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

It’s always busy for us when a new series of Who Do You Think You Are? arrives on our screens. Visitors to our website quadruple and so we try to make sure we’ve got plenty of material about each episode to keep them happy. If you haven’t visited our website recently, then now’s the time to check it out! The series also inspires us to look again at our research with fresh eyes so if you get excited by Emma Willis’s episode because you’ve got Birmingham family (page 16) or Craig Revel Horwood’s episode made you wonder whether any of your kin went to Australia in search of gold (page 54), then you’ve come to the right place. Not all of our features are tied in with the TV series,…

‘At its peak, Mail Rail carried more than four million letters a day and employed over 220 staff ’ New museum sheds light on postal history The newly refurbished Postal Museum features unique exhibitions and archives, as well as the chance to ride the Mail Rail Visitors to London can learn about the history of the postal service and the men and women who worked there in a new £26 million museum. The Postal Museum, located at Phoenix Place in Clerkenwell, opened on 28 July. It offers a unique chance to see items such as a horse-drawn mail coach and one of the few remaining sheets of Penny Black postal stamps, as well as a host of letters, postcards and other documents. The £26 million project, supported through fundraising and…

James Gretton began his working life as a brushmaker, probably making clothes and hair brushes using animal horn and horses’ hair. The horn was worked into the brush stock, after which holes were bored in it with a hand lathe, while the bristles would be dressed. These were bundled and pan seared in hot tar before they were passed through the holes and bound together with glue or wire. The knots were covered by another piece of horn at the back of the stock after the bristles were trimmed down. A small gaffer in 1858, James described himself as a ‘horn and hair merchant and dealer in English and foreign sizing’ and three years later as a ‘horn and glue merchant’. ‘Size’ was a semi-solid substance like glue and it…

Where was my military ancestor jailed? QWilliam Coman, a driver in the Royal Artillery in Umbella, India, was court-martialled on 1 October 1874 for being drunk and attempting to strike an acting bombardier. He was fined £1 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. Where would he have been jailed? Over the years I have tried various avenues, but all to no avail. Carol Smith, via email ABritish military personnel convicted by court martial in India – who would otherwise be sentenced to imprisonment – were transported to New South Wales from 1807 to 1841 and to Western Australia in the 1850s. However, with the decline of Australia as a penal colony, new alternatives had to be found. Later convicts were instead shipped back to England and imprisoned there. The National…

How do I research ancestors with variations of the same surname? Ian Treen is struggling with alternative spellings of his surname Q I have researched my paternal line all the way back to my 4x great grandfather, Benjamin Treen, who was born in Devon in 1776 and died in 1841. He married Mary Selley in 1793. The couple had eight children, all of whom appear in records with various derivatives of the Treen surname. I have tried a multitude of formats – Trend, Tren, Trenn, Trim – but I’m struggling to make much progress. How do I research ancestors with so many different variations of the same surname? Is it possible to trace my ancestors back further? Ian AG Treen, via email A My first step was to look at…

‘These visitors were determined to leave something more of themselves than just a name and a street’ The Second World War saw one of the biggest movements of forces in history. Huge numbers of British soldiers were transferred around the country and many different nationalities came to Britain. Civilians on the Home Front also contributed to the war effort in many different ways, including running volunteer canteens for soldiers far from home. Several of the visitors’ books of these canteens have been preserved, with touching personal messages alongside the names of those involved in the war effort. There are two visitors’ books from a Women’s Voluntary Service canteen in Bromley in the Imperial War Museum, and Lincolnshire Archives holds the visitors’ book of the Forces Canteen at Centenary Methodist Church…

Any museum collection, specialist archive or regional archive may have details of any in-house or company magazines online. The Merseyside Maritime Museum, for example, has this article about its in-house holdings, illustrated by an image of The Camel Laird Magazine (bit.ly/ LiverpoolMuseums). As noted previously, TNA’s Discovery catalogue might be the best place to start your search. It’s also worth searching British Library (bl.uk) holdings for in-company or trade collections. And the British Newspaper Archive (britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk), which draws on the British Library’s collections, has some titles that may be useful for research into particular occupations. The Era, for example, was known for its sports and theatrical coverage. There’s also the National Library of Wales’ free newspapers site (newspapers.library.wales) or Welsh Journals (journals.library. wales), which provides access to titles relating to Wales published…

Mining was a dangerous occupation. Miners quite often suffered accidents by falling down shafts or hurt in rock falls. Living conditions on some of the gold fields was not good with poor sanitation, lack of food and water, housing and extreme weather conditions. It’s not surprising that diseases broke out and one way to trace miners is to see if they were admitted to a hospital at any time. Not all hospital records have survived but where they exist, the records can provide detailed information on miners. During his WDYTYA? journey, Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood learnt that his 3x great grandfather, Charles Tinworth, travelled from Essex to take part in the 1854 gold rush. Charles’ wife, Elizabeth, fell ill and her hospital records were found in the Genealogical Society…

Being hauled before the justice of the peace and subjected to a bastardy examination could be humiliating for a single mum or mother-to-be, and many chose to protect the identity of the man with whom they’d had an illicit affair. If his name was made known then pressure could be put upon the couple to wed and in some cases the parish would even pay for a marriage license. Until 1732/3 a pregnant spinster might find herself being evicted from her home and carted off to her ‘parish of settlement’, which was sometimes deemed to be the place where she used to live or where she was born, as parish overseers did their best to avoid the trouble of identifying an absent father. If he wasn’t a local and couldn’t…

WEBSITES Archive.org  archive.org/details/ b28048465 Has a number of free e-books relating to confectionery, including Skuse’s Complete Confectioner. York Castle Museum  www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk/exhibition/chocolateyorks-sweet-past/ The museum is hosting an exhibition of food, fashion and body shape which includes a section on sugar. It also has an exhibition trail allowing you to explore York’s chocolate- making past. TV The Sweet Makers BBC 2 and BBC iPlayer A three-part documentary about confectioners, from the Tudor period to the 1930s, currently scheduled to air on 19 July at 8pm. BOOKS • Harvest of the Cold Months Elizabeth David (1994, Michael Joseph) This book is excellent, not just on ices, but on London’s confectioners in the 18th and 19th centuries. • Chocolate Wars Deborah Cadbury (2010, publisher) A good guide to the early chocolate factories, and what life…

This year saw the triumph of one of the great women’s causes of the 19th century: the right to control their own property For most of the 19th century, married women had no legal identity separate from that of their husbands. They could not enter into agreements or testify in court without their spouse’s permission and crimes committed with the knowledge of a husband were his responsibility. The principle of coverture (that a man ‘covered’ the wife) was enunciated by Sir William Blackstone: “The husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during her marriage.” All a woman’s possessions automatically became the possession of their husbands on marriage. Campaigner Millicent Fawcett had her purse stolen and was…

FAQs? 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 terms and conditions agreed with the firms that provide bonus content for our magazine, data is only available…

Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past by John Higgs Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 384 pages, £18.99 When I came across this book, I assumed that the street in the title wasn’t real but rather a metaphor for the UK and its history. I was both right and wrong. Watling Street does exist, running from Dover to the druid groves of the Welsh island Anglesey under the guise of many different names – V4, A2 and A5 among others. Higgs leads us along Watling Street, “a road older than history”, recounting and discussing the history of each stage along the route. He links the past – some of it familiar, some of it not – with today’s Britain, be that Brexit, politics or our national identity. Each chapter reads…

My Family, Partition And Me: India 1947 Wednesday 9 August BBC ONE When Anita Rani appeared in WDYTYA? in 2015, part of her research involved tracing the tragedy that beset her maternal grandfather, Sant Singh, in 1947. This was the year of the Partition of India into two countries, Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, following the end of British colonial rule. It was a time of terrible violence as millions of Muslims headed for West and East Pakistan (modern-day Bangladesh), and millions of Hindus and Sikhs headed in the opposite direction. During these terrible days of forced migrations, Sant Singh’s first wife, children and grandfather lost their lives. As Anita discovers in a two-part documentary, such tragedies were all too common. Not only does Anita, along with her mother, return…

Ancestry adds 1861 workhouse register An 1861 list of long-term workhouse residents in England and Wales is now available to search on ancestry.co.uk. The register, Paupers in Workhouses 1861, was ordered by the House of Commons to document every inmate who had been in a workhouse for at least five continuous years. The document lists 14,216 adults and states how long they were in the workhouse and why they were admitted, with reasons including destitution, disability and having an illegitimate child. Bonnie Prince Charlie trail opens Historic Environment Scotland, National Museum of Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland and the Palace of Holyroodhouse have created a new trail to tell the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites. The trail links 26 of Scotland’s most famous castles, battlefields and…

‘ She had the task of checking on the occupants to make sure nothing dodgy or dubious was going on ’ Home, sweet home For many of our ancestors, home ownership was a distant dream, says Alan Crosby My daughter and her partner are buying their first house. They live in South Wales, where property prices are (relatively) sensible, but even so it’s alarming that the house will cost exactly ten times what my wife and I paid for our first home, back in the 1980s. And no less than 68 times what my parents forked out in the late 1950s. It really is hard to believe that Mum and Dad were able buy a house at Woking, Surrey, for £2,500! But this house-buying was something of a novelty then.…

ARCHIVES • Library of Birmingham Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2ND libraryofbirmingham.com This state-of-the-art library also houses the archives for the city. Check online for opening times. SOCIETY • Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry The Birmingham and Midland Institute, Margaret Street B3 3BS bmsgh.org As well as an invaluable website full of useful information, this family history society has an important research library based at the Birmingham and Midland Institute in Margaret Street. WEBSITES • Ancestry  ancestry.co.uk This subscription site has digitised many records held by the Library of Birmingham. • The British Newspaper Archive  britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk This subscription site has digitised many of the Birmingham newspapers for the 19th and part of the 20th centuries. • Midlands Historical Data  midlandshistoricaldata.org A large number of directories, local…

Renowned strong-woman Sandwina was born Katherine (Katie) Brumbach, near Vienna in May 1884. She was the eldest daughter of Phillipe Brumbach, a circus strong-man, and from an early age it was clear that Katie had inherited her father’s prodigious strength. By the age of 16, she was as strong as most men. As the centrepiece of the family circus, she would conclude her act with a challenge; a purse of 100 marks to any man or woman who would wrestle with her and pin her to the floor – nobody ever succeeded. Katie grew to a statuesque five feet 10 inches and 200 pounds (around 89 kilograms). She appeared taller as she piled her long hair on top of her head and wore heels. Katie was never described as being…

Happy campers Girls go glamping 1920s style Four young women enjoy a cup of tea outside their tent while camping in the Chiltern hills in southern England in 1929. The ladies have come prepared, bringing with them home comforts including a table, crockery and a large gramophone. Charitable camping trips for youngsters These young boys, whose fathers are unemployed, are on a camping holiday at a site near Farnborough, Kent, in 1934. They are the guests of Kent Scouts, who raised money to pay for the boys’ holiday. Closer to nature Mrs Smith and two friends make tea using water from a stream while on holiday in North Wales in 1931. Caravanning holidays A family enjoys a tea break in front of their caravan in 1934. The campsite, at Hurley…

PETER HIGGINBOTHAM is the author of Voices from the Workhouse (The History Press, 2012) IAN HILDER is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) SYLVIA CM MURPHY is a Sydney-based genealogist with over 20 years of international research experience JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist STEPHEN 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 author of Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors (Pen and Sword, 2014) HELEN WHITTLE is a member of AGRA and the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) SIMON WILLS is a maritime genealogist and author GEOFF YOUNG is a member of AGRA and the founder of Microgenealogy (micro genealogy.co.uk)…

Craig Revel Horwood is a bona fide Australian, having been born in Ballarat, a gold mining town in the state of Victoria. His journey centred on exploring these roots and he was fascinated to find two of the most well-known types of Australian migrants in his family tree: a convict and an ancestor who travelled during the gold rush. The latter, Craig’s paternal 3x great grandfather Charles Tinworth, became a successful gold miner and died in 1905 a very wealthy man, having left England as a humble labourer. We were able to explore Charles’ life thanks to the many records available online for Victoria. These included birth, marriage and death records (church records and those kept by the state) at bdm.vic.gov.au. The site allows users to search for free, although…

‘15 have been found so far, but more may lie undiscovered in the cellars of the building’ The origins of the Florence Nightingale Convalescent Home for Men at Great Hucklow, in the Derbyshire Peak District, go back to 1917, when a somewhat basic building at nearby Windmill village was adapted as part of the “national memorial to the men of the Unitarian and Free Christian Churches who fell in the First World War”. In 1930-31, new premises were built at Hucklow and these, with an adjacent property called Barleycrofts (formerly a convalescent home for women) form the core of the Nightingale complex. The site is still linked with the Unitarian Church and operated as a “not for profit” organisation “driven to improve the lives of the people it reaches”. This…

Relatives Joseph Croomes, gentleman of Orchard in Church Knowle, signed the bond as surety for John Croomes. The mother Grace Hibbs, daughter of Jonathan Hibbs of Church Knowle is said to be a single woman who has been examined by the JP and is “big and pregnant with a bastard child”. Bond terms As a condition of the bond, John and Joseph Croomes indemnified the parishioners of Corfe Castle against any cost for the “birth, maintenance, education and bringing up” of the child. Bond paid John and Joseph Croomes paid the churchwardens and overseers of Corfe Castle parish a bond of £40, a substantial sum. The father Grace Hibbs swore before the JP that John Croomes, yeoman of Orchard in Church Knowle, was the father of her child. Signatures John…

ARCHIVES • East Anglian Film Archive  eafa.org.uk Based in Norwich, EAFA has digitised most of its film collection and made it available online. Watch a delightful 20-minute tourist promotion film of Southend On Sea shot in 1964 and narrated by Johnny Morris (www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/7641). • British Newspaper Archive  britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Search the British Newspaper Archive for news items and advertisements about pleasure piers or on Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk), both of these are subscription sites. • Britain On Film  player.bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film Britain On Film is an impressive online archive of amateur and professional film held by the BFI (British Film Institute). WEBSITES • The National Piers Society  piers.org.uk The most comprehensive online resource for everything pier-related, from their engaging history to news items and current volunteering opportunities if you would like to get involved in…

How long have you been doing your family history? I started about 20 years ago when I enrolled on a family history course at night school. I was especially interested to find out more about my great grandmother, Sarah Ann MacNaboe, who was buried in a paupers’ grave despite apparently being due to inherit a fortune. What had you managed to uncover before hitting your brick wall? Sarah Ann MacNaboe was born in 1859 in Manchester. She was working as a servant girl when she married Joseph Thomas (1850-1909), with whom she had nine children. Despite my ancestor’s humble beginnings and the fact she died a pauper, I grew up with the family story that she should have inherited £26,000 – a sum equivalent to nearly £2 million in today’s…

The city synonymous with steel sits in the foothills of the Pennines, enveloping the valleys of the River Don and its four tributaries. Already a major centre for manufacture and metallurgy by the 18th century, its population roughly quadrupled during the first half of the 19th century. It was the site of many important innovations in metalwork – from ‘Sheffield plate’ in the mid 18th century, to stainless steel (originally ‘rustless steel’) in the early 20th century. Sheffield lies within the West Riding of Yorkshire. Today, the city forms one of a group of boroughs that together make up the metropolitan county of South Yorkshire, each of which has its own archives and local history collections. Indeed, if your family moved beyond Sheffield’s city limits, you may well need to…

Looking for Uncle Joop: A Long-Lost Story from Nazi-Occupied Holland by Aletta Stevens (Ashgrove, £10.99) Aletta Stevens’ mother never talked about her brother, Johannes Doedenias Schweitzer, who died in the Second World War. This book tells the story of how, inspired by an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, Stevens uncovered her family’s involvement in the Resistance. A Good Man and a Brave Man: The Story of a Gloucestershire Soldier, Cecil Thomas Packer, 1885-1916 by Alan Gaunt (Mereo, £9.99) The lives of the ordinary soldiers who served in the First World War can be hard to trace. Gaunt sets out to tell the story of his wife’s great grandfather, Cecil Thomas Packer, who fought at both Gallipoli and the Somme. A Song for Kresy: A Story of War,…

Last week, I had cause to update my father’s status on Ancestry. His profile now reads “Horwood Selwyn Henry Lewis. Died: 19 June 2017”. For the first time, contemporary events had encroached on my family tree. My interest in genealogy began in 2010, sparked by a conversation with my mother about her uncle, William Gammon. William was the cox of the Mumbles lifeboat that was wrecked in 1947, with the loss of the entire crew. Since then, I’ve spent many happy hours tracing my family and my wife’s, and unearthed countless fascinating stories along the way. I relish the challenges that tracing my family tree throw up. One moment, I’m sleuthing like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes; the next, I’m applying left-field thinking to a problem as I would to a…

42 museums joined the latest Arts Council England National Portfolio 2018-22, published in June 104 new war memorials added to the genealogist.co.uk from counties including Leicestershire and Bedfordshire 389,073 records in the new Ireland Civil Registration 1845-1913 collection, available for free on familysearch.org £4 million cost of a new Staffordshire History Centre to hold the county’s records, according to Staffordshire County Council 99.99% the chance that a British person born in the 1970s is descended from Edward III, according to geneticist Adam Rutherford. Move over, Danny Dyer……

So how did you become WDYTYA? genealogists? SARA KHAN: We both did history at university and we both had a desire to pursue it professionally. I was very lucky to find a researcher position at The National Archives and I worked there for a couple of years and got trained up in all the genealogical sources. From there, I was asked to work on the show. I then worked in probate genealogy before returning to WDYTYA? . LAURA BERRY: I was studying history at Royal Holloway University and really wanted to get into research for TV programmes. I started to work part time for a research agency and they trained me up in genealogy. From there, I started working on the series around the same time that Sara did, I…

The National Fairground Archive  nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk nfa@sheffield.ac.uk This archive at the University of Sheffield holds documents, photos and audio visual material relating to the history of fairs, circuses and travelling show people. Some of its material is online. It has a complete collection of the trade paper The World’s Fair on microfiche. The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)  vam.ac.uk info@vam.ac.uk The V&A has a large collection relating to the performing arts and early circus history. The British Library  bl.uk A major repository for British newspapers as well as a range of source material relating to the circus including recordings, programmes and related books. Its website and catalogue are searchable online. The British Newspaper Archive  britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk This website gives access to a vast collection of newspapers from British Library collections. Newspapers are…

The year is 1940 in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh – the final years of the Raj. The Smith family are waiting outside their house for a car to take them to their daughter’s christening. As they stand chatting in the heat, their two-year-old son wanders off. Unnoticed, he begins to investigate the undergrowth. He crouches down and picks up a stick, jabbing the vegetation with it. Suddenly a cry goes up behind him. Several people rush over including a portly Indian gentleman dressed in white wearing a turban who plucks the toddler from his game. Moments later, there’s a cheer as two of the boy’s other saviours emerge from the bushes, triumphantly holding crossed sticks aloft – a cobra dangling between them. His encounter with a deadly snake is one of…

Military uniform dating advice bit.ly/2t49vSN I recently came across a ‘new’ photo and I thought I knew who the soldier was. I had decided on Charles Greenfield, born 9 December 1891 at Great Coates, Lincolnshire. He joined the 1st North Midland (Reserve) Brigade RFA in January 1915 and was then in France throughout the war. His medal card shows that he was awarded both the Victory and British medals. I’ve had to reduce the resolution of the photo, but the original shows the word ‘Kent’ on the badge, along with some words I can’t make out. Embossed in the bottom right-hand corner is the name of the studio (C Gently & Co, I think, of Bangalore). I wonder if the photo relates to later service. Perhaps he re-enlisted? Any…

“Was your great aunt a nippy in the J Lyons tea shops or an uncle a baker at the Lyons Patisserie Company? If you have any relatives or ancestors who worked for the company in any capacity, you might be interested in the volunteer-run website www.kzwp.com/ lyons with its raft of information and memory-lane photographs. Remember Fab lollies? Manufactured by Lyons Maid, there’s even a page for the subsidiary ice cream business with product list and photos. Elsewhere in the anecdotes pages, you’ll find former ‘Saturday boy’, ‘front shop Sally’ (a salesperson) and ‘van boys’ recounting their experiences. The website has plenty of employee photos, contact requests from former workers, a pensioners’ index and obituaries. Another page lists those who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars, plus…

Inquisition proceedings Provides basic details including name of deceased, name of judge, names of jurors and when and how the deceased met his death. Jurors’ names Note names of jurors including three with the surname Smith – family members may have given evidence. Name changes Note the early spelling of Ballaarat – remember to search for both old and new names. Name of mine Where the death took place – search for information on the name of the mine too. Deposition of witness The deposition of John Thomas Morgan gives detailed genealogical information on the deceased. Links to the old country Morgan had known Henry John Smith in both the old country and in Victoria – often people either emigrated together or came out after hearing positive accounts from earlier…

BOOKS • Tracing Mining Ancestors: A Brief Guide to Resources in Australia and New Zealand by Shauna Hicks (Unlock the Past, 2014) Available from Gould Genealogy & History (gould.com.au). WEBSITES • The Bendigo Regional Archives Centre  www.brac.vic.gov.au Hosts a free online resource to petitions relating to the Bendigo. These have been transcribed, indexed and digitised, giving an insight into the development of Bendigo from a transient mining area into an established town. • Overland Gold 1851–1853  cornishvic.org.au/overland gold A research project of the Cornish Association of Victoria. How did miners, and sometimes their families, travel from one mining area to another? This project traces those who left the copper mines of South Australia for the gold mining rushes of Victoria. • Sovereign Hill in Ballarat  sovereignhill.com.au A historical mining village which…

Fathers who refused to sign a bond could be issued with a bastardy order by the justice of the peace The paternity of an ancestor born out of wedlock is usually difficult to prove, frustratingly leaving a whole branch of your family tree void of names. All too often there’s a blank space where the father’s name should be on the child’s birth and baptism certificates and on their marriage certificate later in life, and the baby usually took the mother’s surname at birth. Finding a bastardy bond then could be like hitting the jackpot. The Bastardy Act of 1575/6 granted special powers to churchwardens, overseers of the poor and justices of the peace (JP) in England and Wales to question single mothers who might be in need of financial…

The earliest records of sugar in the UK are from the 12th century, when it was an expensive luxury. It remained so until the 17th century, and a strand of cookery grew up around it which became known as confectionery. Sweet confections, made by confectioners, were quite separate from the main business of dinner, so much so that in the late Tudor and early Stuart period, they were often served as an entirely separate course, the banquet. Served in a banqueting house, a small building in the grounds or up in the roof of a large country house, this was highly theatrical, with a faint whiff of something scurrilous: even then sugar was associated with a certain guilty pleasure. The confectioners who prepared such delights weren’t always professionals, for confectionery…

LOCAL HISTORY LIBRARIES Libraries often provide free access to key resources such as newspapers. In Jean’s case it was Salford Local History Library (bit.ly/ SalfordLHL).For more information, see Simon Fowler’s article at bit.ly/ localstudiesguide. NEWSPAPERS Over 20 million pages of newspapers dating back to the 18th century have been digitised as part of a British Library project at british newspaperarchive.co.uk. The database is also available via findmypast.co.uk with credits or a subscription. Welsh papers can be searched for free using newspapers.library. wales. WILLS The UK Government’s Probate Search facility (probatesearch.service.gov.uk) allows family historians to search and order digital copies of wills for people who died in or after 1858. Records are £10 each. However, some users may find it easier to carry out initial searches using the National Probate Calendar at ancestry.co.uk, which…

c1475 The oldest surviving domestic building in Sheffield, home to what is now known as The Old Queen’s Head public house, is constructed on Pond Hill. 1624 Sheffield guild the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire is incorporated by an act of parliament. The first Cutlers’ Hall is built in 1638. 1743 Thomas Boulsover, born in 1705 in Longley, accidentally fuses silver and copper to make what will become known as Sheffield Plate. 1792 Spence Broughton, a highwayman executed for robbing the Sheffield and Rotherham mail, is gibbeted on Attercliffe Common, which lies between Sheffield and Rotherham. His body stays on display there for 36 years. 1838 ‘Sheffield Wicker’ station, the first in the city, is opened in October by the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway. 1860 The first ‘Rules derby’ takes…

Who Do You Think You Are? Thursday 3 August, 9pm BBC One TV presenter Emma Willis grew up in Birmingham, and enjoyed the kind of working-class upbringing where family was always around and “everybody mucks in, everybody helps raise you”. As she sets out to find out more about her family history, she hopes to find “deep-rooted ancestry” in a city she loves. “I still have a bedroom in my parents’ house and they better not ever get rid of it,” she says. In the final show in the first tranche of series 14, Emma begins by researching her line through her grandmother Edna. It’s research that leads her to learn about the profession of her 3x great grandfather, James Gretton, a horn and hair merchant. Starting out as a…

The New York Times Clare Balding’s tree had exciting ancestors on both sides; illustrious aristocracy dominated her maternal side and her paternal side branched off to New England. The New York Times Archive proved useful when researching her American family. 1 The archive can be searched free of charge although viewing an article will incur a cost. Navigate to the homepage and begin your search, nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html?mcubz=1. Choose the period you wish to search (either 1981 to present or 1851 to 1980). 2 We looked for an announcement of marriage for Clare’s grandparents, Gerald Balding and Eleanor Hoagland, in 1935. Enter the party’s name (‘Eleanor Hoagland’ for instance) and a year (using the specific dates option) to begin. Refine searches using the options on the left side of the page. 3…