Monday 30 April 2012

Amanuensis Monday - Will of Mary Pickup (Walker) (1839-1916)

Mary is the wife of John whose will I extracted two weeks ago here. The two wills are extremely similar, but Mary has expanded in a couple of places.

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This is the last Will and Testament of me Mary Pickup of Rose Cottage Sherburn in Elmet in the County of York, made this fifth day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirteen. I hereby revoke all Wills made by me at any time hereto fore.
Written three years before her death.

I appoint Joseph Thomas Jackson and James Beckett Jackson of South Milford to be my Executors and direct that all my debts and funeral expenses shall be paid as soon as conveniently may be after my decease, to be paid out of the money standing to my credit in the Yorkshire Penny Bank Ltd.
Live her husband, all expenses are paid first. The executors are also the same two people, however whilst James is still a Postman, Joseph is now a newsagent.

I give and bequeath unto Harriet Elders and Edith Pickup my two daughters the money standing at my credit in the Leeds Industrial Cooperative Society Ltd to be equally divided between the said two daughters.
This is a follow on from John's will - his wishes.

The amount of money standing to my credit in the Yorkshire Penny Bank Ltd I give devise and bequeath the sum of £100 to my daughter Edith Pickup and the rest of the money in the said Bank to be equally divided amongst my seven children namely as follows; Francis James Pickup, Mary Jane Pargeter, Fred Walker Pickup, Sarah Ann Thornton, Harriet Elders, Kate Pickup and Edith Pickup.
John's will stated all the money should be divided between the seven children equally, but it the Leeds Industrial Cooperative Society money was only to be given to Edith if she remained at home with her parents. The extra £100 (and the 1911 census) suggests Edith remained living with her mother until her death, and the money was a hard earned reward. Mary also lists all her children by name which gives me Sarah's middle name (I only knew the A), as well as married names for Mary Jane and Sarah Ann. It's interesting that they ran out of middle names after the first four children!

The testimonial service of my late husbands to be divided as follows, namely my son Fred to have the tray, my daughter Edith the teapot and the other articles of the service the other children must divide them amongst themselves.
Identical to John's will (this time with the correct transcription of tray - thanks Lauren!)

The furniture to be sold and the proceeds divided equally amongst all my seven children above mentioned with the exception of my bed, bolster and pillows it is my wish they be given to my daughter Edith Pickup in addition to her share of the furniture.
With Mary still alive, John's will gave the furniture to her. It's interesting that Edith gets the bed - perhaps she was eyeing it up before her mothers' death!

Mary Pickup

Signed by the said testator Mary Pickup in the presence of us present at the same time who at her request in her presence and in presence of each other have both entered our own names as witnesses.
Joseph Thomas Jackson.
James Beckett Jackson

On the 4th day of November 1916 Probate of this Will was granted at Wakefield to Joseph Thomas Jackson and James Beckett Jackson the Executors.

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The value of this will was £977, £965 after the debts were paid, over £900 more than the value of John's will. I'm intrigued where she got her extra money from - perhaps a windfall from someone else?

Monday 16 April 2012

A bit of help?


The second name on the left page - Any thoughts?

Amanuensis Monday - Will of John Pickup (1836-1909)


John Pickup is my Great Great Great Grandfather on my dad's side. His daughter Harriet married John Elders, son of the Matthew listed in this post

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This is the last Will and Testament of me John Pickup of Rose Cottage Sherburn in Elmet in the County of York 18th day of January in the year of Our Lord One thousand nine hundred and nine, thereby revoke all Wills and Codicils herebefore made by me.
The will was written 4 months to the day before his death.

I appoint Joseph Thomas Jackson of South Milford and James Beckett Jackson of South Milford in the County of _ and _ of _ in the County of York to be the Executors to this my Will.
As far as I can tell these two are unrelated to John Pickup. Perhaps just family friends? I'll probably do more research when I get chance.

I direct that all my debts, funeral and testamentary expenses shall be paid as soon as conveniently may be after my decease.
Sensible!

I give, devise and bequeath unto my wife Mary Pickup all my property, namely the money in the Yorkshire Penny Bank, the Leeds Industrial Cooperative Society and all the furniture during her life.
Had money dotted everywhere!

After her decease the furniture to be sold and proceeds divided amongst all my seven children, and the money in the Leeds Industrial Cooperative Society to be divided between my daughters Harriet Elders and Edith Pickup, owing to the latter stopping at home with her parents.
Harriet Elders is my great great grandmother, and she had been a widow for nearly five years at this point, with three children to take care of. Edith was the youngest of the seven and is in the 1911 census living with her mother Mary. It appears she was basically paid to care for her mother!

After my wife’s decease what amount is left in the Yorkshire Penny Bank is to be equally divided amongst my seven children absolutely.
So Harriet and Edith got first dibs, but all the children get something.

The testimonial service which I received on leaving the North Eastern Railway is to be divided as follows, namely my son Fred to have the hay, my daughter Edith the teapot and the other articles of the service the others of my children must divide them amongst themselves.
John worked as a station master at Gascoigne Wood Junction and Milford Junction. Fred gets the hay, which I may have mis transcripted. And that must have been an awesome teapot!

Signed published and declared by the said Testator as and for his East Wile (nonsense!) and Testament in presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subsided our names as witnesses.
Joseph Thomas Jackson.
James Beckett Jackson

On the 15th day of July 1909 Probate of this Will was granted at Wakefield to Joseph Thomas Jackson and James Beckett Jackson the Executors.

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The value of this will was £55, £45 after the debts were paid.

Next Amanuensis Monday I'll transcribe Mary's will.

Saturday 7 April 2012

Sorting Saturday - Indexing my parish record information

I first went to the North Yorkshire County Record Office last July, and to put it bluntly, I went mental. I flicked through the books and microfilm and wrote down any one with the surname Elders, whether I knew the link to my family or not!

Now I am much more careful with my research; I have learnt to verify facts! I am also spotting links I had never seen before. One was in the 1841 census, where a young William Elders is listed. I noticed the lines on the census and found that they denote people belonging to a separate household. I believe he is the grandchild of the head of the household, nephew of Matthew Elders, my ancestor.


I flicked through my notepad of names and dates and discovered a William Elders born 1835 to Joseph Elders, likely to be the son of William and Ann.

After this discovery I decided I needed to create a database of the details I have found, which is where my favourite program - Excel - comes into its own.

I have created a spreadsheet with three tabs, one of baptisms, one for marriages, and one for burials. I have input all the data found in the parish registers; names, dates, details of parents, residence and occupations. Using the filter tool in Excel, I can then find any children of, for example, William and Ann, and then enter them quickly into FTM2012.

This is especially handy when I find new people as I can cross reference the names with my spreadsheet. Matthew Elders lived with his sister Ann in 1871 for the census. Because of this I knew she married William Legg(e), but after looking back through my parish records, it turns out they were married in Egton in 1864 before their move to Hull.

Just proves that it is worth re checking everything. Something you dismissed 6 months ago might now have meaning due to extra knowledge.