Discovering Family Memorabilia

In my post of October 21, 2014, I wrote on a story told by a new acquaintance, John Farnham, about changes to the rules about driving on the left-hand side of the road in New Brunswick, Canada. John also told me about an experience his sister, Shirley O’Neill had with respect to reuniting a family with a long-lost piece of family history. The details of that event were published in the Friday, May 21, 1999 edition of the Saint Croix Courier in St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

A few years before, Shirley had come across an old family Bible in an antique store that had been converted from an original old school house. The Bible had been donated to the school and left on the preserved teacher’s desk. In examining the Bible, Shirley found it contained a number of names written in the family statistics section for the family of William and Margaret (Purdy) Murray. She copied the names from the Bible and took them to the Charlotte County Archives, where she had been volunteered her services. Unfortunately there was no match to any name in the registers. But Shirley hung on to the piece of paper on which she had written the names and filed it away with her own genealogical information. For years, she kept asking anyone named Murray about the family but never found a connection.

Then one day in 1998, a letter arrived at the archives office from Carole Confar of Santa Barbara. California. Carole was looking for information about her great-grandfather, Alexander Murray who was married in 1885. On checking the list again, Shirley found the marriage had been recorded in the Bible. Instead of just writing to Carole, Shirley telephoned her to let her know she had come across the family Bible. Carole was so excited she phoned all of her relatives up and down the coast of California.

Many stories about the Murray came to light through conversations with Carole. According to the article in the courier, “[a]pparently three Murray brothers – William, Alexander and James – came to Canada from Scotland and their father gave them the family Bible to bring with them.” They eventually settled in the St. Stephen area and operating businesses together and in partnership with others. William died on board a ship while returning to Scotland around 1888. Alexander moved to Winnipeg after the First World War. James stayed in St. Stephen where he raised a family of 12 children. One of the Murray children, a son Hugh, became an insurance agent. He was the last family member living in the area and appears to also have been the last to have possession of the Bible. Hugh had no children of his own and it was turned over to an antique dealer, with his other effects, after his death.

Carole contacted Marcie Garrymore, owner of the antique store, and they came to an agreement about obtaining the bible. In May 1999, Carole and an aunt, Patricia Sharp, travelled to St. Andrews to collect it. During their trip to New Brunswick, Carole and Patricia met with Shirley, Marcie and other members of the community, including Joe Flewelling, owner of the insurance business previously run by Hugh Murray. He had many stores to tell them about the family. The Mayor of St. Stephen, Allan Gillmor, had them to dinner at his own home, which coincidentally had once been occupied by Hugh Murray. Both Carole and Patricia were overwhelmed by both the discovery of an important part of their family history and by the kindness and hospitality shown to them by all the people they met.

This is one of those real, feel-good stories that genealogists often experience, putting people together with important memories and memorabilia of their history.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

The Value of the Printing Press to Genealogists

According to Wikipedia, “The world's first known movable type printing technology was invented and developed in China by the Han Chinese printer Bi Sheng between the years 1041 and 1048. In Korea, the movable metal type printing technique was invented in the early thirteenth century during the Goryeo Dynasty. The Goryeo Dynasty printed Jikji in 1377 by using a similar method. . . The invention of movable type mechanical printing technology in Europe is credited to the German printer Johannes Gutenberg in 1450.”

The latter, of course, is particularly important to Western Civilization, not to mention historians and genealogists. The expansion and use of Gutenberg’s printing press made for very quick set-ups of pages using moveable metal type and allowed the printing of thousands of pages per day. Copies of inexpensive books by leading scholars and religious leaders of the day, including the Bible, and textbooks for many subjects, were produced in large quantities resulting in widespread dissemination of knowledge and education of the masses, until then something only available to a few in the elite classes.

The first English-language book was printed in 1475. By 1500, printing presses in use across Europe had produced tens of millions of copies of books of all types.

 

Woodcut of a printing press in use around 1568; downloaded December 30, 2014 from Wikipedia: “At the left in the foreground, a "puller" removes a printed sheet from the press. The "beater" to his right is inking the forme. In the background, compositors are setting type.”

What was also made possible was the keeping and distribution of many types of records, not the least was information about births, marriages and deaths. While, for many decades and centuries afterward, parish records continued to be the main source of genealogical information, over time such records could be collated, printed, stored and made available to a large audience. Eventually even the Churches had printed forms on which to record names and dates.

 

The diffusion of the moveable-type printing press; downloaded December 30, 2014 from article by Jeremiah Dittmar titled Information Technology and economic change: The impact of the printing press. (2011).

Widespread printing carried with it the need for standardization in the spelling of common words and names and a consequent increase in literacy. People learned to recognize (read) and reproduce (write) their own language and, of course, their own names and with that, began to identify themselves on paper in a consistent manner. The English language underwent significant structuring as a result of the explosion of the printed word carrying with it the requirement for regularity of spelling, grammar and definitions. The first Dictionary of the English Language was published by Samuel Johnson in 1755, which became a hallmark in the organization of the language.

Most genealogists may find that consistency in spelling of their family names began with the spread of printing presses, the profusion of books available and the increase in literacy. What other aspects of normal lives might one envision happened with people having increased access to books and newspapers?

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

Finding and Using Apprenticeship Records

In tracing English ancestors, important information about individuals and their families may be contained within apprenticeship indentures. I learned quite a lot about them in another course presented by Stuart Raymond of Pharos Teaching & Tutoring Limited titled, appropriately, Apprenticeship Records.

Such documents often contain a wealth of data including, among other things: the names of the Apprentice and his or her parents; the name of the Master, his occupation and his address of residence or business; the trade, of course, in which the Apprentice was being trained; the term of the apprenticeship; wages to be paid; names of other parties to the agreement such as parish representatives, local poor law overseers or charity representatives, witnesses to the signatories of the agreement; and the any of term considerations by the Master, such as a job offer or support to join a guild. Many children were put into apprenticeships by parish officials such as Poor Overseers in an attempt for their own advancement and to get them off poor relief.

Copies of actual apprenticeship indentures may be found in a wide variety of places:

·         Local record offices

·         The National Archives (TNA)

·         Family papers

·         Records of Poor Overseers

·         Guild and union records

·         Charity records

·         Family history and other historical association publications

·         Library, museum and university files

·         Court records

·         City or town archives

·         General searches of the internet

One can search the records of the TNA or related sites directly. A general search for “apprenticeship” from the Home page brings up 185 results as a starting point to look for further files. Starting at the main Discovery page of TNA, a search for the term presently brings up 78,909 results which can be further broken down by date, parish, family names, etc. Of these, 2,442 are TNA files from records of 63 different government department collections, of which 181 can be downloaded directly. A whopping 76,467 are from other archives tied into the TNA website. These include local and county records offices, archives across Britain, societies, museums, trade organizations and universities. Copies of any of these can be ordered.

Many other websites and directories, such as Access to Archives (A2A), Archon and the National Register of Archives (NRA), have now been incorporated into the Discovery section of TNA. Archives Hub remains as another source of historical documents and information worth checking out.

As part of the Apprenticeship Records course, there was one exercise in which we were to source an apprenticeship indenture and produce an abstract of it, describing all of the information about the particular Apprentice.to find a suitable indenture, we first did a search of Google Images and searched for “apprenticeship indentures”. Hundreds of examples come up from which to select. You might try such a search for your own ancestors as a starting point.

Anyway, for this assignment I found an interesting document about an apprenticeship to a wig maker. I have no wig makers in my family so I was curious about this particular occupation and the people involved in it. From the Google Images search I later tracked down the indenture that had originally been posted on a website about the music hall and theatre history in London, dedicated to Arthur Lloyd (1839-1904), actor, comedian, singer, songwriter and music hall performer. So I had lots more information about how individuals in this particular occupation were employed.

 

An Indenture for the apprenticeship of Louisa Taylor to William Clarkson, Wig Maker, in 1886 - Courtesy David Sweetman, Great Grandson of Louisa Taylor, who, according to the 1911 census at the age of 38, was still working as a Wig Maker; downloaded January 19, 2011 from http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Backstage/ClarksonWigs.htm

The indenture has a great deal of information about Louisa Taylor: her residence address; her father’s name, the wages she was to be paid; and the obligations of both her and the Master, William Berry Clarkson. The requirements of the Apprentice shown appear to be standard terms, as part of printed form, with blanks filled in by hand reflecting the gender of both Apprentice and Master. A hand-written note was inserted into the printed form concerning wages to be paid and amounts are hand-written at bottom of document. This suggests that Clarkson wanted an assistant as much as an apprentice.

On a page of this site dedicated to William Clarkson there are photos of the former location of Clarkson’s Wigs on Wardour Street (previously Wellington Street), London, including one of a plaque commemorating “Willy Clarkson 1861-1934”. William Clarkson was quite a famous individual apparently. A search for any surviving papers of Clarkson’s estate might reveal more details on the occupation of wig maker as well as on individuals taken on as apprentices.

Part of the assignment was to source other information about the people, in particular the Apprentice. Using the notes on the indenture and the descriptive information on the Arthur Lloyd website, I was able to find census data on Ancestry and FindMyPast for Louisa and her family from 1881 through 1911. The censuses give data from which birth information might be found and certificates ordered for Louisa, as well as marriage certificates for her parents, Charles Taylor and Rosina Louisa Cullen (her maiden name was determined from the 1891 census when Charles’ mother-in-law was living with the couple). A further search of FreeBMD showed they were married in the December quarter of 1863 and registered in Lambeth RD. It appears, at first look, that the births of their children were registered in Strand RD but a search of Lambeth RD records might also be done.

An additional search of FreeBMD for Louisa came up with a marriage of Louisa Taylor to Ernest Sweetman in 1894. We saw on the Arthur Lloyd website that the indenture image was contributed by Louisa’s grandson, David Sweetman. The 1911 census showed Ernest, Louisa and three children. It also listed her as a wig maker confirming this was the right family. Interestingly, her daughter was also described as a wig maker.

 

1911 England Census – showing the family of Ernest James and Louis Sweetman; copyright The National Archives (image downloaded December 23, 2014 from Ancestry)

I did not review all of the local parish registers for additional family members but those around the addresses shown on the various censuses would be worth looking at. Copies of birth, marriage and death certificates could also be ordered from the General Record Office.

It was an interesting course. I recommend it. The assignments gave me an appreciation of the information that is contained on such documents as apprenticeship indentures proving one should not leave any stone unturned in the search for our ancestors.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

Merry Christmas to all the readers of this blog. Time to put away the genealogy now and concentrate on our families that will join us in celebrating the holiday season.