Wynmelvin » Cornwall Record Office

September 10th, 2009

Russell — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:01:49 +0000

TRURO — Today has been, I think, my last visit to the Cornwall Record Office. I was planning on going back again tomorrow but I have now looked at everything I had originally planned to view and further searching would be unfocused. Besides, the weather has been too good the last couple of days to be sitting inside. So tomorrow I think I’ll do some sightseeing—not sure where or what yet.

Meanwhile, back at the record office, I looked at several more wills and found a couple more possible family connections. I also had a look at the Wadebridge entry in various Kelly’s directories and found that my great great grandfather appears to have been first elected to the Wadebridge Urban District Council in 1908, and going by the minutes I looked at yesterday, he was still there in 1921, the year he died.

I walked down the hill to the city centre afterwards—again. Some shopping at Marks and Spencer, and fish ‘n’ chips for tea. Then it was a long, steep walk back up the hill.

September 9th, 2009

Russell — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:25:51 +0000

TRURO — I arrived at the Cornwall Research Office just as they were opening and immediately got to work browsing through some wills. These too are all on microfiche. They are individually indexed in the catalogue so that if you’ve done your homework and know the correct classification, you can go straight to the ones you want to view.

Over the course of the day I found three Hewett, two Popplestone, and two Burnard wills that look as though they could belong. Each being just two or three pages in length (including the cover) I got photocopies of them made—cost: 70p/sheet.

I also took a look at couple of books detailing the population of the parish of St Breock that were compiled prior to the taking of the censuses of 1831 and 1841. I was particularly interested in the earlier one as the census for 1831 no longer exists.
I was allowed to look at them one at a time and had to use a foam wedge or two to help support the spine of the book, a snake weight to help hold down the pages, and a pair of white gloves (which looked far too small but seemed to stretch to fit). Photography is allowed (for a daily fee) so I managed to take lots of photos of pages containing names I recognised. Analysis will have to wait until after I return home.

I also looked at the minutes of the committees of the Wadebridge Urban District Council. An online version of Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall for 1914 lists my great great grandfather Joe Harry Hewitt as a member of the Council. I found the first mention of him as being present at a meeting of the Water Committee in 1914, and he was also present at the last meeting minuted in the volume—a meeting of the Finance Committee in 1921.

I left the Record Office an hour earlier than I had yesterday (well, I had started an hour earlier) and so took the opportunity to go into the city centre to get some cash to pay for my accommodation. Because it was such a fine day, and because I didn’t want to give up my car park (the guesthouse is very busy) I decided to walk. I’ll probably regret the decision tomorrow morning—I didn’t realise just how much of a climb the homeward journey would be!

September 8th, 2009

Russell — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:32:21 +0000

TRURO — Today was spent in the Cornwall Record Office browsing through microfiche after microfiche of parish registers looking for elusive ancestors. A good place to be because the weather was lousy—a grey, misty, wet day. The weather forecast looks better for the next week though; some sun is expected.

Most online genealogy sources seem to concentrate on providing access to baptisms and marriages. Burials are often overlooked, so I lthought I’d start by looking through the burial registers of a few parishes and and managed to transcribe quite a few entries. The handwriting of the various rectors, vicars and curates could be difficult to decipher at times. I really appreciated those who wrote with a firm, legible hand. Some were just diabolical to read, especially those who wrote so lightly that it hardly looked like there was an entry at all. Then there are those at the other extreme who penned so thickly that individual letters merged into one another and disappeared into a blob of ink. With limited time I just had to move on and hope the person didn’t belong in my tree.

Tomorrow I’ll start looking at some wills (all available on microfiche) as I’ve identified a few using the Cornwall Record Office’s online catalogue that will hopefully prove to be enlightening.

September 7th, 2009

Russell — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:42:01 +0000

TRURO — Today was all about getting me and my luggage to Cornwall, specifically Truro. I checked out of the hotel and into a shower of rain. I hadn’t realised it was raining and my umbrella was well and truly packed away—requiring a mad dash to Paddington Station and cover.

First thing I had to do was get my BritRail pass validated; this required joining the end of a queue at the ticket office. Luckily it wasn’t too long before I was back outside watching the departures board. Once the the train has been cleaned and serviced, the platform number is displayed and passengers can board. There was a bit of a hiccup locating my coach. I had a seat reserved on coach D but coach C was followed by coach E. It eventuated that coach E was actually coach D.

The train left on time and it wasn’t long before we were out of London and travelling through the countryside. The weather was overcast most of the way, with the sun only showing itself once or twice. The journey took about four and a quarter hours including some stops along the way. We must have been travelling quite fast in places as at one point, running parallel with a motorway, we were leaving the cars behind.
Shortly after leaving St Austell, the last stop before Truro, I made my way to the end of the coach to get my luggage and ready myself to alight. A woman also getting off at Truro noticed the koru on my luggage label and asked where in New Zealand I was from and what I did. It turns out she teaches at Bristol University but had taught at Massey’s Albany campus, in the Marketing Department I think, a few years ago. Small world.

Once off the train it was off to the Hertz office to pick-up the rental car—a black Ford Focus Zetec 1.6L. Remembering my experience with the rental I had last time, the first thing I checked was how easy it was to get the car into reverse. I’m pleased to say there wasn’t a problem. Turning out onto the road though, it was apparent that I had forgotten that the indicator stick is on the left not the right. No doubt I will be switching the wipers on many more times in the near future.

The bed and breakfast establishment I’m staying at was very easy to find, literally just around the corner from the railway station. I’m in a temporary room for the night (at a reduced price) as the shower in the room I was originally assigned is playing up and is scheduled to be fixed tomorrow.
Once settled in, I went for a walk to scout out the location of the Cornwall Record Office. As expected it is less than a five minute walk away, so I guess I won’t be using the car all that much over the next few days.