Genealogy Chat

Hi Susan Actually the ban will have to be on any name used by the monarchy in England. Just try a search somewhere and see how many Alberts there are! Not so many Victoria 's till after she was dead! Recently you will have to ban any names used by film or pop stars Kylie, Courtenay and Brittany should be banned I reckon- for a start! Welcome to the joys of the Family tree! Marlene

I knew I should have taken up cross stitch!! I only started this one day cos I was bored and after sorting out my partners old papers I came across some old birth and death certs. I had a choice of doing the ironing or starting the family tree!! Boy did I pick the wrong option. Only thing is I'm hooked now. And to top it all I had this delusion that Batty wouldn't be all that common. HA HA Was I wrong. I think every body in Wakefield must be a descendant. If I ever have grandchildren I will ban them from using the names William and Mary...oh and Henry also Sue xx

No Susan, most families also had at least one family member called Thomas as well. If your family are like mine they will call their children by a limited number of names and use the same ones when any children die. They like to be written down by people with awful handwriting who don't cross their ts or dot their is. They like to change their place of birth on official records whenever possible, preferably to some place that only exists in the enumerator's imagination and if they are buried anywhere they don't want me to know about it! My mothers' family, when not doing this, like to have lots of William Williams (I have 2 in the same small village in Glos - no idea which is my gt gt grandad!) On the other hand, my father's family do have some unusual names and have tried to spell them either the same way or with plausible variations on all documents. They also kept some certificates and rent agreements which has been helpful. But one of them ended up in a lunatic asylum and I have my doubts about some of the others ha ha!

Helen, This is all a bit weird for me ha ha. I'm trying to find people who couldn't spell their name, only registered their families when they could be bothered, and called most of their families either William or Mary!!! Is this family truly Batty or is this common for this to happen Sue xx

Sue Before about 1850 most people were illiterate and relied on other people writing for them. Also, these people would write what they thought they heard and did not always know the local accent. You will inevitably find differences in recording names - in fact if you can't find a name, try thinking of different ways of spelling it (saying it out loud helps). I have Chouns/Chowns, Purvey/Purvy, Emmes/Emms and Maling/Melin/Mealing in my tree - and that's just on my mother's side! The 1901 census has some bizarre versions - my Smoothy ancestors (mum again) were transcribed as Lenorthey. Don't worry, you'll soon be familiar with all this!

Hi Stan, what a site that is. I've found lots of info. Thank God theres people like all of you on here to tell me where to go. I've found 6 children including David but some of the records appear to be wrong..or is it me looking at the wrong info. Most of the children are registered with the parents William Batty and Ann Frobisher. Davids mother says Frubisher and a sisters parents are spelt Battey (with an e) Do you think Wiliam and Ann are the same people in this family and they ust couldnt spell lol Sue xx

Hi Sue To search further, you could go on to the 'Hugh Wallis' site, that gives IGI Batch Numbers. On this, if you go to England, then Yorkshire, then places beginning with W, you will find Wakefield St John's Church. Go to marriages or births for a range of years you are interested in, insert the name you are interested in, and you will get all the marriages or births for that name in the time period. If they are not too many, you can divide births between parents, or at any rate fathers, and use the marriage data to help group the families. If there are a lot, it is possible to use the batch number back on the IGI site to extract all the children born to the same father during the period of that film. If you run out of options at St John's Church, remember that it was a later Church, so early records would be at All Saints Church (the present Cathedral). It is also possible to find people at Horbury (a Chapelry of Wakefield), or maybe at Sandal Magna (St Helen) on the other side of the river. Some of my relatives from the Parish of Wakefield were actually baptised in Methley, which was nearer for them. When they were buried in Methley, double dues from Wakefield had to be paid. I hope some of this helps. Best wishes Stan

Hi Susan The L DS site Shows the following David Batty bap tised 16th May 1819 at St Johns wakefield Parents William Batty & Ann Frubisher Hope thi is of some use Bren

Civil registration began 1st July 1837. Before then people got married in church, or in the case of non-conformists chapel. Let me know if you want more info. If you click on the Help/FAQs on the left hand side of the page (scroll down) you'll find some more tips. Happy hunting Helen

Thanks Helen were registry offices around then or did people just marry in churches?? I know they had their children baptised in St Johns Church at Wakefield... so I could start there. Sue xx

Sue If they got married after 1st July 1837, you may find a wedding certificate. Check on FreeBMD (type into search engine to find). Not all records are there yet, but if they are, you need the year, quarter (Mar/Jun/Sep or Dec) volume and page. You could alternatively ask the local records office to look - they need an idea of the date. If you have an idea which church they attended, you could look for parish registers for baptisms and marriages. Originals are now kept in local records offices, but go to www.familysearch.org and check there first.

I'm looking into my partners family called Batty from Wakefield. I've now got back to David Batty dob approx 1820 who married Ann Collett. What do I do now?? I cant go any farther back!! How do I get a correct dob for David? How do I find out their wedding date?? Can I order a marriage cert and if so what info do I need to give. Oh God!! I'll be dreaming about this ha ha Sue xx