Secretary’s Speech to
the AGM 2006
By Susan F. Waterhouse
Family history is a
funny old game….
How many times have we
searched through an entire reel of microfilm, only to find our
relatives are on the start of the next reel? Sometimes we spend
hours ploughing through old registers and find very little. Then
another day, we find so much that we can’t write it all down in our
allotted time. However, when we get home, we dismiss half of the
info because it just doesn’t match anyone on our family tree.
Well stop and think a
minute…. Not all parish entries and census returns are accurate.
Take the census for
example.
·
In the 1841 Census all ages, over 15 years were rounded
down. Therefore, if you were aged 43, your age would be written
down as 40.
·
Then there were differences in names, sometimes middle names
were given, and sometimes it was just initials. Some times first
names were shortened so Elizabeth was written as Lizzy. In
addition, names were often being spelt differently, after all not
everyone could write.
·
Then we come to the place of birth. If our ancestors lived
in the same village they were born in, then the place of birth
should not be a problem. However, what if they moved in search of
work. This could lead to different places being given at each
census especially if the others in the household did not know where
they were born.
Now take the parish
registers as our next example.
Sometimes the Vicar
would write comments at the side of an entry, which can prove quite
useful to us. However, they are also known for making mistakes in
the registers. Again we have the problem with the miss-spelt names
and they did not always write down when fathers were deceased.
I have spent years
trying to trace the parents of my Great Great, Grandfather William.
William was born around 1852 and his marriage certificate shows his
father was called William. I have spent nearly twenty years trying
to find father and son in the 1861 and 1871 without success. I had
found a William in the Census and had a birth certificate for the
right year, but his father was named Joseph. As I was looking for a
William son of William, I disregarded these long ago.
I thought may be his
parents were called William and Emma as these were the names a young
couple in the 1851 census and of the witnesses at his marriage. But
I have recently discovered that Emma was a widow, in 1861 which
means so they were not the witnesses and because Emma did not have a
young son with her in 1861 leads me to think that they were not his
parents either.
The conclusion is that
William’s marriage certificate is incorrect and that his father’s
name was Joseph after all. I had spent twenty years ignoring the
information I had before me, simply because it did not match the
information this marriage certificate.
The Parish Registers
only give a names and dates, which we can use to make a family group
if we can be sure who the parents were. But what if there were two
William and Mary’s having children baptised at the same time. The
Census at least confirms who was living at the same address on the
night of the census but this does not show children who were born
after one census and may have died or moved away before the next
census was done. Moreover, as for wills, well not everyone made
one.
Sometimes it is the
least important things that are the most useful to us. The letters
and cards our ancestors wrote to each other may not seem very
important to us now and are often thrown away. However, sometimes
they mention names, which can help us in our research and therefore
should never be ignored. Sometimes a single word can mean so many
things. When my grandfather wrote “candlelight” at the bottom of
his postcard, it was to explain why his handwriting was so bad.
However, to me it is a reminder that he was in a house that had no
electricity, something which we now take for granted.
This leaves me with
three very important rules to consider when doing research:
·
It is always wise to check the information we find against
other records when ever possible.
· We
should always consider the evidence before us no matter how trivial
it may seem.
· Moreover,
we should never rule anything out simply because it does not match
our expectations.
