General Chat

I helped my sister sell some of her home grown plants and hanging baskets at a boot sale this weekend. I wandered around and found a stall directly behind ours selling lots of interesting old magazines and books etc. The stallholder also had a cardboard box full of original house title deeds, related correspondence, and probate records - on parchment and handwritten. All the stuff dated from the 1800s and he was selling it at £2 a document. I went through as much as I could and found that most of it related to either Middlesex or Burnley. The only names I can remember from it all were Cronk (Ealing) and Brett (Middlesex) but some of the deeds concerned manor houses in the Burnley area whose names I can't remember. He told me this was one of many boxes he had and he gets more frequently from all over the country. I wished I had enough money on me to buy the lot off him so I could index it and share it. But I didn't and he disappeared before I could take notes or get his contact details because it started to pour with rain. I will look out for him if I do another sale and try to find out where he is getting this stuff from. It seems so sad that hand written documents like this, which would be of such great interest to researchers, are sold in this way in Kent where those who would value them are unlikely to see them. Angela

Angela How wierd - if he found people to whom this would be relevant he could get a lot more than £2 per document. The most frustrating thing about tracing a family is knowing that information which could be really useful has probably been thrown away or lost or could end up in a sale like the one you came across. Keep looking out for that man!

Helen That's exactly what I told him. I told him that what he had for sale should ideally be recorded and indexed, and details circulated through websites like this and shared with Family History Societies. I was working up to suggesting some sort of partnership. He was not impressed - he's only interested in making a quick buck with the least effort. And the downpour of rain put an end to any hope of negotiating further. If I can track him down again I will certainly pursue this. I would love to get my hands on all this material, catalogue it and advertise it appropriately. It seems a shame for it all to go to waste as I really can't see what interest most people would have in this stuff. I'm not interested in making money but if I can persuade him it will make enough to be worth his while, then it might free up some information that researchers out there would love to have. Angela