Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i Family Tree UK

It’s your family story… how are you going to tell it? We all work so hard on our family histories (not that this hard work isn’t extremely fun), but perhaps – if we are not already doing so – we need to dedicate some time to putting the ‘story’ into history, and finding a way to tell the tales of our families, for generations now to learn from, share and enjoy, and for those yet to come. We thought that these winter months would be the ideal time to immerse ourselves in just such a writing project and to that end we’ve gathered together a range of excellent pieces to inspire your literary genealogy genius (see pages 22, 36, 59 and a rather unusual example on page 63 by Philip…

National Trust begins research project with Time Team in the hope of shedding new light on Sutton Hoo The discovery of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939 stunned the archaeology world and archaeological digs solved further mysteries. Now, with the help of Time Team, new archaeology investigations will use the latest advancements in technology Working alongside National Trust archaeologists, a series of investigations have been planned to build up a more complete picture of the historic site. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been used on the Royal Burial Ground, including some areas for the first time. Magnetometry surveys have also taken place on a scale that’s not been possible before, with high resolution, in an area adjacent to the High Hall exhibition. It was during construction of this…

NEW PROJECT FOR 2022 WRITING THE STORIES OF our ancestors Sarah Lewis takes us through the complete process of writing up the story of your ancestors – from the germ of an idea, through to publication in the medium of your choice When I first became interested in genealogy around 12 years ago, I happened to come across a quote when researching a great-uncle who had emigrated to Australia. This quote, from the Gippsland Family History Group has stayed with me ever since: ‘It could be said that genealogy is a tree, in winter all bare branches but with a clear underlying structure, and that “family history” is the same tree in summer, with all its foliage giving the rich tapestry that tells the story of our ancestors.’ One afternoon in…

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, helping you learn how to use your DNA research at home. It’s time to unlock the story of your genes… This month, Karen takes on a challenging case from Margaret Armstrong, who has two possible candidates for her greatgrandfather. Can DNA help to show which one was her ancestor? MARGARET WRITES I read with interest your DNA articles in Family Tree each month and wonder if you can help me as I find DNA matches very daunting? I was able to prove without a doubt who my great-grandmother was after researching a woman whom I thought was my great-grandmother for 28 years, through…

ANGLO ITALIAN FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Spotlight on… Anglo Italian Family History Society Elaine Cordingley, chair of the Anglo Italian Family History Society, introduces the society and its activities The society was founded in 2002 by enthusiastic volunteers to help family historians in researching their ancestors and to understand their Italian heritage. It focuses on those ancestors who immigrated to the UK and either settled here or passed through on their migration to other countries. The founding members collected and compiled many records from various sources which are on the society’s website and available to search by current members. (see ‘how to join’ below). The membership is worldwide although the majority are UK members. There is no geographical base and consequently the society is predominantly online. It has tried to have a…

DIARY DATES SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR WEEKLY NEWS & EVENTS: https://familytr.ee/reg DISCOVER LEARNING EXPERIENCES TO ENJOY FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, PLUS ON-SITE AND HYBRID EVENTS ONSITE EVENTS Life in Nelson’s Navy, 4 February Bedfordshire Family History Society’s February talk is by Major Alan Gilmore and will take place in the Drama Hall of Mark Rutherford School, Wentworth Drive, Bedford MK41 8PX. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. https://www.bfhs.org.uk/talks.html The Parish Chest, 9 February A talk from The Family History Society of Cheshire about parish registers and where to find them. The talk will also touch on other records which may be found in the parish chest, and birth, marriage and death records for religions other than Anglican. Trinity Road Methodist Church Hall, Northenden Road, Sale…

377 million historical records for France, Germany and Sweden added to MyHeritage MyHeritage has just announced the addition of millions of historical records to its database, covering three countries and several centuries French historical records: 359m records added The new additions comprise birth, marriage & death records, as well as a naturalisation records collection. All of these records were previously available exclusively through Filae. Explore at https://familytr.ee/vital (vital records) and https://familytr.ee/naturalis (naturalisation records). Germany, North Rhine Westphalia (Arnsberg and Münster) Death Index, 1874–1938: 4.8M records added MyHeritage have added 4.8 million historical records from the district of Arnsberg to the Germany, North Rhine Westphalia, Death Index in conjunction with the Landesarchiv Nordrhein Westfalen, the State Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia. See: https://familytr.ee/rhine Sweden, Household Examination Books, 1800–1947: 13.2 million records added…

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH A BRAND NEW RESOURCE 1921 CENSUS: FACT-FILE Enumerating a population reeling from the after-effects of global conflict and pandemic, suffering from acute and rising unemployment and housing shortages, and experiencing civil war on its doorstep, in Ireland - the 1921 Census is a record that was taken at a tumultuous time in our families’ lives. Helen Tovey looks at backdrop against which the 1921 Census was taken, the challenges faced at the time, and some of the discoveries made by this important newly released record about the population. It was (only?) 20 years ago that the 1901 Census was revealed on the World Wide Web to a ravenous crowd of genealogists, and such was the hunger for the shiny new resource that the website crashed and…

NEW PROJECT FOR 2022 Sarah’s tips: writing your family history in five steps 1. Collecting Let’s face it, you’ve been collecting for a long, long time. That’s not the difficult part. The difficult part is knowing when to stop. There will always be more information that could be added but if you want to see your project in book format you have to stop researching and collecting and focus on bringing all your information together. 2. Putting in a semblance of order I would recommend using folders with plastic insert pockets to arrange your stories in order. It’s then easy to move information around and this gives you a book format so that as you turn the pages you can see where you might want to leave a blank page.…

A LOG OF YOUR LIFE DOCUMENTING YOUR LIFE – CREATING YOUR LEGACY Genealogist Chris Broom takes a look at why now is the time to start keeping a log of what your life is like. Because we can’t complain that we know nothing of our ancestor’s lives if we’re not documenting our own… During exploratory conversations with potential research clients, the plaint I hear most often is ‘I wish I had asked them more while they were still alive’. More recently, my response has been to ask, ‘So, what are you doing to document your own life and spare your family the same angst?’ Almost invariably the reaction is one of surprise, followed by an admission of ‘nothing’. So why is this? Is it because the lives of our ancestors seem…

A NEW TRAIN OF THOUGHT Genealogy – A Rumsfeldian approach What has Donald Rumsfeld got to do with family history you may ask? An engineer by profession, family historian Alfred Gracey adopts a methodical model for navigating his research into his ancestors’ lives – and it’s a model that was inspired by the former US Secretary of Defence There are known knowns – things we know we know… There are known unknowns – things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know. (Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence, 2002. https://familytr.ee/known) I wish to apply Rumsfeld’s doctrine using a bivariate analysis tool like this: This model suggests a strategy for our genealogy studies. An ‘Ariadnean’ thread for navigating this labyrinth. I…

BECOME A DNA SUPER-SLEUTH! TASK OF THE MONTH I often mention WATO and how I’ve used this amazing tool to help on my DNA discoveries. If you have an unknown group in your DNA test who all seem to link to the same common ancestor WATO may help find how you fit. Create a free account in DNA painter and click on ‘tools’ on the top bar. You will find ‘What are the odds’ versions 1 and a new V2 beta. I’m using V2 in this example because it does some of the hard work for you! In this example we are trying to find out how ‘Pauline’ and Mr Ellis are related. 1 You then need to enter the target name (which is the name of the person whose…

SHARING YOUR VIEWS Your LETTERS A triumph of a lockdown transcription project & more… Out of a crisis many wonderous things may arise! As we were going into lockdown in 2020 I had a mysterious email from Paul Oxley. He was in possession of a hand-written diary of a Sussex farmer written by one of his direct ancestors called Nicholas Oxley and asked would the Sussex Family History Group, of which I am Chairman, like to see it and might we be interested in its contents? So I hastily said yes and in a few days a package arrived in the mail. Inside were two items, one unbound, the other bound. They were a day to day dairy of someone who ran a farm in the Warbleton area of Sussex,…

Remotely delivered archive services - survey results revealed Satisfaction remains high with remotely delivered archive services, a survey from the Archives and Records Association commissions has revealed Every two years the Archives and Records Association commissions CIPFA (The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) to carry out a survey of people accessing archive services remotely – this might be via e-mail enquiries or using webbased services. During the survey period, which ran from 19 April to 25 July 2021, anyone accessing these services via the 58 participating archives would receive an e-mail with a link to the survey. 10,590 of these survey invitations were sent out and 2,613 responses were received. In addition to regular questions about the purpose of the enquiry, satisfaction with services and general demographic information,…

ALL ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY FASCINATING FAMILY HISTORY STORIES OF 2021 Despite Covid, the genealogy world has continued apace with family history organisations and projects coming to fruition throughout, new releases and fascinating stories that have captured our imagination. Throughout the past year, you may be interested to know that the top 10 new stories on the Family Tree website were: To follow up and read any of these stories, just visit the urls above. To keep up with further news from Family Tree simply sign up to our free enewsletter at https://familytr.ee/topten…

WHEN FACED WITH FAMINE… TWIGLETS CATHERINE’S New York may be calling, but back home in Limerick there’s oneVIP Gill Shaw mustn’t forget – her widowed 3x great-grandmother Catherine, left behind as the Riboldi children forge new lives overseas During the dark days of the famine, there must have been a strong sense, especially among the younger generation, that there was no future in Ireland. A feeling that if you could get out, you should. I almost fancy I can hear Catherine urging her children to go, to make something of themselves. After all, it’s what their father did when he left northern Italy half a century before. To be honest, I don’t think Catherine will take us long. Apart from a wee newspaper story (a list of townspeople who donated…

FIND YOUR SCOTTISH ANCESTORS HOW TO ACCESS FREE RECORDS ON THE SCOTLANDSPEOPLE DATABASE Professional genealogist Alison Spring shares her top tips on mining the extensive ScotlandsPeople online database for its free-to-use nuggets of information covering centuries of Scottish history It’s an often-overlooked fact that Scottish online research doesn’t need to cost a fortune. I’ve heard criticism of the official government records website, ScotlandsPeople, because it supposedly charges for everything – but this is not the case. Here, I share some of the resources you can access on the site for no cost at all. Sign up and search It’s free to register to use the ScotlandsPeople service and carry out searches in any of the datasets. These include civil registration indexes; census returns; testaments and inventories; valuation rolls; military appeals; Church…

A STORY WORTH TELLING JOIN THE FEBRUARY WRITING CHALLENGE #RECLAIMJANE Her imagination captured by the meagre clues that an ancestor of hers, Jane, had found herself as a domestic servant, in a large house, age just 16, and pregnant, genealogist Natalie Pithers (Genealogy Stories) set out to understand her life and tell her story I wonder, did Jane Lovegrove try to conceal her pregnancy? As her stomach grew and she adjusted her aprons or let out her skirts, did she fret about what people would say? Did she clock the disdain of the delivery men, chimney sweeps, grooms or other workmen that visited her employer? Did she flush with shame as she ventured into the market or bent to scrub the steps of her employer’s home? Surely everyone in the…

DISCOVER RESEARCH SOLUTIONS YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED With our experts Jayne Shrimpton, Simon Fowler, David Frost & Graham Caldwell The elusive Thomas Q I am seeking your help in finding Thomas Wheeler, who was a tailor in Lambeth. My problem is trying to find where he was born and who his parents were. The journey so far has led me from his marriage to Mary Holden in 1798. In 1813 he was living in Pratt Street, Lambeth, as shown on the baptism of his sons Charles (b.1813) and Christopher William (b.1816). We then wind forward to 1825 with Thomas at 2, Pratt Street, Lambeth, occupation tailor. Then 1839 finds him still a tailor at Pratt Street. The mystery thickens as in the 1841 census Thomas turns up in Croydon North End,…