A Word of Warning....!

[Roger The Hat]

Whilst browsing the Ickleton (Cambs) PR's for my Swan relatives:

"Here some were left out, for ye Edward Swan & Stephen Swan, Churchwardens, were negligent in bringing forth the booke. 1594."


So beware - don't be negligent in bringing forth the booke, or your misdemeanor may go down in history!

Have a Good Easter.   


'Hat.   

[Barbara.H]

 

O ye shame of it!

Hope their descendants' record keeping has improved in the intervening 400 years..

  Barbara

[c-side]

Well they were still carrying on the tradition a couple of hundred years later!

I wondered why there were gaps in the register till I came across this

“This oldest register belonging to this parish was falling to pieces for want of attention and care, was given by the Vicar in 1761 to an illiterate parish clerk to renew.  The clerk copied only such names as he himself could decipher and burnt the original register imagining it of no use which is the reason of this being so imperfect.
The above is from the report of several responsible persons who remember the circumstances inserted by me   March 1803  Richard Oliphant  Curate”

Christine

[Roger The Hat]

....and I hope none of your relatives associated with Cutt Swan (bur. 28th April, 1598), "Harborer of theves".

 

I do feel a little sorry for Old Richard Crud, though (bur. 7th October, 1595), who was "slayne with a fall of his walnutt tree".

 

Perhaps, unlike Isaac Newton, he didn't understand the gravity of his situation....

 

'Hat.

[Redroger]

I do feel a little sorry for Old Richard Crud, though (bur. 7th October, 1595), who was "slayne with a fall of his walnutt tree".

 

Perhaps, unlike Isaac Newton, he didn't understand the gravity of his situation....

 

'Hat.
Somewhat sick I think 

[kateblogs]

Roger - I think the Swans were in the habit of not bringing forth information  

I have Swan ancestors from Ickleton, one went on to be the curate at Duxford. But before I knew this I was cursing whoever was keeping the registers for not leaving any mention of mothers in the baptism records. I then discovered it was my own great, great (and then some) grandfather who was keeping them. He didn't even mention his own wife!

[Redroger]

I have the entire ancestry of my mother's side in Cambridgeshire (predominately Lode), and have noted that several of my relatives were 17th and early 18th century churchwardens in Somerset. I do hope their literacy was of a decent level. Research in Yorkshire on my wife's tree does suggest however, that the BMD parish records were as strong as their weakest link, usually the parish clerk.

[Roger The Hat]

He didn't even mention his own wife!

I daren't do that, otherwise Mrs. Hat would probably "bring forth" one of her heaviest "bookes" in the vicinity of my earhole!
 

I do find these PR comments a great relief from the tedium of endless Ag Labs....!

(Churchwarden Stephen Swan, b. 1564 - probably my 11th Gt Grand uncle.)

[kateblogs]

I daren't do that, otherwise Mrs. Hat would probably "bring forth" one of her heaviest "bookes" in the vicinity of my earhole!
 

I do find these PR comments a great relief from the tedium of endless Ag Labs....!

(Churchwarden Stephen Swan, b. 1564 - probably my 11th Gt Grand uncle.)

Quite right too  If I come across my chap in the afterlife he may get the same treatment lol

You seem to have gone back about 100 years further with the Swans - I've got my branch back to the mid 1600s. They're an interesting lot though!

Oh, and agree about the PRs! Fascinating stuff. Nottingham Uni used to have the Notts records on their website, and they were very detailed, far more than just baptisms, marriages and burials. It was really interesting to read little snippets about life at the time, they definitely helped to create a more rounded picture of how my ancestors and their neighbours lived.