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

As family historians, we spend a lot of our time trawling through census records. In fact, they are one of my favourite collections. So it was a real pleasure for me to spend a few days testing the main providers of genealogical records to see how their census offerings compare (see page 18). It was quite an eye-opener and a reminder, if I needed one, that if you can't find someone in the census, it might be worth looking at a different provider to see if their index can flush out your hidden forebear. We also caught up with comedian Al Murray to talk about his fascination with the Second World War, which has led to both a hugely popular podcast and a new book about Arnhem (page 14). And…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST BANISHED IN SHAME In response to Sheila Patchett's letter in your August issue about ‘remittance men’ being sent to New Zealand, I wanted to share my story of a ‘banished’ ancestor. My great great grandfather Rev Frederick Cassidy (1812–1890) was a Church of Ireland minister, but married the family maid Martha Brown (1812–1899). So he was exiled to County Donegal where Martha came from, and then migrated to New Zealand with their children. He had graduated from Trinity College Dublin and was chaplain to Lady Londonderry (probably a sinecure). In New Zealand he did not practise as a minister, and in one electoral roll says he was “of no occupation”. However, he had a library of books and ended up…

The Watercress Line Heritage Railway (watercressline.co.uk) is searching for women who worked at Eastleigh Railway Works in Hampshire in the Second World War, or their relations. Female workers at Eastleigh played a crucial role in the war effort by building Merchant Navy steam locomotives. They were the only major engine class to be designed and built during the war, due to the shortage of labour and materials, and were used for transportation on the Southern Railway routes to the channel ports. One of those trains, Locomotive 35005 Canadian Pacific, is now being restored, with a launch event planned in spring 2025. The Watercress Line is appealing for any of the surviving female workers or their families to attend the launch. If you can help, please email museum@watercressline.co.uk.…

The poet John Clare had a tragic life. Born in 1793 at Helpston, near Peterborough, he worked as an agricultural labourer as a child, but also attended the village school at nearby Glinton until he was 12. In 1820 he married a milkmaid named Martha Turner, and the couple eventually had seven children. Meanwhile, he had become captivated by words, reading poetry and starting to write poems of his own. Money was always desperately short, and he determined to publish his verse in the hope of earning some financial reward. Clare's first two volumes appeared in 1820 and 1821. They met with critical acclaim, but did not make him rich. The pressures grew and, although he continued to write and publish, Clare began to experience depression and melancholy. By the…

BOOKS Arnhem: Black Tuesday Al Murray Bantam, 2024 Subtitled The Classic Battle Told As Never Before, Murray's book focuses on 19 September 1944, as Allied plans began to unravel. The Cauldron Zeno Penguin, 2024 Gerald Theodore Lamarque's fictionalised account of his experiences at Arnhem was first published in 1968. PODCAST WE HAVE WAYS OF MAKING YOU TALK w goalhangerpodcasts.com/we-have-ways-of-making-you-talk Murray's hit podcast with James Holland takes a deep dive into the Second World War, and is freely available.…

Typewritten in festive green-and-red ink with an age-worn ribbon in the top-left-hand corner, the letter is dated Christmas 1888. Sent by Harriet Bullock, 28 Mackay Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to her 17-year-old niece Annie Elizabeth Hammond in England, it was treasured enough to have made it down the generations into the hands of Annie's great great granddaughter Megan Harrison. It's beautifully worded, with striking insights into attitudes to women. “Girls in Canada are rather like boys,” writes Harriet. “They are educated the same, play the same, have gymnastics, and fence, and snowshoe, and talk slang, and are altogether very different from their meek English sister. But I will tell you a secret, I like them with a little of both, some more English modesty, and a little of the Canadian…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62701 This unique collection of 19th- and 20th-century RNLI records provides insight into lifeboat-station activity, and pensions, grants and awards bestowed upon personnel. LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE w lifeboatmagazinearchive.rnli.org The RNLI's journal describes significant appointments, major rescues and awards, in addition to the installation of new lifeboats and lifeboat stations. LIFE SAVING AWARDS RESEARCH SOCIETY w lsars.org.uk LSARS's database includes details from RNLI medal rolls (1824–1996) giving name and rank, place awarded, date, wreck name, and whether Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal given.…

BOOKS One Crew Helen Doe Amberley Publishing, 2024 The RNLI's official history is written by a maritime historian, who celebrates its remarkable achievements over the past two centuries. Our Sea-Coast Heroes Achilles Daunt T Nelson and Sons, 1887 Daunt's book, subtitled Stories of Wreck and Rescue by the Lifeboat and Rocket, brings alive the gruelling experiences of lifeboatmen during the Victorian era when lifeboats had to be rowed. His book is freely available via HathiTrust (tinyurl.com/hath-daunt). MUSEUM THE HISTORIC DOCKYARD, CHATHAM, KENT ME4 4TZ t 01634 823800 e info@chdt.org.uk w tinyurl.com/dock-rnli Here you can find the RNLI Historic Lifeboat Collection – the biggest collection of lifeboats in the UK, dating from the late 19th century onwards and accompanied by archive films as well as audiovisual displays. WEBSITE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT…

BRISTOL LISTENING ROOM w collections.bristolmuseums.org.uk/listening-room/ Here you can listen to excerpts from Bristol Museums and Archives’ audio collections. BRITISH COUNCIL FILM ARCHIVE w film.britishcouncil.org/resources/film-archive View more than 100 short documentaries exploring wartime Britain. CITY OF LONDON PHONOGRAPH AND GRAMOPHONE SOCIETY w clpgs.org.uk You can search an index to the society's journal For the Record (formerly Hillandale News). Many issues are on the Internet Archive (archive.org). ELIZABETH ROBERTS WORKING CLASS ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVE w www.regional-heritage-centre.org Here you can read transcripts of interviews describing working life in north-west England. IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS SOUND ARCHIVE w iwm.org.uk/collections/sound This site boasts more than 33,000 recordings. LONDON'S SCREEN ARCHIVES w londonsscreenarchives.org.uk This wonderful research tool brings together collections held in borough archives, museums, galleries, groups and charities across the capital. UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER w tinyurl.com/uni-leic-spe-col-emoha…

BOOK Essays in the History of Irish Education Brendan Walsh Palgrave Macmillan, 2016 This book examines the development of education in Ireland. A preview is available on Google Books at tinyurl.com/ggl-bks-essays and some chapters are online, including Chapter 2 (tinyurl.com/maynooth-uni-essays) and Chapter 14 (tinyurl.com/researchgate-essays). MUSEUM ULSTER FOLK MUSEUM a 153 Bangor Road, Cultra, Holywood BT18 0EU t 028 9042 8428 e info@nationalmuseumsni.org w ulsterfolkmuseum.org/stories/national-school The museum is home to a restored 19th-century National School. WEBSITE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF IRELAND w nationalarchives.ie/topics/Nat_Schools/ natschs.html The NAI's guide to the sources it holds is a must.…

The town of St Ives in Cambridgeshire dates back at least as far as the 11th century – it is mentioned in the Domesday Book under its original name of Slepe. In 2014, local resident John McKinnie found himself contemplating its extensive history at a ceremony marking the centenary of the First World War. “It was quite a moving experience, but I realised that probably nobody attending the ceremony knew anything about the local men who were commemorated on the war memorial in the town square,” he says. “I decided to go away and see what I could do about that. I started by researching the life story of each of the fallen, and set up a blog.” John explains that his interest in the town's history developed from there:…

My mother Esther Kremenstein (née Block) was born in Stepney, East London, in 1903. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, and she had five siblings. She worked as an accountant at the Deepdene, a fashionable hotel in Dorking, Surrey, where she met a French-Jewish family by the name of Posner. In 1931 Mother moved to Paris to teach their daughter English, and was introduced to my father Joseph Kremenstein. He had been born in Aleksandria, Poland, and moved to France in 1924 to study chemical engineering at the University of Poitiers. They married on 17 March 1932. My older brother Gérard was born in Paris in 1935, then my parents moved to Châlette-surLoing, about 40 miles east of Orléans in the Loiret department, where I was born in…

SOFTWARE For Windows and macOS $39.99 Windows ($24.99 upgrade)/$69.99 Mac ($44.99 upgrade); heredis.com/en/ Believe it or not, Heredis turned 30 this year, since computer scientist Bernard David and family historian Sylvette David created the program in 1994. To celebrate the anniversary, Heredis 2025 comes with the promise of 30 “innovations”, but don't get too excited. In fact, it's more like 25 – still a notable number – and most are minor new features and improvements. This is apparent from the moment that you launch the program and find an identical user interface to recent versions, albeit with an extra button here and a tweak to the summary pane there (a handy Tiny Tree showing the individual's immediate family). Thankfully, other changes are more tangible, including the headline Flags feature. It's…

VICTORIAN CRIME ANGELA BUCKLEY Pen & Sword, 200 pages, £14.99 From the title, you might think that this book is solely about a single murder: the 1849 killing of customs gauger Patrick O'Connor. However, although that death does form the book's focus, its author Dr Angela Buckley takes the reader into the world of many Victorian crimes and their eventual punishment, using original documents highlighting the demands on the detectives of Scotland Yard, who suffered much criticism from the popular press in the early years of its formation. The story of the worldwide hunt and prosecution of husband and wife Frederick and Maria Manning for O'Connor's murder went on to inspire Charles Dickens’ interest, leading him to further research with many of those involved in solving the case, some of…

AL MURRAY Al is a comedian who is best known for his comic persona ‘The Pub Landlord’, but he has a burning passion for Second World War military history. We talk to him on page 14. NICOLA MORRIS Irish genealogist Nicola regularly contributes to the research for the WDYTYA? TV series. This month she shares her expert tips for using Irish National Schools’ records (page 38). CAROLINE ROOPE Caroline is a writer and researcher specialising in social history, who on page 52 also dips her toe into folklore and legend to reveal the origins of beloved Christmas traditions.…

I could not agree more with Chloe O'Shea's article in the November issue about the value of online newspaper archives. I have been lucky that one side of the family has stayed in the town of Shaftesbury for many generations, and there are many pages of digitised newspapers where I have been able to find mentions, including announcements of births, marriages and deaths, petty-court sessions, appearances in local theatre productions, and winners of parish competitions. They all add to forming a great picture of our ancestors and how they lived. In particular, newspapers have been helpful for researching the life of my great great grandmother Sarah Ann Oxford/Woods/Gray/ McSweeney. I've uncovered a report of when she successfully took John Woods, her future husband, to the borough court for maintenance of…

Scotland's People adds Barlinnie Prison records A major set of registers from Scotland's largest prison has gone online. Approximately 180,000 records from Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow have been published on the Scottish government's family history website Scotland's People (scotlandspeople.gov.uk). The records date from the prison's opening in 1882 until 1899. The collection can be searched by name, and features images of the original registers. An album with more than 2,000 photographs of prisoners has also been digitised. Online Who When Where Genealogy Forum closes The Who When Where Genealogy Forum has shut down after running for over four years. The forum was founded by former members of the WDYTYA? Magazine forum when we made the difficult decision to close it down. The administrators explained, “Whilst the Forum was well received…

The records of thousands of volunteers who served with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (rnli.org) and risked their lives to save those in peril at sea are now available on family history site Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk), as the RNLI celebrates its 200th anniversary. The collection consists of 58,227 records dating from 1824–1989, and includes digitised images of the original documents. In addition, it is free to search for those who aren't members of Ancestry. The records include crew cards, presentation books, service books and pension ledgers. They are a good way of finding records of ancestors who served in the RNLI and were awarded medals, and include famous figures. For example, they show that on 24 October 1838, the RNLI awarded Silver Medals to William Darling and his daughter Grace. William…

One of the main differences between the three sites was in the quality of images. Our example to the right shows a montage page from the 1841 census that was illegible on Findmypast, difficult to read on Ancestry and clear on TheGenealogist. Worryingly, in one of our tests, where we knew that the images were poor for the 1871 census in Southwark, we found that a number of pages, including the page we were looking for, were missing on Findmypast. Again, they were hard to read on Ancestry and really only legible on TheGenealogist. If you can't find someone in the census, the quality of the image might be a factor.…

FAMILIES IN BRITISH INDIA SOCIETY w search.fibis.org/bin/index.php If you know that your ancestors lived in or passed through British India at some point in their lives, then FIBIS may be able to help you. Its database of more than two million entries from the British Library's India Office records including everything from births, marriages and deaths to wills, army records and personal papers can also be searched at Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk). FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE Your older relatives may have kept letters or greetings cards sent by loved ones in previous generations. Letter writing was once the main form of communication, helping people to keep up to date with each other's lives, so letters can hold a lot of information you won't find elsewhere. The one Harriet sent to Annie is a good…

When the RNLI considered introducing life jackets, the idea met with some resistance. Once someone fell in the water, it was widely held among many seafarers that attempts to swim or to stay afloat simply prolonged the agony, and that a speedy end was preferable. It was also thought that the new bulky life jacket made of cork blocks would simply get in the way of efforts to rescue people or scramble on board a boat. However, a dramatic illustration of the life jacket's effectiveness came in 1861. A young volunteer called Henry Freeman working for the Whitby lifeboat was asked to test one out by his coxswain. On 9 February 1861, the lifeboat was called out on multiple occasions to various wrecks during a storm. On the final rescue…

A system of free primary education began in Ireland in 1831 with the establishment of the Commissioners for National Education, who were tasked with allocating funds to provide free education for all children aged 5–12 years old. By 1845 the Commissioners were providing financial support for already established schools, and for the building and staffing of new schools. Their intent was to provide free secular education for all denominations, with religion taught separately – an approach that was not popular with any of the established faiths in Ireland. Although the Church of Ireland chose to remain partly outside of the Commission, the Roman Catholic church embraced the opportunity and established numerous schools, with funding from the Commissioners, that were Roman Catholic in all but name. RESULTING RECORDS The construction and…

Q At the start of the Second World War my father, James Aitchison, was a stretcher-party Air Raid Precautions (ARP) member for Sutton and Cheam, Surrey. In October 1940, the family home was bombed and they travelled to Glasgow to stay with relatives. Around 1941/2, they moved to Seascale, Cumberland. Here, James was involved with the explosives manufacturing plant (TNT) at Drigg, where we think he was working on camouflaging the plant. The family moved to Sherwood, Nottinghamshire, around 1943. In 1945 they returned to Sutton for the rebuilding of their home. Why did they move around so much? Aileen Gilchrist A The threat of aerial bombardment was taken extremely seriously in the Second World War, Britain having been bombed by Zeppelins and aircraft during the First World War, and…

Q I'm researching my husband's Dale family. James Dale (1866–1931, born Wolverhampton) married Jane Marion Firth (1872–1938, born Hackney, London) at Bethnal Green, London, in 1891. James was a shoe and boot finisher. Their children were Jane Emma (1892–1893), Lily Jane (1894–1974), Florence Amy (1898–1969) – all born in Bethnal Green. They also had Grace (c1899), Annie Kate (1901–1967), James Charles Albert (1904–1975), Joseph Cecil (1911–1985) and Rose Mary (1913–2006), all born in London Fields, Hackney. I've traced details for every child apart from Grace, who is in the 1901 census with an estimated birth year of 1900. I have been unable to find her in any other census, and can't find a birth record. Can you help? Carol Griffiths A Even by 1900, a small number of births would…

James Edgar was a Scottish businessman who is credited as being the first person to dress up as Santa Claus. Born in Edinburgh in 1843, Edgar emigrated to the USA in 1878 and set up a store in Brockton, Massachusetts. In 1890, he had an idea that has become firmly embedded in the Christmas tradition – dressing up as Santa to entertain children visiting his store. He took American illustrator Thomas Nast's famous 1881 depiction (pictured) as his inspiration, travelling from outside the state to meet Santa. Inevitably, the idea was copied in shops on both sides of the Atlantic, which helped to make Nast's version the most prolific representation of St Nick – appearing on cards, wrapping paper, decorations, in films, in Christmas grottos, and on many other festive…

1 STELLA This was Joseph's pet name for his wife. 2 BEAUNE-LAROLANDE The stamp confirms that Joseph was held in the internment camp in Beaune-la-Rolande. Note the addition of the word “censure”, which reminds us that all of the correspondence sent into and out of the camp was subject to censorship. 3 GORKIN Joseph mentions the names of fellow detainees the Gorkins and Levinskys, who were also deported.…

AROUND BRITAIN The timber-framed buildings of Church Lane in Ledbury Herefordshire is a landlocked, largely rural county in the West Midlands, with the Malvern Hills running along the eastern border with Worcestershire and the Black Mountains rising to the west, while the River Wye snakes through its central lowlands. The largest settlement is Hereford, followed by Leominster, Ross-onWye and Ledbury. Agriculture, tourism and brewing remain the county's dominant industries. Its most famous export is cider – Westons Cider is based in Much Marcle, while Bulmers runs the world's largest cider factory in Hereford, which since 1975 has been home to the world's largest cider vat. Although Herefordshire is not known for manufacturing, there are several exceptions in Hereford alone. Special Metals Wiggin produces nickel alloys here while Painter Brothers makes…

ARCHIVES & LIBRARIES HEREFORDSHIRE ARCHIVE AND RECORDS CENTRE a Fir Tree Lane, Rotherwas, Hereford HR2 6LA t 01432 260750 e archives@herefordshire.gov.uk w herefordshire.gov.uk/herefordshire-archive-records -centre Here you will find material relating to the Diocese of Hereford, including Church of England parishes, as well as records of local government, courts, hospitals, estates, schools and businesses. You can search the online catalogue, localhistory catalogue and various indexes at herefordshire.gov.uk/herefordshire-archive-records -centre/visit-herefordshire -archive-records-centre. HEREFORD CATHEDRAL LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES a 5 College Cloisters, Hereford HR1 2NG t 01432 374225/374226 e library@herefordcathedral.org w https://www.herefordcathedral.org/archives The cathedral's history and that of its property is documented back to the 12th century, including title deeds, accounts, manorial and ecclesiastical court records, plus records of the cathedral's two almshouses, St Ethelbert's Hospital, Hereford, and St Katherine's Hospital, Ledbury. HEREFORD LIBRARY…

WATCH HOME CHILDREN scottisharchives.org.uk/explore/ancestral-tourism/ home-children/ Did you know that 7,000 of the British Home Children who were sent to Canada came from Glasgow? Here you can view a pair of webinars from the Scottish Council on Archives – ‘The Power of Archives: Finding the Home Children Who Went to Canada’ and ‘Give Us the Power to Make a Golden Bridge Across the Atlantic – Honouring the Story of Glasgow's Child Migrants’. Free. PODCAST A FEMINIST FAMILY HISTORY IN EIGHT LIVES thinkthreeways.com/feminist-family-history-in -eight-lives-the-podcast/ In this series, academic, writer and artist Dr Kate Carruthers Thomas tells the stories of her female ancestors. She starts with her grandmothers in the 20th century and goes back as far as the 17th. Free. WEBSITE 1924 PORTLAND TAX RECORDS mainememory.net/search/ptr In 1924, a tax re-evaluation…

I loved the way that our ‘Q&A’ expert Antony Marr solved Carol Griffiths’ mystery this month (page 45). Carol was searching for Grace Dale, who seemed to have disappeared from the records at an early age. With a bit of sleuthing and careful reading of records, Antony worked out that Grace didn't disappear – her parents just chose to change her name to Annie. Perhaps, at just 11 days old, it was too soon for them to have settled on a name when the enumerator knocked on their door. Either way, it's a good reminder to keep an open mind when searching for our forebears.…

Genealogical records website Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) has made major changes to how its subscriptions work. Previously, the site offered four subscription levels – ‘Starter’, ‘Plus’, ‘Pro’ and ‘Premium’, which was the only package that also included access to the 1921 census for England and Wales. The new system offers only two levels of subscription – the ‘Family Tree’ tier, costing £9.99 per month on a rolling contract, and the ‘Everything’ subscription, with three payment options: £24.95 monthly, £59.99 quarterly or £199.99 annually, again on a rolling contract (although if you wish to avoid automatic renewals, or you wish to gift a subscription, you can order a three-month or year's subscription via findmypast.co.uk/gift-subscriptions). The ‘Family Tree’ subscription uses the website's algorithm to suggest records, which you can then view and attach to…

LIFEBOATMEN RECORDS Historically, ships have been indispensable for delivering people and cargos around the British coast, as well as connecting the UK to the rest of the world. However, shipwrecks were alarmingly frequent because of the weather, poor navigation, busy waterways, and the dubious seaworthiness of some vessels. Between 1867 and 1871, for example, there were 7,062 incidents where a ship got into serious difficulty. Of these, 2,598 ships were lost and 8,807 people died. And yet these figures relate only to vessels on the UK coastline, because statistics for areas such as the Atlantic, Mediterranean and North Sea were not collected. For shipwreck victims, early attempts at rescue relied upon the organisation and goodwill of the local coastguard service, or on volunteer lifesaving teams. For example, fishermen in a…

There's one website that I'm particularly passionate about recommending, not because it will help one iota with your research into your family tree, but because it will give you a physical connection with the past via some unique sound waves. First Sounds (firstsounds.org) is a loose collective of scientists, sound historians and academics who, using 3D scanning technology, have brought back to life a host of rare recordings on all but unplayable formats. The website seems unremarkable at first glance – it's been online for about a decade, and is not frequently updated – but I urge you to spend a few moments digging through its contents. One of the collective's recordings that gives me goosebumps was made in London in the summer of 1888, and can be heard on…

1 DATE OF ENTERANCE The date that the child was enrolled is given here. 2 PUPIL'S NAMES The name, age and religion of each pupil are recorded. Ages of children this young are likely to be relatively accurate, because there was little scope for error. 3 RESIDENCE The townland address of the pupil's family and parents’ occupation are given, including “widow” for widowed mothers. If a widow worked then her occupation may be recorded on the register instead. 4 CLASS The class in which each of the pupils was enrolled is noted, including if they were repeating a year. 5 RESULTS You can see which subject each pupil studied, and their examination results. 6 OTHER INFORMATION There are records of whether a pupil passed, failed or was absent, with dates of absence. These would suggest…

Q My 4x great grandparents, John Arnot and Christian Leckie, married on 14 November 1761 in Auchtertool, Fife, Scotland, with their children all born around Aberdour in Fife. A Christian Leckie was born on 6 December 1741 in Dunfermline, Fife; her parents were Hendrie Leckie and Margaret Sprott. A second was baptised on 27 July 1743 in Falkirk, Stirlingshire, to a James Leckie and Margaret Blair. A Christian Leckie also married James Hutton on 16 December 1762 in Dunfermline, Fifeshire. Which was the Christian Leckie that John married? Gilly Mathieson A There's never an easy way to resolve this, due to the vague details of baptisms recorded in Scottish Old Parish Registers. The Scottish traditional naming pattern could help. Looking at the children of Christian Leckie and James Hutton in…

TECH TIPS Users of Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) will already be familiar with the many tools offered through its website. But logging into your web browser every time you want to view or update your tree or go hunting through its many record sets isn't always the most convenient way to access it. If you have a smartphone or tablet then you'll find that the official mobile app makes accessing and updating your online tree when on the go a breeze. It's developed over the past few years to the point where it almost renders the main website redundant – virtually everything you want to do online can be done from the comfort of the app. The interface is easy to navigate, and will be familiar to anyone who's used the website.…

BOOKS Christmas: A Biography Judith Flanders Picador, 2017 In addition to the season's history, Flanders reveals the myths and the legends, with some surprises. Christmas Traditions George Goodwin British Library, 2019 Goodwin delves into the rich history of Christmas using the British Library's collections. MUSEUM VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM a Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL t 020 7942 2000 e hello@vam.ac.uk w vam.ac.uk The museum's vast collection covers 5,000 years of creative and cultural history. Items related to Christmas such as cards, Advent calendars, decorations, cracker boxes and even biscuit tins can be viewed online, or in person if you make an appointment. WEBSITES BRITISH PATHÉ w britishpathe.com This site has many short films related to Christmas. Footage includes children hanging up their stockings in 1950 (Filling Children's Stockings at…

BOOKS Les Sabot Rouges Jean Joubert Grasset & Fasquelle, 1979 The author witnessed the arrest of Joseph Kremenstein, and described it in his book. Memorial to the Jews Deported from France, 1942–1944 Serge Klarsfeld Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1983 This volume lists the people on 86 convoys from France. MUSEUM CERCIL a 45 rue du Bourdon Blanc, 45000 Orléans, France t 02 38 420391 e cercil@memorialdelashoah.org w www.musee-memorial-cercil.fr CERCIL – Musée Mémorial des Enfants du Vél d'Hiv preserves the history of the Loiret camps.…

BISHOPS’ TRANSCRIPTS w tinyurl.com/fs-here-bts FamilySearch has Bishops’ Transcripts of christening, marriage and burial entries (1583–1898). You can view images from a Family History Center or affiliate library. PRISONERS’ INDEX w tinyurl.com/harc-prisoners Via this free index published on the Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre's website you can search for inmates held in Herefordshire prisons (1849–1915). DIRECTORIES w tinyurl.com/here-his-dir Herefordshire History's digital resources include various trade directories for Hereford, as well as an electoral register from 1931 and many volumes of Tilley's Ledbury Almanack. Severral more local directories can be found at Special Collections Online: tinyurl.com/sco-here. LANDOWNERS DATABASE w tinyurl.com/htt-srch At Herefordshire Through Time you can search landowners and field names, mainly from 19th-century tithe maps. BURIALS REGISTER w tinyurl.com/here-hist-burials Herefordshire History also has digitised registers of cemetery burials from Hereford.…

Consumers’ co-operatives – businesses owned and managed by their customers – in the UK have their origins in the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society (REPS), which opened a shop in the town in Greater Manchester on 21 December 1844 to help members cope with the stresses of the Industrial Revolution. To mark the 180th anniversary of the shop's opening, Jane Donaldson, archivist at the Co-operative Heritage Trust, is sharing a document from its collections – a flyer that illustrates the REPS's role in promoting education. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE FLYER? This flyer from the REPS Educational Department advertises free lectures and entertainment available to members and the public from November 1869 to March 1870. It was a chance to learn about various subjects, take part in discussions and…

SOCIAL HISTORY Wendy Moore Atlantic, 400 pages, £22 Vera Holme (Jack) and Evelina Haverfield (Eve) are the focus of Wendy Moore's rich and detailed exploration of dedicated women who worked tirelessly in support of the soldiers in the First World War. At first these women joined the suffragettes to fight for women's rights but once the war started, they turned their expertise into setting up women's military-style outfits, offering their efforts to the War Office, who turned them down. Instead, they joined the Scottish Women's Hospitals and went out to Serbia and Russia with a group of other women to help set up the military field hospitals to assist the Allies. Bands of women collected together to form units of doctors, nurses, administrators and drivers working in terrible conditions with…

The year is 1949, and a couple with an infant struggle to navigate their way through dense pine forest on the border of Czechoslovakia and West Germany. They are tired, hungry and terrified of being caught by police patrols. Worst of all, they're also lost. These desperate people were Ladislav Perl, his wife Margaret – known as Peggy – and their son Anthony, whose daughter Becca is fascinated by her grandparents’ bravery and determination. “Dad told me about their escape when I was a child, but the story felt a long way away from me,” says Becca. “It wasn't until I was older that I appreciated the magnitude of what they did.” Ladislav used his last crumb of energy to throw Anthony to Peggy Ladislav Perl was born in 1910…