So I have these old lease documents from Devon, what can I do with them?

Question

I ordered a bunch of mid-18th century lease documents from the Devon Archives.

The items were only indexed in the Archives by the principal persons involved in the lease - just two to three names.

However, these documents mention up to a dozen people, with quite good descriptions of the individuals, and summaries of wills, that could be key to help with someone's personal research.

I asked the Devon Archives if they would add the additional names and descriptions to their index, and the answer was no, which was disappointing.

The people named are not my family, but are related to the first husband of my ancestor, a man described in these documents as the said Robert Pitt the younger had not been heard of for sixteen years and was supposed to be dead. They were mostly from Cullompton.

All Devon probate were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942, so snippets like this seem all the more important.

So the question is, what is something useful I can do with them? I'd like people searching on the internet to be able to find this information.

Comments

I suggest donating to the nearest LDS FHC facility for their use

Answer 1

If you have transcribed them, or made notes from them , then for each lease make a free-space page on Wikitree. You can hot link to the people with existing profiles. If you name the other people in the page title they should show up in a search.

If there is a summary of a will then that summary could be given its own free space page too.

We can also include them in our Devon Research Resources, linked from the Devon and England Pages.

Comments

Yes, I agree with Joe, I was just going to say make a free space profile. Most important to record this kind of info. so it is there permanently.

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I haven't made a free space profile before, but that sounds the way to go. Presumably I could add the image of the lease as well, assuming the licence it's under allows it?

Might take me a week or too to get around to it. I'll check back in here when I've made it.

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I agree that's a good answer. When done,  you could also offer a printout to the Devon Family History Society. They have their own research centre . 

Answer 2

I wonder would genuki be interested in your notes or transcriptions? Or can you post digital images anywhere?

Comments

genuki ! Yes! That s what I was thinking.

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I'll make the freespace page here and then I could let genuki know. How would I go about that?

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www.genuki.org.uk/org/helpus

Answer 3

Is there any mention of a John King or other family King  from Ippelpen or close by in these papers?

Comments

Sorry, but not that I'm aware of