Family history in Gloucestershire

If you have roots in the Forest of Dean area of Gloucestershire you are in luck - there is a wonderful resource for genealogists at Forest of Dean Family History Pages. FOD-net as it's called contains a goldmine of parish records, memorial inscriptions, photos, surname interests, etc as well as a forum where you can connect with people searching for the same surname or in the same area. The forum is very well-used, so if you post a query you are likely to receive advice and assistance from some knowledgeable people. I have found numerous family members in the transcribed parish records - the search engine is clear and easy to use.

In the same area I have also found Chris Newell's annotated burials for Westbury on Severn between 1889-1895. If you have a relative who died in Westbury on Severn during this period, the Rev. Leonard Wilkinson's marginal notes on the burials make fascinating reading. Usually burial records contain little more than names, ages, and perhaps causes of death - these contain the Reverend's notes on the manner of death as well as some of his thoughts about the deceased.

William Good has transcribed parish registers in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire - he also includes some wills and pedigrees. I found loads of information on my FLUCK relatives here.

Finally, if your Gloucestershire relatives lived anywhere near the Cotswolds, you must visit Allan Taylor's site - it is a goldmine of contacts, listing email addresses and information from people searching for various surnames. I have found several living relatives using Allan's site.

All of these sites show the wonderful generosity of family historians who volunteer their time not only to transcribe local records but also to make then available online. Thank you to all these generous genealogists - I hope you get as much pleasure from knowing how useful they are as we do when we find our relatives in them!

New Search versus Old Search on ancestry.com

Some time ago ancestry.com changed its default search engine from "Old Search" to "New Search". While New Search was meant to be an improvement, in fact it is rather annoying and more cumbersome to use than Old Search. Anecdotal reports from several mail lists that we subscribe to suggest that this feeling is widespread. Given that searching effectively is critical to finding people in ancestry records, I thought it was worth a closer examination of the differences between these two search engines.


Both searches allow you to tick a box that returns exact matches only. This is useful because you can use wildcards to control your search results; for example, if you know your KIRBY ancestors might have spelled their name KERBY, you can ask for K*rby. This is useful when looking for Harr*t (Harriet; Harriett, Harriot, etc) or War*sk? (Warchinski; Warchinsky; Warshinski, etc) or other such variants. 


However, New Search does not allow you the same flexibility with use of wildcards in locations. This is often a useful feature because spellings were so variable in the 19th and earlier centuries. For example, if you are looking for someone born in Pipewell, Northamptonshire on the 1871 census and you use New Search, it fails to recognize Pipewell as a place. Using Pip* fares no better. It does however suggest:

• Pipestone County, Minnesota, USA
• Pipestem, Summers, West Virginia, USA
• Pipestem Valley, Stutsman, North Dakota, USA
• Pipestone, Berrien, Michigan, USA
• Pipestone, Manitoba, Canada
• Pipetorp, Kalmar, Sweden
• Pipe, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia
• Pipe, Braga, Portugal
• Pipe Creek, Madison, Indiana, USA
• Pipe Creek, Bandera, Texas, USA
• Pipe Ridware, Staffordshire, England
• Pipe Springs, Bent, Colorado, USA
• Pipea, Mures, Romania
• Pipeira, Evora, Portugal
• Pipeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

even though you are searching the UK census. 

Old Search is much more straightforward for this - you can put Pip* in as place of birth and it will give you hits for Pipewell or any other place starting with Pip.

Another thing we don't like about New Search is that you have to click back a page if you get no results in order to re-search. On Old Search, the search box remains at the bottom of the page even when there are no hits, so you are not continually clicking back and waiting for the page to reload.

We continue to use Old Search because it is more efficient and we find it faster than New Search. In fact, we can't see why ancestry changed it. If you want to compare New and Old Searches for yourself, look for the small "Go to Old Search" link at the top right of the default New Search page - ancestry appears to be discouraging us from using this option by practically hiding it from view.

There must be some family historians who prefer New Search - are you one of them? If so please comment and tell us why you like it better. And if there are other important differences please let us know! 

Genealogy Message Boards - two favourites

The genealogy community is absolutely wonderful in its helpfulness - there are people all over the world POISED to help you find your long-lost ancestor! I'm talking about Message Boards.

Message Boards are places where you can post questions about all sorts of family history questions: queries about geography, surnames, village names, family trees, and more. If your are looking for other people interested in the surname TREGOWETH (and I am) there is a Tregoweth message board. If you live in Canada but are searching for ancestors in Australia, there are people on message boards who will look up records for you or even go out to cemeteries and take pictures of headstones. If you have questions about genealogy software or where to search next, there are many experienced people who will offer advice. If you have a brick wall and need someone to look at it with a fresh eye, you're in luck. Post your question to a Message Board and you may well get an answer before you've made yourself a cup of tea.

My two favourite message boards are those on rootsweb and on RootsChat. Both of these free sites have an enormous variety of boards organized by topic so that you can post your query to the one most likely to find you an answer. Both are also widely used and very popular so you have a good chance of getting a response. There are lots of other places to post questions, but I suggest these as your starting point.

When you post a question, there are a few tips that make it easier for people to help you. Put the surnames in UPPER CASE. Don't put anything else in upper case though - IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING! Try to be clear about what you already know and remember that names, dates, and places are key. It's important to point out what your questions are, and where you've already looked. People don't like to go out of their way to look things up only to find that you already had that information. Be sparing in requests for free look-ups on sites that other people are paying to use, like ancestry or findmypast. Make sure your question is posted to the right board. And finally, offer help yourself whenever you can.

Genealogy and history podcasts

One of the things I love about my iPhone is that I can download podcasts to listen to whenever I'm in the mood. I've discovered some really good ones on genealogy and other aspects of social history or culture by the BBC. These are free downloads from iTunes and you can listen to them on your computer or download them to an mp3 player:

• Digging up Your Roots covers Scottish genealogy
• Tracing your Roots is a more general podcast covering English ancestry and stories related to English roots
• A History of the World in 100 Objects is exactly what the title says it is! The items such as a Victorian tea set, or a suffragette-defaced penny tell us a lot about our social history and the world that some of our ancestors experienced.
• BBC History Magazine is an enormously interesting look at a wide range of topics in history: the Black Death, the Victorian census, Viking warfare, Edwardian terrorism and Mussolini's love life - something for everyone.

Have you found any other great podcasts for family historians?

Where is Maria Jones?

Maria JONES was my great-grandmother. She married my great-grandfather William WALTERS on Christmas Day in 1885 in St. Silas church in the Lozells area of Aston (Birmingham). She and William had 7 children, including my grandfather Cyril.

Maria is an enigma. According to a cousin of my father (she was Maria's eldest grandchild), Maria was Jewish, born to a mother called Selina or Sarah LEVY. The story had it that Maria's mother was ousted from her Jewish family for marrying outside her religion. None of Maria's children were raised Jewish.

Maria's father, according to her marriage certificate, was Levi JONES, a pearl button maker. I have searched for a marriage of a Levi and a Sarah but cannot find one.

I have Maria in the 1881 census. She is a boarder with the Eli WORWOOD family. I have also found - I think - Levi JONES, pearl button maker, living in the same neighbourhood as Maria. He claims to be married but there is no wife on the census with him, although he does have several lodgers. Levi was with his wife before 1881.

And that is all I can find about Maria in the records available. I have searched the birth records of Aston and Birmingham RDs for all of the Marias born around 1860 - none of them have Levi as a father.  I cannot find Maria in any census before 1881, although I can find Levi JONES and his wife and children. I have followed their families backwards and forwards looking for some connection to Maria. I have looked for a Sarah or Selina LEVY in the censuses to no avail.

I have searched the 1851 religious census of England - that was momentarily exciting because Levi JONES' parents and siblings were listed there as Jewish, however correspondence with the compiler of the census records revealed that they had been placed on the list because some of the children had names that were also common in Jewish families - they have since been removed as there is not one shred of evidence that the family were Jewish and plenty of records indicating otherwise.

I have searched for wills of Maria and Levi to no avail. I have scrolled through microfiche of the parish registers of Aston and Birmingham looking for a stray Maria. I wrote up the story of my brick wall and it was published in Family History Monthly with comments from their expert. I have tried to find out more from my Dad's elderly cousin's son but sadly she passed away recently. I have had phone conversations with another elderly cousin who can add nothing except a vague memory of the name Solly Diamond in connection with Maria. I  have gone off on wild goose chases through the census records following a Sarah LAVEY but can find no connection there either. I have plotted the addresses for Levi JONES and scrolled through census returns in places nearby. 

I obtained a mitochondrial DNA sample from my Dad's female cousin whose mother was Maria's daughter. My reasoning there was that if the DNA sample indicated a haplogroup common amongst Jews, then that might lend some credence to the rumour. However it did not, thereby ruling nothing in or out.

I haven't found a single clue to Maria's existence before 1881.

Levi JONES died in 1886 - he hanged himself in the wash-house as seen in this entry in the Birmingham Daily Post for 22 July 1886. The record from the coroner's inquest sadly does not survive - would it have contained a clue?

Levi JONES's wife was Catherine DEVEY - is this story just a confusion of the names LEVY, Levi, and DEVEY? On the other hand, the name Maria appears frequently in Levi's family tree.

Does Levi JONES have any real connection to Maria? Is Maria Levi's illegitimate child? Was she adopted or fostered  by Levi and his wife ? Adoptions at that time were informal so there are no records to search there. Was Maria the daughter of Levi's wife, or another family member? Levi and Catherine had a daughter Jane who was probably a year younger than Maria - I think I have ruled out the possibility that she and Maria are one and the same but perhaps this is a mistake.

Here is Maria about 1915 with three of her sons in Leicester - my grandad Cyril is the young lad on Maria's left.

I return to Maria from time to time in the hopes that a clue will leap out at me - one day . . .

UPDATE:
More recent research has turned up Maria and her husband William Walters as witnesses to the marriage of Levi Frederick Jones and Harriet Lucy Ford at St. Andrew's church, Bordesley, 7 Sept. 1884. Levi Frederick is the son of Levi JONES (above) - thought to be Maria's father. This is the only sighting that connects Maria to Levi, and seems to confirm the family connection. So it looks increasingly likely that Levi Jones WAS Maria's father. But no records show this and Maria is still elusive.

Looking for military history on Ancestry

In the last post we looked at searching the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. Another excellent source for military service records is Ancestry. If you are lucky, your search will turn up a wealth of information. Here is an example, using my cousin twice removed, Robert Harry WALTERS.


I knew from census data that Robert Harry was born around 1882 in Birmingham. The 1891 census had given Robert's name as  "Robert H. W., while in 1901 he was listed as "Harry".FreeBMD confirmed that his name was indeed "Robert Harry" in the birth registration in the June 1882 quarter in the Birmingham Registration District. In the 1911 census, Robert is listed by both names and lives with his wife Florence Ada and his son Robert Harry in Leicester at 185 Humberstone Rd.


Because of Robert's age I thought it likely that he would have served in World War I so I searched the WWI Military Service Records on Ancestry (you have to have a paid subscription to see the details). I was rewarded with 22 images covering the records of Robert Harry WALTERS born about 1882 of 35 Manington Street.


The original images of Robert's service record show that he signed up in 1915 as a 33 year-old. At that time he was 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighed just 125 pounds and had a 33 1/2-inch chest. His physical development was listed as "fair". He had been vaccinated in infancy. He had several moles, and under the heading "Slight defects but not sufficient to cause rejection" he was described as having stiff big toes. Not an outstanding physical specimen, but good enough for the army where he joined the Bedfordshire Regiment at the rank of Private.

His wife Florence is given as next-of-kin, and it lists her maiden name (PINSENT) and the date and place of their marriage (12 April 1909, 35 Mornington St., Leicester - note the mistranscription by Ancestry of Mornington as Manington). It also shows Robert and Ada as having three children and gives their birthdates - useful! Their son Robert Harry had two brothers: James Arthur and Horace.


Robert was wounded twice in action in France in 1917, injuring his arm and face. There are more details of minor events in his army career, and it appears that everything in his file was included in the imaging because it contains blank pieces of paper as well as the actual records. Robert Harry was one of the lucky ones - his injuries were not too severe and his record is otherwise uneventful. He survived the war and was demobilized in 1919.

The military service records are very informative; sometimes there are pages of details that tell you all kinds of things. You might find that your ancestor was drunk and disorderly and prone to all sorts of bad behaviour! The service records will also give you the regimental number and this is useful if you have someone with a common last name - if you happen to know the number already you can pin down the right record on Ancestry. Having the number makes it easier to check the British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards. These are another source of information available on Ancestry - Robert's shows nothing other than the Victory Medal and the British Medal (these were given to everyone).

After the war, Robert and his family stayed in Leicester. I have traced the descendants of his son Robert into the 1990's - still in Leicester.

Searching The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website has indexed records of over 1.7 million Commonwealth military personnel who died in the world wars. It also contains records pertaining to civilians who died as the result of enemy action.

If you are searching for a relative born between 1880 and 1900 or so and can't find him, it's worth searching the CWGC to see if he was killed in the first World War. Similarly, you can search for relatives who were lost in WW II. The details often give age and sometimes give details of parents and address. This is useful for confirming you have the right person. The results will also tell you his rank, unit or regiment, age, date of death, service number, and information about the cemetery in which he is buried.

The service number and regimental information is also very informative in helping you find more military service records. We'll deal with this in another post.