SMITH Family - Cordwainer, Chard

[stuartstevens]

We are planning a trip to Chard in 2010 and trying to do everything we can to maximize our time.  We are from the USA.    The family we are researching is in the 1841-1871 census.   John Smith b. ca 1803 in Chard, a cordwainer, his wife Amy a shoe binder and their three children Sarah, Ruth and Thomas H.

We have found a record that seems to indicate Amy Newberry and John Smith were married in Somerset in 1839.   Sarah was born in 1841, Thomas in 1844 and Ruth E. (our line) in 1851.   Both Ruth and Thomas came to the Missouri before 1880.  Thomas Henry Smith died in St. Louis Mo in 1911 and Ruth E. Smith Wilson, his sister, died in San Antonio Texas in 1928.

We want to find out all we can about the family -- lineage, tombstones, marriages parentage etc. when we visit and are hoping to have as much information collected in advance as possible.

Was there a shoe making factory in Chard or were the cordwainers all indivodial businessmen?
Is their a cemetery in Chard we can find burial records?

Does anyone have information on the Newberry family.  I believe she was of Dorset and not Chard.

Any guidance would be gratefully apprecited.

Barbara Stevnes

[wozzle]

this might help you a bit
1871
RG10/2405/22/35
john smith age 68. b. chard. occ. cordwainer. head
amy age 53. b. chardstock,dorset. occ. shoe binder. wife
ruth age 20. b. chard. occ. sewing machinist.daughter.
living at; bath street,chard,somerset

there is this christening in 1818 in chardstock
name; amy newberry
christening date; 7th june 1818
place; chardstock,dorset
parents; amos/ann newberry

if you want the 1861,1851,1841 census entries then i will look for them in these years.

[wozzle]

amy also had sisters
sarah 1823 in chardstock
elizabeth 1829 in chardstock
martha 1832 in chardstock

[stuartstevens]

Wow,
How great. 

I have the census records because they are available on Ancestry.com.   

But how do I get a copy of that christening?   That is wonderful!

Do the Christenings go back far enough to cover John Smith.  The census says he was born in Chard ca 1803?

Thank you so much for the help. 

[wozzle]

the christenings are also on ancestry.co.uk.
but you have to upgrade to the premium membership
very good for christenings in middlesex,london
christenings 1813-1906
marriage and banns 1754-1921
london england baptisms,burials,marriages 1538-1812
will see if your baptism is in there
but do not hold out much hope
think it might be to early

[wozzle]

cannot see one that stands out
john smith is probably the most common name in the country
seeing as you are in u.s.a. have you not tried the latter day saints family search
the only other thing i can think of is writing off to somerset family history society
or google "somerset family history society"
and drop them an e-mail

[wozzle]

do not know if you have had a look at this site
www.ukvillages.co.uk/
just go to it and type in chard
then click on chard somerset
do not know if it will be of any interest to you
but you never know
mick

[AngelaR]

Hi Barbara

Welcome to Rootschat 

Baptisms for Chard, and in fact a large part of Somerset, have been transcribed and are available on FreeReg ( www.freereg.org.uk ). I've checked and there is no John Smith baptised there around that period. Sorry about that!

There were and are lots of small villages close to Chard where John could have been baptised. It's a strange area because it's very close to the Somerset/Dorset/Devon border so people look like they've strayed a long way when it might only be a couple of miles.

Another (free) resource you might like to investigate is the collection of Somerset Yahoo Groups. They're divided up into hundreds (ancient regional term comprising a variable number of parishes. The people on these groups are very helpful and many have detailed local knowledge and there are quite a few sets of transcriptions of parish records on there. I would suggest you joined the overall one for Somerset (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/somersetfamilyhistory/) and also the one for the Chard region (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kingsburyeast/) 

Can I ask where you found the record for John and Amy's marriage? If it was indeed in 1839, you are in luck because that is after the start of civil registration and getting hold of the marriage certificate should give father's names (if any) for both parties.

I have a few other ideas but that will do for one post, I think!

Regards

Angela

[AngelaR]

Just another couple of things I found -

John Smith married Amy Newbery in Chardstock on 2 May 1839. The extract I'm looking at doesn't show father's names but the full certificate should do, always supposing John wasn't illegitimate! I'm sure it's the right marriage because John's place of residence at the time is given as Winsham, which is where the family are in the 1841, and his occupation is shoemaker, which is right. If you want to send off for the certificate, you could either contact the record office currently holding the registers, which is in Honiton, email sreast[at]devon.gov.uk or order it through the General Record Office, in which case the reference is  'JUN 1839 Axminster 10 1'

FreeReg has the baptism of their daughter Sarah Ann on 21st Feb 1841 and also Second daughter Mary Hine on 25 Jan 1842. Both of these are at Winsham before they moved to Chard sometime before 1851. Unfortunately, the transcriptions of Winsham baptisms on FreeReg stops at 1843, but someone on the Kingsbury East group I mentioned might be able to look up Thomas's (and any others that died).

The Dorset baptisms that Mick found for you aren't on FreeReg but they are on FindMyPast, in transcription form (getting hold of images of baptismal entries isn't easy), but they are full transcriptions.

Hope this helps

Angela