January Issue

[margaretabram]

I have just opened the package containing the January issue and out fell the disc titled "Cornish Ancestors". Up to this week, I would have cast it on one side because I had no interest in Cornwall.

A couple of days ago I had a major breakthrough with my husband's tree. I had been completely stuck on his great great grandfather John Abram, who lived in Portsmouth. I had his marriage certificate and death certificate, but couldn't go back any further despite having his father's name of William. In an idle moment I was showing my husband why I was stuck and had been for two years, when something I had noted, but not taken in properly, hit me. He was a seaman on his marriage certificate and a naval pensioner on his death certificate.

I went straight onto the National Archives and did a search and found a John Abram(s) born in Liskeard Cornwall on 10 Aug 1814. I had worked out his date of birth to be c 1813, so that fitted. How did I make a positive link? Well, it is as positive as it can be with the evidence I have. His wedding was in the five days between ships, joining a ship the day after. Probably why there was no honeymoon baby. Two of the three children were conceived when I know from the records he was on shore and I am pretty certain that if I get the time to check the whereabouts of the ship he was serving on around the conception of the second child, I'll find it was in Portsmouth where the family lived. The retirement date tied in exactly with the start of his illness which killed him a year later, so almost every box ticked that could be. Also there are no records for anyone else of that name as a naval pensioner.

So now Cornwall is of interest, so to those readers that complain that they haven't had a relevant disc yet, I know you want to have your area of special interest, but sometimes you have new areas to explore. So guess what I'll be doing today!

[pre1837]

Hi Mags,
No, I am not complaining that we don't get anything for my area, But we seem to be forgotten somehow. Check on the CDs Books etc and see if you can find any re Hampshire. Even in the small book catalogue included with this month's WDYTYA? mag (Sub), apart from one small item inside the back cover for Portsmouth, (might interest you?) I could see nothing for Hants. Pete.

[margaretabram]

I agree that Hampshire generally seems poorly served. Not only has my husband got ancestors in Portsmouth, we both have them from neighbouring villages in Hampshire too. A lot of my research is in Kent, where I live and by coincidence some of the research is in my own home town (a complete surprise) and it is so much easier in Kent.

[colliehouse]

Well it has to be said, there isn't a great deal published for Caithness either!![:D]