Archive for the ‘Research’ Category
Genealogy gold at Cotesbach
Posted on: September 10th, 2010 by pj

Research and writing have been put aside during the last two weeks when present day family matters demanded attention.  However, today I’ve become re-energised after a trip to a small village on the Leicestershire/Warwickshire border.  Cotesbach is famous as the site of the Enclosure Riots; it is home to a Manor, Cotesbach Hall, an 18th century schoolhouse and today, during a Heritage Open Day it witnessed a slightly over excited family historian.  That would be me then….

I’ve planned on visiting Cotesbach for several years and for no particular reason have never got round to it until today.  It’s not as if its a long complicated trip, just a few miles down the road from home, yet it wasn’t until I noticed that the village was involved in a Heritage Open Day that I was spurred to grab my camera, a printout of my earliest Rainbows, my long suffering husband and head off down the slightly soggy, autumnal lanes of  rural Leicestershire.    The schoolroom at the Cotesbach Educational Trust was built in the late 18th century and there’s a good chance that several of my ancestors stared out of that window wishing lessons were over for the day.

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Who left what to who and why? More questions than answers with today’s research..
Posted on: August 11th, 2010 by pj
I have to admit to getting a little rush of excitement when new record collections appear online and today was no exception with the release of the National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations),1861-1941 over at ancestry.co.uk.  As usual I dived in with little forward planning, cherry picking the ancestors I thought would have the most interesting wills, expecting that very few would actually have the resources to make a last will and testament.  I was surprised to find that even with modest estates many had made formal plans to pass on their effects to loved ones.  Apart from the obvious information about legacies the probate calendar was able to confirm birth dates and in some cases it named relatives such as nephews that I hadn't known about.  However, it wasn't long before the questions popped up.  Why did the apparently wealthy businessman have only a few pounds to share out between his children?  Why did William Rainbow leave everything to his son and nothing to his wife?   I'm hoping that ordering the actual copies of the wills might prove more enlightening but I've been researching long enough to know that for every answer we're often left with two questions and that's probably why we like genealogy so much.

Posted via email from rainbowfamily

Victorian soldiers were tough!
Posted on: June 7th, 2010 by pj

I’ve found a couple of Victorian soldiers in my line, so far and today I’ve been researching conditions.  In a word, grim!  Pay was 1s 1d a day (about 5.5p) and out of that they had to pay for food (about 6d/2.5p), uniform and its upkeep, medical expenses and any damages incurred to their accommodation.  Barracks were horribly overcrowded, badly lit and heated.  Rations were 1lb of meat and 1lb of bread a day, little or no vegetables or dairy produce.  Monotonous and ultimately unhealthy.  There was a lot of sickness.