Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i Who Do You Think You Are?

What were your forebears up to 100 years ago? It’s a question that historian and curator Helen Antrobus asks on page 16 as we turn our thoughts this month to the 1920s. It was such an iconic decade and, as Helen explains, you don’t have to wait for the release of the 1921 census next year to discover more about your family. We also investigate a crime from the 1920s on page 24 with Stephen Wade, who worked as an advisor on the BBC One series Murder, Mystery and My Family. There are plenty of records of major crimes in police archives and, as 100 years pass, those from the 1920s will start to become accessible. Going back another century, Simon Fowler explores a magazine that may reveal details of…

All publicly available Irish civil marriage records are now accessible online after Irish Genealogy (www.irishgenealogy.ie) uploaded records covering 1845–1864. Searchable transcripts of the records, along with images of the original registers, are available for free on the website. Registration of civil weddings held in register offices and non-Catholic church weddings was introduced in Ireland in April 1845. It was extended to the registration of all births, marriages and deaths in January 1864. Irish Genealogy has also added 1919 births, 1944 marriages and 1969 deaths, which became publicly available at the start of 2020 under privacy laws. This means that all open civil records are now available, although 1864–1877 deaths are indexed only. Irish Genealogy is a free family history website run by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.…

LONDON TRACING YOUR WINDRUSH ROOTS – CARIBBEAN ANCESTRY 15 February a Society of Genealogists, Clerkenwell t 020 7553 3290 w bit.ly/sog-windrush In this half-day workshop Adrian Stone, who featured in our Reader Story section in July 2019, introduces the key Caribbean sources. £20. MARRIAGE LAW – DIVORCED, BIGAMIST, BEREAVED & BREACH OF PROMISE 29 February a Society of Genealogists, Clerkenwell t 020 7553 3290 w bit.ly/sog-marriage-law The Society of Genealogists celebrates Leap Day with this day-long course on the history of marriage, including changes in social customs. £40. MIDLANDS CATCHING UP WITH FAMILYSEARCH 29 February a St Peter’s Church Hall, Pedmore e stourbridgegroup@midanc.uk w bit.ly/catch-familysearch Sharon Hintze, former director of the London Family History Center, will share the latest updates from FamilySearch’s free genealogy database. Free to members of Midland…

HOSPITAL AND MATERNITY CLINIC RECORDS Hospital records will be opened throughout the 2020s, giving insight into the fast-changing social landscape – from maternity and birth control, to the support given to disabled servicemen. BRITISH PHONE BOOKS Telephone ownership grew hugely during the decade, and BT’s directories are on ancestry.co.uk. It’s especially interesting to see who is listed as the householder, including a rise in widows and young women. ASYLUMS AND PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS As the 100-year privacy mark passes, we can expect many ex-servicemen to show up in the records of psychiatric hospitals. 1921 CENSUS When the 1921 census is released in 2022, we’ll be able to see how our ancestors were living in the years following the First World War, and benefit from updated information about employment and marriage. TUC…

ARCHIVE THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES a Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU w nationalarchives.gov.uk TNA is the central repository for many records relating to serious crime, and holds the archives of the London Metropolitan Police. Its website includes a range of useful free guides for researching crime. BOOKS Criminal Ancestors David T Hawkings The History Press, 2009 Hawkings’ book is the standard work on criminal archives. The Encyclopaedia of Executions John J Eddleston John Blake, 2012 The author tells the stories of all of the crimes leading to execution between 1900 and 1964. WEBSITES DIGITAL PANOPTICON w digitalpanopticon.org This relatively new site has an assortment of resources on all aspects of prison life and regimes. PRISON HISTORY w prisonhistory.org This is the best starting point for general prison information, and covers all…

What did James get up to during his military service? Q We’re researching the names on the First World War memorial in Wincle, Cheshire. However, we’re a bit stumped by James Davenport, a farmer’s son born on 22 November 1898. The Absent Voters’ List for Wincle shows his regimental number, 148243, in the Lancers, 1st Reserve Cavalry. We can’t find anything else. James’ granddaughters remember him talking about eating curries during the war – perhaps he served in India? Alan Weeks A Your Absent Voters’ Roll shows James serving with 1st Reserve Cavalry Regiment and, subsequently, Home Defence Labour (HDL), a general name for the labour units in the UK. The minimum conscription age was 18, so as James was born in November 1898, he couldn’t be called up until…

I’m stuck on my 5x great grandmother – can you help? Q My 5x great grandparents, John Latham and Esther Peace, were married in 1804 in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Esther was described as “of this parish”. John died in 1815, and shortly afterwards Esther married Daniel Hending. She died in 1823 and the burial register notes her age as 37, so she was born somewhere around 1786. Some ancestry.co.uk trees identify her as the Esther Peace baptised in Church Gresley, Derbyshire, in February 1783, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth. But that Esther was buried in May 1784 in that parish. I can’t find another baptism for an Esther Peace in the area. My dad has DNA connections on Ancestry who link to this family, but not strongly enough to prove that…

The invention of the telegraph transformed the world over the course of the 19th century, and enabled our forebears to send messages across the country or even to another continent in a matter of hours. The patents for this crucial invention are now held in the archives of telecommunications company BT. We recently spoke to David Hay, BT’s head of heritage and archives, about how the documents reveal a world on the cusp of massive technological change. CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE PICTURED DOCUMENT? It’s one of the patents to the world’s first practical telecoms device, the electric telegraph. The patents were awarded to its inventors, William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone, in 1837 and 1838 under the separate patent-registration systems within the UK at the time. The patent…

WEBSITES ANCESTRY w bit.ly/anc-gentlemans Ancestry has a searchable database of material featured in the magazine. However, it is only based on selected extracts between 1731 and 1868, and many names have been omitted. ONLINE BOOKS PAGE w bit.ly/gentle-online This site includes links to free issues online at catalog.hathitrust.org (the most complete collection) and archive.org. WIKIPEDIA w bit.ly/wiki-gentle There is no detailed index to the magazine online, but Wikipedia lists the various indexes available.…

Jewellers were small, artisan businesses, few of which are likely to have left any direct records. However, many were listed in trade directories (bit.ly/directories-counties) or advertised in the press (britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk). If your ancestors sold jewellery to the public, they may have had their own hallmark. The Birmingham Assay Office has a register of all hallmarks issued in the city (theassayoffice. com), while the Goldsmith’s Company has a similar register for London (thegoldsmiths.co. uk ). The registers record the registration date, the location of the shop or workshop, and a description of the mark, sometimes illustrated. Consult the office concerned for access. Also, the library of the Goldsmith’s Company holds a wide range of books and other resources relating to the history of gold- and silversmithing, and jewellery, while findmypast. co.uk…

BOOKS Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records Chris Paton Pen & Sword, 2019 In Chris’ latest book, which was published in November, he explores the records of Scottish civil registration in detail, and reveals how you can access them. Vital Registration GT Bisset-Smith William Green & Sons, 1907 This essential guide from a Scottish registrar can be downloaded for free from the Internet Archive via bit.ly/vital-reg. WEBSITES NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND w nrscotland.gov.uk/ research/guides/a-z The NRS’s website offers detailed guides to everything from adoption records to wills and testaments. SCOTLANDSPEOPLE w scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ guides/record-guides-alphabetical ScotlandsPeople has many detailed guides explaining the types of record registered by the state since 1855. UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW’ w gla.ac.uk The university’s site includes Scottish Way of Birth and Death, a comprehensive guide…

1877 BIRTH CONTROL ON TRIAL The right to knowledge about birth control was in the dock when reformers fell foul of the law. This year Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh were charged under the Obscene Publications Act for publishing practical information on how to the limit the number of children born to a woman. Besant was married to a clergyman, but had separated from him over her radical religious and political views. She became close friends with Charles Bradlaugh who led the National Secular Society, which argued for the separation of Church and State. Their newspaper the National Reformer urged an end to restrictions based on religious beliefs. Both were spellbinding speakers who could fill halls with their message of ‘free thought’. ‘It was better to prevent birth than…

MANUFACTURERS’ RECORDS  w themintonarchive.org. uk The Minton Archive includes records from many other companies as well as NAME INDEXES  w staffsnameindexes.org. uk Search indexes to various resources, such as records of quarter sessions. DIRECTORIES  w bit.ly/special-staffs The University of Leicester’s Special Collections Online site includes 29 searchable Staffordshire directories from the 19th and early 20th centuries. PHOTOGRAPHS w staffspasttrack.org.uk This site has collections from museums, archives and the public, together with historical maps. CHURCH RECORDS  w bit.ly/fs-staffs Browse banns, baptisms, burials and marriages (1538–1944) on family search.org . The index is available via findmypast. co.uk. VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY  w british-history.ac.uk/ search/series/vch--staffs Explore seven of the 14 Victoria County History volumes focusing on Staffordshire.…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES BIRMINGHAM ARCHDIOCESAN ARCHIVES  a Cathedral House, St Chad’s Queensway, Birmingham B4 6EU t 0121 230 6252 e archives@rc-birmingham.org w birminghamarchdiocesan archives.org.uk This repository for all parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham covers the ancient counties of Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, and is open Thursday and Friday 8am–4pm by appointment only. BIRMINGHAM ARCHIVES AND HERITAGE  a Wolfson Centre for Archival Research, Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2ND t 0121 242 4242 e enquiries@libraryof birmingham.com w birmingham.gov.uk/archives The archive looks after Anglican and nonconformist registers, court/coroner’s records, the Warwickshire Photographic Survey, wills, newspapers, trade directories, maps and holdings relating to the city’s industries. DUDLEY ARCHIVES AND LOCAL HISTORY CENTRE  a Tipton Road, Dudley DY1 4SQ t 01384 812770 e archives.centre@dudley.gov.uk w www.dudley.gov.uk/archives…

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As a child I saw a paper bag in my mother’s wardrobe full of letters and papers, but never knew what they were. Our only interest was in the old stamps on the envelopes, which we ripped off to add to our growing stamp collections. Dad died in 1990, and when Mum died in 2003 I took the crumpled bag of letters home not knowing what else to do with them, but certain that they must be kept safe. I joined ancestry.co.uk in 2008 with the bare bones of a family tree, and the search began. Over the years my tree has grown, but it has been a struggle without anyone to ask. This year I decided that the letters needed to be conserved, and not left in that crumpled…

The Ministry of Defence is appealing for relatives of a First World War soldier to take part in DNA testing to help identify his remains. They are searching for family of Private Frank Convery, 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, service number 12935. Private Convery was killed on 15 October 1917 near Beselare, Belgium, at the Battle of Passchendaele. His parents were Francis Convery and Ellen Hollywood, and he had two siblings: John (born 1876) and Ann (born 1881). The family lived in the Durham area. Relatives descended from Private Convery’s mother or his sister are needed to test his mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down via the female line. An identification will allow him to be buried under his real name. If you have any information, please email DBS-MODWarDetectives@mod.gov.uk.…

19 February 1907 Local people rescue herrings Two herring boats at Kirkcaldy in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland, got into trouble when they docked after returning with their catch. As the tide receded the boats began to keel over, and their load of herrings was pitched into the sea. The Fraserburgh Herald and Northern Counties’ Advertiser reports that “a crowd of men, women, and children went to the beach” to try to rescue the catch – despite the interference of hungry gulls.…

OPEN DAY AT LANCASHIRE ARCHIVES 1 March a Lancashire Record Office, Preston t 01772 533039 w bit.ly/lancs-arch-open-day The staff of Lancashire Archives would love members of the family history community to join them in celebrating the service’s 80th birthday. This open day will feature surgery sessions from Preston Family History Society, giving you the chance to discuss your brick walls. In addition, there will be appearances from other local history organisations including the Lancashire Local History Federation and West Yorkshire Archive Service; case studies on the family history of local celebrities, including John Inman and Eric Morecambe; advice on the library’s online resources; and displays of objects from the archive’s family and estate collections. Our columnist Alan Crosby (see page 15) will be there throughout the day, and attendees will…

1921 The census is taken, the first since the First World War. It reflects the major cultural and political changes that have happened since the 1911 census. 1922 After years of conflict, the Partition of Ireland takes place in December, and the Irish Free State is established. Six counties (Northern Ireland) remain part of the UK. 1922 The British Broadcasting Company (subsequently changed to Corporation) is formed, giving the British access to news and culture as a public service. 1924 The first Labour government is formed under Ramsay MacDonald as prime minister. This turbulent time sees three general elections take place in only two years. 1926 In the General Strike more than one million workers go on strike on 3 May, supported by the Trades Union Congress, because of a…

MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES PEOPLE’S HISTORY MUSEUM a Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER t 0161 838 9190 w phm.org.uk The vast collections at this museum – one of the few focusing on the history of the working class and the battle for democracy – include the archive of the Labour Party, and contain a wealth of information and documentation about the 1924 and 1929 general elections, the 1926 General Strike, and the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement. RICHMOND BARRACKS a Off Bulfin Road, Inchicore, Dublin 8, Ireland e info@richmondbarracks.ie t +353 1 222 8400 w richmondbarracks.ie This exhibition centre in the Irish capital is dedicated to the history of the Easter Rising, 1916 and the conflict that shaped Irish history. WEBSITES THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w bit.ly/tna-twenties TNA’s website has a range…

Standing outside an isolated croft on Tresta Voe, an inlet on the Shetland Islands, Ann Bianchi and her brother Ian Elliott feel a strong sense of connection with their grandfather. This haven was the daily vista of George Taylor Harrison, who was born at Tresta in 1894. “George died in 1939, so we didn’t get to know him and hear about his island childhood firsthand,” Ann explains. “He was the youngest in the family from a second marriage, and was known by the Shetland diminutive of George: Dodie.” The stories came from Ann and Ian’s mother Dorothy Harrison, who told them that George left Shetland to become a sailor and never returned to the islands. ‘The Navy brothers during served the First in World the Merchant War’ Dorothy had been…

Make the most of the available tools to help you interpret your autosomal DNA matches. When reviewing your AncestryDNA matches, click on the little ‘I’ symbol next to the text showing how much DNA you share with your match. This brings up a list of possible relationships and their probabilities, based on up-to-date computer simulations from Ancestry. You can also perform a similar exercise using the Shared cM tool on the DNA Painter website: dnapainter.com/tools/shared cmv4. DNA Painter uses an older version of the simulations, but incorporates averages and ranges from the crowdsourced Shared cM Project.…

What does this picture reveal about this man’s military service? Q I found this photo among my late aunt’s things. There is no indication of who it could be, but I wondered if it was her father because I know he was in the Army before he married her mother. Can you give me any information about the man in the picture? Robert James A This is a studio photograph of a private in the 4th Hussars, taken around 1910 or 1911 in Colchester. He’s already served at least two years, and is a qualified marksman. He’s seen no active service as he wears no medals, but only a few men from 4th Hussars served in the Boer War, attached to other units – and he looks too young. A…

Parasol portrait My grandma Elsie O’Brien (left) with her sister Ida (right) and their stepmother Mabel Hankinson. Proud parents Here my great grandfather Albert Littlewood and his wife Edith are at their son Percy’s wedding. A sweet link We think my great grandmother Caroline O’Brien was related to the Manchester Bradburns of Eccles cakes fame. The search for shade My great uncle Leslie O’Brien served in modern-day Iraq with the Inland Water Transport as part of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force in 1918. You can see him here sheltering from the Sun. Behatted in Huddersfield My great uncle John Ackerley O’Brien (left) and his brother my great grandfather James O’Brien both enjoyed long and distinguished careers within the Co-operative Society. An artistic legacy My great uncle James Hadcock O’Brien (here with…

The Romany and Traveller Family History Society (RTFHS; rtfhs.org.uk) was founded in 1994 for researchers with Romany Gypsy, Traveller and fairground roots. The website is not only a useful starting point for genealogical researchers, but also a hub of information for anyone interested in these communities. There are various research guides, as well as descriptions of important archival collections across the UK, many of which reside in university libraries and museums. There are details of society publications too, including the quarterly journal Romany Routes and specialist titles such as A Surrey Gypsy Bibliography, and non-RTFHS volumes such as My Ancestors Were Gypsies which is published by the Society of Genealogists. There are several free indexes available as well, including the UK-wide baptism/birth, marriage and burial/death indexes. The former includes extracts…

From the 1730s to the 1830s the Gentleman’s Magazine provides us with an excellent way of confirming the births, marriages and deaths of middle-class and aristocratic families. The title also offers a fascinating insight into the world of 200–250 years ago. It was the first journal to be recognisably a modern magazine with a variety of articles on different subjects. The original intention of its founder, the journalist Edward Cave, was to summarise the daily and weekly newspapers circulating in London “as a method much better calculated to preserve those things that are curious”, much as Reader’s Digest and The Week do today. The magazine became an instant success when it launched in 1731, and over time more and more original material appeared within its pages, although much was dull…

The origins of jewellery as an industry can be traced to about 1660. Charles II brought back fancy necklaces, buttons and shoe buckles on his return from exile in France, and these began to be copied by British craftsmen. With the rise of an affluent middle class, demand for jewellery continued to grow throughout the 18th century. The Victorian period brought a huge proliferation in styles, products and techniques. While ‘proper’ jewellers worked with precious stones, jewellery production involved many different trades and skills. Workers would specialise, for example as diamond cutters, stone setters, engravers or polishers; others worked as goldsmiths and silversmiths. One craftsman would seldom work on a piece from start to finish. This need to access complementary expertise encouraged many of the highly skilled artisans to work…

The Who Do You Think You Are? app for iPhone and iPad offers a convenient way to purchase and access digital copies of the magazine through your Apple device. We took a general look at using the app to browse, preview and purchase both individual issues and subscriptions in the November 2018 issue, but since then the app has evolved significantly and become even more useful. Thanks to the introduction of a new search tool, you can now use the app to search for articles and content across the entire magazine from the April 2012 issue onwards. No more flipping through pages, or fruitlessly scanning for content. Better still, thanks to the app’s support for bookmarks, you can ‘favourite’ useful articles to make them easier to retrieve later. The step-by-step…

Scotland’s first registrar general was Edinburgh-born William Pitt Dundas, who was appointed to the role in September 1854 as well as to the new position of deputy clerk register for Scotland. In 1853 Pitt had previously been made deputy keeper of the privy seal of Scotland. In establishing the new registration system, Pitt oversaw the transmission of Church of Scotland parish registers prior to 1820 to the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), and further records (1820–1855) to local registration offices, with the state church’s volumes deemed to be public records. On his watch a Register of Neglected Entries was created to allow unrecorded births from 1800 to 1854 to be registered with the state, and also a Register of Corrected Entries, into which corrections for birth, marriage and death…

Tracing your ancestry back to medieval times can be relatively straightforward if you have a ‘gateway’ ancestor, usually a member of the nobility or aristocracy. However, Tim Burrell’s route back to the Middle Ages has taken 40 years of research, which he carried out with his wife Margaret. The couple began researching the family tree in the 1970s, visiting the record office at St Catherine’s House on Kingsway in London. It has been a true labour of love and Tim would like to dedicate this article to Margaret, whom he lost in 2019. MY BRICK WALL My 2x great grandfather was the wonderfully named Lieutenant George Augustus Patterson Brady. I was intrigued to discover via census returns that he was born in Bombay, East India, c1824. So Margaret and I…

Benjamin Waugh, the driving force behind the late-19th-century campaign for child welfare, was born in Yorkshire in 1839. At a young age he was struck by how harshly children could be treated by the law. From the mid-1860s, while working as a minister in the slums of Greenwich, he saw on a daily basis the problems of chronic poverty. Through his congregational church he organised a day nursery for working mothers, and a society to relieve temporary poverty and sickness. In 1870, he was elected to the local school board, where he met parents who refused to educate their children. In 1873 Waugh wrote The Gaol Cradle , arguing that there should be separate juvenile courts and that young offenders should be punished separately from adults. Waugh died in 1908,…

Staffordshire’s archival collections include unique items stretching back more than 1,000 years. Indeed one of the most precious documents preserved at the county headquarters in Stafford is a royal confirmation signed by Æthelred II, better known as Æthelred the Unready. It grants extensive estates to a Mercian nobleman named Wulfric Spot in order to help found Burton Abbey (c1004). The witnesses listed include the king’s sons, both archbishops, 10 bishops and 12 abbots, as well as the numerous ealdormen and thegns who were gathered at the royal court, perhaps for Easter or Christmas. ‘At one time about 4,000 bottle kilns dominated the landscape’ Jump forward five centuries and one of the first registers to survive comes from Alrewas, a village and civil parish in the Lichfield district of Staffordshire. Entitled…

LADIES CAN’T CLIMB LADDERS THE PIONEERING ADVENTURES OF THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL WOMEN JANE ROBINSON Doubleday, 368 pages, £20 Until relatively recently, being a woman was a handicap to entering most professions. Family opposition and a lack of available training contributed to the intentional barriers and prejudices existing in traditionally male spheres. In this book Jane Robinson describes the struggle of pioneering women, and outlines some of the difficulties your female ancestors would have to overcome to practise in a career of their choice. Women had been making attempts at breaking into the professions for decades, most notably Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, who was the first to gain a licence from the Society of Apothecaries in 1865 which qualified her to work as a doctor; and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first British-born woman…

APP THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH PLACES  iOS/Android Free, or £1.99 for a one-month subscription/£9.99 for an annual subscription This new app from Victoria County History allows you to explore the history of almost 14,000 places in England. In the free version you can navigate the first-ever edition of the Ordnance Survey map, while the subscription version includes detailed historical information. The app can present the nearest 10 places to your location, and you can easily bookmark your favourite places. PODCAST AMATEUR FAMILY HISTORY  amateurfamilyhistory.com plus podcast services Free Genealogist Andy Holmes presents this “homemade podcast about the practicalities of family history research in the UK”. There are 14 episodes so far, featuring advice on topics including the 1939 Register, wills and probate, parish records and DNA testing. WEBSITE LEGACY FAMILY TREE…

MARRIAGE RECORD Ancestry has placed many church marriage records from around the country online. This saves the time and expense of ordering civil marriage records from the General Register Office, because they provide the same information. We located Edward’s marriage to Ellen Anson on 8 August 1893 at bit.ly/anc-rec-wright. NEWSPAPER ARTICLE We searched british newspaperarchive. co.uk to find any record of Edward, whose work involved moving goods from London’s docks, and had a large family to support. We discovered many reports of his brushes with the law on numerous charges of theft, including “stealing three cart loads of stock bricks, value £7 10s” on 21 July 1898 in Barking: bit.ly/bna-wright. PASSENGER RECORD Mark was able to shed some light on the family rumour of Edward going to the USA to…

There was a hint of snow in the air on 6 February 1881 when Cain Mayer left his wife Ellen and their large family at home, and set off to begin his night shift at Chatterley Whitfield Colliery in Staffordshire. Cain was Ann Simcock’s 2x great grandfather. “He’s the first ancestor who I feel that I’ve really got to know,” Ann explains, “and his is such a tragic story.” ‘As the flames took hold, the colliery manager Edward Thompson refused to let the men return to the surface’ Ann’s parents and grandparents died before she began researching her family tree. “All I had to work from was a photo that my father had annotated on the reverse. They were his father’s family. “The names seemed so unusual – Cain, Enoch,…

HELEN ANTROBUS Helen works as a curator for the National Trust, and appeared on Michelle Keegan’s episode of WDYTYA?. She shares her love and knowledge of 1920s research on page 16. STEPHEN WADE As an experienced writer on the subject, Stephen shares some of his tips for investigating 20th-century crime on page 24, whether your ancestor was the victim or the perpetrator. DENISE BATES Denise is an author and social historian with a long-standing interest in child welfare. On page 70 she explores how society’s attitudes to children changed over time.…

Paisley Poor Law Indexes get 15,000 more entries Renfrewshire County Council has updated the Paisley Poor Law Indexes, adding 15,000 entries dating from 1930 to 1948. The indexes are taken from records at the Renfrewshire Heritage Centre, and list those who applied to the local parochial board for poverty relief. They are now available at bit.ly/ paisleypoor . They include applicants’ name, age and birthplace; the date; the series and statement number; and name their spouse or parents. TheGenealogist adds Norfolk parish records More than 500,000 Norfolk parish records have been added to family history website thegenealogist.co.uk. They comprise roughly 330,000 baptisms, 100,000 marriages and 95,000 burials, with some dating back to the 16th century, and cover 77 parishes. They include searchable transcriptions and images of the original parish registers,…

The Thomas Cook archive will be preserved at the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland (recordoffice.org.uk). When the travel company went into administration in September, the Business Archives Council (BAC) stepped in to try to find a home for the historically significant collection. Now the archive is in the process of being transferred to the record office in Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, where it will be publicly accessible after being catalogued by staff. Robin Jenkins, senior archivist at Leicestershire County Council, said: “We see the collection as ‘coming home’ to Leicestershire, and we will be delighted to look after it here and promote its use.” The company was founded in Leicester in 1841 by Thomas Cook, who worked as a cabinet-maker. A statue of Cook was unveiled outside Leicester Railway…

The National Archives (TNA) in Kew has announced a six-month trial of new restrictions on the ordering of documents. Under the trial, which will run from 31 March, visitors will be able to order a maximum of 12 documents for the same day, plus up to 12 documents ordered in advance, with a static 24-document limit. New document orders will be delivered at five set times throughout the day. Currently, researchers can order up to three documents at a time for the same day in addition to 12 in advance, with a rolling 24-document limit. Documents are delivered when they become available. Ordering times have also been reduced, from 9.30am–4pm to 9.45am–3.30pm. TNA said that the change to same-day document ordering “concentrates on the busiest user times and provides additional…

CALENDARS OF PRISONERS Some calendars of prisoners are on findmypast.co.uk (up to 1935). Later records are held by The National Archives (HO140 for pre-1971). THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL RECORDS These records are held at The National Archives. University or other specialist libraries may also have printed volumes of transcripts. COURT RECORDS Court records for assizes (pre-1971) will be found at county record offices. Look for depositions that explain the indictments. HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS Search britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk (or findmypast.co.uk if you’re a Pro subscriber) and The Times Digital Archive, available at most libraries or from home using your library card. LICENSES FOR PAROLE An online index of licenses up to 1925 is available at digitalpanopticon. org or visit TNA (PCOM 6) to search to 1948 (men) and 1949 (women). POLICE ARCHIVES These…

ISLAND ANCESTORS w bayanne.info/shetland Tony Gott has created a website with a wealth of records, photographs and histories. It’s an essential guide for people tracing ancestors from Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Moray and Aberdeenshire. MERCHANT SEAMEN OF WARTIME w 1915crewlists.rmg.co.uk The National Archives and the National Maritime Museum have digitised the crew lists for the Merchant Navy for 1915. This essential resource features more than 750,000 names. SHETLAND KITH AND KIN w shetland-fhs.org.uk Connect with other descendants of Shetland families.…

Can you tell me anything about this photo of my unidentified ancestor? Q This ambrotype is one of my favourite family photos, and was most likely taken in south Buckinghamshire. It is in a small case, measuring 6 x 7.5 cm, and I found strands of human hair behind the photo. He looks like such a character – I would dearly love to know more about him. Kevin Standage A This is indeed a collodion positive or ambrotype, as you suggest. Ambrotypes comprise the original glass-plate negative, the image bleached and one side of the glass usually blackened with shellac (lacquer/varnish) to create an apparently positive image. The ambrotype was set into a metal surround and framed, or presented in a folding case, as here. Most, like this example, date…

HOW CAN I USE TRADE DIRECTORIES TO HELP ME TO GROW MY FAMILY TREE? If you hit a brick wall, local street and trade directories are a good way of helping you locate at least the head of a household in the years when you can find no census return – and indeed the years between one census and the next. If you’re equipped with an address from a previous census or other documents (such as civil registration certificates), you may be able to use annual street directories to establish how long a family lived at a particular address. If your ancestor was listed in the trades section and was conducting their business from home, then you should be able to trace any change of abode. You may also find…

EAST MIDLAND GYPSIES w www.patrin.org.uk This website shares stories and traditions from the East Midland Gypsy community. FRIENDS, FAMILIES AND TRAVELLERS w gypsy-traveller.org This charity works to end discrimination against Gypsies, Roma and Travellers. Its website has a section on heritage, including audio recordings. GORDON BOSWELL ROMANY MUSEUM w gordonboswellromanymuseum.co.uk Enjoy a day out in a traditional horse-drawn vardo in the Lincolnshire countryside. The museum is open from Easter to September. GYPSY GENEALOGY w gypsygenealogy.com This informative website wasn’t working properly at time of writing, but you can access a cached version via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine at bit.ly/wayback-gypsy. GYPSY, TRAVELLER AND ROMA COLLECTIONS w bit.ly/leeds-gypsy This page details material held by the Special Collections department at Leeds University, which reaches back to the 16th century. ROBERT DAWSON w…

BOOKS Jewellery Making in Birmingham 1750–1995 Shena Mason Phillimore, 1998 This detailed history of the city’s jewellers and their work is now out of print, but try searching abebooks.co.uk. WEBSITES THE JEWELLERY QUARTER RESEARCH TRUST w jqrt.org The trust’s website provides information on buildings, businesses and cemeteries associated with Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. THE VICTORIAN WEB w victorianweb.org/art/design/ jewelry/index.html This great resource includes an illustrated overview of jewellery styles and techniques from the Victorian period. MIKE SHARPE is a genealogist and author. His books include Tracing Your Birmingham Ancestors: A Guide for Family and Local Historians (Pen & Sword, 2015)…

1 SEPARATE SEARCH SCREENS The site offers separate search screens for birth, marriage and death records, with search fields including surname, forename, year range, county and registration district. 2 CORRECTED ENTRIES There may be corrected entries available in addition to the original images. In this example you can see a note to that effect in the left-hand margin of the first death entry. 3 SEE THE CORRECTION The blue text reading “View 1st correction” is a hyperlink. Just click the text to be taken to the relevant addition contained in the Register of Corrected Entries.…

ARCHIVE Note that many organisations with records about child welfare do not make them publicly available because they contain sensitive personal details. Such records remain closed for at least 100 years. LIVERPOOL RECORD OFFICE  a 3rd Floor, Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EW t 0151 233 3069 w liverpool.gov.uk/libraries The office holds the records of the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1883–1957. BOOK A History of Adoption in England and Wales 1850–1961 Gill Rossini Pen & Sword, 2014 Many vulnerable children have benefited from adoption. MUSEUMS THE FOUNDLING MUSEUM a 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ t 020 7841 3600 w foundlingmuseum.org.uk In 1739 Thomas Coram set up the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity, to care for babies who were at risk…

1709 Lexicographer Samuel Johnson is born in Lichfield. 1712 The first practical steam engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen, is erected at the Coneygree Coalworks near Dudley. 1759 Josiah Wedgwood, born to a family of potters in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, sets up his own pottery works. 1777 The Trent and Mersey Canal is completed. It covers 93 miles. 1777 Entrepreneur William Bass founds the Bass Brewery in Burton upon Trent. 1818 Brothers Jeremiah and Charles Chubb found a lock-making business in Wolverhampton. 1830 Thomas Newton creates the first ready-made riding saddle in Walsall. 1840s The vast Shelton Bar steelworks is established in Stoke-on-Trent. 1895 Aeronautical engineer Reginald Joseph Mitchell, creator of the Supermarine Spitfire, is born in Butt Lane, Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. 1910 The federation of Stokeon-Trent is formed by the amalgamation of…

BEARDMORE This habitational name originated in Staffordshire. BLOOR This Blore variant is common throughout the Midlands, particularly in the county of Staffordshire. CADDICK The surname derives from an Anglicised form of the Welsh name Cadog/Cadfael. CARTLIDGE More than half of all of the Cartlidges recorded in the 1891 census were residing in Staffordshire. COLCLOUGH This habitational name comes from Cowclough in Whitworth, Lancashire. EARDLEY This habitational surname derives from Ardley in Oxfordshire. JEAVONS In 1881 Jeavons cropped up most frequently in the Sedgley census district. LEESE While Leeses appear all over Staffordshire, in 1881 Stoke was a particular hotspot with 414 recorded. MYATT This surname derives from the Middle English personal name Myat. POINTON This habitational name has roots in Lincolnshire, Cheshire and Shropshire, and by 1891 was most common…

THE MISSING THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II MICHAEL ROSEN Walker Books, 128 pages, £8.99 The Missing is by Michael Rosen, and it is the true story of the author trying to find out what happened to his great uncles who went missing during the Second World War. In the book there are lots of poems that make you think about how terrible the Holocaust was, and about terrible things happening now. I liked learning how Rosen found out about his uncles. The story is complicated, but luckily Rosen includes a family tree and some maps that help to explain things. I was sad when I learned what the Nazis did to people, because I did not know about it before. The Missing is not just…

What was it like to write the book? In some ways I set out to unearth and restore this whole big experience of what happened to my father during the war, and before it. But as I was doing the research it got more and more complicated and intense. I realised I wasn’t just telling the story of my father, or even the story of the Jewish children who were in Iran, but the story of most Polish Jewish survivors. Most of the 10 per cent of Polish Jewry who survived did so in the Soviet interior, mainly Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and in Iran and Mandatory Palestine and so on, and those places that we don’t usually think about as part of Holocaust history. Was it difficult to research? It…