Holywell, does anyone know?

[findem]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there is an online Parish Register site covering at least the period 1839 to 1851 for Holywell cum Needingworth?  Or failing that Microfiche or CD that I can purchase, I have trawled the Huntingdonshire FHS site and the Genfair site and found nothing there.

I am trying to flesh out the family of Thomas and Sarah (nee Moody) Thurston who are ancestors of my late wife.

I have found  birth registrations on Free BMD for nine Thurston children registered 1840 to 1851 in the St Ives registration district, which I understand covers Holywell cum Needingworth.  I know that at least two of those children, Mary Ann (wife's ancestor) and John are definitely children of Thomas and Sarah, both being born/baptised at Holywell.  As for the other seven children I suspect they belong to Thomas and Sarah but cannot be sure.

Thomas Thurston and Sarah Moody were married in 1839 at Holywell cum Needingworth.

Regards.

     

[Michelle79]

I've had a trawl through various web sites and from what i can gather the baptism records for Holywell cum Needingworth have yet to be transcribed.

There is a web site that is currently transcribing records for Huntingdonshire but they haven't got as far as your specific parish. http://www.freereg.org.uk/parishes/hun.htm

The only other way to view them at the moment is to go to the Huntingdonshire records office, they hold baptism records from 1667-1912.

Kind regards

Michelle

[bedfordshire boy]

Holywell-cum-Needingworth parish register doesn't appear to have been transcribed by Hunts FHS

...from what i can gather the baptism records for Holywell cum Needingworth have yet to be transcribed.

Not so. Baptisms have been transcribed onto the BVRI, which is now available on Ancestry, although I believe the CDrom set is no longer available from the LDS.

The only other way to view them at the moment is to go to the Huntingdonshire records office

Not so. The parish register has been filmed by the LDS so is available to order and view at any LDS Family History Centre

Are the family not shown in censuses which should show whether or not the children's parents are Thomas and Sarah?

Taken from the BVRI:

Thomas & Sarah baptised John on 19 Sep 1841, who it appears may have died young (see below).

John and Ann baptised
Maria 28 Jun 1844
Frederick 5 Dec 1847
Tom 5 Dec 1847
Edward 29 Sep 1849
Richard 19 Jan 1852

Thomas and Sarah were living in Needingworth in 1841 but with no children. I can't find them in subsequent censuses - there's the death of a Thomas Thurston in St Ives registration district in the June quarter 1842, but I can't find a burial in Hunts for him. Perhaps it was the husband of Sarah? It will take the purchase of the certificate to find out. There is a marriage of a Sarah Thurston in the Dec quarter 1843 in St Ives reg district so perhaps she remarried. Again it would take  the purchase of the certificate to find out if she was a widow and if her father's name was Moody. Or did they emigrate prior to 1851?

In 1851 living in Holywell cum Needingworth were
John Thurston head marr 32 ag lab
Ann Thurston wife 30
Marie Thurston dau 7
Frederick Thurston son 3
Edward Thurston son 1

Burials in HcN include
John age 9 weeks on 12 Sep 1841
Emma age 14 mths on 3 Jul 1843

You'd need to consult the parish register to see if the parents are named in the burial entries.


David

[bedfordshire boy]

Sorry. Pressed enter in error when fiddling with my previous post!

[findem]

Hi,

I had the same luck on Ancestry with the censuses, tried substituting e & i for the u in Thurston, also tried searches not using a county just England.

Well at least Maria, Thomas, Frederick, Edward and Richard are now out of the equation being children of John and Ann, they were five of the nine Thurston children I found in Free BMD, that just leaves Susannah & Emma to sort out.

The scenario of Thomas dying and Sarah remarrying is interesting and one I will follow up.

I will also check to find out the nearest LDS centre, Huntingdonshire Records Office would have been out of the question anyway, I'm in Australia.

All of that will I think have to wait until after Xmas, I've just started to put up all the outside house Xmas lights, I would like to have them up ready for a 1st of December switch on, might, with luck, just make it. 

What is the BVRI, I do have a current Ancestry subscription but I cannot recall seeing anything entitled BVRI?

Regards and thanks to you both for your input.

[bedfordshire boy]

BVRI (British Isles Vital Records Index) is a LDS transcript of parish registers which is complementary to the IGI, and was available on a 16 disc CD Rom set. It's now on Ancestry and shows as England & Wales  Christening Records 1530-1906 and England & Wales  Marriages 1538-1940

I can see a birth registration of Mary Ann Thurston in 1842, but no baptism. Do I assume you have her birth cert showing her parents as Thomas and Sarah (Moody) - where was she born?

Good luck with the lighting project!

David

[findem]

Hi David,

Yes I have Mary Ann's BC and it names her mother as "Sarah Thurston formerly Moody", it also gives the birthplace of Mary Ann as Needingworth, no mention of Holywell cum.

I have sent for the 1842 death cert for Thomas Thurston, I'm almost 100% sure he is Mary Ann's father, I'll post the result on here when it arrives.

I also have Thomas and Sarah's marriage cert, they were both aged 20 when married in 1839, so Thomas would have only been about 23 when he died, the cert names the place of marriage as "Holywell with Needingworth".

I'm either thick or suffering the ravages of time because it's only just hit home that the fact that Mary Ann's BC doesn't mention Holywell cum, most likely means that they moved a mile or two to Needingworth, originally I took it to be a local shortening of the village name, I suppose that the logical shortening would be just Holywell der!    It will be interesting to see how the place of death is recorded.

Something else that hit me when I looked at the map was that my wife and I have driven within a few miles of her Thurston ancestors on quite a few occasions without knowing that her ancestors lived nearby.  On our many visits to the UK we always stayed at my mother's place (she lived to 101) in Essex and during our stays we visited friends in Scarborough, Cumbria and Glasgow, always preferring to travel along the A1.  If I visit the UK again I might just pop into Holywell and Needingworth, a shame my wife is not alive to make the visit, I'm sure she would have been tickled pink to see the villages.

Regards   

[PeterC66]

Hi all
I am new to Roots Chat and have only just caught up with your question.  I am collecting as much information about Holywell-cum-Needingworth as I can, as I live in the village. I suppose you could say that I am doing a "one-place" study.  I visit the Huntingdon Archives fairly regularly and am photographing as much as I can that they have about our village(s).  I am planning to collate all I find out about people, houses, business, stories etc. and make it available to locals, and anyone else interested.

I know that the PRs have been transcribed, and are being checked at the moment.  I hope that they will be published by Hunts FHS in 2012, although I have no role in this.  I have the censuses and linked everyone I can by semi-automatic means. I have past maps and am currently trying to "repopulate" the censuses so I know who lived where when. I also have the PR data from Ancestry, and am starting to collect old photos, oral memories etc.

If you have an interest in the village, or any of the people who have been here, and would like to either contribute things that you have found out, or would like to know something about the people etc of the village, then please do contact me. I have only started on my project a few months ago and expect it to be a "fifty year" project (or as long my mind keeps active!!!), so do not have all the answers yet, but I might be able to find out.

I am not sure how it works on RootsChat yet, but I suppose there is a way to contact me privately.  I am hoping to build up a mailing list of interested people.

Regards to you all
Peter

[findem]

Hi David,

A co researcher has sent me details of the death certificate for Thomas Thurston husband of Sarah Moody.

Thomas died of Consumption 21 May 1842 aged 22 years in Needingworth, the informant was Sarah Moody, the death was registered in the Registration District St Ives Union, sub district St Ives, in the County of Huntingdon. 

Odd that in the death cert Sarah was recorded under under her maiden name of Sarah Moody, Thomas Thurston and Sarah Moody were definitely married, I have the marriage cert which shows their marriage as being at "Holywell with Needingworth" 5th of March 1839.

Hi Peter,
Welcome to RootsChat, hope you gain some help with your Holywell project.

At this stage the info to be found in the posts on this topic is all I have on this family, except for the following.

In 1865 Mary Ann Thurston, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Moody (oops!) Thurston, married George Turner in a Registry Office in the West Ham, Essex Registry District, both parties gave addresses in Stratford, Essex. 

The fathers of Thomas Thurston and Sarah Moody were both named Thomas and both were Agricultural Labourers.

The occupation of Thomas Thurston, husband of Sarah Moody, was given as a Labourer no doubt an Ag Labourer.

Unless the locals shortened the Holywell with/cum Needingworth to simply Needingworth, it appears Thomas and Sarah Thurston plus their two children lived in Needingworth rather than Holywell.

Thanks for the info regarding the transcription of Holywell cum Needingworth PRs, once they are up for sale I'll be ordering a copy, a witness to the marriage of Thomas Thurston and Sarah Moody was a Jane Moody, be interesting to find out her relationship to Sarah and hopefully find other generations of my wife's Moody and Thurston families.

Regards.