Today I joined Emma Cox, a local genealogist to talk about old handwriting and wills.  It is my first podcast and I hope you enjoy it.  Please contact me if you would like help with transcribing your own wills.  Podcast

I’ve been relooking at an old brickwall on my family tree this week.  My x 4 great grandfather Jeremiah Hall was baptised in Edenbridge in Kent in 1789.  He had a sister Jenny, baptised in 1781 and a brother, William baptised in 1787, both in Edenbridge.  Their parents on the baptism records were Michael and ______ Hall.  Very useful!  
A marriage for a Michael Hall in the right time frame has not been found and neither has a baptism of a Michael Hall.  The closest we have come to is a Miles Hall who married Jane Holiday in 1769 in Crowhurst in Surrey and went on to have 4 children, all baptised in Crowhurst; Sarah – 1769, Martha – 1770, William – 1773 buried in 1774 and Benjamin – 1775.  
I have spent 10 years picking away at this problem, and chatting with other people who are also trying to solve this riddle.
We know that Jenny baptised in 1781 married a Richard Holmden in Edenbridge in 1802, a marriage which has led to a further clue.
A will has been found for a Mary Ware who died in 1807 in Crowhurst.  She mentioned several family members.  She had previously been married to Benjamin Hall who had a brother, Michael.  She mentions three of Michael’s children; Benjamin, Sarah who married _____ Fowle of Westerham and Jane who married ______ Holmden of Edenbridge.  
So far that is looking good, Jane and Jenny, same person?  There is a marriage for a Sarah and a John Fowle in 1792 and Benjamin could be the one baptised in 1775.  
Mary Ware also mentioned a Nicholas, another brother of her late husband Benjamin who also had a son Benjamin. (What a popular name that was!)  So plenty of clues to help pick away at this.  But sometimes the obvious and most needed answer is just plain elusive.  
Could Miles and Michael in Crowhurst and Edenbridge be the same person or am I clutching at straws?  There is a family being baptised to a Nicholas and Ann in Crowhurst in the 1720/30s including a Benjamin, a Miles and a Nicholas but Miles was baptised in 1722 meaning he would have been in his late 40s when Sarah was born, never mind Jeremiah in 1789!
I will keep at this one and hopefully one day I will find an answer.

I misquote Shakespeare.

I started looking at the Billinness family from Wartling yesterday.  Lydia Billinness born 1816 in Wartling married Henry Martin in Wartling in 1839.  Their son, James married Harriet Pilbeam, sister of my great great grandfather William Pilbeam. Further details can be found on my TribalPages tree at https://baldwintree.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=baldwintree&view=0&pid=525&ver=383.  They farmed Ebenezer Farm in Punnetts Town and had one child, John Henry who died sadly at the age of 2 and half years old.

I started searching for Lydia’s family and discovered that her parent’s were Thomas and Deborah Harvey also of Wartling.  This rang a bell and well it might.  Lydia had a brother born three years before her, Benjamin who married Barbara Cornford.  They had a daughter, Mary Ann who was born in 1837.  Mary Ann was the second wife of my great x 3 grandfather Thomas Cruse.  The funny thing is this links two sides of my tree, my maternal grandfather (Pilbeam) to my paternal grandfather’s mother (Cruse).  

Fascinating I thought and just confirms what I know from my dna, 83.9% South East England, and make that Sussex.  

Then as I carried the Billiness line further back I discovered that the aforesaid Thomas's mother was Lydia Badcock.  Another family I know well.  However, as yet I can't find a link between the Badcock family that Lydia came from and the family that my Badcocks came from who married into the Carey family who married into the Harmer family.  Of course the Harmer family was the family of my paternal grandmother.  So if I can link Thomas Badcoke at the top of my line, who married in Lewes and lived in Willingdon and Hooe, to the Badcocks from Wartling that is three grandparents all linked together.  So what are the chances of finding a link with my fourth grandparent, although that line came from Surrey so perhaps not!

Wartling Church, Sussex

I have spent the last five months or so working my way through it and finding where the gaps are in my research for me to fill.
It has been a brilliant aid because as I fill in each person I spend some time looking at the gaps I have and quickly seeing if I can find details.  My plan is to spend more time when the whole book is filled, doing extensive gaps.  However it is amazing what a 5 minute quick search can bring up.
My great x 4 grandfather Corles Baldwin and his wife Esther are parents to Thomas born 1815 in Ireland who emigrated to Canada and William Henry born 1829 in St Giles in the Field, Middlesex, (my great x 3 grandfather).  There clearly must be other children between these two.  I decided to check the baptism records for St Giles in the Field which are now available as part of my Ancestry sub.
Eureka!  I found another 3 children!  William born and died 1823 at 2 months old, Sarah baptised in 1824 and Henry baptised in 1833 and died in 1834 at less than a year old.  So my William was not the youngest child and it also gives me another clue as to when Corles and Esther came to England, before 1823.
More research to do later this year!  A possible marriage for Sarah as I was unable to find a death for her as a child for starters.  Other families are proving as exciting as I work my way through the book.

Last week I treated myself to The Family History book.  I have a number of online and software based family trees and have never used a book like it before.  But thought I would give it a go.  I can’t recommend it enough.  It doesn’t matter how long you have been researching your family history, you will find it useful.
I can now clearly see how many gaps I have in my research and where they are.  I found I am missing just about all the burials dates from my grandparents and great grandparents.  Now this is probably due to the fact that these 20th century records are not so easily found but now I am reminded to go search.

I also discovered a number of siblings with no death dates, time to go and kill them off!  And for grandparents and generations up to 3 x great grandparents there is space for marriage witnesses and census return basic details.  Again useful information that should be filled in when found.

It has reminded me that many of the subscription websites such as FindmyPast have been quietly and sometimes not so quietly, adding records that I might find useful to fill in some of the gaps and so it is time to go back and have another look.
Apart from the obvious usefulness of the book, it has just been really encouraging to see just how much research I have carried out – very satisfying.
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I bought my book from Amazon.co.uk but it is available from all book retailers.

Do you belong to a Family History Society?  I am a member of the Sussex Family History Group which is well worth every penny.  As a member I have access to an online database of Sussex baptisms and burials which makes the membership fee worth it alone.  You can email for a transcript of a will, join an active Facebook group or just read the quarterly publication that is available to all members. 

For a full list of county Family History Societies visit the Family History Federation (previously FFHS) website.

If you are starting out on your own family history research, I cannot stress how important it is to join a FHS, like minded people are available to help you and advise you, they usually have in depth knowledge of not only the county or area involved, but also many of the families who lived there and may be able to point you in the right direction for your own research.

Lately I have been trawling second hand bookshops and websites looking for publications by local family history societies and have amassed a series of booklets published by the Warbleton and District History Group, a local village family history group. 

Warbleton is the area where many of my ancestors came from.  These booklets includes such subjects as; Leather and Cloth, Cornmills in and around Warbleton, Ironworking in Warbleton, Church and Dissent in Warbleton and Warbleton in Wartime.  They have proved to be interesting and informative in building a picture of the place where my ancestors came from.  

There are gems to be found to help your research if you have the time to look!