FreeREG Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, Upton, Huntingdonshire

I've been quite lucky that Upton, Huntingdonshire, is one of the parishes that's on FreeREG, meaning I can find the baptisms, marriages and burials at St Margaret, which is the only church in the parish.

Upton, Huntingdonshire

The Upton parish register transcripts were first made available on FreeREG in January 2014. At the time of writing there are 1271 records input, ranging from 1755 to 1877 and the last update/alteration was made in July 2014 and the following years are parish records have been transcribed:

• St Margaret, Upton, Huntingdonshire baptisms:  1784-1876
• St Margaret, Upton, Huntingdonshire marriages:  1755-1812, 1814-1836, 1839-75
• St Margaret, Upton, Huntingdonshire burials:  1784-76

That's quite good coverage except I am not much further forward in completing the jigsaw!  It's good to see records - so thanks to Sheila for taking the time to transcribe these - but when there are gaps it's annoying.  You'd have thought the church might've taken a little more care with their books and records over the years *sigh*.  I think the vicars were more interested in drinking tea with widows than making my life easier.... slackers :)

FreeREG has given me some great finds though, including:
Six baptisms from 1788 to 1809
Four marriages from 1815 to 1828
Three burials from 1807 to 1837

Of course, parish registers are only as good as what was written in them at the time - and if they are legible or weren't lost.  I need to find out the state of these Parish Records and, to see a copy of the originals at some point.

Soundex also yields some further results as the name "Finding" was written in other ways at the parish, including Findin, which actually looks like the record/s I will find useful. The spelling Fineden is also present.  Having said that, the particular marriage I was looking for exists under the name I was looking for: "Finding".  Annoyingly, there is no bride's father's name given!

As the parish of Upton, Huntingdonshire, is tiny, the next step would be to go through the baptisms, to see if it looks like Jane was born in Upton!  At first glance it looks like she was baptised, under the spelling of Findin, in 1803 and her parents were Thomas and Mary.  Obviously making that assumption is a leap of faith and doesn't always work... but, for now, I've got Thomas and Mary pencilled into the chart as potential parents.

Genealogy is the ultimate online game of strategy, cunning, intelligence, perseverance, patience and tenacity, but the rewards are greater than other online pasttimes as you're discovering your own family roots and secrets.

Image by Wikimedia: Upton