Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Family Tree UK

VIDEO CONTENT TAP HERE to watch Helen Tovey’s welcome & introduction One of the absolute best things about working on Family Tree is communicating with you – the emails, comments, letters, messages, feedback of all flavours etc are always interesting to read, so thank you for getting in touch. Not only is it fun and fascinating, your thoughts and views are all grist to the mill and really help us to give you what you need and want in order to enjoy your family history to the maximum and make as many discoveries as you could wish for. To that end, this summer we’re running a reader survey, and to take part you just need to head over to www.familytree.co.uk/survey. Within the pages of Family Tree, you may also notice…

The selection process for the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award includes the submission of detailed information about an organisation's strategy, leadership, performance, accountability, communication, knowledge management, development, and ongoing learning, showcasing the organisation’s comprehensive approach to creating an exceptional workplace. FamilySearch explained that their dedication to employee engagement spans across every stage of the employee life cycle. From attracting potential talent by showcasing its workplace culture and values, to providing training pathways for professional development and ongoing learning, FamilySearch aim to excel at creating an environment ‘where employees can thrive’.  Hayden Prigmore of FamilySearch, who oversaw the Gallup application process, said, ‘It’s an incredible honor to be recognized with the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award for the fifth consecutive year. We pride ourselves on being a place of work where individuals feel…

• The Parish Records consist of baptisms, burials and marriage records and date from 1538 to 1921. • Prominent Hampshire residents featured in the collection include Florence Nightingale, Jane Austen and Thomas Lord. Ancestry has added millions of additional records to its Hampshire parish records collection, with the new additions spanning nearly 400 years of Hampshire history, from 1538 to 1921.  Featured in the records are examples of prominent Hampshire residents: • Florence Nightingale: a social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers. She died August 10th, 1910 and is buried at St Margaret’s Church in East Wellow. • Jane Austen: the novelist who is famous for books such as Pride and Prejudice…

We’ve already looked at official records of births in England and Wales (in the April 2023 issue) and marriages (in June 2023). Now it’s time to switch the focus to records of deaths and their pre-civil registration equivalent, burial records. Expect the bare minimum until 1813 When it comes to genealogical detail, records of deaths and burials have always been the poor cousins of births, baptisms and marriages. For about 270 years, starting in 1538, when parish registers began to be kept by the Church of England, until 1813, when pre-printed burial registers were introduced under the terms of Rose’s Parish Register Act, it was usual for just the bare minimum details to be recorded. In fact, in pre-18th century registers, you’re more likely than not to find just the…

The dizzying array of genetic relatives cast up by an autosomal DNA test can be a challenge to untangle! Understanding how to investigate a group of shared matches and identify a common ancestor is a great start, but you need problem-solving approaches in your genetic genealogy toolkit too. For instance, what should you do if the ancestral line you want to explore isn’t yielding ANY genetic matches? This fairly common situation can have several explanations, so you should work through the options systematically and logically to identify the cause, then tailor your onward strategy accordingly. First though, check your work on that ‘no-match line’ to ensure you haven’t wrongly identified an ancestor early on and built on this mistake thereafter. Once you’re sure your traditional research is valid, you can…

Peter Day writes: METHODS TO IMPROVE FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH In FT April 2023 issue, page 27, you ask if there are any ways of working that improve our family history success rates. For me this means providing the best possible confidence that my interpretation of the evidence is correct. Over time I’ve used a few methods of putting large chunks of evidence together so that the overall picture can be seen as a complete jigsaw. Here are two of them: Method 1 I sometimes find that drawing up a chart of the interaction of families and individuals in a limited geographical area gives me a feeling of confidence that my research is good. The “Bassill - Hill connections” (shown below) is an example. This chart shows the sort of interaction…

Further to The Buffs In two fairly recent editions of Family Tree (FT December 2022 and FT March 2023) there have been mentions from Graham Caldwell and Graham Stallion of the “Buffs” – without reference to the derivation or their use of the word – other than references to military battalions. I am wondering if I can add to general knowledge of the subject? My uncle, by marriage, Archibald Cornelius Goodhead, rose to the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major in the Army. I know that he held this rank, at least, during the First World War – but may have served elsewhere prior to that. Throughout his civilian life, he lived in Burtonupon-Trent. I think, therefore, that it is possible that he served in one of The Staffordshire Regiments of…

For me, there’s nothing nicer than sharing research. Although, after so many years, there’s so much it can be daunting to sort out the relevant strands so that interested enquirers don’t get burdened with reams of information that isn’t needed. Quite apart from the buzz, I love the chance to extol the virtues of our lovely hobby. I know some researchers begrudge sharing the fruits of lengthy and sometimes expensive labour but that really doesn’t bother me at all. Anything, in this slightly dystopian old world we find ourselves in of late, that adds to goodwill and extends the family of Man (and woman and everyone in between) is fine and dandy by me. Having said that, preparing data for sharing drives me up the wall. It makes me want…

Rachel Bellerby reports on the latest genealogy news. Got a story to share? Email editorial@family-tree.co.uk The Archives and Records Association has announced that the Digital Dig project by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has won the national ARA Archive Volunteering Award 2023. The award is given each year to projects that demonstrate how archives have supported volunteers in the previous 12 months. This year’s winning project, Digital Dig, was set up to help uncover and document hidden horticultural history through three volunteer projects. It centres on a rare and unique collection of more than 28,000 plant nursery catalogues representing over 2,000 individual nurseries, dating back to 1612. The Digital Dig volunteers have all created digital resources that will make the previously fairly inaccessible collection widely available to users online. The…

Two of my most treasured possessions are letters written by my Belfast-born grandfather Ernest Graham, who I never met, he having died in 1972 (when I was just an infant) in an industrial accident in Pembroke Dock, Wales. In the first, written in late 1955 to two friends some fifteen years before I was born, he noted that he had been trying unsuccessfully to gain employment on a job in Jamaica, and at the end of the letter, he signed off with “I remain with itchy feet, Ernest Graham, MASALAAMA SEDEKIE!”, an Arabic farewell. Ernest regularly travelled the globe whilst working as a welder, spending time in Saudi Arabia and South Africa, and in the second letter he talked of having to sell a camera that he purchased in ‘Arabia’…

Winifred’s diaries Back in June I asked if anyone has made any family history breakthroughs using unusual documents. Kathryn Baird has shared with me a rather beautiful story regarding three little diaries she found on eBay in 2017. What makes these diaries rather unique is the fact that they were all written in Pitman Shorthand. The diaries record the everyday life of a lady named Winifred Davis. They were written in 1939, 1940 and 1941 and were a primary historical source of her wartime experiences in Birmingham, but a mystery to most people because they were written in shorthand. Winifred’s shorthand was tricky to decipher and it wasn’t until 2019 that Kathryn was able to fully transcribe the diaries. Winifred wrote diary entries most days, often penning them at work,…

Just under a hundred years ago, on Wednesday 5 December 1923, William Townsend Jackson Gun gave a lecture to the Society of Genealogists on the inheritance of ability. Gun, a barrister and joint editor of the Genealogists’ Magazine argued that marked ability (or talent) is rarely inherited through more than three or four generations. As evidence, he claimed a great painter or sculptor rarely transmitted genius to his descendants. A counter-argument was that among the descendants of the baker Vitus “Veit” Bach (c1550 – 1619) were at least 57 musicians, “30 of them eminent”. In response, Lord Farrer argued that “all good qualities” came from mothers – particularly “the male’s two chief assets, courage and health.” This perhaps suggests that Farrer considered courage and health as more important qualities in…

Reimagine uses MyHeritage’s AI technologies for improving historical photos, and boasts a powerful photo scanner that enables high-speed scanning of entire album pages.  Described as a ‘one-stop-shop’ where you can scan, improve and share your photos, Reimagine has a built-in scanner, storage capacity, and AI photo enhancement tools. It is is available on both iOS and Android. Find out more at MyHeritage: www.myheritage.com…

With the Riboldi brothers settled in Lancashire, it’s the turn of their sisters – so step forward Emma Sophia, born 1866, Catherine Mary, born 1867, and Florence Annette, born 1869, just weeks after their father’s death. Where did they get to, and what can we find in the records? Diving straight into the 1871 Census worked a treat for the boys, so I try the same again. I input the surname and a rough birth year, and Findmypast returns a single result, the eldest girl, Emma. It’s no surprise to find five-yearold Emma Riboldi, scholar, living in what looks to be a convent-cumorphanage in Westminster. What is a surprise, is that she’s on her own. I flit from page to page, but there’s no sign of Catherine or Florence. In…

WHERE WILL YOUR READING TAKE YOU? Scottish Handwriting 1500-1799: a self-help pack In partnership with the Scottish Records Association, National Records of Scotland have recently released a new and improved version of the self-help pack ‘Scottish Handwriting 1500-1700’. The updated version features high-resolution images of the documents studied (wills and testaments, bonds, personal letters, burgh records and High Court minute books), which are covered in chronological order – providing an interesting visual on the development of script over the centuries. For me, a digital download that may be printed at home is the perfect format for a practical guide. At 53 pages it’s a very manageable size to store the print-out in a ring binder to work through the exercises methodically. The home-printed version (not having the sanctity of a…

DAVID WRITES: Dear Karen I’m hoping you can help me. Until I was a teenager I was brought up by my mother and a man, who I believed to be my father. However my mother Ann Thomas left the family home and I was told that my father was unknown. My mother had always been secretive, but I learnt that her real name was Ann Kelly and that her father William Kelly had killed her mother Sarah Bradley when he found out she was seeing other men. I have found a newspaper article reporting this in 1961 and I know that William and Sarah had emigrated from England in 1959 to Australia in an attempt to ‘start again’ due to Sarah’s adulterous affairs. This obviously went badly wrong. Other than…

Many years later when I started to research our family tree, I was determined to establish the story behind this box in the loft, but was not expecting all the facts I uncovered! These showed not only the sheer horror of the war, but also the long-term effects on the lives of the survivors. The research journey Using Ancestry I found my great-grandfather Alex serving in the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. It turned out that he and all three of his brothers (James b1884, David b1887, Richard b1894) served in the same regiment. The regimental museum was very helpful in sending copies of documents giving me a lot of ‘pointers’ for my research. Battalion diaries (available from The National Archives) were also very helpful. David David had already served in…

Your family photos Lynn Breadmore writes: Would it be possible for your photo expert to help me date these photos please? They are the only images we have of my husband’s parents: Ethel May Edgington (1902-1970) and Frederick William Breadmore (1899-1970). The couple were married in the 4th Quarter of 1922 and I wondered if the studio portraits may have been taken to commemorate their engagement. Ethel’s has not been cut up and I believe the photographer’s name, bottom right corner, is Donald Massey, Bognor. This would be Bognor Regis, West Sussex, where they were both living. The other photograph showing Ethel in highland dress is also a postcard, with nothing on the reverse. It was for a fancy dress event. Is it actually a military uniform, possibly WWI? Thank…