Allis families in London...or the lack of

Some idle thoughts on records for the Allis families in London

In looking at whether some of the unaccounted people from families in Essex and Hertfordshire ended up in central London, either the city or those parts of Middlesex which are London, it struck me that there were so relatively few.

It might be thought there would be a big pull factor into the city. Perhaps there was but people could be anonymous and disappear, or get conscripted. I wonder if any of the men ended up unwillingly under their own or assumed names on Royal Navy ships, or joined pirate ships and died abroad (maybe I have been watching too many films). There are a few databases yet to be explored. It was noted before that many soldiers at the Tilbury fort were buried without names and a number of unknown people found on the shores of the Thames.

In general, how easy was it to disappear in the 18th and 19th centuries?

As said at the start, some very idle thoughts on why people can't be found apart from records being lost, not made and so on. 

 

 

 

Second dip into AI for transcribing documents

 Again using the new ScribeAI from My Heritage (MH) I tried another difficult document with it. This was from the court of common pleas from 1523. It was a short document which had previously been transcribed and translated professionally by someone well versed in them. The document is in highly abbreviated Latin in a neat secretary hand, and the image was clear.

The description of the document from MH was "This document is an entry from the Court of Common Pleas (identified by the 'CP 40' reference in the filename)", and gave more information on this.

The transcription and translation was much better than expected although some text was added that did not come from the document. The transcription did show missing characters from the abbreviations in square brackets which was good. The transcription unfortunately also showed a couple of wrong names.

The results were good (impressive even) for a quick look. Care needs to be taken if a document looks to be of interest to give it more evaluation as the AI output on its own can mislead.

It is interesting that AI transcriptions (the ones that I have played with at least) do not show missing characters where there is a mark on the parchment or paper, or a crease, or a tear at the edge of a page, but the missing characters seem to be guessed. I assume it needs human intelligence to identify such things.

First step in AI for transcribing old documents

 

The new Scribe AI from My Heritage - first look

I have been resisting  using AI tools for genealogy (and everything else) but talk about them is everywhere. I have been warned about their "hallucinations" and so on.

My palaeographic skills are fair but not expert back to Tudor times. 

I have tried Transkribus a couple of times without much success, getting quite mangled results on documents which were in English although not with a particularly good hand.

I received an email about the new feature at My Heritage a couple of days ago which describes itself as "a powerful new feature that transcribes, translates, and interprets historical documents and photos" , so it seemed worth giving it a go.  It has a drag and drop interface to upload a file which is easy.

I uploaded the will of Roger Allis of Glentworth, Lincolnshire (Lincolnshire archives ref. Stow wills 1563/47). It is a single page in an untidy secretary hand which I had previously transcribed with a handful of words missing that I couldn't interpret. Maybe not a fair test but I was interested to see what would happen, and I was pleasantly surprised.

 ScribeAI gave a summary of the document telling me it was in secretary hand and what a husbandman was, and discussed some of the items bequeathed. It also noted that the date (which was in January 1562) was in old style dating and corrected it to give the modern year.

It also gave a summary of the people mentioned in the will and their relationship to Roger and the bequests made.

Then the actual transcription. The first part of Glentworth was missing due to the edge of the page being torn, so it transcribed this as Panton (another parish in Lincolnshire) which was probaly fair given the writing. The problem was that later when the word Glentworth was complete it still carried on with Panton and did not correct itself. It did insert some words that weren't there and had some trouble with money, e.g ij s (2 shillings) was given as 2 sheep.

It did fill in some of my gaps which was excellent, but got one name wrong, and corrected one of my transcriptions.

Overall it was impressive. I would say that it could be of great use but used as a guide and not to take the given transcription as gospel. I gave it a pretty difficult document and it gave back a pretty good result.

Original documents

 It really pays to view the original documents if you can.

At Lincoln archives in the Nettleham bishops transcripts a marriage was found in 1599 for Edward Allys that hasn't been seen anywhere else or in the transcripts of the BTs (I hope I'm not wrong there!). 

That helped with a mystery but as usual prompts some more questions.

Audrey Allis and cyclist magazine

 Back in 2022 I wondered about an Audrey Allis who had been a contact in a cyclists magazine around the WW2 years.

After doing a little research it seems the mystery is solved and this was found to be a pen name for the person concerned. She was indeed a niece of "ragged staff" through his marriage to Ann Palmer, and used her first two Christian names of Audrey Alice to become Audrey Allis.

It really seems to be that simple. 

The Allis family; or, scenes of Western life

 A thin book was found with the title "The Allis family; or, scenes of Western life" published by the American Sunday School Union in 1858. The author was believed to be Velda Allis Eddy. (New edition 2009)

I've had trouble finding the author in any records. Was it about a real Allis family out on the prairies or is it just a made-up childrens story? Anyone know?

It's not really of any consequence but the book is out there...

 

Local histories

 Local histories are almost always useful for family research and getting a better understanding of a place. Local historians do a great job which is sometimes under appreciated. 

In looking at an 18c American Allis family in Connecticut this one was a dream:

"David Allis and the birth of Vernon"

David was born in Bolton, Connecticut in 1720 and later moved to the adjacent town of Vernon. The book is very readable and gives a feel for the area at the time. It's also a fair bit more general in scope than it sounds.

In describing the family of David Allis it does give some interesting detail such as finding David's gravestone broken up in a garden and the society raising money for it's replica replacement in the town cemetery. 

The book is useful for anyone researching that part of the world but very unusual to find a history centred around an Allis family, so a big thanks. 

 

The author is John Roe and it is published by the Vernon Historical Society and a physical as well as an on-line copy may be obtained from them here

https://www.tankerhoosen.info/news/upcoming_2024_1_allis_book.htm

follow the links for the on-line (free) version 

Family History Societies

 On a recent visit to Lincolnshire archives and spotting some volunteers transcribing records it reminded me of the unsung work carried out by family history societies.  These records are carefully transcribed and checked and are much more reliable than some other transcriptions. Buying the resultant CDs or on-line downloads is well worth the money, not only to support the FHS financially, but can generate links or ideas on the home computer which may not be seen with on-line sites.

It's great work you are doing and much appreciated. In this case to the Lincolnshire Family History Society, but to others also.

 

Here's another really useful resource for Lincolnshire marriages (post 1837)

https://mi.lincolnshiremarriages.org.uk/

 

 

Ethel Allis and Paul Page

 Found a nice photograph of Ethel Allis with her new husband Paul Page from around 1930 on ebay. This was a publicity picture for Paul presumably since he worked for Fox studios as an actor at that time. They look happy.

Given the age of the picture would copyright still apply to it? It would be good to put it on the web-site. 

web-sites!

 Just caught out by thinking that a page on a web-site would stay there. So instead of the nice transcription of an early will I wanted to refer back to, I now just have the catalogue number. 

It was for a peripheral family so didn't seem that important to keep a copy at the time but has just gained importance.

Note to self: keep everything. 

Back again

 It has been a while. 

I can recommend the IHGS correspondence course in genealogy which has taken up quite a lot of time. 24 lectures completed at your own pace. Naturally some lectures are of varying amount of interest but there has always been something to be learned. The course is now nearly finished.

The book is also being updated from the 2020 edition - again occupying a lot of time. How can you check chapters a couple of times and still find typos and poor grammar? (no need to answer)

I also thought it would be of interest to produce a database on the lines of Custodian. The sqlite database was relatively easy to get going but a front-end for it has proved more challenging so the use of DBeaver has proved most useful in providing a place to enter and organise data.  Sqlite studio and DB browser are other apps that have proved really useful for that exercise too.

After another two trips to Lincoln archive and one to Essex archive there are many documents to read properly and transcribe.

In the past I have tended to only enter families into the Master Genealogist (and from there the web-site) when there has been enough of a group. I think this will change to include more individuals and couples, if only to get them recorded.

Another concern has been the Alce families of Sussex. Alce was a contraction of Alice and the two (with Allis etc.) were interchangeable for a time. Then the spelling appears to have become permanent - has the pronounciation of the name changed over time? Some early Alce/Allis families will be recorded to get going. 

Audrey Allis and "The Cyclist" magazine

 Some letters for sale on ebay recently caught my eye. They were to Audrey Allis from some servicemen and addressed to contact corner at "The Bicycle" magazine.

It seems that Audrey was a pen-friend to a large number of serviceman interested in cycling during WW2 and after the war she organised a large gathering or gatherings of those friends.

She was mentioned in the Daily Mirror of 6 April 1946 as the hostess of the "contact corner" party at Bayswater, and a photograph was included. A note about the party in "The cyclist" of June 1946 says that her uncle was the writer "Ragged Staff" aka Reginald Burgess "Rex" Coley who wrote a great many articles and some books on cycling. Rex was born in Walsall in 1898 and married Annie Palmer in 1929.

Who was Audrey? There are few candidates but after the party mentioned she seems to have disappeared with no references back to the magazine.

A wedding notice from 1837

 A marriage notice from the Yorkshire Gazette of 8 April 1837 was a little out of the ordinary:

"The blooming bride has withstood the blasts of upwards of fifty winters, whilst her lord has not yet escaped from the thraldom of his legal infancy,—being, we understand, above thirty years her junior."

 

Love as a surname or forename

 Having an ancestor's surname as a christian name is obviously useful in following family lines and can provide useful pointers.

Having come across Love as a surname (7114 of them in 1881 and well spread across the country) could Love as a forename indicate a family connection, or is it a christian name in its own right? (In 1881 there were 344 instances).

If used as a middle name is that more likely to be a naming after an ancestor?

Nurse children and Chrysome children

 I have found a number of burials in Essex for "Nurse children" (example: Roydon in the 1600s). I have seen an article on this but it still did not really explain how the children came from London to certain parishes in Essex or why. Can anyone help?

Another reference in a parish was the burials of some "chrysome" children. I have just found this: A child who has died before it's mother was "churched" and the Chrisom cloth (placed on the child at the time of it's baptism becames it's shroud. The entry in the parish register was then for a "Chrisom child" [source: The local historians glossary of words and terms by Joy Bristow]

I don't remember seeing these terms in any Lincolnshire parish register.

Goodman Allis

 In searching some parish registers for Essex, England I came across some people referred to as goodman or goody in the 1600s. One entry for Waltham Holy Cross in 1634 is an example "Richard Wesley the grandchild of goodman Allis of lipats hill was buried the 9 day" (June 1634).

I had not heard of this term before (let alone see it in a parish register) but it was apparently fairly common in the 1600s in puritan circles and was also used in America at the same time according to this web-site

https://donnagawell.com/2017/08/14/if-you-were-a-puritan-what-would-be-your-title/

A more thorough treatment is given in a paper by Norman H. Dawes, "Titles as Symbols of Prestige in Seventeenth-Century New England" from The William and Mary Quarterly,Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan., 1949), pp. 69-83 (available via JSTOR).

As far as England goes was it a term just used in places with a strong puritan following or did it have more general use? I have not seen it in Lincolnshire parish records and in Essex it wasn't used in that many parishes. Interesting...

Essex, a soldiers burial

 Essex, England

In looking at the parish registers for West Tilbury, Essex there were a number of burials in the 1700s of soldiers from the fort which guarded the Thames. One very noticeable and sad observation was that they frequently had no names, just a note in the register saying "a soldier from the fort was buried on [date]" and sometimes followed by "another soldier was buried...."

Why did they have no names, especially since they were our soldiers? 

Quite a few soldiers buried were named and with rank, so what set the others apart?

John Alliss of Newark to Australia

 Has a loose end been tied up? 

A John Allis was baptised at Newark, Nottinghamshire on the 26 August 1809  the son of William Allis, a carpenter and cabinet maker, and his first wife Mary. No other records have been found for him.

So it has been until a notice in the London gazette caught my eye. It was for a Mary Amatt Jowitt (1844-1923) who died intestsate and the notice in 1926 (25 June, page 4169) was a call for any claimants on her estate. The short note at the end said 

"Note.—The intestate was the only child of John Jowett and Emma Jowett, his wife, formerly Emma Alliss, Spinster. A maternal uncle of the intestate named John Alliss, born in 1809, went to Australia many years ago."

 Emma Alliss' brother was the missing John, so it seems he went to Australia.

At St Pancras, Middlesex in 1831 John Alliss married Eliza Vandercom who, with their four children, emigrated to Victoria, Australia in 1849. In the 1841 census at St Pancras John was not from Middlesex and he was a cabinet maker, but nothing else to indicate where he came from. He was also born in 1809 or 1810 which was confirmed from the passenger list and his age when he died.

This sounds very much like John from Newark who could well have learnt carpentry from his father. He also uses the Alliss spelling. When his father moved from Lincolnshire to Newark he tended to use the double-s spelling.

It's compelling but it would be helpful to have some more evidence this is the same person.

Interesting how a chance note many years after an event can spark some connections.

UPDATE:

I have been contacted by relative of John and shown a copy of his death record along with a second marriage both of which state he was born at Newark. That's great news and many thanks to Merran. Your help was greatly appreciated.

What's new

As before noted, the Allis families that moved from Nettleham to the south of the county were hard to trace and some records simply do not seem to exist any more (if some were ever recorded of course).

It was interesting to come across someone searching for some of these same records in "Lincolnshire notes and queries" from vol 6, issue 50 in 1901

There is no indication that "Aries" found the entries they were looking for, but they were clearly trying to find the origins of the Ewerby, Hameringham and Old Leake families (see earlier post)

My results for the same:

1. We assume this to be William baptised in Nettleham

2. Still not located

3. Still not located

4. William, Eleanor and Elizabeth were baptised at Old Leake. Mary's baptism still not found.

I'd be happy to give 2 guineas for the records of 2 and 3...

A book on the Allis families of Lincolnshire

At long last I have finished (for the present) a book on the Allis families of Lincolnshire. As a vanity project a handful will be printed for the family but a pdf will be available later. Let me know if interested.

It is 194 pages including an index.

The aim was to draw up the family tress of all the Lincolnshire families and see if they could be linked. I think this has largely been done, at least back to Nettleham in the late 17th century. From there back it is a tangle and a work in progress.

The family lines extend out to Massachusetts, Colorado, Nebraska, Ontario, Australia and New Zealand, as well as various parts of England.