Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2025 i Family Tree UK

Self-professed digital story-telling pioneer company, Storied, already harnesses the power of AI within the Storied story-creation tools. The MemoryLane AI capabilities provide customers with the ability to work with an ‘intelligent interviewer’ – answering questions, the output of which will be a family story. The announcement of the Storied acquisition of MemoryLane suggests an interesting development and extra-story-telling tools for customers. For both Storied and MemoryLane, the emphasis is on removing obstacles (whether that’s fear of getting started, or knowing how to plan your story). With either company’s tools, the AI-assisted output is edited and organised with a professional output the goal. On Storied, customers have been working within a typed interface (written content); with MemoryLane, customers view on-screen questions and prompts and record their story orally using their device…

JOIN DR SOPHIE KAY FOR A 4-WEEK ONLINE FAMILY HISTORY COURSE, featuring webinars, group discussions and a digital workbook. The course is aimed at family historians who wish to improve their search skills, to help them search in a more methodical manner with greater research success. Learn a research approach that will maximise your chances of research success - even when tackling challenging family history problems. Session 1 (Tuesday 29 Apr. 7.30-9pm): Search Superpowers  Session 2 (Tuesday 6 May. 7.30-9pm): Mapping Magic Session 3 (Tuesday 13 May. 7.30-9pm): Evidence Expeditions Session 4 (Tuesday 20 May. 7.30-9pm): Sibling Serendipity All the sessions will be presented live and the video recordings will be made available within 24 hours of the live session. The recordings will remain available to you until 20 June…

As far as family history research in England and Wales is concerned, everything changed on 1 July 1837, the day on which comprehensive registration of the three main life events – births, marriages and deaths – was introduced. At least, that was the intention of the legislators. The reality is that it took a number of years to get close to the levels of compliance that the newly established General Register Office (GRO) was aiming for. Nevertheless, the changes brought about by the various pieces of legislation introduced in 1837 had a huge impact and, as a result, our work as family historians today is easier than it might otherwise have been. Instead of having to search through different collections of parish registers hoping to find a record of a…

Getting started I began the hunt to find out how my DNA match Sue fitted on my family tree. 1. Looking at our shared match list (called ‘relatives in common’ on 23andMe), I could see a highish match, to Sue and myself, called ‘Rob’. Using an online birth registration index I input his name and potential place of birth and one result stood out: Rob, with a mother’s maiden name of Farmer, a surname on my father’s side! 2. Then I used traditional ‘paper’ research to create a quick and dirty tree for Rob, focusing on the Farmer line. Sure enough we share a set of 2xs great-grandparents Isaiah Farmer and Sarah Deakin. 3. I made contact – as I now knew that Sue was related on my father’s…

CELEBRATE, EXPLORE & DISCOVER DNA FOR FAMILY HISTORY 24TH MARCH BANYANDNA: A POWER TOOL FOR SOLVING GENEALOGICAL PROBLEMS with John Cleary BanyanDNA is a software tool for building, visualising, and analysing complex genealogies. Join us as John Cleary guides BanyanDNA beginners in building complex trees and solving the relationship between clusters of matches. 26TH MARCH DNA TESTING FOR GENEALOGY: YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED with Donna Rutherford Join us for Donna Rutherford’s presentation which will explore common FAQs about DNA testing for genealogy, providing practical advice and clear explanations for beginners. 2ND APRIL MAKING DNA DISCOVERIES USING SOCIAL MEDIA - READING BETWEEN THE LINES with Janna Helshtein Uncover the power of social media for uncovering connections to DNA matches and building up your family tree. DNA expert Janna Helshtein will be giving…

‘Wherever you live, whatever your background, RootsTech is your once-a-year opportunity to discover something new about that story and connect with it on a deeper level, reads the RootsTech website. This is a genealogy event with many facets – free and easily accessible online for those newly curious about their roots, while also providing an extensive range of presentations to suit many levels of genealogy learning, and also showcasing the latest in the way of technology and products from the genealogy industry. Free online attendance to the virtual aspects of the genealogy conference, including 200 presentations, is via the RootsTech website https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/. In-person conference attendance, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, provides access to a further 250 exclusive genealogy presentations. To make the most of your RootsTech experience, whether attending…

I’d almost forgotten the sheer buzz of taking your first steps down a shadowy path no one in the family has explored before. And it’s doubly exciting as I can start with the 1921 Census, which hadn’t been released the last time I stood on this spot. Tag on the 1939 Register and another census or two, and I’ll hopefully know enough about the Tonges to take them back to the days of Queen Victoria. But will it be a path of promise and possibilities, or a twig of tedium? Only one way to find out, so let’s head straight to Findmypast (excitingly, for Ancestry users, the 1921 Census is now available there too, as of 7 January 2025!) to search for my great-grandfather John on the 1921 Census, location…

Even after years of finding our way around the many British family history resources, both in local libraries and archives and online, and having achieved a very useful level of expertise in these, it can still be a challenge when suddenly a link emerges to family in another country. This might be the discovery that a direct ancestor came to this country from elsewhere so that there is now an unexpected and unexplored background to research. Or it might be that someone in the family emigrated and now links are hoped for with that branch of the family. After all, who knows what unsuspected information, photos and documents might have moved abroad with them? The first sign of an ancestor moving to this country might be an unexpected birthplace on…

Providing detailed demographic data, the 1921 Census highlights family structures, occupations, and residential locations, giving a vital insight into this remarkable period in our history. The 1921 Census has been available on Find my past for England and Wales since 2022; the 1921 Census for Scotland came online that year too, at Scotlands People. The 2025 development, which sees the 1921 Census for England and Wales now available on Ancestry, makes it accessible to more people. Where can you see the 1921 Census? • Where can I see the 1921 England and Wales Census? You can view the digitised 1921 Census for England and Wales on Find my past (with an Everything subscription) and on Ancestry.co.uk with a paid Premium subscription. You may also view the digitised 1921 Census at…

Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday are important dates on my household’s calendar. My late father-in-law fought throughout World War II and saw action at Tobruk and 2nd El Alamein, so remembering matters to us. Going back further, virtually every UK community suffered losses in World War I; so their war memorials naturally become the focus of remembrance each November. What of the small number of villages that do not have a conventional memorial though? The term ‘Thankful Village’ dates back to the 1930s, when it was coined by journalist and writer Arthur Mee to describe a village that lost no men in the Great War. Of around 16,000 villages in England, Mee initially identified 24 that could be called Thankful, a figure now adjusted up to 53. There are no…

Your family photos Ian Price asks: I wonder if you can help with possible dates for these two photographs, which are related to my mother’s Williams family tree. (1) This was obtained from another family tree, without any provenance, and is said to represent my 2 x great grandfather, Joshua Williams. He was born in Stody, Norfolk on 14 May 1836. His occupation was a gardener in large private houses for which he moved significant distances, first to Cumbria and then to Cheshire. He died in 1901. Can you help with a possible year for the photograph? (2) This depicts my great-grandfather, Thomas Williams (18 August 1857–6 June 1910) and his family. Thomas was born in Maryport, Cumbria, but by 1861 the family had moved to Cheshire. He married on…

I believe it’s our duty to record our life story I would like to support Kelly Southworth (Letters, FT January 2025) – anecdotes help paint a real picture of a person’s life. We have in Skiddaw U3A an new group “All our yesterdays”. It is still developing, but we are talking a lot about happenings in our lives and beginning to write them up. They are individual stories which we might not have included if we had just written our life story – they add to it. I hope, in my case anyway, that my descendants, if they are interested in my life, will find them exciting – as I would have done if my ancestors had done the same. I have also over several years written my life story…

Helen Tovey, Karen Evans & Richard Holt report on news from the world of genealogy. Do you have a story to share? Please email helen.t@family-tree.co.uk In December 2023 the Ministry of Justice published a consultation proposing the destruction of original wills following digitisation. I would like to thank Family Tree readers for your efforts in responding to the consultation, signing the petition and writing to your MPs. The Government’s response has finally been published and can read in full at the following link: http://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/storage-and-retention-of-original-will-documents. Almost 1,600 organisations and individuals responded to the consultation, many of whom were described as family historians and genealogists. The issues raised in those responses have been listened to by the Government who has decided “that it will not pursue any reform that involves the destruction…

HistoryScapes, tells the stories of Saltram, Quarry Bank and Devil’s Punch Bowl through the eyes of a carpenter, a young millworker and a broom maker. Using HistoryScape visitors will follow GPS-triggered trails and listen to historical figures tell stories that connect to the landscape heritage. Shannon Hogan, Archaeologist for The National Trust, said: ‘There are many documents and archives representing landowners and the wealthy families who created and lived in some of the Trust’s most lavish houses and estates, but far less is known about the people who laboured in these places and kept them going. It is their stories that we are connecting with through HistoryScapes, drawing on historical research, and imagining both their inner thoughts and the conversations they had as part of their day-to-day lives.’ The HistoryScapes…

The significance of patronymic names One major problem, when tracing forebears in Wales, is the prevalence of surnames such as Jones, Davies, Williams and Thomas. Never underestimate how many people share the same name but are not related. This is due to the patronymic naming system which existed in Wales where surnames were based on the father’s given name. Ap or ab would be added between the child’s name and the father’s name for a boy, meaning “son of” and “ferch” for a girl meaning “daughter of”. So Robert, son of Richard would be Robert ap Richard and his sister Angharad would be Angharad ferch Richard. Figure 1 shows how children’s names would be formed. In the same way Angharad’s children would adopt their father’s forename as their surname. Over…

I often joke to people that my family are the most disinterested group when it comes to family ephemera. I have no heirlooms, passed lovingly down the centuries, no family Bibles, no love letters from great-grandad, nor war medals or even a photograph taken earlier than the 20th century. (I am so envious of those Victorian wedding photos where everyone is in their Sunday Best). Yet, in many ways, I am lucky. I knew all my grandparents and got to listen to their stories of generations long passed. I have been able to build out many lines of my tree (with the occasional bump along the way) and I realise I had lots of information handed to me when I began my genealogical journey, and a tree established when I…

Each individual, no matter what their name, has habits which they can’t disguise. Those habits dictate how they interact with their local environment, which areas of town they spend time in, and where they’re likely to be when you find them in historical records. Armed with historical maps, let’s use these ancestral behaviours to problem-solve in our family history research! Introducing the Outlier Method Maps can be a stellar asset for our genealogy, offering powerful visualisations of our research, revealing gems of behaviour we hadn’t noticed before, and getting us to ask the right questions. Using maps to visualise multiple evidence points over a longer period of time can capture the bigger picture of our ancestor’s behaviour – possibly spanning several phases of their life! Enter the Outlier Method: let’s…

The Spanish-American War. Belle Starr, the notorious outlaw. Top women’s fashions for 1865. Immigrants at Castle Garden. The process of making cans for the meatpacking industry. These are some of the widely varied subjects that appeared in prominent 19th century magazines. Not all our ancestors were literate nor did all have the time or opportunity to flip through magazines. Yet several magazines achieved great popularity during the 1800s and early 1900s and enjoyed a high readership. Among those who would have perused or at least skimmed them would have been some of our ancestors. And others would have heard talk about the articles and stories they contained. What was popular? During the 19th century, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Harper’s Weekly, Godey’s Lady’s Book, and the National Police Gazette were some…

Is this WWI soldier one of my great-uncles? Q Is it possible to identify the uniforms in these two photos? Several of my great-uncles were in the Canadian Army, but the four whose birth years are within the timeframe to be enlisted into the British Army, 1914-1918, are brothers: • Charles Wilfred Ludbrook 1889; • Norman Alexander Ludbrook 1891; • Harold Ludbrook 1893; • and Walter Scott Ludbrook 1898. They were all born in Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham and they all survived the war. Jan Graham A The first photo The soldier in the photo (see right, Figure 1), who looks to be in his early 20s, presents as being in a mounted unit as evidenced by his spurs, riding crop and the leather ammunition bandolier. His rank is corporal denoted…

(Turn to page 62 for the photo-dating question) A: Ruth and Tony married on 5th August 1954 (Photograph courtesy Jayne Shrimpton) Family Tree March image credits: Cover: Welsh Woman in traditional costume Date: circa 1890s © Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photos; P3 Welcome, tree illustration © Green Creator/AdobeStock, microphone © Alex from the Rock / AdobeStock; P10-14 Fiona Gray Davies, Welsh Dragon by Sodacan licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Figure 2 map: Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Author RealCounties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons#Creative_Commons_network, Figure 3 and 4: maps showing language distribution in Wales in 1800 and 1900 Reproduced under CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_o_ieithoedd_Cymru_(A_map_of_the_languages_of_Wales), Figure 5: 1891 Wales Census for Llanrug, Carnarvonshire reproduced from Ancestry.co.uk Figure 6: Board of Trade. UK. Passenger list for the Britannic leaving Liverpool. OWENS, Evan R. 17…

Are you a patient person? I suppose as a family historian, you must be. All that neckache and backache and even heartache, searching endless records, often with no result or one that offers hope and another five, ten, or even twenty hours of research to prove it’s correct. Once, it was huge dusty tomes that brought on your sneeze allergies as you slapped them down on the desk, then microfiche that got stuck or had a blot over a significant entry, or microfilm that unravelled at a touch or gave you the Richard III shoulder from all that winding. Now it’s all digital, with computers that mutate every fortnight, software that offers more options than a dozen multi-headed hydras, and a brain so vast it sometimes chews up mine into…