Author Archives: jenny

Writing memoirs

Posted on August 21, 2012 | 1 comment

I’m really pleased to say I have a won a competition in Family Tree magazine and won a study place on Cherry Gilchrist’s University of Exeter-run e-course ‘Writing Memoirs and Family History’ and a copy of Cherry’s book, Growing Your Family Tree.

The e-course looks really interesting and I really hope it will help me improve my writing style. I’m looking forward to the sessions on Creating written portraits of the people in your story’, ‘The craft of writing: eg structure, tenses, dialogue, story line and presentation’, ‘Caption writing for photos and illustrations and Writing ‘brief lives’ of yourself and others’. There’s also a session called ‘Daily accounts, future heritage: the use of journals and blogs’ which should be really useful as I love writing this blog!

I’m also looking forward to receiving a copy of the book as it’s the only book on the reading list and can’t wait to get started!

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Family treasures

Posted on August 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

I had a quick look in some of my boxes of treasures today. I’m sure we all have them. Boxes of items kept for sentimental reasons. As well as my boxes of photographs and certificates I have two boxes of treasures which include letters, framed photographs, books with written inscriptions, medals, coins and jewellery.

I feel quite lucky to have these ‘extras’ as they all help build up a picture of my relatives. They are great clues to expanding knowledge further than just dates provided by certificates and census returns.

Two of my favourite items are a diary belonging to my maternal grandfather. Although the diary records the dates of the gigs he played in, it also mentions his first dates with the woman who became my maternal grandmother!

I also have a diary written by my maternal great grandmother, dated with lots of family news even though she mainly records which of her many children visited that day.

I will transcribe both and add them here (time permitting).

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Posted in Hacker family, Winchcombe family

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Griffiths Valuation of Ireland

Posted on August 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’ve heard of the Griffiths Valuation of Ireland before and I know they can be quite useful for family historians but that’s all I know.

Somehow I came across the following reference for Killea, County Waterford –

Young Matthew Dunmore Killea Waterford

no dates or amount just an entry

I’m sure this is significant I’m just not sure what it really means or how I can find out more. Presumably it relates to Matthew Young (1786-1855)  who was a Commander in the Royal Navy. Another thing to add to my ‘to do’ list.

 

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Posted in Ireland, Royal Navy, Young family

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Wedding Wednesday – Winchcombe/Day 1945

Posted on August 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

This is a lovely tinted photograph of William (Bill) Winchcombe and Frances Day on their wedding day 25th August 1945. He was the younger brother of my grandfather, Robert Winchcombe.

Winchcombe_Day

I presume this was taken at St Barnabus Church, Swindon.

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Posted in wedding, Winchcombe family

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Smashing brick walls

Posted on June 25, 2012 | 2 comments

I seem to have a few brick walls in my family and I love nothing better than smashing them down. I’m not sure if there are more female than male brick walls, I shall have to make a list someday, but I’ll tell you about my latest breakthrough.

Catherine Young was the wife of Mansel Young. For many years I only knew a couple of facts about her that were due to the birth records of her sons and the 1901 census.

These facts are:

Catherine Young, nee Carroll

Born in Macroom, Cork, Ireland around 1857 – need to find a birth certificate

Married between 1891 and 1895 (as she was not married at the time of the 1891 census and her first son was born in 1895) – need to find a wedding certificate

Her first son Alfred Mansel Young was born at 13 Broad Street, Southsea on 31 May 1895

Her second son Henry Harper Young was born at 37 Addison Road, Southsea on the 8 June 1897

At the time of the 1901 census she was living with her family at 2 Woodland Cott, Woodland St, Portsmouth

Her name didn’t appear in the 1911 census so I knew she had died between 1901 and 1911. It has literally taken me years but I’m pleased to say I finally found her death mentioned as she was listed on freebmd and I ordered the certificate online for £9.25.

She died on 24th February 1909 at the Royal Portsmouth Hospital. The cause of death was strangulated femoral hernia and exhaustion.

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Posted in Carroll family, Young family

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How googling is great for family history

Posted on June 23, 2012 | 1 comment

Although I started my family history research years ago I’m amazed how often I find new results from a quick google of an evening. Sometimes I’ll look at my MacFamilyTree programme to spot any missing entries for marriages or deaths.

Sometimes I think I have all the facts  when there are actually glaring omissions I really should have established at the beginning of my research.

I have a son of a Baronet who was also a member of the Royal Navy in my tree who I can often find information about – Thomas Mansel (1783-1869). However I just realised I had never discovered the date of his marriage to Selina Fleming Leigh.

I turned to google this evening and after trawling through a couple of pages of results I found an entry for Thomas Mansel and Selina Leigh at St James, Birdham, Sussex on the 28th June 1827. I never knew they had a connection to Birdham so that was interesting to discover. The information came from a transcription of the Birdham St James Marriage Register (page 17, entry 49). There weren’t as many details as usually found on a marriage certificate but there was the following:

Thomas Mansel bachelor living in Birdham

Selena Flemming Leigh spinster living in Birdham

Conducted by William Miller

Type Licence

no details for name or occupation of either father

Witnesses William Lush and Catherine Elizabeth Mansel

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Posted in Leigh family, MacFamilyTree, Mansel family, Royal Navy, wedding

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