Marion Brackpool came to the Windsor Group's March
meeting, her subject being "Records of the Dear
Departed". It might be thought that
evidence of an ancestor's life, in terms of written
evidence, might be sparse - even meagre - as we delve
further and further back in time. In fact there
is a wealth of records from many different sources.
Manorial records (or Manorial rolls) can date back
to medieval times and will show any changes of
ownership of a property, tenure of cottages, what is
happening on the estates owned by the Lords of the
Manor and so on. Some of these records can be in
private hands even to this day but many are not and
there is an excellent Gibson Guide on this subject
explaining which records are in the public domain and
where they may be found. An index of the Register of
Manors is held at the Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts at Quality House, in Chancery Lane (www.hmc.gov.uk).
Wills, of course, are a familiar source of
information but it may not be realised that they can
date back to the 14th century. Inquests are
another, often neglected, source covering any death
in unusual circumstances: all early inquests are
indexed at the Public Records Office (PRO) at Kew.
And what treasures they can reveal! Family
squabbles, names of children or grandchildren and
which part of the extended family they belong to and
sometimes citing a deceased person not otherwise
known (e.g. "I bequeath to .. the silver
spoon belonging to my late son... etc").
These very early records vary county to county but
they are well worth seeking out - copies can be found
at the Society of Genealogists (SoG).
All of us are familiar with Parish Records - the
births, marriages and deaths - but looking back at
the original entries can throw up previously unknown
snippets since vicars or their clerks often inserted
little "asides" of their own. Records
of Stillbirths dating from 1925 are at the Family
Records Centre (FRC) but are not indexed. There
are, however, indexes of Death Duties which are to be
found at PRO; there are the Poor Law Records with
their accounts, apprenticeships, bastardy orders and
every other sort of transaction which were the
responsibility of each Parish. Workhouse records
themselves can provide a surprising amount of detail
that cannot be discovered elsewhere.
Then there are the Quarter Sessions, also at PRO -
maybe your ancestor failed to use wool for burial
when required by the Law and was fined - what
about the Prison records, Hospital records and the
Newspapers. The local newspapers might cover
the death notice, funeral details (who attended and
what was written on the wreaths), later
acknowledgements or thanks and sometimes entries can
be found for several years after the death in 'In
Memoriam' columns. Memorial cards for the
deceased, edged in funereal black, were often sent to
relatives or friends living some distance away as a
means of informing them of the sad news - no
telephones or e-mails!
Insurance Companies keep records and one almost
totally untapped source of information is the
Undertaker. Perhaps helping the living with
information on long dead relatives makes a change
from dealing with everyday grief thus, very often, we
suddenly know just what sort of coffin our ancestor
was buried in, what it cost, who organised the wake -
or funeral tea - and what kind of flowers were
ordered. Incredible detail not available from
any other source.
Death can be thought of as final and, indeed, it
is in one sense but from the many different sources
available to us (the above are just a few) a fuller,
rounded picture can result of just how our ancestor
lived - loved -squabbled with - died - and was buried
until we almost have a living person once more.
Berks FHS
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