James Hinvest

Posted on November 24, 2016 by debbielou72

The final set of four times great-grandparents in this part of my family tree, are James Hinvest and Caroline Parker. You can see, below, where they are situated in the tree:

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James was born on the 17th July 1796 in the village of Eling, Hampshire. He was the eldest of 10 children born to James and Anne Hinvest (nee Legge). James was baptised on the 18th September in the same year, and this would have more than likely taken place at St. Mary the Virgin Church in Eling.

From the information I have managed to find throughout my research over the years, James appeared to have lived the whole of his life in Eling. This is where he met his wife, Caroline Parker.

Caroline was born on the 10th March 1798 in Eling, and was baptised later on that year on the 6th December. She was the youngest of four children born to Robert and Mary Parker (nee Bricknell):

James and Caroline married on the 30th July 1820 in Eling, and you can see their marriage record below:

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James and Caroline had seven children during their 17 year marriage. Their children were : Alford (1821-), Olive (1822-), Harriet (1825-1893), Emma, my three times great-grandmother (1826-1904), Isaac (1829-), George (1833-1897) and Charles ( (1836-1855).

Sadly, Caroline passed away in 1837, at the young age of 39 years old. Their youngest child was still under the age of two. I don’t have a cause of death as yet, but I will be requesting a copy of the death certificate to find out.

From 1808 to 1857, Chartism existed, which was a working-class movement for political reform in Britain. It was a national protest movement and had strongholds of support in northern England, the East Midlands, Staffordshire, the Black Country and the Valleys of South Wales. Support for Chartism was at its highest in 1816, 1822 and 1848. In 1839, only 18 percent of the male population had the right to vote. William Lovett’s 1838 People’s Charter demanded political reform in England. Six reforms were called for to make the political system more democratic. The movement was often divided over tactics. Most supporters of Chartism were working class and supported the movement’s goals in large public meetings. The working class supporters hoped that their political voice could address their poverty and work conditions. Despite receiving millions of signatures, the government rejected their demands and they ended up being ridiculed in the press. I wonder how this affected James and his sons?

At the time that this was happening, James was living with his family in Totton, in the parish of Eling. You can seen them on the 1841 census return:

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James was the head of the family, and six of his children were living with him. His occupation was an agricultural labourer.

The next record that we see James on is the 1851 census return:

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Again, you can see that James was the head of the family, but this time, you can see that James had married and his wife was called Elizabeth. Two of James’ sons, George and Charles, were still living with them. If you compare the two census returns, it would seem that James and Eliza married between 1841 and 1851, as the 1851 census states that Eliza was James’ wife. Maybe it was recorded this way for appearances, as I was unable to find a marriage record for them between those dates. I did, however, find a marriage record for them for the fourth quarter of 1855 in the New Forest district of Hampshire. Eliza’s surname before she married James was Bessant.

We can see James and Eliza again on the 1861 census return:

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James and Eliza Hinvest were living in Calmore in the parish of Eling. Eliza’s two sons, George and William were living with them. George was an agricultural labourer and William was a scholar (of school age). James and Eliza also had two sons of their own; Henry and James. Henry was also of school age.

The record below is the 1871 census return:

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James and family were still living in Calmore, in the parish of Eling, where he was an agricultural labourer. On the 1871 census return, it’s showing that William’s surname is Hinvest, but if you look at the 1861 census return, his surname was recorded as Bessant. I am assuming that he was recorded under the same surname, so that it looked like they were a complete family. William, Henry and James were all agricultural labourers.

In 1871, Sir John Lubbock, a member of Parliament, and also a social reformer, decided that the British people should have some extra time off work. After bringing in the Bank Holiday Act of 1871,citizens would now enjoy some extra time off work to spend with their families. England, Wales and Northern Ireland were allocated four bank holidays, while Scotland had five. Most of the bank holidays occurred on a Monday, with the August bank holiday being very popular. I wonder how James and his family spent their bank holidays; did they have quality family time together, or were times hard for them and they continued to work?

The final census return that James appeared on was the 1881 census. He was still living with Eliza, but by this time, he was no longer working as he was 85 years of age:

screen-shot-2016-11-24-at-12-40-47James Hinvest passed away on the 21st December 1882 at the New Forest Union Workhouse, Eling Road, Hampshire. The cause of death was old age; James was 87 years of age. The informant of his death was a man called William Taylor, who was the Master of New Forest Union Workhouse, Eling. James’ father, James, was also a resident of this workhouse in the 1850s. Below is a copy of James’ death certificate:

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Eliza Hinvest passed away not long after James, in the first quarter of 1883.

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William Hiscock

Posted on September 25, 2016 by debbielou72

William Hiscock and his wife Henrietta Whitehorn were my four times great-grandparents, and you can see them in the family tree below:

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William was the first child born to Hannah Hiscock, and he was born in 1788 in Minstead, and was bapisted on the 25th May that same year:

If you have a look at the line marked “notes” on the above record, it states that William was base-born, and you can also see that his father wasn’t named. Despite searching through Bastardy Orders, at the archives, to try and find out who his father was, I was unable to find a record. It’s left me wondering for a while now, what my surname would have been if Hannah had married William’s father. It would have been more-than-likely that I would have had a different surname, if things had turned out differently. The same would apply to my husband. His four times great-grandfather was William’s younger brother, James. James was also base-born, and I haven’t been able to find a father for him either. If Hannah had married James’ father, then my husband wouldn’t have been a Hiscock either. I wonder what my married name would have been?

Henrietta was born in Minstead in 1788 and was baptised later that year on the 28th December. She was the youngest of six children born to William and Elizabeth Whitehorn (nee Philips). There were quite a lot of Whitehorn families in Minstead around that time, and if you visit the graveyard of All Saints Church, you’ll see a lot of Whitehorn gravestones.

William married Henrietta in Minstead on the 8th June 1812. Below is a copy of their marriage record from FindMyPast:

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Marriage Record of William and Henrietta

William and Henrietta had six children, and they were: Jane (1812-), Joseph (1815-1869), Hannah (1818-1902), William (1822-), Maria (1825-1869) and Noah, my three times great-grandfather (1828-1870).

We next see the Hiscock family on the 1841 census return:

1841

They were living at Woodside in Minstead. William and Henrietta had their sons, Joseph, William and Noah living with them. You can see that their occupations were agricultural labourers.

At the time the Hiscock family were at work on the farms, they were living under the Corn Laws, which was introduced in 1815, and William would have been 27 years old at this time. It was the end of the French Wars, and corn prices had almost halved, which caused great panic amongst farmers. The Corn Law was meant to provide relief for our domestic farmers. This meant that “the reduction of the price of corn was attributable to the importation of foreign grain”, according to http://www.historyhome.co.uk. A member of the government at that time felt that by doing this, our security would be greater. Even if the price of corn might be cheaper in the end, by cultivation at home, rather than depending on foreign countries for our grain. The law was introduced to stabilise wheat prices at 80/- per quarter. Foreign grain couldn’t be imported until domestic grain reached that price.

Not everyone was in favour of this law as all it did was to protect the expanded grain farms, but failed to solve the problem of high prices. Food prices were subjected to extreme fluctuation, and encouraged people to hoard the corn. People spent the bulk of their earnings on food rather than commodities. The Corn Laws caused a lot of problems for working class people in towns as they were unable to grow their own food. The Law only served to help out the landowners, and as the majority of the Members of Parliament were landowners, the government was unwilling to reconsider a new legislation to help the economy, the poor people or the manufacturers. When the Law was brought in, in 1815, it caused a lot of rioting.

The Corn Law was revised in 1828, when a sliding scale was introduced which allowed foreign corn to be imported duty-free when the domestic price of corn rose to 73/- quarter. This still didn’t really help the poor or the manufacturers.

Over time, anti-Corn Law Leagues appeared challenging the existing laws. By 1846, Prime Minister Robert Peel, fearing a possible uprising, argued for a repeal of the law. On the 15th May 1846, a coalition of Whigs and conservatives repealed the Corn Laws.

It seems like this was turbulent times for the country’s poor people, and I wonder how the Hiscock family faired at the time, as well as other members of their community.

We next see the Hiscock family on the 1851 census return:

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William and Henrietta were living at Flat Water in Minstead with their youngest son, Noah, and his wife, Emma. Both William and Noah were garden labourers.

It was around this time that England was suffering through a major outbreak of cholera. A previous outbreak of cholera in 1832, in London, claimed the lives of 55,000 people. The outbreak that began in England and Wales in 1848, claimed another 52,000 lives. How big of an effect did it have on my ancestor’s lives, and in turn, their community?

When the 1861 census return was carried out, William and Henrietta were living at Street in Minstead:

1861

You can see that they were living on their own; their children having moved out. It states that William was 73 years of age and that he was still working as an agricultural labourer. They really did work on until later in life, as there were no state pensions. Pensions didn’t start until 1909.

William passed away in the final quarter of 1868 at 80 years of age:

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Henrietta passed away not long after William:

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I will be ordering both of their death certificates so that I can get an accurate date and place of death for them.

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Robert Parker

Posted on September 25, 2016 by debbielou72

Robert Parker and his wife, Mary Bricknell are the final set of five times great-grandparents in this part of my family tree. You can see in the diagram below, where they are situated in the family tree:

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So far, I have been unable to find a baptism record for Robert as he wasn’t born in the county of Hampshire. This is confirmed on the 1841 census return, which you will see a bit later. I don’t have a place of birth for him yet, but I may be able to find out where he came from by looking at the original image of his marriage record at the archives. If he wasn’t yet a resident of the parish when he married Mary, then it may state on the record where he came from. Another route to take would be to look at a settlement record for Eling to find out where his previous parish was. Either of these records may, hopefully, provide me with new avenues to search.

Mary’s baptism record shows her surname to be Bricknell, and that she was baptised on the 29th August 1762 in the parish of Portsea St Mary, Hampshire. It states that her father’s name was Isaac:

Robert married Mary Bricknell on the 13th December 1789 in Eling. Here is a copy of their marriage transcription:

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Marriage record of Robert and Mary

As you can see from the Hampshire Marriages Transcription on FindMyPast, it states that Mary’s surname is Brignell. According to The Internet Surname Database (www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Brignell) there are a few variants of this surname, and they are: Brignall, Brignell, Bricknall and Bricknell.

Robert and Mary had four children: Elizabeth (1789-1803), Thomas (1791-1845), Powlet (1793-1864) and Caroline, my four times great-grandmother (1798-1837).

When researching the baptism for great-aunt Elizabeth, I noticed that she was baptised 17 days after her parents were married. This could mean that she was born and baptised within a few days, as her baptism record didn’t state that she was base-born. It would also mean that Mary would have been very heavily pregnant when she got married.

With Eling not being a particularly large place, it makes me wonder whether Robert and Mary Parker knew my other five times great-grandparents, James and Anne Hinvest, as they would have lived in the area around the same time. Did their children play together?

Mary passed away in the third quarter of 1833, and was buried on the 26th September 1833 in Eling:

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https:search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBPRS/D/805502446/1

The next record that Robert appeared on was the 1841 census return:

1841-census

As you can see, Robert was living at a place called Trotts in Eling and his occupation was a Baker. He was living with his son, Thomas, who was a labourer. Robert is fifth from the top on this census return, and if you look at the column to the right of “Baker”, it says “no”. This column asks if the person recorded on the census return was born in the county they were currently living in. This means that he was born outside of Hampshire. If he had still been alive, when the next census return had been carried out, in 1851, it would have provided me with a more accurate location as to his date and place of birth.

Robert passed away in the fourth quarter of 1843, and was buried in Eling on the 24th December 1843:

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This record provides the details required to request a copy of the death certificate. I will be requesting a copy so that I can find a more accurate date and place of death. If he was still living in Eling, then he would have been buried in one of the cemeteries at St Mary the Virgin Church.

When I am next in Eling, I will be visiting both cemeteries to see if I can locate the graves of my grandparents.

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James Hinvest

Posted on September 11, 2016 by debbielou72

James Hinvest and his wife Ann(e) (nee Legge) are my next set of five times great-grandparents. When I originally started writing this blog about my family history, James and Ann(e) did not appear in my tree, and this was due to difficulties with their surname. I was quite certain that they would be living in the Eling area of Hampshire, and it turned out that I was right. The reason why I was having so many difficulties was due to the number of name variations in the different records. The variations that I have found so far are: Hinvest, Hinves, Henvis, Hinvess and Henviss. After carrying out the various researches, I was confident that I had the correct family.

James Hinvest was born in 1770 in Eling, Hampshire and was baptised on the 8th July that year:

It states that his father was John Hinvest, but it doesn’t state who his mother was. In the October 2016 edition of Family Tree magazine, there is an article in the Dear Tom section on page 12, column two about why parents may have been absent from their children’s baptisms. It could have been that the mothers were confined to bed for a long period of time after they gave birth to their children. According to the article, the mother was also said ‘to be unclean for 40 days’, and then had to be ‘churched’ before entering a church building. It was also thought that babies were baptised earlier due to high infant mortality rates.

The parish of Eling lies almost five miles to the west of the centre of Southampton. According to http://www.british-history.ac.uk the ancient parish of Eling included the modern parishes of Eling, Netley Marsh, Copythorne, Colbury and Marchwood. These five parishes were formed from Eling in 1894. The modern parish of Eling includes Rumbridge, Totton, Pooksgreen and parts of Hounsdown.

The village of Eling has a church called St Mary the Virgin and originates from the ninth century, possibly as a timber construction. It is thought that it was founded in the reign of King Ethelwulf, who was the father of King Alfred. The entry for Eling in the Domesday Book states that there was a church in existence in the area at that time, but little remains of it due to the nature of its construction.

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St Mary the Virgin Church, Eling

When the Normans arrived, the church was re-built from stone. Due to a church standing in the area for over 900 years, the graveyard is estimated to hold 30,000 burials. There are currently two graveyards, with the newer one situated further down the hill from the church.

Just down the hill from the church is Eling Tide Mill. Although a mill was mentioned in the Domesday Book in Eling, there is no evidence that this current one is connected to it.  The current tide mill had to be re-built about 240 years ago, in the 1770s, due to a storm. This would have been around the time that James was born. Eling Tide Mill is one of two such mills still operating in this country today.

Looking at the baptism record of Anne Legge, there is only one record of this name in Hampshire. According to the Hampshire Baptisms Transcription on FindMyPast, Anne Legge was baptised on the 27th October 1775 in Headley, Hampshire. Her parents were Thomas and Sarah, and in the notes, it states that they were from Frensham. Frensham is in Surrey and is 4.8 miles north-east of Headley. I will need to visit the Hampshire Archives to see if there are any settlement records for the Legge family. Below is a copy of the baptism record:

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The only marriage record that I could find for James and Anne is for a marriage on the 17th November 1794 in the parish of North Stoneham in Hampshire:

This parish is a fair way from James’ home parish of Eling. As this is the only marriage entry that I have found so far, I would like to have a look at the marriage record to see how the bride and groom’s parish has been recorded. This would then direct my research further. The date of the marriage would coincide with when they started their family.

Having researched through the various databases available to me, I was able to find ten children born to James and Ann(e), and they were: James, my four times great-grandfather (1796-1882), Elizabeth (1799-), Sarah (1806-1828), Henry (1808-), Richard (1811-), Thomas (1813-1814), Eliza (1815-1848), George (1817-1818), Hannah (1821), and George (1824-1824). As you can see, three of their children passed away at a very young age.

The next record that James and Ann(e) appeared on was the 1841 census return:

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You can see on this census return that James was 70 years old, and that he was living with his wife, Ann and that she was 60 years old. This would mean that she was born in 1781. The 1841 census return was never very accurate when it came to recording ages, so we can use this date of birth as a rough guideline. If you look below Ann’s name on the census return, you can see that they had their daughter, Hannah, living with them, and that she was 20 years of age.

The next record that James appeared on was the 1851 census return, and you can see the transcription of this from FindMyPast below:

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By 1851, James was a widower and he was living at the New Forest Union Workhouse. His age on this record was showing as 84, which would give a year of birth of 1767, and this fits in within a few years of the baptism record that I found.

According to http://www.workhouse.org.uk, the New Forest Union Workhouse was built in Ashurst in 1836, and it was to accommodate around 200 inmates. The architect was a man called Sampson Kempthorne, and he was the architect of many of the early Union workhouses. After 1930, the workhouse was taken over by Southampton County Council and it became a Public Assistance Institution. After 1948, it joined the National Health Service and became Ashurst Hospital, which provides care for elderly patients.

Hampshire County Archives should, hopefully, have a workhouse admission register for this workhouse, and this should tell me the circumstances of which James was admitted. Being admitted to the workhouse would have been a last resort due to the living conditions, and he would have probably been admitted if his family couldn’t take care of him.

As James was a widower, by the time of the 1851 census, we can assume that his wife, Ann(e), died between 1841 and 1851 as the last record that she appeared on was in 1841. I have only been able to find one death record for that period, and that is for Ann Hinves in September 1846 in the district of Southampton. I am currently in the process of requesting this certificate to make sure that it is the correct person. I’ve found a death record for a James Hinves for the first quarter of 1853 in the New Forest district of Hampshire. I will be requesting this certificate as well to make sure it is the correct person. I will keep you updated in a future blog.

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William Whitehorn

Posted on August 29, 2016 by debbielou72

William Whitehorn and his wife Elizabeth Whitehorn, nee Philips are my next set of five times great grandparents. You can see below where they are situated in my family tree:

Hiscock Extend 1

William Whitehorn was born in Minstead in 1752, and was the second child born to parents William and Mary. He was baptised  at All Saints Church, Minstead on the 8th August 1752, according to the Hampshire Baptisms Transcription on http://www.findmypast.co.uk.

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All Saints Church

William married Elizabeth Philips (1747-1823) at the same village church on the 16th October 1774:

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They had six children together: William (1775-1826), Sarah (1777-1778), John (1779-1802), Mary (1781-1863), Sarah (1784-), and Henrietta, my four times great-grandmother (1788-1869). You can read more about Henrietta in a future blog.

William passed away in May 1808 in Minstead, and was buried, according to the Hampshire Burial Transcriptions on Find My Past, on the 21st May 1808:

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If you have a look on one of my previous blogs, Hunting For Ancestors, you can see that it shows a large number of grave stones for the Whitehorn family in Minstead. I will need to see where these people are situated  within the Whitehorn family tree. At the time of searching the graveyard, I was unable to locate a grave for William.

With regards to William’s wife, Elizabeth, I do not have a lot of information about her at this moment in time. I know that she married William in Minstead in 1774, but I do not have a baptism for her. I will need to take a look at the marriage record at the Hampshire Archives to see if she was from Minstead. If it states that she was from another parish in Hampshire, then I will be able to look for a baptism under that particular parish.

According to Hampshire Burial Transcriptions on http://www.findmypast.co.uk Elizabeth died May 1823, and was buried in Minstead on the 4th May 1823:

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It states that she was aged 76 when she died, so that would give a rough year of birth of 1747. I’ve had a search for Elizabeth Philips/Phillips with a birth year of 1747 -/+ 5 years in Hampshire, and there are a few possibilities, but nothing definite. As mentioned previously, I will take a look at the marriage record first to see where she came from.

Any further updates that I find for Elizabeth will be published in a future blog.

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Hannah Hiscock

Posted on August 8, 2016 by debbielou72

I’m continuing with my family history, and I now move on to my first five times great grandparent, Hannah Hiscock. You can see from the image below where Hannah is situated in my family tree:

Hiscock Extend 1

As you can see on the family tree, there is no grandfather for me to tell you about. My family surname comes from Hannah, as my four times great-grandfather was base-born; meaning he was born out-of-wedlock. In fact, all three of Hannah’s children were base- born. I will tell you more about that shortly.

Hannah was born in 1765 in Bramshaw in the New Forest, and her parents were George and Elizabeth.

Bramshaw is a small village in the New Forest, Hampshire. Up until 1895, it was divided into two parts, with half in Wiltshire and the other half in Hampshire. Bramshaw lies 11 miles west of Southampton.

According to http://www.wikipedia.org Bramshaw appeared twice in the Domesday Book for Wiltshire and was held by Wulfnoth and Edmund. The name Bramshaw comes from an old English word for “bramble bush wood”. The current church of Bramshaw dates from the 13th century, but has many later additions:

The County of Southampton Act 1894 placed the whole of Bramshaw into Hampshire, with the county boundary running through the churchyard and through the church. It had its nave in Wiltshire and its chancel in Hampshire. There were two separate parish councils, but they unified in 1932.

Brawmshaw village school first opened in 1812 as a boy’s school, but by 1819, the girl’s and infants school was registered. It was open for 165 years, and closed in July 1977; with the school building now being used as a private dwelling.

According to the Hampshire Baptisms Transcription on http://www.findmypast.co.uk Hannah Hiscock was baptised on the 23rd April 1765 in Bramshaw, Hampshire:

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I still need to find out whether or not she had any other siblings . I have already checked on the main genealogy websites, but I will double-check this as records are being added all of the time, otherwise, I will have a look when I visit Hampshire Archives to see if there is anything I can find there.

Hannah gave birth to three children, all of whom were born out-of-wedlock. Her children were: William, my four times great-grandfather (1788-1868), James, my husband’s four times great grandfather (1790-1861), and Mary (1793-). All three of her children were born in Minstead, which is three miles south of Bramshaw. It’ll be interesting to see if  there was a settlement record for Hannah in Minstead as she was born in Bramshaw. If there is one available, I will find it at the county record office.

I visited Hampshire Archives to see if I could find a father for my four times great-grandfather, William. I remember arriving there early as I was excited at the prospect of finding another possible ancestor for my family tree, and also to find out what my surname would have been if Hannah had married William’s father. When I arrived at the Archives, I asked to see the Bastardy Orders for Minstead for that time period. I was advised that there would be a possibility that I wouldn’t find what I was looking for, as they didn’t have that much information, but I had my fingers crossed just in case.

Once I  had the book in my possession, that I had ordered from the archive vault, I sat down and looked through it page by page. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a Bastardy Order for either William or James, but there was one for their sister, Mary.

There was an Order from 1793 stating that Mary’s father was Job Dovey, a labourer from Bramshaw. Hannah and Job were never married. He appeared on the order so that he could pay towards Mary’s upbringing, so that she was not a burden on the parish coffers. Job was born in Bramshaw, Wiltshire in 1758, and he married Mary Purdey (1746-1789) on the 28th May 1785. So far, I have been unable to locate any children for Job and his wife.

Hannah married Henry Norman in Minstead on the 12th March 1798 when she was 33 years of age. At the present time, I have been unable to find out if they had any children together, despite searching a number of databases.

With regards to finding a death record for Hannah, I have only managed to find one so far on Ancestry.co.uk. This record shows a Hannah Norman, with a year of birth as 1765, and a date and place of death as 12th March 1832 in Hertford, England. To find out whether this is the correct record, I will need to visit the archives, and have a look at the marriage record to see which parish Henry came from. Once I know where he came from, I will then know which direction my research will take me.

 

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The Hiscock Line

Posted on July 14, 2016 by debbielou72

The following family tree is the Hiscock line of my family, where it shows the home person as my paternal grandfather.

Hiscock 1

This is the main body of my paternal line, and you can see where the dark arrows appear, that particular line continues back a generation or two.  I will be writing about all of the ancestors in the Hiscock line first before moving on to the other members of the tree.

The first part of my family history is to tell you about the members from the ninth generation.

Hiscock Extend 1

This line links directly from the Hiscock line. You can see where they sit into the family tree by looking at the main tree above. Initially, I would be writing about William Hiscock’s grandfather on his paternal line, but as you can see, his father doesn’t appear as William was baseborn. He was baptised using his mother’s surname, but I will tell you more about this in a future blog. I have limited information about my six times great grandparents in this part of the tree, but have been more successful in other areas.

Instead, I will be telling you about my first set of six times great grandparents, who are George Hiscock and his wife, Elizabeth. At the time of writing this book, I have a few sparse details, and I am currently in the process of researching them. All that I know at the moment is that they had a child called Hannah (my five times great-grandmother, who you can read  about in a future blog).

I know that at the time their daughter was born, in 1765, they were living in Bramshaw in the New Forest which is in Hampshire. This is all that I know about them at the moment. The next stage of my research for this elusive couple will be to visit Hampshire Archives and research the parish of Bramshaw and the surrounding areas. It could be that they didn’t come from Hampshire; in that case, I would need to see if I can find a settlement record in the Quarter Sessions. This could then tell me where they came from. An update regarding this couple will follow at a later date. We now move on to the next set of six times great grandparents.

William Whitehorn was born in 1720 in Minstead, Hampshire. Minstead is a small village in the New Forest, Hampshire and is three and a half miles north of Lyndhurst, and just over 11 miles west of Southampton.

According to Wikipedia, Minstead was listed in the Domesday Book. Before the Norman Conquest took place, it was assessed at three and a half hides (a hide is an English unit of land measurement), and was held by a man called Godric Malf. By 1086, Godric’s sons were holding half a hide, as the remaining hides had been taken into the New Forest. In the 1500s, Minstead was in the hands of the Compton family, and by the time William Whitehorn’s children were born, Henry Compton was the High Sheriff of Hampshire.

The church in Minstead is All Saints Church, and is said to date back to the 13th century, but there has been additions to the church throughout the centuries.

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All Saints Church, Minstead

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, novelist of Sherlock Holmes, is buried in the churchyard under a large tree.

William Whitehorn was baptised  on the 25th September 1720 in the village of Minstead. I was able to find his baptism on the Hampshire Baptism Index 1660-1751 CD rom, which was transcribed by the Hampshire Genealogical Society. A lot of parishes in the 18th century only stated the name of the father when the children were baptised, and in this case, the record shows William’s father as John Whitehorn. I will need to research further, at a later date, who William’s mother was.

William married a lady called Mary, although I am not sure of the date as I haven’t been able to locate a marriage record. I will need to visit Hampshire Archives, as so far, I have only been able to locate one marriage in Hampshire for a William Whitehorn and a Mary, and this was in Romsey in 1747. I will need to research this further as the first child that I have for William and Mary was a William Whitehorn born in 1750 in Minstead. I will check to see if any children were born in Romsey first, and if there were, then the next document to look for would be a settlement record.

According to the records that I have researched, William and Mary had four children: William (1750-), William (1752-1808) – my five times great-grandfather, Anne (1752-), and John (1757-). The first William would have passed away at a young age before the next William was born. This is another record that I will need to research further.

William, my six times great-grandfather, passed away on the 3rd September 1795 in Minstead at the age of 75. I was able to find his burial record on the Hampshire Burial Index, 1400-1841 CD rom, transcribed by the Hampshire Genealogical Society.

There is a gap in six times great-grandparents, where I haven’t been able to locate baptism records for my five times great-grandmother, Elizabeth Philips. The next six times great-grandparent that I can tell you about is John Hinvest and Ann Mansbridge.

John was born in 1739 in Lyndhurst, Hampshire and was baptised on the 6th July that year:

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I haven’t found a baptism record for Ann, but I will need to have a look at their marriage record to see whether she came from a different parish to the one in which they married. There is one baptism record that could be hers, but this Ann Mansbridge was baptised in Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, so this will need investigating further.

John and Ann were married on the 28th October 1768 in Eling, Hampshire:

From this marriage, I could find five children, and they were: James, my five times great-grandfather (1770), John (1773), Richard (1776), Mary (1777), and Jane (1779).

John passed away at the end of September 1792, in Eling, Hampshire and was buried on the 1st October that year:

I haven’t managed to find out much about Ann Mansbridge, so I will be researching further, and once I have more information, I will post another update.

There is a further gap in the tree where there should be two more sets of six times great-grandparents. So far, I have been unable to find baptism records for my five times great-grandparents, Anne Legge and Robert Parker.

Isaac Bricknell and Catherine Tiller were my final set of six times great-grandparents in this part of my family tree. Isaac was born in 1729 in Portsea, Hampshire and was baptised on the 31st August that year:

Catherine was born in 1733 in North Hayling, Hampshire and was baptised on the 5th March that year:

The following is the apprenticeship record for Isaac Bricknell. His Master was John Edwards, a Shipwright. The record confirms that Isaac’s father was Robert Bricknell:

Bricknell App

Isaac and Catherine were married on the 13th October 1757 in Portsea, Hampshire:

From this marriage, I found three children, and they were: Kitty (1759), Elizabeth (1761), and Mary, my five times great-grandmother (1762-1833).

Whilst I haven’t managed to find a burial record for Catherine, I was able to find one for Isaac:

Isaac Bricknell

As you can see, Isaac passed away in December 1785 in Portsea, Hampshire and was buried on the 28th of that month.

The next blog will be to tell you about the five, five times great grand-parents in this section of the tree.

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My Family History

Posted on July 14, 2016 by debbielou72

Why did I start to research my family history? This is a question I have been asked many times. Researching my family tree and finding out where I came from is something I had wanted to do for a number of years, but for some reason, I had put it off.

I suppose my reasoning behind this was that I didn’t have the time, as my son had been born with a disability, and was in and out of hospital , having had lots of operations. Another reason, and I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of people out there, is that I didn’t know where to start, and initially, I didn’t know anyone who was doing this.

I had been watching all of the family history programmes on television and kept thinking that this was something that I would like to do. I was always wondering about who my ancestors were and where I came from. Was there anyone famous in my tree; was I related to royalty, and were there any skeletons in the closet?

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Another reason for wanting to research my family tree was that my maiden name is the same as my married name. At the time, I didn’t think that Hiscock was a very common name. I knew a few people at school with the Hiscock surname, but I just thought that it was a regional name. When I mentioned to people that I was a Hiscock before I got married, I was always asked whether we were related. This got me thinking, and I felt that I had to find out. Another reason for beginning my research was finding out that both mine and my husband’s Hiscock grandparents lived in the same road, and our parents, aunties and uncles all went to the same secondary school when they were growing up.

When I was young, we always spent a lot of time seeing my paternal grandparents and the rest of our extended family. I always enjoyed it when my nan got out her big box full of photos, and we always looked through them. There were loads of black and white photos in all different sizes, and I loved to hear who these people were and how they were related to me.

Ann & Hilda Cole

Great, Great Auntie Anne & Great, Great Auntie Hilda Cole

I’m lucky enough that my nan is still alive, and so, a little while a go, I went and visited her to have a look through the photos again. I’ve carried out quite a lot of research on my paternal line, and the names have become very familiar to me over the years. I always wondered what they were like as people and also what they looked like. I showed my research to my nan, and she was able to give me some old photos to scan, and I was finally able to put names to faces. It made the people seem even more real. Nan was able to tell me what some of the people were like as she had met quite a few of them over the years. It was really fascinating.

Finally, six and a half years ago in January 2010, I decided that the time was right for me to begin my journey of finding out who I really am.

My mother had started her family tree six months previously, so she was able to help me on my way. As she was using http://www.ancestry.co.uk this was the route that I decided to take, so I immediately signed up for the 14 day free trial, careful to uncheck the renewal box. I decided that I was going to go for the Pay-As-You-Go option, after all, this was just a hobby, there was no need for me to take out a subscription was there? It wasn’t long before that changed, and I was totally hooked. Overtime, I have gradually increased my membership, and I am now using the Worldwide subscription, which gives me full access to their records.

Of course, you don’t need to use Ancestry, there are plenty of other family history websites out there. FindMyPast is just as good. I’ve found plenty of records on there that I haven’t managed to find on Ancestry. There are also free websites that you can use. FamilySearch is a very good website to use. You have access to vast amounts of records and you can also build your tree on there as well. A lot of people use various family tree programmes. Family Tree Maker is a good one to use and you can syncronise it with your tree on Ancestry. Using a family tree programme may be something to think about using once you are more familiar and settled with your research.

If you’re new to family history, and you want to make a start in researching your tree, make sure that you are able to speak to as many people as possible in your family. Try and get as much information as possible. Remember to not take anything as gospel, always try to back up any information that you have been given. Stories can change over the years and you don’t want to be sent on a wild goose chase.

I began by putting in my details on Ancestry, and then my parents’ details. It wasn’t long before I was getting the green, shaky ancestry leaves telling me there was a possible match in my tree. These hints are not guarantees that they are the right records for your ancestor. Names and dates may be very similar, so go careful before you add that piece of information. Always double check using more than one website. It was so easy to get carried away, and literally spend hours in the evenings finding out about all these wonderful ancestors.

At the beginning, it was all trial and error because I was self taught. I was finding my own way, and it was so easy to lose direction and add the wrong people. There was no organisation to my research, and it was just a random scribbled note on a scrap of paper, so it was inevitable that I ended up having the wrong people in my tree. I would even attach other people’s trees to my own because they had similar information. Most of the time, when I looked at their trees, a lot of the information that they had was not sourced, so I had no idea how they had found the information.

Eventually, I found my own routine, so I typed up my own family group sheets to give me some structure. This helped me to organise my research and to find the correct ancestors for my tree. I was still missing information at this early stage as I was only using Ancestry.

A few months after starting my family tree, I decided to start researching my husband’s. I began with his maternal line as my husband’s aunt had a lot of information to help me on my way. She had the names and dates of birth for her parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and grandparents. This time around, I was a lot more organised with my research, and typed out family group sheets each time I had researched a family. Not only was I searching in Ancestry, but I was using FindMyPast as well to find records. Below is my own family group sheet that I use for each of the families that I research:

research table

This table provides me with some structure as to what I have found so far, and what is left to find.

In late 2010, a very sad event occurred in my husband’s family. My father-in-law died suddenly and unexpectedly. I was at the wake talking to my father-in-law’s cousin about researching family trees. He had a lot of information regarding my husband’s grandmother’s family, along with photos. He promised to email them to us so that I could start researching that side of the tree. Not long after that,  my research began on the paternal side of his tree. Below is a photo of my husband’s great grandfather, born in 1873:

Sidney Godwin

Sidney Godwin

The more I researched both trees, the more experience I gained, the better the information in the trees. I found that reading the various different family history magazines can also prove to be a big help. The more knowledge that I have gained over the years has meant that I have been able to go through each family tree again, making sure that I have all of the correct information. I’ve even managed to add new bits of information about each person.

Researching mine and my husband’s family trees has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I have found out so much and learnt so many new things. With family history, you are always learning. Whilst there is plenty of information to be found online, don’t forget that local and county record offices are always a valuable source of information. You can look at original documentation, with some of them being hundreds of years old. You can also join Family History Societies; I am a member of quite a few and have found them really helpful. Go to as many family history meetings as you can, as you will always find help there. If you are on Facebook, a lot of the family history societies have their own pages. I’ve joined quite a few and they have been very helpful with breaking down brick walls in my research. They also have a lot of local knowledge in their respectful areas.

There are quite a few companies that run genealogy courses online. If you sign up with FutureLearn, you can take part in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree. This is a free online course that runs for six weeks. This course is aimed at all levels of experience. It benefits beginners as it sets them up on the right path for their family research and won’t lead to bad habits. It’s also beneficial for the intermediate and advanced researcher. You can also learn a lot from other people too.

Pharos Tutors is another company that runs courses; these are purely genealogy courses that are affordable for the everyday person. They cover all sorts of topics, for example, Scottish research online; The Poor, The Parish and the Workhouse. There are universities, for example, Strathclyde who do genealogy degrees. They do cost quite a bit to do, and at the time of writing this, I am in the process of saving up to do a genealogy degree.

So far, this year (2016), I have completed the genealogy MOOC (see above), and I would definitely recommend it. It changed the way in which I do my research and has made me a lot more organised. I have designed research logs for each person so that I know which websites I have used.

 I use research logs for each person so that I know which records I have and which ones are outstanding. I also print out each record and keep them all in binders so that, not only do I have an electronic copy, but I also have a hard copy as well.

For the past six years, I have been going to Who Do You Think You Are Live. You can meet up with all sorts of people who are researching their family history. There are lots of different lectures for different areas of family history, and you can learn a lot by attending these. I’m already looking forward to the next one. Over the past few years, I have purchased family history charts and Parish baptisms, marriages and burials CD roms, and family history books. I have got an excellent collection of resources available to assist me with my research.

I have managed to research back quite a few generations, and have collected various documentation along the way to support my research. Whilst my research is nowhere near complete, and I would assume that it won’t be due to the different records continually coming online, I thought I would share with you what I have so far and introduce you to the wonderful people I have found along the way. I will be sharing each couple/person with you in different blogs, but I will be placing everything that I share with you into a family history book which I am hoping to have published in full to place in my local library. The book will be divided into four sections, with the first two sections showing my paternal side of the family. Section one will be about the Hiscock line. Within my research, I have included photos, birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as census returns, parish records and any newspaper articles that may be available. I hope you enjoy reading about these people as much as I have researched them.

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Hunting for Ancestors

Posted on July 12, 2016 by debbielou72

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I’ve been researching mine and my husband’s family trees for a number of years, and today, we decided to go to the village of Minstead to see if we could find any of our mutual ancestors. We share a mutual five times great grandmother who was born in Bramshaw, three miles away from Minstead, but she gave birth to her three children in Minstead.

The church in Minstead is All Saints Church and is said to date back to the 13th century, but there has been additions to the church throughout the centuries.

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The line of my family tree that was born and died in Minstead were the Hiscocks, Whitehorns, and Phillips. My husband and I spent an hour or two exploring the churchyard trying to read the weather beaten grave stones. Quite a lot had remained in tact over the years and were quite easy to read, but others, we were not so lucky with. We found a few small areas of the churchyard where members of the same family were buried. There were quite a few spaces where there were no markers on the graves, and the odd few that were overgrown.

With both of us descending from the same Hiscock line (my maiden name being Hiscock), we were particularly interested to see how many Hiscock headstones that we could see, as both of our four times great grandfathers had died in Minstead. Unfortunately, we only found the one:

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This one was for a man called George Hiscock, and from what we could make out, he died in 1914. I will need to research further for him to find out who his direct ancestor was. I will be including George in my Hiscock One Name Study. We can only assume that the other members of the Hiscock family are either in unmarked graves, or they were in the graves that we were unable to read. The next time we visit, I will go into the church to see if they have a plan of the cemetery that we can use.

Another surname that appears in both of our family trees is Whitehorn. Both of our four times great grandfathers married into that family. Upon searching the churchyard, we came across quite a few:

As you can see, some are in better condition than the others. All I will need to do now is to work out where they belong in each tree and whether or not they are direct ancestors.That will keep me busy for a while.

Whilst we were on our travels round the churchyard, we were fortunate enough to come across the following grave situated under a large tree:

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It is the grave of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, and if you look closely at the base of the cross, you can see two pipes placed there.

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Ancestor Number One of the 52 Week Challenge

Posted on January 19, 2015 by debbielou72

This is a challenge where we have to write about one ancestor per week over the next year. I am slightly behind with this challenge, but I aim to be up to date by the end of the month. My ancestors will include grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins and I will be sharing their story with you.

My first ancestor that I would like to share with you is Albert Harry Copperthwaite, and he was my second great grand uncle on my paternal line.
Albert, known as Bert, was born on the 25th December 1883 in Southampton, Hampshire, England. Albert was the youngest of seven children born to Alfred Flint Copperthwaite and Clara Carter. His siblings were: Alfred James (1866-1959), Ada Susanna (1868-1946), Ernest Frederick George (1872-1946), Laura Clarinda (1875-1916), Lilly Louise (1878-1961) and Frederick Adlophus (1881-1935).
The first census that he appears on is the 1891 census. He is living with his parents and five of his siblings at Spa Court, Spa Road, Southampton, Hampshire and he is of school age.
The 1901 census shows that he was visiting his sister, Laura Clarinda and her husband Frederick Noyce. They were living at 1 Mount Street, All Saints, Hampshire. Albert’s occupation was a Ship’s Trimmer. A trimmer on a ship was a person who distributes coal on a steam ship. All Saints was a parish in Southampton.
In the first quarter of 1907, Albert married a lady called Kate Young, but by the time the 1911 census was carried out, Albert was living at 8 Wharf Street, Southampton. The other people recorded on this census return was a lady called Maud Beatrice Johnson (1891) who was a lodger, and a three month old child called Lily Alice Johnson. Lily was the daughter of Albert, but Albert and Maud were not married. There is no mention as to what happened to Kate Young, and this is something that I would like to find out. Could she have remarried or did she die of an illness or through childbirth?
Albert was living at 39 Mount Street when he signed on to the Titanic. His occupation was a fireman/stoker and he would have received a monthly wage of £6.00. Sadly, he died in the sinking of the Titanic, and his body was never found. He was only 29 years old.
There was a Relief Fund that provided payments to widows and children of the crew. Albert was a Class G crew which was at the bottom and included Firemen, Scullions and Lower Class Stewards. As Maud and Albert were not married at the time of his death, all payments to Maud in respect of their illegitimate daughter Lily would be made instead to her grandmother, Mrs Charlotte Johnson. An allowance of 8s 6d per week would be made for Lily Johnson if necessary.
I visited the Titanic museum in Southampton when it first opened in 2012. At the time, I was unaware that Albert was my ancestor. I will go and visit again to see if there is anything else I can find out about him.

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