Innholdsfortegnelse for May-22 i Who Do You Think You Are?

A large Ordnance Survey map from 1903 covering where I live in Bristol hangs on the wall of my home office, where I have been doing most of my work over the past two years. I have always loved old maps, and Gill Blanchard’s article on page 17 has inspired me to seek out maps for areas where my ancestors lived. In fact, I’m going to start attaching them to my family tree. Our guide to uncovering street and house photographs online (page 51) also ties in nicely with maps. Coming across an old photograph of a family home is the cherry on the cake! I also really enjoyed Ruth Symes’ article on the weather and our ancestors (page 26). I remember at my grandmother’s funeral someone telling me about…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 – so drop us a line and share your thoughts with us. OVERCOMING A NAME-CHANGE CHALLENGE This is a bit of a mystery related to the 1921 census and the whole business of name changing – both topics in your March issue – which might be of interest to readers as a follow-up. I’m attaching a 1921 census return in the name of Edith Taylor with her family. However, there is very little in this return that is true (except first names and some of their ages), so it took me some time to find it. Her actual name…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk to feature your upcoming event here IN PERSON AN EVENING WITH ALICE ROBERTS Various dates a Various locations w alice-roberts.co.uk/tour The anatomist, broadcaster and professor of public engagement in science at the University of Birmingham shares her pick of the most fascinating prehistoric burials in Britain. From £28.50. HOW TO MAKE A BOMB… SIGHT 7 April a International Bomber Command Centre, Lincoln t 01522 514755 w internationalbcc.digitickets. co.uk/category/12861 Dave Gilbert, IBCC’s losses archivist, continues his lecture series with more hands-on, easy-to-digest explanations of the technology used during the Second World War. £12. DEVON FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY FACE TO FACE MEETING 16 April a Roundswell Community Centre, Barnstaple w tinyurl.com/dfhs-meeting Peter Christie will talk on a ‘moral’ court case from Elizabethan Devon, and John Bradbeer will discuss early…

Findmypast adds details of early female Quakers Family history site Findmypast (find mypast.co.uk ) has added a new collection of names from a Quaker women’s petition of 1659, which urged Parliament to abolish tithes to the Church of England. It was signed by individuals of other faiths as well as Quakers, and provides a rare early record of women in 17th-century England, including their name and place of residence. The Findmypast record is a typewritten index of the original petition made at a later date. TheGenealogist links 1939 Register to maps Family history site TheGenealogist (thegenealogist.co.uk) has linked the 1939 Register to its ‘Map Explorer’ tool. When users search for their relation, they can now see a pin showing where they lived on historic Ordnance Survey maps. The website has…

One morning, when I was quite small, I woke up to the smell of burning. My father had lit the gas under the kettle, and put the match in the little pot on the windowsill for spent matches. He then went out of the kitchen. Unfortunately, he had not blown the match out properly – it flared up and set light to the curtains. Dad came back just in time, hurled some water about, the blaze was extinguished, and (apart from the curtain, by then a charred remnant) no serious damage was done. This long-forgotten episode came back to me when I was reading about domestic accidents and calamities in the Victorian period. Any regular user of 19th-century newspapers soon becomes accustomed to reading the terrifyingly vivid reports of tragedies…

1 To access the map collections on the nls.uk site, click ‘Digital resources’ on the menu bar on the homepage. On the next page, click ‘Map images’ in the left-hand panel. Or you can go straight to maps.nls.uk. 2 Click the ‘Map Finder – with Marker Pin’ link to view a page where you can search the site’s maps for a location. Start typing a name in the ‘Search Places’ field and choose one of the website’s suggestions. 3 You will now see a zoomed-in map centred on your chosen location. You can zoom in further or zoom out using the scroll wheel on your mouse, or by clicking the magnification controls at the bottom left. 4 To switch to a different map than the default one, click its name…

ALMANACS Many almanacs are now available for free online, for example via the Wellcome Collection’s website at tinyurl.com/ well-almanacs. They only predicted weather though. PARISH REGISTERS These might include details of the weather, particularly extremes, recorded by the local incumbent. Browse online registers for comments in the margins or at the front or back of the register. TIDES AND WAVES The UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton has hundreds of thousands of hydrographic and navigational documents, such as Royal Navy remarks books (gov. uk/guidance/ theukho-archive). LOGBOOKS The National Meteorological Library and Archive in Exeter (tinyurl. com/nat-met-lib) has weather diaries back to the early 18th century and marine weather logbooks. SHIPS’ LOGS The Log of Logs (tinyurl.com/ zenodolog-of-logs) is a free online source with weather conditions for ships travelling into Australian and New…

ADVANCED MATCHES TOOL Filter your matches by project or by type of test taken. Use it to see who else you match with in your favourite surname or geographical projects. CHROMOSOME BROWSER See which segments of DNA you have inherited from your ancestors. Here we are comparing a grandson with his maternal grandparents. CHROMOSOME PAINTER This tool allows you to trace the biogeographical origins of segments of DNA. In this example the Jewish DNA segments are clearly visible. PROJECTS Join one of the many surname or geographical projects at FTDNA where you can get to know other people who share your research interests. SURNAME MATCHING List the surnames you are researching, and if your Family Finder match shares your surname then it will appear in bold on the Matches page.…

Q I’ve traced one branch of my wife’s family back to her 4x great grandfather, George Heald, born Warmfield, Yorkshire, c1793. I think that George was the son of Joseph Heald (born c1761) and Sarah Moxon (born c1760), who married in All Saints, Wakefield, in 1782. Tree hints on Ancestry (ancestry. co.uk) point to this Joseph Heald being executed for murder in York Prison on 21 March 1803. However, this isn’t my wife’s 5x great grandfather, as I have found a report in The Times that gives the executed Joseph Heald’s age as 21 (born c1781), so he couldn’t be the father of George Heald. I found baptisms for two Joseph Healds in 1781. One was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Heald, baptised in All Saints Church, Wakefield, in…

My mum said, ‘This sounds like a job that’s just up your street’ Last year, Lincolnshire County Council caused a stir by advertising for a researcher to visit the pubs of the Lincolnshire coast as part of a year-long history project funded by Historic England. “My mum saw the vacancy advertised in the local press and said, ‘This sounds like a job that’s just up your street’,” reveals Marc Knighton, who studied art, history and historical architecture at university and worked at an auction house before becoming the project officer for ‘Inns on the Edge’. “I don’t know whether she was referring to my research and academic abilities, or to my drinking abilities. But I’m hoping that it was the former and not the latter.” However, ‘Inns on the Edge’…

A VISION OF BRITAIN w visionofbritain.org.uk Find out how your postcode has changed since 1801 using Ordnance Survey maps. FACEBOOK w facebook.com Local-history groups and libraries often post highlights to Facebook. Try searching for the name of an area together with ‘local history’. FLICKR w flickr.com Many museums, archives and libraries still upload georeferenced images to Flickr. GOOGLE IMAGES w google.com/imghp?hl=en It’s always worth searching Google Images, but you may be swamped with estate agents’ photos. HOUSE HISTORY HOUR w househistoryhour.co.uk This is the website of the weekly Twitter event #HouseHistoryHour, which takes place on Thursdays at 7pm GMT. LONDON PICTURE ARCHIVE w londonpicturearchive.org.uk Many archives and libraries have their own dedicated image catalogues, such as this one from the London Metropolitan Archives. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES w tinyurl.com/nlw-gallery-photos View…

ADDRESSING HEALTH DATA MAPPER w data.addressinghealth.org.uk This free website summarises key details for Post Office pensioners who retired in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is searched by a map. ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1933 Ancestry’s collection ‘UK, Postal Service Appointment Books, 1737–1969’ is indexed by surname. It is a good place to start your search for your postal ancestors. THE POSTAL MUSEUM w tinyurl.com/postal-museum-family-history This page of the museum’s website gives a clear overview of the family history records in The Royal Mail Archive at The Postal Museum, and how to start researching.…

BOARD OF TRADE RECORDS w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60998 Ancestry has the collection ‘UK, Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea, 1844–1890’, which includes various Board of Trade records held at The National Archives in Kew. MARITIME MEMORIALS w memorials.rmg.co.uk The Royal Museums Greenwich’s website has a searchable database with details of more than 6,000 memorials to those who endured peril on the seas, including the names of those who are commemorated. MERCHANT SEAMEN’S RECORDS w bit.ly/fmp-merchant-seamen Findmypast’s collection ‘Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1835–1857’, again based on Board of Trade records at TNA, contains more than 1.9 million records and includes physical descriptions.…

BOOKS Children’s Literature Kimberley Reynolds Oxford University Press, 2011 This short introduction provides a valuable overview. The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature Daniel Hahn Oxford University Press, 2017 This guide covers every genre from fairy tales to chapbooks, school stories, science fiction, comics and children’s hymns. MUSEUMS SEVEN STORIES a 30 Lime Street, Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2PQ t 0300 330 1095 w sevenstories.org.uk Seven Stories is the national centre for children’s books. VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM a Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL t 020 7942 2000 w vam.ac.uk The newly opened exhibition ‘Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature’ runs until 8 January 2023. WEBSITES BRITISH LIBRARY w bl.uk/childrens-books The library’s site has a wealth of material about children’s books. COTSEN CHILDREN’S LIBRARY w cotsen.princeton.edu/ online-exhibitions This Princeton University…

BISHOPS’ TRANSCRIPTS w tinyurl.com/fs-northumb Highlights on FamilySearch include images of Bishops’ Transcripts from parishes in Durham, Northumberland, and parts of Cumberland and York (1639–1919). PARISH REGISTERS w freereg.org.uk FreeREG has more than 1.2 million records for Northumberland, including over 617,300 baptisms. PROBATE RECORDS w familyrecords.dur.ac.uk/nei This Durham University project has created a digital-image catalogue of more than 150,000 wills and related archives from the region. WAR MEMORIALS w newmp.org.uk This website is the result of a project that aims to record every war memorial located between the River Tweed and River Tees. TRADE DIRECTORIES w tinyurl.com/ spenorthumb This University of Leicester website has free directories from the county.…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES BERWICK-UPON-TWEED RECORD OFFICE a Walkergate Building, Walkergate, Berwick-upon-Tweed TD15 1DB t 01289 301865 e berwickarchives@ northumberland.gov.uk w northumberlandarchives.com The record office is a branch of Northumberland Archives, which looks after local borough archives, records of quarter sessions, poll books and maritime material. DURHAM COUNTY RECORD OFFICE a County Hall, Durham DH1 5UL t 03000 267619 e record.office@durham.gov.uk w durhamrecordoffice.org.uk The record office holds material relating to railways, heavy industry and coal mining, as well as miners’ unions and employers’ associations. Its searchroom is now closed ahead of a move to a new history centre at Mount Oswald in 2023. DURHAM UNIVERSITY LIBRARY a Special Collections, Barker Research Library, Palace Green Library, Palace Green, Durham DH1 3RN t 0191 334 2972 e pg.library@durham.ac.uk w dur.ac.uk/library/asc A database of…

WW2 SINCLAIR MCKAY Headline, 320 pages, £16.99 This book explains the work of the brave men and women who were trained and worked at many secret locations all over the UK during the Second World War, whether that was in underground tunnels, manor houses, suburbs or lonely areas of Scotland. Each chapter is about a different location, each one a story in itself. Bletchley Park is probably the most well-known of these. I also enjoyed reading about Arisaig House in Scotland where the US spy Virginia Hall finished her training for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). My aunt and uncle met at Bletchley Park, so I found that chapter to be especially fascinating. Anyone who has an interest in history will enjoy this book, but if you know that your…

THE REAL PEAKY BLINDERS BBC iPlayer Streaming now Family history can inspire both creative endeavour and scholarly research, even when that history is laced with violence. That’s one lesson to take from this two-part documentary, which complements the final series of Steven Knight’s gangster epic Peaky Blinders. The shows reveal how both Knight and Prof Carl Chinn, who has researched the history of Birmingham’s street gangs back to the 19th century, have Peaky Blinders in their trees. Knight’s violent great uncles helped inspire the show, while Chinn’s great grandad was a thief. TIME TRAVELS BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds Saturday 16 April Presented by Susan Morrison, this consistently excellent social history series is back with a new batch of episodes. The first show explores two fascinating stories, beginning with…

MY FAMILY, THE HOLOCAUST AND ME By his own estimation, barrister and TV presenter Robert Rinder was probably “the least famous person” to appear on Who Do You Think You Are? in 2018. Nevertheless, his unforgettable episode, which focused on his family’s experiences during the Holocaust, prompted an “outpouring of conversation” among viewers who wanted to know more. It also inspired this immensely moving two-part documentary, which was first shown in 2020. As well as Rinder continuing his own research, the programmes also follow other Jewish people as they trace family stories linked to the Holocaust, in part as a way to understand the psychological impact on not just the survivors, but their children too.…

I remember all of the excitement when the WFA rescued the First World War pension index cards from destruction 10 years ago, and I’m delighted to feature them in this issue (page 56). Although you can access them via Ancestry’s site Fold3, if all you are looking for is the First World War pension records, then it’s much better value to take out a subscription to the WFA for £29 and you support their work.…

Many thanks for Alan Crosby’s column in the April issue about the value of wills in family history. It reminded me how the will of my maternal 4x great grandfather, John Paul the Elder, helped me solve two brick walls in my research. John Paul the Elder and sons were carpenters and he owned a business in Burbage. He died on 10 April 1859 in Hinckley, Leicestershire, and his will (found in the Leicestershire probate collection on Findmypast; findmypast.co.uk) was proved on 19 January 1860. The will was four pages long and in it he named his sons Joseph Paul, John Paul, Thomas Paul, and his daughters, Sarah wife of Gabriel Sleath, Ann wife of Robert Simms, and Mary Warner named as a widow. My brick walls were that I…

The ‘Loss Accounts’ for the English Civil War in the county of Warwickshire are available to search thanks to a volunteer project. Following the end of the First English Civil War in 1646, the victorious Parliamentarian army ordered the Loss Accounts drawn up to record compensation paid to civilians whose money or property had been taken by Parliamentarian forces. Warwickshire is one of the counties with the greatest number of surviving Loss Accounts, with 194. They contain the names of hundreds of officers and soldiers as well as thousands of ‘ordinary’ people who received compensation. In a project created and led by Dr Maureen Harris of the University of Leicester between June 2018 and June 2020, 26 volunteers were trained to read, transcribe and tabulate the documents. The project was…

Records of ships that were captured by the British Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars are now free to search online thanks to The National Archives at Kew (TNA). In 2018 TNA, in partnership with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in Germany, launched the ‘Prize Papers’ project to catalogue and digitise the contents of 4,088 boxes, including 160,000 undelivered letters, logbooks, ships papers and bills, poems, drawings, fabrics and playing cards, confiscated from 35,000 ships during 14 wars between 1652 and 1817. The project’s open-access portal has now launched at prizepapers.de, providing access to 55 case books relating to disputes over 1,500 ships seized between 1793 and 1815 and their cargo. Dr Amanda Bevan, head of legal records at TNA, said, “In the days when wooden…

Family history site Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) has made its collection of memorial inscriptions from Norfolk searchable. The record set, which was previously browse-only, contains about 87,000 records from the 17th to the 20th centuries. A search reveals transcriptions of basic details such as the location of the monument, the deceased person’s date of death, their age at death, and any other relatives on their gravestone. The records are accompanied by digitised images of a typewritten index, including detailed descriptions of the graves and their inscriptions.…

Maps allow us to step back in time to build up a picture of our ancestors’ lives, homes and communities. They enable us to discover where people lived and worked, who owned or rented land and property, when buildings were constructed, and who their employers, landlords and neighbours were. Maps can add to our knowledge of local and national events by showing the impact of developments such as roads, canals and railways, the growth of new industries and decline of others. Comparing maps from the late 1700s and early 1800s for instance may reveal when what had once been green fields were transformed into suburbs and streets with houses. For example, Faden’s 1797 map of Norfolk shows extensive commons, heaths and warrens that had largely disappeared within 15 years. A…

I began with the map created for the Inland Revenue Valuation Office Survey (1910–1915), which I found in The National Archives at Kew (TNA). Although the field book does not survive, I was able to identify the owner and occupier by checking the plot number against the survey register held at Norfolk Record Office (NRO). The house can be seen on earlier Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, and a railway plan of 1853, although the landowner was not named because the property fell outside the affected area. I used the tithe and enclosure maps and award of 1813 to find out who owned it and narrow down when the house was built. Copies of these are at NRO and TNA. The tithe map was published in 1838 and the accompanying apportionment…

BOOKS So Foul and Fair a Day Alastair Dawson Birlinn, 2009 This account of Scotland’s weather and climate covers from the arrival of the country’s first settlers about 9,000 years ago to the present day. The Story of the British and Their Weather Patrick Nobbs Amberley Publishing, 2016 This history includes droughts, tidal waves, storms – and volcanoes. MUSEUM LONDON SCIENCE MUSEUM a Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2DD t 033 0058 0058 w sciencemuseum.org.uk/ see-and-do/atmosphere The museum’s Atmosphere gallery uses an Antarctic ice core, tree rings and scientific instruments to explain how climate works, what it’s doing now and what it might do next. SOCIETY ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY a 104 Oxford Road, Reading RG1 7LL t 0118 208 0142 w rmets.org Founded in 1850, the society promotes the…

Dad and I concluded that John must have been descended from slaves Social media can reveal enthralling tales of family history. In October 2021 Clare Patrick (née Mitchell), a family historian from Northleach, Gloucestershire, shared an emotive post with the members of the WDYTYA? Magazine Facebook Group. The story focuses on her black theatrical great grandfather John Robert Mitchell, and his resilient descendants. Clare’s father Kenneth Mitchell has always longed to find out more about his grandfather. “All Dad knew was that John was born in 1870, and that he became a musician and an actor,” Clare explains. “Tragically, John died young at the age of 35. “Four years ago, Dad felt that he could no longer continue the search and asked me to take up the mantle.” Initially, Clare…

Could a DNA test help me with my Curtis brick wall? Q My father’s surname was Avery, but when I started doing my family tree I discovered that his real father was a George Curtis. I’ve managed to get back as far as the early 1800s on my paternal line, to a William Curtis born c1801 in Little Bourton, Oxfordshire. He married Elizabeth Hazlewood, but I can’t get back another generation. Would a DNA test help? Tim Avery A DNA testing could certainly help with this scenario, but there are no guarantees of immediate success. It works by putting you in a matching database, so you are reliant on the right people being in the database to allow you to confirm or refute relationships. DNA testing cannot always provide the…

Q This photograph was left to my friend with some medals that belonged to her ancestor Thomas Wallice from Plymouth, who was in the Royal Navy from 1850 to 1876. On the back is written “J Hellier”. However, there are no Helliers on the Wallice family tree. Can you tell me which service the sitter was in, and suggest the likely date of the photograph? Janet Hurst A Probably photographed in about 1923, this is a major in an Indian Volunteer Rifle regiment. He has seen service in the First World War, attended the Delhi Durbar of 1911 and had served in the regular British Army before that. The clues to his identity lie in his medals. He’d seen service in India, so I checked the Indian army lists at…

WEBSITES FINDMYPAST w bit.ly/fmp-ww 1-widows-pensions You can search the First World War widows’ and dependants’ pension forms held at The National Archives in Kew in series PIN 82 via Findmypast’s collection ‘British Armed Forces, First World War Widows’ Pension Forms’. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w tinyurl.com/tna-ww 1-wids-dependants You can search PIN 82 on TNA’s website too. You can also search First World War officers’ service files, including details of their pensions and gratuities, in WO 339 (tinyurl.com/ tna-ww1-offs) and WO 374 (tinyurl.com/ tnaww1-offs-374). WESTERN FRONT ASSOCIATION w tinyurl.com/ wfapensions The association’s website has a series of detailed explanatory essays about the pension records.…

BOOKS Masters of the Post Duncan Campbell-Smith Penguin, 2012 This authorised history of the Royal Mail includes fascinating detail, such as how the service coped during the world wars. Philatelic Genealogy James R Miller Philatelic Genealogy, 2016 This book explores using envelopes, letters and postcards in genealogical research. Although it focuses on the USA it provides ideas for interesting sources. MUSEUM THE POSTAL MUSEUM a 15–20 Phoenix Place, London WC1X 0DA t 0300 030 0700 w postalmuseum.org The Postal Museum is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am–5pm. You can also browse its collection and search its catalogue online. WEBSITES CELEBRATING 500 YEARS OF ROYAL MAIL w 500years.royalmailgroup. com This site provides valuable insight into a wide range of people and subjects. GPO WAR HEROES w gpowarheroes.org.uk This website commemorates postal workers…

Northumberland’s proximity to Scotland, as a site for border wars, reivers’ raids and rebellions, means that the county’s breathtaking landscape is peppered with fortified farm houses. For family historians on the hunt, there are numerous archives that may hold material relating to your kin. For that reason local expertise is invaluable, so the website of the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society (ndfhs.org.uk) may prove a useful starting point. The society’s research centre closed its doors in early 2020 before the first lockdown. Although they did reopen during one period of eased restrictions, in the end members decided the centre would remain closed as they prepared for a move to new premises at MEA House in Newcastle. This finally took place in a flurry of socially distanced teamwork in January…

One of the most fascinating aspects of researching our family history is looking at old maps. These documents can add an extra dimension to our investigations by showing where our ancestors lived and giving a sense of what their city, town or village was like when they lived there. London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) holds a particularly important map of the capital dating back to 1633, which is based on a map that was created in 1561–1570 – the reign of Elizabeth I. Laurence Ward, LMA’s head of digital services, tells us more about the Civitas Londinium map. WHAT IS THE CIVITAS LONDINIUM MAP? Civitas Londinium, also known as the Woodcut or Agas map, is the earliest map of London to survive in complete form. It invites the viewer to enjoy…

PODCAST UNCOVERING FAMILY HISTORY Podcast services Free Australian blogger and family historian Victoria Kennedy presents this podcast sharing stories and research tips. She discusses her own ancestors, including criminals, convicts and a First World War soldier, as well as advice on getting started with your tree. WATCH SHARING SHETLAND tinyurl.com/yt-sharing-shet Free Shetland Family History Society has uploaded all of the talks from its November 2021 virtual conference to YouTube for those who missed it. Speakers include Prof Jim Wilson on ‘Genetic Insights into Shetland Family History’, Jon Sandison on ‘War Casualties and Remembrance in Shetland’, Emma Maxwell on her site Scottish Indexes (scottishindexes.com), and Susan Cooper and Alan Beattie discussing ‘Sharing Shetland Surnames’. WEBSITE THE GENEALOGY CORNER thegenealogycorner.com Free Genealogist Daniel Smith-Ramos runs this frequently updated blog that features lots…

1841 CENSUS Ed found his forebear on the 1841 census of England, Wales and Scotland, which was taken on the night of Sunday 6 June. The census entry shows William Dunbar living with his wife Sally and eight children in Herne, Kent, and confirms that he was still working as a surgeon at the time. Census returns are a crucial source for researching your family tree. They are available on all of the major genealogical websites including TheGenealogist (thegenealogist.co.uk), and subscribers to the site can see the return for themselves at tinyurl. com/thegenealogist-balls. HISTORIC NEWSPAPERS Ed used local newspapers to research William’s life in more detail where he learnt that he was working as a surgeon in Blean Union Workhouse in 1841. The British Newspaper Archive (available at britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) is…

GILL BLANCHARD Gill is both a member of AGRA and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has worked on episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? See her tips on finding and using maps on page 17. RUTH A SYMES Talking to a researcher at the Met Office got Ruth thinking about how weather affected our ancestors. On page 26 she shares some of the amazing projects that are coming online. SUSANNAH COSTER Susannah is an archivist at The Postal Museum who specialises in helping visitors explore their family connections to the Post Office. Turn to page 62 to discover the records available.…

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NORTHAMPTONSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY CONFERENCE 14 May a Park Inn, Northampton e info@northants-fhs.org w northants-fhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ NFHS-Conference-booking-form-2022.pdf This conference offers talks on topics including nonconformist ancestors and house history. Staff from Northamptonshire Archives, bookstalls and search services will also be available. £27.50 including a buffet lunch. Booking deadline 5 May.…

Greek journalist Panagiotis Zavoudakis is trying to find out about British soldier Colin Wright, who fought in Greece from 1944 to 1945. Wright wrote about his experiences in the book British Soldier in Greece (Lawrence & Wishart, 1946). Zavoudakis has translated it into Greek, and has been searching for biographical information about the author. All that is known is that Wright was born in 1904, got married and had children. He served in the Army for four years, first being sent to Italy and then moved with his unit to Greece. He may have lived in Edinburgh and been a member of the Scottish Workers Party. If you can help, please email panzavoudakis@gmail.com.…

FamilySearch (familysearch.org), the world’s largest free family history website, has introduced a method of online volunteering where family historians around the world check transcriptions of handwriting that have been created by artificial intelligence. Since FamilySearch introduced online volunteering in 2007, nearly two billion records have been transcribed using traditional methods. However, at the RootsTech Connect 2022 virtual family history conference in March, FamilySearch announced a new way for volunteers to improve the accuracy of transcriptions. To take part, family historians should go to familysearch.org/ getinvolved and click ‘My Opportunities’. They can then select ‘Indexing’ to continue with traditional transcription, or go to ‘Review Names’. If they choose the latter option then they will be shown a document where the names have been filled in by artificial intelligence, and merely have…

ENCLOSURE MAPS Enclosure maps showing who was allotted common lands and the neighbourhood exist from the 1500s, although you should note that the majority were created after 1801. COVERAGE More than 5,200 enclosure bills were agreed between 1604 and 1914, together covering just over a fifth of the area of England (about 6.8 million acres). AVAILABILITY Regional collections can be found at county record offices; some are also online. There is a national collection at TNA as well. ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPS OS maps began in 1745 for military purposes. They are guaranteed to be to scale, and include all local features from the 1800s. They are at larger scales and most useful from the mid-to-late 1800s. COVERAGE There is good survival for England, Scotland and Wales. AVAILABILITY Collections can be…

BODLEIAN LIBRARY w bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps This library has a large worldwide collection as well as Oxfordshire maps. Some of them are online. BRITISH LIBRARY w tinyurl.com/bl-maps-uk The library has thousands of maps. Many are freely available in the Online Gallery on its website. FADEN’S MAP OF NORFOLK w fadensmapofnorfolk.co.uk The first large-scale map of the county, dating from the end of the 18th century, has been digitised. LONDON PICTURE ARCHIVE w tinyurl.com/lpa-collect This site has over 250,000 images including maps of the city such as Richard Horwood’s from 1799. MAP HISTORY w maphistory.info Find out about map-making. The British Cartographic Society’s site is good too: cartography.org.uk. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND w maps.nls.uk This free site holds OS maps plus insurance, town and city maps. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES w tinyurl.com/nlw-gallery-maps Here…

ANCESTRYDNA w ancestry.co.uk/dna DNA testing enabled Clare and Kenneth to discover unknown US cousins. This filled in gaps in the life of their ancestor John. BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w britishnewspaperarchive. co.uk Clare found a lot of information about John in newspaper reviews. This helped her to chart his career and discover how he met her great grandmother. The collection is also available to ‘Pro’ subscribers to Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk). DURHAM COUNTY RECORD OFFICE w durhamrecordoffice.org.uk After Clare discovered John’s early death, members of this service were very helpful. They even checked original documents to confirm the name of the priest at John’s burial.…

Q I’d like to know more about this family photograph. On the back is written in pencil: “Howard Quillen’s biological mother”. The baby is believed to be my maternal great great grandfather, born March 1894 in Jay County, Indiana, USA. His birth record gives his mother’s name as May Duffy, aged 21, and unwed at the time of his birth. Sheana Harmon A This is a formal card-mounted studio portrait taken by a professional photographer. Comprehensive operational dates for Grabill and Gilman aren’t available online, but the website The Indiana Album suggests that they worked from Pennville, Indiana, during the 1890s: tinyurl.com/IndianaPhotographs. The photographic mount clues also indicate a date in the 1890s, as does the visual image, especially the woman’s appearance. The style of her smart daytime costume –…

One of my favourite online sources of historic images for house history is Historic England’s site England’s Places (historicengland.org.uk/ images-books/photos/englands-places), an enjoyably absorbing wholly digitised and searchable photographic collection. The images date from the 1850s to the 1990s and comprise street scenes, village and townscapes, and exterior and sometimes interior views of individual buildings. Often referred to as the ‘Architectural Red Box Collection’, the originals were, not unsurprisingly, stored in red boxes in Historic England’s archive. The collection originated in 1941 when the National Buildings Record began to document built heritage. Subsequent additions to the core of 1930s photographs include a variety of images from both commercial and amateur photographers, lending the collection a wonderfully eclectic air. An especially endearing feature of this digitised version is its replication of the…

LostCousins ( lostcousins.com ) dates back to the early days of the web. Founded in 2003, it pioneered the idea of using a website to connect people with shared ancestry to each other. Its concept is simple. You just log your ancestors’ details as recorded on various census returns, then that is cross-referenced with the information entered by LostCousins’ 116,000-strong membership. If any matches are found, you’ll be alerted and given the opportunity to connect. LostCousins originally started with just the 1881 England and Wales census, but has since expanded to now include additional censuses from England and Wales (1841 and 1911), Scotland (1881), Ireland (1911), the USA (1880) and Canada (1881), plus Newfoundland (1921). The site is free to use – up to a point. When a match is…

It is extremely rare to find photographs of Post Office staff with their names attached. So it was a delight to find this picture of Tommy Rees, who is included in the annotated document on page 65. The photo was taken in May 1949 at St Clears, Carmarthen. Research using The Royal Mail Archive’s family history resources revealed more than one record for a ‘Thomas Rees’ in Carmarthen in the appointment books. The records use formal names and the most likely appointment for Tommy Rees seems to be December 1931. The pension indexes show that a Thomas Rees, a postman in St Clears, Carmarthen, retired in 1953. Unfortunately, the full record of his pension has not survived. Earlier pension records usually contain more details. However, other records can give a…

Tracing seafaring ancestors can lead to exciting revelations, and connections that span continents. You may have to do some sleuthing, but there are excellent resources to help. Discover how Lorraine Tomlinson traced her heritage back to West Africa and remote Atlantic islands. MY BRICK WALL My mum Patricia Gilbert didn’t speak much about her ancestors, but one thing the family was adamant about was that the Gilberts were from Portugal. This seemed credible because my grandad’s name was Charles Calistro Gilbert, and Mum’s family all had dark hair and tanned well in summer. It was tough to research this line due to a lack of information. I knew that Charles was a sailor, like his father, and that the family lived near Liverpool’s docks. The 1911 census revealed that Charles’…

Beatrix Potter was born in West Brompton, South-West London, in 1866 and had a secluded childhood. She often visited her grandmother’s country house in Herefordshire, and spent her summers in a house her father rented for their holidays in Perthshire. She and her brother Bertram would bring home dead animals to dissect and kept rats, hedgehogs, frogs, rabbits and snails as pets. Potter grew up to become a determined and self-confident woman. In the 1890s, she began to write letters to children she knew that featured her pets’ adventures. Her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit , came out in 1902. She went on to write 30 books, including bestselling children’s tales that she illustrated herself. In 1905 Potter moved to the Lake District, and in 1913 she married…

793 The Vikings raid Lindisfarne after “fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of the Northumbrians”, according to the 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1237 Scotland renounces its claims to Westmorland, Cumberland and Northumberland in a treaty agreed at York by Henry III and Alexander II on 25 September. 1400 Newcastle upon Tyne, up until now part of the county of Northumberland, is made a county by royal charter. 1753 Engraver and author Thomas Bewick is born in Mickley. 1798 Boatbuilder Henry Greathead of South Shields submits a design for a lifeboat to Sir John Swinburne of Capheaton. 1829 Wylam-born George Stephenson, often described as “the father of railways”, debuts his steam locomotive Rocket . 1838 Lighthouse-keeper’s daughter Grace Darling helps rescue nine survivors from the shipwrecked steamer Forfarshire off the Farne…

ARCHBOLD This surname comes from the Norman French forename Archambault. BATY First recorded in Northumberland, this name is related to the first name Beatrix. HEDLEY The habitational name Hedley comes from an Old English word meaning a clearing. HINDMARSH This is another habitational name, for someone who lived beyond or behind a marsh. LAIDLER Laidler is a variant of the Scottish name Laidlaw. MAUGHAN The name Maughan may be related to either the Irish O’Mochain or the Scottish Mauchan. NESBIT/NESBITT This surname originated in several settlements in County Durham and Northumberland. PHILIPSON Allendale in the North Pennines had the highest number of Philipsons in the 1881 census. STRAUGHAN The Northumberland surname Straughan is related to the Scottish name Strachan. URWIN This Erwin variant crops up across the region.…

How are you related to Joseph Bruce Ismay? The relationship isn’t particularly close. I’m his fifth cousin once removed. How did you get into researching him? When I was about eight years old, there was a movie on the TV about the Titanic. I remember sitting watching this black-and-white film, and my father was there, and I was in awe when I saw this huge ship sailing across the ocean. My father said to me, “You know, we’re related to the people that owned that ship.” Of course, Bruce never actually owned the Titanic, but it was good enough for the mind of an eight year old. We never actually knew what the connection was. My father started to delve into it many years ago, but unfortunately he became terminally…

Ordinary people can live extraordinary lives, and this is certainly true of Tommylee Smith’s great grandmother Charlotte Davison. “All I knew of my great grandmother was that she was known as Lottie, and that she lived in West Auckland, County Durham,” says Tommylee. The discoveries that he has made have opened his eyes to the hardships that people suffered in the past. Charlotte was born in 1890 into a mining community in Bishop Auckland. Her mother was Hannah Turner who was married to a man named William Davison. “I ordered Charlotte’s birth certificate and was devastated to discover that she was born in Auckland Union Workhouse. I’ve read that there were terrible conditions in some Victorian poorhouses. I hope that Charlotte and Hannah didn’t suffer neglect. “It was equally shocking…