Sourcing of records

The summer has been spent not so much on finding new records as finding old ones again.
I was surprised on running a report in the genealogy software that I use to see the large number of unsourced records.
It wasn’t in the mainstream family line but in a number of offshoots mainly, and was probably when a new family had been discovered and they were all added in haste.
I thought I had been quite strict with ensuring that when a new record or event was added the source was recorded at the same time. However the report proved me wrong and it has cost a large number of days to put some of it right and there’s a fair bit more to do.
In some cases it was seen that the omissions (and indeed errors) were from several years ago and never rechecked.

Running the report was depressing in some ways, but it has resulted in a good looking over of the family trees and with some up-side.
What was noticed in tracking down various events was how much more material there is on-line. For example, where evidence of a burial was initially sourced from the National Burial Index, a number of actual parish registers images were found in the new search giving a primary record rather than just an index entry.


Three lessons, or at least reminders the hard way.
1. However painful add the sources at the time
2. Periodically recheck on-line sources if a visit to the archive cannot be made, and update any source references to an index if possible.
3. Go over the whole tree from time to time and correct some of those early mistakes

An interesting note in a parish register

While browsing the parish registers of Newton Flotman in Norfolk there was a set of entries for the period 1759 to 1765 accompanied by a note which reads...

"The preceeding list of christenings and burials is not to be depended upon as exact. There being no register book in the parish at that time: Nor any account kept from the beginning of the year 1759 to the middle of the year 1763. So that the account during that time was afterwards collected from the memories of the inhabitants by the person who entered upon the curacy of this parish in 1763."

I have found various gaps in parish registers but this was the first note to the effect seen with an attempt to piece some of the missing records together by a curate who took record keeping seriously.

The Allice / Ellis family of Bridgwater, Durleigh and Wembdon, Somerset.

Ellis or Allis?

The origins of this family were at first thought to be perhaps an offshoot from the Allis family of Bristol, or even a separate group of long standing in the area. John Alys of Bryggewater Somerset, a mercer, was seen in the common pleas in 1475, 1477 and 1484 for example. However, this now seems not to be the case.

A headstone in the churchyard at Wembdon, Somerset for George, Robert, Sarah and John Allice shows them to be of the same family where Robert and Sarah are the mother and father.

John gave his birthplace in the 1851 census as Durleigh which is close to Bridgwater but the baptism for Robert was not found there, however there is one in Bridgwater, the son of Peter and Catherine Ellis.

Peter and Catherine had a number of children between 1794 and 1818 baptised at Durleigh and Bridgwater (St. Mary) with surnames Allice, Wallis, Ellis, Allis and Alice.

In the 1851 census Peter gives his birthplace as Butterleigh in Devon and his baptism can be found on the 12 January 1769 with his parents Robert and Rebecca Ellis. He married Catherine Trapmill as Peter Ellis on the 31 March in Bridgwater.

Most in the family continued to use Ellis while a few others used Allice which compared to the other families looked at over the country is unusual. In some cases the name appears to have been used interchangeably with some documents having Allice / Allis and others Ellis for the same person. For example, Ellen Ellis (birth registered in Exeter in 1865) the daughter of James Ellis and Mary Ann Mayne married in Wembdon and she signed the marriage register as Ellen Allice. When their children were registered her maiden name was shown as Ellis. (Interestingly the marriage records that James Allice married Mary Ann Mayne in Trinity, Somerset, though James did only make his mark).

This family appears to be essentially Ellis originating from Devon but where some members used Allice (with occasional Allis spellings). As this was used on a number of documents including wills and polling records, and over a long period of time, it appears to be a deliberate choice on the part of the Wembdon, Somerset branch. It certainly wasn't just a mis-spelling on the part of one or two officials, though it is possible that might have been the start of it.

They don't like to make it easy for us do they? 
 

Use of Family search and Ancestry etc. and collecting data in a genealogy software package

I have used Family Tree Maker to sync. to an Ancestry family tree but this has tended to be one-way, i.e. make changes in FTM and upload to Ancestry. I have also played with Legacy family tree which is quite a good software package. This has the ability to link to a (free) familysearch account: a facility which has not been used so far.
It's probably worth mentioning that the main database is The Master Genealogist which doesn't have the ability to synchronise with web-based family tree software. This is still a lovely bit of software if not looking too modern these days.

In a mood of experimentation I recently tried a couple of different approaches to see what I was missing.


1. Use the Ancestry hints and bring data into the Ancestry family tree, then sync. with FTM for a local copy, and
2. Using Legacy family tree and their ability to log-in to Familysearch and compare or find information on an individual.

In both cases the ability to inspect records about a person and bring that information into your family tree with a few mouse clicks is compelling.
In practice though I found it very easy to import poor information (e.g a woman's surname by marriage and not by birth) - perhaps this is simply a poor methodology on my part and looking at some training videos would help.
Conversely it was seen that in sharing data with Familysearch it could be easy to upload poor information to them which might then be passed onto others.
I have seen some Ancestry trees with completely wrong county names for some places, so maybe this is how it happened. The ability to import the source information is nice though, even if it is in Ancestry or Familysearch standard format.

To me the best feature is to be given information that I may not have noticed before. 

I once read a comment from someone suggesting the best way of entering people into a family tree is to do it slowly individual by individual and get to know them as you add the data. I still think this is the best approach.

The Hameringham, Ewerby, Quarrington and Old Leake families of Lincolnshire

And their connection to Nettleham

One of the aims of looking at all of the different families in Lincolnshire as well as further afield was to see if some or all of them could be traced back to Nettleham. One of the wills that has been left a while because it didn't seem an important one to look at seems to have tied a good many people together in one go. Better late than never.

There was an Allis family who were seen in Nettleham in the 1710s and 1720s before moving away, being John and Elizabeth Allis.

In Nettleham at the time were John Allis who was the son of John and Jane who later married Winifred Bains. There was a John born in 1687 the son of Robert and Elizabeth Mosse, but in Robert's will of 1715 he leaves a shilling to his son John "if he be alive", which rules him out as this John was in Nettleham over the same period as Robert. That seems to leave John, the son of John and Elizabeth Pell who was born in 1681 making him about 54 when he died.

John married Elizabeth Cam in Sudbrooke in 1709 and the first child, John, was born in Nettleham in 1710. He was followed by twins Thomas and Robert in 1711, William in 1715, Thomas again in 1718, Elizabeth in 1722, and Stephen in 1725. After this they are not seen in the Nettleham parish registers with only the children of John and Winifred Allis being baptised (except for one child of Robert and Catherine in 1726).

A family appears in the parish of Holton Beckering in 1728 when Mary the daughter of John Allis and Elizabeth his wife was baptised. Following this the family obviously hit some hard times as in 1731 their son Thomas died followed in 1734 by Elizabeth, John’s wife, being buried and in the following year John died. As the names and timings are right it is a reasonable assumption that the family in Holton Beckering is the same as the one that left Nettleham.

Now, with their parents having died John (age 25), Robert, William, Elizabeth, Stephen and Mary (age 7) had to look after themselves. It is not known how long they stayed in Holton for but a Stephen Allis marries in 1755 in Old Leake. Stephen at the time and in the Allis families of Lincolnshire is an uncommon Christian name.

Old Leake

Holton Beckering is about two miles NNW of Wragby and about eight miles from Nettleham.

Old Leake is over twenty-five miles away and not on an obvious path to anywhere so Stephen may have moved more than once to arrive here.

He married Mary Robinson from Wainfleet in 1755, the year their first child was born. In the old Leake parish register the baptisms of Thomas, William, Elizabeth, John, and Eleanor are recorded. Thomas died a few months after birth and the burial for a son John is recorded but not a baptism. Therefore we have William, Elizabeth and Eleanor. Stephen was buried in 1764 with a given age of 44 years, although if he was the Stephen from Nettleham he would have been about 39 or 40 years old although it was not uncommon for remembered ages to be a few years out.

Hameringham and Miningsby

These two villages are about two miles apart and about fifteen miles from Holton Beckering.

In 1747 Mary the daughter of John and Elizabeth Allis is baptised, followed by William and Mary in 1751 and 1753. The parish register shows the burial of Elizabeth Allis in April 1779.

In Miningsby the marriage of Mary Allis to William Coney takes place in November 1776 and an Elizabeth Allis marries James Stout in Goulceby in 1767. By 1777 both Mary and Elizabeth were living at East Keal.

The will of John Allis at Hameringham (written in 1761 and proved in 1767 - LCC Wills 1767/7) shows that he leaves all to his wife Elizabeth and that the unnamed children are all under the age of twenty-one years. Elizabeth also left a will in 1779 (at Miningsby - LCC wills 1779/3) where she leaves to her children Elizabeth the wife of James Stout, her eldest son John, her daughter Mary the wife of William Coney and finally to her youngest son William.

This indicates that the older children John and Elizabeth either did not have their birth recorded (or the records did not survive) or they were born elsewhere. Certainly there are missing records from the Hameringham parish register.

John is a good candidate for the one born in Nettleham in 1710 but no suitable marriage has been found at present.

Quarrington

Quarrington is adjacent to Sleaford roughly twenty miles south of Holton Beckering.

In 1752 at Quarrington in the parish register is recorded the baptism of William the son of William by Eliner his wife. A daughter, Mary, born in 1756 only lived for a few days. Eleanor died in 1785 at the age of 65, and in 1793 at the age of 78 William Allis a farmer was buried. This would give their approximate years of birth as 1720 and for William 1715. Here it can be noted that a William was born in Nettleham in 1715.

A suitable marriage for William and Eleanor has not so far been found.

 

Bringing the families together

Thus far we have three families who are good candidates for the family from Nettleham and Holton but they are widely spread and John and William are very common names.

Elizabeth in her will at Miningsby names her children as John, William, Elizabeth Stout and Mary Coney.

The will of William Allis of Old Sleaford in 1793 (LCC wills 1793/6) appears to pull all of these families together. In this he leaves to his wife Mary: Eleanor had died in March 1785 so it may be assumed he remarried. There is indeed a marriage in November of that year in Sleaford where William Allis a widower from Quarrington married Mary Millington, a widow, by licence.

He then goes on to name his nieces and nephews by his brother John as Elizabeth Stout, Mary Coney, John and William Allis. Further he names his nieces and nephews by his brother Stephen as William, Elizabeth, Mary and Eleanor.

He then names his son William leaving him properties at Ewerby and Ewerby Thorpe.

Therefore three separated families at Hameringham, Quarrington and Old Leake are shown to be related by the will of William Allis of Old Sleaford which also adds three children (two for John and Elizabeth and one for Stephen and Mary) that were not previously known. There is also a tie-in to Ewerby.

This also gives a lineage back to Nettleham although how they got from Holton Beckering remains a mystery.

1851 census of England and Wales

The moral from this exercise is to always check the documents and not to trust the transcriptions.

A detailed survey was made of the 1851 census for England and Wales using search results from Ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk. This census was chosen as being the first with the place of birth to be given as well as actual ages (in 1841 some ages were rounded to the nearest 5 years). The names and the number of reported occurrences were Allis (204), Alliss (54), Alless (6), Alles (101), Allice (52), and Alice (204) giving in total 621.

Each of the census images was then viewed to check that the name was correctly recorded and this showed many transcription errors. Some were clearly wrong while many were subtle and quite understandable with the poor handwriting of some enumerators. Some names which were difficult to determine were found and compared in the 1861 census which was sometimes clearer and allowed some people to be accepted or rejected. 

Common errors were reading “Allen” as Alliss or in the case of “Alice” it was to interpret a second Christian name of Alice as a surname. There are probably a few mis-transcribed or mis-indexed Allis names that were not seen and hence are missing from this survey.

The names and counts were as follows:

Ales 13      

Alace 1

Alice 32    

Alies 3

Alis 1        

Alise 1

Aliss 8      

Alles 1

Allice 8    

Allies 1

Allis 148  

Alliss 68

Giving an actual total for England and Wales of 285 persons.

The 285 persons splits into 63 couples or family groups and 71 individuals.

The individuals may be further grouped roughly as follows:

1 in prison

1 in a workhouse

2 in the army

9 widows/widowers or living alone

10 were visitors

19 were lodgers

29 were servants at their place of employment

The spread over the country is quite wide and the numbers listed by county of residence are shown below.

Cheshire 1                     

Derbyshire 10

Devon 3                         

Durham 2

Essex 19                        

Glamorgan 3

Gloucestershire 16         

Hampshire 1

Kent 21                          

Lancashire 14

Lincolnshire 99             

Middlesex 17

Monmouthshire 2          

Norfolk 5

Northamptonshire 1      

Northumberland 1

Nottinghamshire 6        

Shropshire 1

Somerset 14                  

Staffordshire 3

Suffolk 1                       

Surrey 19

Sussex 2                       

Warwickshire 2

Yorkshire 19                

Wiltshire 1

Worcestershire 2

Of these, four were born in Ireland and one in Scotland.

The Northumberland families originated from Nettleham, Lincolnshire as did some, but not all, of the Yorkshire members. The remainder of the Yorkshire families originated from the Tewkesbury Allis family. It is also believed that the family members in Nottinghamshire can be traced back to Nettleham.

This pattern is also seen in much earlier documents where although there are two or three main groups, there is also a random spread of small family groups in a wide geographical area.

The age ranges in the 1851 census are seen to be:

0-9       66

10-19   45

20-29   67

30-39   38

40-49   17

50-59   18

60-69   22

70-79   10

80-89   2

Allis entertainers

In searching newspapers for the family I came across a number of mentions in the Era of Mr Dave Allis and Miss Louie Cassatti - "clever comedy artists" around 1899 to 1900 or so. He also worked with Albert Juan as "knockabout artists"

Louie Cassati came from a Swiss singing family and specialised in Tyrolean singing and character vocals. The Cassati sisters are seen in the London Music Hall database in 1885, so Louie appears to have gone solo.
In 1897 one reviewer said that she "warbles a sentimental song acceptably" which is faint praise, though she did receive many good reviews for her singing. She was working all over the country and is seen from about 1888 until around 1900.

She had teamed up with Dave Allis between 1898 and 1900 and one review of their act said "Mr. Allis and Miss Louie Cassati are performers whose mission may be said to be various, and whose sundry devices prosper very well; and the comic sketch entitled “Whoa Emma” contains an abundance of those farcical incidents which are always found to be in favour".

Dave Allis continued after this and in a 1901 review "In the character of the Alderman Mr. Dave Allis is furnished with several chances to display his cleverness as an eccentric dancer..."
He appears to have continued until about 1902 when he disappears from the papers.

I haven't been able to find anything more about the backgrounds of these two and they do not appear to be in the 1901 census of England. Can anyone help?

Update April 2018: Dave Allis was apparently from Scotland according to a note in the "Era"

One more singer has been seen: From our Northumberland branch - Martha Caroline Allis (b1889) and in the 1911 census she was a professional singer though nothing more has been found in newspapers etc.

The first post (or hurdle)

The first post.
If anyone has an interest in the Allis (Alliss, Alles) etc. families in Britain and beyond then I would love to hear from you.

I have reconstructed some family trees on tribalpages which shows some separate family groups (covering most of England) and so far there is little to tie them together suggesting different origins. Therein lies a lot of work...