Research Strategy – Herefordshire/Shropshire

Introduction

The balance of work between the two counties has so far considerably neglected Shropshire. The area covered by the ancient Diocese of Hereford takes in most of the southern part of the county and, therefore, the Pontesbury probate material has been covered. This has only revealed the family at Hope Bagot but the extensive printed Shropshire parish registers have not been searched.

The high number of members deriving from families rooted in Hereford means that this county has had a great deal of attention covering, for example, Diocesan probate records fully extracted although this is subject to the current project at HRO to re-store and catalogue these records which may well reveal missing material.

Tithe records have been covered in full with the aid of the Woolhope Club field names survey as well as the original apportionments. Printed Militia returns, Hearth tax, Taxes in the reign of Henry VIII and extracts from Duncomb's Collections have been extracted.

The family reconstructions of parish and census records in the Country/Area records are also well developed although there are important gaps for the earlier years of the parish registers.

Work on family trees has been boosted considerably by the DNA evidence. The result is that these gaps in extracts from the earlier years are becoming more critical and are difficult to fill as there are no transcripts for many parishes and the writing and condition of the registers makes the task difficult and slow in many cases. The gaps due to the effects of the Civil Wars both administratively and through military damage will become more evident as we progress back.

Strategy

Continue efforts to take back in time the family trees which have DNA profiles attached and try to join up the split off branches from documentary sources. Look for further possibilities of DNA analyses and develop strategies for researching the families with, so far, unassigned DNA profiles. Part of the purpose of this would be to see what implication there might be for overall record searching e.g. parishes to be included in priority lists for filling in the missing early years.

Circumstantial evidence shows what appears to be close links with the church. It is, therefore, important to examine what is offered by Diocesan and Deanery records apart from already mined probate and parish registers. We know for example that the family at Eardisley claims kinship with that at Breinton and in turn we know this family held the Manor of Breinton from the Cathedral. There are certainly records relating to this manor in the Deanery archives. Former monastic property held by Badham families is at Weston Beggard (Friars Court now Pigeon House Farm) and Linton so that this may offer clues for record hunting in Dissolution sources. A major nationally held resource relevant to Herefordshire and Gwent is the Duchy of Lancaster, Welsh estate records held at TNA. Ashperton was part of these estates and the potential for Duchy 'staff relocation packages' to affect migration from Gwent into Herefordshire is obvious.

Apart from the above, the following have not been comprehensively examined at Hereford Record Office:

  1. Quarter sessions records

  2. City of Hereford 'Antient Deeds'

  3. The Foley Archive at present unavailable because of Foley family probate issues

  4. Some references in the names index which point to other archive like that of the Aubrey family

More focused searches could start with the following:

  1. a project to fill in the parish record gaps. In the first instance concentrating on the Frome valley parishes.

  2. More work on family tree construction for families unattached. This is getting easier as other trees with DNA evidence in support build up

  3. As a special case of 2, the work suggested above on unattached DNA lines including families over the border into Gloucester and Worcestershire

  4. Perhaps lower in priority is a search of the printed registers for southern Shropshire although this may not be a large enterprise.

In my view, 1 above is the high priority as without these gaps filled the other work is more subject to error or blocks. I would see 1-3 above as running in parallel with the main Frome valley DNA linked, family tree work of which there are currently two. One is centred around Bishops Frome and the other called after Eaton Bishop but possibly rooted in Mordiford or Dormington. This last family has an unattached London branch to be joined on. The Callow / Bromyard link is very early in generations terms making eventual linking up through documentary sources difficult but work on each branch could be pursued and at least it helps to separate families.

The Parish gaps project is an example of work that could be done by members anywhere in the world. This is because the majority of the filmed parish records were done by the LDS team. Anyone having access to a Mormon family history centre can order a copy of one of these films. The project will however require a co-ordinator. The HRO have helpfully made available a copy of the table listing parishes and their microfilm numbers which in modified form could be used to manage this process. A downloadable version can be made available on the site.

Within Shropshire there is one small family presence we already know a little about at Middleton, in the parish of Oswestry. ISYS Web catalogue entries from the National Library of Wales include an admittance on 11th Sept 1555 to 20 acres of demesnse land of Middleton manor. Admitted were John ap Thomas ap Gr[Griffiths or Grono??] ap Adam together with his sons William and Edward. As late as 1679 there is a case in which an Edward Badham is to defend his title to 1200 acres. Possibly linked to this family is the appointment in 1406 of John ap David ap Adam as parson of 'Llandruniowe' in the Diocesse of St Assaph which is probably Landrinio about 9 miles South of Oswestry. There is a fairly substantial local archive of the Town Council records held in Oswestry.


 

PB 16 May 2012 added to 21 January 2015.