Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Who Do You Think You Are?

Since the GRO started its £6 PDF trial, I think I’ve ordered more death records than I have in the previous 10 years (I’ve always been happier to spend £9.25 on ‘hatching and matching’, than I have on ‘dispatching’). Acquiring more of these vital records has enriched my family tree and reminded me how important civil registration records are. The new GRO indexes have also been a game-changer, as Antony Marr’s feature on page 15 reveals. When Dr Clare Makepeace contacted me about her research into a missing FEPOW, I knew it was a story that needed to be told (see page 22). Even though her discoveries were too late for the lost soldier’s mother, it’s a great example of what you can learn at The National Archives if you…

‘The veterans and their memories, coupled with their struggle for recognition, have always been at the heart of this project’ The first centre to commemorate those involved with or affected by Bomber Command during the Second World War has opened in Lincoln. The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) was formally opened on 12 April by more than 300 veterans, the youngest of whom was 93. They included representatives from aircrew, ground crew, the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the Air Transport Auxiliary, Resistance workers and recipients of the humanitarian food-aid mission, Operation Manna. The IBCC includes the Spire, which at 102 feet is the UK’s tallest war memorial, surrounded by a Wall of Names commemorating the 57,861 young men and women who died while serving or supporting Bomber Command in the…

Cornish surname research revealed Thousands of people around the UK may have unexpected Cornish roots, according to new research commissioned by the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site to mark a countrywide tour by the ‘Man Engine’, a giant mechanical puppet created to celebrate the county’s mining heritage. Genealogist Stephen Colwill used census returns to track distinctive Cornish surnames across the UK, and found Cornish populations in Northumberland, Wales and Cumbria, as experienced Cornish workers were sought out for mines in other areas of the country. To find out if your surname shows Cornish origins, visit bit.ly/wdytya-cornish. Fife convict records available on CD and as digital download The Fife Family History Society has launched the Fife Kalendar of Convicts as a CD and digital download in a talk at the annual…

Another royal wedding beckons. This one is unusually interesting, given Meghan Markle’s family history and ancestry, but for as long as I can remember there’s been a frenzy of photographs and a torrent of text whenever the magic words ‘royal’ and ‘wedding’ are heard together. It wasn’t always like that. Until the 19th century there’s almost no evidence to suggest that royal weddings were the object of any real interest among the people as a whole, and the media (apart from being very small in scale) were not particularly interested either. I think that was in part because during the 18th century the brides were almost always from obscure German principalities, and the grooms were notorious British princes (generally with a string of illegitimate children by one or more mistresses)…

Always check who went to register your ancestor’s birth or death Registrars have to satisfy themselves that the person registering the event is a “qualified informant”. This is governed by a set of strict and complex rules, but here are a few points to consider for the most common categories. Births The primary informant is always the mother, but a father who is married to the mother can also register on his own. Any person present at the birth, in charge of the premises where the birth took place (such as a workhouse administrator) or any other person “in charge of the child” can be an acceptable informant. After the 1874 act clarified the rules, an unmarried father could only be named as the father on the register if he…

7/8 December 1941 Japan launches war on the Allies with simultaneous attacks on the British colonies of Malaya and Hong Kong, Thailand and the American possessions of the Philippines and Hawaii. Two months later, Singapore falls to the Japanese army and by April 1942, there are over 150,000 Allied prisoners of war held by the Japanese. 10 April 1942 The Bataan Death March begins. POWs are starved, and murdered indiscriminately – thousands of Americans and Filipinos die over 1–2 weeks. The general in charge is executed for war crimes in 1946. June 1942 Construction of the 415km-long Thailand–Burma railway begins, concluding in October 1943. Appalling conditions and treatment kill over 12,000. Elsewhere in captivity, POWs toil on docks and airfields, and in mines, shipbuilding yards, and steel and copper works.…

ARCHIVES Imperial War Museums Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ iwm.org.uk IWM holds the private papers of FEPOWs including memoirs, diaries and photos. The National Archives Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU nationalarchives.gov.uk TNA contains hospital registers, liberated POW interrogation questionnaires and reports on conditions in camps, plus the POW records digitised on Findmypast. BOOKS The Barbed-Wire University by Midge Gillies (Aurum Press, 2011) From art to entertainment and medical techniques, Midge Gillies explores the ingenuity and innovation of FEPOWs. Captive Memories by Meg Parkes and Geoff Gill (Palatine Books, 2015) The book discusses how POWs coped with captivity, survivors’ repatriation and the long-term effects of imprisonment. WEBSITES COFEPOW  www.cofepow.org.uk The website of the charity the Children (& Families) of the Far East Prisoners of War has casualty…

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Conservation By Design 01234 846300 conservation-by-design.com Founded in 1992, this Bedford-based firm sells storage and display materials. Conservation Register 0203 142 6799 conservationregister.com Search the register for a conservator-restorer in the UK and Ireland. Fine Art Trade Guild 0207 381 6616 fineart.co.uk The guild’s website includes a directory of professional framers across the globe. Preservation Equipment 01379 647400 preservationequipment.com The company’s products are used in museums and galleries worldwide. FREE DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES The British Library  bit.ly/british-library-care The site’s PDFs cover such topics as the preservation and cleaning of documents. The Institute for Conservation  bit.ly/icon-caring-collection The institute has produced guides on caring for a range of materials, including paper, parchment and photographs.…

FEMALE CONVICTS RESEARCH CENTRE Located at femaleconvicts.org.au, the centre is a not-for-profit organisation holding a wealth of information about the female convicts of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), as well as convict ships, the penal system and local institutions. Sign up to search its ever-expanding holdings or to help on a transcription project. LINC TASMANIA With over 70 per cent of present-day Tasmanians descended from convicts, it’s hardly surprising that there’s a lot of records relating to them in the area’s archives, including arrivals, immigrants and departures (1803–1900), and records of convict life. These are accessible at bit.ly/linc-tas. John used the site to uncover what happened to Elizabeth. SCOTLANDSPEOPLE John found the Roman Catholic baptism records of his ancestors on scotlandspeople.gov.uk, the government website for searching records and archives, including births,…

Q Can you date these portraits of my ancestors? The one with the dark background shows my great great grandfather George Allcard (1827–1878), but the other two are mysteries. They have been in the family for years, but no one seems to know who they are. One is an oil painting that has “Sabatier, Paris” written on it, while the other appears to be a print. We’re trying to work out if they might show his brothers or uncles. Debbie Lloyd A Some families are lucky in possessing hand-crafted paintings or drawings passed down the generations. But if the identification is unknown, portraits must be dated from their subjects’ appearance. By the later 1830s and early 1840s, male dress was increasingly uniform and artworks generally depict remarkably similar styles. A…

Sarah Ann Minshall bit.ly/2HqkNIo My great grandmother Sarah Ann Minshall was born on 28 September 1880 in Sherrifhales, Shropshire, to parents William and Sarah Jane. I’ve found her up to the 1901 census, where she is shown as Annie Minshall, a domestic servant, but then she disappears. I’ve tried various searches for marriages and deaths and haven’t been able to find her. Any suggestions on what to do next would be really great. CazE Looking for Edwin Annetts bit.ly/2JB85XZ Can anyone have better luck than me in finding Edwin Alfred Annetts on the 1939 Register? I’ve tried every method but I can’t seem to locate him. I don’t have his exact date of birth, but it was registered in Q2 1885 and as far as I am aware he did…

“The one website that gives the most information for people researching any kind of female British medical worker in the First World War is Scarlet Finders (scarletfinders.co.uk), the creation of the late Sue Light. Exploring all that this website has to offer is an adventure, and I believe that one of its triumphs is the intensely personal and human picture it gives of the different roles filled by women, many of them volunteers. Browsing the different stories can often lead you off down unexpected but fascinating avenues. “Among the eclectic mix of both official and personal records are extensive extracts from the War Diary of the matron-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, France and Flanders, and an account of the work of the Coffee Shop at Rouen Station held by…

Criminal background If the child has committed an earlier offence, it is worth searching for the crime in relevant court records and newspaper reports. Remarriage If a parent has remarried then the name of the step-parent is often given in the admission records. Alternative records Each child was allocated a register number. This can be used to locate the child in other records, such as a discharge register. Family members Often additional relatives, including siblings and grandparents, are shown in this section. Other information can include their address details. Photographs Even if the register doesn’t include a portrait, physical descriptions can help you identify ancestors from photographs you already have. Character Most registers detail the temperament of both the child and their parents, giving a fascinating insight into their family…

BOOKS Fagin’s Children: Criminal Children in Victorian England by Jeannie Duckworth (Hambledon Continuum, 2002) Historian Jeannie Duckworth goes beyond Dickens to reveal the reality of child crime in the 19th century. Reformatory Schools for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes, and for Juvenile Offenders by Mary Carpenter (C Gilpin, 1851) You can download the campaigner’s argument for educational reform for free from the Internet Archive: bit.ly/archive-reformatory . Young Offenders: Juvenile Delinquency 1700–2000 by Pamela Horn (Amberley Publishing, 2010) This book examines the evolution of the response to children’s crimes from the early 18th to the late 20th centuries. MUSEUM The Red Lodge Museum Park Row, Bristol BS1 5LJ 0117 921 1360 bristolmuseums.org.uk/red-lodge-museum The Red Lodge was the first girls’ reformatory school, established in 1854 by Mary Carpenter. WEBSITES…

'The section covers 30 topics relating to crime and misdemeanour over the centuries' Meldreth, a small village 10 miles south of Cambridge, has a very active Local History Group founded in 2007. It aims to research and record the history of the village and its environs; create and preserve an archive of local history to pass on to subsequent generations; and publish material, in print and digital forms, to benefit the community and others interested in the village’s heritage. At the centre of its work is the group’s website, a living resource that is expanding all the time with new features and information. There are now more than 600 pages covering a wide range of topics relating to village history, places and people. For example, the ‘Family Histories’ section at…

Member of Convocatoin The cross denotes graduates who were members of Convocation, enabling them to have a say in the working of the University. Subject The page shows the range of subjects studied including the general Bachelors degree, Classics, Law and Medicine. Name The name of the student includes their middle name(s); married names are sometimes given for women. Qualification For a full degree, two examinations are listed: “Intermediate” and then “B.A.” or “B.Sc.” as appropriate. Matriculation The month and year of the matriculation (or entrance) exam are shown, and the centre at which it was taken. Type of study “Pr. St.” and “Pr. T.” stand for private study and private tuition respectively, indicating an external student. Residential address Current address is included in italics, where known. If a college…

ARCHIVES The National Archives Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU 0208 876 3444 nationalarchives.gov.uk TNA holds the personal letters and papers of courtiers and members of the royal households. Some have been digitised and are available at discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. The Royal Archives  www.royal.uk/archives Based at Windsor, the archives hold a number of records relating to the royal household. Records of staff from 1660 to 1924 have been digitised and are available at findmypast.co.uk. The Royal College of Physicians 11 St Andrews Place, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4LE 0203 075 1649 www.rcplondon.ac.uk The RCP holds the diaries of Robert Ferguson, which provide an unparalleled glance into the life of a royal doctor. They can be viewed by appointment. BOOKS The Book of Nurture by John Russell (Roxburghe Club, 1867) Written in verse, and…

MUSEUMS Chelsea Physic Garden 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS 0207 352 5646 chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk Founded in 1673 by apothecaries so that they could grow medicinal plants, this is one of the oldest botanical gardens in Britain and is well worth visiting. It’s open Monday to Friday, Sundays and Bank Holidays. Thackray Medical Museum Beckett Street, Leeds LS9 7LN 0113 244 4343 thackraymedicalmuseum.co.uk Housed in the old Leeds Union Workhouse, the museum is open every day and includes the Wilkinson Apothecary Gallery which contains 600 apothecary jars. WEBSITES Brought to Life  bit.ly/brought-to-life Search for historical objects used by apothecaries and medical professionals on the Science Museum’s Brought to Life website, which has images and descriptions of thousands of objects from the museum’s collections. Wellcome Library  bit.ly/wellcome-biography The online Biography…

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX The International Genealogical Index (IGI) is a database containing details gleaned from the millions of birth, baptism, marriage and death records collected by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can access the database by using the free genealogy website familysearch.org, but it should be remembered that the IGI is an index rather than a primary source. So always seek out the original document used to create the entry wherever possible – just as Mary did. LIBRARY OF BIRMINGHAM A wide variety of resources can be used to research ancestors who hailed from Birmingham and the West Midlands. Parish records, rate books and prison registers held by the Library of Birmingham have recently been made available to search on ancestry.co.uk, while the library’s own website…

We last visited Buckinghamshire in June 2012. Six years later we return to find a county on the cusp, with a wide range of heritage projects in the offing, from social history studies to family history digitisations. ‘She Got the Vote’, for example, is being organised to mark the centenary since the passing of the Representation of the People Act in 1918. Many women across the county joined and led different branches of the suffrage movement. In High Wycombe there was Dame Frances Dove, founder and headmistress of Wycombe Abbey School, and in the market town of Chesham in the Chiltern Hills there was Emily Brandon, who would form the only branch of Emily Pankhurst’s more militant Women’s Social and Political Union in Buckinghamshire. Many women joined different branches of…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES Berkshire Record Office 9 Coley Avenue, Reading, Berkshire RG1 6AF 0118 937 5132 berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk The record office looks after some records relating to Slough, which up until 1974 was in Buckinghamshire. Buckingham Library Verney Close, Buckingham MK18 1JP 01296 382415 lib-buc@buckscc.gov.uk bit.ly/bucks-buckingham You can access certain online resources using your library card. For a complete list of other county libraries go to bit.ly/bucks-find-a-library . Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury HP20 1UU 01296 382587 archives@buckscc.gov.uk www.buckscc.gov.uk/archives The centre holds sources covering most of pre-1974 Buckinghamshire, including census material, county directories, quarter sessions records back to 1678, and marriage licences from 1663 to 1849. It also holds General Register Office indexes on microfiche (1837–2004), films of all Buckinghamshire parish registers, Bishops’ Transcripts and pre-1837 nonconformist registers. The…

How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain by Ruth Goodman Michael O’Mara, 314 pages, £20 This is a masterclass of bad behaviour in early modern Britain. Social historian and TV presenter Ruth Goodman loves history and wants to know why our forebears behaved in a particular way. Topics considered here include offensive speech, gestures, mockery, violence, disgusting habits, revolting bodies and “the complete scoundrel”. For family historians this book gives only possibly useful background information, but it’s a lively romp through early modern British social history – and bad behaviour can be much more revealing than that of conventionally behaved citizens. As the author writes in her introduction, “It is those who push against the boundaries of cultural etiquette who most accurately define where the lines are drawn.” By following…

LONDON My Ancestor Was a Quaker 23 May SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS, EAST LONDON  bit.ly/sog-quaker 0207 553 3290 Do you want to find out more about the Society of Friends? In this one-hour talk Michael Gandy takes a look at how you can track down Quaker ancestors and discover how they lived. £8. MIDLANDS 2018 Showcase Event 19 May PROACT STADIUM, CHESTERFIELD  bit.ly/2018-showcase-event secretary@cadfhs.org This event from the Chesterfield and District Family History Society covers family history, local history, heritage and crafts, with the theme of ‘Asylums and workhouses’. The fair includes two talks; genealogist helpdesks; stalls by local, family and military history societies; and sources and displays from Derbyshire Records Office. Entry £1. Shropshire Family History Society Family History Fair 2 June THE SHIREHALL, SHREWSBURY  bit.ly/sfhs-fair sfhsfair@sfhs.org.uk This fair includes…

1851 Anglo Jewry Database The website jewishgen.org is the home portal of many Jewish genealogical resources. One of its most useful databases is the 1851 Anglo Jewry Database, a free-to-use index of Jewish names that contains biographical information. 1 Create a free login to the website, then navigate to the homepage of the database at jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/1851/introduction.htm. Click on the ‘Search the Database’ link on the right-hand side of the screen to be taken to the search page. 2 Enter the name of the person you’re searching for – in my example I’ve used Lionel de Rothschild. Enter the surname in the ‘Surname’ field, change ‘Data Type’ for the second search field to ‘GivenName’, enter the first name and click the search button to see a table of results. 3 Click…

Scan your photos! I have met a lot of families who keep their old photos in either a shoebox or some manila envelopes. They pull them out and they are faded, torn, wrinkled and dog-eared. Some of the photos are actually disintegrating – give it a few years and they will probably turn to dust! I preach to some of these family friends that they need to digitise their photos. If not, their family history will vanish forever. Deanna Jaxine Stinson, Elk Grove, California Editor replies: Thanks for writing in Deanna – you must have read our minds. I hope you enjoy reading our feature about preserving your family archive on page 28. An easy mistake to make I thought other readers might find this advice useful. Crew and passengers…

74,216 marriage bonds and allegations from the diocese of Exeter, covering Devon and Cornwall from 1660 to 1912, indexed on familysearch.org 80 year-old Anthea Ring, who was found abandoned on the Sussex South Downs as a baby with her hands tied, has identified her biological parents using a groundbreaking DNA testing procedure – read the full story at bbc.in/2HM0x4g £10.3 million granted by the Heritage Lottery Fund to fund The Hold, a major new home for Suffolk Archives 90 Norfolk cemeteries feature in a collection of photographs taken by Louise Cocker and available on deceasedonline.com 1,192,245 Yorkshire Church of England parish records added to ancestry.co.uk…

Exploring the history of Scotland’s places has become easier after Historic Environment Scotland (HES) launched an enhanced version of its free website, pastmap.org.uk. PastMap allows users to compare modern maps of Scotland with historic maps, and view data about the country’s landscapes, archaeology and historic sites, including buildings, shipwrecks and battlefields. The latest version features eight different background maps dating from the mid-to-late 19th century to the 1960s, including Ordnance Survey (OS) maps digitised in a major project by the National Library of Scotland. Viewers can now compare these with four types of modern map: OS Licensed Data, which includes MasterMap, the most comprehensive map of the UK; OS colour and black-and-white open data; and OpenStreetMap, an open source online map. For the first time, PastMap also includes aerial photography.…

When we start out on the fascinating journey of tracing our ancestors’ lives, the first document we see will very often be a dogeared piece of paper dug out from the back of a drawer or a battered cardboard box stored in the loft headed “Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth” “…Marriage” or “…Death”. These vital records form the building-blocks of our research, but to get the most out of them it is important to understand the information they contain and the rules that are used to create them. Civil beginnings To find the start of registration we must look back to Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII, and his requirement in 1538 that parishes should keep records of the important events of their parishioners’ lives – baptism,…

You should make notes on what you know for certain, what is just possibility and where the gaps are Q I am researching my great great grandmother Christina Montrose, who according to census records was born in Plymouth, c1855. Although she is listed as married, I cannot find a matching marriage or birth record for her, so I don’t know what her maiden name was. She was in various prisons, but no more details are listed than those we already have. I also cannot find any records for her “husband” Alfred Edward Montrose, apart from a reference to an Alfred Montrose who is listed as a witness to an assault. I think Christina’s daughter was born in prison in Liverpool before being put in the workhouse, but there is no…

'Many of the special events in the royal princesses’ lives are acknowledged in the logbooks' The Girl Guide Association was established in Britain in 1910 after campaigning from girls who wanted to be part of the newly formed Boy Scouts movement. The 1st Sandringham Guide Company was founded in 1920 near the royal family’s Norfolk residence, and was later visited by the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Girlguiding Norfolk’s Archive Resource Centre holds more than 10,000 items of guiding memorabilia, and last year received a £60,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to conserve and share its collections. Now, ahead of Prince Harry’s wedding, county archivist Helen Green tells us about two 1st Sandringham logbooks, and what they reveal about the company’s royal connections. When was the Archive Resource Centre created?…

The West Sussex Record Office blog includes an article on Gertrude Denman, founding national chairman of the Women’s Institute, director of the Second World War’s Women’s Land Army and, during the First World War, chair of the Smokes for Wounded Soldiers and Sailors Society, or SSS (bit.ly/west-sussex-denman ). The SSS distributed more than a billion cigarettes to wounded men through fundraising events. There’s an interactive Women at War 100 section of the Royal British Legion website (bit.ly/british-legion-women), launched as part of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps centenary last year. The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry was established in 1907 and the organisation’s archive in London contains records and documents concerning the thousands of women who served. These records aren’t easily accessible, but can be viewed by appointment (armymuseums.org.uk/museum/fany-archive). You can also…

In October 1910 the magazine John Bull published an article headlined ‘Reformatory school horrors’ detailing the severe corporal punishment at the Akbar Nautical Training School for Boys in Cheshire, which replaced the training ship Akbar after it was scrapped. Pupils were subjected to beatings, drenched in cold water or forced to stand for long periods, all totally against official regulations on discipline. Mr Adams, a former master at the school, wrote to MPs after the Home Office failed to acknowledge his allegations of systematic beatings and even deaths. Consequently Winston Churchill, then the home secretary, ordered the chief inspector of reformatory schools to investigate, which led to an inquiry. The resulting report refuted Adams’ allegations and implied that the article was exaggerated and inaccurate. However, the fact that the minister…

Until the mid-18th century, the role of apothecaries in Britain was to prepare and sell medicines, usually from a shop. Their name comes from the Latin apotheca, meaning a place where spices, herbs and wine were stored. Unlike physicians, who had a university education, apothecaries trained via an apprenticeship and no medical qualifications were required; apprentices just needed to be literate, numerate and have some knowledge of Latin. Apothecaries were not allowed to charge for medical advice given to their customers, only for the preparations that they sold. At that time, their manual work and background in retail meant they had a standing in society just above tradespeople, similar to barber-surgeons. Much of the apothecary’s day was devoted to making pills by hand, fulfilling prescriptions and serving their customers; they…

APOTHECARY’S BALANCE Used to weigh each ingredient accurately when making pills and ointments by hand. APOTHECARY’S JARS Made of china and often highly decorative, these labelled jars stored ingredients for making medicines. MATERIA MEDICA Latin term for the body of knowledge about the therapeutic properties of substances for healing. PESTLE AND MORTAR Used to grind down plants, herbs and harder substances by hand for preparing medicines. PHARMACOPOEIA Official publication identifying compound medicines, their effects and directions for their use. PILL-CUTTER Device that speeded up pill-making by cutting rolled-out strips of a mixture of ingredients into equal segments.…

1529 Aylesbury is declared the new county town of Buckinghamshire by Henry VIII, taking over the reins from Buckingham. 1642 In the Battle of Aylesbury, heavily outnumbered Parliamentarian forces beat a Royalist army at Holman’s Bridge. 1838 Wolverton Railway Works is established by the London and Birmingham Railway Company, and will become the UK’s largest carriage works. 1853 Anthony Nathan de Rothschild completes the modernisation of Aston Clinton House. This is one of several important Buckinghamshire estates developed by the Rothschilds, including Ascott House, Halton House, Mentmore Towers and Waddesdon Manor. 1913 Saunderton Station is badly damaged in an arson attack. Placards reading “Votes for women” and “Burning to get the vote” are left on the platform. 1939 The day after the UK declares war on Germany, Alan Turing reports to…

As an avid genealogist for the past 30 years, mostly using the internet, I decided to treat myself to your magazine as it was my birthday. I picked up the March edition where you tested both Ancestry and Findmypast. I have been with Ancestry for a long time; however, I thought I needed to start thinking outside the box. I have been researching my grandmother, who ran away with her elder brother from Italy to join a circus. Apparently they had a trapeze act that included dogs (the mind boggles), and we were told by an elderly relative that they had performed for Kaiser Wilhelm and the Tsar of Russia, and knew Charlie Chaplin. I contacted various theatre and circus websites to try to find anything related to their act,…

Volunteers in Cumbria are being sought to help with a major new research project into the effects of the Old Poor Law. The Poor Law, Small Bills and Petty Finance 1700–1834 Project is a three-year Keele University initiative, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It is seeking archival volunteers to index the contents of the old receipts and vouchers stored by Cumbria Archives, recording the food, medicine, clothing and housing that were provided by parishes for their paupers. The receipts will be made available in a searchable database and volunteers will also have the opportunity to contribute further, including writing blog entries, and to develop study and research skills, and learn from each other’s knowledge and experience. To find out more information or take part in the project,…

Essex residents are protesting plans to demolish the buildings of a historic Second World War camp in order to build housing. Developer Pelham Structures has submitted a planning application to Uttlesford District Council to build 26 homes on the site of POW Camp 116 in the village of Hatfield Heath. Local people submitted objections via the council’s website to protest at plans to demolish the site. “I oppose it because I think it would be a massive travesty of history,” Jim Bradley, founder of the ‘Save POW Camp 116’ Facebook group, told Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. “It’s been there for so long, and it’s an unbearable notion to tear it down for 26 mansions. Once it’s gone you can’t rebuild history.” POW Camp 116 was built in…

Don’t be too specific in your search Putting in too many details for a search may mean that you miss the record you want to find. The information recorded on a register entry, and in the index, may not always be exactly what you are expecting. So start with the minimum number of search criteria, then add terms to narrow down the results. Use more than one index Different indexes use different rules to compile their lists, and websites have search engines that vary in their flexibility. Checking how the same entry appears in different indexes can help you to work out which record you need. As the new General Register Office (GRO) online index search is quite limited in how wide a search it will allow, use the FreeBMD…

1538 Thomas Cromwell issues orders for parish registers to be kept to record every “weddying, chrystenyng and burying”. 1753 Lord Hardwicke’s act for “the better preventing of clandestine marriages” means all marriages must take place within the established church (except for those of Jews and Quakers). 1836 An “act for registering births, deaths and marriages” is finally passed with an accompanying Marriage Act (relaxing Hardwicke’s rules and enabling civil marriages). 1837 Only a few days after the young Victoria becomes queen, civil registration finally begins in England and Wales on 1 July. 1845 The registration of non-Catholic marriages in Ireland begins. 1855 Civil registration is introduced in Scotland on 1 January. 1858 New divorce laws make ending an unhappy marriage a realistic proposition for ordinary people for the first time.…

‘Four generations of the family had been left wondering what had happened’ One afternoon last October, while her 10-month-old baby was blissfully asleep, Vanessa Moorjani grabbed a few minutes for herself and tuned into the calmness of BBC Radio 4. A discussion was underway about the diaries of prisoners of war (POWs). One of the voices caught her attention, lifted her out of her Cambridgeshire home and deposited her in a dated school classroom. The voice belonged to me. Last time Vanessa heard it, it was from two rows behind as we tried to keep up with Mrs Godfrey’s lessons in A-level Maths. Some 20 years on I was sitting in Broadcasting House, talking about my recent book Captives of War. Vanessa kindly emailed me her congratulations and mentioned her…

Since the end of the Second World War, memorials to FEPOWs and sites of remembrance have been created across the globe. These include: COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES CEMETERIES AND MEMORIALS From Japan to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea to Myanmar, there are beautifully tended cemeteries and memorials to FEPOWs, complete with moving inscriptions that the next-of-kin chose to have etched upon their loved one’s headstone. The bodies of the men found on Ballale Island are buried at Port Moresby War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea. FEPOW MEMORIAL BUILDING, THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL ARBORETUM, LICHFIELD, STAFFORDSHIRE This timber hut contains an exhibition on FEPOWs and a visual projection showing the name and rank of all 55,000 British servicemen taken prisoner in South-East Asia. You can go on a virtual tour of the Memorial Building…

Digitising photographs and letters is a useful way of protecting originals from handling and display, and as an insurance policy should they be lost or damaged. But creating them is the easy bit; you will then have two versions to look after – the original and the digital copy. To store and manage digital records well, they need to be organised and backed up. Benign neglect of original family papers is a gamble you may get away with, but the same approach for digital records can be disastrous: could you access the documents on a floppy disk now? Cloud storage accessed via the internet is popular and effective, but this solution inevitably raises questions about privacy and security that should be carefully considered before choosing a service to meet your…

‘His mother’s name on the death certificate was just a wee scribble. I was totally stuck’ “Sometimes I pushes the carts, and others I carry big bits of coal; I’ve done so for two years. The work is very wet; the water gets into my shoes. I go down at six in the morning, and go home at seven, when mother sends me to bed, as I am so fatigued. I do not change myself. When I get 3 shillings or 4 shillings a-week, mother gives me 3 pence, which I spend on sweeties. I’ve never been to school. I have some brothers and sisters; but I don’t know how many.” It’s 1842 in Haddingtonshire (now East Lothian), and Barney Walker – a ragged, sickly boy who looks far younger…

KATHERINE COBB is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) based in Somerset KAREN CUMMINGS is a member of AGRA, and a tutor for Pharos and the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies EMMA JOLLY is a writer, historical researcher and member of AGRA CHRIS PATON is a genealogist, author and blogger at britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist RUTH SYMES is a historian and the author of Tracing Ancestors through Letters and Personal Writings STEPHEN THOMAS is a genealogist with more than 20 years of experience and regularly appears as an expert on TV PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert and the author of Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors CHRISTINE WIBBERLEY is a non-practising solicitor and member…

Comedian Alan Carr untangled the mystery of why his great grandfather, Henry Carter, changed his name to Edward Mercer when he featured on the show in 2011. Alan learned that Henry was an Army deserter in the First World War. He enlisted in 1915 but deserted soon after and began using his new name, Edward Mercer. The first clue about Henry’s desertion came from his actual service record. Not all First World War service records survive (many were destroyed by enemy action during the Second World War), but those that do can be found online on ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk. Once we had found his service record, we searched the Police Gazette , available at british newspaperarchive.co.uk and – for Pro subscribers – Findmypast, which published lists of criminals and offenders…

The campaign for women to have the same right to a university education as men gathered pace in the 1860s. Through the efforts of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women, the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women in Oxford, various Ladies’ Educational Associations and pioneering individuals such as Emily Davies in Cambridge, special university lectures became available to women. Slowly but surely, more concessions were made. From the late 1860s some university examinations were open to female students. Finally, in 1878, the University of London was the first British university to award degrees to women, with Durham following in 1895. Scottish universities admitted female students from 1892, while many of the new universities such as the University of Wales were founded on…

Born in 1501 to a noble family, Sir Anthony Denny was groom of the stool to Henry VIII. But far from spending his time up to his elbows in excrement and bodily fluids, Denny became one of the monarch’s most trusted confidants. As a senior member of the Privy Chamber, he had authority over the king’s signature and wielded immense power. They were so close that it was left to Denny to inform the ailing and aged Henry that he should prepare for death, a task that his doctors dared not do for fear of punishment. Denny’s critics argued that he exploited Henry’s immobility to manipulate him for his own ends and to further his family, but Henry would brook no criticism of his favourite. Denny had control over the…

Apothecaries in London were originally part of the Worshipful Company of Grocers. But since they had specialist pharmacy skills the apothecaries petitioned to split from the Grocers, and in 1617 the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London was founded. In 1704 the society won the ‘Rose Case’, a key legal suit. An apothecary named William Rose had treated a patient in London. He administered medicine without acting under the directions of a physician and without asking for a fee, just charging for the medicine. The Royal College of Physicians brought an action against him for practising medicine even though he was not a member of the RCP. The action was initially withheld, but the attorney general advised the society to ask for a reversal of judgement in the House of…

How long have you been researching family history? The family history bug bit me good and hard almost 50 years ago, with a cache of old certificates shown to me by my father taking my paternal ancestry straight back to 1838. I have researched the Bodfish family back to Leicestershire in 1534 with a One-Name Study, and also investigated my mother’s Battey ancestry. What did you uncover before your brick wall? My mother’s paternal grandmother was Emily Elizabeth Sowter of Derby, and many years ago via censuses, civil registration records and parish registers I followed her Sowter line back in Derbyshire to 1747. My 4x great grandmother, Martha, was a widow when she married John Sowter at Brailsford in 1802. I also discovered that Martha left a will when she…

Wives, Slaves, and Servant Girls by Don N Hagist Westholme, 192 pages, £12.99 The chaos during the American Revolution gave many female slaves and domestic workers the opportunity to escape servitude. This book is a compilation of advertisements in newspapers offering rewards for finding these runaways, including descriptions of people who are otherwise anonymous to history. The Epic Voyages of Maud Berridge: The Seafaring Diaries of a Victorian Lady by Sally Berridge Adlard Coles, 272 pages, £16.99 Dr Sally Berridge has put together the diaries of her great grandmother, Maud Berridge, recording the travels of a Victorian lady at sea. From Gravesend to Australia, Maud recounts the journeys made with her husband, Captain Henry Berridge, and later with her two sons. The RAF Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot’s Kitbag by…

Civilisations Stories BBC iPLAYER While the BBC’s Civilisations ambitiously told a global story, this companion collection of 11 documentaries, one from each English region, focuses on the local. In Civilisations Stories: The Remains of Slavery, for example, Bristol’s first poet laureate, Miles Chambers, uses art and artefacts from the city as ways to consider changes in people’s perceptions of slavery, and Civilisations Stories: The Art of Mining puts the focus on those who worked underground in the East Midlands, as journalist Geeta Pendse learns about their lives through paintings and preserved colliery buildings. Look out too for Civilisations On Your Doorstep (BBC Two and iPlayer), in which Mary Beard celebrates “the stories and controversies behind extraordinary works of art from all over the world that are now displayed in museums…