Did you know the majority of wills that were proved in Devon were destroyed during an air-raid on Exeter in 1942? Some Devon wills, however, were originally proved in London at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and these have survived.

Somewhat tantalizing is the fact that calendars (lists) of many of the lost wills had been compiled before the war and so we know about the previous existence of a will that our Devon ancestor left but, in many cases, the contents have been lost forever.

Over a number of years, the Devon Wills Project tracked down a proportion of copies, transcripts and abstracts of the lost wills and administrations from a variety of sources and created a central index of where these documents can be found. The index can be viewed at http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/DevonWillsProject/ and is also available to FindMyPast subscribers at http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/devon-wills-index-1163-1999

I'm currently researching some of my North Devon ancestors and have learnt that my 7 x great-grandfather, Nathaniel Randal from Hatherleigh, left a will after he died in 1731. You've guessed it, all we have now is a list entry. I wonder what his will would have told us about his family, his occupation and his wealth and status in those times. Sadly, we shall never know!

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Having been contacted by Kimberley at Urban Twist, I promised I'd feature their novel gift ideas for the family historian. Kimberley writes....

When it comes to finding a gift for the genealogist on your list, it can sometimes prove to be a long and tricky task. Whether you're a spouse, sibling, parent or child and you're on the hunt for a special gift for that historian in your life, you've come to the right place!

A personalised family tree is a truly unique gift. These distinctive wall art pieces give the family historian a special opportunity to preserve and celebrate their family history – giving that extra special touch that a subscription or gift certificate cannot. The range of products allows you to incorporate from 6 up to 17 names, a family name, plus up to two beloved pets.

These personalised family trees are ideal for Weddings, Anniversaries, Christmas, Christenings, significant Birthdays, and any other family milestone.

The pieces themselves are visually stunning, coming in a range of colours and finishes: Pine Effect (Light Wood), Limited Edition Aged Pine Effect (Dark Wood), Shimmering Gold, Shimmering Silver, Matt Black and Matt Royal Blue – again adding a personal touch. The detailed tree designs and names are laser cut and framed giving a floating effect which really brings them to life!



Family Tree Wall Art by Urban Twist
Disclaimer: I have no connection with Urban Twist or their products.

[Why Follow Friday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

If you have Cornish ancestors, you may be interested to know you can browse images of the original parish registers at FamilySearch.

If you're a member of Ancestry, these images are also available at http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=9848

Tip: try using the Cornwall Online Parish Clerk database to obtain a date for an event before looking up the original image.


[Why Tuesday's Tip? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

Just a quick note for anyone with Non-Conformist ancestors, FindMyPast have now added Non-Conformist baptism, marriage and burial records to their collections.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

Thousands of historical newspaper pages are added to The British Newspaper Archive every week, so the coverage keeps getting better and better.

In the last month, 240,000 extra pages from 1790-1954 were made searchable. 56 English and Scottish newspaper titles were updated, including the Aberdeen Journal, the Kent & Sussex Courier and the Morpeth Herald.

The additions also included three brand new titles:

• Dundee, Perth and Forfar People’s Journal, covering 1858-1861.
• Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, covering 1913, 1915 and 1924.
• Penny Illustrated Paper, covering 1862-1870.

You'll find more information and a full list of recent additions here.

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Newspapers can add flesh to the bones of our ancestors' lives so you may be interested to know The British Newspaper Archive have reduced the cost of their 1 month subscription to £9.95 with unlimited access.

Note, if you have a FindMyPast subscription, then you get The British Newspaper Archive as part of your subscription.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

A couple of months ago, I created and ordered a book from Shutterfly.com and gave it as a Christmas present. I couldn't blog about it before as I didn't want to give the game away.

Anyhow, I thought I'd write about how pleased I am with the product - the finish is excellent. I ordered the 8x11 inch hard photo cover book and created a Custom Book rather than using the Simple Path. Although a bit fiddly and time-consuming because everything is done over the internet, the results are absolutely worth it. The pages are glossy and my photographs came out exceptionally well.

Called 'Ancestral Trails - Pathways to the Past', my theme for the book was the homes and districts where my paternal ancestors lived and worked using modern day photographs. I'd taken most of the photos on family history trips. I also added text and labels to explain the pictures.

Because I live in the UK, the postage and packaging almost doubled the cost but I can highly recommend the product and the service and I'm glad I ordered an extra copy for myself.

So, without further ado, here are some images of the book.


Front Cover

(Click the image above to view a larger version.)

(Click the image above to view a larger version.)

Even this close-up doesn't quite do the actual quality of the book justice
(Click the image above to view a larger version.)

Back Cover
Disclaimer - this is my own personal opinion and I have no affiliation to Shutterfly.

[Why Follow Friday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

If you have your own family tree website you might consider archiving it to a CD or DVD and handing it on to the next generation. After all, who's going to maintain your site after you've gone? The snag here though, is that there'll be a finite number of peope who'll be able to appreciate your efforts and that's only if they happen to share your interest. You could find your research destined for a dusty drawer or, worse still, put out with the rubbish.

In this digital age of readily available information, it seems logical that your site should remain on the internet for a wider audience to read and enjoy. So how do we do this?.....Read more »

Have you ever found difficulty in deciphering names in old parish registers written in Latin? If so, FREEREG has a useful guide to how these Latin names correspond to the spoken names which are, more often than not, the same as the names we use today. For instance, did you ever expect the Latin for Arthur would be Arcturus or Arturus? Jacobus is James, not Jacob as one might expect. Fida is Faith and Amabilia is Mabel.
Latin Names & Abbreviations

FREEREG also has a list of abbreviated Christian names which often crop up in old documents. Most are fairly obvious but you might want to be reminded that Gul. and Guliel are abbreviations of William, taken from the Latin, Gulielmus.
Real Names and Abbreviations

Next, there's a page dedicated to a few Latin words which often appear in old registers. For example, nupsit means married and parochia means parish.
Latin Words to Recognise

Lastly, there's a handy explanation of the minefield that is numbers and dates. You're shown the standard way to enter dates for genealogy records, different formats for Latin numbers and the oddity of the calendar change in 1752. To finish up, there's a brief explanation about Regnal years.
Numbers and Dates

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

If you have a blog or family history website of your own then displaying adverts via the various schemes available can be a good way of discovering new genealogy websites. Monitor the text adverts appearing on your site and make a note of the website address (note: don't click on the ads yourself or you'll most likely get penalised by the company running the ad scheme). Once you have the address, you can look up the sites at your leisure.

I came across a fairly new genealogy search engine called Mocavo in this way. This site is in its infancy but promises to be a useful tool as more and more resources are added to the site. Nevertheless, it's surprising what you can already find. One feature I found helpful is the search engine is picking up discussions posted by others to various message boards. This can often lead to connections and discoveries which you might not have otherwise made.

[Why Tuesday's Tip? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]