Tuesday Tip - Looking again... and again.....

Visiting Nottingham Archives for the first time in a while over the summer, I realised they'd moved the shelves around.  The microfiche indexes, which I had gone in to look at, had moved round the corner to a different shelf; in their place I came across a transcript of memorial inscriptions for Basford cemetery, completed by the Nottinghamshire Family History Society in 2005.  I'd not spotted this before & as I have family in that area of Nottingham I had a quick look through it.

I was delighted to find my 3x great grandparents Edmund & Sarah Jowett ( nee Morton) mentioned in it, as I'd not found a record of their burial before.  The grave stone also records the sad and very early deaths of three Jowett children; Doris Elsie who died aged just 12 months in 1897, Doris Winifred Jowett aged 17 months in 1907. and Winifred Jowett Robinson in 1920 aged 13 months.  I have no record of these three children and I'm not sure how they fit in to the family - I would guess that they are the grandchildren of Edmund and Sarah - but I have yet to find out who their parents were.

It also revealed which side of her family my grandmother had to thank for her middle name of  Winifred - which she hated!

I'd also spent time in the past looking for a remarriage of Sarah Jowett, as I'd previously been told that she had remarried after the death of Edmund - "she wasn't a Jowett when she died."  But from the inscription it seems she didn't remarry & was buried with her husband & two of her children in October 1896.

So it's always worth a quick recheck of the shelves  in your local archives even if you think you've exhausted what they have to offer - you never know!

Tuesday's Tip - a follow up

This is just a follow up from my previous Tuesday Tip in which I'd overcome a brick wall by checking a previous failed search more carefully.

Today I've received a copy of my 3x great-grandparent's marriage certificate:

Information on this marriage certificate means I now know for definite that Sarah's father was Samuel, who was employed as a maltster.   I also have a name - Benjamin - and occupation - collier - for Joseph Baker, which will also help me in a census search.

It has given me another variation of Sarah's surname - it could be either Simlett or Simnett so this will need more careful checking but will help me when I search the census returns for her parents.  It shows that it is always worth checking all available sources for each person - variations in spelling can lead to a brick wall.