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

What were you doing in 2004? I was busy having my second child and moving to BBC History Magazine that year, but I also remember being totally engrossed in a TV series that launched in October looking at celebrities’ family trees. It felt like nobody had made television for family historians before, and I was hooked. Now 20 years on, Who Do You Think You Are? has become a staple of British broadcasting, encouraging us all to explore our roots – and that's definitely worth celebrating. On page 14 I talk shop with Lucy Swingler, the new series producer, and on page 16 we share the family history community's 20 favourite WDYTYA? moments. So many great suggestions were put forward by members of our friendly Facebook Group (turn to page 71…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST FAULTY TREES I have just re-read Chloe O'Shea's article “10 Online Family Tree Traps” that you originally printed in your May issue but recently also posted online (whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/family-tree-hints). She outlines everything that I get so angry about. My tree is private, but there are still many that have been posted by others that are totally wrong. Obviously they have just been copied from other trees without doing any research, hence these errors go on ad infinitum, I have tried on several occasions to make contact to get them corrected, but most do not even bother to reply. Genealogy is a great pastime/ hobby, and is big business these days, but it has also got out of hand as genuine researchers…

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? ® GREATEST MOMENTS Crack open the bubbly and grab a slice of cake. It's 20 years since the first episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, and that's worth celebrating. When the BBC launched a new TV programme in 2004 exploring the family history of celebrities, they could not have predicted that two decades later it would be such a beloved highlight of our viewing schedules. It's not just popular in the UK either. The format has seen offshoots in more than a dozen countries including the USA, Australia, Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands. Broadcast originally on BBC Two, the programme leapt to the number-one slot for the channel that year and by the third series had moved to BBC One where it…

BOOKS Never Forgotten: The story of the Japanese Prisoner of War Camps in Taiwan During World War II Michael Hurst MBE Mei-Hua Publishing, 2020 The only book that tells the full story of all 16 Japanese POW camps in Taiwan, and the lives of their internees, is available from the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society (see the details below). Kinkaseki – One Day at a Time, 2nd Edition Arthur Titherington Covos Day Books, 2000 This is probably the best book on the Kinkaseki and Kukutsu camps, written by a former internee. MUSEUM THE THAILAND-BURMA RAILWAY CENTRE a 73 Jaokannun Road, BanNua, Amphoe Muang, Kanchanaburi 71000, Thailand e admin@tbrconline.com w www.tbrconline.com/ This museum presents the history of the Thailand–Burma Railway, and holds extensive archives. WEBSITES TAIWAN POW CAMPS MEMORIAL SOCIETY w…

The potato, introduced into Ireland in the last decades of the 16th century, was the superfood of its day. A highly nutritious crop that produced a large yield on low-quality land made it possible for farmers and labouring families to feed themselves from a small holding. From the 18th century the potato became the ubiquitous subsistence crop of the agrarian class in Ireland. As the Irish population grew, reaching five million by the end of the 18th century and eight million by the time of the 1841 census, many large families, eking out a living on increasingly diminishing land holdings, were entirely reliant on the potato as their only source of food. This was supplemented with milk, and occasionally meat or fish. THE ARRIVAL OF BLIGHT In the summer of…

Singer–songwriter Mel C's ancestor Patrick Flaherty was born in Liverpool in 1861 to Patrick Flaherty senior and Catherine Burns. Patrick's baptismal record, from St Anthony's, Liverpool, identified both of his parents, and the 1871 census for England and Wales enumerated older siblings who were all born in Ireland. Searching the indexed Roman Catholic parish baptismal registers for Ireland found Patrick's oldest sister Maria, who was baptised in Croom, County Limerick, in August 1846, whereas her younger siblings were baptised in the Roman Catholic parish of St Michael's in Limerick City from August 1848. This family moved during the worst of the Great Famine. Maria's baptismal record provided the family address of Carhue, also known as Carrow, in the civil parish of Croom, and Patrick was found at Carrow in June…

The Battle of Jutland began on 31 May 1916 off the Jutland Peninsula, Denmark, and ended on 1 June 1916. This clash between German and British fleets was the largest naval battle of the First World War. Afterwards, the German fleet withdrew to port and never emerged again, while Britain was free to control trade and all other movement by sea. So strategically the victory was Britain's. However, that victory came at a cost of more than 6,000 RN servicemen's lives and the loss of 14 ships, compared with the Germans’ losing about 2,500 men and 11 ships. The Battle of Jutland Royal Naval Casualty Database, located at porttowns.port.ac.uk/source-information/jutland-casualty-database/, is the most comprehensive record of the British men who died as a result of the battle. Personal information of value…

1 WALKER-SMITH The name of the pilot making the claim is recorded. It was normal only to give the surname. 2 DATE The report always includes the date and approximate time that the dogfight occurred. 3 FLIGHT Fighter squadrons comprised two flights, A and B, each containing six aircraft. In turn flights were divided into four sections, each of them made up of three aircraft. 4 ENEMY CASUALTIES There are details of the enemy aircraft claimed shot down. Messerschmitt Bf 110 aircraft were twin-engine fighter–bombers whose relative lack of manoeuvrability was exploited by RAF pilots. 5 BOGEYS ‘Bogey’ means an unidentified – and presumably hostile – aircraft. Abbreviations and jargon are frequently included in the reports, and can sometimes be difficult to interpret. 6 SPLASHES If the aircraft was not seen crashing or at least…

Q My husband's grandfather, John (AKA Jack) Lambourne, started life in Walsall, Staffordshire, in 1878. One story is that he served with the British Army in India. We can find no record of any army service – just this photo (he's standing back left). Nicki Proctor A This photograph was almost certainly taken in India (possibly Burma or Malaya), as shown by the tropical clothing, probably during the First World War. Service abroad entitled the soldiers to at least one medal, but I can't find any man who clearly fits the bill in the Medal Index Cards listed on The National Archives’ (TNA's) catalogue Discovery (discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk). I've also checked the pension cards (on the Ancestry-owned military-focused site Forces War Records; uk.forceswarrecords.com). Again, nothing. During the war some, but not all,…

AROUND BRITAIN Luton Town Football Club has a longstanding claim to fame. During one match in 1936 the team put 12 goals past Bristol Rovers, 10 of which came from Joe Payne. This remains the most goals scored by one player in a Football League match. The club's nickname is ‘the Hatters’, and the success of the hat-making trade transformed the market town into a hive of industry known across the world. According to the website of Wardown House, Museum and Gallery (culturetrust.com/venues/wardown-house-museum-gallery), during the 1800s there were more than 400 hat factories in Luton, the majority making straw hats. The museum not only has thousands of pieces of headgear and rare items relating to the industry, but also an archive of sources including an almost complete run of the…

BREED Breed is a locative name for someone who lived by a broad strip of cultivated land. BRIGHTMAN This is a relationship name taken from the Old English personal name Brihtmann/Beorhtmann. FOSSEY Fossey is thought to stem from a lost place called Fotsey in the Bedfordshire parish of Aspley Guise. HUCKELL/HUCKLE This may derive from the personal name Huck. KEECH This nickname for an overweight person comes from a Middle English word for a lump of fat. O'DELL/ODELL Both variants originated in the small village Odell in the north of the county. PUDDEPHATT This nickname is thought to come from a Middle English word for something swollen or obese. PURSER Purser is an occupational name from someone who made purses, or a burser/treasurer. WILDMAN This was a nickname for someone…

The Royal Berkshire Archives holds a set of papers, dating from 1611-1855, relating to the Simeon family. Richard Simeon was a Reading lawyer whose sons John, Edward and Charles achieved notability respectively as the MP for Reading, a director of the Bank of England and an evangelical minister. Among the papers are correspondence between John Simeon and William Wilberforce, also an MP and famous for his campaign to abolish the slave trade. As Deborah Jenkins, a volunteer at the archive, explains, the letters reveal a debate about a church in Reading that sheds light on religious divisions at the time. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE LETTERS TO OUR READERS? These three letters, which are dated 1799–1800, were sent by William Wilberforce (1759–1833) to Sir John Simeon, 1st Baronet (1756-1824), MP for…

WOMEN'S HISTORY Kate Morgan Mudlark, 320 pages, £20 The title of solicitor-turned-writer Kate Morgan's second book is drawn from the proverb, “A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more they are beaten, the better they'll be.” It reflects not only attitudes towards women in the past, but also demonstrates their inferior legal status, where they were deemed to be the property of men (whether their husbands, fathers or employers), and were therefore told to obey their male ‘master’ or face punishment. Women's lives at the hands of men might be subject to violence, but their efforts to gain redress through the courts could be stymied by a legal system that was full of double standards – one that subjected women to invasive questioning and made negative assumptions about…

BRITAIN BEHIND BARS: A SECRET HISTORY Channel 4 Streaming now With his background as a criminal barrister and his ability to connect with those he meets as a documentary-maker investigating the past, it's difficult to think of a better person than former WDYTYA? star Rob Rinder to present a series about the history of Britain's prisons and prisoners. The first episode gives a good idea of what to expect, as Rob pays a visit to windswept HMP Dartmoor in Devon. Here, the stories of the past he learns about include the tale of a prisoner so angry at his mistreatment that he broke into the jail with the intention of killing a warden. It's an anecdote that brings one of the episode's central questions into focus: what happens when those…

MICHAEL HURST MBE A Canadian expat in Taipei, Michael has spent decades memorialising the POWs in Taiwan (see page 21) and helping families uncover the stories of captives. SIMON FOWLER Simon is a Londonbased researcher who has written extensively on the First World War, military and naval topics. On page 38 he explores fascinating RAF combat reports. RUTH A SYMES Having worked in education many years ago, historian and writer Ruth has a fascination with the history of education and how it changed the lives of our forebears (page 52).…

After reading Gail Dixon's ‘Eureka Moment’ article in your August issue about a centenarian in Barbara Greenwood's family tree, I thought I'd send a photo of the extraordinary centenarian in my tree, Harriet Betts. Harriet was baptised on 14 July 1797 in Deal, Kent, and died on 28 February 1900 also in Deal. So not only was she a centenarian but her life spanned three centuries including the whole of the 1800s and Queen Victoria's reign. Born Harriet Epsley, she was the ninth of 10 children and married Edward Betts on 10 January 1830. She is photographed here shortly after the birth of her great great grandson George Colin Betts completing five generations of the family. In the photograph there is Harriet, my 3x great grandmother; her son Richard Atherden…

Robert Mawdesley was a magistrate, a justice of the peace in mid-Lancashire in the 1720s. His family lived near the village of Mawdesley, from which (many generations earlier) they had taken their surname. Robert and his fellow county magistrates, exclusively male, invariably upper middle class or even more elevated, and without exception practising members of the Church of England, were the key to the maintenance of local law and order. Theirs could be a burdensome task, and if they took their role seriously they had to deal with a huge range of potential and actual problems, to do with crime, social problems and community relations. Sometimes the harshness of the world, and the plight of individuals, was made real to the magistrates in a way which, even to these superior…

A Merchant Navy captain and weather forecaster, who saved passengers' lives with his quick thinking; an engineer who played a key role in the launch of a groundbreaking locomotive; captain forecaster Merchant passengers’ quick and, thinking;an engineer who played a key role in the launch of a groundbreaking locomotive; a soldier who survived a massacre in the Anglo-Zulu War (1879); and the mysterious poisonings of two young brothers – retired civil servant Paul Fitton has found them all on his family tree. Paul, who lives in Orpington, Greater London, is now an events organiser for friendly society the Oddfellows (www.oddfellows.co.uk), and enthrals audiences with tales of his amazing ancestors. He began his research 42 years ago, prompted by the stories his mum told him. “After marrying, my great aunt went…

Take your research further BOOK Atlas of the Great Irish Famine John Crowley, William J Smyth and Mike Murphy (editors) Cork University Press, 2012 A US edition of this weighty tome documenting the Famine can be borrowed from the Internet Archive (tinyurl.com/arch-crow). MUSEUMS COBH HERITAGE CENTRE a Cobh, County Cork, P24 CY67, Ireland t +353 21 481 3591 e info@cobhheritage.com w cobhheritage.com You can uncover the story of Ireland's emigrants here. NATIONAL FAMINE MUSEUM a Strokestown Park, Strokestown, County Roscommon, F42 H282, Ireland t +353 71 963 3013 e info@strokestownpark.ie w strokestownpark.ie/national-famine-museum/ Learn more about the impact of the Great Famine. WEBSITES HISTORY IRELAND w historyireland.com You can view articles about the Famine that have been published in the magazine by searching its website. RTE w rte.ie/history/the-great-irish-famine Ireland's TV station…

AGE OF NELSON w ageofnelson.org Although a bit glitchy, this website includes a digital encyclopaedia of RN ships, 1793-1815. BROADSIDE w nelsonsnavy.co.uk The pages here describe life in the RN in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION w cwgc.org Here you can search names recorded on the memorials built in the RN manning ports of Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth. FORCES WAR RECORDS w https://uk.forceswarrecords.com This subscription site has data relating to the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, the Royal Marines and RN officers’ medal rolls. IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS w tinyurl.com/iwm-guide-royal-navy This useful page explains where to find the most important RN service records. More recent records are only available to next of kin, via www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-records-of-service. NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM w rmg.co.uk/collections Explore RN collections held by…

THE GAZETTE w thegazette.co.uk Citations for gallantry medals awarded to aircrew were published in the London Gazette. You can search and view back issues online for free. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w tinyurl.com/tna-guides-raf-etc TNA's site includes expert guides to researching members of the RAF and other air services. WDYTYA? MAGAZINE w tinyurl.com/wdytya-orb You can find out more about the activities of RAF squadrons during the world wars from their Operation Record Books (ORBs), and there's advice about accessing them online on the magazine's website. WINGLEADER BOOKS w wingleader.co.uk Titles published by Wingleader in its Combat Archive series contain extensive accounts of Second World War air battles. Full details of each volume's coverage are available on its website.…

Q An obituary for my 3x great grandfather, Benjamin Lees, reveals that he had been a Royal Marine on HMS Shannon when it captured the USS Chesapeake. However, I cannot find him in the ship's musters, naval payrolls or other records. Nick Taylor A If Benjamin Lees was a Royal Marine, he should have ‘attestation papers’ at The National Archives in Kew (nationalarchives.gov.uk). These are the documents he signed upon enlistment, and are in series ADM 157 (1790-1925). However, his are missing. It's possible that they have been lost, but it raises suspicion. Furthermore, since marines were hand-picked, high-calibre individuals, the Admiralty tended not to discharge them after a mere five years’ service, as is stated in Benjamin's obituary. Having said that, I would like to caution you over the…

Having an illegitimate child in India during the early 20th century often led to scandal and disgrace. Some parents created stories, or ‘smokescreens’, to hide the truth from their relations and employers. Here Peter Vonlanthen, who has been researching his roots for most of his adult life, explains how he unravelled the complicated mystery behind his mother's birth. MY BRICK WALL I was born in New Zealand in 1942 to a Swiss farmer Frank Vonlanthen and his wife Ruth Anna Ayo, a nurse of AngloIndian origin. Ruth was born in 1918 in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) in Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India. Her mother was Elizabeth Charles (family name Lena) who married mail-train driver Richard Ayo in Allahabad in 1908. The couple had six children – Richard and Stanley,…

FAMILY BIOGRAPHY Roxanne de Bastion Robinson, 288 pages, £22 As far back as she can remember, singer–songwriter Roxanne de Bastion's father owned a Blüthner baby grand piano, which had been in his family for three generations. When he died in 2019, as well as the piano she inherited another legacy – a collection of cassette tapes recording her grandfather Stephen de Bastion, the piano's previous owner, narrating his life story, along with written accounts, memorabilia and photographs. In The Piano Player of Budapest, de Bastion has harnessed all of this diverse material to recreate Stephen's story in a vivid narrative, in addition to describing her own experiences uncovering it several decades later. Stephen was born Istvan Holtzer, the eldest son of a wealthy Jewish family in Hungary. He became a…

SOCIAL HISTORY LYNN HAMILTON, Pen & Sword, 232 pages, £22 Most of us are familiar with Charles Dickens’ tale of Oliver Twist. Lynn Hamilton's book graphically depicts the reality of life for many Victorian children and the hardships that they were forced to endure. It includes the story of Dickens himself, who worked in a blacking factory from the age of 12 after his father went bankrupt. Hamilton recounts real-life stories of some who endured awful childhoods – babies placed into baby farms by single mothers, some of whom then died from malnutrition; young children trafficked from workhouses to factories; terrible prison sentences and transportation from a very young age; child chimney sweeps; and children who were tricked into prostitution. On a lighter note, also mentioned are those who endeavoured…

I was tickled pink to find, we had not one, but two letters sent in this month about women who lived to 102. What was particularly interesting was how this longetivity had confused Debbie Mendonca with her research (page 8). Centenarians were rarer in the past than they are today, but there were still those who defied nature and disease to pass that milestone. So, when looking for an elusive death, expand the date range. And if you do find someone who lived to 100, check out the local papers. They loved to celebrate this achievement as we do now.…

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Who Do You Think You Are? and a new line-up of seven first-class celebrities. To find out more, I met up with the new series producer Lucy Swingler. Although Lucy may be new to the role of series producer, her connection with WDYTYA? goes back a very long way. “I directed the Stephen Fry episode for the second series in 2006,” she reveals. Her role now is very different. “My job is really to be there from the beginning to the end, and support the talented teams who make the films. Along with the development producer we approach celebrities to garner their interest, then the producer and team of researchers evolve the stories. When we go into production I'll work with the director…

BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Obituaries in newspapers and other publications can provide a rich summary of an ancestor's life. In Captain Newton's case, they revealed that he became a publican after his naval career. THE METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE ARCHIVES w metoffice.gov.uk/research/library-and-archive/archive The collection here contains a range of fascinating documents including marine weather logbooks from historic voyages and private weather diaries. Many communications with the Met Office from associates are held in the archives, such as Captain Newton's. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES w tinyurl.com/MerchantNavyRecordsTNA TNA's website includes a very thorough research guide to tracing records of your Merchant Navy ancestor, including ships’ records, crew lists, musters and logbooks. Some of these can be accessed via TNA's online catalogue Discovery: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk.…

Q My grandfather, James Inglesby, was a driver in the Royal Field Artillery during the First World War. He had been an ag lab and enlisted, we believe, in 1915. He was gassed and lost a lung, and became a horse shunter on the railway after the war. His army service records were among those lost to fire during the Second World War, so we have his medal record but not much else. How can we find out what unit he joined and where he served? He lived in Oundle, Northamptonshire, before he enlisted. Tony Mason A James Inglesby appears in several online records around the time of the First World War. In the Oundle voters’ rolls on Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk), he's James W Inglesby; and James William Inglesby on the…

TECH TIPS The National Library of Scotland's already impressive collection of free online maps just got a whole lot better for family historians. As mentioned in our news story last month, the NLS has uploaded all of the Ordnance Survey's out-of-copyright maps from 1944–1973 for the whole of England, Wales and Scotland. You can view maps from this period at three magnifications: 1:10,000–1:10,560 maps cover the entire country, while the more detailed 1:2,500 and 1:1,250 maps are restricted mainly to towns and cities. You can zoom into street level with the 1:10,000 collection, but the 1:2,500 and 1:1,250 maps go into staggering levels of close-up detail, making it possible to view individual properties and even objects like trees. In some areas, more than one map from the period is available,…

BOOKS Pioneers in Early Childhood Education, 2nd Edition Patricia Giardiello Routledge, 2022 This title examines the life and work of the McMillans, Maria Montessori and Susan Isaacs. The Victorian and Edwardian Schoolchild Pamela Horn Sutton Publishing, 1989 Horn's book explores the effects of the 1870 Act. It can be borrowed from the Internet Archive (tinyurl.com/arch-pam-horn). MUSEUM BRITISH SCHOOLS MUSEUM a 41–42 Queen Street, Hitchin SG4 9TS t 01462 420144 e enquiries@britishschoolsmuseum.org.uk w britishschoolsmuseum.org.uk Here you can see a reconstruction of an 1837 monitorial schoolroom. WEBSITES DISCOVERY w discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk You can search The National Archives’ catalogue Discovery for material from a particular school held at TNA or elsewhere. FINDMYPAST w bit.ly/fmp-nat-schl Findmypast's school records include the collection ‘National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870–1914’. There are also various school records on…

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES BEDFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES a Riverside Building, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford MK42 9AP t 01234 228833 e archive@bedford.gov.uk w bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/Archives-Service.aspx This diocesan record office holds parish registers for the county as well as Old Poor Law material, plus catalogued and indexed quarter-session rolls, pre-1858 wills proved at Bedford, business collections and records of the county regiment. Note that all visits are by appointment only. BEDFORD CENTRAL LIBRARY a Harpur Street, Bedford MK40 1PG t 01234 718178 w www.bedford.gov.uk/libraries/your-local-library-opening-times-facilities-and-activities/bedford-central-library Local sources here include parish registers and census material on microfilm, together with cemetery records, electoral registers and indexed local newspapers. CAMBRIDGESHIRE ARCHIVES a The Dock, Ely CB7 4GS t 01223 699399 e cambs.archives@cambridgeshire.gov.uk w https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/libraries-leisure-culture/archives/visit-the-archives/cambridgeshire-archives It's always worth checking the jurisdiction and coverage of certain types of records, because…

PODCAST WAS JUSTICE SERVED? Podcast services In this new podcast from genealogical records website Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk/was-justice-served), research expert Jen Baldwin, criminologist David Wilson and historian David Olusoga examine five murder cases from British history. Using the site's extensive collection of historic newspapers, they find out what happened and ask – who was guilty? LISTEN THE ESSAY: DIG WHERE YOU STAND tinyurl.com/bbc-essay-dig-where-you-stand In this five-part series from BBC Radio 3's The Essay, a range of presenters revisit traditional British folk songs from the archives, and return to the places where they were first recorded to discuss what folk music tells us about our history. Their journeys take them to Arbroath, Arnisdale, Ceredigion, St Mawgan and the Yarrow Valley. WEBSITE BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF NURSES FROM IRELAND DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR tinyurl.com/nidirect-nurses…