Superstar genealogy friends

Isn't it nice to have superstar genealogy friends? The kind that support what you're doing, think of you when they come across something that might be relevant for your research, and generally make you feel all warm and fuzzy about the genealogy community.

One of my superstar genealogy friends is Paul Brazell. Paul recently visited the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, and before he went he emailed me to see if there might be anything he could take a look at for me. I duly compiled a long list (you know, just in case there was some disaster that meant he might be trapped in there for days with nothing to do but photograph and scan records for me) and sent it off. And now I have photographs of the 1797 Wing inclosure map! This will be a great help to my current farm project and for general Wing research.

Did I mention that Paul had much less time at the Centre than expected, due to traffic snarlups? And that he doesn't live in the UK either?

A big public thank you to Paul, all my other superstar genealogy friends, and, indeed, everyone's superstar genealogy friends - you're awesome.

And in case you, my dear reader, find yourself at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies with some spare time up your sleeve and would like to contribute to the Wing One Place Study, here's the rest of my list:

* any tithe maps - I believe there's one for 1851 and I think there's some others as well

* D-X1099/1 (pp 129-205 are Wing) register of farm tenants of the Earl of Chesterfield c.1760-c.1792

* D-X1099/2  (pp 61-102 are Wing and hamlets) - survey including plans of farm tenants of Earl of Chesterfield and other landowners c.1778 - also on microfilm (M 42)

* D-X1099/3 (pp 10-39 are Wing and hamlets) - similar survey but in 1798

* D-X1099/4 (pp 28, 31 and 62-71) similar survey but in 1810

* D 94/48 to D 94/54 documents re properties sold to the Rothschilds 1752-1876

* NC 5/1 Burcott Congregational Chapel church book 1871 to 1913 including admissions and baptisms

* NC 5/11 Burcott Congregational Chapel notebook by Kate HELEY dated 1879-1890 "Scraps and Incidents and Notes of the Lord's Dealings" - would love someone to take a look at this and comment on the kind of things included as I'm very curious about it!

* NMP/401 register of marriages for Church Street Primitive Methodist Chapel 1902-1983

* QS/W/E/234  return of dissenting places of worship 1829

A HARDWICK connection

Over the last week a couple of new-to-me Wing researchers have gotten in touch - hi there! One was even connected to my own HARDWICK line which was really nice. Is there anyone else out there with a Hardwick connection, or an interest in PAGE, BONHAM or WOODRUFF? Or anyone else who is finding the information in the Wing One Place Study useful and hasn't emailed me to introduce themselves? I'd love to hear from you, if I know you're out there and which families you are researching I may be able to put you in touch with other people working on the same family.

My people

This week I've been updating my own tree. I realised there's a fair amount of research I've completed on some of the Wing families that happen to be my own family, and I haven't necessarily transferred all the information on those that are directly related to me into my own Personal Ancestral File database, so I'm tidying that up. I'm also putting together a plan of attack to see if I can finally track those ancestors that don't seem to have been born in Wing. Next stop Waddesdon and Aylesbury records!

LUCAS 1670s to 1730s

Today I "met" Lorna who is researching her Lucas family of Ascott. Her Wing timeframe is a bit earlier than a lot of us - anyone out there got any useful tips or suggestions for other sources around this time beyond the standard parish registers and wills? The Lucas family were tenants of the Dormers at Wing Park and were friends with the Ffynes family.

POLLARD

Another POLLARD researcher has contacted me - this time a descendent of Flora Pollard, the youngest child of blacksmith Andrew and his wife Ann Susan. Are there any more descendents of the other Pollard siblings out there?

WINDMILL CLARIDGE

An interesting snippet came my way today. A WINDMILL researcher alerted me to a 1936 obituary reproduced online for John Thomas Windmill CLARIDGE, the son of Thomas Claridge and Ann Windmill (technically John was born in Stewkley rather than Wing but we'll claim him as one of ours) - he ended up a vicar, but was also a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society! Thanks for the tip Linda.

I have just fixed a couple of broken links on the front page - apologies to everyone who tried to access the marriages or burials over the last few days, you should now be able to get to them just fine. I have also converted and uploaded the directory listings (but not the master consolidated name index for the directories yet).

Smith

Over the last couple of days I've been working with Margaret trying to identify her SMITHs. We can't even tell for sure whether her William Smith did come from Wing, let alone which one of the multiple candidates he might be.

It's hard enough trying to research common names, I know this from looking at my own Hughes and White families. It's even harder if your lot never stayed still for more than five minutes - and while there have been plenty of Smiths in Wing over the last 400 years there seems to be barely a single one that spent their whole life in the village with their major life events dutifully recorded in the parish registers. So my sympathies to the Smith researchers out there.

The first enumeration district of the 1891 census transcription is now done - of course, the second enumeration district is bigger.....

Making friends

So many lovely people who are also researching their Wing families get in touch with me by email, but it's fun to finally meet one in person! Jill lives within driving distance of me, and we managed to get together today and compare our collections of goodies. Thanks Jill, for letting me wade through your books and files and records and photos and correspondence - I had fun :)