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

There’s so much awful stuff going on in the world at the moment that it seems self-indulgent to be thinking about anything else. However, I’m a strong believer in the power of family history. The more we explore our past, the more we find connections to people who are different to ourselves. Some we can be proud of, some less so, but they all played a part in creating us. So we want to encourage more people to take those first steps in genealogy and join the ‘family’. I’m sure that they will be inspired by some of the great discoveries made by the team behind Who Do You Think You Are? (page 32). And hopefully my selection of the best free family history websites on page 16 will lead…

As is so often demonstrated by my writing group, give a genealogist a family mystery and we cannot resist going off on a tangent to try to solve it. Auction houses can be a good place to discover mysteries. Many years ago, I could not resist purchasing an unusual sampler I discovered at an auction in Grantham. Worked by Mary Lees (born 26 July 1793) in 1811, the piece lists the dates of birth of her parents, George and Mary (née Halliwell), and their seven children, as well as the death of Mary’s brother Joseph. The Lees family were from Oldham, Lancashire. The parents married, and Mary and the children were baptised at St Mary’s parish church in the town, but George was probably from Ashton-under-Lyne. Less than five miles…

Findmypast adds 27,000 Quaker death records Family history website Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) has added a collection of 27,000 records taken from the Annual Monitor of the Religious Society of Friends, the nonconformist religious sect that is also known as the Quakers. The records cover 1810–1918 and list the deaths of members of the society and those associated with them. The records can be used to trace the deaths of Quakers in your family tree, and include both the age and place of death. ‘Negligence’ or ‘sabotage’ blamed for the destruction of 1931 census records Government files have revealed that the loss of the 1931 census of England and Wales was due to “criminal negligence, or sabotage”. The census results were destroyed in a fire on 19 December 1942. In his email…

The British Film Institute (BFI) has launched a collection of amateur films of jubilee celebrations dating back to 1897 (player.bfi.org.uk/free/collection/ jubilee-on-film). The new collection, created to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, includes more than 50 films, from Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 to George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935 and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. They depict local communities celebrating in towns and villages across England and Wales, in addition to the monarchs themselves. All of the footage can be viewed for free.…

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published interactive charts revealing the insights it has gained from the newly digitised 1921 census. The 1921 census for England and Wales, which contains the records of approximately 38 million people, was published on 6 January by Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk). The ONS’s analysis of the data from the census reveals the impact of the First World War on the population at the time. For example, just over 11 per cent of all females aged 15 and over in 1921 were widows, compared with 10 per cent in 1911. This was probably connected to women losing their husbands in the First World War and the Spanish flu pandemic, as shown by the fact that there was a larger increase in widows among women aged between…

FreeBMD w freebmd.org.uk FreeBMD is at the heart of free genealogy in the UK. Its database of the General Register Office’s civil registration indexes is complete up to 1983, and entries are being added all the time. It also has better coverage and search options than the GRO’s indexes. FreeCEN w freecen.org.uk Coverage is patchy with FreeCEN, although 100 per cent for some decades in a number of areas. Its strength lies in its independent transcription which, although not always accurate, can flush out ancestors who have been mistranscribed on other websites. FreeREG w freereg.org.uk Although nothing like as complete as the GRO indexing project on FreeBMD, FreeREG can still be a useful way to track down entries in parish registers. The website makes it easy for you to check…

BILLION GRAVES w billiongraves.com This free website covers burial sites from around the world including many UK churchyards, and provides images of the memorials together with transcriptions. DISCOVERY w discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk Many archives have copies of historic churchyard surveys. Search The National Archives’ online catalogue Discovery for such phrases as ‘memorial inscriptions’ and ‘churchyard survey’. FIND A GRAVE w findagrave.com This free website offers a database with photographs of memorial inscriptions in the UK and elsewhere. KENT ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS w tinyurl.com/kas-memorials This is an excellent example of a local project to collect details of memorials. It began over a century ago, so many of the recorded gravestones are now illegible. LEDGERSTONE SURVEY OF ENGLAND AND WALES w lsew.org.uk Ledgerstones are the flat stones placed over a grave inside a…

GOV.UK w tinyurl.com/ gov-uk-getcopy-military-recs You can order the service records of a deceased person if you’re their immediate next of kin, or if you’re researching them. Be warned that records are currently being transferred from the Ministry of Defence to The National Archives at Kew, so there may be a delay. THE GAZETTE w thegazette.co.uk Find details of commissions, promotions and awards for gallantry in the Armed Forces via the digital archive of the official newspaper of public record. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w tinyurl.com/tna-guide-ww 2-army-war-diaries TNA’s guide has advice about searching War Diaries from Second World War army units, which can reveal key details about a soldier’s experiences.…

Three siblings My grandfather Richard Pospischil is shown here with his sisters Léonore and Cecilia. My great grandmother Louise was my forebear Hans Pospischil’s second wife. Love and war Richard was a GI in Wales when he met and married my grandmother Patricia. Richard’s brother Emanuel Pospischil Emanuel owned a clothing factory in Chicago. Family legend says that he was offered a job by Al Capone but turned it down! He also might have had a relationship with Sunset Boulevard star Gloria Swanson. Hans and Louise’s children Here are (left to right) Louise, Emanuel, Léonore and Cecilia. My great grandparents also had another son Richard, born later in Chicago. Hans, Louise and their grandchildren Hans’ first wife was a ballet dancer he married in London, but he left Germany for…

The digital library British History Online holds vast quantities of material on ag labs, as a simple keyword search for ‘agricultural labourers’ shows: british-history.ac.uk/search?query=agricultural %20labourers . This can give you access to all sorts of information about how the rural workers in your family tree lived. You can narrow the results by both region and period, and so begin to build up a snapshot of the social and economic conditions of a particular place and time. With a little digging, this can give you real insight into the experiences of an ag-lab or yeoman/tenant-farming family. You can discover how they would have been affected by changes to land use, or how they coped with the Great Depression of British Agriculture, which occurred during the late 19th century and was caused…

Combing through back issues of your favourite genealogy magazine is a lot easier when you equip yourself with the free WDYTYA? Magazine mobile app. Whether you’re a digital or paper-based subscriber, the app brings every single article within easy reach. Thanks to its powerful search tool, you can track down a specific article or find information on different topics, then either reach for the relevant issue on your bookshelf or purchase a digital copy to read directly on your smartphone or tablet. We last featured the app back in March 2020, when we covered its powerful search tool in detail, so this time we’ve chosen a more general overview for our step-by-step guide, revealing how to use the app to access and view the hundreds of news stories and other…

Hubert Dannreuther from Bayswater, West London, joined the service in 1895 as a trainee officer or cadet aged only 15 (right). His father was a professor of music in Hastings. Hubert soon emerged as a very talented individual: he passed his exams to become a lieutenant in 1902 and was promoted to commander in 1914. In 1916 he married Jane Thorburn. In the First World War, he was mentioned in dispatches at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. At the Battle of Jutland, fought on 31 May – 1 June 1916, Hubert was on the ill-fated HMS Invincible and it was noted that “up till the moment when the ship blew-up Commander Dannreuther controlled the fire of the Invincible in a manner which produced visible and…

Family secrets can arise because of a number of reasons. In the past, there was intense social stigma regarding mental illness and families could go to great lengths to conceal it. These secrets can result in conundrums and brick walls. Find out how Mandy Webb discovered the truth about her ancestor’s origins. MY BRICK WALL My great grandmother Eliza was born in 1888 to labourer George Hale and his wife Harriett Seagrave. I found them on the 1881 census, living in Burton upon Trent with three young children: George, Mary Ann and Caroline. Eliza would be born seven years later. Happy that George Hale was Eliza’s father, my parents and I went to visit cemeteries in Hampshire and Wiltshire connected with his branch. We spent time researching the Hales quite…

Army surgeon James Miranda Steuart Barry was born a woman but lived as a man. James attended university and worked as a surgeon across the British armed forces, ascending to the rank of inspector general of hospitals. This was not a career open to women at this time. James performed the first successful caesarean section in the British Empire, and had a reputation for being stern and uncompromising. It is alleged that his behaviour shocked Florence Nightingale. His job involved inspecting the hospitals of the Cape Colony in British South Africa. He helped the local people by ensuring that they could access clean water, and clamping down on quacks selling fake cures. James died in 1865; his birth gender was only discovered during a post-mortem examination. There is debate about…

1744 Charles Roe builds a watermill on Park Green in Macclesfield, which will help establish the town as a centre of Britain’s silk industry. 1777 The Trent and Mersey Canal, which is over 93 miles long and passes through Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire, opens for business. 1833 The world’s first rail-to-ship dock is built on Spike Island, Widnes. It closes in the 1930s. 1840 The Grand Junction Railway builds the vast Crewe Works. Its first locomotive, named Tamerlane and numbered 32, is completed in October 1843. 1847 The thriving Runcorn Docks, which was historically part of the Port of Liverpool, is made an independent customs port. 1946 Tim Curry, star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and comic whodunnit Clue (1985), is born in Grappenhall. 1947 Comic actor Russ…

BRERETON This name has its origins in Brereton (Cheshire), Brearton (Yorkshire) or Brierton (County Durham). BROCKLEHURST This derives from brocc-hol, Old English for a sett. HENSHALL In the 1891 census about 40 per cent of all of the Henshalls were recorded in Cheshire. HOOLEY This surname originated in Hoole, a township in Broxton Hundred that is now a suburb of Chester. HULSE This name comes from the town and manor of Hulse, in Great Budworth. MOTTERSHEAD In the 1881 census this surname occurs most frequently in Macclesfield. NORBURY Norbury is derived from the Old English words north and bury, meaning ‘fort’ or ‘manor house’. PALIN This is the anglicised form of the Welsh patronymic ap Heilyn meaning ‘son of Heilyn’. PEERS In the 1881 census, Peers were recorded in Cheshire…

Why did you write the book? I began writing My Grandfather’s Knife because I had to. When I was a child, my grandfather told me that he had “liberated” a Nazi bayonet when he was in the Canadian Army fighting against the Germans in the Netherlands, bringing it back to Canada as a souvenir. After he passed away it was sent to me at my apartment here in Berlin in a box of books, and when I opened the box I just went to pieces. This is a really ugly bayonet – it has an eagle hilt and a swastika – and you’re not allowed to send anything with a swastika on it into the country. So I needed to write about the knife because the only legal way for…

CELIA HERITAGE Celia’s latest book about cemeteries and graveyards is reviewed on page 83, and on page 27 she explains how archaeology is revealing the secrets of churchyards. STUART A RAYMOND Stuart is a regular tutor at pharostutors.com as well as a respected author. His new book Researching Local History is out this month. On page 56 he shares some Poor Law tips. SIMON WILLS A frequent contributor to WDYTYA? Magazine, Simon also advises on naval stories for the TV series. He helped with Ralf Little’s episode and on page 62 shares his naval research expertise.…

IN PERSON FIGHTING ANTISEMITISM FROM DREYFUS TO TODAY Until 9 September a Wiener Holocaust Library, London t 020 7636 7247 w tinyurl.com/ wiener-holocaust-fighting This exhibition explores the fight against antisemitism in France, Britain and Germany since the Dreyfus affair, a political scandal in the late 19th century. Free. THE LIVING AND THE DEAD Until 10 July a The Lightbox, Woking t 01483 737837 w thelightbox.org.uk/ the-living-and-the-dead Find out more about the history of Brookwood Cemetery in Woking, which has a high concentration of minority burial grounds. Free, £3 donation suggested. WE HAVE TO MOVE ON Until 7 August a National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket t 01638 667314 w nhrm.co.uk/event/ we-have-to-move-on-exhibition Find out more about the lives of Jewish refugees who lived in Newmarket during the Second World War. Free with entry…

The deserted wife was a familiar figure in Victorian melodramas, winsome and heart-tugging pictures, and sentimental ballads. Usually depicted as slight, pale and with her baby in her arms, she would generally be portrayed as the innocent victim while the brutish husband, probably a drunkard, was the villain in the story. How many of the cases in our family tree where we can locate the burial of the wife, but not of the husband, result from this cause? I know of one young man who expressed what might have been the thoughts of many of his contemporaries. Writing his autobiography in the mid-1820s, Benjamin Shaw of Preston vividly recalled the events of 1793 that irrevocably changed his life and circumstances. He was 21 years old, and in the February of…

ScotlandsPeople w scotlandspeople.gov.uk Although ScotlandsPeople is not strictly a free website, the information you can get from a free search is pretty good even without paying for the record image. So if you are researching Scottish ancestors on a budget, don’t rule it out. ScotlandsPlaces w scotlandsplaces.gov.uk As well as its useful gazetteer of Scottish places, this website has an impressive collection of tax records that can help your research in the 18th century, an array of maps and surveys, and Medical Officer of Health records for 1891. Scottish Indexes w scottishindexes.com Although you have to pay to see the original records, the indexes here are free to search and contain fascinating detail. Record sets include mental-health institutions, criminal and court records, paternity and poor-relief records, and registers of property…

During installation works at the old church of St Alphege, Seasalter, in 2018, part of a floor slab in the north-west corner of the former chancel had to be removed. This revealed the head end of a large lead coffin, and excavation of the loose soil from either side of the coffin exposed the full extent of its western end. Resting on a series of equally spaced iron support struts, this was clearly the uppermost interment in a series of ‘stacked’ coffined burials beneath the church floor. Although works were only extensive enough to reveal one end of the coffin, this was sufficient to display the coffin’s construction. Several pieces of heavily decomposed timber planking were recovered, which had clearly been part of the timber outer shell into which the…

• We always start by speaking to as many members of the family as we can. As with Anna Maxwell Martin’s episode, they all have different nuggets of information. Some might have more records than others too. • With so much digital material being released all the time, it is worth revisiting websites every so often to see what new records are online. • Don’t just rely on online sources though, especially when you get back beyond civil registration and the census records. There’s still so much information that can only be found in local archives.…

QI am trying to track down my maternal grandfather’s birth father after the 1871 census. My grandfather William Edward McLevie, born on 8 August 1879, was adopted between the censuses of 1881 and 1891 by William Lythgoe, after which he too was known as William Lythgoe. William McLevie’s birth certificate shows his parents as Thomas and Mary McLevie, and I also obtained their marriage certificate dated 25 July 1879. I did find William with his mother as visitors on the 1881 census, but after that I have found no trace of either Thomas or Mary. Janette Gill A The General Register Office (GRO) indexes at www.gro.gov.uk/gro revealed that the birth of your great grandfather Thomas Davies McLevie was registered in 1851 in the Wrexham registration district on the Welsh/ English…

Now a suburb of Preston, Lancashire, Cottam was once a rural community and home to Cottam Hall. The manor house was owned by the Haydocks, a prominent Catholic family who suffered persecution for their faith. Local resident Gary Cunliffe discovered the Haydocks through his passion for making short films about local history. If you didn’t agree to the Protestant way then you were a traitor Gary became interested in film-making while working as a teacher in the 2000s, when he trained in using multimedia production. He eventually left teaching to work as a creative media practitioner in education and, since he retired, has been volunteering with local heritage sites and making videos to share their stories. “I’m sort of a mad film-maker,” he says. “I’ve always got to have a…

BLACKSMITHS INDEX w blacksmiths.mygenwebs.com Ann Spiro’s index, drawn mainly from UK census data, records blacksmiths and related craftsmen. BRITISH AGRICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY w bahs.org.uk The society’s website includes a list of links for museums and researching rural history. CONNECTED HISTORIES w connectedhistories.org Here you can track down Victory County Histories from parishes and townships, which sometimes include information about individual farms. DISCOVERY w discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk Use The National Archives’ catalogue to locate sources for areas, landowners and industries. ESTATE RECORDS w tinyurl.com/nrs-estate-records This guide from National Records of Scotland covers rent rolls, leases and household accounts. FOXEARTH AND DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY w foxearth.org.uk This website has all sorts of material relating to rural life on the Essex and Suffolk border. RURAL LIFE IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND w tinyurl.com/fs-wiki-rural-life This page of…

1 ABBY MILTON The overseers of “Abby Milton”, ie Milton Abbas in Dorset, asked the justices of the poor to conduct a settlement examination. 2 PLACE OF BIRTH Thomas was born in Donhead St Mary in Wiltshire, which had originally been his parish of settlement. 3 ASHCOMBE A year’s service at Ashcombe (in Berwick St John, Wiltshire) under Robert Barber had given Thomas a settlement there, but he later gained another settlement. 4 MOTCOMBE Thomas moved to Motcombe in Dorset, and served “Mr Whitaker” there for two long periods. That provided him with a fresh – and final – settlement. 5 DAIRY “Renting a dairy” did not qualify Thomas as being settled in any of the parishes that he lived in. 6 INTRUSION Three members of the family including a…

ADMIRALTY MEDAL ROLLS w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1687 Ancestry’s searchable collection includes details of campaign medals and Long Service and Good Conduct Medals awarded to officers and ratings in the RN and WRNS up to 1972. ROYAL NAVAL RESERVE SERVICE RECORDS w tinyurl.com/tna-research-guide-rnr You can download RN service records from the early 20th century, including those of the RNR, via TNA’s research guides A-to-Z: tiny url.com/tna-a-z . It’s currently free as well. ROYAL NAVY FIRST WORLD WAR LIVES AT SEA DATABASE w royalnavyrecordsww1.rmg.co.uk This database is due to be completed in November 2022, and will hold the history of every naval officer and rating from the war.…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/9051 Ancestry’s collection ‘UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846–1912’ features names and admission and discharge details for patients at asylums. FINDMYPAST w bit.ly/fmp-bedlam Findmypast has the collection ‘London, Bethlem Hospital Patient Admission Registers and Casebooks 1683–1932’ if your forebear was treated at the hospital. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w tinyurl.com/tna-guide-asylums The National Archives at Kew has a useful research guide. If your ancestor’s detailed records survive, you may have to request them from a county archive.…

MUSEUM QUEER BRITAIN a 2 Granary Square, King’s Cross, London N1C 4BH e hello@queerbritain.org.uk w queerbritain.org.uk Britain’s first museum devoted to the LGBT community opened to the public on 5 May. WEBSITES BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w britishnewspaperarchive. co.uk Reports in local and national newspapers often provide greater detail about court cases than the official legal records. CHESHIRE’S LGBT+ HISTORY w tinyurl.com/chesh-lgbt This exhibition from Cheshire Archives and Local Studies covers the past 500 years. DIVORCE RESEARCH GUIDE w tinyurl.com/tna-guide-div This guide from The National Archives at Kew is a great place to start if you know an ancestor’s marriage broke down. OLD BAILEY ONLINE w oldbaileyonline.org The proceedings of the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales (1674–1913) are fully searchable on this free site. QUEERING GLAMORGAN w tinyurl.com/queer-glam Glamorgan…

DIRECTORIES w cheshiredirectories. manuscripteye.com Download directories of Cheshire, Liverpool, St Helens, Warrington and Widnes, dating from 1789 to 1910. Others can be found on the University of Leicester’s enormous free website Special Collections Online: tinyurl.com/spec-chesh. STOCKPORT NAMES w www.stockport. gov.uk/heritage-library-resources Search a database of names compiled from trade directories published between 1772 and 1845. You can also search transcribed entries from local newspapers. INDEXES w cheshirebmd. org.uk The Cheshire wing of the Local BMD Project group is a crucial resource. There’s also the Cheshire Parish Register Project at cprdb. csc.liv.ac.uk . PHOTOS w cheshireimage bank.org.uk Search more than 30,000 photos, postcards, prints, slides and negatives. The site’s collections include Cheshire cheese and the world wars. TITHE MAPS w tinyurl.com/cheshire-east-tithe-maps Search tithe maps on top of modern maps, or search by owner…

TWO LITTLE KITTENS? Thank you for Julie Peakman’s article about children’s fiction in the May issue. Knowing what books our ancestors read as children can be helpful in unexpected ways. It was a mystery why my grandmother (born 1899) had the nickname Tom. Her sister, Ruby (born 1904), never called her by her real name of Olive, but always by this nickname. I was curious to know how she got it. Then one day I found a tiny black-and-white photograph of the two sisters with a handwritten caption on the back that read “Tabitha and Tom”. Aha! Beatrix Potter’s book The Tale of Tom Kitten came out in 1907 just before Grandma’s eighth birthday. In the story, there is a cat called Tabitha Twitchit, with three unruly kittens called Moppet,…

The public are being urged to record details and photos of war memorials. A new campaign, launched by Damien Moore, the MP for Southport, and backed by Imperial War Museums (IWM), calls on people to record as many war memorials as possible before Remembrance Day 2022. There are currently more than 90,000 UK memorials on the IWM War Memorials Register (iwm.org.uk/memorials), but there are thought to be 110,000 in the country altogether, and 46,000 of the records also lack good images. The register includes commemorative plaques in schools, churches and other buildings, as well as public monuments. You can submit an image or other information at iwm.org.uk/form/ memorials-image-upload-form or by emailing memorials@iwm.org.uk.…

The National Archives has created the first publicly available government database of court judgments. The database, Find Case Law (caselaw. nationalarchives.gov.uk), will begin by publishing court and tribunal decisions from the superior courts of record – the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court and Upper Tribunals. Going forward, TNA will work with the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary to include more courts and tribunals and to add historical judgments. The initial collection of judgments and decisions will total 50,000 dating back to 2003 for court judgments and 2015 for tribunal decisions. The database can be searched by neutral citation (a judgment’s unique reference), party name, judge’s name, court or chamber and date. New judgments and decisions will be added as they are made.…

More than 240 rare manuscripts have been digitised and made available on the National Library of Scotland’s website at digital. nls.uk/early-manuscripts . They come from Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Low Counties and Scotland, and date from the 9th to the 16th century. During the Reformation over 90 per cent of Scottish religious manuscripts were destroyed, so the Scottish ones are especially rare. Among the manuscripts is the ‘Borthwick Girdle Book’, a 15th-century almanac that could be worn on a belt when folded up.…

Even if we know that our ancestors are buried in a particular churchyard and that there was once a gravestone, our hunt to locate their actual memorial often ends in disappointment. This is usually because it is no longer in situ, rather than because we fail to pinpoint its location. Although one cause of gravestone loss is exposure to the elements, this applies to a relatively small percentage. Having been lucky enough to be involved in a variety of archaeological work in Kent churchyards over the past few years, and having spent several years researching churchyards, I now have a much better understanding of the different causes of gravestone loss and just how widespread these losses have been. This experience has also given me a much better understanding of the…

BOOKS Cemeteries and Graveyards: A Guide for Family and Local Historians in England and Wales Celia Heritage Pen and Sword, 2022 This comprehensive illustrated book reveals the history of all types of cemeteries and graveyards and sheds a light on the different kinds of records genealogists can use to discover where their kin was buried. Monumental Inscriptions in the Church & Churchyard of Ellough, Suffolk FA Crisp London, 1889 This is one of many antiquarian publications that are available for free on the Internet Archive (archive.org); you can find it at tinyurl.com/arch-monu-crisp. Old books may include monuments that are now eroded or disappeared. WEBSITES BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR LOCAL HISTORY w balh.org.uk Visit the association’s website to search a directory of local-history societies, many of which have transcribed memorial inscriptions from…

Who was Alice Brown’s mother? Q I’m trying to find the birth record of my grandmother Alice Brown, who I believe was born in Manchester. We always celebrated her birthday on 15 July. Based on her marriage certificate, she was born in 1891 and her father was George Brown, coachman. In 1901, she was living in Derby with her “grandmother” Hannah Bruerton (née Hicklin). However, I’m not convinced that Hannah was her real grandmother as she married into the family in 1874 and none of her children with John Bruerton would have been old enough to be mother to my grandmother. Mike Coomber A Even when evidence seems not to fit, we shouldn’t dismiss it. In 1901, Alice was recorded as Hannah’s granddaughter, so we should look closely at that.…

BOOKS Chelsea Settlement and Bastardy Examinations, 1733–1766 Edited by Tim Hitchcock and John Black London Record Society, 1999 Published editions of settlement examinations have useful introductions as well as edited texts of many documents. Tracing Your Poor Ancestors Stuart A Raymond Pen & Sword, 2020 Stuart’s detailed guide for family historians covers a range of sources including settlement examinations and certificates. WEBSITE LONDON LIVES w londonlives.org/static/ EP.jsp This excellent website has a useful discussion of London settlement examinations and other Poor Law records.…

1 SERVICE NUMBER RN personnel had a unique service number, helping you trace them in different records. 2 PERSONAL DETAILS In addition to his date and place of birth, William Abbott’s occupation before he enlisted is included. 3 DESCRIPTION The physical description includes height, eye colour and distinguishing marks. William had the words “Boer War” tattooed on his left arm. 4 POSTINGS This list of all of the ships and shore establishments where William served includes the dates. 5 RATING Rank is given in abbreviated form such as “Ord” (ordinary seaman), “Sto” (stoker) and “PO” (petty officer). 6 STAMP This reveals how William’s RN career ended. William was “DD” (discharged dead) at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. 7 REMARKS This section may mention awards, exams passed or failed, injuries…

BOOKS The Royal Navy: A History Since 1900 Duncan Redford and Philip D Grove Bloomsbury Academic, 2019 The authors examine the development of the service. Tracing Your Seafaring Ancestors: A Guide to Maritime Photographs for Family Historians Simon Wills Pen & Sword, 2016 Find out how to interpret RN and other maritime photos in your family’s archive. MUSEUMS HMS BELFAST a The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2JH t 020 7416 5000 w iwm.org.uk/visits/ hms-belfast This survivor of the Second World War is a ‘must see’ if your relations served at sea during the conflict. PORTSMOUTH HISTORIC DOCKYARD a HM Naval Base, Portsmouth PO1 3LJ t 023 9283 9766 w historicdockyard.co.uk Here you can see ships, artefacts and exhibitions as well as the RN museum, archives and library. WEBSITE NAVAL-HISTORY.NET w…

The first map of Cheshire was produced by Yorkshire surveyor Christopher Saxton in 1577. This beautiful document is described by the county’s local-history association as “reasonably accurate” when it comes to the general outline of the county and the location of towns and villages, but “a little less so” when it comes to rivers, hills and woodland. You can see the results at sites.google.com/site/ clhaonlinemaps/home/1577-saxton. One area still clearly visible is Delamere Forest, which today remains a shady oasis on the Cheshire Plain. The highlights at Chester include parish and nonconformist records The map is almost exactly contemporaneous with physician Thomas Muffet’s book Health’s Improvement (a much later edition is on the Internet Archive at tinyurl.com/arch-muffet), which contains one of the earliest printed references to the county’s distinctive crumbly cheese.…

The First World War saw technologically advanced weapons such as heavy artillery, machine-guns and poison gas used on the battlefield, leading to a scale of deaths never seen before. Many of the survivors were left with severe facial injuries. Surgeon Sir Harold Gillies pioneered the techniques of plastic surgery to help restore their faces. The Royal College of Surgeons of England holds his patients’ case files, and here archives manager Victoria Rea explains how one file provides a glimpse of the human cost of war. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE CASE FILE? The artillery the Germans used in the First World War inflicted devastating injuries on Allied servicemen. Many soldiers suffered facial wounds as they peered over the parapets of trenches. The Royal College of Surgeons of England’s archive holds the…

PODCAST MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM artfund.org/whats-on/ meet-me-at-the-museum Free This long-running podcast from the charity Art Fund has a brilliantly simple premise – a famous person visits their favourite museum or gallery with a loved one, and we follow them as they tour the attractions. The guests in the latest series include Succession star Brian Cox on the Scottish National Gallery and Derry Girls actor Siobhán McSweeney visiting the Wellcome Collection. WATCH COMING HOME: ANCESTRAL JOURNEYS IN SCOTLAND scottisharchives.org.uk/ explore/ancestral-tourism Free This short film looks at the phenomenon of ancestral tourism, since so many people with Scottish heritage travel to the country to trace their family history. It plays like a mini episode of Who Do You Think You Are? as it follows Liz Everett’s journey to find her roots.…

1881 CENSUS The 1881 census is available on all of the major genealogical websites, and is free to view on Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk). We found Albert living as a young boy with his parents and siblings in Exeter. You can view the page on Ancestry here: www.ancestry. co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7572/images/DEVRG11_2152_2156-0743. WW1 ARMY SERVICE RECORD Both Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) and Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) have surviving First World War service records. Albert’s service record showed that he joined the Army in 1892 and saw service up to the First World War: bit.ly/anc-albert. DEATH RECORDS Sue learnt how Albert was orphaned by obtaining the death records of his parents, who both died of ‘phthisis’ (tuberculosis) in 1882. You can search the civil index and order a record in PDF format for any death that occurred between 1837 and…