When I started on the FamHist trail in 1970, my first avenue for exploration was my own surname. I knew that my father was born in Littleworth, Benson OXF in 1896 but that was about it. I was surprised to note that his Birth Certificate showed it as Bensington, which I understood had been modernised into Benson many years before.
That just about covered everything I knew about his family at that time, so my first port of call was, inevitably, an expensive one at St Catherine's House. My grandfather was William Talbot; this information on its own wasn't a lot of good, as there has to be more William Talbots to the square mile than there are John Talbots - and Heaven only knows they are common enough. But I persevered, my patience and wallet held up under the strain, and eventually I was able to establish that my grandfather was a Harwell man.
I visited St Matthew's Church, Harwell, where I met the vicar. I don't know if I caught him on an off-day, but when I told him that I was trying to find out something about my ancestors in Harwell he asked me for the surname. I told him Talbot, and his reply was that he had buried quite a few of them --- this made him sound like someone I should avoid. The question as to whether I could look through the Registers was answered with a resounding No. He took a framed notice from one of the church pillars and handed it to me to read. It gave a list of standing charges for research by the incumbent. As my wife wouldn't agree to a second mortgage to cover the vicar's costs, my research in Harwell remained dormant for some time.
Subsequently I learned that the majority of Parish Records were being transferred to and held by County Record Offices, and that these records were freely available.
Harwell at that time was in Berkshire - it wasn't until 1974, along with the rest of the Vale of the White Horse, that it became a part of Oxfordshire, and I made many very enjoyable and fruitful visits to the Berkshire Record Office.
In 1990 I joined Colin Harris's team, and undertook the transcription/abstraction of the parish registers for Harwell. If a hint of selfishness is detected in my choice of parish, then I must plead guilty.
I found that having the Registers at home with unlimited time to pore over them was a great help in sorting out my family. There were quite a few instances in the Talbot family where brothers showed a distinct lack of originality in naming their children, and three brothers giving their sons the forename Anthony, with only a matter of one or two years between the various Baptisms, gave me a bit of a headache. An assortment of clues/indicators/factors helped me to sort out the majority of of problems like this. One of these factors was the make-up of other families in the village, many of whom were connected to the Talbots. I found that constructing trees for associated families answered some of the questions I had regarding the Talbots. This will explain why I have cobbled together trees for other local families.
The Harwell families on which I have rough tree layouts are:
Aldworth; Armour/Armer/Armour; Bitmeat/Bitmead; Blake; Blissett; Bosher;
Buckell; Chivers; Day; Denton; Elderfield; Froud(e); Harris; Hitchman; Hoar(e);
Hughes; Hutchin(g)s; James; Jefferies; Jennings; King; Lewis; Mazey; Moody;
Prior/Pryer/Pryor; Snuggs; Strong; T(h)ame; Thomas; Timms; Wait(e); West;
Weston; Wetherall/Witherall.
Many of these connect into the Talbot family through marriages. An indication of
this intermarriage within the village shows up in the 1851 census for Harwell, where I
have been able to establish that at least 284 of the people who were in the village on
that night were related to the Talbot family.
I am by no means an expert on Harwell, but I have amassed a great deal of information on the people who lived there. This information I am more than happy to share with others.
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