Do You Have Shakespeare Genealogy?

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Ros

shakespeare genealogyIt is a sad fact that there are no direct living descendants of the great bard, William Shakespeare.  The direct line ended with his grandchildren, but of course there is always the possibility that anyone with the surname SHAKESPEARE (with or without the first or last ‘E’) could have links higher up the tree.  Unfortunately, while there are some possible trees that have been researched going back to the 13th century, there is no definitive Shakespeare genealogy before Will’s grandfather, so proving a connection with 100% conviction would be probably impossible.

However, there are other names on the Shakespeare family tree, the descendants of whom could still exist today.  While some of these would have to be linked higher up the tree (therefore not having a blood link to Shakespeare), these families would still be of great interest as many of them have been well documented.

(By the way, if you’d like to learn how to trace your ancestors, have a look at my Step-by-step beginner’s course at Udemy here).

The most likely surname to have blood ties with William Shakespeare is the name HART.  William’s sister Joan (and the only sibling to outlive him) married a William HART, and two of their sons survived into adulthood, one of them, William becoming an actor like his uncle, and the other, Thomas, married and had three children whose descendants live today.  William never married, but is believed to have had an illegitimate son, Charles, a Restoration actor, who may also have living descendants.

Shakespeare’s other siblings either died in childhood, or never had any children.

Shakespeare’s mother, Mary ARDEN, came from an aristocratic, land-owning family who could trace their roots back to England before the Conquest, but it would be difficult to take any ARDEN name back to Mary’s immediate family as all of her siblings were sisters.  Five of them married (two of them twice), and the names they married into were ETKYNS, SCARLET, STRINGER, HEWINS, LAMBERT, CORNWELL and WEBBE.  I know that the LAMBERTs and WEBBEs had at least one child – but whether or not any of these lines have descendants living today I do not know.

As for tracing any families that may be connected to Shakespeare through marriage (but not through blood), the following information may be of interest:

Not much is known about the family of Shakespeare’s wife, Ann HATHAWAY, other than that her father, Richard, was a yeoman farmer.  We know that the name still exists today (at least in one famous actress), but whether this line can be traced back to the Hathaways of Warwickshire is uncertain without there being much information about this family.

William’s first daughter Susanna married Dr. John HALL, a respected physician, in 1607 and their only daughter Elizabeth married Thomas NASH, and when he died she married John BERNARD and living in Abington Hall in Northamptonshire.  Elizabeth did not have any children, and so the direct line ends here, but the NASH and BERNARD families were wealthy and well known families with good documentation, so finding connections with these families further up the line could be possible.  I do not know whether Dr. John HALL’s ancestry is known, but he is mentioned in some academic medical texts where there may be more details about his family.

Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, died at the age of 11 in a small outbreak of bubonic plague.

Shakespeare’s third child, Judith, married Thomas QUINEY, a local winemerchant who was the son of a good friend of Shakespeare’s.  Thomas had ten siblings, some of whom married and had children, so it is possible that there are living descendants who could potentially trace their line back to this family (in fact, one of my clients has an ancestor named QUINEY, and it would be very exciting to take this line back further).

Thomas and Judith had three children, the first of whom, named Shakespeare after his famous grandfather, died at the age of six months.  The other two died at the ages of 19 and 21 without marrying or having any issue.

The surname SHAKESPEARE still exists, although it is fairly rare.  In fact, I actually knew a Mr. Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon back in the 1970s!  He was the owner of Ferry House and let out rooms to RSC actors, including my father, mother and me, and where I spent a very pleasant summer at the age of 13.  He was very old even then, and died soon afterwards I believe, but we often wondered whether he had any family links to the great man himself.

As I have said, Shakespeare genealogy links are tenuous and difficult to prove, but if any of the above names are in your ancestry and come from Warwickshire, it could be worth trying to find out whether you have either a blood or marriage link to our greatest playwright.  I would be delighted to help too – even though I would be green with envy!
300x250 Warwickshire

Recommended Books:

Shakespeare’s Country Familes by John Taplin

Shakespeare: The Biography

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Wordsworth Special Editions)

All Shakespeare books

 

Posted in Genealogies of the famous, History, Surnames | Tagged , , | 236 Comments

Celebrate Our Great British Heritage and Countryside!

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Ros

A post that’s slightly off the usual genealogical flavour today – but still within the historical sphere and inspired by some thoughts I’ve had during my recent “staycation”, when I enjoyed some of the local jewels of our great British heritage, culture and countryside.

Politics and economics aside, I believe that we have much to celebrate and enjoy in this country – and I actually include the weather in that!  I’m writing this on a day of rain, wind and low temperatures, so I am not seeing things through rose-tinted glasses – they wouldn’t do me much good today anyway!  But I do get tired of those who continually complain about this country, whether it’s the weather, politicians or prices.  I believe we should feel privileged to live in a place that has such a wealth of history, culture and beautiful scenery.

To start with, let’s be thankful for our climate.  I know it’s difficult on a day like today – but if it wasn’t for our high rainfall, there would be no such thing as the English country garden, and we would not be able to enjoy our green fields and variety of trees.  And would we really feel so great when the sun shines, if it shone every day and became commonplace?

What always astounds me about this relatively small country, is its infinite variety – of countryside, of history, of culture, of people.  I know that I don’t have to travel very far to enjoy mountains, green valleys, sandy beaches, craggy cliffs, forests, rolling hills, panoramic vistas, great rivers, babbling brooks, lakes, glades, glens and greenery of all kinds.  I know that if I drive north, within 2 hours I could be in the stunningly beautiful Peak District; west, and I could be in the mountains or valleys of Wales.  For romantic coves and craggy rocks we have the south-west coast from Somerset to Cornwall.  For waterways and sandy beaches we have East Anglia.  For wide open spaces we have the national parklands of Exmoor, Dartmoor and the Yorkshire Dales.  For isolated beauty we have the Scottish Highlands.  And of course, for all these things and green, green, green, we have Ireland.  And let’s not forget my own birthplace, The Isle of Man, for its unique mix of mountains, shady glens and spectacular coastline.

And all of these places are studded with history.  Whereever you go in Britain, you will find castles, stately homes, gardens, architecture, museums, bridges, towers, follies, churches, pubs, villages, towns and cities – each with its own unique story to tell – and someone who is willing to tell that story.

And if that wasn’t enough, we have an extraordinary heritage of great writers, poets, artists, architects, musicians, scientists, engineers and philosophers, most of whom have their own special places in Britain where the visitor can learn more about their history and character.  If we wish to we can visit the homes and work places of Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Thomas, Joyce, Chaucer, Wordsworth, Keats, Tennyson, Burns, Byron, Blake, Spencer, Turner, Constable, Adam, Brown, Nash, Britten, Tallis, Lennon, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Newton, Darwin, Priestley, Kingdom Brunel, Stevenson, Hobbes, Hume, Bentham, Stuart Mill, Russell….. to name but a VERY few.

We are, in fact, a very rich country.  Forget economics – what’s really important is the richness of our culture and the diversity of ideas and artifacts that we have contributed to the world.

I could never live anywhere else, and I wouldn’t want to.  I love holidaying here and I am always happy to visit somewhere in the UK where I can visit a castle, garden or historic house, enjoy the local scenery or just relax by a riverside or in the beer garden of that most English of hostelries, the country pub!

I have been thinking about all this so much in the past week, that I am inspired to set up a website/blog that would celebrate the great British heritage – our culture, history and countryside.   It would be a mix of articles (guest posts would be welcome), quotations, biographies, pictures and reviews of historical sites.

Those of you who read this post – I would love to have your views on this.  Please leave a comment below, or on my Facebook page.

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Tracing Ancestors Is Not As Easy As It Looks – Take Care!

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Ros

Since the rise of the internet, and the popularity of programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are and Heirfinders, tracing ancestors has never been so popular – or so easy.  With online access to 19th century census records and BMD indexes readily available, it is possible to trace a family back to the 1830s in a fraction of the time that you could when I first started tracing my own ancestry back in the 80s.

But it is this ease and quickness that worries me.  Genealogists who have had no training in research have never been taught to question every record, and are often too ready to believe everything they see in writing.  And while the published trees on sites such as Ancestry are very useful and can help to provide bits of information that you have not found yourself, you should never rely on them without following up the sources yourself.  I have seen terrible errors on these trees, and I find it sad that many people are probably chasing their family up the wrong tree!

I was glad to see in the recent episode of Who Do You Think You Are? that they showed the mistake that had been made with J. K. Rowling’s family tree – where a military person with a similar name and dates had been confused with the real ancestor – and without some careful studying of the actual details the correct ancestor may well have been missed.

Although I am a big fan of this programme, I have often felt in the past that they have made tracing your ancestors look far too easy, so this was a welcome change.  It is as well to remember that months of painstaking research have taken place before the filming of these episodes – it doesn’t all just happen as you see it (I may be teaching my granny to suck eggs here – but even the most intelligent could be fooled into believing it’s all a bit of a doddle).

So, if you are an amateur genealogist, it is ESSENTIAL that you take heed of the following guidelines:

  • Understand Your Sources.  When using that most popular of sources, the census, for example, it is important that you understand its origins, the way the information was collected, and attitudes towards it.  The information that you see on census records has very often been written down by the enumerator by what he has heard from the head of household, copied at least once – and then indexed by modern transcribers.  Think how many spelling errors that will result in!   And did you know that many sufferagettes – and their supporters – refused to be included in the 1911 census as a protest against the Government’s refusal to allow votes for women?  Reading up about the history of every source you use will give you a professional understanding of how you should approach it for research.
  • Question Your Sources. Just because something is written in ink does not make it true.  Think of all the reasons a human being might have for twisting, exaggerating or hiding the truth.  Always ask yourself, why was this document created, and who was it written for?  It sure as hell wasn’t written for the benefit of future genealogists!  The census was never intended for future publication, and was a statistical record for Governmental use.  Newspapers need to sell interesting stories.  Marriage registrations were merely a legal document – who cares if the name of the father is made up? (which often happens when the bride or groom were illegitimate and wanted to hide that fact…)
  • Always Use Original Sources. In other words, do not rely on the indexes, or the information you get from the International Genealogical Index (IGI) or published family trees.  While these are extremely valuable tools for tracing elusive ancestors (I use the IGI all the time), it is imperative that you follow up this information by studying the actual original sources (e.g. parish registers) to make sure that the secondary source information you have seen is correct.  You will often find more information in the original records anyway (such as occupation, or place of origin etc)  The IGI is not complete, nor always accurate, and those who have published their family trees are not always very careful about their own research.  I know it is frustrating when the original sources are many miles away – but that is what we professional researchers are here for!  If you can’t look at the original records yourself, get someone reliable to do it for you!
  • When Possible, Back Up Your Sources. Every source you use for each ancestor should be compared with others, and where possible, cross-referenced with similar sources.  This is not always possible – especially as you go further back in time, but doing this can bring up discrepancies and conflicting pieces of information that can be clues to further research.  Check every possible census record for your ancestor and compare each bit of information.  My grandfather has a different place of birth in the later records than for when he was a youngster.  Why?  If this happens in your tree – first make sure you have the right person by checking all other records, then look for other clues.  In my grandfather’s case, he was adopted by his brother-in-law after his parents’ early deaths – and his place of birth and surname from then on was the same as his adoptive father’s.  It is quite possible he did not know where he was born – or perhaps he wanted to disassociate himself with his origins.  We may never know…
  • Always Take a Given Age with a Pinch of Salt! Ever since human beings walked the earth, they have had various reasons for hiding their age.  Yet I am always amazed at how many people treat the ages in records as absolute.  We all know of someone who has taken a few years off themselves because they don’t want to be thought of as middle-aged or old, or the teenager who adds a year in order to look more grown up.  Things were no different in Victorian times or any time before that.  Victorian wives or husbands who were much younger than their spouse would often give an older age on the census to make the gap between them more ‘respectable’.  The age on a death certificate was often a guess by an informant or official, who would go by how they looked.  In our age of obsession with facts and form-filling, very few of us would not know our date of birth – but 100 years ago and more  it was extremely common for many people not to know how old they were.  As a general rule, when using the census, the closer to a person’s birth the census is, the more accurate it is likely to be – but you should always give at least 5 years each way when searching for the birth/baptism.
  • Study Every Source in Detail – and remember that what’s missing can be just as important as what’s there.  Don’t make the mistake of taking the main information from a source and then discarding it.  Look at it closely; read between the lines; use your imagination and what you know of human nature.  Who were the witnesses on a marriage or a will?  Were they extended family who could help you find the next generation?  Did they marry by licence or by banns?  If by licence, they could be wealthy and have left wills or land records.  Which church did they marry in – the established church or a non-conformist church?  Why is a child born in 1857 missing from the household in 1861?  Did they die?  Are they staying with relatives?  Could those relatives be grandparents who could be your next generation…?  Remember that siblings, friends and witnesses can be very useful for following up lines and confirming family links.
  • Always search from what you know backwards. My last guideline, but by no means the least important.  Start with what you know:  your own birth details, and your parents – and then start confirming previous generations using genealogical resources.  Before going back to the next generation, make absolutely sure that your links are sound and that you have the right people.  If you start to go back using a possible ancestor, you can get into a terrible muddle.  Don’t try to establish a link from a hopeful ancestor down to your known ancestors – this usually does not work in practice.  Always work from the known backwards.

Whilst it can be tempting to race from one generation to the next, you will actually find your searches far more enjoyable if you take your time and make sure you are in the right tree before extending your search to the more distant past.  Tracing ancestors is far more satisfying when the result is a shortish tree full of absolute facts, rather than a long, extended tree of mere probabilities and possibilities.

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Tracing Family History on a Budget

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Ros

In these days of purse-string-tightening, we all like to find things we want or need that are free.  But as most people will realise, if you want have something of good quality you will usually have to pay something.  That old adage, “you get what you pay for” tends to be true much of the time.  This is no different when you are tracing family history.  Yes, there are free ancestry sites, free trials and free searches, but if you really want to produce an accurate, interesting and detailed family tree, then you will need to commit yourself to spending some money.  In my opinion, it’s not really possible to trace family history for free – but if you are careful, you can keep your spending to a manageable minimum.

Here is my guide to tracing family history on a budget:

  • Set Yourself a Monthly Spending Limit. Genealogy is – or can be – a lifelong hobby, and your spending will no doubt fluctuate in line with your available income.  When money is short, it’s important that you give yourself a monthly spending limit and try not to go beyond that.  For example, you might allow yourself to buy one birth/marriage/death certificate per month on top of a monthly subscription to a genealogy site.  This is not such a bad thing – it will make you prioritise which documents you really need, and which will give you the best information.
  • Subscribe To At Least One Genealogy Site. Most of the big genealogical sites have monthly subscription rates that are not too expensive, and once you are a subscriber you will have the freedom to search that site and view any online documents they may have.  Some sites also have free trials so you can try the service out before committing yourself.  Ancestry offer 2 weeks for free here:  Ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com (USA).  Other good subscription websites that I would recommend are Find My Past,  Origins.net,  Genes Reunited (useful for finding living relatives & you can register for free).  These are the ones I use mostly – but there are others which you can easily find by searching Google.  If you really find the monthly fees more than you can afford, you could ask another interested member of your family if they would share the cost with you.
  • Use the International Genealogical Index – it’s Free!  You can find this at FamilySearch.org.  The IGI (and its new pilot site) is one website where you can search baptism & marriage records and view results completely free, and it is an extremely useful resource.  However, it should always and only be used in the knowledge that it is not a complete, nor always an accurate database.  Any information you find here must always be backed up by viewing the original records – usually at county record offices – or sometimes at online subscription sites.  If you live nearby the CRO you need, then you are lucky – but very often this will involve hiring someone to look at the records for you.  Again, you can budget for this.  Keep a list of the IGI records you want to confirm, and follow them up when you can afford it.
  • Search for any published online Parish Registers. More and more parish records are getting published online, and it is worth doing a search to see if the parish you need has been indexed or published – not just on the subscription sites but sometimes on individual parish sites which are sometimes free.  The Online Parish Clerk project is a great scheme run by volunteers, and aims to get parish records online.  For example, I have used the Lancashire OPC site quite often and found it very useful.
  • Take Advantage of Free Searches – but always be aware that you will need to pay if you find what you’re looking for!  Very rarely will a search result give you the information you need, and if the name you are looking for is quite common, you will usually not be able to tell if it is your ancestor without paying either a subscription or a temporary credit or pass.  This can be extremely frustrating!  Always make sure that the information you are seeking is not already available on the site you already pay a subscription for, otherwise you could end up paying twice for the same information.
  • Search Documents Online for Wills. You can search for PCC  and other documents at the Documents Online section of the National Archives.  If you are nearing the end of your monthly budget, you won’t have to spend too much if you find a will here.  At present it costs £3.50 to download a will.  You can also search for other wills at Ancestry and other places – and they are usually not expensive to order.  See my blog post on searching for wills here.
  • Talk to Your Genealogist! You may think that you cannot afford the services of a genealogist, or that your current one charges too much.  As a professional genealogist myself, I know that the hourly rates can sometimes look prohibitive – but we have to earn a living!  But we are generally a very friendly and understanding bunch, and if you are on a tight budget, then I think most of us would be happy to keep to a low spending limit, or spread the searches over a longer period of time.  Sometimes it’s necessary to carry out several hours of work in one go – but I know that I would be happy to arrange payment in instalments from a trusted client, and I have offered this in the past.  So, don’t be afraid to ask about different payment options – we don’t bite!
  • What If You’ve Used Up Your Budget? When you’re out of genealogy funds for the month – then spend some time organising your files, writing up reports and setting out a plan of action for the following month.  By doing this you will be less likely to overspend the next month because you will have organised your priorities and won’t waste money on chasing dead ends.  Why don’t you start writing up a book or folder on your ancestry for the rest of your family to enjoy?

Tracing family history can end up being a very expensive passtime if you are not careful.  But when money’s tight you really don’t have to give it up!  All it takes is some careful planning, organisation and a bit of patience and you can still continue to enjoy this fascinating hobby!


120x60: I’m, your Nan

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Genealogical Resources: Local History Books

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Ros

Copyright - Warwickshire County CouncilContinuing my theme of digging down into your ancestors’ lives, here’s another example of a source that could turn up some information about your ancestor –  local history books or pamphlets.  Whilst most professional historians would advocate using primary sources for research, I would always encourage anyone to find out what has been published about the village or parish where their ancestors lived as it is always possible that members of your family could have been mentioned – and it could lead you to using the primary sources used.

This was proved to me quite recently when a client sent me details of what he had found about his family in a history book about the village of Offchurch in Warwickshire.  My thanks to Chris who has allowed me to copy directly from his email:

I got the history of Offchurch book today and it mentions the Page
family several times

In 1619 12d was paid to Edward Page for the mending of the Bells

In 1631 Edward Page the Churchwarden copied information about recusant’s.

In the 1655 Rent Book Widow Mary Page is described as occupying a house
and close plus 1 water corn Mill Quendon Mill and close 1 Water Mill
Offchurch Mill and three meadows.

In 1661 Edward and William Page arrange a lease but are Non-Conformists
who left the village in 1664 and were fined the same year in Leamington
Priors for attending an unlawful religious assembly.

In 1678 a Stephen Wright is mentioned as the miller at Quorndon Mill on
a 7 year lease.

When a church bell was replaced in 1681 it was inscribed “Thomas
Page..Churchwarden 1681”

In 1696 Thomas Page is paying 16 pounds 10 shillings rent, and William
Page senior 1 pound rent, and Dorothy Page 5 shillings rent.

William Page carpenter and son appear numerous times in the account
being paid for various work. The author explains that William Page was
primary a carpenter not a farmer and so only had a couple of closes.

The only Mill at this time was Quendon MIll because Offchurch Mill had
fallen into disrepair.

In 1814 Joseph Page is paying 13 pounds 10 shillings in rent.

In the tithe maps of 1848 William Page the Miller at Quendon Mill is
listed as having 5 acres by the Mill.

This kind of information can give you details about occupation, status and places of residence – which could lead to some interesting visits to study the ‘history on the ground’ that was linked with your family.  The little snippet about non-conformism is also very useful as it could mean that the family were missing from the established parish registers and could lead you search near-by non-conformist registers.

Many libraries, county record offices, family history societies and local bookshops have local publications for sale – and you could also try looking at online book sellers such as Amazon or Ebay.

If you are visiting the parish, always have a look inside the church as you will often find little leaflets on the local parish which could contain family history information.

Look out too for books about the local trades or industries.  I know which fishing boat my great grandfather skippered thanks to a little leaflet published in the Isle of Man called “The Port St. Mary Fishing Fleet of 1886” published by Capt. Harry Watterson in 1986.

If you have had some good results from other genealogical resources, please let me know and I’ll post about it on this blog.

(Image produced with the kind permission of Warwickshire County Council)

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Genealogical Resources: UK Newspaper Archives

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Ros

In my general theme of the last few weeks of getting to know your ancestors better than just knowing when & where they were born, married and died, here is another great resource: UK newspaper archives. In the past, it was necessary to have a definite date in mind in order to search newspapers, but while this may still be the case in many local papers – particularly before 1800 – it is also now possible to search online indexes.  Newspapers are one of the best genealogical resources if any of your ancestors were involved in any incident that might have made its way to the press.

One of my favourite resources for newspapers is the British Library’s British Newspapers 1800-1900 site where you can carry out a free search using a name or phrase and date ranges.  You can also choose which publications to search if you wish to limit the search to a particular area.  If you turn up something that looks like it might be relevant, then you will have to pay for either a 24 hour or 7 day pass.  I have turned up several stories that included clients’ ancestors using this site.

It’s worth trying this site for any ancestor (although of course it helps if the name is slightly unusual otherwise you will end up with too many results) – but if you think that your ancestor was a criminal, policeman, a bankrupt, a prominent person in the community, or died in unusual circumstances, then I would suggest that newspapers would be one of your main resources.

Here’s a nice little example of what can turn up.  An Australian client of mine has an ancestor who was a London Bobby, so yesterday I ran a search for his name (which was a fairly unusual one: Jesse Button) and found the following newspaper report from 1864 (which is slightly appropriate in light of current news stories):

THAMES

A SPECIMEN OF THE EAST END RABBLE AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL

– Wm. Bennett, cooper, Richard Leftwich, painter and glazier, Ann Robertson, and Sarah Jifford, all from the neighbourhood of Lime-house-fields, were brought before Mr. Partridge charged with disgraceful conduct in the Whitechapel road on Monday afternoon, and assaulting Jesse Button, a police-constable, No. 359 K. – On Monday afternoon, at half-past four o’clock, the prisoners were among the crowd assembed in front of the London-hospital, to witness the departure of the Prince and Princess of Wales.  The prisoners were very noisy, and endeavouring to excite confusion.  Bennett made use of most disgusting language, and insulted several respectable females.  One lady remonstrated with him, and he laid his hand on her shoulder, and made use of some revolting epithets.  She called Button, a police-constable standing near, and the prisoner swore at her, and said, “If you can’t bear to be touched, and can’t bear a little slang, you should not come to the east.”  Button requested him to behave himself, and not make a disturbance.  The prisoner immediately struck the constable on the chin.  The officer took him into custody, and he made a violent resistance, and kicked Button on the knee.  A host of policemen went to the assistance of Button, and took the prisoner away.  Leftwich jumped between Bennett and the policeman, pulled him away, and tried to rescue him.  All this time the two females, whose conduct was singularly audacious, were throwing stones at the police, and calling out, “Down with them; kill them.”  Some of the stones struck the policemen, but they were not materially injured.  Mr. Partridge said the conduct of Bennett was disgusting and unmanly, and sentenced him to six weeks’ imprisonment and hard labour.  He fined Leftwich 20s., and the two females, who said they made up trowsers, 10s. each.  The women made use of the most horrible language as they were leaving the dock.

Whilst my client was delighted with this piece of information, I suspect that the possible descendants of William Bennet, Richard Leftwich, Ann Robertson and Sarah Jifford may be slightly less delighted – though hopefully just as interested!

Here we have a very visual story of a moment in an ancestor’s life – an absolute gem for any family historian.

Apart from online searchable indexes, you should also try your local library and county record offices where you can usually find old newspapers published on microfilm.  Find out first whether any of these are held online – though many will not be indexed and are only worth searching if you have a specific date in mind, such as a date of death (if you are searching for an obituary or report of an unusual death such as suicide or accident).

There are also a searchable newspaper database at Ancestry.co.uk.

Searching UK Newspaper archives can be very exciting – you never know what you might turn up from your ancestor’s life!  Make sure you check out these excellent genealogical resources.

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Reading wills and inventories

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Ros

To continue from my previous post (How to Search for Wills and Probate in England)…

Once you have received the will you ordered you will be eager to get on and read it and see if it contains information about other ancestors, or whether it gives you the link between families that you are looking for.  But don’t rush at this.  There is an art to reading wills and inventories, and quite often, especially if the will was written before 1800, you will need to learn some paleography skills too.

Inventories

If you are lucky, a will sometimes has an inventory attached, which is basically a list of assets and possessions and what they are worth, added up to give the total estate’s worth.  These can be really fascinating, giving you a real insight into an ancestor’s lifestyle and giving you a solid picture of the furniture, clothing and general bits and pieces that make up a person’s life.  They can include such items as beds, chairs, furnishings, foodstuffs, livestock and crops – and you will also get an idea of the type of property they lived in as each room is itemised for its contents.

The Will

Onto the will itself – if it’s easy to read, then all you need is a basic understanding of the way wills have been generally formatted so you can differentiate between the clerk’s standardised text and your ancestor’s “voice”.

As in most legal documents, don’t expect there to be much punctuation!

The Preamble

A very usual beginning will be:  In the name of God Amen following by the testator’s name, parish and occupation.  Very often this will be followed by a statement explaining that although sick of body is of full and perfect memory to prove that he knew what he was doing (i.e. he was mentally able to write a valid will).  This will usually be followed by some standard text committing his body to Almighty God and his body to burial in the parish churchyard etc.  If the testator was Catholic, or of a very profound religious turn of mind (or perhaps hedging his bets), there may be a lengthy religious preamble where the testator expresses penitence, or asks for forgiveness etc.  Whilst a lengthy preamble like this can suggest strong religious beliefs on behalf of the testator, one should not rule out an enthusiastic clerk using conventional formula!

Payment of debts and funeral expenses will be the next thing to follow, along with the wish to annul any previous will.

The Bequests

Now you are into the juicy part of the will, where the testator shares out his property, monies and/or possessions to his family and friends.  Each bequest usually begins with the word “Item” followed by I leave to or I bequeath to then the name of the beneficiary.   To be sure that the bequest goes to the right person, wills usually describe the legatees very well, giving the relationship to the testator, where they live and (for a married woman) the name of their spouse.

If there are any child beneficiaries, their legacies are very often held in trust until they reach the age of 21.  This can help you to confirm approximate ages for children or grandchildren.

Sometimes, property & monies that are to be held in trust, shared out, or paid at intervals, would be wrapped up in extremely lengthy and complicated legal jargon covering every last detail and eventuality (such as the legatee dying before receiving their share).  This can make for rather tedious reading (especially as there is very little punctuation!), and while it is worth going through it to make sure there are no significant details about the family that you need to know, don’t worry if you don’t understand everything.  It is just worth knowing that your ancestor was keen to make sure every T was crossed and every I dotted!

Sometimes, the character, beliefs or attitudes of your ancestor will break through all the formal language giving you a glimpse of the real human being.  I recently transcribed a will for a client whose ancestor insisted that if his wife should marry again, then his son should “slam the door in her face”.  This kind of emotive language can raise a few questions about the relationships between husband and wife, father and son etc, and is delightfully intriguing!  (By the way, I did check, but as far as I could find out, the wife never did marry again…)

The Executor

All wills name an executor (or female executrix) – sometimes two – who were appointed to supervise the administration of the will.  These were very often trusted close friends or relations (mostly the wife or eldest son).

The End Bits

The last few words of a will are often something like: In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 15th day of July in the year One thousand seven hundred and eighty-two

The testator will then sign, and the witness statement will be underneath as follows:  Signed sealed published and declared by the said [testator’s name] as for his last Will & Testament in the presence of followed by the signatures of the witnesses.

Probate

Either on the bottom, the back, or on an attached piece of paper, the probate will state the date that probate was granted along with the names of the executors.  The amount of the estate is sometimes stated.

Paleography

If the will was written before 1800, and particularly if it is a 16th or 17th century will, you might find it extremely difficult to read, and can sometimes look as though it’s written in a different language.  The earliest wills were written in Latin, and in this case you will need to find a Latin transcriber.

However, if it is English, the clerk’s hand can be very difficult to decipher, as well as the fact that many words were spelled completely differently, some are out of use completely, and many letters look almost unrecogniseable to the way we would write them today.

If the will you have ordered is like this – don’t panic!  Paleography (or palaeography if you want to be absolutely correct) is not a difficult skill to learn, and the more you practise reading old handwriting, the easier you will find it.  The National Archives have an excellent online tutorial in reading handwriting from 1500 to 1800 and you can start this tutorial here.

If you don’t have the time to do this yourself (and even when you’ve learned a bit of paleography, it can still be a lengthy process if the will is a long one), most professional genealogists will transcribe a will for you for a fee.

Nuncupative wills

If a person’s final illness was very short and they did not have time to make a will, often an oral statement (often known as “deathbed wills”) would be made and accepted by the church courts.   These wills were only valid up until 1837 (with the exception of those in the armed forces who died in action).

Administrations

Administrations (often abbreviated to  “admons” in record office indexes) can often be found where a person died intestate (without leaving a will).  They are letters of administration granted by the court to those it considered legitimate administrators – usually the widow, or eldest son.

A few more notes to remember.  Don’t be too worried if you have the will of an ancestor, but he does not mention all his children, or only leaves a small sum of money to them.  This does not necessarily mean that they have been “cut out” of the will.  It may be that they have already been provided for, and if they are only left a small amount, the testator may have wanted to mention them to confirm them as their son, but in the knowledge that they had no need for any great legacy.

Also, remember that the word “cousin” can refer to a wide range of kin, and that other relations, such as father, brother, son etc can also refer to in-laws.

This has been a very brief guide to wills, but if you would like to learn more, I have a course at Udemy which will take you through the whole process of searching for, ordering and reading wills.  Have a look HERE.

(Picture supplied by Staffordshire Record Office)

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How to Search for Wills and Probate in England

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Ros

In my last couple of posts I’ve been looking at the importance of digging deeper into your ancestors’ lives so you know more about them than just their birth, marriage and death details.  Today I thought I’d give you a short guide to searching for wills and probate in England, as this is one of the best ways of getting to know an ancestor better.

An ancestor’s will can be very useful for discovering or confirming family relationships where they are missing in other records – but even when they don’t give this information, they are an essential resource if you want to know more about how your ancestor lived.  However, probate in England can be a complicated affair, and you need to know your way around the range of wills and probate indexes that exist both online and in archives.

While it is far more likely that you will find wills within wealthy families, they do crop up within the lower classes more often than you might imagine, so it always worth checking.  They can tell you a great deal about your ancestor’s family, his relationship with his family, friends and community, his religion, his possessions, land and property, and, quite often, his attitude to life.  If you want a closer insight into your ancestor, then his or her will is probably the best kind of document you will ever find (apart from letters or diaries – but these are very rare finds).

First, you need to know whether the will you want is before 1858 or after, then take the following steps:

Before 12th January 1858

You will need to search in several places, both online and in archives.  There is no single index of wills up to this date.    This is because before 1858 wills were proved in the ecclesiastical courts, and depending on how much property you had, and where it lay, it might have been in the local archdeaconry courts, a bishop’s court (or consistory courts), or in the two archbishop’s prerogative courts (York or Canterbury).

If you are searching online, the first steps you will probably take will be to use the National Archives site to search for PCC (Canterbury) wills, which you can download for a fee of £3.50, or Origins.net which has an index to the PCY (York) wills, held at the Borthwick Institute in York.  You will need to take out a temporary or long term subscription to Origins.  You can order a PCY will from the Borthwick Institute website for £5.00.

However, because you were probably fairly wealthy to have a PCC or PCY will, this is probably the least likely place to find a will if your ancestors were of more modest means.  Therefore, the next best place to search online is Ancestry.co.uk, FindMyPast and/or Origins.net, which all have searchable indexes of some consistory court wills and a few archdeaconry wills from various areas in the UK.  You will need subscriptions for all of these websites.

If you find a will in these indexes, it should tell you where it is held – usually in a county or diocesan record office, and you will have to apply to this office to obtain a copy.

If you do not find what you are looking for in these indexes, then your next best step is to search indexes of wills in the diocesan record office that covers the area where your ancestor died.  Diocesan record offices usually cover more than one county (Lichfield RO, for example, serves parts of Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire), and you need to make sure you search the right one.  Most of north Warwickshire falls within the Lichfield Diocese, whilst the southern parts of Warwickshire are mostly covered by the Worcestershire Diocese.  Some county record offices hold wills indexes for the diocesan offices, and then you can usually order a copy of the will by post or online.

Lastly, check the wills indexes that are held in the county record office for the county your ancestor died in to see if any archdeaconry wills are held within that office.  You should then be able to order the will to read at the record office.  Quite often you will not be able to photocopy a will, but you should be able to photograph it after receiving permission from the record office staff.

From 12th January 1858

If you are searching for a will from this date, then your task is much easier.  From 12th January of that year jurisdiction over wills was transferred to the new Civil Court of Probate, which have continued ever since.

To search for a will after this date you need to search the National Probate Calendar, which is available online at Ancestry.co.uk and at Origins.net.  Once you have found a will here you can obtain a copy of the will from the Principle Probate Registry for a fee of £5.00.

While searching for wills and probate in England may seem complicated, especially for searches before 1858, it is basically just a case of making sure you have searched all the available indexes both online and at the appropriate local archives.  It is well worth doing, for when you find a will you will instantly feel closer to your ancestor!

In my next post, I will talk about how to get the most out of a will once you’ve got it.


National Probate Calendar at Ancestry.co.uk

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Are Family Tree Legends Worth Investigating?

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Ros

Explosion of the 'Lily'Most families probably have a sprinkling of legends, anecdotes and stories that most of us probably take with a pinch of salt.  Professional genealogists are very wary of family tree legends, as they are often based on shaky evidence, have been passed down and exaggerated through generations, and are not usually provable.  However, investigating these stories and legends can be a fascinating way to discover your ancestors’ history.  Hopefully the following story will lead you to find out about your ancestors’ historical background and see what local dramas or events they may have been involved in.

In a previous blog I promised I would tell you about one of my own family tree legends, which led to my uncle doing some research on a bit of Manx history that turned out to be a truly amazing and moving story.  While the legend itself is too subjective to be proved, the story surrounding it is solid historical fact.

The legend is simply this:  that my great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Keig (nee Maddrell) was gifted with psychic foresight.  Not a grand or heroic legend in itself, nor an unusual one, but add to it the belief that without this foresight none of my family would now exist, it becomes intriguing.

Here’s the story:

In the terrible, stormy winter of 1852, the Isle of Man, and parts of England had been battered by storms causing floods in many areas, and several ship wrecks around the British and Irish coasts.

One of these unfortunate ships was the brig, Lily, which had been bound from Liverpool to the West Coast of Africa with a cargo of cloth, cotton, rum, cannon, firearms and over 40 tons of gunpowder.

On 23rd December 1852, she was driven by storms into the seas around the south of the Isle of Man, and finally on Boxing Day, she was lifted onto Kitterland Rocks, where, according to the lighthouse keeper who was watching, ‘her bottom bilged and the masts gave way, falling over the starboard side near Kitterland’.

The local people were quick to go to the ship’s aid, and six volunteers from Port St. Mary helped Tommy Cregeen (a great-great-uncle of mine, I am pleased to say) to take his sailing boat out where they managed to rescue eight men stranded on the rocks.  Unfortunately, the Captain, John Owens, along with his adopted son, a cabin boy and the ship’s cook had all been swept away.

Early the following morning a party of men from Port St. Mary were sent out to guard the wreck and discharge its cargo, and a second group of men were due to join them later in the morning.  This is where my family’s legend comes in, because Elizabeth Keig is supposed to have had a premonition and prevented her husband, my great-great grandfather, Willie Keig, from joining the party by putting the clock back so he would be late.

I like to imagine a rather heated conversation that might have followed this action – which was interrupted by a loud explosion.  For soon after the second party joined the ship, the whole vessel was blown to pieces by a huge explosion, which was felt as far away as Douglas, 15 miles away.

All but one of the 30 Manxmen who had been sent to guard the ship were killed, as well as five of the crew.  Seventy-six children were orphaned.  If Willie Keig had been on time that day, his unborn children, including my great-grandmother, Catherine Keig, would never have been born.  It’s a sobering thought.

A full inquest was carried out on this disaster – the worst maritime disaster the Isle of Man has ever known – and it is this historical source that my uncle was able to access to find out the full story behind the legend.  The inquest gives eye witness accounts and full details of the drama, and ends with a statement from the coroner:

This day our village of Port St. Mary is pervaded with the solemn stillness of a deserted village.  The silence is broken only by outbursst of grief from hearts too full to restrain their emotion.  We who are blessed with life must help the dependents of those who suffered loss.  I thank all those people who have given testimony at such personal stress.

There was a huge and extremely swift response to the disaster.  A fund was quickly set up for the widows and orphans, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert contributed £50.  The response was so great that by February 1883 a public notice was given to inform people that enough funds had been collected.

Of course it is possible (if you are of a cynical or sceptical turn of mind) that Willie Keig just overslept that morning.  Perhaps his wife was just (sensibly) worried about the amount of gunpowder on the ship.  Whether she had a premonition or not, the fact is that the legend led to discovering a very interesting, if tragic, story.  A contemporary report of this disaster can be read here: http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/iln/n080153.htm

If you have family tree legends, you may just be able to find out the story behind them by researching historical records at the local archives, such as inquests (as above), trials, and newspaper reports.

In small communities like the fishing village of Port St. Mary, it would be difficult for your ancestors not to be involved in any local events, so it would be very worth finding out about the history of the village and then reading the newspapers for any noteworthy events to see if any of your ancestors were involved.  Local libraries, museums and churches often publish leaflets on the history of a village or community, from which you can begin to discover your ancestors’ background.

Some newspapers are online, and the British Library has an online catalogue that can be very useful for searching Victorian history and people: http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/.  Many county libraries also have newspaper archives on microfilm.

Some records may be accessed at The National Archives or at Ancestry.co.uk.

My original full article about this story was first published by Family Tree Magazine in February 2008.

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Finding Your Ancestors…and Getting to Know Them

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Ros

People are interesting.  Every single person who ever lived has a story to tell.  When you look beyond the surface of any human being you will find a fascinating assortment of events that go to make up who that person is: a variety of happy, sad, tragic, celebratory, inspirational and all sorts of emotive happenings that create a unique individual.  So when you are finding your ancestors, can you really be content with just names and dates?

It seems a shame that some people who trace their ancestry are only happy to collect a list of names, their driving force to go back as far as possible in time.  While I fully understand the satisfaction of going back another generation and finding new names to add to your tree, for me, and many others, it is the mixture of this and also finding out about the life history of individuals that provides the full satisfaction and excitement of tracing ancestors.

Those names on your tree were once living, breathing human beings, affected by the times and environment they lived in, and subject to all the feelings and thoughts that we are all subject to.   They all had ups and downs in their lives, just like you and me.  Wouldn’t it be interesting and exciting to find out what those highs and lows were, and how much you might be able to relate to them?

We may never know exactly how a person reacted to the events that affected them, but we can make an informative guess at how they may have felt, for example, about leaving their home for a new country, the death of a child, or an inheritance from a rich uncle.

Census records, birth, marriage & death certificates, parish registers, wills, military records, trial documents, land records, apprenticeships, and many other documents can help you to piece together some of the important events in your ancestors’ lives.

However, not everyone will find records beyond the census and basic baptism, birth and marriage records.  Some ancestors can be stubbornly elusive, and the further back you go, the more difficult it is to find out details about your ancestors, especially if they were of the lower classes and left no documented trail.  Very often all you have is a name in a parish register and very little else.

All the same, that is no reason to believe that you can know nothing about them.  There are many ways you can find out how your ancestors lived and what their daily lives might have been like.

First of all, you can find out about the area they lived in.  Most places, even the smallest village, will have information about its history, either on the internet, or in local pamphlets that could be acquired at a library or the parish church.  Local record offices also very often hold published booklets about the local area.  What was going on in this area when your ancestors lived there?  How might it have affected them?  By checking these sources you may even find your ancestor’s name.

What was your ancestor’s occupation?  If you are lucky enough to have an occupation given in the parish register, then it should be quite easy to find out the history of the trade or work your ancestor was involved in.  The Society of Genealogists publish a range of books entitled My Ancestor Was… which can give you a lot of information about occupations, as well as where to find sources for research.

Local museums often hold items that are related to local trades and industries and it is fun to speculate what kind of tools or household items they may have used.

Knowledge of general history is also extremely useful so you can find out what events might have had an effect on your ancestors’ lifestyles.  If they lived in the mid-17th century, you may be able to find out (from where they lived) whether they might have been a Royalist or Parliamentarian during the English Civil War.  If they were Irish immigrants in the mid-19th century, were they fleeing from the Irish famine caused by the failure of the potato crops?  If they moved from the country to a town or city, were they part of that general movement in Britain caused by the industrial revolution?

Finding your ancestors can be so much more than just finding names and dates. Don’t give up on them if they were just a labourer or labourer’s wife without land or nothing to leave in a will.  Their blood runs in your veins.  They probably thought that there would be no reason for them to be remembered.  Wouldn’t it be nice to prove them wrong?

In future blogs I will tell a few stories of my own ancestors, gleaned from a mixture of historical documentary evidence and general historical knowledge.

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