English Paleography

Genealogy research requires many different skills including the ability to read old documents. Several web sites offer excelent tutorials in reading Old English handwriting. My favorites are the paleography course offered on the Cambridge University web site and Beginners Palaeography available through The National Archives (TNA).

The Cambridge course is available at www.english.cam.ad.uk/ceres/ehoc. Select "course lessons" and practice transcribing Old English documents. The document appears on the upper half of a split screen, your transcription on the lower half. When you finish, you check your work by comparing your transcription with an accurate transcription.

Access the course available through TNA at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography (note the unusual spelling of paleography). Select "Gam - ducking stool" for a little fun checking your skills with a game similar to hangman. A single word appears on the screen for you to transcribe. If you transcribe the word incorrectly, a little figure moves closer to the surface of the water. Enough errors and the figure is ducked and the game is over.

I hope you will find these websites useful in improving your skills as a paleographer.

Parent Search and the International Genealogical Index

If you haven’t discovered the wonders of a “parent search” to locate missing children in the International Genealogical Index© (IGI) you should. This search can locate missing children in extracted records or patron submitted records. I used this method to find the children of Abel Loder.

All family records indicated that Abel Loder (b. 1791) married Sarah Legge, in 1813 at Adderbury, Oxfordshire, England. They had one child, George, christened in 1817 at Aston Rowant, Oxfordshire, England, home parish of Abel. There was no other information on this family.

A search of the Aston Rowant parish records revealed a christening record for Abel in 1791 and a christening record for a son, George in 1817. There were no burials or additional christenings for Abel and his wife, Sarah. With a four year gap between the marriage and the only known child, I suspected that additional children were christened in other parishes.

A first child was commonly christened in the mother’s home parish. I went to the Adderbury parish records to look for christening entries for this couple, but without success. Next I searched the parish chapelries. While searching the records of the Chapelry of Bodicot, I located an entry for a son, John christened in 1813. No other entries were found.

I next searched the IGI using the “parent search” method. I quickly located entries for a son, Henry, born 1820 in London; a daughter, Louisa, born 1825 in London; a second daughter, Ann, born 1827 in London; and a third daughter, Sarah, born in London in 1829. The last three children were christened at All Souls Church, Marylebone. No child was located born between 1820 and 1825.

I searched the All Souls records and located a marriage for Abel Loder to Jane Thorpe in December of 1829. The microfilm record of the marriage indicated that Abel was a widower. Evidently Sarah died shortly after the birth of her daughter, Sarah in July of 1829. No burial record was found for Sarah.

Another “parent search” of the IGI located the following children born to Abel Loder and his wife Jane. A son, George, born 1834 in London, a daughter Maria and another son, William, christened in 1837 in London. No other entries were located for this family.

Abel’s death certificate recorded that he died 4 February 1858 in Clerkenwell. His daughter, Maria was the informant.

So how do you perform a “parent search?” First select the “Search” tab in familysearch.org. Next, select “International Genealogical Index©”. After the screen changes, enter the names of the parents in the parent fields. You must have the father given and surname, but need only the mother’s given name (if her name is common, add her surname). You will also need to select a region. I select the country, but only include the County if I am sure that the family never lived in another county. The search results will include all children born to couples with those names. Consider the location of the christenings to narrow the list down to those who might belong to your family. If the record is an extraction of a parish record or Bishop’s Transcript, the Batch number will start with a “C,” marriage records start with an “M.” Once you have a Batch number, you can click on the Batch number and search the extracted records by surname.

Good luck, as you discover the marvels of a “parent search” of the IGI.

Skeletons in the Closet and Other Family Secrets

Several years ago, I was verifying family records to complete a class assignment. I began to search county marriage records, to locate the marriage of my maternal grandparents. My records indicated that they were married, 11 December 1919 in Provo, Utah, Utah, but a careful search of the county records for that date produced no results. I began to search a month before and after the recorded date, but found no listing for the two individuals. My mother suggested that I should check Juab county records, but again no entry was located for this marriage.

I was intrigued by this mystery. A quick check of the 1920 census for Eureka and Goshen located both of my grandparents. My grandfather was living in Eureka with a younger brother. Grandfather was listed as a single male. My grandmother was living in Goshen with her parents and was also marked as single. Census records are often faulty, but it would be very unusual to find the same error in two individuals located in two towns. Another phone call to my mother produced the following response, “Oh, Mother must have been visiting her parents.” I didn’t believe a word.

So, according to available records, they were not married in 1919, and were in fact, single in January 1920 when the Federal census was taken. Back in the library, I pulled the marriage records for Utah County and began a careful search for the months following the date of the census enumeration. Finally, I found the entry for the marriage dated, 11 March 1920.

So, why the deception? It seems that the first child was born in September 1920, only six months after the wedding. Did Mother know that her parents were not married in December? I believe so. The dates on the marriage certificate have been changed—the handwriting just does not match. Clearly, a family secret perceived by some as a bona fide skeleton. So, who changed the dates on the certificate?