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

MARGARET McGREGOR Inspired by her time at Bristol Archives, Margaret now runs a genealogy business specialising in wills. See more on page 15. JANET M BISHOP Based in Fife, Janet has been a professional genealogist for 20 years and is a leading light in Scottish genealogy. She shares her experience on page 25. KAY MacKEOGH After retiring from Dublin University in 2010, Kay transferred her research skills to genealogy. Read her guide to Irish deeds on page 63.…

1,714,297 Cambridgeshire juror books, electoral registers and other voting records added to ancestry.co.uk £67,600 sum the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is seeking to raise to buy a table belonging to Charles Dickens, and owned by his descendants until 2017, for the nation 10,907 records in the 1799 census of the town of Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, now published on irishancestors.ie 83 years – the length of time Maurice and Helen Kaye were married, making them Britain’s longest married couple when Maurice died aged 106 on 20 July 2.5 million Lancashire parish records added to findmypast.co.uk…

More than one million death records from the US state of New Jersey are now available in a free online database operated by Reclaim the Records. The not-for-profit group uses US Freedom of Information laws to force government agencies and archives to make genealogical record sets publicly available, and obtained the records after submitting an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request to the New Jersey Department of Health. The group received about half of the New Jersey death index records from 1920 to 1924 and all from 1925 to 1929 and 1949 to 2017, while the other records are missing. A new website, newjerseydeathindex.com , contains a searchable database of the 1,275,833 records for 2001–2017, including each individual’s date and place of birth, date of death and state file number.…

1 Start here The homepage of The National Archives’ (TNA’s) website is easily navigated. Clicking the red ‘Menu’ button provides a variety of options, while direct links are available to research guides, the archive’s catalogue and collections of online records. 2 Follow a guide The research guides cover many topics, including family and military history. The page also hosts free-to-access online exhibitions, podcasts and webinars, and offers advice on reading old forms of handwriting, and the role that TNA plays. 3 Type in a name You can find TNA’s online catalogue at discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk, which allows you to search both the archive’s own collections, and others from 2,500 archives in the UK. Type in your ancestors’ names, and see if anything pops up. 4 Go digital The ‘Online collections’ page gives…

When we look back on our lives, we all want to feel like we made a difference. That’s part of what has spurred on those who have given their time to the British Red Cross since its establishment in 1870. It could be that during WWI, one of your relatives might even have been involved in the great volunteer effort. And for many women, WWI signalled the end of compulsory homemaking. Up and down the country, women became an essential part of the workforce, filling the shoes of the men away fighting for king and country. Some became medics, farmers, teachers and bus conductors – others joined the ranks of the Red Cross as Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs). The Red Cross VADs provided vital aid to naval and military forces,…

Q My great grandmother, Julia Ellen Kirkman (née Scholey), was born in Kilburn in 1855. Julia’s first husband, Charles William Kirkman, died in 1879 while they were living at 24 Sylvan Road, West Ham. According to my late father, Julia then married a man named Rogers and they moved to The Drapers Arms at 44 Barnsbury Street, Islington. On the 1891 census, the return for The Drapers Arms lists a 14-year-old boy named William Kirkman, who would have been Julia’s son. However, Julia is nowhere to be seen, and instead the property is occupied by Violet Rogers and her husband Walter. The 1901 census has Walter and Violet Rogers at 496 West Green Road, Tottenham, while on the 1911 census they are at 165 Downham Road, Islington. Their ages are…

Early on 2 October 1874, as a chain of barges were being pulled under Macclesfield Bridge on Regent’s Canal, one of them, the Tilbury, exploded. The boatmen on the barge – Charles Bexson, William Taylor and Jonathan Holloway – died, and the bridge was destroyed. London Canal Museum holds a copy of the report into the accident by Major Vivian Dering Majendie, Queen Victoria’s chief inspector of explosives. As Martin Sach, chair of the museum, explains, it offers a remarkable insight into dangerous corporate negligence. Why did you choose this report? I’m very impressed with this report, because when you’ve read it you can’t fail to be convinced that it’s an accurate portrayal of what happened. Why was the accident so serious? The three boatmen were killed, and there were…

This month’s expert Kate Tiller is currently directing Communities of Dissent, a project investigating chapels and chapel life run with the Family and Community Historical Research Society, whose website fachrs.com is well worth a visit – you can find out more about Kate’s project, and the society’s other activities and publications, on its ‘Projects’ page. Tithe maps and accompanying apportionment data are useful sources for local historians. TheGenealogist has a growing collection for England (thegenealogist.co.uk), including colour tithe maps of the North Riding and the East Riding of Yorkshire, while you can explore maps and apportionment documents from across Wales via the National Library of Wales’ website places.library.wales. The National Library of Scotland’s portal at maps.nls.uk gives access to many thousands of high-resolution Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, charts, land-use surveys…

If you can’t get to the National Records of Scotland (NRS) to find out about a criminal trial, you can still learn a lot online – from Scottish newspaper reports. For example, the entry for AD14/80/22 on the NRS catalogue details “precognition against Thomas Anderson for the crime of murder” in 1880. A search of the British Newspaper Archive at britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk gives the details behind this case. In June 1880 Thomas Anderson, a tenant farmer, went on trial at the High Court of Justiciary, charged with the murder of outdoor worker Jane Lindsay. Five months earlier, Anderson had allegedly attacked Lindsay at a pool of water known as the ‘Lint Hole’ in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, strangling her with her own shawl. Jean Sproull, a friend of the dead woman, told…

According to an inscription on a tombstone in Glenealy in Co. Wicklow, my 7x great grandfather James Hayes was an officer in the British Army in 1649, which is presumably how he came to acquire lands at Ballyfree. His son Edward married Elizabeth Lucas in the Tullow Church of Ireland parish in 1711. Searching the Grantor Indexes for Hayes entries, and browsing through the Place Name Index for Co. Wicklow, identified various memorials relating to Edward Hayes; and the memorial of Edward’s will, lodged on 7 June 1737, provides a fascinating wealth of genealogical information. Edward left £500 and his holding at Ballydowling to his wife, referencing the terms of their marriage settlement. He left his Ballyfree holdings to his mother Margery and brother Andrew, provided they guaranteed to leave…

Geoffrey Shakespeare was a captain in the Norfolk Regiment in the First World War. He read law at Cambridge University then worked as private secretary to David Lloyd George for several years, before being elected to Parliament. During this time he was party to negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921, which features in his memoir Let Candles Be Brought In (1949). He held several high offices in the Government and was rewarded with a baronetcy in 1942. By that time he had been the chairman of the Children’s Overseas Reception Board (CORB) for two years. At first, he and Churchill had opposed the idea of sending children overseas. But the shock of German success in France made British defeat look plausible, so the CORB proposal was accepted. Shakespeare…

COUNTY RECORD OFFICES The main repositories for records of a particular area, these archives hold local census records, maps, newspapers, material from local businesses and families and so on. If you’re looking for something specific, contact the archive direct or check The National Archives’ online catalogue Discovery at discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk to see what it holds before you visit. County boundaries often change and new counties can be created, so records might not be where you would expect. FAMILY COLLECTIONS Sometimes the personal records of families of note find their way into local archives. These might include letters, household accounts, records of business they carried out, diaries and journals, and can prove vital. Without the preservation of the Marshall papers, Lesley would have known very little about her father’s early life. To…

You may find yourself toasting the name of the Right Reverend Shute Barrington if your ancestors happen to have lived within the diocese of Durham from the tail-end of the 18th century. Between 1798 and 1812 the Bishop of Durham, clearly a stickler for detail, ordered that more information be kept in baptism and burial registers. The baptism entries from this period give not only the date of baptism and the name of the child, but also the date of birth (often omitted from other baptism registers), position in the family, the occupation and abode of the father, and the maiden name and place of origin of the mother. Meanwhile Barrington burial registers give the name and abode of the deceased, parentage, occupation, the date of death, the date of…

APP Walk History  iOS and Android, free Created by Historic England, this app allows you to discover histories you never knew through its eight walking tours of London. Locations include Brixton, Ealing and the City of London, and the topics covered include black history, railways and the Battle of Cable Street in Whitechapel. The tours include a mixture of video, audio, images and text. FamilySearch Tree  iOS and Android, free This app allows FamilySearch users to build their family tree with their mobile device, and quickly and easily attach photographs, stories and documents to help bring their family tree to life. You can search the site’s billions of records; explore maps showing where events in your ancestors’ lives took place; and share your discoveries via social media. LISTEN Stuff You…

The Family History Show 22 September SANDOWN PARK RACECOURSE, ESHER  thefamilyhistoryshow.com/london The Family History Show features family history societies and companies from all over the UK and Ireland to help you on your way to discovering your ancestors. Dick Eastman of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter (blog.eogn.com) will be the keynote speaker, and he will be joined by military historian Chris Baker of longlongtrail.co.uk, photo expert and Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine contributor Jayne Shrimpton, and social historian Keith Gregson. In addition to the talks and stalls there will be an ‘Ask the Experts’ area. £5 in advance, £7 on the door.…

They say “where there’s a will, there’s a way” and that’s often true in family history – especially when the will is a document full of family history clues! Wills can reveal wealth (how did they end up with that?), relationships (see my tip below) and even personality (from loving husband to controlling father). They can also be the only clue to parentage out of wedlock. In fact the only problem with wills, apart from the fact that not everyone left one, is that before 1858 they can be tricky to track down. Never fear, we are here to help. Turn to page 15 for our tips. We’ve also got lots of advice for anyone researching Scottish kin this month. Not only have we got Janet Bishop’s expert feature on…

Steve Sant Extremely moving. Much credit to those who put it all together but highest praise reserved for George who remained dignified and thoughtful throughout. Helen Baggott It was a fascinating and brutal programme. Some scenes were truly chilling. … and Shirley Ballas’s… Pam Makinson Loved this episode of WDYTYA? and how Shirley’s family history unfolded. Trish Marshall Shows how incorrect family stories passed down the line can be. Sue Cherry-Matthews A great episode with inspiring people on both sides of Shirley’s family.…

The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) is looking for volunteers to help create the first national database of the organisation’s UK memorials. Tony Hibberd, IBCC memorials archivist, explained that the task of visiting and recording memorials had proved too large for him to undertake by himself. He said that there were “numerous” memorials, many located inside churches and other places with limited access, that he was unable to visit in person, but local volunteers could be “ideally positioned” to help. All of the known memorials to units, aircraft and personnel of Bomber Command have been researched, but volunteers are needed to photograph them. They must be able to travel either to locations in specific towns, or across a county. To find out more information about the project, email info@internationalbcc.co.uk .…

Memorials telling forgotten stories from England’s history have been awarded listed status following a campaign by Historic England. The organisation asked members of the public to submit photographs and stories of their lesser-known local monuments, street shrines and community tributes. On 30 July Historic England announced that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport had awarded listed status to seven of these memorials, with more to come. Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: “We are very grateful that so many people took the time to tell us about memorials in their communities. We’re delighted to shine a light on these often undiscovered and underappreciated markers of our past.” Among the newly listed memorials are the Preston Abstinence Memorial, which commemorates the teetotal movement, and the Bristol gravestone…

Religious dedication “In the Name of God Amen.” These are the usual opening words of wills at this time. Earlier ones often add more detail, such as a reference to Jesus Christ. Name, place and occupation of testator Joseph Hort, senior, of Sandwich, Dorset, marbeller. He is “senior” because his son is also called Joseph. Sandwich is an old name for Swanage. Purbeck ‘marble’, a kind of polishable limestone, was quarried in this area. Property holding He gives the parishes where his lands lie and, later, names the occupant of his house in Swanage. Nominal bequest A bequest of 1s was usually given to show a beneficiary was being slighted. Relatives Joseph mentions a total of 10 relatives as beneficiaries in this will. Probate The will was dated 23 July…

Last month I described how to start compiling your family tree by using birth, marriage and death records, as well as census information. From these documents it is possible to extract key genealogical facts about your recent ancestors and their families, as well as additional information about their occupations and where they lived. Now you have a foothold in your ancestral past, what should be the next step? A key thing to note about your family history is that it is your family history – this is your project, and you are answerable only to yourself and to those to whom you may wish to pass on your findings. If your objective is to push back as far as you can, to identify as many ancestors as possible, then you…

ScotlandsPeople is the default first port of call for anyone researching the history of their Scottish family, and with good reason. Whether you visit the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh, or head to the website at scotlandspeople.gov.uk, this government resource makes it relatively straightforward to compile an outline of a family tree from the present day back to 1 January 1855, the date that statutory registration was introduced in Scotland. In fact, it could be argued that it is possible to reach as far as 1553, because the ScotlandsPeople website states that baptism, marriage and burial registers are viewable back to that date. This is true in theory, but in practice it isn’t as simple as that, for a variety of reasons. We can be almost sure that, since it was…

ARCHIVES Edinburgh City Archives Level 1, City Chambers, 253 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1YJ 0131 529 4616 bit.ly/edinburgh-arch You can download a research guide for family historians plus various name indexes for free. National Records of Scotland General Register House, 2 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH1 3YY 0131 535 1314 nrscotland.gov.uk You can also visit New Register House on West Register Street for birth, marriage and death records. BOOK Scottish Genealogy, 4th Edition by Bruce Durie (History Press, 2017) This comprehensive, well-illustrated guide looks at key records, DNA research and palaeography. LIBRARIES Mitchell Library North Street, Glasgow G3 7DN 0141 287 2999 glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/venues/the-mitchell-library The Mitchell Library is open Monday to Saturday. National Library of Scotland George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EW 0131 623 3700 nls.uk The library has four reading rooms,…

The photograph shows a sunny day in 1928. The four young boys smile shyly, squinting into the camera. The youngest about 10, they’re dressed smartly: hair combed, jackets neatly buttoned, socks pulled up to their knees. They are clearly brothers, and while Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine reader Frances Richardson could name three of the boys in the photograph as her uncles, the fourth was completely unknown to her – and to her father. Once she began painstakingly picking her way through her Hick genealogy, she discovered that even recent family history can hold knots to be untangled and secrets that were never meant to be told… ‘Most of the family papers were thrown on the fire when my grandmother died’ Plugging the gaps “It all started in…

DAVE ANNAL is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) KAREN CUMMINGS is a member of AGRA, and a tutor for Pharos and the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies SIMON FOWLER is a professional researcher and a member of AGRA MICHELLE HIGGS is an author who writes books about family and local history EMMA JOLLY is a writer, historical researcher and member of AGRA JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist PHIL TOMASELLI is an expert in military family history and the author of Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors MIKE TRENCHARD is a genealogist based in Hertfordshire and the current secretary of AGRA HELEN WHITTLE is a member of AGRA and the Association of Professional Genealogists…

Jonnie Peacock, the Paralympian athlete, went on an emotional journey back to his paternal Cambridgeshire roots where he learned more about the life of his 4x great grandmother, Louisa Voss. Jonnie discovered that she had four children despite never marrying, which was very unusual at the time. Louisa worked hard as an agricultural labourer in a gang under brutal conditions, and was fined for stealing some carrots and potatoes. She also went to the local magistrate’s court in her hometown of Warboys under the system of bastardy examinations. This was a series of interrogations made at petty sessions in the local magistrate’s court to find out the paternity of an illegitimate child, with a view to securing maintenance for their upkeep. The records of bastardy examinations are held in regional…

‘All of those involved in this project felt it was important to remember each life lost’ The SS Laurentic, built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and launched in 1908, was a transatlantic liner, owned by the White Star Line and used mainly on Liverpool–Canada runs. In September 1914 she was requisitioned by the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a troopship, renamed HMS Laurentic, and later that year converted into an auxiliary cruiser, seeing service off West Africa and in the Far East. She returned to the North Atlantic and on 23 January 1917 left Liverpool for Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying 479 men and a secret cargo of 43 tons of gold destined for buying arms in North America. Two days later the Laurentic made an unscheduled stop at Buncrana, Co.…

ARCHIVE The National Archives  discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk TNA, in Kew, has many records from CORB, although they have not been digitised. DO131 includes case files relating to children and their escorts, and a register of child applicants. BOOKS The Absurd and the Brave by Michael Fethney (The Book Guild, 2000) This history of the work of CORB is written by a former seavacuee to Australia. Children of the Empire by Gillian Wagner (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982) Wagner tells the story of British children sent overseas, including during the war. New Lives for Old by Roger Kershaw and Janet Sacks (The National Archives, 2008) This account of Britain’s child migrants includes a chapter on CORB. WEBSITES Alan and Graham in the War  bit.ly/histclo-evac A former seavacuee to Massachusetts shares his memories. British Evacuees…

ARCHIVES Modern Records Centre University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL 0247 652 4219 warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc MRC has the records and journals of the Railway Clerks’ Association/Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association. The National Archives Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU 0208 876 3444 bit.ly/tna-railway-workers TNA has salary and staff registers and personnel records, and you can download a free research guide at the web address above. MUSEUMS National Railway Museum Leeman Road, York YO26 4XJ 03330 161010 railwaymuseum.org.uk The museum has rolls of honour and accident reports. Steam: Museum of the Great Western Railway Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon SN2 2EY 01793 466646 steam-museum.org.uk The museum’s archive includes a roll of names and a book of honour for GWR staff. WEBSITES Ancestry ancestry.co.uk The collection ‘UK Railway Employment Records 1833–1956’ features 11 companies. Findmypast findmypast.co.uk…

The day had long been coming when George III must be forced to relinquish the throne. His mental health had been intermittent ever since he had suffered a severe attack of mania in the 1880s. This was treated with forcible restraint and caustic poultices. A Regency Bill to relieve him of his powers was prepared in 1889, but the king recovered and it was not required. George’s condition has been diagnosed retrospectively as porphyria, which is a group of diseases in which toxins build up in the blood and attack the nervous system producing symptoms including mania. It is a genetic condition, named for the purple colour of an affected person’s urine. By 1811 George had ruled for 51 years. Under his reign Britain had suffered the disaster of the…

634 The monastery of Lindisfarne is founded by the Irish monk Saint Aidan. 1237 The Solway–Tweed boundary line between England and Scotland is legally established. 1482 Berwick-upon-Tweed is recaptured by England for the last time, though Berwick Rangers Football Club play in the Scottish Football League to this day. 1674 The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers is raised as the 5th Regiment of Foot. It is given the regional designation ‘Northumberland’ in 1782. 1781 The engineer George Stephenson, ‘the father of the railways’, is born in Wylam. 1797 The first volume of Mickleyborn wood engraver Thomas Bewick’s A History of British Birds is published. 1834 Newcastle town clerk John Clayton begins buying up stretches of land to preserve Hadrian’s Wall, including Chesters (Cilurnum), Housesteads and Vindolanda. 1879 Kyloe-born William Wilson Allen, recently…

BOOKS Orphans: A History by Jeremy Seabrook Hurst, 320 pages, £20 The book begins with a wide-ranging definition of what an orphan is. Its root lies in the Greek orphanos, meaning ‘bereaved’, and there are many ways to be bereaved: to lose one or both parents through illness, natural disasters, war, abandonment, through being given up because of illegitimacy or being taken away from unsuitable parents. Although orphans have been cared for by relatives, Janet Seabrook gives us the voices, old and new, of those who have suffered from neglect and worse at the hand of the state and charitable organisations. The 1601 Poor Relief Act may have been the most humane contribution to popular welfare until the welfare state, but orphans and poor children in general were exploited for…

Scots in Great War London: A Community at Home and on the Front Line 1914–1919 edited by Paul McFarland Helion and Company, 272 pages, £19.95 This book explores the roles of Scottish organisations in London in the First World War, including St Columba’s Church of Scotland and the Caledonian Club, and the part their members played on the Western Front and at home. The King’s City: London Under Charles II by Don Jordan Abacus, 544 pages, £12.99 Charles II returned to power from exile at a time of instability. But despite major economic setbacks and tensions between the king and his people, London became the economic capital of Europe during his reign. This book also discusses the city’s advances in the theatre, science, architecture and trade. Gepruft by Frances Zagni…

South African Genealogy Shirley Ballas’s great grandfather, George Rich, came to the UK from Cape Town towards the end of the 19th century. If you also have South African ancestors, you may be able to find records for them using the free website sagenealogy.co.za. 1 Navigate to the website’s homepage. The site currently holds information on two databases: a collection of passenger lists, and details of military deserters in the Cape Colony during the 1800s. Click ‘Search the Database’ in the menu bar to begin. 2 Enter the name of the ancestor you are searching for, in this example ‘mcmahon’. The site will search both databases simultaneously, so you may want to add a first name or specify a date range to reduce the number of results. When you’re ready,…

We’re familiar with the names of Florence Nightingale, Emmeline Pankhurst and others who stood up to tradition in the 19th and early 20th centuries to show that women weren’t the inferior gender. But you probably won’t know the name of Derek Turner’s grandmother Annie Gulvin, a pioneer in the exclusively male world of professional gardening. Derek has warm memories of his grandmother, who continued to enjoy gardening and growing vegetables for her grandchildren until her death in 1972, aged 96. “She always used to ply me with food and drink,” he remembers. “In an era of post-war rationing, it was good to supplement the meals that I received at boarding school!” However, it wasn’t until Derek came into the possession of a memoir written by his father, and talked to…

Irish Jewish Family History Database launches Family historians can now trace their Irish Jewish ancestors using a new online database. Stuart Rosenblatt, president of the Genealogical Society of Ireland, launched the Irish Jewish Family History Database (irishjewishroots.com) at the society’s monthly meeting on 10 July. The database contains information on 61,821 individuals dating from 1700 to the present day, including birth, burial, education, marriage and occupation records, and entries in the Alien registration records of 1914–1922. Researchers can search for an individual by name for free, and order copies of their records for £10 each. National Lottery gives £6.2 million to cemeteries The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced new funding to help revive three major Victorian cemeteries. The grants consist of £3 million for Sheffield General Cemetery along with…

‘Once the factory system developed, regulated hours became essential’ The alarm didn’t go off, because I’d forgotten to switch it on, so we overslept and woke up about an hour later than we should have done. Panic! Disaster! For most of us, daily life is governed by time and timetables, dictating what we do when, where we are at a certain point, and how long we have to do something. It’s a trend that has been developing for the past two centuries, although of course the concept of time and its subdivisions goes back thousands of years. Ways to measure and indicate the passing of time were familiar in the medieval period, including water-clocks, sundials, marked candles and hourglasses. But for the vast majority of the population, time was a…

Details of administrator John Warren Cary of Trowbridge in the county of Wiltshire, surgeon, is named as the administrator. Stephen Williams of the same place, gentleman, and James White, also of the same place, druggist, are standing security with him for the sum of money mentioned below. Date of bond The date of this bond – 24 November 1800 – is the formal date of the granting of administration. The condition of this obligation This paragraph sets out what is required of the administrator in order not to have to pay the £600. This section may reveal the relationship that the administrator has to the deceased. In this case John is described as a principal creditor. Marginal note In the margin it mentions that the deceased’s sisters, who are his…

1 Sign up The enormous FamilySearch website is free to use – there is no subscription cost – but you will still need to register for an account, including supplying an email address, before you gain entry. Then you can sign in and access its vast store of records. 2 Do a search From the ‘Search’ screen at familysearch.org/search/hr/search you can do a global search for individuals across all collections, or narrow the area using the map. The ‘Search’ screen also provides access to a catalogue, family trees, books and a wiki. 3 View an image When you have selected a specific country, choose from a vast number of different collections. Those with a camera icon include digitised images – some can be viewed online, while others require you to…

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES Papers Past, on the National Library of New Zealand’s website at paperspast.natlib.govt.nz, is a free-to-use online newspaper collection. This was where Frances found the first clue that her great uncle had moved to New Zealand. You can see a worldwide list of online newspaper archives at bit.ly/onlinenewspaperarchives . NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT RECORDS If your forebears lived in New Zealand, the family history research page on the government’s site at bit.ly/nzgovt-records is a great resource. It provides links and information about how to order birth, marriage and death certificates; locate wills, burial records, arrivals in New Zealand by ship, electoral rolls and land ownership documents; track down soldiers’ military records; and much more. PASSENGER LISTS If an ancestor has dropped off the radar, search for them in online passenger…

Looking for the Berry family in 1939 bit.ly/berry-1939 Can anyone trace Horace L Berry (born 1892) and his wife Alice Mary Louise (born 1887) on the 1939 Register? Their daughter Barbara was born in 1917 and married in 1946. Her married name was ‘Rich’. She married in Bournemouth, so I don’t know if the family were in Hampshire by 1939 or even whether she was still living with them. Horace and Alice were married in Norfolk in 1917 but were originally from Berkshire. They were back in Berkshire by 1920. In other words, they seem to have moved around a lot so I can’t even pinpoint which part of the country they might have been in. phsvm Crimean War 1854 – Mercantile Marine bit.ly/mercantile-marine My great great grandfather, Peter Campbell,…

“The Victoria County History (VCH) is a national series founded in 1899 with the aim of publishing fully researched histories of every parish and town in England. At its best and most fully developed, the VCH is encyclopaedic and consistent in its coverage, using a comprehensive range of national and local sources – printed, archival, landscape and architectural. “As with all sources, users need to be aware of strengths and weaknesses. Not all counties have a VCH, while others have varying degrees of coverage. Broadly, early volumes are shorter, using predominantly central records, with a strong emphasis on the medieval, and on manorial descents, landholding and ecclesiastical institutions. Since the 1950s VCH volumes have developed to reflect wider developments in local history. Histories are fuller and now draw on local…

Identifying marks Tattoos were valuable aids to identification, and Thomas had several detailed here. Alternative punishment If Thomas was unable, or unwilling, to pay the fine of 40s, he would spend 20 days in jail instead. Physical appearance These registers contain both physical descriptions and a photograph, so you can see not only what Thomas looked like, but how he dressed. Previous convictions The addition of an earlier offence to his record shows that Thomas was a convicted thief by the time he was 20. Moving around These columns detail the different Scottish courts, but also show how offenders might commit crimes in different parts of the country. Aliases This column lists the prisoner’s aliases, showing that Thomas had used two different surnames for two different convictions.…

BOOKS Abandoned Women by Lucy Frost (Allen & Unwin, 2012) Frost’s book collects stories of Scottish women sent to Tasmania in 1837–1838. Capital Punishment and the Criminal Corpse in Scotland, 1740–1834 by Rachel E Bennett (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) This detailed study of capital punishment is free on Kindle. Confess and Be Hanged by Sheila Livingstone (Birlinn, 2000) Livingstone discusses Scottish crimes and their punishments. MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES Edinburgh City Archives Level 1, City Chambers, 253 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1YJ bit.ly/edinburgh-arch Some records are stored off-site, so give a week’s notice. Glasgow City Archives The Mitchell Library, North Street, Glasgow G3 7DN glasgowfamilyhistory.org.uk Collections include police court records, criminals’ photo albums and criminal registers. Inveraray Jail and County Court Argyll PA32 8TX inverarayjail.co.uk This 1820s jail and courtroom complex has…

‘The rise of the railway clerk was as spectacular as it was unexpected’ Clerks of all callings were the Cinderellas of the 19th-century business world – overlooked, overworked and underpaid. Not for nothing were they so often identified as ‘a lowly clerk’, toiling away in dreadful, often health-affecting conditions, doomed to struggle to make ends meet while desperately trying to keep up a respectable appearance. With the coming of the railway companies from the early 1800s, the rise of the railway clerk was as spectacular as it was unexpected. In the industry’s infant days the numbers were small, and clerks of a certain social class were sought. The directors of the newly created London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) liked to appoint clerks of all ages from personal recommendations. All…

How long have you been researching your family history? I am relatively new to this type of research. I didn’t have access to the internet until fairly recently, so the detail I knew about my family history was through listening to tales at my mother’s knee and from my aunt. I soon gained confidence online and, on a whim, decided to see if there was any record of my father, Leslie Dewhurst, online. What had you uncovered before hitting your brick wall? My father was born, along with his siblings, in Liverpool. When I was a child, my Aunty Nora told me that when their father died young of heart disease, their mother couldn’t look after them and the children were placed in an orphanage. In 1939 they were evacuated…

The plain high-waisted dress was popular for women following the neoclassical ideal, with no decoration at the hem or shoulders. Hair was curled, the most fashionable having a centre parting. Tight-fitting, light-coloured pantaloons were worn by men, usually with boots and a coat with a cut-away front. Male hair was also curled and tousled, and increasingly worn with side whiskers. Feathers were a popular hair-trimming, along with ribbons and bandeaux, both directly onto the hair and onto bonnets. Low-heeled pointed shoes were common for women. Trousers were popularised as seaside wear, particularly at Brighton, in the first decade of the century, but at this date also remained working clothing before being accepted as general daywear during the 1820s. Here the artist emphasises the slim, elongated silhouette of fashionable male dressing.…

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Leatherwork and Tanning by Lynn Huggins-Cooper Pen & Sword, 105 pages, £12.99 Leatherwork and Tanning is an illuminating look into heritage industries that go back to prehistoric times. Starting with an analysis of the industry today and the risks facing it, the book goes into great detail about how leatherworking and tanning has evolved through different periods in history. As well as exploring the lives and conditions of leatherworkers and tanners through the ages, you’re also given a glimpse into the shopping habits of ordinary people who purchased goods made by leather-craft artisans. Interviews with modern crafters are also included, which is especially handy if you’d like to have a go yourself, with hints and tips on how to start as well as links to training courses and suppliers. There…

LONDON Old Photographs: History, Restoration and Caring for your Family History Collection 8 September SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS, CLERKENWELL  bit.ly/sog-old-photos 0207 553 3290 In this half-day course Helen Dawkins looks at the history of photography including the uses of different formats. She also shares advice on repairing photographs, caring for your collection and framing. £20. WALES Aspects of Ceredigion’s Maritime History in the Nineteenth Century 5 September THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES, ABERYSTWYTH  bit.ly/ceredigion-maritime 01970 632548 William Troughton will uncover the lives of Ceredigion’s coastal communities including privateers, smugglers and shipwrecks. Free – booking essential. NORTHERN IRELAND Samson and Banana: Circus Stories of Belfast and Ireland 12 September PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND, BELFAST  bit.ly/samson-banna 028 9053 4800 Richard McMinn will discuss Irish troupes in the Victorian and Edwardian periods,…