Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Family Tree UK

What are the stories of your ancestors’ homes? We often think of our ancestors’ homes. Their home is a space in which to place them, as we research and visualise their stories – a backdrop to their lives. So this issue we are extremely pleased to be sharing the thoughts and tips of many esteemed house historians – both those who work onscreen and behind the scenes of the BBC TV show A House through Time, and those who, weekly, share inspiration and advice via #HouseHistoryHour on Twitter, Thursdays at 7pm. Even within one individual ancestor’s life they are likely to have lived in numerous properties – each of which helps to give us a few further insights to our understanding of them. What do their homes tell you about…

US and Canada newspaper removed from FindMyPast An enquiry from Shropshire-based researcher Martin James to FindMyPast, after he was unable to access US and Canada newspapers at the genealogy site, has led to the discovery that FindMyPast no longer hold digitised newspapers for these two countries. The message that Martin received from the site stated that the newspapers had been hosted by an external source and the agreement had ended. FindMyPast further stated that they are investing in most-requested records, including newspapers with the British Library and the 1921 Census. (With thanks for Shropshire-based researcher Martin James @heritagefamily for the above information, which was subsequently reported by Chris Paton at the Scottish Genes blog http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com)…

ALL ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY 3 million Ireland prison records added to FamilySearch 3,127,924 prison records for Ireland added to FamilySearch Material from 60 archives included in the Israel Genealogy Society’s database of family history material available in Israel 61 years spanned by birth and marriage collections added to the latest MyHeritage New Zealand A collection of more than 3 million prison records for Ireland from the 18th to 20th centuries has been added to the FamilySearch genealogy website The new collection, which comprises 3,127,924 records, is a compilation of prison records from collections held in the National Archives of Ireland. It includes most surviving prison records from the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. The records vary in the information they contain, but this can include details such as…

Four new counties added to Map Explorer at The Genealogist Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can now view Victorian Tithe Maps linked to apportionment records for Cornwall, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire on which are overlaid the modern and historical maps of the base and middle layers. This allows users of the website to see the land as it appeared through time. There are now more than half a million tithe plot pins and more than 4 million viewable records indicated by these pins.…

DEAR PAUL Dear paul In the latest instalment of his ‘Dear Paul series, Paul Chiddicks presents the theme, ‘A Tomb with a view’, as he looks at some unusual tombs and burials, as well as unsolved mysteries surrounding the deaths of our ancestors Steve Dunn and Phil Brown start us off with a really interesting tomb they discovered in a church in Stoke Charity, which is a small rural village six miles north of Winchester in Hampshire. The church is St Mary and St Michael in the parish of Stoke Charity and the church dates back to Norman times. It’s believed that the village got its name from an early Lord of the Manor, Henry de la Charite, in the 13th century. The tomb in question is inscribed: Here Lieth…

RESEARCH ZONE A home on the waves If your genealogy research calls on you to play ‘ship detective’, Simon Wills introduces you to some helpful sources For many of our ancestors, a ship was virtually their home for years at a time. Finding out about these vessels is therefore a bit like investigating a house, although the sources used are entirely different. You may come across a named merchant ship because your ancestor worked on it – perhaps he was even the captain – or because your forebears owned or built ships. In this article, I’ll help you investigate a ship as ‘property’, and won’t be looking at crew members. What can I find out? For vessels that were afloat from the late 18th century onwards, you should have a…

Books & co A small selection of intriguing reads, with Helen Tovey & Rachel Bellerby new out The Siege of Delhi by Amarpal Singh One of the most decisive conflicts of the Indian Rebellion is explored in fascinating detail. With more than 6,000 people killed on the opposing sides of Mughal Empire and British Empire/East India Company, this was a deadly siege with long-term effects. The chapters take us step-by-step through the run up to the siege, its forewarnings, the mutiny itself and the fall of Delhi. The detailed maps and chronology are a big help in understanding the scale and effect of the siege. • Published by Amberley Publishing at £30 (hardback), ISBN 9781445682358 RB Mission France: The true history of the women of SOE by Kate Vigurs The…

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING RATES Private small ads (Connections sought, etc) £0.15 per word excluding VAT. Commercial lineage £0.35 per word excluding VAT. When counting the number of words, please remember to include your address in the calculations. Conditions of acceptance All lineage advertising must be prepaid. Advertisers requiring a receipt via post must send a SAE to. Warners Group Publications PLC FAO: Mark Dean The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH If advertisers do not wish to use their phone numbers or personal names on their adverts, they must give them to our office for our records. We expect all advertisers to provide an acceptable standard of service, however the publisher cannot be held accountable for failure to do so – such failure will undoubtedly result in the refusal of…

ALL ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY NEWS Rachel Bellerby reports on the latest genealogy news. Got a story to share? Email editorial@family-tree.co.uk CALL FOR ‘CITIZEN SCIENTISTS’ TO HELP UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF ST JAMES’S BURIAL GROUND A group of archaeologists working on the High Speed 2 project are inviting people to take part in a huge citizen science project: digitising 57,639 burial records that hold key details about the lives of Londoners in the 18th and 19th centuries The records relate to St James’s Burial Ground, Euston in London, where over 31,000 burials were carefully excavated on behalf of CSjv, as part of HS2’s archaeology work between 2018 and 2019. With excavations complete, archaeologists now want to combine their findings with details contained in the burial ground records, to delve even deeper…

ISRAEL GENEALOGY ASSOCIATION REACHES 2 MILLION RECORDS LANDMARK More than 100 volunteers have worked on the Association’s collection in the last 10 years and it now includes records relating to communities in countries of the Middle East such as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and others. In 2012 the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) took it upon itself, to prepare databases from materials available in Israel that include the Ottoman period through the early years of the State of Israel to be accessible on its website. A small part of the IGRA collection has come to the IGRA through private donations from people who had prepared the files for their own use. IGRA has material from more than 60 archives and libraries around the world. The list can be seen at the…

4.7 million New Zealand records added to MyHeritage Millions of birth, marriage and death indexes have been added to the MyHeritage database recently The records in these collections are provided by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs and are the main source of vital records in New Zealand. The new additions are: New Zealand, Birth Index, 1840–1901 This collection of 2 million records is an index of birth registrations from throughout New Zealand. Records may contain the first and last name of the individual, the name of the father and mother, the birth year of the individual, and the registration number. http://familytr.ee/nzbirth New Zealand, Marriage Index, 1840–1901 This collection is an index of marriage registrations from throughout New Zealand. Records may contain the first and last name of the…

New documentary explores the photography of ordinary life Picture Stories celebrates the wide-ranging influence of Picture Post, the magazine that shaped perceptions of British life during and after World War II The documentary, from Ship of Life Films, tells the story of the iconic magazine through its photographers, writers and editors, whilst contemporary photographers reflect on Picture Post’s images and influence. UK screenings of Picture Stories will take place from 15 September and will be available on Digital Download from 30 September. More information can be found at picturestoriesfilm.com…

BECOME A BETTER MAP RESEARCHER Putting it into practice Challenge Plot your places Choose one of the places associatied with your family history and begin with the list of useful map websites (see right). Explore them to provide yourself hands-on experience with the map collections. All the websites, except for TheGenealogist, are free to use, so you can enjoy beginning your explorations without parting with a penny. David Annal has been involved in the family history world for nearly 40 years and is a former principal family history specialist at The National Archives. He is an experienced lecturer and the author of a number of best-selling family history books, including Easy Family History and (with Peter Christian) Census: The Family Historian’s Guide. David now runs his own family history research…

OXFORDSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY THE SOCIETY SCENE Spotlight on… Oxfordshire Family History Society Friendly and innovative, always seeking ways to engage members and others interested in family history research – Oxfordshire FHS is introduced by Angie Trueman From its foundation in 1976, Oxfordshire Family History Society has endeavoured to encourage the study of family history within Oxfordshire. We currently have 1,500 members worldwide. Our most valuable resource is our family of volunteers, who go above and beyond to assist members and non-members through our help desks, advisor sessions and regular meetings and lectures. During the Covid-19 restrictions, our one-to-one advisor sessions in libraries have been in abeyance, but the help desk is actively answering queries by email and telephone. We were one of the first societies to use Zoom to…

DISCOVER RESEARCH SOLUTIONS YOUR FAMILY MYSTERIES SOLVED Your questions answered With our experts Jayne Shrimpton, Keith Searle, Mary Evans & David Frost Is it a painting or a photo? QI would welcome any thoughts that Jayne Shrimpton may have on dating this hand-coloured portrait. The subject will be either my great-great-grandfather, James Thomas Peake (1821-1865) or his son, James Ashman Peake (1844-1924). Frustratingly, there is a date on the reverse – November 24 – but no year. Is it likely to have been a portrait, or could it possibly have been taken from a photograph? There are pencilled instructions on the back for a company in Bristol (unnamed) as to which colours should be used for hair, eyes, complexion, whiskers etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Nigel Peake AThank…

THOUGHTS ON… HOMES OF YESTERYEAR How many houses have you called home? Diane Lindsay takes a look back at the first houses she called home, and recalls the comings and goings of various family members on a street where help and companionship was only a knock on the wall away… In one of those time-wasting questions that regularly crop up on Twitter, someone recently asked ‘How many places have you lived?’ I didn’t reply in case it was a scurrilous ploy to pinch passwords, but it set off one of those long trains of family history thought. I was surprised to find my home history count well below average. At least for one able to remember the tin baths and beetroot bottoms of yesteryear. I counted eight moves, but this includes…

MYHERITAGE ACQUIRE FRENCH GENEALOGY COMPANY FILAE MyHeritage has signed agreements to acquire 90.91% of the share capital and 89.11% of the voting rights of Filae, a leading genealogy service in France MyHeritage stated that Filae’s existing team will be ‘maintained and strengthened’, based in its current Paris office, and the company will continue to work independently. Founded in 1994, formerly known as NotreFamille.com and Genealogie.com and renamed Filae.com in 2016, Filae holds exclusive collections of digitised and transcribed historical records from France. MyHeritage announced that the acquisition will ‘leverage Filae’s expertise in French historical records and MyHeritage’s cutting-edge technologies and global reach.’ Following the acquisition, the exclusive historical record collections housed on Filae will be made accessible to MyHeritage users. Filae will remain a French company based in Paris and…

1M pages of historical British newspaper free to explore online 158 historical newspapers spanning 1720 to 1880 are now free to search and explore online, with 2.7 million more pages to be added by 2025 Following the renewal of their long-term partnership, Findmypast and The British Library have pledged to make millions of historical newspaper pages free to view online. As of now, over one million pages are free to search and explore on both the British Newspaper Archive and Findmypast websites, which will be expanded by more than 2.7 million additional free pages over the next four years. There are currently 158 free titles to explore, dating from 1720 to 1880. The newspapers selected were digitised as part of four special British Library projects, including: • 19th Century Newspapers:…

Discover the Freedmen’s Bureau record collection Containing more records than the 1880 United States Census, the Freedmen’s Bureau record collection is a must-search on the research list of any family historian with ties to America The Freedmen’s Bureau, Records of Freedmen, collection went live on Ancestry in August with an ‘every name index’ and has records relating to schools, hospitals, apprenticeships and much more. It has joined the other record collections related to slavery as part of the philanthropic scope of Ancestry, and as such is free to search. You will need to register for an Ancestry account, but you do not need a paid subscription. Find out more in Helen Tovey’s news report at http://familytr.ee/freedmen…

INTERCONNECTEDNESS? GENEALOGY: A SPACE FOR RECONCILIATION REDEMPTION SONG: THE TRANSFORMATIVE NATURE OF CARIBBEAN GENEALOGY What wasn’t said? It was the gaps in his family story that sparked Kyle Ring’s research into the lives of his ancestors. In piecing together the stories he reflects on the often painful chapters in his family’s past, but celebrates the resilience and strength evident, generation after generation Researching Caribbean ancestry can be complex. I discovered this very early on. I was first interested in learning more about my family history when I was eleven years old. My mother’s friend had been researching her own English ancestry for some years and I used to accompany her to record offices as she knew of my curiosity about history. My interest was really sparked on a visit to…

EXPANDING & EXPLORING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PAST GIVING VOICE TO EVERYONE’S STORIES Challenging history Thrilling, poignant – and ultimately thought-provoking – the TV series ‘A House Through Time’ invites us to look at one house, and to follow the stories of its occupants. Helen Tovey speaks with Professor David Olusoga OBE, Presenter of ‘A House Through Time’, about the series so far, and the unique light that tracing the history of a single home can shed on the past – from individual lives to the broad history of the British Empire Ithink houses are special in our lives. They’re the most intimate places in our lives. They’re the places where we live much of our lives, and where we are really ourselves’: Professor David Olusoga, Professor of Public History…

THOUGHTS ON WRITING FAMILY HISTORIES EXPLORING THE RIGHT WAY TO WRITE THE PRINCIPLES OF Writing Ancestor Stories Susie Douglas reflects on some of the moral dilemmas we may encounter when penning the stories of our forebears ‘Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts …’ Principles and moral considerations when writing ancestors ’ stories. It is a strange and humbling thought that whilst the living population of the world today is the largest it has ever been at circa 7.7 billion; it represents but 6.7% of those who ever lived. So, whilst Arthur C Clarke’s immortal quote of 1968 is pure fiction, he would not have been far from the fact. As of mid-2020, the actual number of potential ‘ghosts’ for every person alive was 15. Unearthing the stories of…

THE STORY OF A STREET READER STORY ONE YEAR, ONE DAY, ONE PLACE As an enthusiastic family historian, Jenny Elton found that the availability of accessing the 1939 Register was a welcome new family history resource when it became available back in 2015. Last year, as an indoor lockdown project, Jenny turned back to the Register and study the occupants of the road where she grew up Iarrived on Mill Lane, Shoreham-by-Sea, as a newborn baby in 1941 two years after the 1939 National Register had been taken, and spent the first 18 years of my life there. I knew it so well and of course some of the people who were living there in 1939 were still there in the 1950s and 60s. I became interested to learn more about…

DIGGING DEEPER Twiglets TRACING BRANCHES SUPERLATIVE FINDINGS Gill Shaw’s 19th century Riboldi forebears’ shop premises are brought vividly to life by the wording in some charming contemporary newspaper advertisements… In my mind’s eye, I sometimes fancy I can see the Riboldis’ shop on George Street in its heyday. Gilded mirrors filling every wall, gleaming frames stacked deep on the floor, a thousand reflections caught in the candlelight and illuminating the dark interior. Everywhere the glint of gold’, as Howard Carter might have put it. (OK, not quite Tutankhamun’s tomb, but you get the general idea!) But now, if the ream of notices I’ve found in the Limerick newspapers are anything to go by, it’s all change. The contents of Joseph’s shop are being sold and my widowed 3x great-grandmother Catherine and…

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