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HOW TO USE MAPS

Track new places to search Understand boundaries and discover records Plot your ancestors’ place in history

5 STAR

RESEARCH Top tips and tactics for all levels

Become a Surname expert Join us on a battlefield tour

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

How the events of 1917 affected our relatives

2 Grow Your Family Tree

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Family FamilyTree October 2017

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05/12/2016 11:03:17 15/08/2017 09:31

Family FamilyTree EDITORIAL Assistant Editor -

Karen Clare karen.c@family-tree.co.uk

Digital Editor -

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Senior Designer Nathan Ward nathanw@warnersgroup.co.uk Designers -

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Associate Publisher

Matthew Hill matthewh@warnersgroup.co.uk

AUDIO CONTENT

Welcome

TAP HERE to listen to a welcome from the editor

Explore the past in glorious detail with our pull-out guide to maps for family historians.

See the world through your ancestors’ eyes, and wander down the lane back into the past

T

here’s something extremely evocative about an old map isn’t there? A record of a landscape that no longer exists – a very poetic but also practical document that we, as family historians, can learn so much from. A map can give so many insights to the places our ancestors once lived. Was it a remote community, or soon swallowed up in the 19th century building spree? Was it on the boundary of a parish or county – if so giving you ideas of further places to study? What was the name of the nearest big smoke? Which other local churches might you search for details of baptisms, marriages and burials?

We hope you enjoy the guide and discover fascinating new resources to help you plot your ancestors’ place in history. And, of course, old maps are invaluable for comparing with current ones, and planning a family history road trip too. Now, that sounds like a great day out to me!

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Nikki Munton nikkim@warnersgroup.co.uk 01778 391171 lUnsolicited material: We regret that we cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage to material sent to us for possible publication. It is advisable to send copies rather than originals. Any items sent for review will be disposed of at our discretion, unless a specific request for its return with a postage paid, addressed envelope is enclosed for this purpose. Images sent in for Q&A pages may be used on our social media streams. l Family Tree is available on audio CD for the visually impaired. Contact National Talking Newspapers and Magazines on 01435 866102; www.tnauk.org.uk. l ©2017 Family Tree/Warners Group Publications plc: All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in whole is forbidden. Personal views expressed in articles and letters are those of the contributor and not necessarily those of the publishers. We reserve the right to delete from any article, material which we consider could lead to any breach of the law of libel. Whilst we do not knowingly include erroneous information, the responsibility for accuracy lies with those who submitted the material. l ISSN 0267-1131 l Printed and published in the UK by Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH. Newstrade distribution by Warners (Midlands) plc.

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p3 Welcome FINAL.indd 3

Helen Tovey EDITOR helen.t@family-tree.co.uk

We’d love to know what you think...

Our main goal at Family Tree is to help you research your family history, learning and building on the skills you need to do so, with inspiring, informative articles, expert answers and reader stories. However, the best person to know what you need for your family history is you! So if you could spare a little of your valuable ancestor-hunting time, and take our survey at http://familytr.ee/survthoughts we’d really appreciate it.

We’ll be sure to add your views to the mix and use them to shape future projects and ideas that we have in the pipeline for Family Tree so that it is the best possible read it can be to inspire you on your genealogy journey.

How to get in touch with us Editorial 01778 395050 editorial@family-tree.co.uk

To help make sure your letter goes to the correct person, please note whether it’s for letters, Q&A, Dear Family Tree Tom, etc. If you’re not certain who to Warners Group Publications contact, just write ‘Editorial’ and we’ll The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH make sure it’s taken good care of

www.family-tree.co.uk Become a fan at facebook.com/familytreemaguk Follow us @familytreemaguk October 2017

3 Family FamilyTree

22/08/2017 13:52

Inside this issue...

Contents

6 Family history news

Latest news with Karen Clare, including a shock archives announcement, relaunch of the FreeCEN website and a major new database for those researching Roman Catholic ancestors.

10 Get started and keep going: tactics for five-star research

How can you keep going, when the going gets tougher?

Chris Paton shares his tips for tackling those brick walls.

14 Dear Tom

Get your fix of genealogical gems and funnies with Tom Wood.

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18 Life on the canals

Anthony Burton travels back in time to explore the lives and work of Britain’s communities of canal workers. Was your ancestor a cog in the wheel of progress that was ‘Canal-mania’?

22 Setting up a one-name study

Julie Goucher has been an avid one-name researcher for many years now, and here she shares what a fulfilling addition it has made to her family history.

26 Is a battlefield tour for you?

Join us on the Family Tree Battlefield Tour and add to your understanding of your ancestors’ war years. With the centenary of the Great War coming to an end in 2018, now is an ideal time to make that trip.

Would you like to see your ancestor on the cover of Family Tree?

Please email editorial @familytree.co.uk for further details...

p18

28 How to create a memory box

Distill the very best of your family’s story into a memory box. Rachel Bellerby rummages in this most precious of treasure chests.

30 What did our ancestors wear in the factory?

With the Industrial Revolution many thousands of our ancestors worked in factories. But what did they wear?

Jayne Shrimpton rolls up her sleeves to explain.

36 The Mormon mission

Explore the history of these pioneering fathers of what was to become an international endeavour to help people trace their family histories. Steve Ward follows the dusty trail to Utah.

40 In hot pursuit of an ancestor

On the quest to find his great-grandmother’s grave, John Crawford came to the attention of the police!

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42 Did your ancestor leave a will?

June Terrington examines this rich collection of records that can give you details of family relationships, property and more.

44 Treading the boards

Put your hands together now as Simon Wills revels in a star-studded new database just perfect for finding ancestors in the entertainment industry.

47 Putting family history on the map

Historic maps can help you better understand the lives of your ancestors, the places they dwelt and worked, and get to grips with administrative boundaries, as Paul F Cockburn helps to clarify.

55 Twiglets

With our tree-tracing diarist Gill Shaw.

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16/08/2017 16:10

October 2017 Vol 33 No 13

You r ancestors in the FIRST WORLD WAR

FIGHTING IN THE TRENCHes

TAP FOR EXCLUSIVE

VIDEO GUIDES

56 The Russian Revolution 1917 The October Revolution sent shock-waves round the world. Amanda Randall examines the event and its impact on a war-weary British Home Front.

61 Family Tree Subscriber Club

Subscribe to Family Tree? Check out this issue’s exclusive offers and discounts.

64 The tale of an old tin hat

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Since he was a boy George Highton has puzzled over an old Tommy helmet that he found at home.

66 Spotlight on the Guild of One-Name Studies Julie Goucher talks to Rachel Bellerby about the work and activities of the world’s largest organisation for one-name studies and surname research.

68 How to trace Royal Navy ancestors Simon Wills offers an introductory guide to ancestors who served on the ocean waves.

72 Exploring the Gazette

Helen Tovey takes a look at how it can help your research into official records & contemporary news.

74 Books

Latest family history reads with Karen Clare.

76 The bigamists

Deborah Watson pieces together skeletons in the cupboard and relates her research into the life of one woman who totted up three ‘husbands’ in two years.

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79 Your Q&As: advice Get the best family history help with our experts

Jayne Shrimpton, David Frost, Emma Jolly, Madeleine Dickens, Steven Smyrl, David Annal and Tim Lovering.

86 Tenure for three lives

Trace your ancestors back five centuries by exploring the land on which they once lived. Ed Dutton explains.

88 Diary dates

What’s on in the family history world in October.

90 Mailbox More lively letters from our readers and Keith Gregson’s Snippets of War.

92 Coming next in Family Tree 93 Your adverts 98 Thoughts on...

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Being a three degrees of proof kind of genealogist, Diane Lindsay is addicted to the facts, but she doesn’t say no to a little fiction too.

October 2017

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PRESERVING THE FAMILY ARCHIVES Karen Clare reports on the latest genealogy news. Send us your stories by emailing them to editorial@family-tree.co.uk or post to our Facebook page at facebook.com/familytreemaguk

IN BRIEF

TAP ‘Treasure’ app marks city’s 50th

To view images

Milton Keynes, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has launched a free smartphone app to help users locate 50 local heritage gems, from a ‘tree cathedral’ to a 1,000 year-old moot (meeting place).

The UK is home to more than 10,000 sites of national cultural interest – that’s not including historic sites, listed buildings and public artwork at local level – yet according to a recent poll, the average UK adult believes they live more than five miles from a cultural artefact. The Discovering MK app at www. discoveringmk.com reveals an interactive trail. More at http://familytr.ee/2usmkWX

40,000 entries in index

Genealogy site www.scottishindexes.com has released 40,000 entries in its index of mental health records 1858-1915, held at the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

Without an index, the records are timeconsuming to search and access would usually mean a trip to Edinburgh. Emma Maxwell, genealogist at Scottish Indexes, said: ‘These records contain not just names, dates and places but personal information.’

The free-to-view index at www. scottishindexes.com includes the NRS reference, so users can either access the documents for free at the NRS, or purchase the service from Scottish Indexes.

Talking genealogy for charity

A Buckinghamshire charity has organised a family history event with author and historian Prof Nick Barratt to raise funds for life-saving NHS hospital equipment across the county.

Nick will be presenting ‘Who Do You Think You Are? The Rise of Modern Genealogy’ from 2-4.30pm on 23 November at The Fitzwilliam Centre, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, with funds going to the charity, Scannappeal. Full details at http://familytr.ee/scannappealtalk

New design for Twile

Twile has revealed a new version of its family history timeline, including more colourful milestones, larger photos, the ability to see more about each event without having to click it, and more; http://familytr.ee/Twilenewlook

Read wartime diaries for free

Forces War Records has digitised copies of former service personnel’s wartime diaries – some available to read free with a registered account. See www.forces-war-records.co.uk/ documents/search

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Shock at archive announcement

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orthamptonshire County Council has reviewed a decision to cut opening hours at its archives and heritage service, and clarified an announcement about charges to view documents, after an outcry from family historians.

On 24 July, Northamptonshire Archives and Heritage Service said it was reducing free access to its archives to three mornings a week and one Saturday morning a month, starting from 21 August.

At the same time, it stated, ‘times during which researchers can visit the Archives Service are being increased’.

It said appointments could be booked, in advance and for a fee, to view original documents on Mondays and Fridays and during the afternoons of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, adding: ‘The current fee is £31.50 per hour.’

Shocked users protested on the Facebook page at www.facebook. com/NorthamptonshireArchives and an online petition was set up urging the council, ‘don’t charge for visiting archives’. This garnered more than 4,050 signatures. Sharon Grant, chair of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA), wrote to the council leader expressing dismay, calling the news ‘a complete surprise’.

She added: ‘AGRA’s view is that they are drastic cuts, not fully thought through, and the worry is that such a step will set a precedent to be followed by others.’

A statement from the council on 27

July said the changes were ‘a bold step in difficult times’, but on 4 August it announced the decision had been reviewed and the service would also be open for free access Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, later adding: ‘We would like to clarify that the option to pay for research room time outside of these hours will not be offered. Researchers can continue to book 1-2-1 time with our research assistant during the times we are otherwise closed, as has always been the case. It is this service that is charged at £31.50 per hour.’

It warned the service would be reviewed ahead of the next financial year as part of the budget setting process ‘in light of financial pressures and reducing visitor numbers’. This would include ‘a full consultation around any proposed changes’.

Council cabinet member Cllr André Gonzalez de Savage said: ‘Having listened to the views of our service users here in Northamptonshire and across the UK, a decision has been made to reconsider the proposed changes to opening hours. However, given our significant financial challenges, changes to customer behaviour and a growth in online enquiries, we need to consider how best to use our limited resources.’

• Find AGRA’s reaction to the review at http://familytr.ee/AGRAresponse and the archives’ opening times at http://familytr.ee/Northantsarchives

Discover your grand houses heritage Cumbria’s Living Heritage is inviting visitors to discover whether they have ancestral links to some of the county’s great houses by offering a free ‘Heritage Past-Port’.

The group is encouraging genealogy-seekers to see if their family surnames are linked to any of its member properties, get in their car and visit, like actor Danny Dyer in the last series of Who Do You Think You Are? Perhaps you are related to Mancunian brewers Holt and Brooks, who had the stunning Blackwell Arts and Crafts house built, or the city’s silk merchant William Gaddum who bought Brockhole, now the Lake District Visitor Centre, in 1896 and whose wife, Edith Potter, was a cousin of Beatrix Potter? Penningtons or Muncasters may have links to Muncaster Castle, where the family tree can be traced back to the 12th century, and families associated with Askham Hall (pictured) include the Lowthers, Sandfords and Bellinghams. Download your Heritage Past-Port at www.cumbriaslivingheritage.co.uk

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22/08/2017 13:59

Caring for your memories

Free UK census search site relaunches with fresh look

F

amily history site FreeCEN has been revamped to offer a new look and more search tools.

The site, which features 32 million ancestors in its online database of the 19th century UK censuses (1841-1891), transcribed by volunteers, has relaunched at https://freecen2.freecen.org.uk with all the records the previous website held, but with a fresh look and feel in line with its parent and sister sites Free UK Genealogy and FreeREG. Free UK Genealogy at www.freeukgenealogy.org.uk believes family history records should be free to access for everyone, and its new website offers more features for family historians, making it easier for them to find what they’re looking for. ‘FreeCEN2’ also brings a host of improvements for existing and future volunteers, such as a members’ sign-in area and new messaging system. FreeCEN, FreeREG and FreeBMD are all projects by Free UK Genealogy, which is a registered charity. FreeREG was revamped in 2015, and FreeBMD is due to begin its renewal later this year.

Pat Reynolds, Free UK Genealogy’s executive director said: ‘We are very proud of the progress that our volunteers have made in the 18 years the project

Have your say on the new FreeCEN site

has been running, and we look forward to a time when we have a complete database of all UK censuses. The launch of our new FreeCEN2 website marks the beginning of an exciting period of renewal for FreeCEN.’ Brenda Bowers, FreeCEN project leader, added: ‘The new website is a work-in-progress and we want genealogists and family history researchers to try it out and let us know what they think. If we know what works for them, what doesn’t, and what features they’d like to see, we can make FreeCEN2 the best resource for free census NEWSFL A records. It could even encourage new SH The Natio volunteers to join us!’ nal Archi hosting a ve s is free webin Users can share feedback on at ar from 6 -7pm on 13 https://freecen2.freecen.org.uk and ‘Tracing Yo September, ur Suf frag Ancestors e those interested in becoming volunteer ’. Sig http://fam n up at ily tr transcribers should visit https://freecen2. .e e/ suffragew ebinar freecen.org.uk/cms/opportunities-tovolunteer-with-freecen

WW1 hero’s medals return home for centenary

T

he medals of Captain Noel Chavasse, the only serviceman to be awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) twice during the First World War, have gone on display at the Museum of Liverpool, 100 years after his death.

Timed to coincide with the centenary on 31 July of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), it is the first time this important medal group has gone on public display in Liverpool, the family’s home from 1900, after they moved from Oxford. Chavasse was awarded his first VC in October 1916 for bravery at the Somme and his second VC posthumously in September 1917 for gallantry at Passchendaele, where he was fatally wounded and died on 4 August 1917.

His medals went on display in the city 100 years to the day that he died.

Janet Dugdale, Director of the Museum of Liverpool, said: ‘The name “Chavasse” is forever associated with heroism and courage thanks to the actions of Noel, and other members of the family,

during the First World War. Captain Noel In unimaginably appalling Chavasse, who conditions, Captain Chavasse was a doctor saved the lives of many of serving with his men, losing his own as a the Royal Army consequence in 1917. This group Medical Corps of medals tells a powerful story (RAMC), attached of the extremes of human to the Liverpool sacrifice. We’re extremely proud Scottish Battalion, to be bringing them to Liverpool and his medals on the centenary of his death.’

The medals, part of the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at IWM London, are a highlight in a citywide programme of events, which include the unveiling of a commemorative paving stone to Chavasse in Liverpool’s Abercromby Square on 29 August, followed by a recreation of his memorial service at Liverpool Parish Church.

View the display until 5 January 2018; go to www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/Chavasse

Go-ahead for £14m heritage hub A £14m plan for a combined archive, library and museum building, incorporating remaining frontage of the former Doncaster Grammar School for Girls, has got the green light.

Under plans approved by Doncaster Council’s Cabinet, the current Doncaster Archives in Balby, central library, museum

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and schools library in Barnby Dun would be consolidated into a central hub. The new building will enable exhibits hidden for years from public view to go on show, such as the Danum Shield, Royal Borough Charters and heritage collections. Construction work is expected to start late summer 2018, with the building due to open by spring 2020. Visit http://familytr.ee/doncasterhub

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16/08/2017 16:07

PRESERVING THE FAMILY ARCHIVES

stors New resource for tracing Catholic ance

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he Catholic Family History Society (FHS) is holding a special ‘Seminar on Records’ to launch a resource for family historians seeking Roman Catholic ancestors.

The Margaret Higgins Index of Catholics in England and their friends 1607-1840, which contains details of 275,000 individuals, is being launched in London on 7 October. Its compiler Br Rory Higgins FSC, of Australia, will present his major work and deliver a paper on its background, development and value to the research community.

Sylvia Dibbs, chairman of the Catholic FHS, explained: ‘This year marks the 250th anniversary of the submission of the most complete Returns or Lists of Papists to Parliament carried out as a result of criticism that the Anglican bishops were not doing enough to stop the spread of Catholicism. Returns of 1767 covering the dioceses of Oxford, Norfolk, Salisbury and Worcester were not sent to the House of Lords but these have been added to the database.

,

Because the Government wanted to keep surveillance on Roman Catholics, there were other Returns, for example, for 1705-1706, 1711, 1735, 1745 and 1780. All these Returns have been collected from various archives to this one database.

These make up a small percentage of the total number of names that are in the database, who may be your ancestors.

The database has searchable provision for the surname of your ancestors or person of interest, the Christian name, occupation, age, other details and the source or reference.’

Thousands of the names belong to Catholics who lived in England but were French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Welsh, Scottish and even Irish, including from long before the Irish famine of the 1840s forced mass emigration. When Catholics married or wrote wills, non-Catholic friends could be present as witnesses or beneficiaries, thus their names are in the database too.

Many of the marriages, baptisms and family connections given are not found elsewhere. ‘Catholic baptismal

registers often record the names of the godparents, who may be siblings and uncles and aunts of the one being baptised. The confirmation lists included are of value to the researcher because brothers and sisters were often confirmed and listed together on one of the confirming Bishop’s infrequent visits to a mission. Even parents’ names can be given. Also included are, for example, lists of Easter communicants and the Rosary Confraternity,’ said Sylvia.

She added: ‘This database will be an invaluable tool to historians of all specialties. Social historians can see that Catholics of this time were not living in isolation, but had a social set beyond their own. Any specialist, general, local or family historian, who cannot find a “person of interest”, whether or not a known Roman Catholic, should try this database.’

Seminar tickets cost £20 including a disc of the database – see http:// catholicfhs.online and diary dates, page 88, for details. The disc will later be on sale via a link on the society’s website.

YOUR FREE RECORDS H WORT5 ! £39.9

A

t Family Tree we’ve teamed up with UK family history website TheGenealogist.co.uk to offer you selected free sources from its extensive online collections.

Read on to learn about the census and occupational records you can research today...

Search occupational records Search or browse for ancestors in The Clergy List for 1852. This resource, published annually, features an alphabetical list of clergy in England and Wales, Ireland, the Scottish Episcopal Church and in colonial dioceses, along with cathedral establishments, collegiate chapters and more.

Your census search You can also search and use the 1891 Census for

Monmouthshire in Wales, where you’ll find new, high resolution, grayscale images.

NEW c192 RESOURC 1 E

How to use the records Th eG e 1. To access your free records launched nealogist.co.uk h as on record se e of its most excit simply register at TheGenealogist. in ts Census su this year – a c192 g co.uk/ftfree 1 bstitute.

C counties overing 23 (w 2. To activate your content for and inclu ith more to come) d ing more million fu than one this issue, enter lly the new re searchable record s, c the code 365517. of the site ord set forms pa rt ’s Trade, R a nd Telep esidentia 3. Once activated, content h out more one collection. F l ind under the will be accessible for a 30-day N ew w w w.the s tab at genealog ist.co.uk period (within 3 months of the UK on sale date).

A page from the 1891 Census for Monmouthshire and extracts from The Clergy List for 1852

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October 2017

Family FamilyTree 9

15/08/2017 09:34

MASTER THE ART OF WEIGHING UP EVIDENCE

Get started & keep going

Tactics for five-star research

Learning how to begin tracing your family tree is one thing. But how can you keep going, when the going gets tougher? Chris Paton shares his tips to help you take your research from the foothills and follow the trail higher up the ancestral mountain of discoveries to break through those brick walls

T

here are many ways to research your family history, but when getting started for the first time, it may appear to be a daunting prospect. The world might well be your oyster in terms of the possibilities before you, but that is of no use to you if you’ve never harvested an oyster!

In this article I will provide some advice to help you get on your way with the research process.

which relatives you think are related to whom, noting down what their names are, what they do for a living, and where they live. At this point you are not aiming for the Turner Prize, so don’t worry if your diagram looks a bit like a dog’s dinner!

• Once you have this, use it as an aide memoire to ask friends and family if they can add any more details. Did your mother’s cousin only have two daughters, which Army regiment was Great Uncle Bob in, and so on?

Write down what you know; & understand what you’ve yet to discover

There are many useful family history books available to help you navigate your way through the various records that will help with your research. My own A Beginner’s Guide to British and Irish Genealogy being just one such example – find it online at www.gen-ebooks.com/beginners-guideto-british-and-irish-genealogy.html

• The first thing that you need to identify before you get underway is the extent of what you already know or do not know about your family.

• It helps to jot down notes and to try to scribble a quick tree diagram of

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Free guides

Check out the quick guides at www.family-tree.co.uk which have information to help you find and use records that are new to you

Jacobite grannies At this point you are very much in the opening hunter-gatherer phase of things, but bear in mind that what you learn from your relatives may not always be true – it might only be what they think is true, and that is not necessarily always quite the same thing. The fact that your granny has a tea-towel with the Stuart tartan on it does not actually mean that you are descended from Bonnie Prince Charlie, even if she insists that this is the old family tradition.

The essence of all family history research is to identify genealogical information from any source that

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Learn how to become a better genealogist might offer it, but to also prove incontrovertibly that such information is in fact true. In doing so, you will need to be sceptical and question everything. You might well go online and discover a family tree concerning one of your ancestral lines, for example, and thank your good fortunes. But what if that tree is in fact complete and utter nonsense, where any old John Smith has been grabbed from the records by someone harvesting names quickly, simply to plug a gap?

The route to proving much of what you find will be through the locating of original documentary records, such as birth, marriage and death certificates. Even here, you must always be vigilant, because the information within such documents is often only as good as the informant who spoke to the registrar. In some cases, he or she might be just as reliable as your Jacobite granny, so try to verify every detail from as many sources as possible.

Research tips

Using family history software

The alternative is to buy a family history software program.

There are many examples available such as Family Historian www.family-historian.co.uk and Family Tree Maker www.mackiev. com/ftm as well as RootsMagic www.rootsmagic.co.uk and Treeview www.treeview.co.uk Once installed onto a computer these can allow you to add details to a family file, and, at the click of a button, instantly generate a family tree chart or a family history report from the information provided. While it is tempting to add just people’s names and event dates, it is equally important to take the time to add all source information for each event described. When generating reports it is possible to have such source citations presented as footnotes or in an appendix, adding considerable ‘oomph’ to the validity of the report presented, and assisting anyone who may wish to pick up and continue from such published research in the future.

If using family history software you will need to make sure that every time you finish a session on your computer that you create a back-up of the main file.

Very few things make a grown adult cry as much as the loss of years of research, simply because the file kept was the only one preserved before it got corrupted!

Who will you research?

It’s in the blood

You have a mother and a father, which is a good start, but, rather awkwardly, it turns out that so too do they; that now makes four grandparents, including, of course, your Jacobite granny. The fact that they also have parents and grandparents of their own really does not help. This ancestorhunting business could easily get out of hand. So, which family lines do you research?

You will be amazed how many times you will read advice telling you it is important that you must

As a genealogist you might want to grab a shovel and from the word go start to metaphorically dig for ancestors in the archival earth – but the thing about soil is that it can also be used to grow something from seed. One of the most important genealogical documents is locked into your very being, and that is your DNA. It might be worth having this tested, in particular your Y-DNA, which follows your surname line (it can only be passed on from father to son), and your autosomal DNA, which comes from both parents and various

of evidence

Record your finds Whichever records you need to find to confirm the existence of relatives, you will need to extract the relevant genealogical information from them and then store it in a convenient-toaccess filing system.

Creating a filing system

Traditionally this has involved keeping sheets such as ‘family group sheets’, identifying family groups and recording basic biographical information about them.

It also involves filling in ‘research logs’, noting which records you have searched, and when you found them, in order to prevent duplication of effort at some point in the future. If this is how you wish to preserve such information, you can find handy templates for such documents for free from the Ancestry website at www. ancestry.co.uk/cs/charts-and-forms

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Something to bear in mind

However, there is one caveat to the above advice. If you decide that you are interested in one line in particular (for example your surname line), bear in mind that your ancestors on that line did not only ever talk to relatives with their shared surname! If Grandpa Stewart’s wife was a Mrs MacDonald, exploring her immediate MacDonald family might equally reveal more about Grandpa Stewart – he might have been a witness at one of the extended family’s weddings, for example, or noted in one of their wills. The documentation for your ancestors’ existence may not be quite so linear as you think.

➊ Learn to weigh up the accuracy Ë Seek out original records Ì Compare clues from several sources

pursue this line or that line, and to work through said line methodically one generation at a time. You may even think, or be advised, that your own surname line is the only one of importance. I take a fairly blunt view on this. You may be a Stewart by surname, your granny might even be right about your Jacobite blood, but whatever you are, you are still the sum of all your parts, and not just one line. On top of that, this is also your hobby – so research whichever lines you like, you are in charge! As long as your research is documented, and you can move from one line to another and immediately pick up again where you previously left off, it does not really matter where you go with your research, do whatever works best for you. I personally try to progress back on all lines at a relatively equal pace, but that does not mean you have to!

Neglect this at your peril!

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MASTER THE ART OF WEIGHING UP EVIDENCE ancestral lines back through the generations. The value of such DNA tests derives from when you upload the results to a database, and attach your family tree file alongside them.

If somebody else who has been tested partially or wholly matches your results, they can look at your tree and see from whom you might share ancestry – an instant cousin magnet!

Note that you might not make any immediate connections but in time the database will expand to the point when you may well do. Among the most popular DNA test service providers are AncestryDNA www. ancestry.co.uk/DNA and Family Tree DNA www.familytreedna.com

Test as many as possible

If your elderly relatives are amenable, it would also help to test them, to help you establish additional connections from much earlier generations. Autosomal DNA testing is only valuable for a small number of generations going back, with the amount of shared DNA between you and descendants reducing the further back your common ancestor is to be found. But if your Jacobite granny is willing to be tested, for example, her results will add an extra two generations of potential links for yourself – for if distant cousins connect to her, by default they will also connect to you!

Online resources There are a vast range of genealogical resources available online, which can be immensely useful for research.

It is fair to say that commercial vendors such as Ancestry www. ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast www. findmypast.com plus TheGenealogist www.thegenealogist.co.uk – as well as some free offerings such as the Irish-based National Archives Genealogy platform at www. genealogy.nationalarchives.ie – have revolutionised how we carry out research. Nevertheless, there are many dangers to be aware of when carrying out online research, and it is far too easy to just start searching without understanding exactly what it is that you are looking at.

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The fact that your granny has a tea-towel with the Stuart tartan on it does not actually mean that you are descended from Bonnie Prince Charlie

Points to help you think clearly

➊ For any online database offering you must always first stand back from the collection and ask two fundamental questions – what is available within the dataset, and equally importantly, what is not? Ë Many collections might well be advertised as being complete, or may portray themselves as the definitive set, but that does not necessarily mean that this is necessarily the case! Ì Is the collection complete in the first place, and if so, is what is being presented? The entire contents of that collection?

Or just the records that have been transcribed?

for the most part will be found within archives and libraries across the country. You cannot search for records if you do not know if they exist, and so the most important thing here is to understand how to locate and use catalogues, whether online or in a paper or card-based format at the institution itself.

As with databases, you should understand how complete catalogue descriptions are, and learn some of the terminology: are collections catalogued at item level, or as pieces or series? Can you search by a person’s name or place, or do you need to order a collection of boxes and plough your way through them in vague hope of making a ’hit’?

Once upon a time Finally, if you truly want to be successful with your research, you need to pass on your finds as ancestral stories. If your years of effort merely boil down to a greatgrandchild in a century’s time telling their children ’I remember when my grandfather once told me...’ then you will have achieved something, prompting them to try to find out more themselves. Of course, if they can actually read your stories in your own words, all the better!

Search savvy

To give a good example, the Scottish census transcriptions on Ancestry do not carry any information from the original surviving records on the medical information recorded for each person (whether deaf, dumb, blind, imbecile, lunatic, etc), no information on the household building (such as how many rooms with one or more windows), and, in later censuses, on language (ability to speak in Gaelic and/ or English). But such information is available on the original returns through a different site, ScotlandsPeople at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk Question everything!

About the author Chris Paton runs the Scotland’s Greatest Story research service www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk – and teaches online courses through www.pharostutors.com He is the author of Researching Scottish

Understand archives The flip side of understanding exactly what is available online is to also understand exactly how to find resources that are offline, which

Family History, Tracing Your Family History On The Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History On The Internet and The Mount Stewart Murder, among others, and blogs at www.britishgenes. blogspot.co.uk

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Dea r Tom

Explore the serious, sublime and the ridiculous facets of family history in this genealogical miscellany.

This issue Tom Wood learns of fantastic finds on passenger lists and census records...

R

egular readers may recall our story in the June issue of Family Tree about why 1,200 British tailors may have sailed to New York in the 1840s; possibly to make American uniforms for soldiers fighting in the Mexican-American War. We are now fortunate enough to hear from correspondent Anthony Hardman about what happened to one of these intrepid tailors. He was Anthony’s relative George Dannat Happey (what a name!) who was born in Hull in 1819 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church there, according to an entry in the family Bible. His father William Happey was a Hull cabinet maker, and George had several siblings, including John Walker Happey, a successful tailor in a prominent Hull shop.

Passenger lists show George, described

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A tailor of two cities as a ‘tailor’, sailing from London to New York in 1848 on board the Victoria and arriving on 15 September 1848.

He next turns up getting married in New York City to Thirza E White in 1854. Although born in the USA, both her parents were English. Despite arriving a bit late to make uniforms for the Mexican-American War (but not the American Civil War), George did very well in New York, with several tailoring shops, one being on Broadway and another on 5th Avenue.

Sadly, George Happey died relatively young in March 1875 and his death was recorded in the New York Herald.

He and Thirza had several children, including a son called Sumter Lincoln, born in 1865, who survived the first battle of the American Civil War in South Carolina. Sumter died in 1929 in the Bronx. Anthony adds that it is interesting how patriotic and assimilated George and his family were to the American way of life, naming one of their sons in this way.

Army family in Bermuda One of the most enjoyable things about producing this column each month, is that I never know what

stories I’m going to receive from my generous readers. This time I must thank Mrs Beverley Clark, from Bribie Island in Australia’s Queensland, for bringing yet another interesting subject to my attention. Beverley got in touch after reading in a recent Dear Tom about British ancestors in Bermuda – and discovering a Bermuda connection in her own family tree. While researching her great-grandmother Margaret Hair, Beverley found she was born on 25 June 1851 at Marjery’s Court, Portsea, near Southampton. She then discovered Margaret’s father Francis Hair (born in 1822 at Dumfries in Scotland) was a private in the Royal Sappers and Miners and, in November 1851, he was at sea, on his way to Bermuda, complete with his wife Mary Hair and baby Margaret.

Beverley thinks Mary must have been randomly selected to travel with Francis after drawing a ‘going’ slip from a hat passed around British Army wives seeking to accompany their soldier husbands stationed overseas. The wives who pulled out ‘not going’ slips were left behind and apparently no provision was made

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Genealogical miscellany for them. Beverley says the successful wives and their children lived in camps overseas with their soldier husbands, under much the same conditons expected of the men.

Francis and Mary Hair had another daughter, Mary Ireland Hair, born in 1854 on Ireland Island in Bermuda, but their next child Elizabeth was born in 1856 back in England, at Camp Aldershot in Hampshire.

Margaret Hair later married Thomas Phillip Head in Kent and in 1870 they emigrated to Queensland, Australia with their baby, Francis. The couple had 12 children in total, including Beverley’s grandmother, Elizabeth Louise Head, who was number eight in her family! What a lovely ending to this unexpected tale.

When a birth certificate isn’t a birth certificate...

I was delighted to hear from genealogist and author Mrs Pauline Litton, from North Yorkshire, and her thoughts on a copy of an unusual 1939 birth certificate that we featured back in January Dear Tom which, we have learned, ‘actually isn’t a birth certificate’.

Pauline has kindly expanded on this, explaining: ‘From the beginning of civil registration in 1837, until the passing of the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1874 (effective from 1875), the onus for tracking down and registering a birth, lay with the local registrar. From 1875 it became the responsibility of the parents and they were liable for a fine of up to 40 shillings for failure to register a birth within 42 days. They had up to 12 months to name the child and have that name entered on the certificate. The birth had to be registered, but many people either did not want, or could not afford, a birth certificate and others waited until the child’s Christian names had been decided upon.

‘However, they did need proof that they were complying with the law and that the child had been registered as male or female and as alive or stillborn. So a “Form of Certificate of Registry of Birth, or Stillbirth” was provided by the office of the Registrar General and it is a copy of this which some parents were given, and not a birth certificate. It is a confirmation

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that the birth has been registered as required by law. A birth certificate is a different document, and costs more.’

Pauline, whose books include Pitfalls and Possibilities: in Family History Research (2010), adds that the precise wording of Section 30 of the 1874 Act (headed ‘Certificate of Birth having been registered’), reads: ‘A registrar shall, upon demand made at the time of registering any birth by the person giving the information, and upon a fee not exceeding three pence, give to such a person a certificate under his hand, in the prescribed form, of having registered that birth.’

No mention is made of Christian names being necessary but, says, Pauline, ‘the Certificate of Registry of Birth does include the reference number for the full entry in the local registrar’s book’.

Pauline also mentions illiterate ancestors who registered births (as well as marriages and deaths). She tells me that her great-grandfather Joseph Shaw, who was born in 1853 and became a miner in the 1860s, was still ‘making his mark’ in the late 1920s. He died in 1936. ‘I don’t know if he could read, but he couldn’t write,’ says Pauline.

Multiple marriages What are the chances of several brothers and sisters from one family marrying siblings from another? I was pleased when Richard Ashby got in touch about some such interesting marriages that crop up among his ancestors. He has extensively researched the descendants of a Solomon Harris (c1783-1857) and wife Susan née Solomon (1786-1863), of Sandys Row, Bishopsgate, London, who had seven children between 1814 and 1829, including Richard’s ancestor Henry Harris (1824-1853).

But it was the offspring of Henry’s younger sister Rose (1829-1905) who really caught Richard’s eye. She married Godfrey Phillips in 1850 and they had 14 children, including: sixth child Catherine Phillips (1859-1927) who married Isaac Isaacs (1858-1934) in 1884; seventh child Leah Phillips (1860-1950) who married Jonah Isaacs (1863-1936) in 1888; tenth child Henry Phillips (1865-1930) who married Rosia Isaacs (1869-1937) in 1889, and 13th child Phillip Godfrey

Phillips (1869-1948) who married Esther Isaacs (1872-1949) in 1892.

My correspondent Richard discovered that these four Phillips siblings had all married brothers and sisters from another unrelated family, headed by parents Isaac Isaacs (1830-1898) and Miriam J Isaacs née Lipman (1830-1912) of Whitechapel in London. The four couples were apparently married at the New Synagogue in City of London. Richard has also found that two grandsons and one granddaughter of Godfrey and Rose Phillips married two granddaughters and one grandson of Isaac and Miriam Isaacs – and thinks there may even be more intermarriages between the families.

How very unusual.

Remembering donkeymen Some of you may recall that a couple of years ago we discussed the work of ‘donkeymen’ at sea. A wonderful article about shipbuilder ancestors in FT April prompted Douglas Brown, from Harwich in Essex, to drop me a line with more information. Douglas is one of my older contributors and has a vast seagoing knowledge and remarkable memory, and I’m glad we can add a little more to our knowledge of these hardworking men. Douglas begins by reminding us that until boats were powered by steam engines, there was no such thing as a donkeyman! But when steam ships first went to sea, there were lots of companies ashore making machinery to help drive those early steamers. Apart from its main engines, most early steam ships needed smaller auxiliary engines, and many of the most popular machines came from Donkin & Co of Newcastle. As the years passed, the man in overall charge of these smaller engines was often referred to as the ‘Donkin’s man’, which eventually became ‘The Donkeyman’.

Douglas spent a great deal of his life at sea on steamships and motor vessels and is now enjoying a well earned retirement. So remember, if you come across a ‘donkeyman’ in your searches, this doesn’t necessarily mean he worked at the seaside, giving children donkey rides! So many thanks to Douglas for returning us to this fascinating topic.

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Dea r Tom Unusual dinner guests recorded with the Lewin household on the 1911 Census

One job for George Sticking with unusual occupations, reader Paul Chiddicks has come across another strange job, which he found on the 1871 Census at Mansell Gamage in Herefordshire, where George Gough, aged 43, is recorded as a ‘rabbit killer’.

With what we know about the origins of the donkeyman, perhaps this is another ‘nickname’ for an unusual occupation?

Somehow, I doubt it this time!

Three weddings by 31 Next up is Barbara Smith, who tells us she was interested to read recently in these columns about a woman who was married three times by the age of 33 – because her 2x great-grandfather, Thomas Keeling Devey, was on his third marriage by the time he was 31!

Thomas was born between 1802 and 1805 and married his first wife Mary Ann (or Maryann) Cossey at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney on 3 December 1827. Barbara cannot find any children nor any death for Mary Ann but she does know that on 16 December 1831 Thomas married Elizabeth Harrison at St James Church, in Clerkenwell, London, when he claimed to be a bachelor. Sadly, second wife Elizabeth died and was buried on 10 February 1833, at St Botolph Bishopsgate in the City of London, a few days after the birth of our correpondent’s great-grandfather, another Thomas Devey, on 1 February 1833. The baby was baptised on 31 March 1833 with no apparent indication that his mother was dead.

The widowed Thomas Keeling Devey then married his late wife’s youngest sister, Sophia Harrison, on 8 December

1833, when he would have been 31 at most (and perhaps only 28!). Sophia outlived husband Thomas, who died in 1849, and passed away herself in 1884.

Glenda’s genealogical gems Now, after many years of enjoying Family Tree, Glenda Cox from Queensland in Australia has finally made a few unusual genealogical finds that she thought we would be interested in. The first concerns the puzzling naming of Glenda’s 2x great-uncle Campania Clyde Fraser, who was born in Essendon, Victoria, Australia in 1892.

After some investigation she found he was named after the Scottish-built Cunard Liner, the SS Campania, which was launched in Scotland in November 1892, at much the same time as her relative’s birth. His middle name, Clyde, may well have been taken from the river running through Glasgow, Scotland’s shipbuilding capital. Sadly, Campania Clyde Fraser didn’t last as long as the liner, as he died in 1895.

Glenda’s next contribution relates to her grandfather, Archibald William Cox (1922-1961), who had three elder brothers and NINE younger sisters!

Her third snippet comes from the 1871 Census of England, where, while researching her Lewin family, she came across an entry for a ‘Princess’ with the name ‘Blanche Matchinstic’, aged seven, at boarding school in Brighton, from Georgia in Russia. After a lot of scoffing and joking in the local history room where she was researching, Glenda discovered that there was a Russian nobility with the surname Massalski and thinks perhaps the enumerator misspelt the name and that the young Blanche was a real princess.

George Gough lodging with the Wootton family on the 1871 Census – we can guess what may have appeared often on the household’s dinner menu!

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Finally, when Glenda was researching her Lewin family on the 1911 Census, she spotted her first cousin 4x removed Francis Montague Spencer Lewin, a solicitor, at home with his wife, young son and servants entertaining a Takumi Hisano, an officer in HM Imperial Japanese Navy, and ‘lecture manager’ George Beadle from Missouri, USA. Glenda adds: ‘It seems like an interesting group of nationalities, at one table for dinner.’

How intriguing!

Small price to pay Finally this time, a little more about the cost of a ‘brief’ English birth certificate in days gone by, sent via a lovely letter from Rosemary Stanley, of Hampshire. Rosemary recently came across a copy of her own ‘much reduced in size’ birth certificate and was surprised to fi nd the fee for the document should ‘not exceed three pence’ (as mentioned earlier by Pauline Litton). She can’t understand why her father didn’t obtain a full certificate, as, being a dental surgeon, he wasn’t short of money. Rosemary’s Certificate of Registry of Birth still gives her full name, date of birth, entry number in the official’s Register Book, the registrar’s name, and caution about falsifying entries. But what a small price to pay for the certificate, even between the world wars when it was issued. Rosemary could presumably have used it for official purposes if she had wished, although she did eventually buy herself a full certificate in 1988 when she was doing her family history research.

About the author

Tom Wood was a founder member of Lincolnshire Family History Society and was its first, award-winning, magazine editor. As well as contributing to Family Tree from its early days, Tom also edited the Federation of Family History Societies’ magazine and wrote An Introduction to British Civil Registration.

A member of the SoG and Guild of OneName Studies, he is still researching the family names, Goldfinch and Shoebridge.

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HELPING THE FLOW OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Life on the canals Anthony Burton looks at the lives of families living and working on Britain’s unique waterways, keeping the Industrial Revolution afloat

B

y the middle of the 18th century, engineers had worked at improving Britain’s rivers for navigation by building locks and weirs, but there was still much of the country that the rivers simply did not reach. The answer was to build artificial waterways to serve the new and rapidly developing tide of industrialisation.

Traditionally the construction of the Bridgewater Canal linking mines at Worsley to Manchester in 1660 is taken as the starting point, largely because the aqueduct over the River Irwell attracted huge attention but – equally importantly – the price of coal in Manchester was halved. Over the next half century the

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country developed an imposing network of canals, which became the most important trading routes for the country.

Waterways communities The men and women who worked on the waterways became a very selfcontained community. In the early days boat crews worked just as carters and road hauliers had done, taking loads to their destination and returning to their homes at the end of a journey.

Many of the names of these boatmen were recorded in the Register of Boats and Barges, 1795. All that changed with the arrival of the railways and, as that system developed in the 1830s, it posed

a threat to the canal trade. In order to reduce costs, most boating families had to abandon their conventional houses for life on board the boats.

At home on a narrow boat Throughout the extensive and very busy Midland canal system, all the trade was carried in horse-drawn narrow boats, approximately 72ft long and 7ft 6in wide.

Now a whole family had to cram into the back cabin, a mere 8ft 6in by 7ft and just 5ft high. Fitting adults and children into this space required a small miracle of organisation, with folding beds and a food cupboard with a drop-down front that served as the family table. A stove

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Did your ancestor take part in canal-mania? was used for heating and cooking, but there were no other facilities. Water had to be carried in large cans, known as Buckby cans, washing mostly took place with canal water and, as one old boatman said when asked about more intimate sanitary arrangements, ‘Why, the Good Lord’s supplied us with hedgerows’.

The boat families did their best to make their cramped conditions acceptable by painting the boats with traditional roses and castles motifs, and surrounding the cabin walls with polished brass and decorative plates.

Jobs for all the family It was a hard life in which everyone took their part, including the children.

One of the first job children had was ‘lock-wheeling’ – going ahead of the boat to open the lock gates. Tunnels presented a special problem, since most had no tow path and men would have to leg through, lying on their backs and walking the boat along by pushing their feet against the tunnel sides. The horse would be led over the top, usually by one of the children.

Nell Cartwright remembered having to take the horse over the top of the long Braunston tunnel on the Grand Union at night. She was terrified at first, but the horse kept nuzzling her: ‘I thought to myself, “He’s telling me not to be afraid”, and when I got to the other end I was as brave as brave.’

A heavily laden narrow boat on the Coventry Canal: the boatwoman is wearing the traditional costume that many wore well into the 20th century

Making lock gates in the Bulbourne maintenance workshops on the Grand Union Canal

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A smattering of schooling For decades there was no education available for boat children.

A philanthropist, George Smith campaigned to get schooling and in 1884 an Act was passed that enforced attendance at school and the children had to have proof of attendance. The trouble was that a child would turn up at school and then half an hour later the parents would appear announcing it was time to move on – but they’d had their book ticked.

In the early 1900s a special school for boat children was established at Brentford, an important depot on the Grand Union.

Legging a boat through the Butterley tunnel on the Cromford Canal

Painting roses and castles designs on a typical horse-drawn narrow boat

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HELPING THE FLOW OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Maintenance crew pile-driving to reinforce the canal bank

Cargo

Canal companies

One of the most common cargos for all boats was coal, and the crew usually had to do the loading and unloading themselves. Unloading at a wharf was not too bad at first, but as the crew got nearer the bottom of the boat, so they had to throw the coal ever higher up onto the wharf – and the job was just as likely to be done by the women as by the men. And the women were expected to take care of all the normal household chores as well.

Few canal companies ran their own fleets of boats. One of the earliest companies to have a large fleet was Pickfords, now known as furniture removers. They ran boats between London and Manchester, working ‘fly’, which meant travelling day and night, with regular changes of crews and horses along the way.

Some carriers were very innovative: Fellows, Morton and Clayton introduced a fleet of steam-powered narrow boats in the 19th century, but the idea was never popular, simply because space was taken up with the engine and its fuel supply.

Some manufacturers had their own boats: Ovaltine, for example, used boats to bring the raw ingredients to their factory at Kings Langley on the Grand Union. And, throughout the working life of canals, there were always Number Ones, families who owned their own boats and picked up

Early 20th century developments Life got a little easier with the arrival of the diesel engine at the beginning of the 20th century. Now families were able to run a pair of boats: the motorboat would tow the unpowered boat – the butty – behind it. Usually it was the man on the motor and his wife on the butty, but the good news was that they now had two cabins instead of just the one to house the family.

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Places to visit • Archives: The main documentary source is the Waterways Archive held at The National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port – find the digital archive at http://collections. canalrivertrust.org.uk • Waterways museums: There are local museums, but the two most important are The National Waterways Museum, South Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire CH65 4FW and Gloucester Waterways Museum, Llanthony Warehouse, The Docks, Gloucester

trade where they could.

Joe and Rose Skinner, for example, ran their single horse-drawn boat more or less until Joe died in 1975.

Rose was given a home ‘on the land’ but still preferred to go down to the old boat every day and spend her time there.

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Did your ancestor take part in canal-mania?

Other watercraft Narrow boats were not the only craft working the waterways. Many canals, from the Kennet & Avon in the south to the Leeds & Liverpool in the north were built to take wide barges, which provided far more ample accommodation for those living on board. There were also a number of ship canals constructed during the first period, starting with the Forth & Clyde and Scotland also boasted the most ambitious, the Caledonian. The latter was mainly a through route for vessels avoiding the long voyage round the north coast, but the Forth & Clyde had a regular cargo trade, and developed

its own distinctive craft in the 19th century, tubby little steamers, known as Clyde puffers.

All sorts of occupations Not all canal workers were on boats. The companies had to keep a permanent staff fulfilling a range of roles from office clerks to lock keepers and maintenance men. The canal companies made their profit by charging tolls and each canal had an elaborate set of rates depending on the cargo and the quantity: crafty boatmen have been known to try and hide the more expensive material under something cheaper. The toll

Research tip!

It would be quite wrong to think of narrow boats as being the only canal craft: there was a rich variety, but it was on the narrow boats that you were most likely to find entire fa milies. This can be judged by the various census returns, though these are not always reliable, as pinning people down in the moving population was always a problem

collectors had to be on their guard.

The price was determined by gauging: a calibrated rod was set against marks on the boat and the depth above the waterline indicated the weight for different types of cargo. In some cases, on busy canals, this was done in tollhouses, but often it fell to the lock keepers. Rose MacDonald has very happy memories of her father and life in the lock cottage: ‘My brightest memories of him are those of him skipping ... across the boats, with the gauge over his arm, notebook and pencil at the ready.’ Maintenance men were kept busy with all kinds of duties, from dredging to pile driving, and the canal maintenance yards had facilities for forging metal for paddle gear or making new lock gates. There a never any shortage of work, and their name will often appear in company records.

End of an era

Wide boats on the Rochdale Canal, stuck in the ice of the frozen canal

The 20th century saw increasing competition from road traffic, particularly after the First World War when a lot of ex-Army lorries were available at knockdown prices. Trade dwindled and several canals closed.

There was a brief resurgence during the 1939-1945 war, when a number of all-women crews were formed and did magnificent work. But by the end of the war, when the waterways were nationalised, it was clear that the end was in sight. The working days of the narrow canals ended, but a new industry grew and prospered – boating for pleasure. The system is busier than it has been for decades, but the old working life has gone for ever.

About the author Anthony Burton left a career in publishing in

Boat children in the floating school at Braunston

1968. Since then he has been a professional author for 40 years, specialising in industrial and transport history, inspired by his own family background of generations of workers in heavy industry. He has written numerous books on the trades and industries of the British Isles, including the Pen & Sword title, Tracing Your Shipbuilding Ancestors: A Guide For Family Historians. www.anthonyburton.co.uk

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TOP FAMILY HISTORY PROJECT IDEA

Setting up a one-name study As family historians we all inevitably collect a huge number of different ancestral names. But what is it that leads some researchers to acquire a taste for one particular surname alone? Julie Goucher has been an avid one-name study expert (and addict) for many years now, and here she shows us what a fulfilling addition her study has made to her understanding of her family’s history

O

ne-namers – as members of the Guild of One-Name Studies are known – each have their own catalyst for starting their study. Perhaps they began theirs to break down a brick wall in their own genealogy, or to answer a theory about family groups bearing the same surname being connected.

My catalyst for starting a study came in two parts.

Firstly, the surname Orlando appeared in my UK area, my native Surrey, as far back as 1900. This was a good 60 years earlier than my Italian

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migrated family there.

Secondly, and more importantly, it became apparent to me that I knew a huge amount of information about my maternal line – that had been predominately cocooned in Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex for about 300 years – with branches to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, India and Canada. In complete contrast, however, I knew very little about my paternal line. It felt as though I was sitting on a seesaw that was heavy at one end. It made me question my identity. Who was I? So I set out to discover more about these Orlandos.

Starting my study Since the late 1980s I had been collecting references about the Orlando surname and those that related to the Sicilian town my family hailed from; Sutera in the province of Caltanissetta. In 2002, I registered the surname of Orlando with the Guild of One-Name Studies. Then in 2013 I registered my already established oneplace study relating to Sutera with the Society of One-Place Studies and the Register of One-Place Studies.

These two studies have enabled me to pursue, really thoroughly, my quest in understanding more about who

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Take your surname research deeper I was and where I genetically came from. After all, these Italian Orlandos represented 50 per cent of my very being, so there was no way I didn’t want to find out more.

Setting up a DNA project As part of the one-name study I undertook a DNA test. Without an obliging male, the only way I could contribute was to do an autosomal (Family Finder) test. I waited somewhat impatiently for the results.

The day I received them I logged into the website and downloaded the results as a spreadsheet. I sat and looked at the spreadsheet for several hours. I was completely fascinated.

The way I felt was summed up nicely

by Bryan Sykes in Blood of the Isles: ‘… the idea that within each of our body cells we carry a tangible fragment from an ancestor from thousands of years ago is both astonishing and profound. That these pieces of DNA have travelled over thousands of miles and thousands of years to get to us, virtually unchanged, from our remote ancestors still fills me with awe, and I am not alone’.

Indeed, Bryan Sykes is not alone, and neither am I. In 2007 with the help of the DNA adviser for the Guild of One-Name Studies, I formed the Orlando DNA Project. At the beginning things were slow, but now, a decade on, there is a handful of us interested in our Orlando DNA. You might think that in a decade that is slow going, and it is, but for Italians that is about right!

More than just names & dates There are several of constraints with researching an Italian surname, whether it is a one-name study or not. However, I personally believe that if you are researching a European surname then you are well placed and suited to start

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such a study. The constraints are not so hard that you cannot overcome them, it just means that you need to exercise patience – not something I am usually especially good at!

Before I look at the constraints, let me say this, for me, it is about my identity.

My Italian heritage represents 50 per cent of me. My one-name study is very personal and perhaps more so than for most people. How you regard it will depend on the catalyst for your study.

My study has led to me gaining a greater knowledge of culture and the effect that religion has on it. Also paramount is consideration of the language, and learning the ability perhaps to speak, but certainly to comprehend, the written language.

To understand the driving forces and the links of history to migration are also enlightening.

A study is about more than names and dates. It is about bringing someone to life, to understand the trials and tribulations of their existence and what drove them to do something, how or why they achieved their dream or perhaps simply survived, in some cases against the odds. Of course, it is just not possible to do this for every individual within a study, but there will be those individuals we encounter as part of our study that we wonder about especially – and we just must know more.

Collecting evidence The book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: The Art of a One-Name Study published by the Guild, outlines the steps of such a study. It is key to remember that the steps are not always followed in order and those with studies will spend a great deal of time at the collection stage of a study before proceeding further. The collect stage is quite simply that, collecting the data.

For my Orlando study, I currently spend time in three different areas for

How to begin gathering details The aim with a one-name study is to make a note of every single instance you find of a particular surname in the records.

This is how you begin: ➊ In the process of doing your family history you’ll have found many instances of your surname.

Rather than just recording the details of your specific family (as you would do as a family historian), with a one-name study you need to collect all instances of the name Ë Set up a database, such as an Excel file, to make a note of the following details: • surname variant (if you are collecting variant spellings); • person’s first name(s); • source/database/website on which you found the entry; • record type (ie census, gravestone etc); • record date.

These details will ensure that you don’t include duplicate entries in your database. Ì Having begun collecting details and set up a database, now you can cast your net wider and explore other ways to find instances of your surname (for example, overseas’ census records, and DNA testing to find further matches, to name just two

There are lots of different routes to becoming an organised one-namer, but this seven-step approach, as outlined in the Guild’s book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: The Art of a One-Name Study, gives a helpful outline of the process

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TOP FAMILY HISTORY PROJECT IDEA

World Profiler is a free website that maps the distribution of surnames globally. The darker the colour, the higher the occurrence of a surname

Find out more

Is a one-name study for you?

If the following things apply to you, you could be ideally suited to starting a one-name study: ➊ You’re familiar with how to research family history. You know about the steps to take, and the historic records to look at Ë You enjoy collecting large quantities of data Ì You have access to core records such as census returns and civil registration records Í You’re looking for a new challenge for your family history and the opportunity to discover more about your surname – and maybe even become the leading expert on that name too!

down further to the States for the USA or into the regions.

There is not one style for collating and organising your study and over the last few years I have changed my process more than once, but whatever you decide it needs to be comfortable for you use and enjoy; making sharing easier.

Sharing your information about your study enables you to publicise, publish and preserve your study, hopefully leading to connecting with others researching the same surname and discovering yet more.

• www.family-tree.co.uk/how-toguides/next-steps/how-to-start-aone-name-study – FT blog • www.one-name.org – Guild of One-Name Studies • www.one-name.org/profile/orlando – Orlando One-Name Study • www.familytreedna.com/public/ orlando – Orlando DNA Project • http://worldnames.publicprofiler. org – World Names Public Profiler • DNA Case Study, Family Tree, Feb 2017, www.family-tree.co.uk/store

About the author An avid history lover, Julie Goucher has been researching her family history since the late 1980s and has an interest in Italian ancestry. Julie is conducting several one-name studies and is an administrator for several DNA projects.

Julie is the tutor for the Introduction to One-Name Studies course run by Pharos

Zoom in on World Profiler to get further details about your surname for your area of interest

Tutors, and is a Trustee and Secretary for the Guild of One-Name Studies. www.anglers-rest.net

the collection stage: Firstly, where I am, which is the United Kingdom.

Secondly, where they are, which is Italy, and specifically Sutera, Sicily.

And thirdly, where the most instances of the surname are outside of Italy, and that is the United States.

I also have a branch of my Orlandos that migrated to the United States.

The maps shown here are from World Profiler. The site is free to use and works by marking the countries with the most occurrences of the surname with the darker colour, so for Orlando this is Italy, Argentina and United States. You can also drill

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Join us on the

BATTLEFIELD TOUR 13th to 15th October 2017 in association with Battlefield Partnerships

Your chance to visit Plugstreet, Hill 60, Tyne Cot, Passchendaele, the Menin Gate and other important locations at the Front in the First World War With military experts, Q&A sessions & guided tours, we have put together this bespoke battlefield tour with the needs of family historians first and foremost in mind See page 26 for further details

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BOOK YOUR PLACE ON THE TOUR TODAY! Join us on the Family Tree Battlefield Tour 13-15 October 2017 in association with Battlefield Partnerships

The ruins of Ypres, Rue de Lille – as seen during the war by many soldier ancestors

What’s it like to take a battlefield tour?

‘Time spent “on the ground” will reveal so much about where your relative served and possibly even why’.

We chatted to Andy Robertshaw – lead tour guide on the Family Tree Battlefield Tour to Flanders, taking place 13th-15th October – to find out more

Q A

What’s it like to experience a battlefield tour?

If you know a little about your relatives’ service you will have some place names and locations in mind before you set off. Therefore when you arrive in Poperinge, Arras, Ypres or Albert you will be standing in the same street as your relative walked a hundred years ago.

You will see the same church, hill or wood that they saw and perhaps going into a bar, hotel or church that they

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would have known. It is frequently impossible to be certain but if a soldier was at Ypres then he almost certainly saw the ruins of the Cloth Hall and if he was at Albert on the Somme would have seen the leaning golden statue of the Virgin on the top of the Basilica.

Q

If you are thinking of researching your ancestors before taking a battlefield tour, what sort of thing is it useful to try and find out?

A

The most useful piece of information is always going to be the unit he or she was in, preferably done to the level of his battalion or battery, if he was a gunner.

• War diaries – All units at battalion level, about a 1,000, completed a War Diary every day of the war. So if you know that your relative was in the 2nd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, for example, and he was wounded on a particular date you can consult the War Diary either at The National Archives, Kew, or

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‘I can’t promise you a time machine, but …’ online to see what happened that day and in the preceding few days or months.

It is rare for ‘other ranks’ to be named, but officers are referenced by name in most cases. Despite this, fi nding the details of a day in which your relative served and then standing on the spot where this happened is invaluable.

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission – One aspect of this kind of research is that it is much easier to find information about service men and women who died. This is simply because it was vital for the families of the deceased to know about the fate of their relatives and so records kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are very easy to access and understand, and can be accessed free at www.cwgc.org • Service records – Sadly a large proportion of First World War service records were destroyed in the Second World War and for many servicemen there is little information available for those who survived.

• Background colour – Please be aware that a death or wounding is not the only area of a serviceman’s career to focus upon. He or she will have served for months or years before this event. Try to look around the record to get a flavour of ordinary days working behind the lines, in billets or in camp.

Q

Do you need to have researched your ancestors to get benefit from a battlefield tour?

A

The landscape of 1914-18 has disappeared, to be replaced by monuments and cemeteries with the occasional area of preserved trenches.

To fully appreciate a personal story requires small groups combined with the opportunity to research individuals rather than armies. So to fully understand the importance of where you are requires a good guide – and this is where the Family Tree Battlefield Tour can help you. Prior reading, map study and imagination are all invaluable too. The more research that can be done before the visit, the more you will gain in insight.

Q A

What do you find most valuable about a tour?

The most valuable aspect of any tour is the opportunity to gain an understanding of the ground that was once a battlefield – and this applies to people seeking to learn about a specific ancestor’s war and to those with a general military history interest. Distances that mean little in books make so much more sense when you walk them. Perhaps the most amazing aspect is the importance of hills. Hill 60 at Ypres is only 60 metres above sea level, but from therefore it is possible to see the City of Ypres. That is why soldiers fought and died there for four years. They were trying to ensure that the enemy could not see and therefore shell it into ruins. Whether it is a village like Montauban on the Somme, the gradual slope beyond the village of Fromelles, or the steep gradient of Vimy Ridge, time spent ‘on the ground’ will reveal so much about where your relative served and possibly even why.

Q A

What is a stand-out memory for you from a tour?

A few years ago I had the opportunity to guide Phil Harding, the hat-wearing archaeologist from Time Team, as he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Hubert Harding. Hubert was a gunner and served right through the war and was eventually discharged from the Army in 1919. Luckily his service papers were complete and Phil was able to learn his grandfather’s height, chest size and details of his pre-war civilian life. As Phil pointed out ‘You don’t get these details with the Romans’.

However, it was towards the end of the tour, in which we followed Hubert’s battery from Ypres in 1915 to Arras in 1917, that Phil had his biggest surprise. Standing in a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery near the town of Arras he was asked whether he remembered a detail from his grandfather’s service record. This

A wartime view of the toppling Virgin on the Basilica at Albert

TO F IN D M O R E A BO U T T H E FA M IL O U T Y BAT T L E F IE T R E E TO U R V IS L D IT

• http://f amily tr.e e/battleb • http://f log1 amily tr.e e/battleb log2

HOW TO BOOK YOUR PLACE • Price, including travel, accommodation at Skindles, Poperinge, evening meals (one at Skindles, one at a restaurant in Poperinge, and breakfast) per person £475 (or £449 per subscriber to Family Tree – see page 61). To book your place go to http://familytr.ee/battletour • If you have any queries, please email helen.t@family tree.co.uk or andy@andyrobertshaw.com and we’ll be happy to help

was a description of a day in April 1917 when Sergeant Hubert Harding had been wounded when a German shell hit the gun position. Four men were killed and Sergeant Harding remained in action after the incident despite his injury.

It took a few seconds for Phil to realise that the graves he was stood next to were those of four gunners killed on the same day as his grandfather was wounded. When it became clear that these men were ‘his’ grandfather’s comrades, men who died alongside him, he asked to be alone for a while. Later he indicated that this event mattered more to him than anything else on the journey.

I cannot promise a time machine but the result of a few days on the Western Front is worth months at home looking at archives online.

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MAKE A BESPOKE FAMILY KEEPSAKE

TAP HERE

to watch a video about making a memory box with Helen Tovey

How to create a memory box Distill the very best of your family’s story into a memory box, which preserves precious items for you and your descendants to enjoy. Rachel Bellerby rummages in this most precious of treasure chests

N

o matter how long you’ve been tracing your family history, the chances are you’ve already collected some paperwork along the way, such as birth, marriage and death records, census records, and family papers including certificates and newspaper clippings. But how many of us

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think about preserving non-paper memorabilia such as medals, baby shoes and jewellery?

These items are an important part of our family’s story and yet are sometimes overlooked in favour of more traditional documents. Creating a memory box is an interesting way to present and preserve all that’s unique

about your family and your ancestors, with a collection of special items which are precious to you and your relatives, and which help tell the story of your ancestors in time to come.

It’s easy to get started, and you can add to your memory box over the years, as you discover more about your ancestors and what life was

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Family history records with a difference like for your family in years gone by.

Because a memory box is a very visual way of presenting history, it can also be a great way to get other members of the family interested in the past.

Choosing your memory box When choosing what container to use as a memory box, try to select a container large enough to ensure that your treasures aren’t squashed, but not so big that it can’t be easily stored and moved around. Keep it manageable!

• What sort of box should you use?

There are special keepsake boxes you can buy, or you could use an heirloom box belonging to an ancestor, making it even more special. Otherwise, a wooden box would work well and you could personalise this with decoupage, varnish, etc.

• Think about where the memory box will be stored – An attic or cellar isn’t a great bet for long-term storage, because of temperature and humidity issues, so find a secure place elsewhere in the house, and label the box so that it isn’t accidentally thrown out during a spring clean.

Selecting your own family treasures Take your time when deciding what should go into your memory box, and remember that you can take out and add items over the years. Before you begin, check whether members of the wider family have any treasures they’d be willing to donate. If you attend a family Christmas or birthday gettogether, contact the other guests beforehand, so that people a have chance to unearth suitable items.

Because it’s easy to store paper archives such as certificates and photographs in folders and albums, when filling your memory box, concentrate more on alternative items, those which are unique to your family and difficult to replace.

These could include items such as a christening shawl, military medals, or a family Bible. Think also about everyday items such as a family recipe book that has been passed down the generations; these too have their place in the story.

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You could also include a typed or handwritten document which explains what each item is and what you know about it, together with any family stories associated with each memory item.

Ensure that your treasures stand the test of time by using acid-free packaging materials, such as tissue paper and storage boxes, which is how irreplaceable items are often stored in museums and archives.

A future keepsake

DO YO ALREADY U A MEMOR HAVE Y BOX?

Share yo ur ideas or a photo on our Face b ook page to in spire fell ow readers

After taking so much trouble to assemble and store your memory box, make sure that other people in the family are aware of its existence, so that it can be passed down the generations in years to come.

You can future-proof the box by leaving enough room for other treasures to be added in the coming years, so that your descendants will not only enjoy looking through the box, but will also add their own treasures.

If you enjoyed creating your memory box, consider making a themed memory box for a friend or relative, perhaps as a wedding or christening gift, and fill it with special items, along with a note explaining what each item is, and inviting the recipient to select and store some of their own treasures in the box.

Ideas for contents of your box Explore the internet for ideas for making and decorating your memory box. Both www.pinterest.com and www.marthastewart.com have creative project inspiration. As to ideas for the contents, consider: • A family Bible • Textiles such as a christening shawl or snippets of fabric from clothes worn by your ancestors • Military memorabilia such as cap badges and medals • Items symbolising memorable moments, including baby shoes, wedding favours and prayer books • Diaries and recipe books • Childhood memorabilia such as first shoes, school badges and treasured items of clothing • Heirloom items such as jewellery

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LEARN ABOUT CLOTHING FROM TIMES GONE BY

What did our ancestors wear in the factory?

With the Industrial Revolution thousands of our ancestors found work in factories.

Let’s look through the billowing clouds of smoke and peer through the grimy factory window – what did our ancestors who slaved away in there look like? What did they wear? Jayne Shrimpton rolls up her sleeves to explain

D

uring the late 1700s and 1800s industrial progress transformed Britain’s economy and society. Gradually, new employment opportunities in mills, factories and workshops prompted earlier generations of our families to leave the countryside and join the expanding urban labour force, their hours and productivity henceforth regulated by machinery.

With increased numbers of women entering industry again during World War I and World War II, many of us have ancestors who at

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some point in their lives worked in exhausting, often hazardous environments, with little provision for their comfort, health and safety.

The transition from rural labour and cottage industries to large-scale, mechanised factory production, albeit variable in different geographical locations, represented a momentous upheaval, and yet dress – usually a powerful indicator of change – was slow to adapt: with a few modifications, work wear largely followed mainstream fashion and until relatively recently industrial clothing was not fit for purpose.

Early mill & factory wear The first English factories were textile mills. In 1784 Samuel Gregg (1758-1834) built a cotton mill at Quarry Bank, Styall, Cheshire, and the indentures for some of his young apprentices demonstrate that they received clothes, as well as food and training. Some employers offered clothing prizes to their workforce to encourage production, like Richard Arkwright at his Derbyshire cottonspinning mill during the 1780s. Details are imprecise and with visual images scarce for the early industrial age, we may assume that the first factory

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From mill workers to munitionettes This scene showing the doubling room at Dean Mills cotton mill, Bolton, portrays women wearing various back-fastening pinafores and aprons, one woman securing her hair safely

staff, like other working people, mainly wore functional variants of contemporary dress.

Garments would have been chiefly fashioned from sturdy, hardwearing materials, men favouring a short jacket over longer coats and women perhaps shortening the hems of their skirts to clear the ground.

Traditionally, in many occupations aprons protected the wearer’s regular clothes and loose smocks were worn by many farm labourers (see ‘Dressed

for work: agricultural workers’, FT April 2016). However, flowing fabric was clearly unsuited to mechanical operations, so smocks remained largely an agricultural and artisanal mode. Male mill and factory workers could, however, remove their jackets and waistcoats and work ‘undressed’ in light shirt sleeves and breeches or trousers; by contrast, female modes were particularly inconvenient in hot and humid or dusty factories, long skirts easily caught in moving machinery and the customary layers of underwear stifling to an almost unimaginable degree.

Historically many clothes were made at home by the women of a household, but the long, gruelling, strictlyregulated hours of industrial work probably left little free time or energy

In this detail (below) from George Walker’s Costume of Yorkshire (1814), a factory boy and girl wear the new white pinafores that would become standard wear in 19th-century cotton mills Samuel Courtauld & Co ‘Dress Code’ of October 1860 prohibited female factory workers from wearing cumbersome and dangerous crinoline skirts to work

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for assembling new garments. Busy workers’ clothes were often bought at jumble sales or acquired second-hand from pawnbrokers, dealers or the rag man, handed down from person to person within the family, or even passed around the neighbourhood.

Adult clothes were frequently repaired and might eventually be remade into children’s garments. For working footwear, iron-studded wooden-soled clogs with leather uppers became usual in the factories and mills of northern England – economical shoes that were practical and hard-wearing.

As the British cotton industry expanded, cloth production advanced and consequently clothes became cheaper, so that by the beginning of the 19th century workers in cotton manufacturing regions were no longer restricted to coarse woollen and linen goods. Much cotton fabric was affordable, also comfortable and easily washed, and textile workers must have benefited from access to materials as they were manufactured, perhaps being given scraps or sold cheap offcuts. Many different grades

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LEARN ABOUT CLOTHING FROM TIMES GONE BY operating moving machinery and had to be pinned up securely, or worn in a net – hairnets and cauls also being popular fashion accessories of the 1860s and early 1870s.

Rudimentary protection

The Dinner Hour, Wigan, 1874, by Eyre Crowe, offers a sanitised view of textile workers in aprons, coloured skirts, clogs or bare feet and shawls, their hair in fashionable hairnets

of cotton were developed, stouter calicoes being ideal for work clothes; a useful new fabric was also launched – corduroy, a tough, durable, thickribbed cotton velvet that soon became a favoured material for labouring men’s suits.

During the early 1800s a special type of protective apron evolved for factory work – a garment depicted in George Walker’s Costume of Yorkshire (1814) as being worn by young girls and boys from the local mills. Made of white cotton or linen and drawn on over the head, it comprised a sleeveless bodice front and back, attached to an apron skirt at the front – a garment for covering the ordinary clothes underneath. Probably the earliest form of pinafore, this new item was adopted in many lateGeorgian mills and factories, often differentiating their workforce from home weavers, who still wore the traditional waist apron.

Victorian dress codes It was largely up to employers to define what their workers should wear and evidently this varied from workplace to workplace. Fashion accelerated in Victorian Britain and when the vast, circular crinoline frame grew popular with women of all social classes in the late 1850s, some mill owners decided to intervene.

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In 1860, the management of Samuel Courtauld & Co in Essex issued a dress code, assuring their female staff that, while they approved of ‘comely young women’ appearing neat and tidy, they felt duty-bound to prohibit items that hindered the wearer’s work, or that of others, especially: The present ugly fashion of HOOPs and CRINOLINE, as it is called, is… quite unfitted for the work of our Factories.

Among the power Looms it is almost impossible, and highly dangerous; among the Winding and Drawing Engines it greatly impedes the free passage of Overseers, Wasters &C., and is also inconvenient to all. At the Mills it is equally inconvenient, and still more mischievous, by bringing the dress against the Spindles, whilst it also sometimes becomes shockingly indecent when the young people are standing upon the Sliders.

Increasingly, factory and mill girls were urged to leave their cumbersome crinolines and, later, bustles behind at home when they came to work, overseers even being appointed to check for hooped under-structures. Plain, decent frocks with few petticoats were encouraged as sensible factory wear, with a shawl for warmth. Traditional aprons or the new pinafores were also worn, some pinafores now styled with short sleeves to better cover the clothes beneath.

Long hair was a potential danger when

In the mid-Victorian era the law did not enforce any kind of protective clothing, and even in heavy industry labourers were woefully ill-equipped.

Some, however, developed their own basic protective gear: for example, iron-workers often wore leather aprons like those traditionally worn by blacksmiths – even leather over-trousers at Mare & Co, Shipbuilders of Blackwall, by the mid-1850s. Mares’ workers also adopted a hard cap with a deep peak extending over the nose, shielding eyes from the intense glare. Similarly, at the Great Central Gasworks in 1876, men in the retort house donned early forms of face masks against the searing heat.

Many hazardous jobs inspired the development of heavy-duty steel-toe reinforced leather boots or shoes to protect the feet – footwear that in certain industries eventually superseded clogs.

In some dyeing and printing works protective aprons were devised This plate from Textile Manufactures of Great Britain, 1844, shows a man operating a bandana-dyeing press, wearing a novel protective apron with integral leg coverings

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From mill workers to munitionettes that also incorporated special legcoverings. However, in most lightwork factories no modifications were considered necessary. For instance, at Hinks, Wells & Co, Birmingham pen manufacturers, around 100 female workers in the pen-grinding workshop were wearing wide crinoline dresses, fashionable white collars and neat aprons in 1857. No eye protection was recommended for the flying metal particles: a girl might wear glasses if permitted, but goggles were not yet invented.

Because of the impractical nature of women’s fashions, female workers remained most at risk: in 1894 a 14-year-old fractured her leg in a Lancashire factory. As an observer explained: ‘She had been at work at a carding engine for several weeks….in an endeavour to keep her card in good order by steady cleaning, her skirt was caught in the driving band and the mischief was done.’

New legislation In general, from the late-1800s more chemicals were used in manufacturing and this trend eventually prompted specific legislation aimed at protecting workers. The Factory and Workshop Act of 1891 embodied regulations that continued into the next century, including, for example, provision of special respirators for chemical workers and high-necked, long-sleeved overalls and gloves for those handling imported animal hides and skins.

Coveralls or overall coats were the new, modern style of working garments. A surviving blue and white striped twilled cotton overall worn by an employee from the CWS Jam Works, Middleton Junction, Greater Manchester c1900 is long-sleeved and almost ankle-length, amply covering the wearer’s clothes, as well as fulfilling new hygiene requirements. White was becoming common for those working in the food industry: for instance, women at the Cadbury’s factory

wore white Holland overalls (except forewomen, who wore blue overalls), the material provided free initially, then at a subsidised rate.

Pinafores continued to be worn in the cotton factories where they had first evolved, although in 1926 the Woollen and Worsted Textile Regulations made overalls and head coverings compulsory.

War work During the First World War, millions of women commenced factory work, taking over jobs from men serving at the Front. Following Factory Act guidelines, ‘munitionettes’ working in dangerous munitions factories were provided with calf-length overalls treated with flame-retardant chemicals, although these proved of little use in major industrial accidents like the Silvertown, West Ham explosion of January 1917.

Most munitions factory overalls were khaki, with blue sometimes denoting supervisors or forewomen.

Caps to contain long tresses were also

In Iron and Coal c1857-1861 (below), William Scott Bell portrays Tyneside iron workers wearing stout blue canvas shirts, long aprons and peaked leather caps Women wearing overalls are working at a factory lathe in this poster (right) dating from the First World War

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LEARN ABOUT CLOTHING FROM TIMES GONE BY

Most male textile factory workers removed their jackets, working in shirt sleeves, as in this Lancashire postcard, c1909. Many wore blue shirts, inspiring the term ‘blue collar’ workers

Below: In this postcard photograph, WW1 munitions factory workers wear buttoned fire retardant overall coats with obligatory elasticated caps and identifying ‘On war service’ badges

obligatory, many women cutting their hair short for the first time, instigating a new fashion. All metal items that could possibly cause sparks, such as hairpins, even steel-boned corsets, were strictly prohibited on the factory floor.

New face creams claiming to contain ‘special oxygen properties’ promised to preserve the softness and purity of complexions exposed to the ‘injurious grit and grime’ of the munitions factories: unfortunately nothing could prevent the alarming yellowing skin of ‘canary girls’ working in shell filling workshops with lethal quantities of TNT. Some female war workers in heavy industry adopted a practical short overall coat or tunic and loose ankle-length trousers. These masculine trousers were donned temporarily, mainly for basic protection and to demonstrate the wearer’s role in the factory, mill, shipyard, railway shed or ironworks: duly discarded after the war, none are known to survive.

During the 1920s and 1930s sturdy cotton drill or canvas bib-and-brace overalls (dungarees) and trousered boiler suits with large pockets began to be worn in certain industries, often replacing traditional aprons and overall coats. Throughout the Second World War women laboured at the heart of British manufacturing, operating deafening and dangerous machinery and frequently handling

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hazardous materials. Garbed in tough, shapeless utilitarian dungarees and boiler suit overalls, those working in aircraft and munitions factories and chemical works also wore hairnets or headscarves to preserve their hair from polluted factory environments and as an essential safety measure. The scarf turban, symbolic of factory work, quickly became a major war-time fashion: simple jersey turbans could be bought, or women fashioned homemade versions, winding a scarf around the head, the ends tucked in under a knot of fabric above the forehead.

Cosmetics were also much worn in the factories, partly to compensate for the unfeminine work wear, and again to help protect the complexion from toxic chemicals. British munitions factory workers received a special allowance for face creams in 1942 and occasionally a sales representative from Max Factor arrived with free products – a great boost to workers’ morale.

Wartime factory staff worked long shifts and were usually busy precisely during shop opening times, but sympathetic employers allowed workers a half-day or two free ‘shopping break’ hours per week. Key

factory staff were also allowed to register in advance for rationed goods.

Once associated with gruelling toil and desperate poverty, during the Second World War factory labour was now elevated to a prime position within the economy and work wear was given a modern makeover.

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THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE LDS CHURCH

The Mormon mission Steve Ward explores the story behind the world’s biggest free family history website, FamilySearch, and the early emigrants who left Britain’s shores for new lives as followers of the Mormon church in America

M

any family historians will be familiar with the term LDS. It is an abbreviation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and its free searchable website www.familysearch.org provides, in its own words; ‘the largest collection of genealogical and historical records in the world’.

The LDS record-keeping began in 1894 and now exceeds 3.3 billion records worldwide, and the website is a treasure trove of information for family historians. It is also possible to

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visit an LDS Family History Centre, where you can get free personal help with your family history research, though the microfilm loan service has now ceased.

For many readers this may be the extent of their knowledge of the LDS but it is a fact that during the second half of the 19th century many thousands of people left their homes in Britain to a future of promise in the far west of America. It is quite likely that, given the numbers who emigrated at this time, some readers may have ancestors who followed this path.

The origins of the Mormons Members of the LDS were commonly, and still are, referred to as Mormons.

Mormonism is a comparatively young religious movement and was officially founded on 6 April 1830 by Joseph Smith in Fayette, New York State, America. Smith was born in 1805 in Vermont and came from a relatively poor background. He had only a basic education, and in his teenage years he claimed to have had a revelation in which he was declared as the ‘chosen one’. Three years later, in 1823, he was visited by the angel Moroni, who

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The Mormon exodus of the 19th century

FIND AN FA MILY H LDS CENTRE N ISTORY EAR YOU V

isit w w w.f amilysea rc and click on ‘family h.org history centres’ fo r an intera ctive searchab le map

This map shows the meticulous grid layout of Salt Lake City.

The location of the Granite Mountain Records Vault is to the east of the city, off the Little Cottonwood Canyon Road

revealed to him the site of a collection of buried golden plates, upon which were engraved the religious writings of the prophets of ancient America.

Claiming divine guidance, he spent the next three months translating these writings. Secreted behind a blanket or screen, he dictated the work to a series of scribes. The final work became known as the Book of Mormon. Only 11 other people claim to have seen the original golden plates, which were taken back by Moroni after the work was completed.

In 1829 Smith, and a small number of others, claimed to have been visited

by John the Baptist, who conferred upon them the authority of the Aaronic Priesthood. This allowed the formal establishment of their first church, with the Book of Mormon being their primary sacred text. The first Mormon Temple was erected in Kirtland, Ohio in 1836.

The Mormon War From the very beginning there was distrust and suspicion of ‘Mormonites’, as they were known.

One of the main dislikes was that they openly practised polygamy, the taking of more than one wife; Joseph Smith himself was said to have had up to 30 wives. By 1838, it was reported in the Dublin Morning Register of 24 October that the number of Mormonites across

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the states of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and parts of New York numbered in the region of 50,000. As communities grew there was open conflict between local citizens and the Mormonites, with riots, skirmishes and arson attacks on both sides. The British press often referred to these incidents as the ‘Mormon War’, and advised against British converts travelling to America. Matters came to a head when, in 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother were shot dead during a riot at a prison in Carthage, Illinois.

The mission to Britain One of the reasons that this new religion grew so rapidly was that members were actively engaged in proselytising; missionary work to gather new converts. In 1837 the first Mormon missionaries arrived in Britain. Seven members landed in Liverpool and were described as ‘fine looking stalwart fellows who behaved with a very fair degree of decorum’. They immediately set about proselytising the working communities of Lancashire and this new religion grew in numbers. It spread rapidly across Britain, and given the untenable living conditions in many industrial towns and cities it is not surprising that many embraced

The angel of Moroni, who Mormons believe revealed the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith.

Inset: The Book of Mormon

Was your ancestor an early Mormon?

If you think that a member of your family became a member of the LDS, then the Ancestry website has a searchable list – ‘Membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1830-1848’

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THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE LDS CHURCH

DISCOVER GR MOUNTAINANITE

Brigham Young, who took over leadership of the early Mormon church from Joseph Smith, after the church founder was shot dead during a riot

Watch a c lip about th FamilySe arch arch e ive hidden de ep underg s, rou at the Gra nite Moun nd tain Records http://fam Vault, Utah: ily tr.ee/G ranMtn

tensions still existed in Ohio and New York State, he took the decision to take his followers westwards, across the Rockies to the Great Salt Lake Basin to create their own ‘Zion’, in what is now the state of Utah. It was a difficult and hazardous journey, across desert and mountain, until the great train of wagons reached its goal on 24 July 1847. Here the Mormons founded Salt Lake City, a name that is now synonymous with the Church of the Latter-day Saints.

In Britain the religious movement continued to grow, a new mission being established in Wales by 1844.

Most emigrants left the country on chartered ships from the port of Liverpool. In 1863, the first ship load of more than 800 Mormon emigrants left Gravesend on board the Amazon.

This departure was well documented because the famous Victorian writer Charles Dickens visited the ship on 4 June 1863. His observations were written in his story, The Uncommercial Traveller, and records his experiences of a Mormon emigrant community.

The story today A typical wagon, as used by the Mormons to travel out west to Utah to set up their new Zion

Mormonism, with its promise of a better life in Zion. It was not just in industrial areas that Mormonism flourished. By 1840 it was recorded that the new faith had reached Ledbury, in rural Gloucestershire.

In those first few years many hundreds of converts were encouraged to sell up their property and emigrate to the ‘land of promise’ in America, where they could expect ‘glory and happiness for a thousand years’. Contrary to popular belief,

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Mormon emigrants had to pay for their own passage to America. Those who were impoverished did have their passage paid through the Perpetual Emigration Fund but they had to sign a Bond promising to repay the cost once they had arrived at their destination and found employment.

The founding of Salt Lake City With the death of Joseph Smith, the Mormon leadership passed to Brigham Young. Realising that

To this day, the Mormon story is closely intertwined with that of family history, as family historians – regardless of their religious or atheistic views – can enjoy the benefits of the vast genealogical databases created by the LDS Church and found most notably at www.familysearch.org For Mormons their ancestor research is vital so that they can baptise now-deceased family members into the Mormon church, and so ensure that the entire family can be reunited in heaven. For most family historians, our motives are different, but perhaps no less close to our hearts.

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The Mormon exodus of the 19th century

The Mormon Temple at Kirtland, Ohio Emigrants, on the SS Nevada, on which Mormon converts sailed for America

Find out more

Case Study 1

Elizabeth Cornell’s tale

On board the Amazon was a young woman named Elizabeth Cornell. She was born in Enfield, North London, on 23 September 1839. Her father, Frederick Ebenezer Cornell, was baptised in All Saints Church, Enfield, in 1804, but he later embraced the Mormon religion because he was baptised as a member of the Church of the Latter-day Saints on 18 January 1846 (www.ancestry.co.uk). One year later he became an ordained priest in the movement. Elizabeth’s older brother Henry was also baptised into the faith in 1847.

Elizabeth set sail as a single woman aged only 23 years. She met up with six other single women and the story of their voyage is told in the book Seven Sisters – The Voyage by Carolyn Hart Bennett (2008). The story of their continuing overland journey across America to Salt Lake City is told in her second book, Seven Sisters – Overland Trek (2014). Elizabeth is also mentioned

by Mary E Fretwell Davis in her

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autobiography https://history.lds.org Eventually arriving in Salt Lake City, Elizabeth became, in 1864, the second wife of prominent LDS member Samson Nate. They went on to have seven children together (Samson also had eight children with his first wife). The family later moved to Paris, Illinois, USA and then to Dingle in Idaho, where Elizabeth was buried on 13 February 1917.

George Edward Hyde’s life Case George Edward Hyde was born in Study 2 Manchester in 1864. At the age of 19 he appears on the passenger list of the SS Nevada, sailing from Liverpool on 11 April 1883. He was in a group of 352 emigrating Mormons under the charge of Elder David McKay. Their final destination was to be Salt Lake City. George became a naturalised American in 1886 and went on to study medicine. He became a renowned doctor in Utah and was the Director of the Utah Mental Hospital in Provo, before his death in 1922.

• The Mormon Migration Website https://mormonmigration.lib. byu.edu allows you to search by name, place, date or ship. It also has a list of articles and stories about Mormon emigration • www.familysearch.org has a searchable Mormon Migration Database (1840-1932) • https://history.lds.org/ overlandtravel allows you to search by individual name. It also has general information on the overland route to Salt Lake City and the different companies of LDS members who travelled it • www.britishnewspaperarchive. org.uk has many references to Mormonism and the Mormon emigration

About the author Steve Ward is a retired teacher who now works as a freelance writer and researcher on family history topics. He is a self-confessed family history addict and his interest began many years ago with the discovery of an old family photograph album. He has published several books, including The Indentured Man, which tells the story of his pioneer ancestor in Australia. www.steve-ward.net

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HIGHS & LOWS OF THE AMATEUR GENEALOGIST

NA MING PA KNOW-HOTTERN W

Very ofte n the firs td was nam ed after th aughter e matern grandmo al ther, the secon d after the paternal one, and the third after the mother

Rea d Sto er ry

In hot pursuit of an ancestor

On the quest to find his great-grandmother’s grave, John Crawford struck lucky – and came to the attention of traffic police…

I

t’s the mid-1980s and my state of elation rapidly subsides when a white-capped police officer flags me down. ‘Is there any reason why you’d be exceeding the speed limit, sir? We’ve clocked you at 39mph in a 30mph zone.’

‘Well officer, I’ve trying to find my great-grandmother’s grave for weeks and only discovered it just now,’ I replied.

‘Sorry to hear about your loss, sir.

When did she pass away?’

‘Actually it was 1947 …’

And so he wrote out the ticket without further comment. It had only been my good fortune to be spotted by an amiable graveyard worker earlier that my quest had ended successfully.

He said he’d seen me wandering around some weeks before and now asked me for some family details.

He’d then gone into the office, found the information then led me to the unmarked grave. Part of my problem was that although Great-Gran had had seven children who all grew to

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adulthood, they weren’t able to agree to the cost of sharing a headstone (to be fair one son had died in France in 1915, and her surviving son and two of his sisters had emigrated to the USA after the Great War) but this often happens in large families.

A further complication in the last 10-15 years is that following an accident (actually a fatality) involving kids playing in an English graveyard, all UK councils were told by their insurers to check the stability of the headstones in their graveyards and either secure any found unstable or lay them flat. In some cases the owners of the graves couldn’t be traced (or denied any responsibility given the cost of stabilising headstones can be expensive) so some councils simply removed the ‘dangerous’ ones: not helpful if you’re on the trail of a remote relative.

This great-grandmother had caused me a lot of work initially. She was also one of seven children and christened ‘Helen Garrett’. But her husband

apparently had different names for her over the years and she appeared in census and birth, marriage and death records as ‘Ellen’ and ‘Annie’ (problematical as she had an older sister also named ‘Annie’). And of course according to convention* Helen named her third daughter ‘Helen’ who was always known as ‘Daisy’ in the family. And Helen’s first two granddaughters were christened ‘Helen’ after her but known as ‘Nell’ and ‘Eleanor’!

The excellent Bolton comedian Peter Kay has a wonderful line, ‘you call her ‘Auntie’ but she’s not really your auntie!’. How much time can you spend trying to find out if somebody you’ve always called ‘Auntie’ is actually related to you?

My father’s side of the family used the term ‘cousins’ when referring to relatives that might be once, twice or three-times removed.

When we were young he insisted on taking us along to occasionally visit ‘the Chapmans’, a very elderly

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Gradually working out who is who… couple who might have been ‘friends’ with, or ‘cousins’ of his late mother. There being six or seven decades between them and us children, the visits weren’t easy.

Father hadn’t a clue where the friendship/relationship originated and doubted if even his mother would have known. Decades after they’d passed he was at a farm sale and a bloke came up and asked if he was the man who’d visited the Chapmans? After some detailed questioning it emerged that father’s maternal grandmother had been born out of wedlock. Her mother then married a Carter and had more children and the Chapmans we’d visited turned out to be descendants of that marriage. So the elderly lady I’d been dragged along to visit was actually (if my software package is to be believed) my ‘half 1st cousin 2x removed’.

And I never knew that!

Years later I tried the same approach with another ‘cousin’ on my mother’s side of the family. Neither of us knew how we were related

but we’d always called each other’s parents ‘Aunt’ and ‘Uncle’ and he could recall his grandfather cycling miles to visit my great-gran and her husband. So I started digging around and traced his relatives back as far as 1874 when his grandfather

So all ‘our relationship’ consisted of was a neighbourly friendship that had lasted for 140 years: nothing else!

But you can’t put a price on friendship had been born next door to my 2x great-grandparents’ house. So all ‘our relationship’ consisted of was a neighbourly friendship that had lasted for 140 years: nothing else! But you can’t put a price on friendship.

Getting back to my father’s maternal grandmother being born

out of wedlock in Ayrshire, her birth certificate declares her father to be ‘Reputed – John Dunlop, Farmer’ that I took to be a statement of ‘she says I’m the father but I’m not convinced’. Or maybe she was getting her own back after being left in the lurch? I’m descended from a long line of farm servants and tenant farmers but I’ve been unable to trace anybody who might fit this description in the area where the mother lived and worked. ‘Dunlop’ is a very common surname in the area and there could be up to a dozen potential culprits! So that particular line of enquiry ends in 1854. Well, for the present time at least!

About the author John Crawford has been tracing his family tree for over 30 years now. He’s more or less retired but has spent nearly 50 years in the waste management industry, mostly in Scotland. He contributes a monthly column on topical waste management issues to Skip Hire Magazine

New online database free to access Ancestor Homes is a new source of information for anyone researching family history or even the history of their home.

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DISCOVER A GOLDMINE OF DETAIL

ng i rn ot a Le otsp h

Did your ancestor leave a will?

For non-family historians, the appeal of a long-lost relative’s will is that they might find themselves a beneficiary. But for us, wills can provide an invaluable collection of names, relationships and clues to family members from times gone by. June Terrington examines this rich collection of records

S

o, you’ve found several ancestors, and used several sources in your family history research, but now you would like to check whether any of your ancestors have left a will.

Finding wills before 1858 Wills and administrations before 1858 were proved by the church court. Not all wills needed proving by a court, not everyone left a will, and to this day many still don’t.

However, those that did chose the appropriate court – out of the 250plus in existence. The wealthy tended to opt for the Prerogative Courts of either Canterbury or York. Mostly

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Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills dealt with southern England 1384-1858 can be found at the The National Archives (TNA).

The Prerogative Court of York, meanwhile, dealt with northern England 1389-1858. Therefore your first task in using wills dating from before 1858 will be to identify which court dealt with your ancestor’s will.

What are probate records?

Probate is the process of dealing with someone’s money, possessions and final wishes after they die. In probate, a will is ‘proved’ in court and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased.

The probate court decides whether the deceased person’s will is valid and grants it to the executor. This then becomes a legal document.

About the National Probate Calendar The National Probate Calendar (NPC) is an annual index to grants of probate and administration of deceased persons’ estates in England and Wales, from 1858 to the present day. The index has been microfilmed from 1858 up to 1943, and microfiches or microfilm of these years are available to view in many record offices and in some probate offices (not all years may be covered in any

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Understanding wills & probate records The handwriting of old wills can be hard to read, but familiarising yourself with the key phrases you’ll soon be able to start making sense of it. Find wills such as this on TheGenealogist.co.uk The entry below from the National Probate Calendar on Ancestry.co.uk provides many useful clues – such as the name of the deceased’s widow

RESEARCH

TIP

S e e A nc e Probate C str y for National alendar re cords too Being a n . ational in dex, this a helpful is research aid – as y can searc ou h for you r ancesto even if yo r, u don’t k now whic court the h ir will wa s proved in

particular office). Some offices also have bound volumes for at least some of the years after 1943.

are some from all over the world, although the details may not be as full as for English and Welsh entries.

What can you discover from the NPC?

What can a will tell you?

To search the NPC, start with your ancestor’s year of death, if known, and work forward.

• The entries are in surname order and then of first name(s) within each surname.

• A typical entry from the years 1858-1891 will tell you the full name of the deceased, including any aliases, the amount of his/ her personal estate, date and place of death, occupation (or marital status for a woman), residence, and sometimes also previous residence, date and place where probate or administration was granted.

• From 1918 onwards, the occupation of the deceased is not given.

The entries in the NPC pertain to people who had money and or property in England and Wales (regardless of which country they actually died in). For some years, Irish and Scottish entries are in a separate section, but for other years they are included in the main index. As well as Irish and Scottish entries, there

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If you find a will for a deceased ancestor it may contain useful information on other relatives such as: a spouse or children, whether they were married, or had grandchildren; the death date and age of the deceased; hopefully a birth date and place might be given; often his/her occupation will be mentioned; and also bequests made. Find also the signatures of at least two witnesses (who must not benefit from the will), and the signature of the testator.

As you can see, tracking down an ancestor’s will can provide a wealth of evidence for your research!

Where to look for wills?

• www.thegenealogist.co.uk – Find the Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills indexes and images • www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/ holdings/guides/researchguides/probate-courts – research Prerogative Court of York records • www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk – Explore the index to wills and testaments 1513-1925

• www.llgc.org.uk/en/discover/ nlw-resources/wills/ – wills proved in the Welsh Ecclesiastical courts before 1858 • www.willcalendars. nationalarchives.ie/search/cwa/ home.jsp – Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1858-1922 for Ireland • www.ffhs.org.uk/members2/ contacting.php – Can your family history society help? Many have transcribed wills projects. Find the relevant society for the area you’re interested in • www.fi ndmypast.co.uk – Search Findmypast for transcriptions created by societies too, and other wills collections, such as that for British India.

About the author June Terrington started family history to learn about her absent father, and over the years this interest has become a passion – she really loves it. Find out more at http://familytr.ee/FBPasttoPresent

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research

DO YOU HAVE THEATRICAL ANCESTORS?

zone

CHECK OU

T w w w.ellente rr yarchive. hull.ac.uk /sta r

Treading the boards The Search for Theatrical AncestoRs (STAR) website may be just the head start you’re looking for, if you have ancestors who worked in the theatre. Put your hands together now, as Simon Wills chats to Professor Katharine Cockin about this star-studded resource

S

TAR is a free online database which has involved a partnership between several organisations.

Professor Katharine Cockin from the University of Hull led the original research project and here she explains what family historians may find there.

Q A

How did the Search for Theatrical AncestoRs (STAR) project begin?

It’s derived from the National Trust’s Ellen Terry and Edith Craig Archive, which describes more than

20,000 documents (play programmes, photographs, press cuttings, and production materials). The item-level description of these documents includes many names of individuals.

The STAR project developed from a research project which involved creating an online catalogue for the archive. This research project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and it makes freely available online a large amount of data on theatre history covering the period 1860s to 1960s. When family

AHRC Ellen Terry and Edith Craig Database A Guide to the Papers from Smallhythe Place

history researchers searched for their ancestors online they sometimes found their names there.

Q A

Tell me more about this unique archive The archive had belonged to two renowned women, Ellen Terry (18471928), famous for her Shakespearean performances, and her daughter, Edith Craig (1869-1947), a suffragette and theatre director.

Ellen Terry worked extensively in the

Search for Theatr © National Trust

ellenterryarchive.hull.a ellenterryarchive.hull.ac.uk

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hive.

Discover the free STAR database

Opposite page, from left: Actor Dan Leno was a pioneer of the pantomime dame; Gustavus Brooke as Othello in the 1860s, and actress Ellen Terry

UK and toured in USA, Australia and New Zealand. Craig is an important figure in lesbian history who often worked with her two female partners, Christopher St John, the author, and Tony (Clare) Atwood, the artist.

The archive includes some materials relating to their friends and colleagues and is of interest in LGBQT cultural heritage.

Craig’s brother, Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1960), is one of the most famous figures in 20th-century theatre history and the archive includes some materials relating to him, his female partners and their children.

Q A

How did you get all the organisations you did involved in this project?

The National Trust and the British Library were involved in the Ellen Terry and Edith Craig Database project.

The National Trust owns the archive and the completion of the database facilitated the loan of most of the archive to the British Library, where the archive is accessible for researchers. They were both partners on the Searching for Theatrical AncestoRs project together with the Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS). The FFHS publicised the project to its 180 member societies. The British Library supported the project by providing the venue for the project conference in July 2016, timed to coincide with the Shakespeare 400th anniversary exhibition.

Q A

What sort of information might the STAR database reveal about an actor?

The 20,000 records in the AHRC Ellen Terry and Edith Craig online database

include descriptions of documents about theatrical productions, so the database may reveal which plays actors performed in, the name of the theatre, the date of the production and the names of others involved in the production.

In 2015-2017 the AHRC funded the ‘Searching for Theatrical AncestoRs’ project which has involved several enhancements to the original online resource. A collection of play programmes has been digitised and is accessible in various ways, including an interactive map showing Ellen Terry’s tours of the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

A further 14,000 online theatre history records have also been included so the resource now provides access to 34,000 records in total. The STAR website links to many additional theatre and performing arts online resources too.

Q A

Does the database include information about people other than actors?

The STAR project digitised several hundred play programmes which makes available online many names of individuals, and since play programmes often include adverts for local businesses which supported the theatre, you may well find ancestors not directly involved in the theatre at all.

Q A

Who was Walter Plinge, and why was he cast in so many plays?

If you search for ‘Walter Plinge’ online you may conclude that he was a prolific actor. He also appears in three records in the STAR database. However, it’s a name which was used as a place-holder in the cast list when an actor was doublingup by playing two parts, when the part had not been cast before the programme was printed, or there was some reason to conceal the actor’s name. If anyone has an ancestor actually called Walter Plinge, they will have a difficult time!

Q A

Where else can family historians look for theatrical ancestors?

There is a guide on the website, ‘How to get started’. This offers useful advice about other sources of online data for theatre history research as well as links to web addresses. It also provides advice on resources such as archives and libraries, which tend to be used by academic researchers rather than family historians.

Q

If readers have significant information about a theatrical ancestor who isn’t in your database, would you like to hear from them?

I am very interested in hearing about theatrical ancestors as well as ancestors with serendipitous but fleeting theatrical connections. There were many amateur performers and people involved with trades used in theatres such as carpenters as well as those who attended plays.

At the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE show at the Birmingham NEC in April 2017 I met many family history researchers with fascinating stories about their ancestors.

A new page has been created on the STAR website (‘Stars Found’) where case studies will be posted.

Family history researchers may contact me regarding the project by emailing etarchive@hull.ac.uk

A

About the author Dr fgfg Simon Wills is a genealogist and author with more than 25 years’ experience of researching his ancestors.

He has a particular interest in maritime history and his latest book is The Wreck of the SS London (Amberley). He is also author of Voyages from the Past, How Our Ancestors Died and a novel, Lifeboatmen.

Are you searching for ancestors who worked in the theatre?

Did your ancestor recall a memorable theatre production?

r Theatrical AncestoRs

A large body of online data is brought together here to help you find out more about your theatrical ancestors.

yarchive.hull.ac.uk/star

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ellenterryarchive.hull.ac.uk/star

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FreeCen2 is the new website giving you free access to census records for England, Scotland and Wales

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EXPLORE THE VALUE OF MAPS IN GENEALOGY Discover 10 top historic map websites

Putting family history

o n t h e ma p

Historic maps can help you better understand the lives of your ancestors, the places they lived and worked, and can even clear up some mysteries, explains Paul F Cockburn www.family-tree.co.uk

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S

ome 14,000 years ago, in what is now Abauntz in the Navarra region of northern Spain, an unknown man or woman picked up a stone tablet and began to carve onto its surface a succession of lines and markings.

These weren’t just decorative, however. After being discovered in a cave by archaeologists in 1993, the tablet – measuring less than seven by five inches, and less than an inch thick – is now considered to be among the earliest known maps found in Europe. Those scratches are believed to represent mountains and meandering rivers near where it was found; more importantly, those areas where foraging and hunting were good – such as the herds of ibex found on one of the mountains visible from the cave itself.

On its own, the tablet has provided scientists with an interesting insight into early modern humans’ capacities, at least when it comes to spatial awareness, planning and organising hunting. For, although it undoubtedly lacks the accuracy of current mapping technologies, these carvings nevertheless have the same purpose as that up-to-the-minute GPS-enabled map app on your smartphone: to be a useful tool to highlight places of interest and help you get to them.

A sense of context While we tend to think of maps being primarily an aid to finding our way about on the ground, they can also help anyone exploring the past.

Family documents, census records, and newspapers are likely to be your first ports of call, but old maps can add genuine context, according to Laragh Quinney, Maps Reading Room Manager at the National Library of Scotland. ‘For people doing their family history, one of the big strengths of maps is that they give you a feel of what a place was like at the time your ancestors were living there,’ she says.

‘Particularly in the last 200 years, there have been so many changes, with industrialisation, and the growth of towns and cities,’ she adds. ‘What today might be quite a big sprawling suburb or commuter town, if you go back 150 years to when your ancestors were there, it may have been a small village.

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Maps can be used to reveal more than just the lie of the land. This map, published

by A&C Black in 1887, depicts the average birth rate in Britain and Ireland. As we might expect, the industrial heartlands of the late Victorian era had the highest rate

Just a few houses. Obviously, that would be a very different place in which to live, compared to if you go there now.’

Also, many places mentioned in family documents may simply no longer exist. ‘The farm that someone worked on will have disappeared under a housing estate,’ Laragh says.

‘Or maybe the colliery they worked at is long disused; you can go back to the old maps and see where the colliery was, see where the miners’ houses used to be, where the railway which served it was – and get a feel for the place.

‘Old maps can be great for pinpointing places too small to show up in modern maps, or where the name has changed,’ she adds. ‘They’re very good at adding that bit of context; you can see where the local school would have been, where the local church might have been – or, indeed, in Scotland, where the six churches in the village might have been thanks to the 19th century’s different schisms and congregations!’

If your ancestors seem to have moved around a lot during their lifetime,

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Discover 10 top historic map websites

While we tend to think of maps being primarily an aid to finding our way about on the ground, they can also help anyone exploring the past then orientating yourself using maps of the time can let you see how far they actually travelled geographically, which may be far less than you thought.

It’s perfectly possible for a succession of places, even if they’re in different counties or parishes, to be almost on top of each other geographically, barely more than a few miles apart as the proverbial crow flies.

Or it could be further than you think; the late historian David Hey persuasively argued that, in preindustrial Britain, market towns

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attracted people to and from their surrounding villages, most people moving from village to market town and then to another satellite village – perhaps the same distance away in the other direction. The reason? It was in the market town that goods were sold, where servants and labourers were hired, and even where boys met girls.

Time spent studying maps of when your ancestors lived will ensure that you’ll become far more familiar with how things were in your ancestors’ day.

A source of information It’s fair to say that old maps can, on occasion, help sort out some of the questions which inevitably turn up while searching through old records. For example, you may have tracked down two or more possible baptisms for an ancestor, and be inclined towards the church closest to where the family lived at the time. A contemporaneous map, however, might well suggest

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that – before the building of a nearby railway line, or the construction of better roads which overcame some local geographical barriers – that a technically more distant church could Seek out a map of your ancestors’ city, town or village to see it as it once was. This map was published in a guidebook to Cambridge dating from 1883 – but being a city so steeped in history, many of the buildings, such as the colleges, can be found in the same place today

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EXPLORE THE VALUE OF MAPS IN GENEALOGY have actually been the easier one for your ancestors to reach at the time, and so a better place to prioritise in your research.

Admittedly, not all maps focus on ensuring people don’t get lost; even the Ordnance Survey was originally set up by the British Government in 1791 to catalogue the state of those southern English counties considered most vulnerable to French invasion.

Maps can be as much about who owns what as what lies where: indeed, ‘Cadastral’ information – as detailed land ownership and boundary information on maps is known –

On this Elizabethan map, note spellings: with, sometimes, ‘v’ representing ‘u’ and ‘y’ for ‘i’. This map from 1579 was one of the coloured maps in Lord Burghley’s atlas – many county maps were also produced at the time

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Explore contemporary maps to help you with identifying places where your ancestors may have been employed in the British Empire.

British colonies in Africa reached from Egypt in the north to the British Cape Colony in the South, Sierra Leone in the West to British Somaliland in the East

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Discover 10 top historic map websites

becomes much more common as the surveying and creation of maps shifts to being a more civilianised profession from the 19th century.

Yet this kind of information can go back much further: some town maps dating as far back as the Middle Ages will name who was living in which properties. The British Library and Guildhall Library in London hold 18th and 19th century fire insurance plans, including details of the materials used to build houses in towns across England, their height and sometimes even the names of the householders.

Meantime, there are some 19th and 20th century maps designed to make a particular point, whether it’s Charles Booth’s 1903 ‘Maps Descriptive of London Poverty’ colour-coding every street in terms of income, or the 1923 pro-Temperance movement’s map of Edinburgh’s Old Town, which highlighted the large number of

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public houses and licensed grocers selling alcohol in the area.

Out in the countryside, estate maps detailing the large land holdings of the time began to be drawn up in the late 16th century. Often accompanied by rent rolls naming the tenants, these are a useful resource for those researching their rural ancestors, not least when they exist over an extended period of time and predate surviving parish registers. Most estate maps remain in private archives, or in solicitors’ offices, but there are also plenty in national and county record offices, usually catalogued under the estate owners’ names.

‘Estate maps can hugely vary in terms of what information is on them,’ admits Laragh, ‘but if you’re lucky enough to be somewhere where estate maps were made, some of them will have names of tenant farmers. Some will even have details of crops that were being grown. Others, compiled

In travel agent Thomas Cook’s map from 1887 the railway lines are interesting to explore. Note too the various sizes and qualities of maps he made available for sale

when plots were being sold off, will show land values and how estates were broken up. At the National Library of Scotland we have a lot of maps from the Sutherland Estate, so if people’s ancestors came from Sutherland, there’s some wonderful estate plans to do with work on the estate, and the estate villages or things that were done in attempts to improve the land. That can be really informative.’

Another potentially useful source are the tithe apportionment maps, which cover about three-quarters of English and Welsh parishes between 1838 and 1854. Tithes were originally a tax which required one tenth of all agricultural produce to be given annually to the local church and clergy. After the Reformation, many

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of these tithes passed, along with the land, to lay owners; by the early 19th century, however, these were deemed out-of-date and increasingly unpopular against a background of industrialisation, religious dissent and agricultural depression.

The 1836 Tithe Commutation Act required tithes in kind to be converted to more convenient monetary payments and established the survey which produced the maps and associated records now stored at The National Archives and accessible through TheGenealogist website. Copies can also be found at county record offices – some of these have also been digitised – so it’s worth enquiring about them at the relevant county records office.

A sense of history No map can show all the available information, which means that mapmakers down the centuries have

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had to select what they put on the map to suit their particular purposes.

Most town and city street maps quite deliberately focus on roads rather than buildings. Other maps will feature deliberate omissions; right up to the 1980s, for example, numerous British military facilities failed to appear on the relevant Ordnance Survey maps.

(As it turned out these were clearly marked on the maps being used by the Soviet Union!)

Maps are neither totally objective nor 100 per cent accurate, and need to be interpreted cautiously and carefully; certainly they shouldn’t be used in isolation. (Boundary maps, for example, are best referenced alongside the relevant legal documents.) You should always approach any maps with a small degree of skepticism, and ideally some understanding of how, when and why they were made. Specialist maps staff

Go to http://familytr.ee/austasgeo to zoom in to see this map in detail. Primarily a geological map of Australia and Tasmania, from a historian’s point of view, it’s very interesting to see the development of the placenames – numerous along the coast, so much more sparse inland

at the UK’s national libraries should be able to help.

Even a simple question – when a map was made – can be ‘complicated’.

When a geographical survey was made and when the resulting map was published are never the same; especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the gap can be several years. Some Ordnance Survey maps are reprints based on earlier maps with just a few recent additions – such as railway lines – added on top.

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Discover 10 top historic map websites So, just because some buildings are indicated on a map, it’s not 100 per cent confirmed that they were still standing by the time a particular map was published; at the same time, a lack of buildings on the map doesn’t mean they hadn’t actually been erected!

Simple human error is also a factor, given that quite a few people would be involved in the making of early maps: the surveyor who measured and collected the information; the draftsman (or draftswoman) who selected the information and drew what is called a ‘manuscript map’ by hand; the engraver who engraved the map onto a flat metal plate, usually of copper; the printer who impressed the copper plate on to paper; and the publisher who distributed and sold the printed map. In some early cases a single person might perform all these tasks, but as mapping developed into a civilian career, this became increasingly unlikely – with each stage of the production process potentially introducing errors. (On the plus side, errors – if reproduced in later versions

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Finding your way

Maps can be as much about who owns what as what lies where – are a useful tool for dating when copies of maps were made.) Given that engraved copper plates were costly to produce, mapmakers in general tried to make the most of their investment; while some information might, on occasion, be updated by hammering out a section and re-engraving it, the rest of the maps would be left unchanged.

Nor are all maps even intended to show what is ‘real’; maps can be created to highlight proposed changes and new developments which either never happen or do so in somewhat different forms – records of worlds that never happened, for whatever social, economic or political reasons.

Despite such caveats, maps remain a valuable resource about your ancestors’ lives, and the often tumultuous times they lived through. ‘A succession of maps, especially from the late 1890s onwards, can provide regular snapshots [of a place], letting you see the changes happening,’ says Laragh.

While an increasing amount of material is now available online (either free or through paid-for sites), it’s worth remembering that a significant proportion of even national collections are still to be digitised. So don’t neglect to check what’s listed in the libraries’ catalogues – their staff will be happy to help you find your way!

Explore the extensive range of digitised OS maps on the National Library of Scotland website – very useful for identifying the locations of, especially, tiny places unfamiliar to us today, but which you may find in named in records. Note also the locator, to reveal the locality, when you’re re really zoomed in

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10 useful map websites Here are some of the most useful mapsrelated websites for genealogists focusing on the UK.

British Library www.bl.uk/subjects/maps With one of the world’s largest collections of maps, plans and topographical views – an estimated 4.5 million items – the British Library offers a chronological spread of more than 2,000 years. Includes Ordnance Survey, War Office archive maps relating to East Africa, and the King George III Topographical and Maritime Collections

National Library of Scotland http://maps.nls.uk More than 180,000 items from the National Library of Scotland’s 2-million-plus map collection are now online but, while focusing primarily on ‘North of the Border’, the full collection includes detailed Ordnance Survey maps for the whole of Britain, and earlier county maps and town plans from England and Wales

National Library of Wales

TheGenealogist’s digitised collection of tithe maps have made these invaluable land records much more accessible to online researchers

About the author Paul F Cockburn is an Edinburghborn-andbred freelance journalist, whose interest in genealogy is fuelled by discovering the personal stories of his ancestors.

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photographs and stories to the site.

The project currently covers Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and the former Avon area

Britain from Above https://britainfromabove.org.uk This website offers some 95,000 images from the 1.26 million aerial photographs of Britain taken between 1919 and 2006, recording the changing face of the nation during the 20th century. Includes urban, suburban, rural, coastal and industrial scenes, providing important evidence for understanding and managing the built and natural environments

Old Maps Online www.oldmapsonline.org An excellent portal to more than 400,000 historical maps held by archives and libraries around the world; originally a collaboration between Swiss online mapping company Klokan Technologies GmbH and the Great Britain Historical GIS Project (based at the University of Portsmouth), the current site continues to be maintained by volunteers

www.llgc.org.uk/collections/ learn-more/maps/ The largest map collection in Wales – ranging from the 16th century charts to present-day digital maps – contains more than a million sheets of maps, charts and plans as well as thousands of atlases. The emphasis is on Welsh material, but also includes items covering the rest of the world

British History Online

Valuation Office Map Finder

Old-Maps.co.uk

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/labs/ valuation-office-map-finder/ This map-finder offers a simple way to reference more than 95,000 Valuation Office Field Books (viewable only at The National Archives) describing more than 9 million individual houses, farms and other properties in England and Wales, including details of land use and value, plus the names of owners and occupiers

www.old-maps.co.uk Describing itself as ‘Britain’s most comprehensive historical map archive’, this site offers for sale a wide range of historical maps covering England, Wales and Scotland, including the Ordnance Survey County Series, town plans and post-war National Grid maps, plus Cold War-era Russian maps of UK target locations

Know Your Place – West of England

http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org This Great Britain Family Names Profiling website enables you to produce simple surname distribution maps. The project’s database covers 25,630 ‘Celtic’, ‘English’ and ‘Imported’ family names, which featured at least 100 entries in the 1996 electoral register

www.kypwest.org.uk This English Heritage-funded digital mapping project is an excellent example of how local archives can effectively share their collections and information online, while also enabling users to ‘pin’ comments,

www.british-history.ac.uk/ catalogue/maps This site offers historic maps of London from before 1800 and maps from the 1872 series of the Ordnance Survey, including the complete 1:10,560 series and selected areas of the 1:2,500 maps. The OS maps can searched by keyword, title or postcode

Public Profiler

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DIGGING DEEPER

Diarist Gill Shaw charts the rollercoaster ride of researching her family history

Twiglets S

o, new 4x great-grandparents to play with. Exciting! And while I suspect I’ll probably have trouble with James Maffin’s surname again, my 4x great-grandmother Rosetta sounds full of eastern promise (east Manchester most likely, but hey, you can’t have everything).

As ever, the first step is to try to find their marriage. Now the earliest-born child I know of was John Maffin, buried 1806, and James and Rosetta’s burial records suggest they were born 1782 and 1779 respectively, so I think we’re looking at quite a narrow date range for the marriage – most likely sometime between the start of the 19th century and the year of John’s death. Let’s see.

I’m kicking off with www.lan-opc. org.uk – the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk site. It may only have transcriptions, but it’s pretty hot on odd spellings, and might be able to point me in the right direction. Then again, perhaps not; an initial search returns no James Maffin marriages at all. OK, let’s ditch the surname, and just look for anyone called James marrying a Rose or Rosetta, 1800 +/-10 years.

This time there are 13 matches, and I cast my eye down the list. Ginders and Mathews, Davis and Ackers, McElwain and McTeer… not much chance of any of those names getting confused with Maffin, is there? Wait a sec through; Liverpool 1801, James Killen and Rosey McCardall. Could Maffin be read as Killen if the handwriting was unclear?

Better still, what about this one? I feel that tell-tale tingle on the back of my neck… October 1803, St Mary the Virgin, Prestwich, Manchester: James Buffin and Rosy Holdsworth. And wait

for it, witness John Wrigley! Now why on earth there should be a Wrigley involved at this point in time, I have absolutely no idea (that’s the next generation surely?), but that ‘ff’ in Buffin is looking awfully like the ‘ff’ of ‘Heffin’, which was mistakenly transcribed when their daughter Richmael, my 3x greatgrandmother, was baptised. Ooh, I like it, I like it! Have I cracked this already?

All we need to do now is cross check with the register itself, so over we go to Ancestry.co.uk, which has lots of Manchester parish records complete with images. I gamble on the same transcription error and input James Buffin, 1803. Yep, here it is. Click through to the image, and… Oh. This has to be some of the loveliest and most legible 200-year-old handwriting I’ve ever seen, and that says James Buffin. Clear as day. Not by any stretch of the imagination can I make it turn into Maffin.

How annoying. What next? Well, I guess the only thing to do is repeat the same surname-less James/Ros* search here at Ancestry, and then at Findmypast.co.uk and FamilySearch.org, and see what else there might be. OK, leave it with me; I may be some time…

As it happens, I’m not. After an hour or so of squinting at every vaguely possible register entry, there’s nothing, anywhere, that looks even half as good as that James Buffin marriage. I’m trying very hard not to be swayed by the Wrigley witness (admittedly, it’s difficult!), but even without him, there seem to be no more options, and I can’t think what else to try.

Now I’m not usually in the habit of cracking on without any real evidence,

but what if we just run with this, and see what else we can find? Are there any children born to a James and Rose Buffin, say, that would rule this couple out? Or, more intriguingly, is there a Rosy Holdsworth born c1779 (the year Rosetta Maffin was apparently born), which might mean there’s still a chance she could be my Rose?

I try for some baby Buffins (and Buffin burials) first, and I’ve never been more pleased to draw a total blank. True, there are other people with that surname, but they’re mostly much later in the century, and nearly all down south.

And Rosy Holdsworth? I search the online parish clerk site again first, but there’s no sign of a Rosy. What about plain Rose? Oh crikey, we can go one better than that… Baptised 3 January 1779 at St Leonard’s Church, Middleton, Manchester: Rosetta Holdsworth, daughter of Sarah and Samuel Holdsworth. Rosetta! We’ve found a Rosetta!

For my own peace of mind, I do need to go back and double check I haven’t missed anything – and then forwards and sideways with the Holdsworth family too, to be doubly sure – but it’s looking more and more as if that James Buffin marriage could be the one.

What’s with the ‘Buffin’ though?

James’s scribble isn’t much of a signature is it, especially the surname, so perhaps he couldn’t read and write, and didn’t realise Edward Redford the clerk had misspelt his name in the register. Either that, or he realised they’d got his name wrong, but wasn’t confident enough to speak up or make a fuss. But it’s got me thinking. Did James have a nonManchester accent perhaps? A slight speech disorder? (Which might also be the reason why Richmael turned into Richmon…). Or perhaps he just had a cold on his wedding day! Who knows, but I think I might have solved the mystery after all, and found my 4x greatgrandparents’ marriage...

About the author fgfg

Gill Shaw is editor of Dogs Monthly magazine and former assistant editor of Practical Family History. She lives in Cambridgeshire and loves singing, walking and tracking down elusive ancestors.

Are these Gill’s 4x great-grandparents?

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WHY DID THE REVOLUTION HAPPEN?

The Russian Revolution

1917

The Russian Revolution in 1917 sent shock waves around the world.

Amanda Randall examines the event and its impact on the war-weary British Home Front a century ago

W

inter 1917. War weariness blighted Britain's Home Front. Growing opposition to the war, industrial unrest, shortages of coal, bread and meat, and a harsh winter combined to create an air of gloom and despair at the apparently neverending conflict. When the Russian Revolution exploded unexpectedly onto the scene on 23 February (Julian calendar, 8 March in the Gregorian) a glimmer of hope seemed apparent.

News of the Revolution and the abdication of the Tsar reached London on 16 March and many

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people initially celebrated the promise of an end to the war, with more than 12,000 people packing the Royal Albert Hall in London, with a further 5,000 standing outside, to applaud the Revolution. On May Day 70,000 joined a peace march in Glasgow, and a convention in Leeds in June demanded ‘peace without annexations’. However, enthusiasm quickly waned as the likely impact on the Allied war effort became clear.

Prime Minister Lloyd George's first reaction to the news was that the end of the Romanov Empire was ‘worth the whole war and its terrible

sacrifices’ and that it could end the war, but within a few short weeks he too had changed his mind. He told Lord Riddell in mid-March that Russia was ‘not sufficiently advanced for a republic’.

Just two days later, Tsar Nicholas II requested asylum in Britain. Lloyd George’s sympathy for the Romanov’s plight did not persuade George V, who doubted it was ‘advisable whether the Imperial Family should take up their residence in this country’ – despite Nicholas being his first cousin and a close friend. The threat to his position was too great to risk.

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What did our ancestors think?

Street demonstration in Petrograd just after troops of the Provisional Government opened fire on soldiers and industrial workers in July 1917 Protesters in February 1917 – this month saw the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917 (dates 23 February to 3 March, Old Style Julian calendar/8-16 March, New Style Gregorian calendar)

A society of smouldering resentment The Romanovs had ruled without compassion for the citizens of this enormous country of whom fewer than half were ethnic Russians.

Russian society consisted of five ‘estates’: nobility, clergy, urban dwellers, peasants, aliens (nonSlavonic and non-Orthodox ethnic minorities). People maintained stronger loyalties to their ‘estate’ than to a broader nationality; hence an agricultural labourer would describe him- or herself as a peasant rather than Russian, Pole, or Ukrainian.

Both Alexander III and his son Nicholas II had tried to impose the Russian language and Orthodox religion, and this inflamed already smouldering nationalist feelings within the ethnic groups.

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The largest social group, the peasants, lived in relentless poverty.

Some migrated to the city, living in slums and working at gigantic factories in St Petersburg or Moscow. Frequent episodes of industrial unrest and the close ties migrants maintained with their homeland meant that urban revolutionary ideas influenced agricultural workers, who had much to complain about. Russia fought a disastrous and unpopular war against Japan from 1904 to 1905, which ended in defeat for Russia, and for which Nicholas II was blamed. His adversaries nicknamed him Nicholas the Bloody on account of his support for anti-Semitic pogroms, and violent suppression and execution of opponents. Mutinies and food riots in 1905 forced the reluctant Tsar to reform civil liberties and taxation and to establish an elected Duma (parliament). In reality, life for most Russians did not improve.

The end of Romanov rule By 1914, when Germany declared war on Russia, the population stood at 170 million, 15 per cent of whom lived in cities. St Petersburg was renamed Petrograd, in order to dissociate from Germany. With the war going badly for Russia in September 1915, the Tsar took direct control of the Army at the Front against ministerial advice. Nicholas was held accountable for further military setbacks, while in Petrograd unease about the German-born Tsarina’s influence on him and his Government added to wider unrest about food, fuel shortages and the rising toll of war deaths – more than 3 million Russians were to die in the Great War. The scene was set for the 1917 February Revolution.

On 23 February (Julian calendar) thousands of women and workers gathered in Petrograd to demand equal rights. Even at this stage, Bolshevik officials doubted that a fullscale revolution was likely.

By 27 February, a general strike paralysed the city and, following violent clashes during which police and soldiers fired into the crowd killing 50 people, local regiments mutinied. Tsarist authority evaporated.

By early March Nicholas had abdicated, his brother refused to step

in and his heir, Alexei, was just 13 years old. Three hundred years of Romanov rule ended in a few days.

Over the summer, various iterations of a Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky, a prominent leader of the February Revolution, failed to deliver its promises and was seen to continue representing the over-privileged. Unrest continued and Russia remained at war, contrary to the wishes of most middle- and working-class people. An estimated 2 million men had deserted the Army by September. The country was in chaos.

Oktober!

The Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, which had gained strength from various coups and Government resignations, promised ‘peace, land, and bread’ under a Communist system. On 25 October (Julian calendar), the Bolsheviks seized control of Petrograd and stormed the Winter Palace, the final stronghold of the Provisional Government.

Some historians describe the ‘October Revolution’ as a coup, during which Communist rule became established. Peace negotiations between Russia and Germany began in December, culminating in the Brest-Litovsk Treaty of March 1918, formally ending Russia’s involvement in the Great War. Three days later the Bolshevik Party adopted the name the Russian Communist Party.

What of British interests ?

Throughout the 19th century relations between Britain and Russia

Making sense of the Revolution • Defining dates: Until 14 February 1918 Tsarist Russia followed the Julian calendar, which was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar • A Soviet: this is a revolutionary council of workers or peasants before 1917, the first being convened in 1905 after the Revolution that year • Size matters: How big is Russia?

3,000 miles N-S; 6,000 miles W-E: ‘From the ice-sheets of the Far North to the palm trees of Asia’

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WHY DID THE REVOLUTION HAPPEN? had often been tense over fears of Russian expansion into British India.

In 1907 Britain, France and Russia entered into the Triple Entente, which guaranteed mutual support in a military crisis, and trade flourished between the three countries.

A well-established British population in St Petersburg consisted of diplomats and businessmen who owned or managed some of the city’s biggest factories, such as the Thornton Woollen Mill, employing 3,000 workers, which belonged to three brothers from Yorkshire. Many of the luxury stores along Nevsky Prospekt (tailors, dressmakers, food emporiums, book shops) were British or French, catering for expatriates and wealthy Russians.

The British royal family had forged close ties through marriage, especially with Germany. In 1894 Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Alix, daughter of Princess Alice and Louis IV, the Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, married Tsar Nicholas II. They had five children. The unpopular Tsarina encouraged Nicholas’s autocratic tendencies, which along with her notorious dependency on the self-styled mystic Grigori Rasputin, undermined the Romanov’s credibility.

Nicholas as a child with his mother, Maria Feodorovna, in 1870. Britain’s King George V and Tsar Nicholas II were first cousins, as their mothers were sisters

The British royal family had forged close ties through marriage...

Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Alix married Tsar Nicholas II

The Revolution on screen • Pathé newsreels told some of the story to British cinema audiences,. Search YouTube for a glimpse: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eYrmwnBr85g • Although Russian films were rarely screened in Britain, stills from Sergei Eisenstein’s 1927 film Oktober: 10 Days That Shook The World were reproduced widely in Europe, suggesting they were actual images of the Revolution as it unfolded. Eisenstein’s two previous films in the triptych about 1905 and 1917 are Strike and Battleship Potemkin (both 1925). Read a fascinating film review written in 1929 at www. theguardian.com/media/fromthe-archive-blog/2011/may/24/ sergei-eisenstein-potemkin-1929

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Nicholas II and family. His only son, Tsarevich Alexei, suffered from haemophilia, as did many members of the closely related royal families of Europe. The dislocation, between the oppressed serfs and the aristocracy was a cause of smouldering resentment through Russian society

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What did our ancestors think?

Rasputin was assassinated in 1916.

After months under house arrest, the Bolsheviks executed the Russian royal family in Ekaterinberg on 17 July 1918. Read a news report at www. theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/22/ tsar-nicholas-executed-1918

Back on the Home Front 1917 was a bleak year for the Allies.

Severe winter weather in January and February caused a spate of deaths in Britain, voluntary rationing of bread made for serious hardship in poor homes while the coal shortage affected everybody, regardless of class. Rent strikes, anger about conscription, fear of air raids and exhaustion all contributed to a toxic atmosphere that alarmed the Government – mindful of the destabilising atmosphere in other warring countries.

Industrial unrest bubbled away and the trade union movement grew in strength as it called for better working conditions. Between 1914 and 1920, union membership doubled to 8.3 million, nearly half the workforce. Six million working days were lost to strike action in 1918, 35 million in 1919, and 29 million in 1920. British historian David Reynolds sums up: ‘Britain’s really big strike wave began in the second half of 1918 and then peaked in 1919: workers were demanding not revolution but recompense for victory.’

Rather than risk serious disruption, Lloyd George’s coalition approved pay rises and reductions to working hours.

The political disturbances seen on the Continent didn’t materialise in the UK partly because of the nature of the British workforce.

Before the war, only half a dozen firms employed more than 10,000 people, whereas this was the norm in Moscow and Petrograd. Historian Jerry White concludes that while many workers, pacifists and trade unionists were encouraged by the Revolution, those in power gave ‘farfetched credence’ to its influence.

Peace activists, however, came under considerable and sometimes violent attempts to silence their voices.

Australian soldiers attacked a peace procession in April 1917 and The Seaman’s Union, led by pro-war Havelock Wilson, was vehemently antipacifist and disrupted many anti-war meetings in and around London.

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In the press, the Daily Herald, edited by future Labour leader George Lansbury, was at the forefront of the movement against conscription. It supported the Russian Revolution writing that ‘a new star of hope [has] arisen over Europe’. As a politician, Lansbury promoted social justice, women’s rights and world disarmament.

The Trade Union Congress suggested to the Russian Provisional Government in 1917 that they could help develop a system of worker representation, but the offer was not taken up.

From Revolution to outright civil war Within weeks of the Revolution, Russia slid into civil war. Red and White armies engaged in vicious fighting largely around the railway network, communications being key to victory.

By 1922, at least 1.2 million people lost their lives during various campaigns of terror as the Bolsheviks gradually took control. The UK Parliament and the press condemned Bolshevik atrocities. With the civil war in full flow, eyewitness reports horrified the public and alarmed Parliament.

By August 1918, 5,000 British and Allied troops had landed in Murmansk and Vladivostok to assist the White Army – a combined anti-Revolution force, which was wholeheartedly supported by Winston Churchill.

Meanwhile in Petrograd, British spies including Robert Bruce Lockhart and Sidney Reilly (aka ‘The Ace Of Spies’) plotted to overthrow the Bolshevik regime. The Russians blamed the British for an assassination attempt on Lenin. Intelligence officer Captain Francis Cromie,

Find out more Newspapers • The Illustrated London News published many photographic images claimed to be of Revolutionary events in 1917. As always, apply the ‘who, what, where and why’ questions to interrogate any source • Search British Newspaper Archive at www.britishnewspaperarchive. co.uk or via Findmypast for local and national articles about the Revolution from the Home Front point of view

Look online

• Revolution timeline: www.bl.uk/ russian-revolution/articles/ timeline-of-the-russian-revolution • Imperial War Museums: www.iwm.org.uk/history/whatwas-the-february-revolution • The Leeds Russian Archive: https://library.leeds.ac.uk/ special-collections/collection/728

Read up on it

• Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, 1917 by Helen Rappaport (Hutchinson, 2016) • Ten Days That Shook The World

by John Reed • The Ace Of Spies by Sidney Reilly

Of peasant origins, Grigori Rasputin captured the attention of Tsarina Alexandra, wife of Tsar Nicholas II. Fearful of his dominance over the royal family, he was murdered by noblemen in 1916

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WHY DID THE REVOLUTION HAPPEN? DSO, while meeting fellow counterrevolutionaries was betrayed by two men in the room. Cromie was shot dead by the secret police, the Cheka.

Robert Bruce Lockhart was arrested but Sidney Reilly escaped to England.

The British Government issued the following statement: ‘HM Government will hold the members of the Soviet Government individually responsible, and will make every endeavour to secure that they shall be treated as outlaws by the governments of all civilized nations, and that no place of refuge shall be left to them.’

The Russians imprisoned both military personnel and civilians.

In June 1920, the plight of British prisoners was debated in the House of Commons and recorded in Hansard – see http://hansard.millbanksystems. com/commons/1920/jun/07/motionfor-adjournment

A report from the Birmingham Post, 12 November 1917, which Post reported positive opinions in Britain for the consequences of the Revolution. Civil War in Russia was to lead to a diminishing of support for the aims of the Revolution among the British population, however

Émigrés to Britain Although post-war migration statistics are unreliable, the Red Cross recorded in 1920 that 2 million Russians fled after the Revolution and during the civil war. These refugees became known as ‘Russia Abroad’. Most went to Berlin, Paris and to New York; strict UK immigration legislation prevented more than about 15,000 Russians coming to Britain. Special cases might be encouraged, but these were inevitably the wealthy and aristocratic who wouldn’t be a ‘burden’. Although Russians mixed freely in British society, integration was not an imperative – they planned to return home once the Communists were defeated.

While the British Home Office informed the League of Nations in 1921 that more than 90,000 Russians live in Britain, it didn’t record the number of refugees.

Hansard, the record of Parliamentary debate, records that 9,311 Russians became British subjects between 1916 and 1938.

The émigré population found support via a number of newly created organisations. By 1923, 16 organisations joined together to form the United Council of the Russian Red Cross, and the Russian Charity Organisation of Great Britain made up of the Russian Academic Group, the Self-help Association for Refugees from North Russia, the Russian Relief

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One of the last known photographs of Nicholas II, taken after his abdication in March 1917

About the author Fund, and the Russian Orthodox Church Parish Council.

The opening of state archives following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 enables historians to question and reassess the official narrative. Finally the story of how ordinary people lived through the Russian Revolution is beginning to emerge, giving us a deeper understanding of one of the most important events of the 20th century.

Film and social history have intrigued Amanda Randall for as long as she can remember, especially what early film and home movies can tell us about our past.

Since completing her MA in Film Archiving she has been researching and writing about these intertwined subjects

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Exclusive giveaways, & more!

Caring for your offers memories Welcome to the Family Tree Subscriber Club page, where subscribers to the magazine can benefit from a range of different offers and competitions every issue! To be sure not to miss out, take out a subscription today – see page 62 for our latest fabulous offer

KEEP UP TO DATE Sign up for our handy e-newsletter packed full of essential family history advice; visit http://familytr.ee/subsnews17

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on a Living DNA test Thinking of taking a DNA test? Make the most of the experience with a 3-in-1 test from Living DNA. As well as testing your family lines (autosomal testing), a Living DNA test will also give you results for your motherline and, if you are male, your fatherline too. What’s most exciting is that the subregional analysis will indicate where your family might have lived in the past few centuries.

Combine your paper trail research with your genetic genealogy and see where a Living DNA test might take you.

• Usually priced £109 plus p&p, subscribers to Family Tree can order a Living DNA test for £79.99 plus p&p. To claim your discount code, please email subscriberclub@familytree.co.uk with ‘Living DNA 30’ in the subject line, before placing your order at www.livingdna.com

DISCOUNTS & GIVEAWAYS Save £26 on the Family Tree Battlefield Tour

The Family Tree bespoke WW1 battlefield tour is running this October with lead trench historian Andy Robertshaw and is your chance to learn more about your WW1 ancestors, with battlefield experts on hand to help you.

Subscribers to Family Tree can save £26 when they book – turn to page 26 to find out how to secure your place

Rats Alley

We have three hardback copies of Rats Alley by Peter Chasseaud to give away. This new extended second edition is packed with a whopping 24,000 trench names, complete with map references, and fascinating historical background into how the names came about.

This is an essential read and reference guide for all keen family and military historians. See review, page 75.

• Rats Alley is published by The History Press in hardback (RRP £40, ISBN: 9780750980555) and ebook (£13.67); www.thehistorypress.co.uk

Retreat

To enter these book competitions, simply email subscribersclub@famil y-tree. co.uk with the relevan t book title in the subject line

Your chance to win one of three copies we have to give away. Turn back the clock to May 1940 and the British Army, along with that of the French and the remnants of the Belgian, had been harried back to the coast, and were now trapped between the sea and the oncoming German forces. Henry Buckton recounts the events of these perilous days for Britain during World War II, examining the Dunkirk evacuation and the events that followed.

• Retreat is published by Amberley Publishing in paperback (RRP £18.99, ISBN: 9781445664828); www.amberley-books.com

20% off afternoon tea

Subscribers to Family Tree can enjoy a 20 per cent discount at any of the participating venues at www.afternoontea.co.uk (offer valid until 31 December 2017). Please email subscriberclub@family-tree.co.uk with your subscriber number for the discount code and further details

The important stuff...When you contact us, please include just your name, subscriber number and postcode (print subscribers), or state if you are a digital subscriber. To obtain your code by post, write to the address on page 3 and provide an SAE. No cash alternatives will be offered and the editor’s decision is final. Kindly note, offers are open to Family Tree subscribers only (print and/or digital), and are valid until 27 December 2017 unless otherwise stated

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February 2017

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Your ancestors in the FIRST WORLD WAR Y

FIGHTING IN THE TRENCHes

EXCLUSIVE

VIDEO GUIDES

Don’t raise your head above the parapet!

Learn about the 24 hour daily routine of building trenches in the dark and watching out for an enemy that could attack at any time.

Discover the weapons your Tommy fought with at the Front, and explore unit war diaries for a first-hand official account of your soldier’s unit in WW1.

▲ Filmed on location at a living history trench in Kent.

Presented by Andrew Robertshaw Living historian: Peter Birkett Filming: Michael Douglass Documents: Helen Tovey Copyright Family Tree Warners Group Publications plc 2017

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R Your ancestors in the FIRST WORLD WAR

Find out more about your WWI ANCESTORS

Get to grips with the main records to research your soldier ancestor with these quick guides to researching the Great War, presented by Helen Tovey

▲ Introduction to researcing your First World War ancestors

▲ How to use a Unit War Diary and Trench Map

▲ Using the Commonwealth War Graves Commission www.family-tree.co.uk

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August 2017

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MY GRANDFATHER’S WAR YEARS

The Silver War Badge roll listing George Highton

The tale of an old tin hat

The mystery of his grandfather’s Army service has puzzled George Highton for more years than he cares to remember. It started with the discovery, in the cupboard under the stairs, of an old tin helmet with a severe hole in it

A

s a child I loved to try the helmet on, but the edges of the hole, caused by a shell, used to dig into my scalp. I wondered how anyone could survive such a head injury and, gradually, I got the story from my mum. She spoke of a belligerent old man (her father-in-law), who never spoke about the war but always suffered severe headaches.

When I started to do family history I contacted my siblings and cousins, including cousin Harold in South Africa, who sent me all Grandad’s papers and photos that he had inherited.

One photo stirred my curiosity further: a photo of Grandad, his wife Esther (née Price) with Uncle Gerard in a sailor suit and Aunty Esther. Grandad is in Army uniform. His cap badge is of the Somerset Regiment and I can just make out the faint stitching of a sergeant’s stripes with the faint imprint

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of a badge on the lower right forearm.

This, however, cannot be WW1, bearing in mind the age of his children: Uncle Gerard, born 1 October 1899, and Aunty Hetty, born 1902.

I sent the story to Family Tree for help and, following publication in the magazine, I got an email from a fellow Family Tree reader – a wonderful researcher in Australia called Graham Caldwell – offering his help, which I accepted willingly.

He said the photographic evidence places Grandad as a serving soldier in the Somerset Light Infantry (SLI) 1903/1904, judging by the age of the two children. He sports three chevrons on his upper arm (lance sergeant or sergeant) and the cap badge is the distinctive one of the SLI. Census returns show him with his family in 1901 and 1911. Consequently, he served between these dates with

the SLI. To encourage more men to step forward and become regular soldiers, to uplift the falling numbers of recruits, the Government experimented between 1902 and 1905 by offering extremely short-term enlistments.

Previously, since 1881 the 12 years’ requirement had been split: seven years with the Colours, followed by five years in the Reserves. The new terms of three years with the Colours and nine in the Army Reserve encouraged many new recruits, who were nicknamed ‘3 & 9s’.

Now for the assumptions His service: Assuming Grandad enlisted in 1902, he would have been back in civvy-street by the time of the 1911 Census, and his commitment to the Reserves would have been completed by a date in 1914. This would explain why he enlisted in the local territorial battalion of the

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Rea d Sto er ry

Finding answers to assumptions

The casualty listing for George Highton senior, published 15 June 1916 The photo, kindly restored by a friend of Graham Caldwell’s, of the Highton family with the author’s grandad in Army uniform.

The 1902 Pattern Service Dress tunic and trousers, as worn by George Highton senior, was the standard uniform clothing used by the British Army throughout the Great War

and totally lost in the 1940 London Blitz.

My conclusions

King’s Liverpool Regiment at Shaw St Liverpool on 9 October 1915, instead of being recalled by the SLI. We could find no record of service in South Africa – in case he had fought in the Boer War – (checking the nominal rolls on Findmypast and the medal rolls on Ancestry). In addition, he is not wearing either of the two South Africa medal ribbons in the photo.

The chevrons: Grandad’s three chevrons by 1903/1904 (the date of the photo, based on the age of the children) can be explained if he showed leadership qualities and this was recognised early.

Why can’t his service in the SLI be proven?

His regular Army service file with the SLI would have been merged with his new WW1 service in the King’s Liverpool Regiment in 1915 (as was the policy if the volunteer declared previous military service when he attested), and his service records seem to have been some of the more than 4 million soldier’s WW1 service records that were fire bombed

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He enlisted on one of the shorter term contracts in the SLI and had advanced to Lance-Sergeant (substantive Corporal) or Sergeant by 1903/1904.

The only home service battalion in 1902-1905 was the 2nd Battalion.

By the time of the 1911 Census he was once again a labourer living in Liverpool, but would still be serving his Army Reserve commitment, which was probably a mandatory two-week annual camp each summer. His Reserve commitment in either case was completed just before the start of WW1, therefore, being free to choose, instead of joining the SLI for whatever reason he volunteered for the local regiment – the Territorial 1/9th Battalion King’s Liverpool Regiment in Shaw Street on 9 October 1915.

Grandad’s service in the King’s Liverpool Regiment So, what about the hole in that old tin hat, which first piqued my interest?

The 1/9th Battalion King’s Liverpool Regiment (KLR) was mobilised on 4 August 1914 and was originally part of the Territorial South Lancs Brigade/ West Lancs Division (later 55th West Lancashire Division). In October 1914 (when he joined) the unit was sent to Tunbridge Wells for training and in March 1915 was one of eight territorial force battalions taken out of the 55th Division as urgent reinforcements for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front.

The 1/9th landed at Le Havre, France on 13 March 1915 joining the 2nd Brigade/1st Division (which was a

Regular Army Division) already fighting in France since August the previous year. Soon afterwards the 1/9th KLR was moved to the 3rd Brigade (same division) on 12 November 1915.

On 7 January 1916 the 1/9th KLR was transferred to 165th Brigade, which was a component of the 55th West Lancashire Division; which was the 1/9th KLR’s original Territorial Force division. This division took no part in the fighting until the later Somme battles of September 1916, but, according to family information, George himself was injured by enemy shelling during a quiet period between 1 and 15 May 1916. Details of his wounding were published in The Times and in local papers on 15 June 1916.

Returning to England (whereabouts unknown) for hospitalisation, he was discharged as a wounded soldier on 26 September 1916, receiving the Silver War Badge No 47273. I have also found out that he had a silver plate inserted over the wound.

Sources searched Graham Caldwell used a variety of sources to research my grandfather, including military datasets on Ancestry, Findmypast and TheGenealogist, plus specialised WW1 reference books in his own collection

About the author George Highton’s earliest interest in his family started with the tales his mum used to tell him just after the war. He was always closer to her after his evacuation than his dad as he was always ill. His mother used to take him visiting all sides of the family and tell him tales about their relations. When he retired, some 15-20 years ago, he was able to spend more time searching record offices all over the country. He had a motorhome and used to drag his wife on holiday visiting churches and graveyards looking for ancestors.

Later after his wife had passed away, he decided to visit Salt Lake City for research, which he found fascinating.

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THE WIDER SOCIETY FAMILY SCENE HISTORY SOCIETY SCENE

START A S Temp TUDY ted

Members at the Port and Starboard Guild conference last spring, in Southampton

to ow n o n e - b e g i n yo name ur Turn study to p a ? ge 2 2 issue t his to r e a dJ guide to ge ulie’s s t a r t t t ing ed

Spotlight on…

Sources searched

The Guild of One-Name Studies Julie Goucher talks to Rachel Bellerby about the work and activities of the world’s largest organisation for one-name studies and surname research

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ounded in 1979, The Guild of One-Name studies has more than 2,800 members, and to date has registered an impressive 2,469 surnames, with 6,250 variant names.

The process of undertaking a one-name study is at the heart of the Guild’s work, with members exploring and researching surnames, many of which are connected to their own ancestry.

So what does this have to do with family history? Well, a one-name study is an attempt to data capture

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all people wherever and whenever who held this name, meaning that it is possible to discover whether a surname originates from a particular area, and to follow people with that surname from region to region or country to country.

Such a study might concentrate on the geographical distribution of a particular name, the origins of that name, its relative frequency, and variants or deviants of that surname.

Some studies take things even further, with the researcher attempting to study the genealogy and family

history of all people carrying that surname, or undertaking a DNA study of the surname.

The five key Guild principles A name registered with the Guild as a one-name study is expected to be studied using a worldwide approach, which utilises the five key Guild principles of one-name study, namely that: 1 the study will be global in scope 2 it will include research within countries where the name is relatively significant and

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arched

Specialist knowledge & resources genealogical resources are available 3 it will research and store data available in core genealogical databases and transcripts 4 it will store and may research other data where the surname is mentioned 5 the member will maintain an accurate description of the scope and progress of the study.

Current Guild projects At any given time, hundreds of Guild members will be involved in undertaking a one-name study, giving advice and assistance to fellow members with their projects, and meeting regularly to share their findings and any new discoveries within the field.

The Guild publishes an annual register of surnames registered, which is distributed in paper form to genealogical institutions and libraries around the world, and is also available in searchable format on the Guild’s website.

Members are entitled to access the Guild indexes, which are an evergrowing resource of surnames, and can also use the members’ Wiki and members room on the Guild website.

The website also has an extensive section on DNA and one-name studies, some of which is accessible to non-members. Members who start a registered study are encouraged to create a profile page on the site, which allows them to share their findings, and enables other members to contact them.

If you have a surname in your family tree which is currently being studied by a Guild member, that person might well be able to provide you with valuable information about that name. And if the name hasn’t yet been researched, you might consider starting a one-name study.

Benefits of membership One of the main benefits of membership is being able to access the knowledge of Guild members, via a quarterly colour journal, an annual conference and quarterly seminars, which are also open to non-members.

Guild members manning their show stand

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SE E T

H E S IT

E

For m to join ore inform a , name email: gu tion or ild@o .org o n one- r visit: ht t ename p:// .o r g

How to join • As well as welcoming members interested in starting a one-name study, membership is also open to: anyone undertaking a DNA surname project; family historians researching a particular surname on a limited basis; and also local historians and academics who may benefit from the knowledge and learning opportunities that the Guild offers.

• Annual membership is based on an initial joining subscription which is based on a sliding scale, depending on which month the membership was taken out. New members can take advantage of a joining rate which offers up to 23 months of membership for a single fee, and thereafter renewal subscriptions run at £18 per year from 1 November to 31 October.

• Payment is accepted in six currencies on the Guild website, and new and renewing members can pay online, by cheque, bank transfer or direct debit.

• The fee payable on registering a one-name study, currently £14, is a one-off payment at the time of registration, and does not have to be renewed annually.

This year’s Guild seminar, which took place in May

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ALL AT SEA WITH YOUR SAILORS?

Be gin g u ner ide ’s

How to trace Royal Navy ancestors Simon Wills offers you an introduction to tracing relatives who served their country on the ocean wave

R

oyal Navy (RN) records are very extensive, so if you have an ancestor who served in the seagoing military it can be difficult to know where to start. Fortunately, almost all the important records are kept in one place: at The National Archives (TNA). Many of the records are available online, and TNA also produces a whole series of research guides concerned with RN employees which are invaluable: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/helpwith-your-research In this beginner’s guide, I will focus

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on selected records for RN employees in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Understanding ranks & ratings Before looking at the records, you should understand a little about the Navy’s career structure. The men who commanded the ship were called commissioned officers and were headed by the captain.

His subordinates might include commanders, lieutenants and on-board trainee officers called midshipmen. Officers still receiving schooling were called cadets; officers

more senior than the captain included commodores and admirals.

Warrant officers were specialists such as carpenters, cooks and the chaplain, but they were subordinate to commissioned officers.

All the rest of the crew were called ratings. They included seamen, people with the equivalent rank of seamen such as stokers, and petty officers who were skilled senior men such as the chief armourer.

It’s important to understand these distinctions, because most sources at TNA are divided into separate records for officers and ratings. Documents

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Learn about life on the ocean waves HMS Royal Arthur was a shore establishment in 1947, rather than an actual ship. Watch out for this occurring in your research

concerning warrant officers are usually included with commissioned officers’ records, but sometimes with ratings.

Finding records at Kew It is a gross simplification, but in very broad terms there are three types of RN record at TNA. • The most useful documents at the beginning of your research are called service records and they provide a contemporaneous summary of an ancestor’s career from their enlistment to their departure (or death).

• Secondly, there are a very large group of records that relate to employment.

They describe things such as wages and day-to-day deployment, and include musters, paybooks, ships’ logs and pension records.

• The last group of records describe

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significant in-service events such as medals, disciplinary activity, qualifications, and deaths.

All three types of record changed a lot over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. but they can each contain different information. In other words, it is worth looking beyond service records because you can often glean valuable extra information about an individual.

This is particularly the case if your ancestor had a complex life outside the service. Naval records may help you with a date of birth, next of kin, former employment, or address for example.

Researching your rating ancestor Service records describe: where your ancestor undertook his service,

promotions, sickness, age, dates of service and often much more. There are different types of service record for ratings.

• Those that cover men who joined between 1853 and 1928 can be searched on the TNA website and downloaded for a small fee: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ help-with-your-research/researchguides/royal-navy-ratings-servicerecords-1853-1928 • Additional records of service going back to 1802 are available on Ancestry, indexed by name, but are derived from TNA sources: http:// search.ancestry.co.uk/search/ db.aspx?dbid=9050 • Ratings earned medals for specific military campaigns such as WW1

A chief petty officer in about 1910 (below) and a WW1 seaman (right)

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ALL AT SEA WITH YOUR SAILORS?

Captain Basil Cochrane in 1889 (far left) and an illustration of Royal Navy seamen in the mid-1850s

Some free shortcuts Parts of the careers of some RN employees can be retrieved online and may provide you with a valuable head start. Here are some example free websites:

or the 19th century Opium Wars, for example, but also for longevity of service. You can download copies of the original medal registers for free and search them yourself via the TNA Digital Microfilm Project www. nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-yourresearch/research-guides/free-onlinerecords-digital-microfilm – look for series ADM 171 • Alternatively, if you subscribe to Ancestry, the same records have been indexed there by name: http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/ db.aspx?dbid=1687 • Another valuable place to look for ratings is in the TNA’s index to RN wills (1786 to 1882), and these also include many warrant officers: www. nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-yourresearch/research-guides/wills-royalnavy-royal-marines-personnel-1786-1882 – they are indexed by name and typically include the testator’s rank, next of kin, ship served on at the time, and date.

Researching your officer ancestor Service records from 1756 for commissioned officers (joining up to 1917) and warrant officers (joining up to 1931) can be searched via the TNA site at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-withyour-research/research-guides/royal-

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navy-officers-service-records-1756-1931 where they can be downloaded for a small charge.

There are additional records covering about 1880 to the 1950s as well www. nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-withyour-research/research-guides/royalnavy-officers-service-record-cards-filesc1840-c1920 and you must look in both if your ancestor’s service might have straddled both eras.

You can also look up medals awarded to officers using the same links described above for ratings. The RN published a regular book called the Navy List, which listed all commissioned officers and some warrant officers, describing where they were employed. Some editions of this book are available free online via Google Books and other freetext book sites; there are also collections on subscription sites such as Ancestry and TheGenealogist.

How to interpret service records A common complaint is that having retrieved a service record for a rating or officer, a family historian is not certain how to interpret it. These records do contain a lot of abbreviations and jargon, so some guidance may be useful.

I hope this guide to the records and clues about the details you may find will provide useful in learning more about ancestors who served in the Royal Navy.

• Trafalgar ancestors – www.nationalarchives.gov. uk/trafalgarancestors This site is provided by TNA and lists all ranks who fought with Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805, together with service histories and biographical details for many of them • Commonwealth War Graves Commission – www.cwgc.org Indexes all RN personnel who died in WW1 or WW2 and provides their service number and place of commemoration • WW1 officers and ratings – www.royalnavyrecordsww1. rmg.co.uk The RN Lives at Sea resource provides wartime biographies of many officers and ratings, derived mainly from service records transcriptions • Jutland – http://jutland.org.uk The interactive map gives biographies of men killed at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 • Unit histories – www.unithistories.com/ officers/RN_officersA.html This database has biographies of many WW2 officers who served in the RN. It includes naval reservist officers too

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Learn about life on the ocean waves Your Royal Navy jargon buster

Things to note

• On records for ratings, look out for a unique service number at the top. This can help you find other naval records related to the same individual or confirm that they all refer to the same person • A physical description was often recorded including height, hair and eye colour, but also any marks such as tattoos or scars.

These helped identify dead bodies and reduced the chance of impersonation, but can sometimes be a valuable cross-check on identity if you have a photo of your ancestor

Naval officer ranks

I can’t find him It is possible that your ancestor’s service records are missing, as in any archive, but in practice this is fairly uncommon. Here are some tips to help you get back on track: If you can’t find service records, look at other RN records and try to find out if your ancestor earned a medal, for example, or left an RN will. Names can be spelled incorrectly and may have been written as they sounded, especially in the early part of the 19th century. Try variant spellings of surnames and first names.

Was your naval officer actually a rating, or vice versa? The status of some roles varied with the era, especially if they had specialist skills. Men with engineering-type roles, for example, could be counted as everything from a rating to a commissioned officer.

Your ancestor may have served with the Navy as a reservist and these records are held separately. There were two main types – the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). TNA has research guides for officers and ratings in both organisations.

Significant branches of the RN such as the Royal Marines or Women’s Royal Naval Service also have records that are kept separately at TNA. The coastguard was part of the Royal Navy too until 1923 and employees wore naval uniforms. Again, consult the relevant TNA research guides online.

Many Merchant Navy employees dressed like the RN, used similar job titles, and even switched between the two services

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Seamen Each seaman was described as having a specific ‘rating’, which indicated his seniority. A ‘boy’ was a trainee, and in due course he would normally become an ‘Ord’ or ordinary seaman before rising to ‘AB’, an able-bodied seaman.

Seamen could progress beyond this to PO (petty officer) or CPO (chief petty officer) who had specialist areas of responsibility. There were abbreviations for specialists such as ‘Sto’ (stoker) or ‘Gnr’ (gunner).

Seamen were repeatedly evaluated for their character (‘C’), which described their general conduct, and were assessed as ‘VG’ (very good), ‘G’ (good), fair, or bad.

They were also individually appraised for their ability (‘A’) – a measure of their professional skills – and abbreviations used included ‘Exc’ (exceptional), ‘Supr’ (superior), ‘Sat’ (satisfactory), ‘Mod’ (moderate), or ‘Inf’ (inferior). The default assessment for most men was ‘VG’ and ‘Sat’.

Officers Officers were also evaluated by their seniors but there was no set format, so comments here were entirely at the discretion of the person conducting the assessment.

They can be quite personal or blunt: so you may see references to ‘decisive and resourceful’ or ‘deplorable lack of judgement’. I looked at an officer’s records recently whose captain noted it was difficult to assess the man’s capability because he spent so much time in hospital with VD. Another record noted an individual’s gifts as an artist.

Ships’ names The names of the ships or ‘stations’ served upon are usually listed. Note that the ‘HMS’ prefix for ships was not always used. In addition, not all of those given an ‘HMS’ prefix were actually ships, since training establishments on shore such as HMS Royal Arthur were described in the same way. References to ‘HMS Victory’ in this section are quite common. This was often used for naval employees who did not have a specific ship to operate from: while they were deployed ashore elsewhere for example. The internet is a good place to identity a specific ship and to find out a bit more about it. Start by typing the ship’s name into a search engine, but be careful because the same ship names were used repeatedly, so make sure you have the right one, and once you have a ‘lead’ you should then verify your information from a reliable source.

Finally, when discharged from the service, this is often written on service records as a capital ‘D’ with a date and explanation next to it such as ‘unfit due to injury’, ‘demob’ (demobilised at the end of the war). ‘DD’ means ‘discharged dead’; ‘R’ means ‘run’ – in other words a deserter. A note about ‘RFR’ means that the seaman was a veteran who joined the Royal Fleet Reserve on discharge and could then be called back into service in the event of a war

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MOMENTS OF GLORY, HONOUR & INFAMY

Exploring The Gazette See how it can help your research

An official public record that stretches back to the 1600s, The Gazette provides a unique account of events from our ancestors’ lives – from honours to awards for gallantry, news in the public interest, and even notices of bankruptcy too. Helen Tovey explores the archives free online at www.thegazette.co.uk to see what might be uncovered…

T

he Gazette was first published, twice weekly, as The Oxford Gazette in 1665 – as Charles II’s court had fled London for Oxford, fearful of the plague that was sweeping the capital.

Issue number 1 of The Oxford Gazette recorded details such as: a listing of the newly appointed county sheriffs for England and Wales (as you might expect from The Gazette); but also details of prizes (ships captured) brought in

by English captains; clarification that the ‘coast is all clear’ (from pirates, presumably); updates on conflict in Europe; and even news of the weather

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(how very British) – as relating to port towns such as Plymouth.

Over time, the content of The Gazette has evolved to reflect the world it exists in, and as a family historian, there are numerous reasons why you might wish to rummage in its online archives.

Read on to see some of the ways in which The Gazette can hold clues to your ancestors’ lives.

1 Bills receiving royal assent: read for details of upcoming Acts of Parliament • Whether it’s the Gin Act, the Enclosure Act, or the Defence of the Realm Act – the Bills that our

ancestors passed through Parliament say a lot about their world, so are interesting to note to get a feel for a past era 2 Deceased estates notices: search for the date of an ancestor’s death and any details of the will • Such notices are made to give creditors time to make a claim on the deceased’s estate, but for us as family historians provide useful clues about names, dates and addresses 3 Insolvency notices: trace an ancestor’s business and bankruptcy

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Digging for detail in a free online resource • Whether your ancestor was made bankrupt or dissolved a company, you may find details of their dealings here 4 Awards and accreditation: research an ancestor’s gallantry awards in times of war, or a relative receiving a New Year or birthday honour from the Queen • Thousands of gallantry awards have been given out in times of war.

From a VC of the Crimean War, to a

Military Medal in WW1, if you think your ancestor was noted for bravery, this is the place to search Whether you’re researching military or civilian life, whether you wish to find a specific ancestor’s details or simply enhance your understanding of the past, The Gazette website is a very valuable resource for family historians to spend time investigating. If you’ve made an exciting discovery using The Gazette,, do let us know.

Tips to search The Gazette archives 1 Register for research You don’t need to register, but doing so will allow you to save your results. As the results can take some tracking down, registration can be a handy time-saver in the long-run 2 Experiment with search terms Use your full search skills for successful research (look by full names and with just an initial; use AND, NOT etc; set datespan) 3 Download a complete PDF Using this option will ensure you have the full edition of The Gazette that your ancestor appeared in, and the reference you need for your records (date of publication, page number etc). You can just save a specific page if you prefer

About The Gazette publications Read a contemporary account of the Great Fire of London in number 85, covering 3-10 September 1666

Find details of the Enclosure Act in number 11366, covering 29 June to 3 July 1773

In addition to The London Gazette, there are sister publications too.

The Edinburgh Gazette was first published in 1699, sporadically through the 1700s, until 1793 – since when it has been continually published. The Dublin Gazette was first published in 1706, and, since 1922, has been published under the title Iris Oifigiuil. The Belfast Gazette came about with the partition of Ireland, and has been published since 6 June 1921. The Gazette website at www.thegazette.co.uk comprises all records (back to 1665) of all three UK publications (the London Gazette and those for Edinburgh and Belfast too).

A BIRD VIEW OF ’S EY E HISTORY

The icing on the cake: a citation explaining an ancestor’s act of gallantry. This man was awarded the Military Cross (MC)

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Explore th e timeline events fro of key m Great Fire the past – such as of Londo n, the erup the of Mount Etn tio victory at a, the Enclosure A n W ct of war 19 aterloo, declaratio , accounts 14 & more – and re n written b ad yp the time: w w w.the eople alive at gazette.c o.uk / history/t imeline

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s k o o B

Top choice

LOST WARRIORS: SEAGRIM & PAGANI OF BURMA

by Philip Davies

F

ifteen years in the making, author Philip Davies now recounts the histories of two remarkable men, and their intertwined lives during the fearsome, foetid fighting in Burma during the Second World War. One, Hugh Seagrim, was the fifth son of an English village priest – and a prankster, a rebel and with many of the qualities of a school-boy hero.

The other, Roy Pagani, was left destitute on the harbour at Cannes by his womanising father, subsequently rescued by a nun – and during the Convent years that followed acquired numerous resourceful skills that were to stand him in good stead in the years to come.

The incredible trail of events of Pagani’s life include his escape from Dunkirk, then from Singapore too, and even subsequently from the Death Railway in Burma. So extreme was Pagani’s torture when

Looking for Uncle Joop: A LongLost Story from NaziOccupied Holland

by Aletta Stevens What began for author Aletta Stevens as a niggling need to find out what had happened to her uncle, Johannes (Joop) Doedenias Schweitzer, who died in WW2, became an all-absorbing quest to find the truth behind a mystery that had lain hidden for more than 70 years.

Aletta grew up knowing very little of her mother’s brother, only later discovering that he had been shot dead at the age of only 23 in Nazi-

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he was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned in the ‘Rangoon Ritz’ – premises of the Japanese kempeitai (military police) – that his subsequent solitary confi nement in the hell of Rangoon Central jail was a chance for relative R&R. Guerrilla mastermind Seagrim covertly operated a radio for two years in the Burmese mountains, leaking Japanese secrets to the British, and leading his devoted Karen peoples of the local villages.

Finally he gave himself up to the Japanese, offering his own life in a bargain for a fairer treatment for his steadfastly loyal Burmese followers.

Researched and told in meticulous detail, Davies’ account, which he subtitles ‘The last great untold story of WWII’, is fascinating, and particularly perhaps for those who have family who fought in Burma. He would love to hear from relatives of those occupied Holland, running away from the Germans. Her mother had nearly always been silent on the matter, along with her extended Dutch family.

But on becoming a mother herself – and watching TV presenter Carol Vorderman exploring her own Dutch ancestry and her father’s involvement in the Resistance in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? – Aletta simply ‘Googled’ her uncle’s name, and set off on a moving journey of family history discovery.

This beautifully written real-life genealogy detective tale will have you hooked from the start, as Aletta describes how she found the full long-lost story behind her Uncle Joop’s death. Alongside the story is an engaging examination of what family history is all about, and an elegant

mentioned in the book.

• ISBN: 9781909242852. RRP £20, hardback. Atlantic Publishing.

Review by Helen Tovey reminder of the immense value to us all of memoir and remembrance. It’s a powerful family history read that you’ll find difficult to put down.

• ISBN: 9781853981876. RRP £10.99, paperback, £7.80 on Kindle.

Ashgrove Publishing.

Great Escaper: A young PoW in the most audacious breakout of WWII

by Louise Williams Twenty-fouryear-old John ‘Willy’ Williams was among the 76 prisoners of war who famously

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Family history reads with Karen Clare

tunnelled their way out of the supposedly escapeproof Stalag Luft III camp immortalised in The Great Escape – and was one of the ‘Most Four’ shot dead by the Gestapo on Hitler’s orders after being recaptured in the former Czechoslovakia, along with his childhood friend Reg ‘Rusty’ Keirath. Nobody was ever brought to justice for their murders.

Willy was an Australian medical student and passionate surfer before he turned Squadron Leader and was a gifted pilot, heading into combat in non-regulation sandals and shorts. Now his niece Louise Williams, an award-winning writer, journalist and editor, has recreated his life story from family memories of his childhood in Australia, letters, declassified documents, oral histories and interviews with survivors of the Great Escape. She brings John’s incredible and tragic story to the notice of a modern audience and in doing so builds a poignant picture of the young uncle she never had chance to meet. Told with insight and compassion, this is a famous war story with family history at its heart; a touching niece’s tribute revealing how the impact of Willy’s shocking death and those of fellow escapees has echoed down the decades, and led to the development of new friendships.

• ISBN: 9781445672014. RRP £9.99, paperback.

Amberley Publishing.

Rats Alley by Peter Chasseaud (extended 2nd edition)

The new extended second edition of Rats Alley: Trench Namesit ofisthe Western background color so readers will know a new ad. Front 1914-1918 contains a gazetteer ntries for EVIDENCE EXPLAINEDpacked and GERMAN-ENGLISH with a whopping Y 24,000 trench names (the first hadones: 10,000), complete f the list of books please insert theseedition two new with references to 1:10,000 scale trench map sheets.

RNATIONAL VITAL RECORDS HANDBOOK. 7th EDITION Make sure that, before digging into the detail

by Thomas J. Kemp and finding the whereabouts of particular trenches, you take time to read the chapters that look at the fascinating historicalSOUTH, background into how the names AN WARS OF THE AMERICAN 1610-1857 came about. Serving practical purposes, names being UIDE FOR GENEALOGISTS AND HISTORIANS far easier than a grid reference to remember, trench

by Michael Portsa psychological need too – that of names alsoA.served the Tommy to make sense of and identify with his surroundings. The mix of irony and fondness for home are evident in many of the names.

With glossaries of abbreviations, explanations of the trench mapping scale and reference systems, this is an invaluable guide to the practical researcher of the battlefield, and to the armchair researcher who wishes to gain further understanding of our soldier ancestors’ world at the Front in the Great War. • ISBN: 9780750980555. RRP £40, hardback, £13.67 on Kindle.

The History Press.

Review by Helen Tovey

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WhrIeNe h!ardbackter

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In brief Restoring a Dunkirk Little Ship: Caronia 2270 by Peter Draper Peter Draper charts the story behind the restoration of his historic Dunkirk little ship, Caronia, built in 1927 in Newlyn, Cornwall by Henry, Theodore and Sidney Peake.

Commandeered by the Navy from Newhaven, she steamed to the beaches of Dunkirk and into the pages of history in the company of hundreds of other little ships. Peter spent more than a decade restoring her with his son and lavishly illustrates this 96-page book with photographs. If you were moved by the Christopher Nolan’s new film Dunkirk, you can learn more about one of the fascinating crafts involved.

• ISBN: 9781445675589. £14.99 paperback, also available as an ebook. Amberley Publishing.

Now Available in the UK, Ireland, the European Union, and Australia NEW! INTERNATIONAL VITAL RECORDS HANDBOOK. 7th EDITION

by Thomas J. Kemp

NEW! INDIAN WARS OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH, 1610-1857 A GUIDE FOR GENEALOGISTS AND HISTORIANS

by Michael A. Ports The Top 300 Surnames of Derry-Londonderry

by Brian Mitchell American Settlements and Migrations

by Lloyd Dewitt Bockstruck They Came to Belize, 1750-1810

by Sonia B. Murray History for Genealogists

by Judy Jacobson See our entire collection at

www.genealogical.com But ORDER from www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.eu and other fine booksellers.

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October 2017

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INTRIGUING, IRREGULAR RESEARCH

This family photo shows Stewart as a wee girl holding her father’s hand At the time of Stewart’s first marriage her parents were still living in Gateshead at 8 Mafeking Street and that is the address James had noted on his Army file as the home of his wife

The bigamists You may be surprised to learn that Stewart Easton Morgan was a woman despite her rather masculine sounding name. Although she is related to Deborah Watson only through marriage, her story and that of the men who came in contact with her is an interesting one in which ‘family lore’ is once again proved to be slightly untrue…

T

he family story is (or was) that in England in 1917 Stewart was swept off her feet by a New Zealand soldier while she was grieving the death of her elderly husband, and that he took her back home on the troop ship with him and made her his bride.

I think the true story goes something like this.

My version of events Stewart was born on 3 April 1893 in West Calder, which lies to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. In the 1901 Census, Stewart is recorded as a boy aged seven years – it seems the enumerator hadn’t come across a little girl named Stewart before.

By the 1911 Census, Stewart, aged nearly 17, is not living with the family, and it is possible that on 4 August 1910 she left London and sailed to

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Brisbane, Australia on board the Oswestry Grange. There is a steerage passenger named Stewart Morgan aged 17 recorded as a domestic servant on the ship’s manifest. On the Australian electoral rolls for 1913, there is a Stewart Morgan recorded living in Darling Downs, an electorate in Queensland, and working as a domestic servant. There is no record of a return to England.

What is known for sure is that a young man named James Alexander Meddings, an Australian soldier from Ecucha, Victoria, crossed paths with Stewart either in Australia or later in England.

James was 6ft with a fair complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair. He had attested on 4 January 1915 in Melbourne and had seen a lot of action in many theatres of war, including Anzac Cove, France and Flanders.

It would be true to say that James had some problems coming under authority in the Army and his records show that he had been court martialled for being drunk in France on 17 May 1916. He also spent a lot of time in hospital as a result of being gassed in France; for an injury to his arm from an exploding shell; also for a bout of gonorrhoea. He was sent to England for medical treatment on 14 June 1916. Did James and Stewart meet in a medical setting? Was Stewart, perhaps, a nurse?

However it happened, the couple did indeed meet and somewhere between 1 July and 30 September 1916 they were married in Gateshead.

One would think that Stewart settled down to the life of a soldier’s wife but that is not quite what happened.

Somewhere between 1 April 1917 and 30 June 1917, Stewart married again.

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Three ‘husbands’ in two years…

Husband number two Husband number two was Claude Milne, a New Zealand soldier born in my home town of Wanganui and working as a fireman for the railways when he went to war. At his attestation on 2 May 1916 he gave his birth date as 23 January 1896 but he was not telling the truth. He was born exactly three years later than that, on 23 January 1899.

Lots of conduct issues are mentioned in his Army file – breaking bounds, disobeying orders and late for parade are some examples. He was posted as a deserter on 22 October 1916 and on 7 December 1916 was admitted to hospital in London with VD. From there he was moved to the Army hospital in Codford.

Codford Hospital, on the Salisbury Plains in Wiltshire, was notorious for its VD patients who were separated from the general patients by a barbed wire fence. Claude was transferred out of the isolation wing on 23 January 1917 and was admitted No. 3 NZ General Hospital. He is recorded as having forfeited five days’ pay for breaking bounds and disobeying an order on 3 June 1917.

Claude’s marriage to Stewart is registered in Warminster, Wiltshire, which is seven miles down the road from Codford. It is probable that Claude had left camp to marry Stewart on this date, which fits into the time frame for the marriage registration.

Claude made sure Stewart was added as his next of kin in his Army file. On 21 June 1917 Claude was classified as unfit

Claude’s marriage to Stewart is registered in Warminster, Wiltshire, which is seven miles down the road from Codford

for service and sent to Torquay to await his transportation back to New Zealand.

Stewart had now married two soldiers who had been hospitalised. At the time of Stewart’s second marriage her first husband James Meddings was in Wareham Camp preparing to be shipped out to France again. She was not a widow, she had not been divorced. Her second marriage was therefore bigamy.

Husband number three, ahem Husband number three was my second cousin twice removed Vernon George Collins, a rifleman from New Zealand who, you guessed it, was transferred to Codford Hospital on 3 March 1917.

Vernon had been badly wounded in his left arm on 16 September 1916 and the wound was taking a long time to heal.

The powers that be decided that Vernon was no longer physically fit for service due to his wounds and he embarked for New Zealand on the troopship, Ionic, on 23 July 1917. The family story is that Stewart travelled with him and that may be true. Vernon and Stewart were married in Auckland on 3 October 1917. On the marriage registration it says that Stewart was the widow of James Meddings who had

died on 16 May 1917. However, on her third wedding day in less than two years, Stewart’s first husband James was in France. He returned to England on 6 November 1918 where he made sure that Stewart was officially listed as his next of kin.

Settling down, at last Vernon and Stewart had two children and lived together in Auckland, New Zealand until Vernon’s death in 1970.

Stewart, the serial bigamist, died in 1980.

James Meddings returned to Australia at the end of the war. I wonder if he ever knew what had happened to his wife. His sad, lonely death was reported in 1929.

Playing fast & loose with the facts You will note that the title of this story is ‘The bigamists’. We are not quite finished with marriages yet!

Claude Milne was sent back to New Zealand on 25 September 1917 aboard the same troopship – Ionic – that Vernon (and possibly Stewart) had returned home in. When Claude arrived home on 24 October 1917 he began a series of marriages that takes my breath away.

Milne had many aliases and used them freely as he married and had relationships with women in New Zealand and Australia. He was known at different times as: • Claude Milne • Alexander Kenneth Claude Milne • Alexander Robert Milne

Are you a relation?

You can hopefully just make out that this record from 1918 shows that Stewart’s first husband was clearly alive and still regarded her as his next of kin

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If anyone reading this has a grandfather or great-grandfather with any combinations of the various names that Claude used over the years, Deborah Watson would love to hear from you. Please email watsons@watsons.co.nz

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16/08/2017 16:14

INTRIGUING, IRREGULAR RESEARCH

With his past catching up with him, in defence of his bigamy, Claude ventured that he had forgotten his previous marriage

• Kenneth Claude Milne • Ken Milne • and Alexander Robert Kenneth Milne.

Milne also had several occupations: • fireman • soldier • engineer • veterinarian • salesman • and tractor expert.

In various legal documents (including marriage registrations) he always correctly named his parents as Alexander Robert Milne and Annie Boswell, which made the trail a little easier to follow.

He always used his correct birthday on documents too, but varied the birth year depending on the situation.

According to his New Zealand Army records he was a little chap of 5ft 6 inches with a 32-inch chest, dark hair and dark eyes. He was discharged from the New Zealand Army because of his ill health, although no medical board could find anything definitive that could be causing his fainting fits.

He was classified as unfit for further service due to debility. In other words, he doesn’t really seem to have been a catch. However, Milne seemed to have had no problem in attracting women.

The many ‘marriages’ of Mr Milne On 3 June 1918 he married Virginia Olive Pike in Foxton. Virginia and Claude had two children together but Milne was not often present during the marriage. In subsequent years, Virginia tried to make him accountable, suing

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for maintenance in 1922. There wasn’t much point though, because Milne had already married Florence Evelyn Smith on 22 November 1920 in Auckland.

Having been abandoned by his first wife, and leaving two ‘wives’ behind him, Milne decided to try his luck in Australia.

On 31 March 1926 Milne married his fourth wife – 21-year-old Olive Powell Scroop – at the home of Rev G Davidson in Dulwich, South Australia using one of his aliases, Alexander Kenneth Milne. Milne got a job as a fireman in the South Australian Railways and on 18 November 1926 the couple had a son who they named Alexander Kenneth Claude.

Unfortunately the little chap lived for only five hours.

On 7 January 1928 Milne ‘married’ again, this time in the Presbyterian Church in Hawthorn, Castlemaine, to Ina Mavis Dunning. But Milne’s marriages were catching up with him and on 26 March 1930 a warrant was issued for his arrest in Glebe New South Wales on a charge of bigamy.

When Milne appeared in court on 22 July 1930 his defence was that he had forgotten about his marriage in Adelaide.

I was aware that Milne had fathered a child (probably without marrying the mother) in Perth in 1939 when I began this story. The lady involved was recently widowed. I wondered why Milne would have been in Perth and so I checked the National Archives of Australia. Bingo!

There are two entries for Milne’s enlistments (with the same alias but different next of kin) for the Australian Army in WW2. As usual Milne gave his correct birthday as far as day and month but varied the year.

Below the first, is the second enlistment when, to my surprise, he named his next of kin as Eunice Milne and so yet another wife popped out of the woodwork – just when I thought my story was complete Milne had married for the sixth time in the Lutheran Church in Adelaide in 1936.

There was a dramatic court appearance in Perth in 1941 as Eunice asked for more maintenance for their two children. Milne chose to insinuate that Eunice was a Nazi spy because they were married in a ‘German church’ – and the matter was reported in the newspaper at the time.

So keen was he to avoid maintenance to ‘wife’ number 6 that he denounced has a Nazi spy

Using the name Alexander Robert Kenneth Milne, Claude took his seventh trip down the aisle with Agnes Mary Miller in 1944 in Annandale New South Wales. Milne and Agnes Mary were still living together in 1980 in New South Wales 36 years later, (both now deceased).

And that’s the end, or is it?

Milne makes headlines in many other aspects of his life: lots of court appearances for his driving and his drinking and, surprisingly, a Humane Society Award for rescuing drowning children.

But despite all I’ve discovered, I’m not certain I’ve reached the end of the trail – there are several further marriage entries which to my mind look suspicious…

About the author Family Historian and Genealogist Deborah Watson lives in the Edwardian spa town of Te Aroha in New Zealand. Unlocking family secrets and breaking down brick walls are her specialities. www.watsons.co.nz

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16/08/2017 16:15

Your questions answered

ADVICE...

With our experts Jayne Shrimpton, David Frost, Madeleine Dickens, Steven Smyrl, Tim Lovering, David Annal & Emma Jolly Elegant shot from the 1910s

Q

We are probably all familiar with Victorian studio portraits of our ancestors, but one photograph I have inherited stands out as rather different.

It depicts my grandmother Izette Iris Allen (formerly Pemberton, née Southard). It is not the usual ‘carte de visite’ or postcard picture, but a larger print just under 10 x 6 ins set on a mount some 15¼ x 10½ ins. My scanner is too small to include the whole mount but it is quite sophisticated with attractive framing around the photograph. The photograph itself has been produced in the style of a drawing and the unusual pose also puzzles me. The picture is signed ‘Fred Marsh F.R.P.S.* Clifton’.

Researching Fred Marsh, I discovered that he and his brothers set up a photographic business in Henley on Thames, all three exhibiting jointly at the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) in the late 1800s. Fred Marsh alone moved to Bristol c1906, later moving premises and finally leaving the area c1930.

My photograph would have been quite expensive when it was new and has led me to wonder why it was taken and, indeed, who paid for it! I have made enquiries of both Bristol Record Office and Local Studies Centre, the RPS and the National Media Museum, hoping to discover whether this photograph was shown at an exhibition, but without success. There are very few records of Fred Marsh even in the British Newspaper Archive and only a couple of other examples of his work apparently surviving. The photograph has been variously dated to both before and after WW1. My grandmother was 21 in 1908, but this image seems to be 1920s.

Please can you advise as to the date and suggest why it may have been taken.

Peter Cope peterfcopy@hotmail.co.uk

A

Firstly, your description of this large format print presented on a sizeable card mount with a wide, decorative border around the picture,

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confirms that it represents one of the popular styles of the early 20th century – a format that occurred mainly between the early 1900s and about 1920. The old Victorian/Edwardian cartes de visite and cabinet prints were gradually dying out and the modern postcard was slowly becoming established, leaving scope for this new style of larger photograph that was well-framed and produced a more substantial portrait.

Studying your print, it does look a little like a drawing, but clearly it is a photograph that has been retouched by hand, creating the soft, sketchy effect. Retouching was a fairly common procedure, especially if the photograph was an enlargement of a smaller print, which may also be the case here.

There is relatively little fashion detail here to go on for close dating, although Izette’s hairstyle is waved and built up at the back in a version of a neo-classical coiffure, confirming a date in the 1910s to c19111919. She wears a very becoming diaphanous garment that may be a chiffon or tulle wrap and reveals her beautiful neck and fine jewellery: this is not regular daywear, but picturesque, luxurious dress that would have been considered either very formal afternoon wear, or evening attire.

Your grandmother may possibly have been a photographer’s model

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@ and perhaps she knew Fred Marsh, as you suggest, but without firm evidence to this effect I’d be inclined to consider this a regular photographic portrait. That said, it is likely to have been commissioned by your grandmother herself (or a male relative) to mark a special occasion: this may have been her engagement, if it occurred between 1911 and 1919; alternatively the portrait could perhaps record her landmark 30th birthday in 1917. JS

The close-up head and shoulders composition of the subject seen here was becoming an increasingly popular style during the 1910s and continued into the inter-war era. With the focus on the head, poses became more diverse: a half-profile was perhaps most common, but a full profile portrait was always possible and Peter Cope’s grandmother chose this flattering option

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YOUR Q&A Working with photo clues

Q

A cousin sent me this black and white photo, which appears to be part of a larger picture, slipped under an oval mount. It could have been taken by a family member but I cannot identify the house.

Written on the back are the words ‘Mama’s mother’. The mama in this case was Margaret Pearce, née Powdrell, born 1874 in New Zealand.

Margaret’s mother was Elizabeth Powdrell, née Parsons, born 1851 at Southwell. She emigrated to New Zealand with her father and siblings in 1862 and married John Dutton Powdrell in 1870, aged 19, so this photo would have been taken in New Zealand. She died in 1927. I have also attached two sepia photos of an older Elizabeth for comparison. Do you think they are the same person as the younger lady? I have not seen this particular hairstyle in any of our other family pictures before.

Rae Acherman raevit@xtra.co.nz

A

Often ancestors or more recent relatives have written on the backs of old photographs, but frustratingly, in many cases the notes are unclear or, frankly, turn out to be incorrect.

Labelling a photograph ‘Mama’s mother’ is only really helpful to today’s researchers if we know for certain who wrote the details. Unfortunately both ‘mama’ and her ‘mother’ were born much earlier than this young woman can possibly have been born, so calling throwing into doubt the identity of ‘mama’.

The image is a casual snapshot taken by an amateur photographer – probably a relative, or possibly a friend or neighbour – and, judging from this scan, it looks to have been inserted in an oval aperture on the page of a purpose-designed early20th century snapshot photograph album.

Amateur photography gradually advanced in the early-1900s and, especially between the 1910s and 1940s, many individuals and families acquired their first home cameras. Early amateur snapshots were generally set outdoors where there was a natural source of light and this is a typical scene posed in the garden of the family home. I cannot discern from the style of the building whether the geographical location is most likely New Zealand or Britain, but the

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• Unless any other visual evidence is present, usually outdoor snapshots are best dated by the appearance of their human subjects. Here is a girl or young woman wearing pale-coloured summer fashions typical of the lateEdwardian era, an everyday blouse and skirt dateable to c1909-1913. The tailored skirt would be shaped with panels, the hemline probably set to skim the top of the shoe, as was usual in the early 1900s • The high, choker-like neckline and puffed sleeves of the blouse meanwhile confirm a latest likely year of 1913 • Her hairstyle is a distinctive style associated specifically with the preFirst World War era, the hair centrally-parted and the length drawn up and pinned into two wide swathes above the temples. Similar coiffeurs in other photographs suggest that this was a youthful style: some variants looked very ornate and exaggerated, but this is a more natural version • The late Edwardian-era photos of Elizabeth (above right, and below) appear to be correctly dated and identified – the details of costume matching those of Elizabeth’s age at that time

correct time frame should clarify this and may enable you to firmly identify the house.

This ancestor looks young and I would suggest that she is aged somewhere between about 16 years of age and early 20s. In view of the 1909-1913 time frame, she was born in the late 1880s or 1890s – far too late to be Elizabeth Powdrell (b1851) or even her daughter, Margaret Pearce (b1874). Your photographs of Elizabeth taken respectively roughly in the late 1910s (studio portrait) and c1906-1910 (outdoor shot) both appear correct, but this young lady needs to be accurately identified. I wonder whether she could either be a much younger sister of Margaret, or possibly one of Margaret’s daughters. Hopefully you can now work this out. JS

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16/08/2017 16:17

Your questions answered Researching a rating

Q

Edward Fillingham was born on 17 June 1840 at Astley Green, Leigh, Lancashire. He was the eldest son of William and Mary Fillingham née Baxter.

In the 1851 Census he is listed as a scholar living in Astley with his widowed father and his six-year-old sister Mary Ann. He next appears in the 1861 Census aboard HMS Agamemnon in the Mediterranean as a 22-year-old ordinary seaman.

I have searched all the census returns from 1871 to 1911 without finding any trace of him nor is he in any marriage index. Searching the death index I found a near match, Q2 1884 Halifax 9a 324, age 44. I bought the certificate, which states he died on 15 June 1884 at the workhouse in Halifax and gave his occupation as a ‘boatman from Sowerby’ and the informant was the master of the workhouse.

Where do I go from here?

Peter Rowley pgr40one@gmail.com

A

It’s unusual not to find a rating’s record in The National Archives (TNA). Until 1853 ratings joined a ship rather than the Royal Navy itself.

When the ship decommissioned, often after several years, the crew was paid off and had no guarantee of further employment. The term ‘paying off’ is still used when a warship decommissions even though everyone has long since switched to monthly payment into a bank account.

• Researching service records – From 1853 new entrants joined the Royal Navy for what was known as Continuous Service (CS). Initially this was for 10 years (seven for those who were already serving) but could be extended for a further 10 years. Given that Edward was only an Ordinary Seaman in 1861, I think it likely he would have joined in the late 1850s or even 1860. Had he joined any earlier I would have expected him to be an Able Seaman at that age.

• You need to know his CS number in order to find his record at TNA. You will find this in ADM 139/1-400 if he joined up to 1858 and in ADM 139/401-800 if he joined in 1859 or later.

• From this you can then look in ADM 139 or 188 series to get his service details.

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Much of this can be done online but CS numbers 1-40,000 in ADM 188 series are not searchable online by name.

• Given that these numbers were used from 1853 to 1866 it’s quite likely that Edward falls in this category. You’ll need to visit TNA and search there.

• Ships’ logs – Ships’ logs are interesting but it needs to be borne in mind they are compiled largely for navigational purposes. Any additional information depends on the interests and inclination of the navigating officer who has overall responsibility for them and the Officer of the Watch (OOW) who fills them in at sea. Some can be quite informative, others quite dull. Officers are occasionally mentioned by name but it is rare for ratings to appear.

Paradoxically, while names don’t appear, signatures do. The OOW will sign at the end of his watch and the quartermaster, a rating, at the end of a watch in harbour. Thus, with luck, you may find an ancestor’s signature.

A

Failing to find a death is not uncommon and the near match you have could well be him. I can only speculate why he doesn’t appear in any other census return but absence at sea in the Merchant Navy is a possibility. Sadly, while many crew lists survive, very few are searchable online. DF

Your grandparents were indeed living in Brighton in the 1911 Census, in Riley Road off the Lewes Road with their two children and a boarder. There was no sign of William Nelson born c1840. He might have been living with them but not included on the form for some reason. I also checked son David’s whereabouts in case William was living with him. He and his family had moved to Lambeth and, again, no William. It might be worth your checking the other son John Nelson in the census.

I found the death of a William Nelson in March 1922 in Steyning district (ref 2b 301). Steyning was the registration district for Brighton. His age was 80 on the certificate – not an exact match but indicating an approximate year of birth of 1842. Ages were not always that accurate on certificates. This is a reasonable gap, particularly as William’s year of birth was shown as 1841 in at least one census.

I found the birth of a Cynthia Nelson in September 1914 in Steyning district – ref 2b 400 (mother Shoesmith – Lily’s maiden name). If you order the certificate you will find the family’s address. You could check the address in the electoral roll and could see if William was included.

Electoral rolls were not produced from 1914 for the duration of WW1 but there might have been at least one register prior to William’s death. MD

Seeking an early 20th century death

Where is little Josephine?

Q

I am having difficulty finding a date of death for my great-grandfather, William Nelson, born 1840 in Scotland. At this time the surname was Neilson, according to family papers.

My great-uncle David Nelson was born in Kent, my great-uncle John in Hampshire, and my grandfather Robert in Berkshire.

In the 1901 Census William and his wife Jessie are living in Eastbourne, Sussex, with their son David and his wife Agnew and granddaughter Winifred. In 1906 Jessie Nelson died in Eastbourne.

Between 1904 and 1906 my grandparents Robert and Lilly Nelson were living in Eastbourne. In 1911 they are in Brighton and in 1914 in Bexhill, Sussex.

However, I haven’t found William’s death in any of the three towns, as I believe William would have been looked after by his son, Robert.

BR Easton Eastbourne

Q

I am looking for any records or reference to a Josephine Daniels (Daniel) born c1906/1907 in Dublin.

Her parents should be John Daniels and Elizabeth McCormack. The only reference to her existence is the 1911 Census.

After months and months of fruitless search I cannot find a birth, death or marriage reference for her anywhere.

I have tried Ancestry, Findmypast, FamilySearch and more recently IrishGenealogy.ie I have trawled, through every birth of a Josephine with any surname, in Dublin between 1900 and 1909! No joy.

I have also tried searching assuming she was the older sister’s child, namely Mary’s daughter. She married a George Byrne later in life, but still no joy under all those names either.

I can find all the details of all the younger siblings, just nothing for Josephine, surely she must be there somewhere.

I have looked at Daniel and Daniels

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YOUR Q&A births in Dublin that fitted the time frame and still found nothing, not even an unnamed child that fitted the dates and family. There is a 1904 birth for a Josephine Mary Daniels but parents are incorrect.

If the census is correct she was born 1906/1907. Her father John Daniels senior, died in 1906 aged 59, so is it unlikely he fathered a child then?

Also, some of the brothers and sisters are witnesses at family weddings.

Brothers John and William were in the military and their records also confirm siblings, home address, parents etc.

I also have found absolutely loads of references to all the family members on the Findmypast Dublin workhouse records – but still no mention of Josephine.

The child must exist otherwise why list her on the census at all.

The child could be an illegititmate child of either John or Mary.

The child could genuinely be the child of John senior and Elizabeth McCormack.

The age could be wrong; she could for example be 14 and not 4.

The fact that she is not mentioned in any workhouse records supports the fact she was born after the family’s last visit to the workhouse, which was 1903; this supports the census age being correct and giving her a birth year of approximately 1906/1907. I am at a loss!

Paul Chiddicks chiddicks@yahoo.co.uk

A

You have covered a lot of ground, clearly establishing that there is no civil birth record for Josephine Daniels (sic) about 1906/07. I also checked all Daniels (sic) registrations where no first name is recorded, 19041909, but again without success.

You suggest that perhaps John Daniels and Elizabeth McCormack were not Josephine’s parents and I would tend to concur. For instance, when John Daniels died in the Dublin South workhouse on the 13 April 1906, he was aged 59. I reviewed the workhouse admissions on Findmypast.com and found that John was in and out of the workhouse hospital time and again from about 1900, either noted as ‘sick’ or with ‘bronchitis’. He was admitted eight times from December 1903 until his death in April 1906: 17/12/03-19/01/04, 26/01/04-23/02/04, 07/04/04-13/05/04, 03/11/04-10/11/04, 30/12/04-15/02/05, 18/02/05-06/05/05, 19/10/05-30/11/05, 07/12/05-13/04/06. He was clearly a man in serious decline of

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health and not one about to father a child.

An indication that perhaps Elizabeth was not Josephine’s mother is that when she died on 29 December 1909, she was recorded as aged 56, suggesting that she would have been aged about 53 when Josephine was born. Although, just to confuse matters, the numerous entries for Elizabeth in the admission registers suggest she could have been born as late as 1862, making her about 45 at Josephine’s birth.

In each case in the workhouse registers the home address was given as Islandbridge or Inchicore Road. Both of these places fall into Chapelizod Roman Catholic parish and possibly later into Inchicore. Given that this family had a poor record as regards complying with civil registration, your next step should be to write to each parish and ask if there is trace of Josephine Daniels. SS

Significant ribbons

Q

This photograph is of my father, Alexander Dyos (b20/11/1925 Islington), and was taken on 20/1/1946 outside the Hindu temple of Ambernath, Maharashtra, Kalyan, India.

He is accompanied by CJ Seaborne and (N)orman Evans.

Unfortunately my father (who died in 2006) did not talk much about his war experiences, and nothing about the two men shown either side of him. It has taken lots of searching of photos of temples on the net to identify which one.

The temple is in India and not Burma, as noted by Dad on the back. The date on the back of the photo matches with his military history which I have obtained.

My reasons for sending this in are: ➊ I want to identify what the cloth badge is above his left pocket, which looks to me as though it shows three stars or similar emblems? What does it mean? Ë To pass a copy on to anyone who might be searching the Seaborne and Evans families who had relatives with service in India.

Christine Dyos Chris.Dyos@btinternet.com

A

Your father is wearing the ‘jungle green’ uniform introduced for service in Burma and Malaya from 1942 onwards. This replaced the earlier khaki drill uniform with shorts, which was found to be too light in colour and failed to protect the soldiers’ legs

Ribbons were worn on their own like this in everyday circumstances, while the medals themselves would only be worn on the most formal occasions with the soldier’s best uniform

from thick jungle vegetation. This earlier khaki uniform continued in use in India, and is being worn by your father’s two comrades in the photo.

The ‘badge’ above his left pocket is in fact a row of medal ribbons. Based on their appearance and your father’s service record, I would expect that these are, in order: the ‘1939-45 Star’ awarded for 180 days’ operational service during the war; the ‘France and Germany Star’ awarded for operational service in northwest Europe during 1944-45; and finally the ‘War Medal’ awarded for any 28 days’ military service. TL

Something untoward going on?

Q

My maternal great-grandparents (John Smith/Crighton and Harriet Rush) have quite an interesting background, being ‘showmen’. John was known as ‘Rocky’ Smith and was a sweet hawker, producing what we would now call ‘rock’ for the fair. However, it is ‘two’ of Ricky and Harriet’s children that I have an issue with: Charles Albert No 1 (31 July 1895 to 26 August 1895) and Charles Albert No 2 (31 July 1895 to 11 September 1895). The reason I say ‘two’

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15/08/2017 20:22

Your questions answered is that I am not sure whether we have two Charles Albert Smiths or just the one.

That is where I need your help.

Mick Daynes mick.daynes@ntlworld.com

A

It’s very difficult to know what’s going on here and the best way to attempt to untangle it all, is to come up with a timeline of events: • 27 August, a birth (on 31 July 1895) was registered by H Smith • 27 August, a death (on 26 August 1895) was registered by H Smith Working out the details • 9 September, a birth (on 31 July 1895) was registered, with the mark (X) of Harriett Smith • 11 September, a death (on 11 September 1895) was registered, with the mark (X) of Harriett Smith Working out the details Note that the key dates here are not the alleged dates of Charles Albert Smith’s birth and death but the dates on which the events were registered. We can see that, initially, the birth and death were registered on the same day – almost certainly on the same visit to the register office. The informant (the child’s mother) signed her name on both documents as ‘H Smith’.

Then, on 9 September 1895 (15 days after the initial registrations and 16 days after his apparent death), Charles Albert Smith’s birth was registered again. And just two days later, his death was registered for the second time.

The child’s mother, Harriett Smith, was once again the informant but curiously, the certificate indicates that she made her mark on both occasions, rather than signing the register.

Weighing up the clues It’s clear that something odd is going on here and if the events had occurred 30 or 40 years earlier, the most likely solution would be that we were looking at a case of fraud. Burial clubs or societies were an early form of life insurance and became increasingly popular among the working classes. The idea was that, at a time when infant mortality rates were high and pauper funerals were to be avoided at all costs, making small weekly payments would allow parents to pay to have their children decently buried.

Many cases have come to light where the deaths of non-existent children (and some adults) were registered and claims made against a burial society. However, by

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1895, the rules surrounding death registration and burial had been tightened up and the loopholes had been closed.

Finding the culprit So, if this wasn’t fraud on the part of the parents, the prime suspect has to be the registrar. Registrars were paid for each registration they performed, and we know from reports in local newspapers that for some of them, the temptation to commit fraud was just too great. But in this case, I can’t see any evidence that the registrar (William Prentice) was up to no good. There are no other obvious ‘double registrations’ in the Ipswich district around this time and it’s clear that Prentice was still working as a registrar 16 years later, at the time of the 1911 Census; if he was habitually registering non-existent births and deaths, he seems to have got away with it.

It’s possible that the second registrations of Charles Albert Smith were indeed a case of fraud on the part of William Prentice – are we to believe that he genuinely didn’t recognise the details of a birth and death that he’d registered just a couple of weeks before? It’s interesting to note that the informant made her mark rather than signing her name (is this because the ‘informant’ wasn’t actually present?). Could William have falsified these two registrations but then resolved never to do so again? Unfortunately, we will probably never know for certain but if something untoward was going on here, Prentice must be our number one suspect. DA Note that on the death registrations – at one the mother signed, and on the other occasion just made her mark

Likewise on one birth registration the mother signed her name, and on the other just made her mark

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16/08/2017 12:15

YOUR Q&A Tracing an adoption line

Q

I have my father’s birth and adoption certificates. However, tracing my paternal grandmother is proving extremely difficult. I need to locate the adoption records and any surrounding paperwork. I have already contacted Bow County Court, Stratford E15, but they have replied to inform me that they only hold adoption records back to 1941.

My father Noel Bentley was born on 8 December 1928. He was adopted in July 1929 and was then known as Noel Peace.

Unfortunately, my father passed away on 14 December 1977, hence I am applying for the information as his next of kin. I have my father’s birth certificate which states mother’s name as Mary Bentley.

I have also received a response from the General Register Office (GRO) with information regarding the new legislation surrounding adoption. The GRO also advised me that I would ‘need to contact your own local authority post adoption services team or an intermediary agency, registered in England with Ofsted, to see if they are able to offer a tracing service for you’.

Julie Webb julie7@uwclub.net

ON TIPS PAST N TING GET OPTIO D A L A L AN KW BRIC

A

As the GRO indicated in its reply to you, since 2015 there are now new rules regarding access to adoption records by next of kin. If the birth relative (such as your father’s mother) has died (as is likely in this case), the appropriate intermediary agency has the discretion to release identifying information about that relative.

This could include information about the circumstances surrounding your father’s birth and adoption.

• Intermediary services – these can be provided by local authorities, voluntary adoption agencies and adoption support agencies. However, due to lack of resources, not all local authorities and voluntary adoption agencies can provide intermediary services.

• Adoption agencies – there is a list of adoption agencies on the CoramBAAF Adoption Search Reunion (ASR) website – www. adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk/help/ database – and as your father was born in a hospital (Queen Mary’s Hospital [for the East End], Stratford), you should

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check which adoption agencies used this institution by going to the ASR website. This will hopefully lead you to the agency that currently holds the adoption records.

• General hospital records –there are general administrative records for the hospital at London Metropolitan Archives https://search.lma.gov.uk and general, finance, ephemera and pictorial records at Newham Archives and Local Studies Library in Stratford www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/Services/ Local-history-and-archives.aspx • Bow County Court files – older files for the court (1847-1965) are held at London Metropolitan Archives (in reference CCT/AK/15).

At the time of the birth, your grandmother, Mary Bentley, was working as a dressmaker and was living at 135 Romford Road, West Ham. The residents of this address who were eligible to vote could be checked on the 1928 Electoral Register (held by Newham Archives) in case any are her relatives.

Noel and Derek’s births were registered in West Ham registration district. If Mary remained in the area after their births, she may have married there. I searched for potential marriages on www.freebmd. org.uk in the surrounding registration districts and found a number of Mary Bentley weddings in the early 1930s.

A married Mary Mohamed, born 30 November 1907 and working as a tailoress was recorded at 14 Salvation Army, Women’s Hostel in Hopetown Street, Chicksand Street, Stepney on the 1939 Register.

Also on the 1939 Register, another Mary Bastin, born 20 June 1899, employed in unpaid domestic duties, was recorded with her husband, Charles E Bastin, born 1 November 1901, a printer minder, at 25 Globe Road, Stepney. Two other entries (possibly children) are redacted.

As Noel’s mother was recorded as being a dressmaker at the time of his birth, it may not be a coincidence that this Mary Mohamed was a tailoress. It would be worth ordering her marriage record and looking into whether she had any children in her marriage. EJ

Unpicking the marriage records

Q

A direct relative of mine, William Galt, seems to have married an Agnes McGill on 17 March 1806 in Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, Scotland. I have

tracked down the Old Parish Register for Kilmarnock, a transcription from the FamilySearch website showing the same information, and a further transcription on FamilySearch that identifies the place of marriage as New Monkland in Lanarkshire, which is many miles away from Kilmarnock. I may be wrong, but my assumption is that the wedding most likely took place in Kilmarnock. I should be very grateful if you would let me know what you think and whether you agree with my conclusion.

Ian Gault thegaultsare@gmail.com

A

Scottish law has always been separate from that of England and Wales (and indeed Ireland) so the laws in place governing marriages south of the border, including Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753, which sought to eradicate so called ‘irregular’ marriages, didn’t apply in Scotland. Most importantly, Scottish law was based on the concept of ‘mutual consent’ and did not require a religious ceremony to have taken place.

Crucially, for our purposes, there was no legal requirement for a marriage to be recorded in a parish register.

However, for ‘regular’ church marriages, the same system of reading (proclaiming) the banns of marriage on three successive Sundays was in place. As in England and Wales, if the parties getting married were resident in two different parishes, the banns would be proclaimed in both parishes and, provided that the clerks were doing their job properly, recorded in the registers of both parishes. What’s not always clear, is which of the two parishes the marriage actually took place in.

In this case, the details are recorded in the Kilmarnock parish register on 17 March 1806. In the entry here, the groom is described as ‘William Galt of the parish of New Monkland’ and the bride as ‘Agnes McGill in this parish’. The words ‘…after proclamation were married’ indicate that the marriage took place in Kilmarnock, which, being the bride’s parish, would seem to make sense.

The marriage is also recorded in New Monkland although the ‘parish register’ turns out to be no more than a Kirk Session account book in which the payment for the proclamation of the banns is recorded, along with the names of paupers receiving poor relief.

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Your questions answered No exact date is given but the following entry appears under the heading ‘Collected March 1806’: ‘William Galt in this Parish and Agnes McGill in the Parish of Kilmarnock 3s 6d’. As this appears between entries for the second and third sabbaths, we can work out that the payment was made sometime between 9 and 16 March. The register for New Monkland (which also includes records of deaths) does not appear to be covered by ScotlandsPeople. DA

Pass it on Can you help reunite a collection of family photos and letters, kindly sent in by reader Stanley Merridew, with a descendant?

Surnames related are Butterfield and Kitson in particular. See more about them on the Family Tree YouTube channel

fgfg About our experts David Annal has been involved in the family history world for more than 30 years and is a former principal family history specialist at The National Archives. An experienced lecturer and the author of a number of best-selling books, including Easy Family History and (with Peter Christian) Census: The Family Historian’s Guide, David now runs his own family history business, Lifelines Research.

YOU CAN P? HE L

Identify guests?

Q

This year is the 100th anniversary of my grandparents’ wedding; in the photo below the bride is obvious, the groom is to her left.

The wedding took place at St Philips, Lambeth; the bride was Ethel Isabel Kerslake and her groom, Albert Henry Sullivan. The witnesses were Sidney William Sullivan and Edwin Richard Perkins. And the cut out? Well, we think we know who it is...

This is the photo which sparked my interest in family search, yet the photo continues to baffle me and also represents several brick walls. So I was wondering if any FT readers just happen to have a copy of the photo in their collection (without the cut out!), or know any of the people in the photo?

It is, I know, a hugely long shot but miracles do happen and, in their anniversary year, I felt inspired to try for one!

Elaina Rothman eclaireir@aol.com

Do you recognise this photo?

David Frost’s interest in genealogy

I’m hoping that a fellow reader may recognise the photo below and have a better quality image of it. It shows my paternal grandparents’ wedding day on 14 April 1900, taken at the rear of where they lived at 83 Rectory Grove, Clapham, London. Nobody in my extended New Zealand family admits to knowing where it came from or where it is now – including the person who had possession of it some years ago (from which I made this copy).

Graham Carpenter graham.judy@paradise.net.nz

was sparked by the unexpected

Q

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family member in 1967. He’s relieved to find that every month still brings new discoveries. He’s been writing on genealogy topics since 1991.

Jayne Shrimpton is a professional dress historian, portrait specialist and ‘photo detective’, and photograph consultant for TV series Who Do You Think You Are?. Her latest books are Tracing Your Ancestors Through Family Photographs (2014) and Victorian Fashion (2016). www.jayneshrimpton.co.uk Steven Smyrl is immediate president of Accredited Genealogists Ireland, chairman of the Irish Genealogical Research Society and executive liaison officer for the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations. With his brother Kit, he is a director of the Irish probate research firm, Massey & King.

Reader Graham Carpenter would love to know where the original of the above photo is – can you help him?

Elaina would love help identifying these wedding guests or even the missing person?

appearance of a distinctly dodgy

Emma Jolly MA is a London-based genealogist and writer. Her books include My Ancestor was a Woman at War, Tracing Your Ancestors Using the War Census and Tracing Your British Indian Ancestors. An AGRA member, her Ancestors website is at www.emmajolly.co.uk Tim Lovering has worked widely as an archivist and historical researcher.

He developed an interest in genealogy through his archive work. He has a PhD British military history.

Madeleine Dickens is a member of The Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA).

She has the Diploma in Genealogy and the Higher Certificate in Genealogical and Heraldic Studies, more than 15 years’ experience of carrying out research, and runs her own genealogy service at www.pastgenerations.co.uk

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DISCOVER 16TH CENTURY LEADS

Tenure for three lives Trace your ancestors back to the 1500s by studying records of the land they once lived on. Dr Ed Dutton shows how property records kept by manorial courts can be a rich source of names and family relationships

A

ll too often, genealogists simply give-up once the parish records run out.

This is something which can happen as early as the Civil War, scuppering dreams of finding a connection to Shakespeare or Sir Francis Drake. But disputes over tenure can be a brilliant way of taking your line back to the 16th century and even earlier.

Copyhold tenure Most of Eastern England operated

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a system known as copyhold tenure.

Parts of the manor (‘tenement parcels’ or ‘demises’) would be held from the manorial lord by tenants of his. These tenants were known as ‘copyholders’, because their lease was entered onto the manorial court roll and they received a ‘copy’ of the entry, known as a ‘title deed’. Usually, the system was ‘copyhold of inheritance’. The tenancy simply passed down the family.

Tenancy automatically passed to the heir, so there was rarely a legal dispute or even mention of the land in wills.

Life leasehold In the West (and parts of borderline counties, such as Oxfordshire), the situation was very different. According to the historian Christopher Clay, the dominant system there was known as ‘Life Leasehold’. Leases would be granted in two ways and a landlord might use either. In some cases, they were granted for a period of years that were understood to approximate to usually three lives (between 21 and 99 years). In other cases, the lease was literally granted for ‘three lives’

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Exploring manorial land records (though sometimes only two). Under this system, a parcel of land would be leased to a set number of people – often three siblings or a father and two sons – for the length of their lives and to the ‘longest liver’ among them.

If a tenant died then his widow would usually be allowed to continue with the lease (taking-up her ‘widow’s portion’) until she died herself. Accordingly, it was in her interests not to remarry, because if she did she would lose the lease, perhaps to her brother-in-law.

As such, the system is notable for extremely long widowhoods.

Piecing together the clues

the lease would return to the manor to be re-granted. And beyond these two counties, tenants might fail to extend the lease through topping up.

Accordingly, as the historian AJ Gritt explains: ‘A small manor might have several hundred individuals named as lives in leases; a large estate might have several thousand individuals each with a potential claim to become a tenant. For instance, the 1697 survey of Altcar (Lancs) named more than 200 individuals as lives in leases.’

These lives were impossible to keep track of, opening up the very real possibility of chicanery. A child ‘life’ could die and the parents could give

Historian John Broad, has found that in 1598, in the Wiltshire village of Wylye, John Locke was granted three lives on his lease. In 1637, the lease was still held by his widow, Joan. By this time, most of the other ‘lives’ would be dead and the lease could be ‘topped up’ with the widow’s children.

When one of the ‘lives’ died, the tenant would pay a fine to have the lease ‘topped up’ with some other relative. This might even be a child, helping to extend the family’s hold on the lease.

In the case of leases for a set period of years, the leases most certainly do appear in wills, because the tenant has the right to bequeath the remaining years of his lease to whomever he wishes. Thus, in 1558, Piers Dutton of the Newborough in Cheshire (c1500-1558) left the remaining years on his lease to his wife, Catherine, and, should she die, to his sons in age order. In some wills, the lease is actually referred to as a ‘copy’. Armed with this information, you can start to work out family connections. If you find someone with a certain surname leasing a parcel of land in 1560 and someone else, with same surname, leasing it in 1620, there is likely a familial connection.

a subsequent child the same name with a view to ensuring that the child received the lease. Or a ‘stranger’ could turn-up who happened to have the same name as the newly entitled ‘life’. Gritt notes that in Hesketh (Lancs) in 1833 ‘a 74 year old man claimed to be the individual who had been named as the third life on his father’s lease in 1769 when aged eight weeks’. The estate was suspicious but he presented them with a baptism entry and a testimony from the local vicar. The estate’s landlord, Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh wrote: ‘although I still doubt the fact as to the identity of that person yet I cannot under such circumstances at present disprove it.’

Investigating legal disputes

Land changing hands

‘Life leasehold for three lives’ is even more useful because it can lead to legal disputes, where the documents will make family relationships explicit. And there was plenty of room for dispute. In Cheshire, parts of Lancashire, and on church estates, the lives could not generally be topped-up. Once all the lives died,

Anywhere in the West, a tenant might die and, with the next life elsewhere, the land might simply be illegally occupied. If the occupier could continue doing this for seven years without the rightful tenant discovering it – quite possible in a world where news travelled slowly – he could then claim adverse

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If a tenant died then his widow would usually be allowed to continue with the lease until she died herself... it was in her interests not to remarry

possession. In 1558, this is exactly how one Hugh Dutton of Lyons Inn in London, who was servant to the Lord Chancellor, managed to become Lord of the Manor of Acton Reynald in Shropshire. And throughout the West of England, a tenant could sell their life tenancy, meaning the land could fall into the hands of an entirely different family, potentially for decades.

These resultant disputes, preserved at The National Archives, will provide crucial genealogical information: relationships between ‘lives’, names of former ‘lives’, and even parentage.

So, all is not lost if the area you’re researching only has parish records back to 1600 or so. If it is in the West of England, it is time for a visit to The National Archives at Kew. Once we start looking, we see that the landscape is steeped in historic clues relating to the manorial system.

Stokesay Castle, Shropshire and Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk (both left) are examples of fortified manor houses.

For centuries the manor house was the place from which the administration of the local area was managed, so even if our ancestors were not wealthy enough to live in one, it represented an important dwelling in their locality

Exploring manorial documents Search the Manorial Documents Register at http://discovery. nationalarchives.gov.uk/manor-search • This is the ‘official index to English and Welsh manorial records’ • Use it to track down the relevant archives that hold the records for the areas of interest to you

About the author Dr Edward Dutton runs the research service Dutton’s Genealogy at duttonsgenealogy.wordpress.com He is the author of The Ruler of Cheshire: Sir Piers Dutton, Tudor Gangland and the Violent Politics of the Palatine (Leonie Press, 2015).

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DIARY DATES Find or post diary dates at www.family-tree.co.uk/Events for FREE or email them to editorial@family-tree.co.uk

OCTOBER 2017 4 & 10 October Talks Buckinghamshire. Bucks Family History Society (FHS) talks this month start on 4 Oct with Derek Palgrave speaking on Heraldry and the Family Historian (7.30pm, Bletchley), and Kevin Varty on The Great War Through The Magic Lantern (10 Oct, 7.45pm, Bourne End).

• Both talks free (non-members welcome, a small donation is appreciated to hear talks); www.bucksfhs.org.uk/meetings 7 October Seminar London SW1. The Catholic FHS is holding a Seminar on Records with the launch of The Margaret Higgins Database, which contains names and details of more than 250,000 Catholics, 1607-1840 (see news, page 8). Br Rory Higgins FSC, of Australia, will discuss his major work, while a representative from The National Archives will talk about research using Discovery and William Shannon PhD will speak on Catholic Lancashire before and after the First Jacobite Rebellion, 1715-1724.

• 10am-4pm. Tufton Street Conference Rooms, London SW1P 3RB. Email jeansmith1934@talktalk.net for tickets, which cost £20, including lunch, refreshments and a disc of the database.

More details at http://catholicfhs.online 7 October Fair South Wales. Get ready for Glamorgan Family History Fair, the biggest event of its kind in Wales, taking place at Merthyr Tydfil Leisure Centre. Organised by Glamorgan FHS, there will be lots of free information along with free talks.

• 10am-3.30pm. Free entry. More details at www.glamfhs.org.uk 7 October Fair Oxfordshire. Get help with your research in Oxfordshire and beyond at Oxfordshire Family History Fair. The Oxfordshire FHS fair offers the chance to chat to a variety of subject experts, browse and buy books, CDs, maps, postcards and materials from specialist companies.

• 10am to 4pm. Free entry. The Marlborough School, Shipton Road, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, OX20 1LP; visit www.ofhs.org.uk/fair.html or email fair@ofhs.org.uk for more details.

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Picturing East End life

T

he inter-war and post-war art of a group of ordinary East London working men and women is the focus of a new exhibition of paintings, selected and curated by writer broadcaster Michael Rosen and radio producer film-maker Emma-Louise Williams.

Working during the period between the world wars, the East London Group of artists was made up of ordinary people attending art classes and exhibiting their paintings alongside their day jobs. There were 35 members, including Walter Sickert, Phyllis Bray, William Coldstream, John Cooper, Elwin Hawthorne, the Steggles brothers, Brynhild Parker, Henry Silk and Albert Turpin. Rosen and Williams have selected more than 50 works for exhibition at The Nunnery Gallery at Bow Arts, with a special focus on little-known works by former Bethnal Green Mayor Albert Turpin (1900-1964), a critically-acclaimed artist and leading force in the East End anti-fascist movement. His art tells the story of the East End’s resilience through a turbulent time of war and peace and is being shown alongside documenatry materials provided by Turpin’s daughter and granddaughters, including sketchbooks filled with drawings of his family and political pamphlets not seen for 70 years.

Accompanying ‘The Working Artist: The East London Group’ exhibition will be a series of new in-situ commissions, with walking tours guiding visitors around the public artworks, ending at Queen Mary University of London, where remnants of a mural painting by East London Group member Phyllis Bray can still be seen in the People’s Palace.

The patronage provided by the group’s famed supporters, such as Sir Joseph Duveen, Samuel Courtauld and Arnold Bennett, saw them reach great heights, with their achievements contextualised in the press by the artists’ means of earning a living: their day jobs included being a window-cleaner, shop assistant and a ‘pipe inspector’. The exhibition sheds new light on many of the group, who were accomplished artists, war artists, heroes of local politics and avid chroniclers of the changing face of London in their time.

A series of new books tells more of their stories, including an illustrated memoir from Albert Turpin – East End Vernacular, Artists who painted London’s East End streets in the 20th Century (The Gentle Author).

• 10am-5pm To view Tues-Sun, from more 29 September to images 17 December 2017.

Free entry. The Nunnery, 181 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ; http://bowarts. org/nunnery

TAP

Albert Turpin’s The Seabright Arms, 1958

7 & 28 October Day courses Kent. The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies in Canterbury is running two one-day courses in October: How to Draw A Pedigree Tree Using Your Computer, which will demonstrate how pedigrees can be created using

Microsoft PowerPoint (7 Oct), and Family History Beyond The Internet, which will introduce students to records commonly encountered prior to the early 19th century (28 Oct).

• From 10am-4.30pm. £40/45 per course.

Book your place at www.ihgs.ac.uk

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What’s on in the family history world 8 October Open day Hampshire. Hampshire Genealogical Society’s 2017 Open Day in Basingstoke focuses on WW2 – Britain at Home and features free talks from three guests: regular FT expert David Annal, Mark Bayley of TheGenealogist.co.uk and author and historian Philip MacDougall.

Open to all, visitors can delve into records to uncover life on the WW2 Home Front; who served, who was affected by evacuation, prisoners of war and relatives’ day-to-day existence, plus a look at what can be found in the 1939 Register. The society’s bookstall, advice and lookups will be available, and there will be stands from fellow societies and local groups such as The Thorneycroft Society and Home Front History.

• 10am-4pm. Free admission. The Everest Community Academy, Oxford Way, Basingstoke RG24 9FP; www.hgs-familyhistory.com 9-13 October Course Belfast. Get to grips with Irish research during ‘Irish Genealogy Essentials: A Family History Course’ run by the Ulster Historical Foundation. This handson course offers delegates five days of intensive learning, with practical demonstrations, full access to the Foundation’s facilities and expertise of its staff and researchers, plus guided research in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Suitable for relative newbies to Irish family history and those with more experience to learn about lesser-known sources not yet online.

• £399.99/£374.99 (members), excluding accommodation and lunches. Details and bookings at www.ancestryireland. com/essentials-oct-2017 14 October Fair South Yorkshire. Doncaster and District FHS Family and Local History Fair with Craft Stalls is returning to Doncaster School for the Deaf. This annual event features societies, advice, genealogy supplies, crafts and more. Two free talks are on offer: Getting the Best from Findmypast with Myko Clelland and Life in the 1950s with historian Ian Dewhirst.

Learn how best to research your family history with the aid of experts and understand more about local heritage.

• 10am-4pm. £1 entry, under-14s free.

Doncaster School for the Deaf, Leger Way, Doncaster, DN2 6AY; visit www.doncasterfhs.co.uk

From 17 October e-courses Online. Pharos Tutors e-courses with places available starting this month are: Are you Sitting Comfortably? Writing and Telling Your Family History with Janet Few (17 Oct, 5 weeks, £49.99/£64.99); Advanced Methods and Reports with Helen Osborn (18 Oct, 4 weeks, £62/£76); The Parish: Officers, Clergy and Records with Stuart A Raymond (26 Oct, 4 weeks, £45.99).

• Book at www.pharostutors.com 20-22 October Show & conference Dublin. Back to our Past returns to the RDS in Dublin for Ireland’s biggest event of its kind, showcasing Irish family history and heritage. On offer are births, marriages and death records, family tree software, photo restorers, leading genealogy websites and much more. Genetic Genealogy Ireland will also be hosting its 2017 conference at the show, promising a fantastic line-up of DNA lectures from top speakers.

• Tickets €10 per day, see website for half-price offers at time of writing.

Industries Hall, RDS Dublin, Ireland; http://backtoourpast.ie 27 October Archives at Night Kew. Head to The National Archives (TNA) for Archives at Night: Cabinet of Curiosities and step back into the era of an Edwardian antiquarian. As part of Museums at Night, TNA is opening its own Cabinet of Curiosities where you can delve into records charting the Edwardians’ fascination with Egyptology and archaeology; the rise of spiritualists, practices for dealing with death, plus learn about witch trials and the history of sorcery.

There will also be talks from experts such as the Cemetery Club – leaders in tombstone tourism – plus document displays, scented mummy unwrapping and more (18+ only).

• 6.30-10pm. £22 (includes drink). For tickets, visit the listings pages at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/whatson Until 7 January Exhibition Leeds. Skeletons: Our Buried Bones, part of a collaboration between Wellcome Collection and the Museum of London, is on show at Leeds City Museum from 22 September, the final stage of its localised tour. Unearth the fascinating stories of 12 people from Yorkshire and London, told through their skeletons, and the history beneath our feet.

• Free admission. Leeds City Museum, Millennium Square, Leeds LS2 8BH; www.leeds.gov.uk/skeletons

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SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS 7 October 2-5pm – Your Sporting Ancestors, with FT author Keith Gregson (£20); 14 October 10.30am-1pm – Using Mind Mapping for Genealogical Problem Solving, with Geoff Young (£20); 18 October 2-3pm – Traces of Pimlico’s Past, with Rob Kayne (£8); 21 October 10.30am-1pm – Debts, Debtors, Bankrupts & Bigamists, with Ian Waller FSG (£20); 25 October 2-3pm – Understanding Rural Migration in Late 19th-Century England: Taking Parish Research to a New Level, with Matthew Homewood (£8); 28 October 10.30am-5pm – 500 Years of Reformation: Tracing Nonconformist Ancestors This one-day course with Else Churchill, Michael Gandy FSG and Alec Tritton will cover the topics: Nonconformity to 1850 (relates primarily to England), Records of Nonconformity: Hatched, Matched and Despatched outside the Church of England; Worship, Weird and Wonderful: Religious Sects from the 17th to 20th century and Nonconformist records held at the Society of Genealogists. This talk will highlight recent developments with the Society’s digital records and new accessions, along with many items of interest in the library relating to various denominations and sects. The day concludes with a Q&A session (£35).

• The Society of Genealogists, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA. Book via events@sog.org.uk, call 020 7553 3290 or visit www.sog.org.uk

German theologian Martin Luther.

Learn how to trace Nonconformist ancestors on the Society of Genealogists’ one-day course

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YOUR LETTERS FREE DATA WORTH OVER £39 • YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

e Tree ilyTre Family OCTOBER 2017

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MAILBOX

Smuggling connections fit for an episode of Poldark, the tangled webs woven in decades past where secret marriages were the solution to illicit love – oh, and a top tip for an online family history course

Thoroughly recommended Several months ago I completed an online course through FutureLearn on ‘Genealogy: researching your family tree’. The course was designed by Strathclyde University. I have been researching my own tree for many years and this course, whether for beginners

or the more experienced researcher, was excellent. I learned lots of tips on how to use websites and many useful links. There were people from all over the world taking part. I haven’t done an online course before but found this a great new way to learn – especially as it’s free.

Attacked by smuggling gang I read with interest Simon Wills’s article on smuggling ancestors in FT May. One additional source at The National Archives (TNA) is the records of the Court of the King’s Bench, which heard many cases of offences against customs and excise. The paperwork is not easy to navigate, but can be extremely rewarding in detailing names and incidents.

For example, when in November 1790 four excise officers, supported by a contingent of soldiers, were attacked by a gang while searching for smuggled goods near Lydd, the listing of the subsequent impeachment in KB 29/450 names 32 suspects, and the depositions in KB 32/2 graphically describe the events. Well worth a look if you think your ancestor was involved – my 4x great-grandfather Samuel Stannard was in charge of the excisemen that day!

Virginia Silvester virginia@dorneyphoto.com Editor: How exciting – your very own Poldark-style story line in your family history.

At home with a smuggler I was eagerly anticipating reading the article ‘Investigating Smuggling ancestors’ in FT May 2017 issue. My greatgrandparents, James and Maggie Heron, lived for many years on Ward Farm in Slains parish in Aberdeenshire. While doing an internet search a few years ago on ‘Ward Farm + Slains’, I learned that Philip Kennedy, the smuggler, once lived at the farm, it being situated close to the coastline and therefore a perfect base of operations for smuggling activities. Imagine my delight when I saw that Simon Wills’s article included a photo of Philip Kennedy’s gravestone in Slains Kirkyard!

Pat Javor pejavor@rogers.com Editor: Thank you for telling us about this – there is history hidden in the landscape all around us, isn’t there.

Married to the same person twice Having read David Annal’s article ‘Married twice’, FT April, here is an account of why two people may have married the same people twice, without an intervening divorce, of course.

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reading We love s, and try ter your let h as many s li b out to pu le. Find ch ib s s o u o as p t get in how to us on it w h page 3

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Rosemary Pinsent rosemary@benserv.co.uk Editor: Thank you for the recommendation.

This six-week course has run several times now. If you would like to join the next batch of online students, simply register your interest at www.futurelearn.com/ courses/genealogy

My friend ‘L’ asked me to look into her family history. Her parents (Mary and Thomas) married in 1931 in London and had a son that same quarter, some 13 years before L was born.

From 1926, her mother had been a school teacher and L had always wondered how her mother managed to keep her job after 1931, in an age when women were not permitted to continue teaching after they got married, let alone have a child.

Little did either of us realise that I might find out how she, with help from the rest of her family, managed it.

The marriage in 1931 was probably a secret one, as it was in Lambeth, not Lewisham where L’s mother and her family lived. On the London Electoral Register in 1930 Thomas is living in rented rooms. However, we know that subsequently Thomas and Mary lived with her parents, brothers and sisters at 16 Manor Park Parade, Lewisham, but Mary is listed under her maiden name – and continues to be until 1936 – at which point she is finally registered under her married surname.

So why the change? L’s parents had officially married in 1935, this time in Lewisham. So now it was official.

Now what about L’s brother, Tom, born in 1931?

L tells me that he was looked after during the week by a couple in Sydenham, coming back to the family home at weekends. Then, at the start of the war in 1939, he was sent to Oxford, aged eight, to live with his uncle and his wife. Tom stayed with them for the duration of the war, and afterwards never returned to London.

So that’s how L’s mother kept her job as a teacher, and, later on, as the family bread winner after her husband had a serious accident at work and could no longer work.

Will we ever know who knew about the two marriages, and what secrets were kept from whom? It seems as though they were all a close family, so maybe only the authorities didn’t know. I must order all the certificates to see if there are any further clues.

Gill Clough gillclough77@gmail.com Editor: It makes you think, doesn’t it, about the society and circumstances through which our ancestors had to lead their lives. With twists and turns like these it’s not surprising we end up with brick walls.

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Have your say

Why did Bader marry twice?

What if you can’t drive?

Re: David Annal’s piece, ‘Married twice’, FT April (as referred to in Gill Clough’s letter on the opposite page) and the question of why the first marriage of Douglas Bader and Miss Olive Thelma Exley Edwards was kept quiet. On re-reading the chapter in Paul Brickhill’s Reach For The Sky, I think Mr Brickhill may have led us astray.

To whit: Chapter 10. ibid; Bader has just had an almighty prang in his car and totalled it.

Thelma asks how long it will be before he can finally pay for it, and Bader replies ‘Next June’ (this is in October 1933) and he only has two quid in his pocket. They married at Hampstead on 5 October and he still had no money, without which Thelma’s family would be against the wedding.

Without funds how were they to pay for a motoring holiday in Porthleven? Just over a year on, Bader was out of debt and ready to start saving for the ‘proper’ wedding and he thought 100 pounds would be sufficient. However, more prangs in his car happened, so he could not marry until he had the 100 pounds. As recorded in chapter 11, Thelma’s idea was to get married on their fourth wedding anniversary.

By this time they had accumulated the money they needed.

Arthur Marychurch gnp@xtra.co.nz Editor: We asked David Annal for his thoughts and he agreed that it was very interesting to read, but pointed out that it still didn’t explain why Lucas Laddie (another biographer of Bader’s) mentioned the announcement of the engagement in The Times, two days after the first marriage – particularly as there seems to be no evidence for this announcement.

I was very interested to read the letter from Ewan Cappitt in FT August regarding ‘proof of ID’ when visiting archives.

This is something that I have had difficulty with as producing two documents that identify me and show my address has proved even more awkward in recent times.

I do have a driving licence, but I do not have a passport, nor do I have paper bank statements – not that I would carry the latter around with me anyway as I consider that to be a security risk.

Utility bills are paid by direct debit, apart from the few that come by post and those are addressed to my husband, not to me.

A driving licence has all the required details including a photograph and ought to be more than adequate.

The problem for people who do not have a driving licence is to produce some other form of identity – so what should that be to satisfy the various establishments’ verification of that person’s identity?

Wendy Stacey jetsam@stacey.gotadsl.co.uk Editor: In this virtual world our own personal paper trail record is going to end up looking unhelpfully sparse to our descendants isn’t it, quite aside from the matter of proving our own identity today.

Snippets of war

Was it a lovely war?

Keith Gregson reviews one of the war’s most famous ditties

T

he First World War – perhaps more than any other – is associated with song, and with songs sung by ‘the lads in the trenches’. These could be popular songs of the day, sentimental songs of home or ribald ditties (on occasions set to hymn tunes!).

Back home sheet music continued to be published as it had been in peace time. Among the music which fi rst saw the light of day in 1917 was the Star Music Companies’ publication of Oh! It’s A Lovely War as sung by ‘Major Kenneth Maclaine of Loch Buie’. With time, this song came to be regarded as the theme tune for the war as it provided the title for a highly successful late-20th century stage and cinema show.

‘Major Kenneth’ was still around in 1920 in Australia and, according to a Sydney

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Front cover of the original sheet music

newspaper, singing ‘a camp song’ known to ‘Australian and English soldiers’. The Star Company credits the writing of the song to ‘JP Long and Maurice Scott’.

Good old Google suggests that ‘JP’ was also partly responsible for the fi rst version of My Old Man’s A Dustman – a huge hit for Lonnie Donegan in the 1960s. An online site for ‘second-hand songs’ suggests that Maurice Scott (18781933) had a hit before the war with I’ve got rings on my fi ngers.

A quick visit to TheGenealogist website has Maurice as Stepney born and a married man living in Brixton in 1911 and describing himself as a ‘musical compositor’.

All in all a fascinating tale.

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THOUGHTS ON...

Returning to the past

Facts, fiction & brick walls filed

Being a three degrees of proof kind of genealogist, Diane Lindsay is addicted to the facts, but she doesn’t say no to a little fiction too

S

ummer’s a fallow time for family history for me, maybe because sunshine and sea beckons more than dusty tomes and squinty databases, or just because winter is such an appealing time for settling down to a good mystery.

This summer however, I really have been quite diligent on the history mystery front, (known to us all as those pesky brick walls,) without, it has to be said, very much success. In fact, opening up old case files only seems to have made them more enigmatic, less clear.

Take my earliest and least likely-to-solve problem for instance. For years I’ve tried to find documentary proof of the link I know exists between my Leicestershire and Warwickshire families.

Abraham Veasey, baptised 1666 to John and Mary in Peatling Magna, Leicestershire turns up in Harborough Magna, Warwickshire in 1687 marrying Sarah Snowe, daughter of Edward and Sarah Snowe. On a map it seems quite a distance, but as the crow flies and along old tracks it’s all within just a 20-mile radius.

Pleasingly, they name their offspring after parents and siblings, the relatively uncommon naming patterns

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persisting for several generations across a dynasty of sons. Succeeding families hop back and forth over the A5 county border to marry and settle as though no boundary exists, and of course to a young yeoman in love, it doesn’t. And as

family historian, that’s why.

But I’m also an incurable romantic and this summer I’ve been filling the time between banging my head on brick walls with the highly readable genealogical mysteries of Steve Robinson and his genealogist

...and that old barn we pass every time we drive into Rugby was probably their farmhouse family historians, all it should mean to us is a different set of archives, and for me some loose ends.

But I really hate loose ends, so when I discovered a unique Leicestershire index reference to a marriage bond between Snowe and Veasey for 1681 I convinced myself a 7 can easily look like a 1. Well it can, can’t it, in old script?

Except that recently I found the original document and although the script’s hard to read, you can’t argue that between 1690 and 1692 is indisputably 1691. My first instinct was to ignore it, my second, to run away and put my head in a bucket and cry.

Sensibly I did neither, but it’s now filed under ‘A brick wall I may never demolish’.

So why that earlier marriage licence? And why am I still worrying? Because I’m a three degrees of proof

detective Jefferson Tayte.

I feel sheepish not to have read them before now, due perhaps to feeling there might be enough fleshing out the blanks with fiction among some less scrupulous researchers. But author Steve Robinson knows his genealogy and his thriller techniques. I’ve been gripped, while also picking up some ideas for my own researches. I can heartily recommend the series!

A pragmatic explanation may be that the match could have been a land-acquiring betrothal, or similar. But I prefer my fictional take on this pesky brick wall tale: Sarah Snowe’s family were well connected, due to her mother’s Cleaver family, who in 1572 bought half of the manor of Harborough Magna for £7. (We’ll gloss over William Cleaver, who in

1652 was fined 20 shillings for keeping a disorderly ale-house.) Abraham being a seventh son needed to go on the tramp for work, and aged only 15 met the lovely and nubile Sarah. In Romeo and Juliet fashion they ran away intending get married clandestinely by licence but were caught by an outraged Mr Snowe who said no daughter of his would marry the son of a dastardly thieving miller. As soon as they came of age, they married anyway, stern Mr and Mrs Cleaver having died and there being no other living heirs… …and that old barn we pass every time we drive into Rugby was probably the farmhouse they inherited and lived in happily ever after with their own seven sons, and …

About the author Diane Lindsay discovered her twin passions of family history and English (and her sense of humour) while training as a teacher and bringing up three small children in the 1970s. She’s a writer and local and family historian and, although retired, still teaches anything to anyone who will listen.

www.family-tree.co.uk

15/08/2017 20:35

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