I’d like to introduce…

Edward George "Ted" Turner

Edward George Turner, known affectionately to his family and friends as Ted, was a kind hearted, gregarious, right jolly English gent, loved by all who knew him. He was born on the 27th of June 1911 at Blake Cottage, Horn Street in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, where his father was employed as head groom to Mr Gosling of Blake House.

And His Lovely Wife…

phyllis

Miss Phyllis Mary Collins, daughter of William Collins, publican of the George Inn in Winslow, which is where Ted met her one fateful day in the 1930s

GRIP 2015 Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh

I’m at day two of the Advanced Research Methodology course, led by Thomas W. Jones, in Pittsburgh!! So happy to be here! I’m blogging abou the week at A Well Lit Path. You can follow that blog here :-) Share:

  • You might also like:GRIP 2013, Advanced Land Records Day Three: Military Bounty LandsAmerican State Papers GRIPLearning DeedMapper at GRIP 2013

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    Which Hugh Filbee died in Lewknor, Oxfordshire, in 1767?

    hugh will graphic

    I wish I knew.

    For some time, I’ve been attempting to sort out the kinships and identities of the various Hugh Filbees of Lewknor, Oxfordshire. If you were a Hugh Filbee living at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in the 1600s and 1700s, you most likely had a son, perhaps a brother or, even more likely, a cousin, named Hugh, and there’s a good chance you married a woman named Alice or Ann.

    Crikey.

    If you examine the parish registers of St Margaret’s at Lewknor, and St Mary’s at Adwell, you’ll find mention of myriad men named Hugh Filbee dating back to the earliest entries. I wrote about the Lewknor register in this post. In 1585,  Hugh Filbee and his wife Alice (of course) baptized son William at Adwell. Jump ahead  in that register a hundred or so years to March, 1708/9, and you’ll discover the baptism, and (…more)

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    Learning DeedMapper at GRIP 2013

    Bird's eye view of the city of Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania 1870. Chicago Lithographing Co. (Library of Congress online map collection)

    Bird’s eye view of the city of Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania 1870. Chicago Lithographing Co.(Library of Congress online map collection)

    The Advanced Land Class  at GRIP spent yesterday afternoon in the computer lab, and it was probably my favorite part of the week. Pam Sayre led 35 of us through the process of platting property on a historical map using the windows based DeedMapper software, by Direct Line. We practised on both the rectangular grids of Public Domain Land, and the more complicated metes and bounds of the 13 colonies. You can learn more about the software here.

    The computer lab at La Roche is set up for 30, so some of us had to double up on computers. The room was also FREEZING so, for future reference, if you’re taking a course  that will spend any time at all in the lab….bring a heavy sweater!  Walking a (…more)

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    Wordless Wednesday: A headache in the making...

    IMAG0337

    Wordless Wednesday is a daily blogging prompt sponsored by Geneabloggers Share:

  • You might also like:Amanuensis Monday: Gefferie Denchfield of North Marston, 1602 WillMystery Monday aka That Brick Wall Known as John Denchfield (another in a series)Wordless Wednesday: The Old Ebert Homestead

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    More on the Will of Hugh Filbee of Lewknor, 1757

    hugh will graphic

    Earlier in the week, I transcribed the 1756 will of Hugh Filbee, yeoman of Lewknor, Oxfordshire. What does Hugh’s will tell us?

    ___________________________________

    Hugh’s Death

    Although nothing in the probate mentions the exact date of Hugh’s death, we do know the date it was proved: 16 January 1767. This coincides with the burial of Hugh Filbee in Lewknor on 14 January 1767.  (See chart)

    Hugh’s Occupation

    “I Hugh Filbee of the parish of Lewknor in the County of Oxford Yoem[an]“

    Hugh was a gentleman farmer.

    We also know he owned land, which he’d purchased during his lifetime vs having inherited it.

    He left sons Hugh and Henry equal share in “All that my Freehold Estate which I lately purchased of Mr. William Rolles commonly called Steven’s Farm,” were “situate within the precincts of Lewknor aforesaid or in a Meadow called Shillingford Mead.” Additionally, he left son (…more)

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    Treasure Chest Thursday: The Birth Record for Ellen Collcutt (1841)

    emma blake name

    This week’s treasure find is the birth record for Ellen Collcutt, born in Jericho, St Thomas, Oxford, Oxfordshire, on 1 October 1841.

    It’s special significance for my research, is that Ellen’s mother is named. Prior to getting this certificate from the GRO, I’d had no success locating a marriage record for Ellen’s parents, so I didn’t know Emma’s maiden name. But thanks to this record, and the one for her brother James (they arrived in the mail together) I can now say she was Emma Blake.

    James Collcutt and Emma Blake had four children together, included noted Victorian architect Thomas Edward Collcutt. James was the son of William Collcutt and his second wife Jane Evans. You can read more about this family here

    (Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily blogging prompt hosted by Geneabloggers. It was originally suggested by Leslie Ann Ballou of Lost Family Treasures) Share:

  • You might (…more)

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    My 2012 Plan for Brick Walls

    brick

    Attacking the Brick Walls in my Turner Collins Research

    Organizing 30+ years of genealogical research is a daunting task. If I’d known in 1976 what I know now, I’d have done so many things differently. I’ve always used pedigree charts and family group sheets but, in my teen years, my citations, when I made them at all, were minimal at best and most are useless.  Since taking the Boston University course, I’ve been aware of how shabby my early citations were, and I’ve been working [at a snail's pace...] to update them. This process has forced me to revisit a lot of my old work and it’s clear that for a good part of it, whatever thought process I went through, in terms of inference and proof argument, has long been forgotten. Again, if I’d known then….. My plan for 2012 is to tackle one family line a month, organize the brick (…more)

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    August Goings-On

    five_red_flowers

    Research

  • Analyze Denchfield wills and probate records to determine kinship among the many John and Richard Denchfields of North Marston in the 1600s and 1700s
  • Making some real headway here, and getting lots of palaeography practise to boot. Last week’s thrilling discovery of Mary Denchfield’s will, which proves the connection between her daughter Ann and my GGG grandfather William Baker, may well have been the most satisfying genealogical moment of my year, if not the decade!!
  • The very kind and generous Mike Dewey, of the Buckinghamshire Family History is going to photocopy some land deeds, and possibly some marriage settlements involving the Denchfields. Looking at even more transcribing, abstracting, and analyzing at the end of month, I hope!!!!!!
  • Planning to spend an entire week this month on in depth research of the Peach family of Peterborough, Northants. Miss Laura Jane Peach’s childhood was marred by tragedy. She was (…more)
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  • What I'm Working On Now....

    nomarston register

    Aside from the fact that using an ancient, hand-crank style, microfilm reader at my local FHL to scroll through pages and pages of 17th century parish registers makes me motion sick (and what kind of genealogist does that make me??), it’s heart wrenching to discover the explanation for the gaps in the North Marston church records is that HUGE chunks have been ripped out of them…grrrr

    I’m beginning to think that the mystery of the John Denchfields of North Marston, Bucks has no hope of ever being solved….. Share:

  • You might also like:Gefferie Denchfield, part 2Amanuensis Monday: Another Denchfield Will (part of a series)Following the Land, When Parish Records Aren’t Enough

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    Time to take a breath...

    todo

    I finished the Boston University Certificate of Genealogical Research program last night!!!! It’s been a hectic and at times stressful 14 weeks but I’m so glad I did it. I’ve learned so much, discovered areas I’m weak in and need to improve, seen how citations are REALLY supposed to look (!), and feel ready to tackle the long process of becoming a certified professional genealogist.

    In no particular order, here are some to-do list items I’m hoping to tackle sooner rather than later. (My immediate goal is to keep the momentum going now that the BU program is behind me):

  • Become a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists DONE!!!
  • Join the Great Lakes Chapter of the APG
  • Get on the waiting list for a ProGen study group (Just emailed the coordinator!!!!)
  • Blog three times a week
  • Complete NGS home study lessons 7&8 by June 1st.
  • Increase my Erie (…more)
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