JAMES & MARY DUNN - MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE - 1895

Another of the documents I discovered in my TTDL folder was this, the marriage certificate for my wife's great-grandparents, James and Mary DUNN.

They were married on 3rd November 1895 in the so-called 'seaman's' church in Liverpool - St Nicholas... the original parish church of Liverpool. The church is located at the bottom of Chapel Street, close to the Pier Head and Princes Dock, and for many years would perhaps have been the first ecclesiastical building to be seen by the crewmen as they disembarked from the ships.

The couple themselves lived in separate addresses in Vernon Street in the city centre, and although they had the same surname it does not appear that they were related - although a distant connection may still be discovered at some point. Jame's father, also called James, was born in 1853 in Liverpool. Mary's father Edward Dunn however, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1852.

Marriage Certificate - James and Mary DUNN - Liverpool, 1895

THOMAS LAIT - DEATH CERTIFICATE - 6/11/1859

SATURDAY DATA SHAREDAY - Thomas LAIT (b.1781 Diss, Suffolk; d.1859 Palgrave, Suffolk)

Today I found this copy of my g-grandfather's (x4) death certificate in my TTDL folder. I'd entered the data up from it, but just hadn't put it away after I'd finished with it! That's one sure way of losing an important document such as this... note to self to smack on wrist!

Of course I took this as some kind of an omen and decided to post it up here as well! Hopefully there will be less chance of it getting mislaid from this point on!

Thomas died when he was 80 years old of certified old age. He had been a coach builder by trade, as were at least four of his sons who had followed him into the profession. The death was informed by his son Charles, who had been 49 years old at the time of his father's death.

A notice was also found to have been printed in one of the local newspapers about his death.

Thomas LAIT - Death Certificate

Death Notice

FAMILY HEIRLOOM - GRANDAD'S SHIRT SUSPENDERS - William John WELSH

5/1/2017 - GRANDAD'S SHIRT SUSPENDERS

For Treasure Chest Thursday I give you a photo of my grandad - William John WELSH, pictured in the backyard of his home in Hughson Street, Toxteth in the mid 1950's.

Near his elbows on each arm, you can just see the folds caused by the elastic suspenders he was wearing, to keep his shirt cuffs clear of his hands which hopefully will keep them a little cleaner.

The shirt suspenders themselves are pictured on the right, and consist of a circle of elastic ribbon covered by thin flexible steel wire. These were left to me by my aunt Betty, Ellen Elizabeth WELSH, prior to her death.

I still keep them in the box with my other jewelry, and wear them sometimes when the occasion arises.

#familyheirlooms #treasurechestthursday #williamjohnwelsh #toxteth #shirtsuspenders 

HILLMAN MINX AND COBBLES IN TOXTETH (1964)

For the 'Wordless Wednesday' blog prompt today I submit this beauty from the early 1960's. Hughson Street, Toxteth... the row of neat two-up two-down houses where we lived... Mum, little bro and I on the step in dubious socks and short trousers... and a Hillman Minx from around 1964.

And of course, the cobbles. 

It was just murder trying to ride your bike on those!

Hughson Street, Toxteth,  Liverpool 8

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.  

THOMAS SEAMAN - DESCENDANT RESEARCH

I've been researching my family history data for around 15 years now and so have accumulated a great deal of information about my various family lines. I've sometimes seen posts on social media etc. about family historians sometimes becoming a bit 'overwhelmed' by the amount of random information becoming available to them via sites like Ancestry and Find My Past (...also known as 'the shaking leaf syndrome'!).

Don't get me wrong, this feature can be very useful as long as the researcher carries out the proper checks they need to verify the data, but well I know that it can sometimes feel like you are just 'grabbing' at the information as it shows up on your tree.

One way around this is to use the filters on these hints to show only certain family surnames to look at. The other hints can be kept to one side until all those associated to one line have been dealt with.

Thomas SEAMAN - Descendants - Progress so far...

But another way to conduct your research in a more organised fashion is to try and track down the descendants of a particular individual. I'm currently doing this with my g(x3) grandfather, Thomas SEAMAN from Mold in North Wales; checking each family associated with him one generation at a time. The graphic above shows details of where I'm currently up to with this.

Using this method, I've found this an ideal way of both reviewing the data I already have about the individuals connected to this line, but also of finding and reviewing new information and individuals in a more organised and structured way.

So if you're beginning to feel an information overload hurtling towards you - step back a bit, take a deep breath, and give this a try. 

I'd recommend it to anyone over alcohol or headache tablets!

SCRIVENER AND FAMILY HISTORY

I was rootling about on the web earlier conducting a bit of family history research - trying to find how many UK-based blogsites there were available compared to all the sites based in the US.

One of my searches pulled up a link to this video, a webinar by Lynn Palermo featured on The Armchair Genealogist, and I was soon pulled away from what I had been looking at.

I really love using Scrivener for all my writing - the blog posts and articles as well as the creative writing I produce - so this video was right up my street.

Take some time out and give it a whirl yourself, I'm sure you'll find it of interest too.

For other videos in this vein be sure to check out Lynn's excellent YouTube channel at the link here.