What's New?
 | 20th March 2009: BOOK COMING SOON! MERRIOTT'S FIRST
HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT! PRODUCED BY KEITH MULLINS & SHEILA
BOWMAN...... LOOKING FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST... |
"Merriott: A Historical Snapshot
There will be a limited edition of this book and we are seeking to sell
copies in advance to defray the cost of printing.
The book does not claim to be a history of Merriott nor a comprehensive
collection of photographs. It represents a compilation of historical material
from publications, records, articles and memoirs to provide a background to a
wide range of photographs and illustrations.
It gives an evocative snapshot of the village which we hope will arouse
interest and bring back memories.
The book consists of 80 pages printed on good quality 130gsm matt paper
with a gloss laminate cover of 250gsm with pictures on each side.
The book is very modestly priced at £4.99 and will be non-profit making,
and proceeds in excess of the cost going to the Village Hall.
We hope that many people will support the project and buy this book
thereby contributing to the social history of Merriott by preserving historical
records and old photos before the material is lost."
| 23 May 2008: An email from David Goble has probably
found the right Arthur Haines whose information was missing from the World War
One Memorial research page. I've added that information now.
Thanks to David for that!
|
| April 2008: I've had a gorgeous photograph sent
to me by Beryl Bellamy, to see whether anyone can help with identification of
the people pictured. The photo can be found
here.
It is of a wedding at the Kings Arms Inn around early 20th century.
At this time the Pattemore family was in residence, and quite possibly one or
more of the family are in the picture. Does anyone have knowledge
of military uniforms, or of dating old photographs - might help determine a
time period. If anyone has any ideas, please let us know!
|
| 31st January 2008: GRAY and GARRETT family reunion:
There will be a reunion for descendents of the GRAY and GARRETT families from
the Chinnocks on 19th October 2008 at Peak Crossing, Ipswich, Queensland,
Australia. For more information, contact Jenny Addison :
grayreunion@optusnet.com.au
|
| 16th November 2007: I've made a correction to the WW1
Memorial research page, regarding the entry for Harold Henry S Greenham.
Thanks to John Chant for bringing this to my attention.
|
| 30th October 2007: I'm working on an idea to
produce a book based on this website - with data, stories and best of all,
coloured pictures! (We own a printing company after all).
Even though the website is continually being added to, I thought it might be
useful to have a hard copy at some stage. I will need permission
from all of you who have contributed stories, photos and information.
If you see this message, could you contact me with a yes or no - otherwise
I'll contact you when I get to your area. Naturally contributors
will be named and thanked.
|
| 30th October 2007: I'm nearly finished transcribing
the West Chinnock parish registers for the Free Reg project. I
started this before I realised that Ruth Darwen was the Online Parish Clerk
for West Chinnock, but we are going to compare and contrast our
transcriptions. I am surprised how few marriage interactions there
were between Merriott & West Chinnock - considering they border each other.
|
| 30th October 2007: Attention locals: is
it possible to take a photograph of the village of Merriott from a nearby
vantage point eg a hill or something? I'd really love a panoramic-type
view of Merriott from a distance to put on the cover of the Merriott book
mentioned above, but I won't be getting there anytime soon, and I don't know
if a view is even possible. Any suggestions?
|
| 19 October 2007: I've had a message from Cathy
Herriman, a Merriott local: Wish I could be there! |
|
I wonder if you might help publicise
the inaugural meeting of the Merriott Local History Group? There
have been other groups before, but at the launch of the Village Plan a
goodly dozen of us got together and we're very close to having an
interesting series of meetings over the next year.
We hope, also, to have some more informal get-togethers, "bring-and- tell"
(like primary school!), walks around the village, trips to Taunton to
visit the museum and theecords Office.....who knows?
Dr. Robert Dunning (editor of the Victoria Somerset County History and
innumerable other titles) is our first speaker on November 7th at the
Tithe Barn. Entry is £2 to help towards costs, and refreshments will be
offered afterwards (50p), when we hope everyone will stay on to tell us
more about what they are interested in.
Next year we hope to have speakers to talk about "Tail Mill and the flax
and hemp industry in Somerset", "How Old is Your House?", "Somerset and
Merriott in WWII ; and the talk that I can't wait for:
Merriott Church's heart burial, newly researched by Charles Bird of Hinton
St. George.
I'm just writing to ask if you'd kindly publicise the existence of the
group and details of its first meeting?
Most of our "non-committee" are regular visitors to your site, so I'm
hoping other interested villagers are, too.
Cathy |
|
| 9th July 2007: SPAMMING: Beware! I have just had a spam
supposedly from myself, to myself. I know at least one person who
also has received spam supposedly from me. If you get an
unexpected email from sue@merriottfamiliesgenealogy.net with an attachment PLEASE DON'T OPEN IT
- contact me first to make sure it is for real. Unless I am
currently having email correspondence with you, it is unlikely to be from me.
|
| 11th May 2007. Kathleen Williams, nee Haines, has sent some pictures
of Church Street people and houses and information about her HAINES family.
Thankyou Kathleen! Find Kathleen's page
here. I've also uploaded
a photo of the Merriottsford Filling Station sent in by Dave Sampson.
Thankyou Dave! Find Dave's page
here. Plus - there's
more! I've added some information about the John RAISON family
who emigrated to Ontario, Canada. Read about this family
here.
|
| 10th May 2007. More information about the War Memorials has been
added. David Gibbs has shared his War Memorial Memories
here. A big thankyou to David
for his wonderful stories.
|
| 15th April 2007. Sue Smith has sent me research she has done
into the names on the First World War Memorial in Merriott. I've added
my research into the names on the Second World War Memorial. There are
still some question marks about the identities of some of the men listed.
We've mostly used the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website and the 1901
census to glean information, but no doubt some of you will know of further
detail. Please let me know if you do. The new pages are at:
Research into the Names on the
World War One Memorial and
Research into the names on the World War
Two Memorial.
Thanks to Sue Smith for instigating this research.
|
| 10th April 2007. I've given all my parish register transcriptions to
the Free Reg people now. They should be available for searching
fairly soon.
|
| 21st March 2007. I've been contacted by FreeReg, and I am in
the process of forwarding my entire Merriott parish register transcriptions to
them. I've added some more
information to the end of the Placenames page
- an interesting description of enumeration district No 3, Crewkerne, by the
1871 census enumerator, who explained the places he described were in the
parish of Crewkerne, but closer to Merriott in physical situation.
|
| 17th October 2006. I've been contacted by Jude Elliot, who is
a descendant of Simon Norton, to say that the photo sent in by Hadrian Cook is
actually of Abel's younger brother Simon Norton and his family.
Jude has the same photo. Mystery solved! Simon
went to New Zealand and married Mary Woodfine. They had a large family.
The photo was taken in the second half of 1884. Thanks Jude!
Hadrian Cook is descended from Martha Norton, a sister to both Simon and Abel,
so it makes sense that his family had a copy of the same photo that Jude has.
I wonder whether any correspondence is still in existence between the New
Zealand Nortons and the ones who stayed in England.
|
| 1st October 2006. Mr Keith Mullins, who is Chairman of
the Merriott Parish Council has contacted me regarding the website. An
extract of his email:
I am the Chairman of Merriott Parish Council
and I was delighted to discover your web site today. At our last meeting
the Council agreed to sponsor a pictorial history of Merriott.
Obviously we can make extracts from such
sources as the Victoria History of the County etc, but you have already
gathered so much of the sort of history we wish to record, so I wondered
whether we could be allowed to make extracts from your copy. We would of
course give you the proper acknowledgements in the proposed book.
I am very pleased to make contact with you
and I hope you can help with our history?
I replied that I was happy to be of help, but that a lot of the info on the
site was contributed by other parties, and that they would need to be
contacted if their contributions were required. It is
very exciting to think a book is to be published. I wish Keith and
his group all the best. If anyone would like to contact Keith,
please email me.
|
| 29th August 2006. Things have been somewhat quiet lately, but I have
added a photo to the Norton page - a photo sent in by Hadrian Cook, thought to
be Abel & Christiana Norton and their family, but we are not exactly sure who
is who. To have a look at the photo, go to the
Norton page. If anyone can confirm the identity
of any of the persons in the photograph, please share! [Note: mystery
solved 17th October 2006 - the photo is of Simon Norton (brother of Abel) and
his family. See entry for 17th October, above.
|
| 21st March 2006: I've transcribed the entire Merriott 1901
census, and have added detail to each surname page. Completed 6th
April 2006.
|
| 21st February 2006: Larry Bruseau has sent new information for the
caption under "Aunt & Uncle" on the page:
George Lawrence & Family migrate to the
USA. The information refers to Susan Gill, nee Lawrence,
formerly Osborne, with the photo taken in New South Wales, Australia.
Thanks to Larry for this.
|
| 16th February 2006: Shirley Stallard has sent photos of Joseph Lacey
(1829 - 1907) and Jane Shearstone (1830 - 1913), and information about the
family after they left Merriott. You can view these on
the Joseph & Jane Lacey to the
Isle of Wight page . Thankyou Shirley for sharing all this
information.
|
| 14th February 2006: Adrian Wills has sent more
photos of the village - thankyou
Adrian! Some different views here. Also have fixed the link
to Hilda & Brian Tasker's reminiscences,
which wasn't working. Also have uploaded the article from the Crewkerne
Advertiser from many years ago, regarding the unique language of Merriott.
Adrian Wills has also sent two photos of headstones: one of the Richard
Warry Family, and one
of the Charles Wills family.
|
| 4th February 2006: I have added a page for the surname
GEAR. Also Lesley Crawley has sent photos
of William & Ellen Osborne
(married 1890). Thankyou Lesley.
|
| 3rd February 2006: I haven't really been doing
nothing all this time. Believe me! Today I've
added two more Merriott Vicars (see All Saints
Church page), and fixed the name of another (1947 Oct 29 Edward
Francis Wintour Awre M.A. )
Thanks to Mary Parker for this
information.
David Gibbs has given me a poem about "Jobey Trask". Have a go at
deciphering Mert-Speak here.
|
| 3rd April 2005: Finally back on air after a month of computer
problems. If anyone has emailed me and not received a reply, please
send the message again. I've got a backlog of replying to do. So
much for my new year's resolution of not letting my inbox get out of
control!! PS: hint for the day : backup, backup and backup
some more....
|
| 3rd January 2005: I've added new pages for the
PARKER
, DODGE and RAISON
families. |
| Brian Tasker has sent some more pictures of All
Saints Church and also the War Memorials,
with some notes on both, including a Surname spelling correction on the
World War 2 memorial. Thanks Brian.
|
| Hilda Isaacs, nee Tasker, has contributed reminiscences of the
Merriott of her youth. Hilda is 87, and writes an interesting and
amusing story.... thankyou so much Hilda, and brother Brian Tasker, who
started the ball rolling. Read Hilda's story here.
Thankyou also Brian. |
| 13th September 2004: John Sweet has updated his information on
the origin of the surname SWEET.
Thanks John! |
| 19th July 2004: Some new information about the Sweets who emigrated
to Wales has been sent in by Clifford Sweet. Thankyou so much,
Clifford. The new information is on the Sweets
to Wales page.
I've also updated the Easons to Australia page
with more information trawled from the Births, Deaths & Marriages of
Victoria for William & George Eason, sons of Joseph Eason &
Elizabeth Clapp. This was prompted by information sent by
David Poynter - Thankyou David! Also a little more about Tamar
Eason and her father John Eason.
|
| 11th July 2004: Some captions on Lawrence photos have been changed,
due to contact by the owner of the photographs, Larry Bruseau.
These photos were originally on the Thomas
Lawrence page, but in fact belong to the family of Luke &
Sarah Lawrence. I apologise for any inconvenience caused
to anyone. I've started a new
page for the George Lawrence family (son of Luke & Sarah Lawrence)
who emigrated to the United States.
|
| 11th July 2004: David Gibbs is interested in starting an email
newsletter for people to share information about the old days of
Merriott. If you are interested or have memories to share,
please check out the details on the Merriott
Yesterday & Today page. I've also added some more
Merriott photos courtesy of Lewis Bates, on this
page.
|
| 11th July 2004: Mike Warry has sent a list of Wills proved at the Prerogative Court of
Canterbury 1500 - 1858 relating to people living in
Merriott. Have a look at the list of names here.
|
| 11th July 2004: I have added parish registers to the Rodgers/Rogers
page, and removed the tree which was there - it needs some
alterations. I apologise for any inconvenience caused. Also
included is an analysis of the three David Rodgers, the
two Elizabeth Rodgers married to Davids 1 & 2, and the two Ann Rodgers
married to Davids 2 & 3. Merriott records are nothing if not
confusing!!
|
| 9th April 2004: Diane Ellisor has been busy gathering more
information about the Norton family. The Norton
page has been updated.
|
| 7th April 2004: I have a new page under "History" called History
of Merriott Homes. A few people have contacted me mentioning they
are trying to track the history of the home in Merriott where they
live. I don't have expertise relating to this type of research, so I
hope someone can be of assistance. At present only one person is
listed, that is Christine Stigner, who is researching Chapel Cottage.
Can anyone help?
|
| 7th April 2004: Louise Tilzey-Bates, born Merriott, currently living
in Germany, has sent me an interesting newspaper snippet regarding the
"language" of Merriott folk. Have a read of it here.
|
| I have started to transcribe the Merriott strays in the 1861 census of
Somerset, starting with the Crewkerne entries. Here
is where you will find the page. Sorry it is so slow to load, but
there were many entries to transcribe.
|
| Mike Warry has sent a photo of Francis Warry and his wife, who emigrated
to Australia, as well as a testimonial from Francis. |
| 29th February 2004: New information from Al Cridge, USA, about the
emigration of Matthew CRIDGE & family. Thankyou Al!
I get about 400 spams a day on my osborne@bigpond.com
account, so I have subscribed to a spam filter service for this particular
address. It may inadvertently catch non-spam, so if you have sent
messages to me on this email and haven't received a reply, please use the sue@merriottfamiliesgenealogy.net
email address as this one hasn't been found by the spammers yet (much) and all mail
comes through.
|
| 23rd February 2004: Some more photos, courtesy of Mary Gardiner, of
Merriott today. Thankyou Mary! Mary's photos of the Church and
Village can be found here.
|
| 17th February 2004: I've put some new (actually, old!) photos sent
to me by David Gibbs here.
Thanks again to David for his wonderful contributions.
Michael Warry has contributed information about the George Warry family, in
particular son John Warry, who emigrated to Queensland, Australia, on the
same vessel as my Samuel Osborne, the Alfred, in 1858. I had missed
this connection, as John Warry is listed on the passenger list as being from
Stafford, when in fact he was from Stoford, Somerset. Read David's
connections on the Warry to Australia page.
|
| 19th January 2004: My apologies to anyone who has sent me emails
lately. I have been inundated, and unable to get through them
all. We are in the process of moving work - office & factory
and 50 people, after 15 years at our current site. We are about half
way through the eight months process of preparing the new site and moving
the old site. It is pretty much seven days a week working one way or
another. So please bear with me. It is hard to read
through your interesting emails and not have the time to
reply!!
|
| 23rd December 2003: More pictures sent to me, this time from John
Chant, of Canvey Island, Essex. These are fantastic views of All
Saints Church, including very clear close ups of external
detail. Thankyou John! The pictures can be found on the All
Saints Church page. John's contact email is: JCHANTSS8@aol.com
Several new researchers have been added to the researchers page.
|
| 22nd December 2003: I think all the problems have been fixed, as I
am receiving emails about these pages again.
I've added some wonderful
stories by Merriott-born & bred David Gibbs. These can be found on
the Merriott Yesterday & Today page,
under David Gibbs' Anecdotes. Thankyou David.
What a lovely Christmas present for all Merriottophiles!!
|
| 10th October 2003: MY APOLOGIES!!!!! Somehow all
emails sent to me via the Sue Osborne link on these pages is being deleted
before it hits my inbox. I am still trying to fix this
problem, but in the meantime, if you have difficulty reaching me, please
type the address in manually: either osborne@bigpond.com
or
sue@merriottfamiliesgenealogy.net |
| 16th August 2003: Some extra bits on the Stuckey
page relating to Seavington St Mary. |
| A new "Sweet Origins" page,
with information kindly supplied by John Sweet. Thankyou John! |
| I have added an ELSWOOD page 3rd August 2003. |
| There is some confusion with the photo captions on the Thomas Lawrence
page: I have deleted the current captions & will insert the
revised captions when I can. |
| 25th June 2003: Steve Arnold, interested in Brook(e)s, Norman and
Grinter in Merriott, added to Researchers Page. |
| 10th May 2003. A page added for the HUTCHINGS
surname. |
| 3rd May 2003: I have added a page for the SAMWAYS
family after a few people contacted me.
|
| 21st April 2003: Some new information on the WARRY
page, concerning items available for viewing at the Somerset Record Office.
Also I've searched the SRO site for mentions of Estate Duty Wills pertaining
to Merriott, and found mentions of: Daw, England, Eason, French, Hallett,
Lacey, Lawrence, Mitchell, Paul, Rousell/Rowsell, Templeman, Trask, Warry,
Webb and Wills. I've added notes to the various surname pages.
Chasing these Wills may be of interest to researchers. As always, if
anyone is willing to share results on these pages, we'd all be much obliged!
|
| 30th March 2003: Updates to Researchers page; additional page
leading off the "about me" page with some of my other research
unrelated to Merriott - voyages of the "Queen of the Colonies"
to Queensland in the 1860s.
Has anyone else tried the Millennium Map site on the internet? You can
get an aerial photo of anywhere in the UK, with enough detail to see houses
etc. I ordered one of Merriott, and received it (in Australia)
quite swiftly, at a cost of $52.94 in Australian dollars by credit card.
(Our exchange rate is woeful). The website is at: http://www1.getmapping.com/home.asp
for anyone interested in taking a look at what is on offer.
Also heard that the 1901 census can be purchased on fiche, and am currently
in that process. Will let all know the outcome there.
|
| 4th October 2002: Some additions to Family Names pages:
Immigration to Wales based on Census data. Osborne
to Wales; Pattemore to Wales; Sweet
to Wales; Farr to Wales
|
| 26th September 2002: Some new arrivals on the Researchers
page. Also a list of
Wills of Pattemores kindly supplied by
Trevor Hutchings.
Does anyone have opinions as to how to tackle the 1901 census? The
cost of downloading every page for Merriott is prohibitive for a single
person, but as a collective effort, perhaps I could start a 1901 census
webpage and then list or transcribe the pages that Merriott researchers have
downloaded and are willing to share with others. That way we won't
duplicate our costs. I am not sure what the copyright restrictions
are, can anyone give advice in this regard? Say to publish on the
webpage an "as enumerated" transcription of pages as they are
shared? I could not put actual pages up, as the size of files would be
excessive. Please, any suggestions contact sue@merriottfamiliesgenealogy.net
I have been given some data by Pauline Phillips, from the Merriott Poor
Books for the surnames Douch, Eason, Geep, Lawrence & Trask -
Disbursements to the Second Poor of Merriott 1807 - 1873. The data can
be found on the relevant Surname page. Thankyou, Pauline.
|
| 16th August 2002: Some alterations made to the Lawrence in Merriott
Censuses pages. Most significant is the addition of several entries to
the 1851 detail - where the surname is spelt LAURENCE. Thanks to Diane
Ellisor for comparing her own transcriptions to mine.
|
| 10th August 2002: Sandy Fife has sent various Merriott photos - they
are on the
Merriott Today page. Thanks Sandy!
Information has been received from Diane Ellisor placing Pattemores at Haselbury Plucknett before
their appearance at Merriott in 1689... Have a look at the Records
pre-dating the Merriott Pattemore Records.
ALSO from Diane, information about the family of Abel
Pattemore, who emigrated to South Australia.
|
| 10th July 2002: Barb Dembinski has sent photos of the inside of All
Saints Church, complete with the list of Vicars. Have a look
here: All Saints Church
Also some new people have been added to the Researchers
page.
|
| 20 April 2002: All the post 1837 detail has been added to each
surname page.
Also, three baptisms missing from the ROUSELL page have been added -
children of Robert Rousell & Sarah Willey. Thanks to Barb
Dembinski for noticing.
|
| 1 April 2002: I have decided to add more of the available detail to
the post 1837 marriages, surname by surname.
|
| 24 March 2002: A small amount added about the Merriott Gospel Hall -
under the History page, other Churches
|
| 12 March 2002: One more surname page, for HALLETT - a family fond of
Greek Christian names!
|
| 7 March 2002: Lesley Murray has kindly given me two monumental
inscriptions from All Saints - for members of the CRIDGE family.
|
| 2 March 2002: I have added two new surname pages, for CRIDGE and
DENMEAD.
|
| 20 Feb 2002: DISASTER struck last weekend with a major
computer crash, and I've spent many hours reinstalling
everything. Please, if anyone has emailed me within the
last week or so, could they please re-email, as I have lost all that was in
my inbox.
|
| 10 Feb 2002: Decided to add the option of a page for each Researcher
to expand on their line of research.
|
| 10 Feb 2002: Some details changed on the Webb
to Guernsey Page.
|
| 8 Feb 2002: John Beschizza wonders if anyone can help with the
origins of Roger TRASK born about 1789, married to Ann
Eason on 28 May 1820. We can't find a baptism in
Merriott. Roger & Ann lived on Broadway, Merriott, and had
four children. Roger died in 1856. Was his baptism just
missed, or was he baptised in a non-conformist church? Any ideas,
please email sue@merriottfamiliesgenealogy.net
|
| 4 Feb 2002: Website finally launched! Great response, thank you
to all who sent me such wonderful messages! If anyone has trouble with the
site, please let me know. The "Merriott Families
Genealogy" and each page heading is in Old English type font, but if
you don't have this font installed on your computer, you will see another
font. I've been inundated with emails, so please bear with me if I
don't reply to you straight away! |
|
