Living on the edge: ancestors on borders

[Coromandel]

There seems to be a rule that wherever you live, it is in the corner of an Ordnance Survey map so you need to get four sheets to cover your area. The same rule seems to have attracted my ancestors to living in border places: when they moved half a mile from Devon into Somerset, and then back again, and then the other way again, little did they think how inconvenient that would be for me having to traipse between the record offices in Exeter and Taunton. They were doing the same between Norfolk and Suffolk, and between Northumberland and Durham. Aargh!!!!

One relative took the whole thing to ridiculous extremes. Because of technical difficulties in getting a marriage licence, Reginald Crudge got married in 1931 in the middle of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, he standing on the US side and his bride-to-be on the Canadian side! Luckily for me, that was so weird it made the international press.

[Jan1954]

I am with you on this!

One section of my ancestors came from Bartlow Hamlet (not to be confused with Bartlow village, CAM), which straddles the Essex/Cambridgeshire border. Some BMDs were registered at Linton (CAM) and others at Saffron Walden (ESS), depending upon the whim of who was doing the registering. Some Christenings/marriages/burials took place in Ashdon (ESS) and others in Bartlow Village (CAM)..... So, trips to both Cambridgeshire and Chelmsford ROs have been the order of the day.

With the surname of SMITH, most of whom seemed to have been called John, Charles or George, this has not been an easy task.......

[Nicolina]

I've found several of my Norfolk ancestors in Suffolk records. One who was married at least 3 times, firstly in Norfolk and then the other two in Suffolk. My maternal great grandfather was born and christened in Yorkshire but the village comes under Nottinghamshire. Others appear in Derbyshire records, even though they were born and raised, in Yorkshire (about 5 miles from where my great grandfather was born). So that's three Counties for the same family who never moved, more than 5 miles, in over 200 years.

[raineshoe]

Really funny that standing on the bridge with the border in between. Which country do you sign the marriage register in? Both or Canada or America? Wonder how they sorted out the legal side of that. LOL.

[benny1982]

I was thinking about this today. I have several ancestors who flitted between Yorkshire and Durham as they lived so close to the borders. And have Oxon ancestors who turn up in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

I just found Hertfordshire ancestors. My Taylor line came from Barkway which is 2 miles from the Herts, Essex border. Richard Taylor born 1759 son of Samuel and Elizabeth. They moved to Essex in 1773 thanks to a settlement examination to Saffron Walden which is about 8 miles east of the Essex Herts Border. Even though they were born near the Essex border it was still a different county.

[pennydog]

And have Oxon ancestors who turn up in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
.

My husbands family come from Oxfordshire or Buckinghamshire or Northamptonshire even though they never moved more than a few miles. I think the boundries moved more than they did!!

[Mutley]

My husbands family come from Oxfordshire or Buckinghamshire or Northamptonshire even though they never moved more than a few miles. I think the boundries moved more than they did!!

My OH's lot came from Oxfordshire/Berkshire, the boundary changes moved his birth place from one county to another,
so where was he born?
In the county the town was originally in, or the county the town is now in?
Confusing!

but at least we are only considering counties rather than countries.

[benny1982]

I now have found a Gloucestershire line in my Oxon ancestors. The Cudd family from the Adlestrop area which is near the Oxon border, and now to cap it all I have a 6xgreat grandmother who ended up in Wootton by Woodstock in Oxfordshire who originated from Shipston On Stour which was in a small exclave of Worcestershire with her parents from Warwickshire.

Mutley I have some ancestors from Berkshire, Oxfordshire border. Many of my Oxfordshire ancestors originated in the surrounds such as Berks, Bucks, Gloucs and now Warwickshire, and possibly, even though not yet proven, Northamptonshire.