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

A new series of Who Do You Think You Are? has become one of the features of the British summer, like strawberries and cream or sheltering from the rain! Once more a group of celebrities will get to experience the magic of discovery that is family history. And what a line-up we’ve got this year! With plenty of comedians we are guaranteed a laugh along the journey, although I’ve been assured that there will be plenty of tears as well. You can read more about the celebrities on page 14 and we’ll cover the episodes in more depth online and via social media so log in, follow us and sign up to our newsletter via www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/newsletter. We don’t want you to miss out! We’ve also got plenty of articles to…

Reading about our heroes of the Second World War in the July issue coincided with me discovering a story about my 2x great uncle, Walter Alfred Mizon. While researching on britishnewspaper archive.co.uk I thought I’d look for a few family names. I remembered being told my great great grandmother was known to have been in trouble with the police. I found she was mentioned in the 1891 petty sessions for Tottenham, accused of smashing her mother-in-law’s windows following an argument with her husband! I then turned to her eldest child: Walter. I found that he had been held on remand in Penzance on a charge of stealing “a tin of cherries, 1lb of coffee and 5lb of beef”. I accept stealing is stealing, but when I discovered a full-length article…

Free UK Genealogy has added features to its two websites FreeCEN and FreeREG that enable researchers to link directly to family history records. The sites, freecen.org.uk and freereg.org.uk, now have user-friendly ‘permanent’ URLs for their census and parish register records. Visitors can copy and paste a record’s URL and return to it at a later date. In addition, researchers can now cite a record in a family tree and academic work with the new ‘Generate Citation’ button. The two websites hold over 80 million transcriptions of UK census and parish register records. The new citation features were developed by Free UK Genealogy’s volunteers. To offer your own services as a coder, visit freeuk genealogy.org.uk/about/volunteer/ tech-volunteering-opportunities.…

How can you find out what your ancestor’s childhood was like? How different was it to that experienced by today’s children? As usual, the first clues lie in census returns. The home address, the ages and occupations of their parents, whether the family moved around a lot plus any declared medical conditions all tell the basic story. Any deviations from the expected pattern of father, mother and several children born a year or two apart give more clues. But there is so much else to discover. It was long taken for granted that working-class children, and many middle-class ones, would work – so did they have a job? If they went to school, where would they have gone? It’s easy to assume that only adults left an imprint on official…

Studying our collections of old family photographs, we notice that casual outdoor snapshots begin to outnumber traditional studio photographs precisely when past generations acquired their first cameras. Home photography of the early to mid-Victorian era was an elite pastime, practised mainly by the leisured classes; but during the 1880s technological advances and lowering prices encouraged middle-class hobbyists to become ‘snapshooters’. Later, following the launch of the Kodak Box Brownie in 1900 and other user-friendly cameras, especially from the 1910s, amateur photography extended throughout society. Once a household owned a camera, the family photographer(s) snapped away, enthusiastically recording daily life as well as more auspicious events. However, until safe indoor flash apparatus became widely available, amateur camera operators generally shot photographs outside, where there was a natural source of light. Many…

What happened to my elusive Midlands ancestor? Q Could you help me find an elusive ancestor? John Joseph Kirby was born in August 1892 in Aston, Birmingham, to Jack Kirby and Alice Fanny Taylor. Alice sadly died four days later, as a result of Bright’s disease. John’s father, also named John, was a glass-cutter, and remarried, in 1895, to Kate Annette Aspley. I found John Joseph with his family in the 1901 census living in Wolverhampton, and aged eight. In 1911, he was still in Wolverhampton, working as a confectioner. After this, I can find no trace. I have a photograph that my late mother-in-law said was of his wedding. She was a bridesmaid, and thought she was about 14 at the time, which would make the wedding year about…

Why pauper? bit.ly/why-pauper I’m wondering if anyone can shed light on the entry for my g-g-grandmother Flora’s death in Ardnamurchan, Argyll, in 1880. It shows that she was married to Donald McDonald, “Ploughman”, who was still alive and relatively young at the time of her death. But under her name entry on the death register it says “Pauper”. Does this mean that they were not together and she had been in receipt of Poor Relief? Is this unusual for a woman to be classed as Pauper when she was the wife of a working man and mother of several young children? Thank you in advance for any thoughts on this situation. lalexa Adoption bit.ly/reginald-adoption I am trying to trace the adoption records of Reginald Bullock. Can anyone point me in…

As family historians, we’re accustomed to using parish registers to uncover our ancestors’ lives. But one register in the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland reveals a truly unexpected story – a fatal lion attack in 1579, as senior archivist Jenny Moran explains. COULD YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE PARISH REGISTER AND THE DEATH IT DESCRIBES? This beautiful book is the first parish register for All Saints Church in Loughborough, and begins in 1538. For many family historians this is an important date, because it is when the earliest parish registers began, although frustratingly few survive from their inception. The requirement to register baptisms, marriages and burials in the then-new Anglican church was brought in under Henry VIII. His daughter, Elizabeth I, went further, ensuring that the records…

LIBRARY MITCHELL LIBRARY a North Street, Glasgow G3 7DN t 0141 287 2999 w glasgowlife.org.uk/ libraries/venues/themitchell-library Most local libraries will have some access to regional unit histories, if only through the main county library. The Mitchell Library in Glasgow is noted for its splendid collection of Scottish regiment histories. WEBSITES ARMY MUSEUMS OGILBY TRUST w https://www.army museums.org.uk This website contains details of all of the military museums in the UK, including their contact details: collections. armymuseums.org.uk. Each museum usually has a wealth of material (including old histories) from several regiments which have amalgamated over the years. INTERNET ARCHIVE w archive.org/details/texts The Internet Archive holds many regimental histories, which are freely available and can be searched for useful references. These include some of the Victorian histories that are rare and expensive.…

BOOKS Deter, Suppress, Extract! Royal Military Police Close Protection – The Authorised History Richard Keightley  Helion, 2015 Former soldier Keightley discusses the RMP’s close-protection role from the Second World War to the present. The History of the Corps of Royal Military Police Major SF Crozier Naval and Military Press, 2014 This classic reference work runs from 1511 to 1945, but focuses on the Second World War. WEBSITE ROYAL MILITARY POLICE w bit.ly/army-mod-rmp Visit the RMP’s site to find out more about the organisation’s role and structure. MARK SIMNER is an expert in military history, and author of five books: marksimner.me.uk…

On 9 July 1789 an Old Parish Registers record for Arbroath in Angus recorded an entry for an Andrew Dogood (also known as Duckett). The space marked for the date of his birth was left blank, but the baptismal date was recorded. His parents were noted as Thomas Dogood and Elizabeth Blair, while Andrew’s own name was recorded with the phrase “a natural child”. The kirk session register for the parish from October 1788 provided additional information. It noted on 31 October that Elizabeth appeared before the session and “confessed that she has gone with child seven months”, suggesting Andrew must have been born in December 1788 or January 1789. She further identified the father as Thomas Dogood, “an unmarried man”, and after confirming this to be the case, Thomas…

BOOKS A Digest of the Law of Scotland, 2nd Edition Hugh Barclay T&T Clark, 1855 Freely available from the Internet Archive at archive. org/details/adigestlawscotl00scotgoog, this book from a sheriff-substitute of Perthshire is one of many comprehensive legal guides online. Religion and Society in Scotland Since 1707, 2nd Edition Callum G Brown Edinburgh University Press, 1997 Brown explains the history of the kirk in Scotland, and outlines the growth of secularisation. WEBSITES KNOWLEDGE BASE w scan.org.uk/researchr tools/glossary.htm The Scottish Archive Network hosts a comprehensive glossary of Scots terms that family historians will find in kirk and state records. NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND GUIDES w nrscotland.gov.uk/ research/guides/a-z The NRS’s user guides explain what court records are held by the facility, and how to use them. SCOTTISH DOCUMENTS w www.scottish documents.com/default.aspx This website…

FREEREG w freereg.org.uk At time of writing FreeREG had 1,209,382 records transcribed from Nottinghamshire church records: 727,430 baptisms, 224,997 marriages and 256,955 burials. GREAT WAR ROLL OF HONOUR w nottinghamshire.gov. uk/rollofhonour Search the county council’s WW1 roll by name and location, or browse county memorials via the pinned map. GALLANTRY AWARDS w bit.ly/inspire-gallantry Download PDF datasets of transcribed First World War awards for Retford and Worksop, mainly from newspaper reports. HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF NOTTINGHAM w bit.ly/arch-hist-notts Several histories of Nottingham are available on the Internet Archive (archive.org), including Rev James Orange’s two-volume work from 1840. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE DIRECTORIES w bit.ly/notts-directories Here you can search digitised Post Office and street directories held by the University of Leicester, including the Bailey’s Western and Midland Directory from 1783.…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF NOTTINGHAM  a The Archives, Willson House, Derby Road, Nottingham NG1 5AW t 0115 953 9803 e archives@nrcdt.org.uk w dioceseofnottingham.uk/ parishes The diocese spans Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Rutland. The website includes a map leading to information about the parishes, plus downloadable catalogues/indexes. The Year Book Index, for example, is compiled from the Diocesan Year Book which began in 1921, and includes news and obituaries. LOCAL STUDIES LIBRARIES w inspireculture.org.uk/heritage/ local-studies This page leads to contact details for all of the Inspire-run libraries in Arnold, Beeston, Bingham, Eastwood, Hucknall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Mansfield, Newarkon-Trent, Retford, Southwell, Stapleford, Sutton-in-Ashfield, West Bridgford and Worksop. They offer access to ancestry. co.uk and copies of county-wide sources, plus newspapers, maps and photographs. NOTTINGHAM CENTRAL LIBRARY  a Angel Row, Nottingham NG1…

E-BOOK THE DNA GUIDE FOR ADOPTEES Kindle £11.78 DNA testing has opened up exciting new possibilities for adoptees trying to trace their birth families. Here Brianne Kirkpatrick and Shannon Combs-Bennett explain how genetic genealogy and family history records work together, and how you can use them to uncover your roots, connect with your biological family and better understand your medical history. APP A MAYFLOWER SELF-GUIDED TOURS Android/iOS Free Ahead of next year’s Mayflower 400 celebrations, this new app provides walking and driving tours of the UK cities, towns and villages with links to the Mayflower’s voyage. Discover Mayflower stories across the country, from Doncaster and Nottinghamshire to the ship’s departure point in Plymouth. PODCAST ON THE RECORD iTunes/Google Podcasts/RadioPublic/Spotify Free Lovers of The National Archives’ podcasts won’t want to miss…

PAM ROSS Pam is a professional family historian and member of AGRA. This month she shares her expert knowledge on page 18 to inspire you to research your ancestors’ early years. MARK SIMNER Mark has been keen on British military history since he was a child. As well as writing books, he runs the Victorian Wars Forum. On page 57 he explains the role of the Military Police. ROSALIND CRONE As project lead for prisonhistory.org Rosalind was our first choice to write about Victorian prisons (see page 70). Watch out for the topic in an episode of WDYTYA? coming up!…

EDITORIAL Editor Sarah Williams Production editor Seth Burgess Editorial assistant Rosemary Collins Art editor Robbie Bennie ADVERTISING SALES Ad manager Sam Jones 0117 300 8145 Ad sales executive Andy Williams 0117 300 8803 Inserts Laurence Robertson 00 353 876 902208 MARKETING Marketing manager Kellie Lane Direct marketing executive Craig Ramsay PRESS AND PR Head of PR Dominic Lobley PRODUCTION Production director Sarah Powell Production co-ordinator Emily Mounter Ad design Parvin Sepehr Ad co-ordinator Bryony Grace SYNDICATION & LICENSING Director of licensing & syndication Tim Hudson Magazine syndication executive Emma Brunt IMMEDIATE MEDIA COMPANY BRISTOL LTD Managing director Marie Davies Promotions and partnerships manager Rosa Sherwood Group managing director Andy Marshall CEO Tom Bureau…

Heritage organisations in Scotland want to find and preserve stories of the country’s migration history. Glasgow Museums (glasgowlife.org.uk/museums) and the Scotland’s Sounds network (scotlandssounds.nls.uk) are leading the search for video, audio, written and artistic records of the stories of migrants in Scotland. The organisations want to find suitable homes for the collections, and transfer them to sustainable formats where necessary. Their website says: “Making the stories of migrants more accessible will help shape an inclusive society.” If you have recordings of immigration stories in your collection or know of projects or groups that are actively recording at the moment, then please fill in the short survey at surveymonkey.com/r/ migrationstories_scot by 18 August.…

Award-winning family history programme Who Do You Think You Are? will return to BBC One this summer – with its most impressive line-up of famous faces yet. Titanic star Kate Winslet, Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, music mogul Sharon Osbourne, James Bond star Naomie Harris, comedian Paul Merton, TV personality Mark Wright, comedian Katherine Ryan, and comedian Jack Whitehall together with his father Michael will unravel their families’ pasts in series 16. Colette Flight, executive producer at WDYTYA? production company Wall to Wall, said the celebrities’ discoveries will be “revelatory, moving, often funny and always fascinating”. See our preview on page 14.…

The National Library of Australia (NLA) has announced that 7.5 million new records will go online by June 2020. The records are currently held on 10,400 microfilm reels filmed by the Australian Joint Copying Project, a partnership between the NLA, the State Library of New South Wales, and The National Archives in Kew. With funding from the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, all of the records will be made available for free at nla.gov.au/content/ australian-joint-copying-project, and new collections will be added every month. The records include state records from UK government departments such as the Admiralty, Home Office, Colonial Office and the Dominions Office; UK county records; and archives and manuscripts of politicians, explorers, scientists, religious and missionary societies, convicts and businesses held by organisations or individuals. They cover the…

A young woman stood in the dock at Cumberland Court in 1777, after being caught stealing silk handkerchiefs. Her name was Ann Gregg, and she was only 21 years old. She must have been terrified when the justice convicted her and passed a sentence of death. Mercifully, she was reprieved and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in Carlisle Gaol. This is the first record of Ann’s long and dramatic criminal career across the north of England. Ann is the 5x great grandmother of David Cooper Holmes, who has written a book about her exploits. Tracing her has been a huge challenge, because Ann used 14 aliases. TRACKING A TRAVELLER What’s more, she was also itinerant. “Ann was one of a long line of Traveller ancestors in our family, many of…

Surnames originated in England following the Norman Conquest, but have evolved over the centuries, so several surnames with different spellings might mean the same thing. They can originate in topography or places, first names or occupations. Many websites offer guidance, such as ancestry.co.uk/ learn/facts and findmypast.co.uk/surnames. There are also several good books, including Debbie Kennett’s The Surnames Handbook (The History Press, 2012); Surnames, DNA, and Family History by George Redmonds, Turi King and David Hey (OUP, 2015); and surname dictionaries.…

It might be a less obvious source for family history research than census returns or registers of births, deaths and marriages, but archive film can provide priceless background material. In its own words, the website Film Archives UK (filmarchives.org.uk) “brings together archives, archivists, associate organisations and individuals who are interested in and committed to the work and development of the UK’s public sector film archives”. The site lists 18 national and regional moving image repositories. These include the well-known archives at the British Film Institute and Imperial War Museum, as well as the lesser-known but equally valuable collections in the regional film archives. By following the hyperlinks to each archive’s website you can find searchable online catalogues providing access to film from all over the UK. If you know the…

The Royal Military Police can trace its roots back to the establishment of the Provost Marshall, one of the most ancient of appointments in service of the Crown. However, it was during the Crimean War (1853–1856) that the modern Military Police as we think of it today became established. In a War Office circular dated 13 June 1855, several cavalry regiments were required to provide men for a new Corps of Mounted Police. The circular stated these recruits were “To be employed… for the preservation of Good Order in the camp at Aldershot, and for the protection of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood”. Significantly, this was the first use of the term ‘police’ by the army. It also stated that the men had to be “of five or ten years’…

There are many ways to share your family’s history online, but few are as elegant as Treelines. It allows you to create slideshow-like stories from the key events in your family’s lives, linked via a timeline of the lives being featured. Treelines builds its stories using your family tree as a framework – you can build this from scratch or upload a GEDCOM file. From here you add the elements of your story in the form of events, each of which will form a separate component of your story. Text can be styled, web links incorporated, and a single image attached to each event. The step-by-step guide reveals how to put your first story together – you can create multiple stories, linked to one or more individuals. After previewing your…

When the First World War ended in November 1918, almost 900,000 British military personnel had lost their lives. It was a period of great turmoil, and in 1915 Fabian Ware set up what is now known as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) to record the fallen. Today, its online database is invaluable for tracking down soldiers who died in both world wars, but what if your relative didn’t fight for Britain? Immigration records, such as those for Ellis Island, can hold the key. Mick Crick knew that his grandmother’s brother Philip had perished during the First World War, but couldn’t find his name on the CWGC’s website. It wasn’t until he started searching further afield that he discovered the truth. MY BRICK WALL I remember asking my grandmother Rose,…

Born in Chesterfield in 1793 to the son of a general, Jebb unsurprisingly embarked upon a military career at age 21 with a commission in the Royal Engineers. However, his experience as a sapper with large-scale public works made him particularly suitable for civil, and especially penal, administration. In November 1837, when William Crawford and William Whitworth Russell were seeking a military engineer to advise on the construction and conversion of buildings on the principles of the Separate System, Jebb was approached and appointed surveyor-general of prisons. Within a year Jebb had published designs for a Separate Prison, and over the next four years supervised the construction of the new model prison at Pentonville. Its opening in late 1842 was an architectural event. Not only did the building feature a…

Nottinghamshire Archives has several unique documents and one-off sources that together offer genealogists tantalising windows on the past. These include early census records that, while a little random and ad hoc in their survival, often predate the first genealogically useful census of 1841. Examples include an 1811 census for Gotham; the 1801 census of Eakring, Kinoulton and Welbeck Abbey; and a West Retford census from 1794. For more colourful social commentary, county archivist Ruth Imeson says it’s always worth investigating diaries in your family’s own collection, as well as those held here at the county archives. You never know what you might find. ‘The latest treasure trove is the index to pre-1858 probate documents’ “Captain Ichabod Wright (1797–1862), a famous banker from Mapperley Hall, Nottingham, was a secret genealogist,” Ruth…

‘I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be speaking and performing at the RootsTech Conference’ RootsTech has unveiled a programme of leading family history speakers and sessions – and a special appearance by Donny Osmond – for its first London event. Osmond will give the keynote address at RootsTech London at 11am on 26 October. Osmond was born in Ogden, Utah, in 1957, one of nine siblings. He shot to fame with his brothers as part of popular singing group The Osmonds before going on to have a successful solo career, and has recorded over 60 albums. On Twitter, Osmond said: “You know how important family is to me – that’s why I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be speaking and performing at the RootsTech Conference in London this October!” In…

MyHeritage launches health test with 14 reports MyHeritage has developed an expanded version of its ancestry DNA test that measures the risk of developing common diseases. The Health+Ancestry test offers 14 genetic risk reports for conditions including heart disease, breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. It also assesses whether patients are carriers for certain hereditary conditions. The test is on sale at myheritage.com for £179 + P&P, compared with £75 for a standard test. It is competing with 23andMe’s £149 Health + Ancestry Service. Ancestry adds D-Day War Diaries and photographs Family history website ancestry.co.uk released a collection of digitised War Diaries and photographs from D-Day to mark the 75th anniversary of the operation on 6 June. The records include little-seen photos of British and US troops in action and 40…

LONDON TRACING FAMILY HISTORY IN LANCASHIRE 20 July  a Society of Genealogists, Clerkenwell w bit.ly/sog-lancs t 020 7553 3290 In this unmissable event for anyone with Lancashire ancestry, Anna Watson explains the religious, administrative, social and industrial history of the county, and the rich collection of records that can help you with your research. £20. MIDLANDS OLD PHOTOGRAPHS AND THEIR IDENTIFICATION AND DATING 16 July  a St Peter’s Church Centre, Pedmore, Stourbridge w midland-ancestors.uk e stourbridgegroup@midanc.uk Tom Doig explains how to identify and date old family photographs – even mounts, dimensions and materials tell a story. Free for members, £3 for visitors. NORTH-EAST ONLY CONNECT 18 July  a Durham County Record Office, Durham w bit.ly/valscully t 03000 267619 In this talk, subtitled ‘Using Fiction to Bring Local History to a…

The clergyman Gilbert White (1720–1793) lived at Selborne in Hampshire. He is celebrated not for his clerical duties but for his fascinating writing on natural history and his lyrical, acutely observed descriptions of flora and fauna, weather, landscape and country people. At the time they were exceptionally advanced, and in the spirit of the scientific revolution of the middle decades of the 18th century. Now, they recapture for us something of the flavour of that period. Gilbert’s writings were first published in 1789, were an instant bestseller, and have been continuously in print ever since. Gilbert describes the intensely hot and dry summers of 1781 and 1783, when his prized peach and nectarine trees “suffered so much from the heat that the rind [bark] on the bodies was scalded and…

BOOKS Children of The Mill David Hanson Headline, 2014 Hanson tells the story of the children who worked in a mill in Cheshire in the 19th century. Tracing Your Ancestors’ Childhood Sue Wilkes Pen and Sword, 2013 The author regularly writes for WDYTYA? Magazine. MUSEUMS MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD a 42 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TG t 0131 529 4142 w edinburghmuseums.org.uk/ venue/museum-childhood The museum reopened in 2018 after a major refurbishment. NATIONAL TRUST MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD a Main Road, Sudbury, Ashbourne, Derbyshire DE6 5HT t 01283 585337 w bit.ly/sudbury-hall Explore eight galleries that cover work, school and play. RAGGED SCHOOL MUSEUM a 46–50 Copperfield Road, London E3 4RR t 020 8980 6405 w raggedschoolmuseum.org.uk The museum is based in a school founded by Dr Barnardo. V&A MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD a…

For nearly 150 years, the British Red Cross has been helping people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. Across the world, whether it’s a conflict, an earthquake, or a flood, the Red Cross is always one of the first on the scene. Providing lifesaving help to the people who need it most, Red Cross volunteers remain long after a disaster to support people as they rebuild their communities and their lives. Now, the British Red Cross museum and archive collections are available to view in a fascinating brand-new online database, so anyone can explore 28,000 of the Red Cross’ historical objects and archive documents. The collections include rarely seen objects such as Agatha Christie’s volunteering record card from WWI. The crime author learnt all about poisons while volunteering as…

With so much genealogical information now available to us online, it’s easy to assume that everything you need to know must be available at the click of a mouse. However, you might find gaps – not all a parish’s records might have been digitised yet, or they might still be with the original archive, or an archive might not have an agreement with one of the main websites to put their records online. In addition, some original records themselves have not survived – the only records that can be put online are those that still physically exist! That said, new records are being published online all the time, so check with the relevant archive to see what they’ve got planned, and sign up to our free weekly email newsletter for…

Hereford-based photographer Derek Evans (1927–2009) photographed the county extensively for 60 years, capturing many of its unique traditions. Now Herefordshire Life Through a Lens, a project by local community-interest company Catcher Media, is exploring his photographic archive through film-making, oral history and more. We spoke to Catcher Media’s co-director Julia Goldsmith about the project. WHAT’S THE PROJECT ABOUT? ‘We aim to collect the stories behind the photos before the people who have those memories have gone’ It’s based on the archive of a Herefordshire photographer called Derek Evans. He worked in the county from the late 1940s up until the 2000s, but the bulk of his social history work from Herefordshire is from the late 1940s to the 1970s. There are about 200,000 negatives in the archive and nearly 800…

BRITAIN ON FILM w bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film You can explore this British Film Institute cross-archive project via a pinned map, which shows the location of footage held by various archives. BRITISH PATHÉ w britishpathe.com Explore highlights from British Pathé and other news organisations such as Gaumont, Reuters, Empire News Bulletin and British Paramount. EUROPEAN FILM GATEWAY w europeanfilmgateway.eu This site gives you quick access to hundreds of thousands of films in 38 European archives. MITCHELL AND KENYON w screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1084507 Pioneering film company Mitchell and Kenyon captured hours of footage of everyday life, mainly in the North-West and Yorkshire. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND w movingimage.nls.uk The NLS’s Moving Image Archive is a gateway to approximately 2,000 clips and full-length films. SOUTH WEST FILM AND TELEVISION ARCHIVE w swfta.co.uk The film archive covering Gloucestershire…

1 REGIMENTAL NUMBER These are a useful aid to finding service records and Medal Index Cards or rolls online, which provide more information about a soldier. 2 SOLDIER’S DETAILS You should be able to combine the information given here with, for example, the 1911 census to confirm that a particular soldier is indeed your ancestor. 3 DATE OF JOINING 283 Siege Battery was formed on 14 November 1916, so soldiers who joined on or near that date may already have seen action. 4 HOW EMPLOYED Specialists and men with authority such as gun captains are noted. ‘Gun numbers’ were responsible for aiming and firing the guns. 5 REASON FOR LEAVING Examples include hospitalisation, death and transfer. Men who were transferred to the Rhine Army may have been pre-war regulars. 6…

The Royal Military Police Museum (rhqrmp. org/rmp_museum.html) holds a number of primary and secondary sources (both official and unofficial), although service records are held elsewhere. In 2005 the Ministry of Defence (MOD) passed a large number of roll books and tracer cards to military museums – much of the information is, however, in neither alphabetical or numerical order. Because of the labour-intensive nature of locating information, museum staff and volunteers have created a database of as many members of the RMP and its forebears as possible – bringing together disparate data from all of the museum’s sources in a single place. The museum’s database launched in June 2019 and lists over 100,000 individuals. Surviving Army service records for those who served in the Military Police before 1920 are held at…

1 SEARCH FOR A RECORD Visit the homepage at scottishindexes. com. Click ‘Record Sets’ in the menu bar, then choose ‘Scottish Paternity Index’, and on the following screen provide the name of the child’s mother (‘pursuer’) and/or the child’s father (‘defender’). 2 REVIEW THE RESULTS In this case there are two returns for a search on the name ‘Eliza MacGillivray’ in Inverness, of which the first is a relative. If you draw a complete blank, spelling variation may be to blame – follow the website’s advice on using wildcards. 3 VIEW THE FULL RECORD Clicking the ‘Full Record’ button provides a broader description, including the birthdate of the child, the name of the father, and a reference number. You can now visit the archive, or order images of the full…

If you suspect that a missing ancestor crossed the pond and relocated to the USA, it’s worth checking out the immigration records on the Ellis Island website – they may help you as much as they helped Mick 1 Log into the site (you can create an account for free) then go to the Passenger Search facility at libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger. Type in the first name and surname of the individual you are searching for, and click the search button. A list of matches will come up. The database holds 65 million names, so it could be a long list. 2 Hover your cursor over the ‘i’ to the left of a name for more information on an entry, such as age at arrival, year of birth, or port of departure. There…

BOOKS Criminal Ancestors: A Guide to Historical Criminal Records in England and Wales, 2nd Edition David T Hawkings The History Press, 2009 This practical guide includes a good overview of all the different criminal courts. Prison Life in Victorian England Michelle Higgs The History Press, 2007 Written by a regular contributor to WDYTYA? Magazine, this introduction includes routines, diet, discipline and the different categories of prison staff. MUSEUMS NATIONAL JUSTICE MUSEUM a High Pavement, Nottingham NG1 1HN t 0115 952 0555 w nationaljusticemuseum.org. uk Located in the former county prison for Nottingham, the museum provides a good overview of 19th-century prison conditions. It is also home to a large archive of prison material. WEBSITES PRISON HISTORY w prisonhistory.org This database contains information on the nearly 850 criminal prisons, convict and…

c1450 The earliest surviving text of a ballad about the outlaw Robin Hood, Robin Hood and the Monk , is printed. 1487 The Battle of Stoke Field, the last major engagement of the Wars of the Roses, ends in crushing defeat for the Yorkists. 1645 The earliest known reference to a black person in Nottingham is the baptism of John Americanus, “a blackamoore”, baptised in the parish of Newark on 30 March. 1811 The first Luddite uprising sees framework knitters destroy frames in Arnold, a suburb of Nottingham. 1829 William Booth is born at 12 Notintone Place, Sneinton – a village just outside Nottingham but today within the city limits. He will grow up to become a Methodist lay preacher then found the East London Christian Mission in 1865, known…

BLATHERWICK This habitational name comes from a place in Nottinghamshire that was recorded as ‘Blarewiche’ in the Domesday Book. DAFT This Middle English nickname was applied to a mild or gentle person – slightly different from the modern usage. DAYKIN A third of all of the Daykins recorded in the 1891 census were living in Nottinghamshire. In the 1881 census, 17 per cent of them were coal miners. HICKLING This habitational name comes from two places in Norfolk and Nottinghamshire. HOPEWELL Although this name originated in Hopwell, Derbyshire, almost half of all of the Hopewells in 1891 lived in Nottinghamshire. REDGATE This habitational name is the result of combining the Old English word read (‘red’) and the Old Norse gata (‘road’). SPRAY This nickname for a thin person derives from…

THE ADVENTURES OF MAUD WEST, LADY DETECTIVE SECRETS AND LIES IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF CRIME  SUSANNAH STAPLETON, Picador, 320 pages, £20 I really enjoyed this book. Although I had never heard of Maud West before, I have recently started reading detective stories, and I found this book to be very well written – you definitely get immersed in the era. As you get further into its pages, you find yourself wanting to know more about Maud and her life as one of Britain’s first female detectives. She opened her agency in 1905, and sleuthed for high-society clients for more than 30 years. Susannah Stapleton answers all of your questions about her methods, her clients, her premises and more. The structure is very clever, too. The author intersperses stories and…

Why did you want to write this book? It seemed to me that maritime London was a completely forgotten world, and that the story of the ordinary people whose work had played a very important role in national events, such as defeating Napoleon, sending Captain Cook on his voyages of exploration and turning London into a global trading metropolis, just hadn’t been told. There is more to history than the heroes that you usually read about in books. I was trying to recover a kind of lifestyle of ordinary people – I know that there’s really no such thing, but middling sorts and poor sorts rather than just the elite – and trying to show what they contributed to the national story. How did you find the records of ordinary…

Ask anyone who the first black player at Wimbledon was, and chances are they’ll say “Arthur Ashe” without skipping a beat. But as we dish out the strawberries and cream and blow the dust off our rackets, Anne Clark has more reason than most to feel a surge of excitement at this time of year. ‘Prince Albert partnered with Bertrand, playing a doubles match’ While Ashe was the first black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon, in 1975, Anne’s husband’s ancestor Bertrand Milbourne Clark (1894–1958) was the first black tennis player to ever compete at the famous tournament – beating Ashe by more than half a century. Bertrand was descended from a branch of Anne’s husband’s family who went to Jamaica at the end of the 18th century…