This index seeks to embrace in one alphabetical sequence all the wills (both original and registered copies), inventories, administration bonds, accounts and other related documents which survive among the records of the Archdeaconries of Huntingdon (Hitchin Division) and St Albans now held at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies.
Coverage may be summarised as follows:
Archdeaconry of Huntingdon (Hitchin Division):
Original wills (together with some inventories), 1557-1857 (Ref, HW); will registers, 1557-1843 (Ref, HR); inventories, 1568-1789 (Ref, AHH22 includes some administration bonds); administration bonds and accounts, 1609-1857 (Ref, AHH23).
Archdeaconry of St Albans:
Original wills, including administration bonds and inventories filed with them, 1518-1857 (Ref, AW); will registers, also including grants of administration, 1415-1857 (Ref, AR); inventories, 1518-1764 (Ref, A25); no original probate accounts are known to have survived for this archdeaconry.
Copies of the originals can be ordered online for £10GBP. These are supplied digitally by Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies and delivered via a PDF to your email address.
Following on from the series earlier in the year on researching family history in Jersey, we turn our attention south to France.
Over the centuries there has been considerable immigration into Jersey from France. The principal waves of immigrants arrived firstly as a result of Huguenots fleeing around the time that the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685; secondly as a result of political uncertainty during the period after 1789; and thirdly as a result of famine and rural poverty in Brittany and western Normandy from about 1850 onwards. The last wave was the largest of the three, with some thousands of people arriving and settling – and consequently there are a substantial number of Jersey families who have a French connection.
Aliens’ registration cards (those issued under legislation passed in 1920 are in the Archive catalogue in series D/S/B, and the registers that accompany them are in series D/S/C. Those relating to French nationals present during the Occupation are at reference D/S/A/24)
If available, records of public bodies such as the courts, the prison and the hospital (all of whom would want this information for accounting purposes). These could be your best bet if your ancestors arrived in the early part of the third wave
French law set a series of benchmarks in 1803 as to what needed to be recorded to legalise registration of births, marriages and deaths, much as England did in 1837. Part of this was that every commune had to keep a book recording births marriages and deaths. The book would cover ten years: there would be an index to every year and an overall index for the whole ten year book. While the entries are numbered one-up each year and include births, marriages and deaths in a single numbering sequence, the indexes for birth, marriage and death are separate.
We are looking at the book covering 1843 to 1852 so we find it among the 17 books listed and click the image, then we click the image on the right-hand side of the page. This launches the viewer software.
We actually need to start not at the first page but at the last page – the tables decennales covering all ten years’ worth of entries are there. Working backwards we start with the deaths, then come to the marriages, then the births.
A more typical entry is that for the marriage of Jean-Pierre Le Gentil in 1844. There is a format to entries: each entry always begins with the date (and indeed the hour of day), and is followed by the name of the official and his credentials (usually the mayor). In the case of a marriage we then have the prospective husband, his date and place of birth, where he is living and the names of his parents. In this case his mother has died and the necessary papers have been presented to prove it. At the end of that you spot the phrase d’une part; this means that what follows is the same details for the prospective wife. The rest of the documentation is the legal wording affirming that the marriage has been notified and legally witnessed, and also gives the names of the witnesses.
I regret to inform you that Egg-merchant and Dealers, Lunatic Keepers, Bee Dealers, Ice Dealers and Well-Sinkers have sadly disappeared from Britain!
Some interesting findings have been released by Ancestry.co.uk regarding professions that can be traced in the 1841 census, or soon after, that were then compared with current UK employment data in the 2010 Labour Force Survey.
According to Ancestry.co.uk, whose site is one of several that hosts a UK Census Collection:
“ ‘Teacher’ is the occupation that has grown the most in popularity, with the number of teachers employed increasing by an enormous 131,000 per cent between 1841 and 2010 – in real numbers from 1,105 to 1,449,000.
Next are journalists, increasing by 42,000 per cent (520 people to 217,000) between 1841 and 1901, while the number of builders has increased by 9,000 per cent (9,188 people to 821,000).
Other professions that have also grown in popularity range from high flying stockbrokers, dentists, accountants, medical professionals and solicitors to the more modest builders and hairdressers. Even the much maligned estate agents have shot up in number by 748 per cent since the 1840s.”
Do you remember when, as a child, we would say “When I grow up I want to be a…” and we would name a job or profession we fancied?
So, do you think that these statistics show us that not enough children hankered after being a Bee Dealer, an Ice Dealer, an Egg Merchant? And can we also assume that many probably said “I’m going to be anything but a Lunatic Keeper”?
I wonder what people will have put down, as an occupation in the recent census, that in a hundred and seventy years will have disappeared from Britain in 2181?
Given that a lot of Jersey records are in French, and we have our own legal system, you may find yourself coming across unfamiliar terminology. If you have ever wondered what a Procureur is, or the significance of Muratti, or why we spell rent with an extra “e†on the end, take a look at the Jerripedia. It’s a wiki – it uses the same sort of software as the well-known Wikipedia, but the content is specifically related to Jersey. It’s not a complete resource, but more information is being added to it every day. And if you have information you think you could add, it’s very easy to get an account and put it out there.
There is also the Jersey Archive’s online public access catalogue (hereafter the Jersey OPAC). This is only an index to the documents the Archive holds, but for all that it can give some very useful ways into families. The largest document set in it is the 30000-plus identity cards issues by the German occupation forces in 1941 – and these have addresses, names and dates of birth. The data isn’t absolutely accurate (I have found a card alleging the holder was born on 31st June), but the Germans were generally pretty meticulous. One other thing: if you find an identity card, you can guarantee the person was alive until May 1945 (cards were collected from the deceased and destroyed).
Running a name search in the Jersey OPAC is a lucky dip exercise – you can’t be sure what you will find. You might find records of a will – and that will have a date when it was enacted, which is a helpful guideline to where to start looking for a death. You might find property transactions, or names entered in school logbooks, or possibly baptisms (there is an online listing of 19th century baptisms in the parish church of St Helier). Again, more is steadily being added to the catalogue: volunteers are currently indexing the names of everyone admitted to the hospital in the mid-19th century, and all the recorded cases of people who died intestate up to about 1948 should be on the OPAC soon.
There’s a family tree in every home filing cabinet. In the past it may have tended to be written in scribbled handwriting in pencil or fading ballpoint. Now it is most likely to be on a professional looking template produce by a service such as Ancestry.com coupon Genealogy.
Every normal person has an interest in where he comes from. This may account for the natural affinity between grandparents and grandchildren. Children who have been given up for adoption at birth usually have a burning desire to discover their biological parents at some point in their lives. The instinct to search for family information seems to be linked to the human quest for knowledge using genealogy software coupons.
There is a fine line between ancestry and genealogy. Ancestry is concerned typically with distinguished or distinguished people. This might be the case particularly in Europe, but on other continents the term might be used with more spiritual connotations. Genealogy has a biological connotation and refers to the direct descendants of an individual or group. In general ancestry tends to move form the present backwards and genealogy moves from the past to the present.
Computer technology has made the compilation and use of data bases a great new way to manage data. Card catalogues that once occupied a number of rooms are now housed in a chip and accessed in a flash. This has revolutionized genealogy and the compilation of family trees.
Skeletons in the cupboard are quite interesting now. In previous years, before information was so widely accessible, people followed family ties with some trepidation, hoping not to find a black sheep. Now Australians are reportedly delighted to find a convict in their ancestry because it proves how long they have been on the continent. On the other hand some members of the European aristocracy have reason to be thoroughly ashamed of their feeble and evil relatives exposed now in the information age.
Anthropologists may dig up ancient bones and speculate on the origins of the human species. The more recent and well documented evidence of recent relatives shown by ancestry.com genealogy research can be equally interesting and more pertinent.
Aristocrat and commoner alike may wonder where their ancestor was when Jesus hung on the Cross or when the Great Plague decimated the European population. Similar speculations may have been behind the concocted story of African American Alex Hailey about his roots in Africa. Deep within the fiber of our beings there appears to be yearning to discover how we came about.
The great interest of parents in the family histories of prospective spouses is well documented in history, politics and literature and can be found using online genealogy software. As in the case of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ it can prove to have tragic consequences. It can also be very interesting for couples who may have met by chance in Australia to find that their near relatives lived in the same English village and must have known each other in earlier generations under different circumstances. Ancestry.com review genealogy may throw some light on this by producing a comprehensive family history.
Use the following steps to discover your genealogy.
1. Every portion of a family history should be as complete as possible. Strive to assemble a precise account of each family’s history. In the future, we will be the ancestors. Those who follow us will appreciate working with correct and detailed information as they research their family tree.
2. Avoid being a copyist. Do pull together as much documentation as you can for proper evaluation. Just because it is in in print or on the internet does not make it a true statement. Many early family histories were based on incorrect research.
3. A family genealogy, to be useful should cite the sources that were collected in the records. Use a reference bibliography and do your own genealogy research, when ever possible. Another person’s interpretation of the data may not be accurate. Copying another person’s error only makes it that much worse .
Sources of information fall into two categories, secondary and primary. Primary sources are those statements or records, written or verbal, made at or near the time of the event. The information will be an eyewitness or from someone closely associated with the happening. The quest to find primary sources should be obvious. A secondary source comes from someone not present at the time of the event, or from one not closely associated with the occurrence. The recording perhaps would have been made later, from memory. Information sources are found in many places including vital records, census and obituaries.
4. Do not hesitate. Living relatives can provide eye witness versions which may never be found elsewhere.  A life time of “tomorrows’ may be required to find the answer to a question that you should have asked.
5. With records, there are two criteria in judging credibility. Are the records original, or copies? An original record is the first recording of an happening in accordance with the prescribed law or custom.
The event may be noted in more than one original records. The birth of a infant could be recorded in Vital Statistics, in the Church Register, and perhaps in a Family Bible. These records would be considered as originals because, they are the first entry of that birth in that locality. A copied record is one that has been transcribed, compiled, or copied from another record. The other record may have been an original, or it may have been a copy. Whenever a copy is transcribed there is a chance for error. Every new copy, increases the chances of errors.
6. A certified copy is considered an official copy, but it is a copy, and is subject to error. This problem has been reduced with the wide spread use of electronic scanning or photocopying .  A scan of an original record should be considered as good as the original.
7. No genealogy is considered close to completion unless family tree research is done for each individual of the family. No one should be unnoted and no one should be eliminated.
8. A name should be recorded as the entire name. Avoid using ditto marks. Always record the complete names of the children on a family group sheet or in your computer database. When If a person has been known by a name other than the given name, include it.
9. If you find a nickname has been used, such as Betty, on some documents, and or nickname for the same person on other records, ensure you make note of the two names.
10. A child born out of wedlock assumes the mother’s name most frequently.
DISCLOSURE: Compensated Affiliate of Ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry.co.uk has published online the UK, Casualties of the Boer War, 1899-1902, detailing 55,000 British and colonial soldiers who were killed, wounded, captured, or who died of disease during the Second Boer War.
Highlighting for us the horror of the conflict by detailing over 20,000 deaths of British soldiers along with the injury of a further 23,000. Typically each record details the soldier’s name, rank, force, regiment, battalion and date and place of death, injury or capture.
Most of the other records are of capture or disease, which was rife in South Africa during the early 20th century. Dysentery, typhoid fever and intestine infections were among the most common contagions and account for around 12,000 deaths in the collection.
As well as death through sickness and battlefield injuries, the collection reveals some unusual ‘fates’ met by soldiers. These include records of 86 British troops who were killed or injured by lightning, including a mysterious case of two soldiers struck dead within moments of each other when a lightning storm swept their base in Stormberg near Cape Town. One soldier is even listed as having been eaten by a crocodile at the Usutu River.
As the number of deaths recorded in this collection correspond with the fatalities noted in other historical sources, this archive can be considered one of the most comprehensive resources of British soldiers in the Second Boer War available.
Anyone trying to find out more about an ancestor who fought in the Second Boer War will find these records invaluable, particularly as most British soldiers who fought in the conflict won’t appear in the 1901 Census of England and Wales because they were fighting in South Africa.
These include a number of famous men who were awarded with the Victoria Cross, the highest honour for bravery, upon their return from Africa:
Sir Walter Norris Congreve – Congreve was a hero in both the Boer War and WWI, attaining the rank of general by the end of his 30-year military career. He was awarded his Victoria Cross for defending an abandoned gun emplacement during the Battle of Colenso, where he rescued a fallen comrade under heavy fire despite suffering from gunshot wounds
Charles Fitzclarence – Fitzclarence was decorated for three separate actions of gallantry and became known as one of the fiercest soldiers of the Boer conflict. Major-General Baden-Powell himself even remarked on Fitzclarence’s bravery and importance to the cause. During several sorties Fitzclarence showed ‘coolness and courage’, defying insurmountable odds to defeat the enemy
Henry William Engleheart – After completing a mission to destroy Boer railways behind enemy lines, Engleheart led the extrication through the Boer defences – even stopping to rescue a fallen comrade despite being outnumbered by more than four to one
Following on from the First Boer War, the Second Boer War was a dispute over territory in South Africa, fought between the British Empire and Dutch settlers (known as ‘Boers’ – the Dutch word for ‘farmer’). The catalyst for this secondary conflict was the discovery of gold in the Boer-controlled South African Republic, also known as the Transvaal.
The resulting gold rush encouraged thousands of British settlers (known as uitlanders) to migrate to the republic. Before long the British numbers exceeded those of the Boer, prompting tension around ‘uitlander rights’ and which nation should control the gold mining industry. When the British refused to evacuate their forces in 1899, the Boer declared war.
The so-called ‘Boers’ were farmers who were used to riding and hunting for survival and were therefore considerable opponents for the British Army and claimed the lives of around 8,000 British soldiers. The Boer themselves lost 7,000 troops.
In an attempt to cut off supplies to the Boers, a ‘scorched earth policy’ was introduced. This resulted in the destruction of Boer farms and crops, and subsequent introduction of concentration camps where the Boer and African women, children and workers were interned. Thousands of Boers lost their lives here, primarily through malnutrition and disease.
Ancestry.co.uk International Content Director Dan Jones comments: “These records are a stark reminder of the atrocities of a conflict that is often eclipsed by wars that took place closer to home. They detail a dark and regrettable period of history, but one that should never be forgotten.
Employ the following ten steps to discover your family tree .
1. Every section of a family’s genealogy should be as complete as possible. Endeavour to compile a precise account of each family. Looking forward, our descendants will be researching us . Those who come after us will appreciate having correct and detailed information as they research their genealogy.
2. Avoid being a copyist. Do collect as much documentation as you can for proper evaluation.  Just because it is in in print or on the internet does not make it a correct statement. Many early genealogies were based on wishful thinking.
3. A family genealogy, to be useful, should cite the sources that were collected in the records. Use a reference bibliography and, when ever possible, assemble your own genealogy research. Another person’s interpretation of the information may not be accurate and duplicating someone’s error only perpetuates the mistake.
Sources of data fall into two categories, primary and secondary. Primary sources are those statements or records, written or verbal, that were made at or near the  time that the event occurred. The information will be an eyewitness account or from someone closely associated with what happened. The quest to find primary sources should be a priority. A secondary source comes from a non-witness, or from one not associated with the occurrence. The recording would have been made at a later time, maybe from memory. Sources of information will be found in many different types of documentations including vital records, census and obituaries .
4. Do not hesitate and leave it too late. Living relatives can give eye witness accounts which may never be found elsewhere.  Many years may be needed to find the answers to questions that you could have asked.
5. With records, as with sources, there are two factors in judging credibility. Are the records copies, or originals ? An original is the initial recording of an happening in accordance with the prescribed law or custom.
The occurance may be recorded in one or more orginal records. The birth of a child could appear in Vital Statistics, in the Church Registry and in a Family Bible. All of these records would be classified as orginals because, in each case, it was the first entry of that birth in that vicinity. A copied record is one that has been transcribed, compiled, or copied from another record. The other record may have been a copy, or it may have been an original. Each time a copy is transcribed there is a possibility for error to creep in. The more times that the document has been copied, the greater the possible number of errors.
6. A certified copy is considered an official copy, but it is a copy and is, therefore, subject to error. This issue has been partially eliminated with use of scanning or photocopying . A scan of an original document can be considered the same as the original.
7. No family history is considered complete unless research is done for each individual of the family. No one should be unnoted and no one should be excluded.
8. A name ought to be recorded as the entire name. Avoid using ditto marks. Always record the entire names of the children in your computer database or on a family group sheet. When if a person has been called by a nickname, include it.
9. If you find a nickname has been used, such as Beth, on some documents, and a different name for the same person on other records, ensure you make note of both the names.
10. A child born to unwed parents assumes the mother’s name in most cases.
OK so this may be a bit off topic, but if you have a blog or website like me then you will realise how important it is to get people to read it.
In the past I thought that by creating the best looking, most useful content site was going to get me where I wanted to go. I put in a lot of effort, as well, and took some pride in my various websites. I soon realised, however, that a fantastic website simply didn’t pull in any money into my account. So what do you think the problem was? It was that no one was ever coming to my sites. The wretched things were all but invisible. I really needed to rank higher in Google and the other search engines – some of them I didn’t rank in at all – and I desperately needed to pull in more traffic. Luckily, I’ve found a solution called: Viral Link Network (VLN) to solve the problem. Disclosure: Compensated Affiliate.
Whilst much of the other software out there is bloated and seems to need someone with a degree in computer science to install it, Viral Link Network is as easy as it gets. I’m sure you would agree with me when I say that it really doesn’t matter how good a piece of software is if a normal person like me can’t figure out how to install it, or if the process to do so is overly-complicated. Once you have Viral Link Network up and running, you’ll wish every other piece of software was that simple.
So what do you need to do? Just go to the site and sign up for free, (yes, VLN is free!) then you are taken to a page that has a special offer on it. Don’t worry, it’s optional. I’d recommend you taking a look at getting it if you are serious about building links and getting your site seen, but its up to you. From here you will enter the member area. How easy is it? Just click the download link that says “Download Now”. Save it, then use the installation key that’s provided to you. Every thing is laid out step-by-step in the guide that comes with your free download.
The makers of VLN are interested in helping people get links to their sites, too. You will notice on the welcome page that there is a Fast Mover Bonus. The only catch is that you have to install Viral Link Network within the first seven days of signing up. Of course, you will want to be up and running right away, but it’s a nice touch that they want to encourage people to get the most out of the software. But is the software itself any good?
Some earlier attempts at automated link building were adequate for their time. However, they left too many virtual fingerprints by using the same IP address for each back link. The problem is that it’s very easy to catch on to that, and link building that’s done that way is often counterproductive, because you can be penalized for it. That’s why I appreciate that Viral Link Network uses many different IPs when building links.
To put it simply, there is plenty to like about Viral Link Network. The fact that it’s a smart and powerful piece of software that’s free and easy to install makes it what I consider a true no-brainer. Don’t forget to grab the special offer, too. When you download VLN, you will start getting traffic to your websites like never before. Take advantage of it now, you’ll be glad you did.
Everyone has memories of those we were once close to while in our high school days, or perhaps our earlier childhood days. Getting back in touch with people you in the past knew can be challenging, in particular for those who have actually migrated to various places over the course of their entire lives. There are various reasons why you need outside resources if you are looking for that lost relative or friend. A reverse telephone directory can make it enjoyable to research somebody you are searching for, and you will only need to use only one service which can get a hold of all of their information and facts that’s required. One could make reconnections, and it can be done.
The initial step you want to take is to find a reverse telephone directory that suits you best. There are a number on the market that happens to be owned and operated by scammers that might just without difficulty misuse your favorite credit card information and then assume your identity. The perfect thing you can do is to learn from other people’s errors and only utilize a reverse telephone directory that is definitely recognized and trustworthy. One particular useful example of this is the web site reverse-detectives.com. The site will allow you to pay a low cost payment for the purpose of access to all of its database. Anyone is able to use it, regardless if you are associated with criminal law or in cases where you only require a little more information.
Once you have made an account for a membership in a reverse telephone directory web site, there you’ll be able to look at your charges, your search history, and you will be able to maintain all your information private. Nobody will find out who you have searched, not even the individual you have been looking up. All you have to do is type an unknown number in the search bar, and you will be able to discover valuable facts which include address, employment information, even their full name and criminal record.
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