ANSWERS TO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
This page will be updated on a regular
basis. If you have a genealogy question
you would like answered please contact Dorothy Morrissey who will endeavour to
find the answer and post it here.
Why several of your UK ancestors
may have died at once
1732-33, 1742-43, 1762 1767, 1775-1776, 1782 influenza
1751-1753 smallpox
1788-89 influenza
1796 smallpox
1803 influenza
1816-19 typhus, smallpox
1825-26 smallpox
1830 influenza
1832 cholera
1833, 1836-37 influenza
1837-38 typhus
1837-40 smallpox
1847-48 typhus, influenza
1848-49, 1853-54, 1865-66 cholera
1871-72 smallpox
1899-1902 British typhoid epidemic in the Boer War
1901-02
smallpox
—"Encyclopaedia
of Plague and Pestilence"
UK Census Dates and Statistics
10 Mar 1801 )
27 May 1811 ) These
four no longer exist,
28 May 1821 ) with
a few exceptions
30 May 1831 )
HO 107 6 or 7 June 1841 (population 15,914,000)
HO 107 30 March 1851 (population 17,928,000)
RG 9 7 April 1861 (population 20,066,000)
RG 10 2 April 1871 (population 22,723,000)
RG 11 3 April 1881 (population 25,974,000)
RG 12 5 April 1891 (Population 28,999,000)
RG 13 31 March 1901 Available on the web (Population
32,527,843)
2 Apr 1911 100 year closure
19 Jun 1921 100 year closure
26 Apr 1931 Destroyed by fire during WW2
1941 Not taken due to the war.
In case you were wondering …
A hamlet is a cluster of houses without a
church.
A village is a cluster of houses with a
church.
A husbandman
is a farmer.
A messuage is a building. The word is often seen in
Conveyances as “The Messuage and dwelling house.....”
A gentleman
in its original context was someone who did not need to work, but could live
off his own means.
A yeoman
was someone with land which had a value of over 40 shillings per annum
Frequently Used Naming Pattern (England and Ireland between 1700 and
1875)
Males
First
born son—named for father's father
Second
son—mother's father
Third
son—father
Fourth
son—father's eldest brother
Fifth
son—father's second oldest brother or mother's eldest brother
Females
First
born daughter—mother's mother
Second
daughter—father's mother
Third
daughter—mother
Fourth
daughter—mother's eldest sister
Fifth
daughter—mother's second oldest sister or father's oldest sister
Each
child was given a first and middle name but was called by the middle name. The first name of each daughter was usually
the first name of the mother and the first name of each son was usually the
name of his father. Middle names were
sometimes derived from the child’s godparents.
This name may have been froma family member,
parent or friend of the family.
Be cautious and use naming patterns only as a guide, as often two (or more) children were given the same name. This usually meant that the elder child died in infancy and the name was then given to a subsequent child. If this occurs in your research locating the death record, if available, of the child who died should confirm it.
Remember too that the relative’s name was sometimes used as a middle name and don’t overlook those who were named after a relative but died without being registered.
There are also many instances where a child was named after a relative but used his or her middle name! To confuse the situation further, middle names don’t always appear on birth records.
—Australian
Family Tree Connections
What happened to those at sea when a census was taken
The 1841 census did not include ships or mariners at sea or in ports. The first census to do so was the 1851 census; it included British registered ships and their crews that were in port and in coastal waters on census night. The 1861 census included all ships and their crews and passengers that were in British ports, Foreign ports, in coastal waters and on the high seas . The master of each vessel was given the census schedule to fill in before he left port for the voyage that would take him away over census night.
The form shows the place and date of when the schedule was given to the master. The master was required to fill in the form giving details of everyone who spent the night of April 7th 1861. He also had to include details about the ship, name, tonnage, type of vessel, trade, and port of registration. He also had to include in those details the position of the vessel at midnight on April 7th 1861; if he was at sea then the entry would show the compass bearing at that particular time.
The LDS have produced an alphabetical index for the ships and crews for the 1861 census on fiche. … Your nearest LDS Centre … should be able to order it for you. On it you can search for your mariner ancestor, check for his name, age and birthplace and then beside the entry you will find the name of the ship he was on and also the relevant LDS film number to order which will give the image of that complete census entry.
—Jenny
DeAngelis.
Divorce
Divorce Records begin in 1858 and were kept at the PRO with a 30 year closure. The period covering 1858-1927 are in J77 and indexed in J78. Not online. Records from 1938 were destroyed, only a record of the divorce is now kept - not the files.
Prior to 1858 divorce was only possible by Act of Parliament and was very expensive, by 1858 it was possible to go to court (but only in London and was still expensive), From 1878 a "separation" was possible to "protect virtuous women and their children from violent husbands" and was required by many Poor Law Unions before they would help. Financial Aid became available to help from 1914 but it wasn't until 1920's with many marriages collapsed during WW1 that the rules for divorce were amended, legal aid became available and courts sat outside London. It took until the 1960's for County Court's to be able to hear divorces and until 1971 for "no fault" divorces to be heard.
In truth very few "poor" got full divorces before 1920, they would only have options such as obtaining a separation order, living unmarried with a new partner (often changing the surname, to match the male partner), or bigamy—assuming they didn't "murder" their old spouse!
—PRO
Magazine "Ancestors" Issue 10.
Legal standing of
first cousins who want to marry.
The question is often asked whether there are any objections to the marriage of first cousins. The answer is that there is no legal impediment whatever; first cousins are not within the prohibited degree of kinship and can contract a valid marriage.
Where the parties are Roman Catholics, they may find that their church does not approve, and a special dispensation has to be obtained. This does not apply to the Church of England or the Free Churches.
This is the list according the Register Office site:
Prohibited Marriages
Forbidden
degrees of Marriage Relationships
Throughout the United Kingdom and the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, the law forbids certain blood relatives, step-relatives and relatives-in-law from getting married. These restrictions are officially known as forbidden degrees of relationship. The prohibitions apply to illegitimate as well as legitimate relationships. There are certain exceptions, which are explained later in this document.
A man may not marry his:
· Mother
· Daughter
· Sister
· Father's mother
· Mother's mother
· Son's daughter
· Daughter's daughter
· Father's sister
· Mother's sister
· Brother's daughter
· Sister's daughter
· Father's daughter
· Mother's daughter
· Wife's daughter
· Father's wife
· Son's wife
· Father's father's wife
· Mother's father's wife
· Wife's father's mother
· Wife's mother's mother
· Wife's son's daughter
· Wife's daughter's daughter
· Son's son's wife
· Daughter's son's wife
A woman may not marry her:
· Father
· Son
· Father's father
· Mother's father
· Son's son
· Daughter's son
· Brother
· Father's brother
· Mother's brother
· Brother's son
· Sister's son
· Father's son
· Mother's son
· Former husband's son
· Mother's husband
· Former husband's father
· Daughter's husband
· Mother's mother's husband
· Father's mother's husband
· Husband's father's father
· Husband's mother's father
· Husband's son's son
· Husband's daughter's son
· Daughter's daughter's husband
· Son's daughter's husband
Exceptions for Step-Relatives and Relatives-in-Law
In England, Scotland and Wales (not Northern Ireland) the Marriage Act, 1986, allows for certain step-relatives and relatives-in-law to marry without having to obtain a private Act of Parliament.
Step-Relatives (Step-mother,
Step-daughter, Step-father, Step-son)
Step-relatives may marry provided they are at least 21 years of age. The younger of the couple must at no time before the age of 18 have lived in the same household as the older person. Neither must they have been treated as a child of the older person's family.
Relatives-in-Law (Mother-in-law,
daughter-in-law, father-in-law, son-in-law)
Relatives-in-law may marry provided they are at least 21 years of age. The former spouses must be deceased. In England and Wales, marriages under This Act are not permitted with the calling of banns but can take place in a church on the authority of a licence issued by a superintendent registrar.
—Virginia
Ironside (abridged)