Baldock/Fagg/Small Family History

Whilst browsing the parish records on Find My Past recently, I came across some intriguing adult baptisms. They are for the surname EAST, who seem to have come from Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. They appear to be siblings, two sisters and a brother, children of Thomas and Ann EAST, and are all listed as ‘Papermaker’, so they probably came to work at Buckland Paper Mill. They were all baptised at St. Andrew’s church in Buckland on 29th June 1837.

For those with a relevant subscription to FMP, the image can be found here:
Adult baptisms

St Andrew, Dover Buckland, Kent (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ann was 50 (born 1783), William was 57 (born 1780) and Sarah was 39 (born 1798). Birth dates are given in the margin.

These would almost certainly be outside most people’s research boundaries of date, let alone county!

There are also adult baptisms DAVIS (more Papermakers), JOHNSON and PETMAN.

I’m sure 57 years has been beaten somewhere – what’s the greatest gap you have found?

This week Find My Past finally released  a chunk of Kent parish registers onto their site, accessible by those of us with a full subscription.

At first we were led to believe that it would be Thanet and coastal parishes which would arrive, yet there appear to be far more. I have personally already started browsing the Eastry registers.

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Eastry, Kent (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes, I said ‘browsing’. Brightsolid have not yet indexed the registers, and I have already reported a couple of issues, yet to receive a reply. However, it has to be said that they should be commended for the release, well overdue in my opinion. The images are of very good quality (bar the couple I found which were ‘fuzzy’ and illegible), and probably much better than any of us could achieve by printing from the CCA microfiche.

The deal with Brightsolid has hopefully brought welcome license fees into the Cathedral coffers, especially since the Archives are closed whilst repair work is undertaken. This is surely not a coincidence, and will help out Kent genealogists, whether seeking or residing.

Today I found an online source for parish record transcriptions of Hastingleigh, Kent, and its surrounding parishes. This has produced quite a few more BARROWS 4 x great aunts and uncles in Stelling Minnis nearby!

Find the records via http://www.hastingleigh.com/ !