The Postie Arrived!
Are the days of impatiently waiting for the postman to deliver a letter that you’re eagerly awaiting over? Sadly I think they ‘almost’ are. Thanks largely to email, the days of receiving a letter in the post has almost completely died. Honestly I cannot remember when I last received something that wasn’t a bill, a letter from the bank offering me a new credit card, or details of what’s happening in my area from my local council.
But for the past two weeks I have been eagerly checking my letterbox daily.
So what has got me so excited? Certificates of course. What genienut doesn’t LOVE certificates? I recently splurged and ordered nine certificates from the General Register Office (GRO) in a bid to verify the children on my 3x great grandparents – well at least those from the first marriage. And after 20 days of waiting (the GRO offer the quickest service), they arrived today.
my stash of Hayhurst family certificates that arrived today
This stash of certificates all relate to my HAYHURST family from Lancaster in Lancashire, which I’ve recently started researching. Hayhurst. it sounds like a cool name. Not too hard. Afterall it’s not like Smith or Brown is it. Wrong! At least when you get to Lancaster! Apparently the name in that region dates back hundreds of years, and of course every family has a William, Joseph, Mary, Elizabeth and Margaret and a John. So rather than rely on the transcriptions which have been fabulously transcribed by the Lancashire OPCs, I decided to get copies of the originals to verify everthing.
While this research is still a work in progress, what I have found so far indicates the following:
William HAYHURST b. abt 1830
m1. 1848 Jane JACKSON d. 1869
1. Mary Ann HAYHURST b. 1848
2. Elizabeth HAYHURST b. 1853
3. Margaret HAYHURST b. 1855
4. William HAYHURST b. 1857
5. John HAYHURST b. 1860
6. Joseph HAYHURST b. 1862
7. Ellen HAYHURST b. 1865
8. Richard HAYHURST b. 1868
After Jane died, William remarried and had a heap more children – all yet to be verified which is why I haven’t listed them here. As with all research, this is far from complete, but it is a start, and I’m pleased that the certificates all indicated what I expected. And as my research progresses I’ll tell you more about this family.
Let me finish off by sharing a close up of one of the certificates – yes, that’s a blotch of ink on the page! I love it!
4 Responses to “The Postie Arrived!”
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Oh, i love certificates. I even love the wait inbetween ordering them and their arrival.
What revelations and tantalising little clues are about to be revealed? What conundrums and headaches are they about to unleash. And of course, what are they about to prove or disprove.
For me, certificates are always worth the wait, and in a way, if they ever become ‘just another’ downloadable item for a genealogists to buy/subscribe too, i’d be somewhat disappointed.
Great post! And I hope that your Hayhurst puzzle unfolds fascinatingly.
Andrew
Yes, I’m sure you can tell that I’m a fan of certificates too. I have some previously that give me more questions than answers. But these ones were all confirmations of what I had hoped. So no, big suprises as far as that goes.
Pleased that none of tbe certs turned out to be duds.
Yes. I have that happen before. But not this time. 😉