I am indebted to many friends for help in completing this little book, and very especially to my schoolfellow Mr. R. Howlett, to Mr. Walford D. Selby, Dr. Jessopp, Dr. Marshall (Rouge Croix), Mr. C. H. Athill (Blue Mantle), Mr. A. R. Bax, and to others. That I must have made innumerable omissions and mistakes I know well enough; but I ask my readers to be merciful, and to send me, more in sorrow than in anger, their corrections and additions. If they will all do so, possibly a second edition may some day be issued, in which my correctors will benefit by their own corrections. WINCHESTER HOUSE, PUTNEY, S. W. W. R. CHAPTER I. How to compile a Pedigree.' IN working up a pedigree you should always begin with the earliest undoubted fact in your possession. Aged relations and friends, inscriptions in bibles, prayer books, &c.; deeds, probates, old letters, and tombstones, are among the most obvious sources of information: and what is obtained from them had better be worked into a tabular form before any search is made in the register of the parish in which your family resided, as there is often considerable difficulty in making out a sketch pedigree from the registers, if the entries are numerous, and there were two or more fathers of the same Christian and surname having families at the same time. Great care should be taken in making notes of the vivâ voce evidence of aged people: the result should be read over and over again to them at as long intervals as possible, and presented to them in a different shape each time. A name or a date which your informant is utterly unable to remember one day will often come to mind after a week or so; and, moreover, by the manner in which your informant adheres to or varies former statements, you can form a tolerably accurate idea as to how much you can rely on them. 1 A recent work which should be consulted is How to Write the History of a Family, by W. P. W. Phillimore (Elliot Stock.) When I mention that it is revised as to various branches by such experts as Mr. Selby of the Record Office, Mr. Smith of the Probate Office, and Mr. Cokayne (Norroy King-atArms,) I need hardly say that it will be most valuable. It was not issued when this chapter was written, and I have purposely abstained from looking at it, except to work some references to it into my index. Note everything relating to change of residence, profession or occupation, relationship, or connections however distant; for though while you are doing so your notes may seem utterly worthless, they may prove of great value to you hereafter in tracking out a clue or eking out a coincidence. Sooner or later, however, perhaps at your grandfather or your great grandfather, or perhaps a step or two higher, you will come to the end of your oral, and also of your documentary evidence, and the head of your sketch pedigree (vide specimen pedigree) is Henry Smith, who died at Fulham in 1768, aged 75.1 It is most likely some of your relations know whence he originally came, if he was not a native of the place in which he died. In that case search should be made in the parish register of his reputed birthplace for the baptism of a Henry Smith, in or about the year 1693. You can never depend on the age being right within a year or two. 2 If you find this entry it will give you the Christian names of his father and mother, and carry you a step higher; and you should then work the pedigree up by the registers of the same parish as long as there are any entries of persons of your name. Keep on working out the results in a tabular form. Possibly, however, you have been mistaken or wrongly informed as to the parish in which he was born, or though born he may not have been baptized in it, in which case you should try the adjacent churches, and failing in them it may be as well for you to search the registers of any parishes in which any of your family, or connections by marriage, were formerly resident, even for a short time. If still unsuccessful you will be in the same predicament as 1 If you cannot find his age on his tombstone or burial certificate you may do so in any policy on his life, which also frequently has appended to it a copy of his baptismal certificate produced by him to show his age when he insured his life. 2 If not a member of the Church of England, see notices of dissenting registers, p. 79. |