Crawling backwards, faster

From time to time I check in on the National Archives site to see what's new there. It's an incredible resource although some patience and determined searching is needed to get results, especially if you are researching a common name, or a surname that is also a commonly used word - try BINDING or CATER, for example, and you pull up all kinds of documents which contain those words.

This week, however, I discovered some new leads on my CATER ancestors in Bedfordshire - documents from Leicester & Rutland Record Office have been included since my last visit. They mention my ancestor Andrew CATER, clerk of Elstow, and his wife Alice nee CLARKE, and property in the village of Wrestlingworth. Entering "Wrestlingworth" as a search term gave me lots of CLARKE entries, and cross-referencing these with PRO Wills and parish register transcripts has helped me draw up an extensive CLARKE tree, going back a further 2 generations on Alice's maternal and paternal lines. Alice was my 8xgt grandmother, so these are some of the earliest ancestors in my tree. The Wills and some other documents are downloadable, so I don't even need to rely on other people's transcriptions but can struggle through and make my own!

When I began researching in the 1970's, the only way to gain any information was to travel to the locality and search original documents in dusty record offices. My annual holidays were planned around such road trips, often camping nearby, and washing off the grime of the books before tucking into a picnic. Now so much information is online, even scans of original documents, and networking with other researchers allows those of us who can't travel much the chance to check transcripts against the originals. What might have taken months or years to discover can now be done in minutes, from an armchair at home.

But it's important not to lose sight of the need to check transcripts against original sources, and to look for corroborating evidence. Just because your ancestor had an uncommon name, for example, not everyone with that same name is related! Newer ways of working have cut corners for us, but the method remains the same.

Mystery and Conflict

One longstanding (25 yrs plus!) brick wall in my research is the relationship between the WYATT and CATER families in Bristol.

In 1714, Thomas WEBB (?-1718) wrote a will in which he described Andrew CATER the younger as his "wife's kinsman", and left him a significant piece of land in Stapleton, Gloucestershire. Mary WEBB (1649-1729), Thomas's wife, was born Mary WYATT, and came from a merchant family with strong London connections. Andrew's ancestors are believed to have had property in both Bedfordshire and London.

The use of the word 'kinsman' implies a more distant relationship than close family - but how distant? And can any further information be found on Andrew CATER - clearly he was the son of another Andrew, and I believe he may have been born about 1661 in Elstow, Bedfordshire. His wife may have been a Mary, but nothing further is known of her.

So far I have found no further clues, except that Andrew CATER named his first son Wyatt CATER, and his grandson was John Wyatt CATER. In fact I have found 17 direct descendants of Andrew who were named either John Wyatt CATER or Wyatt CATER. As for the bequest of land, that only lasted a little more than a generation, as by 1779 it was all mortgaged or sold.

Recently I came across a Probate court case between Andrew CATER and the heirs of Thomas WEBB - and I'm still discovering more about it. The National Archives have provided copies of 4 documents from the case - including the complaint of Andrew CATER, and replies from the widowed Mary WEBB, and from Francis JAY, a nephew of Thomas, who was guardian of Thomas's son (who was declared insane).

Even if this bundle of documents doesn't give the answer, it's another step towards a fuller picture of these families. Another brick in a very holey wall!

Researching the Binding surname

I have been fortunate to make links over the years with other people researching their Binding ancestry in Somerset.  The name is uncommon, and can also be written as Bindon, Binedin etc.  Surnames spellings have only become standardised in the last 100 years or so, and until around 1870 the levels of illiteracy were very high, especially amongst lower income families.The earliest records of my Binding family refer to Robert Binedin and Sarah Tudball's marriage on 9th May 1718 in Chipstable, Somerset.

Church registers are the best (and often only) source of information for that era. We are very fortunate in the UK to have had a well organised system of parish records since the reign of Elizabeth I, and that so many of the registers have survived intact.  Somerset researchers are doubly lucky, as FreeREGtranscribers have already put many of these parish registers online and searchable.  To find which parish registers have been transcribed and where they can be accessed, try Ian Sage's excellent site.

Somerset's Record Office, now known as Somerset Heritage Centre, also holds a wide range of other archives which are of use to the researcher. Maps, Directories, Wills and personal documents of all kinds may be helpful.  My branch of the Binding family were poor labourers, and although I have not found any Wills or documents relating to property for them, they did occasionally come to the notice of the Poor Relief officers and some spent time in the local Workhouses. Some of these documents survive.


For example, Emma Binding (1822-1902) and her husband Ephraim Chandler (1822-1846) fell foul of the Settlement Laws - which would only allow people to receive help from the parish in which they were "settled". When Ephraim fell seriously ill, the family (including a small child and pregnant wife) went to stay with relations in Worle, only to find that they were not eligible for any help from the parish there. The parish overseers forcibly removed them back to Weston Super Mare, where Ephraim was considered to have legal settlement. Both Ephraim and the new infant died within months. Documents recording the legal process and including a statement from Ephraim which tells his life story (which makes very sad reading) survive in the Heritage Centre.

The Workhouses not only provided basic accommodation and food for those who could not support themselves, but also acted as local infirmaries, and several Binding children were born at Axbridge Workhouse, all of them to unmarried women.

 Census returns are available from 1841 onwards, and from 1851 they are very useful as they give birthplace, age and relationship information.  The 1841 census is perhaps the least reliable; ages were (usually) rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5, birthplaces are not given, and relationships not stated. Censuses taken between 1841 and 1911 are available online on various pay-per view and subscription sites, 1881 is freely available on FamilySearch, and the FreeCEN transcribers are working on transcribing the 1841-1871 and 1891 censuses for Somerset. 

Elsie Selina Burrell - a Servant of the Lord

This transcript of the eulogy appeared in the magazine of Eastville Park Methodist Church, January 1995. Elsie was a lifelong member of this church.

Church magazine, showing drawings of the church through the years

Wartime Diary

My great aunt Elsie Selina Burrell worked for Cunard in Bristol during WW2, travelling daily from Eastville into the city. This week I came into possession of some diaries she kept at the time.

The diaries are a mix of personal trivia and wider news, recorded often without much emotion. She mentions the Bristol Blitz several times; at one point her office had lost its roof and she worked under a tarpaulin, everything still soaking from the fire hoses. She spent hours in cupboards and in shelters. Traumatised refugees sought shelter in her local chapel, and she mentions washing the hair of a woman dragged from a bombed building.

I don't think we, in the modern world, can really imagine how life was then. The worst of the blitz was in the middle of winter and the bombing at its worst at night. Elsie records with relief the few quiet and undisturbed nights.

Here's a page from her list of air raids, showing the 24th November 1940, the first Great Blitz.

In 1940, Elsie recorded 643 hours of raids. More pages can be seen here: Elsie's diary 1940

I'm planning on including more extracts from Elsie's diaries in the future

Harriet ANDREWS 1839-?

I'm going to post what I know about Harriet ANDREWS in the hope that someone can fill in some missing information!

Harriet was born in Egham, Surrey and baptised on 9th June 1839. Her parents, Richard and Eleanor (nee BISHOP) had a bakery in the High Street, and had 10 children, Harriet being the youngest daughter. When she was only 5, Harriet's father died, and she moved with her widowed mother to Weybridge.

I am not sure how the family ended up in Nottingham; perhaps this was a result of the marriage of Harriet's sister Mary Ann to William ROSE, a manager for the Daily Mail newspaper, but in 1861 Eleanor is living with her pregnant daughter Mary Ann in the promisingly-named Goldsmith Street in the centre of Nottingham.

Harriet was, in 1861, a Governess with a live-in position in Melton, Suffolk, but in 1863 she married a banker's clerk, James Tomlinson CARTER, who lived in Nottingham. But the marriage took place in Lambeth - did they elope??

James (1838-1875) was the son of James CARTER (1815-1875), a bank manager who set up an auction house about 1860 in Nottingham, by his first wife Mary Ann Jane CARTER (was she a relation, or is the name merely a coincidence?). There were 9 children from this first marriage, and a further 4 from his second marriage to Frances TURVEY. Thus, although there was a considerable family income, their outgoings must have been considerable too!

Harriet and James's marriage seems to have been close, as 8 children were born in 12 years, but James sadly died of consumption aged only 38, leaving Harriet to support the family herself, by working in the lace industry. The 1881 census shows that she kept the eldest two sons (then 16 & 15, and in employment) and the youngest daughter at home, the rest were split between the Battersea Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, and the Wanstead Orphan Asylum. What a difficult time that must have been for all of the family.

Harriet seems to have been made of stern stuff, however, and by 1891 she was teaching, and her children were beginning to make their own way. Charles Andrews CARTER (1865-1922), my ancestor, was working as a clerk in Essex with a wife and small child. Daughter Maud became an Inspector of Midwives, Ada a nurse, Eleanor a teacher, and Ethel a teacher of the deaf.

I have not been able to trace what happened to eldest son Edward James, born 1864, after 1881 when he was a clerk in Nottingham, I wonder if he emigrated.

In 1901 Harriet was living in 1901, retired, and caring for 10 year old grandson Charles Thomas CARTER. This lad was the son of Charles Andrews CARTER, and his mother Sarah Elinda THOMPSON died soon after his birth. This is the only sighting of the young Charles that I have found to date; although Harriet is still alive in 1911, and living in Wolverhampton, there is no sign of Charles, who would have been 20yrs old by 1911.

Still looking:
Death details for
Harriet CARTER, born 1839, died after 1911 (last seen in Wolverhampton)
Maud CARTER, born 1870, died after 1911 (last seen in Wolverhampton)
Ada CARTER, born 1867, died after 1911 (last seen in Wolverhampton)
Edward James CARTER, born 1864, died after 1881 (last seen in Nottingham)

Any sightings of
Charles Thomas CARTER, born 1891 (last seen in Headcorn, Kent, in 1901)

I would be very pleased to hear from anyone else who is researching this family!