Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2025 i Who Do You Think You Are?

My grandmother’s sister, with her three young children, fled Singapore by flying boat in January 1942, just before it fell to the Japanese. Her husband was left behind, but survived the horrors of Changi. Their experience was so different to what we think of when we imagine the Second World War, but it’s important not to forget the many thousands of people who were caught up in the fight against Japan. On page 14 we look at the actions that led to VJ Day and what records you can find to research family who fought. On a happier note, I loved Lauren Potts’ account of researching her childhood house (page 19). My equivalent would be my grandparents’ house where we spent all our holidays. Her article has prompted me to…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 – so drop us a line and share your thoughts with us. FAMILY NAMING TRADITIONS STAR LETTER I am writing in connection with Sarah Williams’ article “What’s in a Name” in the July issue of the magazine. My great great grandmother, Ann Rogers Wardleworth née Bell, was widowed in 1860 at the age of 36, but subsequently gave birth to two more children. The first was born in September 1863, and named Edward William Bishop Wardleworth. I believe the father of this child was Rev. William Bishop, who was married with eight children. He was also both chaplain of Heigham…

In 1905, a group of about 450 unemployed men marched from Leicester to London with the intention of telling Edward VII about their plight. They didn’t succeed in meeting the king, but they were widely reported in the press and inspired the support of the Bishop of Dorking. A new project, carried out by Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society (lrfhs.org.uk) and the Document Media Centre (heritageco.co.uk), has been launched to mark the 120th anniversary of the march, and the organisers are keen to hear from descendants of the marchers. Each of the 416 men who returned to Leicester received a medal, which may be among your family heirlooms. If you can help, please email Jess Jenkins on jess@heritageco.co.uk. There is a Facebook Group with more details at facebook.com/groups/3498246820310106?checkpoint_src=any.…

272,555 The number of Cheshire baptism records added to findmypast.co.uk 110 The age of Donald Rose, the UK’s oldest Second World War veteran, when he died on 11 July (tinyurl.com/abc-don-vet) 16,093,657 The number of Italian records added to family search.org Our Warwickshire The project has been named Group of the Year by the Community Archives and Heritage Group (tinyurl.com/warwicks-ow) 550 The number of National Trust jobs at risk (tinyurl.com/guard-nt-jobs) 165 The number of years it has taken for a watch owned by politician Herbert Ingram, who drowned in Lake Michigan, to be returned to his home town of Boston, Lincolnshire (tinyurl.com/bbc-wch)…

Although war with Germany’s ally Japan was thought likely, and its ambitions of seizing natural resources it lacked were well known, the surprise air attack on the US Navy’s base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, on Sunday 7 December 1941 caught the US Pacific Fleet at anchor, their aeroplanes lined up on the ground. Four battleships were sunk and four damaged; 188 aircraft were destroyed and 159 damaged; and 2,403 Americans were killed. Japanese casualties were negligible. Luckily the three US aircraft carriers stationed at Pearl Harbor, absolutely necessary in an ocean of 60 million square miles and 7,000 miles across from San Francisco to Hong Kong, were at sea and were missed. Simultaneously, Japanese troops seized the US islands of Guam and Wake and invaded the Philippines. Hong…

1945 6 August The USA drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Two days later Russia declares war on Japan, invading Japanese-occupied Manchuria. 9 August The USA drops the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and the US Fleet bombards the coast of Japan. Russians advance further into Manchuria. 10 August Emperor Hirohito agrees to the Allies’ peace terms, and his Foreign Ministry gets in touch with neutral countries to forward his message. 15 August Hirohito announces by radio the complete surrender of all of the country’s forces. Japanese POWs held in Guam bow their heads as they hear the broadcast. 2 September The formal instrument of surrender is signed on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander in the South-West Pacific Area, signs for the Allies. 12…

CENSUS ENTRIES Since 1841 the census has recorded the names of everyone living in a property, not only the head of the household but also spouses, children, servants, lodgers and temporary visitors. Further details were also recorded in the 1939 Register (pictured). DIRECTORIES Trade directories can tell you who lived in a property in the years between censuses. Kelly’s is one of the most famous, publishing county titles from the 1840s. It’s also reliable; canvassers were sent to each street to ensure that names and addresses were up to date. ELECTORAL ROLLS These are a great resource for researching after the last available census in 1921. I learnt that Iona Cottage was briefly unoccupied after the Second World War, since Enie was listed in the 1945–1947 electoral rolls for Spen…

CHRONICLE MAKERS w denyseallen.substack.com Denyse reveals tips for creating stories from your research. FAMILY HISTORY WITH BILL MOORE w billmooreny.substack.com A New York-based genealogist discusses his discoveries. FAMILY ROOTS w saphyre.substack.com Saphyre shares family stories and advice, including for AI tools. GENEALOGY MATTERS w genealogymatters.substack.com Robin Stewart publishes a news round-up every Saturday. LONDONIST TIME MACHINE w londonist.substack.com Learn about London’s history. PAUL CHIDDICKS w substack.com/@chiddickstree On Mondays Paul posts a list of items that caught his attention. RANDY SEAVER w geneaholic.substack.com Randy shares his AI experiments. SECRET SLEUTHS w secretsleuths.substack.com Dr Nell Darby investigates the cases of 19th-century detectives. SERENGENITY w serengenity.substack.com Dave Shaw discusses graveyards and gravestone restorations. THE MANCHESTER HISTORY CLUB w manchesterhistory.uk Dean Kirby writes about the city. TRACKING DOWN THE FAMILY w trackingdownthefamily.substack.com Australia’s Jennifer…

Emilie Le Breton (better known as Lillie Langtry, 1853–1929), actor; Graeme Le Saux (born 1968), footballer; the Lord Mayor of London Sir Paul Le Mesurier (1755-1805); and Maya Le Tissier (born 2002), Lioness… all of these people have something in common. Despite their French-sounding names, they were born in one of the Channel Islands. Never a part of France, the islands still retain a sense of their geographical proximity to that country, within sight of the coast of Normandy and 85 miles away from England. Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Brecqhou, Herm, Lihou and Jethou became known as the Channel Islands in the 19th century because of their strategic position in the Western Approaches, but they are also known as the Anglo-Norman Isles (Les Îles Anglo-Normandes). Originally part of the Duchy of…

1 REGISTRATION FORM Residents had to complete two copies of the form, and their information was copied onto an identity card. Photos were added in March 1941. 2 PLACE OF BIRTH Together with nationality, this information was later used to deport residents who were not British or were not born in the Channel Islands. Robert Hathaway, Sibyl Hathaway’s husband, was born in New Jersey, USA, and became a naturalised British subject. In 1943 he was deported from Sark via Guernsey and France to Bavaria. 3 OCCUPATION Sibyl’s occupation is “Dame de Serk” (Dame of Sark); she inherited the Fief of Sark from her father. 4 SERVING RELATIVES Sibyl was asked if her “husband, son, grandson, brother, father, nephew, uncle, or first cousin” were serving in the British armed forces. Such information may have been…

For anyone inspired by the personal and poignant stories of RAF men and women, RAF Stories is an invaluable online archive: rafstories.org. Launched in 2018 as part of the RAF’s centenary celebrations, the website has collected hundreds of audio and video contributions from veterans, serving personnel and families. Thanks to a small museum team working alongside volunteers, the platform now features stories spanning every era – from the First World War through to present-day service, covering themes like bravery, love, humour and loss. You can filter stories by period, theme, rank, unit and location, using an interactive map to pinpoint personal histories across the globe. Notably, the site embraces diversity – from Flight Lieutenant Ayla Holdom sharing her journey as a trans Search and Rescue pilot, to Suzanne and Emily…

1 CORPS The unit is identified, then the soldiers are named in the first column below. 2 BLACKBURN WM You can use the information in the prize books to trace a soldier’s career via other online records. For example, Findmypast says that William enlisted in November 1797; Ancestry’s collection ‘UK, British Army Muster Books and Pay Lists, 1812–1817’ reveals that he went missing while retreating from Madrid; and another prize record on TheGenealogist tells us that he was a prisoner of war. 3 QUALITY The soldiers’ rank is recorded in this column. The corporals, drummers and privates here all received the same sum. 4 SUM The ditto mark in the “£” column indicates that the figure is recorded on a previous page. The actual amount is £6 10s 6¾d (nearly £400 today). 5 TO WHOM…

The 53-acre Clissold Park in Stoke Newington, Hackney, London, is a green space beloved by the local community. The park was originally attached to the 18th-century Clissold House. In 1882 the land was bought by the Church of England’s Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who intended to sell it to developers. However, Joseph Beck (1829–1891) and John Rüntz (1818–1891), two businessmen and civic leaders, were determined to stop them, and founded the Clissold Park Preservation Committee. Through petitions, public meetings and articles in the press, they lobbied local parishes, local authorities and other bodies to contribute money towards the purchase of the park by the Metropolitan Board of Works. They succeeded, and the public park opened in 1889. In the present day, local historian Amir Dotan runs the website Stoke Newington History (stokenewingtonhistory.com).…

AROLSEN ARCHIVES w arolsen-archives.org/en/ The International Center on Nazi Persecution in Bad Arolsen, Germany, keeps alive the memory of victims of the Nazis. Millions of documents are available in its online archive. THE JEWISH MONUMENT w www.joodsmonument.nl/en/ This searchable database includes details of Dutch Jews who were killed by the Nazis. You can upload information about your own relations, and contact other researchers. WIEWASWIE w wiewaswie.nl/en/ This site is run by a Dutch research centre for genealogy and heraldry in The Hague, and includes population registers, passenger lists, family announcements and church books.…

NONCONFORMIST RECORDS w tinyurl.com/fs-northum-nc This FamilySearch collection from Northumberland covers 1613–1974 and groups such as Presbyterian, Catholic, Baptist, Wesleyan, Quaker, Methodist and Unitarian. To view images you must visit a Family History Center or affiliate library. PROBATE RECORDS w tinyurl.com/dur-uni-prob Via Durham University’s North East Inheritance Database you can view pre-1858 wills proved in County Durham linked to FamilySearch images. The site also has Bishops’ Transcripts. PARISH REGISTERS w freereg.org.uk At time of editing FreeREG included 1,491,989 Northumberland records, as well as 684,799 records for Durham. MINERS’ INDEX w tinyurl.com/thestory-min This index boasts 229,648 names from trade-union records and other coal-mining collections held at The Story Durham. TRADE DIRECTORIES w tinyurl.com/sco-dir Directories for Northumberland and County Durham are on the University of Leicester’s site Special Collections Online.…

RADIO PODCASTING DIFFICULT HISTORIES tinyurl.com/bbc-free-diff Free As this column shows, podcasts are now one of the most popular formats to tell stories about history and family history. But what is the process of making such a podcast actually like? In this episode of Radio 4’s Free Thinking, Matthew Sweet and three podcasters, Joe Dunthorne, Kavita Puri and Jenny Kleeman, discuss using podcasting to explore complicated subjects. PODCAST YOUR MOST OBEDIENT & HUMBLE SERVANT r2studios.org/show/your-most-obedient-humble -servant/ Free Each episode of this podcast sees historian Kathryn Gehred and a guest discuss a letter sent by a woman in the 18th or early 19th century, revealing what it tells us about her life and the time in which she lived. The podcast generally has a US focus, although some of the women featured…

C Hurst & Co., 264 pages, £22 This book offers a meticulously researched account of a little-known chapter in British history – the emergence of women in policing during the early 20th century. Drawing on a backdrop of an era shaped by shifting social norms and political intractability, Sandra Hempel unearths the struggles and triumphs of pioneering women who defied societal expectations to carve out a space in a male-dominated field. The narrative addresses themes that echo today: the behavioural expectations of women; their clothing and morality during cross-examination in court; trial by popular media outlets; sexual exploitation of children; human trafficking; and uneasy power dynamics within law enforcement. Hempel also touches on how moral panic and institutional resistance shaped early efforts to include women in policing – not as…

CLEBRATING YOUR DISCOVERIES Walter Henry Medhurst was born in 1796 and grew up in the market town of Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. It was a far cry from tropical Asia, where he would spend most of his adulthood as a missionary. A humanitarian, Walter pioneered the building of schools, churches, an orphanage and a hospital while spreading the word of God. He also helped to change history by translating the Bible into Chinese, creating an edition that was used by missionaries for roughly 70 years. Walter is the great great grandfather of John Holliday, who has been so inspired by his forebear that he spent 10 years retracing his journeys across Asia. “I’ve known about Walter since I was a young child,” John explains. “In later life, I looked for his biography…

PHIL TOMASELLI A regular contributor to the magazine, Phil has been sharing his military know-how with our readers for years. On page 14 he tells the story of VJ Day, 80 years on. LAUREN POTTS Lauren is a writer with a passion for family history. On page 19 she explains how she used her genealogy skills to research the history of her beloved childhood home. EMMA COX Emma is the host of the popular podcast Journeys into Genealogy (journeysintogenealogy.co.uk) and a big fan of Substack. See what this blogging platform has to offer on page 22.…

IN PERSON OUR RIVER THAMES Until 29 August a Royal Berkshire Archives, Reading t 0118 937 5132 w royalberkshirearchives.org.uk/news/article/our-river-thames -exhibition-now-open You can find out about the people of Berkshire’s relationship with the Thames throughout history with this exhibition. Free. THE PANACEA SOCIETY AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR Until 21 September a Panacea Museum, Bedford t 01234 353178 w panaceamuseum.org/events/the-panacea-society-and-the -second-world-war This exhibition will look at the role of the Panacea Society, which believed in the teachings of the 18th-century prophet Joanna Southcott, during the Second World War. Free. SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON Until 2 October a The London Archives t 020 7332 3820 w tinyurl.com/eventbrite-tla-shake This exhibition offers a rare chance to see a 1613 title deed that is one of just six documents with Shakespeare’s signature, and the Civitas Londinium…

Ancestry adds 5.8 million Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire records Family history website Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) has added nearly 5.8 million Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire parish records covering five centuries. The records, from Cambridgeshire Libraries and Archives, consist of 2,731,359 baptism, marriage and burial records (1538–1812); 1,544,406 baptism records (1813–1924); 1,091,738 banns and marriage records (1754–1950); and 413,911 burial records (1813–1997). HES shuts ScotlandsPlaces Local-history site ScotlandsPlaces (https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk) has been closed down. Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said it was closing its “legacy websites”, including ScotlandsPlaces, Canmore (which catalogued Scotland’s physical heritage) and Scran (which held sound and video recordings), because it could no longer support them securely. ScotlandsPlaces’ records were transferred to HES’s site trove.scot, Scotland’s People (scotlandspeople.gov.uk) and the National Library of Scotland’s websites nls.uk and maps.nls.uk.…

The Foreign Office has defended Blaise Metreweli, the new head of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 (sis.gov.uk), after reports that her paternal grandfather was a Nazi spy in Ukraine. On 15 June, the Government announced that Metreweli would become chief of MI6 in autumn 2025, replacing Sir Richard Moore. She is the first woman to head the organisation. However, on 27 June the Daily Mail published a report into Metreweli’s paternal grandfather, Constantine Dobrowolski, saying that Germany military archives show he served in the Nazis’ secret military police, the Geheime Feldpolizei, in Ukraine, and took part in massacres of Jews and political partisans. A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said, “Blaise Metreweli neither knew nor met her paternal grandfather. “Blaise’s ancestry is characterised by conflict and division…

LIBERATED POW QUESTIONNAIRES Available on Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) these reports by liberated soldiers include place and date of capture (including by Japan), camps held in, and escape attempts. Many seem to be missing, however. NAVAL OPERATIONS Records of naval operations are mainly in ADM 199 and ADM 239 at The National Archives (TNA), although ADM 1 can produce surprises. You can access them via Discovery, then search for ship’s name or place (eg Hong Kong). WAR CRIME TRIALS After the war many Japanese were indicted for war crimes; records are in TNA’s series WO 311 but rarely indexed by name. If you know the location of the crime then try it as a search term. They’re not an easy read, and aren’t digitised. MEDAL RECOMMENDATIONS There are thousands of these covering…

BOOKS Quartered Safe Out Here George MacDonald Fraser HarperCollins, 1992 The author of the Flashman novels describes the fighting in Burma, as well as the reaction to news of Hiroshima among the troops. The Fall of Japan William Craig The Dial Press, 1967 Written from the US perspective (Britain isn’t mentioned at all), this splendidly lucid description of the end of Japan’s empire in 1945 and the political chaos leading to the country’s surrender can be freely borrowed from the Internet Archive at tinyurl.com/arch-fall-japan. The War Against Japan Major-General S Woodburn Kirby Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1957–1969 The five volumes of the British Government’s official History of the Second World War that focus on the war against Japan are freely available on the Internet Archive at tinyurl.com/arch-wood-kirby, and include the…

ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1904/ Subscription websites often rely on knowing the name of those who lived in a house to begin with, but their record sets can offer up other clues. For instance, in Ancestry’s collection ‘England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995’, Iona Cottage was mentioned in the probate calendar for Tom Waite – confirming that he still lived there after the 1921 census. FACEBOOK w tinyurl.com/fb-maryport-mem Don’t underestimate the power and reach of online history groups. Lauren traced two of Iona Cottage’s previous owners by appealing for information in the Maryport Memories and News Facebook Group, which has almost 6,800 members. FINDMYPAST w findmypast.co.uk/search-address Here you can search census records and the 1939 Register for an address, rather than occupant. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ONLINE w…

CELEBRATING YOUR DISCOVERIES There’s something intrinsically romantic about lighthouses. Is it the dedication of the keepers, bound to maintain the light at all costs to warn ships of nearby rocks? Or perhaps it’s the tales of tragedy, heroic rescues, storms and self-sacrifice? Emily Cook has not one, two or even three lighthouse keepers in her family tree, but a whole dynasty of them, including one individual Grace Darling. Emily, a former assistant editor at Doctor Who Magazine who works as a TV development executive, has now brought her relation’s story alive by writing a novel in which Grace teams up with the Doctor. And in introducing Grace to a whole new audience, Emily has found a fascination with the rest of her family of unsung heroes. Grace’s story aligns so…

GUERNSEY’S ISLAND ARCHIVES w gov.gg/islandarchives The archive has many fiefs’ manorial records from the 15th to the 20th centuries, such as Livres de Perchage showing property owners. JERSEY ARCHIVE’S CATALOGUE w catalogue.jerseyheritage.org Some digitised material, such as registration cards for non-British residents, is only available with an annual subscription (£40). PRIAULX LIBRARY w tinyurl.com/priaulx-fam-hist The material in this Guernsey library includes civil and parish records and almanacs. Many holdings are available digitally on Findmypast.…

ARCHIVES ISLAND ARCHIVES a St Barnabas, Cornet Street, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 1LF t 01481 224512 w gov.gg/islandarchives As well as Guernsey records, you can find an extensive Alderney collection here. JERSEY ARCHIVE a Clarence Road, St Helier, Jersey JE2 4JY t 01534 833300 w tinyurl.com/jers-arch The website has research guides and digitised records. Staff offer a research service. MUSEUMS ALDERNEY MUSEUM a High Street, Alderney GY9 3TG t 01481 823222 w alderneymuseum.org/ Run by the Alderney Society, the museum holds Second World War material, plus militia and garrison artefacts. GUERNSEY MUSEUM a Candie Road, Guernsey GY1 1UG t 01481 226518 w museums.gov.gg/gmag Holdings include First World War letters and reports from the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry Regiment. SOCIETIES CHANNEL ISLANDS OCCUPATION SOCIETY w ciosjersey.org w ciosguernsey.org.gg/ This society…

ARMY FLYING MUSEUM w armyflying.com The museum, which is located in Middle Wallop, Hampshire, focuses on British Army aviation. FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM w fleetairarm.com The Royal Navy museum at Yeovilton, Somerset, boasts more than two million records. FORCES WAR RECORDS w uk.forceswarrecords.com/medals/uk On this page you can browse medals open to airmen and officers. INTERNET ARCHIVE w tinyurl.com/arch-raf-denis Here you can read an official history detailing the role of the RAF during the Second World War. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND w tinyurl.com/nls-raf-officers The NLS has digitised lists of RAF officers from 1919–1922 and the Second World War. ROYAL AIR FORCES ASSOCIATION w rafa.org.uk/blog/2024/08/31/your-raf-family-history/ WDYTYA? Magazine contributor Phil Tomaselli details some of the sources open to researchers. THE AERODROME w theaerodrome.com Learn about First World War aces and aircraft. THE…

WEBSITES ANCESTRY w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60546 The website has searchable records of British troops in the collection ‘UK, British Army Muster Books and Pay Lists, 1812–1817’. Other military records from the period are available on Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) and TheGenealogist (thegenealogist.co.uk). DISCOVERY w discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ details/r/C14371 Searching The National Archives’ online catalogue for place, campaign or regiment within series WO 164 (‘Royal Hospital Chelsea: Prize Records’) gives you a general view of the whole record. PRIZE MONEY IN THE ARMY w tinyurl.com/jayne-prizes Jayne Davis, an author of historical romances, has a good explanation of the prize process on her blog.…

Q I am helping a friend research his ancestors. The family name is Wood: his father was born Wood, but the grandfather, Henry, was born Ratcliff(e) and appears to change his surname to Wood between 1908 and 1918. He always stated that he was born on 11 January 1891 in Hammersmith and because of this I found him as Ratcliff, enlisting as a reservist (6254) in February 1908, and becoming permanent (9646) in August 1908. Between then and December 1908, he went AWOL several times and was eventually classed as “Deserted”. In 1919, he is listed as one of the new employees for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, having been “recommended by the Army”, but I have not been able to discover which regiment he served in during…

Mary Anne was born into a family of straw plaiters in rural Bedfordshire. She went into service, and in 1881, aged 18, moved into Annesley Hall in Nottinghamshire as junior nursery-housemaid to John and Lina Chaworth-Musters. There, an intimate relationship developed between Mary Anne and her employers’ son, John Patricius (known as Patrick). The heir to the coal-rich estates had been educated at Eton and the University of Oxford. When Mary Anne was revealed to be carrying his child, there was uproar. But hers was not the tragically familiar tale of a servant’s sexual exploitation. She and Patrick were in love, and refused to give each other up. Keen to scotch the scandal, the Chaworth-Musters sent the couple off to live in their fishing lodge in Norway, presumably hoping that…

CLEBRATING YOUR DISCOVERIES Family history has always been an interest of mine, mainly because of my rare surname Zwalf. Until I was in my late teens, I had never met anyone with the same name. My father Joseph Zwalf was born in the Netherlands in 1918 to Levie Zwalf (known as Louis) and his wife Johanna Pampel. He had a large extended family across the country. Joseph met my mother Patricia Mary Charlton in Australia while serving in the Royal Netherlands Army, and they married there in 1943. After the Second World War ended, he enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the civil service, eventually becoming the Dutch ambassador to Uruguay, and was knighted in 1967. MY BRICK WALL Joseph’s family was Jewish, and he kept his background hidden…

The British Red Cross and the Order of St John formed the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) in 1909 to provide volunteer humanitarian aid to military forces, particularly hospitals. When the First World War broke out five years later the VAD played a crucial role in helping sick and injured military personnel. At their peak there were more than 90,000 VAD volunteers at home and abroad. The archive of the British Psychoanalytical Society holds a magazine that was produced by a group of VAD nurses at the Red Cross Hospital in Torquay, Devon – including one of the most famous volunteers, the future bestselling crime novelist Agatha Christie. Archivist Ewan O’Neill tells us more. experiences The magazine shines a light on the of experiences of wartime VAD nurses WHAT IS THE…

Profile, 352 pages, £10.99 SOCIAL HISTORY This exceptionally well-researched book from cultural historian Madeleine Pelling focuses on the history of the 18th century including true stories of crime, religious intolerance and revolution. Cleverly woven into the narrative are examples of graffiti dating from the period, hence the significance of the title, demonstrating in a tangible form the angst and despair felt among the population. By including case studies of people from all walks of life, Pelling illuminates the trials faced by residents of urban areas who quite literally left their mark in history. Particularly eye-opening is the story of Mary Aubrey who killed her abusive husband in a time when divorce was not an option. The tragic suicide of potter James Doe, leading a parish constable to act as a…

I used to have a folder on my laptop with key records from my Ancestry tree. My reasoning was that if I ever stopped subscribing, I would still be able to see all the census records and more that I had amassed over the years. But that really wasn’t practical, and I eventually gave up. Recently, Ancestry has launched an option for those who don’t want a full subscription but still want to access records they have already attached to their tree. It’s only £3 a month, so not bad value, but if you follow our tutorial on page 54 you can keep access to the records for free. What’s not to love?…

SOWING THE SEEDS OF HISTORY – EXPLORING THE LIVES OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS 30 August w portal.sog.org.uk/Event/view/1019888 ‘Ag lab’ ancestors have a reputation for being dull and hard to research, but this day of talks from the Society of Genealogists will help you uncover agricultural forebears and their contribution to British history. The topics are ‘The Organisation of Women’s Agricultural Responses During Conflict’ (Nicky Reynolds), ‘Ag Lab Case Study – Awliscombe, Devon’ (Robert Mawditt), ‘How Agriculture Saved the Nation in WW1’ (Cynthia Brown), ‘The Weird & Wonderful Lives of Victorian Agricultural Labourers’ (Gary Allanach), ‘Dry Stone Walls – Defining the Landscape of Northern Upland Britain’ (Jude Rhodes), ‘From Sussex Ox to Fordson Major’ (Ian Everest) and ‘Resources for Filling in Agricultural Labourers’ Lives’ (Janet Few). £75, or £60 for members.…

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) has launched a free site containing 18th-century medical records. The People’s Dispensary (rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispensary) holds a set of case notes from the Edinburgh Public Dispensary. The notes date from its opening in 1776 until 1790. In total, 10,402 pages of records featuring the names of 1,372 patients and 174 practitioners were digitised, accompanied by transcriptions. The website also has a glossary of the terms used, and information about Georgian medicine. The dispensary was opened by Dr Andrew Duncan (1773–1832) to provide free diagnoses and medicine to the city’s poor. The notes can be searched by the names of patients or practitioners, and reveal fascinating glimpses of the lives of ordinary people. The 1782–1783 case notes for Stuart Ailison, for example, describe him as…

The statistics are terrifying. The burial entries in most parish registers from the 18th and 19th centuries show an appallingly high rate of infant and child mortality. Looking at some registers recently, I found that in the mid-1790s at Newton Heath, on the north-east edge of Manchester, 72 per cent of infants died before their fifth birthday, while 52 per cent of all burials involved children aged less than one year old. The register helpfully records the cause of death, although the terms used do not meet the criteria of modern medical practice. Between 1793 and 1796 there were 218 burials of infants under two years of age, and of these a startling 87 died during a vicious smallpox epidemic that ravaged the community. Another 20 succumbed to whooping cough,…

These resources helped Emily explore her remarkable family ARCHIVE THE LONDON ARCHIVES a 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB t 020 7332 3820 w thelondonarchives.org/ Many of the records relating to lighthouses and their keepers were destroyed during the Second World War when the London headquarters of Trinity House, the General Lighthouse Authority (GLA) for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar (trinityhouse.co.uk), was hit by a German bomb. Surviving records are at TLA, including registers of staff appointed (1914–1972) and station books listing keepers and crews (1941–1955). See tinyurl.com/tla-guide-trinity for advice on tracing lighthouse keepers. BOOK Grace Darling: Her True Story – From Unpublished Papers in Possession of Her Family Thomasin Darling and Daniel Atkinson Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1880 This account, based on Grace’s letters and personal documents…

Why did my forebear Giles Sim’s death take so long to register? QMy 4x great grandfather, James White (1790-1878), was part owner of a barge named the George. In 1848, four of his crew – Giles Sim, John Browning, William Cooke and Isaac Knowles – were returning from Gloucester, drunk, and Sim fell overboard (at 10.30pm the landlady of the Passage House heard a splash). His body was never found, according to the newspapers. Giles was married to Hannah White, James’ daughter. The reports say he left a wife and three children. However, Giles and Hannah appear on the 1841 and 1851 censuses with Giles recorded as a (master) mariner. In 1858, Giles’s death was registered and his probate was approved. Have I got the correct Giles Sim? Why did…

Q My grandfather, William Francis Young (1896–1949), enlisted in Bristol. He was in the war from 1914 to 1918, and was wounded and gassed. Can you tell anything from this photograph? Stuart Leslie-Young A This studio portrait of a Territorial Force (TF) Royal Artillery driver was probably taken shortly after his enlistment in 1910, in a photographic studio in Clifton, Bristol. Knowing that he was a TF driver in 1915, and had survived the war, made it easier to find his Medal Index Card (MIC). The whole TF were renumbered in 1917, so I looked for a driver named Young with the right initials and two numbers, via The National Archives’ (TNA’s) research guide for British Army Medal Index Cards (1914–1920) at tinyurl.com/tna-guide-mics. I found only one: William F Young,…

Subscribers to Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) will be only too aware that if their subscription lapses, they can’t access any documents they’ve already attached to the people in their tree. Ancestry’s recently launched ‘Preserve My Tree’ membership option restores access to those documents, but at a monthly cost of £3. However, there’s a way you can download your entire Ancestry tree – including all record details, source citations and images – to your PC or Mac for free, even if your subscription lapsed several months ago. The solution lies in installing the free tree-building software RootsMagic – go to rootsmagic.co.uk and click the ‘Try RootsMagic Essentials’ link in the menu bar to fill in your details and download the set-up file (pick the 64-bit download if you’re a Windows user). Once done,…

BOOKS The Duties of Servants Anonymous Frederick Warne & Co., 1890 Guides like this one reveal the routines of those who worked below stairs. It’s free from the Internet Archive: tinyurl.com/arch-duties-serv. Tracing Your Servant Ancestors Michelle Higgs Pen & Sword, 2012 Higgs explains the sources to discover ancestors in service and details of their employment, from the census to union records. Up and Down Stairs Jeremy Musson John Murray, 2009 Musson brings to life service in the country house from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. What the Butler Winked At Eric Horne T Werner Laurie, 1923 Horne worked for the nobility and gentry between the 1860s and 1910s, and his memoir provides a fascinating insight. It’s available from the Internet Archive too at tinyurl.com/arch-but-wink. WEBSITES CHATSWORTH HOUSE w…

Pen & Sword, 176 pages, £22 SOCIAL HISTORY An examination of women’s work in 23 chapters is a creation to be reckoned with. Here historian Janet Few, a regular contributor to Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, manages to sketch outlines of various types of employment for women. From sewing, domestic service, glove making, straw plaiting and factory work to the oldest profession in the world – prostitution, she gives a good overview of all types of women’s work. As she says herself, this book acts as an introduction to women’s work, but she helpfully points out suggestions for more in-depth studies, including websites, in a reference section at the back. In some of the chapters, she even manages to examine the life of a real woman as an…