Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Who Do You Think You Are?

For 15 years now, the January issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine has predicted the websites to watch in the year to come (page 14). It has always been one of our most popular articles, inspiring readers with the promise of fascinating new records and research tools coming online. This year is no exception with a stunning line-up of records, including the much anticipated release of the 1926 Ireland census in April. It has certainly given me plenty of ideas for topics to cover in future issues of the magazine. What records are you most looking forward to seeing online? The colds and flu going round this winter have made me consider how our ancestors coped with sickness and injury before antibiotics, the NHS and sick pay.…

The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ons.gov.uk) wants the readers of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine to share their opinions with a public consultation on administering the 2031 census. A full census of Britain has been carried out every 10 years since 1841, apart from in 1941. Census records are released to the public after 100 years. Jason Zawadzki, the director for the census at the ONS, told WDYTYA? Magazine, “I think what’s unique about family historians as users of the census is they’re probably best placed to help us understand the kind of information that’d be really helpful for future researchers in 100 years’ time.” Family historians may only be familiar with the simple one-page forms in publicly available censuses. However, anyone who has filled in recent…

Talking to an old friend in the summer, the conversation turned to family history. She had some interesting stories and childhood memories, and snippets of information that she remembered her mother telling her. Her mother was from a city in eastern England, and she and her two sisters were illegitimate – something that I had not known before. My friend wanted to find out more, but was not sure of how to go about it. Well, there was my challenge! Naturally, I could not resist the temptation, and I volunteered to have a look at the case. So recently I’ve been doing a good deal of exploring, and rediscovering that special thrill and excitement that genealogical detective work brings. With my own family history research, which started long before we…

1 THE PEOPLE’S DISPENSARY w rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispensary/index.html Launched in 2025 by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, this site contains digitised and transcribed case notes of the Edinburgh Public Dispensary from its foundation in 1776. 2 CHESHIRE ARCHIVES’ GEMS w cheshirestoryshared.org/home/introducing-gems As the archive moves to new premises, the team is preparing a fresh website and catalogue for release in 2026. Searchable by postcode, the new ‘Gems’ tool will allow visitors to uncover nearby archival highlights. 3 SHROPSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY w sfhs.org.uk The society is following up the new website launched in 2025 with a new family history hub. The project aims to bring together information, images and resources relating to people and places, linking them via an interactive map. 4 SANDWELL ARCHIVES w sandwell.gov.uk/archives/collections/4 A near £50,000 grant from the…

ARMY SERVICE RECORDS More than just an account of forebears’ military careers, these also provide useful information about their lives outside the Army. The National Archives at Kew (TNA; nationalarchives.gov.uk) holds many military records, some of which can be downloaded for free. They can also be accessed at subscription websites, such as the Ancestryowned Forces War Records (uk.forceswarrecords.com) and Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk). CHELSEA PENSIONER RECORDS The Royal Hospital Chelsea administered and paid army pensions between 1692 and 1955. Records from 1871 onwards are in its archives (chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/heritage/tracing-ancestors); earlier ones can be found at TNA and on subscription websites. LOCAL NEWSPAPERS Copies of old newspapers can be consulted at archives and libraries near where your family lived. The British Newspaper Archive (britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) contains more than 97.5 million pages, but there are still…

Born in 1827 in Upton, West Ham, to Quaker parents, Joseph Lister was encouraged in his scientific interests by his father, a wine merchant and microscopist, leading to his decision to become a surgeon. He entered University College London in 1844, and witnessed the first British operation under ether. Lister graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine in 1852, becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. The following year he moved to Edinburgh, and became assistant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary three years later. He married Agnes Syme, daughter of the surgeon James Syme, in 1856. In 1861, Lister was appointed surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary where he put forward his theory of antisepsis and started using carbolic acid as a filter between the air and open wounds.…

Q My great great grandfather, Enoch Coates, was wounded in the Crimean War at Sebastopol. His death notice in the Lichfield Mercury, on Friday 9 December 1910, describes him as a “Crimean Veteran” and says he enlisted in the Army on 22 April 1854, when he was 18. I found his army records (service number 4023) for the 2nd Battalion (Rifle Brigade). Enoch’s attestation papers state that he was wounded severely in the face before he went to Sebastopol on 23 August 1855. Is there a list of casualties or patients at the field hospitals in the Crimea where I might be able to locate him, find out more about his injuries and whether he was sent home or back into the field? Sandra Fearon A Though I can find…

Q I’m trying to work out which of my ancestors is shown in this photograph. James Monte is listed as a photographer at 56 High Street, Camden, in the 1870 Post Office Directory, and worked from here until around 1885. Is it possible to narrow down this timeframe? Juliet Bailey A It can be difficult to date photographs closely solely by the appearance of young children, and unfortunately much of the detail has been lost in this image. Despite this, it is possible to suggest a timeframe that may help identify the sitter. The dark-coloured mount indicates a date from the mid-1880s onwards. The style of signature was also used from around this period, although it continued over several decades. Fur rugs were popular as studio props during the 1880s,…

Frank Dymond was born in Poole, Dorset, into a family of hawkers. As a young man he served six years as a Royal Navy stoker, during which time he also married Mary Lisle, the daughter of a Southampton dock labourer. The couple went on to have 10 children, although two died in childhood. After leaving the Royal Navy, Dymond spent 25 years serving in the stokehold of Merchant Navy ships, including RMS Titanic. He recalled that the seawater was up to their knees in the flooded boiler rooms before they were ordered to evacuate. Dymond was placed in charge of one of the last lifeboats, later describing how the great ship split in two before sinking. Dymond returned home on the SS Lapland, the same ship he later served on…

JONATHAN SCOTT Every year Jonathan chases up dozens of leads to share with us what is coming online in the future (page 14). Do email us if you would like your website to be included next year. MICHELLE HIGGS Michelle is the author of many books including Life in the Victorian Hospital and Tracing Your Medical Ancestors. On page 28 she shares her expert insight into hospital records. NICOLA JOHNSON Based in Hampshire, Nicola specialises in maritime research. On page 56 she explores the life of the steamship stoker. Visit allaboutancestors.com to learn more about her work.…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST SUPERB SEARCH TOOL I would like to make readers aware that FamilySearch (familysearch.org) now offers a Full-Text Search facility for searching documents. It was trialled for a while in the ‘laboratory’ section but is now on the normal dropdown menu. This is an exceedingly useful tool because it can also search unindexed documents. In addition, it searches against all names in a document, so is particularly valuable in relation to wills where other platforms index these only in relation to the testator, not by beneficiary names. The tool certainly helped me. I was confident that my 4x great grandfather, Daniel Radford, a widower and thread dyer, had married a Mary in 1776 in Stockport and that together they had had…

Worcestershire marriage licences added to Ancestry Family history website Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) has released a new collection of 366,964 marriage licence records from Worcestershire, dating from 1661–1949. Obtaining a marriage licence allowed a couple to marry without the three-week waiting period while the banns of marriage were read in their parish church. They had to make a sworn statement that there was no reason why they could not marry, and post a monetary bond. The records are therefore a useful resource for tracing marriages. Government announces £2m grant to preserve war memorials across the UK The Government has announced an additional £2 million in funding for the National Heritage Memorial Fund (memorialfund.org.uk) to support the repair and conservation of local war memorials across the UK. Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state…

St Helens Archive Service (sthelens.gov.uk/archives) is being temporarily moved from its home at the Gamble Building to the museum The World of Glass (worldofglass.com). It will be closed to the public during the moving period before reopening on 5 January by appointment only. The move comes as the Gamble Building is undergoing restoration work, as a result of which the archive service will be given a new purpose-built facility within the building. Councillor Sue Murphy, cabinet member for localities, culture and heritage at St Helens Borough Council, said that the move would make the archives “more visible and accessible to St Helens residents and visitors”.…

Although it’s a crowded field, the most exciting release on the horizon is clearly the 1926 Irish census. This will be free to access on 18 April 2026 and covers all 26 counties of the Irish Free State, which was created in December 1922. Another big date for your diary is 4 July when the USA celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which will see new datasets, exhibitions and events. There are several large-scale digitisations that should continue to bear fruit. Ancestry is still digitising Second World War service records as these are transferred from the Ministry of Defence to The National Archives at Kew (TNA). The company released a major tranche in November, and we confidently expect more generous helpings during the year – perhaps with…

AMERICA 250 w america250.nc.gov/revolutionary-nc During the semiquincentennial of the US Declaration of Independence, a number of national and regional projects are taking place. This page from the North Carolina State Archives has details of digitised documents, events and other projects that are connected to the anniversary. DECLARATION 250 w declaration250.gov You can keep an eye on the US National Archives’ commemorative campaign here. Across the Atlantic at Kew TNA is holding its own Revolution 250 exhibition in 2026, which will feature a rare Dunlap print of the Declaration of Independence. DISCOVER NORTHERN IRELAND w tinyurl.com/disc-ni-am-250 Find out more about the pivotal part played by Ulster-Scots settlers in early colonial life and the Revolutionary War through some of Northern Ireland’s heritage attractions. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION w tinyurl.com/nara-rev-war-pens The National…

The database Search for Theatrical Ancestors (STAR), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), can help family historians uncover useful information about their forebears, whether they were performers, worked behind the scenes or were involved in amateur dramatics: ellenterryarchive.essex.ac.uk/star. At the heart of the website is the AHRC Ellen Terry and Edith Craig Database (ellenterryarchive.essex.ac.uk), for which I am the principal investigator. Dame Ellen Terry (1847–1928) was a star of the modern British stage, who had two children – Edward Gordon Craig, a theatre designer, and Edith Craig, a director, costumier and campaigner for women’s suffrage – and the database is built on an archive of 20,000 items donated to the National Trust in 1939. However, STAR also draws together links to online resources about music halls, the…

Q On the 1901 census, my great grandparents, William and Charlotte Webb (both born in Andover), are boarding at 37 West Street, Farnham, Surrey, with their sons (William Albert, four, and Henry, 11 months). William Albert’s birth certificate records his father as William Henry Webb. I can’t find a marriage for William and Charlotte, nor any records of a son, Arthur, nor of two daughters whom my grandmother believes died in infancy. I have a possible candidate for William Henry Webb (born 28 October 1853, Andover, son of Frederick Alfred Webb and Eliza Webb, formerly Cole). How do I know if this is the right one? Nicky Elliott A When searching civil registration indexes for births prior to 1911, the lack of a mother’s maiden name on most genealogical websites…

One of the most challenging parts of genealogy is reading old documents – particularly digital scans of handwritten material, such as census records, wills and parish registers. If the text is hard to read, and you can’t access the original printed material, then your PC may be able to help you improve the image enough to make out what’s written. This can be done by hand in your image editor, but a simpler option designed to work with imperfect document scans is ScanTailor Advanced, a completely free tool for Windows. It can also tackle multiple images and multipage documents at the same time. To get the software, head to sourceforge.net/projects/scantailor-advanced/files/ then click the ‘win’ folder followed by the second link in the list (scantailor-advanced_1.0.19qt5_win64.zip) to download the only version of…

ARCHIVES CAIRD LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE a National Maritime Museum, Romney Road, London SE10 9NF t 020 8312 6516 e library@rmg.co.uk w rmg.co.uk/collections/caird-library Many of the records preserved by the world’s largest maritime library and archive are available online, while the collections at the National Maritime Museum itself include photographs, ship plans and artworks: rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum. SOUTHAMPTON ARCHIVES a Lower Ground Floor, Civic Centre, Southampton SO14 7LY t 023 8083 2251 e archives@southampton.gov.uk w southampton.gov.uk/libraries/southampton-archives The archive holds the 1918–1941 Central Register of Seamen. BOOK Down Amongst the Black Gang Richard P de Kerbrech The History Press, 2014 Learn about the stokehold crew on RMS Titanic. WEBSITES CREW LIST INDEX PROJECT w crewlist.org.uk CLIP has data from millions of records of British seafarers, mainly dating from 1863–1913. CREW LISTS OF THE BRITISH…

WATCH BLITZ DIARY OF A WARTIME HOUSEWIFE tinyurl.com/yt-blitz-diary This 11-minute film from London-based probate and genealogy company Fraser and Fraser tells the story of the firm’s efforts to trace the heirs of Myrta Marden, who died in 2019. Researching her family history led to a remarkable diary that was kept by her mother Marion, which recorded her life as a housewife in East London during the Blitz. Free. RADIO INTIMATE HISTORIES tinyurl.com/bbc-intimate-hist (UK only) or bbc.com In the 1840s, Thomas Carlyle famously described history as “but the biography of great men”. In this series of five essays, each lasting 15 minutes, historian and bestselling author Hallie Rubenhold considers how we can go beyond that definition to the lives of ordinary people. She looks at the history that can be found in…

WW2 DERMOT TURING The History Press, 256 pages, £22 This book by Dermot Turing, the nephew of Alan Turing, is really inspirational in its incredible research into the history of the women cryptanalysts of the Second World War, who appear to have been written out of cryptography history before they had a chance to be written in! For example, Joan Clarke, who worked with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, won the MBE for her role in the Enigma project that decrypted the Germans’ secret communications. She became deputy head of Hut 8 (the main codebreakers) in 1944, but was unable to progress because of her gender. Women codebreakers were also often underpaid because they were given misleading job titles. Misread Signals will be especially interesting if you had family working…

I was impressed by Steve Thomas’ response to Norma Bishop’s family confusion over her great grandmother’s place of birth (see page 47). It reminded me of finding my great grandfather listed in his university’s Roll of Service, which was created after the First World War. It recorded him as serving with the New Zealand infantry. I discovered that, although he had a very distinctive name, he still shared it with someone who lived on the other side of the world and this had confused the staff creating the university record. We need to remember that even contemporary records can lie. news if you have Welsh roots…

Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk to feature your event here for free PICK OF THE MONTH Learn more about researching criminal forebears with this course Crime and Punishment for Family Historians Starts 8 January w portal.sog.org.uk/Event/view/1605161 This 12-week online course from the Society of Genealogists offers a complete guide to researching historic criminals, whether you’ve heard rumours of a criminal ancestor you want to investigate, or just have an interest in criminal history in general. You’ll learn how to trace criminal, police and court records; gain confidence navigating archives, databases and newspapers; understand laws, punishments and social attitudes; and be inspired by gripping real-life stories. Sessions will include ‘Tyburn and the Newgate Calendar’ by Don Chiswell, ‘How to Plot a Murder’ by Angela Buckley and ‘The Lives of the Five Victims of Jack…

The National Archives at Kew (TNA; nationalarchives.gov.uk) is rolling out a new delivery service for records transferred from the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which includes Second World War service records, with fees that start at £42.25. The MOD records began being transferred to TNA in 2021. TNA has announced that, from 2 February 2026, fees will be introduced for access to open and closed records. Digital copies will cost £42.25 while print copies will cost £47.16 under the Standard Service, which TNA has described as “a streamlined service providing the key documents within an individual’s military service at a fixed cost”. The alternative option, Full Record Check, will be charged on a per-page basis with an upfront cost of £48.87 for a search and page check. TNA said that the…

CLIP CYMRU w clip.library.wales The National Library of Wales (NLW) will be relaunching its Clip Cymru website in June 2026, providing free access to its audiovisual collections. Thousands of clips will be available anywhere; the rest will be accessed via ‘Clip Corners’ located throughout Wales. CROWD CYMRU w gwentarchives.gov.uk/en/partnership-and-projects/crowdcymru/ This project sees volunteers tag, index and transcribe documents. Currently they’re working on a family diary from Gwent Archives; a Spanish Civil War notebook from Swansea University Libraries & Archives; Victorian student newsletters from Cardiff University; and Welsh school scrapbooks from Glamorgan Archives. Funding ends in 2026, but if more is secured then Conwy rate books are in the pipeline plus material shedding light on a Welsh family’s links to the slave trade. PEOPLE’S COLLECTION WALES w peoplescollection.wales A collaboration with…

Think you know your family history? Even with a tree full of names and dates, there can still be much to uncover – if you are tenacious, and know where to look. Mandy Webb (née Lewis) from Nailsea, Somerset, manages the family’s craft shop, but spends her spare time studying for the Higher Certificate at the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (ihgs.ac.uk/). Her persistence has rewarded her with some fascinating discoveries. Mandy’s parents and grandmother told her a lot about her recent forebears when she was a child. “Listening to all these family stories, seeing these documents and pedigrees, and hearing these ancestors’ names fuelled my desire to know more.” She knew her great grandfather, Robert Spencer Brown (1895-1957), had fought in the First Word War and her research…

1 SEARCH FOR A HOSPITAL Go to The National Archives’ catalogue Discovery (discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk). Then type the name of the hospital you’re interested in into the search box. 2 FILTER THE SEARCH RESULTS You can filter the search results by date range and/or whether the collection is at TNA or elsewhere, and by amending the search term to a precise hospital name. 3 VIEW THE DETAILS If you find a collection of records that you want to follow up, click the name to view details of the holding repository together with its contact information.…

BOOK Life in the Victorian Hospital Michelle Higgs The History Press, 2009 Michelle discusses the experiences of patients and staff at Victorian hospitals. MUSEUM THE OLD OPERATING THEATRE MUSEUM AND HERB GARRET a St Thomas’ Church, 9a St Thomas Street, London SE1 9RY e info@oldoperatingtheatre.com w https://oldoperatingtheatre.com This museum exploring the history of medicine and surgery is located in the attic of the church of the original St Thomas’ Hospital, where an operating theatre was installed in 1822. WEBSITES GLOSSARY OF OLD MEDICAL TERMS w thornber.net/medicine/html/medgloss.html Discover the meaning of historic terms for diseases. HISTORIC HOSPITALS w historic-hospitals.com This architectural gazetteer features maps, images and sometimes even floorplans. LOTHIAN HEALTH SERVICES ARCHIVE w www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/family/index.htm View a wealth of information for tracing hospital patients and staff, particularly in Edinburgh/the Lothians. WELLCOME…

BRITISH MUSIC HALL SOCIETY w britishmusichallsociety.com/archives The society’s archive originated in a request for material that was printed in The Stage in 1963. It is now managed by Lambeth Archives. CONCERT PROGRAMMES w www.concertprogrammes.org.uk Search collections held in libraries, archives and museums. Also the Royal College of Music Library (rcm.ac.uk/library/collections/) looks after hundreds of thousands of programmes, many of which can be explored here. D’OYLY CARTE OPERA ARCHIVE w doylycarte.org.uk/resources/archive The opera company’s archive includes cuttings, prompt books, scores and programmes, and was acquired by the British Library in 2015. LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA w tinyurl.com/lso-arch The Archive page on LSO’s site includes a link to a downloadable discography of recording sessions. NATIONAL FAIRGROUND AND CIRCUS ARCHIVE w sheffield.ac.uk/nfca Located at the University of Sheffield, the archive includes variety and music-hall…

ARCHIVE MILITARY ARCHIVES a Cathal Brugha Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin 6 t 00353 (0)1 804 6457 e militaryarchives@defenceforces.ie w militaryarchives.ie Ireland’s Military Archives has published a wealth of resources, including articles and blog posts, pertaining to the pension applications and other sources in its collections on its website. BOOK Atlas of the Irish Revolution John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil et al. Cork University Press, 2017 This weighty tome contains maps, images and articles by leading scholars of the revolutionary period. WEBSITE UCD DECADE OF CENTENARIES w centenaries.ucd.ie/ Created by University College Dublin, this site includes a useful timeline of the period, plus videos, articles and podcasts.…

Q My late husband’s 13x great grandfather was John Trail (the Old Laird) of Magask and Blebo 1502–1580. The story is his brother was Andro Trail, who died in 1533 at Blebo in Fife, giving birth to the legend of the Headless Coachman, “attended by much noise of rushing wind and flying hooves”, according to electricscotland.com/webclans/stoz/traills2.htm. The laird notified the authorities of his death – I wonder why? How can I find out more information about this story? Ann Shaw A A family ghost story is a wonderful thing, so you should certainly get to the bottom of this. The secondary source here is Elsie Ritchie’s article ‘The Traills of Fife’ on Scottish history website Electric Scotland, whose own primary source is “a charter dated 15/1/1533-34”. In Scotland, these were…

My maiden name was Shenton, and for as long as I can remember I’ve had a fascination for names. I grew up in the Hanley area of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in a community that was deeply rooted in the pottery industry. I used to read every local memorial and plaque hoping that I would be able to find a family member. I began tracing the Shentons in 1984 with nothing more than a pencil, a pack of cue cards and the International Genealogical Index (IGI), created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I spent weekends at the local archives sifting through microfiche in what we called “the cupboard under the stairs”. My Brick Wall My father was Cyril Shenton, a barrel-maker’s machinist, who was born in 1906 in…

Directories w tinyurl.com/sco-dir-suff You can download trade directories for Suffolk from the University of Leicester’s website Special Collections Online, including a Pigot’s Directory from 1839 and a Kelly’s Directory published in 1912. WW2 Roll of Honour w suffolkfhs.co.uk Suffolk Family History Society’s free indexes include a roll of honour from the Second World War. Probate Inventories w tinyurl.com/suff-rs-dig Suffolk Records Society’s extensive free ‘Digital Series’ includes probate inventories and churchwardens’ accounts. War Memorials w roll-of-honour.com/Suffolk/ Explore transcribed names of fallen soldiers commemorated on war memorials across the county. Marriage Licences w tinyurl.com/arch-sud-mar The Internet Archive includes three volumes of marriage licences from Sudbury covering 1684–1839, and a 1905 volume of Suffolk hearth-tax records from 1674.…

These days, we associate autograph books with celebrities. But they originated in 16th-century Germany, where university students used to collect signatures from their classmates, and functioned as an early version of social media for hundreds of years. Inscriptions and illustrations were also collected in autograph books, creating a priceless sentimental record and snapshot of ordinary life. This month Elliot MacMillan, archives and local studies assistant at Pembrokeshire Archives & Local Studies, shares one such autograph book, kept by a teenage girl, that captures everyday life on the home front in Wales during the First World War. WHAT IS THE BOOK? The autograph book, catalogued under reference HDX/1709/1, once belonged to Gwladys Mary Jones (1899–1985). With nearly 70 entries, it is packed with poems, sketches and musings from people she encountered…

MARITIME HISTORY James W Bancroft Pen & Sword, 256 pages, £25 When RMS Titanic sailed in April 1912, she carried 20 lifeboats – enough for 1,178 people, just over half of the 2,209 passengers and crew on board. All but two of these life-saving craft were launched, yet only 706 people secured a place before the ill-fated liner sank. James W Bancroft’s latest Titanic book could have been a technical account of maritime safety and lifeboat specifications. There’s some of that, inevitably, but the focus is on the people involved. Bancroft skilfully draws together a series of viewpoints that trace how men, women and children reached the lifeboats, and what happened in the hours and days that followed. Bancroft’s most effective material comes through vivid and hard-hitting eyewitness quotes that…