Genealogical courtesy

If you have found information relevant to your family on the internet that another genealogist has researched and kindly made freely available, then

a) it's only right to acknowledge them as a source if you are republishing their information, and

b) why not email them to say hi, I see we have common ancestors, nice to meet you and thank you for making that information available.

On the odd occasion (for example, just now) when I have come across someone republishing my own family information (some of which is so specific I know it can only be traced back to me), it does make me wonder why that person never thought to email me. I don't have a problem with the information being out there, after all I did make it available in the first place, but it seems just a tad impolite, does it not?

Lawrence FAULKNER

I've been doing a bit of digging into Wing brickmaker Lawrence FAULKNER's origins. I was trying to link him back to the earlier Faulkners circa 1800 - while I don't know that there is a connection, I've at least figured out who he was, maybe!

He was a bit of a mystery as he's living with his grandparents George and Jane CHAPPEL in 1881, then just with widowed Jane in 1891 and 1901 (by which stage he's 24). I couldn't find a baptism for him in Wing, or a direct link between the Faulkners and Chappels.

However I suspect he is the Laurance Boyd Faulkner whose birth is in the GRO registers in the September 1876 quarter. From there it is a short hop to further suspect he may be the son of Lawrence Boyd Faulkner and Mary Ann B CHAMBERLAIN who married somewhere in the Birmingham registration district a couple of years earlier. And there is a marriage between a George Chappel and a Jane Chamberlain in the Leighton Buzzard district in 1871. All supposition at this stage of course, but it looks promising!

The question that has me pondering now, is why was Lawrence jnr living with his grandmother? Lawrence snr and wife Mary Ann are still alive and well and living in Walsall Staffordshire in the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census (which also advise that Mary Ann was born in Leighton Buzzard while Lawrence was a Londoner), and the couple have further sons who are at home with them.

If there's anyone out there connected to this family, I'd love to hear from you.

Request for Directories

Now that the 1935 directory has been uploaded to the website, I'd been planning to let you know that I'd transcribed all the directories I have access to. So, if you come across any others, please feel free to send me a copy of the Wing entry!

However, before I even had a chance to post that request a message on the Oxfordshire-L Rootsweb mailing list alerted me to the 1863 Dutton Allen & Co directory of Oxf, Berks & Bucks which is available on Google Books. So expect to see that Wing entry sometime soon........

1891 census - update

Today I finished transcribing the 1891 census for Wing - that's 1799 people.

Sadly there's still a while to go before it makes it to the website as it now has to be checked, but a milestone none the less!

February update

To make up for the fact there wasn't a January update, it's a bumper one this time - I've cleaned up a lot of outstanding filing and added all those snippets to the website:

First up is a good overhaul of the "Commercial Records" page necessitated by the various takeovers and closures in the genealogical publishing industry.

There's been some 17th century action, with new additions to the non-conformist page plus new will extracts for Richard Honor from 1664 and Elizabeth Lathwell from 1663.

Three marriage strays from the Waddesdon parish registers in the early 1800s have been added.

Some new finds on Google Books and the London Gazette have been added to the Miscellany page, the Adams murder page, the strawplaiting and brickmaking pages.

Jumping forward to the 20th century, the 1935 Kellys directory has been added.

And lastly, there's a new graphic greeting you on the front page. This is a vintage postcard from the early 1900s which I thought was eminently suitable for the home page.

Remember you can press Ctrl-F5 in your browser to refresh the home page if it's still showing as December - enjoy!