Hall family in Fenstanton/Hemingford - respobse to REQUEST LETTER 3

This post is significantly delayed. I've been through two cycles of research requests with the Cambridge, distilled here: http://thehistoryofmatt.blogspot.com/2009/01/distillation-of-hall-enquiries-in.html . Based on this I sent in another set of questions (http://thehistoryofmatt.blogspot.com/2009/01/hall-family-in-fenstantonhemingford.html) to which I received a reply last year. This included quite a number of copies of parish pages which I'll eventually scan and post. Apart from that one or two small points were answered, but for now I'll post the answers and follow-up with a second post incorporating the new pieces of information into an amended distillation. Thirdly I'll put together a fourth enquiry letter - I'm at the point where I have some small questions and some big picture questions about what more I can possible learn. The small questions I have are partly driven by the fact that I know the researchers have missed a couple of things.

The response letter:


Huntingdonshire Archives
4 February 2009


HALL family in Hemingford and Fenstanton


Thank-you for your letter of the 22nd January, regarding the above… I now enclose the copies that you requested, with one exception. Unfortunately, the St Ives register containing the marriage record of William Hall and Margaret Trice in 1760 is too fragile to photocopy and we do not have a microfilm to use instead. The alternative is to take a digital photograph…. If you would like us to go ahead with this then please do let us know.


Regarding the questions in your email, I’m afraid there are fewer resources available and further back in history you go. As you are aware, no detailed censuses were made before 1841 and unfortunately we do not have any parish censuses or electoral records from before this. If your ancestors owned any land in the parish then we might be able to locate this on an enclosure map (if one was made). Alternatively, we could also search other parish records such as the vestry minutes and churchwardens accounts as these often contain a few extra details about what was happening in the parish. It is sometimes possible to find mention of specific parishioners in these books.


You asked about Hall burials in Hemingford Abbots between 1700 and 1770. The following are recorded in the parish registers:


24 Jan 1720/1 HALL, William son of William and Jane [labourer – BTs]
12 Jul 1723 HALL, Jane wife of William
7 Jan 1723/4 HALL, William son of William
22 Mar 1761 HALL, William son of William


Susana Hall’s burial is not noted in Hemingford Abbots and she does not appear to have been married there either. I also checked the Huntingdonshire Marriage Index 1754-1837 but without any likely results.


The earliest Hall baptism in Hemingford Abbots took place in 1718.


I hope the above answered all of your questions.