In 1995 I undertook a project to collate all of the research that my parents had gathered on our family tree with the view to publishing a family booklet that we all could enjoy, add to and pass on to our descendants. Although my parents had provided a fantastic start there was still a few gaps in the information so I also took over the research activity. This required a lot of travel to gain access to resources on Microfiche or Microfilm and for the most part the information had to be transcribed as copy facilities were not always available. I am sad to say that I fell into the trap for Beginners of not citing the source or completely identifying related information. The hard lesson learnt I made sure to fully document the source on return trips and to maximise the travel effort I began collecting any record that was connected to any spelling of our line, Jessep, Jessop, Jessup etc.
Given the effort to obtain this information I did not want to discard the detail that was not relevant to my family line and since many other researchers would have the same travel challenges, I decided to create a way to share this information on line. In August 1997 www.jessep.com was created with a basic set of pages to hold the information collected about Jessep, Jessop, Jessup and related names. I decided to create a page per individual and not the traditional Pedigree or Descendant maps because much of the data simply had insufficient information to make qualified relationships.
The page count quickly passed 100 (now over 1000 ) so I created my own database to generate the web pages directly allowing it to manage the inter page links to ensure a reasonable level of integrity. (as long as I have the Database correct) Initially I provided basic reference detail or Citations for the key record information like Births Deaths and Marriages and this was often only the Index ref ID that would be used to order a certificate. Originally I purchased BDM indexes on CDROM but now with more and more information available online through sites like Find My Past, Vital Records and Ancestry to name a few, more detailed information is available. This required an upgrade to the way I was presenting the Citations and I now follow the style based on Elizabeth Shown Mills Book Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace.
I would like to acknowledge so many people who have supported this journey and provided inspiration and motivation. Without that support the database not have evolved through a number of rebuilds adding more and more functionality, the data keeps growing as I get more and more information from you the visitors who take the time to send me an email with your piece of the Jess*p puzzle. Thank you all and especially my Wife Kerri who puts up with my ramblings, and who has ably crafted the core of this web site.
I hope you find this information helpful. The database is growing so please check back to see if there is new information on the pages.
Bill Jessep
Contact Information
Electronic mail
Bill Jessep: bill@jessep.com
Copyright © 1997 - 2020
Website Design - Kerri Jessep