Poll Books for Norfolk, England on Google eBooks

I was browsing the Norfolk pages of GenUKI, one of my favourite sites for all things related to genealogy in the United Kingdom, looking to see what has been updated since I was last there. One of the things that caught my eye was the update of more Voting Registers, or Poll Books. Poll Books differ from Electoral (Voting) Registers in that they are a record of who voted in an election rather than who was entitled to vote. They are published after the election along with the results.

Browsing down the list I noticed that there were links to Google eBooks for 6 different elections from 1832 to 1865.

1832: Copy of the poll for two knights of ... - Google Books

1835: The poll for two knights of the ... - Google Books

1837: The poll for two knights of the ... - Google Books

1841: The register of electors to vote in ... - Google Books

1858: East Norfolk election. The poll for ... - Google Books

1865: East Norfolk election. The poll for ... - Google Books

The best thing about this is that they are FREE!! Download them and have them readily available for those times when you don't have an internet connection. Add them to your eReader of choice (love my Kindle).

It seems nothing much has changed over the years. In 1835, two of the candidates had words and were bound over to keep the peace towards each other.

The poll for two knights of the shire for the western division of the county

Tuesday's Tip - FamilySearch now has Images!!

I feel rather silly that I hadn't discovered this before. After all, I've used FamilySearch, lots! I have to thank Ancestry member ChristineS_51 for this tidbit. I came across a parish register image on one of her trees, copied it, and sent her a thank you note. She kindly gave me the link for it.

1. Go to FamilySearch in the usual way.

2. Scroll down to the bottom and click on "All Record Collections"

This brings up a list of Historical Record Collections (currently 622). Use the filters on the left to find your area by Place, Date, or Collections.

Here is what got me so excited!

Mothers Day - Mum Planted With Her Roses

Happy Mothers Day Mum

Avid gardener that she was, her wishes were always to be planted under a bush.

Eileen Mary (Brothers) Tissott was born 11 Nov 1908 at Chadwell Heath, Essex; married Eric Henry Lindsay Tissott on 6 Mar 1937 at Narrogin, Western Australia and passed away on 24 Aug 1994 at Gordon, New South Wales.

She rests under a rosebush at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens. The inscription reads:

Eileen Mary Tissott

11-11-1908     24-8-1994

Loving Wife of Eric

Mother of Rosemary

Elizabeth and Robert

Fond Nana of Her Grandchildren

Founders & Survivors - Vandemonians on the Victorian Goldfields

I just received the latest copy of the Founders & Survivors April newsletter "Chainletter". This issue of their newsletter looks at Vandemonians on the Victorian Goldfields, a Vandemonian being a convict who was transported to Van Diemen's Land and who then made his (or her) way legally or otherwise to the goldfields of Victoria.

 

My great grandfather Henry Tissett (Tissott) was one such convict. When he was 13 he was sentenced to death for cattle stealing, the sentence later being commuted to transportation for life in Van Diemen's Land. He eventually made his way to the Victorian goldfields and spent the rest of his life there, mining, farming, and this and that.

 

Founders & Survivors is a partnership between historians, genealogists, demographers and population health researchers. It seeks to record and study the founding population of 73,000 men women and children who were transported to Tasmania. Many survived their convict experience and went on to help build a new society. They are concentrating on Tasmanian (Van Diemen's Land) convicts because the Tasmanian records are better and more extensive than those from the other colonies. Tasmanian convict records can be viewed online from Archives Office of Tasmania convict records online .

 

Now I have to add details of my 2 direct-line convicts to their database.

(1) Great Grandfather Henry Tissett (Isabella)

(2) Great Great Grandfather Robert Wells (Moffatt)

Indexing Summary - April (FamilySearch)

Over the years I have done indexing for both FamilySearch and FreeREG. FamilySearch should be very familiar to anyone doing family history research; FreeREG is probably less well known.

For anyone doing research in the United Kingdom, Parish Registers are essential for tracking down that elusive person who was Baptised, Married, or Buried before 1837 when official registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths commenced. This is where FreeREG shines. Not only does it contain parish register data pre-1837 but also some registers well into the 20th Century. The Dorset marriage registers I transcribed recently were from 1971.

If you subscribe to Ancestry with either a World or United Kingdom subscription you will be very familiar with FreeBMD. FreeREG is a sister site containing searchable parish register transcriptions while FreeCEN allows searching the UK census data. These sites, particularly FreeREG and FreeCEN are works-in-progress, and there are large gaps in the databases. Both sites need volunteers.


In April I didn't do any indexing for FreeREG but concentrated mostly on FamilySearch. This is what I managed to get done:

• New Zealand Passenger Lists  1871-1915 Part 2A [605]
• UK Bristol - Parish Registers 1837-1900 Part I [168]
• UK Essex Parish Registers Part 1 [16]
• UK Dorset Church of England Parish Records [638]
• US Kansas 1930 Federal Census [50]
• US Missouri 1930 Federal Census [50]
• US New Hampshire 1930 Federal Census [50]
• US New Jersey 1930 Federal Census [400]
• US New York 1930 Federal Census [2350]

I try to do at least one batch a day from a high priority database (1930 US federal Census), one from Oceania (New Zealand Passenger Lists) and one from the United Kingdom (Parish Registers in this case). If I really can't read a batch I send it back for someone else with better eyes to handle. Once in a while there is a 1930 US Census page with totally abysmal handwriting and some of the UK Parish Registers are in an old font that I'm completely unable to translate.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - "Problems" in your genealogy databases

From Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Open your genealogy software program (on your computer or online), and use the Help function to determine how to make a "Problem Report" or "Data Error Report" (or something similar).

2)  Create a "Problem Report" or "Data Error Report" in your software for the persons in your tree (either everyone in the tree, or for a selected number of generations of your ancestors.

3)  Tell us what type of problems or errors that your report found.  Tell us how many errors were found.  Tell us what problem or error surprised you.

4)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, a comment to this blog post, or a comment on Facebook.

 

Compared to some people here I have relatively small databases. I've kept my maternal and paternal lines separate; they intersect only at my parents.

 

I used the "Data Errors Report" in Family Tree Maker 2011. The data errors it searches for (with the results for my 2 trees) are;

• Name contains invalid characters
• Name contains misplaced dash
• Name contains nickname (0, 4)
• Name contains title
• Wife's surname same as husband's surname (1, 0)
• Birth date missing (113, 338)
• Marriage date missing (84, 180)
• Person is unattached (1, 4)
• Children out of order (25, 11)
• Birth date after father's death
• Birth date after father was age 80
• Birth date after death date (0, 1)
• Birth date after mother's death date (0, 1)
• Birth date after mother was age 60
• Birth date before father was age 13
• Birth date before mother was age 13
• Burial date before death date
• Age at time of death greater than 120
• Event date occurs before birth date
• Marriage date after death date
• Marriage date after spouse death date
• Marriage date before person was 13
• Marriage date before spouse was 13

Between my two trees of 1911 people the results were really pretty good. Lots of missing dates, but those I expected. The one case where the wife's surname is the same as the husband's surname is OK, they were distant cousins. The unattached people are those I've added to the trees "in case" they are related.

 

Follow up:

1. Review the 4 people with nicknames
2. Sort the children into birth date order. If some of these don't have a birth date try to find an approximate date to use.
3. Fix the obvious problem of birth date after death date and after mother's death date
4. And finally, keep plugging away at the baptisms, christenings, and marriages from the parish registers.

Mystery Monday - Where are you hiding Rosanna Parker?

Where are you Rosanna Parker? Or is your name Rose Anna, Rosina, Hannah, or Anna? Is Parker your maiden name, were you widowed, could it be Barker? 

Rosanna Parker is my GtGt Grandmother. My first reference to Rosanna is when she married my GtGt Grandfather Joseph Tissott on 4th May 1818 at St Mary's, Brewood, Staffordshire.

 

 Joseph Tissot of this Parish and Rosanna Parker of this Parish were married in this Church by Banns this fourth Day of May in the Year One thousand eight hundred and eighteen. 

Note that the condition of neither the bride or groom is mentioned; they could have been single, widowed or already married to someone else. Additionally, the "with consent of" has been crossed out indicating that both Joseph and Rosanna were of full age.

Here is a timeline of Rosanna's life, as far as I can reconstruct.

• 4th May 1818, Rosanna Parker married Joseph Tissot at St Mary's, Brewood.
• 31 March 1819, Henry, son of Joseph and Hannah Tissom was baptised at Ss Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Chapel, Wolverhampton.
• 23 September 1821, Rosanna, daughter of Joseph and Rosanna Tissot of Bishop's Wood was baptised at St Mary's, Brewood.
• 31 October 1823, Emma, daughter of Joseph and Rosanna Tissot was baptised at St Mary's, Brewood.
• 7 December 1825, Julia, daughter of Joseph and Rosanna Tissot of Bishops's Wood was baptised at St Mary's, Brewood.
• 4th Jun 1827, Antoinette Tissot, daughter of Joseph and Rosanna Tissot of Bishop's Wood, was baptised at St Mary's, Brewood.

This is the last sighting I have of Rosanna Parker.

At Henry's baptism in Wolverhampton the priest spelled Joseph's name "Tissom" instead of "Tissott". There are many variations of "Tissott", Tissot, Tissett, Tisset, are some of the more common ones. "Tissott" is the correct spelling as Joseph states during Henry's Petition for Clemency at Stafford Assizes in 1832. As for "Hannah" being his mother, that could very well be what the priest was told.

Before the end of 1829 Emma, Julia and Antoinette had all been buried at St Mary's, Brewood.
On 4th December 1835 a Rosina Tissett, of the Poor House, aged 17 years, was buried at St George District Church Wolverhampton. This girl could be either
     (a) Rosanna Tissot, aged 14
     (b) Rosanna Tissott, aged about 30.

The Stafford Record Office could not find any reference to Rosanna or Rosina in the Poor House Records they have and I have yet to search the films of the Wolverhampton Poor House that are available from the FHL in Salt Lake City.
I haven't been able to find a Baptism for Rosanna Parker in Brewood, Staffordshire or in the surrounding districts as well as over into Shropshire.
I've just done another search to see if anything new has shown up at FamilySearch. There is a Rose Hannah Parker who was baptised at Uttoxeter in 1790 and she could very well be my Rosanna. I have no way of connecting the 2 women since she was of age when she married in 1818.


For now, I'm stuck with this brick wall as to when Rosanna died. The Poor House records may show whether this was Rosanna or her daughter who died in 1835.