Guestbook for apling.freeservers.com

Hayle is a small town in north Cornwall, some 350 miles from my abode, so I have little information. However the town has a web-site with many links, one or other of which may be able to help you. Try Hayle town.
Regards,
Paddy

I do not have the necessary intimate knowledge of Garboldisham to give you a direct answer, but if you now look at my Garboldisham village pages, you wil find a link to a list of organisations in Garboldisham, one or other of whom should be able to help.
Regards,
Paddy

Sunday was a particular busy day for my web-site. with 341 unique visitors and over 900 page visits - and your guestbook message....

Searching out the history of a dwelling will likely turn out to be an absorbing (and possibly exhausting) pastime as there is no easy access and information may come from parish records, census, maps and even newspapers. Your first port of call should, without doubt, be the Norfolk Record Office at the Archive Centre, adjacent to County Hall. (There are also many relevant documents available on microfilm or microfiche at the Heritage section - on the top floor - of the main Norwich library at the Forum), The record office has a most instructive information leaflet entitled "Tracing Your House", obtainable free from the Heritage Centre or downloaded from their web-site. a good read of which will give you a head start.

Regards and good hunting,
Paddy

Kind regards and good hunting,
Paddy

Regards and good hunting,
Paddy

Regards,
Paddy

Regards,
Paddy

I find I have a number of STACKWOODs in my data base (which is based around Cranworth, Woodrising and Southburgh), but not your William, so cannot directly help. Parish Registers for before 1837 are generally available on microfiche at the Norfolk Records Office and the central library at the Forum, Norwich. Some have been transcribed onto the web (but not Carbrooke or Shipdham so far as I am aware) so it looks as though your way forward must probably involve a trip to Norwich.

Regards,
Paddy

I only have directory information about Gressenhall House, which according to the Norfolk Heritage Explorer page on Gressenhall (link on my Gressenhall page) was demolished in 1948.

The 1872 Kelly's records: "Gressenhall House, the property of the Hill family and now the residence of John Reginald Hargreaves esq. is a large mansion of brick and has attached a well-wooded park and preserves, containing in all about 85 acres."

The 1904 Kelly's records that "Gressenhall House, the property and residence if Sir George Ralph Leigh Hare bart. D.L., J.P. is a large mansion of brick, and has attached a well-wooded park and preserves, containing in all about 85 acres." (Similar to the entry in the 1896 Kelly's).

However, the 1937 Kelly's makes no reference to Gressenhall House, which suggest to me that the Hall was already uninhabited and at least partially derelict by this date.

Regards,
Paddy

My ! Your family are old residents of Canada ! Mine only emigrated to Alberta for (farming land grants) in 1895, and my late wife's sisters and families, to Northern Ontario (Sudbury and Engelhart) after 1949 - so yours is another welcome message from across the waters...

If your forbears emigrated in the 1830s they, no doubt, married before 1837, the commencement date for national registration of births, mariages and deaths, so the marriage registration will be in some Parish Register - most likely in either Aylsham or Bunwell - though since Bunwell and Aylsham are considerably more than a simple day's march apart, both parties may well have met and married elsewhere - even Norwich - which makes for a difficult search - though, in general, all Norfolk registers are available at the Norfolk Record Office (Archive Centre) and you may find some help there if ancestry.com or the LDS (Mormons web-site) give no help.

Although both Bunwell and Aylsham are well out of my personal research area (the villages around Woodrising, near Hingham) I should be very interested to hear some of the details (where they lived and their occupations etc.) of your Canadian (and English) forbears - and to give you any other advice or help you feel like needing.

Meanwhile, regards, and Good Hunting,
Paddy

It is always a pleasure to receive a message from the other side of the world - and a pleasure to try to help.

Firstly, I presume you have already tried searches of the 1851 and 1861 censuses which are the first possible sources for further information (as the Birth, Marriage and Death records only start in 1837 and the odds are fairly high thst the CANHAMs marriage was before that date).

If the 1851 and 1861 censuses draw a blank, it might be worth your while to do an extensive search through Norfolk Pubs Index to see if Thomas CANHAM is recorded as publican elsewhere after 1846 (undoubtedly a tedious search to do), but, otherwise it might be a sensble guess to wonder if the CANHAMs emigrated. How far back have you researched your Australian ancestry?

There are very likely to be parish records somewhere for the marriage of Frances and Thomas, and for Thomas's baptism. which may be available on the web and so to be found by a search using such commercial sites as ancestry.com or Friends Re-united, while the (somewhat less reliable, but very extensive records available on the LDS (Mormon) site may turn up somehing.

And that's about it, tho' there may be immigrant records available for Australia that I have never searched for. I can think of little else helpful to say, other than:
Regards and Good Hunting,
Paddy

Thanks for your intervention. I repeat below a contribution I have sent today to New Left Project.

It is 6 days since my brief intervention in this debate, during which time I have not been able to expand it, in the hope that the musings of an 86-yr-old, can give some little assistance in this discussion.

First of all I must thank Michael for correcting my grammar - but should now give some summary of my assessment of the situation - and to explain what "principles" I felt Michael was upholding in his interventions. The principal one may be expressed as no co-operation by revolutionaries with the imperialists whatever the situation ....

Binh made a very apt comparison somewhere else of the Arab Spring and the events of the European revolutionary year of 1848, because both revolutionary years involved "bourgeois revolutions" in which the incipient working classes played/are playing a major role.

As in Tunisia and Egypt the Libyan uprising began with demonstrations for "freedom" by well-educated youth, who rapidly found support from the general population, but an immediate violent military repression from the regime and its army. I just cannot understand why there is a reluctance to some here to say the result is revolution.....

Of course the nominal leadership of the anti-Gaddafi forces, at least in diplomatic circles, the (NTC) is dominated by members of the old elite - just as the new regimes in Egypt and Tunisia are dominated by the old elite and the military - but the general activity of the masses is surely clear.

What then about NTC attitude to NATO involvement? This seems to be the main question up for discussion; it seems to be only sensible for the NTC to have welcomed the UN suggestion of a "no fly zone"; but it also seems fairly clear that the NTC is adamantly opposed to involvement by either UN or NATO ground forces, so perhaps they are not so naive as some suggest.

Why are the British and French governments so keen to be involved - and to keep saying they have no intention of using ground forces? On the one hand, both major sections of the Libyan elite and NATO governments seek major power advantages for themselves in ridding Libya of its oppressive and incoherent Gaddafi government.

For the British and French governments it seems that national politics plays a major role - their claim of "humanitarian intervention" has undergone a nosedive in "public opnion" as a result of events in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the banking crisis (with huge bonuses still being sucked up by leading bankers, while social benefits and infrastructure are savagely cut - while they imagine they may get major commercial benefits from a new regime (of course they are not after "regime change" are they ?? !!)

Forecasting the future is not the role of revolutionaries - rather we must remain optimistic that the determination of the masses will lead successively to major improvements in freedom and living conditions.

I see no reason NOT to be optimistic, and have never felt so optimistic and excited about world events since in 1945 one country after another was being liberated from the Nazi yoke - when I had just graduated from Sandhurst (the UK equivalent of West Point) military Academy - where some of the tutors were already making clear to us that the break-up of the Grand Alliance of the 5 Great Powers (then known as the United Nations - with a Treaty of Alliance between UK and USSR) was being planned for ......

OK my optimism then proved to be unfounded and 66 years have passed before another real opportunity for major advances by the masses is on the cards. We MUST do all we can to see successes made - and along the road compromises are so often both necessary and positive provided the dangers are appreciated and prepared for.

Regards,
Paddy

Regards, and Good Hunting.
Paddy

Hallo Peter,

I cannot say that I know Avenue Farm, but it cannot be much more than 10 miles from where I live - and it always nice to have messages from overseas like yours, even though I have nothing to contribute in return.
Regards and Best Wishes,
Paddy

Hallo A J,

Thanks for your message, to which my only response can possibly be - that it is messages like yours which encourage me to keep developing my web-site and keep going on my historical researches.
Regards,
Paddy

Hallo Elizabeth,

Many thnanks for your message but I am sorry that I see no obvious way in which I can help, and can only wish you
Regards and Good Hunting,
Paddy

Hallo Christina,

I have already replies to your direcr e-mail message; so it only remainsfor me to say here that I jabe no information to impart at present, but am intrigued to be introduced to some of the history of a Tudor character of whom I had no heard before, nut who has the surname Dereham - the name of my nearest large townin Cebtral Norfolk - and I hope to find more details of his family and descendants.
Regards,
Paddy

An interesting history, which I understand your desire to authenticate, but which I really have no idea to suggest where it might be found. His employment at Sandringham, would surely be deep in the records of that estate - which the National Archives at Kew might be able to tell you if they are available to researchers. National Archives are also the first port of call for information on your grandfather's naval service.

The conspiratorial story is probably completely hidden even if true !!

Regards, and thanks for the story.
Paddy

It is extremely rare to have an authentic family tree going back as far as that !!

For family information before 1837 one is almost completely reliant on Parish registers, for which in Norfolk there is fortunately an unusually good archive in the Norfolk Records Office - and I presume you have alrady searched the Bramerton register? If they had moved fom another parish then, apart from a trawl through the 900 or so registers, one can only seek help from such information sources as the LDS Mormons) and prbably a first look at such indexes as provided by sommercial sites such as ancestry.com.
Regards,
Paddy

This is the sort of question which can only be solved either from your own family resources or from, probably accidental or extensive reading of newspape items and the like - indeed there may well be no such documentary evidence to be found anywhere, and it will just have to remain a family mystery. I have a similar mystery of what happened o my paternal g-grandfather who left his family by emigrating to the USA, apparently leaving no trace.
Regards,
Paddy

I regret I am unable to help with detailed information regarding Oxborough.
Regards,
Paddy

I am not in a position to provide details of the 189i census beyong the information carried on my site. Requests for specific information should be addressed to the provider of the indexes, generally, Pat Greetham, fpr whom their is an e-mail link mear the top of the relevant village name index page.
Regards,
Paddy

I do not know which page of my web-site you are referring to, but the initials J.P. stand for Justice of the Peace, that is local magistrate (or lay judge).

Regards,
Paddy

According to Norfolk Pubs Index, Caudell Clarke was publican at the Green Dragon, Wymondham from 1822-1850. I do not have information about his possible membership of the College of Surgeons, but the Royal College web-site has a searchable listing of Fellows who died after 1844.
Regards,
Paddy

As your search is for dates before the first published Census (1841) the main source of information has to be Parish Registers, and the first to search is that for Lyng (usual spelling), with Pentney (quite distant from Lyng - which may suggest the family moved around - making for additional difficulty.) Since little Parish Register information is available on the web - although you will find lists of holdings at the Norfolk Record Office on their web-site - you should either seek help from your local LDS (Mormon Family centre), or find a Norfolk searcher prepared to help you, either by goodness of heart or on payment. (perhaps first try sending a message of your interest to the Norfolk list at . Regards, and Good Hunting,
Regards,
Paddy

I have no further informatio for you. But my first thought is, could not Mary Hearn by the maiden name of Mrs Mary Howell ? It might be worth investigating anyway, and suggest you look for the marriage date, anywhay try to find out more about her.

Regards, and good hunting,
Regards,
Paddy

Hallo Jonathan,

Many thanks for your interesting message. Although I live only about 15 miles away from Little Fransham I have never heard of Tripskin Hall, nor of the meaning of the word - which sounds very logical as indicating something to do with leather.

However, you have misunderstood the reference to Little Fransham being in Mitford hundred (and hence in Mitford and Launditch Incorporation). The hundreds (in which you will find all the parishes of Norfolk listed on my villages index page) were the old local government divisions of the county, from Saxon times - well before the Norman Conquest - and in force until the late 20th-century fashion for changing names and boundaries for anything which meant "change" as well as no real change at all !!. In the 19th century, under the New Poor Law, Incorporations or Unions of hundreds were set up to own and control workhouses for "relief of the poor and destitute" - and the the Incorporation of Mitford and Launditch (hundreds) was set up to control the - already, existing (but to a much better than Poor Law standard), workhouse at Gressenhall (now an important agricultural and local museum and model farm). Little Fransham was in Launditch hundred and Mitford & Launditch Union - and I rather doubt it had any other connection with the Union (or Incoorporation"). However....
Regards,
Paddy

If you look at my pages for the auction of FIXTURES of the Hall in 1950 you will see that Lots 183 and 229, both illustrated photograhically, are for chimney pieces. Both look very fine to me, and if you are able to identify the makers I should be glad to hear from you.

I have no other pictures of the interior of the Hall than those already on my web-site.
Regards,
Paddy

Thanks for telling me about a broken link - though you did not tell me on which of my pages you found it. Where is it?

You will find a page about Philip Stott on Wikipedia, which gives quite a number of links to his various blogs, but none seem to show much current activity.

Regards,
Paddy

My only immediate sources of information about residents of Upton are various Directories, and these show that Miss Eliza Harwood was mistress of Upton National School from before 1883 until some time after 1896 and before 1904 (when a master of the school is named).

Census returns for Upton for 1881, 1891 and perhaps 1901 should provide further information; and you will find, on my village page for Upton, a link to a local web-site for Upton, which itself contains an e-mail address.

So, I suggest you ask them if they have any other information about Miss Harwood.

Regards,
Paddy

The only information I have available comes from Directories, and I have nothing between White's 1845 and Kelly's 1883. The latter is already transcribed on my web-site and you can search there for schools recorded in 1883. GENUKI-Norfolk, to which I give a link, lists more available directories, some covering the intervenbing period, which are, no doubt available in various libraries. The entry in White's 1845 is long, but in a quick perusal, I find information given on the Charity Schools, the British Free School, the School of Industry, and the Yarmouth Proprietary Grammar School, and in Gorleston (also see my Gorleston and Southtown pages) the National School (Gorleston) and Yarmouth Proprietary Grannar School (in Southtown), while a variety of small private schools may be listed in the name listing, which is again very long, and I have not had time to scan.

Norfolk Record Office has much of its holdings indexed on the web, but if any school records exist, they are the most likely repository, so I do suggest you search their site, and if you find nothing in their index to write to them (their site contains an e-mail address).

Regards, and good hunting,

Regards,
Paddy

Unfortunately you do not give the name of the parish for which you found your grandfather's name in the 1851 census. If you refer to that parish in my 1891 Census pages you will be able to find if any of the family were still there in 1891 - and to request details from Pat Greetham, whose e-mail link is near the top of the page. Details from other Census dates can be found on the web by using such commercial sites as ancestry.com.

Regards and good hunting,
Paddy

If you look at my 1891 Census page for East Bradenham you will find an enry for COX. I do not have the full details, but there is an e0mail link at the top of the page to Pat Gretham who will happily transcribe the full details for you if you give her the reference number(s).

Regards,
Paddy

The only information I have is the information given in White's 1845 Directory of Norfolk, and the fact that there were two SUNMAN families in Sheringham at the time of the 1851 Census (from the source linked on my Sheringham village page).

In case you do not have the directory information I give the relevant paragraphs below:

"A school and reading-room are supported by Mrs. Upcher, who purchased the life-boat, stationed here, at a cost of £150."

and "in Upper Sheringham:
Sunman Robert, fishmonger & vict. Windham Arms
Sunman Robert, wheelwright and boatbuilder"

Regards,
Paddy

I would think it very likely that the surname Rudham is derived from the village of that name, but I do not have ready access to any of the books on the topic of Surnames and their Origins. Try your locl library !

Regards,
Paddy

Kelly's directrory 1892 records under Brancaster:

Coast Guard Station, George Dench, chief officer

Regards,
Paddy

Since your great grandfather was born in 1860 you should be able to find information about him and his family from the census returns for 1871 and 10 year intervals thereafter. These are easily accessible and searchable on the web, either through the Natonal Archive or through such commercial sites as www.ancestry.com.

You should also think about obtaining copies of his birth, marriage and death certificates, for which the relevant local Registry office makes usual (relatively exorbitant !!) charge. You can find the details of where these events were registered (and consequenly obtainable) from the Birth, Marriage and Death records, which are indexed alphabetically every quarter year from 1836 onwards - and are accssible on microfiche at main county (and many more local) libraries throughout Britain.

You will find helpful advice on the National Archives site,

Regards and Happy Hunting,
Paddy

Thanks for your interest. I have been some time replying, but have decided it gives me an opportunity to display some statistics, which show that I am not doing too badly in terms of publicising my site:

Current 33-day average of daily usage of this site show 883 page views and 256 unique visitors daily - not bad for a personal web-site, I think.

Regards,
Paddy

The church of St. Mary Magdalen is, and has always been, the parish church of the (Anglican) Church of England, but, of course, when it was built, the English church WAS Roman Catholic (until the actions of king Henry VIII and the influence of the north European Reformation).

I believe, however, that the practice of dedication of parish churches to particular Saints began AFTER the Reformation, so the name was probably not thought of as having Roman Catholic connotations, and the dedication is shared by the village of Pulham Market in South Norfolk.

You may find it interesting to read my village pages (and their links) for thee two villages of Wiggenhall and Pulham bearing that dedication.

Regards,
Paddy

Your most likely source of further information is surely the parish register of the parishes of Long Stratton St Mary and Long Stratton St. Michael, both of which are available (on micrfofiche, with baptismal, marriage and burial records dating back to the mid-16th century) at the Norfolk Archive Centre and Heritage Centre in Norwich.

As you are in France the question arises as to how to be able to search this material available in Norwich. The two immediate possibilities are - possible help through any local LDS (Mormon centre) in France (in UK, Canada, USA etc they canb be very helpful) - and the other is to use the search facilities (rather costly) of the NRO (Archive Centre). Read their information sheet downloadable from their web-site.

A third possibility is to try asking on the Norfolk mailing list for someone who can help with info. To subscribe to the list, send an email to NORFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'subscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message.

Good hunting,
Regards,
Paddy

The numbers against particular family names are page number/entry number for a particular entry - enabling one to find a particular entry in the census returns for that parish. If you are interested in particular entries, you will find an e-mail link at the top of the index page, which you can use to write a request, quoting those numbers, for full details of the entry for the particular household. Otherwise you can search yourself on the full census returns which for each census from 1841 to 1901 (and shortly 1911) are available (on subscription) at such sites as ancestry.com.

Regards, and good hunting,
Paddy

Your intervention is one of considerable interest to me - as the collection of pages concerned with Didlington, which include many pictures of the Estate, are among the most popular pages on my web-site - and I would be very interested in being able to publish any available further photographs concerning the Hall and the Estate - so if you could let me have copies of your photos I should be extremely grateful.

The immediate answer to your question is already to be found on my web-site, which includes a transcript of Kelly's Directory of Norfolk for 1937 (which includes the information that Didlington Hall was the seat of Col. Herbert Francis Smith J.P., and Didlington Estate Co. were the sole landowners.) Other linked pages give considerable details of members of the AMHERST family who owned the Hall and the Estate from the mid-nineteenth century - and were, I assume, the main shareholders of Didlington Estate Co.

The Hall (partly demolished after having been used by the Army during WW2 - including as the base for the "Desert Rats" during preparations for D-Day) was a 17th century mansion, much enlarged by Lord AMHERST in 1856.

An interesting anecdote: When I first went to explore Didlington Church and the Estate with my late wife some 15 years ago, the then housekeeper at the Hall permitted me to tour and take photographs in the grounds of the Estate, where there remain many of the temporary buildings used by the Desert Rats - and then, in conversation, the housekeeper disclosed that she was born in our village of Woodrising - and, what a coincidence (!!), in one of the two cottages which were later converted to constitute our present dwelling - and that her brother was one of our first callers when we moved here in late 1956 and were snowed in in January 1957.

Finally, many thanks for your contribution to my Guestbook.

Regards,
Paddy

Of course, on the one hand it makes me feel rather proud to find I am a first choice by so many stuck in their research into their family history, yet, on the other, makes me feel so helpless in being able to give the assistance hoped for !!.

So many of us, family and local historians, find we have what looks so interesting a story, and then find we get stuck in proving that link or tracing it back further. Yours, indeed, sounds vastly intersting in what it has discovered already, and I understand your feeling of assurance that there must be more to be found.

Indeed there may be, but suggesting WHERE this is, is, I am afraid, completely beyond me. The only answer must be to follow, from time to time, again and again, any links you feel you have in case something new turns up.

Mailing lists, listed by www.rootsweb.com, following the surname, the village, or any other keyword you can think of, may suddenly produce another area to search - but from my, general Norfolk local history, point of view, you are, I am sorry to say, on your own ....

All I can say, is that you have considerable details of what is already an interesting story, which you can share with others, and - with a bit of luck - perhaps one of your readers will suddenly come up wth a new link, I, unfortunately, have none to add.

Regards,
Paddy

Regards,
Paddy

I am really intrigued with your message, as my database presently has no information about any of the AP(P)LIN(G)s in the USA (and there are, I know, many more in the USA than here in Britain) apart from Luke APLIN who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame (they sent me a great wadge of information about him, which, unfortunately, did not lead back sufficiently to indicate where in Britain his family originally came from). So YOU are my first link to any other APLINGs in the USA.

Accordingly I have no information about your Israel ABLIN.

You give no dates for him, but I doubt he has any close relationship to my Moses APLIN (my 4th great-grandfather) whose dates are c. 1735 to 1788 (buried Southleigh - near Honiton, Devonshire - on 19 October 1788 according to the parish Register, or 19 October 1789 according to the Bishop's transcript).

I suspect that Moses' father was Moses APLEN (c 1699 - ? of Broadwinsor, Dorset (not far from Honiton) and that he had two brothers: Robert APLEN ((baptised 17 Mar 1727, in Burstock, Dorset) and John APLEN (baptised 22 Apr 1731, also in Burstock). I have so far been unable to find a baptismal record for my Moses, but clearly the earlier Moses travelled a bit - which leaves an awful number of parish registrs to search in.

Despite the probable remoteness of the connection between your family and mine it would be a fascinating exercise for us to co-operate in the search for this possible link, and consequently I look forward to some e-mail correspondance with you.

By the way you will find an e-mail link on the Copyright declaration on any of the pages of my web-site, and I look forward to further messages from you.

Regards,
Paddy

Information can be sought from the Census returns for 1861 and at 10 yr-intervals to 1901; from the Parish Register of Stow Bardolph, and from his birth certificate which can be located on the Index of Births, Marriages and Deaths - all of which are available on microfiche at the National Archive and the Norfold Record Office. Census information can be found on the web, either from the web-site of the National Record Office or through such sites as ancestry.com (all generally on payment). In the USA your best bet is probably to seek help to obtain access to these microfiche sources at the nearest family centre of the LDS (Mormons), who can be very helpful.

If you are really interested in family history you should purchase a copy of your grandfather's Birth Certificate - for which you will need the details obtained from the BMD Index.

If you cannot find the web addresses of sources I have mentioned, do not hesitate to inquire again from me.

Regards,
Paddy

Thanks for your enquiry, which caused me to discover that I had ommitted a crucial sentence from my transcription of the entry for Bradfield in Kelly's 1883 directory - stating: The register dates from the year 1725.

Your message has caused me to update the page with the corrected transcription and updated links, but unfortunately the entry (confirmed by the parish register listing in the Norfolk Archive Centre Index) shows that baptismal entries for dates before 1725 have been lost (or never existed), which is unfortunate for you, as the information you seek is not available anywhere, The original baptismal register is held at the Norfolk Archive Centre and covers the period from 1725 to 1962; microfiche copies are available for inspection or purchase from the Archive Centre and copy microfiche are also available at the central Norfolk County Library in Norwich and elsewhere (e.g. available through your local LDS [Mormon] Family Centre), but clearly they will not reveal the particular baptismal record you seek, which no longer exists.

Regards,
Paddy

Regards,
Paddy

I have not myself searched in Army Records, which are very extensive, and mainly housed at the National Record Office at Kew and/or particular Regimental sites, none of which can be searched on the web and would probably require the use of a professional searcher by those not able to visit Kew. However here a few web-sites which may be of considerable help in getting started:

A Rootsweb Guide
Dickson's Guide
Geanalogy.com

I regret I have no info about Upwell beyond what is already on my web-site pages for Upwell village and the index for the 1891 Census neither of which have relation to the Plumbtree family.

To seek further information the obvious places to search are other Census returns for Upwell - those for 1841 to 1901 are available on the web at e.g. ancestry.com - and the Parish Register for Upwell, which is held at Norwich Archive Centre and is available for perusal on microfiche at the Archive Cetre and the Norwich Central Library and can be made available at local LDS {Mormon) Family Research Centres throughout the world.

Regards,
Paddy

In delayed reply to your message on my guestbook, for which may thanks.

You, among many others who have posted messges since June, (due to my travels in Canada and France), must have given up expecting a reply - but yours gets the first reply as I did not have a ready answer, which made it the mnore intriguing !

Historically the 1816 riots have been overshadowed in history by the "Captain Swing" riots of 1830, which were covered in the classic book of the same name by Eric Hobsbawm and George Rudé [ISBN 0-8531-5175-X], which will undoubtedly refer also to the 1816 riots. and there are references to them in "Peasants and Poachers" by Michael J. Carter (in the Bygones series), Boydell Press, 1980 [ISBN 0-7515-129-9]. Both these books would be well worth finding for general background information on the rural situation in the period.

I recall from my lectures on food history (when I was lecturer in Food Science at Reading University) that 1816 was "the year without a summer", with major crop failures throughout Western Europe, and probably (?) particularly in England.

The author of "Peasants and Poachers" includes in his reference of secondary sources:

A.J.Peacock, "Bread and Blood: A Study of the Agrarian Riots in East Anglia in 1816" (London 1965), which will undoubtedly provide some guidance to what is available in the County and National Archive Centres.

If you look at my village pages for Banham you will find listed some information about members of the TAYLOR family.

If you wish to search further the obvious places are Census returns (1841-1901 are available on the web) and the Parish Register for Banham, which is available on microfiche at the Norfolk Archive Centre and the Central Library in Norwich and can usually be made available to enquirers by local LDS (Normon) Centres.

Paddy

I am sorry that this reply has been so delayed, due to my travels.

As you may already know, an inn in Little Snoring is marked on Bryant's map of 1826, and Norfolk Pubs Index also includes the information that the "Bell" (if that corresponds to the inn marked by Bryant) was damaged by enemy action on 19th August, 1942. Is there any indication of bomb damage on your property? The pubs index has no photograph of the Bell, but indicates that it was still used as an inn until February 1966. There must be people in the village who can confirm from their own memory whether your property was once the Bell.

If your property IS the former Bell inn there remains the question as to whether this is the property marked on Bryant's map. This is a question for which the answer may be indicated in other maps or documents which are held in the Norfolk Archives, and it seems to me that your way forward should start with enquiries there. Some of their holdings are indexed, and there is an e-mail link, on their web-site at Norfolk Archive Centre. The Archive Centre also has a leaflet giving of advice for searching for the history of your house.

Regards,
Paddy

I am sorry to have delayed replying to your messsage for so long.

If your ancestors remained in Methwold you can search the Methwold Census for 1841 and the successive 10-yr later Census returns. For other information your first source would be the Parish Register for Methwold. All these sources are available on microfiche at either the Norfolk Archive Centre, adjining County Hall, and also in the Heritage Centre (upstairs) in the Norfolk Central Library at the Forum, Norwich. For searching on the web a very useful resource is www. ancestry.com - subscription service who sometimes offer free trials - where you can search many sources on a Names index. A most important source of information would be the birth, and possibly marriage and death, certificates, the location of which can be found by searching in the (alphabetical for each quarter year) BMD index, which is also available on microfiche at County Archive Cntres and County Central Libraries.

Regards,
Paddy

All you have to do is to look at Norfolk Pubs web-site - a marvellous collection of info, and I think you will find your ancestor mentioned if you look at the White Hart !!
Regards,
Paddy

Apologies for delay in replying.

First of all, for full details of the DARKINS entry in the Thetford Inion Workhouse 1881 Census Names Index - just send a polite request to Pat Greetham, using the e-mail link near the top of the page - or you cold search for her death record in the BMD index, which is available on microfiche at all large county libraries - and is slphabetical for each quarter year. This provides the information necessary to urchase a copy of certificate from the local or national registrar.

For further information the main primary souces available are Census Returns (1841-1901) and Parish Registers. These are generally available on microfiche at the county Record Office and main County Library - for the Norfolk information, this means Norwich. Much of this information can be found on the web by a name search using such services (genrally requiring subscription) as www.ancestry.com.

Regards,
Paddy

There is no easy to find living descendants of someone of the 19th century or earlier. It is really necessary to doggedly try to search forward from information you can find about the ancestor you know of - and for this the main sources are Census returns (beginng in 1841 and available up to 1901) and Parish Registers (often dating back to the 16th century and held to various dates, depending on the parish, with modern parish entries held by the local parish church), and the BMD index, which is widely available but tedious to search (alphabetical on names for each quarter year from 1837). These are readily available on microfiche at County Archive Centre and the nain County Library - in both cases - of the County concerned.

These sources often provide a good deal of information - but are difficukt to find if the family moved around, and also are only readily available if you can visit these locations the main web source will be such services as Ancentry.com. The local LDS (Mormon) centre can often assist in this kind of search,

Another possible way of collecting information can be to join a local nailing list (here rootswweb.com can help find a relevant list, e.g. the Norfolk mailing list at norfolk@rootsweb.com) - and just mail a request for information from members searching the same family surname. Other than that it is just a matter of luck !!

Regards,
Paddy

Many thanks for that information. I shall keep an eye on your web-site; and I am pleased you have found something interesting on my pages.

Regards,
Paddy

I do not have the full information from the Census pages, but at the top of the village index page you will find advice in how to get it - namely to send an e0mail request to Pat Greetham (link near the top of each names index page), as she will willingly transcrive the full details from the original microfiche.

If you follow the link on the Hillington page to "1891 Census Village Page". and search on the surname(s) of interest, you will find a listing of all the Norfolk parishes in which entries for that surname are to be found.

Meanwhile, I may as well add, that if you read the text at the top of the village index pages, you may find additional helpful and useful information.

Kind regards - and good hunting
Paddy

Sparrow seems to be a fairly common name in Norfolk - there are about 40 entries in my Norwich & North Norfolk telephone directory, so apart from that list, and the entries for the name in my index pages for the 1891 Census there is little more I can contribute to your research.

The obvious next steps must be to look at all the other available Census results from 1841 to 1901 which are available on the web through such sites as ancestry.com and to search for the name in the 1911 census on the National Archives site - most of these requiring subscription or other payment. There may well be something useful on other freely available sites in Norfolk (which I keep indending to index on the entry pages on my site, but have not yet done so).

Also, of course to follow up any information you can cull from birth, marriage and death certificates of those family members you know of. You can find the details for ordering these by accessing the national BMD index, available on line through (free search, but expensive fee for each document).

And that's about it, apart from wishing you Good Hunting.
Regards,
Paddy

No change of e-mail address, but PC was disconnected all yesterday for maintenance
Regards,
Paddy

Thanks very much for your message. It is always very valuable to be told of errors - I would probably never notice them on my own pages.

Regards,
Paddy

The Norwich and Norfolk phone directory has 11 entries for CROW, and 120 or more for CROWE, but none in or close to Rocklands.

There is a hyperlink on my Rocklands St Peter village page to the local web-site for the Rocklands, which may lead you to more local info.

Regards,
Paddy

I do not have any listing of forenames as such - only a series of surnames indexes.
However there is an entry for the surname BELDRING to be found in the 1891 Census Names Index on this site - and you could e-mail Pat Greetham (link on various pages) to ask if she can give you more details.

There are also many entries for the surname BELDING - which are also almost all in Norwich itself, which leads me to suggest that the families may have come to Norwich as "strangers" from Flanders in the 16/18th centuries.

I am, of course, in Norfolk, England.

Regards,
Paddy

There aeem to be no entries for BEEKIE in the 1891 Census for Norfolk, the only census for which I have a complete index, although there was a BEEK family in Great Yarmouth.....

There are two Derehams in Norfolk - the market town of East Dereham, often just called Dereham - and the tiny vilage of West Norfolk. I have not previously heard either of them called Old Dereham - but it could be either.

Not knowing where your little information comes from I have few cues to work on, but am wondering if the surname may have been mis-read from your original information.

Regards,
Paddy

I see there was still a family named JULIER in Caister in the 1891 Census, so if you have not checked this, I should look at my names page, check the entry numbers and ask Pat Greetham (link on the page) if she will transcribe the details for you, and for both of them in earlier and later censuses 1841-1901. (These are generally indexed on ancestry.com and other family search programs).

Life details of mariners are notoriously difficult to follow, but if you can find anything more about his wife - such as when they were married (probably either in Caister or in Garwood if she was still living there at the time), and then look for her in later censuses it would surely help. Was her maiden name also JULIER?
Regards,
Paddy

I see there are two families named BARNES in the 1891 Census for Garboldisham, so if you have not seen this information, I suggest you look at my Census Names index page to find the numbers of the entries and then if, as presumably you have no easy access to Norfolk Cesus information, that you send an e-mail to Pat Greetham (link on my page) to ask if she can give you the full info.

Regards, and good hunting
Paddy

The first obvious place to look would be the parish register for Sprowston, Norfolk, because if she was baptised the entry may give some more information (name of mother, and possibly of the father). This is probably available on microfich in the Norfolk Archive Centre - which is, of course, a long way from you. Your local LDS (Mormon church) probably has a family research centre, and they may be able to help you. Alternatively you could write to the incumbent of Sprowston parish - whose name you could get from the Norfolk Diocesen office. (And, of course, Daniel Drew might be her mother's father). The baptismal record would probably record her as illegitimate, but there is probably no other record.

I have no further ideas at present, but if you need any frther advice e-mail me direct.

Regards,
Paddy

Of course, your problem may partly arise from the fact that there are a number of parishes in Norfolk either named simply Newton or having Newton as part of their name.

Is the source of your birth-date information from a baptismal record, or from a later census entry, or something else? The answer to its origin might help me to advise.

Regards,
Paddy

I am afraid I cannot help with anything that is not in my local database, except to offer some advice on where to continue to search.

The marriage entry is the first obvious place likely to give some information about where James hailed from. So have you consulted the parish register for Hadleigh? It is probably available in the Essex Record Office.

In the absence of such information your seach must be quite wide among parishes in the Hadleigh area - or even in Norfolk, as he may have come from some distance.
Regards,
Paddy

I have only just read the greetings today - as I have been most unwell, with the aftermath of a flu/cold - but the antibiotics are now just beginning to get me back to normality.

I am most touched by the number of greetings messages; I thank you all - and wish you all the very best for 2010.
Regards,
Paddy