I Found My Family's Land In England!

Linking up with locals is an oft overlooked avenue for research. Here's an example of how it not only opened doors, it made a fantastic and unexpected story!

Many years ago, I visited England on a multistop, 10-day whirlwind genealogy tour.

The first of these stops was in Sawdon, Yorkshire.

My Eshelby family had lived there from the 1750s to the 1810s, when they left for Canada. While there, my ancestor William had married Jane, the only child of William Edman.

Armed with a 200 year old land deed I had located before I left on my trip, I set off to try and locate my ancestors land.

The deed had one vital clue in it. The land was on Wood Gate Way. Amazingly enough, I found it! The Way was still there and the name unchanged!

The problem was, the deed didn't tell me WHERE on the Way it was, and, as I later found out, it's at least 10 miles long!

So, I walked the short distance to the picturesque village of Sawdon.

Sawdon is a very tiny village of just a few homes and one watering hole called "The Anvil Inn".

So I went in and ended up chatting with Alex, who was the landlady.

I let her know why I was visiting and she said that, Piers and Dee, the village historians, lived just across the street. She gave them a call and they came right over.

I showed them what I had and Piers said he had a colleague who lived a few parishes south of there that had an old enclosure (property line) map for Sawdon. So, we jumped into his car and off we went.

We got there, and, sure enough, he pulled out this HUMUNGOUS four foot long map and unrolled it. I took a quick look and immediately latched onto the name William Edman, Jane's father!

From earlier research, I had learned that William Edman was the village blacksmith, and guess where his land was? Right where the Anvil Inn sits!

From the same map, we found that William also owned a 26 acre plot just to the northeast and directly across from the Inn. That was a lot of land for a basic yeoman back then!

So Piers and I hopped back into his car and raced back to the Inn and shared our findings with Alex. She was just as excited as I was and then let me know that several of the blacksmith tools at the Inn were actually from the 1700's!

Piers then drove me around to the second plot of land William owned. Although you can't see it on the above map, there's a huge gorge in between the properties so we had to drive around it. But then I was rewarded with this.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to have been able to find and visit this place and experience this exciting piece of my family history. There's just something about actually being there and standing on the same soil your ancestors cared for. It really "grounds" you! It's surreal on so many levels.

And to top it all off with an incredible, unexpectedly wonderful story! I couldn't have dreamed for more!

If you like me to help "unearth" the stories in your family history, I'd love to hear from you! I can be reached Toll-Free at 888-444-3211 or at [email protected].

Photo Credits-

Anvil Inn-The Anvil Inn, Sawdon-Thank You!!

All others-Danny Hall