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

Every time a new series of Who Do You Think You Are? arrives on our screens it inspires more people who want to explore their family's past. I would like to welcome any of you who have picked up this magazine for the first time to get some help with your first steps. It can seem daunting at first, but gradually you will find your feet and your tree will grow (and grow!). Even those of you who feel they have gone beyond the beginner stage will appreciate Laura Berry's expert tips on page 15. As a genealogist for the TV series, she spends her working life starting new trees, so who better to get advice from? We've got other articles inspired by the current TV series, including our guide…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST A SPORTING ROMANCE I am sure I am not alone in enjoying Jonathan Scott's 'Best Websites' article about sporting ancestors and Jad Adams' piece on the history of the modern Olympics in your August issue. Although my ancestors did not compete at such events, sport does feature in my past, because my parents Garfield Williams and Doreen Brown were courting at one: the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. My mother was always a very vocal armchair supporter of sport, particularly athletics, and from her letters and memorabilia I discovered that while she was on holiday in Bregenz, Austria, in 1958, she had written to Garfield encouraging him to go to Cardiff Arms Park and obtain tickets for…

Members of the public are invited to contribute to the first-ever digital map of a churchyard in Essex. St Mary's Church in Woodham Ferrers (stmarysheritagehub.co.uk) has commissioned AG Intl, a digital-surveying company, to carry out GPS mapping of the church and churchyard, finding the location of every memorial. The church dates back to the 12th century, and some of the memorials to 1558. In partnership with the Essex Society for Family History (https://www.esfh.org.uk), St Mary's will create a free online map of the memorials, along with photos and scans of the relevant burial register record from Essex Record Office (essexrecordoffice.co.uk). If you have any information about anyone buried at the church, please email stmaryshh@gmail.com.…

Family history website Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) has added a collection of 1,006,342 workhouse records from the Welsh county of Gwent. The collection, which covers 1833–1957, can be searched by name and includes digitised copies of the original records, which are preserved by Gwent Archives (gwentarchives.gov.uk). The Victorian workhouse system in England and Wales was set up by the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. Under the system, local parishes formed Poor Law unions to share the cost of providing for the poor. The collection covers the Poor Law unions of Abergavenny, Bedwellty, Bryn Institution, Chepstow, Monmouth, Newport, and Pontypool. The wide range of records featured in the collection illustrates the many services that were provided by the Poor Law system. They include workhouse admission and discharge registers; religious creed registers; vaccination registers;…

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS At the inquest into railway worker Ada Davies' death, her blind son Daniel Davies testified, “I heard the sound of the train… the crash came… I shouted to her and had no answer.” Ada, 59, was killed at the Castle Pygyn Level Crossing, Carmarthenshire, South-West Wales, on 20 March 1922 while working as a gatekeeper, opening and closing gates to keep road and rail traffic apart. At 9pm a train approached, but it “ran through the gate, and Mrs Davies was fatally injured”. In 1922 alone 240 railway workers died, and 15,968 were injured. Given how dangerous railway work could be, and how many people have worked on the railways during the past two centuries, you may well have had an ancestor who was affected. Accidents involving passengers…

BOOKS Railwaywomen Helena Wojtczak Hastings, 2005 The only detailed look at female railway workers during the 19th and 20th centuries was written by a former railway worker. Tracing Your Railway Ancestors Di Drummond Pen & Sword, 2010 This book explaining railway history and research for family historians is a very helpful guide. WEBSITES BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Reports in local newspapers are often the only surviving records of railway workers' accidents. OLD SCOTTISH w oldscottish.com If your railway ancestor was Scottish, here you can find indexes to Scottish Workmen's Compensation Act records. The website is also indexing Fatal Accident Inquiry records from the railways and more, and you can order copies of full records. RAILWAYS ARCHIVE w railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventlisting.php You can search reports of passenger train crashes from 1840 to…

THE GREAT WAR FORUM w greatwarforum.org This online community group helped Ash build up a picture of the minutiae of life for armed-service personnel in Egypt. You can research individual soldiers, regiments, uniforms, arms and movements on the site. WORCESTERSHIRE POLICE HISTORY 1833–1967 w sites.google.com/site/worcestershirepolicehistory/ Ash found his grandfather George James' police service documented in the records of Worcestershire Constabulary. They provided a timeline of his career, and included details such as marital status, religion, level of education and weight. WORCESTERSHIRE REGIMENT w worcestershireregiment.com This website has a database containing more than 50,000 records of soldiers who served in the First World War. You can also discover more about gallantry awards, assignments and ranks from 1694–1970.…

In the latest series of WDYTYA?, the athlete flew to Jamaica for the first time with her father to meet his extended family in Linstead, St Catherine Parish. Her paternal grandmother's sister Edna was the oldest surviving relation, and showed Jess a photo of her mother: Jess' great grandmother, Louise White. A combination of civil birth, marriage and death certificates, found in the FamilySearch collection 'Jamaica, Civil Registration, 1880–1999' (familysearch.org/search/collection/1538386), allowed Louise's ancestry to be traced back to Jess' 4x great grandfather George Thomas White, who died in St Catherine in 1879 aged around 90. His son, Jess' 3x great grandfather George McLeod White of Watermount District, registered the death, and the certificate stated that George Thomas White had been a cooper – someone who made barrels. George Thomas White…

RECORD MASTERCLASS Scottish social activist Annie MacPherson founded the Home Children migration scheme in 1869, aiming to provide destitute and orphaned children from the UK with a chance at a better life abroad. Between 1869 and 1948, more than 100,000 children from the poorest classes in Britain were sent to live and work in Canada. While they were often referred to as orphans, the vast majority had a living parent. These children were not, by and large, intended to be adopted into loving families, but were to become indentured servants on farms or in homes. While some did find new families, many more experienced abuse, hardship and a sense of shame that led to them hiding their roots well into adulthood. Few ever managed to reconnect with their families in…

Q My 4x great aunt, Amelia Harrington, was born in 1806 in Kent. She may have had a daughter, Harriet. I've found an 1874 marriage between Harriet Billing, widow, and Frederick Middleton listing Amelia Harrington as the father! From this document, it appears Harriet was born in 1823 in Iver, Buckinghamshire. Amelia married John Davis on 2 March 1828 at St Anne's, Soho, but I can't find a marriage for Harriet Harrington or Davis to a Billing. However, I have found a Harriet Harrington baptised on 20 September 1812 at Iver, parents William Goldwin/Golding and Amelia Harrington, which would mean that Amelia was six when she had Harriet! Terri Peck A Working back from the 1874 marriage certificate, I managed to find a Billing/ Harrington marriage. According to the collection…

Q My grandfather, Nathan Myers, was the son of Jewish immigrants, Harris Myer Schwartz and Rose. He was born on 25 September 1897 in Shoreditch, London, and had five siblings. He lived in Bromley, Kent. All I know about his time during the First World War is that he was in a Jewish regiment, serving abroad, possibly – not on the front line, but maybe in catering or supplies. No one really knows for sure. This photo is our only clue. Janet Price A There isn't much clear detail in the photograph, but he's a British staff sergeant (the crown above his stripes), the cap badge is a fusil (an old-fashioned hand grenade) usually indicating a Fusilier regiment, and the shoulder title is one that I can't identify but may be…

20% Avanti discount Get peace of mind when you travel with 20% off Avanti Travel Insurance for Cruise Collective members. You'll be protected both before you go away, as well as when you're on your trip. And if something does go wrong, Avanti will always aim to help you put it right as soon as possible. Free skincare Claim your free summer suncare bundle (RRP £31) from planet-friendly brand grüum and savour every sunny moment this summer while protecting and nourishing your skin. The bundle includes facial sunscreen, an aftersun face oil bar and a cooling body wash bar. Save on parking APH, voted Best Airport Parking Company for the past twelve years, offer customer parking options at airports throughout the UK and at Southampton and Dover ports. Cruise Collective…

Born in Newlyn, Cornwall, in 1800, William Lovett initially worked as an apprentice ropemaker before training as a carpenter, and at 21 he moved to London to find work as a cabinet-maker. Lovett believed that education would improve his prospects so he attended evening classes at the London Mechanics' Institute, where he met the radical publishers Henry Hetherington and John Cleave who introduced him to socialist ideas. Lovett became famous when he founded the Anti-Militia Association, and established the influential London Working Men's Association with Hetherington, Cleave and James Watson. Following the publication of the People's Charter in 1838, Lovett became leader of the newly named Chartist movement. In 1839, he was arrested and spent 12 months in Warwick Gaol. The experience damaged his health and he decided to retire…

The 'Reader Story' in the Summer 2023 issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine focused on Chris Hussey, whose great grandmother Caroline Ann Stacey was a lone parent in late Victorian times. Her son Frank Herbert Stacey was Chris' maternal grandfather. Frank emigrated to Canada as a young man, and when the First World War broke out in July 1914 he enlisted into the Canadian 123rd Royal Grenadiers. Frank fought on the Western Front at Vimy Ridge and after transferring into the 29th Infantry Battalion he fought at Hill 70 and Lens, where he endured a mustard-gas attack. The sulphur burned his eyes, mouth, throat and lungs, and he suffered from breathing difficulties for the rest of his life. Frank married Edith Brightman in 1927, and they had…

SOFTWARE From £29.95 (upgrade £24.95); rootsmagic.co.uk It's that time of year when we're rewarded with a new version of RootsMagic, and while version 10 isn't groundbreaking, it has some notable new features that make the upgrade worthwhile for existing users. The major new highlight sees new options added that allow you to record individuals' health conditions and DNA match data, plus generate reports on each. Both features work in a similar way, and require you to enter the information manually. RootsMagic users have welcomed the new DNA feature in particular, but have highlighted some shortcomings: you can't attach any media files to the information, and there's nowhere to capture Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) information other than in the notes. Nevertheless, it comes with some useful analytical capabilities, such as…

SUSSEX Alexandra Harris Faber & Faber, 512 pages, £25 This is a remarkable and perhaps unique book, beautifully written, poetic and lyrical, and the product of an inspired imagination. Alexandra Harris writes about the Pulborough and Fittleworth area of West Sussex, rooting the account in her extensive research into archives and secondary sources, but overlaying and interweaving factual background with evocative description and careful conjecture. Her focus shifts from people to place and back again, as she tells the stories of local residents (including her own younger self) and visitors to the area, creating a tapestry of landscape, geology, natural history, buildings, fields and especially the River Arun, threading through the text as it flows through the meadows and marshes. This is neither a family history nor a local history. It…

TITANIC IN COLOUR Channel 4 Now streaming More than a century after RMS Titanic hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage, our collective fascination with the doomed liner shows no sign of abating. Is there anything new left to say? Perhaps not, but this two-part documentary is nonetheless worth watching for the way it brings the world of the past alive through subtle colourisation of black-and-white images and film. The first episode features footage of the liner being built in Belfast, while the second focuses on its final hours. Film taken aboard sister ship Olympic in 1921 helps to convey a sense of what it would have been like to travel aboard Titanic in 1912. WW2: WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINE Channel 4 Now streaming Serving as pilots, journalists, spies and…

BBC One and BBC iPlayer Thursday 12 September As so often, the latest series of WDYTYA? kicked off with a quartet of terrific episodes. Can the trio of shows that follow hit the same heights? Indisputably yes, as the episode featuring Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, who took gold in the heptathlon at the 2012 London Olympics, dramatically proves. Jessica's father, Vinnie, was born in Jamaica and the island proves to be central to her research as, with the help of local historians, she traces the story of her 4x great grandfather, George Thomas White. Born into slavery in 1795, George was forced to work on a sugar plantation that Jessica visits. Knowing what she does, she finds the place eerie. George emerges from history as a resilient character, who eventually bought…

A fleet of Japanese destroyers loaded with soldiers was heading towards a quiet shore in the South West Pacific. A group of missionaries on the beach stared in alarm at the scene, and hastened locals to flee into the jungle. Their base was the All Souls Anglican Mission in the village of Gona on Papua, which is now known as Papua New Guinea. Until the invasion of 21 July 1942, this peace-loving community had been unscathed by the Second World War. The missionaries and locals wandered lost in the jungle for 19 days. One of them, Father James Benson, was separated from his colleagues during an enemy attack, and had to surrender after losing his way without his glasses. Two Gona female missionaries were murdered by the Japanese before open…

It can be such a joy to research families with unusual names. It is certainly easier, but don't be fooled by it. A name that can seem unusual to you might be common in the local area where your ancestor came from. In our 'Q&A' section, Terri is confused by two Amelia Harringtons on page 45 and on page 48 Jane has to contend with two Nicholas Stubberfields. Always double-check that there aren't other candidates for a name. You may need to look at all incidents of the name in a locality, and build up a picture of the families who may also be related.…

MyHeritage withdraws AI Record Finder search tool Family history website MyHeritage (myheritage.com) has discontinued its AI-powered research tool only seven months after it was released. MyHeritage launched AI Record Finder, which enabled users of the site to find relevant records by 'talking' to a virtual assistant, in December 2023. However, on 28 July MyHeritage announced that it would discontinue AI Record Finder from 9 August. The company added, “We understood from the feedback we received that most genealogists preferred the more traditional search format.” 3D model of Robert the Bruce's face goes on show A 3D model of Scottish king Robert the Bruce's face, produced from a cast of his skull, has gone on display to the public for the first time at Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, to mark the…

Family history site TheGenealogist (thegenealogist.co.uk) has added 29 directories from the 1930s, with records of over 3.5 million people. This includes 24 Kelly's Directories from the following years: 1930 – Devonshire and Cornwall; Kent; Ipswich and Neighbourhood; and Putney and Roehampton; 1931 – Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire; Dorsetshire; Wiltshire; Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; the Channel Islands; and Somersetshire, Gloucestershire and the City of Bristol; 1932 – Bournemouth, Poole, Parkstone, Christchurch etc; Brighton and Hove; Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire; Leicestershire and Rutland; Warwick, Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon and kenilworth; and Warwickshire; 1933 – Cambridgeshire; Hertfordshire; Kilburn and Willesden; Norfolk and Suffolk; and Suffolk; and 1934 – Kent; Sussex, Chichester, Selsey and Neighbourhood; and Westmorland. The other directories are the 1933 Nottingham, Lincoln, Peterborough and districts telephone directory; the 1934 Nottingham, Leicester and…

Earlier in the year we had a short holiday in Sussex, north of Hastings. It coincided with a dramatic news story – the bursting of a major water main deep inside an area of woodland beyond the town, and the cutting of supplies to more than 32,000 properties, in some cases for a week. Fortunately (from our point of view) the place where we were staying was not affected. Four days later, it was Bank Holiday Monday, and almost inevitably, the rain was torrential. Looking for somewhere under cover, we visited the 'Brede Steam Giants', located six miles north of Hastings. At the end of the 19th century it was apparent to the borough council that the town's water supply was inadequate. Fast-growing demand was outstripping the traditional sources, and…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk Ancestry has digitised employment registers for English and Welsh railway companies held by The National Archives in Kew, and the surviving Irish employment registers and accident books held by the Irish Railway Record Society. FINDMYPAST w bit.ly/fmp-trad Findmypast's collection 'Britain, Trade Union Membership Registers' contains more than 3.7 million records, including from the ASRS/NUR. LOCOMOTION / NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM w locomotion.org.uk / railwaymuseum.org.uk Between them Locomotion in Shildon and sister museum the National Railway Museum in York have the most extensive collection of railway history objects and archives to be found anywhere in the world. MODERN RECORDS CENTRE (MRC) w warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/ The ASRS/NUR is one of the trade unions whose material is in the MRC at the University of Warwick. This includes the Railway Review newspaper (some…

FOCUS ON JAMAICAN ANCESTORS On 6 August 1962, Jamaica celebrated its first Independence Day since Oliver Cromwell seized the island from Spanish colonists in 1655. Indigenous settlers were largely wiped out after Columbus landed in 1494 and the Spanish began exploiting natural resources and importing enslaved Africans. Some slaves fled into Jamaica's inaccessible interior during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), establishing new communities with West African cultural identities. They became known as Maroons, and slaves escaping British captors gradually joined them. They proved a formidable fighting force during the First Maroon War against British settlers. Starting in 1728, this ended with peace treaties in 1739–1740 recognising the Maroons' political autonomy, and securing their services capturing future 'runaways'. Records relating to Maroons are at The National Archives in Kew (TNA; nationalarchives.gov.uk). This includes…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1129 You can use this free Ancestry collection to search for names of slaves or enslavers in registers dating from 1817 and updated every three years through to 1832. FAMILYSEARCH w tinyurl.com/fs-jamaica This is the free hub for accessing digitised civil registration records of births, marriages and deaths in Jamaica, plus parish registers back to the time of slavery. JAMAICAN FAMILY SEARCH w www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com Here you will find transcriptions of almanacs, directories, wills, memorial inscriptions, denominational registers, newspaper indexes, slavery records and more – all for free.…

The feelings of patriotism and duty generated by the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899 led to a large influx of willing volunteers. Men and women offered their services to the British Crown or two Boer Republics, and travelled great distances to participate. Attestation papers record participants from Argentina, the USA, Norway, Sweden and Germany. Notably large numbers of international participants came from those countries with closer ties to Britain – Canada, New Zealand and Australia in particular. Perhaps given their smaller numbers compared with the hundreds of thousands of participants from Britain and South Africa, these men and women offer the genealogist richer, more accessible and concentrated data sources, especially for those who fought for the Crown, than are typically available – with the added benefit…

BOOKS Chartism: A New History Malcolm Chase Manchester University Press, 2007 Chase's in-depth study covers the movement's political activity. The Chartists: Popular Politics in the Industrial Revolution Dorothy Thompson Pantheon, 1984 This older but still relevant and easy-to-read text can be borrowed for free from the Internet Archive via tinyurl.com/arch-chartists. The Life and Struggles of William Lovett William Lovett Trübner & Co., 1876 Lovett's autobiography is also available from the Internet Archive, as a free download (tinyurl.com/arch-lovett). MUSEUM PEOPLE'S HISTORY MUSEUM a Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER t 0161 838 9190 w phm.org.uk The museum is home to banners, posters, artwork, placards and more, spanning four centuries of political reformation. WEBSITES BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE w britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Here you will find reports of Chartist activity, demonstrations, riots and arrests. The…

LAURA BERRY Laura is a lead genealogist for the TV series. This month she shares her tips for getting started (page 15), as well as advice on tracing Jamaican roots (page 33). MIKE ESBESTER When researchers discovered a railway accident in Rose Ayling-Ellis' tree, they went straight to Mike who heads up research on the topic. Read his tips on page 20. ELSE CHURCHILL Else is the genealogist at the Society of Genealogists, and on page 24 she inspires us to think about where our ancestors lived and join the society's All About That Place online event.…

A 2018 project to index Scottish Pension Appeal Tribunal records from the First World War is still incomplete. The National Records of Scotland's (NRS; nrscotland.gov.uk) series PT6 holds the records of pensions awarded to soldiers who were injured in the First World War, or to the next of kin of those killed. In January 2018, family historian and WDYTYA? Magazine contributor Chris Paton reported on his blog Scottish Genes (scottishgenes.blogspot.com) that NRS had received a Wellcome Trust grant to index the records, and aimed to finish by December 2019. On 12 July 2024, Scottish genealogy business Scottish Indexes (scottishindexes.com) left a comment on the Facebook page of ScotlandsPeople (scotlandspeople.gov.uk), NRS's online branch, asking about the records. Responding to the query, ScotlandsPeople said, “Hi – the Pension Appeal Tribunal records (ref.…

The National Archives at Kew (TNA; nationalarchives.gov.uk) has created four new online research guides to help family historians trace their overseas forebears using the records in its collections. The topics covered by the research guides are ancestors who emigrated from Britain to Australia and New Zealand; relations who emigrated to the USA and Canada; Irish forebears; and African relatives, including individuals who migrated to the UK from Africa, as well as those who lived in British colonies in Africa during the period of the British Empire. All of the guides are available via nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/. 5 November WDYTYA? Magazine has set the date for this year's Transcription Tuesday event - more news soon John Portmann An American man believes he is the first person to prove he is entitled to Irish…

Every new series of WDYTYA? inspires viewers to start their family history, and take advantage of the abundance of records that are now online. The subscription websites Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) and Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) have digitised millions of archival documents; there's a lot of overlap, but they also have unique collections. Many libraries offer members free access on site, or you can register for free trial periods. You'll also want to try TheGenealogist (thegenealogist.co.uk) and MyHeritage (myheritage.com), while the vast free site FamilySearch (familysearch.org) is well worth signing up to because it has indexes as well as many records from across the world. Even where sites host the same record sets, the indexes are often site-specific. So if you can't find an ancestor on one website, try another. If you have Scottish…

As a child, Ash James was intrigued by the family rumour that his grandfather George had caught a spy: “A thousand and one British children were probably told the same after the world wars, but now I wonder if there was some truth in the legend. “Grandfather's name was George Percy James, and I remember him as a trustworthy person and a gentleman. He was always very well dressed and smart. He didn't roll around on the floor with my brother David and me or play football, as we would have liked. In fact, we kept our distance because we respected him as a former police officer. What I've learnt of his life in adulthood has really opened my eyes to George.” I remember George as a gentleman. He was…

ARCHIVES JAMAICA ARCHIVES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT a Corner of King and Manchester Streets, Spanish Town, St Catherine, Jamaica t +1 876 984 2581 e jarchives@jard.gov.jm w jard.gov.jm The material here includes church registers, probate inventories, and private and estate papers. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF JAMAICA a 12 East Street, Kingston, Jamaica t +1 876 967 2464 w nlj.gov.jm The library has old maps, newspapers and deeds. REGISTRAR GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT AND ISLAND RECORD OFFICE a Twickenham Park, Spanish Town, St Catherine, Jamaica t +1 876 619 1260, extension 6124 e information@rgd.gov.jm w rgd.gov.jm Civil registration records, wills and Registers of Deeds can be found here. BOOK Jamaican Ancestry Madeleine E Mitchell Heritage Books, 2019 This title is a good overview. WEBSITE LEGACIES OF BRITISH SLAVERY w ucl.ac.uk/lbs Search a database of estates…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1686 This medal database includes around 178,000 individuals who were awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal including details of the bars awarded for participation in specific actions. BRITAIN'S SMALL FORGOTTEN WARS w britainssmallwars.co.uk This website surveys obscure wars and battles from the past 200 years, including numerous conflicts on the African continent. BRITISH BATTLES w britishbattles.com Browsing the left-hand column of this website leads to battles listed by conflict. You can then read detailed pages on combatants and commanders, narratives and illustrations. BRITISH MEDAL FORUM w britishmedalforum.com This is an excellent site if you're having difficulty identifying militaria. You could also try the Orders and Medals Research Society (omrs.org). FINDMYPAST w bit.ly/fmp-army-serv-recs This collection of British Army service records include many for those who served in the conflict.…

CANADIAN BRITISH HOME CHILDREN w tinyurl.com/cbhc-barn-mag This website, which is run by Home Children Canada, includes priceless information and free resources, not least an incomplete collection of magazines published by Barnardo's from 1895 onwards that contain the names of Home Children. HOME CHILDREN (LITTLE IMMIGRANTS) w lambtonmuseums.ca/en/lambton-county-archives/home-children-little-immigrants.aspx This illustrated online exhibition, created by Lambton County Archives in Wyoming, Ontario, features first-hand accounts that reveal the experiences of Home Children, including relations' memories. THE GOLDEN BRIDGE w content.iriss.org.uk/goldenbridge/ The Golden Bridge tells the story of Home Children who migrated from Scotland to Canada (1869–1939).…

Q Marie Pawlet married George Southcombe in 1574 in Satterleigh, Devonshire, and had five children baptised in nearby Meshaw. Marie died in 1586 and George married Jane Pawlet. Family letters allege Jane was the illegitimate daughter of “Lord Pawlet of Basing House”. The Southcombe family has a family tankard showing the Pawlet coat of arms, but I've searched the Heralds' Visitation records without success. The 3rd Marquess of Winchester is known to have had five illegitimate children by his mistress, Jane Lambert, so I wonder if Marie and Jane may have been his offspring. Patricia Feeney A Meshaw's parish registers survive from 1580 and Satterleigh's from 1574 (Bishops' Transcripts started in 1598). Marie and Jane may have been baptised there, before the records start. You should scour the early decades…

BISHOPS' TRANSCRIPTS w bit.ly/fs-bts-durham FamilySearch includes 'England, Durham Diocese Bishop's Transcripts, 1639–1919' (images only). There's also a calendar of marriage bonds and allegations, with an index of brides, grooms and the 'bondsmen' (1594–1815). PROBATE RECORDS w familyrecords.dur.ac.uk/nei/ Here you can explore catalogued digital images of more than 150,000 wills and related archives from across County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Northumberland (1527–1857). DIRECTORIES w bit.ly/spec-coll-durham The University of Leicester's website Special Collections Online has a dozen directories from the region, including a Kelly's Directory of Durham published in 1890. MARITIME ROLL OF HONOUR w hhtandn.org The site Hartlepool History Then & Now includes a roll of honour naming local seafarers who were lost at sea. MINERS' DATABASE w tinyurl.com/durham-depths The project Mining Durham's Hidden Depths has created indexes to the…

Seven brand-new universities opened in England between 1961 and 1965 during a decade in which access to higher education expanded dramatically. One of those, Lancaster University, admitted its first students in October 1964 and celebrates its 60th anniversary this month. Here, honorary university archivist Marion McClintock tells us more about a document from the university's archives – a copy of the student newspaper John O'Gauntlet from 1968. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE NEWSPAPER? As Lancaster University prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary on 13–15 September, a look back at our early years through the student newspaper John O'Gauntlet shows us how the second cohort of our students viewed the university and the wider world. The Summer Term of 1968, the issue selected, marks a key stage. It points up the…

LISTEN SLICED BREAD: DNA ANCESTRY TESTS bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020xzb In this episode of Radio 4's consumer programme Sliced Bread, Greg Foot looks at the popularity of DNA tests for family history. With the help of DNA genealogist Louise Baldock and professor of genetics Mark Jobling, he asks: how do they work, are they accurate, and can you trust the companies with your DNA? He also takes two DNA tests himself, and shares the results. WEBSITE THE SECRET LIBRARY secretlibraryleeds.net Leeds Libraries' heritage blog shares a wide variety of fascinating historic stories – some with a connection to the city, some found in books in the libraries' collections. Recent themes include LGBT+ pioneers in the field of medicine, and Leeds men who fought in the American Civil War. There's also a useful set…

FAMILY MEMOIR ARIANE BANKES Duckworth, 288 pages, £18.99 This book is primarily about the adult lives of author Ariane Bankes' mother Celia Paget and her identical twin sister Mamaine during the dramatic middle decades of the 20th century. It is based on the letters that the sisters wrote to each other, which were kept by the author's mother. Of generations of landed gentry, Celia and Mamaine were orphaned by the age of 12 years. They were close to each other in childhood, but separated for long periods during their adult lives. The multilingual sisters, devoted twins, as adults were the spouses, lovers or friends of some of the century's most renowned writers and intellectual thinkers, including George Orwell, Albert Camus and Arthur Koestler. The Quality Of Love: Twin Sisters at the…