Lancashire Parish Records - Free Online Resource

 OnLine Parish Clerks project for the County of Lancashire extracts and preserves records from various parishes and provides free online access to that information along with other data of value to family and local historians conducting research in the County of Lancashire.

I have found this site to be a treasure trove of information and was able to greatly enhance some of our family 'branches'.  Surnames I am researching in this area:  Warburton, Sandiford, Barlow, and affiliates in the parishes of Radcliffe & Prestwich.

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Sharpe & Odiarne of Sussex & Kent

While researching our Odiarne ancestors I came across a wonderful website - FamilyDeeds.org - which gathers and provides a large amount of free online information taken from their collection of old deeds and documents that can aid in family history research.  
On this site I was able to find a record that relates directly to our ancestors.

The basic extract is provided for free.  

If you determine that the record is a direct hit, you can purchase the full transcription (which I did).  FamilyDeeds.org was also very kind to send me pictures of the original document including close-ups of the signatures and seals on the original record. 
Needless to say, I am very thrilled & can highly recommend them.  

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Free Digital Library of Historical Directories

      
Historical Directories is a digital library of local and trade directories for England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919. It is a free website produced by the University of Leicester and is very user friendly being searchable by location, decades, or keywords.
      
Using this site I was able to locate our ancestor, Odian Cassingham, listed  in the History, Gazetteer & Directory of Kent, Vol. II, 1847  under Folkstone Hundred as a Farmer: 
                                                

In reading the descriptive of his parish, I also came across the name of his home, Copperhust, where he resided on Knoll Hill in Aldington, Ashford, Kent:

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FreeREG website for UK Parish record searches

FreeREG provides free Internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial records, that have been transcribed from parish and non-conformist registers of the U.K.

The FreeREG database currently contains 3,376,277 Marriages, 9,460,271 Baptisms and 6,472,793 Burials.

A Baptism record search for our surname Cassingham in Kent yielded the following positive result:

The London Gazette

A Treasure Trove of Historical Information

        

Britain’s oldest continuously-published newspaper has recorded significant political events, the everyday working of government, and, to some extent, the lives of ordinary everyday people since the plague of 1665 drove King Charles II from London. 
  

 The London Gazette is available online for free and the majority is key word searchable.


By the early eighteenth Century the Admiralty and War Office published despatches in the Gazette and submitted details of the appointments and promotions of their officers, a process known as “being gazetted”.  

    

In 1712 an “Act to Relieve Insolvent Debtors” required publication of insolvency announcements.

The Gazette continued to grow, the railway building boom of 1845, legislation on Patents and Company Law in the 1850s and 1860s, and from 1870 notice of civil service recruitment and examinations contributed to the publication. Civil service notices continued through the first half of the twentieth century and included bodies such as the post office.

Below I found a reference to our Cassingham relative:

(THE LONDON GAZETTE, APRIL 26, 1895)

In 1899 a Naturalization Act resulted in the publication of lists of those granted British citizenship and in 1925 the Trustee Act picked up pre-existing practice by specifying certain legal privileges for executors giving notice of deceased’s estates in the Gazette. Notices of this type provide family historians with a rich trail of information.

For more information about the London Gazette visit us at www.london-gazette.co.uk/about, a special search facility is available for beginners at www.london-gazette.co.uk/search/steps/1 or use advanced search www.london-gazette.co.uk/search.

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Recommendation: 7 years transportation

A segment from:  
Prisoners convicted on the Lent Home Circuit in 1793, reprieved on 'favourable Circumstances' and recommended for mercy on the conditions set against their names:
Kent Assizes at Maidstone, 11 March:

"John Wellard, for stealing goods and money, value £4:11:2, property of Benjamin Briggs, goods, value 23/-, property of William Dean, and goods, value 6/3 property of James Dean, from the dwelling house of William Dean senior.  Recommendation: 7 years transportation."

In this case, found on TNA, our ancestors were listed as the victims.
Source: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Transportation was where convicted criminals were sent to the colonies to serve their sentence and was part of the penal system in early eighteenth century England. Prisoners were assigned to convict ships going to the American colonies and later to Australia, and persons who received a transportation sentence were not normally allowed to return to England. It is thought that many of the convicts did very well after being transported, serving only a short time confined or labouring before being released on licence.

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Honing Your Transcription Skills

: the study of old handwriting

Learn to read the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800 using this on-line tutorial provided by The National Archives (UK).

Think you are already an expert at this?  Test your transcription skills with this interactive game:

The Ducking Stool Game
(a 17th-century form of punishment)

Searchable Birth Records

 
Find My Past has announced that the 1837 to 2006 birth records on findmypast.co.uk are now fully and easily searchable.    Hooray!

 The full anouncement can be read here on findmypast blog.

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London Lives Blog & Website

  A great new site for UK researching, London Lives, has been launched.

Announcements for this site and related details were published in their blog, London Lives.

The website provides free access to 240,000 manuscripts which are fully searchable and contain over 3 million names. The manuscripts provide interesting reading and give one a glimpse into London life during the eighteenth century.

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Surname Saturday: Whitlock / Whitlocke

Whitlocke / Whitlock

 

"Vive dui Whitlocke deo sic utere fatis ut reserent sensus alba nec atratous" (Long live the Whitlockes. In God may he reveal understanding so that our future may be bright not gloomy)

 

 Surname Origin:  (Saxon) Fair hair  - from the Middle English 'whit', white, with 'lock', a tress or a curl.

Also, from the  Internet Surname Database there is "an Old English pre 7th Century personal name composed of the elements 'whit', demon or elf, and 'lac', play, or sport, thus elf play, and Whitlock may be from this source."

 Our Ancestor:  Hannah Whitlocke (b.1613 or 1617)

listed in the Buckinghamshire Parish Registers, Marriages:

Jos. Baldwin & Hannah Whitlocke
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Married 10 Nov 1636 High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire 

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Occupation: Victualler

A victualler is traditionally person who sells food or other provisions; a purveyor of spirits; innkeeper. A licensed victualler refers to a the landlord of a public house or similar licensed establishment.

Chiefly in British reference as shown below for our English ancestor William Dean: an innkeeper

Conveyance (lease and release) for £100 -  10 and 11 Mar 1775:
Richard Sharpe of Stone in Oxney Kent yeoman (only son of TS in AMS5834/10-12) to William Dean of Appledore Kent victualler as AMS5834/8 now in 2 dwellings, late occupied by William Noakes, now William Collins and John Kesford Bounds as AMS5834/8 except E: John Smith; S: James Lamb; dower of Ann Richard Dean widow of TS, now wife of WD excepted
W: H Waterman, John Woollett

Surname Saturday - Searching Kent County, England, UK

While trying to fill in some missing pieces of our Cassingham ancestry in Kent County, England, I came across: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mrawson/index.html#home
There is so much information available here
                   - - The bonus: no suscription fee required.

Searching this site I found some new and interesting facts to add to our family history:

Under
Melvilles 1858 Directory of Kent:

Listed under Gentry:

Casingimm, Mrs., Oak's place

Listed under Traders:

Casingham, Miss Hannah, Milliner




Under Churchyard Monumental Inscriptions - Tenterden:
Jane CASSINGHAM of this parish died 28th April, 1833, aged 77
and
Richard CASINGHM died 11th November, 1866, aged 72. Mary his wife, died 15th December, 1848, aged 53. Two children Samuel and David died in infancy. Left surviving three sons and four daughters. Also Sarah, 2nd daughter of above died 23rd October, 1875. Hannah Cassingham died 17th March, 1910, in 69th year.

Plus an unexpected bonus find:
Under Kent Will Transcripts - Pre 1858
I located:
William Castell of Margate, St John the Baptist, Thanet, mariner, will dated 24 April 1807
My son William Castell of Margate, cordwainer and William Adams of the same place, painter to be "Executors Admors and Assigns".
My dear wife Sarah Castell - to have income from the estate in her lifetime.
Son William Castell to receive a legacy partly for the bringing up of his "lawful issue".
From the estate fifty pounds is to used "to pay the creditors of my son Thomas Castell who will not have access to capital and part of the estate must be used to the bringing up of any "lawful issue" he may have in the future.
Witnessed by Robert Edward Hunter MS/Thomas Chapman atty Margate/ James Rossway clerk to Mr Chapman
Codicil dated 17 Aug 1815.

"Whereas since the date and execution of my will hereintofore written and bearing the date the fourth day of April 1807 my son Thomas Castell has been for a considerable time in his Majesty's service and absent from this kingdom and during this time the wife of the said Thomas Castell cohabited with another man and has been delivered of a child Now I do by this codicil to my will direct and declare that neither such child nor any other child which may be born to the Wife of the said Thomas Castell unless they shall hereafter habit together as Man and Wife and any Issue of their bodies shall be born who may become considered as lawful children shall take any ...(blank) nor any Interest in or benefit under my said will..."
Witnessed by John Pickering// James Clarke// Thomas Chapman".

Surname Saturday - Cassingham / Casingham

On this beautiful fall Surname Saturday morning I will highlight our Cassingham line.

Albert Odian (Frank) Cassingham married Emma Warburton on 12 June 1875 in Providence, Rhode Island, and later moved to  Middleboro, Massachusetts where Frank was last recorded in 1892 as an employee at Star Mills.  We have not located a death or burial record for A.O. Frank Cassingham but believe it to be between 1892 & 1895 when Emma Warburton Cassingham is recorded as marrying John K. Smith.

Albert Odian Cassingham was born c. 1840 in Aldington, Ashford, Kent, England - the son of Odian Cassingham and Harriet Dean.
 
His father, Odian Cassingham, was born 23 Apr 1807 in Woodchurch, Kent, England - the son of John Casingham and Ann Barber.

John Casingham was baptised 7 Apr 1775  Presbyterian, Tenterton, Kent, England and was the son of John Casingham (born c. Apr 1737) and Alice Sampson.

Our line ends with the parents of John Casingham :  Thomas Casingham and Katherine Ordian married in Saint Mary Bredin (pictured on right), Canterbury, Kent, England, on Aug 3rd, 1731.

Remembering Those That Gave It All

Martin Joseph Wetzel

Pilot, U.S. Army Air Forces
Royal Air Force Ferry Command
Entered the Service from: New Jersey

Died: 14-Aug-41

Buried at: Plot G Row 3 Grave 156
Cambridge American Cemetery
Cambridge, England

Martin wanted to join the fight in WWII before the United States was officially involved and gave his life before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. We recognize his sacrifice and call to serve.

Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial is one of 14 American WWII military cemeteries erected on foreign soil. It began as a temporary cemetery in 1943 on land donated to the United States by Cambridge University. Buried there are over 3800 American servicemen and women who died during WWII. Included in the memorials in this cemetery is the jazz band leader, Glenn Miller, who died Dec 15, 1944, on his way to Paris to set up a Christmas program. The cemetery is maintained by the American Battlements Monuments Commission.

Places of our Ancestors: Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK

Trowbridge Trinity Church located in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, part of the Diocese of Salisbury.

This is where our ancestors, Elizabeth Milgrove and John H. Warburton, were married on 1 Apr. 1844.
This church's christenings registers from 1838 and marriage & burial registers from 1839 (except for those in current use) are held by the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office.