Jo Moore (billyjomoore @t ntl.com) of Borough Green, Kent, writes: Found  my Gt Grandfather and family in Rixs Yard, St Andrews, on the 1881 census. He and the eldest daughter were horse slaughters.  I would like to know where they worked, was there a slaughter house nearby. I hope to visit Hertford later in the year to see where they lived, if the house is still there! My Father and Mother are buried in Hertford.  I believe the Currell's are an old Hertfordshire family and I am hoping to discover quite a bit when I visit. So any information would be greatly appreciated.

A quick glance at the 1881 census results you have found shows that you have a very interesting family. They were living in Rixs Yard, off St Andrews Street, in the parish of St Andrew's, Hertford.

The first thing that strikes me is the birth place of the children - suggesting a well travelled family. A check back at the census shows that only four people in the town of Hertford were born in the East Indies - and Margaret and George were the only children. Eleanor was the only person in the whole of Hertfordshire born in Curra. As John was a labourer he would not have been able to finance travel on this scale and my guess is that he had been in the army - in which case there should be army records in the Public Records Office about him.

The ages give clues to tracking down birth and baptism details. There might be at least one child between Emma and Eleanor who has already left home, and possibly one or two older than Emma, depending on the couple's date of marriage. However something is probably wrong as children were normally recorded in order of decreasing age. I suspect that George should be older than Alfred - so the microfilm of the census needs checking for a possible transcription error. (There is a general rule in genealogy - to check the source documents to make sure there have been no errors in transcribing or indexing.)

You specifically ask about the occupation. There was no sentiment about horses in the 19th century. When a horse was no longer fit enough to work it would go to the knacker's yard, and a check of the 1882 Kelly's Directory lists 5 horse slaughterers in Hertfordshire:

• Henry Andrew Currell, Bean House, Cowbridge, Hertford 
• W. Dickinson, London Colney
• William Gates, Langley, nr Hitchin
• Elijah Smith, Ashwell
• Thomas Spencer, Station Road, Hitchin'

The first entry immediately sent me back to the 1881 census, and in Cowbridge Yard, St Andrews, Hertford I find the following family:

This immediately raises the question of whether John Currell, after his journey to the other side of the world, returned to his home town of Hertford to work for a brother or cousin?

I will leave the investigation at this point - as you will have plenty to keep you busy when you visit Hertford and look at the records at HALS. Before you go you may find it useful to look at some of the "How to ..." pages on this web site, or get a copy of the book Tracing Your Family History in Hertfordshire.

There is a web page for Hertford

If you can add to the information given above tell me.

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