Genealogy

While I have no real interest in building my own family tree, I am intriged with the history of where I live. Names on graves stones and church walls are often difficult to place into context.

This page relates to some of the geneological information related to the village of Belchamp Walter, Essex. Information was gleaned from a wide range of sources including that found in the church and churchyard, the Historic England website, Belchamp Hall documentation and other geneological websites.

In my research process I have not only used the texts of Thomas Wright but a number of geneological websites that have come to light when making Internet searches.

There are a number of websites and companies that have trigger scorn on my art.

• Geni.com - only mildly as they often reveal useful information
• Stirnet - particularly pernicious as has automatic re-direct.
• Ancestry.com - free to start then you have to subscribe - £20 per month for everything.
• FindMyPast - says free to start but depending what you want to access it can get quite expensive
• FamilySearch - Says it is free, but I am not sure if the religion might wear off!.
• MyHeritage.com - Again not sure if this is related to the Church of Jesus Christ and Later-day Saints.
• Wikitree - this is actually a good source of heraldry info
• UKGA - UK Genealogy Archives
• British Newspaper Archive - UKGA mention Chelmsford Chronical,
• thegenealogist.co.uk - my seperate page on the S&N Group.
• Familypedia

The Descendants of William the Conqueror

The website, www.william1.co.uk, created by Alan G Freer, is, by the authors admission, a lifetimes work. However, the website design is less than to be desired (that is just my opinion). However, reading his notes on his website I admire that he learnt html and apparently constructed the website himself.

The Geneoalogical trees generated by Alan follow the Villers-Parma System. According to WikiP this is a South African method, in any case his work is impressive and not only documents the history of England from the Conquest, he also hs a similar set of pages for El Cid, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid), Prince of Valencia, Spain.

geni.com

There seems too much of an emphasis on using their services to build your own family tree. Detailed reports require membership and a log-on.

I have garnered a lot of useful information from geni.com and I have a page on them

Stirnet

The same goes for stirnet.com who have a automatic script that generates a pop-up that attempts to make you join. On dismissing this popup you are redirected to their "Lead Index Page".

While I see their point about not taking information from before the 13c too seriously I still feel that there is too much emphasis on building your own family tree.

Peter Barns-Graham

Stirnet Limited, the website, is run by Peter Barns-Graham. I find it ironic that Peter states that he had to fund the website by introducing a "Subsciption" model while he says that he saved money himself be not renewing subscriptions.

See his FAQ page on "Who are you".

Such is my frustration with Peter Barns-Graham's website I decided to make a page for it.

familysearch.org

ancestors.familysearch.org - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Ancestry.com

Probably the most well-known website, used by people that I know

The emphasis seems to be building a family tree that you can share (boast) with your friends

FindMyPast

I am not sure how I feel about Find My Past as I come across it when I am making general searches for names associated with the Belchamp Walter. As I am not interested in making my own family tree it is a little frustrating. Rather than finding the information that I was looking for I am asked to "start my family tree" when I drill-down.

The Chatters family are on here

Surely the whole point of a service like this is to find out information on other people other than yourself?

MyHeritage

MyHeritage display the following when you click on "view all records":

MyHeritage.com also have a link to FamilySearch Family Tree, but this seems to be different to FamilySearch.org

Familypedia

The Lovejoy Legacy

I have no intention of reproducing the whole family tree of the Raymond family here is the section relating to todays date. C ????? is the current incumbent of Belchamp Hall and the Lovejoy legacy. The TV series was filmed here and at other locations in East Anglia nearby.

Genealogical Internet Searches

Here there seems to be a bit of a dilemma. The genealogical websites have an interest in being indexed by search engines but they also want those that find what they were searching for. However, it is often found that a search for a specific name often results in finding that it is not certain whether the result you find actually contains the information that you seek.

Local historical websites, such as Foxearth and Gestingthorpe History Group, offer a far better chance of finding information.