Innholdsfortegnelse for Christmas 2019 i Family Tree UK

Welcome Let’s toast our ancestors, cherish the memories, think of all we’ve learned about our family histories in 2019 – and start making exciting genealogy plans for the year to come too…. What a year it’s been for tracing our family trees! We’ve held the first-ever Family Tree Live in partnership with the Family History Federation and the show’s returning to Alexandra Palace April 2020 (Hurray! Get that date in your diary for two days immersed in all things family history). RootsTech crossed the Atlantic and was thoroughly enjoyed by many at ExCel, DNA tests continue to sell like hotcakes and websites impressively add millions and millions of new family history records to their collections for us to explore. What’s more, this is the year that Family Tree celebrates its…

FINDING GRANDAD’S BIRTH FAMILY TRACING AN ADOPTEE’S ROOTS Passport to the past Two decades after Erin Tilley’s grandfather innocently uncovered a life-long secret about his past, she went on the campaign trail to find the birth relatives he’d never known READER STORY I have a big family. If I count my parents, stepparents, half-brother and sister, my step-brothers and sister, their partners (and their children) plus my grandparents then we’re up to 22 people. Add cousins, uncles, second cousins and the like (and their children, partners, etc), and we’re inching close to 100 people. Most of my large extended family is on my father’s side as my mother, Anne, is an only child. Born in 1953, she didn’t encounter a large family until she married my father. I’ve not asked her…

PRIVATEERS SEAGOING ANCESTORS Seeking high seas adventurers Was you ancestor engaged in some profitable Georgian swashbuckling? Ship-owners and experienced seafarers may be identified in maritime warfare sources with which genealogists may be less familiar. Start exploring these records with Simon Wills RESEARCH ZONE GENERALLY KNOW-HOW Privateers could be considered as hired mercenaries who ran a kind of private British navy, sanctioned by the Government. Even though it was legal and dates back centuries, it’s a role that epitomises a sense of lawlessness that emanates from the 18th century. Privateering was at its height during the Georgian era since Britain was at war for most of this period. Despite their reputation, privateers were not the same as pirates who operated outside the law and were executed if apprehended. Privateers operated via…

Your FREE Family Tree Ultimate Kit Get it when you subscribe to Family Tree on direct debit for just £10.99 a quarter What’s inside The Ultimate Kit? ‘Family Tree’ archive box: Perfect for storing your ancestor keepsakes and treasures How to write your family history: A practical workbook showing you how to write up your research, with useful charts, logs and interview sheets My Family Tree chart: Essential for getting organised and displaying your family history ‘Family Tree’ magazine 2020 diary: Featuring fascinating family history websites for you to visit every week and keep genealogy top of your to-do list PLUS Fun stickers: Customise your laptop, Kindle, or anything else, and let people know about your family history passion Pencil: You’ll need this for filling out your chart ‘I dig…

HOW MY RESEARCH CHANGED MY LIFE THE VALUE OF FAMILY HISTOY Every photo tells a story Behind every ancestor photograph is a story. Helen Frost set about finding them and discovered that history was helping her rewrite her own story in unexpected ways It’s probably fair to say that one particular photograph of an ancestor captivates more than any other one in a family album. For me, it was the one of my great-grandfather that made me revisit his military history time and time again in an attempt to answer one strange yet specific question. To put it bluntly, how and where did he lose his eye? The nature of research No matter how deeply family history is explored, some questions in the end just simply have to be let…

HAVE YOUR SAY Your letters Family secrets … and what to do with them? Where we come from, surprise discoveries & more… The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Family secrets and what to do with them? When we set off on our family history journey and start delving into the past and the lives of our ancestors, I’m sure that we all envisage some idyllic moments mixed in with some harder times, but are we really prepared, for when we actually find out something awful in our past? I think that there is a little part of all of us that likes the idea of a bit of a scoundrel or a loveable rogue in our family’s past, it all adds to the colour of our tree and is…

THOUGHTS ON… FESTIVE CHEER Ghosts of Christmas past In the blink of a snow-filled eye Diane Lindsay pictures her home’s previous occupants and community of old enjoying all the joys of the season… I can’t remember last time it snowed at Christmas, perhaps only once in the years I’ve lived in this small Warwickshire village. I love winter, but when the white stuff falls, it really is magical like living in a Christmas card. You know, one of those Georgian scenes with cheery coachmen and rosy-cheeked urchins carolling whilst last minute shoppers stride home, she glowing under her poke bonnet, he bearing a hefty goose over one shoulder. Our parish council switches on Christmas lights on 1 December, encouraging us with a Christmas Fayre to festively light up our homes…

ALL ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY NEWS Karen Clare reports on the latest genealogy news. Got a story to share? Email editorial@family-tree.co.uk New TV shows explore family roots Two new UK TV shows are exploring family history in a variety of ways, from food to DNA. A new four-part series on the BBC tracing family history through food is set to air from 6 December. Michela Chiappa’s Welsh Family Cookbook sees a celebrity chef help families to reconnect with their roots through the recipes passed down through the generations. Each episode Michela meets a new family and discovers the amazing family history and stories of each, as well as the delicious dishes they have inherited. In the first episode she helps a Welsh-Italian family (pictured here with Michela) trace their long lost…

CHRONOLOGY 1660 George I born at Hanover (28 March) 1714 Death of Queen Anne & accession of George I 1715 Jacobite rising & battles of Sheriffmuir & Preston 1720 Failure of the South Sea Company 1727 Death of George I & accession of George II 1737 War with Spain & capture of Portobello 1742 Britain enters War of Austrian Succession 1743 Battle of Dettingen. George II commands the army 1746 Battle of Culloden & defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie 1757 Battle of Plassey lays foundations of British India 1759 Capture of Quebec by General Wolfe 1760 Death of George II & accession of George III 1776 American Declaration of Independence 1783 Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolutionary War (September) 1783 Pitt the Younger becomes Prime Minister, aged 24 (December)…

IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS This issue’s theme: Your End of the Year test! Now it’s time to put your research skills to the test. Have a look at the following documents and answer the questions below. The solutions aren’t always in the documents themselves; sometimes you’ll need to look at other sources to find the answers Document A Document A – 1891 Census Robert & Grace Farnsworth, Cromford, Derbyshire I When and where were Robert and Grace married? II How many children did Robert and Grace have? III Which Army regiment did Robert serve with? IV Where was Robert at the time of the 1851 Census? V Where was Robert & Grace’s youngest daughter living in 1930? Document B Transcription challenge Looking at Document B, can you transcribe the names of…

ONE-NAME STUDIES In the last in her series about undertaking a one-name study, Julie Goucher details the usefulness of DNA projects Over the last year we have briefly looked at the considerations of establishing a one-name and surname study. It would be remiss of me to not make this last issue in the current series about surname DNA projects. Advertising of DNA tests is everywhere in the genealogical world. DNA testing is offered by all the major players in our world, but the only one to offer projects is FTDNA and that is another facet of what is a very interesting element of family history. Back in Family Tree in 2017, I shared my Orlando One-Name Study DNA project as a case study, forming part of a wider DNA article.…

SURPRISE FINDS IN THE ARCHIVES UNUSUAL ANCESTOR MARRIAGE The pauper wedding A surprise find in the marriage records of two of his ancestors led family history researcher Eric Kent from the internet to the archives in search of answers… READER STORY The bells of the ancient church of St Peter, Wootton Wawen (Warwickshire) rang out on Friday 30 September 1785, celebrating the marriage of my 4x great-grandparents William Kent and Elizabeth Sitch. To the local people it must have looked like a perfectly normal wedding. Certainly that’s how it seemed to me when I encountered it in the parish records some 230 years later, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! In my haste to move on to the next stage of my research, I almost missed two points of…

CHRISTMAS TREATS FAMLY HISTORY GIFTS What’s under the family tree…. Karen Clare has some family history gift ideas to pop on your Christmas list… or leave your favourite magazine ‘accidentally’ open on these pages for your loved ones to see! Get a ghost-writer for your memoir You’re so busy researching the lives of your ancestors that you don’t get chance to record your own, right? Well Story Terrace is a biography writing service that helps people to capture their life story in beautiful hardback books. The company’s services include ghostwriting, editing, book design and printing and it has recruited 600+ experienced writers and journalists to find a life-writer to suit you across the UK and US. The process takes about six weeks and prices start at £1,500 for the Novella…

IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS Discover the answers to last issue’s challenges How did you do? Find out the answers to last issue’s Family Tree Academy challenges. Our Academy tutor David Annal explains all Document challenge – the 17th & 18th centuries Last month we set you some challenges relating to three documents dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. How did you get on? Document A – Hearth Tax Return, Longnor, Alstonefield, Staffordshire, 1673 The answers to these questions are all to be found in the records of the Consistory Court of Lichfield. I What was Richard Beswick’s occupation? According to his 1677 will, Richard was a salter. II Who was appointed administrator of Ralph Rogers’ estate? George Rogers, Ralph’s ‘naturall and lawfull Brother’, was appointed to administer his estate on…

5 top tips for becoming an even better researcher 1 Less is more! When you’re searching online, don’t be tempted to fill in all the boxes on the search screen. The more fields you complete, the greater the chance that you’ll eliminate the record you’re looking for. Instead, try to enter as few details as possible; try different combinations of name, age and birthplace or try searching using just the first name or just the surname. Remember that the data you’re searching is the result of someone’s attempt to read the original document, so be flexible in your approach. Wildcards can be a very powerful tool and can help you to find some of your more elusive ancestors. 2 Don’t rely on indexes and transcripts Indexes and transcripts are a…

A SPOT OF FESTIVE FUN MY DNA CHRISTMAS WISH LIST! Taken a DNA test? Now what? Karen Evans dreams of a dozen DNA delights to look forward to this Christmas RESEARCH ZONE DNA SERIES The 12 DNAs of Christmas As people prepare for Christmas, excited by the thought of family and friends celebrating together I also watch and wait with wonder. No, not for the sound of Santa’s sleigh bells but the brand new matches that will be generated from all those DNA tests kits lovingly bought as presents! So in my perfect wish list what would I be hoping for my DNA this year? On the first day… Ancestry allowing uploads from other testing companies I know, let’s start with a big one! AncestryDNA has by far the largest…

DISCOVER RESEARCH SOLUTIONS YOUR FAMILY MYSTERIES SOLVED Your questions answered With our panel of experts Jayne Shrimpton, David Annal, David Frost, Simon Fowler, Graham Caldwell, and Mary Evans What was the occasion? Q This photo taken by F Valery in Beckenham shows Daniel and Sarah Ollett (née Wiltshire). I have two of Jayne Shrimpton’s excellent fashion books and, using them, I originally thought the photo was taken c1898 to mark either their 25th wedding anniversary or their daughter Sarah’s wedding. Daniel would then be about 46 years old and Sarah about 42, and Sarah is showing a ring on her finger. However, I also have a photo taken in 1907 at their son’s wedding and they both look more than 10 years older than in the photo of them as…