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January
2012
All about GENUKI
By Nancy Frey
One
of the most overlooked sites on the internet as a starting place for UK
genealogy is GENUKI. The
acronym stands for Genealogy in the UK and Ireland.
If you're taking notes, the URL is http://www.genuki.org.uk/
.
GENUKI
contains records for England,
Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of
Man. The best way to
approach GENUKI is to go to the home page, bookmark it and start clicking.
Over
the years, volunteers have gathered information, transcribed records and
sent them to County Co-ordinators who upload them to their GENUKI pages.
Once
you have read "Guidance for First-Time Users of These Pages" and
perhaps "Getting started in Genealogy", you are ready to go.
There
are general interest pages, then county pages and those are further
divided into parishes. Not
all parishes have a page as yet, so if you are knowledgeable about a
certain parish, they are always looking for volunteers.
If
you are new to UK genealogy, it might be helpful to read the GENUKI pages
regarding census records – when they were taken, what the enumerators
were expected to do and how the records were presented.
Knowing these facts can make your search easier as you will realize
how mistakes in names can happen.
You
may ask "what can I expect to find on the county or parish
pages?" It will vary
from county to county and from parish to parish.
Many parish pages will have a description of the parish from an
historical directory giving information as to the hundred the parish
belongs to in an historical context, as well as information about the
ownership of the parish, the villages and hamlets in it, and often a
description of the land itself.
In
case you're wondering what a "hundred" is, I should explain that
when the Church of England was established by Henry VIII he continued the
Norman ecclesiastical division of counties which were divided into
hundreds. There is some
controversy as to what exactly constituted a hundred – whether it was
the area or the number of inhabitants, but you don't need to worry about
that. All you need to
remember is what hundred your parish is in when looking for records.
William Howard - Blackbeard's Quartermaster
The
Howard family is a long-time Hatteras Island Family.
And Hatteras, being the neighbor to Ocracoke, share the same
families.
In
an article published on an internet travel page about Blackbeard's revenge
and the Outer Banks, some interesting historical information came to
light. http://www.canoe.ca/Travel/USA/SouthernUSA/2011/08/18/18570301.htm
Blackbeard,
as everyone knows, was really Edward Teach.
He used his huge black beard and Methusala-like hair to frighten
his victims. Blackbeard put
lighted canon wicks in his hair and beard when he was attacking other
ships to make them think he was the devil himself.
And....it probably worked.
Blackbeard
was brave and ruthless, shooting his own sailmaster in the knee to
discourage mutiny. While he
was a savage pirate, he was also something of a local legend in then-wild
Carolina. Teach is quoted as
saying that there wasn't a home in Edenton that wasn't open to him.
Whether from fear or otherwise is uncertain.
According
to Philip Howard, a 10th generation resident of Ocracoke Island and a
descendant of William Howard, Blackbeard's quarter-master, William Howard
was one lucky man.
In
1718, following a series of political chess-board moves, including a royal
pardon for pirating and pillaging that Blackbeard ignored, and continued
with his plundering behavior, the English Navy cornered Blackbeard on
November 22, 1718 at Teach's Hole. Blackbeard fought valiantly, and it took 5 pistol and musket
ball wounds plus 20 stab wounds to kill him.
His infamous devil-like head was removed from his body and was
placed on the bow of the British warship on the way back into port.
William
Howard was one lucky man however. He
happened to be away in Virginia at the time, taking care of business.
Howard was subsequently arrested, pardoned, and then bought
Ocracoke island from the Wocow Indian hunters for about 105 pounds.
With the feared Blackbeard gone, and the land safely in the hands
of Europeans, Ocracoke Island was then settled.
This
article sounded intriguing. I
had never heard of the Wocow Indian tribe, so I decided to follow up with
Phillip Howard. He attended my presentation this past spring in Avon
and Dawn Taylor was kind enough to forward my inquiry to him. Indeed, I'm glad she did, as the facts, you see, were just
"slightly different" that the article said.
Phillip
was kind enough to reply and here's what he had to say:
"The
information about William Howard and the Indians is not correct. Here is
the condensed version: William Howard bought Ocracoke from Richard
Sanderson in 1759 for 105 British Pounds. Sanderson received the island
from his father (or perhaps his uncle) also named Richard Sanderson. The
elder Sanderson bought the island from John Lovick. Lovick, a Welsh
Quaker, was granted the island by the Lords Proprietors in 1719. They got
Ocracoke from King George I. King George "stole" Ocracoke from
the Native Americans. That is how I describe it on my Ghost & History
Tours.
It
is a bit more complicated than that. Governor Eden owned Ocracoke for
a time, as did the privateer, Roger Kenyon. The details are in my
book, Digging up Uncle Evans, on pages 15 & 24.
There
is no evidence that Indians had permanent settlements on Ocracoke, though
artifacts (arrowheads, pipe bowls) have been found here.
The
earliest European spelling for Ocracoke was Wococon, likely derived from
Wocon (not Wocow), the name of the tribe most associated with Ocracoke in
1585 when John White drew his map. See Chapter two of my book for more
details about that...and for alternate theories."
I've
ordered his book at http://www.blacksquallbooks.com/ and I'm
looking forward to my next trip to the Outer Banks.
I'd love to go on one of Phillip's historical tours.
I mean, you never know what you're going to discover.
http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/ (Craft
Gallery)
http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/historywalk.htm (Ghost
& History Walks)
A Little Bit about Old London
By
Nancy Frey
It
has been speculated that some of our Lost Colonists may have been
residents of London known to John WHITE.
That led me to do some research about London at the time of the
voyage, ie the late 1500’s.
Before the Roman invasion in 43AD what we know as London was
an important trading community on the north side of the Thames River
inhabited by iron age Celts. The
city is said to have been established by Brutus, son of Aenaes of Troy and
named Llandin. In 60 or 61 AD
the Romans burnt the city, killed the inhabitants, fortified it with walls
and gates and named it Londinium. On
the south there was Dour Gate and Belins Gate.
On the west Ludgate, New Gate & Alders Gate.
To the north Cipple Gate, Moor Gate and Bishops Gate and to the
east Eald Gate & Postern Gate. Each
of these gates was the site of a road leading out of the city and many of
the district names of today’s London are derived from them.
The map above shows Roman London, AD 190.
In
the 1500s London had grown to extend beyond the gates to the north and
west, and south across the river. But
even today, London has an area known as ‘the city’.
Many
of the important buildings were built to the west, in Westminster,
formerly known as Thorney Island. Law
Courts, Financial Buildings and the homes that housed the influential men
who carried on business there.
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