Kent Lookup Please

[Alleycat]

Could someone who is in Kent do a Record Office lookup for me please?

I'm looking for the mother of William Woolnough, born in Decmber 1872 (but perhaps not registered until the following JFM qr) in Frindsbury near Strood. We know that William was illegitimate so we have no hope of discovering who his father was, although it is thought to be the typical situation that his mother was in service and at the mercy of the son of the household. The first time he turns up is aged 8 on a list of Inmates at North Aylesford Union Workhouse; on the 1891 census he is 18 and working as "Mate" on a vessel in the Medway, and on the 1901 census as "Mate" on a vessel out of Tilbury Dock. On the 1911 census he is married to Martha (nee Pickering) who we know about, and has a son James, aged 2, and is living in Gillingham as a builder's labourer. If I can find out the name of William's mother I can hopefully find out some more about the family.

[AntonyM]

I think the birth entry you need is for William Woolnough , Jan-Mar 1873, North Aylesford RD, vol 2a p448. Obtaining that birth certificate will give full details of the mother, and maybe the father (if you haven't seen the entry before ?).

I wouldn't discount discovering who the father was until you have looked at the records of the local (Strood ?) workhouse/poor law union. These can often reveal information about illegitimacy and family breakdowns. Unfortunately the records are rarely online or indexed and can involve ploughing through boxes of papers at the records office , but well worth the effort in many cases. You will also find that these records (and much research) often shows the father of children in such cases of girls in service was usually a male servant in the household or a local boy rather than the "master" - although no doubt they did occur. Very occasionally you may see such an illegitimate child mentioned years later in the will of the man responsible !

[Christine in Herts]

Hi, Alleycat

You might find it worth posting here: http://www.familytreeforum.com/forum...earch-Requests
if you still need info from the Records Office / Archives.

And the parish you mention is in the Medway area, so this site could be invaluable! http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/
It includes: Frindsbury, All Saints CMB 1669-1959
Incidentally, I have a tab in my Medway CityArk workbook for Frindsbury, but it doesn't lok as if I had occasion to look at records which would be of use to you. having said that, I'd be quite happy to explain how I record my searches on the site, in an attempt to avoid replicating work, and to make it easier to narrow down the likely place to look amongst the lists of images which are only partially indexed by date-range, and certainly not by name.

Christine

PS - no obvious trace on the site - but you might spot something I haven't if you look for yourself. Don't forget that the images show both pages of an open Register.

[AntonyM]

Christine - what a fantastic site for Kent records, (I wish all other counties had the same ...)

[Christine in Herts]

I see his civil registration of birth was also at North Aylesford. It's possible he wasn't baptised until there, if he's in that Workhouse.

Incidentally - it's worth looking at how he comes to be in that Workhouse if he were not born in that parish!

Christine

[Christine in Herts]

Christine - what a fantastic site for Kent records, (I wish all other counties had the same ...)

Indeed - But it's "only" the Medway area (actually a huge amount of records made available!).

If you happen to be looking for a late C19th C of E baptism in Handsworth (Birmingham) you might be lucky, too. In both cases, a Millennium project has been a gift to genealogists, as well as local historians. Saint Mary's Baptismal Register 1870 - 1890 (c.)

The Forest of Dean FHS has an excellent site, too, but their parish register info is in transcription format, rather than original images.

Christine

[Alleycat]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, the obvious thing to do is obtain William's birth certificate, don't want to give a sob-story but it's a luxury I cannot afford in my present circumstances which is why I hoped someone who was going to the record office could find this information out for me.....

[Christine in Herts]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, the obvious thing to do is obtain William's birth certificate, don't want to give a sob-story but it's a luxury I cannot afford in my present circumstances which is why I hoped someone who was going to the record office could find this information out for me.....

The Record Office (or County Archives, whatever) still wouldn't be giving you a birth certificate - that comes only from either the GRO (/ONS) or the local/District Register Office, and will cost of the order of £9.25 (so long as you don't pay an arm and a leg for some other organisation to get it for you!). You can get one from the GRO by ordering online (but make sure you give only the information you know to be correct, - you won't get a refund for something that's wrong, but matches the info you have given). Some of the local office have online facilities - worth a look at the Local section of UKBMD (http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd) - tho' I suspect that the Kent Office may not cover the Medway area - you'd have to check with them.

Christine

[Alleycat]

yes I am very well aware of the price of a certificate from the GRO but even £9.25 is money I cannot spend. No worries. Can't find him anywhere on CityArk. None of it really matters because we know who he WAS, he eventually fetched up here in Wales where he married and had two sons, one of which I remember very fondly and who is my granddaughter's great-grandfather on her father's side....I have spoken to the family but no records in the traditional family Bible go back further than William and his wife Martha.

[JudithM]

I see his civil registration of birth was also at North Aylesford. It's possible he wasn't baptised until there, if he's in that Workhouse.

Incidentally - it's worth looking at how he comes to be in that Workhouse if he were not born in that parish!

Christine

Frinsbury parish was wihin the North Aylesford registration district hence the birth reg. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act allowed parishes to club together into unions to provide a workhouse. Frindsbury was part of the North Aylesford union of parishes which built the North Aylesford workhouse in Strood hence that is the workhouse he was in.

[Christine in Herts]

Frinsbury parish was wihin the North Aylesford registration district hence the birth reg. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act allowed parishes to club together into unions to provide a workhouse. Frindsbury was part of the North Aylesford union of parishes which built the North Aylesford workhouse in Strood hence that is the workhouse he was in.

That makes sense now. I did have a look at quite a lot of possible Medway CityArk baptism records, in the hope that there might have been something there, but the only achievement was to add a few more image numbers to my persona index!

Christine

[bobdonk]

The Strood poor law registers are available at Medway City Ark

http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/query/results/?Mode=Search&PathList=%2F&SearchWords=aylesford+workhouse&x=0&y=0

I can look up the birth records and inmates records for you

Bob

[Alleycat]

Hi Bob I would appreciate that very much, thank you. I think that all the info I have is already is written in my previous posts in this thread. I look forward to hearing from you again. x

[bobdonk]

I've booked a slot at the archive on Friday

bob

[Alleycat]

I've booked a slot at the archive on Friday

bob

Any luck Bob....?

[bobdonk]

Unfortunately they had very few records going back as far as 1881 and I couldn't find him in any of them.

The school attendance record for boys only covered the period 1876-1878 and he was not listed , but he may have been too young to attend school then.

Bob