Category: Information

  • wills are useful, and people are sometimes idiots

    As a follow up to the last post [in November of last year, how time flies in a pandemic!], I obtained a copy of the will of John Ayton of Laxfield Suffolk, died 2 April 1845 in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex. This is the individual who I believe was father to Jane Ayton born c. 1792.…

  • where’ve we got to

    So, having not updated in far too long, I thought I’d finally give a brief rundown of where I’ve got to with the family tree. I’ve had a few brick walls pop over over the years and, after much searching, have managed to break through a few of them. The two biggest breakthroughs are both…

  • normans and vikings and knights, oh my!

    I have updated all the data on the TNG site [click on Family Tree in the sidebar] and added  PDFs of wills for download. All wills are attached to the relevant people in the database but are also available at a single click from the Documents link on the menu bar. I am currently transcribing…

  • finally! getting the site sorted

    After long consideration, I decided to find some software that would allow me to present all the information I have in an easily accessible way.  I have chosen The Next Generation, as it is easy to set up and has many attributes that help display info clearly and usefully.  It has taken me a month…

  • let’s not jump to conclusions

    It is easy, when researching your family history, to make assumptions that take the research down utterly incorrect turnings. I imagine that everyone has been guilty of this – in the rush of discovery it is easy to get carried away. It is also easy to be stymied by someone else’s assumptions when they are…

  • about time for an update

    It has been a long time since my last update as I put the research aside for a bit while I did some for a few friends – great fun! I have set up Ancestry with the family tree: it is currently private but I am more than happy to open it up to any…

  • the joys of illegible handwriting

    I finally sent off for the birth certificate of George and Sarah Jago’s daughter, Sarah, so that I could check Sarah’s maiden name. So, it seems that the handwriting on Mary Ann Jago’s birth certificate was even more problematic than I previously thought! I was never certain that Sarah’s name was Bayldon and it turns…

  • yes, the boltons continue to read like a victorian melodrama!

    Spent an afternoon visiting two lcoal history archives in London, Southwark and Camden, looking for newspaper reports of coroners inquests. Camden proved fruitless as there is no sign of anything in the local paper for Holborn about George Jannion Bond and why there was an inquest held into his death. This means that i am…

  • the plot thickens

    I have been searching for a death certificate for Susan Bond [ne Aldridge] for a while as I know that she was alive for the census of 1891 and that her husband, George Jannion Bond Senior, remarried in January 1900, when he was apparently a widower. George died six months later and an inquest was…

  • confirmation

    Nothing new to add except that I now have documentary proof that the Mary Ann Bolton who was in Friern Barnet is the correct one. In her case notes, her next of kin is named as George Bolton of 44 Strathnairn Street, St James’ Road, Bermondsey. This is confirmed by Frederick Henry Bolton’s birth certificate,…