Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Who Do You Think You Are?

We family historians love the thrill of the chase and the excitement that comes when we’ve tracked down our quarry. So there’s nothing more frustrating than a family tree with lots of gaps – particularly where birth details should be. After all, these records signal the start of an ancestor’s journey through life and their absence can impact on how you interpret the records and facts that follow. Boost your chances of finding errant birth records with our solutions to the 11 most common search problems, on page 16. For those of you who use Family Tree Maker to store your research, the news that Ancestry will be stepping away from the program at the end of the year is probably worrying. Never fear, there is life after FTM! We…

Baizon/Baison/ Bozion bit.ly/1OC5g5X My great great grandfather was John Baizon. According to census returns he was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, c1815. He married Caroline Roan (Rone) who was born in Hempstead, Gloucestershire, in 1845. Their first child was also born in Gloucestershire in 1846, before the family moved up to Warwickshire. I have found no records of his birth or marriage so far. I am led to believe the family had French origins, but have no proof at this time. Can anyone help? Gringots Inquests and coroners’ courts bit.ly/1OC6H4d I’m trying to find the parentage and any other information regarding my great great grandfather, Richard Walker, who died of liver disease aged just 30. A witness at the death was Thomas Walker, but I have no idea whether this was…

RIGHT INTO THEIR HANDS An amusing incident (but not for the person concerned) took place at Exeter Constabulary Barracks on Thursday afternoon. An individual for whom the county police at St Thomas held a warrant, innocently walked into the Police-station, and in a merry mood, informed the Police on duty that he had come to bail out a lady and her husband, described as hawkers, who were committed for trial at the ensuing Assizes from Taunton, for an offence known to the law as fraud. Whilst explaining his mission, Constable Gerrey, who was present, had his lynx-eye on his prey, and when the man had given the reason of his visit, the constable politely informed him that it would be more to his advantage to get some one to bail…

The King is dead. For years, Family Tree Maker has dominated the family history software landscape, tying in seamlessly with the Ancestry website to provide a convenient and easy-to-use solution for managing your genealogy research. After a two-year wait, we were expecting news of Family Tree Maker 2016, but instead Ancestry dropped a bombshell in December when it announced it was discontinuing the program. The news has come as a shock to many, with fears that the program will suddenly stop working altogether. That’s not true – see the panel piece below for what Ancestry’s announcement actually means. Family Tree Maker (FTM) will continue to be fully supported throughout 2016, so there’s no pressing need to switch to another program. That said, now is the time to consider your options…

PUBLIC FAMILY TREES A Perrow family tree published online took Maureen back 200 years with the family, which came from St Keverne, near Falmouth, on Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsula. The Perrows were mostly mariners and farmers. CENSUS AND BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH RECORDS The marriage certificate of Maureen’s great grandmother Elizabeth gave her maiden name of Perrow, which sent Maureen in the direction of her Cornish ancestors. Try freebmd.org.uk for records created after 1837. BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE The Hereford Times reported the inquest into Ann Howls’ death, as did a number of other local newspapers at the time. This allowed Maureen to drill down into the detail about the case. For more information, visit britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. The website is also available free for subscribers to findmypast.co.uk.…

QI’m trying to trace my grandfather’s time in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1916 to 1919. He was Sergeant GM Parker 33291, serving as aircraft fitter and mechanic with No 48 Squadron in Nivelles, Belgium and Cologne, Germany. I have some photos he took, including one that puzzles me – of a sentry guarding a plane. I’ve tried searching online to no avail but have not even found a Medal Roll Card. Can you help please? John Parker, by email A Though the RFC was part of the army, its records were transferred to the RAF after it was formed in April 1918, when the RFC merged with the Royal Naval Air Service. It was decided that men who first served overseas after 1915…

Q When I applied for the will of Benjamin Weinberg, I received this document (right) headed ‘Administration’, saying his mother Pauline ‘renounced’ the Administration and passed the task on to Harry Weinberg as ‘Heir at Law’. Did Benjamin die without a will? Does this mean Pauline didn’t want to deal with the business of winding up her son’s estate? Or does it mean that Harry, a possible half brother, inherited the money? What does ‘heir at law’ mean and why was Pauline described as the only next of kin when Harry was recorded on Benjamin’s death certificate as his brother? Lisa Thackwell, by email ABenjamin did die intestate (without leaving a will). The Administration itself states that Benjamin Weinberg died “intestate a bachelor without Father” and that Pauline Weinberg “widow…

This month’s brick walls MACAULEY/Lagos, Nigeria In 1906 my grandmother, Abigail Susannah Crowther Macaulay (from Lancashire), was married to Pedro Manuel De Sant’Anna in what is now the Church of Christ Cathedral in Lagos. Despite years of trying I’ve been unable to access this record. The marriage wasn’t recorded in the General Register Office records when she returned to the UK. As the Macaulays were quite a distinguished family in Lagos there must be a record of this marriage somewhere. Pat Fowles, by email BRAY and OWEN/Oswestry Family legend says that my maternal grandmother, Mary Maria Bray (also known as Polly), was nurse maid to Wilfred Owen in Oswestry. She was born in 1880 but no censuses cover the time Wilfred Owen lived in Oswestry, from 1893-1898. Oswestry FHS has…

“Earls Colne is an Essex parish that has probably attracted the attention of more historians than any other English parish. The reason is not hard to find: the entire contents of its parish chest have been transcribed at Records of an English Village 1375-1854 (linux02.lib.cam. ac.uk/earlscolne//contents. htm). This website also includes transcriptions of many court and estate records, together with the 1841 and 1851 censuses, and the fascinating and extensive diary of the 17th-century rector Ralph Josselin. The latter is the jewel in the crown, enabling us to get a contemporary’s view of village life at that period. “The site is not just of interest to Essex researchers. Parish officers throughout England would have had to compile documents similar to those from Earls Colne’s parish chest. Churchwardens’ accounts, parish registers, apprenticeship…

Basic details This includes the time, date and place of the marriage. No opposition A statement that there has been no opposition to the banns in the hometowns of the bride and groom. Witnesses The name, age, profession, address and relationship to the couple of the four witnesses to the marriage. Signatures The marriage registration was read out to all those present who then signed here if they were able to. Names of bride and groom The name and age of the groom is given first along with details about his parents, including their home address and profession. Similar details then follow for the bride and her family as well as which parents are present at the ceremony and giving consent. Banns The dates and places of three postings of…

WEBSITES Archives départementales There are more than 100 of these. The best way to find the one that you seek is to type in the department’s name with the above words. Mémoire des Hommes  www.memoiredeshommes. sga.defense.gouv.fr Généanet  geneanet.org Généalogie.com  genealogie.com Heredis Online  heredis-online.com Salle des Inventaires Virtuelle of the Archives nationales  www.siv.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/siv/ An online inventory of collections held by the Archives Nationales in Paris. The French Genealogy Blog  french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogie My weekly blog has advice and lessons in English on how to research your French ancestors. BOOK French Genealogy From Afar, by Anne Morddel. Available at lulu.com/spotlight/morddel.…

Name of individual Sometimes in full and (especially with officers) just initials. Here the first name has been added later, but not his middle name, Charles. Regiments and corps served in Here there are so many there’s been confusion and they’ve had to be numbered. The star indicates the first regiment he went overseas with (The Queen’s) and, lower down, that the medals are to be issued by the Royal Engineers (as corps last served in). Ranks held He started as a Private and ended as a Sapper. Presumably he was a Private in the other regiments too (though his service record does refer to him being appointed as an acting corporal this was only temporary). Medal entitlement He has the 1914/15 Star plus the British War Medal and Victory…

‘Three quarters of the mill workers in Blackburn were women’ By 1913, Manchester and the north-west of England were producing more cotton goods than anywhere else in the world – and to do that, they employed a huge workforce. Anyone with an ancestor in Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire is likely to find a spinner, weaver, piecer, beamer to name just a few, in census records and, regardless of whether they were working in wool (largely based around Yorkshire), silk (in Macclesfield and Congleton) or cotton, mill-working conditions were largely similar. One striking thing about the textile mills was the deafening noise from the amount of machinery they contained; the clickety-clack of the looms’ shuttles, the spinning machines and constant whirr from drive shafts. As well as the noise, in an…

How long have you been researching your family history? I started in late 2011, inspired by the family story that my great grandfather (Charles) Antony Sederman was Swedish. Apart from knowing that he was a sailor, we had few other clues to work from. No-one had asked our grandmother (his seventh and youngest child) or recorded anything. It was my brother Chris’s 60th birthday in 2013 and I was determined that we would celebrate by visiting the place where Antony came from. That gave me a deadline. What had you uncovered before you hit your brick wall? Antony married Julia Hubbard in London in 1869, but because he was a seaman he wasn’t listed in every UK census. In the 1871 census he was on the vessel The Queen of…

1651 Humphrey Chetham’s will includes funds for the creation of a new library. He instructs that the librarian should “require nothing of any man that cometh into the library”. Chetham’s Library has been in use since 1653. 1761 The Bridgewater Canal opens, commissioned by the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. 1781 Richard Arkwright opens the world’s first steam-driven textile mill on Miller Street in Manchester. Ancoats will soon become the first industrial suburb centred on steam power. 1830 The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens – the world's first steam passenger railway. It is connected to Birmingham and London in 1838. 1842 Irish writer William Cooke Taylor writes: “I remember my earliest view of Manchester. I saw the forest of chimneys pouring…

Why doesn’t the code that’s printed in the magazine work correctly? Each bonus content code applies only to the issue of the magazine in which it’s printed. Make sure that you’ve clicked on the red ‘View content’ button next to the cover of the correct issue. Why isn’t the code box appearing? If nothing happens when you click the red ‘View content’ button, it’s possible that firewall or virus-checking software is stopping the website from running JavaScript. You can check to see if this is the case by temporarily halting these programs and then reloading the website. Why is the data only available for a period of six months? Due to the terms and conditions agreed with some of the firms that provide the bonus content for our magazine, we…

Ridge and furrow Alan Crosby’s piece on ridge and furrow was interesting and informative but your readers might find it useful to know a little more. Medieval furrows were short as well as long, depending on the lie of the land and manorial boundaries. Paradoxically, the furrow was also a standardised distance, fixed in 1300 at 220 yards, and better known as a furlong. Medieval furrows were not straight but had reverse S-curves at each end, the result of the ox teams needing to bear left in order to turn to the right. The sinuous curves of ridge and furrow does make it beautiful when viewed in the right conditions. Though its survival is closely associated with the enclosures of the 15th to 18th centuries, the root cause is the…

In WDYTYA? Magazine, Issue 38, September 2010, page 11, there was a small extract from the General Register Office (GRO) births index for a Fish Fish FISH, the birth being registered in Blackburn in 1864. Shortly afterwards you published an article in the Star Letter section of Issue 40 entitled ‘A fishy tale’, by John Hitchon. When I read this article, I was unsure about the research, so I simply had to look at Fish Fish FISH’s history. I contacted your magazine to explain what I had concluded from my research and you published my findings under the heading ‘More Fishing’ in issue 41. In my last paragraph I wrote that “only the purchase of his birth and death certificates would confirm my theory”. I presented my findings to the…

418 researchers joined the Guild of One-Name Studies (www.one-name.orgone-name.org) in 2015, bringing the total number of registered members to 2,847 140,000 burial records from Nottingham’s General Cemetery can now be searched at deceased online.com 20 years – the most recent birthday marked by Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter (blog.eogn.com), run by US genealogist Dick Eastman since 1996 £225,000 has been awarded to the International Slavery Museum from the Heritage Lottery Fund to acquire new items 78 casualties from the 1916 Easter Rising are named on a roll of honour released by Ireland’s Military Archives at bit.ly/1PMzl0r…

‘The really great thing is that profound sense of family, of ties and linkages... Blood is thicker than water!’ A special day for family Alan ruminates on the importance of family reunions, to reconnect with distant branches of the family tree We’ve been planning a couple of family reunions for the coming year, to mark ‘special birthdays’. In my wife’s family we have had several of these over the years – beginning with her uncle’s 70th birthday about 25 years ago. His daughter hosted the event, and the secret was faithfully kept. It was held in the garden of Jennifer’s house in Berkshire and when uncle John came round the corner and saw dozens of the family there his face was truly a picture. Now, sadly, there are few of…

Ancestry’s announcement on 17 December caught many people by surprise, but what does it actually mean, and how does it affect Family Tree Maker users? First, Ancestry has ceased selling the program altogether – copies can still be bought, but not directly from Ancestry. Second, the program hasn’t suddenly stopped working – in fact, Ancestry is keen to stress it will be fully supported until 1 January 2017, and possibly longer. What happens when support is ended? For the most part, Family Tree Maker will continue to work perfectly. What will happen is that certain features will stop functioning completely, while others may continue to work for a short while until changes made to the Ancestry website break the link. Affected features include Tree Sync, which syncs your Family Tree…

‘Murder was ruled out at the coroner’s inquest but a sad tale of slander emerged’ On 12 March 1844, the body of a young woman was pulled out of the River Wye at Hereford. It was found to be that of a servant Ann Howls, who had been employed at one of the big houses near the city’s cathedral. Murder was ruled out but at the coroner’s inquest a sad tale of slander emerged. Ann was the fiance of a forebear of Maureen Jones, a WDYTYA? Magazine reader from Kenilworth, Warwickshire, who has been researching her ancestry since 1996. “I discovered Ann’s tragic tale recently, after almost 20 years of building my tree. My father died when I was young and I got into genealogy to try to recreate a…

Can you help me find out how this Royal Navy sailor died during the Second World War? Q In family memorabilia I found a certificate issued by the Royal Navy, dedicated to the memory of Able Seaman Frederick Horace Alder who died on 28 January, 1940. He served on the boom defence vessel HMS Punnet and he’s listed on the war memorial at Chatham in Kent. How can I find out how he died? Horace had a brother Edgar Albert Alder. In the 1911 census it states that he served in the EMM regiment, short service attestation. Brian Dunn, by email A The first step here is to consult the service records for the Royal Navy in series ADM 363, newly available online at The National Archives (TNA). These include…

The Oxfordshire History Centre holds records of various nonconformist denominations Q The parents of my 5x great grandparents, John Franklin and Elizabeth Devall, drew up a marriage settlement for them in 1735. I’m told they married by licence, giving his address as Oxford and hers as Eynsham (a nearby village). However, I can’t find a marriage in the Oxfordshire Family History Society (OFHS) list of marriages, nor is there one in Elizabeth Devall’s home parish of Holborn, London. John and Elizabeth Franklin had two daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth, but there’s no record of their births in Oxfordshire. Catherine never married but Elizabeth did, to James Lister, a printer from Holborn. They had three children but in 1770, a year after the birth of their third child, Elizabeth Lister (née Franklin)…

Anne Reid’s journey focussed on learning more about her Reid ancestors and the line went back to her great great grandfather, John Reid. She found that John’s children lived with their grandparents and not John and his wife Isabella. Isabella died in 1849 but there was no death record for John, which was a little unusual. When Anne dug more she was shocked to find John had actually been transported and sent to Tasmania leaving his wife and children behind. If you also discover your ancestor was transported, there will be a wealth of records to discover more about the event. The case may have been reported in local newspapers, so check there. Criminal records such as documents of the trial and prison registers will also give further information. They…

These registers are the next best thing to discovering a soldier’s service record’ First World War research can sometimes lead to frustrating brick walls. While medal index cards for many of those who fought can be found online, the lack of surviving service records can create problems. Thankfully, some gaps can be plugged by delving into local archives. Sandra Hicklin from Rotherham Archives and Local Studies Service reveals a resource that can offer clues about forebears who enlisted in the York and Lancaster Regiment. Which document have you chosen? I have chosen a Register of Recruits from the archive collection of the York and Lancaster Regiment. It is one of two large volumes that record the names and details of more than 7,000 men who joined the regiment between 30…

It’s worth seeing what parish chest material your relevant family history society has transcribed/ indexed – you can usually find groups via Genuki (genuki.org.uk) or the Federation of Family History Societies (ffhs.org.uk). You should also look out for groups such as the Sussex Record Society (sussexrecordsociety.org), which issues volumes of transcribed material – some of which are freely available online. Also check for any relevant digital volumes of transcriptions via archive.org. Genguide.co.uk can be rather slow to load, but once you’re in there’s a host of clear and useful guides to all kinds of sources – bit.ly/1Kb9BJj gives a detailed rundown of settlement certificates and removal orders. The Borthwick Institute houses the vast York Diocesan Archive, and via the Cause Papers Database (hrionline.ac.uk/ causepapers) you can search more than 14,000…

With so much online, there is no need to travel to France until you are set to go deeper with your research. When you are ready, more about a family can be learned through: • Notarial records – Archives des notaires – such as marriage contracts, wills, probate inventories and business contracts. • Land registry records – hypothèques – which can show transfers via sale or inheritance going back centuries. • Military personnel files – in addition to the basic information online, an officer’s career can be followed in its entirety via his personnel file. Notarial records (except for those of Paris) and the land registry records can be found in the relevant departmental archives, while military personnel files are at the Service Historique de la Défense (www.servicehistorique.sga. defense.gouv.fr) in Vincennes,…

In the early 1860s, reformer and secularist Charles Bradlaugh formed the Malthusian League. It argued that poverty was caused by over-population. The state should fund emigration for the poor, leaving more resources for those left. Working-class couples should have smaller families, too. The league came to greater prominence in 1877 when Bradlaugh and another member, reformer Annie Besant, were prosecuted for obscenity after disseminating a book that discussed birth control. However, Malthus himself would have been greatly shocked by the league’s advocacy of contraception. Despite a small membership and lack of funds, the league gave lectures, and published thousands of pamphlets, on limiting the population. Some members also joined the Eugenics Society (1907), which believed that the human race could be improved by selective breeding. The league encountered opposition from…

By 1820, 25 per cent of cotton workers were children under 13, working in appalling conditions. From 1802, various toothless laws were initiated but without regulatory bodies, they were ignored. Following an inquiry into working conditions for children, the Cotton Mills and Factory Act of 1819 was passed, making it illegal to employ children under the age of nine. Working hours for under-16s was limited to an incredible 16 per day. Put bluntly, it was seen as progress that a child only worked from 5am to 9pm! However, enforcement was inadequate, so the law, again, had little impact. Robert Blincoe’s horrifying childhood was published in 1828 (see picture, above right), outlining his forced relocation, aged seven, from a poorhouse in Bethnal Green to a mule scavenger’s 14-year apprenticeship in a…

CONTINENTAL ARCHIVES Most archives and forums based overseas have an English translation tab and often offer free weekend usage, so you don’t necessarily have to subscribe. In this case, Jan found her third cousin Olli, who lives in the Finnish city of Espoo, because he was also searching for Anders and Anton Söderman. TOWN LIBRARIES Contact librarians in Sweden and Finland, where local family history groups deposit their trees. Kokkola library put Jan in touch with a local genealogist who walked her round the town and confirmed her findings. She shared her information with him to help other researchers. PUBLIC MEMBER FAMILY TREES These can help fill in gaps, correct mistakes and forge new links between owners. Public member trees allowed Jan to ‘meet’ distant cousins who had useful nuggets…

Full-bottomed wigs were worn by men over shaved heads, with knee-length coats, waistcoats and breeches. Both male and female clothing had a feeling of heaviness in the fabrics and decoration used. Women, too, needed false hair to build up elaborate headdresses called 'commodes'. They wore a 'mantua' – dresses with skirts that were looped back to display the petticoat, often with horizontal patterning at the front. Alison Toplis The coat had full side pleats and wide sleeves. Men’s shoes had heels and square toes and fastened over the instep with a small buckle or ribbon ties. The sash is derived from military wear but was also fashionable for civilians during this period, at the time of the Marlborough campaigns. The waistcoat was as long as the coat and both buttoned…

For civil registration data, researchers should try lancashirebmd.org.uk, which now covers most events for the city up to or beyond the middle of the 20th century. M&LFHS chairman John Marsden says that, for parish registers, the county is blessed with the Lancashire Online Parish Clerks’ site (lan-opc.org.uk), which has many register transcripts for Manchester. Registers for Manchester Corporation’s burial grounds (including Blackley Crematorium) are all available on burialrecords.manchester.gov.uk, though there is a charge to access the images. The Archives+ blog is at manchesterarchive plus.wordpress.com and contains all kinds of fascinating behind-the-scenes material and archival highlights. At the time of writing, a mid-December post featured excerpts from the Greater Manchester Sound Archive, enabling visitors to listen to a ‘mashup’ of Lancashire looms, an interview recalling pregnancy in Salford Workhouse, and a 1979…

BOOKS The Railway Conquest of the World by Frederick A Talbot, (Amberley, 272 pages, £12.99) This book, a welcome republication from 1911, was written at a time when railway mileage in Britain was at its peak and many parts of the world were still being ‘conquered’ by the train. It was a period when tangible excitement had been created by the recent ‘acceleration of travel’ resulting from the new transcontinental railway that brought “San Francisco within two or three weeks of Europe”, and a time when the author was still able to speak with people who had undertaken the tremendous feats that he recounts. The ‘romance’ of railway construction through virgin territory and the heroics of engineers, surveyors and navvies are Talbot’s focus here, and his accounts of the taming…

Canadian Expeditionary Force Men from the British Empire and Commonwealth made up a large number of WW1 soldiers. If your ancestor saw service in Canada, his records may be in the collection on Library and Archives Canada’s website (bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx). 1 From the archive homepage, click on ‘First World War’ under the ‘Popular Topics’ tab. A list of databases will appear – scroll down to the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) section and click the link ‘Soldiers of the First World War database’ in the first paragraph. 2 The ‘Soldiers of the First World War: 1914-1918’ page will appear. To begin searching, click ‘Search: Database’ on the left-hand side of the page. Enter your ancestor’s name into the search boxes, in this case, Thomas Macklin. Click ‘Search’ underneath and all relevant hits…

‘Frederica hid in a cupboard despite knowing SS officers would stab it with bayonets’ A remarkable Jewish woman called Frederica Boutelje wrote her wartime memoirs in 1945. This astonishing account of the horrors of Nazi persecution is held in the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation. Frederica is the second cousin twice removed of family historian Mark Dawson, who discovered her story as he was researching his Dutch-Jewish ancestry. “I found Frederica’s handwritten memoir online five years ago and had it translated,” Mark explains. “I already knew that many of my Jewish relatives from the Netherlands died in the death camps. Reading the memoir made their story so real, like a film script.” Frederica was born in Amsterdam on 20 March 1904. She became a dealer in Italian art and lived…

I am contacting you about the picture analysis piece, Issue 108, January 2016, answered by Alison Toplis. I have a few paintings of my relations and the style appears to be uncannily like those you published on page 43, Benjamin and Lucy Dening, from a Glennis McDonald. The person who painted mine was a Charles HT Costantini. They show William and Elizabeth Newitt of Green Hills, Orielton, Tasmania, and their children. On the reverse of the painting of the children, written in pen, it says “Watercolour by Charles Henry Theodore Costantini, 1855”. Born in Paris, Costantini was twice sentenced to transportation to Australia. He was transported for life to New South Wales aboard the Oceania in 1823 for ‘larceny in a dwelling house’. Two years later, he was granted an…

1 Export from FTM Open Family Tree Maker and perform a sync via the ‘Sync Now’ button on the dashboard if required. Now choose File>Export. Set output format to ‘GEDCOM 5.5’ and click ‘OK’. Leave ‘Other’ and ‘UTF-8’ selected and click ‘OK’. 2 Import into Heredis Launch Heredis, then choose ‘Help>About Heredis’ to verify the version number is 15.2 or later. Click ‘Open a GEDCOM file’. Select your GEDCOM file, then give it a suitable name and click ‘OK’ to import it. 3 Import settings You’ll see Heredis attempt to automatically convert your place data into its own format – if the match is close, click ‘Done’; otherwise choose ‘Select appropriate place elements’ to manually match fields to your data. 4 Finalise import Heredis will now complete the import, which…

Domestic servants like Ann Howls were always at the mercy of their employers. Legally, they could be dismissed instantly and without pay for a variety of ‘reasonable causes’ including ‘grossly immoral conduct’, insubordination, wilful disobedience, drunkenness and theft. A mistress could also search her servant’s room and personal boxes if theft was suspected. Servants did have rights and could sue for wrongful dismissal, unpaid wages and so on, but it was difficult for them to prove their employers’ behaviour unjust. The greatest power that a mistress had over her servant was to withhold her ‘character’, the written reference given on leaving the household. A good character was needed to be able to move on to a situation with higher pay or better prospects. In fact, there was no legal requirement…

PAUL BLAKE co-wrote Discover Your Roots and is a fellow of the Society of Genealogists (SoG). JANET DEMPSEY is a Records Specialist at The National Archives (TNA), concentrating on maritime and transport records. EMMA JOLLY is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). ROGER KERSHAW is head of Military, Maritime, Transport and Family History (and Head of ARK Editorial team) at TNA. NICK PEERS is a freelance writer who has been published in more than 40 magazines. ALAN STEWART is a family historian with 30 years of genealogy experience and the author of Grow Your Own Family Tree. STEPHEN THOMAS is a genealogist with over 20 years of experience and appears regularly on TV as an expert. PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert…

Q Private George Oughton joined the 72nd Regiment of Foot in 1841. He married Margaret Dwyer in Buttevant, Cork, and was sent to Gibraltar where Robert Oughton, my great grandfather, was born in 1845. Another son, Thomas, was born in the West Indies where George was hospitalised and sent home. He died 24 July, 1851 and was buried at sea. Margaret also returned home but I cannot find her. Would she get a pension? Both sons joined the 72nd Highlanders but how can I find George’s service record? Would there be an army record detailing his marriage? Margaret Birt, by email A Unfortunately there won’t be a service record for George Oughton because he died in service and his record would not have been selected for permanent preservation, so would…

Though the vast majority of medals were issued to soldiers, many civilians (including thousands of women), also served abroad – frequently as volunteers – and were entitled to an award. All too often the MIC or roll is the only record of their service. Because, when the original MICs were given to the Western Front Association (WFA) and then digitised by Ancestry, the women’s cards were given to the Imperial War Museum, the cards themselves aren’t on Ancestry but the rolls are. Fortunately, the cards were indexed by TNA so can be searched for using its Discovery search engine (discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk). Copies of the cards can be purchased online from TNA but you can see the rolls on Ancestry. There are rolls for (among others) the Church Army, Salvation Army, Red…

WEBSITES Malthus’s personal papers and letters are held by several repositories, including Cambridge University Library and the British Library Manuscript Collections. See The National Archives’ Discovery catalogue (discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk) for details. You can read various editions of Malthus’s works for free via Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org), Google Books (books.google.co.uk) and the Internet Archive (archive.org/index.php). For Poor Law records, Peter Higginbotham’s Workhouses website has details of surviving local archival sources at workhouses.org.uk. The National Archives’ website has a guide to researching Poor Law records before and after 1834 at bit.ly/1Gv457W. Your ancestors may be listed in parish vestry records, workhouse admission and discharge registers, creed registers, birth and death registers, punishment books, bastardy orders, Poor Law apprentice indentures, settlement examinations and removal orders. These records are usually held at local archives. Workhouse inmates…

• Manchester Library and Information Service  spinningtheweb.org.uk This site explains the impact of the cotton industry on the north-west of England, including places to visit, important people and their impact, factories, machinery and cotton fabric production processes. • Andy Alston’s Repository  andrewalston.co.uk/cottonindustryjobs.html A great resource that defines cotton mill jobs. • Wool Directory  wooldirectory.org.uk/ wool%20mills%20and% 20museums.html Here you will find the background to modern wool production. It lists wool mills and museums open to the public. • Silk Macclesfield  silkmacclesfield.org.uk For details of silk production and Macclesfield’s silk museums. • Grace’s Guide  gracesguide.co.uk/ Category:Textile_Mills In its words, this website is “the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain”. Not all mills are listed.…

‘The website places village education in a wider context and offers rich material for the historical explorer’ Among the many pleasures of researching this column is finding unexpected treasures – websites that offer valuable and interesting resources, the result of explorations in local and family history undertaken by societies up and down the country. Recently, while looking for something completely different, I came across the website of the Malhamdale Local History Group (kirkbymalham.info), which covers one of the most beautiful areas of the Yorkshire Dales. The society has done some impressive research work, using archives and oral history, to compile definitive accounts of different aspects of the history of the valley and its various villages. I was particularly interested in the ‘History of Education in Malhamdale’ section, which gives a…

Archives+ is designed to be a one-stop shop for the Manchester researcher Manchester has been given many labels through its history, from ‘Cottonopolis’, to ‘Warehouse City’, and, much more recently, ‘Madchester’. Defoe famously described it as “the greatest mere village in England” – making reference to the size of a thriving market town, but which still had no local government. It would later become known as Cottonopolis through the work of pioneers such as Richard Arkwright who invented the ‘water frame’ spinning machine and opened the world’s first steam-powered textiles mill on Miller Street. It would later be called ‘Warehouse city’, as the second half of the 1800s saw an unprecedented number of warehouses erected in the city centre. Finally, the ‘Madchester’ tag was given to the scene surrounding Manchester…