William Dickens

[cherylj]

Ruskie, Trish and Sandy,

Thank you all soo very much for all this fabulous information, I have just got up this morning and read briefly through what you all found.  I cant wait to sit down and gor through it all properly.

I have been stuck with my Frederick Dickens for so long, and couldnt find anything further on his family.  Absolutely brilliant.  What a fantastic forum and of course the people who help on it are even more fantastic.

I do have once question, I note on your marriages that you have "otp" next to their names, what does this mean??

Cheers

Cheryl

[Ruskie]

OTP is Of This Parish, which means that the person had been residing in the parish for a minimum of 3 weeks (I believe it was). The term OTP isn't as useful as you'd hope in tracing someone's origins or birth place, as they could have been born or living elsewhere until recently.

There is a lot for you to digest Cheryl, but how good is all that info Trish and Sandy found?! 

[cherylj]

Thanks Ruskie,

Yes I am getting through it slowly, in between cleaning and looking after bubs.  And your right they have done wonderful work finding all this info.

Cheryl

[cherylj]

Hi Everyone,

I found a marriage for a John Dickens to a Mary Redgrave, on the 14th may 1769 at Boughton, Northampton.

Could this be George Dickens parents??

How does one confirm these things??

Cheers

Cheryl

[seahall]

Looking at the baptism indexes it may be this one for George
as he was noted as 55 in 1841 and no other that fits.

Boughton C of E
16 Oct 1780
George DICKENS s of John &  Mary

Although it can not be presumed to be correct until verified
by other information about the family.

Sandy

[trish1120]

Hi Cheryl,
The further back one goes the harder it is to confirm details.
You are so lucky some of your Ancestors lived to appear on the 1841 Census.

With my Family Tree getting back to mid 1750's and all confirmed, is as far as I have gone.
From there backwards most is sheer speculation unless you are really lucky and find all Christenings to the Couple (which will provide an approx Marriage date) and their Burials (which hopefully has their ages at Death- which then you can find another Christening for them).

Trish 

[cherylj]

Hi trish,

I see your in Australia too, I have just found out that I have researched a line that went back to 1650 Scotland (all confirmed) only to find out that my man's mother was in fact his dads 2nd wife not the first wife as I thought.  So annoyed that I didnt double check my dates.

I cant wait to go to England next year, take all my notes and visit what they used to call Catherine House.  going to spend a whole day in there, and probably a few pounds too.

Ah well, onto researching this mans family, fun fun fun.

Trish can i ask you what you use for research, I have been using the Free Census and BMD sites, also Family Search.  But quite often i dont find much on those.  I dont really want to spend big dollars either for subscriptions.

Cheryl

[seahall]

Hi again Cheryl.

I think I may have confussed you by my repy above.

A brilliant link to the way the 1841 Census was taken is on
this link by Guy Etchells another rootschatter here which shows
that census ages should not be taken as true in some cases.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/04on/

As we had only got to George Dickins marriage I was not sure we
could say the baptism found was his or his parents.

I have taken a lot of information from Parish Records today for
Boughton and some for Brixworth which when I can I will note
here at a later date if they help to clarify things.

There are many records to help folk trace their lineages pre 1837
besides Parish Records.

Sandy

[Ruskie]

I cant wait to go to England next year, take all my notes and visit what they used to call Catherine House.  going to spend a whole day in there, and probably a few pounds too.

Cheryl

Cheryl, You've probably already done this, but you might like to double check what records you are looking for and where they are kept. Many records are now going online and some places have closed down or reduced staffing levels and opening hours, and some places require you to pre-book fiche readers etc, documents may need to be pre-ordered, so you may not necessarily just be able to turn up, and spend a day and find everything you need. Unless there is something specific that is not yet online, such as various military records held at Kew, you may be better conducting the main part of your research online. Eg. if you are looking for birth, marriage or death certificates from 1837 onwards, you may find it easier to purchase from the GRO and have them posted to you. The exchange rate at the moment makes this fairly economical. Also depending on exactly how much research you wish to conduct, you might need to plan for several days to research ... 

I'm not sure if this is where you are hoping to visit?:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

You will have a wonderful time in England whatever you do. If you are able to do so, you should visit Northampton and the villages your Dickins's came from. Have a look at the area on google streetview - it looks lovely.