Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2017 i Who Do You Think You Are?

It doesn’t seem that long ago that newspapers were used by family historians principally to check out ‘hatches, matches and despatches’. There was little point searching for something in a newspaper unless you had a date and a place to go on. We’ve all seen celebrities on Who Do You Think You Are? scrolling through pages on a microfilm reader waiting for a name to jump out. How things have changed! The digitisation of newspapers has transformed family history research. Now we can uncover stories of misdeeds and heroism, failures and triumphs at the stroke of a few keys. Newspapers can add colour and humanity to our research, as well as leading to further records, so it amazes me when I come across people who don’t really use them. To…

250,000 names are now available to explore in the Early Irish Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes at irishancestors.ie 64,000 baptism and marriage records from Methodist churches in the Sheffield area have been published on findmypast.co.uk 50 years since the foundation of Bath Record Office is being marked with a series of anniversary events during 2017. See batharchives.co.uk for full details 200,000 statutory records of Scottish births from 1916, marriages from 1941 and deaths from 1966 are now available to search on scotlands people.gov.uk 4.3 million viewers tuned in to watch Ricky Tomlinson’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? , broadcast on 22 December…

In the 1990s, a relative recalled that a family member had been killed by a runaway horse at a family funeral. She had heard the story as a child, but had no idea who was involved or when it happened. The incident appeared to have taken place at Worsbrough near Barnsley in the early 20th century, but whenever I searched death records for the two people who had died in quick succession I drew a blank. When digitised newspapers became available I continued my quest, hoping that such an unusual incident would have been reported. When all known surname searches produced no results I focused on facts. The query ‘Worsb*’, ‘horse’ and ‘funeral’ produced matches in January 1903. I discovered that the funeral in question was of my 2x great…

1 Read the online ‘Help and Advice’ pages and learn how to conduct an advanced search. Time spent getting to grips with this will soon pay dividends. 2 Avoid applying filters too early as this can result in relevant matches being excluded from the search. Filters can be progressively applied to reduce a large number of matches. 3 A common name, such as ‘Henry Brown’, will produce too many matches to handle effectively. If possible, include additional information such as an occupation, place or incident in the query. 4 Find appropriate search terms. ‘First World War’ does not find material from the first part of the 20th century, as the name was not used. Browse a few papers from the period to identify a contemporary word. 5 Be creative with…

1 Search the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This comprehensive dictionary is available in print, but an online version, available to subscribers, is updated annually (www.oxforddnb.com/public/index.html). Many libraries offer digital access. Over 60,000 biographies of notable Britons are listed, including thousands of performers. Biographies often indicate other sources pertinent to a well-known performer, such as other texts in which they are mentioned, manuscript collections and even portraits. 2 Trawl newspaper databases Newspaper databases are an ideal starting point – especially when researching performers who were less famous. The most notable of these is the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, also available on Findmypast ), but see p17 for more sources. Begin by searching for a performer’s name, though bear in mind that stage names were often used. You may find reviews…

WDYTYA? FORUM Benefit from the knowledge of other readers on our forum. They can often help you to break down your brick walls (whodoyouthinkyouare magazine.com). CRIMINAL REGISTERS Ancestry’s release of criminal registers helped Laura discover more about the prosecutions brought against Madame Frain across the country (ancestry.co.uk). NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES Laura used the newspaper archives at The National Archives and at her local library for free. LOCAL ARCHIVES Laura made great use of local archives to trace her ancestors’ story – specifically Kent History Centre in Maidstone. Here, as well as the extensive collections relating to East Kent, Laura was able to draw on the archivists’ deep knowledge of the area.…

WW1 identification bit.ly/2jMLWJK Can anyone help me identify these men (below)? I believe one of them is Edward Kirk, born 1863. I have his First World War records. He was Royal Engineer number 114104 and Labour Corps 290773. Enlisted 17 August 1915 and discharged 22 July 1918. Smurph 1939 register bit.ly/2jUft6t I have found the comment “ADOP ROB 7.7.44” next to an entry for a relative. The birth certificate for this person was amended a month after her birth by the Registrar “on production of a statutory declaration” by her mother and grandmother. This act removed the original name of the father, which suggests that he was not the father. The names on the 1939 register do not match either mother or ‘father’ as on the original birth certificate. I’m…

“One of my favourite websites is Cynefin (cynefin.archives wales.org.uk). It provides access to over 1,200 digitised tithe maps and associated apportionments. “Many of us will have traced our family history back through civil registration, parish records and census returns to the 1840s, when these maps were created. They were often the earliest large-scale maps of our towns and villages. Map apportionments not only help locate the places where our ancestors lived, but also give us other information relating to ownership, the acreage of land, crops, field names, occupancy and rights of way. “The website is not searchable as this is the crowdsourcing platform, through which users can transcribe and georeference the documents. This work will soon come to an end and this year a new geographic website Places of Wales will…

SOCIETIES • Romany & Traveller Family History Society rtfhs.org.uk Publishes a quarterly journal, Romany Routes, and holds an annual conference. ARCHIVES • University of Liverpool www.liverpool.ac.uk/library/ sca/colldescs/gypsy Archives of the Gypsy Lore Society. See its journal at catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000499763. There are books, photos, cuttings and Gypsiologist correspondence. • Robert Dawson Romany Collection www.reading.ac.uk/  TheMERL The lifetime collection of the President of the RTFHS contains books, photos, film, music, and more. WEBSITES • Gypsy Genealogy  gypsygenealogy.com A reliable website which offers a series of handy research tips. • Romany Genes romanygenes.com Provides notes on families, book extracts, parish register transcripts, census returns and newspapers. More information held at www.gypsyjib.com. • Roma Heritage romaheritage.co.uk A new archive from Gary Stanley. Mostly BMDs, plus census and newspaper material. BOOKS • My Ancestors…

There are numerous websites offering 1911 census data. Some are free, but most are commercial websites and charged for. Only those offering national coverage are described here, but there are some local projects with online indexes. Many local libraries and LDS FamilySearch Centres offer free access to some of the commercial providers’ websites too. Transcription errors are frequent and the use of wildcards in searches is often essential: but this does not always account for why a person cannot be identified – sometimes people, for various reasons, were simply not enumerated. Search engines can vary considerably from one provider to another. The search forms all offer different search possibilities. Findmypast suffers from not offering a place of birth option, and Ancestry requires exact names (including abbreviations) as recorded. Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk)…

Born in County Antrim, John Denvir grew up in Liverpool, and witnessed the arrival of the Famine refugees as a teenager. It was a formative experience. He recalled: “Young as I was, I shall never forget the days of the Famine, for Liverpool, more than any other place outside of Ireland itself, felt its appalling effects.” In addition to running his own building firm, Denvir was a journalist, publisher and a political activist. In 1873 he became the first secretary of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain. “Every pulsation of the national heart in Ireland was as warmly and as strongly felt on this side of the channel as though we still formed part of our mother island,” Denvir observed. As well as editing a number of local newspapers,…

Since time immemorial, bakers have practised one of the essential trades. Every village community would have had its own baker providing bread for the inhabitants. This most basic of foodstuffs was vital for the working classes since it made up a huge proportion of their diet. The term ‘bread-winner’, used to describe someone supporting their family, is testament to the food’s importance to our ancestors. Writing in 1857, the author Eliza Acton commented that “it is no unusual circumstance for the entire earnings of a poor hard-working man to be expended upon bread only, for himself and family”. Working people relied on bakers because they simply had no time to bake their own bread, nor did they have ovens in which to do so. They also often paid the local…

Your ancestors may have attended the coronation of Queen Victoria – if not, they probably knew someone who did. The rapidly expanding railways meant people could visit London from all over the country. It was a brilliant day on 28 June 1838. Victoria, now 19, had ascended the throne in 1837 on her uncle William IV’s death. Her late father, Prince Edward, had been only fourth in line to the throne, but there were no other heirs and so the teenage girl took her place as Queen of the United Kingdom. Scaffolding had been erected in the streets to seat spectators. As it was summer, many people slept out in the parks overnight, having come to London for the big day. The music and shouting kept the young queen awake…

Why doesn’t the code that’s printed in the magazine work correctly? Each bonus content code applies only to the issue of the magazine in which it’s printed. Make sure that you’ve clicked on the red ‘View content’ button next to the cover of the correct issue. Why isn’t the code box appearing? If nothing happens when you click the red ‘View content’ button, it’s possible that firewall or virus-checking software is stopping the website from running JavaScript. You can check to see if this is the case by temporarily halting these programs and then reloading the website. Why is the data only available for a period of six months? Due to the terms and conditions agreed with some of the firms that provide the bonus content for our magazine, we…

The Trench Cookbook Edited by Hannah Holman Amberley, 256 pages, £9.99) The book surprised me, the more I read, the more fascinating it became. I told myself to avoid using the inevitable phrase “an army marches on its stomach”, but it does and now I better understand how this vital service is managed. A single military catering organisation was not established until 1941, so during the First World War it was a matter of self-catering by each battalion, resulting in the food being provided by a recruit with little, or no, catering training! The book includes pictures of cook houses – very primitive – which is hardly surprising. It goes on to explain the difficulties of logistics in providing such a vital service, which shows what a fantastic job was…

APP Flipboard Android & iOS, free The latest updates in genealogy, be it newsworthy or a personal journey you’re following across the internet, can be found in a variety of different places. With this app, you can collate articles you want to keep based on your interests, and it’s put together in the style of a glossy magazine. EBOOK How to Write Your Personal or Family History Kindle, £8.63 If you need a nudge to start writing your memoires, this book by Katie Wiebe should provide the motivation you need. If you don’t write them, then who will? It’s an instructive read and includes prompts to help you record early memories as well as providing writing tips. DOWNLOAD Genealogy Gems   isalouisecooke.com/  podcasts, free Lisa Louise Cooke’s podcast features genealogy…

LONDON Deciphering Old Handwriting (Beginners) 22 February LONDON METROPOLITAN ARCHIVES  bit.ly/2iAYLWk 020 7332 3820 Are you in possession of some illegible family documents? Visit this 90-minute session and learn handwriting from the 18th to early 20th centuries. Tickets £8. Lies, Damned Lies and Family History 16 March SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS  sog.org.uk 020 7553 3290 Reverend Wim Zwalf will give a lecture on stories passed down through his family and how he researched them. Tickets £8. SOUTH-WEST Advanced Family History Study Day 3 March BATH GUILDHALL  www.batharchives.co.uk/ listing-calendar 01225 477421 Expect helpful hints on following an individual’s paper trail beyond basic sources. Tickets £25. Somerset and Dorset Family History Society Photographic Project Open Day 18 March SHERBORNE FAMILY HISTORY CENTRE, DORSET  sdfhs.org/events/sdfhs-events 01935 389611 SDFHS has created a searchable database of photos…

‘For the first time, records will be readily accessible, in full colour, across the world’ Findmypast launches Leicestershire Collection Millions of historic parish records, wills and electoral rolls from Leicestershire and Rutland have been published online, with more due to be added in the future Over 3.5 million historic Leicestershire records have been published on findmypast.co.uk. Released on Monday 23 January, the website’s brand-new Leicestershire Collection provides access to a wealth of material from across the East Midlands county and its smaller neighbour, Rutland. Dating back to the 16th century, the bulk of the fully searchable dataset comprises parish records of baptisms, banns, marriages and burials. Most of the transcribed entries are accompanied by scans of the pages on which they appear. The collection also includes 173,000 wills and probate…

They sailed in low spirits and were very sorrowful to leave Old England Rntly I’ b n ding th p bli h d journal of Timothy Cragg, a Quaker farmer from Wyresdale, five miles south-east of Lancaster. He wrote it in the 1790s and instead of recording his own activities (which might have been fairly routine) he mostly filled its pages with notes and observations about his neighbours and a wide range of local people up and down the valley, as well as news and stories of what was going on in Lancaster and the wider world. It’s fascinating in the way it records the sort of detail which would otherwise never have been written down, and would be lost for all time. Much of it sheds unexpected light on…

THE BURNEY COLLECTION (FREE) bl.uk 17th- and 18th-century newspapers that can be searched on site at the British Library. BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE (£) www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Over 15 million (and growing) articles digitised from the British Library’s collection. Also available on Findmypast. HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS (£) gale.com Includes Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Illustrated London News. Only available to libraries and educational establishments. LAST CHANCE TO READ (£) lastchancetoread.com Approx 4,000 British Newspapers 1710-1870. Includes some rare titles. 19TH CENTURY BRITISH NEWSPAPERS (FREE) bl.uk A selection of papers searchable at the British Library or a subscribing public library. THE GUARDIAN AND THE OBSERVER (FREE) All editions 1791-2003, for anyone registered with a subscribing public library. THE SCOTSMAN DIGITAL ARCHIVE (£) archive.scotsman.com Thousands of pages from 1817-1950. Prices start at £7.95 for two days. THE…

‘It was brilliant transcribing handwritten vivid descriptions of events written by those who witnessed them at first hand. I could imagine being there. Waterloo Lives is a great way to learn history without reading textbooks. Vanessa Barron’ ‘GB1900 is the perfect transcription project for me as a life-long cartophile, and genealogist.’ Deborah Gorman ‘I transcribed 179 names this afternoon from the Cornish parish registers and my husband did 80. Every little helps!’ Wendy Allen ‘I really enjoyed the time I spent on AnnoTate – though some of it was spent a bit off task reading about the various artists… I will never criticise my son’s handwriting again!’ Alison Boulton GET INVOLVED Even if you missed Transcription Tuesday, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the same experience. These are the projects that…

Nineteenth-century Manchester was the first industrial city in the world. Alongside the vast growth in capital, there were concerns about the new workforce in terms of enfranchisement (the right to vote), combination (the right to form unions), technology and working conditions. Debate turned to insurrection in 1812 when Luddite groups destroyed machinery in mills around the city. In 1819, the Cotton Mills Act tackled some of the problems of child labour, but proved difficult to enforce. Meanwhile, 15 people were killed, and many more injured, after being charged by the cavalry in St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, where they were protesting in favour of better representation in Parliament. Despite the ‘Six Acts’, passed to try to prevent such uproar, the spirit of radical reform in the city persisted. The Reform Act…

‘That was the real lightbulb moment, because the name Bridget Frain rang a bell’ Unmarried women who fell pregnant in Victorian times faced a desperate situation. Abortion was illegal and many became destitute after being ostracised by family or dismissed by an employer. At their most vulnerable, women could easily fall prey to quacks peddling ‘herbal remedies’ that would induce termination. Madame Frain, the great great grandmother of WDYTYA? reader Laura Hickman, was one of the most notorious Victorian backstreet abortionists, and she made large sums of money plying her dark trade. “She certainly was a madame!” exclaims Laura. “I never expected to discover such a colourful character in my ancestry.” Laura was working in the dark when she began tracing her family history because she knew little of her…

QI am looking for information on John Grimes my 3x great grandfather, born around 1820. He first turns up on the 1851 census in Leicester with his family transcribed as “Grunes”. It also has the place of birth as “Ballyglaf” (I think it should be Ballyglass). I can’t find any records of him in Ireland. Whether it is of his marriage to Mary or the birth of his son John in 1848. The birth certificates of his other children Bridget (Prichet) and Martin record Mary’s surname as Dixon and Dickson respectively. Did John have any siblings and who were his parents? Vic Grimes, by email A The brief information provided clearly refers to a family forced to migrate during the famine years. I checked the Leicester 1851 census. Residing in…

The supposed cause of her illness is listed as “jealousy” Before more enlightened attitudes in the late 20th century our ancestors who suffered mental health problems or psychiatric disorders, or in some cases, whose behaviour deviated from what was considered the norm, faced incarceration in an asylum. Run on a county basis, these institutions built and designed as calm refuges for vulnerable men and women had become grossly overcrowded. Earlier paternalistic models of moral therapy had been replaced by straitjackets, seclusion and sedation. Surviving records of such establishments do not always include patient records, but those for the Cambridgeshire Asylum do. Kevin Roberts tells us about the collection he has been cataloguing and how its content may help family historians. Which document have you chosen? I’ve selected a lunatic reception…

The People’s Collection Wales (www.peoples collection.wales) is a project led by the NLW, National Museum Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (rcahmw.gov.uk). It’s a place where anyone can upload images and stories relating to the past. Material includes records, artefacts, films and audio files drawn from national collections, as well as personal items. While Findmypast has its Wales Collection, Ancestry also has useful material with more on the way (browse collections at search.ancestry.co.uk/Places/UK/Wales/Default.aspx). West Glamorgan Archives (swansea.gov.uk/westglamorgan archives) will soon have its Swansea electoral registers, prison records and local Poor Law union material online via Ancestry. Denbighshire Archives (archives.denbighshire.gov.uk) is another good county archive website (find the others via Archives Wales). Its catalogue will soon have enclosure awards and maps, plus the patient index for…

A distinctive first name is one of the clearest signs that your ancestor was a Gypsy. Because these names were given to honour respected elder relatives, they passed down within families: Damon is found in one branch of the Lees, Jasper in a particular line of Smiths. Find one of these names in your tree and it can link you up with a family and region. But watch out for variation; the Boyces and Becketts had a distinctive woman’s name which appears in different generations as Puella, Puener, Puchener or Pushner. In an oral culture, there was no correct spelling, and in any case all documents were written by non-Gypsies, often carelessly, sometimes deliberately substituting something like ‘Elizabeth’ for ‘Mizelli’. When it came to registering a death, there were deep-rooted…

These days, your phone or tablet’s camera is capable of capturing information with unbelievable levels of detail. Indeed, camera resolutions now rival (and even exceed) those of traditional flatbed scanners. It’s perfectly possible, therefore, to turn your mobile into an on-the-go handheld scanner, enabling you to take digital snaps of old photos and documents wherever you happen to be (with the owner’s permission, of course). You could just snap the document with your phone’s built-in camera, but the results will be – frankly – poor. Instead, you should try a free app like Tiny Scanner. It’s available for Android as well as iPad and iPhone, and is packed full of clever features that allow you to snap your document, then automatically straighten the image before presenting you with a PDF…

Instructions Each column heading provides specific information explaining how the schedule should be completed. Occupation The fields relating to occupation are more detailed than in earlier censuses. However, the Irish schedules give far less information. The green number annotations are occupation codes used for statistical calculations. Birthplace and nationality The ‘Birthplace’ and ‘Nationality’ columns require the name of parish or town and county, wherever born in the UK. If born in the UK outside of England and Wales then ‘Resident’ or ‘Visitor’ had to be included. And if born elsewhere in the Empire or a foreign country, more details had to be given. If the latter, then details of nationality were required. The red number annotations are place of birth codes. Infirmity The final column, ‘Infirmity’, related to the deaf,…

Board of Guardians records The ledgers, minutes and correspondence of Boards of Guardians are accessible in local archives and record offices. They give an insight into the circumstances the Irish faced, and how they were perceived. In some areas, notably Manchester and Liverpool, the Irish were enumerated separately in statistics relating to poor relief receipts. Records of Medical Officers of Health (Liverpool had the country’s first) and local Boards of Health are also worth consulting. Newspapers The national and regional press took a great interest in Irish migration to England. Meanwhile the community developed its own lively press (often with a Catholic or Irish nationalist leaning), particularly in the major cities. Try searching the British Newspaper archive (at britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk or findmypast.co.uk). Parliamentary Papers Irish migration was a subject of sufficient…

Unsurprisingly, due to the horrific working conditions endured by bakers in towns and cities, they organised themselves into unions early on. A bakers’ union was first founded in Manchester in 1847. This organisation developed nationally and it became the Amalgamated Union of Operative Bakers of England (today, it’s the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union). The union campaigned vigorously for changes to bakehouses and achieved some success when the Bakehouses Regulations Act was passed in 1863. However, during the 19th century it never had more than a few thousand members. It was difficult to increase membership because most bakers worked in small bakeries. The union’s activities were also localised, so it was restricted when it pressed for national changes to working hours. Many other trades had managed to secure a…

“It’s surprising that historians don’t use school log books more often” Kent Jonathan Scott returns to his old stomping ground to see what’s in store for family historians with Kentish roots Due to being born in Surrey, I am neither a ‘Kentish Man’ nor a ‘Man of Kent’. This feels rather unfair as I spent almost every waking moment of my youth in an area of west Kent that should have made me a bona fide ‘Kentish Man’ (those east of the River Medway are known as ‘Men or Maids of Kent’). There are a number of archives and libraries for researchers with Kentish roots. The Medway Archives, currently based in the Clock Tower Building in Strood, holds material for researching Men and Maids of Kent, and the team here…

STEP 1 Visit whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/ bonuscontent and click the ‘view content’ button next to the image of this issue’s cover. Enter the code above in the box that appears. STEP 2 You’ll now see a list of the resources for this issue. We’ve made the entire set available to save to your computer in two parts – just click on the ‘Download part 1’ or ‘part 2’ links. STEP 3 You can also find out more about all of the records and download each one individually. Simply click the red button next to the file to start transferring it to your computer.…

What The Railways Did For Us: The Making of Modern Britain Stuart Hylton (Amberley, £8.99) It is hard to imagine the impact the railways must have had on everyday life at the start of the 19th century. For our ancestors, travelling by train, faster than any carriage pulled by horse, would have been exhilarating. For those with an interest in how social and cultural changes affected British life, this book is worth a read. Where Did That Regiment Go? The Lineage of British Infantry and Cavalry Regiments at a Glance Gerry Murphy (The History Press, £17.99) The rationalisation of the British Regiments has meant that many people trying to research their family’s military past have been unsuccessful. Names have been changed multiple times over the course of history. This book…

PICK OF THE MONTH Theatrical family Who Do You Think You Are? 8pm, Wednesday 15 February BBC One If it’s sometimes seemed as if the BBC has dragged out the screening of the latest episodes of WDYTYA?, that’s not necessarily a bad thing as it gave us something to look forward to in the chill days of winter. Nevertheless, subject to any last-minute changes by schedulers, the series really will come to an end in March. Of the three episodes left to air, the episode featuring Warwick Davis sees the actor hoping to find people in his tree that are “a little bit maverick”. This description certainly applies to a forebear who turns out to have been a bigamist. Warwick also discovers a theatrical relative, albeit one who…

Caribbean islands Liz Bonnin’s father was born in Martinique. BMD records for Martinique (and other French territories) can be searched here: anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/ caomec2. The website is in French and only works using Internet Explorer 1 First, choose the territory and commune you wish to explore. Next, enter a year to search or scroll through and then press ‘Lancer la recherche’. We searched for the marriage of Liz’s great grandfather, Jean Baptiste François Achille Grosésormeaux in 1907. D , 2 Records for the year you selected will appear. You need to click on Le Vauclin, where Liz’s great grandfather married, to begin searching the records. Some volumes have indexes at the back, but not all. In this example there is an index. Click on the last page shown on the left-hand side…

With thousands of newspaper pages being digitised monthly across the world, plenty of lost information about our ancestors is resurfacing. Although most people never featured in the news, it’s likely that at least one family member has been mentioned. Two prestigious British newspapers, The Times and The Guardian , can be checked for free, provided a user is registered with an institution that subscribes to the online archive. Large public libraries provide a password for members to use off-site. Although these papers are excellent for most research, they are not the best sources for family history. Online access to other British newspapers is available by subscription. Some providers only work with libraries and educational establishments, which then arrange access for their members and students. In the UK, the broadest general…

HISTORICAL WORLDWIDE NEWSPAPERS ONLINE (FREE) libguides.bgsu.edu Provides links to worldwide newspaper archive sites. Some require a subscription, which may be in a foreign currency. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (FREE) chroniclingamerica.loc.gov A selection of digitised newspapers 1789-1922 covering most US states. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA (FREE) trove.nla.gov.au Millions of articles from Australian newspapers from 1800-2010. IRISH NEWS ARCHIVE (£) irishnewsarchive.com Papers from 1738-present from Eire and Northern Ireland. Prices start at £10 for one day. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF NEW ZEALAND (FREE) paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers Digitised pages from over 100 New Zealand newspapers and periodicals published between 1839 and 1948. NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE (£) newspaperarchive.com Predominantly titles from the US from 1753-2016, with a few from Europe and Asia. NEWSPAPERS.COM (£) newspapers.com Over 200 million newspapers pages, mainly from the US. Priced in dollars, or via…

‘Ian has a strong belief that we have an obligation to help our fellows’ Who Do You Think You Are? ’s first outing of 2017 raised the curtain on actor Sir Ian McKellen’s family history. The protagonists in this delicious melodrama included a top-billing stage performer who lost everything, a hardworking warehouseman turned radical reformer whose campaigning gave us our weekend and an engraver who helped transform the Lake District into a tourist destination – all set against the backdrop of satanic mills and breath-taking Cumbrian scenery. So take your seats, the performance is about to begin, as we meet the people behind Ian’s episode and discover how the research came together. Born in North Lancashire, Ian has been performing on the stage, film and television for more than 50…

School records Some schools and other institutions have their own archives. Contact the organisation direct to see what they hold. This can be very hit and miss, but you could be lucky, as the researchers were in Ian’s episode with Cheadle Hulme School. Also try the local archives as many such collections of records are passed onto public archives to preserve. Search The National Archives’ Discover database (discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk) to track down where such records are held. In addition, Findmypast’s ‘National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914’ collection includes over seven million records for 41 counties. Local museums Most of us won’t find anything specific relating to an ancestor in a local museum, as Ian did at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery. However, they are an invaluable way of understanding…

Abortionists like Madame Frain capitalised on one of Victorian Britain’s most common problems: unwanted pregnancies. With little knowledge of contraception, both married and unmarried women desperately tried to bring about miscarriages. Home remedies included drinking pints of gin, inserting knitting needles, deliberately falling down stairs, and ingesting diachylon, a lead-based medicament normally used for cuts and sores. Madame Frain was one of many abortionists who placed newspaper adverts offering pills for ‘menstrual irregularities’, which women knew had abortifacient properties. It’s believed that these substances contributed to the declining fertility rate from the 1870s. In 1898, a blackmail case revealed how widespread the practice was. The Chrimes brothers extorted money from customers who had bought their pills. They sent letters which threatened to tell the authorities that the women had committed…

SYLVIA C MURPHY is a Sydney-based genealogist with over 20 years of international research experience. NEIL STOREY is a historian and author of Military Photographs and How To Date Them. SHARON GRANT is the Chair of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). STEVE THOMAS is a genealogist with more than 20 years of experience and regularly appears on TV as an expert. PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert and the author of Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors. STEVEN SMYRL is a member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland (formerly the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland). ANTONY MARR is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). CHRIS PATON is a professional genealogist, author and blogger.…

Danny Dyer’s unforgettable episode featured dramatic tales of reversals of fortune and drops in social status as Danny worked up his family tree. He was surprised to discover that he hailed from nobility and ultimately royalty, as his near forebears did not enjoy such comfortable lifestyles. One such ancestor was his paternal great great grandmother, Mary Ann Buttivant. Mary was from the East End of London and had a number of children, one of whom Danny met in the episode. However, he also discovered that Mary had concealed the birth and death of her first child when she was just 17 in 1895. This event was uncovered using criminal records found online and also in the archives. Mary’s crime was firstly located in After-Trial Calendars – on Findmypast and at…

The first ancestors of the Romani people left India in the tenth century. Long centuries of migration followed, and it was not until 1505 that they were first recorded in the British Isles under the name of ‘Egyptians’, or Gypsies for short. They had a dark complexion, wore exotic costume, followed a nomadic lifestyle, and spoke a language related to Hindi. Centuries of life in England have weakened many of these traits, and so has inter-marriage, but the Gypsies remain a distinct people to this day. If you discover a Gypsy ancestor in your family tree you’ll step into a new and different world. Not that your ancestor is necessarily going to feature as ‘Gypsy’ in the parish registers. The first clue to your Gypsy roots may be a forebear…

How long have you been doing your family history? Over 20 years – my wife joined Bucks Family History Society first and then I caught the bug too! Our two young children also got involved when we visited churchyards in Buckinghamshire to hunt for memorial inscriptions. What had you managed to uncover before hitting your brick wall? I was researching the family of my great grandfather Thomas Wilson (1859-1912). He was baptised on 3 August 1859 in Killymuck Glebe, Tamlaght O’Crilly, Londonderry in Northern Ireland and his baptism record revealed that his father was dead. Thomas Senior had been a farmer. He was baptised in 1832 and married Jane O’Neil on 6 January 1853. The couple had two other children: James, baptised 25 September 1855, and Margaret, baptised 19 March…

1170 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury since 1162, is murdered on 29 December in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights who believe the king wants him out of the way. 1586 HMS Sunne is the first ship to be built at ‘Jillingham’ water – an area that would become Chatham Dockyard. Chatham is established as a royal dockyard the following year. 1857 Hans Christian Andersen finally leaves the home of Charles Dickens in Gad’s Hill Place, Higham. To celebrate, Dickens writes on the guest room mirror: “Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks which seemed to the family ages!” 1875 Captain Matthew Webb, covered in porpoise oil, dives into the Channel at Dover. He arrives at Calais 22 hours later. 1914 The first bomb to be dropped by an…

This month we have some complete products plus sample documents covering all of Kent from directories provided by My History (www.my-history.co.uk), to unique parish items from Anguline Research Archives (anguline.co.uk). Kelly’s Directory of Kent The star item this month is a late Victorian directory of Kent. Normally £14.95 from My History, this edition was printed in 1895 and contains lists of residents, local traders, plus information, statistics, histories and topographical descriptions of all “hundreds, liberties, unions, boroughs, towns, ports, parishes, townships, villages and hamlets”, taking in local trade and commerce, manufacturers, agriculture, markets and fairs, charities and more. The text is fully searchable and the directory has bookmarks so you can jump between sections. Bromley 1932 The £10 directory of Bromley, Bickley, Chislehurst and Orpington is another Kelly’s publication and…

‘She was a single mother who managed to succeed in both newspapers and publishing’ “The one thing you don’t expect when researching your ancestors is to discover that a once-famous author wrote a biography of them,” Jane Gill née Chapman tells Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. “But that is precisely what happened to me. You see, the novelist Ursula Bloom happens to be my great grandmother’s first cousin.” The fact that the Chapmans had a writer as an ancestor had been common knowledge for some time – although no one had taken the trouble to find out much about her. “My dad’s mum had told him when he was young that he was related to Ursula Bloom,” says Jane. “But none of us really paid much attention to…