Causier Reunion: June 27, 2015

Wouldn't it be fun?? …  With a few minutes of spare time last night and as I frequently do on my less common ancestral surnames,  I ran a search on "causier," and found something great!

There's going to be a reunion of CAUSIER descendants in Droitwich, Worcester, England this summer.  The organizers are celebrating the 300th anniversary of the baptism of Sacheverell Causier at St. Peter De Witton, 27 Jun 1715.  They've received good press coverage in the Worcester area, with articles in both the Worcester News 19 February 2015 and in the Hereford Times 20 February 2015 .  I wish I could go join them all.

These two articles are virtually identical and both include contact info for event organizer, John Causier.  Wouldn't it be great to attend and travel around the area with distant cousins?  Just think of all the photos that will be snapped and all the info that will be shared… wouldn't it be fun?…  but I'll just have to be content with all the dreams I will have about returning to visit England….  I'll have to settle with contacting the organizer, seeing how we relate, and sending my best wishes for a successful event.

I've posted before about this Sacheverell Causier before.  As shown in my line of descent below, I'm descended from 3 consecutive generations of Sacheverell Causier!  Actually there were at least 2 more generations of Sacheverell's, just not my line.

We went to England in 2006 and had a wonderful time visiting with fourth cousins I'd found online: one on the Causier line and one on my Ethell line.  This photo is from Whitwood and shows an old cornerstone naming James Causier.  The year on this stone is illegible, but another stone in the building appeared to be dated 1887 (or possibly 1867).  This James is not in my direct line, but is indeed a descendant of Sacheverell.  The building is within sight of the church I showed in an earlier post.

Line of Descent

Sacheverell Causier = Betty Astmore
Sacheverell Causier = Elizabeth Wood
Sacheverell Causier = Sarah Hunt
William Causier = Ann Tolley
Charles Causier = Catherine Hughes
John Henry Carr = Ann Matilda Carr
Bertha Maud Carr = BT Hegwer (my grandparents)

Photo by MHD: all rights reserved.

Advantages of Sharing Info: Great-Great-Grandmother Catherine Hughes

When I started working on genealogy, I had my grandparents' names and virtually nothing else.  It took some work and a lot of luck, but I was very fortunate to soon find other researchers who had been working for years and had all purposefully put their data online or published it in society newsletters, etc., to make it easier for others to find.  I think of their generosity whenever I meet genealogists who proudly proclaim they don't share their work.  I understand, and have had those thoughts myself..., but I know my research wouldn't be as far along as it is now without the help of others before me.

Today, I found Great-Great-Grandmother Catherine HUGHES' 23 July 1837 baptism in the Bishop's Transcripts of St. Thomas' Church in Dudley, Worcestershire, solely because of distant Cousin Judy and the info she shared with me several years ago.  She had done her research over years in the "dark ages" of genealogy research: alone, by hand, by snail mail, taking months to go from one clue to another.  Thank you, Judy! And, if you should see this, please contact me--I can't find you....

Line of Descent
John Hughes = Lydia Cooper
Charles Causier = Catherine Hughes
John Henry Carr = Ann Matilda Causier
Grandma, Bertha Maud Carr

Source
FHL film # 350,620:  Pre-printed forms,  film starts at p. 230, goes to 300, and then starts over at #1 in about April.  Catherine's baptism is on the page numbered 64.  Unfortunately, Catherine's is one of the many which have only a baptism and no birthdate.

William Causier in Dodderhill

I went back to the Dodderhill Parish Survey Project site mentioned in last post and found great-great-great-grandfather William CAUSIER actually named! It says 

 Most of the Land is owned by Earl Somers and Thomas Thould, with John Bobeson, Thomas Wilson, Edward Bayliss, and William Causier as main occupiers. Full details are in the Appendices of the document available by clicking the link below, which also has information on the various legal documents conveying the land at Impney to John Corbett.

 My goodness!  A name and more information available?!  What could be better than that?!

It took a while to navigate and get to the additional information, but it is super!  Links led to the Worcestershire County Council site and, wonder of all wonders, they have a searchable database with digital copies of the 1845 tithe maps!  There are lots of ways to display the maps and a complicated/thorough legend and labeling system.  It seems to work much better with IE instead of Mozilla.  This image is a very simplified version of what I found:

The pink hash-marked spaces are roads, with the main one from the right of the top center to the bottom left corner being Bromsgrove Road.  The label didn't transfer with the image, but the area immediately to the east of that road and immediately south of the L-shaped dead-end is Hill End!

Now, for the biggie: look at the line of 8 structures along Bromsgrove Road in the center of the image.  The thin, greenish parcel with the 4th structure down is that of William Causier in 1845!  I hope this makes sense because this is a great find: a map that specifically shows William's land and the location of the Hill End area.

The unique intersections allowed me to use Google street view and locate the spot! It shows lush foliage in a mostly residential area with the Hill End busstop in front of a wall that would be just about where William's parcel was.  I may never get to see it in person, but this find is almost as exciting as that would be for me.

The tithe mapping database says:

Parcel 436

Owner: Earl Somers

Tenant: William Causier

Title: Cottage and garden

Area: 0,0,9

Tithes: 0

Land Use: Non-agricultural 

Parish: Dodderhill

 I haven't yet found the appendices and document mentioned, but I'll keep looking.  And, I don't know what the '0,0,9' means for the area, but I bet the folks at RootsChat will!  Right now, I'm going back to RootsChat to show them what I found because of their answers to my query!

Conclusions
It's good to keep looking and exploring all the info in a large website.  I don't know why I kept looking this time because I know I was assuming it was all just general info and would never have anything on just, plain, regular folk....

Now, I have a map and a very specific location for a great-great-great-grandfather from 1845.  English geography doesn't seem quite so complicated right now!  I am so very excited! A map can be better than anything!

DISCLAIMER

I am not an employee of any of the entities mentioned here, nor do I receive any special consideration from them.

Great Resource: National Probate Calendar for England & Wales

There have been lots of announcements lately about the debut of the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar database at ancestry.com.  I finally got a chance to play around in it and found some of my CARRs and CAUSIERs.

Grice Ethell Carr 

He is one of my great-grandfather John Carr's brothers.  I don't have problems in that generation or the previous one, so I haven't done too much work on Grice Ethell.  Given his unusual name, he is easier to spot when looking for CARRs in general, and I have written about him before.  

This find [1] gives me a specific address and a death date.  The surprise (or problem?) is his wife's name being 'Sarah,' when I was expecting Emily J.  Since I have no other record of him after 1901, Emily could have died and he could have remarried.  I should spend at least a little time and see if I can fill in the new gaps and see if I can resolve the wife issue.  I don't feel a real need to pursue the original records that go with this index entry, but at least I now know where and how to find them!

The address given, however, intrigued me.  I have a terrible time keeping track of the geography and levels of goverance in England.  This one, especially with no punctuation, completely threw me.  So, I posted a question in the Yorkshire section at RootsChat (also see previous post about this great resource).  Almost immediately, I received several responses, telling me that the street address is 12 Brandon Terrace.  'Slade Hill' is an area within the Moortown district of Leeds.  I also was told that it's a very nice area of town and that 'Slade Hill' has an alternate spelling of 'Slaid Hill.'  I love RootsChat!

William Cornelius Causier

Yes, this record [2] only says 'William Causier,' but with the info given, he is the one in my files as William Cornelius Causier, the son of my great-great-great-grandfather William Causier and his first wife, Letitia Willis.  My line is through William's second wife, Ann Tolley, so this is a very collateral record for me.

His occupation at that time is new to me.  I sent off another question to the Worcestershire section of RootsChat asking about 'Hill End' and the relationship to Droitwich and Dodderhill.  I've seen it many, many times in parish records for the Causiers.  Again, I received replies clarifying the lay of the land and including a new website to checkout:  the Dodderhill Parish Survey Project.  There's enough info there to keep me busy for ages!  Their growing site includes history, maps, and records.  Thanks, yet again, to the great folks at RootsChat!

The WRONG William Carr!

My William Carr is my great-great-grandfather and I only have death information from another family researcher.  Granted he's an absolutely expert researcher, but it would be nice to find more info anyway.  As you should assume, the search at the database turned out oodles and oodles of William Carr's who died in 1916.  But I was excited when one of those high in the list was a William Herbert Carr who died in 1916 from Scarborough, Yorkshire, which is very close to where I would expect to find William, and 'Herbert' is a family name.  But, look at what I got when I went to the image [3]:

Regretably, I have no known relationship to this brave soldier.  I am, however, certain that my 76-year-old great-great-grandfather was NOT off in France in WWI.  This non-find reminds me that no matter how an index entry may appear to match, don't get too excited! 

Conclusions

Yet again, I found myself playing around, finding absolutely interesting stuff on collateral lines and strangers.  Do I need to draw a harder line on how I spend my research time?!

The entry on William Carr was a good reminder that I must never assume that an index entry is the person I'm researching, not even when the dates seem to match.  And, it's real folly with common surnames.

Genealogy people, and especially those at RootsChat, are the nicest and most helpful people!  I should spend more time in RootsChat searching the info already there and I should see if there are any queries where I can be a help and not just a problem.

Sources

[1]  England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861-1941.  [Database at ancestry.com]  Image from 1928, p. 526.

[2]  England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861-1941.  [Database at ancestry.com]  Image from 1870, p. 333.

[3] England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861-1941.  [Database at ancestry.com]  Image from 1917, p. 454

Disclaimers

I am a paid subscriber to ancestry.com but I receive no other special consideration from them in any way.  I am registered at RootsChat [that's free!] and receive nothing but good responses from them.

Sacheverell Causier, 1715

This image is from Worcester, England.  I believe it records the baptism of my sixth-great-grandfather, Sacheverell Causier and (yeah!) shows his father as Wm. Causier [1].  'Causur' is a fairly common variant for Causier.  I believe that this is the Sacheverell who married Betty Astmore in 1744 [2].

Two other entries, perhaps children of the same person but written as 'Will,' are for:

• William, 10 Jan 1712
• Elizabeth, 19 Oct 1717

The first image on this roll in Item 2 has "The living is a vicarage united to the Rectory of St. Nicholas, Droitwich, in 1928.  For microfilm of St. Nicholas parish registers, see BA 4305."  As noted below, having people in Droitwich in this era means we have to look at lots of different places!

Interestingly, the third image says "Note.  In this register is recorded the baptism of Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim father, on 20 October, 1595."  

There are lots of CAUSIER, WOOD, and HUNT entries in this film and the two items listed below.  Most of them are, at this time, 'unknown' to me.  Unfortunately, there is not an ASTWOOD or anything similar to be seen anywhere....

Source

[1]  St. Peter de Witton Church, Droitwich: Parish Registers, 1544-1978; Baptisms 1544-1853, Marriages 1544-1769, Burials 1544-1812, Salt Lake City Family History Library, FHL # 801,595, Items 2-5. Item 2 is kind of in  chronological order without page numbers.

[2]  Cousin Val is my only source for the Astwood link.  So far, I haven't been able to find anything else.

Notes

Additionally, these two records are also available:

Parish register printouts of Droitwich, Worcester, England (St. Peter); christenings, 1716-1875.  FHL # 883,780; Item 3.  The image of the title page says "Computer Printout of Saint Peter, Droitwich, Worcester, England (1716-1875) Births or Charistenings, A thru Z" and that the info is from a controlled extraction program in 1976.  There are 7 CAUSIER (and variants) entries; I only know how 2 of them fit in with the line.

Registers of The Church of St. Peter de Witton, Droitwich, Worcestershire: Baptisms 1544-1840, Marriages 1544-1837, Burials 1544-1838.  This very nice book appears to have been published by a genealogy group, but publication info does not appear on the title page or its reverse.  The ISBN is 0-905105-83-4.  There is a very brief, but nice, historical introduction.  WorldCat credits the Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry (there are some wonderful resources at their website) and gives a date of 1986.  I was able to access a copy by using interlibrary loan at my local library, with the copy I saw having traveled across the country from Harvard University Library!  Since this was a nicely typed transcript done by locals familiar with the records, I was able to use it to help with the microfilm of the original that the image above is from.  The book's introduction lists the nearby churches of St. Mary de Witton, St. Nicholas, and St. Andrew.  I have also seen records from Dodderhill.  There can be CAUSIERs in any of them!

Baptism: Charles Causier

This image shows the 4 December 1836 baptism record for Great-great grandfather Charles CAUSIER in the records of the Parish Church of Dodderhill in the County of Worcester in England. It says they were living in the Hill End section of Dodderhill and that his father was a labourer.

His parents were William CAUSIER (1794-1873) and Anne TOLLEY (abt 1809-1891). I'm currently combing the Dodderhill & Droitwich records in an attempt to verify Anne's birth and parents. There seem to have been several churches in the area and I don't think I would have found this image without the notes Cousin Judy sent me: Thanks, Judy!

Source
FHL Film# 352,025; Item 1: Worcestershire Parish Records, Dodderhill, Vol. 7, baptisms 1813-1841, p. 158.