Excellent names

This week I thought I'd work on my Freeman heritage and follow the Moore line in Norfolk.  Little did I know that it would lead to Balls.  And, it has to be said, one of my favourite names so far: Widdup.  How good is that?!

This line starts in Ashby in Norfolk - back to 1796 so far; it's an offshoot of the main line (James Moore->Ann->Mary Ann Brown->Albert J E Freeman) and goes down from James' brother Abraham.  He and his wife Elizabeth had three children and, save for their son Abraham, the line comes to a grinding halt at the 1851 census.

Luckily, young Abraham reappears in the 1861 census and remains pleasantly visible for the rest of his natural.  He and his wife Sarah (nee Larkins) had seven children; Elizabeth (b. 1846) was last seen at age 4, Daniel (b. 1849) disappears from view at age 23, Maria sadly died at age two, and Sarah Ann (b. 1855) similarly fails to trouble the scorers much, vanishing from public record after 1871.

Christiana, born in 1853, is the one who married Mr Balls, of the weak attempt at humour at the beginning.  She and David Balls had four children before David's death in 1900.  I have yet to find any grandchildren for them.

Maria, 1858-1893, married Free Easter and, with him, produced three children.  Free junior sadly/inevitably died in the Great War but is registered on the Commonwealth War Graves site (www.cwgc.org) as H. Easter which puzzles me greatly, but there's no doubt it's him as there is also a Probate entry for him, where the death dates are the same and he names his sister as executor.

Youngest son of Abrahan & Sarah was George.  Born in 1861, this particular apple didn't fall far from the tree, living two doors down from his parents in both the 1891 and 1901 census.  He married Sarah Chilvers and they had two children.  Their daughter Frances married William Widdup.  Excellent name, as I've already said; I have yet to see if there were any offspring.

In fact, I shall check now, while Adele continues to blast out from my computer.

More soon.

Check and check again

Every now and then I find myself going back to people I haven't "seen" for a while and that's what I did today.  I read something online which made me wonder and so I looked at Catherine Culpin.

She was was born in Stevenage in 1850, the daughter of Millice Culpin & Sarah, nee Barrett, and married Francis Joshua Kirby in 1879.  For some reason I gave them two sons, using only the index to the 1901 census as proof; the note I read online suggested that they had an adopted daughter, as they had no children of their own.  So, I followed Catherine and Francis through the available censuses and guess what - I was wrong!

But there the thot plickens: yes, the 1911 census says Elsie Bertha B Culpin is the "adopted daughter" of Francis, the head of the household, which also included, on that night, wife Catherine, mother in law Sarah Culpin, sister Kezia Kirby and one servant.  I don't doubt that Francis & Catherine adopted Elsie but she is the natural daughter of Catherine's brother Charles and his wife Clara (nee Barrett).  Clara died in 1894 and Charles disappears off the radar after he was declared bankrupt in 1892.

However, I've just sorted one thing out: the Elsie Kirby, listed as cousin & was living with Millais Culpin and his grandmother in West Ham in 1901, is clearly Elsie Bertha B (for Barrett) Culpin, the aforementioned adopted daughter.  How odd that, away from her "new parents" she's listed as Kirby yet, whilst living with them, her surname is Culpin.  

Anyway, it's getting dark and I really ought to get up and turn the light on.  So I shall do so and then continue to sort out the Culpin/Kirby conundrum.

More soon.

Records Offices

..... or Archives, depending on what they wish to be called, are places of joy & wonderment for many a genealogist.  So I paid a return visit to the new-ish Huntingdon Archives this week.

Previously based in an old building, the main problem was the stairs - the steepest in Christendom.  And woe betide you if you needed to go to the loo 'cos it was downstairs.  And then back up again.....  I'm feeling tired just thinking about it.

But the new office, based in the Huntingdon library, is one simple floor up; there are "conveniences" which are quite ..... well, convenient and there's a caff on the ground floor.  And it's lovely and warm in there - very important when the temperature outside, for the last few days at least, has barely risen about zero.

I went to look for Elton.  The village, that is, not the hair-transplanted mega-star.  It's in Huntingdonshire , somewhere (well, I suppose that was a bit obvious really) and I wanted to look at their Parish Registers which have been transcribed.

So I sat there for a while, bits of paper in the book marking indexes etc, and I found quite a few Culpins.  oddly, though, not as many as my database has in Elton.  That could take some sorting out.

And, it's just occurred to me, I didn't actually find out the name of the church.  How daft is that?  The info must've been in the indexed register but did I write it down??

I shall go and look it up now.

More soon.

New Year, New Finds?

Well, hello 2012.  Let's hope you're good to everyone.  And for genealogical finds.

So far I've found a couple of good names whilst looking at a friend's family; in 18th century Ely I found a Miss Kerching in the marriage registers - there's a joke in there about "ringing a bell" but I won't do it!  19th century Norfolk gave forth the wonderful name of Ualah, who liked it so much that she gave it to her daughter as well.  And, finally, Philomon.  Spelling-wise it's a Greek name but, on the basis that his 17th century parents are unlikely to have nipped over to Rhodes for a holiday, it's a fair bet that the vicar (who, after all, was the one who wrote it in the register) meant it to be Philemon, to whom St Paul wrote an epistle.  Yep, I can Google with the best of them!

I'm coming to understand my new laptop but there are some elements of Office 2010 which continue to get up my nose.  However, on the positive side, I have downloaded the newest version of The Master Genealogist, otherwise known as TMG, and it's got some useful improvements from last time.  Particularly the ability to add multiple children at the same time or, alternatively, to add a complete new family at once.  Much better! 

Anyhoo, dear reader, I plan to be better at this blogging lark this year.....

More soon.

In and Out of the News

My obsession with the British Newspaper Archive continues, particularly as I've found one bloke, my 3xgreat uncle, who was mentioned a number of times.

Frederick Staden, for t'was he, was born in Sundridge, in Kent, in 1815, the eighth and youngest child of Thomas and Sarah (nee Dodd), and was christened on Christmas Eve that year.  He joined the Army and in the 1841 census he's at the Infantry Barracks in Walmer, an acting serjeant.  

Note:  the spelling of "serjeant" shall, from hereon in, be interchangeable with "sergeant" ....

To continue: Between 1841 and 1851 he married Margaret and the pair of them are to be found in barracks in Winchester in the next census.  Then he's posted to Gibraltar and it's a moot point whether wife Margaret went with him; I suspect not, because he marries again whilst on the rock, this time to Martha Milner, the daughter of another sergeant, and then his life gets ever so slightly complicated.....

Back home in Berkshire, Frederick joined the Royal Berks Militia and, in 1860, is awarded "an emblem of honour" for his service.  The 1861 census shows him and Martha living in Reading.  

Later that year, an inkling of disharmony appears and he takes out an advert in the Reading Mercury to tell the locals that he will not be held responsible for his wife's debts.  A few more mentions of him in the Militia, by now a Drill Instructor, and then trouble.

Charged in 1865 with assaulting a young lady, the paper now goes into salacious detail about how he "behaved in an indecent manner" towards her.  Except that he didn't.  It was very quickly proved that Frederick wasn't even in town on the date given!  Verdict: Not Guilty.  Cue loud applause from the assembled throng.

Honour restored, he doesn't appear in the newspaper again for five years.  This time, a series of reports from different newspapers, all giving the same detail about the divorce between Frederick and Martha.  She comes out as quite a "character", being described as having "dirty, drunken habits" and eventually running away to Southsea (as you do) to be with her co-respondent.  Case proved.  Decree Nisi.

As far as I can tell, Frederick goes on to live a quiet life from then on.  By 1881 he was a publican/beer seller in South Stoke, Oxfordshire.  When he died there, at the "Eight Bells", in 1884, the newspaper reported that he had been in the Royal Berks Militia for 21 years.

Somehow, I feel there's more to be found about Martha, but I'll leave that for another day.

Happy New Year.

More soon.

More Sinned Against ......

There are some newspaper entries which make you go "aaaah":

"On the 6th inst., at the Free Church, St Ives, Hunts, by the Rev. T R Jones, Charles Culpin, of Reading, to Maria Broadway, of St Ives"

And those which make you go "oh":

"4th inst., at Southgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Stanley Frederick, third son of JC Staden jun., aged 1 year and 7 months."

And then there are those which make you go "what the ......?":

"William Fuller, a truculent looking fellow as ever held a hand up at a bar of justice, was indicted for destroying on the 18^th of July, in a most barbarous manner, an ass, the property of Charles Culpin.

Charles Culpin is a blacksmith, living at St Ives.  On the 18^th of July he saw the ass, which he kept in a hovel in a close: she was then quite well; the next morning his son fetched her up in a dying state – went to the hovel where he found a fork, the handle of which, for about a foot and a half, was smeared with blood.  The ass died in consequence of a wound, given in the most revolting manner.  Mr Culpin, on being asked on what terms he had been with the prisoner, said, that some time ago, while he was swearing among Mr Culpin’s children, he had sent for a constable, who took him into custody; since which he frequently insulted witness.  Mr Swallow was present on the 19^th of July, when the prisoner was apprehended – on being charged with an atrocious act on Mr Culpin’s donkey, he said I never did it, but Joesph Harrop did.  On Harrop being sent for, his father came with him, who swore that his son was in bed at half-past seven.  Mr Swallow then asked him what further he had to say, when he fell a-crying, and said, if Mr Culpin will forgive me, I will never do it again.  On being asked what he had done, he said, I ran the shaft of the fork a foot, or half a foot, up the donkey.  Verdict Guilty. Sentence, 14 years transportation."

Copyright (in order): Reading Mercury, 15th July 1871; Bury & Norwich Post, 15th May 1877; Cambridge Chronicle & Journal, 20th October 1826.  All via the British Newspaper Archive.

Ah, happy times (chronicle/journal/post &c)

More soon.

Newspapers, newspapers everywhere .....

Yep, I have been immersing myself in the glorious www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.  Just online in the last couple of weeks I am gentling paddling around in the shallow end, searching for Stadens and Culpins.  Thank 'eavens for some unusual names!

And what did I find? A couple of divorce cases, both on the grounds of adultery; both adulterers being the spouses of my relatives. See, pure as the driven snow, my lot!

Well, not quite......  There's Thomas Culpin, found guilty in 1800, of sheep-stealing (sentenced to death, but reprieved), and William Flavell sentenced to 6 months in 1823 for stealing ten pigeons, not to mention William Culpin who went on the run in 1835 after stealing from, and attempting to kill, his aunt.  Arthur Ernest Culpin distinguished himself by stealing in Kings Cliffe and earned himself nine strokes of the birch.

By sheer coincidence, I found two rellies (one Staden, one Freeman) in the same edition of the Bury & Norwich Post in 1861. And, for a change, neither had done anything wrong!

Did I mention the young Culpin who was found guilty by a coroner's court of 'Murder of a bastard child' but acquitted by the magistrate? Or another horribly young Culpin who attempted to take her own life? 

Fortunately, I have also found some marriage and deaths dates, none of which will cause a scandal.  Even better, one of the marriages showed that the spouse was a widow, and I was able to dig around on FreeBMD and find her maiden name.

Anyway, I'm going back to the archive now and will attempt to publish more little snippets, both here and on the website.

More soon.