Naming Convention

Many families have their own naming conventions, which is just a fancy phrase for saying traditions. Some families, the eldest male children all have the same middle name. In Victorian England, it was tradition for the eldest male child to share a first name with their paternal grandfather and the second male child would share a name with the maternal grandfather. Sadly with as many children that died as infants as they did in Victorian England, many times names were recycled. This means that in a family there might have been 9 children, 5 boys and of the five boys you may have three named Edward Joseph. But it also means that you can take a reasonable guess at what the grandfathers' names might have been!

Researching Great Britain

It's hard to know exactly where to begin in looking for ancestors once you have to start looking overseas. Sometimes it is difficult shifting your focus from census records and newspaper reports to something else. If you are searching for an ancestor in Wales or England there are a few hints that you need to be aware of: 1. Identify when certain record sets first became available. 2. Always check the records for Oxford and Cambridge to see if your ancestors attended. 3. Clergy records are more than just baptism and death records. 4. Tax records are golden. I will be spending the next few entries discussing each of these points.

Hooray for Clergy!

Let's give a big "Hooray!" for the clergy! If we're honest, they have saved us major headaches in the research field with their amazing records keeping habits. But they have other records besides just the standard birth, baptism, marriage (including Bans) and death records that could help us out. One of these records is the Visiting Books, which as the name implies would be a record of any visitors to the parish. What would Visiting Books do for genealogy? Say a man married a woman from a community several days journey (which would just be a few hours drive for us today) away and moved her from her family. When her family came to visit, the clergy in the parish would record the names, dates, members of the household and other information. Sometimes even such things as occupations, literacy and occasionally a hand drawn map to their home. --Gayla Mendenhall

What Is Genealogy?

This past week I lost my grandmother. It started me thinking, "What is genealogy?" Is it simply tracing your family tree or is it more than that? Some genealogists are more concerned with how many generations can be traced and found, others want the stories behind who their ancestors were. The term genealogy means "a record or account of the ancestry and descent of a person, family, group or the study of family ancestries and histories" It's origin was between 1250-1300 meaning pedigree and equivalent to race. But after my grandmother passed away my 8 year old taught me a lesson. He was crying and I asked why he was so sad because he barely knew her. He answered, "I loved her, she was family." That's what genealogy is the simple love of family. --Gayla Mendenhall

Wills and Testaments

Prior to 1540, only testaments were written as opposed to wills. The term testament means the dispositions of property and the term will means the divisions of property. It was not required until 1540 because the laws at the time determined the division of the estate, therefore wills were unnecessary. Who could make wills? Mostly only wealthy people with property to leave to heirs would make wills, however boys as young as 14 years old and girls as young as 12 years old were permitted to create a will. --Gayla Mendenhall

Did Your Ancestor Attend College?

During the 17th Century, Oxford and Cambridge were the only two universities in Wales and England. Due to social and religious influences more men were attending universities than ever before. Therefore, Cambridge and Oxford were unable to be as elitist as they currently are. In fact more people graduated from the universities during this time from than any other until the 1950s. You should check university records and alumni records for "gems" of information that they might have. Oxford alumni records would include such things as parentage, birthplace, year of birth (occasionally even the exact date of birth), which of the Oxford colleges attended and degrees received. The Oxford alumni records from 1500 through 1886 can be found online for free. Visit http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=1270 for those records. --Gayla Mendenhall

Hearth Tax Info

The tremendously unpopular "Hearth Tax" which taxed your home on the number of hearths it held was incredibly unpopular with the people of England. This tax only lasted from 1662 until 1689 and was paid twice a year. First on Lady Day (March 25th) and then again on Michaelmas (September 29th). Lists were made of every house that had two or more hearths to avoid tax avoidance. This was a tax that did not distinguish whether an owner or renter paid the tax. It was ALWAYS the occupant who paid the hearth tax, so it was a good list of occupants of a home. This will mostly aid in your genealogical research by estimating the wealth of your ancestors. However, very few tax records remain in England from this time period. --Gayla Mendenhall

Beware of Baptism Records

The baptism records kept by the clergy do not necessarily mean it is close to the date of birth. Many times parents in the working class did not have their infants baptisms for two main reasons. First, many infants died at a young as. Secondly, the payments required to the priests were too extravagant for working class families to pay, especially if they had several mouths to feed. A group has put several parish records from various counties onto the web. To browse the records go to http://www.onlineparishclerks.org.uk/. --Gayla Mendenhall

Family Heirloom Traditions

Most often any items of value were handed down to the eldest son. However, there was one important family heirloom the was handed down to the eldest daughter, the Family Bible. We all know the historical significance of the family bible tracing family lines, but that would explain why the surnames in most Family Bibles changed with each subsequent generation.

So I made a boo boo!!!

Okay, so I've been writing posts and blogs and tweets religiously most weeks, but what do I do? I post them to Twitter and Facebook, but I totally space out when it comes to posting on the blog. So here it goes. I am going to post lots of entries tonight and try to make sure I keep caught up on everything hereafter. So to our dear readership, please continue following us. Look for more information on the upcoming launch of Artistic Ancestry, and give us your thoughts! --Gayla Mendenhall

Oliver Cromwell and Genealogy

During the seven year English Civil War led by Oliver Cromwell, there was a tremendous amount of social upheaval. This time period also corresponds directly with the great expansion of the British Empire overseas such as Nova Scotia, Virginia, Maryland, and the Bahamas. Eventually Cromwell overcame the odds and England became a commonwealth for a time. Then from 1642 to 1660, parish record keeping became sporadic. Marriage ceremonies during this time many marriages were performed outside of the church and the banns were declared from the public marketplace, not the churches. Then from 1653-1657 the right to perform marriages was taken completely taken away from the clergy and given solely to the justice of the peace.