Blog Labels now available and other maintenance matters

The process of adding labels to most of the blog posts (apart from those mentioning events and administrative matters which are no longer relevant) and some standardization of the labels (such as combining "Territorial Force" and "Territorial Army" entries) had taken place and the result is a menu on the right of this page, which has been under test for several days.

Tring Railway Station and the Maori Wars

One of the railway workers at Tring Station. Aldbury in 1851, was Michael Meredith who later emigrated to New Zealand - and whose murder appears to have occurred at the start of one of the Maori wars.  Two years ago I answered a question from Carlene about his Hertfordshire family but failed to link the answer to the indexes, etc., on this web site. This fault has now been corrected.

In connection with this query it is interesting to revisit the pages on railway workers associated with Tring Railway Station and with the village of Aldbury  (see pages based on the 1851 and 1881 census) and the information they contain throws light on the role of the railways in moving their employees around the country.

A major reorganisation of the Hitchin Pages

Several years ago I started to restructure the Hitchin pages, but never finished the job. I have now resumed the work and so far have created "picture pages" for St Mary's Parish Church, The Market Place, Bancroft, High Street, Bridge Street, Tilehouse Street, The Biggin, Trade and Industry, Events and Unclassified Post Cards, and further pages are planned. This will allow me to add much more information of this important town over the next few months.

Buntingford Update

I am always happy to encourage local historians to set up pages for the towns and villages where they live - as they can provide more detailed coverage than I ever could. I was therefore delighted to hear from Alison that her Buntingford In Old Photographs Facebook page is proving very popular with 1847 photographs uploaded so far.

In connection with Buntingford Pictures lost in fire - Can you help? she reports: "I am happy to report that I have uploaded photographs of his grandfather Sidney and his three children - Sidney, Joan and Elsie - onto my Buntingford in Old Photographs Facebook page."

She also writes: "You featured invoices from Jackson butchers - there are photographs on my Buntingford in Old Photographs Facebook page of Arthur and his son Harry and a wonderful display of Christmas fare, and Walter Jackson's butcher's shop. Harry was a keen photographer and I have uploaded some of his work, and photos of his wife Betty."

Rural Relaxation - In the Woods at Ashridge

The sun shines through the trees on the carpet of fallen leaves on the Ashridge Estate
click on picture for larger image

Major Hertfordshire History Books Online

Familysearch is busy beta-testing their online library and I note that the following relating books to Hertfordshire are currently available:

Clutterbuck: "The history and antiquities of the county of Hertford, Vol. 1 : compiled from the best printed authorities and original records ..." and "The history and antiquities of the county of Hertford, Vol. 3 : compiled from the best printed authorities and original records …"

Cussans: "History of Hertfordshire, ... Vol. 1. History of the hundreds of Braughing, Edwinstree, and Odsey", Vol. 2. History of the hundreds of Hitchin, Hertford, and Broadwater" and Vol. 3. History of the hundreds of Dacoarum and Cashio"

The Victoria history of the county of Hertford

Middlesex and Hertfordshire notes and queries, Vol. 1, Vol. 2 & Vol. 4

The Herts genealogist and antiquary by William Brigg

 Hertfordshire parish registers, marriages. V. 1, V. 2 & V. 3, The parish registers of Aldenham, Hertfordshire, The parish registers of St. Albans Abbey, 1558-1689, etc

Memorials of old Hertfordshire, The book of Shenley, Monken Hadley, Hemel Hempstead through the ages, etc, etc

Sport in Hertfordshire - Symposium on 10th November

The Hertfordshire Association for Local History is having its 33rd Annual Symposium on 10th November (10.00-16.30) at St Edmund's College, Puckeridge. The programme will include:

James I: Hunting & Hawking in Hertfordshire

Golfing in Hertfordshire in the late 19th century

The Development of the Lee Valley Regional Park

The History of Cricket in Hertfordshire

Cycling in the Edwardian Period

'Football Close' where football was played.

In addition a number of local history societies will have display stands - undoubtedly with some of their most recent publications for sale.

Champneys (now a Spa Hotel) for sale in 1804

Champneys - the Luxury Spa Hotel in Wigginton, near Tring, - was a farm before the Rothchilds upgraded it in the 19th century. I have just provided a copy of a 1804 advert for the manor & farm.

Herts Past & Present - Autumn 2012 - No 20

The Autumn Issue of Herts Past and Present (published by the Hertfordshire Association for Local History) is out and the following description of the three main papers is based on the editorial.

The poor are always with us. In Begging Letters from Hertfordshire paupers living away from home the poor from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries speak to us in a particularly vivid way, through their letters written in desperation to Hertfordshire parish overseers. Carla Herrmann's study of fifty such begging letters reveals a range o' causes of their destitution: from disease, violent insanity, to injury caused by accidents at work. Widows with dependent children had a particularly hard time of it. Grace Pryor, whose husband had died after falling down a well in Royston leaving her with three children, got short shrift from the Royston overseer in 1783. He sent her back to Heydon in Essex, whence she had originated. Then as now it was economic interests that counted in the decision whether or not to offer support. If you couldn't prove your worth to the parish you had a struggle to claim benefit. "Supportive attitudes appear to have been comparatively rare" is the author's conclusion so far. 

Sarah Lloyd's intriguing article "Tickets Please!" Survivals from eighteenth-century Hertfordshire tells us what tickets can tell us about social history and is a summary of our Lionel Munby lecture at the AGM in May. It shows just what can be read into these most ephemeral of items. That old ticket found under a floorboard tells a story offering a window into many varied aspects of eighteenth-century life. 

Researchers into The Manors of Watford will find the list of sources suggested by Gordon Cox most helpful. The Victoria County History is recognised as no longer adequate to the task. Ranging further afield the quest could take you as far afield as Reading, Woking, Chester and California. Not to mention London, Oxford and Cambridge. Why can't records stay put?

French & King Families of Wheathampstead

When I started this web site in 2001 I set up a page for linking to online web sites which included family tree information involving Hertfordshire families. However other web sites were becoming available for uploading your family trees and I decided not to extend this facility - but kept the existing links going - only deleting them when the web sites vanished.

Alec French has just told me his site, with details of the French and King families of Wheathampstead will be finally closing dome on 31st October - so if you are interested in this family have a quick look over the weekend - as it is not recorded on the WayBack machine.

I will be updating the old Family Trees and Histories page early in November and this will mean removing the references to the French site in November, together with references to two other sites which appear to be no longer functioning. These relate to the Boddy/Body family of Buntingford and the Barker family of Kings Walden.