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

If you’re anything like me, your research will include a mass of loose paperwork: certificates, printouts of documents found online, photographs of unidentified family members (see our feature on p52) and notes jotted on scraps of paper. Luckily I have an online tree to help me make sense of these disparate pieces of information. I’d be lost without it – and the ability to synch it with my mobile for on-the-move research. But if you’re new to digital record-keeping, the sheer number of options can be daunting, and the recent changes to Family Tree Maker have really shaken things up. Turn to page 16 for our essential guide to choosing the best program or app for your needs. As the nation marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme,…

Arthur Windsor, foundling bit.ly/1rVtKAa Does anyone else have a story in their family of an ancestor being named Arthur Windsor – a foundling who was abandoned in Windsor Great Park? I have traced back to a William Windsor, who I believe was the foundling’s son. William was born c1793, dying in 1830, aged 37. This would put Arthur’s own birth around 1760, give or take maybe 10 years. William may have had a brother called Henry (no baptism records found either), as a family with the same story can trace back their lineage to a Henry Windsor, who was a ferryman at Windsor/Eton. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who can add anything to this. SusanC Parry surname in Wales bit.ly/1rVtn8y I am stuck with my Parry family…

5.4 million records are included in the fourth tranche of material added to findmypast.co.uk’s Yorkshire Collection, updated in May 12 – the most recent birthday celebrated by family history website lostcousins.com, launched by Peter Calver in 2004 54 ‘Thankful Villages’ that did not suffer WW1 casualties will be the subjects of songs by musician Darren Hayman, who is visiting each one. More at hefnet.com 4 volumes of Dublin Metropolitan Police prisoner records from the early 1900s are now free online at digital.ucd.ie 700 people have come forward saying they are half-siblings of late star Prince. Each inheritance claim is now being checked by US genealogists and DNA experts…

A West Country record office has been saved from closure thanks to the creation of a funding partnership comprising more than 30 local organisations. North Devon Record Office & Local Studies Centre in Barnstaple had been threatened with closure since 2014, when Devon County Council first revealed plans to move the archive collections to Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter in a bid to save money. However, an alliance of town and parish councils and other local groups has now agreed to fund the facility for the next three years in return for a say in how the service is run. The same group previously raised £10,000 to keep the record office open until March 2016. Barnstaple Town Council, which led the negotiations with Devon County Council and the South West…

Why did Edith falsify her name twice? It seems that it ran in the family Ah, the difference a day makes! In the June 2016 issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, I wrote about the problems I’d encountered in my attempts to find out what happened to my great aunt Edith. She was last heard of heading from Wyoming to Los Angeles in October 1913 before completely disappearing without trace. I thought I had hit a brick wall, but finding out about the release of more than 33 million US marriage records on Findmypast (bit.ly/1ObkSAx) gave me some fresh hope. I began by logging on to the website and searching for ‘Edith Alice Crosby’, but nothing came up. Useless? Not quite, for there was an Edith ‘A’…

My great great grandfather committed suicide but can you help me find where he is buried? Q My great great grandfather Joseph Woodbridge was born in Feckenham, Worcestershire, in 1837, and moved to Birmingham to be trained as an apprentice butcher. He went on to become a master butcher and is featured in the census returns until 1881, based in Sherlock Street, Birmingham. I discovered via Birmingham Library’s newspapers collection that Joseph Woodbridge ended his life in 1883 and I obtained his death certificate and a copy of his inquest. The missing piece of the jigsaw is where Joseph was laid to rest. I’ve contacted all of the council-owned cemeteries and there isn’t a record for Joseph. Based on his death certificate, Sherlock Street is located in the St Martin’s…

Q Ann Sarah Jones married twice – her first husband was Francis Heslewood. They married on 8 July 1821 at Holy Trinity, Kingston upon Hull. She calls herself Sarah and the witnesses seem to have no connection to the bride or groom. Francis died in 1849. Ann then remarried to Thomas Flint at the Parish Church, Sculcoates, East Yorkshire, on 31 May 1849. The marriage certificate has her father as “Hugh Frederick, Captain in the Army”. One of the witnesses is Hannah Jones, whom I assume is her sister. This does at least confirm the maiden name as Jones. So why is her father’s surname not Jones? An omission by the Vicar? A stepfather? I thought “Captain in the Army” would help, but I could find nothing in Ancestry or…

David Dickinson found out he was adopted when he was 11 years old, although he had “always felt different”. He only discovered that he was adopted by chance when he found the relevant paperwork in his Granny’s house. David’s episode focused on the story of his birth mother and her Armenian heritage. If you are researching an adoption you may be able to find out more depending on when it occurred. David was adopted after the passing of the Adoption of Children Act in 1926. Before this date adoptions were mostly done informally without the involvement of the state, so there would not necessarily be any surviving records. However, after 1926 an Adopted Children’s Register was created and is still maintained by the GRO. This register lists all children whose…

‘The girls were aware of the persecution suffered by their parents, but could not imagine the horrors of the Final Solution’ Over the centuries, scores of people have travelled to Britain to begin new lives. Then, as now, many have been refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries. One of the biggest single movements of refugees to arrive were the thousands of Jewish children who left Nazi-occupied Europe shortly before the Second World War. Although copies of their immigration papers can now be requested from charity World Jewish Relief (bit.ly/1XllmGu), a diary held by Manchester Jewish Museum offers an intensely personal perspective, as Alexandra Cropper explains. Which document have you chosen? The Harris House Diary was found in a jumble sale in the 1980s. In February 1940, the diary, entitled…

Regimental museums look after unique artefacts. The York Army Museum (yorkarmymuseum.co.uk), for example, has the Amherst Flag – which was flown above the Citadel at Quebec after the Victory of the British Army led by Lord Amherst. The Green Howards Regimental Museum (greenhowards.  org.uk), also in North Yorkshire, holds enlistment registers detailing campaigns, wounds, medals and rewards, plus rank, ‘character’ and cause of discharge (greenhowards.org.uk/learning/family-history). Another good example is The Keep Military Museum (keepmilitarymuseum.org). The Royal Irish’s ‘Trace a Relative’ page (royal-irish.com/ research) contains names and details of more than 15,000 soldiers who served in the Royal Irish Rifles up to 1922. Eventually, this will contain details of soldiers who served in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Ulster Rifles, Royal Irish Fusiliers, Royal Irish Rangers, Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Irish…

‘The history collection... is available for villagers and visitors to view’ Cousland is a small village a couple of miles east of Dalkeith, outside Edinburgh in Midlothian. It has a strong sense of community and is rightly proud of how it has saved and restored its 18th-century ‘smiddy’ – the local ‘smithy’ or blacksmith’s shop. The Cousland Smiddy Trust was established by a group of villagers and others when the last working smith retired in 1989, and it’s still running today. Sheena Irving, who’s been on the trust since 1999 and its chair for five years, tells me that it’s a very satisfying project: “Pulling people together in the community, who have all sorts of skills, to complete a successful task... gives a sense of achievement outside of everyone’s working…

CURATE Employed and paid by the incumbent to act as an assistant parish priest in his place. GREAT TITHES 10 per cent of the crops and grain, as well as the hay and wood of the parish. INCUMBENT The person in charge of a parish’s spiritual wellbeing and having the living associated with it. SMALL TITHES 10 per cent of the newborn animals, wool, garden and other produce of the parish. RECTOR An incumbent entitled to receive both the great and small tithes as his income. VICAR An incumbent entitled to receive only the small tithes as his income.…

GENEALOGY FORUMS Online forums can be a great way of breaking down brick walls and may help you discover new ancestors and links. Try the WDYTYA? Magazine forum at www.whodoyouthinkyou  aremagazine.com/forum, also available via an app, too. SPECIALIST RESEARCHERS Andy used a specialist genealogy service to verify his aristocratic links. Achievements of Canterbury analysed monumental inscriptions, transcribed old wills and found a copy of the sermon given at the funeral of Lady Mary Seymour, Andy’s gateway ancestor. Visit achievements.co.uk. COLLEGE OF ARMS This maintains official registers of coats of arms and pedigrees. It also records family trees and carries out genealogical and heraldic research. Visit college-of-arms.gov.uk.…

The earliest Anglican parish registers at the WYAS date back to the mid-1500s Check ‘Leeds’ in a placename dictionary and there’s general agreement that it derives from the word ‘Ladenses’ meaning ‘people of the fast-flowing river’. There’s less consensus on the origin of ‘Loiners’, the nickname for locals. One theory is that it simply derives from ‘Loidis’, an archaic name for the area around the city. Indeed, before the Industrial Revolution, Leeds was a modest manorial borough situated on the river Aire. It grew to be a well-established market town, before becoming a major centre of the wool trade, and, to a lesser extent, printing, ironmongery and engineering. Today the two most important places for genealogical research within the city boundaries are the main library and the West Yorkshire Archive…

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…

‘Gone was the colonial bungalow and the happy life with tennis and horse-riding’ Genealogists say you should never throw away any family documents and Jane Gill’s grandmother Phyllis clearly believed in this. She was a prolific hoarder, keeping every scrap of paper, letter, diary, receipt and theatre programme in a trunk handed down from mother to daughter for generations. This treasure trove has revealed a vivid picture not only of Phyllis’s life during the Raj, but it has also helped Jane and her mother Maureen to build a tree of their 19th-century ancestors in India. “Phyllis was a pretty woman, with a slight air of mystery and excitement about her,” Jane begins. “Sunday lunch at her house was curry and poppadoms, not the conventional roast dinner. I knew her well…

Body snatching I read with interest Michelle Higgs’ feature ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ in your February 2016 issue. While researching my tree I discovered that my ancestor, Joseph Grainger, was indeed a body snatcher. He was convicted in Birmingham and imprisoned for this crime in 1829. He served time and then asked for leniency in paying the fine. I have documents relating to his crime: witness statements, and a letter from the surgeon (William Sands Cox) he supplied the body to, stating, as in your article, that he had had to look after Joseph’s family financially while he was in prison. He also asks for the fine to be dropped. What is interesting is a letter from Oswald Mosley who was the MP for Stafford. He passed sentence on…

Members of the public are being asked to participate in a UK Government initiative commemorating men and women connected with the Battle of the Somme. Launched on Monday 9 May, the campaign calls upon people to design ‘memory squares’, each representing a different individual who served – whether they were a soldier, nurse or munitions worker. The designs can be as artistic or as simple as people choose, and a personal connection to the subject is not obligatory. After users have uploaded their designs to a web gallery, the squares will be printed onto tiles that will form a ‘Path of the Remembered’, due to be laid in Manchester’s Heaton Park on Friday 1 July. To find out more and submit your tile design, go to somme100path.co.uk. But there’s not…

A family history group is building a database to help researchers find photographs of their ancestors. Somerset & Dorset Family History Society (SDFHS) is asking members of the public to provide them with snaps of people from old family albums. Once the database launches, fellow researchers will be able to use the resource to find pictures of forebears in their family tree, and check whether any anonymous photographs in their possession depict the same person. The main requirements for images submitted to SDFHS is that the ancestors depicted must have been born or spent time living in Somerset or Dorset, with an approximate date and location given. If possible, people should also supply photographs of the same individual at different ages: childhood, adulthood (20-49) and later life (aged 50+). Although…

Jonas Hanway was an English traveller, merchant and philanthropist who was instrumental in helping to establish the Magdalen Hospital. Hanway gave enthusiastic support when his business partner, Robert Dingley, a merchant in St Peterburg, proposed setting up a charity to help young girls who had fallen into prostitution. The Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes opened its doors in Prescot Street, London, in 1758. Hanway supported many other charities and wrote their rules, advised potential recipients and appealed to prospective donors. He was especially prolific in his writings for the Marine Society and the Magdalen Hospital. His account of his travels in Russia and Persia, Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea (1753), had made him famous. He put his riches towards good causes becoming governor of the…

‘William’s paintings are beautiful, restful images of a bucolic world and quite a departure from earlier eras’ Queen Victoria fell in love with the people and scenery of the Scottish Highlands in the 1840s. Prince Albert purchased Balmoral estate for her and they commissioned artworks that reminded them of its rugged upland scenery and captivating wildlife. Sir Edwin Landseer’s iconic Monarch of the Glen, with a lonely stag standing on a misty hillside, encapsulated the romance of Victoria’s Scottish idyll. Where the royals led, nobility and gentry followed, and this love affair with Scotland triggered an explosion in the popularity of artworks that idealised Highland life. The reality was very different and one of great hardship, but the dream of pastoral life held an irresistible appeal in Victorian culture. WDYTYA?…

SIMON FOWLER is a professional writer and history researcher. ELIZABETH PETERS is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). COLIN ROGERS is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). PAM ROSS is the author of Researching Your Family History and a member of AGRA. STEVEN SMYRL is President of the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland. ALAN STEWART is a family historian with 30 years of genealogy experience and author of Grow You Own Family Tree. STEPHEN THOMAS is a genealogist with over 20 years of experience and appears regularly on TV as an expert. ALISON TOPLIS writes on the history of clothing and is an honorary fellow at the University of Wolverhampton. CARLSTON WALTERS is a Caribbean researcher and…

QI am trying to find out what happened to William Nixon Thornton. He was baptised on 22 November 1822 in the parish of Anna, County Cavan, Ireland – the son of Marshall Burrowes Thornton and Elizabeth Nixon. He had siblings Emily, Jane and Marshall Stewart Thornton. Jane died in 1842. William left Ireland and lived in Liverpool, Glasgow and Manchester but I can find no record of his death. The last mention of him I have found is when he was dismissed from the Manchester police on 20 July 1859. William’s father died on 1 January 1861 at Greenville, Belturbet, County Cavan, Ireland. On 8 March 1862, a Cavan Observer newspaper advertisement shows the sale of land belonging to William’s mother and his two surviving siblings. Do you think that…

QWilliam Charles Elen was born in London on 16 July 1880. He has always been known under this name as far as my family had been aware, but his birth certificate says he was born with the surname ‘Stephens’. The certificate contains a ‘statutory declaration’, made 24 years after William’s birth, which removes William Stephens as the father. Interestingly there is an error in the amendment because the declaration would have been made by Christopher and Rosina Sloper, not Hoper. I’m trying to understand what such a declaration is, whether a copy of it can be obtained and why it was made so long after William’s birth. Robert Elen, Coventry A Some people have all the luck! This unusual birth entry contains three interesting elements. 1 You have a ‘Class…

Children appear in many photographs passed down through the generations, but until the advent of mass-market amateur photography from the 1920s onwards, they were usually photographed for a particular reason. Working out the event, and the date it might have taken place, can help determine who is in the photograph. Commemorating christenings was usually the first time a photograph was taken of a baby. The robe alone can be difficult to date, as many were handed down through families. In the early years of photography, it was difficult to get toddlers to be still for the long exposure time necessary, so small children were often given a toy to play with or to hold. The ‘breeching’ of boys, which continued into the early 20th century, was often marked with a…

VAD nursing volunteers were usually upper-and middle-class women who could afford to volunteer and work for free. Famous VADs included writer Vera Brittain and novelists Agatha Christie and Naomi Mitchison. Working in a hospital was a real culture shock for these women who had often never been unchaperoned or carried out any form of manual work before. In her autobiography All Change Here: Girlhood and Marriage (1975), Naomi Mitchison recalled: “I had never used mops and polishes and disinfectants. I was very willing but clumsy. I was told to make tea but hadn’t realised that tea must be made with boiling water. All that had been left to the servants.” After initial training in first aid and basic nursing skills, followed by a probationary period, the VADs’ role was to…

The woman who may have done more for beleaguered Britain wasn’t even a real person; she was the fictional Mrs Miniver, heroine of an American anti-Nazi film that hit the box office jackpot in Britain and the United States in 1942. Mrs Miniver was released six months after the US entered the war. It deeply moved the British and strongly motivated Americans. This domestic drama set on the Home Front starred English actress Greer Garson as Kay Miniver, who lived by the Thames in an idealised family, with a comfortable house, a boat, a secure life, until the war changed everything. The film voiced the dilemmas, trials and pain that everyone recognised. In the closing scene, the vicar ends his sermon: “This is the People’s War. It is our war.…

As respected members of the communities in which they served, clergymen were involved in many different aspects of their parishioners’ lives. They officiated at baptisms, weddings and funerals, and their signatures adorn the pages of the church registers. Today, we think of the clergy as being a vocation for the spiritually devout and a calling from God, but it was not always the case. In the late 18th century, the Church was considered an ideal occupation for gentlemen, especially for younger sons of the landed gentry who would not inherit their fathers’ estates. The clerical profession could be extremely lucrative if a good ‘living’ could be obtained. A living was a position as a rector or vicar with an income that mostly came from tithe or glebe land; a house…

• The Lambeth Palace Library  lambethpalacelibrary.org/content/anglicanclergy A very useful source guide for tracing Anglican clergy; it can be downloaded in PDF format. • The Old and New Statistical Accounts of Scotland  edina.ac.uk/statacc Listing information about every Scottish parish for the 1790s and 1840s, these accounts were written by the parish clergymen themselves. Search under county or parish name. • The National Archives  bit.ly/1RPN47q A source guide to tracing clergy in the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. • The Victorian Web  victorianweb.org/history/work/clergy.html Representations of Church of England, Roman Catholic and Dissenter clergy in Victorian literature. • Building History  buildinghistory.org/buildings/ parsonages.shtml A useful website with pointers for researching parsonages.…

1711 The first of four ‘White Cloth Halls’, designed for the trading of undyed cloth, opens in the city. 1766 A public meeting is held at the Sun Inn, Bradford, to discuss construction of what would become the 127-mile Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Work begins in 1770. 1822 Joshua Tetley leases a brewery in Hunslet. Tetley’s is taken over by the Carlsberg Group in 1998 and the Leeds Brewery finally closes in 2011. 1837 Former Irish MP Feargus O’Connor founds the Northern Star newspaper in Leeds. It becomes the primary mouthpiece of the Chartist movement. 1852 Herbert Henry Asquith, future Liberal Prime Minister, who holds office between 1908 and 1916, is born in Morley. 1864 HI Jenkinson places an advert in the Leeds Mercury inviting rugby players to meet up…

Having a stairlift installed in a home was once a new concept but a unique and innovative domestic lift has become an ideal and surprisingly affordable alternative to a stairlift. The Stiltz Lift has enabled people such as and James and Helen Stewart to stay in the cottage they have shared together in Ipswich for years and even added value to their property. Mr Stewart, 74, said: “My wife has multiple disabilities with her hips and knees and it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to climb the stairs. We found Stiltz online and the lift is perfect - worth every penny. It has meant we haven’t needed to sell our home and it has empowered my wife to be able to move around our house independently.” John Edwards, 69,…

The photograph published on page 93 in the May issue of WDYTYA? Magazine has prompted me to write this letter in the hope of finding similar pictures. I was born in Painswick in Gloucestershire in 1940, my mother having been urged to leave London in 1939 with my brother Paul, to live in rural safety with Thomas Tuck and his daughter Phyll. Thomas had returned to his roots in Gloucestershire after working for many years in London. My father remained in London working for a printing firm in Acton by day, and sitting on the roof, on fire watch, by night. We returned to London in 1947, much against our will. There was nothing there for country children and we were not very happy, caged in a small town garden…

The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) has launched a competition to encourage children and young people aged 5-16 to develop an interest in genealogy. To enter, participants need to fill in a double-page spread from the FFHS My Family Tree booklet (available by emailing admin@ffhs.org.uk), along with a short paragraph describing what they most enjoyed about their research. For terms and conditions and details of prizes, go to ffhs.org.uk/ezine/competition-2016.php. The competition closes on Thursday 30 June 2016.…

TRUE WEDDING GIFT STORY A man named Mr Flint recently received an invitation to attend the china wedding of his wife’s parents, and was thus placed under the disagreeable necessity of purchasing a present. At last a splendid idea struck him. He bought for a mere song a set of Dresden china that was utterly valueless, as most of the cups and jugs had broken handles. “When the present arrives,” he said to himself, “I shall pretend to be awfully sorry at the great mishap, for which, of course, the Railway Company is to blame, and thus I shall get credit for doing things in grand style.” He told the dealer to be sure and pack the broken handles along with the rest, and departed in glee. But when the…

While prostitution itself was not illegal in the 18th century, keeping a lewd and disorderly house most certainly was. Most of the prostitution trade in London during those times was controlled by women; they ran the brothels, chose the women who worked there and supplied them with their attire to attract customers – although this was paid for out of their wages. Sometimes bully boys protected the house, but they were in the employ of the ‘bawd’ who took a share of the prostitutes’ earnings. As a sideline, they often operated as fences for stolen goods and also might provide entertainment, such as gambling, and made money on sales of liquor. Streetwalkers were even more evident in the common areas used by everyone. They often worked in pairs, which gave…

Old Bailey Online Transcripts of all trials held at the Old Bailey can be accessed free online at oldbaileyonline.org. London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) Found online at www.cityoflondon.gov.uk, the LMA is a good archive for researching Greater London in the 18th century including parish registers, electoral registers, land tax, parish poor relief and Board of Guardians registered, which include workhouse records (ie London, England, Poor Law and Board of Guardians Records, 1430-1930, London) Ancestry See the website’s collection ‘London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1659-1930’ at ancestry.co.uk. Newspapers The British Library holds copies of many 18th-century British newspapers. Another useful resource is www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Local newspapers can be accessed at regional archives and many offer access to the Times Digital Archive. BOOKS Amatory Pleasures: An Exploration in 18th-century Sexual Culture by…

The Victorian passion for landscape painting was a paradox, in that it was fuelled by the industry that destroyed the British countryside. The market for landscape paintings was generated among the ranks of the nouveau riches, the newly wealthy middle class who liked to see themselves as patrons of the arts. Their money came from cotton, iron, coal and myriad other industries that had been developed during the Industrial Revolution. These industries had turned Britain’s pastoral landscape into a dirty, mechanised one and small towns into overcrowded cities. Middle-class people had largely been brought up in the country, before the exponential growth of the towns due to industrialisation and the coming of the railways. These paintings gave them a return to an idealised, pastoral childhood. Among the most successful landscape…

“The Royal Highland Fusiliers was formed in 1959 by the merger of two of the British Army’s most distinguished regiments: the Royal Scots Fusiliers (21st Foot) and the Highland Light Infantry (71st/74th Foot). It now forms the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment maintains an excellent small museum at one end of Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street. “Frankly, the Royal Highland Fusiliers website (rhf.org.uk) is something of a mess. But not all regimental museums have the resources to maintain a spiffy website. Indeed, the majority are run on a shoestring using mostly volunteers. However, this is one to watch as a revised and much-improved site devoted to the Fusiliers’ history, its museum and archives are due to be launched by the end of the summer. At present, you can already…

Date of engagement and termination The date of joining and leaving the VAD. Check for another card to ensure that you don’t miss any dates. Rank Most VADs were ‘members’, while some were ‘special service members’. Other ranks included nurses, assistant nurses, chauffeur/chauffeuse, clerk, etc. Pay VADs were usually unpaid unless they were contracted out to work in a military hospital run by the War Office. Particulars of duties This will give you a general idea of the tasks your ancestor undertook as a VAD, for example, nursing, cooking, driving etc. Previous engagements Here you can see the range of places in which Vera Brittain served, including overseas placements in Malta and France. Reverse of card Where filled in, this provides extra details, including places and number of hours served…

SPEAK TO FAMILY One of the best sources is older people who went to the pictures in the 1940s, so talk to your parents or grandparents about the stars and the films they loved. Show them clips from youtube.com and listen to their stories. WEBSITES The British Newspaper Archive is useful for researching Second World War cinema. Search for specific incidents, for example, “cinema air raid East Grinstead” or stars’ names, such as “Stewart Granger” or “Patricia Roc”. Cinemas advertised, usually in a regular space in the paper, some on the front page. The archive can be accessed via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk or through findmypast.co.uk. The BFI (British Film Institute) holds a vast collection of film-related material. BFI Player, (player.bfi.org.uk), is a dynamic online film collection, many free to watch, including government…

The problem of curates not being able to obtain decent livings was evident throughout the 19th century. The issue was exacerbated by pluralities, the practice of non-resident incumbents holding more than one living. In 1827, an official return revealed that out of 10,533 livings, only 4,413 incumbents were resident in the parish. Four years later, 2,268 clergymen had two or more livings; of these, 353 held three, 57 held four and three held five livings. Legislation was introduced in an attempt to stamp out the worst abuses of the system. Under the Pluralities Act of 1838, clergymen were forbidden from holding more than two livings, with some exceptions. The livings had to be within 10 miles of each other, with a population of less than 3,000 and a joint annual…

How long have you been doing your family tree? I began researching in the early 1990s and was inspired by my mother Ellen, who had explored the tree of her father Thomas Morning. He was born in South Shields, County Durham, where she found new relatives whom she’s still in contact with today. What had you found out before hitting your brick wall? My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Wise and we were convinced this line was Jewish, although we had no proof. The 1881 census showed that my great great grandfather William Wise was born in 1840 in Salford, which seemed possible because there was a large Jewish community there at the time. I also spoke to my second cousin Doreen who was keen to learn more about our…

The WYAS site has handy collection and topic guides (see archives.wyjs.org.uk for more) and its ever-improving online catalogue at catalogue.wyjs.org.uk. You can find out more about Ancestry’s West Yorkshire datasets at ancestry.co.uk/ yorkshire. They include parish registers, valuation records, electoral registers, probate material and more. Yorkshire BMD (yorkshirebmd.org.uk), part of the UKBMD, is an excellent collaboration between various groups and the local registration services. It is making indexes to their BMD records freely searchable. The Leeds council and library websites offer access to lots of material. There’s a database of absent voters from the General Election of 1918, which usually recorded the man’s regiment, number and rank at the time (leeds.gov.uk/leisure/Pages/Absent-war-voters.aspx). Via Leodis (leodis.net), you can explore nearly 60,000 historic images relating to the city. The images come from the Local…

Deceased Online It can be very helpful to know your ancestor’s final resting place as burial records can provide useful information about them such as age at death and abode. Thousands of burial records can now be found on the Deceased Online website. 1 Go to the website’s homepage at deceasedonline.com . The area to start searching will be displayed on the left-hand side of the page. Enter the details for your ancestor. Here we’re looking for James Symons, who died in 1885. Enter the information and then press ‘search’. 2 All relevant hits will appear. In this case, there is only one possible record for James Symons that fits the date range. A date and place of burial is also provided, which can help confirm whether the entry is…