Genealogy Chat

I am 5 minutes walk from the sea (15 minutes in high heels lol). Last I heard Dave was still about but I haven't seen him.

Are you near the sea...Is Dave still out there or did he swim away?

*waves back from the wet and windy seaside!*

*waves to Dizzy from nearby in Kent* Gwyn

Good point about checking the Chicklade marriage register, I didnt think of that at the time when I was at the records office. Unfortunately I live all the way down in Folkestone, Kent so I don't get up there very often :( I do have a photo of the marriage record with his signiture on it and it is quite distinctive. I know that a Samuel Scammell was a Parish clerk in Semely from transcribing all the Scammell marriages and also he is named as a Parish Clerk in the 1841 Census. I am just going to look at the Historical directory website to see if I can find anything. Thanx everyone for your ideas!

If you...or someone could check the Chicklade marriage register, you could see whether the named person features as a witness for other marriages too. If he does, it suggests that he was a parish clerk / church warden or similar. Gwyn

Dizzy, Have you tried looking on the Historical Directories web site? That's how I discovered that my Gt.Grandfather and two of his brothers were, at various times, all Parish Clerks. M. Steer

I can only tell you about the parish of Martock Somerset - I checked the whole 1841 census, there was only one person listed as the parish clerk, he was also an enumerator for the census. James Barber was also an ironmonger, so the parish clerk job was only part-time. Would depend on how big and how busy the parish was, but I think most parishes had only one clerk at a time, but maybe they changed often - how did they get the job ? If they were elected by the parish council, perhaps they got replaced if they did not do a good job ? Perhaps she was never baptised, not everyone was as a baby. I have one baptism which I think is ours, for a 16year old in Bristol, probably born illegitimately in Monmouthshire - with out this later baptism we would have nothing beyond the family bible to go on - and we still cannot go any further without a birthplace. Happy hunting Diane

Does anyone know, if a person was a Parish Clerk would it be of just one Parish or more? The reason I ask is that my 3x grt Grandmother was born in Semley Wiltshire, married in Chicklade but I can find no trace of her baptism in any of the many parished I have checked. I do know her exact date of birth from a family bible luckily. The Parish clerk question comes in because there was a parish clerk in Semley that shared her Surname. Her marriage record was whitnessed by someone of the same name so I don't know if he was a relative or just a parish clerk that covered more than one parish. ( Semley and Chicklade are not that close). I have been searching for clues for almost 5 years so I will clutch at any straws now!! Any Help much appreciated! Dizzy