Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Who Do You Think You Are?

From rising heating bills to soaring food prices, the cost-of-living crisis doesn't mean that we can't continue to do the thing we love most: delving into the past. On page 14 I have shared tips on how you can access all of the great records available online, for less. Please do write in if you have any other money-saving tips you would like to pass on to readers. I was deeply moved this month looking at two different regimental photographs, both taken in 1916. One was sent in by Maggie Cobbett as one of our letters (page 7). It shows rows of young men all neatly dressed, with stiff caps and straight backs on a training camp in Henham Park, Suffolk. The other can be seen on page 50, sent…

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. WORKHOUSE HERO Thank you so much for Peter Higginbotham's feature on workhouse records in the February issue, which may help to provide some hitherto elusive details about a young man way back in my family tree. All I know for certain about David Robert Davidson is that he was sent up from a London workhouse at a very tender age to the coal-mining village of Hartshead in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where he started work in the pit. Some years later, he married one of my great…

A volunteer for Dumfries and Galloway Council's Heritage Service (dumgal.gov.uk/article/24609/Heritage-Service) has uncovered a fascinating incident in the life of Scotland's national poet in the council's archives. While indexing records, Jennifer Roberts found a mention of John Lewars, an excise man in Dumfries in 1792, who had threatened two women while drunk. His colleague Robert Burns prevented him from doing any harm – and what's more, Lewars was his superior. “This is a fantastic example of the richness of our Heritage Service's archive collection,” commented councillor Ian Blake, who chairs the council's Communities Committee. 1 66, 1 68,3 57 The number of theories now available on the Theory of Family Relativity DNA matches feature on MyHeritage (myheritage.com/dna) 100 Ballads A new website featuring 17th-century ballads has launched (100ballads.org) Colossus New photographs…

Like all good hobbies, researching your family history can come with a few costs. Although there's plenty you can do for free, once you get stuck into your research, you will find there are things you need to pay for, from birth, marriage and death records to genealogy subscription websites. Although we cover plenty of free websites in this magazine, many of the records that family historians want to access are tucked behind a paywall. Since accessing these payto-view records is probably the main cost for most people researching their family tree, this article looks at how you can do that for less, whether it's extending your subscriptions by building in some tactical pauses or tracking down the very best offers available. We've also included some tips on how to…

FIRST WORLD WAR BRITISH ARMY MEDAL INDEX CARDS Also available on commercial sites, these cards may be the only surviving record of someone's military service during the war. FIRST WORLD WAR NURSE SERVICE These wonderfully detailed records can includes details of any injuries that your forebear sustained, as well as references and family information FIRST WORLD WAR ROYAL NAVY RECORDS There's a wealth of free naval records to download from TNA's website, including service records for both officers and ratings during ‘the war to end war'. NATURALISATION RECORDS Check these if you see the word “naturalised” in the “Where born” column in a relation's census record. Also check out the collection of aliens’ (immigrants') registration cards 1918-1957. PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY WILLS, 1384–1858 Wills proved in Canterbury are free to…

The CWGC's mission is to ensure that those who died in service, or as a result of conflict, are commemorated so that they, and the human cost of war, are remembered for ever. Founded by royal charter in 1917, we work on behalf of the governments of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK to commemorate the almost 1.7 million men and women from the Commonwealth who lost their lives in the two world wars. The cemeteries, memorials, graves, landscapes and records in our care can be found at 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries and territories. They are both the practical means of our commemoration of the fallen and vehicles for discovery, inspiration and engagement. We believe that each one of those we commemorate were…

FOCUS ON SCOTTISH INHERITANCE RECORDS Following an individual's death in Scotland, it is possible for his or her assets to be conveyed to beneficiaries through the courts. In the rest of the UK the legal process for this is known as ‘probate’, but under Scots law the equivalent procedure is known as ‘confirmation'. While the Anglican church courts were responsible for the equivalent process in England, Wales and Ireland up to 1858, it has always been the case in Scotland since the year 1564 that the civil courts have handled confirmation cases. These were initially heard through the commissary courts, and subsequently through the sheriff courts from the middle of the 19th century. For centuries the confirmation process was solely concerned with what was known as ‘movable estate’, such as money…

Chris recommends these three websites for searching Scottish inheritance records ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60558 Ancestry calls the Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories the “Scotland, National Probate Index”. It provides searchable abridgements for cases from 1876–1936. FAMILYSEARCH w tinyurl.com/fs-retours FamilySearch includes the services of heirs decennial indexes from 1700–1859, detailing the names of those who inherited heritable property. Sign into the site to access them. SCOTLANDSPEOPLE w tinyurl.com/scotlandspeople-search-wills ScotlandsPeople's Wills and Testaments section offers access to images of testaments from 1513–1925. Each costs 10 credits (£2.50) to view, irrespective of length.…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60609/ Ancestry's holdings include this collection listing men who were indentured to Merchant Navy ships between 1824 and 1910. BOOKS BOXES & BOATS w maritimearchives.co.uk As recommended by Simon Wills, this maritime research service's site has useful guidance and content, including links to volumes and indexes. CENTRAL INDEX OF MERCHANT SEAMEN w tinyurl.com/Southampton-merchant-seamen Learn about Southampton Archives’ Merchant Navy service record cards from 1918–1941. IRISH MARINERS w irishmariners.ie Search details of more than 23,000 Irish-born merchant seamen and their voyages from the CR10 series of the central index cards held in Southampton Archives. MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM w research.mysticseaport.org The website of this museum located in Mystic, Connecticut, USA, has several useful tools for British researchers, with material focusing on vessels, crew and masters. NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF IRELAND w…

Q While sorting out photographs of my husband's family, we came across this photo, which measures 4¼ × 6½ inches. We are unable to identify who this relation is. If you are able to give us some more information, hopefully we can work out his name. Sue Gooden A There are several good clues surrounding this fine family picture to assist with your inquiry. A professional studio photograph, judging from its appearance and the dimensions provided, it is a cabinet portrait or card – a popular photographic format of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras associated mainly with the 1880s–c1910. The card mount itself is also important for the printed details that it bears. According to posts on the photo-sharing website Flickr (flickr.com), the named photographer, Charles Amos Welch, established…

Michael Aspel OBE was a familiar face on our TV screens for decades presenting such programmes as This Is Your Life and Antiques Roadshow. However, he was also a wartime evacuee and is a patron of The British Evacuees Association (formerly known as The Evacuees Reunion Association; evacuees.org.uk). Born in Battersea, South-West London, on 12 January 1933, Aspel was evacuated to Chard in Somerset with his brother Alan and sister Pat. Unfortunately, he was immediately separated from his siblings and billeted with a middle-aged couple, Rose and George Larcombe. Aspel remembered his first evening with Rose very well as, despite her kindness, he was desperately unhappy to have been separated from his family. “Eventually the thoughts became too much to bear and I said, ‘I want my mum.’ Rose went…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1851 Search the collection ‘UK, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures, 1710–1811’ for names of masters and trainees. For more on apprenticeship records, see page 38. LONDON METROPOLITAN ARCHIVES w search.lma.gov.uk LMA holds material from the livery company the Worshipful Company of Masons (and a wharf indenture that revealed the name of Jeremy's ancestor's business partner). SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ONLINE w tinyurl.com/sco-directories Your relation's company may have been listed in trade directories. You can search 689 directories, from the 1760s to the 1910s, on this University of Leicester website.…

1612 After being convicted of murder by witchcraft in the area surrounding Pendle Hill, eight women and two men are hanged in August. c 1764 James Hargreaves becomes the first of three Lancashire-born inventors to help spark the Industrial Revolution with his creation the spinning jenny. 1769 Preston-born Richard Arkwright patents the water frame, capable of spinning 96 threads at the same time. He will become known as the father of the industrial factory system. 1779 Samuel Crompton of Bolton invents the spinning mule, enabling a single operator to work hundreds of spindles simultaneously. 1821 John Edward Taylor, a liberal cotton merchant who witnessed the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, founds the Manchester Guardian. 1839 A Grand Liverpool Steeplechase at Aintree is won by a horse named Lottery at 9/1. The…

A former resident of Inverkip, Inverclyde, has launched a website showcasing his research into the local war memorial (theiwm.co.uk). Hilary Fyfe's site includes biographies of the 29 men listed on the memorial, of whom 24 died in the First World War – Alfred Price, Daniel Shaw, Duncan Scott, Edward Denny, Ernest Tibble, George McIntosh, George Murdoch, George Wales, James Malcolm, John Hyslop, John Milne, Joseph Harrison, Michael Anderson, Peter Culligan, Robert Murdoch, Thomas McFarlane, William Crawford, James Campbell, John Muir, Joseph Griffiths, James Kirk, Harry Harrower, Humphrey McFarlane and Daniel Boyle. The other five died in the Second World War: Gabriel Ritchie, John Blaikie, Roderick Devlin, Archibald Stewart and Thomas Evans. If you have any information about any of these men, please share it on the website's forum.…

Family history website Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) has added a new collection of 15,054,046 electoral registers created in North Yorkshire. The collection starts in 1832, when electoral registers were first printed after the passing of the 1832 Reform Act. This gave more people the right to vote, but only certain men. The records continue up to 1971. The collection includes both searchable indexes and digitised images of the original registers, which are preserved by North Yorkshire County Record Office. Electoral registers are a good substitute for census records, because they record names and addresses. This means they are an excellent way of seeing where your ancestors lived in years when a census wasn't taken. The registers include many famous people who lived in the area. For example, the 1839 electoral register records…

Going away for a bit? Having a break from research? Find out how to pause your subscription to findmypast.co.uk…

Turn to page 52 for a step-by-step guide to uploading your relative's details to the For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen website. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC; cwgc.org) is encouraging everyone to dig out and dust off their old shoeboxes, bags in the attic and forgotten keepsakes to rediscover stories of loved ones who fought and died in the world wars. As we move further away from the centenaries of the First World War and with the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings rapidly approaching, we want to bring stories of the fallen into the light – before they are lost forever. And to gather all of those important stories yet to be told, the CWGC has created the website For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen (cwgc.org/stories). Whether photographs,…

CELEBRATING YOUR DISCOVERIES The neat copperplate reads, “28 May 1847. Ships Erebus and Terror wintered in 1846 at Beechey Island. Sir William Franklin commanding the expedition. All well.” The two ships’ coordinates were logged in the same hand. But around the margins of this age-yellowed, dog-eared Admiralty form are scrawled notes added later, some faded or lost to the elements. One, dated 25 April 1848, states, “The officers and crews consisting of 105 souls under the command of Captain F. R. M. My father said, ‘You're related to the captain of one of Franklin's ships' Crozier landed here… Sir John Franklin died on the 11th of June 1847 and the total loss by deaths in the Expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.” And finally: “And…

Andrew Carnegie, born in 1835 in Dunfermline, Fife, became a businessman and philanthropist in the USA, making a fortune through the steel industry, and donating $350 million to charitable causes (equivalent to about $6 billion today). Among the many institutions that bear his name are the concert venue Carnegie Hall in New York, and Carnegie public libraries around the world. Carnegie died in Lenox, Massachusetts, in 1919. His will and codicil (a later revision to the will) later confirmed in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court on 22 October 1920 dealt with a small part of his estate in Scotland (SC70/4/541 on ScotlandsPeople scotlandspeople.gov.uk, pp246–329). As well as naming his wife and daughter, his cousin's wife, his sister-in-law and brother-in-law, three cousins in Dunfermline, and his housekeeper of 27 years, the will…

Q I'm looking for the baptism and death records of my 4x great grandfather, Madit Baiden. He married Sarah Shailer in Wilcot, Wiltshire, on 15 January 1798 and they had at least three children, including my 3x great grandmother, Eleanor. I think I've found records for his father, Madit Bayden (1733–1818) born in Ludgershall, Wiltshire; and his grandfather, Maudite Baydon (1702–1789) born in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. The Geneanet Community Trees Index on Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62476) has Matthew Baiden as an alternative spelling, born Pewsey in 1763. I cannot find his baptism either, but doubt the connection. He supposedly died aged 105. Lynn Fowler A There is a very good reason for the non-appearance of Madit Baiden in Pewsey baptismal records and this is recorded by the incumbent, William Butcher. He states…

TECH TIPS For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen is a new online platform launched in October 2023 by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (cwgc.org) that aims to provide visitors with more rounded histories of the people who fell during the two world wars. It's a voluntary project that can include stories about anyone recorded as a casualty on the CWGC's website, which covers the almost 1.7 million people who are buried or commemorated on memorials across 23,000 sites administered by the commission. The CWGC is keen to point out that all of the material and stories submitted to it aren't independently vetted, so should therefore be considered unofficial, although all entries are reviewed by moderators before being published. You can find out more about For Evermore on page 19. Fortunately…

BOOKS Britain's Wartime Evacuees Gillian Mawson Frontline, 2016 Gillian's book contains testimony from hundreds of evacuees from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar. It also has diary entries, documents and wartime newspaper reports. Send Them to Safety James Roffey The Evacuees Reunion Association, 2009 Written by the founder of The British Evacuees Association, this title contains stories from evacuees, plus more than 1,000 names of evacuees and where they were sent from and to. MUSEUM SECOND WORLD WAR EXPERIENCE CENTRE a 2 Cross Green, Otley, West Yorkshire LS21 1HD t 01943 466431 e enquiries@war-experience.org w war-experience.org/collections/civilians-war The centre's biographies, photos and other material illustrate the impact of the war on civilians, including children. Visitors are welcome by appointment. WEBSITES IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM w iwm.org.uk/collections Searching IWM's…

MILITIA RECORDS w tinyurl.com/hath-lancs The digital library HathiTrust includes a volume listing officers of the Old County Regiment of Lancashire Militia late 1st Royal Lancashire (the Duke of Lancaster's Own) from 1642–1889. HISTORIC MAPS w tinyurl.com/lancs-mario Lancashire County Council's portal MARIO (Maps & Related Information Online) includes both modern and historic maps, plus aerial photographs. NONCONFORMIST RECORDS w tinyurl.com/fs-lancs-noncon The holdings for Lancashire on FamilySearch include an indexed collection of nonconformist church records with images, from such denominations as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, the Society of Friends, and Wesleyan. CIVIL INDEXES w lancashirebmd.org.uk Lancashire BMD provides local indexes to civil records of births, marriages and deaths. PARISH REGISTERS w freereg.org.uk FreeREG is particularly strong here with more than 4.5 million entries for the county. PARISH CLERKS INDEXES w lan-opc.org.uk This thriving…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES LANCASHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL HISTORY a Bow Lane, Preston PR1 2RE t 01772 533039 e archives@lancashire.gov.uk w lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/archives-and-record-office The county archive's website has a research guide about its holdings of Anglican, Catholic and nonconformist church registers. There is also a link to companion site Red Rose Collections, which includes 30,000 historic photos, plus indexes to Whittingham Asylum patients and Lancashire Constabulary officers: redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk. BARROW ARCHIVE CENTRE a Barrow Library, Ramsden Square, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria LA14 1LL t 01229 407377 e barrow.archives@cumberland.gov.uk w tinyurl.com/barr-arch The centre covers parts of Furness and south-west Cumberland once in Lancashire. JOHN RYLANDS RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND LIBRARY a 150 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH t 0161 275 3764 e uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk W www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/ The library houses most of the special collections held by the University of…

E-BOOK THE GENEALOGIST'S INTERNET archive.org/details/the-genealogists-internet or spub.co.uk/tgi (web version) Free Author Peter Christian has regained the rights to his 2012 book The Genealogist's Internet, and has released it online for free under a Creative Commons licence. The main text has not been updated since 2012 but he has updated the links, and it remains a useful guide to all aspects of starting your tree and the resources online. PODCAST UNEARTH THE PAST Podcast services Free Historian and genealogist Dr Michala Hulme launched a podcast last May, and series two began in November. As well as research advice, episodes feature a range of guests sharing their family stories and she interviews the likes of DNA Painter's Jonny Perl, house historian Melanie Backe-Hansen and workhouses expert Peter Higginbotham. WATCH CHESHIRE ARCHIVES &…

LEWIS BROWN As a child Lewis was taken on a trip to Ypres, and he's met Harry Patch. Now he works for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and tells us about its new project on page 19. PAUL BLAKE A fellow of the Society of Genealogists, Paul gives talks and writes on a number of family history topics. On page 38 he shares his expertise on apprenticeship registers from the 1700s. GILLIAN MAWSON Gillian has interviewed over 500 wartime evacuees and used this material in four books. On page 54 she talks about the different experiences children had away from home.…

The Catholic Family History Society has announced its closure after 40 years. The society was founded in 1983 under the name English Catholic Ancestor. Members carried out transcription projects, held meetings and published a journal. Chair and general secretary Sylvia Dibbs blamed a lack of volunteers to run the society. Its materials will be transferred to the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society (mlfhs.uk/catholic).…

Recently I was working with a group of family and local historians, looking at probate records from the early 17th century relating to two townships near St Helens. We noted how there were standard phrases that appeared in most of the wills – formulaic wording which is found throughout the country, and relates particularly to the religious beliefs and wishes of the testator. Almost everybody who made a will expressed the fervent hope, or expectation, that they would go to heaven and be redeemed by the suffering and passion of Jesus Christ, a sentiment often set down in the beautiful and majestic words of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible of 1611. This emphasises the appropriate religious sentiments that, in principle, everyone should have held…

BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE FREE PAGES w britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Findmypast has worked with the British Library for many years to create its game-changing British Newspaper Archive. Recently there has been a move to make more and more of its pages free to access. Just select ‘Free to view’ on the home page. The same pages are also free to registered users on Findmypast. THE TIMES DIGITAL ARCHIVE If you're a member of your local library, then check to see if there are any digital collections that you can access from home. A large number of libraries offer free access to the digital archive of The Times. Just log in and start searching issues from 1785–2019. WELSH NEWSPAPERS w newspapers.library.wales With more than 15 million articles to search, this free resource is not…

BIOGRAPHIES Many accounts have been written about the lives and exploits of polar explorers like Franklin, Crozier and Ross. MUSEUM NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM a Greenwich, London SE10 9NF t 020 8858 4422 e rmgenquiries@rmg.co.uk w rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum The Victory Point Note and thousands of other items relating to polar exploration are held at the museum. Many are online at rmg.co.uk/collections/our-collections-polar-relics. NARRATIVES These are diaries or logs of explorers’ voyages written during their travels and sold on their return. These accounts are available for free on sites such as the digital library HathiTrust (hathitrust.org) and the Internet Archive (archive.org).…

Tracing a ship's captain (or ‘master') in the 18th and early 19th centuries can be frustratingly tricky. Before 1835 there was no national registration of merchant seamen or officers. Sadly, many men were lost in shipwrecks. Fortunately, there is one online source that can be helpful for both wrecks and captains. Volunteers at the Guildhall Library, London, have indexed Lloyd's List – a weekly newspaper about shipping, which later became a daily publication: registers.cityoflondon.gov.uk/applications/lloydslist/. The index covers 1740–1837, although a few years are missing. Lloyd's List incorporated all sorts of information about ships, such as arrivals or departures from certain ports, but the index comprises the news articles only. This section typically describes ships that were badly damaged by storms, sank, disappeared, were stranded, or were captured by the enemy…

What can you tell me about Joseph's service? Q I am trying to work out what Joseph Mellor0 0Vernon (1886–1953) did during the First World War. A pottery worker living in Porthill, Stoke-on-Trent, he married Phoebe Turner in 1911 and they had three children. Some service records have survived that show he attested in 1915 and was mobilised on 29 June 1917 as a private in the North Staffordshire Regiment (116815). On enlistment, his height was given as 4 foot 11 inches, which was below the regulation minimum of 5 foot 3 inches, so why was he accepted? He is recorded as being in various battalions. His military history form is blank, but I know he went overseas and was in the Labour Corps later on. Janet Hurst A partial…

Q Frederick Mitchell (seated) was born on 15 September 1887. I believe the photo dates from the First World War. What can you tell me about his service? Sophie Piper A This is a studio portrait of two volunteers for the Royal Fusiliers in 1915, probably taken in Hounslow. I searched the online collection of Medal Index Cards (1914–1920) on the website of The National Archives (TNA) at tinyurl.com/tna-guide-mics for men named Frederick Mitchell, finding nine cards. I discarded men with a middle name, as Frederick doesn't seem to have had one, and one who previously served in the East Kent Regiment. Of the remaining three cards, two belonged to the same man: Private Frederick Mitchell, 26979, Royal Fusiliers and Lance-Corporal, 60412, Labour Corps. His pension card (on the Ancestry-owned…

CELEBRATING YOUR DISCOVERIES Casting the net wide with your research can smash down the most frustrating brick walls. Record sets vary between the online ‘genealogical giants’, so it's a good idea to try out a new website or subscription from time to time. Jeremy Baker explains how this approach helped him to track down an elusive ancestor. MY BRICK WALL My father Norman Herbert Baker was born in 1907, and he passed on anecdotes about family members who lived during the 19th century. He told me that my great great grandfather John Baker lived in Kennington, South London, in a house overlooking the Oval cricket ground. John and his wife Susannah had a large family, and many of them would visit to watch the cricket together. John was a stonemason…

Lancashire has a rich footballing heritage. It was the stampingground of pioneering footballer Lily Parr, who was born in St Helens in 1905 and played for Dick, Kerr Ladies Football Club, a works team that played charity matches in Preston during the First World War. And of the 12 clubs that founded the Football League in 1888, half were from within the county's historic boundaries – Accrington, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Everton and Preston North End. Clarets Collected, a new project from Lancashire Archives & Local History (lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/archives-and-record-office/clarets-collected/), is bringing together a fan-led archive of material relating to Burnley FC. The Clarets are one of just three teams to have been champions in all four divisions, they won the FA Cup in 1913/1914, and in the 1986/1987 season almost…

ASPDEN This locative name comes from the historic name of a valley near Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, which is now known as Aspen. EASTHAM Although from a place in Cheshire, this habitational name is more commonly found in Lancashire. ENTWISTLE Some 5,214 Entwistles were recorded in Lancashire in the 1881 census, along with a further 279 Entwhistles/Entwisles. FARNWORTH This surname comes from two places in Lancashire called Farnworth. Farnsworth is a less common variant. GREENHALGH This Old English name refers to a green hollow. HAWORTH Of the several thousand Haworths recorded in 1881, 1,266 were living in Blackburn, 564 in Accrington and 456 in Haslingden. SHORROCK There are numerous variants of this name in Lancashire. Note that the similar-sounding surname Horrocks comes from what is now part of Greater Manchester. THRELFALL The…

Those of us who have discovered an ancestor who had dealings with the criminal justice system will know how fascinating, and sometimes poignant, their stories can be. Warrington Archives holds a ‘Robberies Register’ from Warrington Borough Police revealing details of more than 2,000 crimes committed in the town between 1909 and 1916. They include the names of the perpetrators and victims, and provide valuable insights into the lives of ordinary people in the early 20th century. Philip Jeffs, archives and heritage officer, tells us more about it. This register shows that the ‘good old days’ were not so good for most of us WHAT IS THE REGISTER? It is important to say right away that despite its name the Robberies Register is actually a record of a wide selection of…

Arwen Mohun's great grandfather Richard Dorsey Mohun (1864–1915) was born in the USA. As a young man he began working in low-grade administrative jobs abroad and became a US trade agent in Africa. In time other opportunities beckoned. He began to work for the Belgian king Leopold II's private colony the Congo Free State which exploited ivory, rubber and minerals. The author has used family papers including Dorsey's letters home, his own writing, newspaper accounts and diplomatic records to tell of his adventures. Dorsey underwent the usual privations of African life: a lack of food and clean water, plus heat, insects and disease. The dark heart of this story is of how his individual ambition and Leopold's imperial lust worked together to plunge Dorsey into participating in a regime of…