Category: BMD
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Rogue elements in Uncle Arthur’s past
A marriage that was never mentioned
A marriage that was never mentioned ‘Uncle Arthur’ was known as a “bit of a rogue” in relation to women, according to Dad. There wasn’t anything much to back this up other than he, Arthur William Howes, seemingly didn’t marry until age 50 {1}, and other relations mentioning wandering hands. Although his name came up occasionally, I didn’t form any impression of him as a child, and if we ever visited uncle Arthur and ‘aunt Bill’ in Ipswich I don’t remember it. A recent visit to » »
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Stacking the Deck with more Cutlocks
I have finally resolved, to my own satisfaction at least, the question posed back in March last year in ‘A matching pair of Elizabeth Cutlocks, or the same person?‘. At the time, a key baptism record which had been spotted on familysearch.org by someone else, for Harriet Cutlock born 1837/38 to Elizabeth and Thomas, could not be located on that site. But I was prompted to re-check the other day – after all the site had updated Norfolk and other parish records this year. » »
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The joys of 175 years of civil registration
Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales started 175 years ago today, I’m reliably tweeted by Worcestershire Archives (@worcsrecords). Yes, I have the year 1837 firmly ingrained in my research methods, but hadn’t noted the precise day. A good day to discover an in-law of great aunt Daisy Maud May (nee Scott) was John Jones, born about 1881 in Nantllai (aka Nantlle), Carnarvonshire. Only about 50 possible birth registrations in the Carnarvon district, then. My friends from Bicycle Beano happen to be » »
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Canadian records freely available on Ancestry
Ancestry has made its Canadian Births, Marriages and Deaths records free to search and access until 20th Feb. Not all of them have images attached i.e. some are just transcriptions (and familysearch.org may have them transcribed in more detail), but I’ve found a few useful ones for the Canadian relations I’ve discovered recently. Maud McTaggart, aunt to Helen May Sharman (the wife of Harry Neal b 1899 Manitoba) marries William Henry Nobes in Toronto at the age of 49, with her name given as Phoebe Maud. » »
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Two weeks of freebies from Ancestry
I promise that Cutlock & Co isn’t going to turn into a plugging site, but here’s another item about offerings from Ancestry worth noting. For a couple of weeks from today, 1st October, they are giving free access to some of their most popular collections from around the world, alongside a series of quick tutorials to help you make the most of them. (At 1st October, I can’t see where these tutorials might be, but they are usually quite good for beginners.) Ancestry is releasing a » »
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Theophilus Farrall shipping agent and electrical inventor
One family connection I hadn’t previously pursued very far was that of my cousin Geoffrey and aunt Irene (Watkins). Their father/husband was Charles O’Brien, revealed to have a middle name of Theophilus on his wife’s death certificate – I have a feeling he hated this name. I had only got a little info on place of birth and parents for Charles. It was likely that a birth registered in 1912, mother Farrell, was his but that was not enough data to go on in » »