Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Family Tree UK

Setting sail with hope in their hearts for a better Future It’s been quite a year hasn’t it – and we’re only three-quarters in! Yet with the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower to remember we certainly have a lot to look forward to on the family history front. We hope you’ll really relish this special issue, filled with snippets about the Mayflower story and ideas of how to trace your kin back to the 17th century. One of the reasons that the voyage of the Pilgrims has resonated down the centuries, on both sides of the Atlantic, has got to be the inspiring example that they set us, of courage and dreams for a better world even in the face of troubling times – something we can…

WHO WERE THE MAYFLOWER PILGRIMS? MAYFLOWER 400 The Mayflower story As we mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage, Simon Wills explains who the Mayflower pilgrims were, why they left England for the New World – and the challenges that faced them in their new land The Pilgrim Fathers arrived at what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts on 11 November 1620. They were not the first European settlers of America, nor even the first British people to attempt to settle there. However, their lengthy journey across the Atlantic, their survival against the odds, and the way in which they conducted themselves inspired a nation. They founded the first permanent colony in New England, which they named Plymouth after their final point of departure from England, some 66 days previously. Yet…

PLANS, HOPES & UNTIMELY PASSINGS CAN YOU HELP TRACE THE MYSTERY PORTRAITS? Chelsworth’s Secret Lasting fame is hard to achieve. For every mighty warrior, whose deeds live on in legend and song, there are 500 that history forgot. A child of the village of Chelsworth, Suffolk became a founding father of Melbourne, yet no pictorial record of him exists in Australia. Margaret Lee tells his story, and hopes that someone might help her find the missing portrait and family heirlooms in Britain George Brunswick Smyth was raised in Chelsworth and became a youthful Redcoat, arriving in Australia in 1837 – two years after Melbourne was founded – and went on to become one of its foremost citizens. He was a magistrate and a military juror, a police captain and a justice…

Learn about palaeography Discover tips to help you learn how to read old handwriting One of the biggest obstacles that faces us as family historians is the very real challenge of reading the almost infinite styles of handwriting used over the centuries. Here Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal shares tips to help you decipher the documents In a perfect world, all the documents we use in our research would be written in a beautiful, clear copperplate, all perfectly spaced in neat lines, with no blotches or crossings out and no faded ink or damaged pages. But we soon learn that, most of the time, what we actually see falls some way short of that ideal. Professional scribes The standard varies greatly from one set of records to another. A…

IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS How did you do? Discover how you got on with last issue’s challenges. Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal gives the answers below LEARN THE ANSWERS TO LAST ISSUE’S CHALLENGES Last month we set you some challenges. Compare you answers with those of our Academy Tutor David Annal to see how you got on. Document A Lucy Crabb - Protestant Dissenters Registry of Births I Where was Lucy on 15 March 1841? Despite having their children’s births registered in the Protestant Dissenters Registry, Joseph & Elizabeth later, on 15 March 1841, had them baptised in the Church of England parish church of St Peter, Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset. II What was the name of her husband? On 14 December 1858, Lucy married Arthur Crabb. III When and where…

ALL ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY NEWS Rachel Bellerby reports on the latest genealogy news. Got a story to share? Email editorial@family-tree.co.uk Earliest humans stayed at ‘oldest hotel’ in America 30,000 years ago A cave in a remote part of Mexico was visited by humans around 30,000 years ago – 15,000 years earlier than people were previously thought to have reached the Americas Archaeological analysis of the tools and DNA analysis of the sediment in the cave uncovered a new story of the colonisation of the Americas which now traces evidence of the first Americans back to 25,000-30,000 years ago. Chiquihuite Cave is a high-altitude site, 2,750 metres above sea level. Nearly 2,000 stone tools and small tool fragments, known as flakes, were discovered. DNA analysis of the plant and animal remains…

MAYFLOWER 400 Do you have Mayflower ancestors? The General Society of Mayflower Descendants estimate that there are 35 million people worldwide who are descended from the Mayflower’s Pilgrims. FAMOUS CONNECTIONS A number of famous US citizens have ancestors that came over on the Mayflower including presidents Roosevelt and Bush, actors Clint Eastwood, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Gere, and the singer Bing Crosby. ANCESTORS IN COMMON You might be related to one of the early colonists if you have American forebears. Alternatively, you could have 17th-century English ancestors in common with one of the passengers. Many of the Mayflower passengers seem to have come from Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Kent, London and Middlesex. PASSENGER BIOGRAPHIES The website www.MayflowerHistory.com provides an online biography for each of the 102 Mayflower passengers (click on…

GENEALOGICAL MISCELLANY Dear Paul Let me start this edition of Dear Paul with the answers to the ‘History Fun’ facts that I set you in the June and August issues… And the answers are… In FT June I asked, ‘Purple only appears on the colour of two national flags. Can any of our readers name the two countries and the reason why?’ Purple appears in the national flags of Dominica and Nicaragua and the colour was not widely used, at the time when most flags were designed. In early times synthetic colours were not available and the colours used to make flags were extracted from natural sources and purple was very expensive to extract. Reader Don Powell also correctly identified the second Spanish republic as having Purple in its flag,…

SHINING A LIGHT ON AFRICAN CONTINENT HERITAGE UNDERSTANDING OUR ANCESTORS’ PLACE IN HISTORY AFRICAN DNA Dr Penny Walters looks at the possibilities provided by DNA tests for tracing African DNA and considers what this might mean for someone’s sense of identity, and the role of our ancestors – as enslaved people or even slave traders, in our shared past Where are you from?’. There are differences between the terms: heritage, ancestry, ethnicity, nationality, culture, religion, race and naming where you live, when explaining where you are ‘from’. For example, you might be born in Devon, live in Scotland, have one parent who was born in France, and a grandparent who emigrated from Ghana. I have six mixed race children who were born in London, so could they be labelled English, British, mixed…

Books & co A selection of the latest family history reads with Helen Tovey & Rachel Bellerby back to school! Where will your reading take you this autumn? Introducing Manorial Records: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Manor for Family Historians By Ian H Waller Subtitled ‘Unlocking the Mysteries of the Manor for Family Historians’, Introducing Manorial Records really does do this – making the intriguing, but perhaps daunting, topic of manorial records suddenly seem a lot more comprehensible. There are chapters on using and finding manorial documents, and also coverage in the book that explains the history of the manor, the reason behind the courts, why certain types of records were created, the various roles of the manorial officials and the meaning of many of the terms and phrases. There…

Coming next in Family Tree Second World War research guide What did your ancestors do in the war? Discover the essential steps & sources to research your WW2 family heroes Your family history self-help guide Diagnose your family history problem and find the records you need for your next step Unearthing newfound treasures Whether they are found hidden in a cupboard, stuck in a scrapbook, or dug up in a field – priceless historical items do re-emerge from centuries of obscurity… including pieces of the genealogy jigsaw puzzle. What might you hope to find? PLUS Intriguing sleuthing tips for finding invisible ancestors! NOVEMBER ISSUE ON SALE FROM 9 OCTOBER…

NEWS YOUR FREE RECORDS WORTH £28! At Family Tree we’ve teamed up with UK family history website TheGenealogist.co.uk to offer you selected free sources from its extensive online collections. Read on to learn about the genealogy records you can search today for free. 1911 Kelly’s Directory for Berkshire Explore Kelly’s Directory for the county of Berkshire. The directory is a great resource for tracing ancestors, particularly those employed within a distinctive trade, who may be listed as a tradesperson along with their full name, trade and address. The directory also gives background information on the people and places of the county, with details of prominent residents, chief landowners, shops and businesses and every day life. 1861 Radnorshire Census Explore the 1861 Census for the historic Welsh county of Radnorshire, a…

SHINING A LIGHT ON AFRICAN CONTINENT HERITAGE BLACK BRITISH CELEBRITIES The celebrities below reflect the rich picture of Black British ethnic heritage, some British-born, others born in the West Indies or countries in Africa. John Francis Leslie (1901-1988) – professional football player, born in Canning Town, London to a Jamaican father, a gas fitter labourer in London, and an English mother, a seamstress. Leslie was called up to the national team in 1925; his manager, told him he had been selected to play for England against Ireland. However, the invitation to play for his country was withdrawn because of belated objections to his colour by members of the FA who were unaware of his ethnicity and Leslie was never picked for England again. Marvin Humes, born 18 March, 1985, Greenwich,…

IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS Your Family Tree Academy Document Challenges Now it’s time to put your research skills to the test. Each month we show you some documents and ask you a variety of questions relating to them. The documents themselves are just the starting points and you’ll need to look at other sources to find all of the answers. Transcription challenge As this month’s introduction is all about handwriting, here’s a real challenge for you. Can you transcribe the first 12 lines of the will of Sarah Mossman (Document A)? Document A Will of Sarah Mossman, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1857 I How does Sarah describe her servant, Mary Wagstaff? II The 1851 Census finds Sarah living in Shefford, Bedfordshire but her husband is listed as ‘Absent’. Where was he…

THOUGHTS ON… TUDOR ANCESTORS What did our Tudor ancestors really think about? Diane Linsday ponders whether the questionable activities of Henry VIII and his colourful courtiers ever reached the ears of our rural Tudor forebears It all began with Thomas Cromwell, or rather Hilary Mantel’s riveting portrait of him in The Mirror and the Light*, the final book of the Wolf Hall trilogy. I’ve been listening to it on Audible whilst doing the ironing. Yes, I still iron, always with my late mother’s mantra in my ear, that dashing away with the smoothing iron is next to godliness and when a collar’s not smoothed from the points inward, the Other Place beckons. In the olden days when washing came from the line smelling of fresh air and lilacs (did it ever?)…