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

Every time there is a new series of Who Do You Think You Are? on TV, we get an influx of people wanting to uncover their own family’s past. It’s great that the programme is still inspiring the genealogists of the future. A lot has changed in family history since that first episode of WDYTYA? in 2004. More records are now online, making it easier to get started, but those initial steps can still seem daunting. So we’ve put together a simple guide on page 23 to help you on your way. It seems crazy that we can know so much about our 19th-century ancestors but so little about our more recent family. Most of the records currently online are pre-Second World War so it can be tricky to find…

We are sorry to announce that Sylvia Murphy, a dear friend of the magazine, has passed away. Sylvia occasionally contributed to our Q&A section, especially on the topics of British in India and Australia, but will probably be most familiar to our forum users who knew her by her username ‘Sylcec’. She joined the WDYTYA? Magazine forum in 2008, and in the past decade posted more than 2,500 times, helping hundreds of people with their family history queries. Our thoughts go out to her family in Australia.…

Anyone with the surname Staniforth, or with ancestors bearing the name, is invited to get in touch with the Staniforth Society, which aims to be one of the largest one-surname groups of its kind. The society was founded by 25-year-old Nathan Staniforth, who grew up in Sheffield but now lives in Texas and is seeking to link Staniforths around the world using DNA and family history research. The Staniforths have a long history in Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Staniforth & Co, a sickle and scything business, was founded by Thomas Staniforth in the village of Hackenthorpe near Sheffield in 1740, and continued to operate until 1980. Nathan’s website, staniforthfamily.com, features an interactive family tree, vocal recordings, photo albums, parish and census records, a forum and more, and he is keen to…

More than one million First World War casualty records are now available to explore on forces-war-records.co.uk . The military genealogy site’s newly updated WW1 Casualty Records collection allows subscribers to track down details of British and Commonwealth soldiers who were injured on active service between 1914 and 1918. Searchable by forename and surname, the entries will not only show the date on which the incident was recorded, but also reveal the soldier’s rank, regiment, service number and an indication of whether they were entitled to wear a ‘wound stripe’ on their uniform. Each entry in the collection also automatically links to the site’s WW1 Troop Movements and Order of Battle feature, which allows users to see where the soldier’s unit was located at different stages of the conflict on an…

‘Work back a generation at a time, confirming each relationship methodically’ With a new series of Who Do You Think You Are? being shown on BBC One, there is no better time to join in the fun and start looking into your own ancestral history. But where do you begin, which are the records that can help, and what should you do with everything that you discover? There is a lot to get to grips with, but once you get underway, you will be joining thousands of people who are already on the journey of several lifetimes. At its most basic, family history is about the stories of the past that have led to us being who we are today. This involves two basic tasks – identifying who our ancestors…

British Newspaper Archive britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Articles from historical newspapers from the British Library’s holdings can shed light on your ancestors. Deceased Online deceasedonline.com This pay-per-view site hosts some burial records from across Britain. FreeBMD freebmd.org.uk You can find free indexes for birth, marriage and death records in England and Wales on this site. FreeCEN freecen.org.uk FreeCEN has census transcriptions from across Britain for 1841–1891. GENUKI genuki.org.uk GENUKI is the online gateway to genealogical resources in Britain and Ireland. The National Archives nationalarchives.gov.uk The UK’s national archives, and the national archive for England and Wales, has useful research guides. National Archives of Ireland genealogy.nationalarchives.ie The website of Ireland’s national archives has free-to-access records including wills and censuses. National Records of Scotland  nrscotland.gov.uk Scotland’s platform has guides for records north of the border.…

BOOKS Michelle found images and details about her ancestor in A Century of the East End by Rosemary Taylor and Christopher Lloyd, where Jane Savoy is shown arranging a peace party in the East End for children, while East End Suffragettes, which Rosemary wrote with Sarah Jackson, gave key details of the visit to Asquith. EXHIBITION An exhibition, The Women’s Hall, is running at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives until 30 October 2018. This commemorates the work of lesser-known women of the East End who fought for the cause alongside Sylvia Pankhurst. Visit eastendwomensmuseum.org/the-womens-hall for details. NEWSPAPERS The East London Federation of Suffragettes had its own publication, to spread the word of marches and counteract negative press. The Woman’s Dreadnought regularly mentioned the names of speakers and…

Dudley family: India bit.ly/2zfYfd3 I’m researching the Dudley family in India, but there’s a brick wall that is proving a huge challenge. The problem centres on a Captain Charles Dudley, born 1779 in Tipton, Staffordshire. He joined the 22 Light Dragoons and was posted to India and then Java. He died a captain in Batavia, 1816 (unknown causes). A Dudley family tree from the 1950s lists him as “ob. sep.”, dying without issue. Yet the same tree has a “= Mr Salder” next to his name in place of a wife. There is an (apparent) son beneath them on the tree, John Dudley, who appears in the India records living 1812–97, dying in Poona. From the records of his own children and grandchildren, it is clear that he was Anglo-Indian.…

“Jamaican Family Search (jamaicanfamilysearch.com) is an online library for finding historical records of those who lived in the country from the late 1600s to 1920 – mainly white families and their offspring. The website has transcriptions from various documents including 19th-century Jamaican almanacs (which list property owners plus civil and military officials), extracts from Jamaican church records, civil registration records, wills, Jewish records, and excerpts from directories, newspapers, books and other documents. “The website is especially useful for anyone interested in developing narratives around the legacy of British slave ownership – the lists of property owners and pens, sugar estates and plantations will be of particular interest if you are researching ancestors who were enslaved in Jamaica. Links to various documents related to slavery in the country are grouped on…

Heading The heading gives the name of the company and battalion, in this case C Company, 1st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. Areas This column reveals the location in which the Volunteer was active, which can lead to written histories of what happened at that location. Name of Volunteer In this case Volunteers are listed alphabetically, but this is not always the format. A separate list in the same document details the officers of each company. Address This column gives the address of the Volunteer, if known, at the time the list was compiled – not their address at the time of the Rising. Additional information The author of the list includes a record of whether the Volunteer was killed in action, emigrated or died after…

BOOK Atlas of the Irish Revolution edited by John Crowley, Donal O’Drisceoil, Mike Murphy and John Borgonovo (Cork University Press, 2017) This extensive, illuminating and weighty publication details the revolutionary period. MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES GPO Witness History Museum General Post Office, O’Connell Street Lower, D01 F5P2, Dublin 1 +353 1 872 1916 gpowitnesshistory.ie The museum is open seven days a week, and includes an award-winning interactive exhibition that lets you experience the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin from both sides of the conflict. Irish Military Archive Cathal Brugha Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin 6W militaryarchives@defenceforces.ie militaryarchives.ie The archive is the main resource for researching Irish military ancestry, whether during the Rising, the War of Independence, the Free State Army or the Emergency (the Second World War). It is open to visitors by…

On Saturday 10 January 1891 an event “unique in the annals of Leeds civic entertainment” took place at the city’s town hall. “Nearly 400 young folk – ranging from tiny mites… to maidens and lads of sixteen”, according to the Leeds Mercury, attended a Juvenile Fancy Dress Ball, celebrating the inauguration of Alf Cooke as mayor. It was hailed as “one of the greatest successes recently chronicled in social circles”, and a photo album showing almost 200 guests – many from prominent local families – was presented to the mayoress. ‘At ten o’clock the proceedings came to an end, and the little ones were taken home by their guardians’ This album, now at Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, Leeds, showcases the costumes on display that evening. Joshua King, a doctoral…

Provisional specification This is the shortened version of the patent filed at the start of the process, and is usually followed by the complete specification. Patent number These started with a ‘1’ each year, so both the year and the number are needed to find a patent. Date of application The date an application was filed was also known as the ‘priority date’. Year of granting The heading includes the year that the patent was granted. Title of patent Note how generic this title is, as a brief description of Meccano. Patent-seeker’s details The inclusion of an address as well as a name can help you confirm that the inventor was your relative.…

ARCHIVES Branch records Records relating to local WEA branches will usually be held in the relevant county archive. They may include minutes, accounts, correspondence, and programmes of lectures or classes. Search The National Archives’ Discovery catalogue (discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk) or the Scottish Archive Network (scan.org.uk/aboutus/indexonline.htm ) to find out what’s available. London Metropolitan University Old Castle Street, Aldgate, London E1 7NT 0207 320 3516 bit.ly/lmu-tuc-collections The university’s Trades Union Congress Library Collections hold the national archive for the Workers’ Educational Association (1906–1995). Unfortunately there are no membership registers, so unless your ancestor was very active within the WEA, it’s unlikely that he or she will be mentioned by name. Note too that access to the university’s collections is by appointment. WEBSITES A Brief History of the Workers’ Educational Association issuu.com/weasheffieldwea/docs/history_booklet Find out…

British Newspaper Archive britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk The archive, which is also available to Findmypast ‘Pro’ subscribers, features local newspaper articles that you can search for your ancestor’s name. The Elections Centre electionscentre.co.uk The website has records of local elections from 1945 onwards, but aims to increase its range. Municipal Year Book municipalyearbook.co.uk The book has only been online for a year, but earlier copies, back to 1897, can be accessed in your local archives or reference library. The National Archives discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk When using TNA’s online catalogue Discovery, you can filter your search by a particular town, to limit results to records that borough or archive centre holds. However, such filtering can exclude relevant records that are held in other archives. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography oxforddnb.com This paid-for site allows a…

Until 1889 children could be abused, forced into work and neglected, and had less legal protection than animals. But new legislation this year changed this sad state of affairs. The ‘Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of Children Act’, widely known as the ‘Children’s Charter’, was largely the result of campaigning by a small number of vigorous individuals. The London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children had been inaugurated in 1884 by veteran social campaigner Lord Shaftesbury along with Rev Benjamin Waugh, the writer Sarah Smith (better known by her pen name, Hesba Stretton) and other reformers. It was modelled on a society set up in Liverpool the previous year: this was an idea whose time had come. Waugh was the editor of an evangelical journal called The…

1310 Mob Quad, the first purpose-built accommodation for students, is completed at Merton College. The college’s library is founded in 1373. 1602 The Bodleian Library opens its doors in November 1602, after former Merton College fellow Thomas Bodley funds the refit of Oxford University’s library. 1839 The first regatta takes place at Henley-on-Thames. 1877 Annie Rogers becomes the first woman to gain first-class honours in the newly instituted ‘Examinations for Women’ at Oxford University. A statute of 1920 admits women to full membership of the university. 1912 Morris Motors is founded in Oxford. The world-famous Morris Minor will make its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show in September 1948. c1931 The first meeting of the Inklings takes place. This literary group, which includes CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, will…

BOOKS Criminal Women 1850–1920: Researching the Lives of Britain’s Female Offenders by Lucy Williams and Barry Godfrey Pen & Sword, 224 pages, £14.99 Female ancestors can be very difficult to research, because their histories often went unrecorded. This is particularly true for women who broke the law. Yet their offences not only inform us about their experiences as individuals, but offer valuable insight into life for women in the past. In their indispensable and highly readable book, crime historians Dr Lucy Williams and Prof Barry Godfrey offer guidance on how to research women’s crimes and find out more about the environment in which they committed them. Criminal Women 1850–1920 is divided into three parts. The opening chapters explore the context in which women turned to crime, including types of offences,…

The Civil War in London: Voices from the City by Robin Rowles Pen & Sword, 134 pages, £12.99 The result of a London walking tour devised by the author, The Civil War in London provides readers with a real taste of the capital’s past. Starting with the death of a Tudor queen, and ending with the beheading of a Stuart king, Robin Rowles explains the major historical events affecting the city. Suffragism and the Great War Dr Vivien Newman Pen & Sword, 158 pages, £19.99 Stories of the formidable women who played their part in the suffrage and anti-suffrage movements are explored in this myth-busting book. Dr Newman reveals how the declaration of war led to them using their social ties, skills and experience of campaigning to support the nation…

EAST Dissent and Non-Conformity 14 August DISS METHODIST CHURCH, NORFOLK bit.ly/disssimon 01603 763718 Simon Pawley speaks to Norfolk Family History Society about researching ancestors who may not have been a part of the established church. Members £1, non-members £2. LONDON Understanding and Using the 1939 Register 1 August SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS, CLERKENWELL bit.ly/using1939 0207 553 3290 The 1939 Register offers up a snapshot of the lives of approximately 40 million people in England and Wales just after the beginning of the Second World War. In this lecture John Hanson will explain how family historians can make the most of online access to this incredibly useful census substitute. £8 – booking required. MIDLANDS Visit to Dudley Archives 21 August ST PETER’S CHURCH HALL, PEDMORE bit.ly/dudleytrip gensec@midanc.uk Midland Ancestors’ Stourbridge Group…

Irish census records Lee Mack’s grandmother, Bridget Delia Farrell, was born in Co Mayo in 1888. Although many Irish civil records are lost, we traced her in census returns for 1901 and 1911, which can be viewed for free on the Irish National Archives’ website. 1 Navigate to the search page for censuses, census.nationalarchives.ie/search. You can choose between census records for 1821, 1831, 1841, 1851, 1901 and 1911 by clicking the ‘Census year’ button. Unfortunately only small fragments of the 19th-century Irish censuses survive. 2 Choose the census you wish to search. Then enter the details of the person you’re looking for, in this case Bridget Farrell, a female in Co Mayo aged about 12, and click ‘Search’. If you can’t find them, add the prefix O’ – Irish surnames…

‘Joe came up with ways to use camouflage cover on a large scale to protect cities’ The brutal nature of the First World War produced timeless, affecting poetry, painting and cinema. However, you won’t find artist Joseph Gray among celebrated names like Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and the Nash brothers. In fact his great granddaughter Mary knew very little about his life and work. “We had lots of Joe’s paintings, but there were no photographs, so he remained a bit of a mystery,” says Mary. “I would ask my grandmother, his only daughter, but it was difficult because he’d had an affair and left her mother Agnes. So I grew up loving his art, but feeling deeply ambivalent about the man.” Joe’s whole life seemed shrouded and far from heroic,…

A major project mapping place names celebrated its completion and announced its plans for the future at an event held in London on 9 July. The crowdsourcing project GB1900 (gb1900.org) was coordinated by a team based at the University of Portsmouth, and asked volunteers to transcribe place names and other elements marked on historic six-inch Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain, originally digitised by the National Library of Scotland. GB1900 launched in September 2016 and closed to new transcriptions in January this year after more than 2.5 million items had been transcribed, creating arguably the largest historical gazetteer of Britain ever. It also located 300,000 pumps and wells, 300,000 historical footpaths and just about every windmill. The data collected is already enabling users of maps on the National Library of…

Findmypast adds Wiltshire social and institutional records A major new collection of records of Wiltshire life is now available on findmypast.co.uk. The collection contains 422,199 records dating from 1123 to 1968, and makes documents held by the Wiltshire Record Society available as searchable transcripts. They feature 72 kinds of documents, including legal records such as assizes, bankruptcy records and calendars of prisoners; nonconformist, Church of England and Quaker records; and school, apprenticeship, Poor Law and vagrancy records. Salford project explores Spanish Civil War The University of Salford and the Working Class Movement Library have celebrated a joint project exploring the library’s material relating to the Spanish Civil War. The collaboration, funded by a £4,000 grant from the university’s Salford Advantage Fund, saw the digitisation of photos, letters and posters telling…

‘The Victorians’ teeth were generally in good condition’ Advertisements in old newspapers are an endless source of harmless fun. “Why on earth did they fall for it?” I ask myself, before thinking of the implausible claims made by many TV ads (surely hair can’t be that glossy!). A gentleman called Lloyd advertised regularly in the Preston Herald during the late 1860s and early 1870s, under the eye-catching headline “FRENCH, AMERICAN, AND ENGLISH ARTIFICIAL TEETH”. A dentist with premises in the town centre, he was a real enthusiast, announcing “to the people of Lancashire generally, and the inhabitants of Preston particularly” that he continued to supply his celebrated “incorrodible, incorruptible, and undetectable MINERAL ARTIFICIAL TEETH”. These were available in five qualities, which in 1868 ranged from teeth “on pure gold” at…

‘The certificate will be a copy from the original register written in front of your ancestor’ Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Heir Hunters on BBC One will have marvelled at how quickly the researchers build a family tree. Instead of waiting patiently, like the rest of us, for an envelope from the General Register Office (GRO) to drop through the letterbox, they are on the phone to agents who rush off to local register offices to pick up birth, marriage and death certificates, delivering results in a matter of hours that would take days or even weeks via the GRO. What are the differences? Most certificates ordered by family historians come from the GRO. This has the great advantage that, as a central repository, you can search…

Why can’t I find my great grandmother’s baptism? Q My great grandmother, Ann/Annie Miller, married Hugh McPherson in Perth, Scotland, on 1 December 1871, aged 26. They had seven children together before Hugh committed suicide in 1895. Ann is recorded as having died aged 81 on 2 July 1930 at 32 Glasgow Road, Perth. Although this evidence would suggest that Ann was born c1845–1849, I have been unable to find a baptism record for her. The only possible clue comes from the 1871 marriage record, in which Ann’s parents are described as John Miller, farmer, and Catherine MacKenzie (deceased). However, the only potential marriage entry I can find for them is dated 5 April 1869 in Kinghorn, Fife, in which John is listed as a 49-year-old widower and agricultural labourer,…

Q We believe that our grandfather (Jacob) David Shackman/Shachtman, born in “Russia”, was the cousin of our grandmother Minnie Hudis, who was born in London. Is it possible to find evidence of their precise relationship? From his naturalisation certificate, we know that Minnie’s father, Abraham Hudis, was born in “Korolufka, Austria”. From notes made by Minnie, we know that her own grandmother (name unknown) was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Edmonton. The gravestone has been desecrated, but cemetery staff have confirmed that she was Jane Katerburgsky who died on 18 April 1913, and her address was 280 Brady Street Buildings in Whitechapel. Sue Dorman and Ralph Snow A Tracing immigrant Jewish families can be quite difficult. Their names were unusual in the UK, and were often (mis)spelled phonetically on…

When we think of early cycling, we think of the penny farthing, but in practice it was heavy, cumbersome and difficult to ride. In the late 1880s and 1890s, however, the ‘safety’ bicycle was introduced, with the equal-sized wheels we still use today. This, combined with John Dunlop’s invention of pneumatic tyres in 1888, made cycling much more popular as it became faster, safer and more comfortable. By the mid-1890s, an estimated 1.5 million men and women were cycling in Britain. Dudley Archives and Local History Service now holds the diary of one such keen cyclist, Charles Ernest Shimmell, which charts his many trips over 30 years. As senior archivist Richard Lewis explains, the diary offers a delightful glimpse into Charles’ passion for his bike. Can you tell me a…

Legacies of British Slave-ownership (ucl.ac.uk/lbs) is a database of records of compensation claims, and has biographical information on slave owners and companies. There’s also a related compensations database available via the Caribbean Family History site (caribbeanfamilyhistory.org/compensations ), which includes a collection of transcriptions of memorial inscriptions too, although it can be glitchy. If you’re interested in this area, try the database at slavevoyages.org, and Ancestry has digitised most of the slave registers held at TNA. You should also visit Black Cultural Archives (blackculturalarchives.org ), a heritage centre that collects, preserves and celebrates the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain. While back at TNA, it’s worth exploring related guides to slavery, migration and Black British social and political history, plus the mothballed ‘Moving Here’ website (bit.ly/tna-movinghere); or, for an…

Charles Bevan’s descendants have always believed that he fought in the 1916 Easter Rising. The 1911 census put the Bevan family in Dominick Street in the area of the 1st and 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. A search of the IRA Nominal Rolls for both battalions during the Rising found Charles, his brothers and father in C Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, active in the Four Courts under Seán Prendergast. A Military Pension Application for Charles further detailed his activities during the War of Independence, including assisting in the escape of a hospitalised Volunteer being pursued by the authorities. Charles’ father was mentioned in Seán Prendergast’s Bureau of Military History Witness Statement, who joked about Joe Bevan wearing his Volunteer uniform around the city for…

Thousands of councillors were in office at any one time in the UK in the 19th and 20th centuries. They were all drawn from the local community, and their activities are a matter of record. Before the modern form of local government there were the vestries, which for many centuries were the sole civil government of rural areas. If your ancestor was a property owner then they would have had the right to sit at a meeting, like that of the vestry of Shepperton in Surrey. This met once or twice a month, and was chaired by the rector (the most senior grade of parish priest). They decided on cases like that of poor Elizabeth Horsham who was “apprehended in the parish as a rogue and a vagabond, wandering and…

How long have you been researching your family history? I have been tracing my ancestors for nearly 40 years, and currently have more than 35,000 different people recorded on my family tree software. What had you uncovered before hitting your brick wall? Most of my ancestors were fairly ordinary individuals, although the family tree is peppered with more colourful characters. My father’s side features a number of criminals, including my great great grandfather, Charles Castle, who spent over 30 years in various prisons. In 1852 he was sentenced to transportation for theft. My mother’s ancestors were more respectable, and have been the main focus of my research. My maternal grandmother was named Lilian Burr, and by using records such as census returns, tax lists and parish registers, I managed to…

Fashionable women, perhaps influenced by ideas taken from the Aesthetic and Rational Dress Movements, began to wear simpler and plainer clothing, the bustle disappearing to give a more natural line. Bodices were still close-fitting, often with a pronounced V-shape at the front. For men, the fashionable line was slender, with narrow trousers, while the three-piece lounge suit was popular. Alison Toplis Tall hats were common, worn tilted back on the head to show off a fringe and waved hair. Straw boaters had been popular since the mid-19th century. The draped overskirt, which covered a bustle at the back, and the pleated skirt below were gradually disappearing, in preference of plainer styles. The best dress displayed here was a little out of date: the younger women wear styles that were becoming…

Broadly speaking, Ancestry is the place for Oxfordshire parish material (search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61056), while Findmypast has wills and probate. At search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/oxfordshirewills-index-1516-1857 you can search more than 92,000 records of wills proved at the Oxfordshire ecclesiastical courts between 1516 and 1857. Oxfordshire Family History Society also has a database of transcribed wills at wills.oxfordshirefhs.org.uk. There’s a list of online birth, marriage and death resources at ukbmd.org.uk/county/oxfordshire/parish_records. GENUKI (genuki.org.uk/big/eng/oxf) has useful links, plus you’ll find the usual guide to online resources via the FamilySearch wiki: familysearch.org/wiki/en/Oxfordshire,_England_Online_Genealogy_ Records. The latter leads to many free resources including digitised volumes of Phillimore’s parish registers for Oxfordshire (via babel.hathitrust.org). You can also access free digitised county directories from 1852, 1895, 1907 and 1911 via the University of Leicester’s Special Collections Online; the 1852 directory can be found at…

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

What You Did Not Tell: A Russian Past and the Journey Home by Mark Mazower Penguin, 379 pages, £9.99 Mark Mazower’s grandparents left Russia in the turbulent early years of the last century to find a better life. His Orwell Prize-shortlisted memoir, which is now available in paperback, explores their story. It is clear from the outset of the book that Mazower was close to his father. While the older man was well-informed, he was reluctant to speak at any length about their family history. However, when he died Mazower found an extensive archive in his attic. This has enabled him to research and produce this wonderful book, which tells us so much about the family’s history and that of Russia and Eastern Europe over the past 100 years and…

Who Do You Think You Are? Monday 6 August, 9pm BBC One This month will see the final trio of new Who Do You Think You Are? episodes making their way to our screens. First up, on Monday 6 August, it’s the turn of broadcaster and singer Marvin Humes to explore his family history. A decade ago, as a member of boy band JLS, he was a pop star propelled into the limelight by The X Factor. Today, as a family man living in Essex with his TV presenter wife Rochelle, his life is quieter and he thinks it would “be good for everybody to know really where we’re from”. Investigating his father’s family, he heads to Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, where he makes a shocking discovery related to…

An Introduction to Family History Sources in Asian and African Studies 15 August THE BRITISH LIBRARY, LONDON  bl.uk/help/free-discovery-and-1-2-1-sessions referenceservicestraining@bl.uk The British Library’s Asian and African Studies Department holds a treasure trove of material of interest to all those researching their European ancestry in South Asia, dating from 1698 to Independence in 1947. In addition, there are a wealth of sources shedding light on the military and civilian British administration in the subcontinent. The library is offering two workshops on 15 August for anyone interested in finding out more about these resources – ‘An Introduction to Family History Sources in Asian and African Studies’ from 12pm to 1.30pm, followed by ‘Beyond Baptisms, Marriages and Burials’ from 2.30pm to 4pm, which will help you take discoveries further using sources such as wills…

Linda Hammond’s interesting article in the June issue discussing reformatory school records prompted me to look for records concerning my paternal grandfather. Papers found and returned to the family included a good character reference written in 1907 when Granddad left Kingswood Reformatory School in Bristol, which named him William Simpson. Granddad was born William George Ashby Bentley. His mum left my great grandfather shortly after Granddad’s birth in 1890. Her subsequent relationship with James Simpson lasted from around 1895 to 1915, and the 1901 census shows that the whole family used the name Simpson. Kingswood Reformatory School records are held at the Bristol Archives, and are restricted. I obtained permission to see Granddad’s records, and during my visit was shown the two pages concerning his admission on 23 October 1903…

135.4 million records from Denmark, Finland and Sweden added to familysearch.org 70 historic films relating to the NHS released for free by the British Film Institute at player.bfi.org.uk/free/collection/nhson-film to mark the 70th anniversary of the service £119,711 granted to Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund for a project exploring its collections relating to George Eliot, ahead of the 200th anniversary of her birth in the town in 1819 350 records in Cambridgeshire parish registers added to findmypast.co.uk 3.9 million people watched Olivia Colman’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC One on 9 July…

More than three million Aberdeenshire electoral records have been made available to explore on ancestry.co.uk for the first time. Digitised in partnership with Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives, the dataset contains records of 3,219,223 eligible voters who were resident in the historic Scottish county between 1832 and 1976. Searchable by name, year and keyword, entries typically reveal the home address of the individual, their occupation and the qualification that entitled them to vote. While the earliest records within the collection comprise the names of wealthy male property owners, later entries list individuals from across society after the 1918 Representation of the People Act granted the vote to all men over the age of 21 and a limited number of women. However, it is not until 1928, when women gained equal…

As we move further into the 21st century, more records from the previous 100 years are entering the public domain. In the past few months alone, we have become able to access the 1939 Register on three different sites (ancestry.co.uk, findmypast.co.uk and myheritage.com). Even though we are closer to the 20th century, researching recent ancestors can often be more difficult than looking into their Victorian forebears. You may struggle to find out much about their everyday lives, while other relatives seem to have completely disappeared. Your kin may be hard to trace because restrictions remain on some records of individuals born within the past 100 years. Other ancestors may have become ‘lost’ as a result of some of the consequences of the many military conflicts of the 20th century. These…

On 20 June 1914 a hardy band of poverty-stricken women stood on the steps of 10 Downing Street. They were East End suffragettes, determined to lobby the prime minister Herbert Asquith for women’s rights. Throughout his career, Asquith had been extremely hostile to the movement. However, the women’s stories of hardship and struggle had a profound effect upon him. History was made that day. One of the women was Jane Savoy née Major, a redoubtable matriarch in her 50s, who had worked as a brushmaker since the age of 10. Jane is the great great aunt of Michelle Ballard née Girling, who is thrilled to be related to such a remarkable woman. “I always knew that Jane, or Aunt Jinny as she was known in the family, was a suffragette,”…

BERYL EVANS is a family historian with over 30 years of experience and the author of Tracing Your Welsh Ancestors DEBBIE KENNETT is the author of DNA and Social Networking: A Guide to Genealogy in the Twenty-First Century ANTONY MARR is a council member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) CHRIS PATON is a genealogist and author. He publishes a blog at britishgenes.blogspot.com JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist ALAN STEWART is a family historian with over 30 years of experience and the author of Grow Your Own Family Tree RUTH SYMES is a historian and the author of Tracing Your Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings MICHAEL TOBIAS is a co-founder and board member of jri-poland.org and vice-president of jewishgen.org PHIL…

Olivia Colman wanted to learn more about her maternal ancestors. She knew that her father’s kin were Norfolk-based as far back as 1840, so she wondered what was on her mother’s side of the family tree. Along the way, the actor discovered that her 4x great grandfather, Richard Campbell Bazett, was a merchant for the East India Company during the 18th century – a time when the company was increasing its hold over the Indian Subcontinent. We were able to build up a picture of Richard’s life abroad using a variety of records for the East India Company, which are deposited in the India Office Records collection at the British Library (bit.ly/India-Office). For example, details regarding Richard’s marriage to Margaret Ann Hampton in Cacultta were found in the India Office…

Bennet Woodcroft (pictured below) was the son of an English textile manufacturer. He was an inventor – not only for the textile industry, but also in marine engineering – and, more importantly, a leading figure in patent reform. Born in 1803, he originally studied chemistry, but his work as an inventor sparked a keen interest in patents and the patent system. Woodcroft himself was granted 13 patents between 1826 and 1853. The most commercially successful of these was said to be GB7529 in 1838: “Looms for weaving”. Woodcroft also built up a collection of models of inventions and portraits of inventors, and in 1838 compiled a chronological index, subject index and name index to all of the patents granted since 1617. In 1851 he gave evidence to the House of…

Born in Gloucester in 1876, Albert Mansbridge was the youngest son of a clerk of works. The family moved to London in 1880, where Albert won a scholarship to Battersea Grammar School. At 14 he left school and became a clerk at the Co-operative Society, but continued his education with evening classes, co-operative courses and University Extension lectures. Albert became active in the co-operative movement, believing that education would bring about social justice and democracy. In 1900 Albert married Frances Pringle, who shared his ideals; when Albert founded the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), it was financed by 2s 6d from Frances’ housekeeping money. By 1906 he was the WEA’s full-time general secretary, a role he zealously fulfilled. His organisational and diplomatic skills, and his ability to appeal to both universities…

‘Radical Joe’, father of prime minister Neville Chamberlain, worked in his family’s screw-manufacturing business in Birmingham until he decided to retire, at the age of 38, after he had acquired a considerable fortune. Thereafter, he devoted himself to public works. He was elected to Birmingham City Council in 1873, became mayor and set about transforming the chaos of the ‘workshop of the world’, as Britain’s second city was known. The council took over gas and water supplies, which were in private hands; consolidated the disparate suppliers; reduced costs; and improved the service immeasurably. Gas produced a profit for the town, but Chamberlain insisted that there should be no profit from the supply of clean water. His Conservative opponents called him a “monopoliser and a dictator”, but he continued with his…

ANGLO-AMERICAN LEGAL TRADITION Created by the Law Department of the University of Houston, Texas, this free online resource – available at aalt.law.uh.edu – provides access to historic English legal documents held at The National Archives in Kew. More than nine million record images are currently available to view on the site, with some dating back to what is regarded as the ‘First Legal System’, which lasted from 1176 until 1348 – roughly spanning the reigns of Richard I and Edward III. INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX (IGI) The 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. The easiest way of accessing the database is by using the free genealogy website familysearch.org, but it…

A burial took place in Sandford-on-Thames in 1591. The man had drowned while swimming and washing at Sandford Ferry with other “vagrant persons”. Since no local knew who he was or where he came from, the jury at the coroner’s inquest gave him what they thought was an appropriate name – John Mutchwater. This is just one of countless stories and events preserved in the parish registers, which reside at the Oxfordshire History Centre. Since our last visit to the county at the end of 2013, digital images of the centre’s baptism, marriage and burial registers have launched on Ancestry, in a project funded by Oxfordshire Family History Society. This involved the scanning of records from about 300 parishes, and the resulting Oxfordshire Collection currently consists of nearly two million…

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WEBSITE De Caville Index  foma-lsc.org/wwi/index.html , free This index of more than 4,000 men of the Medway Towns who died in the First World War is accessible online, thanks to a 25-year project by Michael de Caville (1946–2010). The Friends of Medway Archives completed the index, which includes soldiers’ details and in some cases photos, after his sad death. APP FamilySearch Memories  iOS and Android, free FamilySearch has released an app that allows users of the website to preserve their photos by adding them to the Family Tree. The app also enables them to record voices and upload documents, offering an easy way of storing family memories, and syncs automatically with familysearch.org. WATCH Family History Fanatics  bit.ly/fhfanatics, free This trio of family historians upload two educational videos a week to their…

The Stolen Maharajah: Britain’s Indian Royal August BBC Four Duleep Singh (1838–1893) was the last maharajah of the Punjab. Yet he spent most of his life in Britain, so how did this come to pass? Shown as part of a themed ‘Big British Asian Summer’ season, this one-off documentary relates the life story of a man who was brought to Britain by empire officials and, as a friend of Queen Victoria, lived much of his adult life as a wealthy English country gentleman. Yet in later years, as Singh reconnected with his Sikh roots, his relationship with his adopted home turned sour, something explored here with the help of letters and diaries. Passengers August BBC Two Also in the ‘Big British Asian Summer’ season, the three-part Passengers takes as its…