"To the living we owe our respect, to the dead we owe nothing but the truth."             Voltaire.

"It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue." Oscar Wilde

Hobbs Family History News and Notes

This section of the site is really an update of the areas that I am concentrating on at the moment. However before I begin the update there was a poem that was posted to the mailing list in January 2002 and it gives an indication of why I am researching my ancestors and their lives. It is entitled "Strangers in the Box" but the author I'm afraid is unknown.

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.
I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among my socks.
I wonder what their lives were like,
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.
If only someone had taken time
To tell who, what, where, or when,
These faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.
Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be passed away?
Make time to save your stories,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.

On a lesser point many of the documents in the nineteenth century and earlier indicate that a large number of my ancestors were unable to write. Viewed from a modern day perspective this would make them illiterate but when seen in the context of time many people would have had no NEED to sign their name, from one year to the next, (unlike today), except on official documents, contracts etc.

The writer then mentions that there are a lot of HOBBS families in the North Devon region of the U.K.

These observations are confirmed by Professor David Hey of The University Sheffield. In his book "Family Names and Family History" he states the Names Project Group at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language at the University of Sheffield has been studying the surnames of South Yorkshire and north Derbyshire under his direction.

" As we have seen patronymic surnames were often formed by the addition of short suffixes and that -s was favoured in the southern half of the country, particularly in the Welsh border counties, whereas northerners generally opted for -son.
Hobbs is given as an example from the Gloucestershire poll tax returns of 1381.

FAMILIES

2 Parents
4 Grandparents
8 Great Grandparents
16 Great Great Grandparents (x2)
32 Great Great Great Grandparents (x3)
64 Great Great Great Great Grandparents (x4)
128 Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents (x5)
256 Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents (x6)
512 Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents (x7)
1024 Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents (x8)
2048 Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents (x9)

It puts the task facing the family historian/genealogist in perspective

The microfilm of the various Sheffield newspapers of the period which are the 'Sheffield Telegraph' and 'The Star'.
The Burgess Rolls which are on film as they list the addresses of everyone in the City .
The Registry Office, The Local Studies Department and the Archive Department are at

Sheffield Registry Office [births, deaths and marriages].
Certificates cost £7.00
Surrey Place
Sheffield, S.1
Telephone: 0114-273-5321

Local Studies
Central Library.
Surrey Street
Sheffield, S.1
Telephone: 0114-273-4753

Archive Department
Shoreham Street.
Sheffield S.1
Telephone: 0114-273-4756

For the Family History to mean something and not just be a collection of names and dates a researcher must at least cover some of the following areas

NAMING PATTERNS

ENGLISH

This is just a general guide and of course would be deviated from. For instance if someone had recently died the next child of the same sex would be called after that person. But even this can be qualified for it is assuming that no other child in the family didn't already have the name.

First Son Father's father 
First Daughter Mother's mother. 
Second Son Mother's father
Second Daughter Father's mother 
Third Son Father
Third Daughter Mother
Fourth Son Father's oldest brother 
Fourth Daughter Mother's oldest sister

The naming pattern was different in Scotland

EDUCATION - SCHOOL LEAVING AGE

Compulsory schooling ages in the UK were

1876-1893 5-10

1893-1899 5-11

1899-1918 5-12

1918-1944 5-14

1944-1970 5-15

1970- 5 - 16

The change in school-leaving age was introduced in the 1944 Education Act From 1944, the school-leaving age was 15, even if it didn't affect those due to leave in 44, 45 or 46. it might be better to say that the school leaving age went up to 15 in 1947. What isn't generally known is that the school leaving age was due to go up to 15 in 1939 (as per the 1936 Education Act), but this was suspended due to the onset of the 1939 - 1945 War.

MARRIAGE

From time immemorial the age for matrimonial consent was fixed at 7 years, but puberty was accepted as the age for consummation of the marriage, which was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. Canon 100 of 1603 forbade, but did not invalidate  marriage of persons under 21, except with parental consent. The legal age for  marriage from 29 September 1653 was fixed at 16 for a man and 14 for a woman. In  1660 the pre-interregnum laws were reinstated and the ages of marriage reverted  to 14 for the groom and 12 for the bride. Lord Hardwicke's 1753 Marriage Act,  made it illegal for those in England under the age of 21 to get married without  the consent of their parents or guardians. The consent requirement was repealed and replaced in July 1822, and an act in July 1823 restored the pre-1753 rule of Canon 100. In effect, therefore, from  1823 the age at which a couple could undergo a valid marriage, even without  parental consent, reverted to 14 for boys and 12 for girls; although some marriages of younger children still took place. The 1929 Age of Marriage Act made all marriages void from 10 May 1929, if either partner was under the age of  16. The legal age for marriage remained at 14 for boys and 12 for girls in the  Republic of Ireland, until 1st January 1975, when it was raised to  16.

REGISTRATION

The Stamp Duty Act of 1783, levied duty of 3d. until 1794 on each parish register entry of baptism, marriage or burial. Paupers were exempt and so it is possible that, to avoid paying the duty, the number of people who declared themselves to be paupers rose substantially and many clergymen (resenting having to act as tax collectors) were willing to incorrectly record parents as paupers. Many parents also avoided payment by not baptising their children. From 1783 to 1794 the note P against an entry in the register denotes a pauper, whilst the note Pd 3d denotes payment of the duty. If you cannot locate an ancestor's baptism in the period 1783 to 1794 it is worth reviewing the registers after 1794 in case the child was only baptised after the tax was withdrawn. A similar statute of 1695 had had a similar effect on the recording of baptisms, marriages and burials until it was repealed in 1706.

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This page was last updated on 28/12/24 10:59