About 6 months ago, I was asked by a colleague of mine to find out more about her mother’s paternal line. The aim was to present her mother with as much history as we could about her ancestors.

The first step was to find first hand sources to create a basic family tree and expand the search from there. I collected various certificates, newspaper articles and through the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills managed to find further ancestors.
The Tharps2The Tharps3

 

It was discovered that my colleague was directly related to John Tharp (1744-1804), a wealthy and influential figure and landowner in Jamaica. Distant family still live in Chippenham Park – the ancestral home in Cambridgeshire. They gave my colleague and I permission to view Chippenham Park and gather further information from old photograph albums held there.

The Tharps5

Cambridgeshire Record Office holds a lot of information: hand written correspondence chancery records and plans of Chippenham and Good Hope estate in Jamaica. I collected any relevant sources and images in a file and created a digital family tree for my colleague to share with other family members.

Using the information that I provided, she decided to write the history of the Tharp Family and create a book that she could present to her mother on her 70th birthday.

As a thank you for my input, she also presented me with a copy.

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