Nearly 1,000 baptisms for Bildeston, Suffolk, from 1560-1610, now online! More transcriptions for this busy wool town to follow.
Bildeston
East Bergholt burials
Over 1,300 burials for East Bergholt in Suffolk, from 1682 to 1727.
And that’s the last of my East Bergholt transcriptions. Look out for more transcriptions from Birch in Essex, plus many more Suffolk transcriptions!
The image above shows all that’s left of the tomb of Anna Parker of East Bergholt, who died in 1656. She was the wife of Henry Parker and the daughter of William Cardinall and Mary Derehaugh. The camel on the right was the Cardinall’s crest. The bear is presumbly that of the Parker’s. You can just about see the remains of her painted coat of arms in the middle, with a huge number of quarterings, but sadly they’re barely visible now.
Birch baptisms
Nearly 1,400 baptisms for Birch, Essex, now online from 1560 to 1754.
East Bergholt marriages
Marriages from 1661-1680 for East Bergholt, Suffolk, now online, bringing you nearly 900 marriages for this busy wool town from 1661 to 1804.
East Bergholt burials
More East Bergholt burials online – from 1656 to 1682. It was a busy place in the seventeenth century, with 1,200 burials in less than three decades!
The image shows the memorial brass for Robert Alefounder in St Mary’s church, East Bergholt, who died in 1639. Unfortunately, he passed away before the surviving records for the parish began, but it’s a brilliant image showing how a wealthy man of the period would’ve dressed.
More Copford baptisms!
Over 500 baptisms for Copford, Essex, now online!
That’s me done now for Copford, but watch out for Birch transcriptions coming soon, and more for Bures St Mary, too!
Copford burials
Nearly 1,000 burials for Copford, Essex, from 1558-1760 now online!
More Bures baptisms!
Nearly 1,000 baptisms for Bures St Mary’s, Suffolk, from 1731-1760, now online! This set of records includes the baptism of Golding Constable, father of the famous artist John Constable.
There are now nearly 4,000 Bures St Mary’s baptisms on this site, from 1592-1760.
Copford baptisms
Nearly 900 baptisms for Copford, Essex, from 1558-1700, now online! I’m transcribing the earliest register, from 1558 to 1760, so check back for more Copford transcriptions soon.
I’ve also transcribed the list of Copford rectors which was written down inside the front cover of the earliest register, which includes some family history information.
The government’s consultation on the storage and retention of wills: my response
I use wills all the time for my family history research, and for local history research too. They might come from county archives, or from the National Archives’ Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills, they might come from the National Library of Scotland. And sometimes, they might be from the centrally-managed collection of wills for England and Wales, which have been accumulating steadily since 1858 to the present day.
The government’s plan, in order to save money, is to digitise all of the wills and ditch the originals, apart from wills of famous people, and with a rolling wall to avoid binning anything that’s too recent and could cause upset (“sentimental reasons”), as they put it, or because the original needs to be referred to in case of a dispute. It’s a bit confusing because recent wills are originals – you get a scan of a document that’s been typed or printed, but older wills are clearly from a register of wills and I assume the originals of those are long gone. It’s unclear whether they mean to bin the registers of historical wills too.
There are several problems with the proposal.
Continue reading →