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

You may notice my editor’s photo has changed this month. This is my great grandmother, Gertrude Elizabeth Jane Sailman, on graduating from the University of Wales in Bangor in 1904 with first-class honours. Reading our article on university education (see page 72) made me even more proud of her achievement. It particularly resonated with me as I send my daughter off to university next week. So often the paths we tread have been walked by our ancestors. As lockdown starts to ease, more and more archives and libraries are cautiously opening up, but I know for many of our readers online research will remain a priority, so I was delighted to share my enthusiasm for the Internet Archive this month on page 17. It’s worth spending some time thinking about…

AN ALADDIN’S CAVE OF WONDER In the beginning of my research I would pore over names and birthdates, and wonder if these faceless individuals would ever become real to me. Then I came across my first cousin four times removed, Richard Cox Gough, born in 1827 in Bedminster, Bristol. After failed attempts at various careers he came to settle in Cheddar, Somerset. He was an eccentric man, who was convinced that a cottage that was built into the rock face of the Mendip Hills would yield an Aladdin’s cave of wonder. In 1892 his hunch was rewarded. As I read an account of how he entered the cavern with a candle, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I felt like I too saw the majesty of…

More than 300,000 Scottish family history records are newly available to members of findmypast.co.uk. The website has added a collection of over 250,000 parish records from the counties of Banffshire and Moray on the east coast of Scotland. The records of baptisms, marriages and burials are only available as transcriptions, taken from documents held by Moray Council, but they are full of useful detail. They date from the 19th century to 2011 in the case of some of the burials, and reveal the date and place your ancestor was born, married or buried, and the names of their parents and spouse. In addition, Findmypast has added over 60,000 records to its Scotland, Burgess & Guild Brethren Index. The records in the collection date as far back as the 15th century,…

Family history website thegenealogist.co.uk has added 260,000 records to its collection of poll books. The records date from 1741 to 1930 and cover constituencies in Bath, Devon, Hampshire, Hertford, Kent, Lincolnshire, London, Monmouthshire, Northumberland, Rutland, Scotland, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk and Surrey. Poll books are a useful record for tracing ancestors between and after censuses. However, they only list individuals who were eligible to vote. The right to vote was initially limited to men who met the property-ownership requirements, before being extended to all men and some women in 1918, and all women in 1928.…

1 Visit archive.org and type a search term into the search box. If searching for a particular location, remember that many place names in the UK can also be found in the USA or Canada – so you may have to add a county or country. 2 If you get too many irrelevant results, try an Advanced Search. Type your main search term into the ‘Any field’ box, then add ‘Subject’ in one of the blank boxes and type ‘genealogy’. This will narrow it down to books relevant to family historians. 3 To discover a range of books on genealogy, type ‘subject:“genealogy”’ into the search box. If you just type ‘genealogy’ then it will only search for books that have the word in their title or description. Try other topics…

Sergeant Leslie Ambler was a navigator in the Royal Air Force. His next of kin was his mother who lived in Leeds. Eleanor notes that he was “very pleasant, quiet and proper”. He was the youngest of 13 children, and at the time he stayed with the Caseys he was roughly 22 years old. On his page Eleanor noted: “Killed in 1944, buried in Iceland.” When he contacted one of Leslie’s relations, Denise, Barrie discovered that he’d been a pilot, ferrying planes over from America to England. Sadly on one of his trips, he crashed into the sea just off Iceland, which was why he was buried there. “When I got in contact with her, she was planning to visit the grave. I sent her the page from Eleanor’s book…

DURHAM AT WAR w ww1countydurham.blogspot. com This website from Durham County Council includes firsthand accounts of the horrors that the Durham Light Infantry endured during the Battle of Hooge at bit.ly/durham-hooge. George Harrington was at the forefront when German forces began using flame-throwers. FINDMYPAST w findmypast.co.uk David found out about his cousin’s service and fundraising tour in articles from the Walsall Observer in the site’s collection of British newspapers, which is also available at british newspaperarchive.co.uk. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND w movingimage.nls.uk/ film/1238B/82814515 See historical footage of Julian driven by George Harrington in Aberdeen. The video shows the tank scaling vast piles of stones in the streets.…

Researching members of your family tree who served as doctors or nurses in the British Army is a fascinating aspect of military history. Perhaps the most famous branch of army healthcare is the Royal Army Medical Corps, formally established during the Peninsular War but with its roots in the 1660s. The Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps was formed in 1902 as the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, although nurses cared for wounded soldiers long before this date. Less well-known is the Royal Army Dental Corps, set up in 1921 in response to shortcomings in dental care during the First World War. Medical care was also provided to animals in army service, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps being created by warrant in 1903, but again army veterinary services predate…

NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNTY RECORD OFFICE a 76–86 Malpas Road, Northallerton DL7 8TB t 01609 777585 w northyorks.gov.uk/plan-your-visit-and-contact-record-office The record office’s opening hours are subject to change as a result of the coronavirus pandemic – check its website for the latest information. You can also search its online catalogue at archivesunlocked.northyorks.gov.uk. A transcribed edition of the annals is available as a single volume edited by Lesley Lewis for £25.50 plus P&P from bit.ly/bed-annals.…

BOOKS Tracing Villains and Their Victims Jonathan Oates Pen & Sword, 2017 This handbook is a valuable resource. Tracing Your Criminal Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians Stephen Wade Pen & Sword, 2009 This is another good title for researching criminals. WEBSITES ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/ collections/60861 If you find a relation in Ancestry’s collection ‘UK, Police Gazettes, 1812–1902, 1921–1927’, you can follow them up in the criminal registers available on the same site. CRIMINAL HISTORIAN w criminalhistorian.com This site from historian and WDYTYA? Magazine contributor Nell Darby is full of useful nuggets. FINDMYPAST w search.findmypast. co.uk/search/britishnewspapers Findmypast has the Police Gazette (1773–1918), indexes and other related sources such as lists of habitual criminals. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w bit.ly/tna-blog-crims This post on TNA’s blog explains how to go about tracing criminal…

The Edwardian House: The Middle-Class Home in Britain Helen C Long Manchester University Press, 1993 Helen C Long’s examination of life in Edwardian Britain includes illuminating insights into the introduction of electricity in our forebears’ homes. Magnus Volk of Brighton Conrad Volk Phillimore & Co, 1971 This biography of the Victorian pioneer who lit up Brighton Pavilion and created one of the earliest electric railways, as well as the famous ‘Daddy Long Legs’ seashore railway, is written by one of his sons. The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, Forgotten Genius of Electricity Robert Lomas CreateSpace, 2013 Learn more about the electrical engineer who helped develop alternating current and met Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor in an episode of Doctor Who in January 2020.…

Lateral research can be essential for Irish family history. Birth, marriage and death records for the siblings of your ancestor can often contain vital clues. All that was known about Patrick McCarthy (born 1913) was that he came from Waterford and had a brother, James. His father died and his mother married another McCarthy and had Patrick’s stepbrothers, Daniel and Michael. From 1900 the mother’s maiden name appears in the Irish civil birth indexes. If family tradition was correct, Patrick, James, Daniel and Michael McCarthy should share the same mother’s maiden name. A 20-year search of the civil birth indexes for the districts serving Waterford for all Patrick, James, Daniel and Michael McCarthys found many results, but no match for all four brothers with the same mother’s maiden name. Investigating…

GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE w gov.ie/en/ organisation-information/55ccbegeneral-register-officegro-research-facility Find information about the GRO’s research room on Werburgh Street in Dublin. HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE CIVIL REGISTRATION SERVICE w www2.hse.ie/services/ births-deaths-and-marriages/get-certificates Order full-form copies of original birth, marriage and death certificates. IRISH GENEALOGY TOOLKIT w irish-genealogy-toolkit. com/Ireland-civil-registration.html Explore a list of Irish civil registration districts as well as a history of civil registration in Ireland. JOHN GRENHAM w johngrenham.com/places/ plu_index.php This website includes maps of Poor Law unions and Superintendent Registrar’s Districts, and lists unions’ townlands and parishes.…

We visit the county as staff at the county archives in Bedford are working towards a limited and gradual reopening in the autumn. Service manager Pamela Birch tells us that during peak lockdown the team worked remotely where possible, accessing network drives and cataloguing software, but many were in fact seconded away for the council’s community-hub work – arranging prescriptions and shopping pick-ups for shielding residents. Now staff are beginning to return to the building to clear the backlog of remote enquiries. “One of the archivists has almost single-handedly kept track of enquiries coming in, and responded to them as far as possible without access to the office,” says Pamela. “I think it is true to say that we have all had good and bad days,” she adds. “Everyone has…

How did you come to write the book? I started writing the book after my mother Edna died. My heart broke, so I wrote and wrote and wrote in longhand bits that I remembered she’d told me about our family. Later, I was having lunch with my journalist friend Martin Bagot, the health editor at the Daily Mirror, and I was telling him a couple of stories. He said, “Nye, why don’t you write a book?” And I said, “Well, I have actually.” And that’s how the book came about. They did say that they had to remove the naughty bits about my life! There are still a couple of questions I would like to have asked my mother. Because the doctor gave me my name ‘Aneira’ after Aneurin Bevan,…

The Internet Archive is clearly a favourite of mine because I’ve written a whole feature on it (page 17). But just to demonstrate further how useful it is, especially for military research, turn to page 90 and read about the life of mariner Edward Rexworthy. How did David Joy discover that his ancestor’s short stature saved his life? From the memoirs of Provo Wallis, available to all of us, wherever we are, on archive.org.…

Recently, while sorting through some stuff, I discovered something I had never seen before. As I sat on my sofa, I unwrapped a small paper bag I found in a box and there was my great grandad George Ives’ Air Raid Precautions leather wallet. As I opened it, out fell his silver ARP badge and his Defence Medal. It also contained a pink form from Finsbury Borough Council so he could order his uniform and equipment, and his Civil Defence authority card. Although it is stamped 1943 I know that he volunteered as a warden in 1936 (the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury set up its ARP committee as early as 1935). His entry on the 1939 Register marks him as an ARP volunteer. Part-time wardens were supposed to be on…

A pair of historians are working to trace the descendants of the cyclists who served in a secret First World War surveillance unit. Jim Beach and Jock Bruce are researching the story of the Home Defence Army Cyclist Company. It was first formed in 1915, when it was based in Driffield, Yorkshire, and consisted of about 60 soldiers. Its original purpose seems to have been to carry out reconnaissance duties in the event of a German invasion. The unit was still active in 1919, when it was used for the surveillance of political meetings. The historians have compiled a list of 80 men who served in the unit, which is available at historyatnorthampton. com/2020/09/14/secret-cyclists/. If you are descended from one of the soldiers, please email jim.beach@northampton.ac.uk.…

The biographies of more than 200 inmates from 19th-century workhouses have been published online for the first time thanks to a volunteer project. More Than Oliver Twist, run by the Workhouse Network, brought together over 100 volunteers to trace the lives of inmates of six workhouses found in the 1881 census. Their complete life stories are included in a free searchable database at ehive.com/ communities/1167/more-than-oliver-twist. At press time, 276 are available. A selection will feature in an exhibition on artsand culture.google.com at the end of September. “Seeing the research come together and the volunteers’ increasing confidence with giving audios and family history research is brilliant,” said project support officer Wednesday Batchelor.…

A message often highlighted in Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine is that you should never use online pedigrees or other researchers’ ancestral charts without checking the original sources and making sure that the evidence they provide has been correctly interpreted. There are many cases where somebody has simply assumed that A and B are related or even the same person because they share a surname. However, as long as you keep this warning in mind, you can strike gold. I was particularly interested in the ‘Ancestors at Work’ article by Caroline Roberts about the Sheffield cutlery industry in the July issue. My wife is a Sheffielder, and I’ve known the city quite well for a long time. It’s a great place, with a strong character and a fascinating…

ANTIQUARIAN TRANSCRIPTIONS The Accounts of the Churchwardens of the Parish of St Michael, Cornhill, London, from 1456 to 1608 w archive.org/details/accountsofchurch00lond/mode/2up A Calendar of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Gloucester, Vol. 2, 1660 to 1800 w archive.org/details/calendarofwillsp02chur Charlton, Near Woolwich, Kent: Full and Complete Copies of All the Inscriptions in the Old Parish Church and Churchyard, 1908 w archive.org/details/charlton nearwool00mayl Dorset Parish Registers: Marriages, Vol. 6 w archive.org/details/dorset parishregi00phil Nottingham Parish Registers: Marriages, St Mary’s Church, Vol. 1, 1566 to 1763 w archive.org/details/nottingham parish01phil BIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS From Capetown to Ladysmith: an Unfinished Record of the South African War, 1900 w bit.ly/arch-capetown-ladysmith Made in the Trenches, Composed Entirely from Articles and Sketches Contributed by Soldiers, 1916 w bit.ly/arch-made-trenches Recollections of an Eventful Life Chiefly Passed…

LATEST NEWS Accurate, in-depth coverage of the week’s biggest record releases and genealogy news FAMILY HISTORY TUTORIALS Learn how to master basic skills or take your research further with our genealogy tutorials, packed with top tips and expert advice LATEST OFFERS Discover our round-up of new deals and discounts for family historians – helping you save money REAL STORIES Read extraordinary real-life stories that our readers have uncovered while researching their tree KEEP UPDATED! Don’t miss out on important family history news SIGN UP TODAY BY VISITING whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com SCROLL DOWN TO FIND OUR ‘SIGN ME UP’ BOX…

I can’t find any birth or marriage records for my great great grandfather or his wife - can you offer any advise? Q My great great grandfather Charles Philip Cornelius Gertchen was born on 27 March 1811 in (according to various records) Brentford, Beaconsfield or London. He went to sea, aged seven, as an apprentice. The censuses show that he later lived in Kingston upon Hull with his wife Charlotte Peck. He had a daughter, Emma Nelson Gretchen, born in 1848, but she died a year later of dysentery. He had two sons, John Nelson Gertchen (1850–1882) and Charles Gretchen (born 1856). Charles senior died at sea on the Jewel of Hull in Prussia on 10 November 1861. We cannot find any birth or marriage records for him or his…

Between 1909 and 1915, the British anthropologist Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868–1936) conducted expeditions in modern-day Nigeria and Sierra Leone, both then part of the British Empire. He photographed local people, recorded their music and stories on wax cylinders, and collected artefacts of everyday life. Thomas’ archives are held in various institutions, including the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the British Library Sound Archive and The National Archives. They were largely overlooked until the creation of the [Re:]Entanglements project, which sees academics in the UK, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and elsewhere re-engaging with these remarkable collections. One of the most important parts of the project is sharing Thomas’ photos and recordings with the modern-day residents of the villages where they were made. The project leaders have also contacted the…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/2318 The website’s military medical records include Royal Navy medical journals (1817–1856). THE FAIREST FORCE w fairestforce.co.uk This spin-off from Scarlet Finders explains the administrative and organisational aspects of the British military’s nursing services in France and Flanders during the First World War. FINDMYPAST w bit.ly/fmp-ww1-hospital Only a small proportion of records from WW1 field hospitals were kept and can be viewed here. Findmypast also has records from the archive of Harold Gillies, the WW1 plastic surgeon. Recipients of the Royal Red Cross award 1883-1996 can also be searched on the site. THE INTERNET ARCHIVE w bit.ly/arch-sis-western Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914–1915 is one of the countless books freely available to download from archive.org. QARANC w qaranc.co.uk This website traces the history of…

Today, there are more than a quarter of a million electrical workers operating in the UK, including over 40,000 registered electricians in England and Wales. The modern world spins on electricity, and every day we rely on ‘sparkies’ to keep our smartphones charging. Yet the electrician’s establishment as an everyday trade is a recent one. Electricity only became commonplace in the 20th century, and millions alive today grew up ‘off grid’. For the Victorians, the novel phenomenon was viewed with wonder and suspicion. The very first electricians were enterprising scientists or inventors like Benjamin Franklin. When these pioneers began their experiments in the mid-18th century, electricity was something of a curio – a sideshow trick to entertain royal courts and fashionable salons. Luigi Galvani (from whom we get the term…

Every family has stories to tell, but bringing them all together can be tricky. StoryTree is the latest in a long line of online services that promise to help you gather your family’s memories in a collaborative environment. There are big plans involving apps and publishing books, but for now StoryTree is exclusively accessible from your computer or mobile device through a web browser. While it’s in beta, everyone gets a free 60-day deluxe subscription – which allows you to store photos and files online for free, and lets you find out if the service meets your needs. When the beta ends, however, StoryTree will offer three tiers of access – click ‘Upgrade Tier’ when logged in to compare them. You’ll notice that the free tier has no support for…

This page of civil marriage registrations from Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, in the north of Ireland in November and December 1907 has been digitised and can be downloaded for free from www.irishgenealogy.ie 1 DISTRICTS The Superintendent Registrar’s District (SRD) is listed here, and below it the local Registrar’s District where the event was registered. 2 AGE “Full” age means over 21 years old. “Minors” were under 21, and would have required parental permission to marry. Occasionally the exact age was recorded. 3 RESIDENCE This section reveals the address where the bride and groom spent the night before they married. This was not always the family home, particularly in the case of the groom. 4 CHURCH OR PARISH The name and denomination of the church or parish in which the marriage took…

Philippa Fawcett caused a stir at Cambridge in 1890 when she became the first woman to beat all of her male counterparts in one of the university’s exams, scoring the highest mark in that year’s Mathematical Tripos. This fiendishly difficult test required candidates to sit no fewer than 12 papers in quick succession, each three hours long. Had she been a man, Fawcett would have been crowned ‘Senior Wrangler’, but although she could only be declared ‘above the Senior Wrangler’ the press still went wild. “A woman can win the victory, though she may not wear the wreath,” trumpeted the Pall Mall Gazette, while the Sunderland Echo gleefully reported that she had “dished the dons” and the Graphic reassured its readers that she avoided “all bluestocking eccentricity, dressing like the…

1605 The criminal career of the colourful and daring highwayman Gamaliel Ratsey finally ends when he is hanged at Bedford. 1660 Elstow-born John Bunyan is imprisoned in Bedford Gaol for nonconformist preaching. During his 12 years in prison he writes The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678). 1795 Samuel Whitbread, founder of the Whitbread brewery, purchases Southill Park. 1877  Dame Bertha Phillpotts, Scandinavian scholar and pioneer of university education for women, is born in Bedford. 1905 Car production begins at the large Vauxhall Motors factory in Luton, which is still in use today. 1910 Thanks to his English parents, Montana-born Gary Cooper joins Dunstable Grammar School 42 years before he stars in the classic western High Noon. The role wins him his second Academy Award. 1913 Anti-apartheid activist Trevor Huddleston is born in…

Are any of these names in your family tree? BRIGHTMAN This was a nickname for someone sprightly. In 1881 the name was most common in Luton, Streatley and Maulden. BUNKER This nickname of Norman origin for a good-hearted person comes from the Old French bon (good) and cuer (heart). DILLEY In 1891 about a quarter of all Dilleys recorded in the census were living in Bedfordshire. GENTLE In 1881 the vast majority of Gentles in the county were recorded living in Stotfold. HUCKLE This popular Bedfordshire surname grew out of the medieval personal name ‘Huck’. JANES This patronymic appears frequently in the census districts of Luton and Edlesborough in Buckinghamshire. ODELL This surname derives from the village and civil parish in the north of Bedfordshire. PUDDEPHATT In 1891 this is…

WEBSITE THE PARCHMENT RUSTLER  parchmentrustler.com Free This new blog from genealogy and genetics researcher Dr Sophie Kay offers friendly and informative advice on key skills for family historians. Highlights so far include a series of posts about how to ask the right questions, and a guide to using free online records from The National Archives to create your own palaeography toolkit. PODCAST THINGS IN JARS Podcast services Free Curators Melissa and Poppy both work at the Wordsworth Trust, but together they present a podcast looking at “oddities, curiosities and all the weird and wonderful stuff” that they’ve discovered in museum stores around the world. It’s a fascinating insider’s look at what we all love about museums. VIDEO IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS  bit.ly/youtube-iwm Free Imperial War Museums manages five museums of Britain’s…

CLAIRE VAUGHAN Claire is a freelance journalist and family historian who worked on our magazine for ten years. On page 22 she interviews a man who made a fascinating WW2 discovery. SIMON FOWLER A regular contributor to WDYTYA? Magazine and professional genealogist, Simon turns his attention to the Police Gazette, used to catch those on the run, on page 52. NICOLA MORRIS As director of Timeline, one of Ireland’s leading genealogy companies, Nicola is perfectly placed to share her expert Irish know-how looking at civil records on page 61.…

FamilySearch adds over five million French records Family history site familysearch. org has added a useful collection of 5,413,612 French records: ‘France, Nord, Parish and Civil Registration, 1524–1893’. The collection includes searchable transcriptions of birth, marriage and burial records, and scans of the original documents from the Archives Départementales du Nord. For those who are interested in tracing French ancestry, they provide such details as your ancestor’s date and place of birth, marriage or death, in addition to the names of their parents or spouse. Layers of London gets Booth’s poverty maps The free historical-maps website layersoflondon.org has added new layers revealing the class distinctions in 19th-century London, according to the poverty maps created by social reformer and philanthropist Charles Booth. The maps were drawn up between 1886 and 1903,…

IN PERSON FINDING THE FALLEN Until 15 November a Leicester Museum and Art Gallery t 0116 225 4900 e museums@leicester.gov.uk w leicestermuseums.org/ ve75findingthefallen This new art exhibition from Loz Atkinson, created to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, tells the story of her great grandfather’s death in battle and her journey up an Italian mountain to make art in his memory. Free – advance booking required. JEWISH RESISTANCE TO THE HOLOCAUST Until 30 November a Wiener Library, London t 020 7636 7247 w bit.ly/resistanceex This new exhibition sheds light on the untold stories of the Jewish men and women who, at great personal risk, led the resistance to the Nazis during the Holocaust. Free – advance booking required. TRANSPORTATION TO AUSTRALIA 24 September a…

There is a wonderful moment in baker Paul Hollywood’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? (series 12, 2015) when Scottish historian Dr Ben Thomas reveals the amazing story of Paul’s 4x great grandfather Donald MacKenzie, who worked as a post-runner up in the Highlands. In Gairloch, where Donald was also a crofter, there was little in the way of roads, and so, once a week, Donald would run 60 miles to Dingwall to collect the post for the area, and then the next day run the 60 miles back. This is before census records and yet not only does Paul learn about his ancestor’s profession, but Ben can include vivid details such as the fact that Donald “always wore a kilt” even though they had “fallen out of…

Eleanor Casey sits at her kitchen table in Long Island, New York, in 1945, carefully making notes on a sheet of paper, adding a word here and underlining one there. Putting down her pen, she picks up a photograph. She looks at the young serviceman staring back at her and remembers the fun they’d all had when he stayed with her family a couple of weeks ago. She sticks the photograph firmly onto the page, which she adds to the sheaf of others contained in the black binder on the table. Seventy-five years later, Eleanor’s binder sits on Barrie Holden’s kitchen table on the other side of the Atlantic – in Blackburn to be precise. As the nation strung up bunting to celebrate VE Day, eating cream cakes and drinking…

Men, women and children thronged the streets of Walsall on 24 March 1918, to see the Mark IV tank Julian trundle through the market town. This battle-scarred wonder weapon had struck terror into German forces on the Western Front, and spectators were keen to witness its might and manoeuvrability for themselves. Dignitaries gathered as the military band heralded Julian’s arrival. The event was part of the ‘tank bank’, a nationwide tour to raise funds for the war effort through the sale of war bonds and savings certificates. Children queued up to donate pennies, and towns competed to raise the most money. Over £2 million was donated – a vast sum for the time. Driving the tank in Walsall that day was retired teacher David Stokes’ relation George Harrington, a decorated…

Can you find a record of my great great grandfather’s death? Q My great great grandfather James Hind (born 1828, Castle Carrock, Cumbria), married Sophia Baker in June 1855 and they moved to India, where he worked as a merchant. They had five children including Madeline (born 1864, Calcutta) and Rose (born January 1866, Lambeth). I’ve found a death certificate for a Sophia Hinds – wife of James Hinds, formerly a merchant – who died in 1869 in the Camberwell Workhouse. What happened to James? Claire Dodd A Since James’ wife, Sophia, gave birth in January 1866, it is assumed that James was the baby’s father and that he was alive nine months before, in April 1865. When Sophia died, she was described as the “wife” of James, rather than…

Can you tell me about this soldier? Q I have an old photograph in a cardboard frame. On the back someone has written “Charles Saker, killed in Persian Gulf 1916?”. I can’t find a family connection, so any suggestions would be useful. Martin Emery A This photo is of a private, probably in the 14th Hussars, in his walking-out uniform, and was taken in 1906/1907. His uniform is all blue, including the facings (collar and cuffs), with a yellow stripe just visible on his trousers and spurs. All Hussar regiments wore basically the same uniform, apart from the 11th who wore red trousers. Knowing Charles was a Hussar, killed in 1916, made it easy to find him on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s site at cwgc.org. He died on 18…

North Yorkshire County Record Office holds a remarkable gem from the town of Bedale – a pair of notebooks containing annals kept by local shoemaker Robert Hird. They provide a detailed narrative of life in the town – all handwritten in rhyme. We spoke to record assistant Gail Falkingham to find out more about the story behind the books. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE ANNALS? They’re essentially a history of the town of Bedale. They were written by a gentleman called Robert Hird, who we think set out to write his own autobiography with a general history of his family, but that turned into something greater – a collection of reminiscences and a history of the town. What’s particularly interesting is that the annals are written in a…

1 DESCRIPTIONS Descriptions of wanted fugitives can be very detailed, and offer a unique insight into how our ancestors lived. If you don’t have a photo, they’re the next best thing. 2 WOMEN Surprisingly few women offenders are to be found in the Gazette . S Lemon is a rare example of a female con artist. Note the detailed description of her activity, the suggestion she has “gone to London”, and her “superior appearance”! 3 REYNOLDS Even people who refused to cooperate with the authorities and provide information when requested could find themselves featured in the pages of the Gazette . 4 APPREHENSIONS Each issue of the Gazette is divided into sections. This example lists men and women sought by the police, or who have been recently arrested. 5 BRADLEY…

Although there is no comprehensive mandatory register, this doesn’t mean that you need to rely solely on census and electoral records.Using findmypast.co.uk, you can search the records in the collection ‘Electrical Engineering Apprentices & Trainees, 1902–1934’, which list 4,756 individuals who trained with the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company, based in Manchester. These records provide useful details including addresses, when the individuals trained, the type of apprenticeship, and, where applicable, the cause of death. In addition, ancestry.co.uk has ‘UK, Electrical Engineer Lists, 1871–1930’, containing the names of members of the Society of Telegraph Engineers/Institution of Electrical Engineers, their level of membership and current working address, as well as the same organisation’s ‘UK, Electrical Engineer Membership Forms, 1871–1901’ and ‘UK, Electrical Engineer WWI and WWII Rolls of Honour, 1924, 1949’. Also, military records…

Unfortunately, only a few collections of Irish genealogical records are entirely intact and were not affected by the devastating fire at the Public Record Office in Dublin in 1922 during the Civil War. By far the most important of these are the civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths. There are two key dates for the commencement of civil registration in Ireland. In April 1845 the registration of non-Catholic marriages, including marriages in registry offices, started. Since the majority of Irish people belonged to the Roman Catholic church, this collection represents only a small portion of the population, although it can include Catholics who married outside of their faith. Civil registration proper began in 1864 when it became compulsory to register all births, marriages and deaths, irrespective of the religious…

IRISHGENEALOGY w www.irishgenealogy.ie This free website has births over 100 years, marriages over 75 years and deaths over 50 years, but deaths for 1864–1877 are missing. FAMILYSEARCH w bit.ly/fs-irish-civil Another free website, familysearch.org has indexes to Irish civil registration (1845–1958) but not the original registrations. GRONI ONLINE w nidirect.gov.uk/services/go-groni-online The General Register Office for Northern Ireland has births over 100 years, marriages over 75 years and deaths over 50 years.…

Finding ancestors who were actors or musical entertainers is exciting, but their typically itinerant lifestyle often makes uncovering their lives something of a challenge. Jan Marshall was asked to track down a theatrical relation, and her search revealed a dramatic story of Edwardian repertory artists and an abandoned child. MY BRICK WALL My Aunt Joan was fascinated by the life of her mother-in-law, Violet Thompson, who was an actor. Violet was born c1907, possibly in Liverpool. Family lore had it that her parents were touring in a play abroad, and returned with a bundle of joy. Violet was thought to be the only child of Harold Courtney Robinson and Florence ‘Florrie’ Maud Hall. She acted under the name of Violet Courtney, and toured the country in repertory theatre. Violet married…

ARCHIVES UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES Most of our universities have accessible student and graduate registers, and sometimes details of early sports clubs and student unions at their institutions. BOOKS Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education Jane Robinson Penguin, 2009 For those interested in the first women to study for degrees, this title draws on memoirs as well as first-hand accounts. Redbrick: A Social and Architectural History of Britain’s Civic Universities William Whyte Oxford University Press, 2016 Whyte explores the institutions that drove change in Britain’s university sector during the Victorian era. University Life in Eighteenth-Century Oxford Graham Midgley Yale University Press, 1996 Midgley gives a comprehensive account of the academic and social lives of Georgian students. The World of UCL Negley Harte, John North and…

TRADE DIRECTORIES w bit.ly/special-coll-beds Examine digitised trade directories covering all of Bedfordshire, with examples dating from 1839, 1862, 1876, 1890, 1910 and 1914. WW1 RECORDS w worldwar1luton.com Here you can explore names of local soldiers/civilians compiled from the 1918 Absent Voters’ List and rolls of honour. You can also read about the crucial munitions work at the George Kent factory. LAND VALUATION MAPS w bit.ly/ bedfordmaps Browse Ordnance Survey maps used and annotated as part of the 1925–1927 survey. GAOL REGISTERS w apps.bedford.gov.uk/grd Search entries from 19th-century gaol registers held by Bedfordshire Archives, often listing name, age, hair colour, height, crime, dates of committal and trial, and sentence. PARISH REGISTERS w bit.ly/arch-beds-parish This page of the Internet Archive (archive.org) features links to several digitised volumes of transcriptions of parish registers…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES BEDFORD CENTRAL LIBRARY a Harpur Street, Bedford MK40 1PG t 01234 718178 w bit.ly/beds-bedford-central-lib Here you can access sources for local and family history, including photographs, ephemera and microform copies of important records (such as parish registers and census material), as well as indexes of births, marriages and deaths; burial/cemetery records; county guides and directories; electoral registers; and indexed local newspapers. The Bedfordshire Heritage Library, on the second floor, looks after rare, valuable and fragile material. Items here include old county, town and village histories; local directories and poll books; special collections of works by John Bunyan and Mark Rutherford (pen name of the 19th-century novelist William Hale White); early journals and magazines including The Wasp, which was the journal of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (1922–1964);…

CHILDREN AT SEA LIVES SHAPED BY THE WAVES VYVYEN BRENDON Pen & Sword, 256 pages, £15.99 Children at Sea was such a surprise to me. At first glance it looks like it might be interesting only to researchers with family connections to the sea. But it is so much more. This book is fascinating, superbly researched and makes you want to read more on the subject. The book tells us eight true stories of boys and girls travelling alone as slaves, convicts, sailors or migrants, including one of Charles Dickens’ sons. I found this chapter particularly exciting, as Vyvyen Brendon reveals a great deal about Dickens’ family history. The tales in Children at Sea will both educate you and enthral you. You will want to know more, and luckily a…

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST DIG Tuesday 15 September BBC Two and BBC iPlayer Preparing the ground for the construction of the HS2 high-speed railway linking London with Birmingham and beyond has inevitably meant digging down into history. And, since cataloguing archaeological remains is part and parcel of major construction projects, that means teams of experts have been excavating at sites along the route. The dizzying amount of work involved is made clear in this new three-part archaeology series following HS2-linked excavations when its presenters, historian Dr Yasmin Khan and anthropologist Prof Alice Roberts, visit the former site of St James’ Gardens in Euston. For a little over 60 years from Christmas Eve 1789, this was a burial ground where tens of thousands of Londoners were laid to rest. In the words of…

The ballroom dancer and Strictly Come Dancing head judge traced her ancestry to two different corners of the world. Her maternal great grandmother emigrated to the USA, while her paternal line has roots in South Africa 1920 US CENSUS Family legend has it that Shirley’s maternal great grandmother, Clara Eccles, was something of a party girl. Clara emigrated to the USA after marrying her second husband Arthur Spiddle in 1919. We found her entry in the 1920 census, living in Boston, Massachusetts, although her surname is spelt Spidell. The US federal census can be searched on most genealogical websites, including Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk). Members of the site can see Clara’s census record for themselves at bit.ly/ anc-1920-clara . SOUTH AFRICAN BAPTISMS Shirley’s paternal great grandfather, George Rich, was born in Cape…