What I should Have Done First...

This blog sometimes seems back to front as I'm well into the 19th or 18th C with most of my researches. So, explanations:

I started this family history lark for a school project when I was 15 and got hooked. Back in those days I had no idea what you did or where you went to get information, but Mum and I asked for family documents, wandered around graveyards looking for relatives and got as far as sending for some certificates from the local register office.

I wrote to my great-aunt in Wales. I'm thankful about this for many reasons, as without her information finding the right Evans, Thomas and Joseph families would have been a battle.

So I'd collected quite a bit of information and I added whatever I could from Bridgwater Library, but I stopped while I was university and when I started work here in the North East, as I was too far away from any ancestral homes.

Then, in 2001, I received, out of the blue, a mass of copies of certificates and notes from my Dad's cousin Carol, making me look at my own information again - and progressing the Jewitt line no end.

And, of course, next came the 1901 Census online. I was vaguely aware it was coming, as I worked in a library, but was yet to discover what access to a census meant. (I'd only got as far as gravestones, birth certificates and directories.) So, luckily for me, I only tried well after the initial fiasco was over.

Taking the information I had, I found so much and I was launched into the modern world of family history. As a librarian, I've got even more access than most to free books, so I read pretty much every how-to book we had in all 13 libraries.

I returned to certificates, discovering that the GRO existed and how to get certs out of them. (You can see I started all backwards in many ways), the online 1881 index and finally, several visits to the FRC.

I studied history at university and was missing it badly and family history gave me a way of still studying it, sharing it and discovering my own family's part in the history I'd learnt.

It's addictive and fascinating and I love it.

Home Again

Once more back from London...

I shouldn't have to go again for two and a half weeks, anyway. Don't know what's happening to my life.

Once I've recovered, I'll have a look at what I can share on the family history front. I don't think I talked about all my certificates. (They always raise more questions, don't they?)

London Ramblings

Returned (temporarily at least) from London. I didn't visit any archives this time (sometimes you have to pay some attention to living relatives) but I did spend Friday with my sister wandering the streets of London. Seven Dials to be precise. If I can work out how to get the photos off my phone, I'll share my pretty pics of where the Jewitts used to live in the first half of the 19th century.

And yes, that is Seven Dials, as in London's most infamous slum in years gone by. But they look pretty now...

Caroline Louisa Jewitt

Three of my other certificates arrived yesterday. Two of them (the Nelmes births) are as yet unrelated, but I'm sure will be tied in one day. Still, I know that they're not what I was after now...

However, the third proved that indeed Caroline Louisa Jewitt was a missing sibling of my great-grandad, Will Jewitt. My Grandad had an auntie who died of croup aged 7 months.

For some reason, I'm always particulary pleased when I've restored a long-lost infant to the family tree. They may not have descendents of their own, so someone has to remember that they existed.

First Certificates Arrived

The death certificate arrived for Maria Washer and after so long of hmming and ah-ing as to whether or not to buy it, it turns out to be the right one - widow of William Washer and mother of Matilda Young, who registered the death. (Matilda seems to have registered the death of almost everyone in her family). Now if I could only decipher what it was she died of...

The marriage certificate was for Alfred Young and the witnesses were his brother John and wife Sarah Young, proving that the two East End Youngs are indeed my missing brothers from Bridgwater.

Not bad. In about a week, my more speculative certs will turn up. Can't wait!

Things I'd Like to Find

Some clue as to when Edward Jewitt died (b.1756; yes, him again).
I have more information on this ancestor than many others, but do I know when or where he died? No, I don't. And he could have been in Hull, Lincs, London or even America. Or anywhere else, frankly. I want to find him. If he made a will, that would be even better. Finally some real proof that he was or wasn't father of both John Rodgers Jewitt and Francis (Brown) Jewitt.

Ellen Hargrave's birth certificate.
The poor mite died in St Pancras workhouse in November 1848 and the workhouse master couldn't even bother to put her parents' names on the death cert. Luckily, the workhouse records still exist, so I could prove she was mine. But I want her birth certificate. In this period, I'd normally assume that she wasn't registered, but in this case all her siblings were. Why can't I find her?

John Jewitt's marriage to Amelia
Maybe the aforementioned death cert will give me some clue as to her previous name, but I can't find this and it seems a little late for one of those second marriages where neither partner bothered to actually marry. (1897-1901). But I can't find it.

What happened to Joseph Washer?
I suspect possibly a death on board ship or something. I cannot find his burial yet and really, I should have been able to.

As any family historian knows, our ancestors do this sort of thing to annoy us. It wouldn't be family history if it was all easy, would it?

Certificate Fever

I've been spending some ill-gotten gains (well, not really) on more certificates. As this money came via a family history source, I have to put it towards research, don't I?

So I've been buying those certificates I wonder about, rather than the certain ones.

I'm looking forward to finding out what happened to Mary Turner and Amelia Jewitt (who are reasonably safe bets) and Caroline Louisa Jewitt, who may be a missing daughter of John Francis and Martha Ann Jewitt. She fits neatly into the gap between the two eldest sisters and Martha had an elder sister called Caroline.

Plus, trying to make sense of the Nelmes family who elude me, despite their helpfully unusual surname. They lived in London, which complicates everything. However, two likely candidates for missing siblings who died young are James and Charles. (Even if not 'mine', there's a strong likelihood of their being connected somewhere down the line, so I feel it's a risk worth taking.)

Thinking along the same lines, it occurs to me that ordering a clutch of early Nelmes marriages from London might begin to show who's connected to who. I'm going to consider that one a little longer before I finish my reckless spending, though.

Trouble is, my other certs haven't come after 5 working days, so it looks as though the GRO is getting slow again. Ordering more at this point may not be good for me! I shall have to learn the lesson of patience, but it's hard work when certificates could arrive any day.

Certificates...

Have used my birthday money to send off for some certificates and am now post-watching for the arrival of two certs. In particular, I'm keen to know if the death cert for Maria Washer is the right one, as the age isn't quite right. Fingers crossed...