George Rose Civil War

Pam Platt | From Civil War, family unity?

A couple of weeks ago, I hit the road for a trip I thought would teach me more about my family. It did — only not the family I figured. We were to drive to southern West Virginia to visit my aunt and her husband, tool around a little visiting some old haunts, swing by an area college where I was intent on doing some research on my late grandfather and then head up to Gettysburg, Pa. I'd been to Fort Sumter, S.C., and Appomattox, Va., once upon a time, and it seemed slack not to have made a point to visit other historic sites as long as I'd lived in Kentucky. Plus, it's the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War. If not now, when?

We did see Aunt Nancy and John. We did make it to some places that my kin hadn't seen in years; in particular, coal camps, tucked up in hollers, that look to be one generation away from being reclaimed by the mountains drew woeful shakes from the white-haired heads in the car. But I never did make it to that college library because I got so caught up with my other family — my American family. Even 150 years removed from the war that divided us, the bloodshed represented by Civil War statistics still boggles. More than 620,000 died in the battles that settled the shameful slavery question that America's founders had left for future generations to answer, the battles that made the United States of America a singular subject rather than a plural one. Did any of my forebears fight in that war? I do not know. But I do know that all of us today are the sons and daughters of the people who fought that war, died in that war, or lived through that war, just as we are the children of the founders whose handiwork we celebrate this weekend, and I made the trek as an American descendant. In some ways, we're still fighting about some of the issues that sparked the war, and I wondered as we went from site to site, if that is part of our nature. I didn't come away with a sure answer. We started our Civil War swing in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., because that is where abolitionist John Brown staged his 1859 raid in an attempt to start an armed insurrection to rid the nation of slavery. (The first two people killed in his raid were free men of color.) Brown would be hanged for his efforts. He had long been an ambiguous figure to me. I wasn't surprised to discover that historians also were divided on him — a martyr, some said; a terrorist, said others.

Family History Missionaries and British History

 

Dear Family and Friends,

Effective family history research in Great Britain requires an understanding of the historical events taking place that affected the people living during that time period. Just a few examples:

1531 Henry VIII was recognized as head of the newly created Church of England. All ties with the Pope and the church in Rome were severed.

1538 Thomas Cromwell ordered all parish ministers to keep records of christenings, marriages, and burials. These records became known as parish registers. In our family history Centre we have over 60,000 microfilms of these records. During the course of a day we are constantly running out to the garage where these films are kept and then returning them after the patrons  finish. We have the capability to make scans and print these records. Most of our patrons come to search the films. We have parish records for Jamaica and India as well as the British Isles. Many of our patrons are from Jamaica.

1568 Some Puritans ordained their own ministers and tried to separate from the Church of England. All churches that were not Church of England were called nonconformists. The nonconformist records were kept differently from the Church of England records.We need to search in different data bases to find them.

1642-1660 Civil War took place in England. Charles I was executed in 1649 and Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of England. Civil war caused political and religious upheaval. Parish registers were poorly kept. Many other changes affected record keeping.

1812 The George Rose Act required Church of England christening, marriage, and burial records to be kept in separate registers on preprinted forms, starting 1 January 1813. I always love it when we are scanning parish records after 1813. The preprinted forms are so much easier to read. Some of the older records are in Latin.

1837 Civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths began on 1 July. However, events could still be recorded in parish registers.

So you see that it becomes necessary to become somewhat of a historian to serve on this family history mission! We are giving our first ‘talk’ which is a power point presentation on Tuesday. It’s titled Searching English Records in FamilySearch

Hi, I just found your blog and I am so excited. My own parents are serving a mission in Moscow, Russia. They are the executive secretaries to the area authority there. Anyway, we are going on a trip there to visit them, and from there we will go to London, Wales, and then for the duration to Ireland to do family history. I have tons of questions about doing research in Ireland. Is this something you can help me with? I just would hate to travel all the way from Utah to Ireland to do research and not make the best of my time there, so I'm trying to get as much information as possible. Please let me know if you can help. Thank you so much!