Sunday, August 26, 2007

Platts in the 1861 English Census

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By 1861, we find Martha Platts heading a much smaller household. It is assumed that most of the children have married or moved out on their own. Still living in Lea (its unclear if its the same house) are:
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Name/Relation/Condition/Age & Sex/Occupation/Where Born
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Martha Platts, Head of Household, widowed, 58 female, Housekeeper, Derbyshire Criche
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Anne Platts, Daughter, Unmarried, 33 female, Hosiery Trimmer, Derbyshire Ashover
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Samuel Platts, Son, Unmarried, 27 male, Wool Sorter, Derbyshire Ashover
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John Platts, Son, Unmarried, 22 male, Apprentice to Fitter & Machinist, Derbyshire Ashover
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Some Notes:
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(1) Things have either improved for Martha if Housekeeper means she is staying home. With all her children working, money probably wasn't as tight and she may have been able to retire. However, she may also be working as a housekeeper as another wife on the page just has a blank as to occupation.
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(2) Samuel's occupation is listed as a Wool Sorter, a position which he appears to have held all his life. Wool came into factories with the uncleaned fleeces packaged into huge bundles. A Wool Sorter would rip open the bundles, divide and grade the wool before sending it to the next department to be cleaned and processed into fabric, thread or yarn. Different sheep produce different types of wool, and sometimes one animal can produce many differnt types also. Coarser wool makes a rougher fabric and is ideally used in outer garments. Finer wool, either produced by the sheep as a whole or just its undercoat, would be used in garments worn closer to the skin. If you've ever been in contact with an old wool blanket, you've felt how scratchy and itchy it is. That's because it was made from coarser wool. Also, some sheep are cleaner (or kept cleaner by the farmer) than others. Many will stain their coats, and this stained wool would be graded lower than a similar type that was unstained. Given that the Wool Sorter had to open many bundles and quickly sort & grade the fleeces, this was a specialized job with much training.
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(3) Other occupations on this page include: Joiner Builder (& Farmer), Servant, Joiners Apprentice, Scholars and School Girl, Lead Smelter, Chapel Cleaner, Stone Mason, Industrial Mistress, Infants Mistress, Industrial Assistant, Industrial pupil. The last four are the most interesting. First, to keep factories up-to-date and expanding, you need to have lots of workers and those workers need to be educated. The Infants Mistress would be the 1861 equivalent of a Day Care Worker, and indicates that there may have been enough of a concentration of female workers inside a factory (not at home) to need a Day Care. In addition the Industrial Mistress, Assistant and Pupil indicate an Industrial School was established nearby. About this time, American Textile Mills were also establishing schools to train their workers to do more detailed work as the industry had progressed beyond simple chores.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Platts in the 1851 English Census

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The above is the 1851 English Census showing the Platts Family the year after Josiah's death. Either the family has moved or the names of their districts have been changed, it is hard to tell. They are now in Dethwick Lea & Holloway (civil parish), Ripley (sub-registration district), Belper (registration district), Derbyshire (county). The family is the first family listed on this page, with Martha being in the top slot. The transcription:
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No. of Householder's Schedule: 69
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Name of Street: Lea Bridges
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Name/Relation/Condition (marital status)/Age & sex/Occupation/Where Born
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Martha Platts, head, Widowed, 48F, Trimmer of Hosiery Goods, Derbyshire Crich
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Ann Platts, daughter, unmarried, 23F, Trimmer of Hosiery Goods, Derbyshire Ashover
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Joseph Platts, son, unmarried, 22M, Stone Mason, Derbyshire Ashover
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James Platts, son, unmarried, 20M, Hosiery Warehouseman, Derbyshire Ashover
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Samuel Platts, son, (not noted), 17M, Wool Sorter, Derbyshire Ashover
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John Platts, son, (not noted), 12M, Scholar, Derbyshire Ashover
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Some notes on this census:
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1) The death of the head of household typically hit pretty hard at this time. Note Martha and the children are all working where in 1841 Josiah was the only one.
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2) A new son appears, Joseph, age 22. Because of his age and technical (at the time) job as a Stone Mason, I am assuming that he was apprenticed at the time of the 1841 Census. Indeed, there are several Joseph Platts the right age who are not living with family when I look back at the previous census. His appearance in the house could be for several reasons. First, men usually lived with female relatives to take care of their house, clothes and cook their food before they were married. And Second, he has moved in with his mother to help her financially after the death of the main breadwinner in the household. It is probably a bit of each.
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3) Son Henry, who would now be 16, has disappeared. While many children did die young at this time, we should not assign this fate to Henry so soon. It could also be that he is apprenticed elsewhere, just like his brother Joseph above was. This would have helped the household because there was one less mouth to feed, as well as having the part of his wages that would have been paid to his Mother to help her. I will look into this further if I can.
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4) The census and family jobs reflect the Industrial Revolution that was re-shaping Derbyshire at the time. Derbyshire moved from small farms and business, into a Wool and Woolen goods manufacturing center. There were also many quarries in the area, which were improved upon and grew into a major industry. The various occupations listed on this page are: Hosiery Trimmer, Stone Mason, Hosiery Warehouseman, Scholar (student), Lead Smelter, Domestic Duties (housewife), Leadworks Laborer, Woolcarder, Manager for Hosiery maker and Servant.
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5) Hosiery at this time were long, knitted socks. Nylons as we know them now, did not exist. Many of the woman in the outlying towns and villages would knit the socks (a good knitter could do two socks a day in addition to all her household duties!), and they would be collected and brought to town for decorating and finishing (trimming). For both Martha and Ann, this trimming was done at home, in addition to the running of the household. If they were lucky, the hose would be dropped off or picked up; otherwise they would walk into town to get new hose to trim while dropping off the finished ones. Often they had a quota they had to meet in order to remain employed, and they were paid by the piece (probably not very much). Considering that this probably required long hours, was done by candle-light at night, and that all clothes at the time had to be hand-sewn, you have a pretty hard job.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Enlarging Pictures on the Blog

Ok, time out from genealogy for a little housekeeping. I've stated before that I have been working on getting the pictures on the blog to show up bigger and easier to read. Unfortunately, nothing I've tried has worked, so this has been really frustrating for me.

Imagine my surprise when my hubby was reading my latest post and had a HUGE image of the census on his screen! When I asked how he got that, he looked mildly confused and said "I just clicked on the image." D'oh! Ok, I hadn't tried that.

So for all those of you (if any) who, like me, hadn't figured this out: Click on the image to get a larger view of it. It makes things like the census much easier to read. To get back to the blog, just hit your browsers "Back" button.

And thank you to my hubby for the tip (and not pointing out that I was being a ditz).

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Platts in the 1841 English Census

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The above is the 1841 English Census, the first one done in England. The Josiah Platts/Martha Stocks family is listed as being in Lea/Holloway township, Belper district, Derbyshire, England. They are the family, second to the bottom of the census, and listed as follows:

Place:
mark indicating same as above; above family listed as being in Lea

Names:
= Josiah Platts, age 40 male, Clerk, not born in same County, check mark in last column (more on this later in blog)
= Martha Platts, age 35 female, no occupation, born in same County
= Ann Platts, age 14 female, no occupation, born in same County
= James Platts, age 10 male, no occupation, born in same County
= Samuel Platts, age 8 male, no occupation, born in same County
= Henry Platts, age 6 male, no occupation, born in same County
= Jno (John or Jonathan) Platts, age 2 male, no occupation, born in same County

Note on last column: This column asks whether the person is born in Scotland, Ireland or other Foreign Parts. There is a check mark for Josiah. This means either that (a) he was born in one of these places or (b) the census taker asked and received a negative answer, putting a check to indicate this. In this case, a blank would mean that he had forgotten to ask. Further supporting choice (b) are two more facts: first, there is a checkmark next to everyone who answered "no" in the preceding column (they can't all be from outside of England can they?) and second, the family below the Platts has For written in this column to indicate a Foreign (outside of England, Scotland or Ireland) birth.

Note on Occupations listed on this census page: Part of the fun of looking at census information is that you can see the changes that took place over time in one spot. One way is to look at the occupations listed on a census. Just on this page alone is listed a Mine Agent, a Smelter, a Clerk and a Wool Carder. All these occupations reflect the prime industries of 1841 Derbyshire: mining/quarrying and textile mills. As we go through the various censuses, we'll be able to see how the Industrial Revolution affected Derbyshire.