Have you ever visited the places your ancestors came
from? This is something I always enjoy doing, even if it’s just walking around the
town they once lived in; sometimes I’ve have nothing more to go on – having gleaned
this sparse info from an old census. I try to make a point of visiting the
parish church, as this is where many important events would have taken place
(baptisms, marriages and burials).
If I’m lucky, the census or other documentation will
reveal a fuller address which enables me to track down the house, or at least
the street where my ancestors’ lived.
A few weeks ago, I took myself off to the lovely
Wiltshire town of Chippenham where, according to the 1881 census, my great
grandmother was born. At the time the census was taken, Rachel Peace was 14
years old and living with her family in Twerton, Somerset.
That’s the great thing about consulting these records –
they tell you each family members’ birthplace as well as where they were living
when the census was taken. And of course, I just had to hunt down the street listed in
Twerton where – on 3rd April 1881 at least – my great great grandparents
resided with Rachel and their other children.
.
