Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Family Tree UK

I’ve finally done it – and carefully photographed the contents of an album that was lent to me last year. To be honest it’s the third time I’ve photographed it, but the results just weren’t as crisp and clear as I’d have liked, so I tried and tried and tried again. Anyway... why the fuss and relief? Because several decades ago (as I have mentioned before as I’m so impressed by his foresight) my uncle had carefully sat down with his granny, my great-granny, and she had told him who was who. All but a few of those pictured in the chunky old Bible-style album of 76 photos had a careful annotation. Lovely captions such as ‘Hilda Mary Jones only daughter of Tom and May’ or ‘Wilhemina Welsh (Aunt Muriel)…

Cast list in hand, I’m going to put the newspaper reports aside for now and see if I can locate any of our players in the records. Some should be easier to trace than others. Mr Justice Chitty, for example – the judge who presided over my 2x great-aunt Catherine’s case at the Chancery Court – turns out to have his own Wikipedia page. One of the leading lawyers of his day, Joseph William Chitty also played cricket at Marylebone, rowed for Oxford in the Boat Race and was briefly a Whig MP. The other easy option ought to be the Jewish gentleman appointed Catherine’s guardian in England until the decision was overturned. His surname is Brandon, not that unusual, but one newspaper gives his first name as Jonathan, which…

Most family historians will have come up against ‘brick walls’ or other difficulties in finding out certain facts about some of their ancestors, such as when and where were they born, who their parents were, or when and where did they die. These brick walls are most likely to occur prior to the introduction of civil registration and the censuses of 1841 and beyond. I have found several such cases in my own research, but two in particular stand out as being particularly intriguing. They both concern the ‘disappearance’ of women named Eliza, sometime during the 1850s and 1860s, when records really should exist. I am hoping that someone who reads this might have experienced similar problems and be able to offer an explanation, or better still, has researched the…

YOUR FAMILY PHOTOS Peter Dolby writes: I have been passed a metal trunk containing many of my paternal grandfather’s photographs and other small family artefacts. I would like some help dating this photograph. I suspect my great-grandfather may be in the picture: he was born in 1862. Many thanks in anticipation. Jayne Shrimpton replies: The advent of school photos Except for elite fee-paying schools like Harrow, which employed professional photographers to portray their pupils from an early date, for most local schools the custom of having ‘official’ annual school or class photographs taken annually only developed from the 1880s onwards. This was prompted both by the Elementary Education Acts of 1870 and 1880 that required young children to attend school regularly, and by technological advances during the 1880s that facilitated…

The White Feather or The Brave Coward This is an account of my research into my great-uncle, James Henry Coward (1888-1917), who was given a white feather during WWI. Investigating this tragic story made me aware of the cruel propaganda campaign, the ‘White Feather Movement’. I hope the readers will find it interesting. I have included photographs of James and his wife Laura. The tragic story of James H. Coward, the older brother of my maternal grandfather, was told to me by my mother and grandmother and will stay with me forever. When Britain declared war against Germany on 4 August 1914, James Coward was 26. In September of that year, he married Laura Sayer at All Saints Church, Tufnell Park, Islington. The married couple lived at 15 Grove Road,…

To celebrate, the Mary Rose Museum gave free entry to anyone with the name Mary or Rose. This year marks 41 years since the Mary Rose was raised and also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the ship going on display. One person with an extra special connection is Mary Rose Pettefer (pictured above), who said: ‘It’s been incredible to get up close to the Mary Rose and see her in all her glory. It has always felt very special to share my birth date with the day of her raising. It was therefore a very fitting tribute for my parents to name me Mary Rose given the significance of the event, which many people still talk about and remember fondly to this day.’…

The records that our ancestors left behind often contain incorrect or conflicting information. Occasionally, if we are lucky, they might contain some additional information beyond what was officially required. However, the records themselves only tell us what happened, rarely do they tell us the reason something occured. It’s our job as family historians to unpick the details and work out what the documents are telling us. When we discover conflicting information, we have to consider all the possible reasons that the records appear to be incorrect. Were our ancestors intentionally attempting to cover up an indiscretion? Or was the information they gave unintentionally incorrect because they literally did not know the actual truth? Of course, we sometimes have to accept that some of our ancestors intentionally lied for deceitful reasons.…

‘They took the war with them and brought it to our kitchen’ This was how comedian and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax introduced her early home life as she ventured into her family’s past on BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? in 2017. Visiting Central Europe, she discovered the realities of the Holocaust that her Jewish parents escaped from in Vienna in 1938. While filming, Wax realised how greatly her home life was affected by their past trauma. She talked openly about her dysfunctional childhood and how her parents’ difficult experiences affected it. Beyond genealogy, the episode echoes Wax’s commitment to shedding light on mental health. In her newly published autobiography, I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was, Wax wrote, ‘My parents never talked to me about…

Ships can feature prominently in the history of British families because the British Empire built and owned about half of all ships afloat worldwide in 1900. Commercial ships carrying cargo or passengers are known as merchant ships, and it is common for genealogists to want to know the identity of a ship that their ancestor owned, sailed in, or even was wrecked upon. However, therein lies a potential problem. With so many ships afloat, how do you know if you’ve found the right one? Different ships often shared the same or similar names. Many readers will have enjoyed Deborah Pugh’s thoughtprovoking article in Family Tree July 2023 p.44-45. However, the photograph of the SS Baron Erskine that Deborah identified and researched is actually not the same vessel as that depicted…

Is this soldier my great-uncle Edward George Ledger? Q I would be grateful for some help recognising which regiment this gentleman is in, as seen in the wedding photos, which look like a date during or shortly after WWII? He is possibly my greatuncle, Edward George Ledger, born Dunstable, Bedfordshire in 1920, who married a German bride after the war. The backs of the photos say ‘Foto Deimel – Leibnitz’. Many thanks for your help. Annette Low A The soldier, displaying two chevrons of a corporal, is wearing on the upper part of his arm the Sherwood Forest ‘oak tree’ badge of the 46th (North Midland & West Riding) Infantry Division, an allarms WWII Territorial Army formation of around 18,000 officers and men. The 46th Division served in France (1940),…

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Some brick walls you smash down and some you don’t. My present project is more a pile of bricks, that I’ve been trying to erect as a viable structure to complete a small but irritating part of our family story. This regular breaking down and building up is after all what we’re doing as family historians, reassembling fragments of our past to make sense of them. Mine was quite a complicated family set up, and this particular edifice has turned out to be our family home. Or rather homes. My cousin recently showed me the house deeds of where we both grew up (though not at the same time). It was number 127 Northfield Road, our grandparents’ home originally. My dad was her mum’s brother and there were two more…

Findmypast provides access to thousands of record sets, many of them comprising millions of records, thus in total providing you with access to billions of digitised family history records in which to search for your ancestors. In addition the website provides you with useful and innovative online tree building tools, and a very adaptable search system – to help you devise search queries to find the results you need. Let’s take a tour of Findmypast, beginning with search tips. Search tips Use the All Records Set search (see above) to search through the entire Findmypast catalogue. Find it through the Search option. You can: • Access advanced search forms with more search options • Read help and advice about individual records • Deep dive into one record set. Category searches…

The study of surnames has a long connection with the wider genealogical world. Much of the work of the early surname historians has now been debunked, most notably by the late George Redmonds in his seminal work, Surnames and Genealogy: A New Approach. Nevertheless there’s still a lot to be said for investigating the origins of your ancestors’ surnames as part of your research. One important point that I took from reading Redmonds’ book is that we need to be careful when dealing with what are generally known as ‘locative’ surnames, i.e. those that are derived from a place name or a topographical feature. Redmonds uses the example of the name Fleetwood and points out the folly of assuming that the origins of the surname lie in the Lancashire town…

Astor: the rise and fall of an American fortune by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe This historical biography chronicles the story of America’s Astor family across several centuries, showing how they rose from beginnings in the fur business, purchasing property and dazzling American society, before losing their unimaginable fortune as the dynasty came to a sad end. As you would expect, there are many different strands to such a tale and the authors take us into the glittering world of New York high society, the tough reality of the real estate business, and on to the death of John Jacob IV on the Titanic. Although there are lots of names and dates to take in, the authors do a fine job of keeping the tale on track, and there are…