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

By the time you read this, the 16th series of Who Do You Think You Are? will be in full swing. If you’ve picked up this magazine because you’ve been inspired by the TV series to dip your toe into the waters of genealogy, then my article on page 16 will help you take your first steps. We’ve also got an article on commercial travellers to tie in with Jack and Michael Whitehall’s episode (page 57), as well as a guide on page 87 to some of the records uncovered in Daniel Radcliffe’s episode. Don’t forget that we’ll be covering the episodes in more depth online and via social media so log in, follow us and sign up to our email newsletter at www.whodoyouthinkyou aremagazine.com/newsletter. I have also had the…

Donny has uploaded much of his research to the shared tree on familysearch.org, so it’s possible to have a look at his ancestors (you may even find a family connection!). You will need to register for a free account on the website, then select ‘Family Tree’ from the menu bar on the homepage. From there choose ‘Find’ and enter his father’s details to search his paternal line, or his mother’s details to search his maternal line. His father is George Virl Osmond, born 13 October 1917 in Wyoming, while his mother is Olive May Davis, born 4 May 1925 in Idaho.…

NICK BARRATT Open University and president of the Federation of Family History Societies  e nickdavidbarratt@gmail.com @familyhistorysh JOHN CHAMBERS Archives and Records Association  e john.chambers@archives.org.uk @johnarchives ELSE CHURCHILL Society of Genealogists  e genealogy@sog.org.uk @SoGGenealogist JACKIE DEPELLE Family history tutor  e jackie.yourfairladies@gmail.com @JackieDepelle DR MIKE ESBESTER University of Portsmouth  e mike.esbester@port.ac.uk @RWLDproject TANYA EVANS Macquarie University, Sydney  e tanya.evans@mq.edu.au @TanyaEvans14 LAURA KING University of Leeds  e l.king@leeds.ac.uk @DrLauraKing JULIA LAITE Birkbeck, University of London  e j.laite@bbk.ac.uk @JuliaLaite SUSAN MOORE British Association for Local History  e info@susanmooreresearch.co.uk @STMResearch NATALIE PITHERS Family historian  e genealogystoriesuk@gmail.com @geneastories MARY STEWART British Library  e mary.stewart@bl.uk @BL_OralHistory…

BARNARDO’S ARCHIVES w www.barnardos.org.uk/ former-barnardos-children Barnardo’s Making Connections team can help you find out more about ancestors cared for by the charity since the 1870s. BRITISH HOME CHILDREN w britishhomechildren.com Perry Snow’s excellent online repository includes a registry you can search for individuals, as well as a burial index. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA w bac-lac.gc.ca/eng This treasure trove includes censuses and birth, marriage and death records; enlistment papers and service records; passenger lists; and records of Home Children.…

DISCOGS  w discogs.com This website for trading vinyl and CD recordings is home to a vast, cross-format database of published music. If your relative played tea-chest bass on a one-off 45 by some forgotten skiffle band, you may be able to find a catalogue number, release details and a rough value. LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA  w lso.co.uk/orchestra/history/ about-the-lsoarchive.html Find out more about the LSO’s archive, which includes bound volumes of programmes, minute books, photographs and attendance sheets. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND  w nls.uk/collections/british/theatres This database gives access to programmes, playbills and posters from theatres and venues back to the 19th century. NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC  w archives.nyphil.org/performancehistory/ #program This is an exhaustive performance archive for the orchestra, dating back to its debut in 1842. PROMS PERFORMANCE ARCHIVE  w bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3SsklRvCSPvf Hr13wgz6HCJ/proms-performance-archive Track down…

You will see “commercial traveller”, or one of its many variants, in the occupation column of the census, but remember that on census night a commercial traveller would be more likely to be in a hotel or lodging house than at home. Commercial travellers were a branch of the company for which they worked, and their contact details were included in advertisements in trade magazines. Willing’s British and Irish Press Guide (which you should find in a county library) will supply the name and date of the relevant trade magazine. In addition, the Royal Commercial Travellers’ Schools in Pinner, Harrow, educated the children of impoverished commercial travellers and orphans between 1847 and 1967. Among the resources at royalcommercialtravellers schools.org.uk are a timeline, photographs and memorabilia, while the schools’ surviving records are…

Drums were used on the Napoleonic battlefields to convey tactical commands during the din of battle to infantry soldiers fighting in tightly controlled formations, with different drum rolls indicating specific actions or manoeuvres. Therefore the appointment of drummer was an important one, and the post attracted higher pay. Another, rather unpleasant, duty was the administration of corporal punishment. A flogging would be delivered to the unfortunate offender by a drummer, the strokes inflicted at the tap of a drum beaten in slow time. The uniform of the drummer was essentially that of his regiment, although during the late 18th and early 19th centuries they wore reversed colours: a coat of facing colour and facings (cuffs, collars and sometimes epaulets) of scarlet. Such a distinction was to show soldiers the location…

BOOKS Redcoat: the British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket Richard Holmes HarperCollins, 2002 Learn what life was really like for the British soldier during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in this book from the author of The Age of Wonders. Tracing Your Army Ancestors, 3rd Edition Simon Fowler Pen and Sword, 2017 This guide to researching forebears who served in the British Army assumes no prior knowledge. MUSEUM THE NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM a Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HT t 020 7730 0717 w nam.ac.uk The NAM is the leading authority on the British Army, with Napoleonic Wars-related exhibits, talks by experts and other events. WEBSITES THE NAPOLEON SERIES w napoleon-series.org This website offers a wealth of information and resources produced by experts in…

1800 REGICIDE FOILED IN DRURY LANE George III survived an assassination attempt while at the theatre on 15 May 1800. The audience had taken their seats at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, when the king arrived in his royal box. As they stood to sing God Save the King, former soldier James Hadfield climbed on a seat and fired a pistol at the monarch. Luckily for George, a man sitting near Hadfield had seen his intention. He knocked the would-be assassin’s hand aside, disturbing his shot and the bullet lodged in a pillar of the royal box. The shooter was immediately apprehended. Michael Kelly, the theatre’s musical director, said: “Never shall I forget His Majesty’s coolness – the whole audience was in an uproar. On hearing the report of the…

CENSUS RETURNS w freecen.org.uk FreeCEN has 340,901 Cornish returns from 1841; 354,744 from 1851; 362,111 from 1861; 358,043 from 1871; 326,187 from 1881; and 318,637 returns from 1891. PARISH REGISTERS w familysearch. org/search/collection/ 1769414 Search images of a range of Cornish parish registers (1538–2010). NEWSPAPER STORIES w sites.rootsweb.com/~wbritonad Browse BMDs, news reports, court cases, notices, absconded apprentices and coroner’s inquests from the West Briton, launched in 1810. TRANSCRIPTIONS w bit.ly/internet-arch-cornwall This page of the Internet Archive leads to various volumes of parish register transcriptions and indexes that are now out of copyright and free to download. You can also search for a Calendar of Wills and Administrations Relating to the Counties of Devon and Cornwall, Proved in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Exeter, 1532–1800. BMDS w cornwall-opc-database.org Click…

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Jad Adams’ lead story in the Summer issue’s Behind the Headlines section (‘1793: France declares war on Britain’) reminded me of my late, much loved, grandmother. No, that was not the year of her death or birth! Gran was born in Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire, and it was while reading the parish records on microfilm at the local Family History Centre, some eight years ago now, that I came across Rector Charles Francis. He annotates his entries with a synopsis of the year’s more momentous events. They give fascinating glimpses of history, and the views of ordinary people. The item you reminded me of is on Ancestry (page 25 of the register at bit.ly/anc-dulcis): “The preceding year, 1798, has been marked by events, that evince the extreme Nefariousness of French Treachery,…

Volunteers from around the world are invited to help uncover the lives of women and children in 19th-century Canterbury, New Zealand, using online transcription. The project is based around the GR Macdonald Dictionary of Canterbury Biography, a collection of more than 12,000 handwritten records with information on 22,000 people compiled between 1952 and 1964 (collection. canterburymuseum.com/highlights/17/objects?limit=25). The dictionary is a crucial guide to the lives of early Canterbury residents, but most of the entries are organised by male heads of household, with women and children only mentioned as their dependants. In order to make the women and children more findable, Canterbury Museum and the University of Canterbury’s Digital Arts Lab are asking volunteers to transcribe their names from the original records using crowdsourcing website Zooniverse (bit.ly/zooniverse-canterbury).…

The National Archives (TNA) in Kew has launched a new strategy. ‘Archives for Everyone 2019–23’ states that “the defining features of the 21st century national archive” are that it is inclusive, entrepreneurial and disruptive. It adds that over the next four years the organisation will “change the culture and approach of The National Archives so that in all we do we better reflect and represent the society we serve”. Other commitments involve creating public events, including around the online launch of the 1921 census in 2022, and new physical and online spaces to explore TNA’s collections. TNA has also unveiled a new logo (above), inspired by TNA’s architecture; the grid-like structure of record slips and boxes of documents; and the stamp marking TNA documents.…

AncestryDNA, the world’s largest DNA-testing company, has unveiled an updated service offering more precise UK ethnicity results. The company has increased the number of its UK Genetic Communities from 18 to 73. AncestryDNA’s results reveal customers’ ethnicity within the past 1,000 years. The Genetic Communities technology then analyses their origins in the past 300 years, and matches them to other users who they share DNA with. It reveals where their ancestors lived, and the migration paths that they followed. In the UK, the results can be broken down to county-level. The results can also be cross-referenced with the company’s collections of family history records. Genetic genealogy expert Debbie Kennett praised the new tool, telling Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine: “If you already know your ancestry, I think it…

Do you ever pore over an ancestry chart and think about how extraordinary – indeed, even miraculous – it is that all of those people and their partners came together over the decades and centuries, and the eventual result was you? Looking at a list of my 16 great great grandparents and musing on who they were and what I know about them (in some cases a huge amount; for others, nothing other than dates), I wondered exactly how they met. They are a very diverse lot, those eight couples each of whom contributed (in un-DNA terminology) 6.25 per cent of me. That’s an interesting place to start – couples. Out of the eight pairs, only one was unmarried. That isn’t unusual – it’s about right for illegitimacy rates in…

ARCHIVES THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES a Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU t 020 8876 3444 w nationalarchives.gov.uk There are plenty of online research guides covering a wide range of topics, and you can talk to an advisor online during the archives’ opening hours. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES a Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3BU t 01970 632800 w library.wales If you have Welsh kin, then check out the free resources available online here including Welsh newspapers and wills. SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS a 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA t 020 7490 8911 w sog.org.uk The society runs a telephone advice service on Thursday (6pm–7.45pm) and Saturday (11am–1pm and 2pm–4pm). WEBSITES GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE  w www.gro.gov.uk Search birth and death indexes, and order BMD certificates. SCOTTISH RESEARCH GUIDES w nrscotland.gov.uk/research /guides/a-z Pick…

What did my grandfather do in the Merchant Navy? Q I have been trying to find out about the Merchant Navy career of my grandfather Frederick Siddle – particularly during the Second World War. He was from Hull and worked for Ellerman’s Wilson, but never really spoke about his life at sea. I know he was on convoys across the Atlantic during the war, and was torpedoed. I’d like to find out if he has any war records, and about his subsequent career. Could you point me in the right direction? David Hammond A You should start by contacting Hull University Archives, which holds all surviving Ellerman’s Wilson company records (bit.ly/ EllermansWilsonLine). This includes personnel records for officers and some cadets (trainee officers). You may find almost everything you need…

How did my ancestor maintain her lifestyle with no income? Q My ancestor Eleanor Coulthwaite, a husbandman’s daughter, was born in Burtonin-Kendal in 1811. She turns up in London in 1841, where she is described as ‘Ind’ (of independent means) – as she is on subsequent censuses. Eleanor had a daughter in 1843, who died aged seven. On her daughter’s birth certificate, Eleanor claimed she was married to a gentleman named William Coulthwaite (she wasn’t) and used her mother’s maiden name, Curwen. On the 1851 census, she said she was a widow. By 1859, she appears to have married a Philip Calthorpe, but he was dead by 1861, as she was again a widow on that census. I can’t find any marriages for Eleanor. I know that the first one…

Turbulent news in British politics is nothing new – and for centuries the Parliamentary Archives has been the repository for records of our nation’s history. In 1819 Britain was shocked by the attack on democracy protesters known as the Peterloo Massacre (see page 70). Now, 200 years on, we spoke to parliamentary archivist Penny McMahon about some petitions that shed light on the tragedy. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE DOCUMENTS? They are 71 printed petitions, asking for an inquiry into the Manchester Meeting, which was another name for the Peterloo Massacre. The petitions were presented to the House of Commons on 15 May 1821. The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, on 16 August 1819, when approximately 60,000 men, women and children gathered to listen to Henry Hunt…

BOOKS Historical Research Using British Newspapers Denise Bates Pen & Sword, 2016 This guide to making the most of digitised historical newspapers has advice on collating, analysing and interpreting information. A History of the London Gazette, 1665–1965 PM Handover Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1965 This is the standard work on the evolution of The Gazette. It’s long out of print, but you can buy a copy via abebooks.co.uk. DVD-ROM War Gazettes 1914–1919 Naval & Military Press This DVD-Rom contains every gazetted British gallantry award, order, medal and decoration given for service during the war, although it only works on Windows computers. Order from naval-military-press.com . WEBSITES 350 Years of The Gazette  thegazette.co.uk/ all-notices/content/378 See The Gazette’s history in a two-minute video. Iris Oifigiúil  irisoifigiuil.ie Issues of the former Dublin Gazette…

Tracking down an ancestor’s final resting place provides a fitting finale to their life. Finding this information, never mind visiting the grave, can be a challenge, which is where websites like billiongraves.com and findagrave.com (see Tech Tips, January 2019) come in. Each provides an ever-growing database of information about the burial places of people in cemeteries across the world. These databases rely on volunteers to give up their time, visit local cemeteries then photograph and (if possible) transcribe the headstones for others to follow in their path. If you’ve found one of your ancestors on BillionGraves, then why not repay the favour? In this tutorial we’re going to focus on contributing headstones to the BillionGraves website using its beautifully designed mobile app. We’re using the iOS version, but you can…

1 HEADER The top of the document states the regiment (the 3rd Garrison Battalion) and commanding officer (Lieutenant-General P Hodgson) at the time of the soldier’s discharge. 2 AGE AND ENLISTMENT Here you can find details of the soldier’s place of birth, place and date of enlistment, age at joining, and term of service. 3 SERVICE This confirms how long the soldier served in the British Army, in years and days, after the age of 18. 4 CAUSE OF DISCHARGE This section reveals why the soldier was discharged or invalided, for example because of wounds he had received in battle. 5 DESCRIPTION The soldier’s age and height, and the colour of his complexion, eyes and hair, are given here. Note that his civilian trade is also mentioned in this section.…

Sometimes a brick wall can have us stumped for decades and all we need is the tiniest scrap of new information, or to look at things in a slightly different way, to find the evidence required to overcome it. The General Register Office (GRO) indexes can yield all sorts of clues, but the fact that our ancestors’ names may have been written or transcribed in a variety of ways means you may have to be quite creative with your searches. And as Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine reader Tracey Hillon discovered when she was researching her husband’s great uncle in the records, less can sometimes be definitely more. MY BRICK WALL I started my family tree in 2008, fortunately when most of my parents’ generation were still alive…

Mary Fildes, president of the Manchester Female Reform Society, is one of the unsung heroines of Peterloo. We see her in all of the depictions of the Massacre, stood next to Henry Hunt holding aloft a flag. Yet her life beyond that historic moment is little known. Journalist Richard Carlile, who watched Fildes on the hustings, compared her to Joan of Arc, a fitting tribute to a woman who leapt off the platform and endured blows from police truncheons as she fought attempts to wrench the flag from her grasp. The flag allegedly ended up on display at a shop in New Cross, triggering riots soon after the Massacre. For two weeks Fildes was obliged to hide to avoid arrest. Yet this did not stop her. She remained actively involved…

Cornwall’s county archive closed last autumn, and it’s been a long 12 months for Cornish researchers. But now, almost one year on, its state-of-the-art replacement Kresen Kernow is about to open. This secures the long-term preservation of local treasures, such as a colourful, gold-leaf grant of land from Elizabeth I, created after she confiscated land from a family to punish them for being Catholics, and a fabulously detailed map of West Down, Cardinham, from 1566 – believed to be the oldest map held here – originally drawn up to resolve a legal dispute. MULTIMILLION-POUND PROJECT Work started on the £16.6 million Kresen Kernow project in November 2016 – £11.7 million came from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the largest grant ever made for an archive centre, while Cornwall Council paid…

ALL THINGS GEORGIAN TALES FROM THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY JOANNE MAJOR AND SARAH MURDEN Pen & Sword, 170 pages, £25 This collection of true stories gathered from roughly 1695–1830 is illustrated so beautifully that it is worth buying just for the pictures. In 25 short chapters Joanne Major and Sarah Murden, creators of the blog allthingsgeorgian. tumblr.com, delve into many aspects of the age, and paint a broad picture of Georgian life. More women than men are featured, of all ranks in society, ranging from royalty to residents of the London slums, and a variety of European locations are present. A zebra and a windmill provide the focus for a couple of chapters. Students of theatrical history are particularly well served, but there are stories of commercial and criminal enterprises,…

What inspired your book? The dark depths of a damp cupboard that contained my grandfather’s war diary, compiled by my grandmother at the end of the First World War, in about 1919. She was the one who took all the documents and letters and things that he had written, put them into rough chronological order and glued them into a handmade album, so it’s a massive great tome. I got it out of the cupboard to show my daughters when they were studying history at school, and on the last occasion I kept it out and started to transcribe it. I realised as I was transcribing the document that there were a number of family secrets coming to light, the first of which was a photograph of my grandfather and…

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Monday 5 August BBC One As former theatrical agent Michael Whitehall points out, as an older father he won’t be around for too much longer to pass on family stories to his comedian son Jack. “I’m going to be ‘phwuitt’ in 10 years’ time,” he says, gesturing taking a blade to his neck. Jack: “What, executed?” It’s just one of many moments when, researching their family history, the duo recreate the onscreen chemistry first seen in the BBC talk show Backchat. It’s research that begins with Jack’s wealthy great grandfather, Richard Ernest Baxter Whitehall, known to the family as ‘REB’, whose money enabled Michael to send his son to public school as a boarder at Marlborough College. Where did REB’s cash come from? The…

MARRIAGE REGISTRATION We were able to locate the 1926 marriage of Olive Durnam and Alfred Gershon, son of Daniel’s maternal great great grandfather Louis Gershon, on familysearch.org. This free site has millions of records from all over the world including Vancouver, Canada, where Alfred and Olive got married. See the image here: bit.ly/fs-gersh. TRADE DIRECTORIES Trade directories list people by occupation in different locations. Many of these can now be found on the main genealogical websites. For example, a London trade directory on ancestry.co.uk from 1900 lists Louis Gershon’s diamond business in Hatton Garden: bit.ly/anc-lndn. 1911 IRISH CENSUS We used Irish census records to trace the paternal side of Daniel’s family. These can be searched and viewed for free on the National Archives of Ireland’s website, census. nationalarchives. ie. We…

NICK BARRATT Nick is well known for his work on the early episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? He’s a passionate advocate of family history, and on page 22 shares plans to encourage collaboration. PAUL BLAKE Having written a book on tracing insolvent ancestors, Paul was the perfect choice to write a masterclass on The Gazette (page 54) where you will find bankrupts and more. JANETTE MARTIN Janette is an archivist at the John Rylands Library in Manchester and has curated an exhibition on Peterloo that runs until the end of September. Read more on page 70.…

FamilySearch adds BTs from Herefordshire A new collection of 594,707 copies of parish records from Herefordshire is now available on free family history website familysearch.org. The collection of Bishops’ Transcripts covers 1583–1898. They were created because of a rule obliging each Church of England parish to create copies of its registers to send to the local bishop. Only transcriptions are available online, although the original images can be viewed at FamilySearch Family History Centres and affiliate libraries. TheGenealogist adds Norfolk parish records More than half a million parish records for Norfolk, covering over 250 parishes, have been added to thegenealogist.co.uk. As well as baptisms, marriages and burials, they also include bastardy bonds. Before the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, parishes were financially responsible for illegitimate children, so often summoned a…

LONDON GOOD RESEARCH TECHNIQUES 3 August a Society of Genealogists, Clerkenwell w sog.org.uk/books-courses/ events-courses/calendar-day/2019/08/03 t 020 7553 3290 Genealogist Celia Heritage explains how family historians can avoid making mistakes and get the most out of the records that they use. £20. THE PETERLOO MASSACRE AT 200 13 August a The National Archives, Kew w bit.ly/peterloonat t 020 8876 3444 This event features talks from historian Jacqueline Riding and George Hay, records specialist at TNA, on the legacy of the Peterloo Massacre. £15. MIDLANDS BUILDING HISTORY 16 August a Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock w bit.ly/buildinghistory t 01629 538347 From maps and plans to census records, and tithes to old photos, discover sources for tracing the history of Derbyshire buildings with this talk. £5.83. NORTHERN IRELAND EASTSIDE ARTS FESTIVAL 1–11 August a…

Barnes Bowie was killed yesterday. Mr Bowie had no family… no brothers, no sisters, no wife, no children,” reported Ontario newspaper the London Evening Free Press on 27 March 1954. But the article was wrong about Barnes’ family. His great niece Ann Bowling has uncovered his early life, the circumstances of his death – and everything in between. ‘I knew nothing about British Home Children, apart from vague newspaper reports ’ Some 15 years ago Ann received one of those emails that invite you to sign up to a website and discover your family history. It was a challenge that Ann, an academic researcher, couldn’t resist. “It was from Genes Reunited [genesreunited.co.uk]. I typed in my parents and myself, and up popped possible document matches. That’s what set me off.”…

A clan is a Gaelic term for children that refers to a group of extended family members, with each clan being seen to ‘belong’ to a specific part of Scotland. The ‘clan’ dates back to the 12th century and is about land ownership. Clan chiefs would control land, and if they expanded their territory, those in that area would swear allegiance to the leader and take on that clan’s name. Those who worked for members of a clan could similarly pledge allegiance to its chief and then use the name themselves. When surnames started to be used, many would take their clan leader’s name as their own surname.…

The whistle that led to a wedding This picture shows my paternal grandparents, Leslie Matson and Doreen Hodgson, on their wedding day. They met when my grandad was working on a roof and saw her walking down the street. He whistled to her, and asked her to meet him in a pub. My grandma went along to meet him, although she took her mum to make sure my grandad was a nice man! Leslie served in the Navy in the Second World War. Strong support My great great grandparents Robert and Esther Monkman were married for over 50 years. White wedding My maternal grandparents , Kathleen Monkman and John (‘Jack’) William Smith, wed in Ravenscar, near Scarborough. William Matson I found this photo of my great great grandad 12 years…

This is another subject where arthurlloyd.co.uk really comes into its own. This excellent website was originally set up by Matthew Lloyd, the great grandson of the Scottish singer, songwriter and variety performer Arthur Lloyd (1839–1904), to celebrate Arthur and his theatrical family. However, it has since developed into a treasure trove covering the wider music hall scene, boasting “over 1,500 pages of information and nearly 15,000 images on the history of music hall and theatre in the UK and Ireland”. The site is very useful for researching travelling musicians or individual venues, and you can read surveys of the performing scene in specific towns and cities. These are listed on two pages – one for London, the other for the rest of Britain and Ireland. So if you go to…

Charles II relocated his court to Oxford to escape the Great Plague in the capital in 1665. Exiled courtiers were so terrified of the disease that they were unwilling to even touch London newspapers for fear of contagion. As a consequence, the king ordered a newspaper to be printed at the University Press. The first issue of The Oxford Gazette was published on 7 November 1665. It was published on Mondays and Thursdays and posted to subscribers. Samuel Pepys, the diarist, described the two-column newspaper as “very pretty, full of newes, and no folly in it”. LAUNCH IN LONDON As the plague in the capital subsided, Charles and his court returned to London, The London Gazette was born, as issue 24. It became the only published newspaper, with all other…

When Joseph Brown started selling drapery goods to tailors in 1858, he was “provided with a complete set of new patterns, and a smart horse and trap” and told to “go and prosper”. “I went out as far as a cold piercing head wind would let me,” he added. This anecdote gives an insight into the determination of the early commercial travellers. Commercial travellers developed along with a century in which there was more and more manufacturing, and more shops selling the goods being made. Another factor was the increase in public wealth from the middle of the 19th century: the public wanted to buy. Travellers sold exclusively to shops, whose owners had previously gone to warehouses to pick up supplies. The rise of the trade of commercial traveller therefore…

Britain has a tradition of maintaining a small army (the two World Wars are notable exceptions). However, the British Army experienced a major expansion during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Numbering a mere 40,000 in 1793, the strength of the regular Army rose to over 250,000 in less than two decades. This level of growth, and the change that accompanied it, was almost as dramatic as the wars themselves. A HARD LIFE An ordinary soldier’s life was one of strict discipline (flogging was common), poor diet (low-quality meat and potatoes eked out with bread) and meagre pay. Many enlisted as a desperate last resort to escape something in civilian life, leading the Duke of Wellington to famously remark: “Some of our men enlist for having got bastard children –…

1 On the GRO’s homepage, select the ‘Order certificates online’ option. On the next page, click on ‘Search the GRO historical birth and death indexes and order certificates/PDFs online’, then log in or register if you are new to the site. From here you can search birth or death indexes (marriage indexes can be searched at freebmd.org.uk). 2 Input the details you have about an individual into the search fields. Using the GRO indexes, you can search for births by inputting the mother’s maiden name. Enter the surname, sex and year of registration, plus the mother’s name to discover siblings. Choose the wildcard options for maiden name to widen your net. 3 To order a certificate, select the entry that you want from the list of results and click on…

BOOKS Peterloo: The English Uprising Robert Poole Oxford University Press, 2019 This book from the undisputed authority on the Massacre includes new evidence and new interpretations. Peterloo: Voices, Sabres and Silence Graham Phythian History Press, 2018 This very readable account includes many primary sources. MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY  a 150 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH t 0161 306 0555 w library.manchester.ac.uk/ rylands The library has an extensive collection about the tragedy (see bit.ly/library-peterloo). Its exhibition ‘Peterloo: Manchester’s Fight for Freedom’ runs until 29 September 2019. PEOPLE’S HISTORY MUSEUM a Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER t 0161 838 9190 w phm.org.uk The museum has a permanent exhibition of Peterloo artefacts. WEBSITES BRITISH LIBRARY w bit.ly/bl-peterloo This introduction on the library’s website is well worth reading. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w…

BENNETTS The patronymic form of Bennett is particularly common in the West Country, including Cornwall. CURNOW The ethnic name for someone from Kernow – the Cornish word for Cornwall – is surely the most Cornish surname of all. LAITY This nickname for a loyal or trustworthy person is taken from the Old French word léauté , which means loyalty. LAWRY Almost 70 per cent of all of the Lawry families that were recorded in the 1891 census were living in Cornwall. ODGERS This is the patronymic of Odger, which itself is the Germanic form of Edgar. SPARGO Cornwall had the highest number of Spargo families in 1881; the patriarchs of a fifth of them were stonemasons. TREBILCOCK Trebilcock is a Cornish habitational name. TRELOAR In 1881 one in every five…

PODCAST LETTERS OF LOVE IN WW2 Acast/Apple/Spotify Free Sheffield married couple Cyril and Olga Mowforth were separated when Cyril was called up in the Second World War. This eight-part podcast reveals their story through dramatised readings of their letters, and interviews with their children and grandchildren. APP WHAT WAS HERE? Android/iOS Free East Riding Archives has created an app that turns smartphones or tablets into virtual ‘time machines’. What Was Here? uses historical photos from the archives, plotted onto a Google Maps base map, to show users the history of locations across Yorkshire’s East Riding. You can also donate historic images. WATCH ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF EDINBURGH  bit.ly/edmoonstruck Free To accompany the new exhibition Moonstruck: 500 Years of Mental Health, the RCPE has released a set of recorded lectures…

On Sunday 17 September 1916, an FE2b piloted by Second Lieutenant Lionel Morris, with his observer Captain Tom Rees, was returning from a bombing escort mission when it encountered 20 German aircraft over northern France. Manfred von Richthofen, at the controls of one of them, fixed Morris’s plane in his sights. He would later recall: “He was no beginner, for he knew exactly that his last hour had arrived the moment that I got at the back of him.” Tom was killed during the dogfight. Lionel, though mortally wounded, managed to land the aircraft. He was just 19 – and the first pilot to be shot down by the man who would become known as the Red Baron. Over 100 years later, Jill Bush has written a book about Lionel,…