Thursday 26 November 2015

Upton, Huntingdonshire, Parish Registers

The parish registers for Upton, Huntingdonshire are not widely available.  Hopefully this will change in time.  I'd really like to see the registers for 1700-1800 or so!  So I've had a look at what's available.  I believe the Finding family will be found in those registers, so where can I see them?

The originals are held at Huntingdon Records Office, but only for 1801-1837. I still need to find out more about these.  There is a transcription available from the Cambridgeshire Family History Society, Huntingdonshire's a small place so was "absorbed" into Cambs some years ago.  Records are split between Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire Records Offices, which is awkward (unless you're very local).

National Burial Index:
There are some entries from the National Burial Index, in the date range 1605-1837.  These are available through Findmypast. For Upton cum Coppingford the NBI only has four entries (with that exact spelling):
Francis Finding 1807
Mary Finding 1765-1837
Thos Finding 1757-1828
William Finding 1806
I've already got these in my record set as I'm a member of Findmypast.  So, nothing new there for me today! But it's good to revisit old searches, in case there's been an update since you last/first looked.

FreeREG:
This database holds some of the records, from 1755-1877, with the last update being performed in November 2014.

Looking for members of the Finding family on there, without giving it any date criteria, I found the same records as when I last checked, namely:

Baptisms: 
Ann FINDING 4 Feb 1788
John FINDING 25 Jul 1790
Mary FINDING 4 Aug 1793
Elizabeth FINDING 16 Apr 1797
Sarah FINDING 13 Jan 1799
Phebe FINDING 5 Feb 1809

Marriages:  
Ann FINDING & 25 Jan 1815
Elizabeth FINDING & George ROBERSON 9 Dec 1817
Jane FINDING & John STOKES 14 Oct 1822
Phebe FINDING & William SNARY 28 Jan 1828

Burials:
Frances FINDING 5 Mar 1807
Thos FINDING 22 Aug 1828
Mary FINDING 19 Oct 1837

But, there are more, spelt slightly differently.

Of course, the Holy Grail of parish registers is to have access to (preferably to own) a copy of the actual register itself.  Clearly touching the original would be out of the question in most instances - and impractical - what you need is a good image of each page so you can visit/re-visit those pages on a whim, from the comfort of your own sofa.... perchance to spot something you didn't spot before.  I love Vicars' notes round the edges of parish registers, they can really be useful.

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