The next decade....what's in store?

Looking into the past

One of the things I'm doing for a client, is looking up land deeds of his ancestors. I've written about this already, but just to say again how lovely this exercise has been.

At the Island Records Office are these huge books. In them, alphabetically listed, are records of who sold/gave land to who (found in the Grantors indeces) and who bought/received land from whom (found in the Grantees indeces).

The handwriting is very curly curly; some are easier to read than others. But very neat.

Now the records that I had examined before on the last assignment, were from 1840 or thereabouts. This time, I examined records from the start of the records which were from about 1650. In each line, you have the names of both parties, the Liber (I guess that must be latin for book??), the record number and then a description of what kind of transaction it was.

There, very plain to see, is 'Sa. Sla'. Obviously they were not consistent in how they abbreviated the transactions, so elsewhere it's listed as 'Sa. Neg'.

I looked under my relatives' page in one book and saw this kind of transaction too. I wish, I just wish, my granny or any of her brothers and sisters (there were 13 in all) had kept journals of daily life so I could have an idea of what went on in the past. For now, all I have are these records. But it has been very revealing.

You see the names of those who are still considered moneyed people. Names like Henriques, Vaz, Harding. Some people had lots of transactions showing that they bought up a whole lot of land.

You may remember me talking about 'In Miserable Slavery', a book I had read which was the diaries of a plantation owner, Thomas Thistlewood, in the 18th century in Westmoreland. In it, he mentioned when he bought land. So one day, I am going to look up his records and connect my readings with reality.

Fascinating, just fascinating, this journey into the past has been.

Posted by yamfoot at January 19, 2005 01:06 PM