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

This issue has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride for me. Not only has it been my first issue back as editor (accompanied by a certain amount of “Where does this go again?”), but we’ve been waiting on tenterhooks for definitive details about the transmission dates for the new series, resulting in us chopping and changing features right up until the last minute. The new series should start in October with Danny Dyer’s episode as the lead. His is a great story and Claire loved talking to the people behind it (p25). A new series always inspires a fresh set of family historians, so we’ve asked Who Do You Think You Are? genealogist Laura Berry to lead us on a 12-week challenge to get back to our great great…

JOIN THE CONVERSATION! To respond to these, and other postings from the forum, go online and register The Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum records bit.ly/2bJvAxT I recently discovered a small newspaper announcement concerning my great grandmother’s brother, John Jacob Greenland. They were both orphaned in 1883 when their widowed father accidentally drowned in Dover Harbour during a night shift. There were four children left behind, John being the youngest (ten when orphaned). According to the 1901 and 1911 censuses he was a seaman, and I have his record card from The Merchant Navy Seamen records. However, I would love to know where I can view (either in person or online) his records from the Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum. I’ve already checked out the history of the asylum at the Children’s Homes…

800 researchers attended the Lanarkshire FHS Local & Family History Show at Motherwell Concert Hall on 3 September 217,679 records from the Poor Law Unions of Hoo, Medway and Strood in Kent have been released on ancestry.co.uk £14.8m in Heritage Lottery Fund money has been awarded to Plymouth City Council for a state-of-the-art history centre, due to open in 2020 18,000 names printed in the journal of the Irish Genealogical Research Society between 1998-2005 have been added to irishancestors.ie 350 years since the Great Fire of London was marked with events in the capital on 2-5 September, including the burning of a large wooden model of the city as it appeared in 1666…

The creation of a state-of-the-art archives and modern records centre in mid Wales is now one step closer to becoming a reality. In a cabinet meeting in August, members of Powys County Council approved the funding for a brand new £1.7 million archive facility designed to hold thousands of documents dating back to the 14th century. Based inside a converted industrial unit in Llandrindod Wells, the new facility will act as a replacement for the current home of the Powys Archives, which was declared unfit for purpose following an inspection by The National Archives in 2011. The council is now looking to appoint a construction company to undertake the work, with the aim of opening the centre by the end of 2017. “The facility will have the capacity to house…

Anew series of Who Do You Think You Are? is upon us – what better time to start delving into your own roots? While it’s entertaining and sometimes even emotional watching celebrities come face to face with their ancestors, there’s nothing quite like making those discoveries in your own family tree. People start the process for a multitude of reasons. Whether it be to try to solve a mystery, find out if there’s an overseas connection, see if a character trait has antecedents, or simply to learn about where you come from, more often than not the result is rewarding. You may not arrive at the conclusion that you expected, but just being able to establish the truth about who your ancestors were, where they originated, and how they fitted…

‘Families attempted to protect graves by carrying out overnight vigils. Grave robbers overcame this by digging long tunnels’ Discovering a black sheep or criminal in the family is an experience family historians never forget. Irresistible curiosity arises as we delve deeper into an ancestor’s life, along with the dreaded fear of draconian punishment for the deeds committed. Linda Quilley found a dark side to her Regency ancestry, after taking up research in 2009 where her father left off. “Dad left a collection of papers that I began looking through after he died, and I quickly became hooked. This is a hobby that draws you in,” she says. “I took advantage of free trials on websites and used familysearch.org to begin with. I’ve had immense help from my cousin and ‘genealogy…

Where can I find Cheshire birth records? Q My husband’s great great grandfather was James Dooley, born about 1811. I know he married Mary Johnson, whose date of birth was around 1816. I have the parish record to show they married on 25 December, 1836, in Warrington. Census records suggest that James was born in Woodford, Cheshire and Mary in Acton, Cheshire. James and Mary were together from 1841-1861, but seem to have separated after that. I cannot find a birth record for either of them, and don’t know where to go next! Yvonne Dooley, by email A In the 1871 census, James was an agricultural labourer, aged 57, living in a cottage in the village of Hatton and parish of Daresbury, Cheshire. With him were his daughters Elizabeth (20)…

Q My great grandmother, Eliza Ann Charlton, was born to Sarah Charlton on 19 December 1852 at Layerthorpe, York. There is no father’s name on the birth certificate, so I assume she was illegitimate. Eliza Ann went on to marry John Thomas Dale, a draper, on the 25 December 1876 at Leeds, her father’s name is again left blank on the marriage certificate. I am trying to find out who Sarah Charlton was and what became of her. Did she ever marry and have more children? When did she die? Enid Porter, by email A Eliza Ann Charlton, born on 19 December 1852, was baptised on 16 January 1853, in the parish of York St Cuthbert. The entry is included in the Yorkshire Collection on findmypast.co.uk; this confirms Eliza Ann…

Q My great grandfather, Albert James Johnson, was born in 1896 in London. His parents were James Johnson and Rosina Busby. I have Albert’s birth certificate confirming his mother’s maiden name and her death certificate, but I can not find a marriage between a James Johnson and Rosina (Rose) Busby. In 1901 the family is in St Pancras, the same address at which Albert was born. Everyone except Albert is listed as being born in Birmingham. In 1911 the family were living in Birmingham, this time James is listed as being born in London and Rosina as Birmingham. They say they have been married 27 years, so their marriage should be around 1884. I have looked in London and Birmingham and still not found anything. I hoped that the surname…

POOR LAW MIGRATION Jeremy always saw himself as a Yorkshireman: he was born in Leeds into a comfortable middle-class family. However, he didn’t have to go back far to discover the relative poverty of his forbears. Jeremy’s grandfather, Arthur, was orphaned, and so was forced to work as a worsted spinner in Bradford, aged just 12. The textile industry was a huge employer in Yorkshire and going through census returns it seemed that many of the Paxmans were in that industry. Jeremy carried on tracing the Paxman line and was surprised to learn that his 2x great grandfather, Thomas Paxman, was not a Yorkshireman at all, but came from Framlingham in rural Suffolk! Census returns showed us where the Paxmans originally came from but we did a little more digging…

‘Patients were encouraged to express the devastating memories and emotions which they carried’ Over 80,000 soldiers were treated for shell-shock by the end of World War One. Persistent cases were sent to specialist military hospitals who were pioneering new approaches to the treatment of psychological trauma. As with many military hospitals, some patients put their creative energies into the production of magazines detailing some of the daily activities alongside literary and artistic works focussed on their often traumatic wartime experiences. This month, Ben Taylor, tells us about a possibly unique copy of such a magazine that was recently discovered at Magdalen College, Oxford. Which document have you chosen? This is the February 1918 issue of The Hydra, the magazine of Craiglockhart War Hospital. Craiglockhart, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, will…

Directories can be useful for finding out your ancestor’s trade. Other online sources include Sheffield Indexers (sheffieldindexers.com/DirectoriesIndex.html) and PRONI’s Street Directories website (streetdirectories.proni.gov.uk), which has directories from Belfast and environs between 1819 and 1900. There’s also the excellent Addressing History project (addressinghistory.edina.ac.uk), which combines data from PO directories from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen and gives you the ability to search by profession. The aforementioned Genuki page leads to occupational dictionaries that might come in handy for tracking down a definition, such as this example at worldthroughthelens.com/family-history/old-occupations.php. You may also find resources relating to specific trades such as Stan Cook’s Gunmakers & Allied Trades Index (genuki.org.uk/big/Gunmakers.html), or these links to various types of manufacturing (genuki.org.uk/big/ Occupations#Manufacturers). The Museum of English Rural Life (reading.ac.uk/merl) has collections relating to all kinds of rural crafts…

Griffith’s Valuation is one of the most important Irish genealogical sources, particularly because it covers the entire island of Ireland. The Valuation was undertaken following the Great Famine of 1845-1849, which means that those who died or emigrated during that period are absent. However, there are additional sources associated with the Valuation that date from an earlier period. The Valuation Office House, Field and Tenure Books were compiled prior to Griffith’s Valuation and usually date from the 1840s and early 1850s. The Field Books are the least valuable because they rarely recorded the names of tenants, but they do record details about crops and the quality of the land. The House Books were supposed to record the details of houses worth more than £5, but in many cases the valuator…

REMEMBER THE FALLEN ON OUR THREE-NIGHT BREAK IN THE CAPITAL Experience four days of remembrance and research in London, including 4* accommodation and guided tours, for a special price of £399. Accompanied by a Royal British Legion guide, you will attend the Remembrance Sunday service and parade at The Cenotaph in Whitehall, a moving and unique opportunity to honour family members. Our break also includes a visit to the Imperial War Museum and The Churchill War Rooms. Staying in the 4* Copthorne Tara Hotel in Kensington you are ideally placed for our included visits with plenty of free time to visit vital London archives for your own family history research. ITINERARY DAY 1 Make your own way to London for an afternoon check-in to the 4* Copthorne Tara Hotel in…

Enlistment details This includes name, where born, age on enlistment and period of enlistment. Most men enlisted for life (20 years minimum) to ensure a pension. Regiments served Costillo only served in the Royal Fusiliers, but many soldiers served in more than one regiment. If he’d held other ranks they’d be shown here too. East and West Indies Service in the tropics of the East and West Indies counted double towards pensions because of the health risks involved. Reason for discharge Here it’s “undersized”, which clearly didn’t matter when there was a war on! Often a disease is named or frequently “worn out”. Conduct “Good” with a note saying that Costillo had been wounded at the Battle of Pamplona. Poor conduct wouldn’t necessarily affect pension entitlements. Description A physical description…

ASK YOUR RELATIVES • Amanda’s mother, born in 1932, recalled the Garon Cafe in Southend before World War II: “When I was six I was a bridesmaid and the reception was at Garon’s. Coming from a working class family, it was my first taste of luxury – and there was a very posh ladies’ powder room. There were lots of French-style cafes in Southend and I remember hearing French spoken in the street.” That’s priceless family history. WEBSITES • The National Archives You can search The National Archives’ Discovery catalogue’s records, as well as for those of other companies, and record offices here: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk • British Newspaper Archive (The subscription service is available via their own website or Findmypast) Search here for advertisements and news reports about cafes. www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk •…

The murder of William Papper shocked Britain. Papper was one of thousands of young apprentices who worked as cooks and deckhands on trawling smacks. In small ports, these were local boys who lived with their masters and were paid pocket money. This system worked well, but the fast-growing ports were short of labour and smack owners began recruiting boys from workhouses, reformatories and the streets. By the late 1870s, apprentices outnumbered paid hands at Hull and Grimsby. Unwilling or unable to accommodate them, some owners paid them a living allowance and left them to drift into the slums, where apprentices became known for heavy drinking, prostitution and fighting. At sea, training was often minimal and some fishermen were hard cases. Disturbing reports emerged of routine bullying and occasional serious assaults.…

BELGIAN RECORDS Napoleon introduced civil registration in Belgian in 1795. Prior to that priests maintained parish records. Belgian records can be very detailed, for instance giving information about relationships to marriage witnesses. For tips on ordering copies of registers, visit familysearch.org/wiki/en/Belgium_Civil_Registers. ONLINE FORUMS Lisa posted her original request on genealogy.com and, after waiting patiently for years, a Belgian researcher picked up her message and broke through the brick wall. Also try posting your queries on our forum to find more help with your genealogy brick walls: whodoyouthinkyouare magazine.com/forum.…

The City Library has the largest collection of family history material in the North East There are rival theories about the origin of the word Geordie. According to John Trotter Brockett’s 1829 Glossary of North Country Words, it simply comes from the name George being very common among pitmen in County Durham. Others believe it came from local miners favouring the George Stephenson’s safety lamp – the Georgie lamp. In any event, it has come to describe the local culture and dialect in and around Tyneside, an area known for engineering, shipbuilding and mining. There are several repositories that genealogists with Newcastle roots may need to visit to find records of their family – the Northumberland county collections at Woodhorn in Ashington, the Tyne & Wear Archives at the Discovery…

Coventry Remembering 1914-18 by Peter Walters (The History Press, £12.99) While this well-illustrated book purports to tell the story from the perspective of those who were there, it actually reads as a more traditional history book, relying on newspaper reports and other traditional accounts as much as personal stories. It is, however, extremely readable and the abundance of photographs bring the city in that era to life. If you have ancestors in Coventry at this time, this book will be a great addition to your research library. Coal mining in Britain by Richard Hayman (Shire Publications Ltd, £7.99) Coal mining changed the world, allowing for the unprecedented expansion of the Industrial Revolution, and Hayman’s book traces the perilous profession from the 17th to the 20th century. Although it is a…

This month’s round-up of TV and radio* The Slum October BBC TWO The BBC’s living history series about life in the East End during the Victorian era has moved around in the schedules, but now looks likely to air in October. In the first episode, a group of families move into a tenement building to recreate life on the bottom rungs of society during the 1860s, when it was a struggle for many people just to pay the rent. Surviving Aberfan October BBC ONE WALES AND BBC FOUR On the morning of Friday 21 October 1966, tragedy struck the Welsh pit village of Aberfan. For years, debris from the Merthyr Vale colliery had been deposited on high ground above Aberfan. At 9.15am, following several days of heavy rain, one of…

War memorials tip I was interested to read your article on war memorials and wanted to flag up a useful resource for readers looking for them. The Gravestone Photographic Resource (GPR, gravestonephotos.com) does not just include cemeteries, but also includes war (and other) memorials. If you find a family grave or memorial, you can request a free image of it. Each cemetery or memorial within the GPR has its own dedicated page, arranged by country, area (county), locality (city, town village) and name. The website allows these to be viewed alphabetically in either grave or surname order. We are a free, non-commercial organization with over 500,000 graves and memorials, 1,000,000 names and 2,000 volunteers worldwide. Charles Sale, by email Editor replies: What a great website and useful resource. Thanks for…

I very much enjoyed Jenni Dobson’s article on ‘Bridging the Commonwealth Gap’ in your recent issue. However, not all losses of parish records occurred at the time of the Restoration. I was very interested some years ago to come across a transcript in the Society of Genealogists library, which contained the following gem from the records of Prestbury in Cheshire. It was added later to the register for 1643 and explains how the register was hidden for safety, but got damaged: “During the tyme of war this and the other parchment Register were for there preservation for severall yeeres hid and the Registers taken in pap[er] were in Valentine Brathwayts custodie. Whereof some part by hiding were spoyled ther pulled in peeces and defaced and that for divers yeeres. Soe…

A search is underway to find the descendants of former pupils from a Welsh school who gave their lives during the First and Second Wars. Members of the Old Boys’ Association of Llanelli Boys’ Grammar School hope that family members will be present for the unveiling of a new memorial at the former school site in November. While the First World War claimed the lives of 47 Llanelli Old Boys and two Masters, the 1939-45 conflict resulted in the deaths of a further 59 former pupils. Those behind the campaign are also interested in hearing from anyone who may possess photographs or any other information regarding the men. If you can help, please email secretary@llanelliboysgrammar.org. Rolls of honour naming the Masters and Old Boys who died can be found online…

TREASURE HUNTERS CROSS THE ATLANTIC News reached Plymouth today from Bermuda of two adventurous Liverpool men who have crossed the Atlantic alone in a 45 feet boat, the Catherine , in quest of two hundred and forty thousand pounds in Spanish gold, said to have been hidden by pirates long ago in the Spanish main. Captain Small and his crew of one have already weathered a terrific storm, which threatened to send the 15-ton craft to the bottom. Later they drifted for days, becalmed on a sea as smooth as glass, until starvation finally beckoned. Captain Small is still very enthusiastic about the prospects of the expedition. The whereabouts of the treasure are said to have been fixed almost to a certainty.…

We’re already on the edge of our seats in anticipation of series 13 of Who Do You Think You Are?, so we thought we’d look at what’s in store for the celebrities journeying back in time to meet their ancestors. We’re also giving you a sneak peek at the fascinating topics covered and documents used to unmask a number of startling ancestors, and lay bare amazing revelations – but don’t worry, we won’t spoil the surprises for you. Suffice to say, they’re the kind of discoveries that we’d all like to have on our family trees! A couple of months ago we met the celebrities who’ll be scouring the archives this year for traces of their forebears. In case you missed it, they include EastEnders’ Danny Dyer (who looks set…

With its prestigious medical school, Edinburgh has long been at the centre of pioneering science. However, after the Judgement of Death Act 1823 meant only few cadavers were made available every year, robbing graves of fresh bodies became rife. In the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, you can still see the watchtowers built to protect the bodies of St Cuthbert’s and Old Carlton graveyards. Ulstermen William Burke and William Hare weren’t actually grave robbers, but swam in the same murky circles when they sold the body of an elderly lodger to the medical school’s Dr Robert Knox in 1827, to make up for the rent he had accrued before passing. Over the next year the pair delivered 15 more bodies to Dr Knox that they acquired by increasingly nefarious methods, from…

PROF NICK BARRATT is a Vice Chairman of AGRA and honorary associate Professor in Public History at the University of Nottingham. JANET BISHOP is Chairman of the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (ASGRA). CAROL KERRY-GREEN is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). ANTONY MARR is a member of AGRA and former Deputy Registrar. CHRIS POMERY researches education issues and first wrote about DNA and family history in 2000. ALAN STEWART is a family historian with 30 years of genealogy experience and 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 and the author of Tracing Your…

Q In 2002, after reading Prof Bryan Sykes’ book The Seven Daughters of Eve, I had an mtDNA test done by Oxford Ancestors. The results of this test were a great surprise, for it stated that I belong to Haplogroup C, which means that one of my direct female ancestors must have been Native American. I would love to find out who she was and to which people she belonged. I’ve traced my maternal line back to 18th-century Cornwall but can’t imagine where the Native American element could have come from. Could my DNA results be wrong? Clifford Tomos, by email A Rest assured, your result isn’t wrong. However, our mapping of the tree linking all the maternal haplogroups together has undergone great expansion and revision in the 14 years…

‘Members have been busy mapping the homes of local conscientious objectors’ Clements Hall Local History Group is researching the Scarcroft, Clementhorpe and South Bank areas of York during the First World War, finding out how the conflict itself – and the massive disruption which it produced – affected the lives of local people on the Home Front. To help its cause, the group has been awarded a £10,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a new two-year project, ‘The Impact and Legacy of the First World War on Our Neighbourhood’, which began in January 2016. While some men sought exemption from military service, many people from these densely-populated areas of the city enlisted voluntarily, and hundreds more were called up after conscription was introduced in the spring of 1916.…

• Ancestry  ancestry.co.uk The genealogy subscription website holds numerous maritime records, including an index of apprentices in merchant shipping and fishing at bit.ly/2bsBd35. • Books, Boxes and Boats maritimearchives.co.uk An excellent source of information with links to online sources relating to fishing, and also the Royal Navy and merchant shipping. • Crew List Index Project crewlist.org.uk Crew lists are among the best sources for tracing fishermen, and the Crew List Index Project (CLIP) is the best way to learn about them and access finding aids, such as searchable indexes of ships. The site also contains links to other sources of information. • TNA Research Guides: Merchant Navy bit.ly/TNAMerchantNavy The National Archives’ website has the best and most up-to-date online guides to sources on merchant shipping, including fishing. • Scottish Fisheries…

Twenty years of unrest, civil war and Puritan rule came to an end in 1660 in a counter-revolution almost universally welcomed. After the English Civil War and English Revolution (as it later became known) in the mid-17th century, a new republic was born, which then became a dictatorship under Oliver Cromwell ruling as Lord Protector. On his death in 1658, his son Richard was his preferred successor. This made the Protectorship a monarchy in all but name – ‘Tumbledown Dick’ had neither the ability to rule nor any qualification except being Cromwell’s son. There were fears among your ancestors of another civil war as Richard relied on the army's support while being opposed by parliament. No one wanted to see a conflict between the ruler and parliament acted out again,…

1666 “If all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?” Mary Astell, advocate of equal educational opportunities for women, is born in Newcastle. Her A Serious Proposal to the Ladies is published in 1694. 1834 The School of Medicine and Surgery is founded. This is the origin of what will become Newcastle University. 1852 The Mining Institute, or the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, is founded. The library is named after founder Nicholas Wood – to whom engineer Robert Stephenson was apprenticed. 1877 The first city football club, the Tyne Association, is formed. Four years later the Stanley Cricket Club forms a football team – Newcastle East End FC – which will become Newcastle United. 1910 The city celebrates as…

I am a retired employee of Eagle Star Insurance Company (now Zurich Insurance Company) and, in 1926, they unveiled a bronze memorial in their head office in London, dedicated to company employees who had lost their lives during the First World War. In 1950, a lower section was added to the memorial, dedicated to company staff that had died during the Second World War. Unfortunately, when the premises were closed the memorial ‘disappeared’. In 2014, approaching the 100th anniversary of the First World War, I established that the memorial had been dismantled and managed to trace it to the corner of an unused office where it had been collecting dust. Petitions were started by both pensioners and current staff for the memorial to be re-instated. I am honoured to say…

‘My father found his Mancunian mother-in-law almost impossible... because she never stopped talking!’ A turning point in my life – my daughter and her partner Sean are setting up home together. She has a job in South Wales (Newport, to be precise) and he’s going there too. They’ve been very organised about it all, with plans to rent for a couple of years and then try to buy, and we’re delighted as we love the area. It has great countryside, the local history is wonderful, and Cardiff down the road is a fantastic city. But here’s the real turning point. My wife and I, at least unofficially, have a new status – one with all sorts of implications. We are now ‘the in-laws’. I think back to my family history…

For centuries, the royal family has been under constant pressure to reproduce to ensure the crown passed from father to son. And with power and privilege – and marriages arranged as political unions – came temptation and adultery. Henry I fathered over 20 children, possibly as many as 29 – some the fruit of marriage, but many more born to mistresses. Edward III and his wife Philippa had 14 children together, while Charles II acknowledged 14 illegitimate offspring. Their descendants have multiplied with each new generation, watering down the blue blood over the course of hundreds of years. Little wonder, then, that it is estimated that millions of us now have royal blood, even if it’s just a smidge. The key is to find a ‘gateway ancestor’ in your family…

WOLVERHAMPTON CITY ARCHIVES A visit to the archives allows you to search photographs and records of churches, schools and clubs that may not be available online. Books on social history, maps and street directories may help you track down your kin. See wolverhamptonart.org.uk for more information. CHURCH COURTS These courts presided over such misdemeanours as fornication and missing church, as well as things like land disputes. The Diocesan Courts of the Archbishop of York, 1300-1858, can be found online at hrionline.ac.uk. DARK DEEDS For more grisly detail on grave robbing, read The Science Museum’s article on ‘using the dead’ at sciencemuseum.org. uk/broughttolife/themes/understandingthebody/dead.…

Q Morton Edward Cavendish was born on 4 December, 1899, and baptised on 10 January, 1900. On his baptismal record his father was recorded as Edward Morton Cavendish and his mother as Edith, and they lived at 3 Cavendish Mansions, Battersea. The father was recorded as a bank manager. Edward Morton was possibly born in Ireland around 1838. The family told stories that he was related to the Duke of Devonshire. It was said that he married in his 60s to an Edith Johnson who was much younger than him. I can find no record of this marriage. In the 1901 census, Edith was 23 and her son, Morton, was one year old. Edith was listed as wife but with no marital status. They lived at 3 Cambridge Mansions, Battersea.…

Q I was always told our Shepherd family was London born and bred. So it came as quite a surprise when census documents showed that my 3x great grandfather, Francis Graham Shepherd, was born in Scotland. His death certificate (1875) suggests that he was born about 1814, and the census records agree. In 1836 he married Sarah Gaddes in St Mary, Lambeth, but his father was not mentioned. I have very little to go on as the census records just say ‘Scotland’. Is there anything more I can do? Wendy Shepherd, by email A Unfortunately, this is a common problem – often an 1871 census, for some reason, will show the actual place of birth if born out of England, but not so in this case. A search of the…

This month’s brick walls ALEXANDER/Swindon I am trying to trace George Frederick Alexander. We believe he is the son of George Frederick Alexander, born 1820 in Bristol and Diana Johanna Weilbach, born c1824 in the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. There was also a sister, Diana Mary Alexander, who was born in 1849 in Calcutta but lived later in Clifton, Bristol. The only trace I can find of him is in the 1911 census with his wife, Alice Maude (Neill), living near Swindon with their son, George Neill Alexander, born 1906. I have checked all the censuses from 1851 onwards for both parents and the sister and he does not appear as living with either family. He gives his age in the 1911 census as 40, making his…

“If you have a servant in your family tree, you might have come across terms for obsolete occupations on the census. That’s because there were some highly defined roles in domestic service, particularly in larger households where the workload was sub-divided. Some interesting roles include scullion, a maid who worked in a scullery; tweenie or tweeny, a maid who worked ‘between the stairs’ helping both the cook and housemaid; and the ‘necessary woman’, a servant who emptied and cleaned chamber pots. My first port of call is always the Oxford English Dictionary (oed.com). This explains where the term was first used and in what context, together with references from original sources. If your library subscribes to the OED resource, you can access it from home with your library card. While…

Occupiers You’ll find the tenant’s name listed here. Description of the property In this case a house, offices and land. Offices were usually farm buildings or out buildings. The details of the lease held by the tenant Many were tenants ‘at will’ and had no lease. Details of a lease may record the children of the tenant as lives of the lease and the year when the lease commenced. Immediate lessor (landlord) On this record, the landlord has been described as a ‘middleman’, which means that he in turn leased his property from the landowner and then sublet the property to the tenant. Amount of annual rent This is a useful way of determining the value of the property and the social standing of the tenant. Observations Under ‘observations’, the…

Neither the discharge documents nor the muster rolls for the Napoleonic period make any mention of women, but soldiers’ wives played an important part in the regiment. Their gradual appearance in the records during the 19th century helps show the slow change of attitude that helped to produce a more modern army. The army couldn’t prevent a soldier marrying, but unless he received the Colonel’s permission his wife had no rights. Only six men in a hundred were allowed to marry “on the strength” which meant their wives could live in the barracks with them (with little privacy). They were expected to do washing and some menial work in exchange for free rations. When the regiment went overseas only women “on the strength” were allowed to accompany it, leaving behind…

Lyon’s Corner Houses and tea rooms in London feature in many metropolitan memories, especially from the Second World War – perhaps a relative worked as a ‘nippy’ at Lyon’s? Two other names that may prompt a flood of reminiscences are Cadena and Kardomah, both popular cafe chains that brought respectable opportunities for social eating, offering hot drinks and simple lunchtime fare, as well as dancing and formal meals in the evenings. Their presence in so many towns means a greater likelihood of a personal connection for you. Use online marketplaces such as eBay for old postcards and try blogs like kardomah.blogspot.co.uk as good starting points for your research. Popular between 1900 and 1960, Kardomah cafes originated in Liverpool and opened branches from Aberdeen to Watford by way of Cardiff and…

‘While the menfolk fished, their wives made and mended the nets’ Fishing is an ancient and complex industry; ancient, in that its roots go far back into prehistory, and complex because it embraces a wide array of boats and fishing methods, catching a variety of species which are processed and marketed in very different ways. Yet the changes of the 19th and 20th centuries affected everyone, from the smallest inshore fisherman to the deep-sea trawlers fishing thousands of miles from home. Historically, fishing has been conducted on a small scale, with often isolated fishing villages deploying a few boats manned by local men and boys, producing only a small surplus for the market. This continued throughout the 19th century in many ‘inshore’ fisheries all around the coasts of Britain. In…

 How long have you been doing your research and what inspired you to begin? ‘Marc kindly transcribed the Belgian records into English’ I began my research in 2004 knowing that my mother’s side of the family had an intriguing history. I couldn’t wait to find out more. What had you found out before hitting your brick wall? My mum, Maruja, spent some of her childhood in Malaga, Spain, where her father worked for a cable company. Her parents were Emile and Myrtis Pilkington (née Bellamy) and she had a brother called Peter. Myrtis’ father was ill in London, dying of cancer, so the entire family – my grandparents, Maruja and Peter – all set off on the long journey to visit him. It was the early 1930s at the time,…

An apron was essential for women, giving the skirt protection from daily wear. If made of linen, it was also a garment that could be easily washed. The dress of ordinary people was much plainer than that of the elite, although still following the same outline, with men wearing breeches and open-fronted doublets. Men were clean-shaven, except for perhaps a moustache. Long, curled hair was the style, although not generally the elongated length seen at the king’s court. Women also wore close-fitting caps, which hid most of their hair.…

For information about the Northumberland county archives you need to go to experience woodhorn.com/catalogue. Here you’ll find details of Woodhorn Archives opening times and holdings, which include the all important parish registers for the historic county. For more Newcastle-centric material you need to try Tyne and Wear Archives (twarchives.org.uk), which has user guides and a searchable catalogue, or there’s the aforementioned Local Studies department website (at newcastle.gov.uk/ libraries). The latter includes various fact sheets and guides about Newcastle’s history, plus you can explore their photographic collections via Flickr (at flickr.com/photos/newcastlelibraries), which includes around 7,000 images of the North East. Another useful Flickr page is flickr.com/photos/illustratedchronicleww1 where you’ll find thousands of images printed in the Illustrated Chronicle of soldiers or sailors who served in the First World War and were wounded, killed or…

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…

New series arrives Who Do You Think You Are? October BBC One It was back in July when, somewhat to the nation’s surprise, the first teasers about forthcoming episodes of WDYTYA? revealed that EastEnders actor Danny Dyer is descended from royalty. But how and via which royals? Hopefully this autumn, we should get the chance to find out, as Dyer’s journey into the past kicks off the 13th series. The caveat here is that we were still waiting for transmission details to be confirmed as WDYTYA? Magazine went to press, but it seems likely that ten new shows will be on our screens starting in October. In no particular order, these will include the stories of Dyer, Cheryl, Warwick Davis, comedian Greg Davies, TV presenter Liz Bonnin, Sir Ian McKellen,…

New York censuses Familysearch.org is placing a large number of sources online, many with images included, that can be searched and viewed free of charge. The New York state censuses are included among this and can be searched for by following these steps: 1 New York has state censuses from 1855-1925 on a decennial basis (apart from 1895, which is replaced by 1892, and there is nothing for the 1880s). Enter ‘familysearch 1875 New York census’ (or whichever year you wish to search) in your search engine to be taken to the page below. 2 Once here, you can enter your search details. For example, looking for Francis Sims, born c1830, enter those details in the appropriate boxes and press ‘Search’ (you can click on the ‘birth’ option to…