I’m findmypast.co.uk’s records development manager and resident genealogy expert. As well as answering your ‘Ask the Expert’ queries, I work with archives, family history societies and other owners of original historical records to digitise these for findmypast.co.uk

Recently I’ve been reviewing our Chelsea Pensioner data so as to understand and think about how we can go about enhancing it.

Stephen Rigden

The Chelsea Pensioner records extend over 150 years - from 1760 to 1913 - and those up to the middle of the 19th century are, in some ways, especially interesting from a data point of view. At that time, spelling of place names had not quite settled and been standardised, at least not the spelling as used within the British Army. In some ways this is inconvenient but in others it provides an intriguing insight into local history.

Many of the soldiers’ places of birth are given and spelt phonetically by the recruits or the recruiting sergeant on the attestation and discharge papers which form the surviving service record.

This week I have been looking at the places of birth of soldiers born in my home county of Kent. This requires some thinking about the local accent and local pronunciation of place names. For instance, ‘Settingbourne’ sometimes appears instead of Sittingbourne (older members of my own family still say ’set’ instead of ’sit’). Similarly, Erith is sometimes spelt ‘Earith’ and ‘Eariff’, which gives a close approximation to the way it is pronounced locally.

On one occasion it appears aspirated (if that is the right word), as ‘Hereif’. This is a common fate of Kentish places beginning with a vowel and, therefore, tempting the local to add a leading H. For example, occasionally Eltham can become ‘Heltham’, Eynsford becomes ‘Hainsford’, Eythorne is ‘Haythorne’, Ide Hill is rendered as ‘Hide Hill’, Iwade metamorphoses into ‘Highwade’, Ulcombe becomes ‘Hulcombe’, etc.

The reverse process also occurs, where a required initial H is dropped: Hadlow becomes ‘Adlow’, Halstead becomes ‘Alstead’, Harbledown turns into ‘Arbledown’, Headcorn becomes the delightful ‘Edcorn’ and so on. These are not transcription errors but bona fide reflections of what is written in the original papers.

Sometimes the spelling can tell you how a place was (and often is still) pronounced. For example, there are a number of villages in Kent called Boughton. The ‘ough’ combination of letters in English can be pronounced in a variety of different ways - think of ‘bough’ (of a tree) ‘cough’, ‘though’, ‘nought’ and so on. Here in Kent, however, this place name is always pronounced as it is sometimes spelt in the Chelsea Pensioners, as ‘Borton’. We know this as the qualifier can be present: ‘Borton Aluph’ instead of Boughton Aluph, or ‘Borton Mallet’ instead of Boughton Malherbe.

Kentish pronunciation also has a tendency to run letters together and not trouble to pronounce some letters or syllables. Thus we get ‘Harrisham’ instead of Harrietsham, ‘Harcus’ instead of Hawkhurst, ‘Lamhurst’ instead of Lamberhurst, and ‘Trosley’ instead of Trottiscliffe. Other places have changed over time. Today’s Molash usually appears in Chelsea Pensioners records as ‘Moldash’, while in the older records Faversham is often shown as ‘Feversham’.

Understanding this sort of variation in spelling and departure from received pronunciation - and especially the adding or subtraction of an H at the start of a word - can be helpful when researching your family history as of course it applies equally to personal names just as to place names.

Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured right, answers your questions.

From Graham Nowell in Abingdon, Oxfordshire:

‘I have some items that belonged to an ancestor who was a Customs and Excise Officer in the South West of England sometime in the 1800s. I know nothing about him except his and my surname, Nowell, not a very common name.

Are there any records available for searching that might give me more clues? Thank you.’

Steve says: ‘For questions such as this, two sources immediately spring to mind. The first is the relevant local county record office (or equivalent – many have now been re-branded) and the second is The National Archives at Kew. As Customs and Excise was a function of central government, I would suggest that TNA is much the better option to start with.

There is nothing searchable online. However, you can read an online Research Guide on the subject of Customs and Excise officials and tax collectors and this gives much information about what is available – indeed, it is clear that TNA holds a vast collection of materials.

From a quick glance, it seems that few of the records are likely to have integral indexes and, therefore, it would prove time-consuming searching speculatively for a reference to your ancestor. You would need to visit in person or, alternatively, commission a researcher to make the searches for you.

If you have the time, I would recommend that you undertake the research yourself, which would be much more fulfilling. When at TNA, you can always ask the search room staff for help and guidance, so you should not feel intimidated about the prospect of searching records which are unknown to you.’

If you’d like to send your question to Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured right, answers your questions.

From Ray Derricott: ‘My late father-in-law was born on 5 August 1907 in Islington. His mother was a domestic servant serving in a house in Islington. The father is not named on the birth certificate. His mother Florence Grace Edwin does not appear on the 1911 census and neither does my father-in law, Reginald Frederick Edwin. I have tried to find about his early life but to no avail.

I know he sailed to Canada in 1929 and returned in 1931. I have his TA military record and his marriage and death certificates. But what happened to him between 1907 and 1929? I would appreciate your help.’

Steve says: ‘In my experience, the vast majority of individuals resident in the areas covered by the 1911 census are findable. In this case, the solution is to consider the background and circumstances: a domestic servant would be unlikely to be able to care for her illegitimate child while remaining in service. Therefore, she would need to find a carer for her child. Moreover, the details of servants resident in their employers’ households are perhaps less likely to be recorded accurately and in full detail: the household form would have been filled in not by them but by their employer.

In this instance, therefore, I searched the 1911 census for a Florence living in the district of the birth and found one candidate: a Florence Edwin living as a general servant with a family named Hopkins at 137 Petherton Road, Highbury, aged 32, single and born in Huntingdon. Checking the birth index, there is a Florence Grace Edwin born in June quarter 1878 in Huntingdon registration district, which lends further support to this being the correct individual. I then searched for her young child living elsewhere and found a Reggie Edwin, aged 3, born in Highbury and boarding at 4 Victoria Terrace, Huntingdon with a family named Marriott.

I am confident that these two individuals are the ones you seek, even though they are not residing in the same household and their names are not given in full. In answer to your question, therefore, I suspect that Reginald spent his early years not in north London but in rural Huntingdon, where his mother was born and doubtless had family and friends. However, it is unlikely to prove possible to find out much more information about his formative years, although doubtless the 1921 census, due to be released in 2022, will place him somewhere in the country.’

If you’d like to send your question to Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

This month a guest expert answers your questions. John Hanson is a lecturer and teacher on family history, census fanatic and author of How To Get The Best From The 1911 Census.

From Lesley:

‘I have been tracing various lines of my family for the past 40 years, and I have found perseverance generally solves most problems. My grandmother’s family, however, have tested my expertise and I really am stuck.

The family just seem to ‘appear’ on the 1881 census which shows the following people living at 41a Gordon Street, Everton:

• Mary McDonald, widow, aged 48, born Fermanagh
• daughter Emily aged 22 born Liverpool
• son Albert (my great grandfather) aged 17 born Liverpool
• Robert aged 1 who could be son or grandson

I have obtained Albert’s marriage certificate. On that he gives his name as James Albert McDonald and names his father as James McDonald.

Because James McDonald is a fairly common name, I have tried tracing Emily’s birth (in the hope of finding her mother’s maiden name) without any success.

I would have expected the family to appear in both the 1861 and 1871 census, but I cannot find any trace of them. Albert continues to appear in all the census returns after 1881 with his family, but I cannot find Mary again. I suspect Emily may have married in 1882, so would need to check her married name before following her through.

Can you offer any assistance/suggestions as to how I might trace my McDonald family further back?’

John says:

‘Irish ancestors are never easy, due partly to the lack of Irish returns prior to 1901, but the name starting with Mc makes it even harder. The problem is that it could of course have been put down as Mac rather than Mc.

There is another problem with surnames that start with Mc and unfortunately one that crops up all too often in census transcripts. It is caused by the c in the Mc appearing in superscript and looking like ‘Mc’ and often appearing to be separated from the rest of the surname. This can lead to the surname in this case going down as Donald with Mc appearing as part of the “given names”. It would be worth checking the previous and later censuses that way.

Bear in mind that many entries for Liverpool will appear in the West Derby registration district. The 1881 census shows Mary as a ‘shopkeeper’ and as such she should appear in a trade directory. Assuming that you find her in one then you need to check each of the subsequent trade directories for the area until she disappears. At that point start looking for death entries or a possible second marriage.

You need to ensure that the marriage that you have for James Albert McDonald is in fact the same as your James by ensuring that you can’t find him anywhere else. The marriage of Emily should be checked and I suspect that Robert is in fact her son and if she did marry then he is likely to appear on a later census under her married name, rather than McDonald.’

We hope this is useful to your research. If you would like to pose a question for our expert, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

This month a guest expert answers your questions. John Hanson is a lecturer and teacher on family history, census fanatic and author of How To Get The Best From The 1911 Census.

From Andy:

‘I am looking for my great, great grandfather Simon Howcroft.

• He appears as the father on his daughter Hannah Elizabeth Howcroft’s marriage to James Frederick Bowling in the March quarter of 1876 in Tendring Registration District.
• From the 1881 census onwards Hannah appears as the wife of James (born 1854 Harwich) and born 1852 in Fakenham, Norfolk.
• I can find no record of Hannah prior to her marriage, nor can I find any record of Simon.

Can you suggest where to go next?’

John says:

‘This is one of those problems that many people face and is often a major stumbling block for many new to family history. I am not sure that I can provide an answer but can hopefully point you in the right direction.

You haven’t said whether the marriage certificate says that Simon is deceased or not, or what his occupation was. We do need to remember, however, the information there is which the bride will have told the person performing the marriage. The fact that he was stated as being deceased doesn’t guarantee that he was - I have seen certificates that say that the father is dead and he isn’t, or imply that he is alive and he is deceased - so take it with a pinch of salt.

When looking at problems like this my first port of call is to check all of the census entries for the family looking for clues. You need to check that the place of birth is consistent - in this case on all the censuses to 1911 she says that she was born in 1852 in Fakenham (or Fakham), Norfolk. You also need to look at the names of children - here we are looking for clues as to the mother’s maiden name - often used as a name on its own or as a second first name. In this case though there are no such clues with the names of the children.

A check on the GRO indexes for the period shows no birth registration of a Hannah Elizabeth, just Hannah, just Elizabeth or even a “female” Howcroft in the Norfolk area. Now it is always possible that in 1852 the birth wasn’t registered, the onus in those days being on the Registrar to go and find the births rather than the person registering them (the change in the law took place in 1874). One thing I did notice is that the name appeared to be mainly in the Lancashire/Yorkshire area so this could be a route to explore.

I can find no obvious death either for Hannah, Hannah Elizabeth Bowling or a Simon Howcroft. I would also suggest checking a surname dictionary, usually available in the reference section of your local library, as these will often suggest alternative spellings of a name.

It may be worth checking with the Local Registrar for the Fakenham area to see if they have their own index to births - some are more helpful than others. It would also be worth checking with the churches that are local to Fakenham to see if you can find a baptism. To broaden the area of baptisms further I would suggest checking with the local family history society to see if they have produced one. Alternatively searching the internet with a search term of something like ‘parish register Fakenham’ will often produce dividends.’

We hope this is useful to your research. If you would like to pose a question for our expert, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

Our expert Stephen Rigden answers your questions:

‘Can you help me break down the brick wall that I have concerning my grandfather please?

My grandfather was: William James Wilson 1860-1937. I have found a marriage entry for him: he married my grandmother, Margaret Rees, in Swansea on 22 June 1893. On the certificate he gives his age as 32yrs and his occupation as house painter. His father’s name is given as William Wilson, deceased, occupation mason.

I have also found him on the 1901 census for Wales, when he and my grandmother are living at 113 St Helens Road, Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. He gives his age as 40yrs and his place of birth as Manchester, Lancashire, England.

Until the 1911 census for England became available I had thought that he might have been the William James Wilson living in Kirkby Ireleth, Lancs shown on the 1861/71/81 and 1891 censuses. However, on the 1911 census that one is still at home, unmarried and working as a ‘general labourer’, whereas my grandfather was married, living in Swansea (at 93 St Helens Road) running a painting and decorating business, (’Wilson and Co’) and had six sons!

I have searched exhaustively through the various censuses and the birth index, but am unable to find any definite matches. I have ordered six birth certificates, none of which match the information given on my relative’s marriage cert.

His son’s names were (presumably some family names were used):

William Havelock, born 1894
Evan Douglas, born 1896
Ernest Rencella, born 1897
George Felix, born 1900
Richard, born 1902
Archibald, born 1903.

I would welcome some advice as to how to find any further trace of my grandfather as I am completely stuck with this. I am unable to find a definite birth entry for him, and unable to find him at all prior to 1901. Hoping that you can help!’ From Isobel

Steve says:

‘As I am sure you expected, this is not the sort of question that yields up a quick and easy answer! I imagine that you’ve been looking at this problem for months, if not years. So it requires systematic consideration of all possible eventualities. I will list some of these here for starters. I expect that you will have thought of and eliminated many of these already, but perhaps the underlying suggestions will help others out there facing comparable difficulties in their family history research.

1. He may not have been named William James at birth. He reversed his forenames, or added one.
2. His birth may appear as male in the General Register Office indexes, at the end of the A-Z sequence of forenames for the surname Wilson.
3. He may not have been born as Wilson. He may have been called Willson. Or Wilson may have been the name of his step-father, following the marriage or remarriage of his mother.
4. He may not have known where he was born. He may have believed that he came from Manchester and stated that in good faith, but perhaps he only grew up there to migrant parents who came from somewhere else: his mason father might find have found job opportunities lacking where he came from but plentiful in the city. Perhaps your grandfather was born somewhere else entirely in northern England.
5. He may have been born outside England and Wales. Some of the names of his children point to real or imagined Scottish roots, as does the surname Wilson. However, other names hint at the solid respectability of the late Victorian era tradesman class and may have been aspirational or fanciful, perhaps derived from reading matter rather than recycled from earlier generations of the family.
6. He may have modified his age, especially if there was more than a one or two year difference in years between him and his wife. Even though his recorded ages on his marriage certificate and the 1901 census are compatible with one another, once he had knocked off a few years, he may have felt compelled to keep up the pretence.
7. It is not possible to get death certificates for all the many men named William Wilson born between, say 1809 and 1843, and dying in England and Wales before 1893 but, if you have a great deal of patience and a subscription to a census website such as findmypast.co.uk, you could try looking at the 1851 to 1891 census returns to isolate the masons. You would then need to sketch basic trees for each of these candidates to see if one or more had a son named William James or similar born at about the right date, and then tentatively address and see if you can definitively eliminate these by turn.
8. His father could have been a highly specialised monumental mason or stone mason, or he might have been a bricklayer. He may not always have been a mason. Although this is a skilled trade, he may have been a master, or a journeyman, or a casual labourer who had to take other work when need be. Perhaps he appears on the earlier census returns with a different occupation.
9. The story might not be entirely reliable in several particulars. What would bring a house painter from Manchester to Swansea at some date between 1860 and 1893? Britain is criss-crossed with the improbable long- and short-distance migration routes of our ancestors. Many, of course, lead from country to town. Why would a Mancunian head for South Wales? One would think that there would be sufficient house-painting opportunities in Lancashire, and enough home-grown house painters in Glamorganshire, to make this surprising. Perhaps he had an earlier trade or calling? Or perhaps his family moved to Wales when he was still a boy?
10. Perhaps his seemingly modest story - born in Manchester circa 1860 to a father William, mason - was entirely invented. Identities could be changed with ease in the 19th century. Aliases could be taken to start afresh, and to leave behind bad memories or a dubious history. I have recently been looking at the data underlying the Chelsea Pensioner records which findmypast.co.uk is in the process of digitising in association with The National Archives: although we have not calculated any reliable statistics, perhaps 1 in every 1,000 soldiers had an alias. It may not help you advance your research but it remains a real possibility when you have carefully and methodically ruled out all the more usual explanations.’

We hope this is useful to your research. If you would like to pose a question for Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

Our expert Stephen Rigden answers your questions:

‘A quarter of my family history is a virtual mystery to me. My late mother - Annie Grandjean Kilburn - was born in Batley Carr, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire on 24 April 1919. Family legend has it that her father (my grandfather) was a Belgian soldier, hence the middle name of Grandjean. His first name was never revealed to me, assuming it was known by the family.

He was said to be Catholic while my grandmother - Emily Kilburn - was Protestant. The Church was supposed to have arranged for him to be shipped back to Belgium before the birth, although it was said he wished to marry Emily. I have no idea whether any of that was true.

I have discovered through the Huddersfield & District Family History Society that Belgian refugees were living in Batley during World War II but no names were recorded in Council records. At Kew National Archives I found two Belgian refugee families with surname Grandjean residing in Leeds, which is close by. It has also been suggested that he could have been a Belgian soldier visiting his refugee family. I can also imagine that a Belgian soldier is a far more romantic notion than a Belgian refugee.

I would obviously like to know my grandfather’s first name, and where/when he was born, but I realise that finding that information is unlikely. However, would Belgians have actually served within or been affiliated to the British Army in Yorkshire? Do records of ships departing England for Belgium in 1918/1919 exist? Would contact with the Belgian embassy help? Finally, are there any further avenues you could suggest I explore?

Many thanks for any help you could provide.’ From Pat

Steve says:

‘It seems quite possible that the family legend is true and that your maternal grandfather was a Belgian national named Grandjean. The surname is common in Belgium, especially in French-speaking Roman Catholic Wallonia region. Moreover, there were up to 240,000 Belgian refugees in England during the Great War (a number which had dwindled to just under 10,000 by 1921 as a result of post-War repatriation).

As you say, there are various records created by the Home Office, among other governments bodies, now housed at The National Archives in Kew. However, most of these series are general policy and administrative documents and do not relate to individuals. Therefore, you are probably better advised to try locally. I suspect that Belgians would have had to register with the local police as aliens, even though they were not enemy aliens.

In this respect, I suggest you begin by approaching the Wakefield headquarters of the West Yorkshire Archive Services; if Wakefield itself does not hold any records, they should be able to advise whether there are surviving records at any of the other branches, such as the Kirklees one in Huddersfield. You should be prepared for no records to survive. If records for a family named Grandjean do survive, of course, and assuming they give a place of origin within Belgium (which may prove vital to the success of the undertaking), potentially you would then have to try to conduct research in Belgium to see if you could locate and contact descendants.

You would then have to broach the potentially sensitive subject of the paternity of your late mother. Even were you to get to this point in your research, you may find that the Belgian family may be unaware of grandfather, or great uncle, having fathered a child, especially if he himself never mentioned the subject or returned to Belgium before the pregnancy came to light.

Not all family history puzzles can be resolved. In due course, most of us will come across multiple brick walls and dead-ends in research. For most of us, the principal challenges lie in wait when we get beyond the era of civil registration and start to work through the much less reliable and comprehensive early 19th and late 18th century parish registers.

Others will be stymied at an earlier stage in their research, particularly those with immigrant or foreign ancestors. Even when this happens, as may be the case with your Grandjean connection, it is worth revisiting the problem every couple of years: new records are published and databases created, and what is not possible today may become possible in due course.

More generally, I have two pieces of basic practical advice for researchers confronted with more off-the-wall or unfamiliar problems. Firstly, as mentioned above, approach your local county record office or central reference library and seek advice from the archivists, who may be able to point you in the right direction.

Secondly, contact your nearest family history society which, again, may be able to recommend some avenues of enquiry which have not occurred to you, or to put you in touch with an expert or another researcher looking at the same kind of problems. A good place to start is to visit the Federation of Family History Societies’ website at http://www.ffhs.org.uk/members2/alpha.php - note that, as well as county and regional societies, there are also special interest groups in the Other section of its directory of member societies.’

We hope this is useful to your research. If you would like to pose a question for Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

In last month’s newsletter we asked you to send us your experiences of researching your family tree. Thanks to all of you who wrote in - we really enjoyed reading your stories. Read on for how Ann is getting on with the search for her ancestors:

Ann Barker’s story:

One branch of my tree is the Scadding/Scadden family from Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. I found information about my 5 x great grandfather John Scadding who was hanged, but nobody could find any newspaper reports.

Quite by chance I was reading The Western Gazette while visiting my daughter who now lives in Dorset. There was a section of news from 100 years ago, 50 years ago etc. I wrote to the editor to ask if there were any archives of newspapers in 1795 and if so where were they kept. He informed me that they were in the Somerset Studies Library in Taunton. So I persuaded my husband that we needed a day out!

There I discovered reports of his arrest, trial and subsequent hanging. He was arrested on 9th March 1795, his trial was on 11th March, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. He was hanged on 28th March 1795 in Dorchester Prison.

One of his accomplices Samuel Foster, who was also due to hang, was reprieved and sent to Australia the other one, Samuel’s brother Thomas Foster, gave King’s Evidence and was acquitted. Justice was swift in those days.

In last month’s newsletter we asked you to send us your experiences of researching your family tree. Thanks to all of you who wrote in - we really enjoyed reading your stories. Read on for how Liz is getting on with the search for her ancestors:

Liz Riley’s story:

‘I’ve had a lot of trouble locating people on one branch of my tree because they have changed their first names. The first one to come to mind was my husband’s great great grandmother who was christened Ellen Fawcett in 1809 and was named that at her marriage in 1832. Then on all the censuses she was Ellen Riley (her married name) and Ellen Fawcett on the birth certificates of her children. This was consistent until her death in 1874 which I could not find for many years.

I knew she died between 1871 and 1881, as I couldn’t find her on the 1881 census and couldn’t find a second marriage for her. I bought one certificate which looked close enough in DOB (1911) but it was the wrong Ellen Riley. So I gave up looking until recently I noticed a number of Eleanors among her grandchildren and great grandchildren and decided to risk the expense of buying the certificate - this was after checking the 1871 census for Eleanor Riley born about 1809 to ensure there wasn’t another person who this could be. It paid off and I now have the correct death cert for Ellen - I still can’t figure out why she suddenly changed her name though! I’ve noticed several others who had different names on official documents from the ones on censuses, but for Ellen this was a one-off.

This led to my reviewing a number of Ellen’s children and grandchildren who had seemingly disappeared without trace. Her daughter, always Ann on earlier censuses, turned out to be Susannah, her grandson Riley turned out to be Samuel (Riley was his middle name) and his brother Herbert was later known as John (his middle name) when he migrated to the US. Another brother, Henry, was known as Harry, so I was able to find some of his missing records when told this by a living descendant. I should have guessed these name changes earlier as my father-in-law was Lewis John, but was always known as John or Jack, and his sister Beatrice Maud (still living at 106) is mostly known as Maud, but was Betty to her husband. Also my husband’s grandmother was known as Annie, whereas her name was Ruth Hannah.

So my advice to others is to keep trying different variations of first names and second names, as they may have gone by different names at different times of their lives. You may also find clues in younger generations’ names (I now understand why my father-in-law almost insisted that we add John and Ruth as middle names to our first born son and daughter). It’s also important to get the certificates to ensure you have the correct person, but before purchasing them, check censuses if available to help rule out the wrong ones or you can spend a fortune on the wrong certificates. This is why it is important to have a subscription as it gives you the freedom to check all the resources available without worrying about how many credits you’re using up.’

Customers can often be so much more eloquent about the amazing discoveries that they make in our records than we can. Here’s a great example of what you might find in the Chelsea Pesioners records we released last week:

Originally posted at: http://www.bbcwhodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5132&hilit=&sid=6c73909b15c27394fdd81ddbd8178a78