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

As lockdown continues and we start to adjust to the ‘new normal’, I’m glad we have a hobby that can be enjoyed from home. I find family history, like a good jigsaw puzzle, helps to quieten the mind. Of course, the reason we can do so much from home is thanks to the many transcription and digitisation projects that have happened over the years. Those of you who are getting involved in our weekly lockdown Transcription Tuesdays are helping enormously with that. If you would like to join our family history heroes, you can find out more via our website or sign up to our newsletter. All our features this month cover records that can be found online, but none more so than our lead feature about parish registers on…

The magazine’s editorial team is continuing to work from home during the coronavirus lockdown, and at the moment it’s hard to know what the next day will bring. But one thing we can be sure about is that many of our readers are taking great solace from their favourite hobby at this difficult time. Fortunately, researching our ancestors has never been so easy to do from home, because of the millions of records that have now been digitised and made available on the web. Parish registers are a crucial resource for family historians. Until the introduction of civil registration in 1837, they were the only means of recording births, marriages and deaths. Even afterwards, they are a great resource to find family who are missing from the civil registers, or…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk Last year, Ancestry announced a new partnership with Bristol Archives. Its collections from the city now stand at over 2.3 million 1538–1812 records; over 2.2 million 1813–1918 baptisms; nearly 1.2 million 1754–1935 marriages and banns; almost 370,000 burials from 1813–1994; and more than 400,000 nonconformist records from 1644–1981. For Gloucestershire, there are nearly five million 1538–1813 records, and post-1813, over five million baptisms, nearly 1.5 million marriages and banns, 14,000 confirmations and nearly 825,000 burials. It also has over nine million records for Somerset, over six million for Wiltshire, over 900,000 for Jersey and 339,000 for Cornwall. CORNWALL ONLINE PARISH CLERKS (OPC) w cornwall-opc-database.org/home Cornwall OPC has continued to grow in the past year and now stands at 1,542,198 baptisms; 77,435 banns; 22,323 marriage allegations; 492,157…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk The website has millions of parish records from Derbyshire and Northamptonshire, including 4,138,400 records for Northamptonshire dating from before 1813. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org The site has added millions of Lincolnshire transcriptions. It also has records for Derbyshire, Rutland and Leicestershire. FINDMYPAST £ w findmypast.co.uk Findmypast has a strong collection of digitised parish registers from the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland. It also has Lincolnshire parish registers to browse, covering births and deaths to 1911 and pre-1837 marriages, as well as indexed marriages and licence bonds and allegations, plus access to FamilySearch’s Derbyshire transcriptions, although without the images on FamilySearch. It has transcripts of 14,000 baptisms, 190,000 marriages and 400,000 burials from Northamptonshire Family History Society and over 1.4 million baptisms from Nottinghamshire. JOINER MARRIAGE…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk This site offers the Bishops’ Transcripts that FamilySearch has, which cover Yorkshire too, plus 160,000 marriage bonds and allegations. DURHAM RECORDS ONLINE £ w durhamrecordsonline.com Search 3,864,644 parish and census records from Durham and Northumberland for free. The website is updated regularly, and records are available to view from £1.50 each. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org The site has added 557,993 transcribed parish records for Northumberland. There is also a browse-only collection of 106,352 Durham Diocese Bishops’ Transcripts. FINDMYPAST £ w findmypast.co.uk The website has records from the Durham Bishops’ Transcripts, and has added baptisms from five Northumberland churches plus four in Durham. FREEREG w freereg.org.uk FreeREG continues to increase its coverage of this region, albeit slowly. It now has 653,726 Durham records together with 974,317 for Northumberland.…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk Ancestry has indexes to the NLI Catholic collection. EMERALD ANCESTORS £ w emeraldancestors.com Search over 1.5 million Northern Irish records, including church registers, for free, and subscribe to view the records. FINDMYPAST £ w findmypast.co.uk Visit for indexes and images of NLI’s Catholic registers. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRELAND w registers.nli.ie Access digitised microfilms of registers on an interactive map covering most Catholic parishes in Ireland and Northern Ireland. ROOTSIRELAND £ w rootsireland.ie The website has Catholic and Protestant records from Ireland and Northern Ireland uploaded by family history societies. ULSTER HISTORICAL FOUNDATION w ancestryireland.com The site has almost two million records for Counties Antrim and Down, back to 1660.…

Regular cloud services offer a simple way to both back up your files to the internet and share them with others. Google’s offering, part of Google Drive, stands out because – in theory – it offers unlimited storage for your photos. But there’s a catch. You can’t store them in their original format, but as self-described “high quality” JPEG files to reduce the amount of storage space they take up. In many cases, the drop in quality is barely noticeable, but if you do want to store them at their original resolution, you’ll have to make use of your Google Drive storage – currently 15GB for free users. Once uploaded, some or all of your photos can be shared publicly, or with other family members who also have Google accounts.…

Social media makes it easy to maximise your photographs’ reach while encouraging relations to get involved, because you’re bringing your photo collection to a service that they’re already signed up to. The obvious platform here is Facebook – with more than 2.5 billion users, it’s a safe bet that you can easily reach most of your family here. One approach is to set up a new private group, from which you invite family members, but they need to proactively sign up to access your photos. Another approach is to make use of Facebook’s Lists – this allows you to place people into a specific subset of ‘Friends’, ensuring that your shared photos will always reach them through their timeline. Check out the Resources box for online guides to both approaches.…

Why can’t I find any record of my grandmother’s birth? Q I’m searching for my grandmother’s birth records. On the 1901 census, she is listed as Claresor E Faulkner, laundress, at Rowditch Union Workhouse in Derby, age 26, born Barton & Walton, Derbyshire. She married Thomas Parker on 31 August 1901 as Clarissa Ellen Faulkner, 23 – her father was William Faulkner (deceased). On my mother’s birth certificate, her name is Clarissa Elizabeth. In 1911, she was 33, born Walton, Staffordshire, but the 1939 Register states she was born on 26 February 1871. When she died in 1964, she was 92. Janet O’Regan A I’ve looked through your documents and carried out some searches starting with some of the apparent discrepancies in the information provided. On her children’s birth certificates,…

Q I recently found this old picture in a box of family photos. The photo is far older than any of the others in the box, but I believe that one (or both) of the men is likely to be family. Can you identify the uniforms and a rough date? Candy Smith A Identifying soldiers without badges in monochrome photographs can be difficult, but contrasting shades (or lack of them) in the uniform can be handy. Where the jacket appears paler (ie brighter) and the trousers are dark, this usually means a scarlet jacket and blue trousers. When the uniform is all one colour, this usually means it’s blue. Although some cavalry regiments wore all blue, the largest group of soldiers who did so were the Royal Artillery (RA). These…

The north of England was a powerhouse of textile manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution. The University of Leeds Library’s Business Collection holds a 19th-century wage book from the John Foster and Son textile mill in Bradford which captures the lives of the workforce who made this business boom possible – and reveals how manufacturers adapted to child-labour laws. Engagement librarian Richard High tells us more. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE WAGE BOOK FOR US? It’s roughly foolscap size with about 170 pages laid out as a ledger. For the bulk of the book it’s got between 20 and 60 people, depending on how big the business was at the time, running down the left-hand side, with columns at weekly intervals across the page with the amount paid to each person. However,…

INTERNATIONAL BOMBER COMMAND CENTRE w losses.internationalbcc. co.uk Bomber crews suffered a staggering 46 per cent fatal casualties during operations. This site has a searchable casualty list. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w bit.ly/tna-raf-reports The above address takes you to a TNA web page where you can search surviving combat reports for all types of aircraft by pilot (fighters) or air gunner (bombers), squadron and date. Although downloads usually incur a charge, they are currently free. RAF WEB w rafweb.org/index.html This excellent website has a huge amount of information about the organisation and history of the RAF, including squadrons and stations.…

A good starting point is sheffieldindexers.com, where you will find the apprenticeship registers and a list of freemen from the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire from 1640 to 1814. The website also has links to later trade directories and other documents that might be worth searching. You can try the Sheffield History forum’s genealogy section (sheffieldhistory. co.uk/forums/forum/38-sheffield-genealogy) too, as well as the death and insolvency notices in The London Gazette (thegazette.co.uk). Sheffield Archives has a list of more than 100 cutlery and silverware companies operating in the city in the 19th and 20th centuries. Each entry contains details and locations in the archives of documents and other items relating to the company: bit.ly/sheff-arch-cutlery. Finally, the second edition of Tweedale’s Directory of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers 1740–2013, written by Geoffrey Tweedale and…

BOOKS Caribbeana Vere Langford Oliver Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1910–1919 This huge work is available via the Digital Library of the Caribbean at bit.ly/ digcaribbeana. It’s well worth combing through each of the seven volumes. Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies James H Lawrence-Archer Chatto and Windus, 1875 The great majority of the inscriptions here are from Jamaica. You can download the book for free from the Internet Archive at bit.ly/ arch-west-indies . Tracing Your Caribbean Ancestors, 3rd Edition Guy Grannum Bloomsbury, 2012 This classic guide has an unmatchable description of record classes at The National Archives in Kew. WEBSITE JAMAICAN FAMILY SEARCH w jamaicanfamilysearch. com This site has many indexes and transcriptions that can’t be found elsewhere.…

• Gather as much information as possible from magazines, fellow genealogists, social media and relations. It’s detective work. • Never give up, because you never know where the next lead might come from. For example, I met a lady on holiday in Sri Lanka who came from the same area as my family. She visited local record offices and took me back another three generations with the Johnson family. • Collect at least three pieces of evidence to prove that an ancestor is yours – don’t just make assumptions.…

ARCHIVE THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES  a Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU t 020 8876 3444 w nationalarchives.gov.uk TNA’s online catalogue provides details of sources relating to historical fire services, both held at Kew and elsewhere: bit.ly/ tna-fire . Local record offices are your first port of call for records of local brigades. BOOKS British Steam Fire Engines Ronald Henderson Amberley, 2016 This book has some wonderful vintage photography. A History of the British Fire Service GV Blackstone Routledge, 1957 This title is a useful reference on the development of the service. MUSEUM ESSEX FIRE MUSEUM  a Grays Fire Station, Hogg Lane, Grays, Essex RM17 5QS t 01376 576847 w bit.ly/essex-fire The museum’s website hosts many useful articles. WEBSITES BRITISH PATHÉ ARCHIVE w bit.ly/pathe-fire View a wide range of archive footage including…

Universities could no longer deny them degrees, and professions such as solicitors had to admit women on the same basis as men. They could also be jurors and magistrates. Within hours of the Act becoming law, Helena Normanton applied to Middle Temple, which had previously rejected her, and was accepted. In time she became one of Britain’s first female barristers, in addition to the first woman to lead a prosecution in a trial for murder.…

DIRECTORIES w specialcollections.le.ac. uk/digital/collection/ p16445coll4 Browse street and trade directories for all of Devon and Cornwall, as well as volumes covering smaller areas such as Exeter. PARISH REGISTERS w familysearch.org/search/ collection/1833719 FamilySearch has images of West Devon parish registers (1538–1912) in association with Findmypast. There are also images of Bishops’ Transcripts (1558–1887) filmed at Devon Record Office, and Devon and Cornwall Marriages (1660–1912) based on bonds and allegations from the Diocese of Exeter for marriages that took place in Devon and Cornwall. WILLS w www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/ DevonWillsProject This volunteer-run project provides an index to all known Devon wills, administrations and inventories prior to 1858. MILITIA ASSESSMENTS w foda.org.uk/militia/ documentindex.htm The group Friends of Devon’s Archives has produced some useful indexes, including these militia assessments from 1715. TITHE MAPS w www.devon.gov.uk/ historicenvironment/tithe-map…

WEBSITE ENGLISH HERITAGE ON GOOGLE  artsandculture.google.com/ project/english-heritage Free This resource is perfect for those of us missing trips to country houses – and it will be just as absorbing after lockdown is lifted. English Heritage’s historic sites come to life, with video tours, interviews, close-up looks at artwork, and much more. PODCAST THE MEMORY PALACE  thememorypalace.us Free This award-winning US podcast by broadcaster Nate DiMeo offers an overwhelming collection (162 at the time of writing) of bite-size episodes on every aspect of history. While we’re all taking coronavirus precautions, don’t miss his collection of Stories to Wash Hands By – 20 episodes, each lasting the 20 seconds that we all need to invest to wash our hands properly. WATCH DECLARATION: THE LETTER OF LIBERTY  vimeo.com/401599947 Free This half-hour documentary celebrates…

PETA McCAULEY lives in Ledbury, Herefordshire. She has been researching her family tree for almost 30 years My brother Ian has the unusual middle name of Algar, and had always wanted to know its origin,” explains Peta McCauley. “He shares it with our grandad and uncle, so it must be significant.” Peta had already researched the life of her grandfather Joseph Thomas Algar Jackson, who was born in 1899. “I hadn’t found any Algars, but then I discovered his birth certificate among inherited papers. His mother was Edith Elizabeth Jackson, née Algar!” ‘I wonder if she ever saw him again after placing him in the workhouse’ Edith’s marriage certificate provided more intriguing clues. “Her father’s name was Charles Algar, and his occupation was given as ‘artist’. This was fascinating, because…

Give the gift of family history with our short, no Direct Debit subscription If you have found that researching your family history has been a comfort, then why not share the pleasure with others? For just £13.39 (and no further commitment) you can get the next three issues sent to a friend or family member. That’s 12 weeks of projects, social history, online records and expert tips. Turn to page 44 to find out how to order the perfect lockdown gift and give someone the joy of family history.…

The owner of a new website dedicated to the history of Leicestershire’s regiments during the First World War is hoping that family historians can help him identify his photographs. Andy Garford’s website ww1leicestertigers.com features many fascinating images. One set of photographs shows a family that seems to be a father and eight sons, where two are members of the Leicestershire Yeomanry and the Leicestershire Regiment. Another features a group of four Loughborough men: two territorials, a Leicestershire Yeomanry trooper and a member of the Royal Flying Corps. The site also has pictures of artefacts and medals. If you recognise any of the men pictured, you can contact Andy by emailing andy@ww1leicestertigers.com.…

Family history website ancestry.co.uk has added two Australian military collections. The first collection, ‘ANZAC Memorial, 1914–1918’, contains 22,404 records of members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who died in the First World War. The records include rank, unit and service number, as well as date and cause of death. The second collection, ‘Australia, WWII Second Australian Imperial Forces and Citizen Military Forces Service Records, 1939–1947’, holds 14,405 transcription-only records. The records in this collection include date of birth and place of enlistment for the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army during the Second World War.…

The stories of 48 prisoners of war feature in a new online map that has been produced to mark the 75th anniversary of the Lamsdorf Long March. In January 1945, the German military authorities forcibly marched 21,867 POWs from Stalag VIIIB (344) and its associated work camps in Lamsdorf, Upper Silesia, into central Germany. Many of the men died of starvation, exposure and disease, or were shot by the guards, before they could be rescued by Allied forces. Now the stories of 48 survivors of the march, drawing on personal documents and photographs together with the memories of their families and loved ones, have been added to an online map of the prisoners’ journey available at lamsdorflongmarch.com. The map was created by Dave Lovell OBE from Romsey in Hampshire, former…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk Ancestry is the best site for London thanks to a deal with London Metropolitan Archives. It has over 21 million Church of England baptisms (1813–1917), 13 million marriages and banns (1754–1932) and two million deaths and burials (1813–1917). There are over 17 million more pre-1812 records. Other notable collections include nearly 285,000 nonconformist records (1694–1931), nearly 895,000 clandestine marriages and baptisms (1667–1754), 750,000 marriage bonds and allegations (1597–1921), and transcripts of 132,000 extracted Middlesex parish records. FREEREG w freereg.org.uk FreeREG’s City of London holdings have grown since last year, bringing the total to 137,086 baptisms, 198,586 burials and 93,340 marriages. The Middlesex records stand steady at 138,216 baptisms, 181,083 burials and 230,960 marriages. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org FamilySearch has an index to the Westminster parish records (1538–1912)…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk Ancestry now has links to Essex Archive Online’s collections, with nearly 4.4 million 1528–1812 records; almost four million 1813–1918 baptisms; nearly two million 1754–1935 marriages; and some 730,000 burials from 1813–1994. It also has a Norfolk collection of over 17 million records, including baptisms, banns and burials. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org The website has added 174,879 Huntingdonshire records, contributing significantly to the online records for the county. It has also added 1,129,899 records from Essex. FREEREG w freereg.org.uk Visit FreeREG for Essex (1,724,433 records), Hertfordshire (586,882), Cambridgeshire (766,771), Norfolk (5,907,243), Suffolk (262,038), Bedfordshire (272,519) and Huntingdonshire (203,529). NORFOLK ONLINE RECORD SEARCH £ w norfolkonlinerecordsearch.co.uk Norfolk Family History Society offers online parish records access to its members. CAMBRIDGESHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY £ w cfhs.org.uk/toklogin.cfm Members of the society…

ANCESTORS OF BIRMINGHAM w ancestorsofbirmingham.com/ index.htm This site has some transcribed records for churches in Aston, Birmingham, Coventry, Foleshill and Warwickshire. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org Search 775,855 new Shropshire records, plus a Staffordshire collection (with Findmypast) and records from Warwickshire. ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk Search 1,217,337 pre-1813 records, 2,091,136 baptisms to 1912, 1,339,511 banns/marriages (1754–1937) and 484,438 burials (1813–1964), all for Birmingham, plus 5,115,932 records from Warwickshire. FINDMYPAST £ w findmypast.co.uk Findmypast has over 370,000 images of registers from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service; records from Anguline Research; registers from Shropshire Archives; registers from Warwickshire Record Office; and indexes from Derbyshire and Worcestershire. FREEREG w freereg.org.uk FreeREG has 3,792,877 records from Staffordshire. It also has 672,155 records for Worcestershire, 634,728 for Warwickshire and 167,977 for Shropshire, in addition to 20,493 from…

FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch. org ANCESTRY/FINDMYPAST £ w ancestry.co.uk/findmypast. co.uk FamilySearch has indexes of over 26 million baptisms from Scotland (1564–1950) and four million marriages (1561–1910), as well as church and kirk session records (1658–1919). Both sites have FamilySearch’s baptisms and marriages. Also, Findmypast has transcribed baptisms and burials from Edinburgh and Lothian, and death indexes for Glasgow and Lanarkshire and Fife; Ancestry has over 20,000 Gretna Green marriages. FREEREG w freereg.org.uk FreeREG has good coverage of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Ayrshire, Banffshire, Bute, Caithness, East Lothian, Fife, Midlothian (although it has no baptisms for this county), Orkney, Perthshire (although the site has almost no burials) and Roxburghshire. OLD SCOTTISH w oldscottish. com This site offers various digitised records of baptisms. You can download complete parish collections for £3. SCOTLANDSPEOPLE £ w scotlandspeople.gov.…

If you’re looking to encourage contributions from your relations – whether adding missing information to photographs, or sharing their own valuable memories of the family – then Photomyne is worth considering. Install the Photo Scan mobile app to scan photos, which can then be tagged and organised. All of this functionality is free, but you’ll need to subscribe to upload your photos online, colourise them in the app (the first three photos are free for trial purposes) and share them with others. A three-day trial lets you test the service, then you have a choice of plans: £8.99 a month, £29.99 for one year, or £38.99 for five years. Once you have signed up, you can access your photos to edit, download or share using your PC or Mac’s web…

On the night of 11 December 1940, air-raid sirens blared out over the Essex town of Southend-on-Sea. Newlyweds Stan and Doris King had returned from the sweet factory that they owned to their home on Mount Avenue. But there was little time to head for safety before an enormous explosion was heard. A bomb had dropped just yards from their home. Miraculously, Stan and Doris survived and none of their neighbours was hurt. Stephen King is their youngest child, and he is fascinated with his parents’ war. “Stan and Doris never talked about the wartime era,” he explains. “They were positive, cheerful people who enjoyed looking to the future. “I became interested in the war about 10 years ago and started researching its effect on Southend, where I was born…

Q I have numerous lovely old Victorian photographs of my ancestors passed down from my mother. I think this one portrays William Sly (1845–1929) and his two youngest children, Arthur (b1882) and Lucy (b1886), who lived in Warwickshire. Can you date the photo to see if it is them? Graham Holton A This scan is of a professional Victorian studio portrait in a modern frame. If the picture inside appears to be the original carte de visite photograph, carefully remove it to view the card mount. These were often printed with the studio name and address – key evidence. Meanwhile, there are several visual clues. The man wears a smart three-piece lounge suit and cravat characteristic of the late 1860s/ early 1870s. His bushy ‘mutton-chop’ whiskers are also typical of…

A family in mourning Here are my nan Emily Cameron and her sons on the day of my grandfather Thomas’ funeral. Better days Emily did a wonderful job of raising the four boys on her own. My dad Jack is seated on the left. A mysterious crime My mum’s dad fought in the First World War – he was born Edward Coekin, but changed his name to Alfred Turner. Grandad survived the war, but forfeited his medals and was given two years’ hard labour in 1918. We don’t know why. Seaside fun This photo showing my dad Jack with me and my twin sister was taken in the 1960s. A pensive pose My nan had the charming name Minnie Mellows until she wed Alf. Far from home My grandfather Thomas…

The International Committee of the Red Cross’ free database of First World War POW and civilian internee records is the best starting point for researching a captive from this period: icrc.org/en/ document/world-war-i-1914-1918-find-relativeour-archives. Launched in 2014, it consists of five million index cards, covering two million prisoners of war, which link to 400,000 pages, providing information that can include lists of names, camp transfers, dates and place of capture, and deaths. The index cards also include missing men about whom enquiries were made. Initial hopes that they might have been captured led to cards being raised so that the names could be checked against the lists of prisoners that trickled in – there are four scans of cards relating to Rudyard Kipling’s lost son John, for example. However, it is not…

The recent addition of two batches of Royal Air Force Squadron Operation Record Books (ORBs) covering the Second World War to subscription website TheGenealogist will be welcomed by many. Taken from The National Archives (TNA) series AIR27, when the whole collection is added to TheGenealogist it should be possible to trace a large part of a relative’s service if he flew with the RAF. ‘ORBs brought uniformity to the way that the RAF kept unit histories’ Although the addition, with a unique transcription, is to be welcomed, it does come with a price. The records are only viewable to Premium subscribers to TheGenealogist. At time of writing, that was £44.95 for a four-month subscription or £119.95 for a year. An initial search is free, but the results provided are limited.…

The word ‘cutler’ comes from the Old French coutelier, which in turn derives from coutel, the word for knife. Crude forms of steel have been fashioned into blades for thousands of years, and by medieval times large centres of the industry had grown up in London and Sheffield. Before too long, however, the capital was outstripped by the northern city, which became Britain’s primary centre of production by the middle of the 18th century. And a century later, the census of 1841 showed that 60 per cent of Britain’s cutlers were based in the area. Sheffield had long enjoyed a reputation for producing high-quality knives, and these even get a mention in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In The Reeve’s Tale, a miller carries “a Sheffeld (sic) thwitel”, or small knife, tucked…

For many family historians, there’s a natural progression to start researching a specific surname or place of interest, often triggered by references to our past, an unusual name or where our ancestors lived. In addition to one-name and one-place studies, the scope is limitless, for example researching the history of a local industry, a DNA project, or the lives of a ship’s crew or those commemorated on a memorial. The problem shared by these projects is how to record the research and extract useful outcomes. Family tree software is best for subjects related by birth or marriage, but not if the only commonality is living in the same locale, burial in the same graveyard or sharing a surname. Beyond recording individual datasets, spreadsheets quickly become unwieldy when trying to link…

Cedella Malcolm Marley Booker was born on 23 July 1926 as Sidella Editha Malcolm at Rhoden Hall in St Ann Parish, Jamaica. Her paternal ancestors are believed to have been slaves from Ghana, and as a mature woman she often wore clothes reflecting this heritage as well as dreadlocks reflecting Bob’s Rastafarian beliefs. She married white Jamaican Norval St Clair Marley on 9 June 1944 at Eight Miles in the same parish. She was 17, and he was a bachelor of about 60. Her name is given as Cedella Malcolm. Robert Nesta Marley, their only child, was born on 6 February 1945. Norval Marley died of pneumonia on 23 May 1957 (see his death entry on familysearch.org under his ID L6MN-8R2). In 1963, Cedella married the American Edward Booker in…

Paul Johnson was thrilled to discover that the acclaimed Welsh artist Thomas Prytherch is his great great uncle. Thomas might not have been a household name, but he was highly regarded in artistic circles and his work has been exhibited in world-famous galleries. Thomas came from humble beginnings. He was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1864, the son of a weigher and puddler at Dowlais Ironworks, and began working alongside his father as a metal straightener at the age of 10. Fortunately, his talent for art and technical drawing attracted the attention of influential patrons, including Lady Wimborne, the owner of the ironworks. She saw some of his pencil sketches and ordered that Thomas should be trained as an engineering draughtsman, a post that he held for five years. During…

The Box in Plymouth is the new one-stop shop for a range of city and county collections. This multimillion-pound heritage hub was due to open in mid-May, coinciding with the start of celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower to America, including the ‘Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy’ exhibition. Covid-19 has forced their postponement, but staff at the new heritage centre and the team behind Mayflower 400 are working remotely to make everything as ready as possible for launch later in 2020. Construction of The Box began in 2016, with the aim of maintaining the architecture of the Grade II-listed buildings of the former Museum and Art Gallery and Central Library, while expanding facilities through the contemporary extension and new entrance on Tavistock Place. ‘We’re…

What themes do you explore in the book? The first chapter answers the question, “Why do we even do genealogy?” The second chapter tackles, “What is a relative?” Is a DNA match that is your fourth cousin two times removed actually a relative, or are just siblings and aunties and cousins relatives? The third chapter is looking at reconstructing the past, which is how we take all of these snippets of information and turn them into a story and then our ancestor’s story becomes ours. So we become very proud of specific ancestors, but we ignore other relatives and ancestors because they don’t fit into our story. The fourth chapter covers the psychology of naming. The fifth chapter answers the question, “How do you visually represent your family?” The final…

ROSEMARY COLLINS Rosemary writes the news stories for our magazine and website, so she knows all about the latest releases of parish registers. Turn to page 16 for a rundown of what’s online. NICK PEERS Nick is a technology journalist with a keen interest in family history. On page 26 he shares some suggestions for how you can use this time to organise and share family photos. SHARON HINTZE Having been the director of the London Family History Center for many years, Sharon has helped many people research their Jamaican roots. See page 63 for her tips.…

A range of historical resources shedding light on our families’ experiences of the Second World War have been published online to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day on 8 May 2020. Family history website findmypast.co.uk has announced the launch of the Findmypast Photo Collection in partnership with the newspaper, magazine and digital publisher Reach plc. More than 10,000 British press photographs from the early 20th century to the present day can now be searched by Findmypast subscribers. There are many photographs of military and civilian life during the Second World War from nine newspapers, including the Daily Mirror, the Daily Record, the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo. Jim Mullen, CEO of Reach plc, commented: “By publishing our VE Day collections with Findmypast today we’re able to share…

FamilySearch adds index of passport applications Free website familysearch.org has published an index to the Register of Passport Applicants for England covering 1851–1903. The index holds 376,488 records of individuals who applied for passports during this period, noting the year they made the application. Carrying a passport was not compulsory until 1914, but doing so allowed a person to travel “without hindrance”. Images of the records, from The National Archives’ series FO611, are on findmypast.co.uk. MyHeritage postpones its LIVE 2020 event MyHeritage LIVE 2020 has become the latest family history event to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic. MyHeritage LIVE 2020 was due to take place on 25–26 October in Tel Aviv, Israel. However, the genealogical records website MyHeritage, which organises the annual conference, has now announced its postponement. A…

The coronavirus pandemic has brought home to the whole world the way in which we are still vulnerable to disease and infection despite the amazing advances in medical science and technology in the past 100 years or so. Just over a century ago the global pandemic known as Spanish Flu wrought havoc on populations already shattered and exhausted by four-and-a-half years of the worst war in history. The number of victims is unknown. Estimates range from 17 million to as many as 100 million, but it’s entirely possible that it was responsible for more than twice as many deaths as the First World War. Many of us have the evidence of this on our family trees, although the mortality rate varied between and within countries. In earlier centuries epidemics were…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk Ancestry enjoys partnerships with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre. It has nearly two million pre-1812 parish records, while the additional collections of baptisms (1813–1915), burials (1813–1965) and marriages (1754–1930) now stands at almost 2.2 million. It has nearly 280,000 records from Sutton in Surrey; over 400,000 from Bexley in Kent; and 35,000 Medway Methodist records. Other collections include 49,000 Hampshire allegations for marriage licences, and 17,000 Isle of Wight Methodist registers. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org Records have been added from Bedfordshire (nearly 377,000, index only), Surrey (over 20,000), Oxfordshire (over 100,000) and Isle of Wight (85,000). FINDMYPAST £ w findmypast.co.uk Findmypast has now agreed a deal with Surrey County Council that includes digitising and indexing nearly 1.5 million records, and it recently added 450,000…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk Thanks to a deal with West Yorkshire Archive Service, this website has 4,953,780 records from before 1813. Post-1813, Ancestry has 6,287,209 baptisms, 4,130,806 marriages and banns, and 1,331,307 burials. There is also a collection of transcribed parish records covering the rest of Yorkshire, amounting to 1,192,245 records. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org.uk FamilySearch has good collections of North Riding parish records (1537–1900), and marriage bonds and allegations from the Diocese of York (1618–1887). FREEREG w freereg.org.uk Search 2,018,905 records from West Riding, 172,161 from East Yorkshire and 604,596 from North Yorkshire. FINDMYPAST £ w findmypast.co.uk In partnership with the Yorkshire Digitization Consortium this site has millions of church records from across Yorkshire including recent addtions for Huddersfield. THEGENEALOGIST £ w thegenealogist.co.uk A few parish register transcriptions but no…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk For Manchester, the site has 5,107,883 Church of England and 398,724 nonconformist records plus 844,760 cathedral records. For Liverpool, it has 5,016,432 Church of England, 3,066,609 Catholic and 39,049 Quaker records. Cheshire has 4,810,782 records, Lancashire 10,439,487 and there are 4,953,277 Bishops’ Transcripts. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org FamilySearch has records and Bishops’ Transcripts in partnership with Findmypast and Cheshire Archives and Local Studies; records from Manchester Archives and Local Studies; Lancashire parish registers; 527,900 records from Cumbria; and Isle of Man registers. FINDMYPAST £ w findmypast.co.uk Search millions of records from Cheshire, Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire. Includes recent additions to its Cumberland collection and a new Westmorland collection. FREEREG w freereg.org.uk FreeREG now holds 2,734,137 records for Lancashire, 118,433 for Cumberland and 19,975 for Cheshire. Its Westmorland…

ANCESTRY £ w ancestry.co.uk Ancestry has a marriage index for 16,622 records from Breconshire (1813–1837) together with select Caernarvonshire and Monmouthshire registers. FREEREG w freereg.org.uk FreeREG has good coverage across Wales, with 3,460,555 records for the country altogether. FINDMYPAST £ w findmypast.co.uk The site has registers from Anglesey, Breconshire, Caernarvonshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Glamorganshire, Merionethshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire, plus 218,000 recently added from 45 Cardiganshire parishes. You can find many of the same records on FamilySearch (index only).…

SCANNING TECH TIPS ARTICLES w buysubscriptions.com/ back-issues/who-do-you-think-you-are-magazine-back-issues The February 2019 (148) and April 2020 (163) issues have tutorials on scanning with your PC, while September 2019 (156) has a guide to JoyFlips. The print edition of issue 163 is still available to buy from the above website, all three issues can be purchased digitally, and the three articles are free to view on the magazine’s free iOS app. TAGGING FASTPHOTOTAGGER TUTORIAL w nickpeers.com/?p=352 FastPhotoTagger requires two additional programs to run. Nick’s written a step-by-step guide with links to help you get everything installed and running on your PC with minimal fuss. FASTPHOTOTAGGER USER GUIDE w fastphototagger.sourceforge. net/fastphototagger.html This collection of short tutorials includes valuable advice. SHARING CREATE LISTS w facebook.com/help/ 204604196335128 Facebook’s official guide to setting up and managing lists…

ESSEX RECORD OFFICE w essexarchivesonline.co.uk Discover maps, records, photographs and videos of Essex ancestors online or at the archive’s office in Chelmsford. IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM w iwm.org.uk Find out more about the role of women during the Second World War on the museum’s website. ROYAL LOGISTICS CORPS MUSEUM w royallogisticcorps.co.uk/ museum Stephen found records of Stan’s service at this museum, which is due to open at a new location in Winchester in 2021.…

Q Was the Joseph Francis Purcell who married my wife’s grandmother Ivy Smith, on 5 October 1911 at St Thomas’ Catholic Church, Canterbury, also known as Michael Purcell? The marriage certificate states that Joseph was in the 9th Lancers in Canterbury. The family believe he was born in Ireland. I can’t find any record of him except on his children’s birth certificates. On the 1911 census, Michael Purcell was at Lydd, Kent, at a 9th Lancers training camp with someone named as a witness on Joseph and Ivy’s marriage certificate. ‘Michael Purcell was arrested for taking a bicycle from Canterbury’ An article in the Whitstable Times dated 3 August 1912 reveals Michael was arrested in Chartham, Kent, near “Mill Lane”. I can’t find this address, but Joseph and Ivy were…

392ND BOMB GROUP w b24.net This site has sections on seven German camps (including Stalag Luft I, III, IV and VI) with maps, photos, government records and accounts. ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1601 Browse a list of Second World War British Army, Navy and Air Force prisoners of war, including name, rank, regiment, POW number and camp. COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION w cwgc.org The commission’s Debt of Honour database holds details of POWs who died in captivity during both world wars. FORCES WAR RECORDS w bit.ly/forces-tracing-pows This subscription site has recently added many POW records. Non subscribers can still benefit from this blog entry with advice on tracing POWs. THEGENEALOGIST w thegenealogist.co.uk/prisoner-of-war/ Search a database of First World War POWs. THE LONDON GAZETTE w thegazette.co.uk Look for officers taken during the Crimean…

BOOK On the Knife Edge: the Inside Story of the Sheffield Cutlery Industry Clare Jenkins and Stephen McClarence SCL Publishing, 1989 Cutlers share their stories of working life in the early years of the 20th century. WEBSITES IS YOUR NAME ON A KNIFE? w hawleysheffieldknives.com This interactive digital archive showcases items made by Sheffield cutlers, and explores the history of the family names engraved on the blades. SHEFFIELD CUTLERY MAP w www.sheffieldcutlerymap. org.uk Find out more about the city’s cutlery companies through this interactive map created by Museums Sheffield. CAROLINE ROBERTS is a writer based in London. Learn more about her work at www. carolineroberts.co.uk…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk Ancestry has the dataset UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878–1960, which includes the arrival of the Windrush in 1948. FAMILYSEARCH w familysearch.org Visit for indexes and images for the Church of England Parish Register Transcripts 1664–1880 and Civil Registration 1880–1999. FINDMYPAST w findmypast.co.uk ‘Pro’ subscribers can search newspapers including the Kingston Gleaner 1834–1963 and the Royal Gazette of Jamaica 1780–1840.…

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES w library.wales NLW’s vast array of records includes photos, wills, marriage bonds and parish records. You can also search millions of Welsh newspaper articles for free. WELSH TITHE MAPS w places.library.wales At this NLW website you can search tithe maps from 1838 to 1850 to pinpoint an ancestor’s location. Click the maps to see lists of local owners and occupiers. CYMRU 1914 w cymru1914.org Discover more about Welsh soldiers and how the First World War affected life in the country. This site offers photos, articles and interviews with veterans.…

George Roberts is a firefighting hero of the Second World War whose intriguing story is now receiving greater recognition. Born in 1890 in Trinidad, he joined the Trinidad Army and, after travelling to England, became part of the Middlesex Regiment. He was a veteran of the Somme in the First World War, where he picked up the nickname the ‘Coconut Bomber’ for throwing live grenades back towards the enemy – a trick he mastered from throwing coconuts as a child. Determined to do his bit in the Second World War yet too old to enlist, Roberts trained as a firefighter. He served with London’s New Cross Fire Station throughout the war, and was in the heart of the action during the worst of the aerial bombardment, before becoming a section…

c1540 Francis Drake is born in Tavistock. He will circumnavigate the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 on the Golden Hind. 1620 The Mayflower departs from Plymouth for the New World, carrying 102 pilgrims. 1691 The Royal Navy establishes a base at Devonport. This will grow into the largest naval base in Western Europe. 1816 Inventor and industrialist John Heathcoat moves his lace-making business from Loughborough to Tiverton. 1838 A branch of the Grand Western Canal is opened between Taunton and Tiverton. 1859 The Royal Albert Bridge opens. It spans the Tamar from Plymouth in Devon to Saltash in Cornwall. 1868 The baptism of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott is recorded in the parish register for Stoke Damerel. 1890 Agatha Christie, author of 66 detective novels, is…

BLACKLER This habitational name originated in Blackler in Devon. BOVEY This surname derives from Bovey Tracey and North Bovey in Devonshire. HANNAFORD About 70 per cent of all of the Hannafords recorded in the 1891 census were found in Devon. LIDSTONE This is thought to have been an occupational name for someone who worked as a ‘litster’ or dyer in the textiles industry. LUSCOMBE Several places and landmarks in Devon share this name, so it is no wonder that the surname is quite common in the county. MOCK Half of all of the Mocks in the 1891 census were found in Devon. The name is derived from the Old English personal name ‘Mocca’. PEDRICK This name originates in the Cornish personal name Petroc or Pedrek. SMERDON This habitational name comes…

SHELLAC AND SWING! A SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE GRAMOPHONE IN BRITAIN BRUCE LINDSAY Fonthill, 220 pages, £25 For most of the 20th century, one piece of furniture provided enjoyment to both young and old. From the days of Caruso to Elvis, the Beatles and beyond, records have provided a way to enjoy whatever your taste in music in your own home. In his very comprehensive history of the gramophone, Bruce Lindsay gives us a brilliant look at how the original phonograph, a large heavy machine with a horn to act as a speaker and wax cylinders, was transformed over the years into the gramophone and thence to the adored record player of teenagers of the 1950s onwards. All three of which would probably look hilarious to teens today. This is…

John G Turner Yale University Press, 464 pages, £22.50 Coinciding with the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower, They Knew They Were  Pilgrims tells the story of Plymouth Colony, from its creation in 1620 until it was incorporated into the larger Province of Massachusetts Bay some 70 years later. John G Turner weaves a compelling story. Familiar figures feature, such as Robert Cushman, whose Puritan zeal drove the venture, and William Brewster, the colony’s senior elder. So too do less well-known inhabitants, including Thomas Morton, whose lack of religious conformity led to his marooning on an uninhabited island. The colonists’ engagements with their Native American neighbours are portrayed vividly, with interactions ranging from friendly –if wary – to hostile and bloody. The detail on the colonists’ religion, politics…

PASSENGER LISTS We located James leaving his home country in 1881. He was making his way to New Orleans on the SS St Louis . Ancestry (ancestry.co. uk) has a vast number of passenger lists; James’ is in the collection ‘New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813–1963’: bit.ly/ anc-hall-louis . US MARRIAGE RECORDS Tracing James’ life forward, we discovered that he married a woman named Parthenia Dunham in Gonzales County, Texas, in 1886; his first wife Martha had died of kidney disease in 1883. The free website FamilySearch (familysearch.org) has billions of genealogical records from all across the globe, many of them with images, and we found James and Parthenia’s marriage record among them: bit.ly/fs-hall-dunham. US CENSUS RECORDS US census records provided more information about James and his new family in Texas.…