Researching Ancestors in the County of Kent, England

Recently, I spent an evening seeing what general records I could find available online relating to County of Kent, England.

On my 'go to' list of websites are the Online Parish Clerk sites. So that was where I started.

 

Through the Kent Online Parish Clerks website  (http://www.kent-opc.org/), I was able to find a link to Maidstone Paypers 1834 which provides a list of some of the people receiving parish relief from Maidstone during that year. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mrawson/poor.html
According to the OPC, the original Maidstone Parish Chest list contained names of other people for which there was no extra family information so were not included in the extract.

 

From here I was led into the Rootsweb hosted Kent Genealogy webpage which contains a treasure trove of very useful links for researching ancestors in the County of Kent, England

 

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mrawson/index.html#home

 

Now I have plenty of records to peruse through for our ancestors!

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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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The Dean Family of Kent, England

Harriet Dean, our 3rd G-Grandmother, 

married Odian Cassingham 

on 25 April 1839, in Tenterden, Kent, England

A Cassingham cousin provided me with bible records that had details of Harriet's parents and siblings.  From there I was able to use http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ to compile her ancestry shown here:

 (Click image to enlarge)

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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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Digitizing the Canterbury Cathedral Archives

The Canterbury Cathedral Archives, which has a tradition of record-keeping that dates back at least 1300 years, has announced a collaboration between the University of Kent, Canterbury Cathedral Archives, and researchers in Rouen for a project through which researchers may gain easy access to some of the older and more fragile documents held in the Cathedral Archives.

"Known as DocExplore, the project aims to develop an interactive system which allows digitised versions of valuable historical documents to be explored via a touch-screen, simulating, as far as possible, the experience of accessing the physical object itself. But users can see much more than the document – they can access translations and transcriptions, read more about the period in which it was written, its contents and who would have used it at the time by using the additional text, image, sound and video resources that are a feature of the system."

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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.

Cause of Death: Phthisis

Harriet Dean, born 12 July 1806 in Appledore, England;

daughter of James Dean & Sarah Hinty.

Married Odian Cassingham on 25 April 1839 in Tenterden, Kent, England.

Died 7 July 1860 in Ashford, Kent, England.

Cause of death: phthisis.

......

Phthisis: Greek word meaning "a dwindling or wasting away"

(Pronounced TIE-sis): A wasting or consumption of the tissues.

The term was formerly applied to many wasting diseases, but is now usually restricted to pulmonary phthisis or consumption. In 460 BC Hippocrates identified phthisis as the most widespread disease of his day and observed that it was almost always fatal.

Phthisis and consumption are archaic names for tuberculosis (TB). A person afflicted with tuberculosis in the old days was destined to dwindle and waste away like the heroine of Puccini's 1896 opera "La Boheme." In other words, the afflicted appeared to be consumed by the disease.
Other old TB terms include the King's evil or scrofula (TB of the lymph nodes in the neck) and Pott's disease (TB of the spine).

First isolated in 1882 by the German physician, Robert Koch, TB is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Still present in today’s society, tuberculosis can usually be treated successfully with antibiotics.