Researching Norfolk Parishes

Have returned to working on parish registers in Norfolk, England. I recently rejoined the Norfolk Family History Society. NFHS has a large number of their own transcribed Norfolk parish registers and memorial inscriptions accessible from their website through their Norfolk Online Record Search [NORS]. All their online records have now been cross referenced to what we already have on Sterry WorldWide. I will now be trawling through any Norfolk parish registers on the Family Search website that have not already been checked through other sources. These are being done in simple alphabetical order for all baptisms, marriages and burials 1700-1780 and have so far been checked up to Great Massingham.

The Sterry Family of America 1670-1970 by Walter Smith now online

This seminal book on Sterry Genealogy has been published online as an ebook by the Genealogical Society of Utah aka FamilySearch.

Copyright free the entire book of 368 pages in pdf format can be freely viewed online or downloaded

https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1018560

The Connecticut Clan, Descended from Roger, of Stonington by 1670, and the Maine Clan, Descended from Samuel, of Ipswich [Mass.] by 1753, with Mention of Other Sterrys and the Family in England Back to 1190 [Sturry]) by WALTER BURGES SMITH.

Printed privately in Israel for the author.

Researching Wills in Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire

I am currently researching the STARY/STARIE family of Burford and Corely in Shropshire, Knighton-on-Teme and Neen Sollars in Worcestershire and Stoke Bliss and Stoke Prior in Herefordshire. Although this sounds as though they are spread over quite a large area, in fact they are all within about 15km of where they appear to have originated in Burford, as the following snip from a googlemap shows.

It so happens that almost this entire area, although covering three counties, came under the Diocese of Hereford as far as pre-1858 probate records are concerned and the Episcopal Consistory Court of Hereford in particular.

There is a very useful Family Search wiki article on the Episcopal Consistory Court of Hereford. The wiki very conveniently cross references to Family Search films that can be ordered online and viewed at your local LDS Family History Centre.

The titles of the films indicate fairly clearly what they contain. Here are some I have looked at so far, with some excellent results: see Stary/Sterry Herefordshire Wills.

Original Wills, Administrations, Inventories Court of the Bishop of Hereford 1579-1631 [LDS Film 91671]
Original Wills, Administrations, Inventories Court of the Bishop of Hereford 1602-1623, 1631-1650 [LDS Film 91672]
Probate Indexes and Abtracts, Court of the Bishop of Hereford 1662-1669 [LDS Film 1647469]
Registered Wills, v.17-18, 1709-1714 [LDS Film 91597]
Registered Wills [Court of the Bishop of Hereford] 1709-1714 [Film 91597]

The series 91632-91679 are Wills, Administrations and Inventories 1540+-1660+  proved at the Court of the Bishop of Hereford. Apart from the probate declaration at the end of the document, they are in English and are indexed. They are arranged by letter of surname and year range. However,  some of the years are out of sequence. Some are organised by particular surnames.

The series 91588-91621 are complete, registered Wills from 1663-1858 proved at the Court of the Bishop of Hereford. Apart from the probate declaration at the end of the document, they are in English and are indexed. They are arranged by letter of surname and year range. Note however that the index and the Wills they refer to may continue over two films.

The series 1647469-1647653 are only abstracts proved at the Court of the Bishop of Hereford from 1662-1858 and contain only very limited information, such as the most recent parish where the testator lived and the names of the executors.They are also in Latin. However, they are useful as they effectively provide a combined index to Wills and Administrations from 1663-1858.

There are two series that I have not looked at. Films 91680-91716 contain Administrations and Inventories from 1662-1736; films 91622-91628 contain Act Books from 1662-1858.

An Index to Wills proved in the Bishop's Court of Hereford 1442-1579 [Film 990127] is also available.

Apart from the Family Search collection, there are two published indexes for the Court of  the Bishop of Hereford that can be referenced at family history libraries and some record offices - if you're lucky enough to have one that is accessible.

Calendar of Probate and Administration Acts, 1407-1550 in the Consistory Court of the Bishops of Hereford, with an Appendix of Abstracts of Registered-Copy Wills 1552-1581, ed. Michael Faraday, 2009

Calendar of probate and administration acts 1407-1541 and abstracts of wills 1541-1581 in the court books of the Bishop of Hereford, ed. M.A. Faraday and E.J.L. Cole, British Record Society, 1989.

But the Wills they refer to in the above indexes evidently no longer exist.

There is a long-standing project by the British Record Society to produce a consolidated index to all records in the Episcopal Consistory Court of Hereford and  the Consistory Court of the Dean of Hereford [that covered parishes in Hereford itself and nearby parishes] up to 1700, but this is currently unpublished.

Of course it's one thing to locate a probate record; it's not necessarily an easy task to read it - especially if it's pre-1700 and partly in Latin. But it is possible to teach yourself with enough determination and patience.

And I have found quite a few online resources to help me do this.

But I'll leave that topic for another post!

Guild of One-Name Studies Australian Seminar

Attended the first GOONS Australian Seminar last Saturday, October 27 in Sydney, organised by the New South Wales Regional Rep for NSW, Karen Rogers.

Speakers included Heather Garnsey from the Society of Australian Genealogists [Sydney], Richard Merry [Regional Rep for South Australia], David Evans [Regional Rep for Victoria], Michael Mitchelmore and Karen Rogers.

Apart from a rare opportunity of meeting face-to-face with others who shared a passion for researching a particular surname worldwide, I found the presentations by Richard Merry and David Evans the most personally useful.

Richard gave an overview of the latest information on using Y-DNA [the male sex chromosome] as part of a One-Name Study. Amongst a lot of information, he recommended a very useful site Eupedia-Genetics: http://www.eupedia.com/genetics/

Although I have been running a STERRY DNA Project for over three years myself, there is always so much that you don't know and so much more to learn.

David Evans gave an overview of how the Guild works. There are no many support services now available as a member of GOONS
http://www.one-name.org/

that it was great to be reminded of all that is on offer, especially online. David's presentation has certainly stimulated me to have another look at their excellent website, including a fairly new section called Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness where members can offer to help other members. As someone living in Australia with strong research interests in England, any offers to do look-ups in county Record Offices is a great boon to my own research.

Although Heather's presentation on the resources available at the Society of Australian Genealogists [SAG] was for me very much talking to the converted as I have been a member - and indeed a sometime volunteer - for many years, there is always something that is forgotten. During her talk Heather mentioned the TROVE Newspaper Archive of the National Library of Australia.

This is indeed a fabulous site for genealogical research. The number of newspapers, especially country and regional newspapers, that have now been been digitised and can be searched for particular names online is prodigious and is being added to all the time.

Although this site is not new to me, I checked it again when I got home and was surprised how much new material had been added. I had one particularly excellent find: an item on my g.grandfather, William Sterry from 1891. It appears someone stole his horse and cart from right in front of his bakery at Smith St, Collingwood in Melbourne, Victoria. Although I knew that my g.grandfather was indeed a baker in Melbourne in 1891, I previously had no idea where his shop was located. This opens up a whole new area of research!

Thanks Karen for organising a most interesting seminar.

Locating Wills in England before 1858

After parish registers, undoubtedly one of the most valuable source records that are available to anyone undertaking family history research in England are probate records.

But knowing where to look for Wills before a civil system was introduced in 1858 has always been tricky. Wills could be 'proven' in any one of a number of ecclesiastical jurisdictions depending on where the deceased's property was located.

And even if you knew which ecclesiastical court applied, indexes of Wills in regional and district courts are few and far between and/or difficult to use.

In my own STERRY research I found many years ago that Wills proven in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury [PCC] were the best indexed and most readily available. [Wills were proven in the PCC if the deceased had property in more than one ecclesiatical diocese.]

These days indexes of PCC Wills can be readily searched online and the copies of original Wills from 1462 to 1858 downloaded for a small cost.

And now, thanks to the Familysearch Wiki, locating Wills in Episcopal and lower courts is also much easier.

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/England_Probate_Records

The range and number of  indexes and original probate records in England that have been filmed by the LDS is awesome and so far I have only begun to scratch the surface.

Allthough I live in Australia, I can order these probate indexes and original Wills through my very handy and local LDS Family History Centre at a very reasonable cost.

I am currently researching Wills mainly in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire and I plan to share my journey via the Sterry Family History blog over the coming months. I hope you may find what I learn of interest in your own research.

More as it happens .....

FreeREG - a forgotten resource?

I have been further exploring the availability of Norfolk, England parish records online and recently came across a site I have of course heard about for years but have quite forgotten to check for a very long time. It perhaps doesn't get the publicity and acknowledgement it deserves.

FreeREG aims to provide free Internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial records that have been transcribed from parish and non-conformist registers of the U.K. FreeREG is a companion project to FreeBMD (a database of the GRO birth, marriage and death indexes from 1837) and FreeCEN (a database of census information).

The number of Norfolk FreeREG parishes included in their searchable database is astonishing and represents an enormous effort on the part of volunteer transcribers.

http://www.freereg.org.uk/parishes/nfk/

So anyone interested in tracing their families in Norfolk have a fabulous resource in FreeREG.

I understand Norfolk is particularly well covered in FreeREG but other counties are undoubtedly worth checking. I believe Lincolnshire also has particularly good coverage.

FreeREG doesn't allow you to view the actual transcription. There is a separate search engine for baptisms, marriages and burials. There is no provision for any wildcards so all variants of a surname have to be entered separately. Because many transcribers place a '?' after doubtful entries, the site also recommends searching for the surname and variant of interest together with a '?' to ensure you pick up those entries. The search engine does provide for 'soundex' searches that will pick up variants - but this also produces an awful lot of surnames that are of no interest at all. And of course if the surname is completely incorrectly transcribed, it's almost impossible to find it!

Although it doesn't contain anything like the number of parishes included in FreeREG, the Norfolk Transcription Archive is also well worth a look. This archive conveniently lists all the surnames found in its database. This is very helpful in picking up strange and unexpected variants.

Additions to familysearch.org

I am always amazed when I check the latest additions to the LDS Family Search website.

They must have an army of volunteer transcribers judging by the amount of transcribing and indexing that is happening. The site is a 'must check' on a regular basis.

In addition to the transcribing of source records and offering them on their website for free, the LDS are entering into sharing arrangements with a surprising number of commercial sites. The arrangement seems to vary from company to company and the material that is on their site is still free to view - it just may not be complete. You may need to pay something to their commercial 'partner' to obtain the full detail of a particular entry.

A good example of this is BMDregisters.co.uk. You can search and view enough of the entry to be useful but if the entry has particular interest and you want to see every detail available, then you'll be offered to link from the Family Search site to the BMDregisters site and buy some tokens to view it. This is actually pretty good value and an excellent arrangement. BMDregisters specialise in non-conformist records that can be incredibly difficult to find so they provide a unique contribution to available online records.

This is the way I worked it. I went to familysearch.org: 'Browse By Location' links on left column and selected the Europe and United Kingdom as my present interest. This brings up a huge number of available collections. Some are transcribed records and some are still just image collections that need to be 'trawled' through year by year and page by page - just like viewing a parish register on a microfilm reader at an LDS Family History Centre.

I then clicked on the top of the Last Updated column to bring up the latest additions by date order. This gives me their latest additions.

The England, Norfolk Parish Registers, 1538-1900 is a stunning example of the digitising of entire parish registers and placing them on-line. The only way I could view such original parish registers previously was to either fly to England from Australia and head for the local Record Office or order in the microfilm and view it at my local LDS Family History Centre - which in fact I have been doing on a very regular basis for 15 years. This is just a wonderful development and thousands more will follow. The LDS has a hollowed out mountain in Salt Lake City, Utah with hundreds of thousands of microfilmed parish records from countries all over the world.

The England, Essex Parish Registers, 1538-1900 collection are transcribed records - one of many collections that we can thank hundreds of volunteers for transcribing. Nowhere yet complete of course but still substantial. It is updated as new transcriptions are added.

The England and Wales, Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8) is an example of where Family Search has entered into a sharing arrangement with a commercial company to provide the records free on line. There are now a huge number of non-conformist records available for searching on the BMDregisters site so being able to view enough of each entry to know if it's worth paying for the full entry is a huge bonus. It's worth knowing that RG6 records are all Quaker records as a large proportion of the available records are indeed Quaker. So if you're not interested in Quaker ancestors, that will reduce the number of records to check considerably. It's also possible to cross reference the RG number to the film that is available on the LDS Family History Catalogue. If the only piece of additional information you need is the chapel where the event occurred, this is a way of finding it without needing to pay for it. But if the record is of any significance, then you'll certainly want to open the purse strings.