Barton upon Humber Family History

Dig A Little Deeper

    Once upon a time......


 ... a little girl from Barton upon Humber
became interested in finding out about her roots.

She embarked on the addictive journey of tracing her ancestors and along the way became fascinated by the local stories she encountered in various
newspapers
of the
Victorian era.
 
 
 
 

After many trips to Hull researching
The Hull and North Lincolnshire Times
looking for the merest mention of her family name, she began to realise that there were numerous snippets of information among the pages that would be
like
gold dust to family historians.
 

People that were too busy to spend hours poring over the small print, or too far away to travel to Hull and back in a day; but still yearn to know the ins and outs of things they couldn't possibly find out on a census return.
And so she began collecting stories that caught her eye.
 
 
Scandals and tragedies and humorous tales
that reveal far more than they seem to at first glance.
And she is still collecting.
 

After many hours wondering what to do with these snippets of information she came up with the idea for this website, hoping it would stop a few people from banging their heads against the wall in frustration when they had come to a dead end in their research.
 

While this is by no means a comprehensive collection of names and events, she feels it contains the most fruitful of useful tales that made the headlines way back then in that world of candlelight, crinolines and horse drawn carriages.
 
 
  
Many family names that appear in the stories are still  prevalent in the town today. So even if you have never been interested in family history before, you may still come across your family name and wonder if any of the characters, criminals or just poor unfortunates had your blood coursing through their veins.
 

Who knows,
it might even inspire you  to take up Family History as a hobby,
and travel back in time
just to find out ....
 
 
 
 
 
  The Hull And North Lincolnshire Times

The Hull and North Lincolnshire Times was a weekly publication which came out on a Saturday and was brimming with snippets of this, that and the other which are of absolute invaluable interest to historians and genealogists alike.

Most of the stories about Barton appeared in the section entitled 'Lincolnshire News' which was usually on page 8 of the paper.
This section comprised all the latest gossip and goings on in the towns and villages on the South side of the River Humber, and whilst I have concentrated my research on Barton upon Humber, I have included other headline grabbing tales from the surrounding villages, which I simply couldn't let pass without a mention.
 

There are also mention of people from Hull who came over on the ferry and practised their criminal prowess on the good old unsuspecting public of Barton; or indeed, came to court to complain about their own mis-treatment at the hands of the local law breakers.
 
  

Much of the content of the Barton upon Humber section was from the
Petty Sessions Court,
which was held at the old Barton Police Station in High Street; and dealt with the petty crimes of the wrongdoers and general whingeing from the wronged of the town and thereabouts.

More major crimes it seems were sent elsewhere (namely Lindsey Sessions or Lincoln Assizes) but not before they had been 'looked at' by the sometimes colourful characters you will meet at the Petty Sessions.

The chronicles I bring include reports ranging from everyday mishaps, to theft, arson, gun accidents, untimely deaths, claims for bastardy, drownings, decapitations, misconduct on the Railway, a Post Office Robbery and even an attempted wife murder and more.
 
Not forgetting of course;
the good old
drunk and disorderly...

And they reveal (to me at least) that a trusted solution from the doctors of the time seemed to have been,  ' If in doubt - amputate.'
 
 
  
I have transcribed these stories 'as seen' so you will be reading them exactly as the public of Barton upon Humber read them the day they were printed. You may notice that some spelling of the names may vary from one report to the next (because yes indeed, some of your ancestors make themselves known more than once at the petty sessions), but this is not a mistake on my part, I have tried to put things down exactly as they were printed in the paper, but I will stress that if you are using these relations (no pun intended) as a tool to further your family history, it is recommended that you please check your findings against the originals.
 
Whilst every care has been taken to make sure they have been transcribed to the letter, I am after all only human.
 

I hope you enjoy reading these reports as much as I enjoyed discovering them and I hope you find something to be able to further your research, even if it is just to get a better 'feel' of Victorian Barton upon Humber.
 
 

Read on and happy hunting......