Genealogy Chat

how do you trace these people when there is no record of them being born

Whenabouts are you talking? I know some folk on GR have romany ancestors, who appear on censuses and baptism records. nell

Try this site: For - Travellers/Romanies/Gypsies/Showpeople/Actors etc...etc.. Lots of info, including most cencus details. Address is http://users(.)nwon(.)com/pauline/Travellers.html (remove brackets) Dea x

Hi Michelle My ancestors are Romany Gypsies. I have found almost all mine in the census's, which usually gives a rough area and date of birth. I then order the parish records in at my local LDS, and find them that way. But, they used to change their names an awful lot. My main gypsy line is Lee although they often changed this to Smith. The main clue are the unusual first names, some of mine being Aizia, Orpherus, Ambrose, Badonia, Battle, Belcher, Bendigo, Britannia, Cinderella, Danch, Dangerfield, Methuselah, etc.. the list goes on. Another problem is that they kept moving all the time, but over the years I have found that they were pretty consistant with their movements, and tended to keep to the same routes. For example, my main line (g-gran and her parents & grandparents) mostly spent the Summer and Autumn in Kent fruit/hop picking, and the Winter and Spring in East London (West Ham) Hawking or working in the docks. They tended to go where the work was. I noticed this pattern on the birth/death certs, and baptisms. That's another annoying thing about them, they rarely registered a birth, hardly ever registered a marriage and occasionally registered a death. But, they always baptised their children. A lot of mine just 'jumped the broomstick' even in 'modern' times like the 1920's. This has been within living memory, Mum's cousin who is 90 can remember this happening. When they died, although some were buried, some were cremated in their caravans, as they were always set light when the owner died. I am quite lucky, as I have some beautiful gypsy graves to visit. They always carried their wealth with them in gold chains and rings, and when they died, although a lot was passed down to the children, it was also used to give them a 'good send off' including a marble or granate headstone, which can still be read today, as opposed to the sandstone ones of some of my ag labs. I have traced my line back to 1790, so it can be done, but it's hard work. Here are some sites that will help. http://romany.rootschat(.)net/ http://website(.)lineone.net/~rtfhs/contents.html http://blogs(.)salon(dot)com/0002065/2004/02/12.html http://users(.)nwon(.)com/pauline/Travellers.html http://freepages(.)genealogy(.)rootsweb(.)com/~gypsy/gypsy(.)htm http://www(.)gypsyloresociety.org/ http://sca(.)lib(.)liv(.)ac(.)uk/collections/gypsy/photoind(.)htm please remove the brackets. hope this is some help. Sandra

nudge

Sandra, a web addresses there I did not know about, thank you. Michelle I also have gipsies and agree with Sandra they always seemed to baptise the children and definitely followed a pattern on travelling around, my were horse dealers. JoJo

nudge so i can this later sam

nudge

It;'s fab that you mention the jumping of the broomstick. This is still done in pagan wedding ceremonies known as handfastings! I've always been fascinated by gypsy/traveller families - i taught at a school in cornwall where there was a large traveller community. Laura x

nudge for my records - thanks sandra will pm you. Sylvie

Hello Cousin Sylvie *waves* How you getting on? Sandra

Bumped up for Bernie :)

some good points on here. my family were romanies but dad does not talk about it much. horse dealers. thanks for the links.

Hello Sandra, Waving back -will pm you re Gypsy Sarah Love Sylvie

Hi, Would rake makers or pole makers be from the 'gypsy or traveller' people? I have these trades in the family tree.