Today my focus is on the excellent SEAX website. For those who haven't come across SEAX before, this website holds the online computerised catalogue for the Essex Record Office (ERO) located in Chelmsford, and can be accessed at http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk.

Although SEAX contains descriptions of documents, it doesn't contain the actual text within them. However, the ERO are continually scanning their collections and adding them to the system so they can be viewed online – and the best bit is that these scans of the original documents are free to view......Read more »

Another family history researcher recently sent me a transcript of a marriage settlement involving my Dando line. As these documents can be a little confusing I decided to search for a useful online guide and came across the following link among the Learning Resources at FamilySearch:

Marriage Settlements in England and Wales

[Why Tuesday's Tip? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

(Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

From the mid 19th century, Abney Park Cemetery became the principal place of memorial for prominent London dissenters (Congregationalists, Baptists and other Non-Conformists). Before this, the burial ground at Bunhill Fields had served a similar purpose.

If you have any Non-Conformist ancestors, it's worth performing a free search of the Abney Park Cemetery online database .

Furthermore, the 3rd Edition of the National Burial Index (available on CD for approximately £30) includes 47,682 entries for Bunhill Fields between 1788 and 1853.

[Why Follow Friday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) have recently launched a new application which provides a fully searchable index to the will calendar entries for the three District Probate Registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry, with the facility to view the entire will calendar entry for each successful search. The database covers the period 1858-1919 and 1922-1943. Part of 1921 has been added, with remaining entries for 1920-1921 to follow in the near future.

In addition, 93,388 digitised images of entries from the copy will books covering the period 1858-1900 have now been linked to the corresponding will calendar entries and are now available online, allowing users to view the full content of a will.

I'd been waiting for some time for access to a downloadable version of the will of my 3 x great-grandfather, Joseph Dando (1802-1870). Not only was I pleased to see this facility had finally arrived but imagine my surprise when I also discovered that it's FREE.

Search the PRONI Will Calendars here - who and what will you find?

[Why Thrifty Thursday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

In 1998, the Friends of Devon's Archives undertook a project to make the information from the county's tithe apportionments more accessible. Most date from the 1840's, and they cover 97.4% of the total area of the county. However, coverage does not exist for the urban parishes of Exeter, nor for Kingsbridge, Dartmouth St Saviours, East Stonehouse in Plymouth, the town of Tiverton, etc. - therefore, many highly-populated areas are not included.

The names of owners, lessees and occupiers, together with the names of the holdings and their acreages, have been extracted and a database of this information has been created. Several border parishes in Cornwall and Dorset have also been included.

This database is available to search for free on the Friends of Devon's Archives website.

The data can be accessed in two different ways, - by searching on a parish to obtain a complete listing of the parish, or searching on a name to obtain all occurrences of that name.

The main limitation with the database is that it does not contain field names or numbers and, except for named holdings whose location is known, the searcher will have to resort to the original Tithe Apportionment and map to obtain a geographical location of property.

I put in the surname, Horn, to try and find my 5 x great-grandfather, William Horn of Black Torrington, and the database rendered the following results:

Parish, Owner, Occupier, Holding, Acreage,
Black Torrington, Burden, John, Horn, William, Hole, 92.0.30
Black Torrington, Burden, John, Horn, William, Uptcott, 34.3.06
Black Torrington, Horn, William, Collacott, William, unnamed cottage etc, 0.0.03
Black Torrington, Horn, William, Dart, John, unnamed cottage etc, 0.0.04
Black Torrington, Horn, William, Horn, William, unnamed cottage etc, 0.0.20
Black Torrington, Horn, William, Horn, William, unnamed land, 1.3.34
Black Torrington, Paige, George, Horn, William, unnamed land, 1.0.00
Bradworthy, Oke, Hugh, Horn, William, unnamed house etc, 0.0.19
Holsworthy, Stanhope, Earl, Horn, William, unnamed house etc, 0.2.16

Area given in acres, rods (or roods), and perches (40 perches = 1 rod, 4 rods = 1 acre)



Used in conjunction with the 1841 census, I found the Tithe Apportionments database to be a useful tool. For instance, the census showed George Paige, the owner of an acre of unnamed land occupied by William Horn, lived at Bridge, Black Torrington. Using the Ordnance Survey maps at Bing, I discovered Hole Farm, Upcott Farm and Bridge Farm are all still in existence today.

[Why Tuesday's Tip? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

With Christmas fast approaching, you may be looking for some gift ideas for your family history enthusiast so I've put together a few links to give you inspiration........Read more »

To help you decipher those old documents, the link below shows some examples of letters of the alphabet from the 17th century which have been found in parish registers:
17th Century Handwriting

Some useful reference websites with digital databases. Some are free to search and others might require a subscription or may be available to access remotely for free via your library membership........Read more »

Various links to some well used genealogical websites which are available to search for free........Read more »