Genealogy Chat

How do I prove that a Charlotte Crawley born in 1807 in Aldenham, Herts is or is not my great great grandmother. She was married in 1832 and died in 1847 aged 39, both events in Flore, Northants, but there are no other Crawleys to be found in Flore and the Herts Charlotte is the only one that fits age- wise. To move location I understand she would need a settlement certificate. Who issues this, Herts or Northants authorities? Similarly with my gggg grandfather William Jones who married in Flore in 1774, born about 1745 in Flore according to the IGI, but there is no record of this, and I have thoroughly checked the parish records on film at the FHC. However there is a William Jones born in Moulton in 1746 and he seems a very strong probability as all the given names are so familiar, before and after him, carried right through to the early 1900s. Would he need a certificate to move from one village to another close by, and if so would the old or the new village issue it? If not how do I prove it? Any help or tips on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated, bearing in mind that I live in Canada. Di.

Hi Diana, Firstly the IGI is notoriously unreliable. Early church members were encouragd to guess at birthdates and places so if you cannot verify the IGI record then it is probably one of those estimates. Settlements are quite complicated - far too complicated to explain in a short mail but if you "google" you will find some definitions. Basically they were issued by parishes. If you were legitimately born in a parish you were automatically granted settlement. If illegitimate you took your mother's parish. There were several ways of being granted settlement in a new parish. You were interviewed by the Parish guardians and either given settlement or removed to your parish of settlement. You had to prove you would be able to provide for yourself and would not claim parish relief. The settlement and removal papers will be found in surviving parish chest papers in the county record office of the parish concerned. Most have been lost so you will be very lucky to find them. Hope this helps a little, Gwynne

Also check out the a2a site. They have a lot of "removals" etc listed. They may have settlement. Regards Helena

Many thanks Gwynne and Helena for your advice. I'll check google and a2a later today, and hopefully find my 2 elusives. Very much appreciated, Di.

It may be worth searching google for poor law records in the area as well. I'm sure in order to benefit from poor law people had to register in the parish. I may be wrong, I'm vaguely remembering this from a piece in YourFamilyHistory - I'm sure someone will correct me.

Thanks Zoe too. Have found a lot of useful sites. Haven't yet found info on settlement certs, but there are still lots to look through. Di.