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

ADVERTISING 0117 314 8823 andy.williams@  immediate.co.uk EDITORIAL 0117 314 7400 wdytyaeditorial@  immediatemedia.co.uk Q&A QUERIES wdytyaquestions@  immediate.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS 0844 844 0939* wdytya@  servicehelpline.co.uk WDYTYA? APP SUPPORT apps.immediate.  co.uk/support WEBSITE QUERIES wdytyaeditorial@  immediatemedia.co.uk *Calls to this number from a BT landline will cost no more than 5p per minute. Calls from mobiles and other providers may vary. Overseas subscribers call 01795 414697…

I started doing family research after watching the WDYTYA? episode with Robert Lindsay. His grandfather ferried soldiers from the warships to the shore at Gallipoli. My grandfather was one of those soldiers in one of those boats. Early in 2015 I was shown an old black and white photo by the son of a friend of mine. It was a First World War Scottish soldier in dress uniform with tartan trews and a Glengarry cap. His gran had given him the photo. She had found it many years previously in her mother’s house after she had passed away and thought it might have been her father who had passed away earlier. My job was to identify the soldier from a photo and a possible name, which was luckily quite unusual.…

4.3 million historic Lincolnshire parish records have been made fully searchable online for the first time at findmypast.co.uk 33 million Finnish family history records spanning 1657-1915 can now be searched on the web by visiting myheritage.com 10,000 records have been uploaded to the Early Irish Birth Index at irishancestors.ie, effectively doubling the database in size 89 new entries have been added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (oxforddnb.com), including 40 men and women born in Hull – the UK’s City of Culture for 2017 20,000 slave owners are recorded in a database managed by UCL’s new Centre for Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership (ucl.ac.uk/lbs)…

A significant tranche of historic Oxfordshire parish registers has been uploaded to ancestry.co.uk. Comprising over 4.1 million records, the four collections provide details of baptisms, banns, marriages and burials dating back to the reign of Henry VIII. The material has been released in partnership with Oxfordshire Family History Society (OFHS), which officially launched the datasets at its 40th anniversary fair in Woodstock on Saturday 1 October. In order to make the records available, OFHS volunteers spent two years working alongside Oxfordshire History Centre and individual parishes across the county to arrange for their register collections to be scanned. Once this had been completed, the society then signed a deal with Ancestry, which acquired the digital files and created a series of searchable indexes. OFHS publicity coordinator, Wendy Archer, said the…

Last issue we set out the first four weekly steps to get you going. By now you should have spoken to relatives to find out what they know about your family history, and dug out all the documents and photos that you can lay your hands on. Hopefully this will have given you a skeleton family tree, and you’ve been able to confirm some of the names and dates you’ve gathered by ordering a batch of birth certificates and looking for people in the 1939 Register and census returns stretching from 1841 to 1911. We briefly looked at the major websites out there to help you find your ancestors, and you should have taken advantage of free trial subscriptions and discovered whether you can access extra resources using your local…

If have roots in Britain it’s you , almost certain that forebears your were involved in some with the way nation’s military or civilian services. Learn more about their stories at the National Memorial Arboretum. The beautifully maturing site in Staffordshire is home to more than 330 memorials. Each pays tribute to a different conflict, sacrifice or service, from the Armed Forces Memorial (pictured above) to sections dedicated to the police, fire and ambulance services. It’s an inspiring and fascinating place to spend a day, with over 150 acres of carefully landscaped grounds to explore. Attend the daily service of Remembrance at the on-site chapel before embarking on a guided tour or land train trip, polished off with a slice of homemade cake in The Restaurant. Entry to the site…

Chaplin was born in 1889 in South London. His parents were music hall entertainers, but his father abandoned the family when Chaplin was two, leaving his mother, Hannah, in great financial difficulty. She continued to sing until during one performance her voice finally gave out, and Chapllin at the age of five took over from her. It happened just once but Hannah encouraged him; as he recalled, she “imbued me with the feeling I had some sort of talent.” She succumbed to mental health problems and Chaplin and his brother Sydney were put into a workhouse in Hanwell. Afterwards they went to live with their father who helped Chaplin find work with a clog-dancing troupe when he was only ten; this was the first step in his career as a…

FAMILY HISTORY CENTRES The internet has revolutionised our research, but not everything is online and microfiche could still reveal important clues. Many counties have family history centres that provide access to resources not available online and you can benefit from the expert knowledge of the staff who work there. Local authority cuts have taken their toll on opening hours, so check before you visit. RELATIVES Elderly relatives can be a valuable resource. Before beginning any research it’s important to ask the oldest members of your family what they know and if possible record the conversation. While they might make mistakes on the specifics, they will almost certainly provide clues and family stories. Be aware, however, that all families keep secrets – as David discovered.…

Q My partner’s great great grandfather, Robert Dunn, was born in Strood, Kent, in 1800 and married Elizabeth Ironside in Wyke Regis, Dorset, in 1820. In 1830 he joined the new Metropolitan Police Force and, after many citations, in 1850 was promoted to superintendant of the Hertfordshire Police. He died in 1885 and is buried in Bengeo Cemetery. I can find no definitive record as to the names and birthplaces of his parents. Some online trees give them as Robert and Jane (Jervis) and others as Malcolm and Hester. These trees both give a film No: 146978 for the citation records. Derek Archer, by email A Without exception, the best evidence that can be produced is from primary sources. Robert Dunn says on every occasion when asked by the census…

Q I can’t find my father, John James Brown (born September 1908 in Gateshead), on the 1911 census. His mother was Hannah Brown née Park born in Maryport, Cumberland, 1887 and father David Brown born Arlecdon, Cumberland, in 1877. They married in Whitehaven in 1906 and there might have been another child called Winifred. David Brown was an iron ore miner, maybe working in Frizington, Cumberland. Margaret Windle, by email A I too was unable to find John James Brown or Hannah Brown, in the 1911 census, but I did find a man who is almost certainly your grandfather David Brown. He was a coal miner aged 32, living alone at 36 Edward Street, Blaydon (in Gateshead Registration District), who was born in Frizington, Cumberland, in the civil parish of…

Lancashire Cricket team? 1928 bit.ly/2dQKK8T This photograph includes my Dad, CD Foxlow, in what I assume is a cricket team, as he once lived in Queen’s Avenue, Old Trafford, Manchester. It’s dated circa 1928, does anyone recognise any of the players or the cap badges? pebble-or-ripple Power/Connors – County Waterford bit.ly/2dDFDFK James Hogan married Joanna Power at Rathgormack, County Waterford on 26 July 1857. They subsequently had seven children: Ellen (1858), Michael (1860), James (1862), Mary (1865) John (1867), Patrick (1869) and Thomas (1871). Why then on all the entries in the Church (RC) baptism register is the mother noted as Johanna Connors (Connor/Conners), and also on all the birth certificates (after 1864) as Connors (Connor/ Conners) except for Mary’s birth certificate in 1865 where she is named as Joney…

“There’s a fascinating film called They Stand Ready, posted on YouTube by The National Archives (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=U3aerP7GyWE), which brings to life the way that National Service was promoted by the government during the 1950s. Clever and sophisticated, it runs for 19 minutes and follows a fictitious ‘ordinary man’ called John Saunders through his time with the Royal Armoured Corps. The film is shot in the style of films that were popular at the time, with sweeping shots of foreign climes and plenty of comical moments, accompanied by a lively sequence of incidental music. The effect is comforting and reassuring. No attempt is made to deny the difficulties that compulsory service could bring: the disruption to family life and to men’s careers, the nervousness felt by those with no military experience. But…

Tenant’s name Find your ancestor’s name in this column. A run of rentals will show how long the farmer and his family lived on the estate. Description of the property This example describes the nature of the property – cottage, farm, land, and some additional financial details – but it does not give the extent of the land. Date Rents were due on the quarter days. Lady Day is 25 March, although many estates continued to use the old calendar: Old Lady Day was 6 April in the new style. Some estate rentals record the date the tenant entered the property. Rent The amount due and the amount actually paid are recorded, together with a note of rents in arrear. 1913 was a good year – when times were hard,…

Appeals Soldiers could appeal to a court martial against a commanding officer’s decision and an ‘A’ here indicates this is an appeal. This box is rarely used. Soldier’s name All too often all that is given is a single initial or a single first name. This means great care needs to be taken before deciding the soldier is your relative. The name of the regiment Sometimes in the form of initials – KRRC is King’s Royal Rifle Corps for example. Date of trial They usually only lasted a day or two and were reported in the press soon after. Rank The soldier’s rank at the time of the trial. His rank might be reduced as part of his punishment. The soldier’s unit Where he’s an infantryman it’s his battalion number…

‘Conditions within the camps were often extremely basic’ At the end of the Second World War, many of the Polish Allied Forces who had fought under British command refused to return to their home country, behind the Iron Curtain. Poland was now a communist country and the Polish forces argued that despite all that had happened to Poland during the war, one occupier (Nazi Germany) had simply been replaced by another (the Soviet Union). To repay its debt to the Poles, Britain agreed to resettle the Polish soldiers and their families and the Polish Resettlement Act, passed in 1947, gave them civil rights. These forces were temporarily housed in disused army bases by the National Assistance Board to await employment and demobilisation. Conditions within the camps were often extremely basic,…

DENTIFRICE Tooth-powder or paste, which was often made of myrrh, camphor or pumice OPERATOR FOR THE TEETH A person skilled in drawing teeth and in making artificial ones PELICAN An instrument for extracting teeth consisting of one or two beak-like prongs hinged to a shaft TOOTH-KEY A dentist’s instrument that turned like a key to extract teeth, replaced the pelican which was more brutal TRANSPLANTING OF TEETH The poor were paid to have healthy teeth removed, which were then placed into wealthy people’s mouths ‘WATERLOO’ TEETH Dentures made from teeth obtained from battlefields and also from mortuaries…

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES Newspaper archives can be a rich alternative source of information and stories about ancestors who don’t appear in other records, as Liz discovered. The British Newspaper Archive is searchable online at britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk and also on Findmypast, and there are other smaller collections on the internet too. FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS Photos can offer clues or raise more questions. See what older relatives have stashed away – or see what distant family members have in their collections with a call out on forums such as whodoyou thinkyouaremagazine.com/ forum. Try posting photos there to get answers to identification queries.…

“The crowd behaved worse than I have ever seen them do and we were mobbed” On the high street of the picturesque Sussex town Lewes, there is a plaque that reads: “Dr Richard Russell (1687-1759) author of a dissertation concerning the use of sea water in diseases of the glands (1750).” Although this might seem quite an insignificant fact to commemorate with a plaque, it goes on to explain that Lewes-born Dr Russell is credited with launching the city of Brighton as a coastal resort. He did this by advocating the health benefits of sea bathing and before he came to the town 'Brighthelmstone' was just a fishing community. When Dr Russell moved to Brighton in 1753, he built a house for himself and his patients, from where he further…

The Second World War at Sea in Photographs: 1945 by Phil Carradice (Amberley Publishing, £14.99) Phil Carradice presents a large collection of rare photographs chronicling the last year of the Second World War at sea. April 1945 offers an especially exciting selection of images, as these months saw the US-Allied invasion of Okinawa, which was the largest naval operation in the Pacific during the war. Carradice really brings to life the great triumphs, but also harrowing tribulations of 1945. Dutch Courage: Special Forces in the Netherlands 1944–45 by Jelle Hooiveld (Amberley Publishing, £18) From September 1944, elite teams composed of British, American, French and Dutch volunteers were deployed behind enemy lines in the occupied Netherlands. A researcher for the Netherlands Institute of Military History at the Dutch Ministry of Defence,…

LONDON Creating a Website for Family History 12 November SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS   sog.org.uk/events 020 7553 3290 Want to share your research with relatives and connect with other family historians? In this half-day course, Paul Carter will teach you how to put your family history online. Tickets are £20. Celebrating our Shared Heritage: Richmond Park 20 November RICHMOND PARK richmondhistory.org.uk Richmond History Society hosts a free afternoon tea event in the Belvedere Suite at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park. There will be talks on the park’s history, as well as the opportunity to view resources from the Hearsum Collection and the Museum of Richmond. Booking required. SOUTH EAST West Surrey FHS Fair and Open Day 5 November WOKING LEISURE CENTRE wsfhs.co.uk West Surrey FHS’s open day will feature free talks,…

Jonathan Brown, in his feature on researching rural ancestors (p52), starts by reminding us city folk that we may not need to go back many generations to find our rural roots. My grandfather was the son of a country carpenter, beyond that it’s ag labs all the way on that branch, so I was fascinated to find out what resources might be available for these, mostly undocumented, kin. I think a trip to the newly reopened Museum of English Rural Life in Reading might be on the cards. This same grandfather fought in the First World War and November is a time when we traditionally remember the men in trenches, but the woman he later married was fighting a different battle. My grandmother was in the Women’s Land Army supporting…

 A brand-new version of ScotlandsPeople (scotlands people.gov.uk) has launched online. ‘We hope users agree that the site delivers a richer and more seamless experience’ The revamped genealogy website – containing millions of digitised records held by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) – boasts an improved search facility and enhanced user interface, designed to be accessible on a range of devices. While the price of purchasing pay-per-view credits has increased (now £7.50 instead of £7 for 30 credits), users are no longer charged for accessing statutory index entries to birth, marriage, death, Old Parish Register (OPR) and Open Census records. Crucially, all credits, saved images and searches from the old site are still available to users when they log in. The website has been designed by tech firm CACI, which won…

A new initiative is calling on volunteers to help preserve historic English and Scottish place names. Building on the success of a similar initiative for Wales (cymru1900wales.org), the ‘crowdsourcing’ project – dubbed GB1900 – is asking web users to transcribe the name of every town, street and natural feature recorded on 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps. Participants can also use the project website to share stories or memories they may have of a specific location. Already, more than 600 volunteers have taken part, together submitting over 490,000 transcriptions. Once complete, the final list of place names will be the world’s largest-ever historical gazetteer, available for researchers to access for free under a Creative Commons licence. Find out more and start transcribing at gb1900.org.…

Nearly half a million Nuneaton and North Warwickshire parish records have been added to thegenealogist.co.uk. Dating back to the 1700s, the transcriptions provide the names of 300,000 people baptised in the area, along with details of more than 90,000 individuals listed in marriage registers and 60,000 people from burial registers. The data has been made available thanks to a partnership with Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society (NNWFHS), whose members transcribed the original records. As well as being released on TheGenealogist, the material has also been uploaded to sister site FHS Online (fhs-online.co.uk)– a platform designed especially for societies hoping to sell their products on the web. Crucially for organisations such as NNWFHS, all revenue made through the FHS Online service is fed back to the original data providers.…

TROUBLE CAUSED BY BOYS’ FIREWORK PRANK Going into a stationer’s shop at Aberdeen yesterday, a pair of young boys bought a firework “volcano”, and when the girl assistant turned away to serve another customer, one of them put a match to the fuse. Within the next few seconds:– A showcase containing £3 worth of fireworks exploded with a blinding flash, filling the shop with smoke; One of the boys ran into a back room and dived straight into a window, breaking the glass and cutting his hand; and Horses attached to a hearse into which a coffin was being placed took fright, and were only prevented from stampeding by two of the mounters, who seized their heads and helped to quieten them.…

‘Unfortunately, recording this amount of information was too onerous’ The civil registration of all marriages that took place in England and Wales from 1 July 1837 allows us to take our family history search back to the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign, because the certificates provide the bride and groom’s fathers’ names and occupations, so you can join the dots back to the previous generation. If the father’s name was left blank this often signifies that person was born out of wedlock, in which case their surname was probably their mother’s maiden surname and their birth certificate is unlikely to disclose the father’s identity either. Marriage certificates for England and Wales cost £9.25 and reveal whether either party had been previously married and widowed or divorced, their abode, and whether…

We all know how useful elderly relatives can be when it comes to family history. They know the stories you don’t; they can put names to the faces on old photographs and help fill in the colourful details that you don’t often find in the documentary sources. But what if your parents or grandparents are hiding a secret? WDYTYA? Magazine reader David Atkinson knew very little about his Dorset relations, but he had no idea what his relatives’ silence was hiding until he decided to research his past. “I was born in south Oxfordshire, but we moved to Wimborne, Dorset, just after we got married,” he says. “At that point, I knew that my maternal grandmother was from the county, but I didn’t know much more than that.” About 15…

Q I have a family bible in the back of which is an entry for Henry Crownfield, born 8 September 1699 in Norwich. His daughter, Martha, born 9 February 1746, married Benjamin Mileham, born 23 October 1745 also in Norwich. Benjamin died in October 1823 leaving two sons and three or four daughters. A page from the bible is missing and I am trying to find out the connection between the above and the following. John Kitton, born in Norwich (date uncertain) married Mary Cariss Newson on 10 April 1846. His father was also called John Kitton. They had a daughter, Ellen Mary, born 5 February 1847. She married James Smyth on 14 September 1870. Ellen and James were my great grandparents. One of the John Kittons was executor of…

SEAFARING FOREBEARS David Suchet had always been fond of boats so wanted to know if he had any seafaring ancestors. He discovered that his maternal great great grandfather, George Jezzard, was a mariner in the latter part of the 19th century. David traced his 40-year career, which included the wrecking of a ship that George was master of. We traced George’s career using extant sources at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (rmg.co.uk). These included George’s master mariner’s certificate and also entries in Lloyd’s List. The latter contained details of the shipwreck that George was involved in in 1860. David next consulted local newspapers to uncover the details of the shipwreck during a storm. Further details about merchant mariner records at the NMM can be found here: rmg.co.uk/discover/researchers/research-guides/ research-guide-crmg.co.uk/discover/researchers/research-guides/ research-guide-c2-merchant-navy-tracing-people-master-mariners2-merchant-navy-tracing-people-master-mariners. Depending…

‘These albums may provide the only photographic image of an individual that was ever taken’ At the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century, it was a common practice for local police forces to keep a photographic record of offenders. If you have any criminal ancestors, it is always worth checking your local record office to see if it holds such a record. These albums may provide the only photographic image of an individual that was ever taken, and offer much interesting detail about their offences and personal circumstances. Archivist Michèle Leerson tells us all about one such album in the Jersey Archive and highlights the role of the ‘centenier’, which is unique to the Jersey police system. Which document have you chosen? Our gem is a…

While stylish websites may be thin on the ground, this is a period of British history that seems to have attracted a number of historians and former soldiers to write about their experiences. Just type ‘National Service’ into your favoured online bookshop and a host of titles appear. One example comes from the man behind this National Service blog (nationalservicememoirs.co.uk). The parent book, Get In, Get Out and Get Away, is the story of National Service in the British Cameroons. Regimental museums may contain useful information for piecing together a soldier’s movements and it’s worth checking what sort of material they preserve. For example, the Suffolk Regimental Museum’s archive page (suffolkregimentmuseum.co.uk/archive) includes details of various biographies of 1950s National Service privates deposited with the museum. The Ewell and Epsom History…

There has been a mini-industry of rural reminiscences produced for publication and archive collections often have unpublished manuscript recollections to explore. An entry in the archive catalogue for farm diary might set the pulse racing, as we look forward to a latter-day Samuel Pepys describing life on the farm, all his family and village acquaintances in vivid detail. There are some diaries like that, but not very many. Most farm diaries were more like our desk diaries and you can gain a lot of information about the farmer’s circle of working contacts from them. Early in the 19th century, stationers were printing diaries for farmers’ use and into their pages went records of appointments and daily activities, notes on the weather, the fields being harvested, the cows put to the…

Most soldiers kept their noses clean and so avoided the necessity of a formal trial The digitisation of the army’s First World War Court Martial registers by ancestry.co.uk provides another chance (though a slim one) for researchers whose ancestors’ records were destroyed in the Second World War to find a clue to their unit and their war service. It’s a slim chance because most soldiers kept their noses clean and so avoided the necessity of a formal trial. Most low-level offences, such as being late on parade or having dirty equipment, were dealt with summarily by the non-commissioned and junior commissioned officers. More serious offences could, if the soldier agreed, be dealt with by his commanding officer with the power to inflict punishments of up to 28 days detention or…

‘These new treatments coincided with an increase in sugar consumption’ Before the dental profession in Britain developed in the mid-19th century, there were various occupations offering teeth extraction as part of their work. They included barbers, blacksmiths, ‘tooth-drawers’, itinerants and quacks. At this time, removing bad teeth was the full extent of dental surgery. By the 17th century, these ‘operators for the teeth’ started to offer their customers false teeth as well as extractions. Dentures were often made from walrus, elephant or hippopotamus ivory, and were only available for the very rich. From around 1750, ‘operators for the teeth’ were describing themselves as ‘dentists’ and advertising a comprehensive range of services, which included treating gum disease, scaling, fillings, dentures, tooth whitening and transplants. These new treatments coincided with an increase…

• Beamish – The Living Museum of the North beamish.org.uk/ explore-discover/1900s-town Visit Beamish to see a 1900s dental surgery and some terrifying-looking dental instruments. • British Dental Association Museum bda.org/museum/Pages/   index.aspx The British Dental Association Museum holds the largest collection relating to the history of dentistry in the UK. • The Story of Dentistry bda.org/museum/ the-story-of-dentistry Discover the history of dentistry, including a fascinating timeline. • Ancestry ancestry.co.uk Recently digitised records of the Dentists’ Register covering the years 1879-1942. • The Guardian – A History of Dentistry in Pictures theguardian.com/society/   gallery/2014/jun/16/a-history-of-dentistry-in-pictures Fascinating images of dentistry from the Middle Ages to the modern day.…

1086 Brighton is recorded in the Domesday Book as Bristelmestune. The little fishing village is valued at £12 and is charged an annual rent of 4,000 herring. 1750 Dr Richard Russell of Lewes, who had been sending his patients to bathe at Brighthelmstone for many years, publishes De Tabe Glandulari , advocating seawater and sea bathing for all manner of ills. 1858 Woodingdean Well is green-lit by Brighton’s Board of Guardians. Although proposed as a money-saving source of water, the well takes four years to dig, and it remains the deepest hand-excavated well in the world to this day. 1896 In November the Mayor and Mayoress open Magnus Volk’s sea-going train, which carries passengers above the waves between Brighton and Rottingdean. It closes for good in 1900. 1896 The decrepit…

BOOKS Tracing Your Twentieth Century Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians by Karen Bali (Pen & Sword Books, 224 pages, £11.99) The history behind a family’s migration from Kenya, and the decline in opportunities for work in domestic service. A teacher’s thoughts on hearing that the fathers of half her pupils had gone down with the Titanic . These are among the subjects unearthed by this excellent new book from Pen and Sword. Karen Bali has devoted much of her working life to helping people find living relatives. She has vast experience of researching family history in modern times and this shows in her new guide to research in the 20th century. The book starts with a potted history of the century, setting our own and our ancestors’ lives into…

Irish Civil records Many of us have an Irish ancestor thanks to the amount of emigration from Ireland from the 19th century onwards. Masses of civil records can be searched and viewed online for free at irishgenealogy.ie – great news for those of us with Irish roots! 1 Choose an option to search, in this case ‘Civil records’ located at the top and towards the left of the page. You will then be taken to the search page where you can enter the known details and the type of search you wish to conduct. For example, the birth of Brona MaGee circa 1900. 2 Press ‘Search’ to begin. You will be taken through an automated anti-phishing page and will need to enter your name before proceeding to the results page.…

A wearing death In the Summer issue, reader Brian Lake asked about “a wearing” listed as a cause of death. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “wearing” as: “Exhausting, tiring; enfeebling by continued strain or irritation”. A Family Historian’s Guide to Illness, Disease & Death Certificates, by Elizabeth Briggs, defines exhaustion as “weakness and inability to respond to stimuli, fight infection and disease”. Could “a wearing” be a general term for any disease or condition that gradually wore a person out? For example, I have two death certificates, one of which gives cause of death as “exhaustion due to suppuration of the spine”, which a doctor friend tells me was tuberculosis, and the other as “exhaustion due to old age”. Carolyn Paisley, by email Editor replies: Has any other reader come…

‘There are the names of brothers, of fathers and sons, reflecting the family tragedies so typical of any fishing port’ This August we made a short visit to Hull and East Yorkshire, an area I did not know well and which proved to be charming and packed with historical interest. Hull itself was in chaos. The city centre is being repaved and smartened up ready for its role as City of Culture next year – the parts that had been completed looked great. We stayed in my brother-in-law’s flat overlooking the marina. Once one of the city’s historic docks, it’s now a delightful place to visit on a sunny day with pubs, restaurants, large numbers of yachts, and fine views across the wide Humber to Lincolnshire. Among the places we…

Ophthalmia, a severe infection of the eye that can cause blindness, was very prevalent in Hanwell. It was brought to the workhouse by infected pauper children who were malnourished and living in crowded conditions. The worst outbreak in the school occurred in 1862 when 686 children out of 1,162 had the disease – several of them losing their sight. A separate infirmary was built, but in 1874 Mr Nettleship, an inspector of the metropolitan schools, reported that Hanwell was exceptionally bad. As a result iron huts were built as isolation wards. Despite the fact that by 1888, 2,649 children had been isolated in the iron huts, the problem persisted. It became a national scandal with the matter being tabled in the House of Commons. Finally the school’s managers agreed to…

RECORDS • London Metropolitan Archives 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB search.lma.gov.uk Central London School District Records 1788-1935 are held here including Board minutes and committees records such as the Education, House, Farm, Industrial training and Ophthalmia committees, plus registers and legal documents. • The National Archives Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU nationalarchives.gov.uk TNA holds correspondence between the Poor Law commissioners and individual unions, 1834 -1900. There are reports of Royal Commissions and parliamentary select committees, as well as the annual reports of the Poor Law commissioners. • British Newspaper Library  britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Newspapers reported meetings of their local board of guardians, and debates about the treatment of the poor. WEBSITES • The Workhouse workhouses.org.uk • Children’s Homes childrenshomes.org.uk Comprehensive websites with long lists of resources – both administrated by…

The office of coroner is an ancient one, going back to the reign of William the Conqueror. The word derives from the word for ‘crown’ and the coroner is directly responsible to the monarch, not an intermediate power. The coroner ‘was’ the court: it was not necessarily a building. Where the coroner was sitting in session, that was the coroner’s court. Very often, particularly in rural areas where there were limited civic facilities, the coroner would convene his court in a public house. This may well have been the case with David’s relatives. The coroner’s court would conduct an inquest to determine the manner and means by which a person met their death, when it was not obviously by natural causes. The coroner would have both medical and legal qualifications;…

JANET BISHOP is chairman of the Association of Scottish Genealogists and researchers in Archives (ASGRA). PAUL BLAKE co-wrote Discover Your Roots and is a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists (SOG). ANTONY MARR is a member of the Association of Genealogists and researchers in Archives (AGRA). JUDITH MOORE is a member of the Association of Genealogists and researchers in Archives (AGRA). STEPHEN D PORTER has been investigating family history for 45 years. He has a particular interest in Jamaica, where he lived for 28 years. 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. SIMON WILLS is a maritime genealogist, author and…

Q When he was 12, my grandfather, Arthur Fryer, was a cabin boy aboard a ship that left London and later sank off the New Zealand coast in 1881. He was born in Aldgate in London on 25 June 1869. I am interested in finding out the ship’s name and any other details. Arthur ran away to sea – we think he may have been living in a workhouse. In New Zealand, he was taken in by a family of sheep farmers and spent many years with them before eventually returning to England. Irene Beryl Bispham (nee Fryer), by email A People who survived shipwrecks are often harder to trace than those who died. I would start by looking through New Zealand newspapers to see what you can find. Fortunately,…

Q My father, Melford Edward Lattibeaudiere (born on 18 July 1939 in Clarendon, Jamaica), passed away five years ago leaving very limited information on his family. He once told me his father’s name was Felix and his mother was Lousette Anderson. He may also have had some brothers. I’ve had a look at the Jamaica collection on FamilySearch and found several Lattibeaudieres, but none of them looks like my family. Maurice Lattibeaudiere, by email A FamilySearch is the first place to look for images of the original civil registration certificates of births, marriages and deaths for Jamaica. You won’t find the birth of your father in 1939 because they stop at 1935 for births, 1950 for marriages while death certificates are available up to the 1980s. Earlier this year the…

The execution of 346 men during the First World War has long caused controversy and it’s this that has preserved details of many of the Field General Courts Martial. As many as 272 records survive and can be traced using TNA’s Discovery search engine using the keywords “offence” and “pardon” in series WO 71, as the men received an official pardon in 2007. Though the fact men were shot is common knowledge, what’s less well-known is that 3,080 men received the death sentence and nearly 90 per cent were reprieved during the review process. It’s also frequently forgotten that 37 of the men shot had been found guilty of murder and that 91 were already under a suspended sentence. Questions were asked about military executions even while the war was…

From 1918, women joining the Women’s Land Army could choose to work in either agriculture, timber or forage. This latter section had employed women to provide fodder for the army’s horses since 1915. Cicely Spencer was 28 years old at the start of the war and had been a teacher, but after a bout of pneumonia, a doctor advised her to try work in the open air. She bought a tweed suit and went to an interview “with a Lieutenant who thought I was a farmer’s daughter.” In November 1915, she was appointed to be a Forwarding Supervisor, dealing with the logistics of transporting hay. “I felt sure I have made a good choice,” she wrote, “and determined to do anything I might be asked to do, and to the…

Women have practised dentistry for centuries, initially as tooth-drawers. The earliest evidence of this can be seen in a French print from the late 16th century depicting a female dentist at work. In 1544, when the barber-surgeons received their charter from Henry VIII, women were admitted under the same terms as men. They weren’t, however, allowed to wear the livery because that would have entitled them to a vote in the City of London. In 1878, the Dentists Act barred women from the new Dentists’ Register. This was because they were refused entry to the dental schools and so could not gain the necessary qualifications. Women did the same as countless other practitioners who had not joined the Register they continued to practise, but did not use the term ‘dentist’…

‘In his interviews, he spoke about his hopes to get into the “talkies”’ How long have you been doing your family history? I’ve been researching my family history since my 20s, when I moved to Leeds after finishing university. I had always believed my ancestors came from the south of England, however, after living in Leeds for several months I was surprised to learn that my dad knew the area intimately despite having not yet visited! He told me that my paternal grandparents and great grandparents had lived just a couple of streets away and my great grandfather had died in the hospital I was working in – back in 1948. I had to find out more. What had you found out before hitting your brick wall? By the time…

In the post-war period, some of Brighton’s famous Regency suburbs were under threat, including Brunswick Square, Brunswick Terrace and Adelaide Crescent. A team led by Antony Dale, stepped in, forming the Regency Society of Brighton and Hove (regencysociety.org). One of the highlights of the website is the photo archive at regencysociety-jamesgray.com, amassed by local collector James Gray, and comprising 39 volumes containing around 7,500 images. The Regency Town House heritage centre (rth.org.uk) created the MyHouseMyStreet (mhms.org.uk) project in 2010, which allows you to find out who the past occupants of your house were. For more views, photographs and local history, try the Royal Pavilion & Museums Image Store (www.images.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/assetbank-pavilion/action/viewHome). While another great source for local history is My Brighton and Hove (mybrightonandhove.org.uk). The website has fascinating articles on places, people,…

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…

APP Pedigree Pie FamilySearch, Free pedigree-pie.fhtl.byu.edu Developed by students at Brigham Young University in Utah, this free tool uses your FamilySearch tree data to display your ancestors’ origins in a colourful pie-chart. It’s accessible through your web browser, so there’s no need to download an app. DOWNLOAD It’s About Time Ancestry, Free ancestry.co.uk/cs/ its-about-time In this new podcast produced by Ancestry, Sir Tony Robinson shines a light on lesser-known stories from the past. In episode one, Sir Tony unravels the tale of Dudley teenager Mary Ann Mason, whose murder shocked Victorian Britain. EBOOK Seven Pillars of Wisdom: The Art of One-Name Studies Guild of One-Name Studies Amazon Kindle, £5.65 Available digitally for the first time, this guide provides advice about one-name studies. It has been compiled using articles…

This month’s round-up of TV and radio* My Mother And Other Strangers November BBC ONE When writer Barry Devlin was a boy in Northern Ireland in the 1950s, aeroplanes were a constant presence. “I grew up with sounds of Harvards and Prentices and Shackletons in my ears,” he says. These were planes flown by the RAF, but during the Second World War Americans were stationed in the area. This provided the spark for Devlin’s new drama (“I knew the body language of how this worked”) which explores the effect of 4,000 Americans, “a kind of epitome of modernism”, arriving in remote Moybeg, which was “socially conservative, Catholic and very isolated on the shores of a lake, and with its own dialect”. This makes the chemistry between a married local woman,…

‘We were brought up Jewish, but I knew nothing of Dad’s history. He told us he was Swedish’ On 19 July 1939, a 12-year-old Jewish boy was sent out of Germany to escape the Nazis. After travelling via Sweden, he arrived in Britain with just a cardboard box containing his meagre belongings and a couple of treasured family photographs. A card was slung around his neck with his name, Rudi Adolf Cohn, handwritten on it. He had left his parents and twin brothers behind in Germany, not knowing if he would ever see them again. Rudi was naturalised in the UK in 1947 and changed his name to Roger Cummings. No one knew of the horrors he had witnessed – or of his miraculous escape. In 1953, Roger married a…