I have just
updated all the UK BMD and census pages with the latest additions and
corrections. I have also added many more references in the ‘MORE
INFO’ column of the birth spreadsheets which say where you
can find mentions of individuals elsewhere on the website. I would
have liked to make these clickable links to the relevant page, but
that would seriously affect the load time of the spreadsheets, which
is already quite long enough.
After spending
many months researching the ORANGE line of the Adamthwaites, I have
finally added an article about them – you can find it on the
Miscellany pages along with the other stories.
Do you have a
story about members of YOUR line? I would love to add more stories
to this section, along with the photo galleries they are the most
frequently visited pages on the site.
Most of these
came from the latest issue of Your Family Tree magazine:
MANORIAL
RECORDS
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/mdr/ if you want to find out where
your ancestors were living in 16th century, you can
search for the location of manorial records by placename –
e.g. a search for Ravenstonedale provides 41 documents dating back
to 1560. Most of these are held at the Carlisle Records Office but
some are at Kendal. The information on the Archive about rental
agreements (in the Wills and Documents section) came from some of
these records (courtesy of Elizabeth) – but there are many more
waiting to be searched.
A search for
Sedbergh throws up 13 finds going back to 1360 (how is your Latin??)
– most are held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office, but
confusingly one in Essex and a couple at Sedbergh School.
Kirkby Stephen
has a whopping 113 records, dating back to 1560
You can put any
village into the search engine and it throws up lists of documents.
However, you do have to actually visit the records offices to view
the documents, and transcribing the early ones is a time-consuming
(though fascinating) process. For advice on how to use this sort of
record, take a look at
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/manorialrecords/index.htm
For anyone who is
interested in early settlement of Adamthwaites (or any other
Westmorland/Yorkshire family come to that) there is obviously loads
of information stored away in those archives.
ON-LINE PARISH
CLERKS – see
http://www.onlineparishclerks.org.uk/ for a list of the counties
which have so far joined the scheme and an explanation of the
various ways in which the scheme operates.
Cumberland and
Westmorland seems to be a
very recent addition to the scheme, with not many records at present
and doesn’t follow the same format as the other counties involved –
I wonder why Nancy McLoughlin’s excellent Kirkby Stephen site
http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.com/~enzedders/ is not linked
in? The other counties are: Cornwall, where it all began,
Devon, Dorset, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire,
Somerset, Sussex, Warwickshire and Wiltshire
So, if you have
ancestors in some of the more established counties to have joined
the scheme, you may have a lucky find!
SURNAME
DISTRIBUTION
The Spatial
Literacy Surname site has moved to
www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk and you can see maps of how
particular surnames were distributed in the 1881 census and 1998.
As before, the search does not take account of spelling variations
in the transcripts from 1881, so for example they have only found
117 Adamthwaites in the 1881 census whereas we have found 157 to
date, and know that there are still several families missing. But
if you are looking for a surname that is less prone to
mistranscription, it is a very useful site.
SCOTTISH
RECORDS
I have had a
recent success with
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ where you can search Scottish
birth, marriage, death and census records on a pay per view basis.
If you know when your event occurred it is a brilliant service –
though I recently spent a small fortune hunting for my Green and
Cameron records I was very pleased with the resulting finds. Not
only can you buy an on-line copy of certificates, but they provide
MUCH more information than English BMD certificates. Instant
gratification!
Great Ormond
St Hospital
http://www.smallandspecial.org/
This lovely site,
as well as providing access to records for children treated between
1852 and 1914, has a gallery of photos of the hospital itself and
staff and patients. You need to register (free) to search the
site. Thanks to Margaret for this link – we found two Adamthwaite
children there, and you may find well records of members of your
family.
