Big fairs....

So last weekend was the Big FH Fair at the Burgess Hall in St Ives and how much fun was that..... Sue collected me from the MisGuided Bus and delivered us both to the hall; and then, with much anticipation, we settled on "coffee in an hour" and split up.  

I started small - and must apologise to the Herts FHS stall for only spending 50p on a parish map, but that was all I needed; I don't know much about the county so just a basic map to find out what belongs where!

And then.... I found a stall selling the FlipPal scanner.  Now I'd heard & read all the hype about them but I wanted to see one in action.  And I did.  And it was pretty dashed clever.  So I .....er, bought one.  As you do.  

Then I met up with Andrew Martin, otherwise known as @FamilyTreeUK on Twitter.  Always good to put a face to a name and, I'll own up, I was a little bit mean to identify myself as "carrying a Hunts FHS bag" - because everyone was.  Sorry, Andrew, I was trying to be funny.

Then I found the Beds FHS stall and parted with even more money, this time for various Biggleswade registers on CD.

Finally, all spent out, it was time to meet Sue again and have a good catch up over the coffee cups.

Excellent morning!!

More soon.

Where is he?

You know how sometimes your ancestors hide from you?  Well I'm still looking for quite a few but the one on my mind at the moment is William Layton.

He's my 3xGt grandfather and all I know for "certain" is that he, or someone with his name, married Hannah Lowton in Dry Drayton, Cambs, on 21 April 1823.  He probably died before 1851 because Hannah is listed as a widow in the census of that year; but he doesn't appear to be living with them 10 years earlier either, so who's to tell?

I know that there were a conclave of Laytons in Cherry Hinton at the time but I can't understand what a Cherry Hinton lad would be doing in Dry Drayton......

Anyway, just thought I'd put this problem out there.  Any clues/thoughts gratefully received!!

More soon.

Tidying up

For the first time for ages I thought I'd have a look at my Freeman ancestors, so I sat down this morning to do some sorting/tidying.  It's shown me that I have changed some of the ways I record my info; I use The Master Genealogist (TMG) because it's a powerful database which produces good reports, but I also keep a copy of Family Tree Maker for the times when only a graphical tree will do.

And I saw that I started out giving GRO Births/Marriages/Deaths their own field in TMG.....and now I simply record them as the source for a birth etc.  So I'm changing them as I see them - which is why you will see loads of entries in the Recent Changes Index on my website.  I've also been chasing a few random Freemans round Suffolk.

But at the back of my mind is the sad news I received last night: Joyce Christie, my second cousin, and I shared Millice Campbell Culpin as an ancestor.  My great-grandmother, Blanche, was his seventh child and May Naomi, Blanche's youngest sister, was Joyce's grandmother.  May married John Harrison in Fen Drayton in 1906 and the couple emigrated to Canada, settling in Manitoba.

I first "met" Joyce via the numerous Culpin research messages online and we discovered our shared ancestor.  Since then, and despite our twenty-year age gap, we became good friends over the email; not only a Culpin expert, Joyce had a fine line in funny emails!  She also kept me up to date with what her family was doing, including the grandsons of whom she was so proud.

Joyce had been ill for some time but her death, on Wednesday, was quite sudden and I feel not only sad, that we never met, but also stunned.

More soon.

First time.....

A few months ago I saw an announcement in the Cambs FHS info about a coach trip to the National Archives, so I promptly booked two seats - one for me (obviously) and one for my friend Mo; we've been meaning to go for years (literally) so this was a no-brainer (as the yoof say).

Up early, picnic lunch packed, and off to the pick-up point, courtesy of Mo's husband, and then onto the coach and off to the great metropolis.  Inevitable delays due to "weight of traffic" (what does that mean?) but we got there and picked up our Reader's Tickets.

And into the Archives....... Oh my, how simple.  Sit at a computer, swipe your brand new Reader's Ticket, and enter the reference of the document (spent a few hours earlier in the week doing my homework).  And, voila, the promise of delivery of said document in 40 minutes.  So I went to have a cup of coffee first.

First one I looked at was the War Diary of 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, in the Great War; my great-uncle Ben Langford, whose death was the first "family history" I investigated, served with them and I wanted to know where, precisely, they were when he died at the end of October 1914.  Very sobering feeling as I read it, surprised at its almost-narrative entries, but my curiosity was satisfied even as I "lived" his last few days.

The next document was another War Diary, this time to get info for a friend whose great-uncle had also died in the Great War.  A similar, but not as intense, feeling as I gathered the details.

And, finally, the Officer's Service Record for Harry Culpin (1877-1948) - a career soldier who was promoted from Sgt Major to 2nd Lieut. in 1914.  Gotta thank the Army for filling in his marriage details and, bless them further, their children's births and baptisms.  Plus, at Harry's request, a complete list of his service details.  Complete result!

And all so simply achieved.  Beautifully organised.  Allowed to take photographs with the phone, no flash and no camera noise - so I took a few pics, just because I could.

And back to Cambridge, a lift home.  What's not to like?  We've decided we *will* go again.....

More soon.

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.