Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest

Taken from the manuscripts of Rev Charles Kerry (vol 10)

Family Trees, Pedigree, or lineage – are they the same, different or simply different things to different people?

A family tree is something that I produce when I am researching. It is a rough drawing of who sits where in the family group, on occasions, the group has overlaps, siblings marry siblings, strengthening the relationship or connection with two families.

It might have some basic information, perhaps a birth date, a source might appear as an abbreviation, a place where something happened represented by an initial or two. For me this is a work in progress, it helps me think and I frequently have more than one version – each version is dated. The versions appear as I perhaps move notebooks, or perhaps I take one individual, then move them to a page of their own and build their tree.

The image at the top of this post is repeated below in a larger format.

Taken from the manuscripts of Rev Charles Kerry (Vol 10).

I talked yesterday about the Budd family. This is a pedigree that was drawn by the curate of Puttenham Surrey, Charles Kerry. Kerry kept a series of manuscripts, which included things told to him by parishioners, information from parish registers and little antidotes, for example, he refers to my several times great grandfather, Richard Budd as having a fine tenor voice. Richard Budd was born in 1742, there is no way that I can think of that I would have known that fact, had someone note written that down. It is the little details like that, which takes a pedigree and turns it into something resembling a family tree.

Here is another example of a family tree created using pen and paper….

Butcher “Tree” – created Julie Goucher, 1993

Drawn in the format of a rough mind-map it puts people where they should be, adds in varying information – dates, places, occupations, legal/inheritance/taxation information. 

A pedigree is names, dates and perhaps places. It is a document that shows the ancestral pathway of an individual, their parents, siblings, and ancestors. If you look back at the first image, you will see that under the Budd family, Kerry mentions the word pedigree. As I said, different things to different people.

A Lineage Society is essentially researching direct descent from an ancestor; ancestry or pedigree; there is a list of some of the Societies HERE. You could think that my research with Henry Budd was an example of this, and perhaps it is, however, what makes it different, is that I have researched the Budd’s which includes some which is not related to me. I have not researched every individual or family with the Surname Budd. Usually with Lineage Societies you provide genealogical evidence with sources cited and pay the subscription fee to join.

A One-Name Study or Surname Study as defined by the Guild of One-Name Studies, aims to research ALL instances of the surname wherever they appear globally and across all dates. There is no time constraints as to when the study goes global – think marathon, rather than a sprint!  The reason for the remit to be global is because of migration.

There are “micro versions” or “focus studies”, where people are researching all of a particular surname in a county, or two, or perhaps all the people with a specific name, for example Henry Budd.

For my own Butcher One-Name Study, I have devised that I will work through material in batches, essentially following counties that are neighbouring, as that typically means migration paths. For me that is Surrey and Sussex which is where my own family hails from. Then I am moving to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall and so forth. For Countries outside of the UK, I am focusing Australia, beginning with Tasmania, New South Wales and Western Australia. That does not mean I have not deviated from my plan, sometimes the research itself dictates a path way.

Julie Goucher, 2019 using wordcloud.com

Regardless of what research you are undertaking, every separate fact contained within a document should be individually recorded into a database, and subsequently, every fact should be supported by evidence.

The evidence documented with the citation, which subsequently can be seen/obtained from…..

Let me provide an example:

Below is an extract from the Practicalities of a One-Name Studies course which I wrote and tutor for Pharos Tutors and Teaching. The document shows two certificates, both representing the same event: Marriage of 2 April 1902 of Charles Jelley and Edith Annie Matthews which took place in Guildford, Surrey.

Each fact, such as occupation of the groom, address of both bride and groom, ages at the time of marriage, occupations of their fathers are all recorded as separate facts within my database for each individual.

Whilst both certificates show the same event, they are different source documents, with different citations. Copies of both certificates can be viewed or obtained in different ways. Furthermore, there is a difference between both certificates, can you spot it?

© Julie Goucher, 2025, Certificates from personal collection of Julie Goucher – Extract from the Practicalities of a One-Name Studies (903) Pharos Course

In addition to that, there is a reference list, which might be saved as footnotes or end notes, or in a separate section, a repository list and a bibliography.

Sources themselves can be defined as three different types:

• Primary Sources – identified as something written at the time an event took place, or soon after the event. 
• Secondary Sources – identified as something written about an event.
• Tertiary Sources – identified as something written, as a summary that incorporates both primary and second sources.

The point of evidence is that it gives credence to claims made. It means that future researchers can follow the pathway to events, substantiating or not, earlier research.

One thing to remember is, person A can undertake research and provide evidence of all claims made. However, person B might verify the research of person A, but also have a document that person A is completely unaware of. Does that devalue the research of person A? I think not, but I would go a stage further.

In a perfect world we would try to find as many sources as possible so to verify a fact, or to disprove one. We might have a hypothesis, something we think could be the case, or might be so. We might have reasoning because we know records have not survived, as far as we are aware. An example of this might be:

My several times great grandfather, Henry BUDD married Martha OTTWAY in 1723, in the parish of Chertsey, Surrey. They settled in Puttenham, Surrey and raised a family of eight children, I descend from Richard BUDD who was their second to last child, born in 1742. The family thrived in Puttenham from 1724 onwards, but there is still more work to be done.

Two things of note are:

1:- Upon looking for Henry’s birth, I spot a reference to Henry Budd made by the curate of the time, Charles Kerry. The reference states that the baptism of Henry’s eldest child, Martha was “first of the Budd’s” I had already deduced that from a thorough viewing of the parish registers. Thus, Henry came from elsewhere, but where?

In 1720, Henry is witnessing a marriage in Elstead, which is just a few miles from Puttenham. A further search revealed that it was likely that Henry came from a family of Budd’s just over the border into Hampshire; the parish of Binsted. At this point I had not undertaken a more rigorous search

2:- By complete chance, I came across a reference from Sussex Family History Group, where the identified some marriages that had taken place between grooms from Sussex to brides in Surrey. A look down the list, and I spotted a Daniel Budd of Lurgershall marrying Alice Willson in 1704 in the parish of Peper Harrow, a village within a mile or two from Puttenham.

Is Daniel connected to Henry? I have a few ideas and hunches. I have created a timeline of information relating to both Daniel and Henry. What is clear, is that the material relating to Peper Harrow parish is scanty prior to 1837.

In closing today’s post, evidence is vital and at this point I cannot say with certainty that I have located all instances relating to this family of Budd’s, but I do have a hypothesis, and that is the best I can do.