Helping Beginners in Family History

Normally I only answer questions where someone has come up across a brick wall, or raises an issue which is of wider interest. What I don't have time to do is to carry out extensive research for free when the information is readily available online and the questioner could easily find the answers themselves. However I occasionally get well written requests for help from someone who is just starting out and, if they are to be successful in the long term they need the experience and practice to find the "easy stuff" for themselves.

See Hollingsworth/Baker Marriage in 1922 at Puckeridge for the kind of reply I like to give to a beginner who starts by sending some old family certificates. [But remember I only answer questions relating to Hertfordshire prior to about the end of the First World War.]

If your ancestor couldn't write, records may be wrong

Help Desk

Braughing

When Margaret's ancestor Thomas Bradshaw (born c 1811) went to Australia in 1855 his parents were described as James and Sarah. Unfortunately online records failed to produce a suitable couple in the Braughing area of Hertfordshire. However Thomas Bradshaw couldn't read and write, so when he was asked for his parent's name he naturally gave the name of the woman he called mother - although she was actually his step mother! The matter in complicated because when one investigates the marriage between James Bradshaw and his first wife, Susanna, there is a ten year gap in child baptisms - including Thomas - probably because they were non-conformists and the relevant registers have not survived.

FULL DETAILS

A WILDMAN at the Red, White & Blue

Brewing

Old Post Cards

In about 1911 someone obviously spent their spare time, probably on a bicycle, touring the pubs in the eastern half of Hertfordshire.  At each pub they collected a post card of the pub, or may have taken a picture themselves, and pasted them in an album. About 90 years later the album fell into the hands of a post card dealer who removed them and sold them one by one on ebay. Post cards of small village pubs are rare and those which were clearly identified fetched high prices but I was able to get 14 whose name or location was unclear. In 2004 I posted them on this site (Post Cards of Hertfordshire Pubs) and by 2007, with the help of others, I had succeeded in identifying every one, and often worked out the name of the publican as well.

The Red White and Blue at Collier's End
Is the publican in the picture Joseph Constable, William Wildman or Robert Champlain?

In the case of the Red White and Blue at Collier's End, part of the historic parish of Standon, there was a problem - as the village had three full public houses and two beer sellers. On the limited information then available to me I surmised that the Smith family were the hosts at the Red White and Blue. Much more information has become available since then and Clive recently informed me that his ancestor, William Smith, died at The Plough. A quick check of the 1911 census showed that a William Henry Wildman was the publican at the Red, White and Blue, and a widow, Sarah Louisa Smith was publican at The Plough.

In updating the page I have also expanded the table of Collier's End publicans to cover the period 1882 to 1926. What is interesting is that there was a high turnover of licencees. In a period of 44 years there were at least 9 different people running the Lambs and Flag, and possibly 10 different people at the Fox and Hounds. 

Standon Church with its separate church tower

Standon Church

Standon

St Mary's, Standon, is an interesting church. Like many other Hertfordshire churches the tower is topped by a "Hertfordshire Spike" - a very narrow steeple. However the big difference in that the tower is not part of the main church but is a separate building standing alongside the chancel. I visited the church in 2006 and took some photographs - now I have added three old post cards showing the church as it was about 100 years ago.

Standon Street - Card by Gordon Smith

The following post card has been added to the Standon page.

Standon Street

Published by Gordon Smith, 15 Stroud Green Road, N - No.1702

Posted1910

Report of the HALH Symposium on Sport in Hertfordshire

The 33rd Hertfordshire Association for Local History's symposium was held at St Edmund's College, Standon and there were some very interesting papers. John Pearson gave an enthralling talk on "Cycling in the Edwardian Period" illustrated with a large number of pictures of bicycles and their riders. These helped to explain the way that the coming of the bicycle encouraged people to come out into the countryside around London - especially Hertfordshire, in the period prior to the First World War. I enjoyed Alan Thompson's talk on the impact James I's interests in Hawking and Hunting affected the landowners who acted at hosts when he visited their estates, but did not make detailed notes as I felt it was less relevant to the readers of this newsletter. I made more detailed notes of David Short's talk on the fields where football was played - and Julia Moore's talk on Golfing in Hertfordshire in the late 19th century, and I will be reporting separately on these. A number of local history societies, and HALS, had displays with recent publications on sale - and I plan to post later on some of wider interest.

In addition there was the chance for the headmaster to show us the Pugin Chapel, a spectacular mural and some of the interesting objects, relating particularly to the history of the Roman Catholic Church in England since the Reformation, and documents in the college museum.

Next year's symposium will be on 2nd November, 2013

Hertfordshire's Buildings

The traditional building materials

A Flaming Boxing Day Surprise.

WARE Hertfordshire postmark 1907 on a faded interesting RP but untitled

The above advert appeared on ebay just before Christmas. Just because the card was posted in Ware doesn't mean that the picture was local to the Ware area or even from Hertfordshire. While the RP (real photograph) was very faded the architecture was clear and there appeared to be some people milling around. I thought it might make a possible mystery photograph for this web site - as some of you might recognise the building. So I put in a bid and won it for less than £2 (including postage). 

     The card arrived with the last batch of Christmas cards before the holiday. During a break in activities I slipped back to the computer to give it a quick scan - and put the digital image through the Paint Shop treatment. 

     And I became really excited when I discovered what the people were looking at ...

To find out what I found look below the fold.