Lunatic – The Nosey Genealogist's: Help Me With My Family Tree

18/08/201318/08/2013

TheGenealogist adds 90,000 Criminal Records to their site

I see that TheGenealogist.co.uk has released a whole batch of records that are great for finding any ancestors of yours who may have fallen foul of the law!

Its a set of 90,000 Criminal records, which cover indictable offences in England and Wales between 1782 and 1892, that they have added to their websiteÂ for Diamond members and these records also uniquely cover prisoners ‘pardoned’, criminal charges and those classed as ‘criminal lunatics’.

Coming fromÂ The National Archives the records cover the following:

HO27 – Criminal Registers, England and Wales
Registers of all persons in England and Wales charged with indictable offences showing the results of the trials, the sentences in case of conviction, and dates of execution of persons sentence to death.
HO13 – Criminal Entry Books
Lists of pardons.
HO20/13 – Prisons Correspondence and Papers
Including Bethlehem Hospital criminal lunatics and other asylums.
CRIM1 – Central Criminal Court Depositions
Statements on oath used in evidence in trials at the Old Bailey and pardons if granted.

As TheGenealogist says in its newsletter this month, “the 1800s in England and Wales was a place where it was not difficult to get into trouble and end up facing a severe punishment, perhaps even the death penalty. These new records may help shed light on a family relative who broke the Law and paid the consequences.”

Some of us love to unearth the odd black-sheep in the family. So take a look here and join their Diamond level membership to take advantage of this data:

Disclosure: The links above are compensated affiliate links and may result in me being compensated by TheGenealogist.co.uk should you buy their products.

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01/04/201103/04/2011

Where Have All the Egg-Merchants and Lunatic Keepers Gone?

Ancestry.co.uk home page on screen — Disclosure: Compensated Affiliate.

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 â€“ 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?

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05/04/201005/04/2010

Help Me Understand the Census Images

The censuses can baffle people beginning family history, when they first encounter them. You go on to a commercial site and pay to download the image of your long lost ancestors and you are presented with an official form covered in sometimes difficult to read handwriting and what looks like lots of lines crossing out some of the data.

Lets start at the top!

The Header.

The Header contains the Location. That is broken down into sub sections, for example: the administrative county; the civil parish, etc. Boundaries were constantly changing and although it may appear that your ancestor has moved between the census, it could just have been a change in administrative division that had taken place. Also beware of house number changes or street name changes. I had one in my tree where 2 Densham Terrace, was 80 North Road and is now 199 North West Road, Plymouth!

Schedule Numbers.

The column on the far left of the document is the Schedule Number and NOT the house number! With the exception of the 1911 census, what we are looking at, when we download a census, is a page from the Enumerator’s book. The far left column, then, lists the number of the original schedule filled in by the head of the household. These schedules are not available any more with the exception of the 1911, which is why you can get to see the handwriting of the person that filled it in!

Names.

Beware that ancestors can vary their names across census! My Great Aunt Winnie appears as Eveline Winnifred and Winnifred Eveline on different census. A middle name may make an appearance after the death of a mother and if someone was know by a pet name, like one of my grandmothers, then this may be put down instead of her actual name. One more thing, north of the border it was usual for Scottish widows to revert to their maiden names.

Professions.

We all like to exaggerate a bit and so did our ancestors. A carpenter may become a Cabinet Maker or a merchant seaman a master mariner. Another thing to think about is where your ancestor had two or more jobs. Which went down on the schedule?

Place of Birth.

This could change depending on your ancestor actually knowing it. But also consider when a county changed its name or its boundaries moved, your ancestor’s place of birth has just changed.

If Deaf and Dumb; Blind, Lunatic, Imbecile or Feeble Minded.

Don’t fear the worst as this covers a variety of medical conditions with little option for degree of ailment. The options offered are a bit stark to the modern politically correct twenty-first century dweller.

Double strokes.

As you scroll down the page you will notice someone has inserted two parallel lines next to the names of some people. What does this mean? This indicates where the next household starts. So between the first // and the second all those names are considered to be part of the same household.

So, the downloadable census collections are a great tool for the family historian, providing us with fantastic insight into our departed family, but the information has the ability to confuse as well as to inform.

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