Helen (Coleman) Ford

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Helen Ford [send private message]

I'm a former teacher, now living near Dorchester, England. Three quarters of my ancestors came from Northamptonshire, ag labs, shepherds and shoemakers. They lived and married people from nearby villages .My grandmother's family was more diverse and came from Worcestershire, Shropshire and Wales via Birmingham and the black country.

I became involved in the Sourcerer's project at it's inception and then rather got side tracked into researching an interrelated group of Dorset families which were not well sourced and had incongruous dates.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Martyn_genealogy

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Whites_of_Fiddleford%2C_Dorset

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Tregonwell_Family

First try at sorting out the numerous Thomas Whites (apart from earliest Thomas Whites of Poole now incorporated Fiddleford page)

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Martyn/_Martin%2C_Wadham%2C_Thomas_White

I continued with these families and the families they married into. It became a fascinating trek into post reformation history. Many of the individuals in these families retained their Catholic beliefs. During the Civil war, many had their lands sequestered.

Since writing the above, I have become even more involved in the local history of Dorset. I have set up a project for 17th C inhabitants of Dorchester . This is a town known for being the most puritan in England; though even here not everyone conformed.

Tracing families and their lives on both sides of the religious divide during this period has helped me to learn far more about the effects of the reformation than my A level history of the period ever did.

I have photographed many relevant memorials from churches in the area (just need to get them all onto wikitree). I have transcribed a large number of local wills. I am within walking distance of the records office and am able to visit it easily. Being local means that I can refer to some records that will never be online.

However, my research at the archives is not all for wiki-tree. I've now (2019) writing a dissertation for an MA in Local History from 1750 which takes up more and more of my time. As my data includes what's called 'reconstitution' I will have linked all the farming and agricultural labourer's families in early 19th C Hazelbury Bryan to their recent ancestors (and often to each other) Looking at individuals and their families sharply illustrates the effects of those broad changes recounted in the national history books; increased mechanisation, farm sizes, population, agricultural employment and poverty. A few did well but for many it was comparative riches to rags; yeoman or cottager to pauper and in two cases to a prison hulk within one or two generations.

For all of those with Dorset profiles that I may intrude on , they are not normally my family.I have no interest beyond accuracy and have a firm belief that genealogy without sources is a mythology. I will try to find those primary sources and hope you will not object to my including them on your open profiles. I will make errors, so please challenge me if you think that is the case.

My husband does have ancestors in the area, Fords from Shillingstone and Ockford Fitzpaine . They were there from before the 1570s to the 1830s They were yeomen and husbandmen (definitely not gentry) .

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Helen F at registration.