John Stokes, Upton, Huntingdonshire. 1801-1847

One of the things that can trip you up in genealogy is eagerly pouncing on a chap from the past and sticking them into your family tree!  Indeed, you need as much evidence as possible that somebody with a matching name is "your" ancestor and not simply a chap of the same name that moved into the village in the past 10-20 years, or was born into a related family in similar years.

Ancestors often have a limited number of names and parish records are incomplete, or missing.  Often you'll find yourself collecting lots of random finds and information over time, hoping that one day you'll have enough information to dismiss or confirm one.

In my tree is John Stokes.  I believe "my" John Stokes was born in Bourn, but he married a girl, Jane, who came from Upton.  To my knowledge he never lived in Upton, Hunts, but, it's interesting to note that the name John Stokes was very common in the area at the time.  Indeed, in just one newspaper I discovered two different John Stokes' in Upton, Huntingdonshire, in one edition.

One of the John Stokes had an industrial accident when he fell off a haycart and was found.  A second John Stokes committed suicide. They are not the same man as the suicide inquest was held on the Monday of the week and the second John Stokes had his accident (and lived) on the Tuesday.

The John Stokes who committed suicide was reported as being 46 years old in 1847, so he must have been born ~1801.  The same year "my" John Stokes was born.

John Stokes who died in 1847 aged 46 at his inquest, but when he was buried the parish register said he was 43, giving a birth date of ~1804.  The parish registers seem to have no John Stokes in that parish in that year, but there was one baptised in 1806 - of course, that could be the same John Stokes but baptised at age 1-2.

And this is why tracing your family history can take years!  To try to solve this mystery takes more effort and cost than looking at free resources online! The two pieces below were reported in the local newspapers, which can be viewed online through GenesReunited, Findmypast or on the NewspaperArchives sites:

Inquest of John Stokes, August 1847:  

Upton, Hunts. —An inquest was held on Monday last, by John Beedham, gent, coroner, on the body of Mr. John Stokes, aged 46, who was found on Sunday by Thomas Casledme between two bushes near Coppingford Wood, with his throat cut through  his neckerchief, dividing the caroted artery on the left jugular, the razor lying near his right hand, and having 7s. Id, in his pocket. From evidence, it was clear to the jury that he had destroyed himself.  

Verdict, temporary insanity.

As for the other John Stokes, who also isn't in my tree:

Accident.—On Tuesday last, as John Stokes labourer, was about to cut a hay rick belonging to Mr. Colson, butcher, situate near the road, he was seized with a giddiness  in the load, and fell helplessly to the ground. Being a stout, heavy man, fell with great force and received a severe injury in his back and loins, and now lies in a dangerous state in the Infirmary. His bay knife fell on him, and has slightly hurt his mouth, only fortunately falling with the edge uppermost. Considering his severe injuries, it is astonishing how was able to get home without assistance.

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

The Finding Family, Huntingdonshire

The Finding Family is a blog I've started to bring together my own collection of notes, records, resources and ideas on my own family history research.  The name was picked based on two discoveries: my ancestors seem to include a family called Finding (or Findin) and my preferred first two names for the blog were already taken!  So here we are.  The Finding Family - although I suspect they are a small part of my journey.

At the present time I've narrowed down my search and research to Jane Finding, who married John Stokes, in Upton, Huntingdonshire in 1822.

And that's pretty much my starting point for this quest.  Who was Jane Finding? Who were her family? Who were her parents?  Where did they all move to?  And then onwards to uplines, downlines and sideways movements around what will become a huge chart over the coming years.

So far my research has been contained in a simple family tree, started when my mother's cousin (there's a name for that!) sent me a cutdown GEDCOM of our family tree.  As with all family trees, everybody is interested and absorbed in a different route.  My source information benefactor's interest was in her own father's tree - he is no blood relation to me, having married my mother's aunt he was my mother's uncle.  My interest was piqued by what I call my "Lady Line".

Having been given the raw roots of research, I discovered that my GG-grandmother had left her children at the workhouse and been imprisoned for the offence.  An offence she repeated as soon as she was released!  So she did more time, this time hard labour in a prison.

So that was the start - I wondered "Why was she in the workhouse? Why did nobody take her in?" which then means it's necessary to research the trees of all her siblings and her parents' siblings - where had they all gone?

There are many reasons I've discovered why they were not in a position to take her in - the biggest stumbling block is that she had five children.  Not many households can take in six people at the drop of a hat. And that got me hooked!

So that's it, here's the first post - and the rest will be assortments of family tree snippets, ideas, sources of records specific to the villages my ancestors lived in and a rambling and never-ending journey!

I live 200 miles away from my area of research.  While this is not impossible to visit (just a car journey), it does bring into question the cost/time elements.  There's one churchyard where there must be 30-40 ancestors buried - spending a day there documenting/finding gravestones would be a day well spent, it'd also cost quite a chunk of money, so before I rush off and prowl that graveyard I first need to fully research if it has ever been done before.  Buying the information in, as a starting point, is often cheaper than making a visit yourself - especially if records show that there's nothing of note to be found!

So, here we go!