Tracing a Family History - a beginner's experience with pointers to some free resources

 

Contents

       Why?

       General Notes
        This website

  1.  Existing documents

  2.  freebmd

  3.  Interviews

  4.  The 1881 Census

  5.  Local library

      a Workshops...

      b)  Census records

      c)  Maps

      d)    Parish Registers..

      d)  Books ...

      e)  Referrals

 6.  Local contacts

 7.  Web trawl

 8.  Gateways

 9.  War memorials

10. Double checking

11. Site visit

12. Presentation

13. Follow up

 

Resources

Appendices:
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6

 

Acknowledgements

 

6.  Local contacts

 

One of the librarians referred me to the North Wingfield site. By following the trail of links there I found a lot of background information.

 

Local Studies groups can often provide information relating to addresses.  I also had a look at the Chesterfield and District Family History Society's (see cadfhs) website and emailed the contact to enquire about Barber Lane in Brampton.  There are websites for other local history study groups and societies.  Their websites can be found on gateways (see later) or by using web search engines.  Often their databases may be partial and limited to members’ own interests.

 

While waiting for a response from cadfs, I looked at another possibility.  The family believed that their ancestors came from the Barlow/Cutthorpe area, although the census gave Brampton as the place of birth.  Neither South Terrace nor Barber Lane were on old maps but a still copyrighted map of the Cutthorpe area had a terrace of houses named South Terrace. 

 

Then, an email response from the chairman of cadfhs stated that a) to his knowledge there had never been a Barber Lane in Brampton but there had been a South Terrace and that b) Cutthorpe had been part of the old sprawling parish of Brampton.  There were now two possible locations with South Terrace but neither had Barber Lane. We had to rely on other means to resolve this issue.

 

But what this exercise showed was that enumerators seem to enter different levels of the address for the birthplace and current dwelling.  Where there is a township with the same name as the parish, as in the case of Brampton, it can throw you off course.

 


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 © Mahes Kirby (nee Visvalingam); First draft 16 Feb 2006;  Last uploaded : 19 Oct 2006