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

The popularity of our Q&A pages just goes to show that we all welcome a bit of expert advice now and again, so we have asked 17 of the UK’s leading genealogists what tip they would share to help us raise our game (see p15). I hope you find it as useful as I have! Have you ever found yourself getting so engrossed in a subject you end up becoming a bit of an expert on the topic? Denise Bates started researching a mining community and ended up sharing her knowledge online. Turn to page 27 to read her advice on what it takes to set up your own specialist website and be inspired by her choice of sites set up by other enthusiasts. I was delighted to meet Heather…

‘An online petition protesting against the changes attracted over 3,000 signatures‘ Council abandons cuts to archive hours Northamptonshire Council has decided to reverse controversial plans to cut opening hours and charge visitors for access Northamptonshire County Council has revised its plans to cut opening hours and introduce significant access charges to its archives. On 24 July, Northamptonshire Archives and Heritage Service posted on its Facebook page that from 21 August, it would cut free opening hours to 9am-1pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, instead of 9am-5pm as currently, and 9am-4pm on the first Saturday of the month in April to October. Visitors would have to pay £31.50 an hour to access the archives from 10am-1pm and 2pm-4pm on Mondays and Fridays and 2pm-4pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The statement…

‘When choosing a subject for a website, opt for something that you feel passionate about’ Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. It’s easy to find basic facts about ancestors, but not always easy to discover their world. Historians often concentrate on major events and the deeds of outstanding individuals, which means that more mundane issues, such as the reality of life at a particular place or time, never made it into the history books. Twenty-first century technology now provides tools for redressing the balance. The internet enables enthusiasts to research online, perhaps using forgotten sources, at times when it is convenient for them to do so. It also offers a platform for someone who has investigated a neglected topic, or made new discoveries about an existing one, to…

CALIENDI  caliendi.com An example of a family history website covering more than just the family tree. HISTORY HOUSE  historyhouse.co.uk A website of 5,000 pages, which mainly focuses on the County of Essex, LETTERS FROM THE TRENCHES  soldierletters.blogspot.co.uk What life was like in the First World War, in the words of those who were there. NAVAL SOCIAL HISTORY C1793-1920  pbenyon.plus.com Plenty of detail and source material about naval matters. PRESTON CAPES-LIFE IN RURAL NORTHAMPTONSHIRE  prestoncapes.org.uk An exploration of village life which integrates the present and the past. SCOTTISH MINING  scottishmining.co.uk Run and funded by volunteers, the site has located and preserved sometimes overlooked detail about Scottish pits. SUGAR REFINERS AND SUGAR BAKERS  www.mawer.clara.net A wide collection of resources about the sugar industry and its workers. THE WORKHOUSE  workhouses.org.uk An authoritative guide…

Q My 4x great grandfather Exuperious Turner (or Turnor) died in Lambeth in 1836. He had at least 11 children, seven of whom were still alive when he died. There is a rumour that, after his death, the will went to the Chancery Court and the family lost their money. However, the newspapers suggest that this actually happened years before he died and that the family home was sold by auction. I did find an old map showing that Exuperious Turner owned or leased vast amounts of land in East Challow, Berkshire. I also found a copy of his will on ancestry.co.uk, although it is a bit odd to say the least. It seems to be disposing the property of his two elder sons, Charles Exuperious and Exuperious Robert, both…

‘Most of the members joined between the ages of 17-21, but some applicants are aged in their 30s’ From 1910 to the outbreak of war in 1914, Britain was racked by a series of trade union strikes known as ‘the Great Unrest’. Four different unions held the first national rail strike in 1911, while thousands of coal miners went on strike in 1914. Other professions hit by strikes included teachers, shopkeepers, mill workers, bus drivers, and even cricket ball makers in Tonbridge. When a general strike was called in Liverpool the government sent a gunboat up the Mersey to quell unrest, while in Llanelli two men were killed when clashes between police and protesters led to the army firing on the crowd. Large trade union archives are now held at…

Probate sources are one of the most potentially useful areas for researchers interested in 17th century ancestry. And so websites providing access to pre-1858 wills highlighted in issue 128 will also come in handy here. These include wills proved in Welsh Ecclesiastical courts (llgc.org.uk/en/discover/ nlw-resources/wills). There’s also the North East Inheritance Database (familyrecords.dur.ac.uk/nei/data/intro.php) covering wills and related documents under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Durham (images of the records are available through familysearch.org). The ScotlandsPeople guide to testaments is at: scotlandspeople.gov.uk/record-guides/wills-and-testaments. The Society of Genealogists (SoG) has a host of unique resources, finding aids and rare volumes not available elsewhere, so it’s worth exploring SoGCAT or the members’ Data Online area. There’s a guide to 17th and 18th century sources by the SoG’s own Else Churchill available via this mothballed…

The Geneva Convention allowed for prisoners (though not officers, who were held separately) to be made to work for their captors, but NCOs should only be given supervisory work and no one was supposed to be made to do work they were physically unfit for. There should be regular time off, hours equivalent to similar civilian workers and there should be compensation for industrial accidents. Prisoners weren’t allowed to work on anything connected with the war. Given the circumstances, this frequently didn’t happen. Germany was particularly short of labour and local employers were allowed to approach POW camps to obtain working parties. One prisoner wrote that he and his comrades were forced to work on the railway while it was being bombed and that “German guards had orders to shoot…

My maternal grandmother, Florence Louisa Watson née Hill St Andrew’s (1891-1967) knew all about dressmaking. She died when was the venue I was young, but my mother and aunts explained secretive that marriage she had once been a court dressmaker. Sure enough, Florence Hill appears on the 1911 census, aged 19, as a dressmaker at a London costumier’s. The term ‘costumier’ might possibly infer a theatrical costumier, but research to date suggests that an early-20th-century ‘costumier’ could denote a superior dressmaking establishment, essentially a Court dressmaker. I haven’t yet discovered exactly where Grandma worked, but, like most Edwardian women, her career ended abruptly following marriage. Florence married Henry William Watson in September 1915 and by 1931 had five children. Her surviving daughter, my 91-year-old aunt, remembers Grandma as a busy…

WEBSITES • World of Glass  worldofglass.com Museum with displays and live glass-blowing demonstrations. Explore underground labyrinths in the Victorian cone building • Scotland’s Glass 1610-2010  scotlandsglass.co.uk Offers articles on glassmakers and companies, photos, web-links, etc. • Stained Glass Museum, Ely  stainedglassmuseum.com Nationally important collection of stained glass based in Ely. Specialist reference library (by appointment only). • Grace’s Guide  gracesguide.co.uk Holds company histories, sources, family trees, and biographies for glass firms and other industries. • Turner Museum of Glass, Sheffield  turnermuseum.group.shef. ac.uk Collection of modern and historic glass.…

The Story of Kent by Anne Petrie The History Press, £16.99, 224 pages The landmarks, people and geographical importance of Kent are all featured in this fascinating book that traces the history of the area. It features a selection of images of local monuments and significant buildings and covers a diverse range of topics including notable residents, public health and the life of the poor. Spitalfields: The History of a Nation in a Handful of Streets by Dan Cruickshank Windmill Books, £12.99, 768 pages This book charts the history of Spitalfields since Roman times. Particularly interesting is the story of Elder Street viewed through architectural sources, taxes and censuses. It acts as a microcosm showing the changes Britain faced over the centuries. The Time Traveller’s Guide to Restoration Britain by…

Family Tree Maker 2017 launches after delays The Family Tree Maker (FTM) 2017 software package is finally available to the general public, after developer Mackiev was able to fix syncing problems. Mackiev bought FTM last year after Ancestry announced it was discontinuing the brand. FTM 2017 was due to launch on 1 April, but the launch was delayed at the last minute when problems were uncovered with FamilySync, Mackiev’s replacement for the TreeSync feature. After three months of beta testing and ‘test drives’ with volunteer users, the programme went on sale for general use on 16 July. TheGenealogist adds 1921 directories Personal and professional directories across Britain in 1921 are now available to search on thegenealogist.co.uk. The new collection includes transcriptions and images of 23 county directories, giving information such…

They had donkey rides and ice cream and loved being away from the city for a few days Bygone holidays Some old family photographs capture Alan Crosby’s ancestors enjoying a rare holiday in North Wales I was looking at some old family photos the other day – tiny black and white ones, no more than an inch and a half square, typical of holiday snaps from the 1920s and ’30s. We’ve dozens of them, mostly unlabelled, and among them are some of my mum and her brother and sister on a beach with sand dunes, in about 1933 or 1934. I remembered stories which mum told me many years ago about that holiday. They lived in inner-city Manchester, and were poor though certainly not the poorest (grandad drove a horse-drawn…

Gibraltar National Archives nationalarchives.gi/gna New online material is constantly being added. Of note are the censuses from 1704 (which gives the names of those inhabitants who stayed after Gibraltar capitulated) right through to 1914. Original documents have been digitised for the 1777, 1791, 1814 and 1816 censuses, which saves relying on transcriptions. The website also has some useful search features, such as surnames of 1777–1791 (nationalarchives.gi/gna/ Family.aspx) and those evacuated during the Second World War (nationalarchives. gi/gna/Evacuation.aspx). The Gibraltar Explorer  utsc.utoronto.ca/~sawchukl/ genealogy Devised by Dr Larry Sawchuk, this website enables the censuses of 1777, 1791 and 1878 to be searched. It also has other resources, such as Gibraltar’s streets. St Mary the Crowned church (later the cathedral) familysearch.org/search/ collection/1770864 Searchable database of Roman Catholic births and baptisms from 1704 to…

madamegilflurt.com When Catherine Curzon launched Madame Gilflurt’s glorious Georgian dispatches in 2013, she had no idea that she would attract over 1.5m visitors to her site, or thousands of followers on social media. She has been fascinated by the 18th century for most of her life and decided that, rather than regaling her husband with 18th century trivia, she would share it with the outside world too. Catherine, who had some ability with HTML, the language used to create webpages, opted to use Blogger (blogger.com) after speaking to friends about the blogging sites they used. She checked it and thought that it seemed like a very easy platform to work with. Madame Gilflurt opened her salon with the promise to go gadding all over the Georgian era in search of…

JANET DEMPSEY is a records specialist at The National Archives, concentrating on maritime and transport records EDWARD HIGGS is Professor of History at the University of Essex and the author of Making Sense of the Census SARA KHAN is lead genealogist on the Who Do You Think You Are? BBC TV series ANTONY MARR is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) SUSAN MOORE is a member of AGRA and the author of Tracing Your Ancestors Through the Equity Courts STEVEN SMYRL is a member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland ALAN STEWART is a family historian with 30 years of experience and the author of Grow Your Own Family Tree PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert and the author of Tracing Your Air Force…

The well-known comedian and presenter Adil Ray comes from an East African Asian and African background. He was born in Birmingham and it is from his mother, Nargis, that he can claim dual heritage. Nargis was born in Kenya and her father, Meraj Dean, was one of the thousands of South Asians who came to East Africa from the late 19th century onwards to work on the railways. It was Meraj’s wife, Aisha, who was the African link as she was originally from Uganda. We were able to explore Adil’s heritage firstly by speaking to his mother and other relatives. Oral history is important in all genealogical research and becomes particularly so in African and South Asian cases when documents can be somewhat limited. Nevertheless, we were able to find…

‘At least 10,000 people died out of a population of perhaps six and a half million’ The civil wars of the 1640s were proportionately the bloodiest in our history. At least 100,000 people died, out of a population of perhaps six and a half million, and the dead included civilians who were caught up in sieges and massacres. Ever since the mid-17th century, the wars have prompted passionate debate and a wealth of popular imagery has grown up around the battles and those who fought – the phrases ‘Roundheads and Cavaliers’ or ‘King versus Parliament’ conjure up powerful and evocative pictures in our minds. But although over the years historians have described the wars, and their political consequences, little is known about the ordinary people who fought. There were tens…

Name, rank and service Service numbers are unique to each service (army, navy, air force) so you can be sure it’s your man. Harry Hammond has been awarded the Africa Star showing he must have served in Africa before Italy. Personal details More personal details including date of birth, date of enlistment and home address. Main camps Reports on the camps can be found at TNA by searching for the name on their search engine and you may find websites on some camps by searching online. Serious illness This section will show you if your POW ancestor suffered from any serious illnesses Unit details Unit serving in when captured (ship, regiment/ battalion, RAF squadron) as well as division (army) or command (RAF). Harry served in the Royal Berkshire Regiment, part…

MUSEUMS • London Sewing Machine Museum  308 Balham High Road, SW17 7AA bit.ly/craftysewer Has a historic sewing machine display. WEBSITES • Fashion Era  fashion-era.com/the_seamstress.htm Articles about Edwardian seamstresses and dressmakers at all levels of society. • The Mary Neal Project  bit.ly/130maryneal The Sweated Industries’ Exhibition 1906 is an article by social reformer Mary Neal. • The Fitzwilliam Museum  bit.ly/130fitzwilliam Photos and descriptions of Victorian and Edwardian girls learning to sew. • The Textile Society  textilesociety.org.uk General website with links to museums, online collections, publications, etc. BOOKS • Jane Austen Fashion: Fashion and Needlework in the Works of Jane Austen by Penelope Byrde (Moonrise Press, 2008) Interesting snippets in letters and books about late-Georgian dressmaking. • The Ghost in the looking Glass: The Victorian Seamstress by Christina Walkley (Peter Owen Publishers,…

‘The Marten and Minns families became very closely connected’ How long have you been doing your family history? I started researching my family history in 1977 in the US when my grandmother Daisy Ragsdale (née Minns) died. She had emigrated from England in the 1920s, where I have now lived for 20 years. What had you managed to uncover before hitting your brick wall? My great great grandmother, Isabella Minns, had three illegitimate children. Her second child (Daisy’s father) was George Minns, born at Sleeches Farm, Buxted, Sussex, on 28 March 1863 – but no father was named on the birth certificate. Isabella was 24 years old and already had one illegitimate child, Ann Minns, listed in the 1861 census as living with Isabella’s parents. Isabella had a second illegitimate…

There are plenty of bear traps waiting for researchers unfamiliar with the landscape There have been a lot of changes at Norfolk Record office (NRO) since WDYTYA? Magazine’s last visit to Norfolk. First and foremost, a vast amount of the vital parish records held here have been digitised and are now available online through findmypast.co.uk, ancestry.co.uk, thegenealogist.co.uk and familysearch.org. These include parish registers for most of Norfolk and, in the case of Findmypast, school records too. And county archivist Gary Tuson reports that they are currently in the process of organising further material for digitisation including Poor Law records and bishops’ transcripts. Tricky territories Just because it’s online, however, doesn’t mean it’s plain sailing. In Norfolk there are plenty of bear traps waiting for researchers unfamiliar with the landscape. For…

Who Do You Think You Are? Thursday 31 August, 8pm BBC One While it initially seemed as if the 14th series of WDYTYA? would transmit in two tranches, the series returned after just a week’s break on Thursday 17 August with singer Lulu. Both this episode and the show featuring TV presenter Fearne Cotton are available via BBC iPlayer. Looking ahead, actor and screenwriter Noel Clarke, who first found national fame as Mickey Smith in Doctor Who , begins his journey into the past by noting: “I have not grown up with a family, so I guess I’m always looking for that in a weird way.” He’s referring to being raised by his mother in west London and knowing little about his absent father’s ancestry. The sense of family he…

EAST Branching Out: Growing Your Family Tree 2 September CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH, CHELMSFORD  secretary@halsted.org.uk halsted.org.uk/seminar2017 This seminar is aimed at family historians who want to extend their research, particularly by starting or extending a one-name study. There will be talks from experts on topics including the benefits and pitfalls of doing a one-name or one-place study, the uses of quarter session records and what you can learn from DNA tests. Tickets are £20. LONDON Victorian Hospitals and Medical Ancestors 16 September SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS 020 7251 8799 bit.ly/MichelleHiggs Learn about 19th century healthcare, hospital conditions and how to trace ancestors who were either patients or staff with Michelle Higgs. This half-day course consists of two talks: one on Victorian health care and one on tracing medical ancestors. £20. The Family History…

In the August issue, it was wonderful to read the book review on Tracing your Great War Ancestors: the Egypt and Palestine Campaign. As most First World War books tend to focus on France and especially the Somme, this review made interesting reading especially as my grandfather, Albert Wheeler, took part in the Egypt and Palestine campaign. Albert Wheeler (1888-1964) worked for the Midland Railway as a railway fireman and married my grandmother Nelly Clarke in 1908. The family story goes that July 1915 while having a drink, Albert was offered the King’s shilling; as he wanted to continue drinking he thought it would be a good idea. When he had sobered up by the next day, he had the task of telling his wife that he had enlisted. Nelly…

616,118 1918-1940 RAF personnel records are now available on military records website fold3.com 2,080 African-Caribbean soldiers, who were interned in Portchester Castle in 1796, are now commemorated in a new exhibition 500 number of relatives Israeli siblings, Alex Kafri (71) and Dorit Yarom (68), met at a family reunion in London. For years they believed that their parents’ whole families had died in the Holocaust 3,676 tradesmen’s records in Wilson’s Dublin Directory 1775, now available to search on irishancestors.ie 121,606 records from the Diocese of Westminster have been added to the Catholic Heritage Archive at findmypast.co.uk…

Since the late 1990s, I’ve been writing about family history. I’m no professional, but I’ve picked up knowledge along the way, and there are so many things I know now, which I wish I had grasped back then. I was writing about BMD indexes at the old Family Records Centre, for example, but it wasn’t until I started actually using them myself, and making some of the classic newbie mistakes along the way, that I truly began to grasp how everything worked. And understanding how and why any historical source was created is vital to its interpretation. If I could grab hold of my younger self and give one piece of advice I would say this: be systematic. Lots of people work in a way that seems disorganised to outsiders…

The Greens were a typical military family of officer rank of the latter half of the 18th century, with postings to many places, including Gibraltar. These are some sources we used for our research. • Royal Engineers Museum  re-museum.co.uk/visiting/visiting-the-library-and-archive Mrs Green’s diary and family details are in the museum’s library and archives (5601.49.1), along with many other documents (but not service records) relating to the Royal Engineers. The catalogue can be searched online (81.134.7.180/search/simple) and information on family history research is at re-museum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/How-To-Research-Your-Family-History.pdf. • St John’s, Newfoundland  ngb.chebucto.org/Parish/1sjcity-parishidx.shtml Many transcriptions of BMDs from various churches, including the baptism of the Greens’ oldest children. This is part of Newfoundland’s Grand Banks website of genealogical and historical data (ngb.chebucto.org). • Gibraltar National Archives  nationalarchives.gi/gna/Archon MilitaryBDM.aspx The military records for births, deaths and…

www.denisebates.co.uk/jarrattsresearch.html I became interested in Jarratts Building eight years ago after discovering that my ancestors lived there for decades. Jarratts was a community of 54 miners’ dwellings in Worsbrough Dale near Barnsley. Between the 1850s and 1950s it slid from being ‘des res’ to slum. No one had recorded its history but incidental references were scattered in parish records, old newspapers and a few local books of reminiscences. I already had a website which is developed and maintained by my husband. In 2015, I decided to add a new section about Jarratts Buildings. One aim was to preserve as much detail as possible about the community as it was clear that others were also interested. The other was the hope that people would come forward with new information. The bespoke…

‘We were in very basic accommodation, penniless and in need of work’ Hunger was the biggest shock to the system according to Heather Potter, who took part in a television experiment last year to recreate the lives of her Victorian slum ancestors. Heather was already a keen family historian and while browsing on Findmypast she noticed a call-out for families to take part in a social history project. “I couldn’t resist so I got in touch with the production company and soon my husband Graham, my daughter Allison and two grandchildren, Olivia aged 12 and Heather aged ten, were signed too.” The programme, The Victorian Slum, was broadcast on BBC Two in 2016. “I could never have imagined the poverty my ancestors endured before going into the slum myself. We…

Finding Louise Duncan bit.ly/2vdjjhk Thanks to help received on this forum, I found the answer to one of my brick walls. My ancestor George William Duncan had a granddaughter who was born in 1935 in Philadelphia. She is present on the 1940 US census living with her father (also named George William Duncan) and her mother, who is also named Louise. The address is 1907 E Pacific Street. That’s where I’ve come to a juddering halt. I’ve tried contacting a couple of Philadelphia genealogical societies, but unfortunately neither has responded. I’d very much like to find Louise (if she is still living) or her family. Any help would be much appreciated. Sucher No death certificate for John Eustis bit.ly/2tP8BNW John Eustis was born in Crowan, Cornwall, in April…

“The Hearth Tax was a short-lived tax but was one which left ample documentation concerning late 17th century householders. It was instituted in 1662 and helped to raise money in England and Wales for the government of the newly restored Charles II. The tax was unpopular and was abolished following the revolution of 1688, but records only survive for the years 1662-1674. It was a tax on the number of chimneys that each house possessed, the more chimneys the more payment, so was difficult to evade and taxed those in larger houses more than those in humbler dwellings. The website hearthtax.org.uk is a portal to view some of the hearth tax records for a number of English counties, with indexes and transcripts of these documents. The information provided is the…

WEBSITES • ScotlandsPeople  scotlandspeople.gov.uk First stop for researchers. • Scottish Genealogy Society  scotsgenealogy.com The SGS covers all Scotland and has an incredible library in Edinburgh – a one-stop shop. • National Records of Scotland  nrscotland.gov.uk Scotland’s main archive for church records, testaments, land records, family papers, and much more. • Scottish Association of Family History Societies (SAFHS)  safhs.org.uk The umbrella association of Scotland’s major family history societies. SAFHS has a range of its own publications. • National Library of Scotland  www.nls.uk A wonderful repository of Scottish records, including electoral rolls and local newspapers. • Commonwealth War Graves Commission  cwgc.org Find out about your soldier ancestor’s death in service.…

‘Tyneside glass dominated the industry in Britain for over two centuries’ Glass is made by heating sand, limestone and soda ash to extremely high temperatures so, up until the 17th century, glass-making was concentrated in forest districts where fuel was plentiful. After James I banned the use of wood as fuel for furnaces (to conserve England’s forests) north-east England became a major glass-making centre, owing to the vast Durham and Northumberland coalfields. Tyneside glass dominated the industry in Britain for over two centuries. Glass was also made in Lancashire, London, the West Country, Yorkshire, Scotland and northern Ireland. Glass was manufactured in ‘houses’: huge brick cones 80-100 feet high, and from 50-60 feet in diameter at the bottom. These towering cones were major landmarks in the glass-making districts. Molten glass…

ISOGG WIKI DNA research can be a tricky topic to get to grips with, but the Wiki-style website run by the International Society for Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) at isogg.org/wiki/Wiki_ Welcome_Page offers plenty of free advice for beginners and experts alike. LOCAL FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES A local family history society can often connect you with people descended from the same individuals that you are researching. In Ron’s case it was the Sussex Family History Group (sfhg.org.uk), but you can find a list of organisations via ffhs.org.uk. Y-DNA TESTS Y-chromosome DNA tests can confirm whether two people are directly descended from the same male individual. They are commonly used in surname studies, as the inheritance of surnames often mirrors that of Y-DNA (passed from father to son). Women cannot take the test, so…

c1067 On the orders of William the Conqueror construction of Norwich Castle begins. It remains one of the county’s most important heritage sites. 1249 The Great Hospital is founded in Norfolk for the care of elderly priests, scholars and the sick. The medieval records of the hospital are now inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. c1395 Christian mystic and theologian Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love is the first book in the English language known to have been written by a woman. 1549 Yeoman farmer Robert Kett leads an army of rebels, agitating over the enclosure of land. They take Norwich before the rebellion ends in defeat at the Battle of Dussindale. 1770 The family-run Gurney’s bank is founded in Norwich. It merges with Barclays Bank in…

All Quiet on the Western Front: An Oral History of Life in Britain During the First World War by Richard van Emden and Steve Humphries Pen & Sword, 334 pages, £12.99 This book, reprinted from 2003, contains interviews with those who lived through the First World War. Enduring bombings, tending the injured, knitting for the soldiers and losing loved ones. It helped me to build up a picture of my grandmothers’ lives while their husbands were in France. The resilience of those left behind shines through – the chapter ‘The Year of Hunger’, describes how some faced starvation during the war and found ways to supplement their meagre rations. The most poignant accounts are from a child’s viewpoint, as they remember their mothers’ reaction to the knock on the door…

Long Lost Family Wednesday 30 August, 9pm ITV The award-winning series ends its latest run with two more episodes following those desperate to trace family members with whom they’ve lost touch – or perhaps never even met. In episode six, Laura Aker goes in search of her birth father, while Linda Lewis hopes to find her twin sisters. Episode seven features Derek Berg, who is looking for his half-brother and Ann Smith who wants to track down her birth mother. The show is made by WDYTYA? production company Wall to Wall and presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell. World’s Busiest Cities Late August/early September BBC TWO By 2050, more than two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. In a new series charting life in four great…

Passenger lists Actor Charles Dance was able to learn more about his father, Walter, who died when Charles was only four years old. Charles learnt about his time in South Africa and found a passenger list recording Walter travelling there with his first wife, Louie. 1 Passenger lists for those leaving and returning to the UK can be found at ancestry.co.uk (outward bound lists can also be found on findmypast.co.uk). From the home page, select ‘Search’, ‘Immigration and travel’, ‘Passenger Lists’ and enter the name of the passenger you are searching for. 2 All relevant hits will appear. In this example, we knew our Walter was going to South Africa, so it was possible to identify the correct one from that information. However, it is also possible to narrow down…