Genealogy Chat

Good advice posted for you here, Claire.

And did you subscribe to the Suffolk rootsweb mailing list to ask for help?

Just because there was no civil registration of BMDs before 1837, it doesn't mean there are no BMD records. There's the church records - admittedly they don't always record births and deaths - they are much more likely to record baptisms and burial services. There's often two copies of the parish registers, viz., the original, and the church's back-up copy (the bishop's transcripts). These are what one would check here - they are usually at the relevant county records office - in Norwich and Ipswich here. If you can't get there easily, then you can usually rent an LDS film to view at one of their FHCs. You can find these at
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp (in the centre col).

If you've done a Search - Advanced Search to get to the IGI, and have an extracted entry (like Hannah's), at the bottom it says:
Source Information:
Batch No.: Dates: Source Call No.: Type: Printout Call No.: Type:
C131632 1818 0918501 Film NONE
Sheet: 00

Click on the Source Call No.link (0918501 here) and drill down to get:

Title Bishop's transcripts for the Archdeaconry of Suffolk, 1685-1875
Authors Church of England. Archdeaconry of Suffolk (Main Author)
Notes Handwritten.
Microfilm of original records at the Ipswich County Record Office.
Register bills and transcripts arranged alphabetically by deanery.

Then click on the view film notes button at top right to get:
Note Location Film
1818 FHL BRITISH Film 952327
1818 FHL BRITISH Film 918501
etc.

Alternatively, one can do a Search - Library catalog - Place search for Mutford and drill down to get:

Title Parish registers, 1681-1907
Authors Church of England. Parish Church of Mutford (Suffolk) (Main Author)
Notes Microfilm copies of original records in the Norfolk Record Office, Central Library, Norwich, Norfolk, England.
High reduction microfilm (42 X). Use high magnification reader.

Note Location Film
Baptisms 1681-1901 Marriages 1681-1900 Banns 1755-1907 Burials 1681-1901 FHL BRITISH Film 1471186 Items 16-24

What you have to do is consult parish records. You first of all look for the marriage of this couple in the register. It really depends on the clerk at the time how much info is given - sometimes just their names and the witnesses, sometimes detailed info like fathers names, occupations etc. Hopefully both of the couple are from the parish and so then you look further backwards for their baptisms and so on.

Then there are things like Wills, settlement certs etc. to check on.

You have come to the point where you have to get out from behind your computer :)

thanks again, joy.

i've managed to sort all that information - however, where i am really stuck is how to break through this brick wall with jonathan driver b1799ish. without census or BMD records around this time I do not know what to do in order to seek more information on the driver line (in particular).

i've tried chasing other lines in the meantime - but that's a dead-end too - my mother's bcert shows no father, her surname shows as "jones" (which i believe might be because my nan wasn't married?).

i then started looking at my nan's history but of course am blocked because of the 1911 census.... i believe many people boycotted that as well!

so that's it - stuck!

You're welcome :-)

One can subscribe (free) to rootschat and family tree forum sites, and to rootsweb mailing lists, in case anyone has access to parish records; join family history societies, see if there is an OPC for the area, if possible visit the area, and read as much as possible of the social history and the geography, too.

thank you so much - i will look into this as, for the most part, it matches up with what i already have (although there are some new leads here, which is great!).

i was wondering generally though, what to do when you don't have the census and BMD records to go on any more?

thanks again, really!

:o)

C

And in 1841:



Name: Jonathan Driver
Age: 40
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1801
Gender: Male
Where born: Suffolk, England

Civil Parish: Sotterley
Hundred: Wangford
County/Island: Suffolk
Registration district: Wangford
Sub registration district: Beccles
Household Members: Name Age
Jonathan Driver 40
Hannah Driver 50
William Driver 20
John Driver 70

I can see them in the 1861 census in the ancestry site which I shall give below, in case you do not already have it.

You could subscribe (free) to the rootsweb mailing list for Suffolk to see if others are researching them on it.


Name: Jonathan Driver
Age: 61
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1800
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Hannah
Gender: Male
Where born: Mutford, Suffolk, England

Civil Parish: Sotterly
County/Island: Suffolk
Registration district: Wangford
Sub registration district: Beccles
Household Members: Name Age
Jonathan Driver 61
Hannah Driver 70
William Driver 15
Thomas Driver 12



The children are grandsons.

I would honestly advise you to go to the site and check this info yourself.

Some of the above records are 'submitted' which means you cannot rely on them 100 per cent. However, those that are 'extracted' are taken from actual records.

Hope this is helpful.

their children?
records to download - (50 maximum)
1. BENJAMIN DRIVER - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 11 APR 1817 Holy Trinity, Clapham, Surrey, England

2. George Driver - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Birth: 01 JAN 1822 Mutford, Suffolk, England

3. William Driver - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 26 DEC 1819 Mutford, Suffolk, England

4. GEORGE DRIVER - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Birth: 01 JAN 1822 Mutford, Suffolk, England

5. WILLIAM DRIVER - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Birth: 26 DEC 1819 Mutford, Suffolk, England

6. HANNAH DRIVER - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Female Christening: 15 MAR 1818 Mutford, Suffolk, England

7. GEORGE DRIVER - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 06 JAN 1822 Suffolk, , Suffolk, England


prev | next Prepare selected records for download


All this info is available free to search on familysearch.org. Really easy and really fun.

this ancestor (jonathan driver) was b around 1794 and married to hannah hockham. obviously no census records go back that far so what do we do now - no-one else researching driver seems to have got anything either!