Carpenter Family in South Bristol

[PeteCarpenter]

Thanks for this I'd had a quick look at the website previously but not had a chance to explore it!

[thewideeyedowl]

Hi Pete

Have also read your Good Afternoon thread and see that you have a sub to FMP and are trialling Ancestry. Fine! As you are probably starting to realise, there is an awful lot 'out there' - just a case of how to find it, and where. So I would counsel not going ahead with a full sub to Anc at this stage; after all, you can use the free version in your local library.

Try to be realistic about the amount of money you are happy to spend pursuing this wonderful and utterly addictive hobby. To do it properly you will need to buy copies of certificates and copies of wills - and that's just for starters. (Family will moan about you spending too much time with dead people/too much money on dead people!)

So I would suggest that you seriously consider becoming a member of the BAFHS - you are local, so you could go to meetings; other members will be researching 'your' names too; there will be more stuff available to members than to non-members; there will be a Journal, which should be full of useful stuff. And a sub is likely to cost not much more than a £1/month - compare that to Ancestry, where you will be shelling out a three-figure(?) sum.

Really learn how to use Family Search - wonderful WiKi and interactive parish maps; get an account with them. Join Lost Cousins. Search the London Gazette. Use Google Books. Use FreeREG and FreeCEN, as well as FreeBMD. Learn how to use the National Archives online catalogue. (Search for all this lot on BritGen, so that's another afternoon gone...)

There's a useful free online Genealogy course being run by the Univ of Strathclyde, starting in mid-March. Find the forum thread on it and investigate.

Find out about Local History Societies - they tend to focus on places and buildings, whereas FHSes concentrate on people. Look at One-Place Studies. Search the Guild of One-Name Studies for 'your' names.

And, of course, keep posting on BritGen - surely we could bill ourselves as 'the forum that finds the unfindable'(?). (Obviously, not always - just most of the time!)

In haste - happy hunting for those Carpenters.

Owl

[PeteCarpenter]

Thank you so much for the info! All very useful and illuminating! I've also subscribed to a number of forums and people, just like yourself, are incredibly helpful and willing to fill in gaps!

[burt]

The following from Bristol & Avon FHS Bristol Diocese Baptisms 1813-1837.
Bristol St James
1831 Jun 5 CARPENTER Elizabeth Warren d Martin & Mary of Bedminster carpenter

Bedminster St John
1834 Nov 2 CARPENTER Mary Ann d Martin & Mary East St. carpenter

Cannot find a marriage in Bristol, North Somerset or South Gloucestershire on their CDs for Martin and Mary.
It needs the 1851 Census checked to see whether the family are there.

[burt]

1841 Census - East St., Bedminster
Martin CARPENTER 36 house carpenter yes [born in county]
Mary " 33 "
George " 13 "
Mary Ann " 7 "
Elizabeth " 4 "
William " 1 "

There is a tree on Ancestry which gives both parents as dying in 1843.
Father Martin is baptised Fitzhead 1805. Marries Milverton 1827 to Mary WARREN.

[burt]

It would seem Martin Carpenter died 25 March 1843 at the Royal Infirmary, Bristol of Phthisis [TB]. Extra info
is contained in the FreeBMD entry to that effect. His widow remarried in Dec qtr 1845 Bristol 11/257 to
Joseph Brooks.
1851 Census 7, Cannon St., Bedminster
Joseph BROOKS head mar 41 Plasterer born Glos Tedbury
Mary BROOKS wife mar 42 born Som Milverton
Mary CARPENTER daughter law un 16 born Bedminster
William CARPENTER son un 11 born Bedminster
Thomas John BROOKS son 4 born Bedminster

Baptisms at Fitzhead, Somerset
1808 Jan 6 CARPENTER Martin s George & Betty born 14 April 1805
1808 Jan 6 CARPENTER Robert s George & Betty
Marriage at Milverton
1827 Sep 25 Martin CARPENTER otp = of this parish & Mary WARREN otp wit. Elizabeth Blake; John Sealy
Milverton Baptism
1811 May 12 WARREN Mary d John & Betty