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

Throughout lockdown we have appreciated all of the wonderful support we have had from our subscribers. Now, as I write this, more shops are starting to reopen, so I would particularly like to welcome back any of our readers who have ventured out to their newsagent, perhaps for the first time in months, to pick up their favourite family history magazine. I hope we inspire you! The closure of archives has made things tricky, but it’s a great time to get to know what they offer online. Turn to page 16 to see what can now be freely accessed on The National Archives’ website. We are trying to concentrate on topics that can be researched online so, as findmypast.co.uk continues to add thousands of Scottish Catholic baptism records to its…

REBECCA PROBERT Prof Probert is a leading academic on the history of marriage law, and the author of Marriage Law for Genealogists. Turn to page 21 for her insights into a less common route to wedlock. CHRIS PATON Chris is a prolific family history blogger and author. His latest book is Tracing your Scottish Family History on the Internet. On page 54 he explains Catholic baptism records. GILL THOMAS Gill is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives specialising in Welsh research. See page 63 for her tips on tracing your Welsh kin.…

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

The Workhouse Network is seeking family historians to work from home on its project ‘More Than Oliver Twist’. Volunteers will research the lives of inmates from workhouses around the country using the 1871 and 1881 censuses. The project will result in a database of individual and family biographies, plus a digital exhibition. Volunteers will need their own access to the censuses, and will be provided with advice and guidance. Six heritage sites around the UK, including Gressenhall Workhouse (pictured), are involved in the project. The network encourages diversity within the volunteer community to tell the stories of workhouse inmates appropriately. Visit workhousenetwork.org/ more-than-oliver-twist or email gressenhall.museum@ norfolk.gov.uk for more information.…

The links between the Mayflower and British towns are being celebrated in a series of videos for the 400th anniversary of the ship’s voyage to America. The Mayflower 400 project is releasing a new video in the Virtual Voyages series every Friday at 5pm on Facebook at facebook.com/Mayflower 400UK and on its website at mayflower400uk.org/virtual-voyages. The first Virtual Voyage was filmed in Leiden in the Netherlands, where the Mayflower pilgrims first tried to form a community after fleeing religious persecution in England. The second video explores the connection between Boston in Lincolnshire and the Mayflower. The pilgrims were imprisoned there when they first attempted to leave for the Netherlands. Other featured towns will include Harwich, Droitwich and Dorking.…

More than 470,000 English nonconformist records can now be searched on familysearch. org thanks to the transcription efforts of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine readers. We teamed up with the free family history website for our popular Transcription Tuesday volunteer event on 4 February 2020, and for one of our special Transcription Tuesday Weekly Challenges during the lockdown on 14 April. We asked readers to help transcribe baptism, marriage and burial records for Christian sects in five counties. Thanks in part to our volunteers’ hard work, all five collections, containing almost 479,000 records, are now fully indexed: Essex (1613–1971), Gloucestershire (1642–1996), Lancashire (1647–1996), Norfolk (1613–1901) and Northumberland (1613–1920). Brian McKechnie, the website’s Family History Center logistics specialist, said that our volunteers played a key role, with three times as…

BRITISH ARMY MEDAL INDEX CARDS 1914–1920 BRITISH ARMY NURSES’ SERVICE RECORDS 1914–1920 BRITISH ARMY WAR DIARIES 1914–1922 DURHAM HOME GUARD 1939–1945 HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY SOLDIERS’ SERVICE RECORDS 1799–1920 PRISONER OF WAR INTERVIEW REPORTS 1914–1918 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MILITARY HONOURS AND AWARDS 1935–1990 VICTORIA CROSS REGISTERS 1856–1944 WOMEN’S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS SERVICE RECORDS 1917–1920…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1557 A marriage notice book for the district of St George the Martyr in Southwark covering 1848–1856 can be found in the collection ‘London, England, Poor Law and Board of Guardian Records, 1738–1926’ on Ancestry. DISCOVERY w discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk Searching The National Archives’ catalogue Discovery reveals where any surviving marriage notice books are held by local archives, although it is often worth checking with the archive directly. THE EUREKA PARTNERSHIP w eurekapartnership.com Transcriptions of marriage notice books from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire can be ordered here. Prices start at £2 plus P&P. THE KEEP w thekeep.info/ marriage-notice-booksa-new-source-for-family-historians Read a short guide to the marriage notice books held at The Keep in East Sussex.…

When WDYTYA? Magazine reader Peter Cooley discovered two policemen on his family tree after generations of ‘ag labs’, he was very excited. However, researching their lives, he discovered the harsh reality of being a bobby on the beat – and the highs and lows their families faced after they left the force. “After the birth of our last child, Alison, my wife and I realised how little we knew about our families – that’s what initially sparked our interest,” explains Peter. “We started with the Cooley surname.” His sister Jean had already got back as far as their great grandfather, John. “With a little more research, I was able to go back another generation. That’s what got me hooked!” John Cooley was born in March 1829 in Brill, Buckinghamshire. He…

When was this portrait painted? Q I’m interested in dating this portrait of a gentleman, which I believe originated in Newark, Nottinghamshire. The sitter may be a draper and outfitter selling clothes, so might therefore be especially aware of current fashions. Can you offer any information? John Matthews A This is a simple, informal portrait – a short, half-length painting in watercolour on paper. It’s unmounted, although the discoloured border suggests that it was once framed. The subject, a smartly dressed young gentleman, was painted in the late 1830s or 1840s, around the time the new mechanical portrait medium of photography was emerging. The first commercial photographs (daguerreotypes) were expensive, and initially those accustomed to sitting for portraits usually preferred conventional hand-crafted artworks. Thousands of professional artists operated in early…

William Johnson My great great grandfather’s first car was a Morris Cowley tourer. Timber merchant My great great grandfather Albert had a timber merchant business in Cowley. Harold Organ In this photo my great grandfather is shown standing on the right. Inside the timber merchant’s yard I only have a few photographs of the business in Cowley (AT Organ & Sons). While Albert managed the firm, which made veneered dashboards for Morris Motors, my great great grandmother Sarah Ann ran the family’s greengrocer’s shop. Their son Harold is on the left. My grandmother as a young girl Here is Jean Mundy (née Organ) on a family day out with my great great grandparents William (at the wheel) and Edith Annie Johnson. The timber merchant’s Model T Henry Ford’s Model T…

The Rotherwas estate in Herefordshire was used as a munitions factory in both world wars, manufacturing crucial ammunition for the British war effort. As well as many other documents, Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre (HARC) has the surviving records of the factory’s workers during the world wars. Here, archivist Marcus Buffrey shares one of the records in the collection. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE RECORD? The form is marked “Royal Ordnance Factories, Woolwich – Record of Service” but with “Royal Ordnance Factory Hereford” stamped above it. By 1939 much of the Royal Arsenal’s ordnance production had moved from Woolwich because of the danger of aerial bombardment. ROF Hereford subsequently became one of the country’s main munitions factories. The record relates to William George Ruck. We can see that…

Irish Church Records, 2nd Edn James G Ryan (ed) Flyleaf Press, 2001 Find out more information about the various church denominations in Ireland, and the different records that they kept. National Index of Parish Registers, Volume 3: Sources for Roman Catholic and Jewish Genealogy and Family History DJ Steel Society of Genealogists, 1974 This guide is now almost 50 years old, but remains indispensable – search for it at abebooks.co.uk. Scottish Catholic Family History Andrew R Nicoll Aquhorties Press, 2011 Nicoll’s book, subtitled A Family Historian’s Guide to Catholic Parish Registers and Cemetery Records for Scotland and the Bishopric of the Forces, is the essential authority for anyone with Scottish Catholic roots. Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records Chris Paton Pen and Sword, 2019 Don’t miss Chris…

It’s rather fitting, but nevertheless frustrating, that private detectives can be hard to trace. However, newspaper reports are good sources of information, as are the classified advertisements in local and national titles (search britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk or, if you have a ‘Pro’ subscription, findmypast. co.uk). Many detectives had to advertise their services, particularly as the profession became more competitive, and their adverts tell you not only where they were based, and whether they moved over time, but also what areas of work they specialised in, whether they employed staff, and sometimes when they started their businesses. Divorce petitions may also mention the involvement of private detectives, and they pop up in trial reports, for example, on oldbaileyonline.org. Bankruptcy proceedings at The National Archives (discovery.national archives.gov.uk ) will also give details about agencies…

BOOK The Surnames of Wales John and Sheila Rowlands Gomer Press, 2014 Don’t miss this essential guide to the distribution and variants of Welsh surnames. WEBSITES ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/ collections/61232 The collections of Welsh records on Ancestry include ‘Swansea and Surrounding Area, Wales, Poor Law Union Records, 1836–1916’. ASSOCIATION OF FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES OF WALES w fhswales.org.uk Volunteers from the country’s family history societies have performed a great service by transcribing and publishing registers, indexes and memorial inscriptions. Their local knowledge is invaluable. The association’s website has information about the relevant society for each county. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES w library.wales/discover/ library-resources/ marriage-bonds Search the index to pre-1837 marriage bonds at the National Library of Wales. WELSH COAL MINES w welshcoalmines.co.uk Find out information about Welsh coal mines and mining disasters.…

This year the church in Wales and Monmouthshire was disestablished under the 1914 Welsh Church Act. It meant the Anglican church in Wales no longer had the right to tithes. Nonconformists had long resented paying this land tax for a church that they did not attend. The Act was the first piece of legislation to apply solely to Wales (and Monmouthshire), treating the nation as distinct rather than as an adjunct to England. BORN Josephine Edwina ‘Hattie’ Jacques was born on 7 February 1922 at 125 Sandgate High Street, Sandgate, Kent. She was to become one of our best-loved comedy actors for her roles in TV sitcoms and the Carry On series of films. MARRIED Evelyn Florence Margaret Winifred Gardner, one of the bohemian aristocrats and socialites known as the…

HISTORICAL BOOKS w bit.ly/glas-mem The Internet Archive archive. org has all sorts of out-of-copyright volumes relating to parts of Strathclyde, including Glasgow Memorials (1908), which is pictured above, and Regulations of the Glasgow Asylum for Lunatics (1814). CHURCH RECORDS w bit.ly/fs-presby FamilySearch’s useful collections for the country include ‘Scotland Presbyterian & Protestant Church Records, 1736–1990’. POST OFFICE DIRECTORIES w digital.nls.uk/ directories This National Library of Scotland website contains over 700 digitised directories published between 1773 and 1911. ROLL OF HONOUR w bit.ly/et-roll-honour Download indexes of the First World War personnel who were reported wounded or missing in the Evening Times. HISTORICAL MAPS w maps.nls.uk This National Library of Scotland site has maps for all of Strathclyde, wider Scotland, the UK and the world. STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS w bit.ly/stat-acc Search the Old…

ANTON RIPPON Pen & Sword, 240 pages, £19.99 Britain 1940 starts in January and ends in December, and relates to events as they unfold during the year. Although this chronological structure enables us to follow our ancestors as they learn to make do and mend, adjust to food rationing, watch the Battle of Britain unfold above their heads, and deal with the devastation of the Blitz, it does mean that in one chapter you’re reading about conscientious objectors, and in the next learning about the ‘careless talk costs lives’ propaganda campaign. Personally, I would have preferred a more organised structure, and more individuals telling their own stories and experiences of the Second World War. However, reading this book has definitely given me a better understanding of the hardships that my…

Emma Griffin Yale University Press, 320 pages, £20 Emma Griffin’s new title promises to “change our understanding of daily life in Victorian Britain”, and that’s exactly what it does. Although not aimed at family historians, Bread Winner has a lot to teach us about our ancestors’ lives. Meticulously researched, the book draws on more than 600 working-class autobiographies, including over 200 written by women, to tell the fascinating stories of Victorian families and their finances. Griffin covers male and female wages and employment; how money was earned and spent; and how the family dynamic worked. At its heart is the truth that low female wages meant it was almost impossible for most working-class women to live independently from their parents, and that a wife needed a good breadwinner who would…

The General Register Office is discouraging family historians from ordering certificates at the moment because of the lockdown. However, there are still things we can learn from the certificates we have. Have you investigated the witnesses on marriage records, for example? Or does a record report that the couple married “by certificate”? Read Rebecca Probert’s article on page 21, check your certificates and learn!…

Parish Chest relaunched Family history shopping website parishchest.com has been relaunched after being taken over by the Family History Federation (FHF) last year. The new-look website provides a ‘one-stop shop’ for buying books, journals, transcriptions of parish registers, memorial inscriptions, Poor Law records and more. Many of the transcriptions have been created by volunteers from family history societies. Researchers can also buy memberships of participating societies via the website. TheGenealogist adds tithe maps from four counties Family history site thegenealogist. co.uk has added georeferenced black-and-white tithe maps from Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire to its collection. The tithe maps were compiled between 1836 and the 1850s as part of a survey to establish which areas were required to pay tithes to the local church, and who owned them. For family…

The composer and folk-song collector Ralph Vaughan Williams was in Somerset in 1904, searching for material. At West Harptree, in the Mendip Hills, he heard local farmer William King singing one of the most beautiful of all English folk songs, celebrating summer including the rustic tasks and pleasurable leisure of long days and warm weather. Its lyrics are charming, its tune haunting and evocative. There are numerous versions, but this is the best-known, the one that Vaughan Williams heard almost 120 years ago: “It’s a rosebud in June and the violets in full bloom / And the small birds are singing love songs on each spray / We’ll pipe and we’ll sing love / We’ll dance in a ring love / When each lad takes his lass / All on…

1 Go to discovery.nationalarchives.gov. uk and select ‘Sign in’, or ‘Register’ if haven’t previously created an account.Next, go to nationalarchives.gov.uk and select ‘Find online collections’ on the right-hand side in the middle of the page. 2 This takes you to a list of 65 collections that have been digitised. These are not all available from TNA’s website. Collections that say “Available on: Ancestry” or “Available on: Findmypast” must be accessed via those sites, and are not part of this offer. 3 Scroll down and select the collection you are interested in. You will be taken to a useful guide including search boxes showing what has been indexed to narrow down results. Note that you do not need to enter information into every box.…

CHILDREN’S HOMES w childrenshomes.org.uk If, as Peter did, you discover that one of your ancestors grew up in a children’s home, you can get some useful pointers on where to find out more about the specific institution – including admission and other records – from this useful website. Its owner Peter Higginbotham also runs workhouses.org.uk. METROPOLITAN POLICE RECORDS w nationalarchives.gov.uk Metropolitan Police records are held at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew and many can be downloaded (currently for free) from TNA’s website. Ancestry also has some pension records. MILITARY RECORDS Records of a forebear’s military career can tell you a lot about their life. You can find records of service, military pensions and more at such sites as ancestry. co.uk, findmypast.co.uk and forces-war-records.co.uk.…

I’ve searched hard for Frank, but can’t find him - can you offer any advice? Q I’m looking for information about a distant cousin Frank Jelly. He was born an only child to Thomas and Elizabeth Jelly on 3 August 1905 in Millom, Cumbria. I have details of him attending the Holborn Hill Board School for infants in Millom on 13 November 1911. After that, I have no idea what happened to him, and have spent some time looking for Frank in the records with no success. Can you help? Garry Trown A The record you have found for Frank Jelly is from a Millom school register of 1911. There is a collection of admissions registers for Holborn Hill Board School for infants in Millom (ref. BDS_33_3_2_3) in the ‘National…

The volunteer-run Durham Mining Museum website (dmm.org.uk) remains one of the best online regional sources if you have northern ancestors who were coal miners. The site is also well worth visiting if you’ve got mining ancestors that were not from its designated areas of County Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria. The theme-related links are relevant for other coalfield regions and subjects, making it a superb one-stop (and free) source, and there is easy access to former miner Bill Riley’s excellent website Pitwork (www.dmm.org.uk/pitwork). A wealth of well-presented, accessible information is provided via a comprehensive menu arranged under three main headings: ‘Museum’, ‘Mining’ and ‘Disasters’. The subheads under each main heading are displayed vertically in a list that remains in place on the left-hand side of the pages. The ‘Disasters’ section is…

Historically the state church in England, Wales and Ireland has been the Anglican Church established at the Reformation of 1538 (although later disestablished in Ireland in 1869). The Scottish Reformation of 1560 led to Presbyterianism as the state religion north of the border. The registers generated by these bodies, and from those that subsequently dissented against them, are the records relied upon by many for genealogical research. However, the body that these reformed religions tried to supplant, the Roman Catholic Church, never disappeared. In Ireland Catholicism remained the dominant religion, but was heavily repressed through the Penal Laws until full emancipation occurred in 1829 through the Roman Catholic Relief Act (also known as the Emancipation Act). Across England, particularly in the north, pockets survived, as they did in Scotland’s Highlands…

The middle of the 19th century saw the increase in popularity of a particular occupation – that of the private detective. They had existed in the early part of the century, primarily engaged on rather dry matters, mainly relating to helping out financial institutions. However, one piece of legislation was chiefly responsible for their growth and fortunes, and that was the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act. This Act opened up divorce to warring couples. Previously, those wishing to end a marriage had to seek a private Act of Parliament to do so – something that put divorce out of the reach of all but the wealthiest. The Matrimonial Causes Act, however, made it possible to petition for divorce through the law courts, as long as you could provide evidence of wrongdoing.…

One of the most exciting new developments in family history is the emergence of accessible tools that can colour your old photographs automatically. You can just upload an image and a website will transform it in seconds. The most visible tool currently available is MyHeritage In Color, which we’ve showcased in the first four steps of the guide on the right. However, you can only colourise a limited number of photos for free – currently just 10. Thereafter you’ll need to subscribe to upload more images and access controls to tweak the colouring process. If the price of a ‘Complete’ subscription to the site puts you off, then we also reveal a completely free website to try named ColouriseSG, plus explain how to tweak your original photos to produce even…

David Cuthbert Thomas was the son of Rev Evan Thomas and his wife Ethelinda of Llannon in Carmarthenshire. He was educated at Christ College in Brecon and was an accomplished sportsman – in June 1914 he attracted the attentions of selectors for Glamorgan Cricket Club. However, cricket gave way to war. He enlisted, initially as a private in the Public Schools Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF). But David Thomas was officer material, and he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in May 1915, attached to the 3rd Battalion RWF. They were stationed at Litherland Camp outside Liverpool, and it was there that he met the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves. Thomas arrived in France in late 1915, the battalion being sent to Fricourt on the Somme. It was…

‘I spent years searching genealogy sites for Emily and her birth family’ The taint of scandal can follow a family through the generations, and many people go to great lengths to escape it. Moving hundreds of miles away from home or starting afresh under a new identity were commonplace for our ancestors following a particularly heinous offence like murder. This can pose challenges for family historians like Pauline Stanley, who was keen to trace her Burrows family but met with brick walls wherever she turned. The answer lay in the awful tale of a young wife and a violent husband, as Pauline reveals. MY BRICK WALL I had discovered that my paternal great grandfather, named William Seymour, lived in West Ham, East London, and was married to an Emily Frances…

William ‘Billy’ Butlin was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1899. He came to England with his mother when he was seven, but left again for Toronto, Canada, when he was 12 years old. After the First World War, Butlin returned to England and invested in a travelling hoopla stall. The entrepreneur was so successful that he was able to purchase fairground equipment to start his own travelling fair. By 1927 Butlin had opened a static fairground in Skegness, Lincolnshire, and was beginning to consider the potential benefits of on-site accommodation. By 1934, Butlin was earning £25,000 a year from seven seaside amusement parks. With his wealth, acumen and experience he was able to put his plans for a holiday camp into action and Butlin’s Skegness opened in 1936.…

Modern Strathclyde was one of nine local-government regions of Scotland created in the reorganisation of 1975, only to be abolished in 1996. Today the area includes Glasgow, Ayr, Bute, Dunbarton, Lanark and Renfrew, and small parts of other counties. Since Strathclyde covers such a vast area, with so many counties, towns, districts and burghs, there are huge number of archives that may preserve material relating to your family. The nationwide resources available through ScotlandsPeople (scotlandspeople. gov.uk) are likely to be your first stop. But once you’re ready to go deeper, there are all sorts of unique collections scattered across specialist and regional archives, which we hope will soon reopen when the coronavirus lockdown ends in Scotland. GLASGOW’S MAIN ARCHIVE For example, the Mitchell Library, in Glasgow’s Charing Cross district, was…

WATCH VICTORY’S CHILDREN bit.ly/victorys-children Free As the nation celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE Day in May, this poignant 45-minute video from 2015 sheds light on the legacy of the day. The documentary follows filmmaker Derek Smith’s efforts to track down and reunite all of the children in a recently discovered photograph of a street party in Thornaby-on-Tees in Yorkshire. APP LANDSCAPE LEGACIES OF COAL iOS/Android Free This app, which has been created by Dr Catherine Mills of the University of Stirling, features 12 curated heritage walks revealing the legacy of Scotland’s coal mines, with industrial archaeology, historic maps, images and oral testimonies. You can trace the walks in real time, or use the app from home. PODCAST THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN SLAVERY bit.ly/slate-slavery Free This podcast from US website…

PAUL HOLLYWOOD A familiar face from The Great British Bake Off , Paul uncovered the military service of his maternal grandfather Norman Harman, before visiting Scotland to investigate the life of his maternal 3x great grandfather Kenneth McKenzie NORMAN’S TRACER CARD Many military records can be found on ancestry.co.uk including a growing number from the Second World War. A search for Norman found his Royal Artillery tracer card. These contain vital information, and are a decent substitute for a service record: bit.ly/anc-harman-tracer. KENNETH’S POLICE SERVICE RECORD Kenneth was a police officer in Glasgow in the middle part of the 19th century, before he left Scotland and moved to England. The records of police officers aren’t available online to this date, but we were able to access them via the Mitchell…

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Jersey Heritage has launched the Historic Environment Record for Jersey (her.jerseyheritage.org), a free website for the island’s historic buildings and archaeological sites. The website features a searchable map of the island, with detailed information about each location. They include houses such as Somerleigh, a Victorian farmhouse that boasts historic features including a slate roof and flat, open-roofed porch. They also include military sites such as an early 19th-century military barracks office in Saint Helier, the remains of a former military complex, that was later used as a military prison and as a camp for prisoners of war by German military forces.…

For those used to popping into The National Archives (TNA) at Kew for a few hours of research as and when they had the time, the current state of lockdown must be very frustrating. But there are many family historians who have never been able to visit the national archive of England and Wales, either because it is too hard to get to or because they don’t have the spare time or resources. As TNA has had to switch its offering from physical to digital, a new opportunity has come along. For as long as this lockdown lasts (and let’s hope it won’t be too long) TNA is offering access to the digitised records on its website for free, and we want our readers to make the most of it.…

If you discover that your ancestors married in a different registration district from where they lived, you might well assume that they had sneaked off to marry where they were unknown. However, the true situation will depend on exactly when and how they married. Since only a small proportion of chapels were registered for marriage in the early years, the options for getting married in any particular registration district rarely reflected the religious diversity of its inhabitants. Superintendent registrars were not allowed by law to issue licences for marriages outside their own district, and they took the view that this restriction also applied when issuing certificates. This meant that non-Anglicans could not travel outside their district to marry in a church or chapel of their own religious denomination. Frustrated, in…

Why can’t I find my great grandfather’s birth record? Q When my great grandfather Alfred Joseph Butler married in Marylebone, Middlesex, in 1867, his father was listed as Joseph Butler, gunmaker. On the 1871–1891 census returns, Alfred Joseph is 24, 34 and 44 respectively, and his place of birth is given as Whitechapel, Middlesex. There could also be an Irish link. We can’t find his birth certificate. Can you help? Marilyn Healy A We have six pieces of information about Alfred Joseph Butler: his forenames, surname, age, place of birth, father’s name and father’s occupation. However, at least one of these seems to be incorrect. His forename, Alfred, is probably correct – and possibly also Joseph. Butler may not have been the surname Alfred was registered with, but was perhaps…

What was the name of James’ regiment? Q This is, we believe, a photograph of my partner’s great uncle, James William Grigsby Hook (1892–1956), taken in 1919. We think he was in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (although he came from Kent). Can you confirm this? Zena Joyce A This is a curious photograph. Half points to one regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (A&SH), the other to the Royal Scots. I also suspect it was taken a few years after 1900. The wearing of white belts and the carrying of swagger canes (in his left hand) became uncommon early in the First World War, so 1919 is unlikely. Both regiments wore a scarlet jacket, but the Royal Scots usually wore ‘trews’ not kilts. The jacket cuffs and collar (facings)…

THE BEVIN BOYS ASSOCIATION w bevinboysassociation.co.uk The association commemorates the role of about 48,000 Bevin Boys who were conscripted to help boost coal production at a time of national crisis. BIG PIT NATIONAL COAL MUSEUM w museum.wales/bigpit/ Find out about this Welsh museum, and explore its catalogue of artefacts and collections. COALFIELD WEB MATERIALS w agor.org.uk/cwm This website describes life in the South Wales Coalfield during the 19th and 20th centuries. DISCOVERY w discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk Search The National Archives’ catalogue to find material in countless depositories, and read its dedicated research guide at bit.ly/tna-mining. FIFE PITS w fifepits.co.uk Learn about Fife’s collieries, pits and mines. MINING DURHAM’S HIDDEN DEPTHS w bit.ly/mining-durham Search a database of names produced by a volunteer project to index records in the Durham Miners’ Association trade union…

1 SURNAME In this record the child’s surname (cognomen in Latin) is in the left-hand column, and written in English. 2 LATIN The majority of records are recorded in Latin, although printed transcripts for certain parishes may be available in English. 3 ADDRESS This register is somewhat more detailed than most, noting residential address and when and where the child’s parents were married. 4 MAIDEN NAME The records usually note the mother’s maiden name (olim means ‘formerly’). Also forenames will usually be Latinised (for example “Patricius” not “Patrick”), but not surnames. 5 GODPARENTS The register also notes the godfather patrinus and godmother matrina, usually an aunt and uncle who promised to attend to the child’s spiritual development if the parents passed away. 6 PRIEST The priest’s name is often noted…

BOOKS ‘Paddington’ Pollaky, Private Detective: the Mysterious Life and Times of the Real Sherlock Holmes Bryan Kesselman History Press, 2015 Kesselman spills the beans on Ignatius Pollaky, one of the better-known private detectives in Victorian England. Sister Sleuths: Female Detectives in Britain Nell Darby Pen & Sword, due 2021 This book tells the history of female private detectives from their origins to today. WEBSITE ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/ collections/61310 Track many of the private eyes who previously served in the Met in the collection ‘London, England, Metropolitan Police Pension Registers, 1852–1932’. NELL DARBY is a crime historian and freelance writer: criminalhistorian.com…

FINDMYPAST w bit.ly/fmp-wales-a-z Findmypast has the best coverage for parish registers of the ‘old’ counties. Just search by county name in the A-to-Z of Welsh datasets. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES w library.wales This free resource is jam-packed with digitised Welsh newspapers (1804–1919); pre-1858 wills; journals (1735–2007); and tithe maps. WELSH MARINERS INDEX w welshmariners.org.uk Search by name, place of birth or ship name. The database has cross-references to Board of Trade files at The National Archives in Kew.…

ARCHIVE THE HISTORY OF ADVERTISING TRUST a 12 Raveningham Centre, Raveningham, Norfolk NR14 6NU t 01508 548623 w hatads.org.uk The trust holds Butlin’s Heritage Collection, including uniforms, photos and memorabilia. Much of the collection is digitised and can be viewed at bit.ly/hat-but. BOOKS Holiday Camps Kathryn Ferry Shire Publications, 2010 Ferry traces the rise and fall of traditional holiday camps. The Nation’s Host Kathryn Ferry Viking, 2016 This history of Butlin’s includes a biography of Billy Butlin. Sun, Sea and Sand Steven Braggs and Diane Harris Tempus Publishing, 2006 This study of seaside holidays includes hotels, piers, pavilions and holiday camps. WEBSITES BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w bit.ly/bna-camps The archive’s blog has very useful advice on searching for articles about holiday camps. BRITISH PATHÉ w britishpathe.com Highlights include Focus on Children…

The organisation was to be financed by the sale of wireless receiving sets, but revenues proved disappointing because enthusiasts preferred to make their own. However, the Government – wary of the power of broadcasting – decided to empower the BBC to become the British Broadcasting Corporation with an appointed governing body, a public-service remit, a ban on advertising, and the right to receive the revenue from a 10s licence fee that had to be purchased at post offices. The new corporation was launched on 1 January 1927 with Sir John Reith as its first director general.…

BROWNLIE This is a variant of the Scottish habitational name from Brownlee in Lanarkshire. DOCHERTY Docherty is simply the Scottish spelling of the Irish surname Doherty. FRAME Frames are found across Strathclyde and central Scotland in the 1881 census. GALLACHER Gallachers are common in Renfrewshire, Dunbartonshire and Lanarkshire. HOUSTON This is a habitational name from the parish of Houston in Renfrewshire. PETTIGREW This is connected to the Scottish nickname for a small man. The name derives from petit the French word for small. POLLOCK This habitational name from Renfrewshire derives from the Gaelic for pond. SEMPLE This is a Scottish and Northern Irish nickname for someone simple or straightforward. SNEDDON Relatively common across Strathclyde, Central Scotland, Lothian and Fife, this name originates from a place near Dumfries. SPIERS In 1881…

Libby Copeland Abrams Press, 304 pages, £19.99 Libby Copeland, a journalist based in New York with an interest in genealogy, has written the engaging but sometimes disturbing book The Lost Family. She dissects the issues surrounding DNA testing for genealogy, raising awareness of how common it is to make unexpected discoveries about family and paternity. The central thread of the book is the case of Alice Collins Plebuch, a woman whose understanding of her family tree was completely unravelled by DNA testing. Along the way, Copeland takes the opportunity to explore the ethical highways and byways that may be encountered, in relation to both the discovery of unexpected family relationships and the use of test results for law enforcement. Issues of identity, ethnicity and race are all discussed, drawing on…

How did you come to write this book? I’ve been into family history since 2005, so I’ve been doing it for a long time now. A big part of it is what I call my ‘Great Lindsay Quest’ to find the Lindsays in Ireland. But I’ve not had much luck doing that, because our Lindsays are Protestant and the records in Ireland are really not good if you were Protestant in around 1800. So I took a DNA test, and I found out that I’m not a Lindsay! I was 57 when that happened. It was a horrible shock, and as I was telling people about it my writer friends were like, “You’ve got to write about it. You have to get out there and write this story, because other…

My family heroes are my great grandmother Clara Rashleigh and her mother Priscilla,” Nicole Hohaia explains. “They were both pioneers and the main breadwinners in their families. I have loved getting to know them through genealogy with the help of my Aunt Margaret.” ‘Priscilla didn’t want to uproot the children, so the family split up’ Priscilla Symons married John Letcher Rashleigh in Helston, Cornwall, in 1875, and the couple emigrated to New Zealand a mere five days after the wedding. They settled in Palmerston North in the country’s North Island and had six children, including Clara who was born in 1885. “John worked as a labourer and went bankrupt a few times. Family members have told me that he wanted to go to Australia where there was a gold rush.…