Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2015 i Who Do You Think You Are?

If, like me, you have Irish forebears, you’ll know how tricky it can be to research them, given that many of the country’s cornerstones of family history (including some censuses, parish registers and wills) were destroyed during The First World War and Civil War in 1922. So I was intrigued to discover just how WDYTYA? pieced together Mark Gatiss’s spellbinding Irish story (see pages 18 and 22 to find out more). Last year was, of course, the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. This month we bring you an update on the projects launched to mark the anniversary (page 25). Plus, see page 49 for a guide to online sources for tracing ancestors who fought on the forgotten fronts of WW1. Investigating your Scottish roots? Turn to…

Harris/Allen – Fulham 1900s bit.ly/1FMLsfb I have found the names of my great grandparents on my grandfather’s birth certificate: John Thomas Harris and Emily Elizabeth Allen. The only marriage I can find is in 1913. On the 1911 census they put that they were married nine years, both 34 and with four children. My grandfather was born in 1922 at 16 Rock Avenue (making Emily 45 when she was a mother for the last time, if the census is correct). The 1920s and 1930s electoral registers show John Thomas on his own at 34 Rock Avenue but no mention of Emily. His death certificate was January 1930 and he was back at 16 Rock Avenue (Emily was present), yet he is on the electoral roll in 1931 at 34 Rock…

A stampede to Calgary A holiday to Canada enabled Alan to reconnect with his grandfather in the most unexpected of places… I have just returned from a holiday in Western Canada, flying to Calgary and back from Vancouver. It was a wonderful experience, not only for the magnificent scenery and wildlife but also for family history. My grandparents were married in Calgary Cathedral in 1919, so of course we visited. Back then it was one of the tallest buildings in a town of 40,000 people. Now it’s just about the smallest, dwarfed by towering skyscrapers in a city of 1.75 million people. The cathedral, which is architecturally unambitious, is rarely open but we arrived shortly before one of the three services per week, and a delightful lady showed us round.…

Land records Griffith’s Valuation was published between 1847 and 1864. It consists of printed valuation books for each Poor Law union in Ireland, which include names of occupiers of land and buildings, the names of landlords and the amount and value of the property held. Along with tithe applotment books, which cover 1823 and 1837, these are a good substitute for the Irish census. For details, visit the National Archives of Ireland website at nationalarchives.ie. Ordnance Survey (OS) maps The initial survey took place from 1825-46, when teams of surveyors traversed Ireland recording the rapidly changing landscape and culture. Usefully, even the modern OS maps show you the boundaries of the townlands, so if you know that an ancestor farmed in a particular place you can get a sense of…

Whereas some projects are commemorating the lives of those who served in print or online, Wiltshire-based artist Helen Chester (pictured right) is using a rather more unconventional medium for her project, The Everyday Tommy. Over the past 18 months, she has been painting portraits of people from the town of Westbury and across the West Country who were affected by the First World War – an idea that came from researching the story of her great grandfather, who was killed in the conflict. “When I used to work in art restoration, I would see amazing portraits of wealthy families or people who were very influential,” Helen tells Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. “My great grandfather was a hero to my family, but all we had was one black-and-white…

BACK ISSUES ORDER BY PHONE ONLY 0844 844 0939 ISSUE 100 JUNE 2015 • Online resources • Newspapers • Petty Sessions • Sussex forebears ISSUE 101 JULY 2015 • Tricky marriages • Asylum records • Battle of Britain • East Riding kin ISSUE 102 AUGUST 2015 • Death records • New series preview • Nottinghamshire kin ISSUE 103 SUMMER 2015 • Get the WDYTYA? treatment • PoW kin • Bedfordshire family ISSUE 104 SEPTEMBER 2015 • Merchant Navy • Criminal kin • The WI • County Durham family ISSUE 105 OCTOBER 2015 • Convict kin • Free online books • Undertakers • Northants family CERTIFICATE BINDERS Keep your research in pristine condition in an exclusive Who Do You Think You Are ? Magazine certificate binder. Includes five acid-free plastic A4…

When Charles enlisted in December 1857, the Indian Mutiny (India’s First War of Independence) was in full swing, but was over by the time he arrived. It led to many reforms to the Indian Government and improvements in conditions for British troops. Primitive mud-built barracks were replaced by new brick-built ones in the 1860s, which were cooler, with better facilities. Battalions could serve in India for up to 20 years so this was most welcome. India-based troops could move more rapidly to distant trouble spots than men sent direct from Britain – hence Charles taking part in the China War of 1860 and the Abyssinian Expedition of 1868. On peacetime garrison duty, the heat meant most work and training was done in the morning, with long hours idling in barracks…

PAUL BLAKE co-wrote Discover Your Roots and is a fellow of the Society of Genealogists. JANET BISHOP is Chairman of the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (ASGRA). MICHAEL GANDY is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). EMMA JOLLY is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). SARA KHAN is the lead researcher on the Who Do You Think You Are? BBC television series. JUDITH MOORE is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). 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.…

This month’s brick walls BRETTELL/London and America One of my great grandfather’s sisters, Elsie or Elise Brettell, married an American sailor called Val in July 1945 in London. A year later they had a son, also named Val. There’s no record of their marriage or a birth record for their son. We have photographs of the father and son dated from 1950, taken in the United States. We believe contact was lost when my great grandfather died in a mining incident in 1958. We have details of other family members from research, but how can I make contact with this family? Michael Dymond, by email BROWN/Willesden James Brown’s army attestation papers give his date of birth as 27 August 1905 and his age as 20 years and 120 days when…

The Derek Jacobi episode of Who Do You Think You Are? , which was broadcast in August, highlighted the significance of Huguenot ancestry as well as the migration of Protestants from France and the Low Countries to Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. The name probably derives from the 16th-century Flemish term ‘huis genooten’, which means ‘housemates’ and refers to the fact that these early Protestants met secretly in people’s houses. Many people are proud to claim descent from Huguenot forebears and these refugees had a powerful and long-lasting influence upon many towns and villages in eastern and southern England especially. They were likely to be educated, skilled and with entrepreneurial and business talents, ideally suited to the developing textile industries and other commercial activities. Now the Huguenots and…

• Photographers of Great Britain and Ireland, 1840-1940  cartedevisite.co.uk Provides essential information about photographers/studios. Webmaster Ron Cosens works closely with researchers to trace photographer ancestors. • Database of 19th Century Photographers and Allied Trades in London, 1841-1901  www.photolondon.org.uk This lists more than 6,000 former London studios and includes dates and biographies. • Early Photographic Studios  early-photographers.org.uk This covers photographers and studios in East Anglia and the East Midlands. Run by Robert Pols, author of My Ancestor was a Studio Photographer. • Sussex Photo History  photohistory-sussex.co.uk This extensive resource covering studios throughout Sussex was compiled by photographic historian David Simkin. • Edinburgh Photography  edinphoto.org.uk/index.htm Covering early Edinburgh and other Scottish studios, this website includes many useful sections and links.…

When a new advertising sheet appeared on the streets of London, no one thought it would grow into a national institution. The Times newspaper was the brainchild of John Walter, one of the creative businessmen who were coming to the fore at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Walter was probably born in 1739 – the uncertainty reflects the paucity of records at this time – the son of a London coal merchant. His father died when Walter was 16, so he took up the family business before moving into insurance underwriting. He was bankrupted by the losses caused by a hurricane in Jamaica and the war with the rebel American colonists, which none of our British ancestors at this time called a ‘war of independence’, it was simply known…

1451 Glasgow University is established by a papal bull (charter) from Pope Nicholas V as the second oldest university in Scotland, after St Andrews. 1650 In the aftermath of the Battle of Dunbar against royalist forces, an ill Oliver Cromwell marches into Glasgow and occupies the city for 11 days. 1787 Troops fire on weavers in Calton, who are striking to protest at wage cuts and a lock-out. Six are killed, becoming Scotland’s first working-class martyrs. 1815 John Alexander MacDonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, is born in the city to a merchant father. The family emigrate to Upper Canada in 1820. 1843 Thomas Chalmers leads a split from the Kirk to form the Free Church at the Disruption. From 1815-1823, he had been a minister in Glasgow. 1866…

BOOKS Canals: The Making of a Nation By Liz McIvor (BBC Books, 320 pages, £16.99) This book, which accompanies the recent BBC television series, offers “a journey into the heart of industrial Britain”. Many standard canal histories have been published, but here McIvor commendably offers readers an alternative viewpoint of the waterways and the boats that travelled along them: “a kind of living museum to an era of ‘busyness’”. The book comprises six themed chapters, each covering an ambitious timescale. For example, the ‘Engineers: Yorkshire’ chapter begins with Domesday, then moves on to the birth of the woollen industry; James Brindley; the Leeds and Liverpool Canal; Saltaire; then the Huddersfield Canal and Thomas Telford. McIvor explains in her introduction that the book “is not written with the academic in mind”,…

29,126 service files for Canadian soldiers who were killed during WW2 are now available on ancestry.co.uk 6 years – the jail sentence handed to academic David Barrowclough, found guilty of fraudulently claiming £238,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund 2,000,917 people are recorded in the 1891 census of Norway, which can now be browsed for free online by visiting arkivverket.no 9 sets of Scottish Valuation Rolls can now be explored on scotlandspeople.gov.uk following the release of records from 1855 100 years since the execution of WW1 nurse Edith Cavell was marked with a service in Salford on Monday 12 October…

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland and comprises nine counties – Antrim, Armagh, Down, Derry, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal. Originally the Gaelic stronghold of the island, Ulster was planted by Scottish and English settlers in the 14th and 15th centuries, making it an area distinct from the rest of the island because of its diverse religious and cultural make-up. While Ireland pursued independence from the United Kingdom in the late-19th century, communities in Ulster campaigned to remain within the Union. This resulted in the partition of Ireland in 1922, with the six counties Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone forming Northern Ireland. The counties of Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal remained in what was to become the Republic of Ireland. Family history researchers should remember…

Getting young people interested in history can be a struggle, as reflected in the dwindling numbers of students choosing to study the subject at GCSE each year. However, one group of 14- to 24-year-olds in Leeds certainly needs no encouragement, if its work throughout the First World War centenary is anything to go by. Over the past two years, members of the Preservative Party – a youth organisation based at Leeds Museums and Galleries – have been researching the story of the city during the conflict and posting their discoveries online. Many of the findings have been added to a dedicated Facebook page (facebook.com/ww1leeds), which features a timeline of key local events ranging from the opening of the Barnbow Munitions Works – the largest of its kind in the UK…

MILITARY RECORDS Findmypast.co.uk gives access to the military records held by The National Archives. These are the gold standard for anyone tracing an ancestor who served in the Forces and include records of service, physical condition, behaviour and movements. ASYLUM HISTORY In 2014, ancestry.co.uk published records from asylums across Britain, giving details such as patient’s name, place of birth, occupation, medical condition and date of entry and discharge. BMD CERTIFICATES The marriage certificates that Michael found gave important clues to the bigamy in his family, in particular the Barnish/Littleton marriage where Sarah describes herself as a “widow”. Search at freebmd.org.uk or order online at gro.gov.uk (payment is required for certificates).…

COLBOURNE/Dorset Q In our October issue Mervyn Wright said he was having trouble finding the death record of his great grandfather Isaac Colbourne between 1901 and 1911 in Dorset. A Sue Surman was one of the first to respond, finding a death record for an Isaac Colbourne, aged 44, in Chichester, West Sussex, in the June Quarter of 1904 (2b 244). As it’s some distance from Dorset, Sue suggests that “perhaps he was travelling?”. Tricia Thomas came up with the same result, and suggested that the birth certificate may hold the clue as to why he was there. Danny Barber found the same record on Familysearch.org (familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2NR8-X18), while Patricia Shaw’s search on Ancestry suggested that Isaac died in the Chichester Lunatic Asylum, with his surname recorded as “Colborne”. Alternatively, Wendy…

“As a Lancastrian, I seem to have spent an awful lot of time this year working on research projects relating to the centenary of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of the First World War. Hardly surprising given that a whole division of part-time Territorial soldiers from my area, plus a number of professional and service battalions from old Lancashire, were shipped off to the Dardanelles. My website of choice has been the Gallipoli Association (gallipoli-association.org). It isn’t free, but then little is these days, and for a £20 fee you get access to 44 years’ worth of insights via a back catalogue of journals – the content of many made up almost exclusively of the recollections of veterans of the campaign. Battalion war diaries, regimental museums and popular histories can all…

BRIGWATER POLLING DISTRICT. Polling district Each page is headed with the polling district and parish name. More detailed information is given at the start of each section, sometimes with a polling district and street index. Number The number given to each voter has no real importance and differed in each register. Voter names Names of the voters were at this time arranged in alphabetical order. Other formats were used with some arranged by street but alphabetically within. From the 1870s, they were arranged by street and house number. Qualification Nature of qualification gave details of the type of property as it was the property qualification that gave the right to vote at this time. It also records where the property was situated in the polling district, with other information relating…

Some official and legal records are intended to be used to prove identity, status or legal ownership concerning an individual at the time the records were created. This includes birth, marriage and death certificates (but not the indexes to them), some court records, baptism and marriage records from parish registers, probate records, marriage bonds and allegations, deeds and land transfer documents, and Poor Law settlement certificates and examinations. They are not free of errors or intentional deceptions, but they score highly as evidence of events in a person’s life, and should always be taken seriously unless disproved. Other historical records were not generally created with an individual person in mind, but are contemporary and provide good evidence that they were in a certain place at a particular point in time.…

Unlike in England and Wales, confirmation in Scotland has been a civil court procedure since the Reformation. From 1564, the Commissary Courts oversaw confirmation, with the county-based Sheriff Courts taking responsibility in the 1820s, where it resides to this day. Surviving testaments from 1513 (including some pre-Reformation records) are now held at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh (nrscotland.gov.uk), though testaments from 2000 remain at the respective Sheriff Courts. There are some major historic differences between inheritance procedures north and south of the border. Prior to 1868, Scottish heritable property or heritage (buildings and land) could not be bequeathed in a will, a marked difference to the privilege introduced into England and Wales in 1540. Instead, heritage had to be inherited through a separate process to that of moveable…

Born in 1893, Jessie Stephen was a tailor’s daughter who worked for the Co-operative Society in Glasgow. She won a scholarship when she was 14 but had to leave school the following year when her father was temporarily unemployed. Jessie went into domestic service in Glasgow, yet she also became a labour activist at an early age. She was made vice-president of the Maryhill branch of the Independent Labour Party at the age of 16. She was also a militant suffragette and a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, who dropped acid into pillar boxes while wearing her maid’s uniform. In 1913, Jessie founded a servants’ union in Glasgow to improve the lot of domestic servants. Although there were minor successes, it was difficult to recruit members and…

Commercial studio photography emerged as an occupation in 1841 when the first British portrait rooms opened their doors to the public offering luxury daguerreotype photographs. Initially established only in major cities, during the 1850s the number of studios rose significantly as the new wet collodion process developed and photography became more affordable and convenient for both practitioner and customer. Throughout the 1860s, growing demand for card-mounted carte de visite prints inspired a surge in studio photography and the industry continued to expand until the mid-1910s. After the First World War it began to decline as more households and individuals acquired their own cameras, which they enthusiastically used to photograph all manner of occasions. Formal studio portraits retained their superior status, but as amateur photography grew more popular they became reserved…

How long have you been doing your family history? I began in the 1980s and my father intrigued me with a couple of snippets of family folklore: that his grandfather brought the family from Scotland and married a French refugee; and his great grandfather had quarrelled with someone else in the family and lost a fortune – possibly with a whisky distillery involved. What had you uncovered before hitting your brick wall? My maiden name is Somerville and my paternal grandfather died long before I was born. I was able to trace him and his father easily through census returns and certificates. This confirmed that my father’s grandfather, George McAlpin Garrow Somerville, was indeed born in Edinburgh. When tracing his siblings, I learned that the family must have moved to…

The Family History at the Mitchell initiative has placed many online collections at www.glasgowfamilyhistory.org.uk/ExploreRecords/Pages/Online-resources. aspx, including the Virtual Mitchell photographic archive, the Evening Times Roll of Honour for the First World War, and much more. Civil registration records from 1855 for the city, pre-1855 Church of Scotland registers, and Roman Catholic parish registers for several Glasgow churches are available on the pay-per-view ScotlandsPeople service at scotlandspeople.gov.uk. The Glasgow Story (theglasgowstory.com) has various essays on the city’s history, and includes digitised copies of the valuation rolls for 1913-1914, as well as electoral ward maps. Maps of central Glasgow from 1881 and 1891 have been linked to searchable data from the corresponding Post Office Directories for the area at Addressing History (addressinghistory. edina.ac.uk). The directories themselves, from 1773-1942, are available at bit.ly/1OcrbCe. A…

OUR PICK Surrey in the Great War: A County Remembers 7 November SURREY HISTORY CENTRE, WOKING exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/sgw 01483 518239 Surrey Heritage presents this event as part of a four-year Lottery-funded project, which centres on Surrey’s response to the demands and sacrifices of the First World War. It also includes displays from volunteers and researchers who provide information about how Surrey adapted to the first conflict between industrialised countries. Learn more about how researchers are digitising its history, through their newspaper indexing project, local research topics, and plans to conserve Great War collections online. Emily Bright LONDON DNA for Beginners 14 November SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS sog.org.uk 020 755 3290 This half-day course led by Debbie Kennett, a leading expert in her field, provides a useful introduction to utilising DNA in genealogy…

In the August issue of WDYTYA? Magazine, Wendy Ford described how she was able to use a collection of papers to construct a public family tree. I had the great fortune to benefit from the discovery of another collection of letters, papers and photographs bought by a man named Stuart Poulton. The discovery included letters from a soldier who fought in the First World War to his mother. Stuart’s research was thorough, including travelling to battlefield sites, reading regimental records and obtaining records. The soldier, who was my paternal grandfather George William Ashby Bentley (Will), lost his right arm in a battle near Neuve Eglise on 4 September 1918. In 2005, Stuart published Will’s story via the internet as ‘The life and times of a hero’. A cousin of mine…

MISTAKEN IDENTITY An amusing case was heard before the Vienna Court on Saturday when a dressmaker declared she had been bitten by the dog of a neighbour, which was running about without a muzzle. The dog’s mistress declared that “Venus” never crossed the threshold without its muzzle, and the proceedings were adjourned so that the culprit might be sent for and identified. Later, the lady appeared with a small fat pug in her arms. The dressmaker no sooner saw it than she exclaimed, “Yes, that is the spiteful little beast”. However, the defendant then declared that this dog was not “Venus” at all and that “Venus” was waiting outside. A clever friend had advised her to bring a strange dog in first to test the plaintiff ’s charge. Venus, who…

Mark’s O’Kane ancestors were forced off the land during the Plantation of Ulster, an attempt to colonise the province following the Nine Years War (1593-1603), the Flight of the Earls (1607) and a brief rebellion by Cahir O’Doherty (1608). Although these events consolidated English control in Ireland, a colonisiation policy was pursued by James I as a way to prevent future rebellion, reform the Gaelic population and impose Protestant dominance. Although not the first Crown plantation in Ireland, the Plantation of Ulster was the most successful. In 1608, land in the counties of Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Coleraine and Tyrone, confiscated from Gaelic families, was redistributed to ‘undertakers’, ‘servitors’ and ‘natives’. Undertakers were so named because they undertook to fortify and settle their property with tenants from their English or…

Over the past 15 months, people across Britain have been gathering to mark the centenary of the First World War. Between August and November 2014 alone, more than five million of us visited the capital to catch a glimpse of the art installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, which featured 888,246 ceramic poppies filling the moat of the Tower of London – each representing a fallen British or Commonwealth serviceman. While this may well come to be the enduring image of the First World War centenary, it is important to draw attention to the diverse array of research projects that have been taking place nationwide. From classes of schoolchildren, to museum curators, people in nearly every city, town or village in Britain have been devoting their time to…

IRISH CRICKET AND WW1 This ongoing solo project, the work of County Tipperary historian Dr Pat Bracken, is concerned with researching fallen soldiers across Ireland who had an association with cricket, whether they played the sport at school, a local club or while serving in the military. ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS MUSEUM Based at Caernarfon Castle, the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum has been seeking photographs of all men who served in the regiment. Thanks to a well-publicised campaign, the team has already received a large number of submissions. THE EVERYDAY TOMMY See box on page 26. CUMNOCK HISTORY GROUP One of several pins north of the border has been added by Cumnock History Group, which has set up a blog (cumnocksoldiers.blogspot.co.uk) to document its research both into men who were listed…

Michael Barnish, a trainee GP from Blackpool, became hooked on genealogy when he was 11 years old. “A cousin in Canada sent us a book of our family tree and I found it intriguing,” he explains. “I decided to carry on researching the Barnish family and had overtaken my cousin by my early teens. He was older than me and remembered family stories about grandparents and great grandparents who we didn’t know. The book was a goldmine of information about forgotten generations.” It reveals that both Michael’s 3x great grandparents Charles and Sarah had the birth surname Barnish. “It’s an unusual name but there are a few of them around the Staffordshire pottery towns where they lived. It’s possible that Charles and Sarah were second or third cousins but I’ve…

Two William Wisdoms appear in the military records. Which one is my great grandfather? Q My great grandfather William Wisdom was born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1848. William married my great grandmother, Elizabeth Ann Jane Southworth, in 1874. The 1911 census shows him living in Burnley, a “musician and labourer”. Findmypast also gives his membership of the Bank Hall Reed Band. On 19 April 1871, the Hampshire Telegraph reported that William Wisdom and Bernard McCormack, bandsmen of the 7th Fusiliers, were charged with assaulting a police officer in Portsmouth. The 1871 census for Anglesea Barracks, Portsea, Portsmouth, shows a William Wisdom, born in about 1850 in Lancashire and a Bernard McCormack born about 1845 in Manchester. Service records on Ancestry show two William Wisdoms, one with the 1st Battalion Rifle…

Frank Gardner had a close attachment to his mother and decided to explore his maternal side in his episode. His journey started by learning more about the life of his maternal great grandmother, Grace Rolleston (née Davy). Unfortunately, Grace’s story was not a happy one and Frank was saddened to learn about her battle with mental health and that she spent time in a variety of psychiatric hospitals. You may also discover that your ancestor spent time in an asylum through census records or a death certificate. You should be able to find out more about their stay there by researching surviving admission records. These are mostly held in local archives. The National Archives (TNA) has a good database of where hospital records are located at nationalarchives.gov.uk/ hospitalrecords. Ancestry has placed…

Women’s Institute logbook, late 1940s Patricia Kelly from Kent History and Library Centre shows Jon Bauckham a source that reveals how a local Women’s Institute kept digging for Britain, even after war had ended Earlier this year, the Women’s Institute celebrated 100 years of changing lives across Britain. Although many modern-day members are keen to shake off the ‘Jam and Jerusalem’ image, it is important to remember that activities we traditionally associate with the WI such as jam making and home baking were all vitally important after the Second World War, when rationing was still in force. A document that reveals how WI members rallied together to stop Britain from going hungry can be found in Maidstone, as Patricia Kelly from the Kent History and Library Centre explains. Which document…

The flawed but interesting firstworldwar.com has a page focusing on major actions of the Italian Front (firstworldwar.com/battles/if.htm), including the Battles of the Isonzo, and “one of the most sweepingly successful battles of the war” – the Austro-Hungarian/ German success at Caporetto in October 1917. The ‘Memoirs and Diaries’ section also has a transcribed journal kept by Edwin Jones during his service in Egypt and Mesopotamia (firstworldwar.com/diaries/edwinjones.htm). It provides a “unique glimpse into the everyday life of a junior officer at the time”. If you want to research individual campaign medals, you can try the British Medal Forum (britishmedalforum.com). Other websites include the Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au), the Roll of Honour (roll-of-honour.com), and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s ‘Find A Cemetery’ tool (cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery.aspx), which is useful for tracking down your ancestors…

How close was the person providing the details to the subject of that information? Did they have all the facts? Was the person who registered a death, a close relative of the deceased or a non-family member? Could the person providing information read and write? If they signed something with a mark, did they understand what they had signed? If they did sign, how strong was their reading likely to be? Some weak readers could sign their names, leading you to believe that they could both read and write perfectly. So a signature is not necessarily evidence that the person signing understood the document. Did the record require accuracy of names, ages and dates? For birth certificates and baptisms, the answer would be yes. Employment records less so. What was…

Double volume From 1876-1920, each volume contains records for all surnames. From 1921 onwards, there are two annual volumes, one for surnames beginning A-L and another for M-Z. Testate or intestate? Within each calendar entry the deceased will be noted as having been testate or intestate. If testate, he or she left a will. If intestate, no will was left. Women’s surnames Women are indexed by their married names in the calendar entries, with their maiden surnames then noted after their forename. Before 1882, married women could not leave a will. Place of death Not everyone who is recorded necessarily died in Scotland. In this example, the deceased died in Calcutta, India, with his father noted as being from Blairadam, Scotland. Family relationships Any relationship between the executor and the…

NEWSPAPERS If your ancestor was in service in the Edwardian period or the 1920s, have a look at the ‘Situations Vacant’ columns in local newspapers. They will give you an idea of the kind of jobs that were available and the pay they offered. You can sometimes find letters from domestic servants in the correspondence columns, in which they air their grievances. Many British Library national and local newspapers can be viewed and searched online at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. MEMOIRS Reading memoirs of former servants is a great way to find out what their working lives were really like. Try Margaret Powell’s Below Stairs (1970); Rosina Harrison’s Rose: My Life in Service (1975); and Jean Rennie’s Every Other Sunday (1955). ESTATE RECORDS If your ancestor worked for a country house, surviving estate…

OLD PARISH REGISTERS You can search transcripts of Scottish PRs at familysearch.org for free. You can also pay to view scans of the originals at scotlandspeople.gov.uk, which also has wills. OLD BOOKS  books.google.co.uk has Decisions of the First & Second Divisions of the Court of Sessions from Nov 1815 to Nov 1819 (collected by Campbell, Wilson, Tait & Rollo), which includes the inheritance dispute involving Samuel Somerville’s children. HIRE A GENEALOGIST There is helpful advice on the ASGRA for Scotland (asgra. co.uk) and AGRA for England and Wales (agra.org.uk) websites. Some genealogists specialise in specific areas of Britain and are on the doorstep of archives that are too far away for you to visit regularly.…

The thriving metropolis of Glasgow is the third largest city in Britain. Some of its notable sons and daughters include stand-up comedian Billy Connolly, former football manager Sir Alex Ferguson and TV presenter Lorraine Kelly. If you have ‘Weegie’ kin – the slang term for Glaswegians – or indeed any connection to the city, then the splendid green-domed Mitchell Library, Europe’s largest public reference library, should be your first port of call for research. In March 2014, a new service was opened on the building’s fifth floor entitled Family History at the Mitchell (glasgowfamily history.org.uk), which brought together the city’s registrar and archive services, the local NHS archive, and the library’s own genealogy resources and special collections. “Our new shared facility now provides a one-stop shop for researchers who wish to…

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Chief Rabbi Office marriages Those with Jewish kin may be interested in a section of the United Synagogue database (theus.org.uk/category/find-marriage-record), which contains marriages that occurred under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi from 1880 to 1901. 1 Navigate to the webpage above and enter the details of the individual you are researching – for example, Isaac Bernstein marrying in 1895. The great thing about these records is that they often contain more details than GRO marriages, so could provide extra vital clues. 2 Press ‘Search’ and all relevant hits will appear. In this example there is only one option for the correct marriage – Isaac Bernstein to Lottie Saul. A precise date is also given – 24 February 1895 – along with the synagogue they married in (the Great Synagogue…