OneGuyFromBarlick

Interesting!

Yes, and when you start dipping back beyond 1800 it's easy to forget how different life in England was at the time. That sank in for me when I posted that observation of a parish register baptism record which stated that the mother had `seven previous bastard children'. My first thought was that she must have been up to mischief with most of the men in the village but after more thought I realised there are other explanations. Perhaps she and a man had been happily living like husband and wife but never having bothered getting married, especially if it was when you had to pay a tax for it. Or they'd been married elsewhere but the local clergy didn't recognise the marriage. You were at the mercy of people in power in those days!

"You were at the mercy of people in power in those days!"
I think the victims of the Post Office in the Horizon scandal would say that is still true!

I'm surprised that Ancestry don't offer the 1921 census but apparently Find My Past does have it. I wonder why the difference?

Tizer wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 16:46 I'm surprised that Ancestry don't offer the 1921 census but apparently Find My Past does have it. I wonder why the difference?

It's because the National Archives chose Findmypast to digitise and publish it. 3 years work!

Thanks. I did a bit more googling and saw something saying Ancestry was working on its own 1921 data. Perhaps we'll see it in 3 years time!

Typically, I've been side tracked from trying to find my South African ancestors by the easier job of tracing those of my cousin's husband, Mark. All going well, mostly father's in Blackburn and mother's in Nottinghamshire. Then an odd record popped up and I find that in 1960 one of his mother's relatives got married in Lima, Peru - then she had a baby there in 1961. I could work out some of the Spanish on the certificates and the husband and wife were both from Blackburn. Mark's away at the moment and I'll interrogate him when he comes back!

There's an 'add on' in Firefox which will translate from any language into English, even foreign character sets such as Cyrillc, Arabic, or Mandarin. Very impressive - you just highlight the text, and click on a link marked A and there it is in English. If the text is contained in a document, you may have to retype it, to be able to highlight it.

PS - Sorry just noticed that you have worked out some of the Spanish text, but the advice may be useful to others.

Yes, it's always good to have the information. In this case we're lucky because the relative concerned recently got a holiday flat in Spain. Also communication is so easy these days that he can send a copy of the image to one of his new Spanish friends for translation. This crazy modern world does have some benefits!

I found hardly any of my South African relatives on Ancestry even though I had their exact birth dates. You and Wendy suggested FamilySearch and I found many of them on that site. I've also found some more of my Lancashire ancestors who hadn't turned up on Ancestry. On Ancestry I chased ancestors of my cousin's husband and he was excited when we found one who'd been in the British Army and with his family in India in the 1800s. One daughter was born there. Also I found one of his uncles had been in Lima, Peru, in the 1960s, got married there (to a Lancashire lass) and had a child born there. My cousin knew the uncle had worked abroad and was involved with textiles. Ancestry provided me with images of the marriage certificate and birth certificate - in Spanish! Fortunately my cousin takes holidays in Spain and understands the language.

Tizer wrote: ↑13 Feb 2024, 16:58 Yes, and when you start dipping back beyond 1800 it's easy to forget how different life in England was at the time. That sank in for me when I posted that observation of a parish register baptism record which stated that the mother had `seven previous bastard children'. My first thought was that she must have been up to mischief with most of the men in the village but after more thought I realised there are other explanations. Perhaps she and a man had been happily living like husband and wife but never having bothered getting married, especially if it was when you had to pay a tax for it. Or they'd been married elsewhere but the local clergy didn't recognise the marriage. You were at the mercy of people in power in those days!

Interesting, might have been RC or Non-Conformist. Would be interested to know the actual relationship. Prior to Civil Registration I think there was a time that to be recognised (in law) Marriages had to be via the CofE or am I making that up?

It's expensive enough being addicted to building steam engines without spending £50 on army records. I suppose I should be grateful that my family tree never became a serious matter with me...

Peter, I was struck by your phrase "You were at the mercy of people in power in those days! I suspect that that is still the case..... We are ruled by Jobsworths at times.

Whyperion wrote: ↑08 May 2024, 21:39 Interesting, might have been RC or Non-Conformist. Would be interested to know the actual relationship. Prior to Civil Registration I think there was a time that to be recognised (in law) Marriages had to be via the CofE or am I making that up?

Not making it up. This article explains... LINK

Tizer wrote: ↑09 May 2024, 09:13

Whyperion wrote: ↑08 May 2024, 21:39 Interesting, might have been RC or Non-Conformist. Would be interested to know the actual relationship. Prior to Civil Registration I think there was a time that to be recognised (in law) Marriages had to be via the CofE or am I making that up?

Not making it up. This article explains... LINK

Although Jews and Quakers were exempted from the 1753 Act, it required religious non-conformists and Catholics to be married in Anglican churches.

What this meant - pre 1836 to some extent , and post to a greater is that Some Catholics would marry in secret to Catholic rite, later would re-marry. I have a number of civil records where the english name and latin names were used in catholic churches as well as doubled bishops returns (catholic and CofE) it makes tying things up no less easier, and even more confusing when a quarter of them were marriages in Ireland , where the law was , err, different.

An ancestry offer from lost cousins, ends on Wednesday.

I got a welcome surprise today. A couple of months ago I posted here saying that I'd done what I wanted on Ancestry for now and was in the last month of my 6-month subscription package, so I cancelled it to prevent them extending it and deducting more from my credit card. This morning I received an email message from Ancestry notifying me of changes to the T&Cs. That seemed odd after I'd cancelled the sub. I went to their site and was surprised to find that I could still see my family tree and lots of records. Looked in the My Account page and found that I have a Free Registered Guest Account which I didn't know about. Guest accounts It obviously has limitations but will be useful because I've started helping my cousin do his family history on the free FamilySearch site. So now I can copy over some of our common ancestor data!

That makes a change Peter from the usual story of mining the client for every penny they can extract!
Well done!

Yes, I've found the Ancestry.com web site to be a very honest and transparent web business. You can put in your credit card details and sign up for a short period and then can cancel whenever you like; then start the membership again later and do the same thing as often as you like. As Wendy and Gloria told me, your family tree and saved records remain there when you cancel. Also, their FAQs, guidelines and Help menus are very good and easy to find and use. They could teach many other web businesses a thing or two!

Pity they don't from your experience with the dentist Peter!

I think for my area / family there is a lot of mis transcribed (or missing) names and searches come up strange

Whyperion wrote: ↑01 Mar 2025, 13:09 I think for my area / family there is a lot of mis transcribed (or missing) names and searches come up strange

I think that is the same for a lot of names, especially ones which are a bit different and not heard regularly.