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What's New in Essex Family History?
This month the forum has seen postings on the following family names Vice and Cooper as well as an interesting posting on the Peculiar people religious sect.
Essex Family History has seen many pages updated with new pages on Southminster Malting's, St Lawrence Manors, The Great Flood of 1953 , the Domesday Book, A brief biog of the deaths of three local men serving in the Navy in WW1, a full Biog of the local Rector Rev Alexander Scott who held Admiral nelson as he lay dying and Scott's daughter the author Margaret Gatty plus the intriguing story of a priestly murder at Bradwell on Sea and lastly a map page containing old maps of the area
The most popular census amongst researchers is the 1841 census as this was the first occasion that the details of the whole population was taken and as such it provides us with easy access to details of ancestors born in the late 1700's as long as they were still alive in 1841.
There are several problems with the 1841 census that were cured in later census's
The first relates to age as it was standard practice for enumerators to round down ages of adults by up to 5 years which when added to a mostly illiterate population where dates of birth were often guesses can lead to major errors on dates of birth.
Although Streets were listed there were few house numbers or names, the relationship to the head of the house was not listed which could lead to confusion as to wife or sister and the place of birth was only given if it was in the same county as the person. This is a real nightmare in the case of Parishes near to the boundary with another County.
As this was the first attempt there was confusion amongst both the enumerators and the public that meant that quite a few people went unrecorded. This wan not helped by a feeling that the census was in some way linked to taxation and law enforcement which meant that many people simply went missing on census day.
The best advice is to use the 1841 census as a great research tool but to verify any information obtained and if ancestors are not missing to check Parish Registers or the BMD Index
Featured Family History Site For June
The National Library for Wales
Searching for Uk ancestors who lived outside of England can be very frustrating.
The National Library of Wales offers many free online searches including a full list of marriage licence applications from 1616 to 1837 and sentencing at Quarter Sessions from 1730 to 1830 as well as many other listings.
Even if you do not wish to search a database the background information makes this the first place to start a search for Welsh ancestors.
What's New in Essex Country Life?
Most of the new pages this month have gone on Essex Family History but pages have been added to the health section on Doctors Bills and Home Nursing with updates to many of the other pages including new recipes.
501 Squadron pose at Bradwell Bay Airfield in WW2
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June 2008
Essex Country Life
Eastern Essex Family History Forum
Google is not just a search engine it is also a genealogists friend.
When searching try the methods in the search box
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Full name
Surname and year of birth Surname and year of death Christian and Surname Surname and place of birth
Be prepared to sort through several pages but it is surprising how many hits you can get from the many ancestral listings like roots and ancestry.co.uk that Google will search for you
There have been several reorganisations of Counties since 1841 culmination in a mass change in 1974
Even in Essex boundary changes have affected Parishes close to London.
Unless you can be sure that the boundary was unchanged it is worth consulting an old list of counties valid for the date of your search to see which modern administrative area may hold the relevant records.
Birth and Death Certificates have been covered in previous newsletters.
Whilst basic details are normally held online the real certificate contains much more information including close family details.
Copies of birth and death certificates for England and Wales cost £7 from the General Record Office.
They can be obtained online
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