Article:
By Helen Osborn
One of the innovative things about Ancestral Atlas is that it is designed so that you can connect up with other people researching their ancestors in the same place. Those who live near each other may well be related, but there are other kinds of relationships apart from blood and marriage ones. There are many ties between those who live in a community. I was thinking of this as I confirmed my Gedcom locations - chosen for me automatically by Ancestral Atlas - in the area of Lavenham, Suffolk. I noticed that as well as my own eight events in Lavenham, there were now a further two pages of "public events" 23 in all, recently added by people who have ancestors in Lavenham. To get there, firstly I had centred the county of Suffolk in the map view window, and then I homed in on the Green key that indicated my own events in the area of Lavenham. Immediately on the left hand side of the screen my own events at Lavenham were listed as well as all the events from other people's research that they have chosen to make public. My events have a little green arrow against them as they are confirmed and in this instance the public events a little orange arrow against them, indicating that the location for these events is as yet unconfirmed.
You can sort the Family Name column into alphabetical order simply by clicking on Family Name on the little green bar immediately above the list. Lavenham has a special resonance for me because one of my more interesting ancestors, William Gurnall, was Rector there from 1645 until his death in 1679. William was a puritan and roundhead, and a hardworking minister, who was the author in 1655 of a huge tome for the puritan cause called The Christian in Complete Armour. This work is still in print in a number of different 19th and 20th century editions. I have actually handled and read an original 17th century copy of this book and it makes heavy reading in more ways than one, but the original dedication (sadly missing from the modern editions) is delightful because William dedicates his book to the people of Lavenham; his flock, those in his spiritual care, for whom he obviously had much time and love. He took his duties as Rector very seriously. Without spending hours looking at the parish registers and other parish chest material of Lavenham held at Suffolk Record Office, there is no way for me to easily find the names of those people who sat through William's sermons and would have known him, until now and Ancestral Atlas. Suddenly the past and present can begin to re-connect. From a quick search of the public events, I can see that already one of William's parishioners is there. Another user has added the burial of a William Payne in 1648; no doubt my William buried the other William. Other members of the Payne family are added there as well. Although it is not very likely they are my relations, I suddenly feel a connection to this Payne family. This led me on to the further musing that, as William was preaching from a puritan point of view, it is very possible that some of his parishioners started out for a new life in New England; perhaps his sermons even helped them make up their minds. This led me to investigate what else had been added for William Payne. Clicking on the Descendants button from the Event Properties for William Payne produced this result.
Oh joy - hopefully very soon, I will be able to visualise those pews at Lavenham filled with names that link around the world. It is a kind of time travel! As the Ancestral Atlas community grows, which it will, I will begin to discover more and more of William's flock, and as I move around Suffolk and Norfolk, I hope I will also discover some of my William's relatives. Many thanks to the person who made the Payne data public - I hope more of you will join in by also making your data public so that these kinds of connections can be made. Helen Osborn |
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