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Hipathite, Rickmansworth area, 19th century May, 2011 |
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Annie Pringle (anniep7 @t live.com) Queensland, Australia, writes: My great great grandparent emigrated to Australia in 1874. Alfred Hipathite b.19/3/1839 he married Phebe Crawley on the 8/3/1862 in St Thomas's Church, West Hyde, Hertfordshire. Phebe was born 6/9/1841 (we believe she was a twin although the twin died in infancy) Edelsborough, Bucks, England. His occupation was a farmer. How can I find more information about them?
The first thing to do is to get to know the important online facilities by using them yourself - and the most relevant ones are described on this web site, and also have their own guidance notes,
Because I expect you will have difficulties with the name "Hipathite" I will quickly outline the records you need to consult. The reason was that your ancestors in South West Hertfordshire were farm labourers who could almost certainly not read or write - and so would not know how their name was spelt, and you can expect many variations in spelling. Once Alfred got to Australia the official records at the time would have "frozen" the name in the way you have spelt it. The name is so rare that everyone I could see with the name appear to be part of a single family first recorded (with various spellings) in the Rickmansworth area from about 1800. It may have been a completely novel spelling for something else - possibly not even starting with an "H".
Your starting point should be the online census records, for which a fee is payable. The tutorial on this site uses Ancestry but I am currently using Find My Past. When you search these records you will find the following
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The 1841 census shows that Alfred "Ebelthite" was living at Two Hatches, Rickmansworth with his parents and three older siblings
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The 1851 census shows that Alfred Hipathite was living at West Hyde, Rickmansworth with his parents and siblings
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The 1861 census show Alfred "Hepthrate" was living at West Hyde, Rickmansworth, with his widowed father and two siblings
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The 1871 census shows Alfred Hipathite was living near the Whip & Collar (mis-indexed Whop and Cottage) Public House, Rickmansworth, with his wife, two sons, his father and brother (mis-recorded by the census enumerator as father-in-law and brother-in-law).
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The 1891 census shows an Alfred Hipathite who could be your Alfred's nephew.
I also noted some possible relatives indexed as Hepelhide - and there may be many other variations.
Birth, marriage and death civil registration information from July 1837 can be initially found on FreeBMD - but you will need to pay to get the certificates which will provide more useful information. Possible relevant entries are:
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In 1839 Alfred Hipathite's birth was recorded in the Watford Area
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In 1854 an Elizabeth Hipathite died in the Watford Area
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In 1862 Alfred Hippathite married in the Watford Area
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In 1876 a James Epethite died in the Watford area aged 72
Another useful site is Familysearch (free) particularly before 1837, and I noticed the following
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A James Hippathite married an Elizabeth Bowler at Rickmansworth in 1828
You may also find some birth/baptism records on this site - but unfortunately there are often gaps in the records before 1837, See Where to look before 1837 when the Parish Registers don't help and you may have difficulty chasing this line further back.
You should be able to track down Phebe Crawley yourself - using the web sites I have mentioned above. You may also find the HALS name index useful.
If you decide the Bowler line is worth following a message on Rootsweb in 1999 suggests that a Sue Lund, from Australia, traced that line back to 1735.