tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21430694727809970252024-09-24T22:45:29.507-03:00Sharing some of the interesting information I uncover while researching my family history. Not just genealogy, but also the social and geographic history of Somerset and a few other places for good measure.Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-65478824109178473562021-02-18T20:29:00.002-04:002021-02-19T09:25:47.504-04:00

 In my childhood there was a narrow alley way besides the Cottage Hospital that my family called the drang. For fans of Hot Fuzz, it is where PC Nicholas Angel leaps over a wall and catches up with shoplifter Pete. Drang is not a word that I ever recall hearing outside of the family though, and I often wondered if it was something they had made up. Googling it many years ago I

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-15785043954659288822021-02-15T20:18:00.002-04:002021-02-16T21:10:35.828-04:00

 I spent the first 15 months of my life in a post-war prefab in Wells. My parents seem to have moved in as soon as they became available and stayed until early 1958 when they bought a house nearby on Bath Road.Twenty five prefabs were constructed and the council received 180 applications for tenancy. The rent was proposed to be 11s per week, plus 3s 10d rates. (WJ, 05 July 1946, p5)The

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-24159894127866804902021-01-24T19:51:00.002-04:002021-01-24T19:51:29.369-04:00

 I recently had a very vague memory of visiting the library as a child at locations in both the market square and the old blue school at the bottom of Chamberlain street so I thought I should do some research to see if I could find anything about these locations. The Wells Journal is available on the British Newspaper Archive, and after a lot of searching I found the following.Way back in

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-70736352785249729062014-09-07T07:02:00.000-03:002014-09-07T07:02:48.108-03:00

Cider has been a traditional drink associated with Somerset for many years. Here is an interesting story from the Western Daily Press about the Hecks family and how their business has changed over the generations. How four generations of the Hecks family have kept the cider flowing in Street

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-39395319794670843502014-04-09T19:36:00.000-03:002014-08-27T14:17:22.464-03:00

The Western Gazette reported on Friday 09 November 1883 about the sale of three properties near Rock in Croscombe. The auction was held at the Crown Inn. A cottage and garden was sold to Mr H.Baker for £139 and the adjacent cottage to James Webb for £76. A small tenement nearby went to George Webb for £49.

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-24541451711555357402014-03-04T12:16:00.001-04:002014-03-06T20:44:11.914-04:00

On 25 Mar 1878 my great grandparents witnessed a marriage in Priddy, Somerset. The groom's name is recorded as James MAIN, his father as James MAINE and my g.grandmother as Hester MAYNE. I have no reason at present to believe that these are different families, so it goes to show just how careless people were in completing these registers. (Source: FreeREG) (Update - the groom is Hester's brother

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-68879016149030882552014-03-03T22:46:00.000-04:002014-03-09T13:21:18.089-03:00

Most of my family history revolves around Somerset, and mostly within ten miles of my home town. I have one direct ancestor from Herefordshire and one from the New Forest, neither of which I have had any success in tracing back beyond their parents. So when Newfoundland popped up as a birthplace in a census I began to wonder if I had any very distant cousins here in Canada. The connection goes

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-87437326276583032742012-09-20T20:17:00.000-03:002014-08-27T14:22:49.549-03:00

My maternal grandfather was raised by his grandmother, and for a few years by her second husband, Charles Parfitt. While doing some Croscombe related searches on the British Newspaper Archive, I came across this article of June 19, 1896 in the Western Gazette which reveals the untimely end of Mr. Parfitt. FATAL FIGHT AT CROSCOMBE -------- A VERDICT OF MANSLAUGHTER   The inquest as to the

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-35246615389799834162008-05-19T19:08:00.002-03:002008-05-19T19:29:31.265-03:00

Some days you just get lucky. When I was in Wells earlier this year I started browsing through copies of old newspapers on microfilm. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, and the first one I looked at was The Shepton Mallet Journal, Wells Reporter & County Advertiser, Friday January 3, 1890. Imagine my surprise when I come across an article about one Joseph Webb of Croscombe.

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-70874398837601270782008-04-17T11:06:00.003-03:002008-04-17T11:32:46.780-03:00

I have been trying to find a copy of 'The Story of Croscombe' by Keith Armstrong for some time now, but it has been out of print. But a second edition is now available. I stumbled across it on a recent trip back to the UK when I popped into the Shepton Mallet Tourist Information and Heritage Centre. The book is 256 pages in softback and covers the history of the village from pre-history to the

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-24782656764134264522007-04-27T08:05:00.000-03:002007-04-27T08:14:52.775-03:00

The occupations that people give on censuses often makes interesting reading. Often they are amusing and educational, but when the occupations of a whole census is analysed it gives a good picture of how a community functioned and made a living.Listed below are all the employed occupations from the Croscombe (Somerset, England) census of 1851. It accounts for 310 people, or 46% of the population.

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-39846648300058803632007-04-18T16:20:00.000-03:002007-04-18T16:42:10.124-03:00

Issue 22 of the Carnival of Genealogy has just been published and Jasia was kind enough to include my post about Google Books. There are lots of other great posts there, so be sure to check it out. The one I particularly like is the one about Surname search, a tool for checking the geographical distribution of a surname in Great Britain. I could probably play with that for days!

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-58151283160270387462007-04-18T13:57:00.000-03:002007-04-20T14:57:08.400-03:00

I have been working on the census for Croscombe in 1851 and doing some analysis with a view to gaining a better insight into life in the village. If this analysis proves useful, I might repeat the exercise for successive decades to see how the village has changed over the years.There were 159 occupied households, 16 unoccupied and one under construction. The total population was 673, made up of

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-76856953584502158682007-04-08T17:05:00.000-03:002007-04-08T17:25:44.694-03:00

On a trip to Croscombe a few years ago I checked out the graveyard at the church. I found none of my family there, but I did record some PARKER stones which may be of use to some one.1.Maria, daughter of Thomas and Anna Elizabeth PARKER of Shepton Mallet, died June 5 1861 aged 17 years.Also of Arthur PARKER who dies March 18, 1862 aged 7 years.Also of Fanny the beloved wife of T.W.WHITNEY and

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-16109055858337313562007-04-05T11:25:00.000-03:002007-04-05T12:52:24.909-03:00

Google Books is a project that scans books, indexes them and makes them available on-line. The amount of material you can read online depends on the status of the book, but most that are out of copyright are fully readable. You can choose to search either 'All Books' or 'Full View Books'.I tried a search for 'Croscombe'. There are a lot of reports from religious periodicals such as The Baptist

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-1635679963943319262007-04-04T15:08:00.000-03:002007-04-05T12:53:23.839-03:00

One of the notable institutions of the past was the workhouse. In 1601 the Act for the Relief of the Poor made parishes responsible for looking after their own poor. They continued until 1930 when their responsibilities passed to local authorities at which point many became Public Assistance Institutions and continued to provide accommodation for the elderly, chronic sick, unmarried mothers and

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143069472780997025.post-39662151865833185392007-04-01T20:39:00.000-03:002007-04-05T12:54:28.099-03:00

Though I haven't yet found any ancestors from Dulcote, I was really impressed by this website, Historical Sketches of Dulcote.Of particular interest to me was the page on quarrying, as I believe my grandfather worked at Dulcote quarry, though it may possibly have been one of the other quarries nearer Croscombe. I was also fascinated to learn that there were once paper mills at Dulcote.And if you

Derek Andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058511671737531988noreply@blogger.com2