Look ups offered in Alverstoke/Gosport hants

[Punchs mum]

Whitcombs!

Ray, Well, I checked the burial record of George Whitcomb in 1856 and looking at the fiche reader screen would say it still looks like Age 25 to me!! However, having printed off the record it has now posed more questions than answers. The print out looks like Age 35!!! It could, in my opion, also look like Age 85!! So it is now over to you make your decision on what age you see! Will scan the image to your private e mail address.

Lesley

If you want me to post you the actual copy of record, I will need your private Address.

[Elizabeth Herts]

Elizabeth Herts.

Checked the burial records yesterday for William Smith at Holy Trinity and Alverstoke 1841-1852 with no luck. There were a few William Smiths but none around the age bracket of your William. Also had a quick look at a couple of smaller churches which had burial grounds and again...nothing. Sorry to disappoint you. If I can help any more, please just ask.

Lesley.

Lesley, thanks so much for looking, it's appreciated. These are my only Smiths, and under the circumstances they haven't been too troublesome so I can't complain! I think I shall try ordering a death cert. by specifying his age etc.

[raywhit1942]

Lesley

Thanks so much for rechecking the fiche. Yes I agree it could be 25, 35, or 85! This is a case that does warrant further data to confirm who this 'George' was.

Going by the census for 1841 and 1851 it is now certain to me that a George Whitcomb, Carpenter born circa 1773 was living in Alverstoke at the time of this burial, also it is clear that he died between the 1851 and 1861 census. I can find no other George Whitcomb(e)s in the Gosport area at this time, according to the relevant census returns. Another bit of data, IGI, is that a George Whitcomb was in fact Baptised (19 SEP 1773 Holy Trinity, Gosport, Hampshire, England) son of Thomas and Honor Whitcomb, it is very possible that this is the same 'George' that died in 1856.

Looking very carefully, and critically, at the scan with image software I can just about see that the 'top curl' of the apparent 2 is continued round as in the top of an 8. There appear to be various ink spots or other blemishes on the fiche that make an definite conclusion very difficult. But for now I will accept that the age is 85. I feel confident enough, now, to order a GRO death cert' and settle the matter.

I will tell you of any further 'developments', and finally thanks so so much for all the help you have given in my Whitcomb quest.

Ray

[Punchs mum]

Ray, I think, like you, curiousity would get the better of me and I would have to order the death certificate. There is sometimes a clue given by the informants name. Also, though, the details are only as accurate as the informant has given. I have a death cert. of a relative that states she was 94 at the time of her death but she was in fact, 97 and I have her birth certificate to prove it. Sad thing was, she died in a Mental Home with no known relatives and her death age and birthdate were guess work I think!!

Look forward to any further updates on these Whitcombs!

Lesley

[Chris in Sussex]

Lesley, can I please take you up on your very kind offer?

I am looking for the baptism of James RUSSELL 1793 in Gosport. The birth year is consistant in the censuses.

At his second marriage, in 1844, he gives his father as Edward Russell, Mariner.

There is a baptism on the IGI, extracted, for a James Russell 17 March 1793 Alverstoke, Hampshire.
Father Edward Russell, mother Mary and I wonder if the register has any additional information.

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

[Punchs mum]

Chris. ( in Sussex)

Will have a look for you when I am in town next. Will let you know one way or the other whether I find anything!

Lesley

[Chris in Sussex]

Thank you Lesley

Chris

[Joy Dean]

I have just one request, if possible, please, for a baptism for a great-uncle; but he was born in Fareham, and I think that someone said parish registers for that area were away? Shall I give you the details, just in case?

[Punchs mum]

Joy, Was your G. Uncle baptised in Alverstoke/Gosport then, even though he was born in Fareham? I can check Gosport parish records if you want but don't do Fareham. I have checked Fareham Library site and they do keep microfiches records there apparently but not all dates and events are included. I don't go to Fareham much at all and have never used their Library but there maybe someone on the site that does. However, if you think there is a chance of him being baptised in Gosport/Alverstoke by all means give me his name and I will take a look for you. Nothing ventured, nothing gained......as they say!!

Lesley

[Joy Dean]

Not to worry then.

However, just in case his name crops up :-) -
John Harrison was born in School Road, Fareham 18 August 1879.

Thank you.

[Punchs mum]

Alverstoke lookup for Chris in Sussex.

Chris,

Have found the baptism record for your James Russel at St. Marys Church Alverstoke 17/3/1793 like you said but unfortunately there is no extra information other than what you already know about. That is that his parents were Edward and Mary.

Have a scan of the entry if you would like it. I will need your private e mail address though. The Russell surname is spelt Rufsel, which I think was the way of writing back then.

Lesley.

[Christine in Herts]

The Russell surname is spelt Rufsel, which I think was the way of writing back then.

Do you mean it looks like "Ru∫sell"?
Older English script, particularly in double-s, used to make the first one long (sometimes both) - and that's the same thing as a German double-s (ß), where the two letters got joined together. Sometimes all the interior letter-s examples would be written with the long-s. You can see this on the older census images, too, with the occupation "dre∫∫maker", for example! It ends up looking like a modern ƒ - but, critically, it doesn't have the cross-stroke.

There are a quite a lot of transcriptions on Knightroots where the name RUSSELL has been rendered as RUFSEL, or RUFFELL. The problem is that there is a rarer name which really is RUFFELL, so you can't be sure whether every example like that really should be RUSSELL or not, without looking at the record for yourself. (That's good practice, anyway, of course, but an added incentive.)

Christine

[Punchs mum]

Thanks for that explaination Christine (in Herts!). I knew that sometimes the 's' could look like and 'f'. This parish record just shows the first 's' differently. Where did you get that letter from on your keyboard as I can't see it on mine!!!

Lesley

[Chris in Sussex]

Hi Lesley
Thank you so much for taking the time to look for my Russell....I had a feeling there wouldn't be any more info. Oh well this game wouldn't be so much fun if it was easy

I will pm you my e.mail addy as I would love the scan thankyou....I hope it didn't cost you anything, if so I will either reimburse you or put the money in your favourite charilty box.

And yes the Russell surname can be a pain where transcribed, I always have to remember to search for Rufsell too (I can't find that symbol thing either!)

Thank you again

Chris

[Christine in Herts]

Thanks for that explaination Christine (in Herts!). I knew that sometimes the 's' could look like and 'f'. This parish record just shows the first 's' differently. Where did you get that letter from on your keyboard as I can't see it on mine!!!

Lesley

I use an Apple Mac. There are all sorts of interesting symbols I can get by using the Alt key:
¡ € # ¢ ∞ § ¶ • ª º – ≠
œ ∑ ´ ® † ¥ ¨ ^ ø π “ ‘
å ß ∂ ƒ © ˙ ∆ ˚ ¬ … æ «
` Ω ≈ ç √ ∫ ~ µ ≤ ≥ ÷

That lot is what I get if I hold down the Alt key and depress the keys starting with the row with the digits.

In some cases it isn't quite obvious what those mean... If I hold the Alt key with e/u/i, and then type another vowel, I get: é ü î, and I can get the grave accent using the same technique, by using the Alt key with `... à, and Alt-n, ... ñ.

I thought you might well know about the ∫/s thing, but thought it might be worth alerting you (and other readers) to that particular hazard with the Knightroots transcriptions.

Christine

[Punchs mum]

No wonder I couldn't find it then Christine! Even if I did have it on the key board I don't think I would be able to utilise it with all the holding down of various keys!!

Anyway, thanks for putting me right. At least I know it is not me not being able to see it on my keyboard.

Lesley

[Christine in Herts]

I think that you can find quite a lot of those if you use one of the menus (e.g. Insert/Symbols). And they're also available if you happen to know the key+number combinations.

I just did a bit of googling, and there is some useul-looking stuff on the M/soft support pages, e.g.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Type-and-display-accents-and-diacritical-marks

Looking at that page, I reckon that this is what I had in mind with the second of the sentences with which I opened this post:

Use Alt+the numeric keypad to input a code page value of a character.

And this looks useful, too:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Using-special-characters-Character-Map-frequently-asked-questions

Christine

[raywhit1942]

Lesley

Back to Whitcombs! There are two loose ends / brick walls in tracing the children of Thomas & Mary Whitcomb, as they had a least twelve I reckon we've done pretty well so far!

The two 'disappeared' are Alice Whitcomb born 1858, and Mary Whitcomb born 1873.

Both girls survived into childhood, but there is no BMD record of death or marriage after this.

Alice was with her parents in 1871 census, age 11. But no trace anywhere after this date.

Mary was with parents in 1881 census, age 8. Both parents had died by 1885, so she would have been orphaned.

There is some possible BMD data on Mary.

A Mary Ann Whitcombe was married to James Henry Wright in Alverstoke, Sep 1898. They appear on the 1901 Census in Weymouth, James was in the Army. This Mary was born in Portsmouth circa 1872, according to the census. Next time you are at the research center please could you look up this marriage, it may have parents names etc? Sorry, don't have the church. Also it may be useful to check the birth / baptism of Mary Whitcomb in Jun 1873 Alverstoke.

Just for your info' I have a further 'conundrum' regarding a Mary Ellen Whitcombe who appears to have died at the same address of Thomas Edmund Whitcomb in Kings Langley (Herts) the 18 Nov 1898, age 25. (thus also born 1873). I have no idea who this could be. Not Thomas's wife at the time. (Alice Mary Whitcomb, nee Beasley, died Dec 1902).

Searching FreeBMD- all for any Mary Whitcomb + All variants of the name between 1869 and 1885 only comes up with Mary born Alverstoke 1873, so where do all the Mary Whitcombs come from???⽆⽗

Ray

PS: Christine

As you use an Apple Mac try the Character Palette in the International Prefs'.Ӂ

[Punchs mum]

Hello again. Ray!

Will be off on the trail again for you hopefully sometime next week.....weather permitting that is!

Lesley

[Punchs mum]

Look up for Raywhit

Ray,

Found the marriage of James Henry Wright and Mary Ann Whitcomb at Alverstoke Church on 29/9/1898.

James Henry Wright age 29 Batch. Serg. Major R.E. at Fort Monckton. Father William a Carpenter.

Mary Ann Whitcomb age 27 Spinster of 70 Queens Road. Father Charles Whitcomb a Bricklayer.

Had no luck with baptism records. Checked out the four main churches. In fact, for once found no Whitcombs at all!! They must have stopped breeding ....at last!

Forgot to say I couldn't read the witnesses on the Marriage Cert, It was very feint. All I could make out was George ? and Kate Ann ?

Sorry about that.

Lesley