Ancestry etc -worth it?

[fluffytail10]

Hello again,
Being on half term holiday, and having a short break from report writing, I decided to have a hunt through the Norfolk County archives website (NOAH),trying to find out some more about the history of my house. I think that I have now been able to establish who the owner was in 1748, but only through various suppositions and guess work, ie by referal to the pub next door.

Would joining one of these ancestry searching websites be any use in helping me discover if this person did indeed own my house? would it give an address? tell me who lived there etc. £100 pounds is a lot to spend on a membership if it only goes back to the 1841 census, or no addresses.

Do different websites all offer the same kind of thing or are there some that have more detailed/ancient records than others?

thanks for your help

 

[Juju]

Just pay for a week's use of a site with the census - about £10 max. The 1881 census is free to look at on the Mormon family history website although you have to search by name. That will be the same for other census searches too except 1901 and 1911 I think where you can search by address. I wouldn't have thought it worth forking out for full membership unless you're planning to do family tree research too. You could also go to your local library to consult any indexes/transcriptions; also Kellys Directories etc. With our street, they only introduced house numbers in 1901 so we can't really explore the history of our house prior to that although we can identify our house on the tithe map.
Juju

 

[Penners]

Before you part with any money, just be sure that the online censuses (or is it 2nd declension - censi?!) go that far back. I have a feeling that none of the pre-19th century censuses have been published online yet (but don't take that as a knowledgeable comment - it's just a suspicion).

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Before you part with any money, just be sure that the online censuses (or is it 2nd declension - censi?!) go that far back. I have a feeling that none of the pre-19th century censuses have been published online yet (but don't take that as a knowledgeable comment - it's just a suspicion).

It would be diffcult, since the Census only started in 1801. :roll:

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Is there a plural for Census?

 

[middi]

Is there a plural for Census?

Of course there is , two (or more) of them.

Middi

 

[fluffytail10]

Well I managed to find the norfolk parish records on line for free which go back to 1600s, but sadly no addresses so none the wiser as to the owner of our house. Cross checking shows my earlier leads have come to nothing though difficult to say exactly as our (me and my neighbours) houses were once a row of 5 very tiny 1 up, 1 down cottages and are now 2 bigger houses. So maybe they owned one small part.

All I want to prove really is that our cottage is 18th century rather than 19th - purely for snob value of course :roll:

anyone any other ideas of where i could look? I know who lived here in 1838 as I have seen tithe map, enclosure map doesn't seem to be available for this area. So what else can I try?

thanks xx

 

[Juju]

All census records from 1841 - 1911 are available online from various providers - you usually buy credits so it's pay to view the full info. The census 1801-1831 was overall statistics only not individual household details. I use GenesReunited for my family tree research and they have all the census records. Other options are the National Archives, findmypast.com, Ancestry, familysearch.org etc etc

Maybe if you know the names of people who lived in your house you could do a bit of research on them and that might give more info about your house? I've probably said this before in another thread but I found it fascinating when we got the name of the owner of our house from the tithe map and then found out more about him and made contact with his descendants in America who were active family tree researchers - they put a photo of our house on their website.

Sometimes you have to accept you can't find out that much about your own house but then you can switch to doing more about your street. That's what Mr Juju and I did - we have a little website about our street. I haven't updated it in about 2 years unfortunately but we get several emails a month from people who've seen it and pass on information about their families who lived there. In fact the local library links to it now on their website! Oh, you could also try the online newspapers from the British Library archive which covers 1800-1900 but probably selected newspapers - again you have to pay to view but I now have loads of interesting articles about people who lived in our street, adverts for pubs and houses for sale etc. It's all fascinating and of course might inadvertently lead to info about your own house. I've got one or two house for sale/rent adverts that I think might be our house. It all builds up a wonderful picture of what it was like at particular moments in time for your neighbourhood.
Juju

 

[skier-hughes]

Not sure about your area, but in Staffordshire ancestry.co.uk or whatever it is is free to use from any library.

 

[Nigel Watts]

As someone who has dabbled in family history research I would advise against parting with any cash, especially to a generic website. If you really want to spend money finding out some specific information you can hire a researcher to work for you for a fee. I did this once. The researcher clearly worked quite hard and deserved the payment based on how much effort she put in, but the results were not great. But then looking for something which might not exist is an occupational hazard for historical reseachers.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

A while ago Juju started a thread about all the interesting things brought back from a Family Member's home. The dilemma is always between keeping or getting rid. However, the importance of keeping albums, letters, photographs to do with houses, villages and people has recently been brought home to me.
My Mother passed away in 1993, and she requested in her will that bundles of papers relating to her childhood home of Elsfield should be taken to the County records Office. After all these years I finally found all the papers, photographs and handwritten memoires of the village by the villagers, dating well back to around 1880. I managed to locate the local Vicar and delivered it all to him last summer.A couple of months ago I received an email from an Archivist in the village, absolutely astonished by the amount of material and telling me that quite a lot of it has revealed previously unknown information about the village. An article has been published in yesterday's Oxford Times, with more to follow later in the year. It is quite amazing how significant all these things can turn out to be. I am still working on sorting out albums and letters from my Grandmother's home in Rochford, and am slowly digging out an equally exciting pile of letters etc, to be handed over to the parish in due course. As for my Father's detailed work about every mill and church in Norfolk, well----------there's 18 years worth of it to sort!
So, Fluffytail10, there is bound to be somebody out there who might eventually come up trumps.

 

[Juju]

Jocelyn - what a lovely story! Yes people love local history so any papers etc that people find should be offered to a local library/archive as they are such a treasure trove for family historians and house researchers etc.
Going off at a tangent - in my garden history research, I'm researching an Edwardian head gardener and found him on someone's family tree on GenesReunited and made contact with his descendant who was delighted when I said I had articles from Country Life which referred to him and included a photo of his cottage. When I've completed that research I'll send copies of it all to him. I love helping fellow family/house historians...
Juju

 

[fluffytail10]

I think now I've found free access to all the information I needed. The owner of our house in 1837 was Robert Bayes, and I have mnaged to go back and find his parents and grandparents, sadly no info about exactly where they lived, though it would be nice to assume that the house had passed down through the generations.

There are lots of old deeds relating to the village in the record office, so hopefully I can spend afew days in summer investigating.

Weirdly, yesterday as I was cleaning the bathroom floor, I heard someone coming along the passage and in a very thick norfolk accent said 'hallooo'. I jumped in fear as I was totally alone in the house, and thought one of the neighbours had wandered in, but of course there was no-one there.....

Not that I believe in ghosts of course, probably fumes from floor cleaner :wink:

 

[Juju]

Oh dear fluffytail - hopefully you're just imagining things because you're spending time researching your home's previous inhabitants... I've never felt any strange presence in my house except when I was decorating one of the rooms and I was on my own. I kept turning round thinking i heard or felt someone there. I think (hope) actually it was something to do with weird shadows we get across our walls when lorries pass by the house.
Now the National Trust property where I volunteer definitely gives me the heebie-jeebies - during January I was often in the house on my own, the lights were switched off, the curtains drawn and furniture covered in white sheets - that's a minefield for an overactive imagination! I hate being in the volunteers' tearoom (old servants' kitchen in the basement) on my own too - you hear all sorts of noises, smell ghostly woodsmoke and all sorts... Then one day I thought I was all alone in the stableyard and I felt a ghostly presence touching my bum - now that was really scary. Turned out to be the property manager's greyhound which had sneaked up on me! :lol:

 

[Feltwell]

Then one day I thought I was all alone in the stableyard and I felt a ghostly presence touching my bum - now that was really scary. Turned out to be the property manager's greyhound which had sneaked up on me! :lol:

I was fixing our gas cooker yesterday, I was there knelt on the kitchen floor with my head inside the oven (Mrs F was busy checking the life insurance small print :wink: ) trying to unclip a sensor right at the back- so a very small, dark space to try and get your head inside and still get your arms in to be able to do the job. Hard enough as it is, without the youngest of my offspring deciding it would be a great game to stand behind Dad and alternately pull at the back of his t-shirt, and then push him in the back.

It didn't half make me jump when he first did it! Of course my telling him, from inside the oven, to go away just makes the game even better. To finish it off, why not grab your training cup full of water and shake it and dribble water down Dad's back, whilst laughing. Nicking Dad's tools and running away with them is good fun too.

He has a worringly evil sense of humour for a 16 month old toddler......

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Hey Fluffytail10, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that you heard what you heard. I am very sensitive to the supernatural, a gift inherited from my Mother. I have too many experiences to list here, but as we recently lived in one of the oldest houses in Walsingham, not so far from you really, I will tell you about the lady and gentleman that appeared with regularity in the main dining hall. Whenever we laid the dining room table for a 'proper ' meal, a lady in a long, deep red velvet skirt and richly embroidered top with a high collar would stand in the open doorway between the kitchen and the table. Behind her stood a gentleman in close fitting black clothes, typical of the Elizabethan period. ( Iwas going to say tights, but I know that will wind up Penners). I mentioned these appearances to the local Historian who told me that others had described the same to him, and then went on to tell me about other sightings in other properties in the village. All my properties have spoken to me and none of the experiences have been unpleasant except when, a few years ago, I was commisioned to assist with refurbishments in The Priory at Chicksands--- they were something else, sending shivers down the backs of one or two very hardened Military Personal for whom the Priory was being converted into the Officers Mess.

Mind you there are some cynics who would probably say that your visitor was Gareth checking that you are not knocking the house down!

 

[Penners]

He has a worringly evil sense of humour for a 16 month old toddler......

Nonsense!

Now, if he'd turned on the gas - that would be worrying...!

 

[AMc]

I think now I've found free access to all the information I needed.

Being interested in the history of my house, lazy, local and quite skint I'd appreciate any links you might have to free information sources thanks!

 

[JoceAndChris]

I can't believe in ghosts - maybe it's just jealousy as I've begged and pleaded for ghosts to show themselves on various occasions and they never have. But I don't doubt the truthfulness of people's experiences, and it's always interesting to read about them.

 

[fluffytail10]

sure thing AMC assoon as i work out how il add them