1881 CENSUS

Over the course of the past month I have been updating my 1881 census records to ensure that every entry is on my records. There are 839 Vicarys (including varients and obvious mis-spellings but excluding Vickery and Vickary). Of these I am pretty sure that 76 should have been recorded as Vickery and there are 173 which I have not yet been able to place on trees. Therefore 590 or 70% of the 839 are on one of my many family trees and I will have mapped out at least two generations, most likely three or more.

I am keeping all the Vickery/Vickary data I receive but I am not putting this onto my records at the present time. There are 2,156 Vickerys and 113 Vickarys on this census which explains why I am at this time concentrating on the Vicary spelling only.
Currently I have over 9,500 individuals on my database.
Please contact me if you have a Vicary enquiry or if you have any Vicary data to add to my records. I look forward to hearing from you.

and finally ...... HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND REWARDING 2011

THE VICARY MANSIONS

There was a Vicary family that originated in Crediton in the 1700's as fellmongers and moved to Newton Abbot where they turned their hand to tanning, starting the Vicary Tannery which survived in the town until 1972.

John, one member of this family, went to America in 1760's and became a sucessful merchant mariner. His last voyage was to the West Indies in the Diligent in 1783 and then on to Europe where he died and was apparently buried in Paimboeuf, Northern France.

His son William followed him into the merchant navy and also had a sucessful career rising to the rank of captain and making several voyages to China He was also a land surveyor and purchased a parcel of land in Freedom, Pennsylvania where he built his home between 1826 and 1833. This is called the Vicary Mansion and is now preserved as a living museum by the Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation.

Meanwhile back in Newton Abbot his Vicary cousins were making their mark on the town, and also building mansions for themselves, Dyrons, Churchills, Knowles, Broadlands and the Knoll. Some of these survived into the twenteth centuary, their uses changing from private homes to hospitals, civic offices and the like. All are now probably demolished.

MARRIAGES UPDATE

Last month the GRO (General Register Office) increased the fee for obtaining a copy marriage certificate from £7.00 to £9.25. I took the opportunity to order several certificates before the increase and have been working through all the Vicary marriages 1837 to 1912 . I estimate that I now have 80% recorded on actual trees with details of parents, spouses, etc.. Over time I hope to make that 100% but with the increased cost this will now take longer than ever.

Also last month I attended the annual conference of the Guild of One-Name Studies. There were several very interesting topics discussed including the possibility of uploading data files, such as births, marriages and deaths, onto my Guild web page so that you can view them. This is something I will be considering over the next few months. Meantime please feel free to contact me by email if you have any Vicary family history queries.

March 2010

I have now completed extracting the VICKERY births index 1837 to 1899. In total there were 4620 entries compared to 1432 for VICARY and other derivatives in the same period.
In doing this exercise I gain the impression that the Vickery clan started moving away from Devon and Somerset in greater numbers, earlier, and to greater distances than the Vicary clan. This might be because coming predominantly from Somerset they were closer to main roads, railways, etc..
The reason it has taken me longer than expected to complete this task is that the London Metropolitan Archives went on line after Christmas and I have also extracted all the VICARY entries from there.
Please feel free to contact me if you want me to look up any Vicary or Vickery name, you never know, I might just have a family tree connecting to yours.