Richard Broomfield
Started 13 Nov 2022 -
The first task is to establish the number of Richard Broomfield's there are in the county of Hampshire, to help delineate between the records of one Richard Broomfield and another. Normally I would us my set of CDs from the Hampshire Genealogical Society. Transcriptions of Baptism, Marriage, and Death indexes.
Those records are now available on FindMyPast. So, online instead of by CD. However, I still keep my subscription going with HGS, and even do some transcribing for them.
I searched for Richard Broomfield records in Hampshire. Setting the approximate year of birth to 1770 reduced the list to 28.
Then I need somewhere to put all the information I find, so I start a One Name Study in respect of the surname Broomfield in the TNG database.
Normally, a person is added to the database, and then a family is created. Records are added to the person. However, in this instance, it is a case of adding a person for each instance of record, until there is sufficient evidence that it is the same person. Then those same people on the database are merged
For instance, there are two marriages recorded for a Richard Broomfield of Lyndhurst. One on 25 December 1820 to Sarah Ochelford and another to Mary Collins on 16 April 1831. The record has a note that Mary has been previously married but does not recall a name. There is sufficient time between the two marriages that it is the potentially the same Richard Broomfield in each, but nothing to confirm this. Hence a new record for each person as if separate, until proven otherwise.
I should point out at this stage that I do not know where this article is going. It may be the ramblings of a mad, eccentric, old man. Or it may come to a logical conclusion. It is written as the research progresses not as a report of the findings. This will therefore not be to everyone's taste.
