Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i Who Do You Think You Are?

You won’t get a keener advocate of using newspapers in your research than me. I’ve uncovered first-hand accounts of the Boer War, tales of desperate poverty in Australia, legal cases, tragic deaths and much more. All stories that have helped to bring my family history to life – and you can do the same. Turn to page 15 for some inspiration and advice. I’ve also started dabbling in DNA recently to help my father-in-law track down his elusive grandparents. This new tool may be a game-changer for family history, but it comes with a whole new set of challenges. A team of academics from Manchester have travelled the globe to find out how family historians view these changes, and what the future may hold (page 25). I have to be…

I had never done it before, bought someone else’s album. I was at a Western Front Association event browsing at the secondhand book stall. I was attracted by the postcards in the album, being a collector of old postcards in a small way. Inside the album were three First World War photos; four postcards showing a soldier with an inspiring, sentimental verse underneath, but no writing; and five postcards that had been written on. I naturally became curious. Who sent the cards, and who was in the photos? The majority of the cards were stamped “Received From H. M. Ship”. Apart from the birthday card they were written by someone called Joe and all but one of Joe’s cards were sent to 28 St Mary’s Road in Peckham, and addressed…

Irish Republican Army brigade activity reports from the War of Independence have been published online by the Irish Military Archives. The files relate to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary force in operation from 1919 to 1922 distinct from subsequent organisations known as the IRA. They include accounts of operations, ambushes, intelligence work, killings of police and British Army officers, the trenching and blocking of roads, carrying dispatches, and weapons storage. They were compiled from 1935 to 1941 by the Irish government for military pensions administration. The files can be viewed on a map of Ireland at militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/military-service-pensions-collection-1916-1923/brigade-activities. They include links to details on the records of each brigade, and in some cases individual soldiers. There is also a free guide with essays about the records by historians.…

Emigration records of those who left Scotland’s Highlands and Islands for Australia in the 1850s are now freely available on scotlandspeople.gov.uk. The records, taken from the archive of the Highland and Island Emigration Society (HIES), record the journeys of almost 5,000 emigrants between 1852 and 1857. Both transcripts and images are free to view for registered ScotlandsPeople users. The transcripts were previously available on the Scottish Archive Network website (scan.org.uk). The HIES was set up to provide Highlanders and Islanders with financial assistance for emigration. They were facing widespread poverty because of the potato blight, which spread to the Highlands and Islands from Ireland in 1846, and the Clearances, when landlords evicted tenants to use the land for farming sheep. At the same time, Australia needed immigrant labourers. The records…

Every family historian knows what a relief it is to break through a brick wall. When you’ve struggled for years to find the right baptism or marriage, and suddenly you come across the proof you need, it’s a great feeling. But just occasionally the discovery is particularly special because it leads to somebody quite important, or unusually interesting… and that happened to me just a few months ago, to my considerable astonishment. Just after New Year I was checking on a few of the many ‘loose ends’ on my tree, and had a look at my 5x great grandfather, Peter Swift, who was buried at Poynton, Cheshire, in 1811, but whose children were baptised at St Peter, Burslem, in the Potteries in the 1760s and 1770s. I’ve mentioned them before…

If you have ancestors in far-flung corners of the globe, you’ll be happy to hear that there is a wealth of online archives for newspapers and other periodicals from around the world. Ancestry and Findmypast include overseas publications in their collections, while Wikipedia has a comprehensive guide to tracking down online archives worldwide at bit.ly/onlinenewspaperarchives. Remember too that newspapers published in coastal cities with ports may contain lists of new arrivals, a valuable substitute for passenger lists. Some archives are free to access, while others require a subscription, and it’s amazing what you can find. In the 1 January 1923 issue of the New Zealand Evening Post on the Papers Past website, I discovered that my great great uncle Charles Madell survived a deadly accident while riding in a motorcycle…

BOOK Historical Research Using British Newspapers Denise Bates Pen and Sword, 2016 The author explains the history of newspapers from the 17th century to the present day, and how to use these sources to discover more about your ancestors – and the times in which they lived. LIBRARIES THE BRITISH LIBRARY › BOSTON SPA a Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ t 0330 333 1144 e customer-services@bl.uk w bl.uk/visit/reading-rooms/boston-spa British Library newspapers are kept at Boston Spa in Yorkshire, and must be ordered 48 hours in advance by a registered user. To register for a reading pass go to bl.uk/help/ how-to-get-a-reader-pass. Online records can also be accessed for free there, as well as at the British Library’s main site in St Pancras, London. THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND a…

Many of those we spoke to talked about legacy – how they were researching their tree for their children and grandchildren. DNA information is now part of that legacy. But what happens to someone’s DNA information and online profiles when they die? Many respondents discussed managing data for relatives who had died recently, and not being sure what to do with the information and associated records. How is their relative’s data going to be stored, and where? One researcher worked out a system with her sister: “We know we’re not going to be here forever.” The original records family historians rely on are preserved in central archives, but DNA data is scattered across various websites and databases. Some services allow for a nominated ‘succession’ person, but many respondents were still…

On a clear day you can see for miles across the bleak, beautiful West Yorkshire moorland from the top of Penistone Hill. This is Brontë country. One way lies Haworth, where the famous literary sisters grew up. Follow the track in the other direction past Lower Laithe Reservoir, through open moorland dotted with farmhouses, and down a set of stone steps and you’ll come to one of the sisters’ favourite haunts: the ‘Brontë waterfall’. Generations have trodden this ancient route, including the ancestors of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine reader David Riley. And as he discovered, once he’d wrestled with several thorny family history puzzles, their paths crossed with the area’s most famous inhabitants. TREASURED INHERITANCE “My research really started when my father died and I inherited a…

DAVE ANNAL is a former principal family history specialist at The National Archives EMMA JOLLY is a writer, historical researcher and member of AGRA CAROL KERRYGREEN is a member of AGRA who specialises in Yorkshire research ANTONY MARR is a member of the council of AGRA CHRIS PATON is a genealogist, author and blogger at britishgenes.blogspot.com JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist ALAN STEWART is a family historian and author of Grow Your Own Family Tree RUTH SYMES is the author of Tracing Your Ancestors Through Letters & Personal Writings PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert and wrote Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors How can I find out who my half-brother’s father was? Q My mother, May Lilian Batchelor (1900–1982; married names Hibbert and…

Was my grandmother caught up in the Silvertown explosion? Q My grandparents, Robert Francis Stone and Caroline Rosina Hardway, were married in St Luke’s Church, Victoria Docks, on 20 January 1917 – the day after the Silvertown explosion. This photograph includes Caroline, pictured at the far right, at the end of the back row. I believe that the uniform she’s wearing was worn by the women working in the munitions factory. I have no idea of the date or age of Caroline when this photograph was taken, but think it must have been before her marriage. Robert lived in Otley Road and Caroline in Star Street. Could Caroline have been employed in the munitions factory in Silvertown, or were there others in the area? Are there any records of the…

The Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG) was established in 2001 to promote the study of genealogy for the period before 1500, and to publish the results. And via the group’s smart and simple website (fmg.ac) you can explore FMG publications, projects and databases. Clicking through back issues of the journal Foundations, for example, shows the breadth of interests and specialisms of its members. The first three features from the latest volume are ‘Genealogical records among the medieval deeds and evidences in the Court of Wards and Liveries’, ‘Durham Cathedral’s medieval archive’ and ‘The medieval origins of the Quarles family of Norfolk’. You can read abstracts of each, although you will need to be a member to view an article in full – membership starts at £6.50 per year. Elsewhere there’s…

If your ancestor was the head of a household in Ireland in the 1850s then Griffith’s Valuation can be used to establish the family’s townland address (the smallest denomination of land in Ireland), exact location of their home, and description of their property. The valuation is the final part of a survey of property in Ireland that commenced in 1825 with the establishment of the Boundary Department of Ireland, followed in 1826 by the Townland Valuation Act. The purpose was to create an accurate record of the exact measurement and value of land and buildings in each townland, in order to implement an equitable system of taxing property. The eponymous Richard Griffith was the chief boundary officer and commissioner for valuation. The records created during these early surveys are the…

The vast majority of our female servant ancestors did not work in wealthy houses or on country estates where large numbers of staff were employed. Instead, they toiled in the homes of the middle classes and lower middle classes where just one or two maids were kept; for these employers, keeping servants was a status symbol. In 1871 almost two-thirds of British females in domestic service were categorised as ‘general servants’ in households with one or two servants, and this remained the most common setup in Victorian and Edwardian middle-class homes. ‘Maid of all work’ was a term used for a ‘general’ where no other servant was employed. These maids undertook all of the work of the house singlehandedly – their duties encompassed everything a cook, housemaid and nurserymaid would…

Many of us make use of Ancestry’s features for storing and sharing our tree online, and the company is constantly looking at ways to improve the experience. The website has just unveiled a facility called Ancestry Lab, which allows adventurous users to test new ‘beta’ features before they’re made available for general use. One of the first new features is MyTreeTags. This has the potential to be an incredibly useful resource. Tags are assigned to specific individuals in your tree, both for personal reference and for others viewing your tree to see. You can choose between 20 tags, split into four categories: ‘DNA’, ‘Reference’, ‘Research’ and ‘Relationships’. Reference tags mark military service, immigrants and royal families, while Research tags include ‘Actively Researching’, ‘Brick Wall’, ‘Hypothesis’, and ‘Verified’ or ‘Unverified’. Relationship…

1 UNIQUE REFERENCE Your individual’s administrative number will link to the pension cards that are soon to be released. 2 REGIMENTAL NUMBER This information is a major help when searching other military databases for a specific serviceman. 3 WOUND This is usually abbreviated, but generally easy to decipher. Thomas received a gunshot wound to the chest and had trench feet. 4 CAUSE His service was fully responsible for his disability. Other soldiers had preexisting conditions exacerbated by their military service. 5 DEGREE OF DISABILITY Soldiers were graded from nought to 100 per cent. In this case Thomas’ disability was judged to be 60 per cent. 6 PAYMENT Thomas gets a weekly payment of 24s, but the amount will be reviewed in 12 months. It would have been more if he…

Long before the creation of the welfare state, the poorest members of society were forced to rely on charity in order to scrape by. If the situation became truly dire, they would have to enter the workhouse – a dehumanising, and often traumatic, experience. Women were particularly at risk. If their father or husband died, fell ill or abandoned them, one of their few options was to take on low-paid work as a servant, or perhaps as a laundress. If they had any illegitimate children, the odds were stacked against them even further. This month, Stuart Bursill reveals how he made a sad discovery regarding his great great grandmother using a combination of online sources. MY BRICK WALL “Simply type in a name” is what the advert for ancestry.co.uk says,…

1765 THE SPINNING JENNY The machine that propelled the mechanisation of the textile industry was invented this year by a 45-year-old carpenter from Oswaldtwistle near Blackburn, which was known for the production of cotton yarn. The family of James Hargreaves span single threads on the age-old spinning wheel that had been in use in Europe since the Middle Ages. He had the idea for the spinning jenny when a spinning wheel was toppled but continued to revolve. He realised that a number of spindles could be placed upright side by side, all powered by a horizontal wheel, increasing the number of threads that could be spun. A commentator said he made his machine “almost wholly with a pocket knife. It contained eight spindles, and the clasp by which the thread…

FAMILYSEARCH w bit.ly/fs-leic-registers Leicestershire Parish Registers (1533–1991) contains more than 2.8 million parish registers, including banns (1637–1931), baptisms (1533–1916), burials (1533–1991) and marriages (1533–1931). The vast majority of the transcripts are accompanied by images of the registers. Meanwhile the International Genealogical Index has about 774,750 baptisms, 278,089 marriage entries and 225,320 burials. IMAGE LEICESTERSHIRE w imageleicestershire.org.uk View several thousand images from the county’s museums, libraries and archives services. You can search by keyword, or browse themes. HISTORICAL DIRECTORIES w bit.ly/uni-leicdirectories The University of Leicester’s collection of free digitised directories includes plenty of examples for Leicestershire and Rutland. LEICESTERSHIRE PARISH REGISTERS w bit.ly/arch-leic-registers The Internet Archive has various volumes for the county including the archdeaconry of Leicester Marriage Licence Index (1570–1729), Phillimore marriages (1853–1913), an 1846 History, Gazetteer,  and Directory of…

LIFE OF A SMUGGLER FACT AND FICTION HELEN HOLLICK Pen & Sword, 176 pages, £12.99 Helen Hollick has given us a brief, entertaining and light-hearted survey of smugglers and smuggling over the past few hundred years. The book sets out to shatter the myths surrounding smugglers and smuggling, and separate fact from fiction. First the author explains when smuggling took place, and why it occurred. She then turns to who the smugglers were, and how they undertook this activity. We learn what was smuggled, and where it happened in Britain. In addition there is one chapter that outlines smuggling activities in the British North American colonies before 1776. The book has many enjoyable illustrations. However, there is very little in the way of references or bibliography, so anyone who wants…

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? USA Starts Thursday 18 April, 9pm W While we impatiently await the next series of WDYTYA?, the latest episodes of the US version of the programme are coming to W for their first UK transmission. The new run of shows, first broadcast across the Atlantic last year, kicks off with Jon Cryer. The actor, who found fame as ‘Ducky’ in the 1980s teen movie Pretty in Pink, learns how his Scottish 9x great grandfather, James Adams, was sent to the Americas as an indentured servant in the middle of the 17th century and was forced to work in an ironworks. The research of actor Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) is complicated by her African-American heritage. Many slaves didn’t have surnames but, following…

SCOTTISH CENSUSES All of the Scottish censuses from 1841 to 1911 are on the Scottish government’s site scotlandspeople.gov.uk, although you need to pay to view any records. The 1891 census states that Billy’s great great grandfather Daniel Doyle was an Army pensioner and that his wife, Margaret, and some of his children were born in India: bit.ly/scots-danny. INDIA OFFICE RECORDS ON FAMILYSEARCH Created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the International Genealogical Index (IGI) includes all of the births, marriages and deaths held at the British Library, and can be searched at familysearch.org (you need to join the site, but it’s free). In the collection of records from the Anglo and Anglo-Indian community while the country was under British rule, we found the marriage of Daniel Doyle…

DANIEL HEWITT Daniel has been researching his family history for over 10 years and has written for a variety of publications. On page 15 he shares some of his experience of using newspapers. JEROME DE GROOT Has DNA testing changed the way we think about ourselves? On page 25 Jerome shares the findings of the Double Helix History project at the University of Manchester. NICOLA MORRIS As well as researching Irish stories for both US and UK episodes of WDYTYA? , Nicola is a director of Timeline Research. Enjoy her masterclass on Griffith’s Valuation on page 54.…

FamilySearch gets parish registers from Surrey Surrey is the latest county to have its parish registers published on familysearch.org. Over 2.5 million baptism, marriage and burial records, dating from 1536 to 1992, have been indexed on the free family history website, from original records stored at the London Metropolitan Archives. They can help you uncover the date and place of key events in your ancestors’ lives, and the names of their parents and spouse. They are also digitised on ancestry.co.uk. Second World War maps available for free online Maps of Scotland and parts of England from the Second World War are the latest to be digitised on the National Library of Scotland’s free site maps.nls.uk. The library has added a set of maps from the War Office 1:25,000 series, drawn…

EAST THE MAHARAJAH DULEEP SINGH, QUEEN VICTORIA AND SUFFOLK 4 May a Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds w bit.ly/fibis-duleep t 01284 741212 This talk traces the relationship between Queen Victoria and the maharajah using photos, letters, and local and national archives. £7.50 – booking essential. LONDON WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH 4 May a Society of Genealogists w bit.ly/sog-what-to-do t 020 7553 3290 Discover how you can share your findings with this day of talks on depositing your research in libraries, creating a family history website and more. £35. MIDLANDS FIRST STEPS TRAINING DAY 13 April a Birmingham Midland Institute w bit.ly/midland-anc-trg t 01562 743912 Find out how to trace your ancestors back to 1837 with this beginners’ workshop from Midland Ancestors. Free for members, £5…

Happily for genealogists, the insatiable appetite for news and the newspapers that broadcast it has seen everything from major events to people’s everyday lives documented over the past 400 years. The online archives that have recently made tens of millions of pages from newspapers and other periodicals easily accessible provide a rich hunting ground for family historians seeking to flesh out the lives of their ancestors – from the upper echelons to the lowliest labourers. In fact, they helped me shed light on a myth in my own family. The story was that my grandmother’s cousin, Robert Henderson, died in 1937 at the age of 16 after falling down a ravine in Switzerland while on a Boy Scout trip. Other than an original clipping, there was no information about him,…

An autosomal DNA test provided the breakthrough that retired BBC journalist David Hulme, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, had dreamed of. For 25 years he had tried to identify the American soldier who had used a false name during his affair with David’s mother in the Second World War. David thought that he would go to his grave without ever knowing the truth. However, in 2015 he contacted the UK organisation GI Trace (gitrace.org), set up to help people like David find their American GI fathers. “The genealogists at GI Trace advised me to take an autosomal test,” said David. The results of the test that David took with Ancestry showed that a second cousin in the USA had also been tested. Through her, David identified his father: Allan Russell Edwards,…

BASTARDY PAPERS w ancestry.co.uk Kept by the local parish, these can reveal the name of the father of an illegitimate child who was bound to pay for their upkeep. Ancestry has some for Dorset (1725–1853), Warwickshire (1816–1839) and West Yorkshire (1690–1914). DEEDS w nationalarchives.gov.uk Often found among family papers, or in local archives, deeds generally relate to property ownership but can contain other useful information too. TNA has a guide to tracking them down at bit.ly/tna-deeds. NONCONFORMIST RECORDS w bmdregisters.co.uk David found John Riley’s burial in the local archive, but some nonconformist records are also available online.…

WAS IT ILLEGAL TO MARRY YOUR DEAD WIFE’S SIBLING? From 1835, in England and Wales, it was illegal to marry a dead wife’s sister, following the passing of the Marriage Act. Prior to this, ecclesiastical law forbade such marriages if anyone objected; meanwhile, in Scotland, such marriages had been banned since the 16th century, following the passing of the Scottish Marriage Act. In 1907 the Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act was passed, which allowed the marriage of a man and his former sister-in-law to proceed. Prior to this, though, such marriages did take place, with a blind eye often being turned. There are also examples of a man living with his dead wife’s sister until the 1907 act enabled them to wed. This act, interestingly, did not apply to men…

Why would an Essex man join a Scottish regiment? Q My great grandfather was Sydney George Young (b1886, High Easter, Essex, and d1976, Southend) – he is shown here with his wife Lillie. He served in the First World War and was wounded. I have been unable to find any record of his service online, but I have found a Medal Index Card for a Sidney G Young in the Princess Louise’s (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), Seaforth Highlanders (regimental numbers 253225 and 285204). Is this uniform from that regiment? And how can I find out more about his war service? Jan Driver A Your photo clearly shows a Scottish Regiment soldier. Searching the cards on The National Archives’ website (bit.ly/tnamics), I’ve examined every Sydney and Sidney with connections to a…

BRITISH HISTORY ONLINE w british-history.ac.uk To explore this digital library of printed primary and secondary sources, scroll down the search page until you reach the ‘Period’ option, from where you can view resources dating back to the early medieval period. THE HARLEIAN SOCIETY w harleian.org.uk Find out more about the society, established in 1869, which publishes editions of the Heralds’ Visitations. You might also try the Heraldry Society website at theheraldrysociety.com. HENRY III FINE ROLLS PROJECT w www.finerollshenry3.org.uk “Between Magna Carta and the Parliamentary State…” Search this English translation of the ‘fine rolls’ – records of money offered to the monarch for various concessions and favours. THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND PODCAST w thehistoryofengland.co.uk The episodes from this long-running podcast that cover the early medieval period are highly recommended. The website…

1 TOWNLAND A village, street or town is enumerated under the townland in which it is found. Some towns can be found in more than one townland, and in some cases in more than one parish and county. 2 LOT NUMBER Each tenement is given a lot number, which should be found on the Griffith’s map. The capital letters refer to the quality of the land in each lot; here “ABC” represents three different qualities assessed for the land at Lot 33. The lower-case letters relate to the buildings on the property. 3 ANNUAL VALUE This valuation is partly based on rent charged, but also on the value and quality of the land and buildings. 4 AGNOMENS Additional information was included to distinguish between people with the same name, here…

If your ancestor was sent into service by a Poor Law union, there might be records of her employment. From the 1880s, and earlier for London, Poor Law unions kept registers of children boarded out, apprenticed or sent into service. Before this, the only record of a child being sent into service might be a mention in a minute book. Coverage of Poor Law union records varies across the country; search The National Archives’ catalogue discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk) or the Scottish Archive Network (scan.org.uk). Some records have been digitised, such as the London Metropolitan Archives’ collection ‘London, England, Poor Law and Board of Guardian Records, 1738–1930’ on Ancestry (bit.ly/anc-lma-poor). If your ancestor found work independently, there will be no record of her employment. However, you can discover what her life would have…

1 FIND THE WEBSITE Go to the homepage of the Western Front Association’s site at westernfrontassociation.com. You’ll see the text “WW1 Ancestry Pension Records” in the menu at the top. Click this hyperlink. 2 VIEW THE RESOURCES You are now on a page where you can click through to any number of links providing free access to tutorials, case studies, walkthrough videos and more. 3 SIGN UP To access the ‘Fold3’ section and the records themselves (both transcriptions and images), you will need to become a member (click the ‘Join’ button in the menu bar at the top of the page).…

1 ADMISSION DATE AND AGE The year is recorded at the top of the page, with the month and day of each admission listed below chronologically. The inmate’s age is in the second column. 2 NAME Spelling discrepancies sometimes occur (eg “Bursell”), so don’t make your searches too restrictive. But it is better to browse manually anyway – not all of the pages have been indexed or transcribed. 3 OCCUPATION Sophia is described as a “prostitute”. Prostitutes were often disowned by their families, so the workhouse infirmary was the only place they could go to give birth. 4 OTHER ENTRIES The entry below lists a nurse named Ann Woodward admitted at exactly the same time – note the ditto marks.…

Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Office is home to some extraordinary items. The only known letter from Leicester-born Joseph Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man, survives here. This sits alongside letters by Oliver Cromwell, facing certain defeat and then elated at his astonishing triumph over the Scots at Dunbar in 1650, and correspondence between George Washington and the historian and political thinker Catherine Macaulay Graham. The earliest Loughborough parish register includes a number of curious entries, highlighted with a tiny hand drawn in the margin. A melancholy entry from the summer of 1579 reads: “Roger Sheppard, son in law to Nicholas Wollandes, was slain by a Lioness – which was brought into the town, to be seen of such as would give money to see her. He was sore…

WEBSITE KIN CRAWLER w kincrawler.com/yp Free Kin Crawler is a noncommercial search engine built for family historians, allowing you to search for your ancestors in a database of more than three million transcribed genealogy records, including censuses, burials and family trees. At the moment it’s primarily useful for searching for American relatives, but the site is growing all the time. PODCAST TWICE REMOVED w gimletmedia.com/twiceremoved Free The six episodes of this podcast from 2016/7 see AJ Jacobs, founder of the Global Family Reunion (globalfamilyreunion.com) and author of It’s All Relative, take an entertaining look at the family stories of guests including US actor Abbi Jacobson (Broad City). WATCH EDWARDIAN BRITAIN IN COLOUR w bit.ly/channel5-edwardians Free This two-part series recently aired on Channel 5 and used colourised archive footage to bring our Edwardian ancestors…

Aerial photographs showing how Britain’s landscape has changed since the Second World War have been made available online. The University of Cambridge is in the process of digitising the almost 500,000 images in its Collection of Aerial Photographs on cambridgeairphotos.com – 1,500 images have already been uploaded onto an online map, and the rest are due to be added. The Collection of Aerial Photographs consists of black-and-white and colour photographs and slides, dating from 1945 to 2009 and covering the whole of the UK. It includes photographs of coastal landscapes, graveyards, Roman remains and more. It is the second-largest set of historic aerial photographs in the UK, after Historic England’s National Monuments Record.…

BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk BNA has 31 million searchable pages of newspapers for Britain and Ireland dating back to the 1700s. The same collection can also be accessed via findmypast.co.uk . THE GAZETTE w thegazette.co.uk Formerly the London Gazette, this free resource covering public events goes back 350 years. Search wills, announcements, military awards and statutory notices. THE ILLUSTRATED FIRST WORLD WAR w illustratedfirstworldwar.com This free website allows you to search issues of eight illustrated newspapers published between 1914 and 1919. iMUSEUM NEWSPAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS w imuseum.im/newspapers iMuseum provides access (for a fee) to the Isle of Man’s newspaper collection (1792–1960). Prices start at £7 for a day’s use. IRISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES  w irishnewsarchive.com Covering Northern Ireland and south of the border, this is the oldest and largest Irish…

Not all newspapers have been digitised – especially the smaller periodicals and lesser-known local publications. Visit your local family history centre, record office or library to see if it has newspaper card and paper indexes you can search. These were painstakingly compiled by family history societies before the digitisation of newspapers, and are often overlooked. They will point you to original sources, often held on microfilm on site, that you can examine in person. Note that you may need to book a microfilm reader in advance of your visit. Regional collections are available at the National Library of Wales (library.  wales), the National Library of Scotland (nls.uk) and Belfast Central Library (bit .ly/belfast-lib). If you are a member of the British Library (bl.uk), you can access digital scans of the…

DNA testing has transformed family history. Around the world, tens of millions of people have used the various types of test currently on the market to help solve their genealogy riddles and get an overview of their heritage. But how has this new technology changed people’s approaches to their family’s past, and what concerns are there about testing? I’m a professor at the University of Manchester, and leader of the research project Double Helix History (sites.manchester.ac.uk/double-helix-history). For two years my team and I have travelled the world talking to family historians about their experiences with DNA tests, and asking their opinion of genetic genealogy. It seems that the family history community is in the midst of profound change, trying to work out how to deal with this challenging new technology.…

BOOKS The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy, 2nd Edition Blaine T Bettinger Family Tree Books, due July 2019 The updated version of this key reference work from Blaine Bettinger, the best-known genetic genealogist in the USA, includes a comparison of different DNA tests. WEBSITES DNA PAINTER w dnapainter.com This useful free website offers tools for chromosome mapping, visualisation and formatting. DOUBLE HELIX HISTORY w sites.manchester.ac.uk/double-helix-history The research project’s website includes a blog and suggestions for further reading. You can also follow the project’s news at facebook.com/doublehelixhist and twitter.com/doublehelixhist. GEDMATCH w gedmatch.com This huge community database has all kinds of tools for analysing DNA. You’ll need to register to get the most from it, although it’s free. Note that the website is migrating to genesis.gedmatch.com. THE GENETIC…

This year on the 5th of May, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will celebrate its 100-year anniversary. The British Red Cross was one of the five founding members of the IFRC in 1919, alongside the French, American, Italian and Japanese Red Cross Societies. The Red Cross and Red Crescent movement initially focused on supporting the sick and wounded in wartime, but the end of WWI saw many national societies also take on a peacetime role. The new League of Red Cross Societies (as it was then known) was designed to help coordinate international peacetime Red Cross humanitarian support. Today the hands of the Red Cross family stretch right around the world. With more than 17 million volunteers in more than 190 countries, it’s the…

Could this be one of my great grandmother’s sons? Q I found this picture of a boy in a frame behind a photo of my great grandmother, Janet Barr Wilson (born 1839, Kilmarnock, and died 1911, Edinburgh). She married James Roxburgh in 1860, and they had a large family. There is no writing anywhere on this boy’s photograph, but I assume that he’s a member of Janet’s family. I am especially interested in the photograph’s time period, since that might link it to one of Janet’s sons. Bill Hately A It is not uncommon to discover a photograph concealed in a frame behind another picture. There is rarely evidence to suggest anything strange going on; perhaps our ancestors liked to rotate the family photographs on display, and slipping the original…

William Werrey bit.ly/william-werrey William Werrey (or Werry) was christened 12 April 1726 in Duloe, Cornwall, son of Thomas Werry and Agnes Bowman née Bradlicke. I have a certified copy of a parish register entry from St Blazey, showing the marriage of a William Werrey to Ann Couch on 5 November 1752. Ann Couch was born in St Blazey, and died (apparently in childbirth) in September 1776 and was buried in St Austell. How I can prove the two men named above are one and the same individual? peterbottrell Brick wall bit.ly/claw-williams My husband is onto a nonstarter with his family tree as he can’t find a registered birth for his father, Arthur Henry John Williams. As far as we know he was born on 10 December 1917 to Teresa Young…

BOOKS The Archives of the Valuation of Ireland 1830–65 Frances McGee Four Courts Press, 2018 Recently published, this is a good history of the wider Valuation Office, including Griffith’s Valuation, and the extent of records available in the National Archives of Ireland. Richard Griffith and His Valuations of Ireland James R Reilly Clearfield, 2009 This is an in-depth look at the history of Griffith’s Valuation, with excellent explanations of the source material and how you should interpret the information. WEBSITE JOHN GRENHAM w johngrenham.com The surname database on this website uses Griffith’s Valuation to map the appearance of surnames in Ireland in the 1850s, and provides direct links to the valuation for each townland in Ireland. The place-name search uses Griffith’s townland index, and can be used to identify the…

The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick: Victorian Maidservant Elizabeth Stanley (ed.) Virago Press, 1984 This fascinating diary of a housemaid/general servant is well worth tracking down. Life As We Have Known It: The Voices of Working-Class Women Margaret Llewelyn Davies (ed.) Virago Press, 2012 The most recent edition of a book first published in 1931 collects autobiographies of women in domestic service and other occupations. The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant Pamela Horn The History Press, 2004 This classic text explores the living and working conditions of domestic servants.…

Born Hilda Wauton in London, Hilda Leyel was the daughter of a teacher and received a typical middle-class upbringing that included a passion for acting. In fact, she would go on to marry Carl Frederick Leyel, a theatrical manager and low-ranking member of the Swedish aristocracy. A committed suffragist, Hilda gave up her activism during the war and became part of a troupe that entertained injured servicemen. Having developed a great empathy for such men, she came up with a unique idea to raise money – a ‘Golden Ballot’. Essentially a forerunner of the National Lottery, this involved people answering a simple question to be entered into a draw in which the winning tickets could provide anything from a life-changing sum of money to a cow with an acre of…

ARCHIVE THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES a Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU w nationalarchives.gov.uk t 020 8876 3444 TNA continues to be the most comprehensive site for physically accessible material relating to the disabled of the First World War. BOOKS Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War Peter Barham Yale University Press, 2004 This book explores the toll on soldiers’ mental health. The War Come Home: Disabled Veterans in Britain and Germany, 1914–1939 Deborah Cohen University of California Press, 2001 Cohen looks at the practical challenges faced by those disabled by war. MUSEUM THE MUSEUM OF MILITARY MEDICINE a Keogh Barracks, Ash Vale, Aldershot GU12 5RQ w museumofmilitarymedicine.org.uk t 01252 868612 This free museum has 20,000 items providing insight into the care of those wounded in war. WEBSITE HISTORIC ENGLAND w historicengland.org.uk Historic…

• Not every ancestor will be rich, famous or heroic, but you can still piece together the story of somebody’s life using the paper trail they left behind. • Don’t be satisfied with simply adding birth, marriage and death dates to your tree. By researching causes of death, occupations and addresses, you can build up a detailed picture about your forebears that can be shared with others. • Finally, make sure that you read all of the information within the records you find – deciphering all-but-illegible text can be highly rewarding.…

ARCHIVES BRITISH LIBRARY a 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB t 0330 333 1144 w bl.uk You can search the library’s main catalogue at explore.bl.uk for musical scores, audio interviews and other ephemera related to maypoles and May Day. Your local archive may have its own May Day material too. ENGLISH FOLK DANCE AND SONG SOCIETY a Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 7AY t 020 7485 2206 w efdss.org The society’s Vaughan Williams Memorial Library includes manuscripts, songs and images relating to folk dance and music, including maypole dancing, and there is a helpful guide on its website: bit.ly/efdss-resources. BOOKS The English Year Steve Roud Penguin, 2008 This month-by-month guide to the nation’s customs and festivals includes May Day. Mayday: The Coming of Spring Doc Rowe…

1485 The last significant battle in the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Bosworth Field, takes place in Leicestershire. 1530 After falling ill on his way back towards the capital, Cardinal Wolsey dies in Leicester. 1759 A cheese market is established in Leicester to control and oversee trade in the distinctive local Red Leicester. 1832 One of the country’s first railways, the Leicester and Swannington Railway, opens to transport coal to Leicester. 1881 Loughborough’s John Taylor Bellfounders casts the 16.5-ton ‘Great Paul’ bell of St Paul’s Cathedral. 1897 Herbert Morris sets up a factory in the Empress Works in Moor Lane, Loughborough. His firm develops into one of the foremost crane manufacturers in the world. 1899 British United Shoe Machinery is founded. Headquartered in Leicester, the company will become…

BAUM A third of all the Baums recorded in the 1891 census were found in Leicestershire. BONSER Most common in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, this nickname comes from the Old French for ‘good sir’. FOWKES This Foulks variant derives from a short form of various Germanic first names. FREER This name is related to the word ‘friar’ (from the Latin for ‘brother’). HARRIMAN This occupational name is for a servant (‘man’) of someone named ‘Harry’. ILIFFE Nearly half of all the Iliffes recorded in the 1891 census were in Leicestershire. SARSON Derived from an Old French word meaning ‘Saracen’, Sarson may have been a medieval nickname for someone who had returned from the Crusades. TIMSON This patronymic is related to variants Timpson, Tims, Timms and Tymms. TOON/TOONE Common in Leicestershire, Derbyshire…

When India gained independence from Britain in 1947, the subcontinent was divided into two states, India and Pakistan. This process, known as Partition, set off waves of ethnic violence in which as many as two million people may have been killed and about 14 million were displaced. Indian author Aanchal Malhotra’s new book, Remnants of Partition, tells the story of 21 objects preserved by those who survived. What inspired you to write the book? All four of my grandparents travelled across the border during Partition or just before it, but despite this there was never really a culture to talk about what happened in my family. So I think my point of entry into this subject was when I encountered the two objects I talk about in the book –…