RIP Easy IGI Searches Online

I found this unfinished post just 'laying around' which reminded me just how much I miss the old IGI search on the Family Search website.  Not quite sure about their reasoning but in their attempt to improve, they basically made it worse.  I'm not going to moan about something that is provided for free but I just... miss it.  

Here is the old post (with a couple additions) which seemed to be a HOW TO FIND ANCESTORS BORN BEFORE 1837 or a recount of how I came to a conclusion but I'm not sure what I was trying to prove. It may be of some use to someone:

Thomas PALMER is listed on his son's marriage certificate 1848 as a 'Bookseller':

A search of the IGI online (after census searches of son George's approximate age) now identifies his wife as Ruth (and locale as Portsea):

The original baptism entry in the Saint John's Chapel, Portsea parish registers gives further confirmation these are the correct people, as Thomas' occupation is listed as 'Book Binder' (same field of work - books):

Back to the IGI to search for the marriage of Thomas and Ruth, which gives her maiden name as Ruth WRIGHT (married in Saint Mary's Portsea):

This makes it easier to search the census records which then give me approximate birth dates for Thomas and Ruth.  Parish records can now be searched for the marriage (possibly more information); their own births/baptisms and other children of the marriage.  

Next Steps:

Find copy of Thomas & Ruth's marriage entry in the Saint Mary's, Portsea parish registers

Find copy of Thomas & Ruth's baptism entries in Chichester, Sussex (church unknown)

Murder in the Family II

(See original post here.)

Another message from my husband's aunt seems to indicate the belief that Eliza Tharm is the ancestor in question:

"this Eliza Tharm isn't a direct ancestor but down the line from either a brother or sister of one of our direct ancestors."

I had come across Eliza in my initial research as she was famously the maid living at Dr. Palmer's house who became Palmer's mistress after his wife's death.
Staffspasttrack.org.uk says that Eliza gave birth to an illegitimate son in the Palmer House and this child was sent to be cared for by a 'nurse'. It was claimed that Palmer sent for the young child saying that he wished to see that the child was well.

Sounds very much like the story originally given to me (see here) but that seems far too easy.  If Palmer really was the rogue he was rumoured to be, there was sure to be other mistresses and possibly more illegitimate children.  Google Books have available a copy of Illustrated Life and Career of William Palmer of Rugeley.  I have yet to read it but a skim through revealed this snippet on page 55:

Some time after his marriage, William Palmer had an illegitimate child by a Rugeley woman, of the name of Jane Mumford, and he had, in consequence, to pay for its keep. It is related that this child, a little girl, was brought to him that he might satisfy himself that it was still alive; he saw the child, and sent her home again. Shortly afterwards she died.

Sounds tragically familiar...

Murder in the Family

I've just returned from an impromptu family history journey to the midlands (which I'll post about later) and found a message from my husband's aunt:

I was telling Dad about the mistress of Dr Palmer the poisoner being one of our rellies. The one that had a child by him and sent him to stay with Dr Palmer and the unfortunate child was killed by him. Do you have any information on that?

I certainly do not but I'm keen to know more!

Dr. William Palmer was born in Rugeley, Staffordshire in 1824.  He was hanged for the murder of John Parsons Cook, but is also believed to have poisoned his mother-in-law, wife and four of their five children as well as many others.  He became known as "The Rugeley Poisoner" and "The Prince of Poisoners" but there is still some doubt as to whether he was guilty of any of these crimes.

When I asked my husband if he knew anything about this, he said that his grandfather told him that his grandfather was taken by his father to see the hanging but he wasn't 100% certain.  I did some immediate checking of facts and if that story is true (about seeing the hanging), it would have been his great grandfather, Charles, who was taken by HIS father, Jonathan RICHARDS.  This Charles was born in Rugeley, February 1851 and would have been 5 years old when taken on this grisly day trip -  Dr Palmer was hanged at Stafford on the 14th June 1856.

If the 'mistress story' is true, then she may have been a sister of Jonathan or his wife Ann LEES but I don't have any other information at hand so at this stage it could refer to anybody.  The Staffordshire Past-Track website seems to acknowledge that Dr Palmer was "overly fond of the ladies" so this story has some merit.

I had come across Dr Palmer before - close followers of my blog will recognise my ties to the PALMER surname and I had previously come across 'the good doctor' in my search but found no connection.  It would be very interesting to find a family connection after all - even through the back door (so to speak).

If you would like to know more about Dr Palmer, please visit the Staffordshire Past-Track website (also the source of the above image) and WilliamPalmer.co.uk.

(image on the right of Dr Palmer's prison cell from the National Library of Medicine site).

Workhouse Call

Read 1st part here and 2nd part here.

It took some time (and a bit of money) for me to find the right George PALMER's death certificate. I am now quite sure this is the correct one as the age, occupation and location fit.

George Palmer's death certificate - 29th October 1896

After an eventful life, George died in Westminster Union Workhouse. How did he end up there?

Note that George died of 'Senile Decay'. Does this mean I have another lunatic on my hands?
Ancestry UK now has London Poor Law records available to view online. I searched the Westminster Union 'Register of Lunatics', which thankfully has a surname index and found there were no PALMER lunatics between the years of 1890 and 1898.

Unfortunately the 'Admission and Discharge Book' does NOT have a surname index. Using George's date of death, I found his 'discharge' (death).

October 1896 Westminster Union Workhouse 'Admission and Discharge Book'

George died on Thursday, October 29th 1896. His last meal was breakfast and his diet was described as 'class 2' (The Workhouse site explains the class of diet from 1900 onwards but I have yet to find a key to the Westminster Union classes in 1896).

The 1891 census for Westminster Union Workhouse contains a George Palmer of the same age, occupation and county of birth as mine.

George PALMER on the 1891 census in Westminster Union Workhouse

Presuming the George on the 1891 census is mine (the town of birth is listed as Winchester, Hampshire whereas all the other information that I have, states that George was born in Portsea, Hampshire), I have a window of 10 years in which to search for his admission.

Considering there is no surname index, this is a bit of a tedious task as I have to trawl through each page in the book for his surname - wish me luck!

Future House Call (Using Google Street View)

Read 1st part here.

After his second wife died, George seemed to move around, lodging at various places in London. His marriage to second wife Emily FELLA was so short that it didn't feature in any of the censuses (they married in 1873 - she died in 1875). Luckily for me, Emily's death certificate lists George as the informant and his residence as 54 Swinton St, London (Emily also died here).

Death Certifcate of Emily Jane FELLA -1875

A quick search of Rumsey's site informs me that houses still exist at this site:

I am aware that house numbers changed at some time in the past and need to check that number 54 Swinton St today is the same number 54 Swinton Street of 1875. Even so, it's another address for me to visit when I'm in London. I like being able to get a feel of how my ancestor's lives may have lived.

I used Google's street view for a quick peek at the area. Click and drag the orange man on to the map and use the on screen tools to have a look around.

Did the PALMERs live (and in Emily's case, die) in these buildings:

Or these?

Read 3rd part here.

House Call

Whilst reading my copy of 'Your Family Tree' magazine, I came across a great resource for people with London ancestors. The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection includes an 1843 London map which you can transpose over google's current satellite map. This would have saved me a lot of time a couple of years ago.

I don't have many links to London in my tree. The only significant person in my tree to reside in London was George Wright PALMER and part of his family.

George was born in Portsea and his job in the Royal Navy caused him to move around a bit. For some reason, George was in London at the time of the 1871 census. He was living at 33 Marshall St with his first wife, Mary Ann and youngest son, Edward.

Palmer family in 1871 census

(click for larger image)

When I went on the hunt for this address a couple of years ago, I had to switch between windows and use educated guesses to pinpoint the locations. With Rumsey's site, I was able to search and quickly locate Marshall St in Westminster.

Here is a photograph I took of what I believe to be 33 Marshall St. I found it the hard way but using this map overlay it was so quick and simple.




Here is a picture I found of 33 - 36 Marshall St, taken in the 1960s (annoyingly from the opposite direction to my picture).

It's hard to say how long George and his reduced family lived at this address. Mary Ann died the next year and he married his second wife, Emily Jane FELLA in 1873. Tragically, she died just two years later.
I'm not often able to find detailed information on the houses in which my ancestors lived, which makes the details I found at British History Online even more special.

Most of these buildings [...] were erected in the 1820's by or under the supervision of Thomas Finden after the closure of Carnaby Market [...]. This redevelopment was uniformly planned, small in area and scale, but forming to-day an unusually pleasant oasis for pedestrians, and offering facilities for shopping away from the through streets. There is accommodation for shop-keepers over the shops, as well as for chamber trades such as tailoring. The least altered parts are the block bounded on the west by Newburgh Street and on the south by Ganton Street, and the two pedestrian courts west of Newburgh Street—Lowndes Court and Marlborough Court.
The prevailing form was the four-storey terrace house fronted in stock brick, two windows wide with plain window-openings, and a continuous plain parapet with stone coping. The windows, most of which have their original narrow glazing-bars, have stone sills. The ground floors were built as shops from the beginning, for this was the period of the planned shopping street...
The ground floors of Nos. 33–36 Marshall Street have thin pilaster-strips and a continuous entablature; space appears to have been provided for shop-windows but, except at No. 35, these spaces have only one domestic-size window each. The ground floors of Nos. 20–22 Peter Street are similar.

(From: 'Marshall Street Area', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 196-208. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41471 Date accessed: 10 January 2010).
(The bold font was added by myself for ease of reference).

Read 2nd part here.

Marriage Entries vs Marriage Certificates II

In 1848, George Wright PALMER married Mary Ann ALLEN in the parish church of Gillingham, Kent (St Mary Magdalene). George was a gunner in the Royal Navy and Mary was a carpenter's daughter. Here is the certified copy of their marriage entry ordered from the GRO (click on the images to see a larger version):

George Wright PALMER and Mary Ann ALLEN marriage certificate - 1848

The next image is of the marriage entry from the Gillingham Parish Church records:

George Wright PALMER and Mary Ann ALLEN marriage entry -1848

I am lucky enough to be able to view the parish records on the Medway Council's City Ark website. These images have been published as part of the 'Medway Ancestors' project, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. If you have ancestors in the Medway district - it's well worth a look.

Again, I now have my ancestor's signatures, as well as that of Mary Ann's father, William Henry ALLEN. Fortunately in this case, the certificate was an accurate copy of the actual marriage entry. You may however find otherwise. If family historians ever have the opportunity to check parish records, they should. One small transcription error can lead to years of frustration. The information gleaned from these have been known to break down 'brick walls' in the past.

And hey, even if the information is the same, at least you'll have your ancestors' signatures or marks.