How I discovered old things were once new.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m searching for my relatives in census returns I do like to click along to the next few households to see who their neighbours were. This can be a useful thing to do because you can often find members of an extended family living quite close to each other, but I would do it anyway because I’m nosey LOL. However, you can also discover other interesting facts.

Last night, while looking through the 1881 UK census for Yardley (Birmingham), I noticed a few of the houses in the area my great grandmother Blanche Wayne and her parents were living, were empty. Initially, I did wonder if they resided in some run-down location and others residents had moved out, but as I went on, I came across others that were only partly built. It was light bulb moment! I actually know that part of Birmingham quite well, and the houses would have been built around the 1880s. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of this before, I suppose they just seemed like old houses and it hadn’t occurred to me that at some point they would have been new.  Now I know, it’s quite nice to think of them filling out the census in their new home in, what was then, a small suburb quite separate from the main city where they had been living at the time of Blanche’s birth.

How Google Maps can help eliminate false leads

Click image to see larger map

I have noticed that, on the whole, my ancestors did not move around a great deal and tended to marry people who lived within a 10 mile radius of their home. While this isn’t always the case, this knowledge can be useful when it comes to finding alternative locations to search for information. The problem is, sometimes my family lived in places I’m not familiar with, so even if I know they lived in Village A, but I find a record of their marriage in Village B, it isn’t immediately obvious that I have found the correct people. This is when Google Maps can be very useful. Not only is it a great way to find and explore the home towns of our ancestors, it also features a route finding tool which shows you the exact distance between two or more locations.

The map above shows the results of a search I made for the distance between Rempstone and Normanton on Soar which are in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Several branches of my family came from these villages, but because they are in different counties, I was initially unsure that the families were connected. However, as you can see, the two places are less than five miles apart.

Using distance as a way of eliminating incorrect results isn’t foolproof. Sometimes people did travel very long distances but in my experience these tended to be people who had a good reason to do so, for example: soldiers, sailors and journeymen. Farmers, on the other hand, tended to stay close to home. Therefore, distance can be helpful but only when combined with other known facts.

Don’t laugh, someone lives there

The Genealogue published an interesting post yesterday about the origin of the name of the Christmas Mountains in the US. The ironic thing about the theories is that one sounds quite reasonable, the other like the opening scenes of a horror film, but the latter is most likely to be true!

Here in the UK, we too have unusually named places. I grew up not far from the Worcestershire village of Wyre Piddle, which sounds awfully painful. However, the name actually comes from the nearby stream. Over in Gloucestershire, you can find the villages of Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter. As you can see from the photos on the page I linked to, they are chocolate box pretty, and don’t look as though they could be the scene of a massacre. They weren’t. The name probably comes from an Old English word, slohtre which means inferior – possibly a reference to boggy land.

I now live in Yorkshire, and the Tykes are not immune to funny names either. They have a Blubberhouses – there are several suggestions for the origins of that name. I thought it may be connected with whaling because of it’s proximity to Whitby, but apparently not. There is also a Spacey Houses – I can’t find anything about how the village got it’s name. Perhaps it was founded by Kevin. If you know, do leave a comment.

If you are wondering about the name of an English town or village, try this site.

So what about your part of the world? Why not share your strange, interesting, funny or downright odd place names.

I can see why they changed the name

During the course of my research into the origins of my family I discovered that I have a very strong connection with the county of Nottinghamshire. This came as something of a surprise because I had never heard any mention of Nottingham amongst my immediate family, and I had always thought that particular branch came from Warwickshire. Anyhow, even though it was a surprise, it was a pleasant one, and I set out to learn more about the county and the places they lived. Over the next few weeks I hope to add more information about specific towns and villages, but today I thought I would share little a little snippet of info about the name of the county and the city of Nottingham.

We know Nottingham by it’s modern name, but it wasn’t always called that. The original settlement was known as Tigguocobauc which means house, or place of the caves. However, the Anglo-Saxons named it Snottingham, meaning the place of Snot. When I say snot, I don’t mean the product of a bad head cold, I mean someone called Snot. Yes, it’s an unfortunate name but it didn’t have the same connotations in those times. Even so, one can see why the Normans decided to change it, and if they did change the name for others reasons, I’m sure the people of Nottingham are jolly glad that they did.

Gilby village, Lincolnshire

The village of Gilby was located close to Pilham in Lincolnshire. No longer in existance, it was classified as a Scheduled Monument in 1999.

The village was formed early in the 12th century, and appears to have been largely agricultural. By the 18th century the population had dwindled, and the village had largely disappeared by 1842.

I have no idea if any of my ancestors came from Gilby, but it’s interesting to know about a place that bears my surname.

To read more about Gilby, go here (pdf)