Writing the Book, Part Three

admin3 Comments

Book cover 27Nov thumbnailThis is the third post in a series describing the steps I went through in writing The Descendants of Isaac Casbon in America. Others who are considering writing a family history book might find these posts helpful. So far, I’ve discussed the initial stages: the decision to write and scope of the project; and gathering the information needed to write the book. Today’s post discusses the process of composing and writing the text.

I should also mention that this is my first post as part of the Guild of One-Name Studies (GOONS—what an acronym!) Blog Challenge. The challenge is for GOONS members to write 10 blog posts within 12 weeks in 2020. Since this is my first post of 2020, I’m starting the challenge here.

There were two distinct aspects of writing the text. The first was the process of extracting data from my genealogy software (FamilyTreeMaker®) and putting it into the format needed for Register style (described in my first post).

To review, Register style is a well-known, standardized method for presenting genealogical information in an efficient manner. It includes a numbering system that allows family members to be traced from one generation to the next. The basic unit of Register style is the family sketch.

Register styleAn illustration from the book showing the basic elements of Register style. The top
image shows a complete family sketch and the lower image shows how the numbering
system connects to a child’s family sketch in the next generation, or chapter.

My genealogy software was able to produce a report that contained the main elements of Register style, including complete family sketches, lineage, child lists, and most importantly, the numbering system.

charles t sketch Another illustration from the book showing additional elements used in Register style.
The decision to use endnotes for source citations and footnotes for parenthetical
comments was mine (i.e., not specified in Register style).

Had I wished, I could have just used the report from my software verbatim, but it also contained extraneous information and some elements that weren’t arranged in the right order (date before place instead of vice-versa), so some manual tweaking of each sketch was necessary. Once edited, these sketches formed the basic framework of the book, with each generation of descendants forming a new chapter.

I could not create the Register style report until I had received the family information forms from living descendants (described in the previous post) and entered the data into my software. Otherwise the identification numbers assigned to individuals would need updating every time I received new information. This was why I set a deadline of May 31st for returning the forms to me.

The second part of writing was creating all of the narrative material that was not a part of the basic Register format. There were two types of narrative content: additional biographical information to be added to the family sketches (described as “middle of sketch” in the first illustration, above, and placed between the main sketch and the child list); and additional sections of the book that were not part of the formal genealogy. These latter sections, as seen in the table of contents, include those sections before the first chapter (“front matter”), the first chapter, the three appendices, and some of the sections at the end of the book (“back matter”).

TOCTable of contents from The Descendants of Isaac Casbon in America

I was able to start writing the narrative content much earlier, starting in February or March. This was an enjoyable but time-consuming process. I added footnotes and endnotes as I wrote, using Microsoft Word. Thus, the Notes section was created automatically and required only a little editing and formatting.

Once the Register style sketches were completed, I combined them with the additional information that I had written in narrative style. These biographical, or “middle” sections of the sketches were very lengthy in the earliest generations. For example, the middle section of Thomas Casbon’s sketch in Chapter 3 was 12 pages long. In later chapters, the middle sections were shorter, often only a paragraph or two, or a few sentences from an obituary. The last few chapters, describing mainly living descendants, had little or no additional narrative content.

There is one other issue worth mentioning here: privacy. How does one protect private information about living people in a family history? As a genealogist, I strive to connect the dots between the living and the dead by gathering as much information as possible. But when it comes to publishing, it’s important to recognize that I don’t have a right to publish everything I know. I discussed this a bit in the previous post when I explained how I sent permission forms to living descendants.

Those permission forms determined what I wrote about living individuals. Most people gave me permission to print complete information—names, dates and locations of births and marriages. When I wasn’t given complete permission, I tried to follow their preferences to the letter when writing their family sketches. Thus, some sketches have only partial names, incomplete or missing dates or places. In some cases, I omitted previous marriages.

What about those people who didn’t give permission to print their information? Most of these were people I was unable to contact or who did not return family information forms to me. Only a few people told me they did not wish to be included. The basic assumption I made when I did not receive explicit permission was that I could not print any private information about them. I ultimately decided to list them in the child lists of their parents, replacing their names with the word “Private” and giving no further information about them.

Private sketchAn actual entry from the book showing “Private” descendants.

Thus, the later chapters of the book are “incomplete” from a genealogical standpoint, but still allow most family members to trace their ancestry.

Another situation involving living people was the issue of divorced spouses. The format for register style allows for multiple marriages, including names, dates, and parents. I had to assume that just because I had permission to print an individual’s information, didn’t mean I had the permission of a living divorced spouse. I took a middle ground in this situation, listing the surname of the spouse but not the first name and omitting information about their births and parentage.

I took additional measures to protect privacy during the publishing and distribution stage of the process. These will be discussed in a later post.

By late October I had a complete draft, including illustrations and print layout. I’ll discuss those aspects along with proofreading and editing in the next post.

Writing the Book, Part Two

admin1 Comment

Book cover 27Nov thumbnailIn my previous post  I explained the planned scope of my book and my intention to write it in Register style. Before I could start writing, I needed to compile and organize a great deal of information. Today’s post looks at the information that went into writing the book and how it was obtained.

My information requirements fell into three general categories:

  1. Genealogical information (i.e., basic facts such as births, deaths, and marriages)
  2. Additional biographical information
  3. Background information—historical, geographic and other sources used to provide context

Genealogical Information. The first step in gathering the genealogical information was generating a list of the people who would be included in the book. I’ve already said that I wanted the genealogy to begin with Isaac Casbon and then trace the descendants of two of his sons, Thomas and James, up to the present time. Much of the information I needed was already contained in the genealogy software (FamilyTreeMaker®) that I have used for many years to save my research. The program allows me to generate custom reports, so I was able to produce a list of Isaac Casbon’s descendants along with their vital (i.e., birth, marriage, and death—”BMD”) information.

With this list I was able to identify gaps in the data, such as missing dates and places, that would require further research before I could start writing. This was a straightforward task. However, a bigger issue was the fact that my list was incomplete because it did not include most of the more recent—especially living—descendants. Many records, such as births and marriages within the last 50 to 100 years, are not public. Finding this information would require a different approach.

How do you find people when you don’t know who they are? The easiest approach was to ask other people who might have the answers. I’m fortunate to have distant cousins in different branches of the family who are willing to share their family information with me. They were kind enough to provide names and contact information for many of their relatives. Obituaries were another good source, since they usually listed surviving members of the decedent’s family. Facebook was another valuable resource. There is a Casbon Family Facebook group with about 150 members and a smaller Casbon Family History group with 84 members (most of them are also in the former group). These groups have provided a great way for distant cousins to meet and share stories and photos. They also provided a convenient way for me to tell people about the book and ask them for information about their families.

Between these sources I had the names of many living descendants. The list was still incomplete but it was good enough to move forward. The fact is, after nine generations, it is practically impossible to keep track of every descendant. In the book some family lines would just have to end  with the last known person.

Although I now had names, I still needed contact information for many of the living people. This is where my old friend Google helped out. Anyone who has used Google to find people will know that it is a mixed blessing. A Google search brings up many websites with information derived from public records. The problem is that many of these records are not current. They frequently list multiple addresses and phone numbers for a given individual. It was a lot easier when everyone had landlines and you could just call directory assistance. At any rate, I ended up with preliminary contact information for most of the people on my list.

The next step was to contact as many living descendants as possible, ask them for information about themselves and their immediate families, and obtain permission to publish their information in the book.

This latter point—permission—is very important. Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for family history and some might take offense at finding their names and other personal information in print. In these days of robocalls, identify theft, and laws directed at privacy protection, it is imperative to respect these concerns and to seek permission before printing personal information. Based on suggestions made by genealogist and lawyer Judy Russell in her blog, The Legal Genealogist (“Getting Permission,”  20 March 2013) I crafted a form for people to complete, giving me permission to print their information and allowing them to opt out of certain types of information.

permission
An excerpt from the permission form I sent out; the form also explained the purpose of the book,
asked for contact information, and gave options for keeping information private

  I announced my intention to write the book on Facebook and by email. If the only contact information I had was a phone number or mailing address, I called them up or wrote a letter. Along with the permission form, I sent, via Facebook Messenger, email, or regular mail, a form that allowed individuals to list vital information about themselves and their immediate families.

family unit chart
A portion of the family unit chart; note that it allows for information about three generations:
parents of husband/wife; husband/wife; children; it also allows for previous marriages

I started contacting people in February 2019. Responses did not immediately begin to roll in—it was more like a slow trickle. I found that it was necessary to send follow-up emails and to make multiple pleas on Facebook. One approach that seemed to work was to publicly thank people on Facebook when they returned their completed forms to me. This served as a reminder to those who had not yet responded. I eventually set a deadline of 31 May 2019 to return the forms to me, so that I could proceed with writing and setting the information into Register style. Even so, a few people continued to contact me well into the summer and I accommodated them. 

Most people were happy to share complete details such as birth dates and locations. Many requested limitations of one kind or another, such as using birth year only, omitting locations, or not mentioning previous marriages. A very small number of people said they did not want to be included in the book. Many of the completed forms identified additional people to contact, such as adult children with families of their own. I was happy to get their names, but this required me to sent out more forms.

Eventually I received roughly 70 completed forms. Several additional people gave me permission by email. In all, I had about 560 names and 164 family groups to include in the book. The added benefit of contacting everyone was that I now had a ready list of people who would be interested in buying the finished book!

Additional Biographical Information. There were several potential sources of this information. Newspaper archives—either online or microfilm— were probably the most important. Newspaper articles often helped to fill in gaps in timelines or identify significant family events (a barn burning, an airplane crash, and a traumatic amputation are just a few examples). Obituaries were especially helpful because they often included short biographies of the deceased. Local county histories, popular in the early 1900s, contained biographical sketches with interesting tidbits of information. Censuses were also helpful because they identified where people lived and how they were employed. Property records showed when people moved from one location to another.

Background Information. I wanted the book to include more than just genealogical and biographical information. It was important to describe the world my ancestors lived in and the circumstances that shaped their lives. A lot of good information was available online, but traditional books were needed for many subjects. My local libraries don’t have carry much about the history and geography of Cambridgeshire. Thank goodness for interlibrary loan! I also found books that described social conditions in 18th and 19th century England. Other sources described the expansion of railroads in England and the United States, information about immigrant ships, and transportation along the St. Lawrence River. A military unit history helped me to create a timeline for one relative’s movements during and after the American Civil War. All these sources helped to “set the scene” for what was going on in people’s lives.

Other than the family information forms, most of my background research was completed by about April 2019. I was ready to begin the next phase—writing the book.

Writing the Book, Part One

admin7 Comments

Book cover 27Nov thumbnailWith this and subsequent posts, I plan to describe how I went about planning and writing The Descendants of Isaac Casbon in America (see “The Casbon Book” link at top menu). The stages in the book’s production were something like this:

  1. The decision to write; scope of the project; format
  2. Compiling the information
  3. Writing
  4. Editing and publishing

I’ll cover these steps in a series of posts, beginning with the decision to write.

I’ve always wanted to share my research with the extended family. That was the idea behind this blog. By the latter half of 2018, I had been writing Our Casbon Journey for about two years. During that time, I gained confidence in my writing skills and, thanks to ongoing research, my understanding of the family’s origins had increased significantly. My research had reached a point where I thought a book would be a good way to tie together everything that I had learned. The idea of leaving a written legacy was appealing as well. I didn’t want my work to be lost or forgotten. I also didn’t want someone else who was interested in researching the family’s history to have to start all over again. The idea of writing a book floated around for several months before I made a firm decision in late 2018.

Once the decision was made, I needed to answer some fundamental questions. Where and when would the book begin? Where would it end? Who and what would be included? How would the book be organized?

Those who have followed this blog know that my research has been broad-based, covering a wide range of times and places from the late 1600s to the 20th century and from England to America, Canada, and Australia. My posts have covered several branches of the family including at least one that I have not been able to connect to my own. I did not think this approach would be appropriate for a book. I wanted the book to be more focused and more closely related to my own branch of the family. I decided early on to focus on the descendants of two brothers, Thomas (my third great-grandfather) and James Casbon, who emigrated to the United States from England in the 1800s. Although their father, Isaac Casbon, never left England, he seemed to be a good starting point for the genealogy, since he was the common ancestor of Thomas and James’s descendants.

I wanted the book to be relevant and interesting to those descendants living in the present time. Therefore, I decided that the genealogy should include as many living descendants as possible. This raised the important issue of privacy, which I will discuss in a later post.

I also knew that I wanted to summarize my research into the family’s origins in Cambridgeshire and provide historical context about Isaac, Thomas, and James’s lives in England. It was also important for the book to include more than just the dry details of when and where people were born, died and married. Therefore, the book must include expanded biographies when possible, as well as illustrations.

Finally, I wanted the book to be based on sound research and able to stand up to academic scrutiny so that future researchers would be able to see my sources and not have to do the research all over again.

As to how the book should be organized, I had some general ideas, but needed to learn more. To help with this, I purchased the book Guide to Genealogical Writing: How to Write and Publish Your Family History, by Penelope Stratton and Henry Hoff (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014). From this I learned that there are two general formats for writing family history books: descendancy or ancestry style. The former starts with a single ancestor and traces the genealogy forward in time. The latter traces direct-line ancestors beginning at or near the present time and working backwards. This was an easy choice, as I had already decided that the book I had in mind should describe the descendants of Isaac, Thomas and James.

I learned that a common format for writing about the descendants of one or more individuals is known as Register style.  This format was developed by The New England Historical and Genealogical Register and has been used for more than a hundred years. It includes a standardized way of presenting genealogical information for each person, including birth, death, marriages, and children. The style is flexible enough that additional historical and biographical information can be added. It includes a standardized method if numbering to provide continuity from one generation to the next.

Register style
An illustration from the book showing the basic elements of Register style

Finally, Register style also allows writers to document their sources with footnotes or endnotes. I decided endnotes would be a better choice so that the majority of my readers—close and distant family members—would not have to wade through multiple footnotes on every page.  However, I thought footnotes could still be used for occasional parenthetical comments.

Finally, I visited the library and viewed several published family histories to see how they were organized and to get more ideas for my book.

With the decision to write made and a pretty good idea of what I wanted the book to include and how it was to be organized, I was ready to move onto the next step: compiling the information. Stay tuned for more in the next post!

Back to the future—the book is finished!

admin3 Comments

My entire year has been devoted to writing a family history about the Casbon family—specifically the American branch of the family with English origins. I’m happy to say the book has gone to press and is now available by a private link to the Lulu.com website.

Lulu promo page w_border
Screenshot of the book’s product page on Lulu.com

Since my main intention in writing the book has been to share my research with living descendants, I’m selling it using a private link to the Lulu.com website. It does not appear using the website’s search function (or Google, for that matter). This also ads a layer of privacy protection, since the book includes names and birth dates of living people. Anyone interested in purchasing a copy can contact me through the Contact section of this blog and I’ll be happy to send the link.

That’s all I will say for now. Writing and self-publishing the book has been quite a learning experience. I will provide details of the process in upcoming blog posts. I’m happy to be back and looking forward to working on the blog again!

The Book

admin5 Comments

I haven’t posted anything in a few weeks, so thought I would take this opportunity to explain why. I’ve started writing a book, so I’ve been devoting all of my time to that project.

The book is an offshoot of Our Casbon Journey. It’s the story of the two Casbon brothers, Thomas and James, who migrated to the United States from England at different times (1846 and 1870, respectively) and ended up in Porter County, Indiana. The book starts with a description of their home country—Cambridgeshire, England—and their ancestry as far as I’ve been able to trace it. After the introductory material it will be organized in a traditional generation-by-generation format, starting with Isaac Casbon, the father of Thomas and James, and ending with the most recent living generation.

By traditional format, I mean that I’ll be using what is known as “Register style.” This refers to the style used in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, a widely recognized format for presenting genealogical information. In Register style, you begin in the past and go forward in time with each generation. Family members are assigned sequential numbers according to their generation and birth order. Information is presented in the form of family “sketches,” written in a standard format, beginning with birth, death, and marriage information about an individual, then one or more paragraphs containing additional biographical information, and then a list of that individual’s children. Those children who have children of their own will have their own sketches in subsequent chapters.

For example, the sketch (and chapter) about Isaac Casbon will look something like this:

Isaac text sample

The numeral “1” before Isaac’s name denotes that he is the starting point for the numbering system. The superscript “0” (zero) after his name denotes his generation. The numerals “2” and “3” before Thomas’s and James’s names indicates that they will be carried forward and have sketches of their own in the next chapter, while nothing more will be said about William and Joseph. The superscript “1” after Thomas’s name shows that he is the first generation after Isaac.

Individual sketches will vary in length, depending on how much information I have. There will also be illustrations and photographs, similar to what you’re used to seeing in Our Casbon Journey. There will be appendices, containing additional information or copies of important documents. Although not shown in the sample above, facts will be documented with abundant endnotes. These will provide the information for future researchers to see where the information came from and be able to evaluate the evidence for themselves, if desired. Most readers will not want to dig that deep, which is the reason I’ll be using endnotes (so they don’t clutter the pages).

The people in my target audience are the living descendants of Thomas and James. With Thomas and James as generation number one, their have been eight generations of descendants (I’m in generation six). Hopefully many of them will have an interest in their ancestry. Perhaps someone in the younger generations will be motivated to pick up wherever my research leaves off. I plan to donate a few copies to genealogy libraries, especially the Porter County Public Library in Valparaiso, Indiana.

I’ve spent a lot of time the last few months trying to locate and contact as many living descendants of Thomas and Joseph as possible. This has been a major challenge. I’ve been using every means available to me: my known contacts, facebook, Google, email, regular mail, and the telephone. This has been an ongoing endeavor because I keep learning about new descendants from those I’m able to reach. I’m sending each of them two forms to complete: a blank “family unit chart” to record information about their immediate families (births, marriages, deaths, etc.) and a permission form. The latter is important in these days of concern about privacy and identity theft. I’m reluctant to print information about living people without their knowledge and consent. Unfortunately, this means that even though I know who they are through my research, many entries for living people in the book will only say “Private” instead of showing names and birth dates. The permission form also gives people an opportunity to let me know if there is any specific information they would like kept private about themselves or their family members.

It’s a very steep learning curve. While I’ve been waiting for people to return their information to me, I’ve been researching and writing the narrative vignettes that will appear in personal sketches. Once the writing is done, there will be a tremendous amount of editing and formatting to get the manuscript ready for publishing. I plan to use a publish-on-demand service, which means individual copies of the book will be printed as they are ordered. Copies will be available through the website of the publisher, and possibly on Amazon—these are things I’ll be learning about as I go on.

So, dear readers, I hope you’ll understand why you won’t be seeing many blog posts for a while. At this point I haven’t set a deadline for publishing the book. I will be doing some traveling, and that will slow down the pace a bit. I’ll keep you posted and let you know when the book is finished. After than, Our Casbon Journey will be back to business as usual.

Devostock Technology Hands Laptop Office Keyboard 4k-ID174838-800x533

Michael J. Casbon, 1965–2019

admin8 Comments

My universe was shaken earlier this week when I learned that Michael “Mike” Casbon had passed away suddenly and without warning on Sunday morning, 17 March. He was fifty-three years young, and lived in Hebron, Porter County, Indiana.

891c14d0-bba7-4529-864d-5ba26cecdc42
Photo courtesy of Geisen Funeral Home

I’ve been corresponding with Mike’s father, Ron for a number of years because of our common interest in Casbon family history. Ron introduced me to Mike, who was also interested in genealogy, via email in 2016. Mike and Ron both come from the “James/Amos” branch of the family, while I come from the “Thomas” branch. Thomas and James were brothers who migrated to the U.S. and settled in Porter County. Mike and I have shared a lot of information about our respective families.

Mike started the Casbon Family Facebook group in 2008. This has grown to more than 140 members, and has become a place to swap stories, photos, and news. The group was also the place to learn about upcoming reunions, which Mike hosted at his home every couple of years.

It was at the most recent reunion, in August 2017, that I finally met Mike face-to-face. I believe this was the first (at least since the early twentieth century) reunion attended by members of both the “Thomas” and “James/Amos” branches of the family. Mike invited my father and me into his home to share a meal the day before the reunion. We were able to chat and get better acquainted. It was immediately obvious that he was a loving father, husband and grandfather. The house was filled with his children and young grandchildren. He took pride in his family. They were clearly the center of his world. The entire family made us feel welcome and we enjoyed our brief stay there.

Casbon reunion Aug 2017 Hebron IN
Casbon family reunion, August 2017, Hebron, Indiana. (Photo courtesy of Amy Casbon)

When I asked Mike what he did for a living, he told me he blew up buildings. That sounded like fun! He also told me that he traveled extensively for his job, often to interesting international locations. In fact, he worked for a global company known as ERM (Environmental Resources Management), where he was the Technical Director at the Indianapolis office. According to ERM’s website, “When organizations decommission or demolish sites, they need to recover the latent value in the retired assets, and also address environmental and safety risks that can come from expired materials or residues and facility deterioration.”[1] That’s where blowing up buildings comes in. I don’t know the details, but Mike was an expert in Occupational Safety and Health, so I believe he was responsible for protecting the health and safety of both workers and local residents at demolition sites. He was an also instructor for courses sponsored by the National Demolition Association (NDA). His bio on their website says this:

[Mike} is a Subject Matter Expert for the OSHA Training Institute and specializes in the field of demolition, decontamination, and construction. He has trained over 1,000 Compliance Officers on field inspection principals. Mike has served on the National Demolition Association Safety Committee for 20 years, six as Chairman, and led the most recent rewrite of the Association’s Safety Manual. He has extensive experience in project managing large scale facility decommissioning projects, brownfield remediation, CERCLA and Superfund projects, and selective demolition.[2]

This weekend, Mike was going to be inducted into the inaugural class of the NDA Hall of Fame at the association’s annual convention in Denver, Colorado. He was to be honored “for his efforts to lead and significantly contribute to our Foundations of Demolition Certificate Program, his work on our Safety Manual, and his expertise on Safety on the jobsite.”[3] He would have received the award at the annual banquet on Monday night. Sadly, the award will now be given posthumously.

I will miss him as a friend, family member, and fellow genealogist. Mike’s obituary is posted on Legacy.com. Please keep his family: Anne, Kiera, Kylee, Kate, Kristen, Alexianna, Simeon, Grayson, Ron, Becky, Amy and Matthew in your thoughts and prayers.

FOOTNOTES

[1] “Decommissioning, Decontamination & Demolition,” ERM (https://www.erm.com/en/service/all-services/decommissioning-decontamination-demolition/ : accessed 21 March 2019).
[2] “Course Instructors,” National Demolition Association (https://www.demolitionassociation.com/courseinstructors : accessed 21 March 2019).
[3] email, Natalie DeHart to Matthew Casbon, 20 Mar 2019; supplied by Ron Casbon.

Friday Fun—Name Game

admin6 Comments

cartoon

Today’s post is the result of a mostly pointless, but possibly interesting exercise. I decided to see how many first names there are with two or more occurrences in my database of people with Casban, Casben, or Casbon surnames. Then I decided to list the earliest and latest instances of each name. Did you make the list? Great—that means you’re in good company! Didn’t make the list? Even better—you’re one of a kind!

Name No. Earliest Latest   Name No. Earliest Latest
Albert 2 1885 1907 Katherine, Kathryn, Katie 4 1874 2003
Alfred 2 1828 1843 Kenneth 2 1927 1947
Alice 4 1871 1994 Kristen Kristin 2 1969 2000
Amy 2 1971 1975 Kyle 2 1985 2003
Angela 2 1960 1975 Laura 2 1888 1977
Ann, Anne, Anna 3 1838 1876 Lawrence 2 1865 1875
Arthur 5 1868 1918 Leonard 3 1874 1920
Barbara 2 1922 1969 Leslie 2 1894 1923
Benjamin 2 1985 1995 Lewis 2 1911 1927
Brian 2 1937 1937 Lillian, Lillie 3 1870 1888
Brittany 2 1986 1993 Lindsey 2 1964 1993
Carol, Carole 4 1935 1954 Louise. Louisa 2 1887 abt 1971
Catherine 2 1920 1982 Luke 3 1985 2003
Charles 10 1840 1968 Lydia 2 1761 1840
Christine, Christina 3 1951 1982 Lynn, Lynne 2 1953 1958
Christopher 4 1950 1995 Marcia 2 1939 1968
Dana 2 1972 1987 Margaret 7 1864 1920
Daniel, Danny 2 1961 1972 Marjorie 4 1918 1934
David 8 1931 1974 Mark 3 1955 1968
Dawn 2 1978 1978 Martha 2 1840 1855
Donald 4 1913 1947 Mary,
Mary Ann(e)		 10 1798 1937
Doris 4 1913 1937 Matthew 2 1970 1990
Edith 4 1808 1885 Michael 7 1948 1985
Elizabeth 8 1832 1924 Mildred 2 1886 1920
Emily 2 1878 1883 Nancy 2 1800 1961
Emma 6 1844 1984 Nellie, Nelly 2 1893 1914
Eric 2 1915 1927 Patricia 2 1940 1956
Ernest 2 1890 1932 Paul 2 1976 1984
Florence 5 1864 1913 Percy 2 1899 1919
George 9 1836 1942 Peter 3 1872 1938
Graham 3 1912 1940 Philip, Phillip 3 1943 1965
Hannah 2 1842 2001 Richard 2 1952 1980
Harriet 3 1838 1904 Robert 4 1908 1960
Harry 5 1867 1929 Ronald 5 1929 1947
Helen, Helena 4 1887 1958 Ruth 3 1794 1959
Henry 4 1882 1910 Samuel 5 1851 1997
Herbert 2 1896 1910 Sarah 9 1834 abt 1972
Ian 2 1961 1974 Scott 2 1970 1975
James 10 1772 1978 Sharon 3 1947 1962
Jane 3 1803 1858 Shirley 2 1939 1952
Jason 2 1970 1985 Stanley 2 1914 1924
Jerry, Gerald 3 1945 1972 Stephen, Steven 3 1900 1978
Jesse (male) 4 1843 1953 Susan, Susanne, Suzanne 5 1961 1993
John, Jon 19 1778 1980 Sylvester 2 1837 1906
Joseph, Joe 4 1811 1994 Thomas 11 1743 1954
Joyce 3 1927 1949 Walter 4 1856 1919
Julia, Julie, Juliette 4 1866 Abt 1952 William 15 1805 2004

The most frequent names are:

  Men     Women  
  John or Jon: 19   Mary or Mary Anne(e): 10
  William: 15   Sarah: 9
  Thomas: 11   Elizabeth: 8
  Charles: 10   Margaret: 7
  James: 10   Emma: 6
  George: 9   Florence: 5
  David: 8   Susan, Susanne, or Suzanne: 5
  Michael: 7   Alice: 4
  Arthur: 5   Carol or Carole: 4
  Harry: 5   Doris: 4
  Ronald: 5   Edith: 4
  Samuel: 5   Helen or Helena: 4
        Julia, Julie, or Juliette: 4
        Katherine, Kathryn, or Kate: 4
        Marjorie 4

I suppose it says a little bit about how names come and go in fashion. Some have withstood the test of time, others were only popular for a short period. Some have declined and others have made revivals in recent years.

Our names are a unique element of our identities. They outlast our bodies and remain in the memories of others. They provide something for family historians to grab onto in their quest to revive the past. Each one is a potential story waiting to be told.

Do you have any favorite names or stories to go with them?

The Appeal

admin4 Comments

I often don’t know what I’m going to write about next. Such was the case when I finished last week’s post. I keep a spreadsheet of potential topics but don’t follow it in any particular order. Today’s post came from a totally unexpected direction. Someone had posted a link on Facebook to a search page on the United Kingdom’s National Archives website.  I have visited this website many times in the past with occasional success.

(The following several paragraphs are for my fellow genealogy enthusiasts. Casual readers may wish to skip ahead to the paragraph before the image!)

This time I idly typed “Casbon” and hit “Search.” Twenty-two records popped up. I had seen many of these before. Most of them require a personal visit to a library or archive to see the record, but a few can be viewed online. One of those, in particular, caught my eye: a record titled “Prisoner name(s): Casbon [first name not stated]. Court and date of trial: 1821. Crime:…”[1] This record is contained in a series of records created or inherited by the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related bodies and contains “original petitions made by convicted persons or their friends, relations etc., seeking the revocation or reduction of their sentences.”[2]

The description of the Casbon record indicated that the convict had been tried in 1821 and was a prisoner on the Hulk Leviathan. The petitioner was one P. Leyburn of Meldreth, Cambridgeshire.[3] This immediately got my attention. It seemed to refer to the case of Thomas Casbon, or Casborn, who had been convicted of stealing a silver watch and sentenced to seven years’ transportation. I wrote about this last October, suggesting that the convict was probably my third great-grandfather. Maybe this new record would be the proof I was looking for!

The National Archives description also said that the record is available for download from Findmypast. That is where I had found the records about Thomas Casborn, the subject of the earlier post. I was surprised because I thought I had seen all the pertinent records on Findmypast. I don’t have a paid subscription to Findmypast, but free access is available at my local Family History Center (FHC), AKA the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FHC near me has excellent facilities, with about a dozen computer terminals, and access to many subscription websites.

I popped into the FHC and opened the Findmypast website. My initial search didn’t turn up anything new, so I decided to look at the website’s card catalog. All the previous records concerning Thomas Casborn had been in a collection titled “England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770–1935.” When I looked in the card catalog I discovered another database called “England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment Browse, 1770–1935.” The titles are the same except for the word “Browse” in the second database. They are clearly different collections because the former contains 5,762,300 records and the latter has 1,823,668 records.

The word “Browse” told me that the collection was not indexed, i.e., you can’t find individual records through the search page. You have to literally browse through all the images to find one you are looking for. I didn’t fancy browsing through 1,823,668 records to find a needle in a haystack. Fortunately, the National Archives catalog contained more information to help me narrow things down. The record I was looking for is contained in record series HO17, piece 92. After some experimentation, I found that I could narrow my search using those identifiers. This narrowed the number of records down to 1,049.

Once I started browsing,  I learned that the individual petitions were organized into “bundles,” each with an alphanumeric reference. The Casbon record I was looking for had the reference “Rk4.” After a bit of trial and error, I found what I was looking for.

The record consists of only two pages, probably front and back of the same page.[4] One side was addressed like an envelope “To Mr. Capper @ the Secretary of States office for the Home Department, London.” The other side contained the body of the letter.

Petition p2
(Click on image to enlarge)

Here is my transcription:

                                                                              Meldreth: Decr. 21st 1824
Mr Capper
+++++++++++Sirs

                        of the Name of Casbon
          There is a Family ^ in this Village poor but much respected for their honesty who are much distressd in Consequence of their Son who is at Pres[en]t. on Board the Leviathan Hulk off Portsmouth on board of which vessel he has been confind for the last Three years. Previously to the unfortunate Circumstance which led to his Conviction he was never detected with having acted contrary to the Rules of honesty and it is believed had he not been induced thro illegal advisers his natural Disposition would have been adverse to any Criminal Transaction. It is the desire of the Inhabitants in general that he should be reprieved the residue of his sentence should his character be found such since his confinement as may merit Interception. Should such be be case. it is believed his Lordship the Earl of Hardewicke may interest himself in the Matter and gain his Freedom
+++++Would you Sir have the goodness so far as to certify his character by enclosing a Certificate of the same it will be considered as a particular obligation and will be received with gratitude by the relatives of the Convict
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++With respect
address to                                                                    I remain Sirs
P. Leyburn  Meldreth  [?] Roy[s]ton        Yr. obt. Servt
+++++Cambridgeshire                                                         P. Leyburn

Although the first name is not given in the letter, we are told that the prisoner has been on the Leviathan for three years and his surname is Casbon. Thomas Casborn was convicted in October 1822, so the “three years” referred to in the letter isn’t quite correct. I think the author of the letter, Mr. Leyburn, was getting his information second-hand and wasn’t personally familiar with the case.

The reference to the Leviathan is quite specific. My review of the Leviathan’s records did not reveal anyone else with a similar surname who was convicted in that time frame. So it’s very unlikely that Mr. Leyburn was referring to anyone other than Thomas Casbon.

In the earlier post, I reported that Thomas Casborn was “late of the parish of Melbourn.”[5] The letter indicates that the prisoner’s family lives in Meldreth. Melbourn and Meldreth are adjacent villages, and my Casbon ancestors are associated with both locations, so I consider this discrepancy to be inconsequential. There was only one family “of the name of Casbon” in Meldreth or Melbourn with a son named Thomas at that time, and that was the family of Isaac and Susanna (Howes) Casbon, my fourth great-grandparents.

When looked at as a whole, the facts given in the letter answer the question posed in my previous post: was Thomas Casborn, the prisoner aboard the Leviathan, my third great-grandfather? The answer is a resounding “yes.”

The letter does not give any details of the crime, referring to it only as “the Circumstance which led to his Conviction.” If the letter is to be believed, the crime was a first-time offense, and out of character for the prisoner. It suggests that he gave in to the influence of unnamed “illegal advisers” when he committed the offense.

It seems that Mr. Leyburn is writing, not just on behalf of the Casbon family, but for the “Inhabitants [of Meldreth] in general.” I’m not even sure he has met the Casbon family but instead may have been approached by someone on their behalf to write this letter.

Mr. Leyburn is asking the recipient of the letter to vouch for the prisoner’s behavior “since [the time of] his confinement” in the hope that a higher authority, “his Lordship the Earl of Hardewicke,” might then intervene on the prisoner’s behalf.

This last reference is to Philip Yorke, the third Earl of Hardwicke (1757–1834), who had a residence at Wimpole Hall, about three and one-half miles from Meldreth. He was the son of Charles Yorke, the former Lord Chancellor of England.[6] He must have been incredibly wealthy because Wimpole Hall is the largest house in Cambridgeshire.[7] It is now owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

WIM_location_image_1
Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire. Photo from ArtUK.org

We don’t know if Mr. Leyburn’s appeal ever received a reply or if the Earl of Hardwicke intervened on Thomas’s behalf.  We do know that Thomas served the entire seven years aboard the Leviathan, so clemency obviously was not granted.

I would still like to see if any more records are out there giving more details about the crime and the trial, but I’m pretty sure I’ve exhausted all the records available online. Any other records will require a visit to various archives in England – something I hope to accomplish one of these days.

[1] “Catalogue Description – Prisoner name(s): Casbon [first name not stated]. Court and date of trial: 1821. Crime:…,” The National Archives (http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14544423 : accessed 5 March 2019).
[2] “Catalogue Description – Home Office: Criminal Petitions, Series I,” The National Archives (http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C8881 : accessed 5 March 2019).
[3] “Catalogue Description – Prisoner name(s): Casbon [first name not stated]. Court and date of trial: 1821. Crime:…,” previously cited.
[4] Petition for clemency for prisoner Casbon [first name not stated], P. Leyton to Mr. Capper, 21 Dec 1824; image, “England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment Browse, 1770-1935,” Findmypast (https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-Records/england-and-wales-crime-prisons-and-punishment-browse-1770-1935 : accessed 5 March 2019) >image 214 of 1049; citing The National Archives [UK], HO17/92/55.
[5] Alan Akeroyd (cambs.archives@cambridgeshire.gov.uk), to Jon Casbon, email, 4 Oct 2018, “Cambs quarter sessions, October 1822”; privately held by Casbon [(e-address for private use)].
[6] “Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Yorke,_3rd_Earl_of_Hardwicke : accessed 7 March 2019), rev. 20 Jan 19, 07:42.
[7] “Wimpole Estate,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimpole_Estate : accessed 7 March 2019), rev. 20 Nov 18, 12:17.

A Practical Guide for Emigrants

admin11 Comments

What was it like to emigrate from England to North America in the mid-1800s? How would you travel? What kind of supplies would you need? How would you go about planning for such a trip and where would you go for answers to these questions? These are questions that Thomas Casbon faced when he decided to leave England to find a new home in Ohio, U.S.A.

I’m pretty sure Thomas and his wife Emma (Scruby) were getting letters from Emma’s older brother, James, who settled in Ohio in the 1830s. These would have offered words of encouragement and practical guidance, and perhaps even some money to help cover expenses. But another source might have been a printed guidebook. I’ve recently learned that many of these were printed throughout the 1800s. They are brimming with practical advice and generally written by men who had first-hand experience, being recent immigrants themselves.

One such book is A Practical Guide For Emigrants to North America, including the United States, Lower and Upper Canada, and Newfoundland …, by George Nettle, published in London, 1850.[1]

Title page
Title page of A Practical Guide for Emigrants … (1850).

Although Thomas left England in 1846, four years before this book was published, it is representative of the types of guidebooks available at the time. It addresses many matters that would have been of concern to Thomas and his family. It also gives us greater insight into what the experience of emigrating to America would have been like.

In the opening paragraphs, the author describes “who ought to go” to America. His description fits Thomas perfectly: “America being a growing country and a land for labour and industry, the poor industrious laboring man, with a wife and two, three, or more sons and daughters [Thomas had three sons and one daughter] fit for labour and of sober habits, would do well to emigrate.”[2]

He goes on to explain how much a man can earn and what his earnings can purchase in America.

A laboring man and his two sons, for instance, may earn 18s. per week each, making together £2 14s., whilst the common necessaries of life are generally less than half the price paid for them in this country. This amount brought to a careful wife, would, at the end of a year or two only, place the poor man and his family almost above the world’s perplexities; and his table would be plentifully supplied with such necessaries of life as he probably never before had the privilege of enjoying.[3]

The opportunity for financial independence would have been a strong incentive for Thomas, whose future in England did not offer much hope for improvement or relief from a life of economic hardship.

The book goes on to address practical matters concerning the voyage, starting with expenses. He explains that “London and Liverpool are the principal ports in this country for emigration” and that the steerage fare in a steam vessel from one of these ports is between £4 and £5. On the other hand

there are other ports from which merchant ships, principally in the timber trade, sail during the spring and summer months, to Quebec and other places in North America, in which the passage-money charged is generally under £3: and should a family, or a company of friends or neighbors, emigrate together, the cost to each individual may be considerably reduced by contracting for the whole.[4]

We know that Thomas sailed from Southampton to Quebec aboard the Parkfield, described in one source as a Canadian lumber boat.[5] He would not have been able to afford anything better than steerage, so this gives us an idea of what they voyage cost. He traveled with a niece and probably with another Meldreth man, James Wing, so maybe they were able to negotiate a cheaper price.

steerage
“Emigration Vessel—Between Decks,“The Illustrated London News, vol. 18, no. 483, 10 May 1851, p. 387; Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000520935 : accessed 5 February 2019) (Click on image to enlarge)

On ocean voyages today, the fare usually includes the cost of meals, but Thomas probably had to bring his own provisions for the voyage. What would you need for a long ocean voyage in the 1840s? Here’s what the author of A Practical Guide advises.

It will be necessary to procure bedding, provisions, cooking utensils, and a little medicine. The cooking and table utensils should be the most simple and useful, made of tin, and in quantity according to the circumstances of the emigrant. The provisions should, by all means be sufficient in variety, the time occupied on the passage being very uncertain, averaging from four to six weeks, and not unfrequently extending to eight weeks. The stock for each adult ought to be, at least, as follows:—[6]

recommended provisions
Provisions recommended for the voyage to America.[7] (Click on image to enlarge)

Try to imagine the preparations needed for this voyage, and then the voyage itself. The foodstuffs had to be things that wouldn’t spoil on a long voyage; no milk, no fresh vegetables or meats. The author says that “about £2 5s. will, however, purchase the stock above enumerated,—if judiciously laid out.”[8]

The author then waxes philosophical, warning the traveler about the feelings he is likely to experience:

As the emigrant leaves “the lessening land,” and passes over the “trackless deep,” a medley of feelings and sensations will naturally occupy his mind: he will feel that he is parting from his associates and friends, and from those endearing ties and circumstances of his childhood, the comforts and enjoyments of which he was not before aware of, for the true value of friendship is never properly estimated until it becomes lost for ever. These observations are not designed to intimidate or to create unpleasant feelings, but merely to forewarn the emigrant of what will occur before he leaves his county, that he may not regret his departure, as thousands have done when it has been too late.[9]

What thoughts did Thomas and Emma have as they left England behind forever?

The book then describes the approach of land and information about the city of Quebec. The Casbon family would have had to disembark at Quebec and secure transportation along the Saint Lawrence River to Montreal. “He has the choice of two routes, the one by steam vessels on the river St. Lawrence, and the other by canal and land carriage. The former will be preferable.”[10] I’m pretty sure Thomas took the river route.

From Montreal, the family would have next proceeded to Kingston, on the eastern end of Lake Ontario. And from there they traveled across the great lake to Niagara. “At Niagara the family made the transfer in the horse cars then in use, and all had time to enjoy the spectacle of the mighty falls. From Buffalo they took another boat to Cleveland.”[11] “Thomas Casbon then walked on to Wooster, Ohio, … and having obtained a horse and wagon returned to Cleveland for his family. By this means they all arrived at a place ten miles from Wooster … where Thomas Casbon began his career in the New World.”[12]

Map detail
Detail of map insert from A Practical Guide For Emigrants, with Thomas Casbon’s route added in.
(Click on image to enlarge)

The previous paragraph quotes from biographies of Thomas Casbon’s sons, Sylvester and Charles. Returning to A Practical Guide For Emigrants, the book has much more to say about what a new immigrant should do once he arrives in the new land, along with various observations about life in America. Towards the end of the book, the author offers these words to the potential emigrant.

The English emigrant will not be a month in America before the aspect of things will seem strange and unpleasant to him; and unless the country which he has left has been “too warm for him,” he will long for home, “with all its faults.” He will see no green hedges adorned with sweet-scented flowers … If, however, a man with his wife and family are living as they ought to do, their best home is in any civilized country where they can procure the greatest amount of the comforts and necessaries of life, and make a provision for old age.[13]

In other words, although homesickness and regret are likely to occur, given time, most will realize the advantages of life in the new country.

Life in Ohio would have been a huge adjustment for Thomas and his family. They would never see their families in England again, nor any of the things they loved about the old country. But, within a few years, they were on firm ground financially and well on their way to having comforts of life they would have thought impossible had they remained in England.

[1] George Nettle, A Practical Guide for Emigrants to North America, including the United States, Lower and Upper Canada, and Newfoundland … (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1850); image copy, Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100008573 : accessed 28 February 2019).
[2] Ibid., p. 7.
[3] Ibid., pp. 7–8.
[4] Ibid., p. 9.
[5] History of Porter County Indiana: a Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1912), vol. 2: 483; image copy, Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011679885 : accessed 28 February 2019).
[6] Nettle, A Practical Guide for Emigrants …, p. 10.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid., pp. 10–11.
[10] Ibid., p. 17.
[11] History of Porter County Indiana, p. 483.
[12] Ibid., pp. 459–60.
[13] Nettle, A Practical Guide for Emigrants …, pp. 51–2.

The White Plague

admin4 Comments

The arrival of two death certificates from the General Register Office in England has helped to fill gaps in the life stories of two Casbon ancestors and also serves to highlight a topic I’ve touched on before—tuberculosis.

The certificates are for two sisters-in-law, Lydia (Burgess) and Elizabeth (Waller) Casbon. Lydia was married to Joseph Casbon (~1811–1847). She was born about 1812 and died in 1851.[1] Elizabeth was the first wife of Joseph’s brother, James Casbon (~1813–1884). She was born in 1815 and died in 1852.[2]

Here are the death “certificates” (copies of the official death registrations).

Lydia death cert Death registration of Lydia Casbon. (Click on image to enlarge)

Eliz death cert
Death registration of Elizabeth Casbon. (Click on image to enlarge)

Starting with Lydia, we can see that she died 8 June 1851 at Meldreth (Cambridgeshire, England). She was said to be thirty-five years old and the “Relict [widow] of Joseph Casbourn, Labourer.” The cause of death is a most interesting word—Phthisis. Sarah Worland, the informant, was also the informant for the death registration of Lydia’s husband, Joseph, who died in 1847.

Phthisis is an old medical term that generally refers to the wasting away of the body from any cause, but during this period of time referred to pulmonary consumption, i.e., tuberculosis.[3] This diagnosis confirmed my earlier suspicions that Lydia, and probably her children too, had perished from tuberculosis. More recently, I wrote that her husband Joseph also died from a form of the same disease.

Now looking at Elizabeth, she died 16 August 1852 at Melbourn (Cambridgeshire). She was thirty-six years old, the wife of “James Casbon, Labourer.” She died of “Consumption
1 year,” i.e., she also died of tuberculosis.

It’s hard today to imagine the impact that tuberculosis (TB) had in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. The disease had been around for millennia, but by the early 1800s had become epidemic.[4] Death rates in London and other major European cities were as high as 800 to 1,000 per 100,000 per year, meaning that up to one percent of the population died from the disease every year.[5] Young adults were hardest hit: in the late nineteenth-century England and Wales, almost half of the deaths in twenty to twenty-four-year-olds were caused by TB.[6]

TB has been referred to as the white plague or white death, perhaps because of the extreme pallor of those afflicted with the disease.[7] Unlike many epidemic diseases, its course was slow and progressive, sometimes taking many years to claim its victims. Charles Dickens described it in Nicholas Nickleby:

There is a dread disease which so prepares its victim, as it were, for death; which so refines it of its grosser aspect, and throws around familiar looks unearthly indications of the coming change; a dread disease, in which the struggle between soul and body is so gradual, quiet, and solemn, and the result so sure, that day by day, and grain by grain, the mortal part wastes and withers away, so that the spirit grows light and sanguine with its lightening load, and, feeling immortality at hand, deems it but a new term of mortal life; a disease in which death and life are so strangely blended, that death takes the glow and hue of life, and life the gaunt and grisly form of death; a disease which medicine never cured, wealth never warded off, or poverty could boast exemption from; which sometimes moves in giant strides, and sometimes at a tardy sluggish pace, but, slow or quick, is ever sure and certain.[8]

Although TB occurred in all social classes, “it was a disease above all spread by overcrowded homes, unhealthy working conditions and poor nutrition; it was in other words … a disease of the poor.”[9] Which brings me back to Lydia and Elizabeth.

We know that Lydia was poor. She was listed as a “pauper” in the 1851 census.[10] By that time she had lost her husband and two of her four daughters.[11] (A third survived her by less than a year.) Her death registration says she suffered from Phthisis for three years. In other words, she had been visibly wasting away for at least three years; but she likely contracted the disease several years before it became apparent. Life must have been difficult even before her husband died, and unbearable afterwards. We don’t know anything about the family’s home or living conditions but can guess that they were far from ideal. Lydia almost certainly received some poor relief from the parish, but not enough to lift her from extreme poverty.

We can also surmise that the family of James and Elizabeth Casbon was poor. James was a laborer his entire life, near the bottom of the social ladder. In the seventeen years of their marriage, Elizabeth had born eight children, the youngest only a year before her death. The ten of them were probably squeezed into only a couple of rooms. In the 1851 census, only the oldest son, William, was earning additional income as a laborer.[12] There were many mouths to feed on meager wages. Elizabeth probably already had symptoms of TB when her daughter, Emma, was born in 1851. (Emma was baptized just three days before Elizabeth’s death – was this done because she was dying?[13]) Young Emma died in November 1853 at the Royston Union Workhouse, located in Bassingbourn (a few miles from Meldreth).[14] The location of her death is another indication of the family’s poverty. Considering the circumstances, it’s amazing that the remainder of James and Elizabeth’s children, as far as I’ve been able to trace them, lived normal lifespans.

I’ll try to end on a more positive note. As sad as these stories are, they are a testament to the fortitude of our ancestors. It may be a bit of a cliché, but comparing their lives with ours today, we can look back on their endurance and survival with both gratitude and awe.

[1] 1851 England census, Cambridgeshire, Melbourn, p. 29, enumeration district 11c, schedule 114, Lydia Casbourn; image, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8860 : accessed 22 February 2019), Cambridgeshire >Melbourn >11c >image 30 of 36; citing The National Archives, HO 107/1708/206. England, death registration (unofficial copy) for Lydia Casbourn, died 8 Jun 1851; registered June quarter 1851, Royston & Buntingford District, vol. 6/405, Melbourn Sub-district, no. 410; General Register Office (GRO), Southport.
[2] Parish of Meldreth (Cambridgeshire, England), Register of Baptisms, 1813-67, p. 8, no. 57, , Elizabeth Waller, b. 11 Sep 1815, baptized 15 Oct 1815; imaged as “Parish registers for Meldreth, 1681-1877,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007567609?cat=210742 : accessed 28 April 2017), image 201; citing Family History Library microfilm 1,040,542, item 5. England, GRO, death registration (unofficial copy) for Elizabeth Casbon, died 16 Aug 1852; registered Sep. qtr 1852, Royston & Buntingford Dist, vol. 3A/134, Melbourn sub-dist., no. 117; GRO, Southport.
[3] Robert Hooper, M.D., Lexicon Medicum; or, Medical Dictionary: Containing an Explanation of the Terms  … on All These Subjects , rev. 8th ed., Klein Grant, M.D., editor (London: Longman, 1838),  p. 1026, “Phthisis”; image copy, Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0000834499 : accessed 6 February 2019).
[4] Thomas M. Daniel, “The history of tuberculosis,” Respiratory Medicine, Nov 2006, vol. 100, no. 11, pp. 1862–70; html edition (https://www.resmedjournal.com/article/S0954-6111(06)00401-X/fulltext : accessed 22 February 2019).
[5] Ibid.
[6] Richard Evans, “The White Plague,” transcript of lecture given at The Museum of London, 27 Nov 12; MS Word transcript, Gresham College (http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-white-plague : accessed 22 February 2019).
[7] John Frith, “History of Tuberculosis. Part 1 – Phthisis, consumption and the White Plague,” Journal of Military and Veteran’s Health, 22/2; online archive (https://jmvh.org/article/history-of-tuberculosis-part-1-phthisis-consumption-and-the-white-plague/ : accessed 22 February 2018).
[8] Charles Dickens, Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, reprint of 1st ed. (London: MacMillan & Co., 1916); html edition, Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/967/967-h/967-h.htm : accessed 22 February 2019).
[9] Evans, “The White Plague.”
[10] 1851 England census, Cambridgeshire, Melbourn, p. 29, Lydia Casbourn.
[11] Jon Casbon, “Joseph and Lydia (Burgess) Casbon, Our Casbon Journey, 2 Mar 2017 (https://casbonjourney.wordpress.com/2017/03/02/joseph-and-lydia-burgess-casbon/ : accessed 22 February 2019).
[12] 1851 England census, Cambridgeshire, Meldreth, p. 32, James Casbon.
[13] Meldreth Parish, Baptisms, 1813–1867, p. 75, no. 599, Emma Casbon; accessed as “Parish registers for Meldreth, 1681-1877,” browsable images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007567609?cat=210742 : accessed 29 August 2017); citing Family History Library microfilm 1,040,542, item 5, image 234.
[14] England, death registration (unofficial copy) for Emma Casbon, died 4 Nov 1853; registered Dec. qtr. 1853, Royston & Buntingford Dist., vol. 3A/107, Melbourn Sub-dist., no. 319.