Genealogy Chat

Thanks Heather, Will give that a try

Margaret, if you contact the Records office you will probably find they do a look up and copy service for you. If you know good details then it may only cost a tenner which is cheaper than a long journey!

Thanks Gwyneth

I think Jim went to Chichester in person last week, Margaret. They have West Sussex parish registers on fiche and so much more of course, including GRO on fiche too.

Grampa Jim Please tell me how to do a look up in Chichester Records Office ? I am now Looking in the Sussex area for a birth in1845. I have searched Familyhistoryonline Sussex but no luck. Thanks Margaret

Jim, when he married he didnt actually have to give his place of birth did he? Wouldnt he have just said where he was living at the time?

That could well be the case Jim. Maybe the children had heard family tales of Dad walking over from Stedham to see Frances and presumed that was where he was from, - (I'm getting carried away here but trying to see how this could happen ) Have you found him yet on all the other census, when he would surely have spoken for himself?

It just puzzles me that in 1871 on the Isle of Wight he said he was born in Sussex, but in 1821 when he married in Sussex he had said he was from the Isle of Wight. Since he died in 1873 perhaps he was frail at the time of the Census and one of the kids gave wrong information to the Enumerator? I WILL FIND HIM! Lol Jim

Jim, I think you'll find that after you had been working in a parish for a certain length of time you could then have a "settlement" granted. (It's something like that!) Don't know what it involved but I'm sure someone can point you in the right direction. Janet

Nothing to stop him moving from Sussex to Isle of Wight between birth and marriage surely? I'm quite surprised at how much my agricultural ancestors (Lincolnshire and Yorkshire) and my husband's mining ancestors (Durham and Northumberland) moved round the place and lots of them were married in different places than they were born.

Curiouser and Curiouser. I looked up their marriage in the Chichester Record Office and it says Married 16 Sep 1827 Robert Langley, bachelor of the Parish of St Helens, IW & Frances Steele, spinster of this Parish. So why did the 1871 Census say he had been born at Stedham, Sussex? Grrrrrrrrr. :-)

You have the IoW Family History Society site? http://www*.isle-of-wight-fhs.*co.*uk/ (remove asterisks) I thought I'd put the link, just in case you hadn't (or someone else with IoW links hadn't). It's got some excellent stuff including searchable Registers info. Christine

Yes, over the short time I have been doing research I too have realised that sometimes the heart wants to rule the head! Sometimes you find info which seems almost certain to tie in but with a bit more digging find it is just a red herring. But then I guess thats all part of the fun of this. When you do find gold, its nearly as good as a lottery win!

When I found that my Langley Family had lived on the Isle of Wight I had a look at the Records at Newport Record Office and found reference to a Grant of Land to John de Langele in 1355. This led me to assume that my family had long term roots there. Yesterday I discovered that only 2 Generations had been Born there, and that my 3rd ggfather had been born in Stedham, West Sussex, and his wife at Iping, also West Sussex, near Midhurst. Just goes to show you cannot take anything for granted. Jim