Calendar Comments – January 17th

I have several family history events for January 17th. The most significant is the the marriage of my great grandparents:

1874: 141 years ago today my great grandparents, Leonard Crackett (Cracket) and Mary Parkinson, married at Morpeth in Northumberland. The banner picture at the top of my blog shows Len and Mary and their 10  children who all reached adulthood.

1900: My first cousin twice removed, James Edward Doleman Simmons, was born at Amble in Northumberland.

1916: Nora Graham, the wife of my first cousin twice removed Edmond Hanson, was born.

1794: 221 years ago today my 4th great uncle, Thomas Bainbridge, was born in Longbenton, Northumberland. Thomas was baptized two days later on 19th January.

New format on Ancestry

Had to smile at this rather pretentious certificate. This is what you get after a half hour e-learning course if you take the little 20 question quiz at the end. The course had the silly title “Learn About Your Ancestors Using the Latest from Ancestry“. The actual content is a run through the main features of the new format, including the Lifestory functionality. I wish they would not call it lifestory, as until you go through and edit each lifestory it can include a number of time related historical events that are totally irrelevant for the ancestor concerned. My objective in taking the course was to see whether to wait or jump in and go over to the new format now. If you are wondering about the result of this decision making process, here is a snippet of my paternal line in the new format:

Family history through the alphabet – F is for Fecund Forebears

F is for Fecund Forebears

My tree has many branches because large numbers of offspring appear to have been the norm among the mining, fishing and farming families of North-East England and Scotland. Three of my grandparents are from large families. Grandmother Ellenor Turner was the seventh child of ten. Grandmother Margaret Jane Henderson was the third child of seven. Grandfather George Crackett was the eighth child of ten. (Shown in the banner of my blog).

Taking it back one generation further the big families include: Cracket 8, Parkinson 5, Carr 5, Henderson 7, Thornton 11. Similar trends can be seen in the earlier generations too with most of the couples having somewhere between 5 and 10 children.

F is for findmypast

F is also for findmypast which is one of the resources I find most useful for my genealogy research. I find their transcriptions among the most reliable, although Cracket has on occasion been twisted to Crackel. So far I have just used the UK site, but expect I am soon going to have to take a look at both Ireland and Australia. I have not managed to figure out yet whether having a subscription for one country gives any discount opportunities for the other countries.

If you would like to know more about this alphabet challenge take a look at Family History through the Alphabet.

Planning next archive trip

I have been doing some planning this evening for my next trip to Woodhorn Archives and NDFHS at Percy House. Among the checks I want to make if I have time are:

• Confirm the correct father for Margery Hall born 1803 in Elsdon, Northumberland, since we have found conflicting information in various transcripts
• Try to confirm which Isabella Cracket married Garnet Caisley
• Integrity check on the various Adam Cracket and David Cracket births and marriages in the early 1800s. I think I may have some errors in  my data.
• Take a closer look at the Olivers of Netherton and Hauxley
• Try to find a marriage record for Thomas Oliver born 1800 in Hepscott and his wife Alice
• Try to find parents for Robert Parkinson born 1792, probably somewhere around the Walker area.
• Look for a marriage record for William Reay born 1776, possibly somewhere around the Walker area
• Look for a marriage record for Thomas Carr born 1815 in Willington and Ellen Reed (Reid or Read) born 1822 and try to find her parents

Ambitious plans, and if previous experience is anything to go by, I will no doubt get sidetracked onto something completely different but equally useful.

81 years ago today

My great grandmother Mary Crackett, née Mary Parkinson, died 81 years ago today (19 March 1931) in Radcliffe, Northumberland. She was born 26 March 1852 and was just a week short of her 79th birthday when she died of senile decay. One of her living grandchildren remembers her as a rather stern woman which would seem to be consistent with photos of her later in life. Mary is the matriarch in the centre of the large family which is pictured in the banner of my blog.

Mary’s daughter-in-law Emily Crackett, née Emily Thompson shares the same death date 18 years later. Emily died in 1949 at age 75.

What is on my home page?

I have used my home page to tell you why I decided to blog about my past and introduce you to my great grandparents’ large family which gave me some interesting leads when I first started my research. I also include some navigational tips.

In the side panel you will find an RSS feed, a link to international genealogy blogs (Geneabloggers), monthly archives and a list of pages.

Top rated posts and most used tags which are shown at the bottom of the page are a bit thin at the moment as I only have two readers, but should become more useful as interst grows.