RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Essex => Topic started by: helvissa on Thursday 07 October 10 09:28 BST (UK)
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Hi all,
I didn't want to post this in the resources section because I've only just started the website and so it's not a particularly useful resource currently!
I've got several microfiche of parish registers for Essex (and Suffolk) and as there's really not a great deal online for the parishes I'm interested in, I thought I'd rectify that! (and being born in Essex, I suppose it's a tribute to the county I grew up in). I'm a librarian and I run a couple of sites so it seemed like a natural thing to do, really (I work in the same building as several microfiche readers so you can guess what I spend my lunchtimes doing!). I was inspired in part by a site I found for parish registers in Somerset:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~colinsgenealogy/Udevsite/
I thought it was really nice of Colin to put all that online, and I found it very useful when looking for my Somerset line - so I thought I'd give something back and fill some gaps in online provision of Essex records.
This is a work in progress and once I've come up with a snappy name for it I'll change the header, and there's other bits and bobs that need to be tweaked, but so you can see what I'm up to, have a butchers here:
http://helvissa.com/parishrecords/
So far I've got Great Bromley baptisms 1800 to 1806 online (I'll do the name indexes later), and I've got permission from Acton in Suffolk to publish transcripts of their records. I'm waiting to hear from St Osyth and Weeley if they'll give me permission to publish the transcripts online. I'm going to be getting some records for Great Horksley, West Bergholt, East Donyland and Layer-de-la-Haye, at some point.
The reason I'm mentioning this now is because I was wondering if anyone had any transcribed records that they would like to see hosted on the site? Obviously we'd need to seek permission from the parish, and of course I would credit you. I really think that sharing is key to genealogy, as this forum amply demonstrates! So I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone is interested in being part of this project. Even if someone has microfiche they'd be willing to lend me to transcribe myself, that'd be awesome. Do let me know!
Thanks,
Helen.
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Update:
Great Bromley baptisms, marriages & burials online from 1800 to 1812.
I now have permission from Weeley so baptisms and marriages for Weeley have been transcribed from 1813 to 1837, and are being added to the website.
(Great Bromley seems to be on the IGI, but I personally find it very hard to search on there!).
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Hi Helen.
You're doing a great job - more power to your elbow.
Regards, David
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Thank you! :)
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well done you ;D ;D
ronnie
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I've done a Weeley spouse index for marriages 1813 to early 1837 (http://helvissa.com/parishrecords/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101:weeley-marriages-name-index-1813-1837&catid=37:marriages). The full transcriptions are going up gradually but if anyone sees a marriage that's not up yet and wants the full details of it, please let me know.
I'm going to do more Weeley, from 1787 for baptisms and burials (as they're available digitally up to that date) and marriages from 1752. Just waiting for the fiche!
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Update
St Osyth have given me permission to include their registers in the project so those will start appearing soon. It'll be marriages 1754-1812 and baptisms & burials 1781-1812.
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You are doing a good service I find Great Sampford is lacking in baptism etc on the web.
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Update
St Osyth have given me permission to include their registers in the project so those will start appearing soon. It'll be marriages 1754-1812 and baptisms & burials 1781-1812.
Hello,
It is lovely to see that you are putting these records online and I am looking forward to seeing more going up.
I have been asked by a member of The St Osyth Hostorical Society to ask you who gave you the permission? I hope you don't mind me asking, but the society has not been informed about your work.
Kind regards
Terri
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Update: I've got permission to do East Donyland (Fingringhoe) and Greensted-juxta-Ongar as well.
matron123: well yes, I've found other people's online transcriptions very handy so I knew that it would be worth doing some myself so other people could use them too.
pinkgardengnome: the fiche come from the archives at the Essex Records Office, but in order to gain permission to put them online I had to ask the originating church (who I suppose still own the records in some sense). In all cases, I've had to contact a representative at the church. In the case of St Osyth, they raised the issue at a parish meeting and they gave me permission.
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Thanks for the reply. I will pass on that to the society, no idea why they didn't know about it then.
Really good luck with all your work.
Kind regards Terri
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I suppose it would depend if they had anyone at the meeting? It's just a formality really.
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Keep up the good work. Every little helps in tracking down our ancestors. :)
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I see you have Quilters in Essex - I've got lots in St Osyth if you're interested? I've got some Quilters too - I think in St Osyth or Weeley.
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Hi
The furthest I have got back is Nathan Jackson Quilter born about 1752 in Rettendon in Essex. I and some other researchers have not yet found a baptism but with a name like that it shouldn't be hard looking in any unindexed parishes.
Ben
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This is a great project! I am doing a transcription project just for one church, and that takes an awful lot of time!
If anyone is doing West Hanningfield and the surrounding villages, I'd be really interested in helping if they were on microfiche.
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Ben: there's several Quilters in north-Essex that I've found (and am descended from!). He might be there, maybe?
Lisa: Yes, doesn't it! I do about half an hour to fifteen minutes using the microfiche reader at work in my lunch hour (the perks of working in a library!). Then of course there's the typing up! Actually - I could put your West Hanningfield transcriptions on my site (attributed to you of course), if you wanted to share them? I had an email from someone yesterday who'd found their ancestor in the Weeley baptisms - he was stationed in the barracks there and she hadn't known (and he was baptising a child she hadn't previously known of). She just found it by googling his name and his regiment! It's nice to know people find it useful.
An update on what I've been doing. I've concentrated on finishing off St Osyth, so I've transcribed baptisms and burials 1781-1812 (I've put 1781-1799 online so far), and I've started transcribing marriages 1754-1812 (1754-6 online so far).
Greensted burials: I've transcribed 1813-1911, and 1813 to 1846 are online so far. These are quite interesting as they sometimes include cause of death. The life of an 'ag lab' was quite a perilous one - someone died falling off a wagon of hay! :(
A-Z surname indexes: Great Bromley baptisms 1735-44 & 1800-12, Weeley baptisms 1813-1824, Weeley marriages 1813-1837
I've just ordered some pre-1812 Wivenhoe fiche so maybe I'll be able to include them in the project too.
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Hi
I am also researching the Watty families of Essex. I would think Nathan Jackson Quilter's mother maiden name may have been Jackson or a grandparents maiden name.
Ben
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I'm putting together a strays page (http://helvissa.com/parishrecords/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=143&Itemid=64). These are events in the parishes covered by the project involving people stated as being from outside the parish (mainly marriages but there's some burials and I think there'll be some baptisms as well!).
It includes villages and towns around the places in the project, but also includes some places in Suffolk and London.
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I think you understood my message a bit - the church records I'm transcribed aren't from Essex I'm afraid. But, if there's somewhere I can see the scans, then I can do a bit of transcribing for Essex.
Lisa
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Sorry, I was going on West Hanngingfield being in Essex! ;)
I've only got the registers on fiche so haven't got any scans - but thanks for offering!
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Something has occured to me - would ERO mind us transcribing the scanned records on their site? Obviously someone (me?) would have to get in touch with them about it. But it would make it easier for people to use those scanned images. Hmmm....
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I assume you are talking about the online parish records at www.seax.essexcc.gov.uk under 'Essex Ancestors'. If not, then check them out. Many parishes in Essex have the early original parish records online, like 1560 onwards to various dates. Some are difficult to read but you do get used to it. There is something special about finding ones ancestors written in the original records. The LDS church is also busy transcribing Essex records (and many others) through the familysearch indexing program. Anyone can register to help with this, you don't have to be a member or particularly good at genealogy, just careful. and you can do it at your own pace, as much or little as you want, all from home.
Sorry, I didn't mean to sideline your post, just didn't like to think of hours of work being done in duplication.
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I actually find the familysearch site impossible and irritating to use so I don't give a stuff about what they're up to. And I don't particularly like the idea of my ancestors being turned into retrospective Mormons.
And yes, I do mean the Essex Ancestors bit. What other bit would I mean?
ah well, shan't bother anymore then. that's me told.
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*deletes website*
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Don't give up! I also agree and don't like using Family Search. I've found loads of errors and odd family members appear without any siblings, etc. I also don't like the idea of my ancestors being made mormons.
Keep up the good work!
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Please don't give up. My only concern was that you might be unaware of other Essex projects. The SEAX records are great but they are not indexed or transcribed as yours are so your efforts make life so much easier for so many others.
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Some of the SEAX parish registers go up to 1800. Although only a select number of parishes do. Most go up to about 1760ish.
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It's alright, I didn't delete it.
Sorry for having a tantrum! *is embarrassed* :-[
It's hard to know what other projects are going on - would I have to join the Essex Family History Society? I spose maybe I should....
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Glad you haven't deleted it! Don't worry about having a tantrum either!
Anyway, it doesn't really matter if you duplicate something that someone else has already done. So many errors happen during transcription - look at FindMyPast & Ancestry - how many times do you find something on one and not the other when it should be on both!
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I wasn't feeling very well at the time... I'm ok now...
I got an email from someone the other day who googled the name of one of their ancestors and the regiment he was in, and it brought up the page on my site with his daughter's baptism on it as the second hit on Google! She was pleased as she didn't even know the existence of that particular child. I think people use Google a lot to search for things - I don't think it'll necessarily bring up things which are in databases but will on webpages.
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Be good if SEAX released later records for Romford. It would be handy to get Romford burials online after 1750 as I may have found a Merritt/Merret connection there. I have tried parish register sales websites but nothing yet for Romford.
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I think that the more people who put their stuff online - even duplicates - is just going to make things easier for people who aren't mobile. Once I've finished renovating the house and have actually moved in, then I would like to set up my own website with all my family history related stuff on it. It may be useful to someone else!
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I am doing my Essex transcribing for FreeReg and they have permission for their volunteers to transcribe from the SEAX site so I am sure that is possible for others too.
Helvissa you are doing a great job, if we all do a bit we will benefit the whole genealogical community.
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Will you be having anything on Little Clacton, in Essex, as many of my relatives orginate from there.
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It's great to see some Essex parish records put online. I'm looking for records of my Lindsell relatives from Braintree and Bocking, particularly the marriage of James Lindsell (baptised 28/3/1802 at St. Mary's Bocking to a Hannah ? and their children James 1823, William 1827, Elisa 1829, James 1831, Sarah 1834, Frederick 1836 and my direct ancestor Charles b 1840. They lived in Braintree in 1841, and some of their father James' brothers and sisters were baptised at St. Michael the Archangel Braintree. If you're not doing Braintree and Bocking, do you know of anyone who could look them up for me because the dates are pre 1841 census, and I live in Sydney Australia, so can't easily get there to search myself, and so far they're not online. Regards, Kathy.
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From Boyds marriage index
James Lindsell
Hannah Cole
1822
Braintree
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I have been hunting for years for the birthplace and parentage of my 4x great grandfather. His name was JOHN HORNBLOW and he is supposed to have been born in Halstead in 1743 but there is no sign of him - and I paid SEAX some years ago and recently trawled through the parish register on-line and cannot find a trace of him or any HORNBLOW family anywhere in Essex.
His orbituary says John's family were of the 'established Church' so I presume Anglican, and sent him to London as an apprentice - he became the Baptist Minister in Braintree from 1779 until his death in 1816 . I have found five of his children and know what happened to his widow and his daughter Sarah who became Mrs George Moore...
There seems to be a connection between him and a gentleman name Ebenezer Hornblow, in London but anable to establish what the connection was, this gent witnessed a family marriage in Debtford in 1816....
BUT! But! BUT I would really like to find the origin of Reverend John.
Have you any Hornblows in your records for Essex?
Have you any ideas where else I might look.
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Hello Helen
I have been stuck for several years with the parents of Sarah Theobold born 1814 Weeley per censuses. I did a search for Weeley parish records and found your excellent website and thanks to your hard work there is Sarah baptised 26/06/1814 with parents details.
Thank you
Gary
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Gary
From the Weeley registers.
Marriage
9th August, 1813
Joseph Theobald,bachelor and bricklayer
Hannah Cudmore, spinster
both of the parish
by banns
witnesses
Jonas or James Starling
John Nightingale = he signed on several marriages.
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Hello Sue
Thanks for the post. I have also found this marriage on Helen's site. Helen has transcribed Sarah as Pudmore.
Do you also have access to the original registers?
Regards
Gary
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Great job being done here.
Any chance that Dedham might be involved?
Myself and others have been searching for the birth record of Henry Hitchcock born circa 1792 ( Could be any time between 1790 and 95) in Dedham. He later moved to Kent where he married and every census he is recorded in puts his place of birth as Dedham, Essex.
But no trace of that birth can be found.
Regards
Tom
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Tom
Searched Dedham baps from 1780=1810 and couldn't see any Hitchcocks at all.
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Thanks very much for trying Sue.
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Good to hear that you are adding to ,what are very sparse, Essex records, but I wonder if you will have a link to The Online Parish Clerks sites?
http://essex-opc.org.uk/
I don't think that any records are duplicated as yet. The more the merrier!!
My line is William Craswell Census states Epping 1813 and possibly Henry 1811 .
Spring
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To Springbok
From the Epping registers.
William Criswell/Creswell
born September 22nd and baptised November 1st, 1812
son of
James and Mary.
or
William Cranwill
born May 15th and baptised June 14th, 1812
son of
James and Mary.
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Henry Creswell, born January 5th, baptised March 17th, 1811
son of
Henry and Mary
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Thank you so much Sue, that is the first hint I have had .....looks as if they are unrelated or cousins ..I'll wait until you are further forward to see if James and Mary come up in earlier records.
Spring
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Springbok
I searched Epping baptisms from 1788-1820 and there were no more Creswell/Craswell baps.
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Kind of you Sue. Thanks.
Spring
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Great work you are doing. You have a question mark against Avis Wendon in Gt Bromley baptism 1812, you can erase it, she had a daughter & g.daughter both Avice. . I have a Thorrington census of 1811 & one of Beaumont 1821, would they be of interest to you?
I have two Weeley questions. Where were Weeley Barracks & which regiments are noted in the marriages of 1806? I have Maria Newman marrying Joseph Bothroyd 27th May 1806. With that name I am assuming he was a Yorkshireman stationed in Weeley. He & his wife seem to have been posted elsewhere, leaving my ancestor Sarah Bothwright sic behind. If I can trace a regiment I'm in with a chance of following them.
If you're a local girl & old enough you may recall the natives being called Weeley Whoopers, in the fifties it was as usual to say Whoopa as hallo. Does that ring a bell? Well my wife is spanish & she thinks it came to Weeley via soldiers who had been in the Peninsular Wars. Aupa is spanish for "Come on".
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Wow, thanks to you I found that my soldier had died & that his widow remarried in Weeley,don't know how I missed it at Chelmsford! Can't thank you enough.
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Are you likely to include Catholic parish records at some point? Chelmsford/Great Baddow area? :)
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I would like to be another rootschatter to congratulate you on your efforts.
I'm in my 80's so travelling around is past me now.
On-line record searching is my main source of info now.
Best wishes
Denis
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Hi Helvissa,
Just thought I'd add my congratulations to the others, haven't any ancestors around the areas you are transcribing but at a later date, who knows.
Arny regarding Aupa, I served in Gibraltar where both English and Spanish are spoken, a fellow squaddy told us that Wupa (as we pronounced the word and up as in supper) meant something along the lines of beautiful/pretty/gorgeous. So there we were saying/shouting to any good looking girl in Gib or Spain we fancied (we were after all just common soldiers and young) "come on" thinking we were praising their looks, I'm not sure if "come on" can be construed as that. :o ;D ;D
Regards.
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Hi just caught this thread,pleased you are putting these records online,I noticed somebody asked if you were going to put the Catholic records online,you would be a miracle worker if you did as all the parish records are still at the local church,there are no Catholic records at SEAX .
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Hello,
I haven't been on here for a while (I had a bit of a tantrum - oh dear!).
I'm changing the way I'm doing the transcriptions now so that I'm putting them all on FreeREG (my own site capsized and I lost some of the work I did... most annoying!).
I'm mainly concentrating on the Tendring district because my own family tree has led me there, and I've put on FreeREG transcriptions for the following places:
Great Horkesley
Greensted-juxta-Ongar (burials)
Harwich (marriages)
Kirby-Le-Soken
St Osyth
Tendring
Weeley
Wix
I'm about to start Thorpe and Great Oakley.
I've started a new site, called www.essexandsuffolksurnames.co.uk (a long url, but heck, that's what's on the site!). I'm not putting the transcriptions on there (I'd have to reformat them and there's 1,000s of them! So it'd be time-consuming) but I *am* going to put up surname indexes, so for example, if you're looking for the Littlewood family, you'll find out that they lived in (or were associated with) Tendring. It should help whether you choose then to search the database at FreeREG or if you decide to comb through the scans on SEAX.
I'm also putting on there transcriptions of wills, settlement certificates, examinations, that sort of thing, interesting historical stories (like on Weeley Barracks, the Wix poisoning cases of the mid 1800s, unusual things from parish registers like ag labs struck by lightening and polydactyl babies) and then the beginnings of a Nunn one-name study. I might also put up transcriptions of some pre-1841 Essex censuses.
Regarding the Catholic registers, I don't have any plans to transcribe those - sorry! I'm just doing the ones which I have access to either online or on microfiche. I live in Birmingham so I've never actually been to ERO, but I will one day.
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Hi Helvissa,
I came across your post and just wanted to say thank you in advance for all your hard work. I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated by those of us not able to travel to the records office and that have been frustrated in our searches for Tendring district information online.
Soo
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That's ok! I've found other people's transcriptions websites quite helpful, so I wanted to help other people too and share the research I've done. :)
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Yeah, thanks from me too. I'm doing some parish register transcription too, but now I have a six month old daughter, things have slowed down somewhat. Thanks for taking the time and effort to help us. I can't wait for you to do the parishes I need.
:-)
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That's cool! Which parishes are you interested in?
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Thaxted, West Hanningfield, Ramsden Bellhouse and the villages inbetween. But mainly the first two.
:-)
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As a newcomer where can I see the Gt Bromley marriage records
I have looked at "helvissa.com" but I only see 3 listed for 1809.
Are all of the parish records you have so far documented on the Helvissa web site
alan
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Hi Alan,
I've got rid of that website - the transcriptions are now on www.freereg.org.uk where you can search by surname. It's for the years 1800-1812. However, as there's not that many entries for that period, here's the Excel version. It should be fairly obvious which column means what:
http://essexandsuffolksurnames.co.uk/ESSGBRBA1.xls
Hope that helps,
Helen.
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Oh - sorry! Those are baptism, not marriages. I haven't done the marriages yet, but I think there's some coverage in the marriages on findmypast.co.uk
If you know the names and have a rough idea of the time frame, I don't mind having a look for you.
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Hi Helen
many thanks for your links, but alas no success
I am looking for the marriage of
Robert Beales from Combs, Suffolk b 1783
to
Hannah ? b 1783
Marriage date approx 1819/20
I did find a Robert Beales at Gt Bromley but he came from Doneyland ( Rowhedge area) but I have no record of the Robert I am seeking ever living there
When you get the time, a glance at your records would be much appreciated
alan
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Had a look at the marriage register just now and no Beales marriages 1813 to 1826.
Could I ask what makes you think they may have married there? Did they have children born there?
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Ah! If you search on www.freereg.org.uk choosing baptisms, Essex, St Osyth, you'll find the baptisms for Robert and Hannah's children:
06 May 1810 Hannah
08 Oct 1814 James (surname is spelt "Balls" but probably "Beales")
19 Oct 1820 Eliza (born 17 Aug 1820)
16 Jan 1825 Rebecca
16 Sep 1827 Benjamin & Elizabeth (both buried a month later)
Robert was buried on 06 Dec 1854 in St Osyth, aged 77.
Is this Robert Beales the same Robert who's in St Osyth in 1851, married to Mary Ann, with a son who's a Chelsea pensioner? (and also 1841?)
Ah... I've found a marriage in Great Bromley on 6th February 1809 between Robert Beales, bachelor of Donyland, and Hanah May (of Gt Bromley, marital status not given). Robert signs, Hanah marks. Witnesses both mark: Will Rolf, Sarah May. Although it says Robert is "of Donyland", it still could be your man as he may have moved around. The "of" parish isn't necessarily where he was born.
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Hi,
Is there a way of finding out which parishes are covered?
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Helen
That will do nicely.
The confusion was that dates given on Ancestry were "born" dates
After looking at you freereg site, I now see them as Baptism dates.
As we know born and baptised can mean many years apart.
Now the dates makes a lot more sense
Many thanks for your kind help.
You are doing a great job with these parish records, keep up the good work
alan
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Chiddicks - I presume you mean what parishes are on FreeReg?
Go to FreeReg home page and click on Counties & Parishes http://www.freereg.org.uk/parishes/index.shtml
Scrabble