Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (18 page)

Bill Oddie's family tree was examined for the first series of
Who Do You Think You Are?
The story primarily focused on his search for information about his mother, and why she disappeared from his life when he was a child. However, another part of the programme examined conditions facing other members of his family as they grew up in the industrial North West. Key to this storyline was Bill's grandfather, Wilkinson Oddie, who was born in 1864 and worked in cotton mills for most of his life. His marriage certificate of 1907 was tracked down, when his age was given as 42 and he was described as a widower. This information permitted a search of the 1901 census, based on the fact that he would have been 36 at the time and possibly living with his first wife, in the hope of finding out more about his background.

The search concentrated on census returns in or around Rochdale, where he was living in 1907 at the time of his second marriage to Emily Hawksworth. Initially, no reference to Wilkinson Oddie could be found; however, there was a Wilkinson Oddy of the right age in the right place, and further investigation of earlier census returns in 1891, along with a check of relevant civil registration documents for his birth and first marriage, showed that this was indeed the correct person. Clearly, the census enumerator had written down a phonetic version of his name, transcribing Oddie as Oddy. This highlights one of the most common pitfalls when working with census records – you can't rely solely on a surname, but have to incorporate all sorts of other data such as age, place of birth and occupation.

The return for 1901 showed that he was listed as a widower, living with his children Betsy, aged 12, John 9 and Mary 7 in their house in Castle Court, Rochdale. Wilkinson was a cotton loom weaver – as was Betsy. This information allowed a search for his first marriage prior to 1889, when Betsy was born, and for the death certificate of his wife after 1894, when his youngest child Mary was born.

The relevant certificates were quickly located thanks to this data, and showed that in 1888 Wilkinson Oddie married Cecilia Heneghan, a 21-year-old cotton weaver. She died in 1897 aged 31 and the cause of death shows it was a result of childbirth, a common danger at that time.

Once you've found an ancestor on one census return, it should be possible to locate them on earlier ones. Therefore, given the amount of information already gleaned about Wilkinson Oddie, it was fairly easy to locate him, aged 16, living at home with his parents in 1881. They were John Oddie (listed as Oddy in the census records) and his wife Mary. Wilkinson lived at home with six siblings, the oldest being 21 and the youngest only 1 month old.

By repeating this pattern, it was possible to track down John Oddie in earlier census returns as well, such as 1851. He was found living at home in Over Darwen, Blackburn, aged 15 and already working in a cotton mill, with his parents Wilkinson Oddie senior, aged 41, and his wife Mary. Wilkinson Oddie senior was born in Mitton, Yorkshire, in about 1811, and armed with this information a further search of parish registers was possible to locate earlier branches of the family.

Always remember that there have been many stages that the data has gone through to reach your computer screen and errors could have occurred at each step. If you have a valid street address for your ancestor, perhaps from a certificate, it may be worthwhile searching microfilms manually under this address if you are having difficulties locating your ancestor online.

It was not uncommon for ancestors to provide inaccurate details when filling in the schedule forms. This could be for a variety of reasons:

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A different name was given. Although your ancestor's official name might have been Jennifer Sarah Marks, she could have been commonly known as Sally and be recorded under that name. People could always use their middle names as their first names or vice versa. Check both if you are having problems.

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Ages were inaccurate. Sometimes teenagers would register as older than they were so that they could work at an earlier age than was legal. Other times, people would give younger ages for reasons of vanity (especially when there were large age gaps in marriages). Alternatively, people might simply not remember their exact year of birth.

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Covering up family secrets. The most common secret a family might wish to conceal would be illegitimacy, and information might have been tweaked to hide this. For example a child may appear to be a year or two younger on the census than was the case, to mask a birth outside wedlock. Another possibility is an untruthful relationship, whereby an illegitimate grandchild of the head of the household may be recorded as their child to avoid scandal.

Bear all this in mind when searching for your ancestor. Most of the search facilities on the various websites allow people to filter the
results with as much or as little detail as possible so you can allow for such inaccuracies when searching.

Although the theory was that every person living in the country at the time should be recorded, sometimes people slipped through the net. The early censuses attracted much suspicion as to why the state needed to record such personal information in the first place. Consequently people were often very reluctant to fill out the relevant forms. For example, a census return for Westminster in 1841 includes a margin note written by the enumerator stating that the head of the household refused to provide any information.

There may always be a simple explanation, in the sense that they were simply not present at home on the night the enumerator came to collect the forms, and failed to fill out a form where they were staying. Of course, the opposite is true as well, and some people appear more than once in the same census – once at their formal place of residence, and another at their lodgings whilst travelling around the country.

Additionally, babies and young children may be omitted as some parents felt that information should not be provided until the child was baptized. Alternatively, parents may not have detailed every child to avoid accusations of overcrowding. There is also the factor of human error; where enumerators had to record the information themselves (in cases of illiteracy) they may have simply missed the odd person out, particularly at the end of a long day tramping through the streets of the parish meeting hostile and suspicious householders!

Unfortunately, census returns for certain districts have not survived to the present day for various reasons. If every other search has failed, check to ensure that the return for your sub-district does survive. Ancestry's website has a list of missing census returns for the early censuses (1841 to 1861). Otherwise, check with your local record office. Of course, you need to be sure your ancestor was living in that area in the first place. Sometimes, people would be visiting relatives on census day and would not be recorded in their home town anyway.

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Although every person should be listed on the census, people did slip through the net
.'

Don't forget that there might be another reason your ancestor isn't listed at home – they might be residing in a school, workhouse, prison
or ship, or perhaps had enlisted in the army or navy, in which case they could be located far away from their place of birth.

Censuses were taken in Scotland on a similar basis to England and Wales from 1801 onwards. Scotland was divided into registration districts and sub-districts and enumerators were responsible for circulating and collecting the schedule forms. The enumerators would then enter the information into the census return books, which form the Scottish census returns that you can see today.

The original returns are now held at the GROS in Edinburgh. These records are also subject to 100-year closure rules. Nevertheless, it is possible to view the returns from 1841 to 1901 at GROS, which has computerized indexes for these returns for the entire period along with some other indexes, such as street indexes for certain areas and some privately produced indexes. As microfilm and fiche copies were made of the original returns, various local archives, record offices and libraries will hold copies for their area as well, so a trip to Edinburgh might not be necessary.

The returns are also available online on the following websites:

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www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
This is the main website for those conducting genealogical research in Scotland, being the official government source of genealogical data. Most of the key sources have been placed here, including all publicly available census returns for Scotland. The information is not free of charge, although you can search the databases after registering for free. However, you will have to pay to view the results and see digital images.

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www.ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry has also placed Scottish data on its website. At the time of writing, searchable indexes for all census returns from 1841 to 1901 were available. These indexes relate to transcriptions of the original entries on the forms. It is not possible to view a copy of the original entry, only the transcription.

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Most of Ireland's early census records were destroyed by a fire in 1922
.'

The process of producing census returns for Ireland began slightly later, in 1821, and they were compiled every ten years subsequently.
Unfortunately, most of the records were destroyed during the Civil War in 1922. Very little now survives for the nineteenth century. However, the returns for 1901 and 1911 are available and survive in their entirety.

The small proportion of census returns that do survive for this period can be found at the National Archives of Ireland, Dublin. They are organized county by county and some name indexes for certain counties have been prepared. Local county record offices may have copies of surviving records for their local area and it is worthwhile contacting these institutions first.

As mentioned, both these returns are already available to the public and there are plans to make them available online from late 2008 onwards. Details can be found on the National Archives of Ireland website.

The records were collected on a similar basis to those of England, Scotland and Wales; forms were duly completed by the head of the household and given to the enumerator to compile the returns. There is no complete name index for the entire country and the records are organized by Poor Law Union, district, parish and town. Hence, it is necessary to have an approximate idea of where your ancestor was living before you can search.

The returns contain all the details that are to be found in their English, Welsh and Scottish counterparts, as well as additional information. The 1901 census provides details about the condition of the house in which your ancestor was resident, as well as their religious denomination. The 1911 census also includes information on how long women had been married and the number of children born of this marriage that were still alive.

The census records can be found for the whole of Ireland until 1921 at the National Archives in Dublin, which also holds the census returns for the Republic of Ireland post 1921, though they are not yet open for public inspection. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast, has the census returns for the six counties prior to partition and also after 1921, though these later records are similarly closed to the public. Additionally, local centres should have copies of returns for their particular area.

Griffiths' Valuation

Although the census records for Ireland before 1901 were largely destroyed in 1922, there is one resource still available that can be used to partly fill in the gaps – the Primary Valuation, more commonly known as the Griffiths' Valuation after the director of the Irish Valuation Office of the time, Richard Griffiths. It is a survey of property throughout all Ireland covering the period 1848–64, and was used to determine the amount of tax each person should pay towards the support of the poor in each Poor Law union at a time when the Irish Famine was at its worst. The returns cover every household, building and land, listing everyone who paid rates – with the name of the occupier and owner (if rented) included for private property and houses, making it an important way of establishing where a family lived. They are arranged by barony and civil parish with indexes to the townlands covered in each volume. Index volumes and returns can be seen at the National Archives of Ireland, as well as copies in regional research centres; whilst access online is via www.origins.net
.

The third of the four main sources that genealogists use are ecclesiastical records generated at local level by parish churches and various other religious organizations. Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials contain some biographical information that you can use to extend your family tree further back in time – theoretically to the sixteenth century, when parish registers were first introduced. This chapter explains what the records are, how you can use them, and where they can be found. It also lists some of the non-conformist records generated by religious groups outside the authority of the Church of England.

It is possible to make significant progress in building your family tree using the two sources discussed in the previous chapters – civil registration certificates and census records. However, if you want to work further back in time, pre-nineteenth century, you will have to turn to records generated at a local level, not by the State but by the Church. Together, these sources are loosely described as ‘parish registers' and they record key events in a person's life, such as baptism, marriage and burial. Since parish registers were introduced in the mid-sixteenth century, and continue to the present day, they are one of the longest continuous sets of record available – though a large degree of luck is required to find an ancestor in the earliest surviving registers.

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Parish records are among the longest continuous sets of records available
.'

Historically, Christian Britain was divided into dioceses, each administered by a bishop and consisting of smaller territorial sub-divisions known as parishes. A parish is a geographical unit under the administration of a local priest or pastor, and they have existed in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland since the end of the sixth century. By the nineteenth century, England and Wales had approximately 11,000
parishes, varying considerably in size and population. Although there have almost always been religious minorities such as Jews in England, the vast majority of the population belonged to the Established Church of England from the sixteenth century onwards, when the country broke away from the authority of the Papacy in Rome. Those Christian minorities that did not thereafter subscribe to the Established Church, for example Quakers and Roman Catholics, came to be known as ‘non-conformists'. They remained small in number until the nineteenth century, in part due to the persecution they faced. Surviving records for these non-conformist groups will be discussed separately below.

… make the most of parish registers

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Prior to the commencement of civil registration, parish registers that recorded baptisms, marriages and burials on a local level are our only way of confirming the births, marriages and deaths of our ancestors. These can be more difficult to trace, because there is not one centralized index and you usually need to know which parish your family was living in to be able to locate their entries. Parish registers also contain less detailed information than civil registration certificates, making it more challenging to compare details from record to record. Nevertheless, the fact these registers survive for some parishes as far back as the sixteenth century means there is a wealth of information about your ancestors waiting to be discovered, with a little patience and determination!

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If you find civil registration documents for your ancestors that do not give the information you were expecting to find, it may be worth looking for the parish register of whichever religious ceremony would have marked the event to see if the two records corroborate one another
.

In 1538, Henry VIII's chancellor Thomas Cromwell introduced legislation that required every priest to record all baptisms, marriages and burials within his parish, and it is these surviving records that enable genealogists to trace their ancestors beyond the start of the great record series of the nineteenth century – civil registration certificates and census returns. Few records survive this far back – on average, most English parishes have records that start around 1611 though there are some examples in Wales from 1541 – because many of the early records were not kept with any degree of care, being written on loose sheets of paper which have not survived the passage of time. A further royal proclamation was issued in 1558 instructing that these parochial events be written on parchment rather than loose paper, which increased the chances of survival; therefore 1558 is generally recognized as the start date of parish registers.

Another Act of Parliament, passed in 1597, is also important as it led to the birth of what are known as ‘Bishops' Transcripts'. As well as compiling their own parish registers, local clergy were instructed to make annual copies of each register and send them to the bishop of the diocese in which they served. Therefore these are very useful duplicate copies of the original parish registers and can be used as an alternative if the original does not survive (or is partly or wholly illegible). However, Bishops' Transcripts sometimes contained less detail than parish registers, or recorded slightly different information, so it is worthwhile examining both sources where possible.

There are other factors to consider when viewing the earliest registers.
Other than the possibility that they may no longer be legible (ink may have faded or pages rotted), early registers were usually written in Latin. However, this shouldn't cause too many problems. The nature of the information is fairly formulaic and is usually contained in a single sentence. Moreover, most archives have Latin dictionaries that enable you to translate words such as calendar months into English, as well as Latin versions of English names.

Another point to bear in mind is that the modern Gregorian calendar was adopted in the mid-eighteenth century instead of the old Julian calendar. Until 1752 the New Year did not begin on 1 January but 25 March. Hence, for example, all events occurring after 31 December 1675 to 24 March of the following year would belong to the year 1675, even though today we would consider them as belonging to 1676. Genealogists refer to this in their dating by using the formula ‘February 1675/6'.

Further, prior to 1813 there was no uniform method of registering events. Instead, individual clerks recorded information in their own unique ways and consequently the amount of information contained in parish registers varies considerably. Some parishes kept separate registers for baptisms, marriages and burials, whereas others prepared annual registers recording all these events together. The Rose Act was passed in 1813 and from this date all baptisms, marriages and burials were written in pre-printed books issued by the ‘King's Printer'. These books ensured that the same details were recorded by each parish throughout the country. Often there would be more detail than had been recorded previously.

Lastly, do remember that parish registers were still kept after the introduction of civil registration in 1837 and, in theory, should exist to the present day. This is very useful when you are having problems locating events in the national GRO indexes as an equivalent record may be found in the local parish register instead, especially during the early days when civil registration was less popular or thought to be an unnecessary inconvenience.

Registers recorded the baptism of the child in the local church, rather than its birth. The earliest registers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can be very basic in detail, often giving the name of the child and only the name of the father (with no mention of the mother). As time went on more details started to be recorded, including the mother's Christian name,
either the child's date of birth or its age (in days or months) and sometimes additional information such as the occupation of the father and where the parents lived. The Rose Act introduced more uniformity and from 1813 the following information was routinely recorded:

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When the child was baptized

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Child's Christian name

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Parents' names (Christian and surname)

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Abode of family

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Quality, trade or profession

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By whom the ceremony was performed

The earliest parish registers, prior to 1754, would usually record the full names of the bride and groom along with the date of the marriage. Some registers may give extra information such as the name of the bride's father, the groom's occupation and whether the marriage was by ‘banns' or by licence. It was customary for marriages to be in the bride's home parish.

Before 1754, most people married in their local parish church, and the intention to marry was announced in the church by the vicar or priest, usually for three consecutive Sundays prior to the wedding. These were known as ‘banns', and are often recorded in the parish register prior to the marriage ceremony itself.

The other legal option to being married by banns would be to marry under licence, particularly if you wished to marry outside the parish where the bride or groom lived. As this was the more expensive option, it carried a certain prestige. Parish registers should indicate if a marriage was conducted in this manner and the documents relating to marriage licences are useful extra sources for genealogists. The licences themselves rarely survive but ‘allegations' and ‘bonds' do. Both are genealogically useful:

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Allegations
were an intention to marry, and record the names of the bride and groom, parish of residence, age, groom's occupation and, if either party was under 21, the names of parents.

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Bonds
were required until 1823. They were sworn by two bondsmen and guaranteed that the information provided was correct under forfeit of a certain amount of money. The bondsmen were usually the groom and perhaps the bride's father or other family member.

Licences were issued by the local archbishop or bishop and the surviving documentation should be amongst the ecclesiastical records of these bishops. These are often at the local county record offices. Always remember that licences were issued for people intending to marry; not every couple would then get married.

Irregular or clandestine marriages occurred when people did not wed according to the Church's requirement of being married in your own parish church by either banns or licence. Instead couples chose to marry under different circumstances. Until 1753, one could marry simply by exchanging vows in public or private, without the need of a priest or witnesses. Such marriages were legally recognized even though there was no documentation to prove the marriage. Alternatively, many people chose to marry in churches away from their own parishes, since they could also avoid the expense of acquiring a licence or banns, and avoid the costs of a wedding party – though many irregular marriages were criticized for their rowdy and ‘unchristian' behaviour. These marriages were popular for many reasons: couples could be married with great speed, no parental consent was required and bigamists could also marry again this way. Certain institutions became famous for conducting clandestine marriages. Perhaps the most famous is the Fleet prison, where many thousands married prior to Hardwicke's Marriage Act.

Hardwicke's Act was passed in 1753 and affected the registering of marriages. From 1754, it became compulsory for marriages to be held in either the bride's or groom's home parish, and parental consent was compulsory for marriages of those aged under 21 years (though the legal age for marriage were still 14 for boys and 12 for girls once parental consent had been granted). Hence, from this point forward marriages for most individuals should be found recorded in the appropriate parish registers. Only Jews and Quakers were exempt from this new law and could have separate ceremonies, but other non-conformist bodies had to comply.

The requirement to bury the dead has been with us since the dawn of civilization, with prehistoric burial mounds, Roman cemeteries, Anglo-Saxon burial sites and Viking ship burials. However, Christian burial has generated its own records, some physical such as tombstones and crypts, and others on paper such as parish registers.

The most important thing about burial records, similar to death certificates, is that they can provide an age at death and can therefore greatly assist a search for the baptism of the individual. They can also provide clues when searching for wills. However, some of the early records give very basic information, usually only the name, with no age details. The later records start recording age and may also give further information, such as residence or occupation. Records of married or widowed women may also include the name of their husband, and young children would often have the name of the father (and sometimes mother) entered alongside their name.

As church graveyards in towns and cities became increasingly full during the early 1800s, due to the accumulation of bodies over the years and the increase in the urban population fuelled by the Industrial Revolution, an alternative option to parochial burial was introduced, namely interment in extra-parochial cemeteries. The earliest cemeteries were privately built, with plots sold to the rich who often built elaborate monuments to themselves and their families, creating necropolises of the dead. Municipal cemeteries were soon to follow throughout the nineteenth century as urban expansion continued, often taking up many acres of space on the outskirts of towns and cities. Consequently, maps and plans showing the plots where people were buried were created by the authorities in charge of each cemetery. Many of these are now deposited at local record offices, though some material may still reside with the cemetery today.