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. Surname 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.
