52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 8 - Courting

 This weeks #52ancestors challenge got me thinking  - where did my ancestors meet?

In the 20^th century, my parents met at the local dance halls, attending the weekly ‘shin-dig’ at the Hermitage Halls in Hitchin and The Icknield Halls and The Wilbury in Letchworth.   These were the main places for young people to meet in the 1930s and 1940s, with the added attraction of servicemen from nearby Bassingbourn and Chicksands.  There were also village halls that held dances and church events.  Other places to meet your future spouse were at work, or even earlier, at school.   The social parameters for meeting your future consort were usually a bike, bus, or train ride away from home, with further afield possible if someone owned a car.  When my parents were young, if a chap owned a car, it could be a magnet for the young ladies! 

In the early 20^th century, my Hertfordshire maternal family did not travel very far away from Hitchin when they chose their partners.  My Grandparents attended the same school, The British School, in Hitchin with their families living close to each other in the town. 

The Morgan family worshipped in the Congregational Church in Queen Street, alas now demolished, as did my Mum and her siblings.  They went to church every week. The Morgan’s (paternal) had been nonconformist since the early 1800s, which added a different dimension to my family research.  The Taylor’s (maternal) were Church of England, worshipping at St Mary’s in the town.  You attended the church of the male member of the marriage, hence my grandparents attending the Congregational church with their 6 children. 

Further back in time my Hertfordshire ancestors mostly lived within a 20-mile radius of Hitchin, so really haven’t moved very far at all in hundreds of years. Several siblings of my Great Grandmother Morgan, maiden name Moules, moved to Keighley in Yorkshire for work, and some of the sisters of my Great Grandmother Taylor, maiden name Cotton, moved away once they married.  But, on the whole, my family largely ‘stayed put’.  In north Hertfordshire, the county boundary with Bedfordshire is very close so I do have some Bedfordshire ancestry too. 

 

Lack of work in a largely rural county like Hertfordshire caused some people to move further away.  With the advent of the railway in Hitchin in the 1850s London was only a train ride away.  My grandfather Morgan worked on the railways as a plate layer, with this father-in-law, Arthur Taylor being a carpenter on the railways, both based at Hitchin station.  Economic forces were the main catalyst for people moving away from their family roots in my family, and also marriage, with females moving with their husbands to another part of the country.

My Suffolk Nickels family, my dad’s family, are a little more interesting.  As previously mentioned in these #52ancestors blogs, my dad was born in 1916 in the First Garden City of Letchworth in Hertfordshire.  His father moved to Hertfordshire in about 1910 to work on the building of Letchworth.  There are still examples of his creative leadwork at The Cloisters in Letchworth.  He also worked for the company who installed the plumbing at The Spirella in Letchworth, and at George Bernard Shaw’s home at Ayot St Lawrence. 

My Dad’s brothers and sisters, however, were born in different places. The 1911 Census helped me work out where the family were living between 1901 and 1911. My grandparents, Alf and Alice, met in London and were married in 1901. Their first child Alf was born in 1902, in Walworth, London.  Jim was born in 1903, with Violet appearing in 1907 whilst the family were living in Camberwell Green.  The next child, Dick, was born in Walsworth, Hertfordshire in 1911, with Nellie and Nick (Dad) born in Letchworth in 1914 and 1916.  Basil and Bella, from Grandad’s second marriage were also born at the family home, 76 Shott Lane, Letchworth, in 1919 and 1921.

My grandad Alf’s parents, Alfred John and Elizabeth were living in Hertfordshire by 1899 as he was Licensee of The Willian Arms pub in Willian, Hertfordshire, near the new Garden City site.  Their journey to Hertfordshire is more interesting.  Alf was born in Suffolk in 1850, with Elizabeth born in Dorset in 1838 – quite an age gap!   They met in London. I guess both had gone to the metropolis in search of work.  

From my research, Alfred John already had two brothers who had gone to live and work in London before he too moved there.  Elizabeth was working in service after she was widowed, initially in Dorset, so may have travelled to London with her employer and decided to settle there.  Her teenage daughter, Mary, who had been brought up by her grandmother and aunt whilst Elizabeth worked was living with her mother by 1871.  Alfred John and Elizabeth married in the early 1870s.

The Nickels family were from Suffolk.  They had lived in Orford, Wickham Market, Sutton, Badingham and the surrounding area since at least the 17^th century. My ancestors would have met their future partners in their towns, at the market, in the pub (most probably), at work or at church.  Most spouses came from the same town or village, or one a few miles away, certainly within walking distance on a market day.  My Nickels family have successive generations who were publicans, from Gt-Gt-Gt Grandfather William Nickels, who died in 1844, right up to my uncle Basil.  As ‘Mine Host’, they would have been well known in the town or village.  Strong ladies, such as William Nickels’ wife Elizabeth, would take over the licence of The Chequers at Wickham Market when William died, with her daughter Louisa taking over from her.  A supportive wife who was happy to ‘muck in’ was essential. Daughters and nieces are found to have worked as barmaids  -  another way of meeting young men.  Oh, how I’d love to do a ‘pub crawl’ of all the pubs my relations ran! 

With my main line of Dominey’s from Poole, Dorset, they seem to have met their spouses locally, most probably via the church.  The family worshipped at both St James’ and as Skinner Street Independent, now the United Reformed. 

One ancestor was Parish Clerk at Lytchett.  Occasionally with this family, I have found a spouse coming from elsewhere, usually when they are in the army or navy and posted to the area or town of my ancestral family.  It must be remembered that Poole was a port, so there would have been opportunities to meet people from different places.  One branch of the Dominey's had a connection with Newfoundland and Canada.

My Sutch’s from London, my paternal grandmother’s family, were more adventurous with their connections with the music hall stage and music in general, but, their choice of partner seems to be very much local to their family home even though London, offers possibilities for meeting people from all over the place.  There was the story that Grandad Sutch had married beneath him when he married Jane Woodman.  He was on the stage, and doing quite well, she was a butcher’s daughter, but there seem to have been some troubles within her family.  I wonder how they met?  Probably the pub, or maybe even the stage door.  Their families both lived in the same area of London, near to St Martin in the Fields and Bond Street.  After their marriage they moved to South London, Walworth, Kennington and Camberwell.

With my direct family lines, there are not any surprises with choices of spouses.  Most were living in the same place, or nearby.  Many families had lived in the same location for many years. 

I have connections with London with my paternal family who initially moved from Suffolk and Dorset to London and then to Hertfordshire, moving because of work opportunities with expansion in the metropolis and with the new Garden City in Hertfordshire.    

My Hertfordshire family didn’t move far.  They were mostly agricultural labourers, publicans (again) and working in trades in Hitchin like the railway and also diversifying to driving carts for businesses, laundresses, coalmen, and of course straw plaiters.  Hitchin is near to Luton in Bedfordshire, a centre for straw hat making.  I have found whole families of straw plaiters, wives and big families of children, supplementing the wage of the head of the household.  Not just the girls either, many small boys, my granddad included, learn how to straw plait.

As I have found with my family, there are be multiple connections with families who have long lived in the same location.  Cousins marrying, siblings marrying siblings and the intermarrying of families over many generations.  Many years ago whilst talking to some friends, family connections came into the conversation and my mum and a business colleague of my dad worked out that they were cousins through a marriage within their respective families.  Similarly, a work colleague and I found out that were both descended from Edward and Dinah Hunt from Orford, Suffolk¹.  It's a small world.

Notes

1.      Nickels, Jane ‘Was it Coincidence or Fate?’ in Suffolk Roots, Volume 20, No 4, February 1995.

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52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 7 - Landed

 

This week’s theme promptly took my thoughts off to the reference works available for those who have connections with or are researching the landed gentry.   These are those families that are not Peers, but slightly lower down in the social scale, but still significant in their locality.  The local squire living in the manor house, or the vicar, who was often of a good family, but not the eldest son.  There is the old saying that eldest son inherits, one son goes in the Army or Navy and another the Church.  Allied with the narrative genealogies contained in such tomes as Burke’s Landed Gentry, Walford’s County Families and Fox-Davies’ Armorial Families, there are also the older county histories which often give a narrative of the descent of a manor through inheritance, sale, or gift.  Allied with this is the monumental 19 century Owners of the Land volumes.  For the 16^th and 17^th centuries there are also the Heralds’ Visitations which record those people in a county who used coats of arms and in many cases also include a pedigree, sometimes on 3 generations, sometimes considerably more.

Although these tools are marvellous and so informative, it must be remembered that the information was often supplied by the person paying for the entry, so, sometimes people are left out, deliberately or otherwise.  Later editions of the same serial do not always contain such detail as earlier editions, especially with descents of younger children and daughters.  Some family members do not appear at all in later editions.   This is like the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage volumes published by Burke’s, Debrett’s and others since the 1700s.  In the case of Burke’s, they circulated a ‘questionnaire’ to family members to fill in, so the data is only as good as manuscripts the family may have in their possession and family memory.  Sometimes generations are muddled, left out entirely, or successive editions contradict.

Many of these works have now been digitised and are available online to browse, but there is nothing quite like browsing a real book.  Whilst to research an initial family, you will usually find notes and connections to other families listed in the volume, or in other books such as the Peerage.  I find that a hard copy is much easier to browse that a digital version.

If you live near to a Library with good genealogical or heraldic collections, it may be worth visiting and looking at a series of differently dated serial volumes to compare the information included.  If, like us, you love collecting books that will be useful for genealogical and heraldic research, keep your eyes peeled in antique fairs, bookshops, or online auction sites.  The books are heavy and can be huge, but think of all the information they contain.

The intertwining of the landed families with peers and even royalty is fascinating.  As has been shown on the popular TV programme, Who Do You Think You Are? if a family can prove its descent from a landed family, by going back a few more generations you may find a link to a younger child of a peer.  Once you get into peerage territory there is a possibility that an advantageous marriage will link the family you are tracing with a so called ‘gateway ancestor’, usually a female, who is your key person for pushing your family back to a possible royal descent.

An example:

On our bookshelves we have a short ‘run’ of Burke’s Landed Gentry volumes, dated 1879 (2 vols), 1906, 1937, 1952 and 1965 (3 vols).  The oldest one is the tattiest. We’ve also got a few Peerages too.

For example, the Corbet of Adderley Hall family appear in 3 of the books, in 1879, 1906 and 1937.  By looking at each entry, earliest first, a pedigree of the family can be constructed as well as further clues found as to their earlier lineage and marital connections.

1879

This entry shows that the family is connected to a Baronetage family and refers the reader to Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage for the earlier pedigree and armorial bearings.  Henry Corbet’s wife was the daughter of a Baronet and he himself the nephew of another Baronet.

1906

In this entry there is the addition of an illustration of the family coat of arms, taken form a seal.  There is also more information about their armorial bearings.  The eldest son of Henry Corbet, Reginald, is now heading the pedigree, with his younger brother Bertram’s issue also listed.

1937

The family is still headed by Reginald Corbet and his issue, a daughter.  The younger brother Bertram’s issue is included, a son who died in 1918 and a daughter with the details of her marriage.

A family left with no male heirs.  Many other gentry families were in the same situation after the first world war, a time of change in the social order, a time that saw the abandonment of large family houses and estates for want of a male heir.  There are of course still the well to do families, but there is a blurring of the defining lines of the class structure.  There has always been the nouveau riche, the tradespeople who have risen up the social ladder with advantageous marriages, as well as the younger sons of well to do families who have had to work for a living as an apprentice in a trade, in the Army or Navy, in business, the Church or the Law.  You never know, with enough digging you may find that your family can link with a gentry family.  

You may find it interesting to research the families that they might have worked for, as a servant.  My own great grandmother was a cook for the Delme-Radcliffe family of Hitchin Priory in Hertfordshire UK.  Their family archive is held at the Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) in Hertford, Hertfordshire UK.

52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 6 - Maps

 

Maps are fascinating and can be used to enhance the family story by looking at the wider location of your family.  Did your ancestor live in a village or a town?  When they lived there was there a transport network like a railway or regular coaches which could have taken them further afield.   In England, did they live near to a main travel route, such as the Great North Road, the Icknield Way or within a day’s travel of larger towns from which they could travel to different parts of the country. For example, how easy would it have been to travel from Dorset to London and Suffolk to London, as my Great Grandparents did?

Looking at my family in Hertfordshire, my main town of interest is Hitchin, but I have relatives who lived in other towns and villages which were within walking distance on a market day, such as Willian, Baldock, Norton, St Ippollitts and Kings Walden.  Slightly further afield we also find family in Stevenage (before the new town was built), Wheathampstead and Redbourn, still not too far away if you managed to hitch a lift on a cart.

With my London relations, maps have been useful in working out where the members of the family lived in relationship to each other to work out possible churches where baptism and marriage could have taken place.

Maps are tactile.  Poring over an old map if your locality you can visually see the changes in housing, roads, and development.

There are now several good websites where you can see the development of localities by comparing maps of different dates.

https://www.oldmapsonline.org/

https://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-england-and-wales/

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/history/historical-map-archives

But, although these are very useful, there is nothing like an actual map.   These can be in various formats – a flat sheet, folded, in an atlas or a smaller book. 

For family history, the older the better. One very useful book for family historians in the UK is the Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers.  This book is useful for working out which parishes your ancestor may have lived in, apart from the ones where you have already found their baptisms, marriages, and burials.  Plotting possible ways of travel can be helpful.  Tithe, Estate and Enclosure maps are especially useful. 

Ordnance Survey maps, in various scales, can be picked up at flea markets, charity shops, bookshops and via online auction sites such as Ebay.  The larger scale older maps are useful for finding specific named farms, houses, and fields.

One of my favourite books, which I inherited from my cousin, who found it at an antique fair, is Bartholomew’s Handy Reference Atlas of London & Suburbs which she paid the princely sum of £2 for. 

The 4^th edition is dated 1921, and has coloured maps, a useful index of streets, population figures and plans, railways, and postal districts.   So useful at this date with the 1921 Census just being released, and before much was bombed in the second world war.