Hello all,
I am hoping someone out there can point the way ahead for me as I really haven't a clue how to approach this.
In a nutshell I have an ancestor Richard Ireland b 1751 Kilham, Yorkshire, his parents are William and Jane married Kilham 1738. I decided to look at family trees on both Ancestry and familysearch and find that people either have Jane (Ford) born in York or Edinburgh in either 1717/1716/1715.
If your b 1751 means bapt or born (and not buried), then it would mean that if Richard Ireland got married the marriage would be after 1754, so who were present as witnesses at his marriage in the Parish Register?
Those present at Marriages can occasionally be Church or a regular witness who sign adjacent marriages, or a neighbour or occupation acquaintance. However, just about all of mine present at Marriages are earlier family, or earlier / wider family related to the parties marrying and very occasionally family acquaintances.
Sometimes, earlier relatives are more visibly present at a marriage of a Brother or Sister to a direct line ancestor and perhaps they left a Will?
When a researcher gets beyond Civil Registration beginning Sept 1837 and the England Census, Wills if they left one?
Wills may give only a Wife, but a few give extensive family or relatives and/or acquaintances.
If they left property in a Will, it would mean they owned property, Yorkshire Deed Memorials were a summary of the transfer and be registered at one of the Yorkshire Deed Registries. Property might sometimes be passed down, or if it was a Copyhold ownership, the transfer would be conducted by the Manor Court and recorded in Manor Rolls records, where they have survived for the place where they lived.
I don't use Ancestry Trees, I like to check everything for myself and need either an image or photocopy print of the actual document. I need to search for everything that might survive at the Archives too.
Also, some Yorkshire Parish Marriage Registers do not state Widow or Widower in the Parish Register, but if it says married by Licence, I need the Marriage Allegation / Bond, where those details are given when the Licence was applied for, but sometimes not stated in the Parish Register.
Any Family Memorial / Grave Inscriptions?
Mark