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The inspiration for this post came about from several different threads that I have had in my mind recently. Firstly, my attendance at the Register of Qualified Genealogists Conference (which took place on 25 September) and the Society of Antiquaries Conference on 09 October. And secondly, my intention to apply for full membership of AGRA (the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives). Other thoughts have been simmering in the background, which have prompted me to think about the subject of Continuing Professional Development (or CPD).

Who needs to undertake CPD?

CPD is of course not unique to genealogy and family history- you find the idea in every job and occupation. The intention is to encourage employees to continue to be the best they can be in their job, by keeping up with current developments or by continuing to learn about best practices in their job, for example. This is something that employers are encouraged to offer, so what about those of us who are self employed, or are only researching as a hobby? Should we be concerned about CPD too?

The short answer is of course, yes, but this leads onto my point of CPD being a chore or a challenge. Those of us who do not have CPD in-built into our lives via an employer, have to work a little harder to fulfil the needs of CPD. This is where CPD can become a chore. Speaking from my own experience, thinking of CPD as a separate “subject” which has to be approached clinically (be planned, written down and evaluated), can frankly turn it into a chore.

My own experience of CPD

Perhaps it is just the way my brain works. My first career was in music, and so I was used to thinking creatively for a large proportion of the time. That is not to say that logic, planning and evaluation did not play a part at all, but everyday I had to learn how to elicit emotional responses from my work. Therefore for me, the idea of analysing the learning that I do fills me with dread, as it feels as if it takes away the feeling of having learned it in the first place. Perhaps I operate on a more instinctive level in some aspects of my life.

For me, I have had to learn to think differently in the way I approach CPD (which is still ongoing by the way!). I still find it much easier for there to be an organic initial approach. By way of explanation, I mean that I respond much better to things that I can relate to and have not had to attend, just for CPD purposes. I am sure I am not alone there, but of course life does not always work that way and a certain amount of compromise is needed!

There is no doubt that I enjoy learning. I always have, so there is no issue in undertaking CPD itself. I just prefer it when things fit together without forcing the issue. That seems like a vague statement, and indeed it is difficult to put into words exactly what I mean. An example would be my recent trip to Derbyshire (you can find the post I wrote about that here). There were so many interesting places to visit, especially from a historical point of view. I did not plan to visit specific places because they filled a certain CPD need, but because they seemed interesting and I wanted to learn about them. They just so happened to fulfil a CPD related purpose as well. After visiting Hardwick Hall, I bought Bess of Hardwick’s biography (written by Mary S. Lovell), which turned out to be much more informative and fascinating than I could have predicted (I sometimes find biographies difficult to get through, depending on the writing style). Unwittingly, I now have a much more informed understanding of not only Bess of Hardwick’s life, but also of the intricacies of Tudor court relations, the role of Lord of the Manor in the period and other small aspects of everyday life that sometimes get overlooked. As a text, it was very readable and also helped to put Bess into the wider context of her time.

So, with my interest in Medieval and Early Modern genealogy, you could say that I undertook a good bit of CPD there. However, it was completely unplanned and that sort of CPD makes more of an impression for me.

CPD and Society Membership

But, as I mentioned earlier, life does not always work that way. As a consequence, I have to temper my instinctive way of thinking with a little bit of planning and organisation, in order to get the best from my CPD experiences. My attendance of the RQG and Society of Antiquaries conferences are a case in point. They did not come about by happy accident, but by concerted thinking about what they may have to offer in terms of CPD. As a result, I also found them full of interest and useful from a CPD standpoint.

Another point to consider, is that any professional organisations that a person joins may have their own ideas concerning CPD. Both the RQG and AGRA stipulate the provision of ongoing CPD for members. It is something that you must do to be a part of their organisation. This is again where the ‘chore’ aspect of CPD rears its head. In order to prove that you have undertaken CPD, these organisations ask that it is all recorded. Now, that is actually a very logical approach. Even if membership of professional organisations is not a goal, keeping track of the CPD you have done means that you can remind yourself of what you have already achieved. Reflecting on learning undertaken can help us grow and identify areas of improvement, or areas in which we would like to learn more.

On the other hand, this requires further time. Not only do you have to undertake the CPD activity, but you have to write it down and reflect later. This is not something that comes naturally to me, but as I have said, I have had to adjust my thinking a little. In an already busy life, the additional step of writing down and reflecting can get put to the bottom of the pile, even if the CPD activity is undertaken. Building time into the day/week/month to update a CPD log can be a helpful way to go and eventually it should become second nature. It is a) a necessary step in order to belong to certain professional organisations and b) beneficial to our CPD journey in the long run.

Just keep learning!

At the end of the day, interest and curiosity in our subjects is the key. CPD needn’t be a chore but a wonderful challenge. A challenge to ourselves to keep learning and finding out more about a subject that we are passionate about already. And the ‘chore’ portion can be mitigated with a little organisation and a realisation that both our own learning and the areas we work in deserve that little extra effort.

There are bound to be those whose experience with CPD has been different to my own. My own approach is neither right nor wrong, or the only way of approaching the issue. I only hope that if you have struggled a little with the idea of CPD, that you can still be inspired by your subject and that CPD becomes more challenge than chore!

© 2021 Shersca Genealogy.

Sometimes the inspiration for a post comes from an unexpected place. I spent some time in Derbyshire this year, and whilst I wasn’t intending to work, the history of the place inspired me. It turned out to be a bit of a busman’s holiday I suppose!

Chelmorton and Buxton

Perhaps I should not have been surprised, as there are a lot of historical locations and attractions around Derbyshire. Right on the doorstep of the place I was staying was the immensely historical Church Inn of Chelmorton. As well as being situated in the highest village in Derbyshire, the history of the pub stretches back to at least the 17^th century. Across the way from the Church Inn, is the village Church itself. St. John’s has a large set of graveyard memorials, many of which are much older, and more ornate than any I am used to seeing around Somerset.

On a visit to Derbyshire, I of course had to visit Buxton. I will admit that I spent most of my time at the bookshop, Scrivener’s, and I even managed to pick up some good bargains on genealogical/historical books. One of my favourite finds was Brass Rubbing by Malcolm Norris. Although published in 1977, I hope that the images of female brasses will help me in my quest in reproducing a woman’s outfit from the 1460s/1470s. This is around the time when one of my ancestors (Joan Sydenham) died. You can find out more about this quest (and my reasons for pursuing it) in one of my previous posts here.

Chatsworth and the Hunting Tapestries

The big excursions for me were visits to Chatsworth House (how could I not?), Hardwick Hall and Eyam. I have been to all three of these places on a previous visit, but it was many years ago now and it was great to be able to look at them again with fresh eyes.

Chatsworth obviously has bags of history in the form of the Dukes of Devonshire and their ancestors, but this time the most interesting part for me was their most recent exhibition. The ‘Life Stories’ Exhibition runs until the beginning of October this year and explores certain individuals through a specific painting or object. Henry VIII’s rosary was particularly fascinating and was quite frankly, far too large to be carried around on a regular basis in my opinion! Bess of Hardwick’s pearl necklace was another fascinating object. Although a replica of an original, it was apparently made from 1000 pearls. Given the nature of pearls and the way they are made, this was quite simply a statement of Bess’ accumulated wealth and status. The icing on the cake for me this time though, were the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries. Originally belonging to the Cavendish family, they are now part of the V&A Museum collection in London. The Museum has loaned them back to Chatsworth for this year, and they are quite a sight to behold!

Now, I am not the biggest fan of hunting scenes on the whole, but I am sure you can guess where this is going. The tapestries have some wonderful examples of period clothing! They are a little bit earlier than my target period, but are terribly interesting and useful nevertheless. Who knows, perhaps I may expand my efforts to other Medieval periods in the future?

Hardwick Hall and Bess of Hardwick

Chatsworth was not the only place where I encountered Bess of Hardwick. As I have already mentioned, one of my other excursions was to Hardwick Hall. For those in the know, I will not have to tell you that Bess was the wife of Sir William Cavendish and the ancestor of the Dukes of Devonshire. Bess also had a hand in building both Chatsworth and Hardwick Hall. The National Trust property stands right next door to the old Hardwick hall, which is looked after by English Heritage.

But there is much more to Bess’ story than merely being the sire of an illustrious family. Bess experienced widowhood four times in her life; she outlived all four of her husbands and used her widowhood to great advantage. Climbing up the social ladder, her fourth (and final) husband was the 6^th Earl of Shrewsbury, George Talbot. On the other hand, her first husband (Robert Barlow) had been of a significantly lower status. Bess’ third husband, Sir William St Loe, is on my to-do list to look into- his surname is curiously similar to that of some locations and places in Somerset.

Increasing my reading list further is the biography of Bess’ life: Bess of Hardwick, First Lady of Chatsworth, by Mary S. Lovell. In light of my Medieval interests and in particular those relating to Medieval women, Bess’ story is a fascinating one for me. She may not have been a Somerset woman, but she was a powerful and important one nonetheless.

Eyam, the ‘Plague Village’

My final outing in Derbyshire took me to the village of Eyam (not pronounced ‘I-am’ as my Somerset brain initially thought!). Famous for being the ‘Plague Village,’ the museum contains a fascinating exhibition concerning the plague in Eyam. It then makes sense walking around the village and seeing the places mentioned in the exhibition.

Since my first visit, the curators of the museum have significantly re-vamped and improved the exhibition. Consideration is given to the sort of disease that might actually have run rampant in the village (possibly not Bubonic Plague), how it might have gotten there, as well as the human cost. What particularly impressed me was the amount of research that had been done in local surviving records from the time, both to give a picture of the families that had succumbed to the plague, but also to try to get to the bottom of the facts of the matter. I remember reading in the exhibition that the estimate made at the time of the death toll and the number of survivors might be somewhat conservative in both cases- other documents and pieces of evidence from the time suggested different figures.

Most people will remember that the Plague swept through England in the 1300s, but will have forgotten that there were various outbreaks since then. The outbreak in Eyam took place in 1665-1666. The exhibition is perhaps particularly poignant at the moment with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, as the villagers of Eyam made the decision (back in the mid-1600s) to isolate themselves from the outside world, in order to stop the spread of the disease. In an era when the exact cause of disease was not fully understood, the villagers were ahead of their time.

What cannot be forgotten though, were the devastatingly sad stories of people being the only survivor in their families, parallels which can certainly be drawn today. As a genealogist though, seeing that the time and effort had been made to record the stories of these families (by using good research) was great to experience. It is a visit I would certainly recommend to anyone in the Derbyshire area.

So that is about it for my history inspired holiday to Derbyshire. If you are ever in that area (if you are not lucky enough to live there already), then I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

© 2021 Shersca Genealogy.

For any of you are particularly eagle-eyed, you may have noticed that I am about due for another blog post. Time has gotten away from me recently, which means that a new blog post will not be coming your way just yet.

Instead, I thought I would let you have a sneak peek of some of the ideas I am working on!

If you have been following my recent posts, you will know that I have begun working on a Medieval themed side project. Progress on the practical side of my Medieval dress-making journey is slow (due to my recent wrist and shoulder injuries). But I still have aspects to research, and the whole project is quite exciting!

I hope to continue my search for a connection to the Medieval Stourton family. On a related note, I also hope to write a guide for Medieval genealogy. I am sure you can see which historical period my interests are currently focussed upon! Hopefully now that archives are beginning to open up, my research will be a little easier.

There are of course other posts that will crop up as I go along and I will keep you posted when I go to any conferences and historical/genealogical get-togethers. They may still be online rather than in person, but I am simply grateful that they can take place at all.

I almost forget to mention my ongoing One Name Study! There will certainly be further updates for you all on the progress I there, as I go along.

So I shall take my leave for now, and will be back soon!

My One Name Study began in a similar way to many others: I came across an ancestor with a particularly interesting surname. After looking further into that person and her ancestors, I also found that I was hitting potential brick walls if I wanted to get back any further. After further research, there seemed to be a whole raft of people with the same surname in certain areas around where my ancestor lived. This led to the question: could they be related in any way? Now, I cannot quite remember the point which I discovered One Name Studies and the process of beginning one, but begin I did.

The beginning of the Rowsell ONS

This all started a few years ago now, without much direction and with less experience than I have now. I am sure that I will look back in a few years’ time and think much the same thing! In any case, I started gathering UK Census information and I also started looking at Parish Registers, wills and a few other bits and pieces. As I said, not much logic and direction. Then, when I visited Family History Live in 2019 I discovered the Guild of One Name Studies (brilliant acronym of GOONS!). After joining the society, their “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” text helped me to structure my research more and I have made better (and more logical) in-roads into my surname search. In fact this was the subject of my very first blog post, two years ago now! My progress is perhaps not as rapid as some, as I have both my genealogy business and my work tutoring with the University of Strathclyde filling my time. But, I try to do what I can when I can, as I am determined to get to the bottom of my Rowsell ancestors!

Mary Ann Rousell (1832-1929)

The beginning of the story starts with the discovery of Mary Ann Rousell on my maternal line. She was the mother of my great-great grandmother (Sarah Hawker), who came from Odcombe, Somerset. Sarah was the ancestor who had an illegitimate child with her sister’s husband. You can read all about that in my previous blog post, A Family Mystery Finally Solved.

Back to Mary Ann then. Having worked backwards through her life, I eventually found out that Mary Ann was born Mary Ann Rousell, in Merriott, Somerset. Her baptism took place in Merriott on 25 November 1832, to Robert and Ruth Rousell. Robert was a weaver.[1] She lived with her mother Ruth in 1841 (in Merriott),[2] and possibly lodged with a family in Crewkerne in 1851,[3] the year before her marriage. Mary Ann’s marriage took place in the Beaminster district of Dorset, to Simeon Hawker in 1852. [4] Luckily for me, there was only one marriage ever recorded in the Marriage Indexes for a Simeon Hawker, as the couple were not married in the parish church (I just haven’t gotten around to buying the certificate yet)! The couple then made their lives in Odcombe, Somerset, Mary Ann outliving her husband Simeon and likely passing away in 1929.[5]

A Rowsell mystery

The mystery for me came with Mary Ann’s father Robert, and his father. I managed to find a baptism that was likely Robert in Merriott in 1791, born to Robert and Hannah Rowsell[6] but no matching baptisms for Robert senior. It is possible he may have come from one of the surrounding villages. My current hypothesis is Seavington St. Mary, but this is really why I began my Rowsell One Name Study. I dearly wish to discover the origins of Mary Ann’s family. As the surname is quite abundant in South Somerset, I felt that a One Name Study would both help me to find Mary Ann’s origins and any connections between the families that share the name. Another important point is the difference between ROUSELL and ROWSELL. You might have noticed that Mary Ann was ROUSELL, whilst her father Robert was ROWSELL. Any interchangeability between these variations is another aspect I wish to discover. Did the families with different variants specifically use that variant and no other, or were they liable to change over the years and different circumstances? Illiteracy and local pronunciation may have had an impact on this, but from the beginnings of my research, it seemed that the different variations were more common in certain areas.

At this point, I must not forget the third variation of ROWSWELL. Of course, there may be other spellings such as ROUSEWELL, and then there is the issue of ROSWELL, ROSEWELL and any possible link to the surname RUSSELL. These issues will be tackled at a later date, and my current efforts are concentrated on the main three variations: ROWSELL, ROUSELL and ROWSWELL.

Somerset Births, Marriages and Deaths

Making my One Name Study official certainly helped me to focus my efforts, and so I have been gathering data from the most obvious place to start: the England and Wales Births, Marriages and Deaths indexes. I have begun with Somerset and then hope to expand those to the rest of the UK at a later date. I am part way through compiling spreadsheets to record the Marriages and Deaths indexes data, but I have now completed the spreadsheet for the Somerset Births index. Of course, there will be further data to collect as further years become available. For now though, I have collected data for all Rowsell births (with the two variants) for Somerset between 1837-2006. I have used various different databases at various points of the research to enable me to cross check entries, and it also became clear that I would need to set some rules regarding the areas considered to be ‘in Somerset.’ Due to the changing boundaries over the years (significant changes happening in 1936 and 1974), I have had to think about which places were within the county at which time and how that will affect my data collection.

As a result though, I am excited to be at the point where I could perform some basic analysis on the numbers of Somerset Rowsell births. At a basic level, I can now tell how many births there were, which district they were located in, and the split between the districts. At the moment, it seems that ROWSELL is by far the most common spelling, followed by ROWSWELL and with ROUSELL the least common. Time will tell what that means for Mary Ann’s spelling of Rousell versus Rowsell, as I also hope to create family trees for the different families- I may be able to discover any links between families and the different spellings used.

Some basic analysis

Looking at the number of births by decade, there does seem to be an increase throughout the Victorian period and a general decline throughout the 1900s. This may tally with the Victorian population explosion and later decline, but what interests me most, is how the births are spread between the different registration districts. Currently, my initial thoughts that the surname is very much a South Somerset name could be correct. The top four districts with between 150 and about 300 births each (looking at the first period of 1837-1936) are: Chard, Taunton, Yeovil and Langport. Each of the other 15 districts of the period all had under 100 births. The chart you can see is a rough layout of these figures (and gave me a chance to play around with pretty pictures!). I am really looking forward to digging deeper into this and then to comparing these figures to what was going on nationally.

So, the research goes on. I know I still have a long way to go, but I am definitely looking forward to finding out where this research leads!

© 2021 Shersca Genealogy

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[1] Baptisms (PR) England. Merriott, Somerset. 25 November 1832. ROUSELL, Mary Ann. Collection: Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1914. www.ancestry.co.uk : accessed 25 July 2021.

[2] Census records. England. Merriott, Somerset. 06 June 1841. ROUSELL, Mary Ann. PN: HO107/940. FL 41. BN 5. ED 19. p. 8. http://www.ancestry.co.uk : accessed 25 July 2021.

[3] Census records. England. Crewkerne, Somerset. 30 March 1851. ROUSELL, Mary. PN: HO107/1928. FL 376. SN 105. ED 8a. p. 29. http://www.ancestry.co.uk : accessed 25 July 2021.

[4] Marriages indexes (CR) England. RD: Beaminster [Dorset]. 3^rd Q., 1852. HAWKER, Simeon. Vol. 5a. p. 637. www.freebmd.org : accessed 25 July 2021.

[5] Deaths indexes (CR) England. RD: Yeovil [Somerset]. 4^th Q., 1929. HAWKER, Mary A. Vol. 5c. p. 402. www.freebmd.org : accessed 25 July 2021.

[6] Baptisms (PR) England. Merriott, Somerset. 05 January 1791. ROWSELL, Robert. Collection: Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812. www.ancestry.co.uk : accessed 25 July 2021.

Just a few weeks ago, I attended the University of Kent Medieval & Early Modern Studies (MEMS) Festival. By now, you probably know that Medieval genealogy is a big interest of mine and so it is not surprising that the MEMS Festival would be appealing. The Festival itself was a large affair, taking place over three days. There were four sessions a day (each split into two different subject areas), which included two to three presentations of papers. The sheer volume of papers and speakers was phenomenal! Not having been to a MEMS Festival before, I don’t know how it usually works (this year it of course took place online), but I wondered if perhaps it was trying to fit a little too much in? The talks I attended were very brief and there was not the time for the speakers to go into any great detail. In any case, it was quite a feat of organisation and my hat goes off to the organisers at the University of Kent for pulling it all off, despite the usual technical hitches.

Inspiration from MEMS Fest

The talk I was most interested in was in the section ‘Needlework of History.’ That particular section included talks on the topic of historical clothing and needlework used in devotional books. Cecilia White’s (from the University of Kent), ‘Recreating Historical Clothing’ was of particular interest, as I have recently been thinking more about the clothing our ancestors would have worn. In a bid to further understand my Medieval ancestors and those I research, I have begun a new side project. Eventually, I hope to make my own Medieval outfit of the sort worn by one of my own ancestors, Joan Sydenham (neé Stourton). I did write a previous post (or two) about the Stourton family and my own connection to them, which you can find here and here. I am still seeking further confirmation (research has been almost non-existent recently due to COVID restrictions in archives), but what I have so far looks promising!

Whatever the outcome for my own Medieval connection, going through the process of learning about (and subsequently trying to recreate) Medieval clothing will better help me to understand what life was really like for my Medieval ancestors. The more well to do women would likely not have made their clothes themselves, but the act of choosing cloth, learning about sewing methods and taking the time to put that into practise to make a garment, will add to the background knowledge that I have when I research. Understanding the period will help to make me a better researcher.

Why bother making historical garments?

Gaining further knowledge of the period is exactly the sort of thing that Cecilia White’s talk suggested. Making a historical garment can tell us information about those who wore it, beyond the genealogical. For instance, if a garment uses a lot of material, then the wearer would need to have been wealthy enough to afford it. Likewise, something I had not considered was the potentially unwieldy nature of some garments. If people were wearing these sorts of garments on a daily basis, then they would have been wealthy enough to not need to undertake many activities in such a restrictive garment. It is a case of practicalities- those who needed to work, needed garments that allowed them more freedom of movement. Those who did not need to work (or perform the same sort of activities), could wear garments that were more of a fashion statement. This then becomes a statement of status too.

Where can I find information on the topic?

As well has having attended Cecilia White’s talk, I have found many channels on YouTube that also cover the same subject. Cecilia herself is an ‘experimental archaeologist,’ someone who tries to recreate items from history using any physical and documentary evidence gathered. Whilst the YouTubers do not label themselves so formally, to my mind, they are practising a form of experimental archaeology, in searching for patterns of the time, looking at the materials that would have been used, the type of person that is being portrayed, and garment construction techniques of various periods. Those channels that I have found so far concentrate on a range of periods and not just Medieval dress, but they are fascinating to watch! The below is a list of those I have looked at so far and have found to be interesting and useful in content:

• Bernadette Banner
• Prior Attire (the channel that started it all!)
• Morgan Donner
• Lady Rebecca Fashions
• Abby Cox
• Nicole Rudolph
• V. Birchwood- Historical Fashion
• And for something more general about sewing: Evelyn Wood
• (it goes without saying that any opinions etc. on these channels are their own- I am not affiliated with them in any way)

How will I go about this?

So for my own project, I plan to try to recreate the sort of outfit that may have been worn by my ancestor, Joan Sydenham. Joan died on 21 April 1472[1] and the family were based at Brympton, near Yeovil, Somerset. There are various stages to this project, which I plan as follows:

• Research- looking for sources that tell me what Joan might have worn. I am particularly interested in looking for Wills that might include clothing, and monumental inscriptions and other images which might show what a woman of the time was wearing. The second portion of the research will be to look at texts which have been written by other authors who have researched sewing and dress-making techniques of the time. I already have my YouTube channels and The Medieval Tailor’s Assistant by Sarah Thursfield, but there are others that I wish to look at.
• Planning- Thinking about the time period, Joan’s social rank, her marital status (a widow in this case). These will all have a bearing on the layers needed to produce the full garment, which can then be drafted using methods of the time.
• Production- The final stage will be making the garments- yes garments plural! Not only will I need to make undergarments, outer garments and headwear, but I am also planning to test each one out first before I cut up proper fabric! I am more at the beginner end of sewing, so this is an important step for me. Learning to fit will also be a bit of a learning curve, so test pieces will be a must!

There is a lot to think about in a project such as this and as I have more experience in knitting than in sewing, it will take some time. I am not giving myself a particular time limit (due to work pressures and my recent shoulder and wrist issues), but I will keep you updated as I go along. There are many videos of this sort of thing on YouTube now, so I will instead keep blogging and writing about it instead. The below photograph is a sneek peek of my first attempt at what The Medieval Tailor’s Assistant calls a fillet. Something a bit like a hairband made of material, that probably sits under most headdresses.

Next time, I hope to have the whole thing!

© 2021 Shersca Genealogy

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[1] Inquisitions Post Mortem. England. Crewkerne, Somerset. 31 October 1472. SYDENHAM, Joan. Collection: Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series I, Edward IV. Reference: C 140/42/45. The National Archives, Kew, London, England.