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

Marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War (see page 20) has been a more muted affair than expected because of lockdown, but a contemplative approach to commemoration has its value and family historians are particularly good at it. We don’t just see one moment. We see the struggles, both before and after. Our whole aim is to help you uncover the bigger picture, and the part that your family played. If you are new to family history, turn to page 49 to find extra online help. We also recently ran a series of Q&A video sessions with members of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) via Facebook (you can still see the videos if you visit our Facebook page). Judging by the…

RINGING THE CHANGES Please thank Felix Rowe for his interesting article ‘Fighting fire’ (July). You may be interested to know that my maternal great uncle Robert Carr invented an “electronically driven bell ringing mechanism”. This replaced manual bell-ringing on the fire engines in Kingston upon Hull in 1937. It took Robert two years to perfect his design, and it was demonstrated on the streets of Hull on 3 March 1937. Robert was an electrician working at the Little Theatre next door to the Fire Station. An article (pictured below) in the Hull Daily Mail described how firemen used to ring the bell while half-dressed and perilously hanging onto the fire engine as it raced through the street. Robert’s device had an easy on/off switch, and could be rung indefinitely. Anne…

A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to raise money from the public to rescue the anchor of the HMT Empire Windrush as a memorial for the Windrush Generation. Patrick Vernon OBE, who led the successful campaign to recognise 22 June as Windrush Day, is hoping to raise £500,000 from members of the public via the website GoFundMe (uk.gofundme.com/f/ an-anchorfor-the-windrush-generation). The money will fund an expedition to find the wrecked ship, which sank in the Mediterranean in 1954, and recover the anchor. The ship became famous for her voyage from Jamaica to England in 1948, when she carried one of the first major groups of Caribbean immigrants to Britain. “It would be fantastic to get the anchor because that is part of British history, it’s part of the Windrush Generation, and…

‘Finding a baptism has so far proved to be impossible’ Sooner or later, all family historians know the frustration of coming up against a brick wall. With a bit of patience and some careful searching using the tips suggested in this excellent magazine, we can often overcome the obstacle. However, in other cases it seems impossible to resolve the problem to our satisfaction, perhaps because of the fecklessness of a forebear. If only they’d filled in the forms correctly! My grandmother’s grandfather, Barnard Mason Routledge, was born in Selby Union Workhouse in Yorkshire in late February 1844. He was illegitimate. His father, a clearly precocious youth of 17, was a blacksmith in the small village of Gateforth, four miles south-west of the town. Blacksmiths had a reputation for being somewhat…

The service records of more than 80,000 members of the Durham Home Guard have been transferred to The National Archives in Kew and can be downloaded via nationalarchives.gov.uk/ help-with-your-research/research-guides/durham-homeguard-records-1939-1945. The records of everyone else who served in the armed forces during the Second World War are still held by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) at its Army Personnel Centre in Glasgow. Veterans can order a copy of their service record at gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records/apply-for-your-own-records. Anyone can order the service record of a soldier who died over 25 years ago, but for those who died more recently, the full record will only be released to the immediate next of kin, or someone who has consent from the immediate next of kin. Researchers without consent can order an abridged version if 25 years haven’t…

ARCHIVES MASS OBSERVATION ARCHIVE a The Keep, Woollards Way, Brighton BN1 9BP t 01273 482349 w thekeep.info/collections/ mass-observation-archive From 1937 hundreds of volunteers diarised their daily life, and their work is a vital record of home-front life. Learn more at massobs.org.uk. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES a Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU t 020 8876 3444 w nationalarchives.gov.uk Among the records at TNA are War Diaries and index cards from the Women’s Land Army on microfiche. BOOKS The Day the War Ended Martin Gilbert HarperCollins, 1995 This book focuses on VE Day and its impact around the world. Wartime Britain, 1939–1945 Juliet Gardiner Headline, 2004 Oral history and memoirs tell the story of life on the home front. Year Zero: A History of 1945 Ian Buruma Atlantic, 2013 Buruma’s book explores the…

Rev Charles Burney (1757–1817), brother of the celebrated novelist and diarist Fanny Burney, accumulated thousands of newspapers and pamphlets during his lifetime. Bought by the British Museum after his death, they have been available to researchers ever since. Before 2007, a trawl for scattered references to an ancestor might have meant months spent hunched over a microfiche reader in a library, scanning millions of dimly backlit words – a needle-in-a-haystack job. However, now that the collection has been digitised, you can easily search it from home if you belong to one of the many libraries that provide online access to the Gale Primary Sources (check your local library’s website). This meant that I could type in ‘Atkinson’, select a range of dates, click ‘Search’ and thousands of results landed on…

Stage star My great great grandmother’s sister Una Jean Hill was a singer and entertainer. Here she is in a travelling vaudeville show c1944. The Williams siblings This photograph from Maryborough, Victoria, c1954, shows (left to right) my uncle Peter, my aunt Linda, my mother Marilyn and my uncle Terry. William George Shaw Public Record Office Victoria has this photo of my great great grandfather. He was jailed for a month for bad words and obscene language. Linda’s christening Here are my great grandparents Ethel and Thomas Williams with my aunt; my great grandmother Agnes Edwards is on the right. Una’s headshot Una began her career when she was 14. In 1951 she wrote the song Go Walkabout under her stage name Sonia St Louis. My christening day, 1972 All…

As the world’s largest free genealogical website, FamilySearch (familysearch.org) can be quite daunting. It’s all too easy to dive straight in and start searching the database, which indexes billions of historical records. But there’s so much more within the site that will give you the confidence to create strong roots for your tree, and you’ll be amazed what you can find using alternative approaches. For example, the FamilySearch Research Wiki is an invaluable guide that lists websites, provides research strategies, and suggests records and resources to help you find ancestors from all over the world. You can search the FamilySearch catalogue of genealogical materials (including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche and publications) made available online by the FamilySearch Library and in affiliate libraries such as the Society of Genealogists. It’s…

Although chimneys started appearing on British buildings in around 1200, it was not until the 17th century, when it became common to burn coal instead of wood, that chimney sweeps were needed. Sea coal left layers of flammable creosote inside the flues, and it was essential to remove it. By the 18th century, British domestic chimneys had become narrower to create a better draught; 9x14 inches was the standard size. There were frequently several flues in one chimney serving separate fireplaces. These narrow chimneys often had right-angled bends, making them impossible for an adult to sweep by hand. This led to the use of child apprentices, known as ‘climbing boys’, who were small enough to do the work (girls were used too, but much less often). These ‘human brushes’, sometimes…

Certificates and other documents contain a wealth of information about your forebears, but transcribing all of that detail by hand can take a painfully long time. This is where optical character recognition comes into its own. OCR enables computers to convert scans of images into editable text files. It does a great job converting typewritten documents, and is increasingly effective with handwritten documents too, although results can still be patchy. OCR products usually come with a price tag, but thanks to Google’s free tool Docs, you can convert your scanned documents into editable text for free. When you pass your scan through Docs’ OCR engine, it delivers a document with both the image and a transcription beneath it. This document can then be edited in your browser, or downloaded as…

The War Office Record Store in Arnside Street, Walworth, London, held the records of millions of First World War soldiers until they were destroyed in a fire resulting from a German bombing raid in September 1940. Their loss means that searching for details of a relation’s service can be immensely frustrating. Fortunately the records that survived the fire are now available via a number of websites. They can hold vital clues for family historians, including attestations (a form completed on enlistment), medical details, home address and next of kin. Bryan Kelsall found an attestation record among his grandmother’s keepsakes. This led him on a fascinating journey to discover the identity of her wartime sweetheart. MY BRICK WALL After my father’s death, I was intrigued to discover that he had kept…

Harold Beckett grew up in a working-class household of 10 children, but he found excitement and camaraderie in Scouting. Joining his local troop in Burnley in the 1920s, he relished learning new skills and striking out on camping expeditions with friends. Harold worked hard to fundraise, and was able to attend the 4th World Scout Jamboree in Gödöllo, Hungary, in 1933. Travelling across Europe and mixing with 25,000 attendees from over 30 countries was an extraordinary experience for the 18-year-old, and one that stayed with him for the rest of his life. After serving in the Second World War, Harold decided to support the troop that had given him so much by becoming a Scoutmaster himself. Inter-troop football matches, first-aid competitions and even promotion of patrol leaders all featured in…

We caught up with the team at Lancashire Archives in mid-June, when, despite the lockdown, staff were still helping the family history community with all sorts of remote research. Indeed archivist Keri Nicholson had just been dealing with someone struggling to confirm a possible baptism match for the name Stephenson from the late 1700s. She managed to prove a connection thanks to a quick search in the archive’s quarter-session court records, which include a removal order from 1801 for one Edward Stephenson, a ropemaker, his wife Mary and their five children from Skerton to Sutton, three miles north of Hull. ‘FamilySearch and Ancestry are putting more of our collections online’ A BURDEN ON THE PARISH “Under the Old Poor Law, financial relief was based on place of settlement,” she explains.…

ECKERSLEY More than 1,700 Eckersleys were recorded in Lancashire in the 1881 census. ENTWISTLE Bolton was an Entwistle hot spot in 1881. There’s an Entwistle Family History Association at entwistlefamily.org.uk. GREENHALGH This Lancashire habitational name comes from the Old English words meaning a green hollow. HAWORTH Although this village is near Bradford in West Yorkshire, the habitational name is most commonly found in Lancashire. HEYES/HEYS In the 1891 census 86 per cent of all Heys and 90 per cent of all Heyes were recorded living in Lancashire. HORROCKS This name comes from Great or Little Horrocks, which is now part of Greater Manchester. RIMMER Rimmer appears with most frequency in the west of the county, particularly in the civil parish of North Meols. SHARPLES This local habitational name is derived…

Sergeant Patrick Nolan stood before a firing squad in August 1945. He was part of a group of 18 emaciated Allied soldiers who had been held by the Japanese for three years. Fortunately, it was only a threat, meant to terrify men who had already witnessed hundreds of their comrades die from disease, starvation or inhumane abuse. ‘Grandpa never held any animosity towards the Japanese people’ Patrick is the maternal grandfather of Leila Barratt, who is going to celebrate his service in the Second World War on the 75th anniversary of VJ Day on 15 August: “Old Grandpa, as I always called him, was a gentle man with impeccable manners and a brilliant sense of humour.” Patrick was born in 1913 in Ballycullane, County Wexford, Ireland. Work was hard to…

Save time transcribing family memoirs or articles using Google Docs I was delighted to read Nick Peers’ ‘Tech Tips’ article about how you can use Google Docs to turn printed documents into editable text. I’m currently typing up a long typewritten family memoir so that it can be more easily searched and shared. Using Nick’s helpful step-by-step, I’m hoping to save myself a lot of time. Turn to page 60 and give it a try. I would love to hear how you get on with his advice, and what you use it for.…

Family historians are being urged to submit the results of their home DNA tests to a new University of Edinburgh study on the effects of coronavirus. Coronagenes (www. ed.ac.uk/coronagenes) hopes to use volunteers’ DNA to identify why some people who catch the disease have no symptoms while others become very ill. Volunteers who have tested their DNA with Ancestry, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage can upload their test results straight away, speeding up the process of the research, while those who have not done so will be asked to provide a sample of their saliva via post. Prof Albert Tenesa, co-lead on the study, explained that time is “of the essence” in understanding susceptibility to the virus. Anyone over 16 can join the study via the website.…

This year George V made a stop at Aberdeen Station on his way to Balmoral. The Linlithgowshire Gazette reported that the king, who was wearing a kilt, tweed jacket and Balmoral bonnet, was greeted by a party of local dignitaries, but there was an awkward incident when “a dog of doubtful pedigree” ran through the barriers and “scampered along the platform… only a few yards from the King”. It was then “captured by anxious officials”.…

Online genealogy academy Pharos Teaching and Tutoring (pharostutors.com) has been purchased by Dr Karen Cummings. Dr Cummings, a genealogist and former Pharos student, has taught and written Pharos courses for the past six years and has been the course director since October 2019. Helen Osborn, co-founder and owner of Pharos since its launch in 2005, said: “Karen shares my love of imparting the best genealogy tutoring and inspiration to all genealogists. She brings many skills to Pharos so I am really thrilled that she is stepping into my place.” For more information about Pharos, email karen@pharostutors.com.…

The world we live in today is driven by information and data. Whenever we are asked for our details, or we fill in an official form, the key piece of information we always have to supply, after our name, is our date of birth. You will find it on your driving licence, on your passport and on almost every official record that has been created about you. It is the one anniversary that (almost) every one of us celebrates each year. It isn’t surprising then that we always want to discover the precious dates of birth of our ancestors. THE NAME’S THE SAME For family historians, that little nugget of information is what helps us to separate all of those potential ancestors whose parents showed such little imagination when it…

8 May VE Day celebrated The end of the war in Europe is celebrated in Britain as Churchill announces Germany’s surrender on the radio. 26 June United Nations created At the end of a conference in San Francisco to discuss the inauguration of the United Nations, which began on 25 April, the organisation’s charter is signed by 50 of the Allied member nations. 5 July General Election held British servicemen across the world cast their vote using voting cards. 17 July Potsdam Conference begins The leaders of the main Allied powers Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry S Truman meet near Berlin. 26 July General Election result announced A victory for Labour sees Clement Attlee become prime minister, and his government goes on to build the welfare state. He replaces…

ARCHIVES THE BARING ARCHIVE w baringarchive.org.uk Barings Bank was founded in the 18th century and has an archive in the City of London. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w nationalarchives.gov.uk TNA in Kew has Treasury and Colonial Office letters about the American War of Independence and the West Indian colonies. BOOK Lady Nugent’s Journal of her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805 Philip Wright (editor) University of West Indies, 2002 Nugent’s diary is probably the most vivid description of life on the island at this time. A 1939 edition is free online at bit.ly/ht-lady-nugent. WEBSITES LEGACIES OF BRITISH SLAVE-OWNERSHIP w ucl.ac.uk/lbs This database identifies the slave owners who claimed compensation following the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act; it also includes the ownership histories of thousands of estates. MAPS OF JAMAICA w maps.nls.uk/jamaica…

ARTS NETWORK SUTTON w ansutton.org Elva was a leading light in her local art circle. Arts Network Sutton fosters and promotes art in the borough, and organises networking events. BIGGIN HILL MEMORIAL MUSEUM w bhmm.org.uk Discover more about the lives of those who served at Biggin Hill via its dedicated memorial museum. There is a plethora of memorabilia, including photos, letters, uniforms and medals. CHASING ELVA w chasingelva.com Rebecca has created a touching website celebrating her great aunt’s life and legacy. ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM w rafmuseum.org.uk The RAF’s museum in Hendon is home to Elva’s portraits. If you’re interested in finding out more about the first 100 years of the RAF, this is a fantastic place to visit. It’s interactive too, so you can even test your flying skills!…

How can I learn more about Jessie Fancourt and her parentage? Q I have a Jessie Fancourt in my tree, born about 1873, who married James Lovell on 14 May 1893. On Jessie’s marriage record, her father’s name is given as Charles Fancourt, but before her marriage, there is no information on her at all – no birth or census records. Where else I can look? Pauline Stanley A Jessie’s marriage took place in the church of St Stephen the Martyr in the parish of St Marylebone, and in the 1901 and 1911 censuses, Marylebone is given as her place of birth. The birth of a Charles Fancourt was registered in Marylebone in 1847. In the 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses, he is listed in the St Stephen’s ecclesiastical district…

BBC BITESIZE w bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2rm3k7/revision/7 Confused by genetic genealogy? This online resource from the BBC is a great place to get to grips with the fundamentals. FEDERATION OF FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES w familyhistoryfederation.com/ resources-research-tips The federation has a much-improved website which includes these research tips and guides. FINDMYPAST w findmypast.co.uk/content/getting-started Don’t miss this guide for beginners from the expert team at Findmypast. THEGENEALOGIST w bit.ly/gene-started This article from April 2020, when the website offered a free package of some of its most useful material, includes access to the 1911 census. GENGUIDE w genguide.co.uk This encyclopaedic labour of love offers free in-depth guides to genealogical sources, from civil registration to the bawdy courts. GENUKI w genuki.org.uk/gs This explanation for beginners covers important subjects such as having a plan, documenting your sources, and…

BOOKS British Chimney Sweeps: Five Centuries of Chimney Sweeping Benita Cullingford New Amsterdam Books, 2001 Cullingford provides an excellent overview of the occupation. The Last of the Climbing Boys: An Autobiography George Elson J Long, 1900 Elson’s fascinating memoir describes the life of sweeps in the Midlands in the 1840s, and is available on Amazon’s Kindle. London Labour and the London Poor, Volume 2 Henry Mayhew Griffin, Bohn, and Company, 1851 This book has lots of details about working practices, and is freely available online thanks to Project Gutenberg at gutenberg. org/ebooks/60440.…

SERVICE RECORDS w nationalarchives.gov.uk/ help-with-your-research/research-guides-keywords Look under the phrase ‘Royal Navy’ in TNA’s A-to-Z to find guides for officers and ratings. ALLOTMENT REGISTERS w bit.ly/fmp-allotments-1795-1852 These list next of kin receiving wages while sailors were at sea. Findmypast’s scans reveal more detail than free transcripts on TNA’s site. WILLS w bit.ly/tna-navy-wills You can also search TNA’s website for copies of wills for both officers and ratings. You’ll often find their rank, ship and next of kin.…

STEP ONE You can search forces-war-records.co.uk for a relation’s name for free, and the list of results may reveal a service number, record year, unit and possibly their rank. You can then subscribe to find out more. STEP TWO There are more than 60 million military records on findmypast.co.uk, dating from 1760 to the 20th century. You can also visit ancestry.co.uk for service records and regiments’ War Diaries. STEP THREE If you can’t find a fallen ancestor’s war records, try the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s site cwgc.org which has details of 1.7 million members of the armed forces who died in the world wars.…

ARCHIVE THE SCOUTS HERITAGE COLLECTION a The Heritage Service, The Scouts, Gilwell Park, Chingford E4 7QW e heritage@scouts.org.uk w bit.ly/scouts-archive This vast archive includes registration records of troops from 1919. It’s not open to visitors, but can provide some information on Scoutmaster appointments before 1939. BOOKS Scouting for Boys Robert Baden-Powell Oxford University Press, 2001 This edition of Baden-Powell’s book has a useful commentary. Scouts: The Stories That Built a Movement Scouts UK Studio Press, 2019 This 2019 title brings the story up to date, and is full of photos. MUSEUM STORY OF SCOUTING a Waddecar Scout Activity Centre, Snape Rake Lane, Preston PR3 2EU t 01995 61336 w storyofscouting.org.uk The museum is usually open to visitors on Saturdays. WEBSITES BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w bit.ly/british-news Search local newspapers for coverage…

1699 The Liverpool Merchant, the first recorded slave ship to sail from Liverpool, departs. 1779 Bolton-born pioneer Samuel Crompton invents the spinning mule, revolutionising the textile industry. 1781 In Manchester Richard Arkwright opens the world’s first textile mill run on steam. 1819 Cavalry charge a crowd demanding parliamentary reform at St Peter’s Field, Manchester. Eighteen people are killed and many more wounded in what is remembered as the Peterloo Massacre. 1830 William Huskisson is run over and killed by George Stephenson’s Rocket at the opening ceremony of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. 1894 Blackpool Tower opens to the public on 14 May. It stands 518 feet tall, including its flagpole. 1941 German bombing raids kill 365 people in Liverpool on 20–22 December. 1956 Devon Loch, owned by the Queen Mother,…

A HOUSE THROUGH TIME DAVID OLUSOGA AND MELANIE BACKE-HANSEN Picador, 304 pages, £20 Researching the history of a house has become very popular with family and local historians. This book is based on the BBC Two series of the same name, and written by its presenter, historian David Olusoga, and house historian Melanie Backe-Hansen, who has been a consultant on the series. It follows the changing fortunes of the three houses featured so far, but also of property in general throughout the ages. The authors discuss the importance of maps in charting the history of a house. Of particular interest to genealogists and local historians alike are the references throughout the book to the various Acts of Parliament, government reports and other works that have influenced the ways in which…

How did you get the inspiration for the book? My previous books were about beachcombing. I’d always known that I had dustmen and scavengers in one particular branch of the family, so I was originally contacted by the publisher about it and came up with the idea of following that branch. The family didn’t know where they came from beyond my great grandfather, so I hoped for some connection with the River Thames. Fortunately my Tolladay line lived in Water Street right beside the river. Nobody in the family had any idea that this was the case, so I was really pleased with that. Finding that branch, and also because I’d grown up on the Estuary, it seemed a natural course to take from Central London out to the Estuary…

ANTONY MARR A former policeman and deputy registrar, Antony is now a professional genealogist with AGRA specialising in civil registration brick walls. See his tips for finding births on page 15. KEVIN TELFER Kevin spent many months interviewing people for his book The Summer of ’45 – Stories and Voices from VE Day to VJ Day. On page 20 he shares his insights into a historic summer. NINA HOOLE Nina is a freelance writer, genealogist and Scout leader who has researched the history of Scouting and how her husband’s grandfather was involved. Read more on page 70.…

Ancestry adds First World War officers’ records Family history website ancestry.co.uk has updated its collection ‘UK, WWI Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914–1923’. This holds the records of pensions applications from military personnel who were injured during the war, and the next of kin of those killed. The new additions are records for injured Army, Navy and Royal Air Force officers; women who served, such as nurses; and officers’ widows. The records are indexed on Ancestry, while images of the originals are available on fold3.com. Over 1,000 Scottish maps added to free maps website The National Library of Scotland has digitised more than 1,000 historical maps of the country on maps.nls.uk in the past month, offering new ways for family historians to see where their Scottish ancestors lived. These additions…

An archive of historic films of Ireland is now available online for free. Reels from Home (ifiplayer.ie/reels-from-home), a partnership between the Irish Film Institute (IFI) and the London Irish Centre with support from the Arts Council, offers an archive of professional and amateur films documenting life in the country as far back as the early 1900s. The collection includes Killiney Hill, a short made on the hill in Dublin by parish priest Father Jack Delaney in the 1930s, and The Glamour of Galway, a film produced in 1957 to promote tourism to the city. Kasandra O’Connell, head of the IFI Irish Film Archive, commented: “We are delighted to be able to bring the collections of the IFI Irish Film Archive to a new audience in the UK, particularly at a…

The Beyond 2022: Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury project has unveiled the first glimpse of the new records that will be available when the project is completed in 2022. Beyond 2022 aims to launch a three-dimensional virtual-reality reconstruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland on 30 June 2022, the centenary of its destruction. Centuries of Irish records were lost when the record office was destroyed during the Irish Civil War. Project researchers are tracing substitute records in archives around the world. They will be digitised and made available for free in the reconstructed record office. Beyond 2022 has now released the first video of the 3D reconstruction of the reading room on its website (beyond2022.ie). The project has also published a sample of the records that will be available in…

The celebrations in the UK for Victory in Europe (VE) Day on 8 May 1945 may have been passionate and heartfelt, but they were also, in one vital sense, incomplete. The fighting was not over. Many of the people who celebrated that day still had loved ones waging war in the dense forests of Burma, where the Japanese forces were losing ground but not giving up. VE Day then also marked the start of a strange and desperate three months in which hopes of peace and prosperity competed with fears of division, further warfare and widespread poverty. During the summer of 1945 the Allied forces harried the Japanese through Burma; Churchill, Stalin and Truman got together to decide the future of Europe; the British electorate voted Churchill out and Attlee…

Ronald Owen was a 19-year-old pay clerk when he met his future wife Eileen at a Valentine’s Day dance in Worcester Park in Surrey in 1938. She was 16. They fell in love, and spent a lot of time together in 1938 and 1939. After he enlisted, they decided to get engaged just before he went to Egypt with the Royal Army Service Corps in 1940. Five years later, Sergeant Ronald Owen returned from Palestine on VJ Day, now aged 27, in the nose cone of a Lancaster bomber. He arrived in East Anglia, got a travel warrant and travelled to London by train. He arranged to meet Eileen under the clock at Waterloo Station, and she said that she would be wearing her Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) uniform. They…

Born in 1739, the third son of a Westmorland tanner, Richard ‘Rum’ Atkinson rose from obscurity to become one of the most famous figures in the City of London. An entrepreneurial and logistical genius, ‘Rum’ gained his big break in 1775 when he was the junior partner of a merchant house with shipping and other major interests in Jamaica, and the prime minister Lord North awarded him the first of many contracts to provision the British troops fighting the American rebels. He never wed – the society beauty Lady Anne Lindsay having turned down his marriage proposal – but may have had a secret family with an enslaved woman called Betty. The last few years of his life were consumed by politics, and he played a key role in the…

Can you shed any light on my Scottish great great grandparents? ‘Asylum records may offer clues to James’ background’ Q My great great grandparents James Begg and Agnes Munroe were both born in Scotland, according to the 1841–1881 censuses. They don’t say where, so I can’t find their birth records. James (born 1807) was a tailor. He lived at 13 Turner Square, Shoreditch, London, where he died in 1875. He married Agnes on 22 May 1832 at St John’s, Wapping, London. Agnes died on 25 September 1885 at the Shoreditch Infirmary. Can you tell me any more about James and Agnes, including where they came from? Joan Ames A This is a tricky one, because James and Agnes moved to England and married prior to the advent of civil registration.…

What was the name of James’ regiment? Q My grandfather, Herbert Mason (born 1881), was living in Harrow, Middlesex, at the time of the First World War. Although I have no knowledge of him being called up and leaving the country, I believe that he and his brother, John, both served as volunteers. This group photo shows them in uniform, but I have no idea what the organisation is. I’ve also sent an individual photograph of Herbert. Can you help? Richard Mason A The group photo shows Volunteer noncommissioned officers (NCOs), and was taken in 1905–1908. Although many are Royal Artillery, there are other badges among them so this may be a Territorial Force (TF) divisional exercise that took place c1908. The Volunteers were created in 1859, when France threatened…

A retired bank clerk seems an unlikely person for derringdo. Yet when the First World War broke out, the Bank of England summoned Frank White for an important but dangerous mission. Fortunately the bank’s archive holds his diary of his adventures, as assistant archivist Rachael Muir explains. WHO WAS FRANK WHITE? When we meet Frank George White at the start of his diary, he is a retired member of Bank of England staff in his late fifties. From our staff records, we know that Frank was elected as a clerk to the Bank of England on 5 June 1879, when he was 22 years old. In the latter part of his career, he was a clerk within the Cashier’s Store Office until he left in April 1913 owing to ill…

ALLIED POWS UNDER THE JAPANESE w mansell.com/pow-index. html This huge website has many details of both individual prisoners and the Japanese camps. CHILDREN AND FAMILIES OF FAR EAST PRISONERS OF WAR w cofepow.org.uk The charity’s website has a range of digital resources for POWs in Europe as well as the Far East. HONG KONG WAR DIARY w hongkongwardiary.com/ hkwdhome.html Discover splendidly researched information about the fate of the men captured in the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941. WW2 PEOPLE’S WAR w bbc.co.uk/history/ ww2peopleswar/categories/c1204/ Many accounts of POWs’ experiences have been submitted to the BBC’s People’s War website.…

If your ancestor was a master sweep, he may be listed in a trade directory. For England and Wales, check the University of Leicester’s Special Directories Online (specialcollections. le.ac.uk/cdm/map/collection/p16445coll4). For Scotland, try the Scottish Post Office directories on the National Library of Scotland’s site (digital.nls.uk/directories), and some Irish directories can be searched on Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk/irish-directories). If your ancestor was working in the 1860s as a master chimney sweep, it’s worth checking if he gave evidence to the Children’s Employment Commission. Its first report (1863) is on the Internet Archive (bit.ly/arch-childrens-first). Other possible records that may refer to your forebear are indentures for apprentice chimney sweeps (although informal apprenticeships between fathers and sons won’t be recorded). If your forebear was apprenticed as a climbing boy by the parish or workhouse, it’s…

George Broad is a good example of how a lifetime’s career can be traced in naval records. He joined the Navy in 1860, aged 16, to train as a ship’s master. A master was a navigator, responsible for plotting and maintaining the ship’s course. George quickly impressed his superiors – being described as trustworthy, zealous and highly capable – and was promoted to lieutenant. As his career progressed, George’s skills and character came to the attention of many senior officers. He was described as “watchful, and with a nerve becoming a naval officer of executive responsibility” and as “a first class navigator and a perfect gentleman”. The Navy earmarked George for royal duties, where his ability and discretion were vital. He took command of HMS Elfin , which carried dispatches…

CERTIFICATES OF SERVICE w ancestry.co.uk/search/ collections/9050 Certificates of service were compiled to prove eligibility for entitlements such as pensions by describing naval service in detail. INDEX OF 19TH CENTURY SHIPS w sites.rootsweb.com/ ~pbtyc/18-1900/Index.html Discover basic biographical data on Royal Navy ships that are mentioned in your ancestor’s records via this free online resource. MEDICAL JOURNALS w discovery.national archives.gov.uk/ details/r/C1810 Search the medical journals in The National Archives’ series ADM101 to find out if your relation was treated by a ship’s surgeon. NAVAL MEDALS AND AWARDS w ancestry.co.uk/search/ collections/1687 This collection contains awards for campaigns, good conduct or gallantry for the whole of the 19th century. TRAFALGAR ANCESTORS DATABASE w nationalarchives.gov.uk/ trafalgarancestors Find out if any of your forebears were at the Battle of Trafalgar with Nelson. DR SIMON WILLS is a…

1936 LONDONERS FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM This year a symbolic victory in the East End of London marked the beginning of the end for British fascism. The fascists were led by Sir Oswald Mosley, a former Conservative then a Labour MP, who formed his own New Party then renamed it the British Union of Fascists after seeing fascism in action in Italy. The fascists’ passion for insignia, marching, paramilitary uniforms – giving rise to the nickname ‘Blackshirts’, and giant rallies patrolled by muscular ‘stewards’ made them popular with those looking for a new direction in politics. They combined radical economic ideas to combat unemployment with antisemitism manifesting in attacks on Jews. A threatened march through the heart of the East End on Sunday 4 October was particularly provocative. Residents of the…

CIVIL RECORDS w lancashirebmd.org.uk Lancashire BMD, part of the Local BMD Project, provides access to local indexes to civil records of births, marriages and deaths from 1837 onwards. Note, however, that the indexes are not yet complete. MANUFACTURERS’ DIRECTORY w bit.ly/spinners-directory This directory, printed in Oldham in 1891 and available on the University of Leicester’s website Special Collections Online, has “telegraphic addresses, telephone numbers and pay days of the principal firms” involved in spinning cotton. You can search other free directories at bit.ly/ speciallancs . CREW LISTS w bit.ly/lncs-crews Search transcribed and indexed crew lists for fishing vessels registered at Fleetwood (1884–1914), and ships registered at the ports of Fleetwood, Lancaster and Preston (1863–1913). PARISH REGISTERS w lan-opc.org.uk Lancashire Online Parish Clerks has free transcriptions of thousands of registers from…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES LANCASHIRE ARCHIVES a Bow Lane, Preston PR1 2RE t 01772 533039 e record.office@lancashire.gov.uk w lancashire.gov.uk/ libraries-and-archives/archives-and-record-office The website has a detailed section describing church registers, plus useful guides to collections relating to Burnley, Pendle, Blackpool, and Blackburn with Darwen. The online catalogue LANCAT (archivecat.lancashire.gov.uk) has guides to records, examples and indexes to all sorts of material including probate records, and plans are afoot to improve the website and catalogue for mobile devices. Highlights include probate material, crew lists, photographs, trade and other directories, local history publications and pedigrees, and there’s free online access to ancestry.co.uk, findmypast. co.uk and the British Library Gale Newspaper Archive. You can also explore microfilm collections of Preston newspapers and cemetery registers from Preston, Blackburn and Lancaster. Estate records and solicitors’ collections include…

APP MYHERITAGE PHOTO ENHANCER  myheritage.com/ photo-enhancer Free If your ancestors’ faces look grainy and blurred in old photographs, you can now upload them to MyHeritage and view them in focus. The new tool works particularly well on photographs of large gatherings where individual faces are too small to see. If you’re not a subscriber to the website, you can upload up to 10 images for free. WATCH WHY ARCHIVES MATTER  vimeo.com/295610129 Free This short film from 2018, produced by the Scottish Council on Archives with support from the Archives and Records Association, features interviews with archivists from around Scotland about all of the different ways that archives are important to us. While many archives remain closed because of coronavirus, it’s a fantastic reminder of why we miss them so much.…

NONCONFORMIST BAPTISM REGISTERS We discovered that the Motts were nonconformists by obtaining the baptism of Samuel Mott, Sophie’s 4x great grandfather, in 1792. We found the record in the collection of nonconformist baptisms on the website TheGenealogist: thegenealogist.co.uk. BANKRUPTCY RECORDS Samuel Mott did not have a happy life. He moved to the USA with his parents, but returned after they both died of yellow fever. He then went to live with a bankrupt, Jonathan Sherwood. The record of his bankruptcy in 1796 can be found in the extensive online archive of the London Gazette , which is free to search: thegazette. co.uk/London/issue/13911/page/678. JERSEY BURIAL RECORDS Samuel Mott moved to the Channel Islands later in his life, and tragically committed suicide in Jersey in 1838 by cutting his own throat; according…