Genealogy Chat

None of mine were rich, but they were all involved in the land in some way or another - farmers, yeomen and a few ag labs. The ag labs hadnt got a penny to leave, but they DID have a 'three lifetimes' lease on a bit of land, which they carefully passed on, along with the bed, bedding, 2 pigs and a horse and cart! Personally, I find this just as fascinating as the ones who left oodles of cash. I DID indirectly benefit from the Will of my 5 x GGF. He left modest amounts of money (£20) which got passed down the generations and I benefitted from the three remaining unmarried women of this family who carefully scrimped and saved in order for me to receive, some 190 years later, the sum of £1000. OC

I think wills are much better value than birth certificates. I found one recently for an ancestor from 1809 that named all his children including a daughter I had missed and even left a small legacy to his wife's brother which enabled me to confirm her parents and place of birth. I am not sure what hapened to his barrels of liquor and pewter tankard but I am sure my ancestor celebrated his good fortune. It is well worth getting wills for unmarried sons and daughters. I have one from a great aunt who left me a small bequest that names all her many nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews and also confirms who was alive in 1965 and what their married name was. I was also left a small bequest from a great uncle I did not know existed. He had lost touch with his family when he moved to yorkshire. The solicitor had to hire professional geneological researchers to track down all his nieces and nephews and they even put us back in touch with descendents of my grandmother's sister who had emigrated to Australia. As to what hapened to the money. I think it was the large victorian families. Even quite large estates did not go far when divided between ten children and the taxman. All the wills I have found have been at least signed by the person so you can also see a sample of their handwriting.

This particular family name is Goulson,and Page Goulson appears in several generations,although this particular one is slightly further off my main line than any other will i have so far. The surname is the one i have traced the furthest backwards and has the highest number of appearances in my tree.In fact on GR i have around 10% of the total of the name. Strangely though i haven't really looked that closely at any of them except via census and baptism/bmd records. Glen