Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i Family Tree UK

On Monday 7 October 2024, Dr Simon Wills passed away. Simon will be well-known to regular readers of Family Tree for his detailed and fascinating articles on topics such as ancestors at sea, historic aspects of medicine, and Dr Simon Wills, who passed away on 7 October also very practical research tactics, all of which we have enjoyed publishing over the years. Simon was author of numerous books, such as How Our Ancestors Died and Tracing Your Seafaring Ancestors. We will very much miss Simon at Family Tree, for his expert contributions, for his unfailing enthusiasm and creativity, and also because he was always great fun to work with. A lovely person taken before his time.…

This year sees the Green Room celebrate its 10th year. Based in a country cottage in Country Cork, the team behind the Green Room – Mike and Carina Collins – help Green Room members from around the world to trace back to their families in Ireland. All 32 counties of Ireland are covered. Firmly believing that family history, and especially Irish family history, benefits from getting your boots on the ground, through 2024 the Green Room team have taken the Green Room on tour, setting out from Stokestown and travelling along the route that the emigrants would have taken to get to Dublin and then Liverpool, before crossing the Atlantic to the USA and Canada. Green Room membership provides people with the knowledge and skills to trace their Irish heritage…

There are several large and useful websites on the Internet that should be in every family historian’s “favourites”. They are vast online repositories of old, copyright-expired books that have been digitised and made available for free on the following sites: • Google Books • Hathi Trust • Internet Archive • Family Search Digital Library See Figure 1 for a summary of the four sites. In the online world, a book is usually antiquarian simply if it has exceeded its copyright period and can therefore be scanned and made freely available. The copyright period on written works in the UK is 70 years after the author’s death (see https://www.gov.uk/copyright/how-long-copyright-lasts). The types of books and documents that are useful to family historians are often works related to a specific locality produced by…

The records of the Court of Chancery represent one of The National Archives’ largest discrete collections. The Court was active for almost 500 years, from the late 14th century until its dissolution in 1875, hearing hundreds of thousands of individual cases and generating an astonishing volume of paperwork. (To be strictly accurate, many of the documents were written on large sheets of vellum (calf-skin) known as membranes.) As a family history source Chancery records are among the most useful that we have available to us; their potential is enormous, yet they remain under used, explored by a relatively small number of researchers. And it’s not hard to see why. The physical nature of the records themselves can be an obstacle. Many of the documents are large and unwieldy; a significant…

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We are 60! Our story starts in 1963 with a young girl in Canada who wanted to know more about her family in south Manchester and asked her cousin, Robert Chorlton, to draw up a family tree. With no experience of family history research, whatsoever, the challenge was accepted. In those days research always meant visiting libraries and archives, consulting paper lists and asking for records to be brought to desks, teasing out the story and replying to the young correspondent. He shared the ups and downs of his research task with his colleagues at AVRO, the aircraft factory, and they delighted in every new revelation. In 1964, the friends at AVRO formed The Manchester Genealogical Society to rescue and preserve as much local information as they could before those…

P1 cover, boy walking girl to school in the snow © North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo; p3 antique books and maps © Maciej Czekajewski / Alamy Stock Photo; p10-16 Alan Smith, main image © SewcreamStudio /AdobeStock, all other images courtesy the author; p18-21 Phil Isherwood, screengrabs created by the author; p22-27 Paul Chiddicks, images credited on page; p28-33 Karen Evans, main image, generated by AI © domi002 /AdobeStock, screengrabs created by the author; p34-39 David Annal, images credited on the page; p44-52 Chloe O’Shea, images credited on page and provided courtesy of the author; p52-53 Gill Shaw Twiglets: illustration of the crayères and the Alphone Mucha poster both Wikimedia Commons, and published under Creative Commons terms. Death certificate published with permission of Ancestry; p54-55 Manchester and Lancashire…

The Balchin Family Society was formally established in October 1994 on the 250th anniversary of the death of Admiral Sir John Balchen and as such is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The society chairman is Lord Lingfield, formerly Sir Robert Balchin. This is a one-name society for the Balchin and variant name, which is predominately in the Surrey/Sussex area. The society, it is open to anyone who is a Balchin, whose maiden name was Balchin, is descended from a Balchin, married to a Balchin, a descendant of a Balchin, or has an interest in the name. https://balchinfamily.uk/ Thank you to Balchin society member Rene Bullas for this information.…

Benjamin Franklin famously once said ‘There are only two things certain in life: death and taxes’, but the bonus for we family historians is that both can provide us with vital clues to help us with our family history research. This month we look at some interesting discoveries that you have found surrounding the demise of your ancestors. Plus we have the usual mix of problems to solve and fascinating and interesting stories to tell. We start this month with a truly wonderful picture of reader Kevin Bowers alongside the sarcophagus of his illustrious ancestor Nicholas Fitzherbert, who died in 1473 and is buried at the Church of St Mary and St Barlok at Norbury in Derbyshire. Kevin’s research into his family history began in the 1970s and little could…

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When researching people in our family tree we tend to work backwards. We find our grandparents’ details and then discover who our great-grandparents were. We keep going further and further back, generation by generation, adding more details to our tree before returning to each person to add further details to their life stories. Whilst researching my great-grandfather Ernest William Taylor (1891–1979), it was easy enough to trace the Taylor line back several generations before him. The trouble was finding out what happened to Ernest after my grandmother was born and he disappeared. Ernest’s disappearance from their lives and from the records triggered a lengthy research process, some of which was only proven through DNA links. His story involves bigamy, deceit and scandal. Ernest had three simultaneous marriages, thirteen children, lived…

Deciphering a 19th century Royal Chelsea hospital pension record Q Can you please shed any light on transcribing the hand-written pension notes, abbreviations and ‘A’ prefixed codes of my 2 x great-uncle, John Vanston. Chelsea Hospital Archives couldn’t help me. About John’s military service John, who lived in Liverpool, became disabled due to wounds received in the Crimean War at the Battle of Alma in 1854, later becoming an In-Pensioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Born in Co. Offaly, Ireland in 1832, John enlisted as Private 2710 in the 55th Regiment of Foot at age 17 on 22 March 1849. About John’s pension eligibility After a rifle ball fractured his right thigh bone (femur) which weakened his leg, knee and ankle, he was rendered unfit after only 5½ years’ service…

‘It’s a fake!’ I enjoyed David Annal’s article ‘It’s a fake!’ (FT, September 2024): a fascinating investigation into a puzzling forged marriage certificate. It raises the question of why a forged certificate falsely recording a fictitious marriage service between William Cusse and Leah Watts would be produced. To my mind, possible motives would seem to be: 1. Financial/inheritance: Would the document demonstrate that William could inherit from Leah or vice versa? Leah’s father died in 1901 with a probate worth over £1,655. She herself died in 1926 with a probate of over £675, and census records show Leah’s sister, on private means, living with her. The family’s wills might make interesting reading. Clearly there was wealth in the family. 2. Church/career: William later became a vicar (1921 census). Would the…

I can’t believe it’s already December. Of course, in the shops it’s been Christmas since the clocks went back. I’m willing to bet, despite knowing it’s all fake tinsel and marketing hype, many of us have already felt that irresistible urge to start planning a “Real Victorian Christmas”. The one that despite heavy duty advertising, never quite happens. Probably because it never really existed. Am I cynical? I don’t think so. I’m as susceptible as the next person to that first whiff of winter in the air. That urge to soak dried fruit in brandy for the Christmas cake, the compulsion to stock up with mincemeat and make sure there’s black treacle and figs for the figgy pudding. Can’t you just smell that fine waft of cinnamon and nutmeg and mixed…

Helen Tovey reports on news from the world of genealogy. Do you have a story to share? Please email helen.t@family-tree.co.uk During the early months of the First World War, Blenheim Palace opened its doors as a temporary convalescence hospital, run by Sister Amy Munn. The album lists the name, rank and age, regiment and ailment of each patient, which vary greatly – from gunshot wounds, gas poisoning and shrapnel, to haemorrhoids, influenza, rheumatism and even frostbite. There is also a column in which the patient could make his remarks upon discharge – the date of which is also noted. Photographs and letters of thanks are also included in the album. Sister Munn wrote a postcard to each of the men who had been under her care to find out how…

It is widely accepted that the numbers of our ancestors double at each generation, but we suspect that this cannot always be true. Fundamentally, this assumption is flawed. Also, as our pedigrees grow, the number of our cousins increases dramatically – apparently without limit. Again, we suspect that this cannot be true, otherwise we could have more cousins and ancestors than there are people in the population. And so, this assumption must also be flawed. To unravel these problems, we need to put science into family history. By exploring our extended families and distant ancestors using scientific arguments we will find that if it weren’t for the aberrancy of some of our ancestors we would not be here. The enigma is that our ancestors were normal. Cousins are just as…

I remember the first time I ‘solved’ a match that I didn’t recognise as a known family member. The lady was on FamilyTreeDNA with no tree but a distinctive name and an email address that suggested a male relative. After much tree building and sleuthing online, I was able to find how we were related. Hooray! At the time I was sure I’d never forget that link but as time went on and more matches were identified I struggled to keep track of where/how they fitted into my tree. I needed a system of organising my findings which would help me to move forward and make the most out of my DNA results. Why is it important to record how a match matches me? 1.It validates your tree Even if…

I was chuffed to bits to find those photos and video tour of my ancestor Catherine Mary’s incredible home in Reims last month, but it’s time to get back to the important stuff. What happened to Catherine and André while they were living there? How did their lives pan out? Well, I already know the beautiful Hôtel de Brimont was the site of one particularly happy event – the birth of the couple’s son, Marie Gérard Ruinart de Brimont, on 13 December 1902, just in time for Christmas. But I also know Gérard was their only child, so what’s this entry from the Marne birth indexes I’ve spotted at Ancestry? A Jacques Ruinart de Brimont, born in Reims on 9 May 1891 – that’s bang in the right timescale, three…

Your family photos John Wood asks: This is a photo of either Bertha or Emma Wood, both of Bolton, and both my great-aunts. Bertha’s dates were 1887–1909. Emma’s dates were 1898–1915. Would it be possible for you to date and comment on the photo in Family Tree magazine. Thank you. Jayne Shrimpton answers: This is a formal studio portrait taken by a professional photographer at a time when only a few of our ancestors possessed their own cameras. The card mount has been cut down, so I cannot tell the original photographic format, and without printed details naming the studio or location we must date and analyse this from the visual image alone. The studio ‘prop’ The furry rug or throw that features prominently here was a studio ‘prop’ first…