Tracing Your Pre-Victorian Ancestors: A Guide to Research Methods for Family Historians

By John Wintrip

Tracing Your Pre-Victorian Ancestors is the ideal handbook for family historians whose research has reached back to the early nineteenth century and are finding it difficult to go further. John Wintrip guides readers through all the steps they can take in order to delve even more deeply into the past. Carrying research through to earlier periods is more challenging because church registers recorded less information than civil registration records and little census data is available. Researchers often encounter obstacles they don't know how to overcome. But, as this book demonstrates, greater understanding of the sources and the specific records within them, along with a wider knowledge of the historical context, often allows progress to be made. Most important, John Wintrip concentrates on how to do the research on the practical steps that can be taken in order to break through these barriers. He looks at online services, archives and their catalogues, factors that can influence the outcome of research, wider family relationships, missing ancestors and mistaken identity. Throughout the book he emphasizes the process of research and the variety of resources and search tools that can be used.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Feb 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473880672

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Civil registration was introduced in England and Wales on 1 July 1837. Queen Victoria had ascended the throne only a few days earlier on 20 June, so the period before civil registration can very conveniently be referred to as the pre-Victorian period. I have written this book to offer guidance to family historians tracing their English ancestors in the pre-Victorian period, when research becomes more challenging than after 1837 because church registers recorded less genealogical information than civil registration records and information on exact birthplace from census records is only available for those people who were still alive and living in Great Britain in 1851. The focus of this book is genealogical research in England, where most of my personal and professional research has been carried out, but the same principles are also applicable to Wales, as the systems of recordkeeping in the two countries were virtually identical.

Although this is a book for family historians, it is concerned with genealogy in the traditional sense of establishing relationships between generations, as it is essential to ensure that the correct individual or family has been identified before undertaking any wider investigation of family history. In any case the distinction between genealogy and family history in the pre-Victorian period becomes increasingly blurred as a result of the more limited range of sources available.

Genealogical research involves seeking previously unknown information about specific people, usually concerning the identity of their spouse or parents, and research on each ancestral line proceeds backwards in time in a sequence of logical steps. Some steps may be relatively straightforward, whereas others are difficult or impossible, and the term brick wall is often used to describe the latter category. A brick wall will eventually be encountered for each ancestral line, but some apparent brick walls are temporary obstacles that can be overcome through knowledge of relevant sources and the use of appropriate search tools and research techniques, as well as incorporating external background knowledge to interpret the information in those records that have been found and to identify further sources.

The classic work on genealogical research in England published during the twentieth century, still sometimes found on library shelves, was Genealogical Research in England and Wales, by Gardner and Smith, published in Salt Lake City in three volumes between 1956 and 1964. These volumes were written primarily to assist members of the LDS to research their English and Welsh ancestry at a time when genealogy still had a rather elitist image on this side of the Atlantic, where it was widely perceived as an esoteric and scholarly pursuit for the leisured classes rather than a leisure pursuit for the masses. Genealogy in the traditional sense of constructing pedigrees was only beginning to be transformed into family history as we now understand it, most parish registers were still held in churches, computers with far less processing power than smartphones filled whole rooms, and local family history societies were yet to be established. Nonetheless, the third volume in this set of books (Gardner and Smith, 1964) includes chapters on research procedures that are still relevant today.

Many books on genealogy have been published since the 1960s, but almost all have focused on sources. While still an amateur researcher I noticed that despite the plethora of books describing the sources in which I could potentially find information about my ancestors, very little information was included on how to do research, although Rogers (2008), first published in 1983, adopts a problem-solving approach, and many case studies illustrating sound genealogical research methods can be found scattered in books and magazine articles. I gradually came to the conclusion that this dearth of guidance was partly because genealogical research is far too complex to be reduced to a set of simple instructions, and partly because only a relatively small number of people, mainly professional genealogists with many years’ experience of carrying out research for clients with ancestors from a wide range of backgrounds, are likely to have the breadth of experience necessary to write books specifically on this topic.

The first book on genealogical research methods to be published for almost half a century appeared in 2012, written by professional genealogist Helen Osborn (Osborn, 2012). Genealogy: Essential Research Methods provides an excellent introduction, but I felt that a book for more advanced researchers focusing specifically on the period before civil registration was also needed. Not being aware of anyone else planning to write such a book I began contemplating doing so myself. Although I had not previously written any books for publication, during my earlier career as a librarian in universities I had written many explanatory guides for library users. While recognizing the impossibility of reducing genealogical research to a set of simple instructions, I thought it might still be possible to produce a useful book summarizing the most important principles and highlighting common errors. I began to make notes on topics I thought should be included, based on insights from my personal and professional research, taking into account the kind of background information I have included in reports for clients, questions clients have asked and unsound assumptions they have made, as well as errors I made myself as a novice researcher. My ideas for the contents of a book developed over several years, and when I approached Pen & Sword with my proposal they were keen for me to proceed.

Solving genealogical problems before 1837 often requires using resources available online in combination with original sources and search tools located in specific archives and libraries. I have encountered researchers who have spent many hours searching for information in original sources in archives, apparently unaware that online resources were available that could have enabled them to locate the information they were seeking in a few minutes. On the other hand, by locating specific records in sources only available in archives I have sometimes been able to overcome brick walls in a few minutes that clients had been struggling with for years or even decades. When access to original sources is required, the options available are visiting the relevant archive to carry out personal research if this is practicable, having copies made when specific records can be identified, paying someone else to carry out research, or suspending the research for the time being. This book is not intended for complete beginners but for researchers who already have some experience of genealogical research, so comprehensive descriptions of sources are not included, but specific aspects of sources that can affect the outcome of research are discussed.

Searching for information, however, is only part of the genealogical research process, as any information found must be evaluated and sound conclusions established. It is all too easy in the pre-Victorian period to assume that a record that has been found must relate to the ancestor who is the focus of research simply because the name is the same, the age is about right and they were living in the same place. People sometimes assume that their ancestor who was an agricultural labourer must have been related to the lord of the manor because they lived in the same parish and had the same surname, but such a relationship is very unlikely. Our ancestors lived in a very different world, and interpreting evidence found in historical records requires understanding not only the original purpose of those records but also the historical context in which they were created.

A major consideration in writing a book on this topic has been the issue of terminology, as many of the terms used by genealogical researchers, such as evidence, proof, source and record, are neither defined nor used consistently. More has been written on such topics in the United States, where the production of fully documented genealogical reports has assumed a greater significance. Where there is agreement about how specific terms should be used I have followed accepted practice, but otherwise I have used definitions that I consider are the most appropriate to enable concepts to be understood. Because of differing views about the circumstances in which it is appropriate to describe someone as a ‘genealogist’, I have used the generic term ‘researcher’ to refer to anyone investigating their own ancestry for their own interest.

As the number of Jews in England and Wales in the pre-Victorian period was small and the sources are specialized, there is no mention of research on Jewish ancestry in this book. I have used terms as they were used in records at the time, so refer to first names as Christian names and the birth names of married women as maiden names. Dates between 1 January and 24 March before 1752 quoted in examples have been converted to new style format.

Commercial organizations entice people to pay subscriptions to access their online records by giving the impression that genealogical research is easy, which it can be for more recent generations. Research in the pre-Victorian period, however, is both complex and challenging, and in many respects resembles academic research. Although sound genealogical research is more demanding than many people realize, it can be made slightly easier with appropriate guidance. My aim in writing this book has been to provide such guidance, and I hope that it will help you in tracing your pre-Victorian ancestors.

Chapter 1

THE CHALLENGES OF PRE-VICTORIAN RESEARCH

Genealogical research has been transformed since the millennium, with a huge amount of information now available online, which continues to grow at a rapid rate. Professional genealogists employed by television companies spend many hours locating elusive information on the ancestors of celebrities, but the resulting programmes give the impression that it is all a breeze. Online subscription services have invested millions of pounds in digitizing and indexing records, and need to draw in vast numbers of customers to recoup their costs and make a profit by enticing you to pay a subscription to ‘find your ancestors’. Even relatively inexperienced researchers may be able to harvest a significant amount of ‘low-hanging fruit’ in the period after 1837 by using resources now available online.

Rapid progress is often possible when carrying out research on a family with an uncommon surname, or one that lived in the same village for several generations, giving the illusion that genealogical research is like assembling a model from a kit in which all the parts have either been supplied or can easily be identified and ordered, and it is simply a case of fitting them all together. Sooner or later, however, each researcher will encounter a brick wall, or unintentionally avoid it by incorrectly associating a record with an ancestor because it was the only one they could find. In the latter case they may continue with their research oblivious to any errors until they find a pedigree, devoid of sources, showing that this family, who weren’t their ancestors in the first place, was descended from royalty, and then gleefully add all these supposed ancestors to their family tree. This is quite common, as well as being understandable, and I made such mistakes myself as a novice researcher.

Some people give up research when their subscription expires or they have exhausted what they can easily find online, but the interest of others is kindled and they may join a local family history society, read books on family history, attend talks and classes and start visiting local archives. Having gained further experience, researchers may then return to their earlier research and prune whole branches from their family tree, after realizing that they had incorrectly answered the fundamental question: ‘Does this record relate to my ancestor?’

The problem of misidentification arises largely because virtually none of the records used as sources of information in genealogical research were originally created with any anticipation of their future use for such purposes. This is not always apparent to researchers and may be of little consequence in straightforward post-1837 research, but becomes increasingly relevant when carrying out research in the pre-Victorian period.

1837: BEFORE AND AFTER

Many reforming changes took place, or were initiated, around the time of Queen Victoria’s accession in 1837. Events of significance to genealogical research in the decade around 1837 include:

• The Great Reform Act of 1832, which reorganized parliamentary constituencies and broadened the franchise, the first step in its gradual extension to all adults, only finally achieved almost a century later.

• The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which replaced the system of parish poor relief which had existed since Elizabethan times with a system based on Poor Law Unions and workhouses.

• The introduction of civil registration in 1837, which not only required the registration of births and deaths, but also permitted Protestant Nonconformists and Roman Catholics to marry in their own churches and civil marriages to take place in Register Offices.

• The census taken in 1841, which was the first to record the names of all household members.

These and other changes have led to a significant difference between the sources available for genealogical research before and after 1837. There are several major complementary sources for genealogical research in the period from 1837 onwards:

• Civil registration records, in which birth records include the mother’s maiden surname, and marriage records include the names of the fathers of the bride and groom, and often their ages.

• Census records, which include the abode at the time of the census, and the age of each person. Only the 1851 and later censuses recorded the exact place of birth of each person and their relationship to the head of the household.

• Church baptism records and church and cemetery burial records, which can supplement and corroborate information in civil registration birth and death records.

Sources in the pre-Victorian period are much more limited, and the above list is now reduced to the following:

• Parish and other church registers, containing baptism, marriage and burial records.

• Census records for people still alive in 1851 and living in Great Britain.

The description parish registers refers to registers of Church of England parishes, and other church registers, both Protestant Nonconformist and Roman Catholic, are often referred to as nonparochial registers. The generic term church registers will therefore be used in this book to refer to the registers of all denominations. The information recorded in church registers was much less than in civil registration records:

• The mother’s maiden surname was not routinely recorded in baptism registers and the mother’s Christian name was not always recorded before 1813.

• Marriage registers did not routinely record the ages of the bride and groom or the names of their fathers.

• Burial registers before 1813 did not routinely record age at death.

Although information from the 1841 census can often be useful, the 1851 census is more critical to solving genealogical problems because it was the first to record exact birthplace. The proportion of people still alive in 1851 diminishes with each previous generation until eventually no information on birthplace from census data is available. Some people were no longer living in Great Britain in 1851 as a result of voluntary and assisted emigration in the early Victorian period. The majority of the 160,000 people transported to Australia between 1787 and 1868 had left before 1851.

After carrying out research on one or two generations in the pre-Victorian period not only is no census information available, but the genealogical information recorded in church registers is limited and not necessarily sufficient in itself to enable relationships between people of different generations to be established with certainty. In many instances church registers could have served such a purpose for several decades after the records were made, because relevant unrecorded information could have been supplied from the personal knowledge of people who were still alive at the time, but this would have been lost when the last of those people had died, unless it had been recorded elsewhere, such as in a family bible.

The stark reality that the records used in genealogical research were rarely created in anticipation of such future use becomes increasingly apparent in the pre-Victorian period. Research now often resembles trying to construct a model from a kit in which not all the parts have been supplied, some parts look so similar that it is virtually impossible to identify the correct one, and the availability of the missing parts from other sources is uncertain.

Researchers who have already traced their ancestry back through several generations will be aware that the basic process of genealogical research for each ancestral line involves working backwards one step at a time. A single step in this process is sometimes referred to as a genealogical question, research question or genealogical problem. The word question suggests that a definite answer is likely to be possible, whereas problem implies that it may or may not be possible to find a solution. As the latter situation more accurately reflects the outcome of research in the pre-Victorian period, the term genealogical problem will be used in this book.

The two essential sources for post-1837 research are the GRO indexes and the decennial censuses, which have now been available through online subscription services for several years. Although the transcriptions of these sources and the search facilities vary from one service to another, large online subscription services such as Ancestry, Findmypast and The Genealogist are competitors in the provision of these two key resources, so researchers are often able to carry out post-1837 research reasonably effectively with a subscription to only one, supplemented by the purchase of relevant birth, death and marriage certificates. In the pre-Victorian period, continuing to use only one online subscription service may result in some ‘low-hanging fruit’ being found, but genealogical research in this period generally requires not only the use of a wider range of sources but a completely different approach.

The characteristics of genealogical research in the pre-Victorian period can be summarized as follows:

• The amount of genealogical information recorded in church registers is usually minimal, and not all church registers have survived.

• The solving of genealogical problems often requires additional information from sources other than church registers, and is sometimes possible using other sources even in the absence of church registers.

• The sources of information available for each individual or family are largely dependent on their social, religious and occupational background.

• It is usually necessary to use a combination of sources available online and original sources only