Notes of Life

I’ve got this week off work (which accounts for more posts than usual this week), so I decided to get out and do some family history research.

Today, I visited the Library, Museum & Archives in Ludlow, Shropshire. Mum’s side of the family are from around that area, so I decided to do some research on 3 family members’ deaths in particular. Without naming names (for 2 of them – due to the sensitive nature), I wanted to research 2 suicides and an accidental death.

I emailed both the Library and Museum & Archives seperately yesterday, supplying them with a few details, and the speedy responses meant I was able to visit this afternoon. I needed to visit the library for 1 ancestor and the Museum & Archives for the other two.

The library has a volunteer from the local history group come in on a Tuesday afternoon from 2.30pm, but I was early so I decided to visit the Museum & Archives first. I spent an hour with them, but unfortunately my search was fruitless.

The newspapers for 1964 seemed to be missing (apart from a couple of sheets, but they were for the wrong month), which was disappointing as I was told they had bound copies for the 1960s, but wasn’t aware (until I was there) that the particular year I was after was missing.

I had been told that the coverage of 1922 was sketchy, prior to me visiting, so that search was a long shot anyway. They did find 3 sheets from a couple of months after the date I was looking for, which I read through (and found some articles quite amusing!) but found nothing.

The staff at the Museum & Archives were helpful and even searched a local map for a location I had named on a death certificate. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find that either so I’m guessing the name was one that has either since changed or was a locally known name for a place that was actually called something else.

So after my disappointment at not finding anything there, I made my way downstairs to the library. A member of staff led me over to the microfiche/film readers and to a cabinet containing the films. We found the particular year I was after and I headed over to the readers. The library staff member needed to serve people waiting at the counter, but said she’d ask the local history group member to come and help me once they’d finished with somebody else.

I sat at the machine and tried loading the film using the instructions. It reminded me a bit of loading film into a camera, but whereas I’m pretty much a pro at that I seemed to have difficulty loading the film into the machine! Luckily, the local history group member came and got me set up in no time.

The film for 1899 contained a whole year’s worth of the local newspaper, starting with January. What month was I after? December. Yes, I was on a manual machine and had to wind and wind the handle until I finally reached December (I guess it gave me some exercise as my shoulder was aching by the time I finished!).

There in the Ludlow Advertiser, 16th December 1899 edition, was what I was looking for! It was a report on the inquest of the death of my Great Great Great Grandfather John Middleton. As you will see in the Family History – Middleton category of my blog, I already had a copy of his death certificate and of an inquest document, but they didn’t tell me how he came to fall off his cart and what injuries he actually sustained causing him to die.

The report read:

Clun

Fatal accident to a Farmer – An inquest was held on Saturday, before Mr H.T. Weyman (district coroner), at Burfield, on the body of John Middleton, 63 years of age, of Burfield, farmer. Deceased was returning from Clun about 5pm on the previous day, driving a spring cart, on the side of which he was sitting, and when about a mile from home he was thrown on to the road, and received injuries to his head from which he died. When found he had the reins twisted round one arm, and the horse was standing across the road – The Jury, of whom Mr James Taylor (Clun) was foreman, found that the deceased met with his death accidently.

Ludlow Advertiser – 16th December 1899

Of course, after noting all that down, I then had to rewind the film back onto it’s spool! More shoulder ache, but it had been well worth it. I was pleased, and the local history group member could tell as we discussed certain aspects of family history research.

After returning the film back to the cabinet, I got talking to a library staff member who had replied to my original email and she handed me a leaflet containing information about the Ludlow Local History Advice Service.

The staff (and volunteer) were so helpful and friendly. I imagine I’ll need to go there again sometime and I certainly wouldn’t hesitate.

If you’re thinking of visiting your local (or even not-so-local) archives or library for family history research, I would recommend contacting them first as this may save you some time and, if needed, they may have family/local history volunteers in on certain days of the week who would be able to help.

Back in my Finding Things post, I mentioned I’d found a reference to the death of my Great Great Great Grandfather John Middleton. Well, this week the inquest document arrived. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give me much more than what I already know… and there are a couple of words that I can’t quite make out. My scanner isn’t connected otherwise I’d scan the words and see if somebody could read them… I might do that at the weekend.

It says that my Great Great Great Grandfather accidentally fell from a spring cart which he was rein driving and ????? sustained injuries from which he ???? and ???? did die.

I think the 3rd word is here, which would make sense. The 1st word we thought might be surely, except after closer inspection the first letter doesn’t match the s of sustained. It looks like an n or h, I did think i could be an r but the r in rein looks sharper than this letter. I just can’t make out the 2nd word.

Maybe I should do a “Guess the missing word” competition… Anyone up for it?!

I wonder if a local newspaper from the week that my Great Great Great Grandfather fell off his cart and died would have a report about it. I was hoping the inquest would say more about what injuries he sustained and maybe how he came to accidently fall off his cart. I will have to dig deeper…

Edit: Mum has taken another look at it and now thinks it says “… thereby sustained injuries from which he then and there did die.” – which makes sense! I wish she could have looked at it a bit closer BEFORE I wrote this post!

I haven’t had a great deal of time for my family history work lately. However, this week I decided to do a little foraging.

Searching through Ancestry UK gave me a surprising result. I found somebody had transcripted a marriage certificate from the 1880’s and listed as one of the witnesses was my Great Grandfather Alfred! I am in no doubt that it was him due to the location and name. I would never have known my Great Grandfather was a witness at a wedding if it hadn’t have been for somebody transcribing the certificate. The BMD records are searchable by either bride or groom, but witnesses only come to light when the certificate is viewed. Of course, I have found the reference for the certificate and have already ordered a copy for my records.

Another one of my family history online haunts when looking for records is Family History Online. There I found references to court documents naming my Great Great Great Grandfather John Middleton, one of which is a reference to the inquest of his death. This is the one I’m most interested in as I’d like to know how he came to fall off his cart! I have requested the relevant documents from the archives… I wonder what they say.

Finally, I’ve come across a website I thought I’d share with you. Take a look at this website which makes photos look old. You can either upload a photo from your computer or enter the URL of the image you want to use. Go on, have a go!

Following on from my research on Henry Purslow and his family, I now can confirm that he and Jane did have a daughter called Elizabeth. She was born in 1841 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. This still leaves a 10 year gap between Elizabeth and Henry junior… Something to work on.

On another side of my family… Yesterday I received the death certificate of my Great Great Great Grandfather John Middleton. In 1899 he accidently fell from his cart while driving and subsiquently died. Sadly, the death certificate doesn’t give any details as to any injuries sustained in the fall or the exact cause of death. I guess only the coroner’s report at the inquest can give me those details and that’s only if it still exists. A trip to the Shropshire Archives may be in order!

I’m still alive and kicking, but no results from the hospital yet. Not that I expect to hear anything for another couple of weeks yet and I full expect the results to come back negative… They always do with me! It’s good in a way, but also anoying because it means there’s still no proper answer. We shall see.