JABEZ GRAHAM - CAUGHT TRESPASSING - 1850

Jabez Graham - Lincolnshire Chronicle article - 1850

The image above is taken from the Lincolnshire Chronicle, representing an 1850 newspaper cutting giving details of the trial of Jabez Graham who had been caught poaching with a J Silvester. The trial occurred in a magistrates court in Spilsby, Lincolnshire on July 1 1850. The ages of the two men are not given but a Rootschat entry seems to imply that the two men could be cousins. This supposition is probably based on the fact that Jabez Graham (b.1821) in Lincolnshire, the son of William Graham and Elizabeth Taylor, was employed as an agricultural labourer. This fits with the occupation stated in the newspaper article. The other link is the man's companion - a J.Silvester who also was being charged with the same offence.

The Jabez mentioned in the article above had an older brother, Taylor Graham who was born in 1812. Taylor was my direct ancestor, my x3 great-grandfather. Taylor went on to marry a girl from Hagworthingham in Lincolnshire, a Harriot L.Silvester, and it can be assumed that the 'J.Silvester' mentioned in the report was related to her. This connection between the two families may go some way to explain the claim that the two men appearing in court could be cousins. Before this fact can truly be claimed as true however, further research would need to take place into the Silvester family themselves.

#SeamanFamilyHistory

FRIDAY FOTO 19 - ROBERT LAYTE BURIAL PLACE - 1785

Combining a business trip with family history research, a few years back I made a visit to St. Mary's church in Haughley, Suffolk as I'd discovered that my great-grandfather (x6) had been buried here on 11 December 1785. 

Robert Layte was born in 1708 in Suffolk, England.  

He married his wife of German descent, Sarah Kurtz, in 1732 and seems to have lived in the small village for the majority of his life as most of their children were born in the area.

In total, the couple had at least 11 children-- with our immediate family being descended from their sixth-born child Timothy, who was born in 1742.

Over the years, the surname of the family was altered slightly-- either by choice or by it being transcribed incorrectly. Early iterations of the family name used by the branches who lived within the Suffolk and Norfolk areas, were spelt either Layte or Laight. 

By the time our branch of the family left the East Anglia area to move north to Lincolnshire, and to subsequently end up living in Liverpool-- the spelling of the name had changed once again to become Laite or Lait. 

There is a family legend, so far unsubstantiated, that the name is derived from France, and that the family came into England as part of the Huguenot community of immigrants who fled religious persecution in the late 1600's.

Research into this branch of the family continues, but I won't be taking any bets at the moment that the legend will actually be proved true... even if the word 'lait' stands for 'milk' in French!    

MAPPING MONDAY - USING GOOGLE 'MY MAPS' FOR GENEALOGY

One of the more useful features of Google is the ability to use its Mapping facility to keep track of your genealogical data. For the 'Mapping Monday' article, I thought I’d cover a few of the features available which I use.



Above is the shared version of my Seaman Family Burial Site data. This is the default view which I have chosen to share with the general public, but the view - like the levels of security which you can build into the page - can be tailored exactly as you wish. For example, the base image can reflect Earth data as it is here, or configured to show a more simple map graphic. A selection of different colours can be chosen for this as you prefer.
As you can see, each of the cemetaries listed has been given its own layer on the image. These can be turned on and off using the checkboxes to the left of the menu. Selecting either the name of the relative on the left hand menu or on the icon itself on the map, displays an image and other details of the grave site which have been recorded (see below).
 

Editing the maps is great fun and can be achieved using the ‘Edit’ option, (which is only accessible to the map owner and any defined collaborators), to access the Google ‘My Maps’ view (below).


The styles and format of each of the layers is configurable separately… allowing features such as the icons, icon colour, text, grouping of labels, level naming conventions etc. to be changed as required. All changes made are saved to Drive, so unwanted changes can be undone if required. Additional items such as new icons, line drawing on the map, and also distance measurement are also available. New layers can also be easily added as required.


As can be seen above, there is also a direction facility which allows you to include this information on a separate layer on the map if required. This information will feed through to the shared map view (so you could include directions to the grave location from the nearest railway station for example), but this data is not configurable to view only users.


Finally, as can be seen in the example above, if images are captured using a smartphone or digital camera with built in GPS, then the exact location of the graves are recorded against the images. When these are placed into the software, the grave locations can be recorded almost exactly, allowing subsequent researchers to the site the best chance of finding the graves for themselves. 


One final example of how these maps can be most useful is to track the migration of families around the country at various times. The example above shows graphically how my LAIT family relations originated in Norfolk with my 5x great-grandfather, Timothy Lait, and finally ended up in Liverpool with my grandmother Margaret Eleanor Graham LAIT, who I am named after. They made a total journey of 409 kms, which took in excess of 159 years, and crossed six generations (eight if you include myself and my father).

So next time you get a little disheartened trying to break down those brick walls in your core data, open up Google, grab yourself an account, and start mapping those ancestors! 
I guarantee that you’ll enjoy it!

THOMAS MOUNSER - Finding my Great-Grandfather in Eye, Suffolk

Tonight I managed to update my main database data in connection with my 4th great-grandfather Thomas MOUNSER.

Thomas was born in Eye in Suffolk in 1788. At the moment, only the year of his birth can be found. The data has thus been marked as unconfirmed, as the information has been discovered on other Ancestry public websites with no firm sources defined.

Eye is a small market town situated in North Suffolk, England. Its name is derived from an Old English word meaning 'island', as the village was potentially surrounded by water and marshland, with its castle standing on the high ground in the centre. Eye is known for its vibrant country market and the impressive church of St Peter & St Paul, which dates back to around 1470.

Village Cross - Eye, Suffolk

Thomas was baptised in the town on the 1 June 1789. This was an interesting data find in the Birth & Christening registers, as his name had been mis-spelled 'MONNSER' on the record. This entry also revealed the names of his father and mother for the first time - Richard and Elizabeth MONNSER. Up to this point their names had previously been unknown to me.

Thomas had a son - John - born 29 August 1814. It is not clear at present who his mother is, as her name was given to be Ann. Thomas did not marry his wife Ann ALFORD until 4 November 1816, and his status was said to be 'widowed', so it is possible that John's mother was actually his first wife. This has yet to be determined and is yet just one other mystery of this family which needs to be resolved. Thomas was aged 25 at the time of the birth.

Another son, George, was born 29 September 1816. It is likely that the Ann mentioned on this birth record was in fact Ann ALFORD, who Thomas married later that year in November. Thomas was 27 years old when George was born.

St Peter and St Paul's church - Eye, Suffolk

A third son, James, was born on 16 September 1818. He died just over a year afterward on 5 November 1819. Thomas was 30 years old when the infant died.

On 21 December 1820, the couple had a daughter, Maria MOUNSER.  Maria was destined to become my 3rd great-grandmother.

Thomas died in October 1843 in Friskney in Lincolnshire. He was 54 years old at the time. His wife, Anne ALFORD, outlived him and died in Friskney in March of 1875, aged 81 years of age.

Looking at the data I have on this family, it seems obvious that there are still some further questions to be answered. Why did the family end up in Friskney, almost 100 miles away from Eye in Suffolk where Thomas was born? What was Thomas' occupation? Was there a first wife and earlier marriage? Have we found all the children which came from the marriages?

Going back and researching the records of the 18th century is undoubtedly harder the further we go back in time, and we obviously need to be careful not to take the information at face value. But that is precisely what makes this research so interesting and worthwhile.  

FAMILY HISTORY - UNEXPECTED CAUSE OF DEATH

Family History - Unexpected Cause of Death

I've recently been researching the Lait family, a branch of my father's family who originated from Lincolnshire and who ended their lives in Liverpool. In particular, I've been looking at details surrounding the life of my great(x2) grandmother, Mary Ann Lait (formerly Graham).

She was born in a tiny village called Raithby in Lincolnshire in 1853. Following her marriage to my great(x2) grandfather, Charles Augustine Lait, the family eventually moved to Liverpool and they had 8 surviving children.

Her death in 1904 was a tragic one, and one which surprised me when the death certificate was actually purchased and received. Instead of finding one of the more common causes for death (such as heart disease, malignant cancers, pulmonary disease and pneumonia etc.), her own was attributed to ‘shock and exhaustion due to burns received by her clothes accidentally catching fire on the 9th instant’. An inquest into her death had been held in Liverpool on 12th January 1904 but I have yet to find any further details about it.

I've since found that this was a relatively common accidental cause of death during those times, (both for adults and children), which is hardly surprising perhaps when you consider the widespread use of open fires, candles for illumination, and lack of flame-retardent materials for nightdresses and clothing in general.

Death Certificate - Mary Ann Lait

Considering the hardships my great-grandmother must have faced - a country girl who brought her family up within the bustling city, having to learn to survive within basic slum dwellings and yet successfully helping to raise 8 children - to end her life in such a way is a tragedy indeed.

In all my years of researching my family history, I've only ever had goose-pimples twice when I opened an envelope and read the contents. This was the first...