North Bradley, Wiltshire 1600 - 1837

This set of records is work in progress to list all of the records from one parish, North Bradley in Wiltshire. The first stage was to enter all of the birth data, initially using the Wiltshire Family History Society index fiches. This has now been compared with the original data as shown on fiche obtained from the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office. The vertical axis is used to show relative age with a grid line representing 20 years. The grid does not appear in the web report diagrams that are seen when the tree icon is clicked. However horizontal lines at 40 year spacing are normally on these diagrams with a tool tip showing the year.

From the baptism records the children have been grouped into families, based on the named parents. A typical group is shown here. Colours are used to indicate extra information. Where the mother is named her symbol is coloured yellow in the bottom half and the top right quadrant of the child is also coloured yellow. This can indicate if all children have the mother named, or only some of them. The father is not normally distinguished unless some specific feature is mentioned such as Senior or profession. In this case he is coloured light blue and the top left quadrant of the children is similarly coloured.

This diagram also indicates that the two children were baptised on the same day, indicated by the green double line. As these records also show birth information (in this case approximate age at baptism) it is possible to show relative dates.

The next diagram shows that 9 children were baptised on only 4 separate dates and so it is not possible to identify the relative ages in most cases. As only date of baptism is known, the date shown above each person is preceded by the less than sign <. The date of birth of the father is approximate being based on age given at death. In some cases the baptism record is for an adult and so the sign << is used to indicate the birth is well before the indicated date

The other colour on this diagram, light green symbol, is to show that there is information from apprentice records for that person.

This diagram also has a date against the horizontal marriage line, indicating that a record has been transcribed from the marriage registers.

The third set of data which is being transcribed is from the burial register. Where possible this is added to existing families but in many cases it is not possible to be sure which person is listed. In this case the symbol is coloured magenta and where possible an arrow is added to indicate possible linkage. There are examples of families whose presence is only known from burial records. It is possible that they moved to North Bradley from another parish as a family. The settlement records are being examined to show where this is known to have occurred.

This diagram shows how colours are used to confirm parentage of a line of Robert Butchers. The youngest, baptised 1738, is recorded as the son of Robert Butcher jun. There are two records of this name, one baptised 1710 and his father in 1687. However the death record from 1727 is assumed to be for the earliest Robert, which would then change Robert <1687 from junior to senior. The youngest Robert's mother is not named and Elizabeth Minty is known from the marriage record and also from his younger sister

Transcription problems The fiche used are of varying quality and parts are difficult or impossible to read. This is partly due to discolouring which is particularly noticeable on parts of some pages at the edges. This is made more difficult by variation of the lighting across a page, which can be made worse by vignetting in the fiche reader. However moving parts to the centre of the screen does little to solve these problems. In addition there are gaps in the records where either words have been rubbed out or the ink has disappeared.

When making the transcriptions, which are placed in the Comment fields, The objective has been to show the format of the entry, using the same capital letters and line breaks. Where names are written as abbreviations (usually indicated by a colon : but also by a full stop) this is recorded but the full name is used for the individual. The main abbreviations are Eliza: Jo: Rich: and Tho:. The use of Saml: has caused the WFHS to transcribe as Saul in some cases.

Where the entry is not clear on the fiche the 'Uncertain character format',as defined by FreeBMD is used. See http://www.freebmd.org.uk/Format.shtml#ucf. This is mainly the use of the character * to represent one word and the underscore _ for a single letter. In some cases the original WFHS entry fills the gaps