The April issue is OUT and the Across the Pond column continues with the featured look at occupations, especially those carried out in the City of London.
The March issue looks at the Worshipful Company of Grocers and can be found on pages 7 – 10 of the magazine.
To subscribe to the magazine please visit The In-Depth Genealogist website.
This lovely building, once a mill still stands, and is now a rather lovely and authentic public house in the rural Surrey village of Elstead.
I have an ancestor, Sarah Ellis (nee Hall), born in London who moved to Elstead and is recorded on the 1851 Census as a lace worker. Sarah and her husband John migrated from Elstead to Geelong Victoria Australia as free settlers.
Last September, I attended the funeral of my late Mum’s first Cousin. His son held the wake (family gathering) at Elstead Mill public house and was completely unaware of the family connection.
I discreetly took a few pictures.
Elstead Mill plaque. Taken September 2014
Elstead Mill – with the wheel still working! – Taken September 2014
The original brickwork at Elstead Mill. Taken September 2014
There was something very special about standing in a room, watching a wheel turn not just with the nineteenth century technology, but knowing that Sarah Ellis and had watched this exact wheel turn in this exact spot more than 160 years ago.
You can see who else is participating in the A – Z Challenge by clicking HERE
Anyone who lives in the Guildford area will be familiar with the business of Dennis Brothers. Originally from Devon the brothers moved to Guildford and set about building bicycle spares.
A few years ago I spotted this ashtray, which does show signed of use. As I was writing this post I came across the website for The Dennis Society, which was new to me. On that page it shows a picture of the Rodboro Buildings which for all my childhood was derelict despite being sited on some prime real estate. In fact it has only been in the last twenty years that the building has taken on a new lease of life and is the home of the Academy of Contemporary Music.
Compton is such a pretty village. My Great Aunt lived in the next village and on occasions we would walk from Farncombe to Compton Church Once there we would sit in the pews for a rest, then wander around the grounds before heading back to Farncombe to visit my other Great Aunt. Our reward for a few hours in the fresh air was tea and coffee cake which was my favourite.
On one such walk we spotted a small antique shop. We had to wander in and see what delights they had, and every now and again my Aunt would comment “we had one of those” referring to her childhood home. I purchased a book from that antique shop on one of our last walks. The book was the Philimore Surrey edition of the Doomsday Book, which I still have and is shown here and I notice there is now a website about Surrey in the Doomsday Book and there is a Doomsday Map site.
As usual we stopped at the church on this particular day, and Aunt noticed that there was confetti still on the ground from the previous day’s wedding. She picked one up and gave it to me, in the shape of a horseshoe and in a pretty pink colour. I still have that horseshoe piece of confetti, which sits nestled into the cover of the book.
My Great Aunt died in December 2010 aged 95 and was the last of my Grandfather’s siblings.
You can see who else is participating in the A – Z Challenge by visiting the participants lists at www.a-to-zchallenge.com
By coincidence I am back from the Guild of One-Name Studies conference. The theme was Collaboration. Cooperation. Communication. Which sums up nicely researching in the twenty first century. There were various presentations throughout the three day event and I presented on blogging using blogger which is rather fitting!
You can view the various sessions at the Guild’s YouTube Channel
The Book of Me theme for C gave three ideas – Collaboration and Collateral and Cards. So today I can going to briefly tackle two of the three!
We all can research in isolation, but we will achieve so much more if we collaborate with others and share our hypothesis, ideas and findings. How can you collaborate in the modern genealogical world?
You can see who else is participating in the A – Z Challenge by visiting the participants lists at www.a-to-zchallenge.com.
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| Book of Me Copyrighted Julie Goucher |
More details can be found about the Book of Me and the A – Z prompts HERE
A lovely little village on the main A281 out of Guildford towards the Sussex border. Early on in my career I worked in this cute village. That though, was not my only link to the village. My 5 x Great Grandfather, Daniel Butcher was baptised here, along with that of his siblings in the first two decades of the eighteenth century. 
You can see who else is participating in the A – Z Challenge by visiting the participants lists at www.a-to-zchallenge.com
Back in the Spring of 1990 I was visiting an elderly relative, who was the first Cousin of my Grandfather. Their Grandmother was Caroline Ellis (1844 – 1935) of Puttenham, who was my Great Great Grandmother
The cousin’s daughter had married the Grandson of a chap called Job Ellis from Elstead and found it somewhat amusing that perhaps the Ellis connection was stronger than we first thought.
Over a tea and chat I was presented with a birthday book and it is this book that is transcribed here, written in the order the details appear in the book.
Owner identified as Adelaide Underwood May 14th, 1776
Harriett Street 1852 Jan 15th
Marjorie Ellis Jan 27th 1910
Frederick Street 1857 Feb 2nd
Herbert Ellis Feb 23rd
Frederick Street 1882 April 1st
Emma Street 1854 May 3rd
Annie Underwood 1854 June 6th
John Street 1859 Oct 5th
Adelaide Ellen Underwood 1853 Nov 7th
Annie Street 1886 Dec 3rd
Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing and I have often wished that I had photographed the birthday book. I can’t even recall what it looked like now, which is rather disappointing.
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| Book of Me Copyrighted Julie Goucher |
More details can be found about the Book of Me and the A – Z prompts HERE
You can see who else is participating in the A – Z Challenge by visiting the participants lists at www.a-to-zchallenge.com
Aldershot is in Hampshire, and is well known for it’s military presence. You can read more HERE. My Great Great Uncle was stationed here in the late 19th Century as he was in the Medical Corp, or as it is known now the Royal Army Medical Corp (RAMC), who are located at Keogh Barracks and there is a regiment museum located in Aldershot still. You can see their web site HERE.
You can see who else is participating in the A – Z Challenge by visiting the participants lists at www.a-to-zchallenge.com
Over the course of the coming month the Guildford and District blog will be taking part in the April A – Z Blogging Challenge.
Each day a post will be published representing the letters of the alphabet – 1st April is A, 2nd April is B and so forth. The only exception is there is NO post on Sunday!
Long time readers of this blog may recall I have previously shared what is my genealogical postcard tool – this postcard shows a 10 mile radius of Guildford. Not all the places on this postcard will be shared over the coming month. There will be some previously shown favourites and some new ones!
So stayed tuned! You can see who else is participating in the A – Z Challenge by visiting the participants lists at www.a-to-zchallenge.com
As a family historian it is vital to analysis the information we discover. It is not enough to look at the information once, and that process should be a consistent theme as we research. Just because we read something does not mean what we have read is correct, nor does it mean the same thing out of context.
Our research is a journey to the past. That journey begins with a single step and each journey we take becomes easier as we become more familiar with the names, places and people we are researching and as we understand the context we are researching in.
My Great Uncle died in the mid 1960’s and is buried at the municipal cemetery at Guildford. When my Cousins started researching they had problem locating this entry in the General Registration Office (GRO) indexes. For some reason a full copy of his birth certificate was not in the family. All my Uncle’s siblings were located and yet he was not, and his birth dated back to 1906 – his siblings were born between 1900 and 1917.
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| Taken by Julie Goucher, May 2007 |
When my Great Aunt died she was interned with her husband and the headstone changed. Family records showed that Uncle was given the year of birth of 1907 which was incorrect. It had been calculated from his age at death, but was a year out based and proved using biology. Uncle was born in Dec and my Grandfather, the next sibling was born in March – gestation is as we know nine months and I had the birth certificate and numerous other documentation which confirmed he was born in March 1908, so Uncle was born in December 1906 and not 1907 as the headstone indicated.
A further search was done in the neighbouring registration districts to Guildford, and eventually Uncle’s entry was discovered in Hambledon registration district in Dec quarter 1906. So why was there are difference between him and other siblings? The address was the same. The reality is that no one knows the answer, My Great Grandmother died in the early 1970’s, so she outlived her son be several years.
The reality at this point was this. Births usually happened at home. In this instance Wanborough Surrey. All my Grandfather’s siblings were baptised in Wanborough and the registration district for all except one was Guildford. I looked again at the date that the registration of my Uncle took place. It was early December, and according to the Monthly record report from the Meteorological Office, December 1906 it was cold, windy and there had been instances of snow and sleet.
My Great Grandmother, who had already buried two of her six children born between 1900 – 1906 would have wanted to protect her children as best she could. Therefore it is likely that decision to record the birth in Hamledon registration district was logistical – Godalming was nearer than Guildford. Perhaps they had secured a lift on the back of a cart.
But what if the birth had not happened at home? Perhaps the birth occurred whilst visiting another household, and the birth recorded in the nearest registration district with the baptism in the family parish. Whilst that did not happen in this instance, it is absolutely possible which means that any time a place of birth is required, the individual could quite unwittingly records the place of birth incorrectly based upon what they believe to be true and let’s face it would the individual would not recall their birth, just what they are informed by their parents and read on the official documentation.
We should be analysing the discoveries we make, even using non genealogical sources to assist us.
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| Book of Me Copyrighted Julie Goucher |
More details can be found about the Book of Me and the A – Z prompts HERE
You can see who else is participating in the A – Z Challenge by visiting the participants lists at www.a-to-zchallenge.com
The Anglers Rest blog first went online at Blogger in 2002. At the time of transfer, the counter was at 349,463.
It was moved to this site on 18th December 2015 when the counter was reset -:(
Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest 