musings (201) fun Monday (76) friendship (64) K9 (13)

Sunday 3 May 2015

Hundreds

as in the Hundreds of Lancashire...

The 'red rose' county was composed from six Hundreds (areas of cultivable land).

From North to South they were
Lonsdale
Amounderness
Blackburn
Leyland
Salford
West Derby (largest area)

Fortunately, Lancashire Uni. have a website of Historic Lancashire Maps.
To someone like me, it makes good reading, looking at the changes over time. Some places kept the same name, others went thro' several versions.

Lancashire Day, (Nov. 27th) commemorates the day in 1295 when Lancashire sent its first representatives to Parliament in the time of King Edward I of England, 

The further back you go, the more complex it becomes. Not only are the names of the Hundreds taken from local places, they are also connected with church parishes and bishoprics. This can make genealogy 'interesting.'

Looking back thro' the Bleasdale family, the first problem being not only is it a surname, it's also a place name. As with other parts of the county, the area was designated a 'forest' meaning the King's hunting ground. The surname is still found mostly in Lancashire. 

Quote
 Bleasdale, 1228.

Although now in the parish of Lancaster, owing to its inclusion in the forest, Bleasdale has remained in the hundred of Amounderness, and was probably once within Garstang. It occupies a hilly country, divided into three main parts by the Rivers Calder and Brock, which rise near the Yorkshire border and flow south-west through it.

Take into consideration the seeming 'plethora' of Bleasdale men with the Christian name 'Thomas' and it becomes even more confusing. 

To begin with Thomas Bleasdale m Elizabeth Hannah Wilson 1912

Thomas born in the nearby village of Chipping. 

Looking on the Lancashire online parish clerks webpages for Chipping gave a number of Baptisms at St. Bartholomew, Chipping.

Now comes the next complication, unlike the Church of England, which has masses of parish records easily accessible online...

If the family were Roman Catholic, it requires using Census records instead as R.C. records are not freely available online.

1891
Thomas Bleasdale  Son Single 0 1891 - Chipping, Lancashire, England

Thomas Bleasdale      Head Married 32 1859         Farmer Chipping, 

See, here's the name problem already!

Assuming it's Thomas b 1891 that married Elizabeth Hannah Wilson.

The search continues...



No comments: