England Household Items, Samplers, Society Minutes, Strays, Subscribers Lists (National Institute)

Inscriptions on Household Items
Monumental inscriptions on stone and metal, as well as certificates, bookplates, and other inscriptions on paper have already been discussed. Another category which is of use is engravings or paintings on metal, wood and china which tend to be passed down as heirlooms. Thus one might find names and other information, or coats of arms on:


 * Plate such as silver, gold or pewter tableware and cutlery.
 * China and Glass. There were huge porcelain dining sets up to 800 pieces commissioned, especially from China by HEIC merchants during the 18th century, and later from English manufacturers such as Worcester and Spode.
 * Medals for military, civilian, sports or other achievements.
 * Furniture – carving, painting, needlework.
 * Jewellery such as mourning &amp; signet rings, lockets with pictures or locks of hair inside.
 * Desk Seals
 * Guns
 * Gifts including the proverbial retirement gold watch.
 * Trophies from school, university, work or sports.

Many such items turn up in the antique market or sale room.

Some common sense needs to be applied when discovering items at home having inscriptions and identifying symbols. Giftware bearing coats-of-arms totally unrelated to the family may have been purchased at flea markets and antique stores. Items may have been acquired from well-known companies or hotels, such as monogrammed towels or china. A spoon with the engraved letters GWR – was it given to a faithful Great Western Railway employee, or perhaps more likely ‘acquired’ during a trip to the dining car (Hawkins)? It is wise to discuss such items with the owner and other relatives to ascertain their provenance before jumping to hasty conclusions.

Samplers
There is growing interest in collecting and preserving needlework samplers and you may be lucky enough to locate one with family information. The most comprehensive collections of historic samplers in England are housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Recommended books on samplers include Pamela Clabburn’s Samplers and Carol Humphrey’s 1997 article Samplers found in the Illustrated London News. Keith Sherwood described one with Gurner family history details from 1695-1794 (An Unusual Sampler in Readers’ Letters. Family Tree Magazine Vol 19 #6, page 23), and Sheila Pike (The Needlework of Very Young Girls) shows an example of a family tree and a map. There are many illustrated sites online including:


 * Needle Work Samplers
 * mfa
 * Victoriana
 * Cardon Collection
 * Antigue Samples

Society Minutes
The activities of many people can be ascertained from their membership in local or national societies. County archives will have much to offer if minutes, journals and other material have been deposited there. The Bedfordshire Agricultural Society was founded in 1801 and the first minute book commences with their purpose and list of members.

Bedfordshire Agricultural Society Founding Meeting 1801

Strays
A stray is a recorded event in which a person is described in the source record as being from, or connected with, a place outside the area in which they normally lived or were born. Most family history societies interpret this as an event out-of-county. The FFHS produced a National Strays Index of some of these in five fiche collections sent to each member society.

However, with the advent of the Internet and more and more genealogical material more readily available as indexes on CDs, fewer and fewer people have collected strays to send to the Strays Clearing House. It was decided recently by member societies that the Clearing House had had its day and it was closed down.

Subscribers’ Lists
There is a new interest amongst genealogists and historians in the lists of those who subscribed to the printing of books and to charities, and who were members of societies. One can ascertain the topics of interest to literate, affluent ancestor’s and the increasing number of searchable online offerings have made an otherwise superhuman task manageable. The dates are useful and occupations and addresses are sometimes given as well.

Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course English: Education,Health and Contemporary Documents offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com] We welcome updates and additions to this Wiki page.