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

can’t believe it has been ten years since I launched this magazine. So much has happened over that time in the world of family history. I remember the excitement when the 1911 census went online and more recently the 1939 Register. I have also marvelled at the treasures being revealed by the digitisation of newspapers. When we started Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, newspapers were used mainly to check the ‘hatched, matched and dispatched’ columns because, unless you had a specific location and date to search, you didn’t stand a chance. Now we can search millions of pages in a matter of seconds. Another major development has been the digitisation of parish registers. I remember someone telling me, in our early days, that there were simply too many…

‘People are loving being able to go back in time and see how things change’ Free collection of historic OS maps The National Library of Scotland has finished its three-year project to digitise Ordnance Survey maps A complete collection of historic maps of England and Wales is now available to view online for free. The National Library of Scotland (NLS) began digitising its collection of Ordnance Survey 25 inch to the mile maps of England and Wales in 2014 to complement its Scottish collection. After three years of work, library and external staff have scanned 89,800 map sheets, dating from 1841 to 1952. They completed the English maps in July and the Welsh maps in August. “For us it’s a great way to make the collection more accessible,” Laragh Quinney,…

‘Seeing your ancestor’s signature ‘in the flesh’ is a reward in its own right’ A decade of discoveries Alan Crosby looks back at ten years of WDYTYA? Magazine and the people and places his own research has led him to It’s hard to believe that Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine is ten years old this issue! Where has all that time gone? Equally astonishing is the fact that we’ve now had 14 series of the programme as well, and they are just as good, if not better, than when they began. I’ve contributed to every issue of the magazine since it started in 2007 and I’ve found it really interesting and stimulating to be involved in this aspect of family history. The great strengths of the magazine are…

A great way to meet fellow enthusiasts to share information and tips is to join one or more of the several family history societies in London. This applies even if you do not live in or near London. All have websites with information about themselves and include, for members, discussion forums, lists of surnames of interest, back issues of their journals and other information. Family history societies hold regular meetings with speakers lecturing on relevant topics and participate in family history fairs. They also produce regular journals with articles contributed by members which are available in both paper format and online. Members often volunteer to index and transcribe documents. The East London FHS eolfhs.org.uk East Surrey FHS eastsurreyfhs.org.uk Hillingdon FHS rootsweb.ancestry.com/~enghfhs/index.html London, Westminster and Middlesex FHS lwmfhs.org.uk North West Kent…

‘He was astonished at the tale that unfolded, one of abandonment, tragedy and courage’ WDYTYA? Magazine reader Allan Palmer admits to having a slightly Middlesex-centric view of the world as he and both his parents were born there. So when he started researching his father’s first wife, Kate Arnold, and discovered she was born elsewhere he had to find out more. He was astonished at the tale that unfolded, one of abandonment, tragedy and courage in far-flung locations. Allan, coincidentally, has something in common with actor Charles Dance: a father who was advancing in years at his birth. “When I was born in 1952 my father, George, was 64. Watching Charles talk about his father on Who Do You Think You Are?, my wife turned to me and said ‘that…

Irish Uprising 1916 bit.ly/2waJTFI My husband’s grandfather was involved in the 1916 Easter Uprising and was subsequently a prisoner in Wakefield Prison (1916), and later at Wormwood Scrubs and Northampton Prison (1920). Does anyone know where I could find out more about his imprisonment and possibly his records? Sandra Martha Griffiths bit.ly/2wDOC5B I’m trying to locate Martha Griffiths, born approximately 1850-51. She married Edward James Hughes in April 1876 at Chester aged 25. Her father is named as Henry Griffiths. On the 1881 census, under her married name, Eliza’s place of birth is given as ‘Holt, Cheshire’. She is living in Sandycroft, Wales. On the 1891 and 1901 censuses Eliza is a widow and her place of birth is ‘Malpas, Cheshire’. On both of these records, she is living at…

“When it comes to indexes of statutory births, marriages and deaths it can pay to ‘go local’. I’d recommend the websites that offer access to the BMD indexes that are produced from the original registers held at the local register offices where the events took place. The main commercial websites have online indexes based on the GRO BMD records, which have national coverage. But as the records are based on the GRO’s flawed copies of the registration entries, they too are inherently flawed. This is not to say that the local BMD indexes are perfect, but when mistakes are identified you can, in most cases, refer back to the original register and correct the error or omission. These websites started in 2000 with the Cheshire BMD website and there are…

Names Using Pages of Testimony you can often reconstitute entire families. Sometimes a group photo can lead you to other victims within the same family. Family Looking at the victim’s parents names will give you an additional generation for your family research. More links Do you know the submitter of the Page of Testimony? Are they and their immediate family already in your family tree? Further research Searching for other Pages of Testimony submitted by the same person could lead you to additional members of the same family. Locations Searching for other people from the same place of origin may lead you to additional family members. Spouses You may also be able to locate a Page of Testimony for the victim’s husband or wife by finding their name on their…

WEBSITES • The Holocaust Explained  www.theholocaust explained.org At this site you’ll find images pictures, maps, videos and diagrams that provide an insight into the Holocaust. • Yad Vashem  www.yadvashem.org The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Visit this site for info on the Pages of Testimony and for Holocaust education and documentation. • Wiener Library  www.wienerlibrary.co.uk The UK’s Holocaust Library and home to the UK’s copy of the ITS Arolsen Archive • ITS Arolsen  www.its-arolsen.org/en The internationally governed centre for documentation, information and research on Nazi persecution, forced labour and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and its occupied regions. • JewishGen  www.jewishgen.org The free-to-use website to help you with Jewish family history research.…

The Belfast Weekly News (1857-1914) hosted monthly news reports from Orange Lodge meetings in Glasgow When the Public Records Office in Dublin burnt down during the Irish Civil War in 1922, a great deal of genealogical material was lost including 19th century census returns. However, Irish newspapers can offer a way to overcome the various failures of vital records and censuses that can so often frustrate researchers. As in Britain, the public increasingly began to use newspapers in the 19th century to announce various life events occurring from the womb to the tomb, but even before this they can be very useful, confirming a family’s presence in an area as far back as the early 18th century. A useful guide to understanding what has been published and what is available…

‘Gamekeeping often ran in families, with fathers teaching their sons’ Gamekeeping has a long history in Britain with the first gamekeepers protecting deer in medieval royal hunting forests. They were employed by wealthy landowners in the 18th and 19th centuries and were classed as domestic outdoor servants, usually living in a cottage provided for them. The number of gamekeepers kept depended on the size of the country estate. A head keeper supervised the under-keepers beneath him, and each one had his own ‘beat’. There might also be men employed specifically as watchers, who kept an eye out for poachers, or rabbiters skilled in killing rabbits. Gamekeeping often ran in families, with fathers teaching their sons from an early age. A boy could start out as a keeper’s helper and work…

FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY JOURNALS Family history societies will often produce a monthly or quarterly journal, featuring articles about members’ research. Some may keep an index of past articles, allowing you to track down back issues relevant to your interests, while others – such as the Isle of Wight Family History Society (isle-of-wightfhs.co.ukisle-of-wightfhs.co.uk) – also allow members to access digitised copies online. ONLINE FORUMS As with journals, fellow family historians may have previously discussed the same ancestors you are researching on a forum. Ancestry’s Message Boards (ancestry.co.uk/boards), which incorporate forum discussions from rootsweb. com, contain over 25 million threads dating all the way back to the 1990s. Other free forums, such as whodoyouthinkyouare magazine.com/forum, are also worth searching if you’re trying to find clues about an elusive ancestor. ORAL HISTORY The British Library…

1207 King John gives Liverpool the status of royal borough. It will remain a relatively minor coastal port for more than six centuries. 1647 Liverpool becomes a free port – before this time it was subject to Chester. In 1710, work begins on the ‘Old Dock’, the first artificial wet dock in Britain. 1699  The Liverpool Merchant is the first recorded slave ship to sail from the city. The vessel arrives in Barbados in September 1700 with a cargo of 220 enslaved Africans. 1756 Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser is published. Today this remains the earliest local newspaper in the Liverpool Record Office collection. 1830 The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens – the world's first steam passenger railway. It is connected by rail to Birmingham and London in 1838. 1839 The ‘Grand…

Tracing Your Church of England Ancestors: A Guide for Family and Local Historians by Stuart A Raymond Pen & Sword, 224 pages, £14.99 To describe this book as wide-ranging would be an understatement. It covers a wealth of subjects embracing both laity and clergy. As there can be few, if any, family historians who don’t have ancestors that were members of the Church of England, arguably this is a work for everyone. The first two chapters cover the history and structure of the Church of England, which very usefully sets the subsequent sections, on sources and research, in context. Also, each of the following chapters includes informative introductions to the particular sources being discussed. It is in this background information that the strength of this book undoubtedly lies. Raymond covers,…

National Library of Wales Lisa Hammond thought that all her family came from London but she discovered Welsh connections through her maternal side, the Hilditches. If you have Welsh ancestors, you could find their probate records on the National Library of Wales’ website. 1 Navigate to llgc.org.uk and click on the ‘Discover’ option towards the top left-hand side of the page. When the box appears, click on ‘More NLW Resources’. On the next page, select ‘Wills’ towards the bottom. 2 You will then be taken to the wills search page. Enter the name of the ancestor you are looking for (e.g. William Hilditch), along with any other known details, using the drop-down boxes to select the appropriate search criteria. Once you have finished, click on ‘Search’ to view the relevant…

‘These centuries-old documents are priceless research tools’ The mid-19th century saw the introduction of record-keeping that would prove to be a massive boon for future family history enthusiasts. In 1837, civil registration for England and Wales – with official birth, marriage and death certificates – began, while the first modern decennial census was taken in 1841. These were official records administered by the government. Before that date, you have to look more locally – to the parish church – to find your relatives in official documentation. ‘Parish records’ is an umbrella term for the vast array of life documents and lists produced by the parish church, which was the administrative centre of the community. These detailed everything from taxes collected to aid the poor, to school records and licenses to…

1 PARENTS If there is no father’s name listed, the child was illegitimate. 2 DATE The baptism date was required, but some ministers added the date of birth in the margin too. 3 NAME The given name of the child to be baptised. Here, it’s Annie, who grew up to be Annie Besant. 4 SURNAME …of the parents – or the mother if unmarried. 5 ADDRESS Useful for tracking the movements and perhaps changing fortunes of a family. 6 FATHER’S OCCUPATION A good guide to whether you have found the right individual.…

From 1753, unless you were Jewish or a Quaker, all couples had to be married in the local Anglican church, as was the case when scientist Michael Faraday wed his wife Sarah Barnard. His marriage record from the City of London can be seen here: bit.ly/Faradaybond. The pair wed in the parish church of St Faith Under St Paul’s on 12 June 1821, despite belonging to the small non-conformist Glasite faith. The record shows Michael and Sarah married by licence, which was a popular choice for non-conformists. Their marriage bond was dated the day before the wedding and is part of the London and Surrey Marriage Bonds and Allegations collection. It was agreed in the parish of St George Hanover Square, just two miles from where the Faradays’ marriage took…

1 NAME The full name of the deceased. Here, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. 2 ADDRESS The deceased’s last residence. This can help confirm you have found the right record. 3 NUMBER This is not the plot number. You’ll need to consult a map of the cemetery for this information. 4 BY WHOM The minister or curate who presided over the burial. 5 WHEN BURIED The date the burial took place. 6 AGE The age at death can help you check this is who you’re looking for.…

Taxes have been levied in Britain since the Anglo-Saxon kings, with land being an obvious choice to gain funds from. However, land and property weren’t officially taxed until the end of the 17th century. The general rule of this land tax was that more money was paid by those who owned more land, with the lists created of those liable for tax also used to determine whether the holder could vote in elections. However, the records don’t just name those who owned houses, but also show the head of the household of any tenants living there. This was because the tax collectors making the records didn’t know if the person at the property who gave them the money was the owner or the tenant. Many tenants would have paid the…

1 NAME …of the voter. Here we can see Clement Attlee before he became Prime Minister. 2 STREET The registers are organised by street name. 3 QUALIFYING PROPERTY Address of the property entitling them to vote. After 1832 they could be tenants or owners. 4 QUALIFICATION Description of the property type. 5 ADDRESS Where the voter lives. Useful for tracing people between censuses. In earlier registers the house number is omitted.…

‘Many children depended on the poor laws to survive’ Life was tough for those at the lowest levels of society before the modern welfare state was introduced after the Second World War. However, charitable help for the sick, elderly and destitute in Britain goes back centuries, and was formalised by legislation as far back as 1388. Major Acts were passed in 1601, together referred to as the Old Poor Law. This legislation was improved upon under the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834, which became known as the New Poor Law. Luckily for family historians, these laws generated a wealth of paperwork that detailed those paying funds into the parish, those receiving money and aid under the poor laws, and even those who fell foul of it. The Old Poor…

New database sheds light on Benedictine scandals The surprisingly dramatic lives of 16th to 18th century Benedictine monks are being revealed for the first time in a new project. ‘Monks in Motion’, led by Dr James Kelly of Durham University, has launched a database (dur.ac.uk/mim) of the membership and activities of English and Welsh Benedictines from Mary I’s reign to 1800. Many of the monks were forced to seek shelter in Europe following the dissolution of the monasteries, and some were even imprisoned or fought in wars or duels. Monson Collection to stay in Lincolnshire Archives A major family archive is to be purchased and put on permanent display at Lincolnshire Archives. The Monson Collection dates from 1221 to 1947 and comprises the estate archive of the Barons Monson of…

Ancestry  ancestry.co.uk Ancestry’s relationship with the London Metropolitan Archives makes it the main subscription website for anyone researching London kin. The collection ranges from parish registers to wills, tax records, electoral registers, school admissions and Poor Law records. Many libraries and archives offer free access. British History online  british-history.ac.uk Includes Calendars of Close Rolls (1272-1509), Calendars of State Papers Domestic (1509-1704), Victoria County History for Middlesex, 16th century London maps and lots more. British Library Maps  bl.uk/maps As well as Goad’s Fire Insurance maps for the City of London, the British Library website includes many maps for the Capital, including one mapping East London’s Jewish population. British Newspaper Archive  britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Includes The East London Observer (1857-1879), The Middlesex Chronicle (1860-1945), the North London News (1860-1895), the South London Chronicle (1859-1878),…

Finding ancestors on the 1841–1911 censuses is one of the most enjoyable elements of researching a family tree. You find out so much information about the household in one hit – who was living together, where they lived, what they did, how old they were and where they were born – and in theory, with all UK census returns having been digitised, the process should be straightforward. In practice, though, it’s common to hit a brick wall and there are many reasons why your ancestor might not appear the first time you hit the search button. Census enumerators were responsible for copying the answers given in hundreds of household forms into a census book for each enumeration district, and this is the record that we search online for the period…

QI can’t find a marriage record for my 4x great grandfather, George Manvill. George was from London, and married a lady called Katherine. However, in their children’s baptism records, her name is spelt with both a ‘K’ and a ‘C’. The couple’s first child, Henrietta-Eliza, was born in 1797 and baptised at Stoke D’Abernon, Surrey. Can you help? Julie Manville A The problem of name variants immediately comes to light when you begin to search for the birth/baptism of children of George and ‘Catherine’. Henrietta-Eliza is recorded in the registers of Stoke d’Abernon, Surrey, as the daughter of George and Catherine Manvell, born on 10 September 1796 and baptised on 24 October 1796 – rather than 1797 as you believed. Her brother, George, was also recorded in the same parish…

‘On 21 May 1937, the steamship Habana set sail from the besieged Basque city of Bilbao’ The Spanish Civil War broke out on 17 July 1936, when the army, backed by the country’s nationalist elements, led a coup against the left-wing Republican government. In Britain, the public began calling for the country to take in refugees, especially following the notorious Nazi bombing of Guernica in April 1937. The government was reluctant because of its official position of neutrality in the conflict, but eventually gave permission for the Basque Children’s Committee to evacuate nearly 4,000 children. It refused to provide financial support, so the committee raised funds from members of the public. On 21 May 1937, the steamship Habana set sail from the besieged Basque city of Bilbao, carrying an estimated…

One of the most useful free resources for tracking down databases is the trio of sites that were the brainchild of Ian Hartas, this month’s expert (see left). UKBMD.org.uk links to thousands of other websites with online BMD and census data. Next came UKGDL.org.uk (Genealogical Directories and Lists), which boasts over 2,000 links covering a wide range of categories and finally UKMFH.org.uk (Military Family History) completes the trio. A good hunting ground for location-specific databases are the links pages of family history society sites or genealogical forums such as home.rootsweb.ancestry.com. GENUKI (genuki.org. uk) has hundreds of pages and links to transcribed data – usually towards the end of county pages. Your county archive may have useful databases and finding aids. If they’re online they may be within the catalogue, on their…

Pages of Testimony are organised by Yad Vashem (The World Holocaust Remembrance Center) and commemorate Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust or in the months following the liberation of the camps. You can search Yad Vashem’s online database (yvng.yadvashem.org) to see if information about victims in your family has already been recorded. Yad Vashem has collected and recorded the names and biographical details of 4.5 million Holocaust victims and is looking for help to recover the identities of the nearly 1.5 million victims that remain. The information collected is recorded on Pages of Testimony, where every victim gets their own separate page (see page 55). If, during your research, you come across a Holocaust victim that you think hasn’t yet been included you should consider submitting a Page of…

Long before digitisation was an option, just knowing what was published in Ireland in the first place was half the battle in locating potentially useful publications for research. In the 1980s, a major British Isles project called NEWSPLAN, led by the British Library and additional partners, including the National Library of Ireland, set itself the aim of cataloguing what was known to exist, and to make much of the content available on microfilm to participating libraries. As a result, the National Library of Ireland (NLI) website now hosts an online search tool, the Newspaper Database, which allows users to identify what is available both at the library itself in Dublin and at other Irish libraries beyond the capital. Located at www.nli.ie/en/catalogues-and-databases-printed-newspapers.aspx, the database permits users to search by the name…

“Morality on £5,000 a year in Belgrave Square is a very different thing to morality on slop-wages in Bethnal Green”, Mayhew pointed out while lecturing. A journalist and playwright, he became interested in the plight of the poor after the cholera outbreak of 1849 drove him to write an article for the Morning Chronicle. He was then commissioned to write an article a day on the condition of the working class in London and eventually these were published in his seminal work London Labour and the London Poor. Mayhew was born in London, one of 17 children. He was educated at Westminster School, then worked with his father, a lawyer. But he was not suited to the law and took up writing. In 1841, he founded the satirical journal Punch…

• Google Books  books.google.co.uk Read contemporary sources including The Gamekeeper’s Directory by Thomas Burgeland Johnson (1851) and The Sportsman’s Directory by John Mayer (1817). • British Newspaper Archive  britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Search local and national newspapers for court cases relating to your gamekeeper ancestor. • The National Trust and The National Trust for Scotland  nationaltrust.org.uk and nts.org.uk Use these websites to find out if the landed estate your ancestor worked on is cared for by one of these charities. • The Sutherland Collection  sutherlandcollection.org.uk Explore digitised estate records in the Sutherland Papers; some relate to outdoor staff. • The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation  nationalgamekeepers.org.uk Find out about the role of gamekeepers today.…

Many people knew more about Sherlock Holmes than they did about members of their own families, thanks to a remarkable series of stories. This year saw ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ in the July edition of The Strand . The magazine had been launched only the previous year, to serve the growing market for short fiction. Dr Arthur Conan Doyle had been writing to fill in the long periods while he was waiting between patients in his newly-opened practice at Upper Wimpole Street. This was not the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes – that was in Mrs Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, but it was The Strand that made him a worldwide success. Conan Doyle’s innovation was as much commercial as literary – he had realised that if the same character…

The Real Persuasion: Portrait of a Real-Life Jane Austen Heroine by Peter James Bowman Amberley, 336 pages, £20 This book uses family letters and journals to tell the story of Katherine Bisshopp, whose life, the author claims, mirrors that of Anne Elliot, the heroine of Persuasion. I haven’t read Persuasion but may have to now to see if I agree! Jane Austen didn’t know the Bisshopp family although they moved in similar circles. Like Anne, Katherine is the daughter of a vain and profligate baronet whose family try to prevent her marriage to a young naval officer. The lives of Katherine and her family are described, with occasional references to Austen’s books; parallels are drawn between the lives of various members of the family and characters in Persuasion. The letters…

Time Travels Tuesday 26 September BBC RADIO SCOTLAND Time Travels explores stories from Scotland’s past (available via the BBC iPlayer radio for those who don’t live north of the border) – and the producers seem to have a happy knack of finding unexpected tales. As season two continues, these include the story of how Lucy Baldwin (1869–1945), the wife of prime minister Stanley, campaigned for women to have the right to pain relief during childbirth. In the days before the National Health Service, presenter Susan Morrison learns, pain relief in childbirth was a luxury, a treatment available only to those able to pay for it. In the same show (26 September), we learn what happens when, following the discovery of a skeleton or skull, archaeologists call the police or the…

‘Although the campaign trail had been a success, it took a toll on John’s health’ Photograph albums, bibles and jewellery are all heirlooms you might expect to inherit from your forebears. But when Debbie Flint started researching her Irish ancestry, there was something more unique within her family’s possession. “My father always thought I should leave our family history alone, just in case I found any black sheep!” says Debbie. “However, I was always curious about a small marble tablet he owned in the shape of a book, engraved with the words ‘In memory of John McKane’.” Intrigued, but unsure how the mystery McKane might fit into her family tree, Debbie scoured records at the LDS Family History Centre near her home in Cheshire. While visiting her mother in Belfast,…

1 HEAD TO THE MAIN SEARCH PAGE Go to search.ancestry.co.uk. You can search all records, but it’s easier to narrow it down. 2 SELECT THE COUNTRY Scroll down to the map at the bottom of the page and click on the word ‘England’. 3 VIEW THE MAP TO SEE HOLDINGS You’ll see all English records, but you can zoom in on the map to see holdings by county. 4 CHOOSE THE LONDON OPTION Click on London – the list will change to show all London records, sorted by count. 5 SEARCH MORE PRECISELY Select a record collection to go to a search page dedicated to that collection. 6 BROWSE LONDON RECORDS Use the browse options on the right. Here records are sorted by London boroughs.…

1538 Henry VIII orders parishes across England and Wales to begin recording the baptisms, marriages and burials of its parishioners. This is mostly done in paper registers. 1597 It is decreed that all records should be bound or copied into vellum or parchment volumes and copies sent to the bishop. These are known as Bishops’ Transcripts. 164960 The English Civil War is followed by the Interregnum under Oliver Cromwell. Record-keeping is sporadic during this ‘Commonwealth Gap’. 1754 Hardwicke’s Act sees marriage registers standardised and all unions (except of Jews and Quakers) taking place in an Anglican church, after banns have been called. 1813 Baptisms, marriages and burials are now recorded on official printed forms. Events are bound in separate books and the records of them become standardised. 1837 Civil registration…

Despite becoming an advocate of secularism in her adult life, like most children, Annie Besant’s baptism was recorded – hers at St Benet Gracechurch in the City of London on 13 November 1847. (bit.ly/anniebesantbaptism) Her entry (see page 11) shows her parents’ full names. Be aware that errors do occasionally pop up, as here William’s middle name is shown as ‘Burton Purse’ instead of ‘Burton Page’. Handily, the minister at St Benet Gracechurch also recorded birth dates in the space to the side, showing Annie’s as 1 October 1847. Annie also appears in other London records. Her banns (bit.ly/anniebesant banns) were read at St Mary’s, Lambeth, before she married Frank Besant (the records show her as a minor – she was 20). Her name is also in an electoral register –…

Lord Hardwicke’s 1753 Marriage Act was extremely important for those who followed non-conformist faiths. It was introduced in a bid to end ‘clandestine’ marriages, which took place in locations like Fleet Prison and other non-religious buildings where people could get married lawfully without having to attend a parish church that didn’t reflect their faith. Though the Act forced them to seek legitimate marriages in Anglican parish churches, they would also have another ceremony in their own place of worship. You can find records of these in the London, England, Non-conformist Registers, 1694-1921. Not only does this cover all the periods of different rules that affected non-conformist weddings, but also a wide variety of faiths – from Quakers and Jews (who were both exempt from the Act), to protestant dissenters and…

Tower Hamlets was the last of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries to open its gates in 1841. It was open for over 120 years, during which time a staggering 350,000 people were buried there. Those who had enough money could be laid to rest in a private plot with a headstone, but as many from London’s East End could not afford this, they were often interred in large public plots, where as many as 30 bodies could be buried next to each other. The Tower Hamlets records cover the entire duration the cemetery was open and are taken from the register of burials or daybook of burials. They show just how these cemeteries were run. The registers include details of whether the person was buried in consecrated or unconsecrated ground, depending…

‘See if your ancestors were reprimanded for not paying’ Before the national census, taken every ten years from the start of the 1800s, few records are as effective for finding lists of people living in an area as rate books. Various local duties were collected in each parish for the upkeep of its buildings such as the church and gaol, highways and also for the fulfilling their legal poor law obligations – looking after the poor who depended on parish relief. These rate books were a record of those in the parish who paid the rates and as they are arranged by street, you can use them to find your ancestors and plot their movements over the years. As the amount each person paid depended on the size of their…

Your 17 Ways to Search Like an Expert feature in the September issue mentioned vaccination records and this reminded me of something I have come across in my research. When I started on my husband’s family history some years ago, I hit a brick wall almost straight away when I couldn’t find a birth certificate for his grandfather. Over the years I tried every variation of our surname including mis-transcriptions such as Mays and Keys. But I had his death certificate with his date and place of birth so I trawled the Bethnal Green 1891 census at my local Family History Centre, as this was before the days of the censuses being online. Eventually I found my husband’s grandfather’s family with his four siblings. Of the five children I only…

40 years since The National Archives moved to its current home in Kew. The then Public Record Office moved from central London to the current site on 16 September 1977 £1.6 million invested by Powys County Council in a new archives building, which opened on 29 August 46,145 Oxfordshire marriage bonds from 1634-1849 indexed on findmypast.co.uk 1,251 photo negatives belonging to the Murphy family of Cashel, Ireland and dating from 1898 to 1932 are now available to view on tipperarystudies.ie £5,000 raised by the People’s History Museum in Manchester from members of the public to buy a rare suffragette banner originally found in a charity shop…

During the Second World War, many Londoners were killed or injured in air raids. It is highly likely that your London ancestors will have been affected by this. Locating information about Londoners who were killed is relatively easy. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (cwgc.org) provides a searchable database to United Kingdom fatalities both military and civil. It gives full name, age, occupation, location of air raid and place of death (if different). Newspapers often carry obituaries, though reporting of air raids is always vague. Civilian war dead can sometimes also be found on war memorials, too. Injuries are more difficult to unearth because hospital records are closed for a century. Note that inquests were not carried out on victims of air raids. Damage and destruction of buildings can be found…

Locating London (locatinglondon.org) is useful if you have traced your ancestors back to 18th century London and beyond. Although many of the datasets focus on crime and poverty, it does include names of elite Londoners, too. It is a way of placing data provided by projects such as London Lives, Old Bailey Online and Hearth Tax Online onto maps of London. The following case study shows how the site can be used. In this example, a researcher is looking for the Collins family, who they know from census records were living in Hart Street, London. STEP 1 On the home page of locatinglondon.org type ‘Hart Street’ into the ‘Quick place search’ box at the top of the screen and press ‘Go’. STEP 2 The next screen pins all the places…

PAUL BLAKE co-wrote Discover Your Roots and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Genealogists (SoG) LYNNE CLEAVER is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) EMMA JOLLY is a member of AGRA and the author of Tracing Your Ancestors Using the Census CAROL KERRY-GREEN is a member of AGRA and specialises in Yorkshire research ANTONY MARR is member of AGRA and a former Deputy Registrar KIMBERLY POWELL is a former president of the Association of Professional Genealogists and genealogy expert for about.com 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 the author…

Lulu hails from Glasgow. Much like other people with Glaswegian ancestry, her family was affected by the sectarian conflict that blighted the city in its past. The singer’s mother, Elizabeth Kennedy Cairns, came from a mixed background as her paternal side (the Cairns) were Catholic and her maternal side (the Kennedys) were Protestant. Indeed, Lulu’s maternal great grandmother, Helen Orr Kennedy, was a senior member of the Orange Order in Glasgow. We were able to learn about Helen’s involvement with her local Orange Order Lodge in Bridgeton through extensive records still kept by the institute. In particular, we managed to gain access to the Lodge’s minutes (signed by Helen herself), which gave us plenty of information about her activities. More information about the Orange Order archives can be found at…

‘The group has set out to attract people to visit the church and has been enormously successful’ Utterby is a small village with a population of 350, north of the market town of Louth, on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds. Its intriguing name is Scandinavian and means “the outlying or remote settlement”. Since 2011, Utterby Heritage Group has worked to collect historical information about the village and research its history, focusing on the beautiful Grade II listed parish church of St Andrew. The group has produced guide sheets on the interesting features of the church and its surroundings including a medieval packhorse bridge, an ancient salt trail leading inland from salt-workings on the nearby coast, local links with the vanished abbey at North Ormsby, and the railway, which closed…

Newspaper title Note that a newspaper’s title can change across time. The Belfast News-Letter was originally titled The Belfast News-Letter and General Advertiser . Adverisements Advertisements can help you to research ancestors in business, but also describe properties for sale, and identify fashions of the time. Publication Newspapers could change their publication frequency several times in their existence. The Belfast News-Letter was originally published weekly, today it is daily. National news Within the pages of historic papers, national and imperial news was often carried first, as more important, with local coverage recorded after. Make a note If you find an item of interest, make a note of the article’s title, date, page number, and equally importantly, the column number. Announcements Intimations were carried increasingly in newspapers from the 19th century,…

WEBSITES • Romantics and Victorians  bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians This website, run by the British Library, has articles on Victorian London and the conditions of the working classes, as well as other related subjects. The authors are well-known writers and the illustrations come from original manuscripts and publications. • Dictionary of Victorian London  victorianlondon.org/lee/website.htm Run by author Lee Jackson, this website contains primary sources covering the history of Victorian London, including extracts from newspapers, diaries, memoirs, maps and the full text of several books. • The History Reader  thehistoryreader.com A stable of writers for St Martin’s Press provide articles, interviews and insights on different periods of history as well as offering advice on further reading for history buffs and book lovers. MUSEUM • Museum of London 150 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5HN museumoflondon.org.uk/museumlondon…

‘He couldn’t tell his future wife that he was travelling under an alias’ How long have you been doing family history research? I’ve only been tracing my family tree since 2013, but my friend Frances Abrook has been researching for 35 years using original birth, death and marriage certificates, microfilm and microfiche. When Frances was visiting from Australia last year, we talked about our shared interest in genealogy and sat down in front of a computer to use ancestry.co.uk and try and break through a brick wall she had hit. What had you managed to uncover before hitting the brick wall? On her husband’s side of the family, Frances had managed to get back to his great grandfather Henry John Abrook (1856-1932), who was born on the Isle of Wight…

Liverpool’s rapid growth from the 17th century was fuelled by trade with the Americas and the Industrial Revolution. The first cargo of tobacco arrived here in 1648, merchants imported sugar from the West Indies and many influential Liverpool figures were heavily involved in the Atlantic slave trade, including merchant, MP and ‘Father of Liverpool’ Sir Thomas Johnson. Indeed, more than 5,000 recorded slaving voyages started from Liverpool and in 1999 Liverpool City Council unanimously passed a formal motion apologising for the city’s part in the slave trade. In 1710, work began on what became known as the Old Dock, but was at the time the first artificial wet dock in Britain and the first in what would become a seven-mile stretch of docks. By the 1830s, with the Industrial Revolution…

Tracing Your Dublin Ancestors by James G Ryan and Brian Smith Flyleaf, £14, 160 pages This guide, now released in its fourth edition provides basic but practical information on the main areas of ancestry research, such as church records, censuses and wills. There are also lists of useful resources for tracing Dublin ancestors and getting around the challenges caused by the Public Record Office fire. Women in the Great War by Stephen Wynn and Tanya Wynn Pen & Sword, £12.99, 144 pages Women played a vital role in the First World War. Stephen and Tanya Wynn’s book gives background information on the main roles women took on during the conflict, which included munitions workers, medical staff and army support, and tells the stories of some notable women. Defending Leicestershire and…

Whether you know you come from a long line of Londoners, or you are yet to find your family connection to the capital, I hope you enjoy this booklet. Within its pages you will find the stories of the rich, the poor, the famous and the forgotten – all brought to life using documents from the London Metropolitan Archives in association with Ancestry.co.uk. The London Collection is just a small proportion of the records you can discover on Ancestry. If you are already a subscriber, then turn to our tips on page four to get the most out of your searches, and if you haven’t dipped your toes into online genealogy yet, then what are you waiting for? You can sign up for a free two week trial subscription, or…

The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the regional archive for the Greater London area, specialising in the history of London and Londoners. It cares for and provides access to the historical archives of businesses, schools, hospitals, charities and all manner of other organisations. The millions of books, maps, photographs, films and documents dating back to 1067 in its strong rooms form one of the finest city archives in the world – you could call it the memory of London. Located in Clerkenwell in central London, LMA is an essential destination for anyone researching ancestors from the London area. Its holdings include some of the most important family history sources for the capital including parish records, bishops’ transcripts, non-conformist registers, electoral registers, school records and poor law records. Researchers at LMA…

‘The 1753 Act was significant for family historians’ Marriages are by far the most information-rich of the three types of life events recorded in parish registers. The 1753 Marriage Act was significant for family historians, as it meant that after 1754 the same facts had to be included for every entry, showing the parish where the marriage took place, the bride’s and groom’s names, their ages, place of residence, marital status, profession, and also their fathers’ names and professions. Not only is all this information invaluable for determining if you’ve found the person you’re seeking, it can also provide new leads to help you find out about their parents, jobs and other records within the parish collection. Above all, the search options on Ancestry give you plenty of different ways…

Born in Portsmouth, famed for his engineering on the seas and throughout the world, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was buried in London after dying from a stroke in 1859. The great Victorian polymath was buried in All Souls’ Cemetery, now known as Kensal Green Cemetery, on 20 September, five days after he had passed away. Brunel’s entry in the burial register (bit.ly/brunelburial) records his address as 18 Duke Street, Westminster. His father Sir Marc Brunel and mother Lady Sophia Kingdom, who died in 1849 and 1855 respectively and whose entries are both in the collection, are buried in the same cemetery.…

1 NAME …of the person making the will – or testator. 2 PERSONAL DETAILS The address, occupation and other details of the testator at death. 4 EXECUTOR The testator had to nominate someone to ‘prove’ the will. In this case it’s George’s wife – so an executrix. 3 BEQUESTS These are often numbered and will list various family members and friends as well as items of property. 5 FURTHER DETAILS The next page of the will includes details of witnesses the executrix (George’s wife Sarah) and the value of the estate.…

1 PERSONAL DETAILS Name, age, sex etc of the patient. This will help you check you have found the right person. 2 ATTACK Information about this attack and previous ones needing treatment. This can point you to other records in the collection. 3 MARGIN NOTES It is always worth checking the notes in margins. Here they indicate when Hannah was removed. 4 RELATIVES Details of next of kin. In this case her son, Charlie Chaplin, who was just 14 when his mother was admitted to the asylum. 5 DOCTOR’S EXAMINATION The doctor describes Hannah as ‘very noisy’ and ‘she says the floor is the river Jordan’. 6 OTHER FACTS Details offered by her son. He describes her seeing dead people out of the window and talking to imaginary people.…

Ancestry holds millions of worldwide records, among them – in partnership with the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) – it has a comprehensive collection of data covering many aspects of your forebears’ lives in the UK’s capital (see below). These fascinating records will help you shed light on ancestors who lived in (or passed through) London at some point, and allow you to take your family’s story further back in history. New data is being added all the time, so make sure you check back regularly to see what’s been updated – you never know what you might find… BAPTISM RECORDS • London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 • London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 • London, England, Nonconformist Registers, 1694-1921 MARRIAGE RECORDS •…