More on Margaret Hallam, née Astling

Back in Impediment to Marriage, I made a case for Thomas Meads, of Epperstone, Nottingham, having never married Margaret Hallam because (a) she was born Margaret Astling and was already married to Thomas Hallam, and (b) that Thomas Hallam was a prisoner of war in Napoleonic France, so absent but not deceased. I now want to follow-up on some the suggested further research, and show how this became an exercise in correlation and visualisation.

A Very Surprising Find

The following definition of 'Family History' comes from a 1985 publication,[1] which predates online genealogy and even the Web:

"Until recently, this term was used as a synonym for genealogy, but now, in ancestor-tracing circles, it applies specifically to biographical research into one's forebears with the object of compiling a narrative history of the family; and the term 'genealogy' is reserved for the tracing of an ascent and the compilation of a Family Tree or Total Descent. A family history should place the members of the family in their historical, geographical, social and occupational contexts, and describe their activities and the lives they lived."

[1] Terrick V H FitzHugh, /The Dictionary of Genealogy: A guide to British ancestry research/ (Dorset: Alphabooks, 1985)

Impediment to Marriage

And another long-standing brick-wall crumbles. I have long been troubled that two of my ancestors never married, despite them having at least five children together, and possibly as many as nine, all of whom were baptised in the local parish church. What reason could have prevented them marrying: belief or some impediment under civil or canon law?

#Genealogy  

Northamptonshire Archives and Heritage Services have announced that, from 21 August, they will charge £31.50 per hour to visit the Archives Service on Tuesday-Thursday afternoons, and on Mondays to Fridays. This raises some questions about documents in public ownership that they have a duty to make available.

More on Margaret Hallam, née Astling

Back in Impediment to Marriage (http://parallax-viewpoint.blogspot.com/2017/06/impediment-to-marriage.html), I made a case for Thomas Meads, of Epperstone, Nottingham, having never married Margaret Hallam because (a) she was born Margaret Astling and was already married to Thomas Hallam, and (b) that Thomas Hallam was a prisoner of war in Napoleonic France, so absent but not deceased. I now want to follow-up on some the suggested further research, and show how this became an exercise in correlation and visualisation.

#Genealogy  

Searching by Blogger Labels

If you use Blogger and you employ labels to categorise your posts according to their content, then here's a useful tip for enumerating the articles in one or more of those categories:

To find all the articles matching a given single label -- say 'History' -- then you can append that label (in conjunction with the options /search/label) to your blog URL. For instance:

http://parallax-viewpoint.blogspot.com/search/label/History

If your label contains spaces -- say 'Local History' -- then replace each space with %20. For instance:

http://parallax-viewpoint.blogspot.com/search/label/Local%20History

Now if you want to find all the articles that have a given label combination -- say 'Narrative' and 'Research' -- then you need slightly different options on your blog URL. For instance:

http://parallax-viewpoint.blogspot.com/search?q=label:Narrative+label:Research

If you normally use labels to tag surnames and/or place names, then these options would allow you to create a single URL to send to someone in order to show them relevant articles.

#bloggingtips

Impediment to Marriage

And another long-standing brick-wall crumbles. I have long been troubled that two of my ancestors never married, despite them having at least five children together, and possibly as many as nine, all of whom were baptised in the local parish church. What reason could have prevented them marrying: belief or some impediment under civil or canon law?

#Genealogy #Nottingham #MEADS #HALLAM #ASTLING

Boots Made For Walking

Continuing from my previous success with pre–civil registration brick-walls, I want to now focus on another distant ancestor, John Hammond — my mother’s father’s mother’s mother’s mother’s father — born c1796 in Leicestershire. John was a cordwainer, or boot and shoe maker, but seemed to flit to-and-fro between the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Was it really one person, or maybe two?

#Genealogy
#HAMMOND #BARRADELL