Uncle Jerry's Class: Tools of the Trade

If you know Jerry, you know he is not one for saving the trees by using less paper. He's more of using the trees for saving the family trees by using A LOT of paper. We got a lot of handouts. They ranged from dictionaries of old English professions and words to Old handwriting samples, mostly wills,  we had to try to decipher. it can get tricky. He even gave us some British poetry and emphasized the need to understand the culture. One day he was so adamant about knowing the religious background of the people and their faith that his hair, what little he had left, stood straight up and his eyes got very wide as he declared, "you can't do this! You can't ignore their faith!!!" We learned about records available.The book we used was Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Family History and Genealogy by Mark D. Herber. (You can buy it on Amazon for $4).  Government records, or civil registration, is available after 1837 thanks to Queen Victoria. Certificates are expensive but can give great solid names of parents, dates and other clues.  The Church records are incredible. The local congregation was called the Parish. Parish Registers start at different dates, depending on the parish and usually come in Baptisms, Burials, and Marriages. Bishops Transcripts were made when the bishop, over many parishes, came around recorded what was in the Parish Registers, PRs. They sometimes have info that is not in the PRs that we have.  Wills (aka probate), Indexes like Boyds marriage index, and even newspapers are great tools.  Census started in 1841 and progressively became more detailed giving the place of birth, a great clue for linking families when struggling to figure out where someone's parent came from. All of these providing clues as to who these people are and how they are related. The goal was  to use these sources to find families, marry, bury the children, find their children, and marry and bury them. It was like being a detective really and piecing together the clues of the puzzle!

Jerry gave us the recipe for a good tombstone kit. A proper tombstone kit includes:

-A Camera, So much easier than writing every inscription down
-Paper and pen for when you need to write it down. Also good for making maps to show the proximity of graves to each other. 
-Chalk for putting on the graves so to better see the inscriptions (Me and my sisters love this part as we would 'chalk' people's driveways at home to show the love. Here we now chalk people's graves, same basic reason.We just leave the chalk on the graves to be cleaned off by the rain. Yes, the colorful sidewalk kind is my favorite and works great!
-Tracing paper and lead for when you want to trace an inscription. (I only used this once)
-Sturdy shoes for kicking mud and walking around. Stinging nettle is common and so are lots of bugs.
-Some type of shovel or plant clipper would be nice in yards where the plants get unruly.  

 One of the greatest things I learned from Jerry was his method of linkage. When you don't know for sure if a person is the one you are searching for or not, try these for determining your people.  He once said that accountants don't always make good genealogists (that doesn't mean they shouldn't try) because things just don't always add up.  Records are incomplete, sometimes dates are wrong. He gave us five  points of linkage:
1. Name: of course last name is always a helpful clue someone is from the same family. But beyond that, often first names were passed down through the generations, something definitely to pay attention to, especially if the first name is more rare and is the same as your ancestor, then its probably a relative.  Also important, if there are two children in the same family with the same first name, check the burials. The first probably died and so they gave the next child his/her name.
2. Location: It is less likely that someone from far away is the John Smith you are looking for when there is another one from the next parish over. Those Parishes are often only a few miles apart, in walking distance. People did move but it was less likely. At the same time, if you are looking for Mr. John Routh of Cowick, don't mix his kids up with Mr. John Routh of Pollington although they are listed in the same Parish. The little details are important.
3. Occupation: Often, if you were a farmer so were your children. England is big on class status too. So if you find a gentleman you think is your ancestor but the child who you think is the gentleman's and is in your line happens to be a farmer, its stretching it too far.
4. Age: If your ancestors were married in a particular year, look for their christenings about 25 years back for the men and 21 years back for the women. Sometimes children were born illegitimate so going back five years before a marriage and looking for a child christened under the mothers maiden name is a good idea.  Not a hard and fast rule, but not rocket science either. Children take nine months to get here.
5.Date: Similar to Age. Make sure that you aren't linking ancestors in who were born way before marriages or after deaths.

 The number one most fascinating part of genealogy is the stories of your experiences and those you piece together from the tools. The one's Jerry shared were classic! Here's a few samples:


One ancestor on my mother's side was a professional shoplifter in London. She would go into expensive ladies shops dressed expensively so as not to be noticed.  Her husband drove a lackey (kind of like a taxi back in the day carriage). Can you see it now? She would steal the clothes and he was the getaway vehicle.

One time Jerry came across a church yard that was so neglected and overgrown one couldn't even find the entrance. He had to climb up over the bushy fence (sort of a secret garden story!!) While he was in there looking at a grave he took a step back and fell into an open crypt.  He was able to get out. He said, "can you imagine? If they found me there? The newspapers would say: prehistoric man wears plaid shirt!" Well, the best was climbing back over the wall he looked down and saw a very frightened little boy looking back at him on his bicycle. Now that boy has a story to tell.