in 1920 and was told that the person was not listed, I then gave the second year that I had and was told he wasn’t there either.  “Just a second” the gentleman said “I have found one in 1918”.  “The mothers maiden name was MENZIES” he said which was the middle name of the person I was looking for.  The speed with which the answers came back I must assume that they have all the indexes computerised.  When I put the phone down I had been on line the for just less than 4 minutes.  OK I have not received the bill yet but I thought the service was exceptional.
Mrs  ARMSTRONG of Lincoln is interested in the name ADDELSEE.   The word comes from the Old English hathel and sae  meaning a marshy pool in a hollow.  This particular marshy pool could be found in North Yorkshire at a village now called Haddlesey.  The village was called Hathel-sae in 1030.  Early Lincolnshire family members were to be seen around Boston and Minting at the start of the 19th century.  The one family with the name with the same spelling as that of the village came from Caistor. One must assume that it is the Lincolnshire accent that had persuaded people to drop the ‘H’ in the distant past.
Bits and Bobs
Sarah wife of Wm. LOCKTON, of Marston, applied for an order in bastardy. She was a married woman but her husband enlisted three years ago and is now at Corfoo: an old fellow named Edw. PIDD, finding her in a rather destitute condition, and he being a widower, first engaged her to attend to his house, and ultimately to cohabit with him, by which means she kept herself out of the workhouse: the old man was left with a family of six children, the youngest of whom is 14 years of age.........Pidd was ordered to pay 1s 6d per week and the midwifery expenses. From Anne
When you think about it, what else could the woman do in those days but hope to find someone who would look after her and the children?

Easy Start and Dusty

2006-06-01T21:19:00.000+01:00

Easy Start and Dusty Finish

Norma of blueyonder.co.uk has set me a nice easy task to start this week with.  Here name of interest is COWLEYSHAW and the question is “Where did it come from and what does it mean?”  In this case they are both the same thing.  This surname is a locational name and comes from the village of Cowlishaw  in Lancashire.     The word -SHAW is from the Old English scaga for a copse.    The  first element  COWLI- is thought possibly to come from a similar root as the first element in COLLEYHURST. Colleyhurst is a village in Lancashire.   COLLEY as a first element is generally thought to be  from coal dust, black, or swarthy   HURST by the way is a hill  that may be wooded.  It therefore looks as though parts of Lancashire are covered in coal dust.  The explanation is of the names are of a copse or a hill that might be wooded that is covered in coal dust .      Examples of this word are top be found as colley-sheep which are those with a black face and legs.  A colley in Somerset is a dialect name for a blackbird.
Another name I am working on at the moment is that of HAYES.  The surprising thing is that if you type Patrick HAYES into the 1881 census national index almost without exception every one born before 1860 and given this name comes from Ireland. The name comes from the Old English haes and the word hease which is found as places in Sussex as Heaseland and Heasewood.  This originated as the Old French heis and brushwood.
Norm ASHTON is trying to figure out why his ancestor Alfred JACKSON, who was born in Belper in Derbyshire, would have moved to Boston by the time of his marriage to Harriet Hand SMITH and the birth of  their first child in 1855.  Alfred was a blacksmith and nail-maker by trade.  He must have itchy feet for by 1881 they are living in Toronto.  Alfred had a son named Samuel and he kept a small diary in which he kept his important dates.  Any of these of interest to you?  Sarah Ann SMITH/RASON - 14 Feb; Ethel SHEPHERD - 20 Feb;  Ada SHEPHERD - 14 Mar;  S. RASON Jr - 24 Mar; Alfred SHEPHERD - 2 Apr;  Cousin Gertie (G.E.) JACKSON/HOLBEACH - 12 May;  M.E. JACKSON, cousin Mary Edith HOLBEACH - 1 Jun;  A. M. JACKSON, cousin Maud - 2 Jul;  Arthur SHEPHERD - 23 Jul;  G.L. RASON - 8 Aug;  W. H. SHEPHERD - 14 Aug;  C. SHEPHERD - 15 Aug;  G.H. RASON - 22 Sep;  E. M. RASON - 27 Sep;  F. B. RASON - 17 Oct;  G.E. SHEPHERD, Grantham - 7 Dec;  Aunt E. JACKSON - 22 Dec.  Do you have something similar in your family?
Bits and Bobs
For sale on eBay with one day to go and already up to £275.  Mons Star Trio with Bar & Rosette on Star all named to 9358 Pte Thomas Harry Johnson 1st Lincs BUT plaque named Henry Johnson!!.  I hope that it is a family member bidding. At the same time the following were for sale - Trios to Pte 9547 S T Hayward, Pte 16790 R J Dodds & Pte 3065 G W Watkinson.  The numbers are very handy if you are going after the individual’s military papers.

Lost and Found

2006-05-15T09:01:00.000+01:00

Lost and Found

Diana ROBINSON (nee GARDNER) of Rochester in the USA is looking into the history of her great grandmother Jane STUBBLEDAY who married William Dawson FLETCHER at St. Mark's Church in Lincoln on Feb. 20, 1848.  The trouble is that William, on occasions, did not use his middle name of Dawson and this has caused some problems with identification.  Jane’s maiden name can also be found being spelt in various ways by the family with one of her children it is down as STUBLEY.  As Jane only put her mark on documents it is thought that she would not be able to correct the registrar’s mistake.  What she would like to know is why, when Jane was born in Wyberton, would she be in Lincoln getting married and where was she in 1841 because she can’t be found on the census?  Here we have the Son of Robin and a Gardener plus the person who puts the feathers onto arrows but STUBBLEDAY is not to be found.    STUBLEY  is  thought to be a place in Essex.  There is always a chance that the name could have changed from DOUBLEDAY.
Robin DUNN has dropped me a line.  His family comes from the north of the county.  A look at the 1901 census on line gives the names of George and Elizabeth as being the eldest members there.  The trail through the 1881 census lead to brothers John and Joseph and their families.  Most families in Lincolnshire were farm labourers but Joseph was the odd one out being a blacksmith by trade.  Robin says that the family was living in Wrawby at one time.  My transcript of the register confirms the link between Wrawby and South Ferriby with the same pairs of names turning up and this takes the family back to the baptism of William, the son of John & Ann in 1753.  The surname DUNN is also the Old English word dunn for dark brown and was sometimes used as a nickname for a dark or swarthy person.  The dark brown hedge sparrow is called a dunnock and gets its name from the same root.
Janice is now an OAKMAN and her husband  George’s family come from Cambridgeshire and many of these lived in the Foxton area in the 19th century.  There were none living in Lincolnshire in 1901 and only 51 individuals in Cambs, there were even less in 1881.  The name comes from the Old English Acmann  and is a straight forward sort of name as it translates to OAKMAN.  Almost without exception the word oak in a name such as OAKES, NOKES or NOCK, OAKER   and OAKENROYDE are all linked to people who live near the oak trees or in a  clearing (royd).  Oakman is slightly different as at one time  (1219 in Yorkshire) it was used as a Christian name as in Alexander filius OKEMAN.
Bits and Bobs
Spalding Tuesday February 6th 1855 - Groundless Alarm - on Friday morning, at three o'clock, police constable MEASURES, while crossing the Victoria Bridge, heard cries of murder, fire &c. On proceeding in the direction of the sounds, he observed females with their heads out of the upper windows of the house of Mr. CULY, who, in answer to his inquiries, stated that someone was breaking into the house. The constable looked well around the premises, but saw nought but a heap of snow, which, it appeared, had just fallen over the back door from the roof of the house, and had awakened the inmates.

Da Vinci Is A Better

2006-05-05T20:24:00.000+01:00

Da Vinci Is A Better Way To Be Noticed

Lincoln is soon to become one of THE places to visit after the film of The Da Vinci Code hits the screens.  This event had been brought to mind with the reading of a book on almshouses and mention of Lincoln being the second most important site after  London for a leper hospital.   The Lazar is called thus from St Lazarus and was run by an off-shoot of the Hospitallers  of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.   It is supposed that the first ever leper hospital in the country was founded in Lincoln by Bishop Regimius during the 11th century.  It was named the Malandry  and built on common land just outside the city walls near Little Bargate.   One item of note was the funding of the Lazar;  on Canwick Hill was situated a gallows, those that were destined to take a last look at Lincoln from this viewpoint were buried by the lepers and the Lazar received payment for this service. Leprosy in those days was  considered your own fault; you must have been afflicted due to your sinful way of life!  After it was discovered that you had the disease you would be given a pep talk by the priest to mend your ways, sprinkled with holy water, given a black gown to wear, a rattle to shake to let all know you were coming by and put into a Lazar and left to fend for yourself.  The Leper would not be allowed to visit a church, mill or bake-house, talk to strangers, touch anything that was for sale nor wash in a running stream.  A shovel full of earth was thrown at the lepers feet and as far as the community was concerned  the leper was already dead   - just not buried yet.
A local name I have come across is that of FARMERY.  This has little to do with farms but comes from the English habit of knocking letters of from the beginning of French words.  Similarly the hamlet near Caenby Corner named Owmby by Spital gets its name from the shortening of the word Hospital.    The Old French word is enfermerie is the origin of the English infirmary and a FARMERY would most likely work in the monastery infirmary.
While still on the subject of shutting people away it seems that Sue from Perth, Australia had a relative on the wrong side of the law as far as Australians are concerned.  He, Nathaniel FARRANT lived in Stamford as the Goal Keeper.  Sorry but when I first read this I was thinking of football and wondered what they called the team in those days!!  By 1851 he was a Magistrates Clerk.  Could this be thought of as a step up the social ladder?   If this is your family Sue would be delighted to hear from you.   By 1881 the solitary FARRANT family member to be found in Lincolnshire, is George the bolt-maker of Lincoln who is living in Gainsborough.
The name FARRANT is thought to either come from the Old French ferant which is short for Ferdinand or ferrant being the nickname for one with iron-grey coloured hair.
Bits and Bobs
Jan 6 1837 – there is now living at Misterton near Gainsborough, Mr James FARAM, who has reached the very advanced age of 102 years, and is in the enjoyment of considerable activity and health except for his eyesight, which has failed.  He is proof that this neighbourhood is not so prejudicial to health as common opinion has held it to be.
Lincolnshire Family History Society   2001

Good Old eBay

2006-04-30T23:29:00.000+01:00

Good Old eBay

The internet selling site eBay has some Lincolnshire items for sale with surnames attached;  the first is an  indenture for land in Skirbeck Quarter.   Dated from 1860 it is worded thus “This Indenture made the Seventh day of November One thousand eight hundred and sixty between Edward HILLSON of the hamlet of Skirbeck Quarter in the parish of Skirbeck in the county of Lincoln Gardener of the first part, the said Edward HILLSON and Elizabeth his wife (Devisees in fee under the will of Edward HILLSON late of Skirbeck Quarter aforesaid Gentleman deceased) of the second part and Valentine PEPPER of Carrington in the County of Lincoln Farmer of the third part ..... to the mortgage and the price paid which was £1,150”.  A fair sum of money for the 19th century.  The surname PEPPER comes from the original occupation as a dealer in pepper, a pepperer or spice dealer and is linked to the French variation PEEVER.  It was to be found in 1298 when John PEPPER alias PEYUER is listed in one of the  London rolls.
Next is an Indenture Deed  in the parish of Wigtoft for the Release of a cottage and lands in Wigtoft, Lincolnshire, between Grace CHAPMAN of Swineshead, spinster, and James HOLBOURN of Wigtoft, grazier. Dated 21 January 1784 in the 24th year of the reign of George III. The property consists of  All that cottage with a piece of ground adjoining of half an acre in Hofleet in the parish of Wigtoft now in tenure of Richard WARRINER. Also land in Wigtoft Marsh. CHAPMAN comes from the Old English ceapman who was a merchant or trader.  The area in London known as Cheapside comes from the same root and ceapman had a market there.
Finally from the same vendor is an Indenture Deed in the parish of Helpringham An indenture regarding property in Helpringham, Lincolnshire, between Eustace PHILIPS of Lincoln, coal merchant, William DURANCE of Helpringham, butcher, and Mary his wife, and Boaz BAXTER of Helpringham, gentleman.  Dated 21 April 1774 in the 14th year of the reign of George III. The property consists of: All that cottage with yard, barn, dovecoat and outbuildings in Helpringham in the tenure of Edmund FRITH.  Surnames such as FREAK, FIRTH, FRITH, FRIDD and FRIGHT and the latecomer THRIFT all come from the Old English firhþe or fyrhþe which was a woodland.  The TH pronounced in FIRTH is the Old English þ.
Bits and Bobs
The following link was given on the internet www.fred.net/jefalvey/execute.html.  This link is for a page on Newgate Prison in London and the List of Executions from 1606.  Newgate Prison was probably the most notorious prison in all England and one that almost everyone has heard of.  A prison has stood on the Newgate site for almost a thousand years. The first prison was nearly as old as the Tower of London and much older than the Bastille. It is first mentioned in the reign of King John and in the following reign of Henry the III, (1218), the King expressly commands the sheriffs of London to repair it, and promised to repay them from his own exchequer. This shows that the prison was under the direct control of the King at that time. The prison itself was originally above the gate or in the gatehouse.  Carry out a search for the word Lincoln and the first entry for Lincoln that comes up is - HORRY, William Fred     1872  01 Apr   Murder of wife; Lincoln.

New Database Online

2006-04-19T20:04:00.000+01:00

New Database On-line

The 1837 online website now has a facility for looking up living relatives and ready to be searched through by those with a need. Living Relatives is a premium database, allowing you to search the current electoral roll, telephone directory (business and homes) and directors’ details to find up-to-date contact details. The service costs just six units per search across all three datasets - less that the cost of standard directory enquiries.  You do have to upgrade from the standard subscription to get access but it could be very cost effective if it saves having to look through a county’s electoral roll.  There is also a section for unusual names.  A few that have been found in the public domain are Shrove TUESDAY, Preserved FISH and Shutters WINDOWS.  The longest name that has been found for the site was that of KONSTANTYNOPOLITANCZYKIEWICZOWNA which had originated in Poland and before anyone asks I do not have the foggiest idea as to its meaning although I do make out Constantine as a start.
This is a cautionary tale for the users of the IGI.  Mark VERNON was searching for his SCAMAN family but it appeared that they must have emigrated rather earlier than he had expected as there was absolutely no sign of them anywhere in the IGI.  Mark was fairly certain that they were still in Lincolnshire and was lucky enough to already know their birth dates and the place of birth – Swaby of his great-great-great-grandfather.  Bernie carried out some research for him and found that what was written in the parish register as SCAMAN had been read by the transcribers of the IGI as SEAMAN.  No doubt there are people out there pulling out their hair trying to fit this SEAMAN family into their tree!!
Mrs HALL of North Hykeham has traced her maiden line back to John CUBLEY born in 1781 in Donington according to the 1851 census.  His son was also a John.  One possible addition to this family is that of James who appears on the 1841 census and who seems to be looking after his widowed mother Mary.   Another piece of information I found on the IGI is that of a John being baptised in Donington in 1784 who was the son of Francis and Martha née PATMAN of Horbling who were married in 1783.  Several other members of the family were born in Holbeach. The earliest place that I found them in is that of Harlaxton with the marriage of William to Agnes WAYT.  This seems to be a family of Ag Labs who eventually put down roots in Gedney and stayed there.  The name CUBLEY comes from the village of the same name.  This village is west of Derby and originally was the ‘leah’ belonging to Cubba.  PATMAN comes from the pet form of Patrick.
Bits and Bobs
Nettleham Register – Jan 20th 1790 – Clerks wages are as follows – Each messuage payes at Christmas and at Easter 6d and each cottage 2 ½ d and according to the old custom everyone who occupied a plow gave a pye.  But some made the pye so mean of bones or even of what was not fit to eat that it was thought proper to pay 4d instead of the pye.  So each possessor of a plow pays 4d more than what is charged upon a messuage or cottage.  William HETT curate.
Bob Kershaw in the Lincolnshire Family History Society Magazine 2001

Lancashire Links

2006-04-14T09:49:00.000+01:00

Lancashire Links
Gordon on blueyonder is looking for the surname COWLAYSHAW; rather a rare commodity in Lincolnshire when the 1881 census was carried out for there were just two people, father and daughter, with this surname.  Matthew, the father, was from Derbyshire and died in Barnetby in 1893, aged 77 years, although at the time of death was living in Gainsborough.  At the same time there was a much larger number of COLLEYSHAW families in the county.  The eldest members were born and lived in the Folkingham - Heckington area.  There is a COLLEYSHAW family in Derbyshire but  they came from Metheringham possibly due to the father Charles working on the railway.  These surnames along with the variation COWLISHAW and many others come from one of two places it is suggested.  One in Derbyshire and the other in Lancashire.  The Oxford Dictionary of Place-names comes up with just the Lancashire .  There is some debate as to whether the first element – COWLI –could be a personal name, Cola, which turns up in COLLINGHAM and COLLINGTREE.     The second element –SHAW – is a grove as in BIRKENSHAW which is a grove of birch trees.
I had a letter from Woodhall Spa this week.  Marie is interested in her family names TETLOW and NEAL.  The easiest one to explain is that of TETLOW, well it would be if I could find it on the map.  The book says that it is a Lancashire village and in 1389 it is recorded as Richard de TETLAWE in that county but not in my gazetteer. This information most likely comes from the same source as that on the TETLOW website at www.tetlow.co.uk.  There it says that ancestors to the family were living in Oldham in the 14th century. In 1321, Adam de TETLOW'S son Richard was granted lands in Werneth by Robert de OLDHAM. Fourteen years later, Richard obtained by grant further land in Northwood. On his death in 1337, the sheriff was ordered to enquire about his holdings in Oldham and Crompton. Adam had another son, Hugh, who in 1340 granted to his mother lands in Coppedhurst with the remainder to his brother Roger. In 1375, Roger de LANGLEY gave Richard, son of Richard de TETLOW, his land in Manchester, Crompton and Oldham and in 1391, Richard confirmed to Robert WALKER, chaplain, a burgage and messuage in Oldham and Manchester.  An interesting item on the site is the coat of arms On a silver shield a black diagonal band with a scalloped edge, on each side a narrow red band.  This was  granted on 10 September 1760 to TETLOW of Houghton, Lancashire, and ended up in the 'Guinness Book of Records'.  The crest recalls the grantee's feat of writing the Lord's Prayer on a silver penny with a quill pen and required the Herald Painter to repeat this achievement
NEAL and its multitude of variations, however, comes to England by a rather circuitous route.  The Old Irish niall was a champion and was latinised to Nellis.  The visiting Scandinavians or Vikings  then took the name to their settlement in Iceland and thence to Norway as Njall.  Later the Norsemen became Norman and it entered the French language and is brought to England with William in 1066.  in Scotland and the border country the Irish name was taken straight there by the Vikings.  The latinisation this time gave Nigellus and Nigel. This resulted in the large number of McNEAL and O’NEIL  families.  We know that the two are the same for in Yorkshire is to be found Robertus filius NIGELLI and Robertus NEL being the same person in 1221.
Bits and Bobs
The  most difficult census to transcribe and read is that of the 1841 census because the enumerators used pencil thus making the microfilm  almost illegible in places - so it's good to know that Ancestry's transcribers are making a special effort for us.  Very  soon the 1841 Census of England & Wales is going to be made available at Ancestry and it has been mentioned that this could be before the end of the month.  Assuming that the costs will not change then a trip to www.Ancestry.co.uk with a visa card and your access to £4.95 will let you have 10 views of the enumerators records over the following 14 days.  A reasonable cost I thought.

Oops Missed a bit

2006-04-05T22:21:00.000+01:00

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Oops - Missed a bit last week

The name that I mentioned last week SCATCHERD which was of interest to Mike Parker was left with out any explanation as to its origin. The Old Norman French escache which today is echasse is a stilt and was most likely a derogatory term for some one with long legs. This explanation is further reinforced by the fact that the French word eschasseriaux is a man with a wooden leg. As with many similar French words such as estage if you remove the ‘e’ at the beginning the word you will recognise it as stage.
Mrs C WOOLLEY of Kexby has written in with a request for me to look at the SHAW family of Grimsby. Sadly there are a number of SHAW families in Grimsby and without a date, name or age it is rather difficult to pin point any particular one. However looking at the 1901 census there is just the one family in Grimsby whose head William H was born in Grimsby. A second individual is George aged 70 years who lives in Clee and is the Primitive Methodist Minister there – BUT – I am unable to say where he was in 1881 for I can’t find him listed in the census. William H is an educated man and is a Clerk to the Council. A search of the 1861 census gives us the information that William lives with his father George whose occupation is tailor, in Cleethorpes Road. George obviously believes in education for another son is a scholar at 13 years of age and takes in a boarder who is also a clerk. Somewhere along the line the family gets a link to London when Mary Jane marries James THAYERS of Chelsea.
The name SHAW comes from the Old English word sceaga for a copse or small wood and the person who dwells nearby. The WOOLLEY surname is also connected to a wood and the village of Woolley. The nearest one to Lincolnshire is in the west riding of Yorkshire and gets its name from the nearness of a wood that is frequented by wolves.
Alison posted a plea on the internet for any information on William QUINCEY who she thinks was born around 1740 in Sutterton. In 1773 William married Ann HILL. His father was also a William and he married Jane nee LUCEY of Sutterton in 1739. Alison is interested in any facts or information on this family and if you have them in your tree just drop me a line. The origins of the QUINCEY family go back to northern France and the village with the name Cuinchy. One of the earliest QUINCEYs is that of Saer de QUINCY who was a Templar in Oxfordshire around 1160. Later holders of the surname may be from Quincy villages in the Seine region.
Bits and Bobs
Louth Petty Sessions 11 May 1848
Wm. SLEIGHT, gardener, was charged by a prostitute named HOODLASS with being the father of her bastard child: case dismissed.
Grantham Petty Sessions 19 May:
Thos. CULLEN, of Rolston, a farmer's son, was accused of being the father of the illegitimate child of Ann ROBINSON. It was stated that defendant had pressed the poor girl to take something to destroy the child, and failing in that, the night before she left he fired a gun at her in the garden, the object of which may be imagined. The poor girl's evidence being deficient, the order could not be granted.
Anne has been busy looking at the newspapers again and the complete version of her findings can be bought from Lincolnshire Family History Society on microfiche.

Family Chat

2006-03-29T11:43:00.000+01:00

Family Chat

I wrote, back in November, of the DIMBLEBY name and the latest information is that cousins of one sort or another keep popping up for Gillian BAKER.   On the female side of her family is the HANDFORD surname and it is this one that has been found to have a connection with a family in Norfolk, it originates from one of the places by the same name.  She has given me couple of other names that are in the family.  On her father’s side her great-great-grandfather married Sarah MALEM in Lincoln.  Happily for her their son Jabez Bunting DIMBLEBY was in the habit of writing to other relatives who lived in Derbyshire and some of these documents still survive.  The family chat is all about other members of the family and the family history as it was in the very early part of the 20th century.  Lucky thing!!  The name MALEM is an unusual one for Lincolnshire.  For me I have the feeling that it is a name straight out of a Victorian novel for it has that certain ring about it.  According to the 1881 census there were few individuals living in the county; the concentration for MALAM  is Cheshire with a sprinkling in Lincolnshire.  However if it is spelt with two LLs  the concentration changes to the northern borders and Dorset and a goodly number around Liverpool. It is thought to originate from the medieval female name MALIN which was a pet form of Mary.  I do wonder though about the concentration around Liverpool and whether there could be an Irish influence here.  The reason I say this is because of the surname MELLON for it has the variation of MALLEN and these are the anglicised versions of the Irish name of O Meallain, the descendant of Meallan.
A new name for me is SCATCHERD which was put onto the internet by Mike Parker who is looking for more information.  One of the most prominent holders I found with this surname comes from Morley and she was the first Freewoman of Boston. Alice Cliff SCATCHERD lived from 1842 till 1906 and was a noted Liberal, philanthropist and radical suffragist; Alice sought to improve working women's legal and social position in many ways.
John PATEMAN has moved to Lincolnshire from London since the turn of the century.  During his research he has found that there were a fair number of families with the PATEMAN name and they stayed stable in numbers between 1881 and 1998 he says.  Using those two dates I assume that John has used the Surname Profiler but the highest concentration of the name is in the Stevenage area and a question that I must ask is “What does the website mean by the entry Mosaic type with highest index # - White Van Culture?”   The name PATEMAN and its variation PATMAN have a very straight forward origin and comes from the pet form of Patrick.   In England the name Patrick was found generally in the north as it was commonly of Scottish origin.  Today we think of it as generally Irish but the name did not become popular in Ireland until the 1600s and the influx of the Scottish settlers.  The PATEMAN family that John is most interested in is the one that lived near Sleaford and was thought to be either of gypsy or traveling origin.  I guess if they had come all the way from Scotland they could be classed as travellers without much fear of contradiction.  In 1881 in Lincolnshire the PATEMAN families were invariably linked to the land with many being Ag Labs as you would expect.
Bits and Bobs
March 7th 1817 – Marriage – On Tuesday last Mr John MAPLETHORP to Miss M BLOW, aged fifteen years: also Mr James FAIRWEATHER to Miss Elizabeth BLOW (sister of the above) all of Billinghay near Sleaford.
Lincolnshire Family History Society Magazine 2000

What to do in the boring bit

2005-12-24T21:33:00.000Z

What to do in the boring bit twixt Christmas & New Year

Laura Hayes of Lincoln set the ball rolling with the question of where I found the information for last week’s column.  She has been carrying out research into the THISTLEWOOD family for some time and so with everyone’s family getting together for the festive season now is the time to ask the questions.  Where does the family come from? How long it lived there? What are the Grandparents names and where did they live? And so on and so forth. Paul at paul@pthistleton1739.freeserve.co.uk gave me the first part but then it was on line and from the census material which is readily available. Information from all the censuses can be found via the national Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census/ and the IGI and 1881 census can be found at the Latter Day Saints site www.familysearch.org where you can also get the Personal Ancestral File program.  Back ground material and some free forms to record your data can be accessed at http://genealogy.about.com/.
There are 129 different directories containing Lincolnshire information  that is available for you to look at  on the Leicestershire University website at www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp.  Historical Directories is a digital library of local and trade directories for England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919. It contains high quality reproductions of comparatively rare books, essential tools for research into local and genealogical history. The Historical Directories project came to the end of its funding on 31st October 2004 but the will remain freely available for the next 3 years.  These directories have a mass of data on the villages that your ancestor lived in.  If he was the butcher, baker or maybe the candlestickmaker he could be listed.  You can, if you so wish, buy your own copies of Lincolnshire Directories via the Archive Books site at www.rod-neep.co.uk/acatalog/lin.html where you can also purchase some of the census material on CD.
For a look at the village layout where your ancestors lived and worked then the www.old-maps.co.uk/ site is the place to go to.  There is a gazetteer that puts you in the right area and the maps are very high quality and detailed.  You  can purchase a copy if you wish.  The one I looked at was dated 1854 with the option to print, look at an aerial version, see a modern map, then even enlarge or buy it.
To pinpoint a specific individual then take a look at www.freebmd.org.uk/. FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. It is a part of the FreeUKGEN family, which also includes FreeCEN (Census data) and FreeREG (Parish Registers).   Here we are talking about 135,000,000 records.  I’ll type that in again – its 135 million records.  Many of these are the certificate information you will need to get a certificate from www.gro.gov.uk/gro/. The index reference number is the code that is allocated to every event of birth, marriage or death registered in England and Wales relating to the year, quarter, and district in which the event was registered. It is particularly important that you make a note of this, as you will need to quote it when you apply for a certificate in order for the GRO to identify the correct entry.   I put in DRUST as I usually do when I want to make engines really work and found the Leonard DRUST was registered at Caistor in June 1910 in volume 7a page 678.  If I sent this information to the GRO I would receive in quick time a copy of his birth certificate.  I happen to know that his father was William Johnson DRUST and he was named after his uncle who died in 1875 and William’s marriage is at freebmd but they have not yet indexed his death.
All you need to do now is to have a long chat to all your relatives and you have started on a hobby that will last a lifetime or two.
Bits and Bobs
October 8th 1790 Marriage: On Thursday last was married at Donington, Richard NICHOLS, (commonly called ´Saucy Nichols´) aged 71 to Ann DIXON aged 22. The good old man, hoping to avoid the ridicule of the multitude, led his Bride elect along a bye lane to the Church.
Lincolnshire Family History Society – at www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/lfhs/

2005-05-22T14:10:00.000+01:00

Art Group 6

2005-05-22T14:09:00.000+01:00

Art Group 1

2005-05-22T14:05:00.000+01:00

Exhibition 3

2005-05-22T14:04:00.000+01:00

Exhibition 1

2005-05-22T14:03:00.001+01:00

All Saints with tower

2005-05-22T14:03:00.000+01:00

View over the fields

2005-05-22T14:02:00.000+01:00

The woods

2005-05-22T14:01:00.000+01:00

Art Exhibition

2005-05-22T14:00:00.000+01:00

The Wolds

2005-05-22T13:58:00.000+01:00

Study

2005-05-22T13:57:00.000+01:00

Dovecot Close 2

2005-05-22T13:56:00.000+01:00

Church Hill

2005-05-22T13:54:00.000+01:00

All Saints

2004-09-18T19:44:00.000+01:00

Seven hard working ladies put the Tool Kit to the test

2004-09-18T19:43:00.000+01:00

Cllr Tony Turner argues his case for block of flats in Grasby :-)

2004-09-18T19:42:00.000+01:00

CanDoers Roy and Wendy

2004-09-18T19:41:00.000+01:00

Power Tool Kit gets a Work out

CanDo Exchange Comes to Grasby

2004-09-18T19:14:00.000+01:00

After an uncomfortable hour spent in a traffic jam at Newark, the Scarman Trust in the guise of Anne Rockliffe, Operations Manager for the Trust, and ably assisted by Georgie and Cat finally arrived at Grasby Village Hall. The event, which was set up for the benefit of the village and arranged by Ifor Barton, could now start and Ifor could now put away his worry beads!

To begin in a civilised manner a buffet had been provided by Joan Barton, and while we did our best, it was the Vicars Tart (copyright Rev Ian Robinson) which vanished first with what seemed like hardly a dent made in the rest. Anne introduced the Trust to the those assembled and gave a summary of the mission of the Scarman Trust which was set up by Lord Scarman in consequence of the riots of 1981.

This was followed by the formal part of the proceedings with the presentation of Award certificates to Roy Harvey for the Grasby Open Learning Centre - Kirsten Stimson who also had an award was unable to attend - and Wendy Melbourne for the Grasby Graffiti.

The workshop continued with a presentation of the CanDo Exchange and the what the beneficial impact on the village would be. It was equated to the Swap Shop that was once on television on Saturday mornings and as this program was for children it was decided that a section of the Exchange be set up for their use. The Exchange allows those register to swap skills and resources and to highlight their needs.

Two of the tools used by the Trust to facilitate project ideas are the Power Tool Kit and the Millennium Fact Bank. The fact that three kits were used and each group came up with the same problems and answers must say something for its use by groups.

To end the session the Open Learning Centre was used to access the CanDo Exchange website and allow those that wished to register their interest and five or six took up the opportunity to join. It is free so the price is exactly right!!.

The team felt that the visit had been a great success and that there were some highly motivated people in the village of Grasby and hoped that they would be invited back sometime in the future.

Networking in Grasby

2004-08-02T15:46:00.000+01:00

Keep watching this page. News will be posted after the meeting on the Sept 18th 2004 when the first steps to setting up Grasby Can Do. The meeting attendees will include the Regional Director East Midlands of the Scarman Trust, Stuart Anthony and the Operations Manager Anne Rockliffe is in the Village Hall at 1230.

Linked to the Scarman Trust the Can Do Exchange will allow villagers to swap skills and resources and to advertise themselves and items for sale.