The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.1 | June 2022

Local Group Programmes

Contact: Keith Turner Email: fairoak@hgs-online.org.uk

Fair Oak

Meetings are normally held at 8pm on the second Tuesday monthly at St Thomas’ Church Hall (attached to the church) Mortimers Lane. Doors open approx 7.30pm (November) Wills before 1858 – Les Mitchinson.

This was our first full meeting back in the hall with an invited speaker. This could have been quite dry talk with lots of ancient legal terms but Les is a very experienced lecturer on family history matters. He explained how useful wills are for proving the relationships between various family members (and in some cases servants). It also reveals allegiances to any particular parish or location. It is important to carefully read between the lines. Why did this servant appear to be favoured over a family member? The 1858 date is when the National Probate Act and the establishment of the national Probate Registry. The standard will was written and witnessed in a formal process. This followed a format with an Intro “In the name of God… “. This was followed by a Prologue containing terms like “weak in body” and “sound of mind”. These are useful for deciphering the handwriting before the more interesting Dispersal of the Estate. There are two other types of will: a Nuncupative Will is a purely oral will witnessed by someone at the death bed, a Holographic Will written by the deceased without any witnesses. Nuncupative wills were made invalid from 1837 (except for the military). The terms Chattels refers to Personal goods such as furniture, crockery, livestock. Real Property refers to Land and buildings. For those who were not permitted to make a Testamentary Deposition provided bequeath goods and chattels. Catholics were not permitted to sell or bequeathing land unless registered with the Clerk of the Peace (Quarter Sessions Records) in the period 1717-1791. Death Duties were imposed from 1796 and these records are indexed and kept at Kew. (December) Christmas Social Fair Oak Group Christmas social was held face to face and it was great to see some people for the first time since before the pandemic. We had the usual American Supper which produced a good spread. Keith brought what has been called his 'fiendish quiz' - but it turned out that Angela’s picture quiz of quiz show hosts and 'Dingbats' were found to be more difficult! (January) The 1939 Register – Peter de Dulin January saw a return to Zoom meetings. This was always planned but was fortunate in that it coincided with the peak of the new Covid variant. The first point to note is that the Register cannot be considered a census but it is the best available population survey between

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