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

Family history has changed a lot over the 20 years that I’ve been doing it. I used to spend entire days poring over documents in archives looking for a name, now I can make several breakthoughs on my laptop at home in a single evening (although it’s important to bear in mind that a lot of fascinating material is still only available in archives). On page 17 of this issue we reveal the simple search techniques you can employ to help uncover the hidden gems the internet has to offer and find vital records you’ve previously missed. Here in the office, we’re all looking forward to the start of this year’s Olympics next month. It got me wondering whether any of my ancestors were keen sports fans or even took…

Male munitions workers bit.ly/28vuH3e My great grandfather was in the Notts & Derby Regiment, joining the 7th (Territorial Force) Battalion in 1909. He stayed in, and was posted with, the regiment as part of the 1/7th (Robin Hood Rifles) Battalion. However, as he was a pre-war member of the regiment and didn’t sign up for the duration, he was discharged from service when his ‘contract’ was up – and wisely enough, didn’t sign up for more! He went into munitions work. Is there anywhere I can find records of male munitions workers in Nottingham? All the national information about munitions workers tends to be about women! phantomsteve New Zealand Place, Folkestone bit.ly/1tqxBqk I think I’ve finally found the death certificate for my great grandfather John Smith (born 1820 in Hackington,…

Details of more than 100 million genealogical records from the Netherlands have been published on ancestry.co.uk for the first time. Released in partnership with the Netherlands Centre for Family History (CBG), the material comprises indexes to civil registration records, church registers and family announcements held by a network of archive organisations across the country. It was previously only possible to access the data via wiewaswie.nl – a free Dutch genealogy resource operated by CBG. However, the addition of the indexes to the Ancestry database enables users to attach relevant items directly to their family tree. In some cases, researchers may even be able to click through and view a scanned copy of the original record on the website of the source archive. “The Centre for Family History and regional archives…

‘Reading the reports, and the words of the children themselves is deeply upsetting‚ During May, I investigated the landscape history of the moors behind Bolton, which rise to more than 450 metres above sea level. Part of my research related to the remains of a scatter of early-19th-century coalpits near the summit of the moor, exposed to the four winds and overlain by thick layers of saturated peat. There are over 30 mineshafts, now all filled in, and grassy causeways link these to ‘the Coalpit Road’, a track about two miles long built in the years around 1815. It allowed heavy carts to carry the poor-quality sulphurous shaley coal down to Bolton town. In good weather, it’s a wonderful place – a vast open moorland with views across half of…

By the early 1890s, the bicycle was becoming a potent symbol of women’s independence and rising social status. The connection between bicycling, progressive thought and female emancipation was at the heart of the much-debated question of what women should wear for the new activity. While regular floor-length skirts were undoubtedly dangerous, controversy arose when ladies adopted masculine-style jackets, shirts, caps and even breeches for cycling. Practical knickerbockers, worn with sensible woollen stockings and flat shoes, followed the principals of rational dress, yet the enlightened Victorian women who wore cycling ‘rationals’ risked widespread ridicule and censure. Critics pronounced the modest knickerbockers indecent, their protests masking deeper fears that if women looked and behaved like men, they might lose their femininity and actually become more masculine. Evidently relatively few British women wore…

Dr Simpson’s experiments with pain relief were part of a long tradition. From early history, the practice of anaesthesia was tied up with recreational drugs. Alcohol, opium and ether were all known and used for pain relief as well as pleasure. Leeds scientist Joseph Priestley discovered nitrous oxide in 1772. However, he did not examine its physiological effects, and it was down to Humphry Davy to develop it for use. Davy experimented on himself with an audience, in a nitrous oxide-filled gas chamber. He experienced heightened sight and hearing, he “lost all connection with external things.” He invented the term ‘laughing gas’ and as experiments continued in the same semi-public way, he discovered its effects as a short-term anaesthetic. Travelling entertainers were soon organising ‘ether frolics’ where they would administer…

QI am having difficulty in tracking down my grandfather’s war record. He was born William John Hill in 1885 and married my grandmother on Christmas Day in 1908. He would have already had two young sons by the time the First World War had started. My grandfather obviously joined up at some point and my mother was told that he was invalided out of the army due to a bad injury to his leg during training. I have tried to ascertain his regiment from the cap badge, but to no avail. I realise that many First World War records were destroyed during the Second World War but it would be good to know a little more about his brief war history, particularly as I have so much information about my…

“I have a passion for oral history, having interviewed 600 evacuees who spent the war years in Britain. Included in this number are children and adults who came from the Channel Islands and Gibraltar in 1940. Indeed, about 17,000 Guernsey evacuees fled their homes just days before Germany occupied the Channel Islands – and more than 2,000 of them arrived in my home town of Stockport. My third book on British evacuation will be published in late 2016 by Pen & Sword and I have organised evacuee reunions and contributed towards wartime documentaries. “One of my favourite websites is the BBC People’s War site (bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar), specifically the category dedicated to Childhood and Evacuation. It contains a wide range of evacuation stories from, not just children, but teachers, mothers and billeting…

British trenches Marked in blue, the thick line is the front line, the thinner lines represent support and communication trenches. Note that the trenches are given names (many of which were in use throughout the whole war). The centre of Square 9 on the larger map The square is divided, itself, into four. Top left square is a, top right b, bottom left c and bottom right d. Each small square can be broken down further using the scale along the bottom and side of the map to give a precise reference. Machine gun post An arc of fire is indicated. German trenches As with the British, the thick line is the front line, thinner lines support and communication trenches. Broken lines represent old or disused trenches, which could still…

• The Long, Long, Trail longlongtrail.co.uk • The Great War greatwar.co.uk Both of the websites above contain vast amounts of detail about the war and battlefields. • The Western Front Association westernfrontassociation.com This has a collection of trench maps available on DVD. Its website includes features on the battlefields and researching your ancestors. • In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres inflandersfields.be/en • Somme 1916 Museum at Albert musee-somme-1916.eu • Museum of the Great War at Peronne en.historial.org These three sites are all excellent starting points for visiting the Ypres and Somme battlefields. BOOKS Pen & Sword has produced a series of guides/histories to the most famous battlefields in its Battlefield Europe series. • The National Library of Scotland maps.nls.uk/ww1/trenches This has its collection of trench maps, which can be downloaded free.…

Under the old Scottish system of feudalism that was abolished in 2004, few people truly owned land. Instead, land was held and occupied in a number of ways, in both heritable and non-heritable forms. After an initial payment, direct ‘vassals’ of the Crown could take possession of a portion of land (known as a ‘feu’), in return for which they were obliged to make a payment called a ‘feu duty’ to the Crown (as the ‘superior’ in the arrangement) on an annual or twice-yearly basis. With the Crown’s permission, its vassals could then further subdivide their land and grant feus of their own. In such arrangements, with the Crown above them and their own vassals beneath them, they became a sort of middle-man known as a ‘subject superior’. Feudal agreements…

The author, sculptor and painter George Brinley Evans was born in Dyffryn Cellwen in South Wales in 1925 and spent most of his early working life in the mines. At 35, he lost an eye while working underground. In an interview last year, George remembered his experience of visiting a doctor about compensation after the accident: “I went down, and I don’t know if this doctor had a little thing against coalminers or what, but I had to pay for it as well. When I sat down he said to me all hoity-toity, ‘Now then, how much vision have you got in that eye?’ And I said in the most pleasant voice I could manage, it’s an artificial eye. ‘Go and see the clerk,’ he said, ‘he’ll get you a…

‘Prison governors were usually recruited from ex-members of the armed forces’ Before 1877, there were two types of prison: the Government-run convict prisons for those serving three years or more for serious crimes or repeat offences; and the local prisons such as small lock-ups, Houses of Correction and larger county gaols run by Justices of the Peace where prisoners were detained for short-term sentences. If your ancestor was in the Victorian prison service, the nature of the role and working conditions depended on which type of prison he or she was employed in. Generally, staff in convict prisons enjoyed better working conditions than those in local ones. After 1877, local prisons came under Government control. There was a defined hierarchical staff structure in Victorian prisons with the governor at the…

• Victorian Crime and Punishment   vcp.e2bn.org/justice/section11335-staff.html This detailed website includes a section about staff in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire gaols. • Lincoln Castle   lincolncastle.com/content/ victorian-prison Visit Lincoln Castle’s Victorian prison, originally designed for the ‘separate’ system. • The National Archives’ Research Guide   nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/prisoners-or-prison-staff/ This research guide highlights sources at The National Archives relating to prison staff. • Crime and Punishment: Bristol & Gloucestershire Archive Photographs   flickr.com/photos/20654194@N07/sets/72157603192350324/ On Flickr, this collection of archive photographs by Paul Townsend includes many interesting images of prison staff. • Victorian London   victorianlondon.org/publications5/prisons.htm This section of the website includes text and images from Henry Mayhew and John Binny’s The Criminal Prisons of London (1862).…

Lancashire memories I am writing a local history of Goosnargh and Whittingham in Lancashire as I have many family connections in the area. Goosnargh goes back to the Domesday Book and has many historical halls and churches. During my research I have met many people who are more than willing to help me with photos and memories of the village. Whittingham is home to Chingle Hall, a 13th-century manor house, said to be the most haunted house in England and a refuge for priests when they were persecuted for their faith. I have become friendly with the owner, Professor Trevor Kirkham, and he recently loaned me several scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings from the Preston Guardian that an old lady resident in the village painstakingly cut out if they were about…

I read Jad Adams’s article on the laying of the transatlantic telegraph cable (Issue 113, June) with especial interest, as my great grandfather, James Bodfish (shown right), was a wire-drawer who worked on its production. A lad without schooling from Tadmarton near Banbury, Oxfordshire, James arrived in Birmingham when his pit-sawyer father transplanted the family in the mid-1850s. He went to work for the notable Birmingham firm of Webster & Horsfall at its steel wire works at Hay Mills, and it took 1,600 tons of the company’s crucible steel to reach across the Atlantic. I’m quietly proud of the fact that those big strong hands of James played a tiny part in creating the modern world of trans-continental communication. Birmingham, too, is proud of this achievement, and a section of…

An online campaign is asking Britons to delve into their family photo albums and find out what their ancestors wore during the Second World War. Since the beginning of June, Imperial War Museums (IWM) has been asking Twitter users to share pictures of their family members in the 1940s to promote its new exhibition Fashion on the Ration. On display at IWM North in Manchester until May 2017, the exhibition looks at the impact of clothes rationing in Britain, which was first introduced in 1941 and saw both men and women come up with creative ways to stay stylish. To take part, tweet your photos with the hashtag #WhatMyFamilyWore. Some may even be selected to appear on a screen in the exhibition itself.…

A state-of-the-art research facility aimed at helping people trace their Irish roots has opened its doors to the public. The Irish Family History Centre, located at Custom House Quay in Dublin, was unveiled on Saturday 7 May as part of the 15 million EPIC Ireland visitor attraction (epicireland chq.com), which tells the story of the Irish diaspora through an array of interactive exhibits. As well as opportunities to take part in quizzes and view displays on emigration and migration, visitors to the Family History Centre can sit down with a genealogy expert for a 15-minute research consultation. The facility also provides access to online records via a series of computer terminals, with complimentary subscriptions to findmypast.ie and irishfamilyhistorycentre.com offered to all those who visit. The centre is owned and operated by…

When searching the internet, it is often said that the majority of people never go beyond the first results page. But to strike online gold, you need to go further. ‘Well’ is a common word. It has multiple meanings and uses even before you come to place names and surnames. As a result, while researching the history of well construction recently, my browser became swamped with all sorts of irrelevant websites, before some weeding and modifying unearthed a relatively obscure piece of local history. Having lived and worked in the Brighton area for nearly a decade, it was astounding to discover that the city is home to the deepest hand-dug well in the world. The Woodingdean Well is 1,285 feet deep – that’s as deep as the Empire State Building…

Q Census returns show John Baldwin was born in Purleigh, Essex, c1782 or c1783. In 1841, he’s living in Shoebury, Great Wakering, with his second wife Susannah Braybrook, born in Burnhamon-Crouch, in 1793. They married on 5 November 1822. They raised their family there and John died on 7 December 1865 in the Rochford Workhouse, aged about 82. can’t find a birth record I for John in Purleigh or any other Baldwin connections there that we could work from. I have found a Joseph Baldwin in the Shoebury area at a similar time but can’t say if he is a father or brother to John as he died before the 1841 census, which may have told us where he was born. Heather Baldwin, by email A Last summer, thegenealogist.co.uk started…

TV presenter Fiona Bruce looked into the First World War service of her great grandfather, Frederick Charles Crouch, during her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?. Frederick rose from the ranks to become an officer during the conflict. He died in Ypres in 1917 and we traced his career by obtaining a variety of records for him. Firstly, we located documents from family members that included Frederick’s letters, which were in the possession of his granddaughter. The next step was to obtain records from appropriate archives. His service record was found at The National Archives (TNA). Although many military records are online, service records for officers are still found in paper form at TNA (bit. ly/25x6RSf). The service record was supplemented by his Medal Index Card, which listed his…

‘The book would be of interest to anyone whose ancestors were recorded as domestic servants in the 1851 census’ While we may be able to glean job titles from census returns and marriage certificates, it can sometimes be quite difficult to understand our ancestors’ working lives. Not only are the harsh conditions we tend to associate with Victorian employment thankfully behind us, but many occupations are now obsolete. However, some primary sources can provide crucial context. For anyone who has found domestic servants in their tree, one book held by Barnet Local Studies and Archives Centre should be essential reading, as Hugh Petrie explains. Which document have you chosen? I’ve chosen The Finchley Manuals of Industry, No. 1: Cooking, 1849 (anon), which was produced for East Finchley’s Holy Trinity School…

A good general starting point for this subject is the BBC’s archived history section at bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwtwo/ evacuees_01.shtml. It’s also worth exploring the subject on Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Evacuations_of _ civilians_in_Britain_  during_the_Second_World_War) as it has some fascinating sources, plus an interesting list of cultural works that draw on wartime evacuation – from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Lord of the Flies, to Paddington. There are also many harrowing stories, in particular the City of Benares tragedy – there’s also a Guardian article on the sinking at theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/15/benares-sunk-war-81-children-dead. Although it’s not much to look at, the Wartime Memories Project (wartimememories.co.uk/evacuation.html) has some fascinating reminiscences. “I was CORB child No. 2284,” begins one. “I was evacuated to Devon from Battersea,” reads another. We mentioned the 1939 Register for England and Wales. But from this…

Property owners This 1930 Glasgow record lists property owners in capital letters, with a home address, before the tenants listed at their property. Tenants The tenants in these tenements, usually the head of household, are then helpfully listed with a description of their occupation. Ward and parish A description of the ward number and parish at the top can allow you to search for relevant contemporary maps. Numbers Note that the house or tenement number at each address is not the first number, but given after the property description instead. Street names Street names are usually in approximately the same part of the roll from year to year, making it easy to browse non-indexed books. Rent The annual rent or rateable value for each occupied holding, in pounds and shillings,…

WEBSITES The website for the Disability and Industrial Society project (dis-ind-soc.org.uk) features plenty of resources such as podcasts, videos and literature readings about disability in the British coalmining industry. For those interested in learning more about Britain’s hidden history of disability, check out English Heritage’s Disability in Time and Place website (www.historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/ disability-history). MUSEUMS Museums across the country explore the human side of Britain’s industrial heritage. Many, like the People’s History Museum (phm.org.uk) in Manchester and Woodhorn Museum (experience woodhorn.com) in Northumberland also contain archives, so you can dig deeper once you’ve seen their exhibitions. Medical museums such as the Thackray Medical Museum (thackraymedicalmuseum.co.uk) and the Wellcome Collection (wellcome collection.org) also feature exciting collections related to work and medicine. Many former sites of industry have been turned into open museums that aim…

Under the 1865 Prison Act, every prison was to have a staff complement of a gaoler, a chaplain, a surgeon and a matron for women. It also forbade the employment of prisoners as staff. The Prisons Act of 1877 nationalised the prisons completely, bringing local ones under Home Office control. Both pieces of legislation defined the role of staff in greater detail. However, there continued to be a disparity between the pay and working conditions of local and convict prison warders. In 1891, convict prison staff were paid 20 per cent more than warders in local prisons and they also had a free issue of boots. The local prison staff argued that “their duties were as arduous and dangerous as those of the convict staff”, and that local staff had…

How long have you been doing your family history? I have been researching for 30 years, after being inspired by the Reverend Dennis Nadin who set up the Nadin Family Society in the 1980s. What had you found out before hitting your brick wall? Dennis supplied me with a wealth of material about my family and this enabled me to trace them right back to the 1700s. The memories of my aunt Anne Ledran, who was my oldest surviving relative, helped, too. Michael Nadin was my great grandfather. He was born on 2 June 1867 to Thomas and Emily Nadin who lived in Dukinfield, Cheshire – now part of Greater Manchester. Dukinfield expanded rapidly during the Industrial Revolution, becoming a thriving centre for cotton weaving and coalmining. Thomas was a…

In terms of online genealogy, the Isle of Man is streets ahead of many others The Isle of Man holds a unique position in the history of the British Isles. As a Crown dependency, and with an outward-looking coastal economy once dominated by fishing and boat building, it has won a proudly independent reputation. Indeed, it can also claim a progressive heritage – in 1881 the House of Keys Election Act granted female property owners the right to vote in Parliamentary elections. This was expanded to female occupiers in 1892 and lodgers in 1903, before universal suffrage in 1919. In 2006, the minimum voting age was lowered to 16. The Manx Museum, which first opened its doors in November 1922, sits at the top of a hill overlooking Douglas Bay,…

Manx National Heritage Manx Museum, Kingswood Grove, Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 3LY 01624 648000 enquiries@mnh.gov.im manxnationalheritage.im The island’s statutory heritage body, which manages property, archives, artwork, plus library and museum collections. Manx Museum   manxnationalheritage.im/attractions/manx-museum/ The Manx Museum itself is home to all kinds of unique artefacts. It tells the story of the Tynwald, which can claim to be the world’s oldest continuous parliament, the TT Races, as well as the island’s war-time internment camps. National Library and Archives The Library & Archives Reading Room is at the seaward end of the Manx Museum. It includes microform viewers, laptops for access to our online finding aids, digitised newspapers and Wi-Fi. The Collections page (at manxnational heritage.im/our-collections/  library-archives) includes a range of useful guides and FAQs. Interesting examples include the Manx Trafalgar…

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…

The Secret Agent July BBC ONE Written by Tony Marchant, who previously penned the Georgian-era legal drama Garrow’s Law, The Secret Agent is a three-part adaptation of novelist Joseph Conrad’s tale of anarchism, espionage and state-sponsored terrorism. Set in 1886, it focuses on Verloc (Toby Jones), who runs a seedy shop in the heart of London’s Soho, and is given a mission by Russian embassy officials: to orchestrate a bombing and provoke a crackdown by the British against the anarchists the Russians see as a threat. To carry out his plan, Verloc has to avoid the attentions of Chief Inspector Heat (Stephen Graham) of Scotland Yard’s Special Crimes Division. Archive On 4: The League Of Extraordinary Housewives Saturday 16 July, 8pm RADIO 4 The British Housewives League was formed in…

OUR PICK Buckinghamshire FHS Open Day 23 July THE GRANGE SCHOOL, AYLESBURY bucksfhs.org.uk secretary@bucksfhs.org.uk With over 1,500 members and a busy events programme spread across its three branches, Buckinghamshire Family History Society is one of the most active local genealogy organisations in Britain. The society’s annual open day will bring together experts from across the region, plus exhibitors such as the Guild of One-Name Studies, the Families in British India Society and the Family and Community Historical Research Society. There will also be opportunities to access the Bucks FHS names database (containing well over five million entries) and browse the usual wide array of books, maps and genealogical goodies. LONDON Quaker FHS London Conference and AGM 9 July FRIENDS’ HOUSE LONDON qfhs.co.uk info@qfhs.co.uk The Quaker Family History Society will host…

London Lives The excellent London Lives website (www.londonlives.org), now also searchable on findmypast.co.uk, is a free resource that allows you to access primary sources relating to various aspects of life in the capital from 1690 to 1800. 1 Go to the homepage and click on the ‘Search’ option in the left-hand column. Further search options will now appear on the left-hand side of the following page. 2 Click on the option ‘Person Name Search’ to look for your ancestor. In this case we’re looking for a Matthew Lovejoy. Enter the name and hit ‘Search’. A variety of hits now appear including him being listed on the jury for two inquests. 3 Click on the hits to learn more. The next page will display a transcription of the inquest as well…

‘Alfred developed a drug that is on the World Health Organisation’s list of essential medicines’ Alfred William Gerrard was born in the beautiful Dorset village of Melbury Osmond in 1844, the son of a carpenter. By the end of his long life, he was a famous chemist with a list of key pharmaceutical discoveries to his name. How had a lad from such humble origins scaled the heights in an emerging field of Victorian science? This is the question that has intrigued Rachel Gerrard, who is Alfred’s 3x great niece. “I didn’t know that we had such an illustrious ancestor in our family, until I began researching our tree last year,” Rachel explains. “I found a blog online about AW Gerrard and realised he was my relative. It was amazing.”…

My husband’s grandfather Charles Lemaire was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in 1890 and became a photographer, presumably learning the craft from his father who was also in the same profession. Charles served in France during the First World War and after the conflict, he applied for and was granted, permission to stay in London for a further period of training at a photographic studio. Recently, a box of sample photographs, mostly labelled, was found in the family archive, some of which were annotated with ‘corrections’ to be made. The photos include portraits of the following people (some of the writing is unclear): Lieut Brodie; Major Elliot; Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice; Rear Admiral Sir John Parry; Senator Hon F Pearce; Buxton (baby boy); Ch*katton (one girl and two…

Researchers hoping to visit Lancashire Archives may be forced to revise their plans following signicant cuts to opening hours. Due to county council budget restrictions and a drop-off in visitor numbers over the past decade, officials have decided to reduce public access from 42.5 to 30 hours per week. However, following the findings of a recent visitor consultation, the Preston facility will now be open until 7pm on the second Tuesday of each month. Full details about the changes can be viewed online by visiting bit.ly/1XmV87m.…

MARAUDERS SENT TO ASSIZES At Boston yesterday, George Clarke and John Middleton, of no fixed abode, were committed for trial at the Lincolnshire Assizes on a charge of breaking into the club house of the Boston Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Spilsby-road, and stealing various articles on the night of the 22nd. When arrested at midnight near Bargate Bridge by Sergeant Adlard, the prisoners were carrying a bag which was found to contain the following property: a clock, a gentleman’s rainproof coat, lady’s rainproof coat, three hair brushes, two combs, a carving knife and steel, pair of gentleman’s goloshes, two sets of croquet balls, 22 tennis balls, a pound of tea, some slab cake, sponge cake, and biscuts. The articles were identified as belonging to the club. When spoken to…

‘The armed services encouraged sports such as boxing, fencing, shooting and polo‚ Next month, athletes at the Olympic Games will compete in 42 different sports. Modern events like BMX cycling would probably have raised eyebrows among our ancestors, yet other sports, from equestrian events to boxing, date back centuries and may have been activities that they, too, enjoyed. Evidence drawn from many family collections demonstrates a variety of surviving sports-related photographs. Discovering these evocative, sometimes surprising, images and investigating our forebears’ sporting interests highlights their personalities and achievements, providing a fascinating insight into their lives. Family sporting photographs By the time photography became established in the mid-1800s, some of our Victorian predecessors were already enjoying active outdoor pursuits and by the 1860s photographers were recording the sporting activities of the…

‘The voices of women, which so often fall silent through history, resonate through Barclay’s research’ Who lived in your house in past times? Who slept in your bedroom when Queen Victoria came to the throne or when war broke out in 1914? These are questions that fascinate family historians and add to the richness of the hobby. Barclay Price, a retired arts administrator, has gone one step further and researched the people and history of his entire street. Barclay lives on Albany Street, in Edinburgh’s New Town. It’s a fine example of Georgian architecture and has been home to many illustrious residents, as well as a milieu of servants, lodgers, scholars and soldiers. Building began during 1803 and it became one of the city’s most desirable residences, just a short…

JANET BISHOP is Chairman of the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (ASGRA). DIANE CLEMENTS is the Director of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry. REBECCA PROBERT is the author of Marriage Law for Genealogists: The Definitive Guide. STEVEN SMYRL is a member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland (formerly the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland). STEPHEN THOMAS is a genealogist with more than 20 years of experience and appears regularly on TV as an expert. PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert and the author of Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors. ALISON TOPLIS writes on the history of clothing and is an honorary fellow at the University of Wolverhampton. MIKE TRENCHARD is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA).…

Q My 7x great grandfather, Clement Laws, married Mary Wright on 2 February 1725/26 at Saham Toney in Norfolk where they are described as “single persons”. I have found three children for them baptised at nearby Wendling: Mary, Clement (my 6x great grandfather) and John. While trying to find a baptism record for Clement senior, I found a baptism of a William in Saham Toney on 3 January 1709/10, the son of Clement and Mary Laws. Clement Laws and Mary Rudd were married in Saham Toney on 1 May 1695 and had children in the village from 1696 to 1711. I have only found one burial for a Clement Laws, which was on 31 December 1739 in Saham Toney. Is it possible that the Clement who married Mary Rudd in…

QI am trying to find out what happened to my paternal great grandmother, Marjory McBean Fraser, who was born in Inverness on 11 April 1881. She married John Mitchell Ritchie in August 1902 in Edinburgh. I know this from my grandfather’s birth certificate (Peter Ritchie, born in August 1904 in Edinburgh). We were told his parents were killed in a train crash, but this is incorrect as John, who was a baker, died of cancer on 18 November 1920, and Marjory signed the death certificate as a widow. From that date, I can’t find any records. Ian Ritchie, Hassocks in West Sussex A Marjory is listed on Ancestry as Marjory McBean Fraser, which could hamper your search. She was born and married with no middle name. Her husband’s death certificate…

Q While researching my Clues family tree, I have traced my great great grandfather William, born in 1783, to Binstead, Hampshire. He had a brother Josiah, born in 1780 and another Samuel, who was born in 1788. I have found a Josiah Clues born in 1780 who was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Life Guards in the Napoleonic Wars. I traced his career until his death, aged 62, in Kingston upon Thames in 1842, but I can’t find evidence to confirm that this is the same Josiah. Records from the Household Cavalry Museum, Windsor, do not have a record of his place of birth, nor are there any details about him when he married Esther Skipp in Manchester Cathedral in 1834. Also, a Samuel Clues was connected to the printing…

CARTOUCHE A small box or pouch attached to the belt of a prison warder, which contained his or her keys CUTLASS The weapon carried by chief warders and principal warders as a form of protection TURNKEY A subordinate officer who had charge of the keys of a local prison SCREW The slang name used by prisoners for warders and other prison officers SEPARATE SYSTEM Prisoners confined to separate cells, day and night, with breaks for chapel and exercise SILENT SYSTEM Prisoners confined to separate cells at night but allowed to work together in ‘association’ in strict silence…

HALF OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS APPEARED IN PRINT WHILE HE WAS ALIVE When William Shakespeare died in Stratford 400 years ago aged 58, it was not an event of great national importance. Although there was certainly a sad nod from literary folk who admired his poetry, he was just one of many playwrights catering to the craze for drama. ‘Honie-tonged Shakespeare’ with his ‘sugared sonnets’ had received rare praise from fellow writers for his verse. His most successful printed work in his lifetime was the narrative poem Venus and Adonis, which ran through 10 editions before his death. This was followed by The Rape of Lucrece, which went through six editions. Most critical comment during his lifetime was reserved for these works and his love sonnets. The plays were hardly mentioned…

1266 Having been under the control of the Norwegian monarchy, the island becomes part of Scotland with the signing of the Treaty of Perth. It comes under the feudal lordship of the English Crown in 1399. 1830 The Mona’s Isle sails from Douglas to Liverpool, the first official service by what will be known as the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company – the world's oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company. 1854 The Laxey Wheel (also known as Lady Isabella ) is built into the hillside above the village of Laxey to pump water from mineshafts. Designed by Robert Casement, the waterwheel has a 72-foot-6-inch diameter. 1870 The Isle of Man Railway Company is formed. The first line (connecting Douglas with Peel) opens in the summer of 1873. 1907 The…