TheGenealogist has released New Who’s Who records into its expanding Occupational Records adding nearly a hundred thousand additional individuals. This release includes records covering individuals from all over England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, USA, New Zealand and further afield.

The records can be used to discover more about an ancestor’s achievements and are fantastic for identifying where next to apply your research. Who’s Who records will confirm birth dates and sometimes the place of birth. Often they give a father’s name and occupation and a great deal more useful information that may help to build a better family history.

Use these records to: 

• Add details to the lives of your ancestors
• Discover their accomplishments
• Fill in gaps in the information that you already have on an ancestor
• Find other records and places to search for forebears.

These records will often allow us to recount a much more rounded picture of the life of a person and so enrich the telling of their story.

This latest release expands TheGenealogist’s extensive Occupational records collection that includes actors, apprentices, clergy, crew lists, directors, flight, freemen, law, railway, sports, teachers and biographies as well as a number of other Who’s Who books. 

You can read TheGenealogist’s article: Who, What, Where, When? - Discovering Who's Who at: 

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/who-what-where-when---discovering-whos-who-1371/

The records included in this release are: 

Who's Who in 1880

Who's Who 1899

Who's Who in Canada 1927

Cheshire Who's Who, 1910

Cox's County Who's Who Series. Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire, 1912

Cricket Who's Who, The Cricket Blue Book 1911

Who's Who in Hampshire 1935

Who's Who and Industrial Directory of the Irish Free State 1935

Who's Who in Kent, Surrey and Sussex 1911

Who's Who in Literature 1931

Masonic Who's Who 1926

The Methodist Who's Who 1913

Who's Who in New Zealand 1925

Who's Who and Record Quarterly 1934 July-September

Who's Who in Science 1914

Who was Who 1916-1928

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

233 years today, the 26th January 1788, The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on Australia. Marked nowadays as Australia Day.

I was looking around the Internet for an interesting article to add to this post when I came across this piece from 2015. It was first published at the time of a BBC TV programme Banished . While it was a ficticious drama by Jimmy McGovern, it turns out that some of the characters were based on real people that can be found in the records of people transported! This includes James Freeman the convict that, as "Finisher of the Law", had the dreadful task of executing his fellow prisoners who had stepped out of line in the penal colony. His task each time was to hang or be hanged himself.

See some of the fascinating records for James Freeman that were found here:

https://www.thegenealogist.com/featuredarticles/2015/hang-or-be-hanged-the-finisher-of-the-law-237/

Tips for finding ancestors' vital events in English & Welsh records

There maybe times when we hit the brick wall of an ancestor who doesn’t seem to appear in the official births, marriages and death records held by the General Register Office (GRO). We need to be aware that many of the records that we are accessing, and trying to use today, were created when our ancestors had to engage with an official and spoke their names for that person to write it down. Whether it was the vicar, at the time of baptism, marriage or burial; the registrar for their area for BMDs, or indeed the census enumerator, we have to allow for the fact that the office holder will spell our forebears’ name as they heard it being spoken.

Some of the commercial websites we use for looking up our ancestors' BMDs offer a way of allowing variations of the surname to be done. Some of these, however, may not be as helpful as they could be. For example, when looking for a person named Johns and the suggested return is Johnson. These names would not normally be mistaken in speech and so what is really needed is a search that returns variations that are refined to represent the vocal sounds of a name. This is why we need to use a site where the search defaults to give you a phonetic filter as standard and so will return names that sound alike in order to get you past the vocal origin of so many of our records.

Searching for a surname that could be spelt in many ways

Just consider, for a moment, an ancestor with a broad accent who has just come to register their child. To the registrar the surname of the father sounds like Sissel, or perhaps it is Sissil, or was it Sissell or even Sisel? To add to the problem the family themselves are not able to tell the registrar how their family name is spelt as, like so many of our ancestors, they were not able to read and write and they sign documents with a cross or some other sign as their mark. Using a website that utilises phonetic search as the default filter will help us move forward.

A search for this name employing TheGenealogist will see a number of variations of this difficult name returned. These range from Sissel to Sicel, as well as many close sounding alternatives inbetween.

The missing microfilmed pages of the GRO Index

Another pitfall, that can cause us not to be able to find a person in births, marriages and death records, is as a result of them falling into those missing pages that were left out when the General Register Office originally licensed their records of BMDs. It was discovered then that, when the books were microfilmed, that some pages were passed over by mistake in the process. TheGenealogist were quick to spot this and sent a team up to the now closed Family Record Centre to copy the missing data so that these records will be included when we do a search on this particular website.

Brits overseas or born at sea

There is yet another great reason to consider doing your search on TheGenealogist and that is that it includes a number of our ancestors who were born, married or died overseas, or onboard a ship. These records will not be included in the standard civil registration births, marriages and deaths, but are to be found in either the GRO overseas records, or The National Archives overseas BMDs. (Both of which are included on TheGenealogist).

The National Archives' Non-Parochial Records (RG32, RG33, RG34 & RG35) cover such entries as those in non-statutory records from abroad, or on British ships. The copies of these may have been kept by the incumbents of English churches and missions abroad and do not appear in the regular BMD records. To easily access them we are able to use the Master Search on TheGenealogist.

The GRO’s Overseas BMD Indexes are also available under 'Birth Marriage and Death Indexes' on TheGenealogist and cover the births, marriages and deaths of British subjects that were recorded at a British Consulate or High Commission and those of British Service Personnel throughout the world. If our ancestor died at sea, on board a British ship, then TheGenealogist will allow us to research over 210,000 records in the Overseas Marine Deaths records on the site.

If we were to look for Albert South, who died in 1915, then he can be located in the Overseas - Marine Deaths in the Military Records. We can see that his death was recorded on H.M.S. Lightning. 

One click and we can see an image of the GRO indexes.

We can also look for someone who died in the armed forces in one or other of the World War I and World War II Death Indexes which are on TheGenealogist. These resources provide us with an official GRO index reference which would allow us to then obtain an Overseas Death certificate at www.gro.gov.uk in the usual way.

If you haven’t found an ancestor in the BMD records then a search of TheGenealogist could be all that you need to break down this brick wall.

_{Images copyright of the General Register Office and TheGenealogist.co.uk}

The Family History Show is coming back next month!

After two extremely successful virtual events held online last year, The Family History Show, Online is returning in February so that once more you can enjoy all the features of a physical family history show, but from the comfort and safety of your own home.

The Family History Show, Online, organised by Discover Your Ancestors magazine, is gearing up for its return on Saturday 20th February 2021.

You'll have the opportunity to put your research questions to an expert, watch free talks and to speak to over 100 family history societies, archives and genealogical suppliers by text, audio, video chat or email from the comfort of your own home.

You will also be able to submit your questions to their Ask the Experts panel before the show and you have a choice to either book a free 1-to-1 session or to watch the live stream question panel at 15:30 where you can ask your questions live!

Make a date in your diary and snap up an early bird ticket now for only £6! You'll also get a downloadable goody bag worth over £10.

New partners and features to be announced shortly, watch for more news!

https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/online/tickets/

Featuring All New Talks Professionally presented and recorded lectures, not just streamed screen shares, and each talk will be available for 72 hours, so don't worry if you're in another time zone. These presentations will cover a wide variety of family history topics from multiple speakers and will be available throughout the day.

Occupations Dr Simon Wills - Genealogist, Writer, and Author Country Bumpkins: Tracing Rural Ancestors Else Churchill, The Society of Genealogists Maps for Family Historians Gill Blanchard, House Historian and Professional Genealogist Tracing your Ancestors' lives through online resources Amelia Bennett, Expert Researcher, Census Detective with the SOG Working with your Autosomal DNA Test Donna Rutherford, DNA Expert Ask the Experts Live Q&A Panel with Amelia Bennett, Gill Blanchard and Donna Rutherford   Ask the Experts Submit your questions to their panel of experts before the show. Either book a free 1-to-1 session or watch the live stream question panel at 15:30 where you can ask your questions live!     Societies, Archives and Companies   Visit exhibitors, societies, archives and companies in the virtual exhibition hall. Here there will be the opportunity to talk to some of the stallholders by text, audio or video from the comfort of your own home.   All the features of a physical show As well as over 100 virtual exhibitor stalls to visit, you will be able to enjoy online talks throughout the day and put questions forward to specialists in the popular 'Ask the Experts' area. What do visitors to the show think? "The Exhibitor Hall, with the video chat and Question Feed, and details and links to their products, etc. Your show is a very close, and in some ways better, reproduction of the live event, and I'm looking forward to attending next year's event." - Scott Barker "I just wanted to say that Saturday's event was great. I had three people beam into my work room – one from New Zealand, one from America and one from Scotland! I also had a chat enquiry from Australia. I had no idea this event would be global!" - Maddy Mills from The Crafty Genealogist "I know the actual shows are great, but for us not able to get there, these online days are ideal. I put aside time to listen and it felt like a 'day away' from the usual routine. Well done and thank you." - Ruth Owen Early Bird Ticket Offer Buy your tickets in advance and save - tickets to attend The Family History Show Online are available from the website at just £6.00 each. You will also get a FREE virtual goody bag on the day worth over £10. https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/online/tickets/

Family History Tips: Mentioned in Despatches

When we set out researching some of our ancestors from the past we may discover that they served in the military. We may find records that prove that they were awarded medals, or that they were wounded, taken prisoner, or killed in one of the wars that this country fought. In some cases we may even discover that they have been Mentioned in despatches (MiD). But what does this term mean?

The Gazette, the official public record which publishes awards including MiDs, has a useful article that can be read here:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/101371

The article takes as its example Captain Bernard Law Montgomery who served in World War 1 in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was first MiD in 1915. Later awarded many medals, including the DSO to which his oak leaf is pinned (see the Gazette – issue 28992), Montgomery served between 1915 and 1918, ending WW1 as a lieutenant colonel. He was to go on to become Field Marshal Montgomery and 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in WW2.

The handwritten MiD card records can reveal detail such as the military clerk’s corrections and messy amendments. You can see this on Montgomery’s 1915 MiD card, as found from a search of the Military Records on TheGenealogist.co.uk

You can read the full article on The Gazette's website:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/101371

• A brief history of dieting: At a time of year when many people look to their New Year's resolutions, Jayne Shrimpton reveals that dieting is certainly no new endeavour
• If the invader comes...: Stuart A. Raymond looks at the WW2 Invasion Committees and the useful records they have left
• The greats of greetings cards: Nick Thorne explores the records of the Jewish family responsible for many of our ancestors' greeting cards
• How justice failed Beatrice and Emily: The unsolved murders of two little girls in 1890s Gloucestershire show the problems with convicting those identified as the likely offender. By Nell Darby
• Crime by numbers: Kate Hollis investigates criminal record keeping in Victorian Kent
• History in the details: Materials – leather (part 4)

TheGenealogist has added to its expanding International Headstone Collection with some interesting and useful new searchable images of gravestones.

These enable family historians to see details that have been recorded about their ancestors by the monumental masons in various churches and cemeteries. All the records are fully searchable with transcripts of the inscriptions that help to decipher some of the more weathered memorials.

The headstone records released cover 174 new churchyards or cemeteries and include submissions from their many prolific volunteers. The International Headstone Collection is an ongoing project where every headstone photographed or transcribed earns credits for volunteers.

The credits are used by volunteers to help support their hobby spending them on subscriptions at TheGenealogist.co.uk or products from GenealogySupplies.com. If you would like to join them, you can find out more about the scheme at: https://ukindexer.co.uk/headstone/

_{The unusual, but informative, plaque on the Penruddocke family tomb at St Michael’s, Compton Chamberlayne}

These new records are all available as part of the Diamond Subscription at TheGenealogist.

You can read TheGenealogist’s article: Headstones and Church Memorial plaques a fantastic resource for family historians

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/headstones-and-church-memorial-plaques-are-a-fantastic-resource-for-family-historians-1370/

The Society of Genealogist's popular live online lectures are due to continue in 2021 via the Zoom platform. From their news page we see that their first talk this New Year is 'Sources for Medieval and Early Modern Genealogy' and will be taking place on 9 January 2021.

In this talk, Dr. Nick Barratt will be looking at medieval and early family history sources, including practical information for research. He will be introducing new sources to help you trace your relatives further back in time and his talk covers: feudalism, landholding and social hierarchy, government and local administration, law and justice, and church and religion.

At the end of the Zoom talk there will be a short Q&A session for you to ask Nick questions.

About the speaker: Dr Nick Barratt obtained his PhD in history from King's College London. At the National Archives he previously was head of Medieval, Early Modern Legal, Maps & Photographs, and was president of the Family History Federation for ten years. Nick worked in television as a specialist archive researcher and consultant including House Detectives and Who Do You Think You Are. He is the owner of Sticks Research Agency, as well as being the director of Learner and Discovery Services at the Open University.

This Society of Genealogist's event is online and is a one-hour talk on Saturday, 9 January (2pm UK), cost £10.00/£6.50 SoG members. This talk as well as the SoG's other January events can be booked through their website.

http://www.sog.org.uk/books-courses/events-courses/calendar-month/2021/01/