A Bank Holiday walk to Bolney

What a way to spend Bank Holiday Monday, contrary to expectations the sun was out (in fact it was a lovely afternoon) and I was out walking making the most of it.

The destination for today’s walk was Bolney, Sussex, home to many GASSON and WALDER ancestors and relations. In particular I wanted to visit the church at Bolney and try and find some gravestones.

The South Downs, from near Twineham

The walk started in a small place called Wineham (thanks to my wife for dropping me off). From here I followed the wonderfully named Bob Lane to Twineham, which is slightly bigger than Wineham and has it’s own delightful little church.

St Peters Church Twineham, Sussex

There should be a couple of my WELLER ancestors buried here, although I haven’t confirmed that in the burial register. If they are they either never had a headstone or it has long since vanished, because I couldn’t find one.

From Twineham I followed Bolney Chapel Road up to the main A272 and then a short way along the A272 into Bolney itself. I like following these small country roads because I don’t have to worry too much with a map, I can just get on with enjoying the scenery and not have to worry about which footpath I have to take.

St Mary Magdalene is a beautiful church, set on the top of a small hill. About a dozen stone steps lead up to a fabulous lych gate, quite possibly the largest I have ever seen. From the lych gate a path leads up the hill to the church.

Bolney Church from the lych gate

The church itself was closed, but there was plenty to see outside, but one day I ought to actually try and get inside. There is a huge variety of gravestones in the churchyard, so many different ages and types. Of course the older ones are not so easy to read, in fact many are now just slabs of stone with no sign of an inscription.

A pair of gravestones in Bolney Churchyard

Unfortunately I didn’t have the churchyard to myself, there appeared to be some sort of treasure hunt going on as small groups of people with clipboards made their way through the churchyard searching for a particular gravestone before moving on.

My own hunt was quite successful, several modern GASSON gravestones and some older WALDER and LEWRY ones, although how much of the older ones I am going to be able to make out is another question. I need to have a look and see if there are any monumental inscriptions available that I can use to fill in some gaps. Hopefully someone went around a hundred years ago and recorded all the older ones for me before the inscriptions disappeared.

From the church I head further into the village, past the war memorial and then headed west. This long and winding road (and quite hilly) took me through some nice woodland, with a beautiful scent of pine in the air and past an ancestral home Chatesgrove. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the present owners of Chatesgrove are that keen on letting anyone see their house. Lots of thick hedges and tall fences, meant all I could see were a few glimpses of a timber framed building.

The road eventually took me back to Wineham, where I was due to get picked up again. All in all a nice afternoon spent walking (about 11 miles), lots of photos on my camera, although I don’t think any of the gravestones are direct ancestors. It is surprising how quick the temperature dropped and the light began to disappear, there is no escaping it, autumn is on the way.

Weekly genealogy preview (for week 36)

Hmmm, looking back at last week’s goals it seems that I didn’t really manage to achieve most of them, but tomorrow is a bank holiday so I have an extra day off this week to try again.

• This week I want to get my paperwork down to just three folders, one of original documents, one of general research material (although I am having second thoughts about keeping that one as well) and one where I need to scan or transcribe the information (some of that is gong to take some time). I still have another folder with filing materials (dividers and punched pockets) that I have salvaged from the other folders, and can’t bare to part with just yet, but that doesn’t count.
• I still want to tidy up this blog. I haven’t got around to doing much work on it recently, other than posting. I have quite a few ideas for things I want to do, but it is just a question of finding time to do it.
• I still haven’t been for a walk around Nuthurst, Sussex. I want to visit the church and New House Farm, but again it is just a question of finding the time to do it.
• I really need to sort out the bookmarks on my PC. There are two reasons for this, firstly they are getting a bit out of hand and unmanageable (the need sorting into sub-folders or sub-sub-folders). The second reason is that I want to copy them over to my netbook, but I would rather they were better organised before I did it.
• Next Saturday I am hoping to visit the Picture Postcard Show in London. I need to produce a list of places and subjects that I want postcards of, aside from my main collecting interests. Also I need to get a research plan in place should I have time after the show to pop into the City of Westminster Archives just up the road.

I just can’t stop filing and a couple of firsts for my research.

I did do some research yesterday evening, but I am slightly embarrassed to admit that by the end of the evening I was back filing and organising my paperwork again.

It wasn’t that the research wasn’t interesting, I had intend to use the marriage and death indexes on ancestry.co.uk to fill in some details on the children of George and Lilian Mary MITCHELL (my great grandparents) of West Dean, Sussex. I got distracted and started filling in some details on Lilian’s parents James and Caroline BOXALL, starting with the census.

James and Caroline had a lot of children, and several of the later ones didn’t survive very long. I wasn’t sure that I had found all the children and knowing James and Caroline were still alive in 1911, I decided to spend the money and get the census image for that year.

In 1911 James and Caroline had been married for 34 years and Caroline had given birth to thirteen children, nine of whom were still living and four who had died. From the West Dean parish registers and earlier census returns I had only come up with twelve. I wonder if the problem comes from Walter Henry BOXALL who in the 1911 census is listed as their son, but in the 1901 census he is shown as their grandson.

Interestingly Walter Henry is the first person in my family tree to have been born in Wales. Both census returns give his place of birth as Caerleon, Monmouthshire. I think it unlikely that James and Caroline made the trip to Wales and then returned to Sussex, so I believe that he is their grandson, but who his parents were is still a mystery (until I buy a birth certificate).

After this I moved on to the children of George and Lilian Mary MITCHELL, as I know the dates of birth for most of them I have been able to find quite a few in the GRO death indexes. I have also found some likely marriages for some of them and was able to fill in a missing spouse for Robert Charles MITCHELL. He married Emily S SMITH in 1932 in the Chichester Registration District.

That marked another first for my family tree, the first person with the surname SMITH. I am almost up to a thousand individuals but this is the first SMITH I have found, and I have yet to find a JONES either. On the whole I have been blessed with uncommon surnames to research!

It wasn’t long before I returned to my filing. I made a start on the TROWER surname folder, and weeded out lots of paper I don’t need, at least now I can close the folder properly. In fact I am enjoying being able to pull out a folder without the whole lot collapsing on me. It really is a great feeling!

The National Archives: Forgeries in the archives podcast

The latest podcast from The National Archives is a real gem. I listened to it on the bus coming home from Brighton this lunchtime. The podcast is called Forgeries in the archives, and covers a broad range of historical documents, and forgers and their motives, not just those cases that involved archives.

It was fascinating to hear about some of the characters involved, their motives and the methods involved in creating their forgeries and how they were eventually uncovered. It then goes to explain that new evidence has meant that some documents which were originally believed to be forgeries may not be after all.

It is unlikely that family historians will have to worry about forgeries (although there is one case mentioned involving a parish register) because as the speaker (David Thomas) points out it is mainly famous individuals like Shakespeare and Hitler that feature in forgeries, presumably because this is where the money and fame can found.

Sadly, despite what it say at the start of the podcast there is no further information on the website, but there is more information on the case involving The National Archives on their website, in the 2007 Freedom of Information disclosure log, including copies of the documents and police witness statements.

The attics of future generations

I was idly browsing the BBC News website yesterday and happened upon an article about social networking entitled Status update: Who cares? I have to say that the title pretty much sums up my attitude towards much social networking.

The final part of the article concerns what we are leaving behind for future historians (and genealogists). It raises the issues of whether digital data will survive as long as paper, and whether we are leaving behind an edited version of our lives for future researchers. However, it wasn’t the article itself which I wanted to share with you, but one of the comments.

The comment in question is from someone calling themselves Binx from London, and I think it is a wonderful analogy for the digital generation:

All sorts of material (flattering and unflattering) leave traces on various disks, hard drives, web sites, etc. These are the attics future generations will find our unguarded moments in. I am sure what’s worth remembering will be remembered and the rest will be dear only to a close circle of friends.

All that is missing are the words “and genealogists” at the end.