Mortiboys - About me |
My name is Philip Mortiboy; most friends like to call me Phil. I live in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. I started my researches into the name about nine years ago. Here’s an article, written sometime ago, that explains why I am interested in the name.
My one name study has reached a bit of a milestone (five years) and I think it is time to share my experiences with others. My researches began rather reluctantly; my wife was always saying what an interesting name it would be to research. Her maiden name was Williams, so in one short moment at the registry office she no longer had one of the most common names, but one which not many more than a thousand people in the world share. My grandfather had a story; about heroic ancestors that had fought and died in a French wood only for their descendants to be called Mort Boise (i.e. dead wood). One of my father's amusing anecdotes was how his brother, on a fruitless day trip to Somerset House, had returned an announced to the rest of the family that the Mortiboys were complete nobodies!
My feelings on the name were mixed. I just kept thinking about all those taunts and jokes at school, that never seemed to end. 'Are you a naughty boy ?'
My earliest memories where at Primary school, on the first day, when the teacher announced we all had a box at the back of the class for our pencils, rubbers and odds and ends. I couldn't find mine; I wasn't sure how to spell my name ! Why should I of all people end up starting out on the road to One name research ?
As if to concede my mixed feelings about the name, I requested an organisation to start the researches for me. I really didn't know how to begin and it was just as easy to send of £50 and sit back and let someone else do it. After six months, numerous phone calls and letters my first piece of research arrived. They couldn't find my Great Grandfathers birth certificate; so no progress had been made. I just couldn't believe it. I got a book out of the library, ‘Beginning your family history’ by Pelling, visited Catherine’s House and at the first attempt found the certificate reference. I immediately demanded the return of my money. After numerous letters and phone calls, my £50 duly returned.
I was now on my own. So it was just a case of buying a few certificates, tracing back a couple of generations, using up the £50 and then that would be it. This was the start of my One Name study. I failed to take into account the addictive nature of Family history research. My initial interests soon became a complete obsession. It took me to parts of the country never visited before and I met and corresponded with people all over the world. The early days, innocently enough, began with ordering one certificate at a time and piecing together my own family tree jigsaw. The International Genealogical Index (IGI) only had a couple of hundred Mortiboy entries; most of them in fact Mortiboys, so it was easy to take prints of all the entries. At the time I assured myself this was in case any of these many unknowns ended up as my ancestors ! Whilst waiting for my certificates I busied myself typing all the entries onto my computer database. Some of the entries dated back to the early 1500's, and as their numbers were few, I guessed they might have originated from the same family. I soon discovered that although my own family had lived in the London environs, most with the name had come from the Midlands. Gradually the research grew, instead of writing down just my own family references at Catherine’s House I included other Mortiboys. My own certificates led to the census returns and soon the link was found. My 4 times Great grandfather was in fact a Mortiboys (with the 's') and was born in Beoley, Worcestershire; very near the highest concentrations on the IGI. This was it from now on every Mortiboy/Mortiboys was potentially one of mine so I had to know all about them.
Eventually it was no longer sufficient to travel to London to find new information. I had to visit the various record offices in the Midlands which held all the local information. My travels took me to the Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Stratford upon Avon, Staffordshire and Lichfield Record Offices. I spent several days at the Birmingham reference library. Some of the trips were exhausting; many hours spent searching through dusty old deeds and records. I spent two days at the Worcestershire record office just looking at microfilm copies of other peoples wills in the hope of finding the name. The story was always the same, not enough time; to many valuable hours wasted on formalities like form filling or just waiting for records to arrive from vaults. Some trips were hugely successful and others dismal failures. I could not be stopped.
I just kept on going. One day I was at the Warwick record office looking through details of papist estates and realised I really should have been looking at similar records at Worcestershire. The next day, I jumped back in the car, and drove to Worcestershire to find just the information I was looking for … My very own ancestor, John Mortiboys, as a tenant on the estates of the Sheldon family of Beoley. A total trip of 400 miles worth of driving in two days !
Gradually the Mortiboys family history resource grew. I always went for photocopies of documents when possible. I wanted to be able to share what I had seen with others.
I registered the names with the Guild of One Name studies. I was keen to meet others researching individual names. Would they have ideas on lines of research I had not touched?
One of the key requirements was to record all the entries from Catherine’s House. A daunting prospect as each index of Birth, Death and Marriage is stored in large unwieldy volumes. Sometimes four for one year and they start in 1838 and run to the present day. It was a challenge that I decided to tackle. In all it was about two weeks work; utterly miserably spent in a crowded, hot and unpleasant environment - fighting for space with other family historians and researchers. At the end it was done and I had the ultimate resource. I knew about all the Mortiboys registrations for a the last one hundred and fifty years. Wills were next; I got a copy of every single one I could find. Then telephone directories from the start of telephones to the present day. Then old commercial directories and so on and so on. What cultimated in months and months of work resulted in a fabulous collection of data. No stone was left unturned .
Eventually the research decreased. I just could not find any more references. I wrote to all the Mortiboys from the telephone directories. Many replied and I helped them to find out more about their ancestry. Now the resource is available to all. I can’t promise instant results; yes you do need to provide me with some information ! Sometimes we might need to purchase grandparents or great grandparents birth and marriage certificates. It takes time and we get their in the end. Nothing easy is worth doing. It’s all a bit like one of those whodunnits and in the end it’s great to find out about your roots !
I can always do with help in my researches, especially if you live outside of my area - just let me know how you can help.