I was asked to go to Westerdale and take photographs of around a dozen family graves there. Now, I had to admit I didn’t know where on earth it was but a check on Google maps showed it was right up at the top of the moors toward Stokesley. It looked pretty isolated and the moors can be a bleak place in Winter so I had to pick my day carefully.

On the 19th the weather forecaster said it would be sunny and not too cold for this time of day so off I set. It only took about 40 minutes to get to Stokesley but it got a bit slower from then on. We were soon on the single track moor road and headed up over the steep Northern end of the moors and down into a steep ravine, through a ford (with depth markers showing up to 6ft!), then through another ford (with a road over it but still with depth markers) and then up into Westerdale.

Westerdale Ford (no 2)

The village was actually bigger than I expected, quite a community actually, and the church itself was really quite impressive.

Westerdale church

We had a list of all the gravestones with the monumental inscriptions and each one was numbered and grouped in sections with titles such as “South Side” etc., so we set about looking for the correct family graves. We soon realised that the numbering system didn’t follow any logical sequence and whoever listed them must have used a Christmas cracker compass – the “East side” graves were actually found on the South West of the Churchyard!

Once we sorted out where everything was I set about taking a good few photos of each grave, evidently taking a photo at a slight angle shows up the inscription better. Most were in good condition but some were very difficult to read.

I actually hadn’t considered offering location photography as a service but I really enjoyed the trip and the photos came out well. I’m not sure I want to head up there again in December though, it was 8 degrees in York and 1 in Westerdale and there was a bitter wind too!

Now I spend most of time researching in York so I have to remind myself what records are where when it comes to South Yorkshire and this isn’t as easy as you would think.

The chap I needed to find records for evidently came from Tickhill which is a parish near Doncaster. The most likely candidates for his parents married in the parish of Ecclesfield, his father’s most likely birth was in Sheffield and census records showed his mother was from Rawmarsh. Other parishes that came up in the investigation were Maltby and Whiston.

All these places are in really close proximity to each other as the map below shows, but when I checked what records were where I found I had to visit Doncaster Archives, Sheffield Archives and possibly Rotherham Archives.

Parishes in the Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster Area

Also, as you can see, Tickhill borders on to Derbyshire, whilst Sheffield borders on to Nottinghamshire. So if I needed to widen my search at all that brings two more counties into play and possibly requiring visits to Nottinghamshire County Record Office in Nottingham and Derbyshire Record office in Matlock. Phew!

Anyway, first I went to Doncaster Archives to collect names from the Tickhill registers. Doncaster Archives is located about 15 minutes walk from the train station and the train journey from York is only 20 minutes, so I could get there and back in just over one hours total travelling time. The archives are in an old School building which also conveniently houses the Doncaster Family History Society.

Doncaster Archives Building

Tickhill parish records have been well transcribed for the period I was looking at so I had the luxury of an index to find the names I wanted and also follow up any other leads – a few hours saved there!

Having a bit of time to spare I popped in to Doncaster library on the way back to the station to see if I could find a newspaper article covering the emigration but unfortunately didn’t turn up anything. A local newspaper article alng the lines of “Tickhill man emigrates” would have been nice but I wasn’t that lucky.

Next, I went to Sheffield Archives which are about two minutes from Sheffield train station. So the train journey was longer but the walk was shorter which is exactly how I like it.

Sheffield Archives Building

I spent the whole day at Sheffield finding names, putting family groups together, noting relationships and following people from parish to parish where I could.

Out of all of this  I think we have shown that the chap born in Tickhill is actually the chap that went to Australia in 1836. I don’t think we have absolute conclusive proof of the link but in cases like this elimination of other possibles together with building up evidence is generally as close as you can get.

But the whole experience shows that tracing ancestors in a small area is not always straightforward, particularly given a mobile population and when administrative areas overlap and county boundaries come into play.

Deaths between 1911 and 2006 can also be very difficult to find if you have no family anecdotes or personal knowledge to go on. All you may know is the person’s date of birth so after that it is a case of trawling through years of records trying to identify the correct death.

Freebmd has always been the death index to use but the coverage is not complete after 1950. So following their index of birth records and their marriage finder, the UK specialist Find My Past has now produced a full index of death records between 1837 and 2006.

Try it by clicking [here].

It isn’t perfect by any means, it still suffers from the bane of online indexes that is poor transcription and there is no immediately obvious way of notifying Find My Past about corrections. It would also be useful to be able to drill down a bit further; to registration area for example.

Here’s what Find My Past say about it:

Easily find records of your ancestors’ deaths using findmypast.co.uk’s powerful new death records search

Following the transformation of our births and marriages, we have revolutionised how you search for your ancestors’ death records.

When you search, you will be presented with a list of individual names – no more searching through pages of results to see if your ancestors appeared on each page.

You can now search the following records in one go:

• England & Wales deaths 1837-2006
• British nationals died overseas 1818-2005
• British nationals armed forces deaths 1796-2005
• British nationals died at sea 1854-1890

 

Our new death records search will be especially useful if you’ve previously been unable to find your ancestors’ death records.

So, it isn’t perfect but it is certainly an improvement on what was available or the option of trawling through many years of records. It gets the thumbs up from me!

Yesterday started off without any surprises; there was one person there doing some research and I chatted to the lady who had done the morning stint. Then it all started getting a bit surreal.

Another lady popped in and after introductions said “Oh! You’re the person I’ve been wanting to speak to.” She asked me if I used to live in a small village outside York, which I admitted to, and then said “I’ve got photos of you when you were small”.

Having a surname like Thomas-Peter is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a curse, usually for the same reason – nobody forgets the name. The village in question is quite tiny and we lived there as extremely young children about 50 years ago for about 2 years. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant time for our family although I always remember it fondly – when you are 4 you’re not really aware of what your parents are going through.

Anyway, as with most Yorkshire villages, the same families who were in the village all those years ago are still there. They have regular history days and apparently we are remembered by many. I must say, the memories are not reciprocated as I could only remember the first name of one boy I used to play with. So, I gave the lady my email address and she sent me a couple of photos, one of which is shown below – I’m on the right at the front and my elder brother is standing behind me. What a scamp I look!

Apparently, four of the children still live in the village and the parents of another two do as well.

Just as I was getting over that, the lady who had done the morning shift said “Did you used to live in Fulford?”. This was getting a bit strange! “Yes I did” says I. “I think I used to baby sit you when you were young” says she. Good grief!

So what started as a fairly mundane afternoon became extremely personal. York is a fairly small place and typically Yorkshire so everyone knows everyone else or is only one person removed from doing so. Even so, it is a bit of a coincidence to bump in to two people who can fill in a few missing parts of your family history in the same day.

Unfortunately, I’m going to miss it as I’ve gone and booked myself of a first aid course without checking my diary first.

This fair shouldn’t be confused with the Yorkshire Family History Fair which is held at York Racecourse each year in June, which tends to cover the whole of Yorkshire; the York Family History Society Fair concentrates on York and the immediate surrounding area.

If you have ancestors who lived in or around York then this fair is the ideal opportunity to have a chat to society members who will give you free help and advice. Entrance is only £1.00, the hall is wheelchair friendly, parking is free and refreshments are available throughout the day.

For more information and contact details have a look at York Family History Society’s web site [here].

The research room is open from 10am to 4pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the year and is staffed by volunteers from York Family History Society.

It has internet access, access to ancestry.co.uk  and plenty of room to work as well as a host of other resources for tracking down ancestors. A full catalogue of the holdings is available on the York Family History Society website [here].

It is obviously biased towards research in York and so the majority of the books, parish register transcriptions and other CDs are relevant to York and the surrounding area.

I’ve now acted as staff three times and am enjoying it immensely. Although it is rarely busy there is always somebody visiting either to carry out work for the society, to research their York ancestors or just for a bit of help. The volunteers will always help people out with their research when they can but it isn’t a substitute for doing your own.

If you want to visit it is always worth calling ahead to make sure you can be fitted in and to ensure that the resource you want to look at is available. There is a small charge for non-members to use the facilities.

If you do visit maybe I’ll be that day’s volunteer so we can say hello!