Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i Family Tree UK

New CEO at SoG Chief Executive Officer at the Society of Genealogists June Perrin retired in December 2020 after 20 years at the helm During June Perrin’s time as CEO, significant partnerships have been achieved within the genealogical community; the Society’s web presence and SoG Data Online web offerings have grown apace; and more recently June has overseen the sale of the SoG premises in London as the Society prepares for its new chapter. Laura Doyle has agreed to step down from the Board of Trustees and act as Interim CEO, effective immediately. http://familytr.ee/juneperrin…

ALL ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY Exploring a century of history with Imperial War Museums Imperial War Museums (IWM) has announced its 2021 programme with exhibitions, events and new openings across its five sites The transformed Second World War and The Holocaust Galleries at IWM London will reopen to the public, as well as a new exhibition featuring the photography of Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cambridge. IWM will also be marking 20 years since the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York with events and new acquisitions. Next year will also see the iconic sculptures, originally toured as Poppies: Wave and Weeping Window, return to IWM North and permanently displayed for the first time. Website: www.iwm.org.uk…

NEWS The American Air Museum at IWM Duxford awarded Grade II* listed status The American Air Museum at Imperial War Museum Duxford, Europe’s largest air museum, has been listed at Grade II* by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England The National Heritage List for England that the museum now joins is held and managed by Historic England on behalf of the Government and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It identifies the buildings, sites and landscapes which receive special protection, so they can be enjoyed by current and future generations. There are over 400,000 items on the List, covering England’s most valued historic places. There are three grades of listing – Grade II, Grade II*[star] and Grade I. The…

WHAT ELSE CAN THE RECORDS REVEAL? LOOKING AT THE RECORDS THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS GATHERING EVIDENCE OF DISEASE & DISASTER Wayne Shepheard takes an analytical look at some familiar records to see what else they might reveal about our ancestors’ lives; in particular to determine what and how certain natural events affected people and communities in the past, in order to tell a more complete history of our forebears’ times Using parish & other records to determine how climate and epidemics impacted our ancestors’ lives Natural phenomena have significantly affected the lives and livelihoods of our ancestors. Such events, in many instances, were important in influencing decisions to relocate, perhaps even as much as factors like religious persecution, cultural differences, economics, poverty, land ownership restrictions, war or politics. Major sources of…

SUBSCRIPTION OFFER BOOK YPURSELF IN FOR A FAMILY HISTORY ADVENTURE IN 2021 When you sign up to family tree Subscribe and you’ll receive Family Tree delivered straight to your doorstep SUBSCRIPTION FORM FOR UK SUBSCRIBERS, please return your completed form to our simple freepost address: Family Tree subscriptions, FREEPOST: WARNERS GROUP (FTRE) FOR EUROPE & THE REST OF THE WORLD, please return your form to: Family Tree subscriptions, Warners Group Publications Plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH, UK For information on how your personal data is processed, secured and your rights, our Privacy Policy can be viewed here - warners. gr/privacy or available in hard copy on request. Your order will be processed in accordance with our Terms of Sale which can be viewed here - warners.gr/termssale…

WHAT & WHEN GUIDE TO PARISH REGISTERS EXPLORE FIVE CENTURIES OF FAMILY HISTORY Parish register A mini timeline history The records of our ancestors as found in the parish registers give us the opportunity, potentially, to trace our family trees over several centuries to the 1500s. Helen Tovey walks us through a timeline to show just how useful they can be in researching our families back to the time of King Henry VIII This formidable collection of records is unique in that no other collection recorded the entire population over such a long period –including the baptisms, marriages and burials of men, women and children from all walks of life, century after century. As to be expected, not all the records have survived the passage of time. In addition, over the…

BOOKS & co A selection of the latest family history reads with Helen Tovey & Rachel Bellerby WINTER READS! Where will your reading take you in 2021? Sharing your family history online by Chris Paton ‘Share and share alike, attribute your finds, protect the privacy of the living, be courteous in your pursuits, and reap the rewards’ – just one of the wise and comprehensive sentences in Chris Paton’s introduction to his new book, in which, chapter by chapter he gives practical and detailed advice about navigating the online genealogy world – so as to get the very best from it for your research, meanwhile avoiding all possible pitfalls. There’s a brief primer covering key family history websites and records (see Chapter 1) so that those who are new to…

SHARING YOUR VIEWS HAVE YOUR SAY your LETTERS Research conundrums, and a few lucky breaks Jumping for joy In FT September (page 56), I found a great help: ‘Twiglets’ by diarist Gill Shaw. Generally I skim through items and if something takes my attention, I go back to the start to take it all in. I did just that with that article. Came to the word Openshaw and jumped for joy! It has been a head scratching time trying to find Openshaw in the various old and new maps in the house. Now I know it is a mile down the road from Gorton! Thank you so much for the help Gill Shaw. My uncle, mum’s brother, married Lily Callaghan from Openshaw in August 1934. What a stroke of luck buying…

ALL ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY NEWS New statistics reveal the most common age for childbirth for women born in 1974 Women in England and Wales born in 1974 had their first child on average eight years later than those born in 1948, new data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed Rachel Bellerby reports on the latest genealogy news. NEWS Got a story to share? Email editorial@family-tree.co.uk The new data revealed that: Women in England and Wales born in 1974, who completed their childbearing in 2019, had on average 1.92 children, a slight increase on women born in 1973 (1.89 children) Nearly half (49%) of women born in 1989 (the most recent cohort to reach age 30 years) remained childless by their 30th birthday, compared with 38% for their mothers’ generation…

A nod to the future VueScan, the image scanning programme, has announced that it supports Apple Silicon and macOS Big Sur. Beverley Nash of Hamrick Software said: ‘The team at Hamrick Software has been hard at work getting everything ready for Apple Silicon. It all starts with us having created our own scanner drivers and including them in VueScan. This allows us to control the code ourselves and not rely as heavily on plugins/3rd party software that either hasn’t been updated or isn’t ready for Apple Silicon. As our customers know, a key objective of ours is to not only provide support for all operating systems, but also for software quality and ensuring the best customer experience. We have been testing Apple Silicon and VueScan now fully supports it.’ TheGenealogist’s…

New photo colourisation model released by MyHeritage Following on from the launch of MyHeritage In Color™ earlier this year, MyHeritage have now released a new colourisation model that promises even better results for old family photos Jason Antic and Dana Kelley from DeOldify have been working with MyHeritage on the new development and the new model produces such good results that it will now be used as the default option when people colourise their black & white photos at MyHeritage. MyHeritage in Color™ allows anyone to colourise up to ten photos for free. Beyond that, it is a paid feature and requires the Complete plan on MyHeritage. Get started at https://familytr.ee/mhcolour…

LOOKING AT THE RECORDS THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS REFERENCES Fisk, Harold. (1944). Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River. Conducted for the Mississippi River Commission, Vicksburg, MS. (maps available for viewing online at http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?fisk) Scott, Susan & Christopher Duncan. (1997). The Mortality Crisis of 1623 in North-West England. Local Population Studies, vol. 58 (Spring), pp 14-25. Sear, David, Andy Murdock, Tim LeBas, Paul Baggaley & Gemma Doneghan. (2013). Dunwich, Suffolk: Mapping and assessing the inundated medieval town. 171 pp. Retrieved 9 April 2014 from http://www.dunwich.org.uk/resources/documents/dunwich_12_report.pdf Shepheard, Wayne & Samantha Tucker. (2016). 1689 Burial anomalies in Parishes of South West Devon. Devon Family Historian, no. 157, pp. 26-30. Shepheard, Wayne. (2017). Your Ancestors and the Little Ice Age. Family Tree, Christmas issue, 34(3), pp. 41-45. Shepheard, W.…

FAMILY HISTORY FUN DEAR TOM AND PAUL In this special Valentine’s Day edition of Dear Paul, Paul Chiddicks takes a look at some tall tales from readers’ family trees, and shares some very Cupid-inspired names from the records It’s with a heavy heart that I start this month’s edition of ‘Dear Paul’, after hearing of the sad loss of Tom Wood, the originator and the true inspiration for this column. The ‘Dear Tom’ column was a feature in the magazine for many years and Tom’s warm heart and kind nature endeared him to Family Tree readers everywhere, with the ‘Dear Tom’ column quickly becoming a firm favourite. I would like to personally pass on my sincere condolences to Tom’s family and friends and thank Tom for being a true family…

EXPLORE FIVE CENTURIES OF FAMILY HISTORY Further to George Rose’s Act 1812 By Ann Simcock George Rose had been a treasurer for the Navy but as early as 1809 began drawing up outlines for the introduction of an Act to improve parish registers, following on from the formalisation of forms, introduced by Lord Hardwicke in 1754, for the registration of marriages and putting an end to ‘clandestine’ and illegal marriage. Entry and information of baptism and burials was still haphazard. Rose’s aim was to standarise the registers to enable their use for legal and inheritance purposes. The improved information would lead to improved information on mortality and population and would also be able to be used in the place of a census. The information required for baptisms was: when born,…

UNLOCK THE STORY OF YOUR GENES ENLISTING DNA ON YOUR FAMILY HISTORY QUEST IT’S TIME TO UNLOCK THE STORY OF YOUR GENES Your DNA WORKSHOP Welcome to the DNA Workshop! In every issue DNA adviser Karen Evans will be unpacking a reader case study, and giving you step-by-step tips for you to use in your DNA research at home. It’s time to unlock the story of your genes… MAKING DNA WORK FOR YOU This month, Karen helps Family Tree reader Peter and follows the DNA trail of a family who have produced just fifteen descendants in 200 years, providing a great example of how to proceed in a case of few DNA matches. PETER WRITES: Last year you kindly helped me understand my ‘Y’ DNA test and featured it in Family Tree.…

YOUR FAMILY MYSTERIES SOLVED DISCOVER RESEARCH SOLUTIONS Your questions answered With our experts Jayne Shrimpton, David Frost, Mary Evans and David Annal He said he was going away… Q In 1926 John Hirst (grandfather) went to see my mother whilst she was in the school playground and called her to him. He gave her a silver sixpence and told her he was going away. None of them saw him again. Let me explain what I know. My grandfather on my mother’s side of the family was John Hirst, born on 8 December 1894 at 20 Matlock Street, Ovenden, Halifax, West Yorkshire. His mother was Alice Hirst (née Gleadle) and his father was Charles Edgar Hirst (musician). Charles Edgar Hirst died in May 1895 aged 22 when John was only 6 months…

THOUGHTS ON… I KNEW IT WAS COMING, BUT… New Year resolution number 1 You don’t get more dedicated to her family history than Diane Linsday but even she has the occasional slip-up. Here she shares a rueful tale which hopefully will remind you to back up your research right away My French language teacher regularly scrawled the word médiocre across my homework. Médiocre as in, poor, mediocre, indifferent, middling, ordinary, ropy. (Come on, Miss J. which one was it? I personally lean towards middling, but ropey… Moi? Mais non! Jamais! See, je still remembaire, et je snappe ma fingaires at vous Madame! Apart from teaching English to A level I don’t consider myself professionally qualified in much at all. I’m largely self-taught. I do some things well, some things indifferently and…

A monumental achievement in Banffshire heritage A team of volunteers from Portsoy Salmon Bothy have had their efforts rewarded with the publication of a booklet aimed at family historians worldwide with Fordyce connections Back in 2015, work began on recording the inscriptions on gravestones in Fordyce kirkyard, in association with Aberdeen & North East Scotland Family History Society. The initial transcription phase was followed by further work to check the accuracy of each record, with volunteers turning out at regular intervals and in every weather. Despite careful planning, the project was not completed without a few hiccups. A chance beam of sunshine brought to light a surprisingly recent stone which had been gradually enveloped by the dense branches of a yew tree. Then, with initial readings already taken, a long…

PROS, CONS & RICH REWARDS WHY IT IS GOOD TO SHARE IN GENEALOGY Sharing your family history ONLINE Chris Paton explores the many ways to share research and to collaborate online When I first started my family history research some 20 years ago, my immediate question was ‘Who were the Patons?’. At that time my father had no idea if he had any aunts, uncles or cousins, and there were very few of us in the Northern Irish phone book. There was a suggestion we may have been Belgian, with family lore suggesting my grandfather had arrived in Britain prior to the First World War. Working as a television researcher for the BBC, I treated it as another research project, and applied my skills to the task at hand. Using…

OUR FOREBEARS WHO MADE A LIFE BY THE SEA TRAWLING FOR CLUES Tracing the coastal trades of our ancestors With a 19,491 mile coastline many of our ancestors made a living on the shores of the British Isles. Here Adèle Emm explores what they got up to You shall have a fishy… The 1907 music hall song ‘I Do Like to Beside the Seaside’ was as popular as the pursuit it depicted and Reginald Dixon’s signature tune when resident organist at Blackpool Tower (1930-1970). Northern millworkers flocked to the seaside – boarding houses accommodated them, arcades and piers entertained them, restaurants and tradesmen fed and serviced town and holiday maker alike. However, the coast has more to offer than candy floss one week a year. With 19,491 miles (31,368 km) of…

GLOBAL VIRTUAL GENEALOGY SHOW ROOTSTECH CONNECT 2021 ARE YOU READY TO CONNECTNECT WITH THE GENEALOGY WORLD? Over the past ten years, RootsTech has brought exciting elements of the genealogy and technology worlds together, transforming the genealogy show-going scene, and celebrating new IT based developments that we, the end users, benefit from when doing our family histories at home, online. Helen Tovey takes a look at what we can look forward to from RootsTech in 2021 Since 2001 RootsTech has been held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; November 2019 saw the first-ever UK-based RootsTech, and now, in the light of the implications of Covid-19 the RootsTech team have decided to take their event global – providing the whole show online as a free and virtual event for people anywhere on Earth…

BITE-SIZE FAMILY HISTORY 60-MINUTE RESEARCH The LUNCH HOUR GENEALOGIST Being busy doesn’t mean you have to neglect your favourite hobby, you can still learn in your lunch break! It’s time to tuck into Rachel Bellerby’s genealogy treats Know-how is under 100 words Longest segment Ancestry have recently introduced longest segment in match results for their users, but what do they mean? The DNA you and a match share will be in segments and the length of the longest segment you have in common can sometimes help determine your relationship. Occasionally, on Ancestry, the length of the longest shared segment is greater than the total length of shared DNA. This is because they ‘downweight’ the DNA that may be shared by ethnicity or region rather than shared from a recent ancestor. (with…

BECOME A DNA SUPER-SLEUTH! NEW TO ANCESTRY DNA TESTING? Here are some questions that Peter asked – perhaps they are also things you are wondering about? Q My second cousin tested some years ago with 23andme and has linked it to his Ancestry account. So why don't we appear on each other's matches? A 23andMe and Ancestry do not allow uploads. The only way you can be in their database is to test with the company, so your 2nd cousin cannot link his 23andme test to his Ancestry account. If you both uploaded your tests to somewhere like MyHeritage, LivingDNA or FamilyTreeDNA then you should show in each other's matches. Your second cousin needs to test with Ancestry to be in the Ancestry database. Q Are my matches told they have a…