Treasure Chest Thursday - 1841 English Census for John Richman Family

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to share an artifact or a document image from my collection of ancestral stuff.

The treasure today is the 1841 English Census record for the John Richman family in Hilperton, Wiltshire.

The information for the John Richman family on this census record is:

*  Parish or township of:  Hilperton
*  Place: Hilperton Marsh Lane
*  Houses: Uninhabited or Building:  120
*  Inhabited: 1

*  Names of each Person who abode therein the preceding Night:
*  Age and Sex:
*  Profession, Trade, Employment or of Independent Means:
*  Where Born:

**  Jno Richman Senr - 52, Male, Cole Dealer, Wiltshire
**  Ann Richman - 59, Female, Weaver, Wiltshire
**  Elizabeth Richman - 30, female, Weaver, Wiltshire
**  James Richman - 20, male, Ag Lab, Wiltshire

I first obtained this record from a Family History Library microfilm, so the source citation I have is:

1841 Census of England, Wiltshire, Hilperton [parish], Folio 25 recto, lines 7-10, John Richman Sr. household; Public Record Office HO 107/1182/2, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah; FHL BRITISH microfilm 464,200.
John and Ann (Marshman) Richman are my third great-grandparents.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/05/treasure-chest-thursday-1841-english.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Vacation Day - Wednesday, 16 May 2012

If it's Wednesday, it must be Dublin.

We traveled all night from Cherbourg past the Channel Islands, the southern counties of England and the Isles of Scilly, and up the Irish Sea to the port in Dublin at 12 noon.

In Dublin, we signed up for the Leisurely Dublin Highlights tour, which is 3.5 hours long.

The publicity says that the panoramic sightseeing will show the Old Parliament house, Saint Patrick';s Cathedral and the exterior of Dublin Castle, the Liffey River, the Four Courts and Customs House, Leinster House, and Trinity College.

We may remain in Dublin for dinner and find our way back to the ship somehow.

Linda and I have never been to Dublin or the Irish Republic before, so this will be a new experience for both of us.

CGSSD Meeting on 19 May 2012 - Cloud Computing

The May meeting of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego is 19 May 2012 from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego. See our map page for directions.

Here are the details:

9:00   - User Groups: Roots Magic. SIG: DNA Genealogy.

10:00 - Break, refreshments.

10:15 - Announcements followed by program:

Updates on Cloud Genealogy: The Future is Already Here

      by Gary Hoffman

Gary Hoffman has been involved with genealogy for over 40 years and with the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego for over 20 years. Gary helped develop the concepts of the USGenWeb and Gendex in the 1990s and most recently has been promoting the idea of cloud genealogy, where your data is stored not in your computer but in a cloud service.

Following a career in the U.S. Air Force, Gary worked in several high tech companies before coming to San Diego. He currently works at University of California San Diego as the Chief Technology Officer for the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. He is a past president of CGSSD and is our current webmaster.

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pines Road, turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any space other than those specifically reserved for UCSD vehicles. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website www.cgssd.org; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website (click here) for driving directions and a map.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 205: Is This My Monkey Uncle?

 I am posting photographs from my family collections for (Not So) Wordless Wednesday (you know me, I can't go wordless!).    

Here is a small photograph from the Seaver/Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:  

The note on the back of this photograph says "January 1955."  This photo was taken at the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park in San Diego, just inside the entrance.  

The people in this picture are:

*  Randy Seaver (on the left)
*  Stan Seaver (on the right)

My brother and I had our Brownie cameras ready to go, and my mother said "go stand in front of the gorilla..."

I haven't figured out if we're related to the gorilla yet...I don't think so, at least for the last 10,000 generations or so!  

A Google search for images reveals the Gorilla's name was Ngagi, who was probably one of the first gorilla inhabitants at the Zoo.  I don't recall seeing this statue when we were last at the Zoo with the grandchildren.  I'll have to look for it and take a picture of them with it if the statue is still there.  It would also be a good candidate for the "Dear Photograph" meme if I could get my brother to stand next to it with me.


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Vacation Day - Tuesday, 15 May 2012

After our long bus ride and sightseeing in Paris yesterday, the ship departed from Le Havre at midnight.  The ship docked in Cherbourg at 7 a.m.

We haven't picked a tour for Cherbourg yet, but we hope to get on the Panoramic Cherbourg tour.

The publicity says that this three hour tour will discover the port of Cherbourg (I didn't know it was lost...), the Old town (will we see the New town, or is there one?), the military base, and the principal monuments (presumably these are statues, not gravestones).

Perhaps we'll have lunch in the city, or back to the ship.  The ship departs Cherbourg at 3 p.m.

I haven't been to Cherbourg before.  I have been to the American Cemetery and the Normandy Beaches.  Linda has not been there, but we judged that tour would be too strenuous for her after Paris the day before.

Tuesday's Tip - English Parish Registers on FamilySearch.org

This week's Tuesday's Tip is to:   Find (some) English Parish Registers on FamilySearch.org.

Every County in England  has a collection of :Parish Registers in their record offices.  Almost all of the church Parish Registers have been microfilmed by the Family History Library, and are available for loan to read at a local FamilySearch Center.

Some of the County collections of Parish Registers have been digitized during FamilySearch Indexing and are available in the Historical Record collections at www.FamilySearch.org.  The available County collections can be found by going to https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list and entering "parish registers" in the search box (upper left-hand corner).

The available collections include:

*  England, Bristol Parish Registers, 1538-1900 (695,479 records, index only)

*  England, Cheshire Parish Registers, 1538-2000 (4,140,540 records, index only)

*  England, Cornwall Parish Registers, 1538-2010 (browse images only)

*  England, Derbyshire Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1910 (190,343 records, index only)

*  England, Dorset Parish Registers, 1538-1910 (332,615 records, index only)

*  England, Essex Parish Registers, 1538-1900 (537,583 records ,index only)

*  England, Kent Parish Registers, 1538-1911 (browse images only)

*  England, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire Parish Registers (947,377 records, index and images)

*  England, Norfolk Parish Registers, 1538-1900 (188,222 records, index and images)

*  England, Warwickshire Parish Registers, 1538-1900 (1,196,651 records, index only)

*  Isle of Man Parish Registers, 1598-1950 (410,460 records, index only)

Users should be aware that:

*  These collections do not include every parish in the County

*  The records for each parish may not reflect the year range given.

*  These are mainly christening and marriage records that were extracted from the parish registers into the International Genealogical Index (IGI).  


Unfortunately, the IGI is a lot more difficult to access these days (you can search it at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp&clear_form=true).  A listing of the Parish Registers in the entire IGI is at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers/CountryEngland.htm#PageTitle.


That said, the search capabilities on the FamilySearch Historical Record Collections site are significantly better than on the classic site.

Over future months, more English County Parish Register collections should be added to the FamilySearch site.  Check back every month or so for additions.

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Vacation Day - Monday, 14 May 2012

After yesterday's exciting and informative classes about Legacy Family Tree software and resources in England, we docked in Le Havre, France at 9 a.m. this morning.

We signed up for the Paris Sightseeing tour today.  This is a full day (11 hours) excursion to the "City of Lights."  During a 2.5 hour drive via the superhighway, we will view the Seine Valley and go through dairy country of Normandy to Paris (I wonder what the over/under is for number of cows?).

We will enter the gates of Paris, drive down the famous Champs-Elysee, the principal thoroughfare of the city.  We will see the 164-foot Arc de Triomphe, the Opera House, Madeleine Church, Concorde Square, Louvre Museum and Notre Dame Cathedral.

We will have lunch in a Brasserie on Place de la Republique, then continue sightseeing on the Left Bank, seeing Place de la Bastille, Notre Dame Cathedral, Assemblee Nationale, Army Museum (Hotel des Invalides) and stopped at the Eiffel Tower.  Then it is on to a Seine River cruise, sailing past many sights.  We will end up back at the Eiffel Tower, where we can take pictures (but not take the lift).

Then it's back on the bus for the drive back to Le Havre.  I wonder where (or if!) we will eat dinner?

Amanuensis Monday - Biography of James Richmond (1821-1912)

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The subject today is this biography of James Richmond (1821-1912) provided in the book Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties (Chicago Ill. : J.H. Beers & Company, 1903).  The specific article was titled Arthur Lucius Fitts, but it included the biography of James Richmond, who was the father of Emma Richmond, wife of Arthur Fitts.  The Richmond portion of the article reads:

"James Richmond, father of Mrs. Fitts, was born in Hilperton, Wiltshire, England April 8, 1821, a son of John and Ann (Marshman) Richmond.  John Richmond was a farmer and laborer, and lived in Hilperton where both he and his wife died.  His children were as follows:  Elizabeth, the deceased wife of Thomas Hogan, a soldier in the English Army and a resident of Hilperton, England;  Sarah, the deceased wife of James Thompson, of Hilperton;  John, a seafaring man who married Maria Matthews, and died in Hilperton;  Ann, the widow of John Hall, and resident of Hilperton; James and Thomas, who was a twin and died at the age of twenty one.

"James Richmond was reared to the hard and unsatisfactory work of farming on a small scale, and his youth afforded scant opportunity for educational training.  Nevertheless, he possessed a keen desire for knowledge, and improved such chances as came his way, by observation and reading.  His first intimacy with books was acquired at Sunday School, and his alphabet was learned from a copy made by a friend.  At the present time he is an unusually well informed and intelligent man, no opportunity having escaped him to add to his store of useful and interesting information.  As a young man he found employment for a short time in Cardiff, Wales, but barring this limited experience, he lived on the home farm until his marriage.  For the first ten years thereafter he kept house in Hilperton, and from his wages as a laborer managed to save.  In 1855 he boarded a sailing vessel at Liverpool, and upon arriving in New York went directly to his destination in Pascoag, R.I. where he had friends to welcome him.  He was accompanied by his wife's brother, Samuel Rich, and they landed in New York October 21, 1855, after a month's voyage.  Mr. Richmond had very little money in his pocket, but his hopes were high, and he soon found work in a woolen mill in Pascoag, where he saved his wages, and made considerable headway.  On November 12, 1856, he was joined by his wife and five children, they having been on the ocean for six weeks and two days.

"For about ten years Mr. Richmond was employed in Burrillville, and in March 1866, he began work in the woolen mill of Michael Moriarty at Putnam, Conn. where he remained until 1870 as manager of the engine. The LaFayette Reynolds woolen mills at Windsor, conn. employed his services as engineer until the destruction of the plant and the following year he returned to Putnam, where he purchased his present farm from Nathaniel Battey.  He is engaged in general farming, in which he has achieved success.  Mr. Richmond is respected by all who know him, and he is regarded as a substantial member of the agricultural community of Putnam.

"While living in his native town of Hilperton, England, Mr. Richmond married, Sept. 7, 1845, Hannah Rich, born April 14, 1825, a daughter of John and Rebecca (Hill) Rich.  Of this union there have been born nine children:  Thomas, a boss carder of Elmville, Conn., who married Juliette White;  James, a boss designer in the woolen mill in Stroudsburg, Pa., who married Sarah Bigwood;  Ann, deceased in infancy;  Louise, unmarried and living with her father;  Elizabeth Ann, wife of Abram Sykes of Putnam;  Emma now Mrs. Fitts;  Hannah Rebecca, married first to Frank N. Smith and afterward to Edmund A. Hoyle, and now a widow residing at Worcester, Mass.; John Henry, who married Mary Ann Ramsey, is a farmer managing his father's farm; and Charles Edward, an expert mechanic of Hartford, who married Lavinia Gurten.

"James Richmond, above mentioned, is an expert in his line, as is evidenced by the fact that he had charge of the famous feat of making a suit of clothes in six hours and four minutes.  In the hands of a tailor supplied with materials this might not seem an impossible undertaking, but in this instance the wool was taken from the back of the sheep and placed on the back of the wearer in the shape of a finished suit, within the specified time of six hours and two minutes."

Isn't this an interesting summary of the life and occupation of James Richmond, my great-great-grandfather?  It provided a summary of his parents family, of his own family, and a description of his early work life, his immigration to the United States, and then his work life in the United States.

Check out the last paragraph in the biography.  Do you believe that can be done?  note that he didn't do it - he had charge of the workers who did it.  Wouldn't that be a great show on television?

This type of book resource is often used to flesh out details of a person's life.  However, the researcher needs to be careful about the information - is it all true?  I have other information about why James Richmond left England in 1855 that is not mentioned above.  

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Legacy Day - Sunday, 13 May 2012

We're at sea, and the weather is pretty cool.  some rain, some wind, some rocking and rolling as we head for Le Havre.

The morning at the Legacy Family Tree classroom (the Conference Center on Deck 6) starts early.  Here is the agenda for the classes today:

*  8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.:  Introductions and welcome.


*  9 a.m. to 10 a.m.:  "Timelines" by Geoff Rasmussen


*  10 a.m. to 11 a.m.:  "Sources Made Simple, Standard & Powerful" by Geoff Rasmussen


*  1 a.m. to 12 noon:  "Key Genealogical Resources for England" by Judy Wight


*  12 noon to 2 p.m.:  A group lunch.


*  6 p.m.;  A group dinner.

Looks like I'll be able to walk the deck, maybe take a nap, go to a cruise program, look for my wife in the pool, or study my syllabus during the afternoon.  I wonder how many genealogy discussions I will have in the afternoon?

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week Ending 12 May 2012

As devoted Genea-Musings readers recall, we are away on a vacation cruise out of Oslo to Le Havre (Paris), Cherbourg, Dublin, Liverpool and Edinburgh.  Because I don't have cheap and fast Internet access, and more importantly, time to read 1200 genea-blogs, the weekly Beat of the Genea-Blogs published on Sundays is on hiatus until 27 May.


Several other genea-bloggers post weekly Best Of posts - please read them:


*  Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.


*  Lisa Frank on the 1 Ancestry 2 Little Time blog.


*  Amanda on the Geni Blog.


*  Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.


*  Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.


*  Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog. 


*  Julie Cahill Tarr on the GenBlog blog.