Originally posted by amck37
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What could 'C of P' mean?
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Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View PostDURH!
So blinky obvious innit, when you know!
OCRick
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In days of yore, when researchers were still granted access to the original registers and without gloves, sometimes one encountered little slips of paper tucked into the register by the incumbent. The marriage register often yielded good results such as a note that permission to marry had been obtained from the mother (indication of possible illegitimacy) or a named guardian (often invaluable.) I also came across scraps from the vicar of another parish, sent to say he'd read the banns in a particular parish and with the dates of reading. (A lot of banns books have been lost over the years.)
I was always fascinated by the properties of the paper - thick and textured (like blotting paper for those old enough to remember such stuff) smelling musty and small pieces with edges slit with a knife. It hit home how expensive paper was in those days and how it wasn't an everyday commodity in all households.
I know OC will have handled original registers and seen some of these gems, which don't feature in filming or transcriptions.
JayJanet in Yorkshire
Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree
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JAY
Yes, I have indeed handled original documents - without gloves, haha!
The one which moved me the most was a really quite ordinary unremarkable Will, written by my umpty-grandfather in 1500-something. I touched his signature with my finger and thought - I am touching my ancestor from 500 years ago. Could he ever have imagined in his wildest dreams that one of his descendants would handle that document? (Oh, what a soppy thing I am, lol!)
The other thing which is a wonderful bonus if you can get your hands on original church registers is all the other stuff in the register, not just BMDs but things like the Oath of Allegiance, Sunday School registers, who gave what to the Bell Fund. One Vicar kept a running commentary on the weather, the harvest, bits of local gossip and other fascinating trivia. Confirmation registers, fines for not attending church, fines for not having your children baptised etc etc etc - all this extraneous stuff is very rarely filmed or transcribed. Two pages (in Latin) which, when I had it translated, turned out to be a commentary on the late Vicar who had been "unwell" for many years and had failed to record any BMDs. The locals had taken it upon themselves to keep track of events and a sort of catch up register was produced for the village, containing many events which had taken place elsewhere because of the "illness" of the Vicar. Riveting stuff!
OC
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Brilliant stuff, OC!
In this registers transcript I can see that ancestors of mine are named as contributing from 6d to £5 each 'towards defraying the expence of erecting a New Schoolroom in this Parish which was built on a piece of the waste ground granted by William HOLBECH Esqre as Lord of the Manor and opened Novemer 15th 1833'.
Also, I see that donations from a couple of them, from £2 to £5 each, being 'Donations towards the purchase of a Box of Child Bed Linen for the use of poor married women of Fenny Compton'.
Lovely, personal stuff
Amanda
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