LIDDINGTON,
Hemel Hempstead, 1869-1871
January, 2006
Heather Brunt (UserBr8656
@t aol.com) of Ceredigion, Wales, writes: I am trying to find the death date and place of my great,
great grandfather John Seabrook Liddington. In the 1861 census he is living with
his wife of one year, Louisa Ann (nee Griffin) at
The Woods, Hemel Hempstead and
is a farmer of 152acres. [aged 24].
Their youngest child was born 2nd July 1869 in Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead and her
father's occupation is given as farmer.
In the 1871 census Louisa Liddington is described as a widow and is living with
her children at Town House, Tring next door to her father in law,
Seabrook Liddington.
However despite searching the indexes of deaths on findmypast and using the
search facilities on
familyrelatives.org I cannot find his death. Where do I go from
here?
A number of suggestions in no particular order:
- In your searches did you allow for the fact that he might not have
been alive when the child was born? (Obviously if he registered the birth he
was)
- FreeBMD shows that a
John Luddington, aged 33, was registered at
Wellingbro' [March 1871, 3b 111] - Right age, and not an impossible distance away
- if he went there for a special market, for example. - Did you
spot this spelling variation in your search?
- The are many errors in the master registration indexes (see
A Comedy of Errors) and it
might be worth contacting the Registrar at Bury House, Queensway, Hemel
Hempstead, who will have the original certificate book and may be able to
help.
- As a farmer with a reasonable acreage there is a reasonable
chance he left a will. Many Records Offices have copies of the will indexes -
and these are easy to search and contain a lot of information - assuming there
was a will.
- Have you located a church or chapel where the children were
baptised - if so have you checked the burial register.
- Gerrish produced an index of memorials in Hertfordshire
churchyards in about 1900. It is worth checking (I know microfilms are
available at HALS and the Society
of Genealogists. I suspect the LDS have it as well - so you could
try your nearest LDS Family History Centre (see familysearch
for details).
- Local papers of the time may record the death, and may also
have information on the sale of the farm, or farm stock, if this happened.
However as they are not indexed - and lengthy - you either need to live near
where the microfilms are kept and have a lot of free time - or you need to
know the relevant date before you start,
Alternatively (or as well) you should try the Hemel
Hempstead Gazette web site - which includes a local history section in
which questions are answered.
There is a web page
for Hemel Hempstead