Welcome to the Family History Social

TheGenealogist has been praised for its innovative tools that allow you to discover exactly where your ancestors lived, using Map Explorer™. This innovative feature has now been added to Gold and Starter level subscriptions.

Home of Joseph Chamberlain (father of the WW2 prime minister) found on the 1891 census in Map Explorer™  

Census pins identify properties on Map Explorer™ 

Image Archive records located on Map Explorer™ 

From today, a significant number of databases including the 1891, 1901 and 1911 census, plus TheGenealogist’s Image Archive pictures and along with the Domesday Book 1086, are now available with pins on georeferenced maps in Map Explorer™. This makes  Starter & Gold Subscriptions powerful resources for researchers to see where their forebears lived, as well as to investigate the neighbourhood and surrounding area. Accessing Map Explorer™ on a mobile allows researchers to walk in the footsteps of ancestors and discover where homes, schools, places of work and other buildings may once have stood but have now disappeared. 

This interface will place a pin on the house using historical data to identify its location where possible or if not, the street or parish on an appropriate map of the area connected to the record. As this resource makes use of a number of historical and modern maps matching the same precise coordinates, Starter & Gold subscribers are in a much better position to see where their ancestors had once lived even if the area has now changed.

To find out what’s included in the discounted Starter and Gold subscriptions go to www.thegenealogist.co.uk/PRTGAUG22

To read about using the Census collection, Image Archive and Domesday Book 1086 linked to mapping for an area recently in the news see our article: Mapping the records from a PM’s house to the Conqueror’s Manor

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/mapping-the-records-from-a-pms-house-to-the-conquerors-manor-1604/

The Crystal Palace, Penge, in the Bromley Valuation Office records

More than 109,000 new IR58 Valuation Office land tax records for owners and occupiers have been added by TheGenealogist to its Lloyd George Domesday Survey records. 

Researchers can now discover all types of interesting details about the homes of their ancestors from the Lewisham and Bromley areas. Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can find what their forebears' property was like in the years before WWI using the scanned images of the field books. These documents reveal what the surveyor from the years between 1910 and 1915 recorded about the size, state of repair and value of the house.

Detail from a Field Book from Lewisham Valuation Office area

As all the records are linked to the large scale Ordnance Survey maps that were used at the time, each property is shown plotted on detailed mapping on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™. This exceptionally useful tool, with its ability to show the same point on a variety of modern and historical maps, allows the house or family historian to see how the area may have changed over time and to explore their ancestors' locality.

In the case of this release we can see how in Bromley the Crystal Palace was still standing in fine parkland with fountains and other features. The Palace, having burnt down in the 1930s, its footprint is today given over to trees and grass on the modern map views. Across the road from its entrance had been a railway station in 1910 which today has subsequently been completely built over with new homes.

Lloyd George Domesday Survey linked map on Map Explorer™ 

• TheGenealogist’s Lloyd George Domesday records link individual properties to extremely detailed maps used in 1910-1915 viewed on the powerful Map Explorer™ 
  
• Fully search the records by person’s name, county, parish and street
  
• Maps zoom down to show individual properties where they were plotted in the 1910s
  
• Georeferenced to a modern street map or satellite map underlay to more clearly understand what the area looks like today
  

Total number of Owners and Occupiers in the current release: 109,177

Areas covered in Lewisham (63,451 Owners and Occupiers): Blackheath, Brockley, Catford, Deptford North, Deptford South, Forest Hill, Hatcham, Lee, Lewisham, Lower Sydenham and Upper Sydenham.

Areas released for Bromley (45,726 Owners and Occupiers): Beckenham, Bromley, Chelsfield, Chislehurst, Mottingham, Orpington, Penge, St Mary Cray

Read TheGenealogist’s article: From a Crystal Palace to the home of a Lord Mayor embroiled in scandal https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/from-a-crystal-palace-to-the-home-of-a-lord-mayor-embroiled-in-scandal-1593/ 

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!

The Society of Genealogists' next talk event is on Thursday 4 August at 2 pm:

Customs and Excise, Coastguards & Trinity House Records in the SoG Collections

Join Else Churchill to learn about the unique and original 19th and early 20th century records held at the Society of Genealogists on Customs and Excise staff. Have a Customs and Excise officer in your family tree? Then this talk will be very useful to you.

Deposited with the Society by HM Revenue and Customs, this collection holds approximately 16,800 entries. It contains details of HM Customs and Excise staff born between 1833 and 1911, now available on the SoG website.

The Society’s Coastguards’ Index was collated by the late Eileen Stage and recorded on index cards along with copies of various documents. The information was gathered from a number of sources including work done by a team of Society volunteers. In more recent times, these index cards and documents have been scanned and indexed to allow easy access via SoG Data Online.

Else also looks at the Society's Trinity House Petitions collections (1787-1854). These records detail petitions to Trinity House made by seamen, or their families, who had fallen on hard times. Trinity House was responsible for supervising lighthouses and buoys around the English coast. In addition, they distributed charitable funds to those of the seafaring community in greatest need. Records can contain detailed information about the petitioner and family survivors.

A one-hour talk with Else Churchill, cost £10.00/£6.50 SoG members

https://www.sog.org.uk/news/august-highlighted-events

All English Tithe Maps are now georeferenced to modern and historic maps

Family historians can now search the complete National Tithe Record Collection for England and view their ancestors’ land and homes plotted through the ages on Victorian Tithe maps, as well as on today's Modern Street and Satellite maps. 

TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer™, which has seen a number of records added in recent months, will now also benefit from the inclusion of Tithe Maps and Records for five extra counties of England. With Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Nottinghamshire and Sussex joining those that had previously been released means that TheGenealogist now has all of the English counties’ Tithe Records and Maps available to its Diamond subscribers on Map Explorer™. 

Map Explorer™ georeferences a Tithe Plot to various historical and modern maps

Tithe records cover the majority of the country and were created by the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act which required tithes in kind to be converted to monetary payments called tithe rentcharge. The Tithe Survey was established to find out which areas were subject to tithes, who owned them, who occupied the various parcels of land, the usage of the land, how much was payable and to whom and so generated these maps and apportionment books.

With Map Explorer™ researchers have the ability to pinpoint a record to the exact same coordinates on various historical and modern maps. Family and house historians are therefore able to see where an ancestor’s land plot was throughout the eras, even when the landscape has completely changed over the years.

• Total number of maps in this release is 1,310
• Total pins on georeferenced plots added in this release is 673,352
• Map Explorer™ now has a total number of 11,804 georeferenced Tithe maps to view
• 5,202,983 georeferenced parcels of tithable land are now on Map Explorer™, indicated by map pins

Tithes usefully record all levels of society from large estate owners to occupiers of small plots, such as a homestead or similar, as we discover in this weeks’ case study. 

See TheGenealogist’s article: Plotting A Victorian Farmer’s Home Over Time

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/plotting-a-victorian-farmers-home-over-time-1587/ 

Find out more at TheGenealogist.co.uk/maps/

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!

Sign up today for only £24.99 and receive the following:

• 12 monthly issues of the Periodical
• Access to 500,000,000 birth, marriage and death records
• Free data: Titanic passenger list
• Free ebook: Navy List 1884 - December

https://discoveryourancestors.co.uk/

The 1891 census is now linked to historical and modern georeferenced maps by TheGenealogist to make it easier than ever to find where ancestors lived and see the surrounding neighbourhood.

Family and house historians are able to investigate the streets, lanes and wider areas of where their ancestors lived at the time of the 1891 census in this latest release from TheGenealogist. A release that sees the 1891 census linked up to the Map Explorer™ for the first time. 

Census transcript linked to mapping

The 1891 Census joins the 1901 census, 1911 census and the 1939 Register that are already connected to the innovative Map Explorer™. This means that researchers are able to identify, with just the click of a button, where their forebears lived and to see the routes their ancestors used to visit shops, local pubs, churches, places of work and parks. With a historical map it is possible to find where the nearest railway station was, important for understanding how our ancestors could travel to other parts of the country to see relatives or visit their hometown.

With this release, Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can pinpoint ancestors’ properties at the time of the 1891 census and so investigate the neighbourhood from behind their computer screen. Alternatively, users may also access TheGenealogist on their mobile phone to trace their ancestors’ footprints while walking down modern streets.

Most of the London area and other towns and cities can be viewed down to the property level, while other parts of the country will identify down to the parish, road or street.

Viewing a household record from the 1891 census on TheGenealogist will now show a map, locating your ancestor’s house. Clicking on this map loads the location in Map Explorer™, enabling you to explore the area and see the records of neighbouring properties.

See TheGenealogist’s article:    

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/from-census-to-map-in-1891-1578/

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!

At last, it's back! 

After nearly two years of not having the freedom and interaction of a physical show, we found from surveying previous attendees that people were looking forward to enjoying a great day out again. They were looking forward to listening to live talks and asking questions face-to-face to a range of experts and exhibitors. As we have had so many requests to hold another show we are only too pleased to welcome everyone back this Saturday 25th June 2022 to The Family History Show – York!

Help ensure the future of family history events like this by voting with your feet and come to The Family History Show – York where it is making a welcome return to the Racecourse. 

If you can’t make this weekend then why not put this date in your diary? The Family History Show – London will be at Kempton Park on Saturday 24th September.

Packed with exhibitors attending from all over the UK, plus family history societies and genealogy supplies companies returning at last to a physical show, this long-awaited chance to talk face-to-face with stall holders is a must for your diary.

These events are not just for those who have Yorkshire or London Ancestors – these family history shows will appeal to all visitors. Everyone is very welcome and there will be so much to see throughout the day at both events. There will be plenty of parking, refreshments will be available all day, you can talk with experts who can help with your research queries and watch FREE talks held throughout the day.

These events are organised by family historians for family historians. Do you really know who you are? Come and find out - you may be surprised!

The Knavesmire Exhibition Centre, The Racecourse, York

Each show features:

• Free talks held throughout the day in two large lecture areas
• Book a free personal 1-2-1 session with an expert, or visit our special Expert Panel at the end of the day where our experts combine to give a talk full of handy research tips and answer your questions in a Q&A session.
• Free Parking and Local Train Station
• All Day Refreshments
• Wheelchair Friendly Venue

Early-bird Ticket Offer

Get your tickets now and save, Only £6 (£8 on the day) and you’ll also get a goody bag on entry worth over £17. 

Save 50% by getting two tickets for £8 for the York show here: https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/york/tickets/ 

Talks you can look forward to at the York show include:

Nick Barratt - The Future of Family History

Looking at the ways family history research is changing as a result of technology and the media, with some opportunities that this may present for the future. A timely warning that the excitement around new digital releases should prompt us to think about how we use the wealth of data available.

Mia Bennett - Using DNA to Support Family History Research

This talk is aimed at people who want to practically apply DNA insights to their family history research. DNA is the new tool in our toolkit for helping us take our family history further.  It looks at some of the methods and techniques you can use when working with your DNA results. In addition, little tips will be given along with a few practical examples to help you visualise what you need to do to progress your family history research.

Jackie Depelle - Writing Your Family History

Have you done all your family history research and now wondering what to do with it? 

Learn how to organise and develop your hard work and research into a framework that can be shared with others, in a variety of different ways. Move on from record sheets and charts.

Keith Gregson - Walking in the Footsteps of our Ancestors

This talk explores how with research and the right tools you can step back in time looking at where your ancestors lived, worked and spent their leisure time. Following the routes they may have taken, on old maps and looking at the views they may have seen.

Mark Bayley - Breaking Down Brick Walls

Mark shows techniques and data sets that can remove those obstacles to completing your family history.

Mark Bayley - Mapping Your Ancestors

Mark discusses how to get the most out of map-based record sets, what’s available online and demonstrates a fantastic tool for viewing them.

Early-bird Ticket Offer

Get two tickets for £8 for the York show here: https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/york/tickets/ 

Check out Family History TV on YouTube with their free short videos. These how-to-guides are by leading experts covering a variety of topics. Their speakers specialise in subjects from the world of British Genealogy, Military History, DNA, House History and Social History and many of them are past and present speakers from The Family History Show. Watch a short video now at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMnBEpCg-QwVzkq-zU4GDGg

Find Out More at: https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/ 

Millions of homes recorded in the 1901 census have now been plotted on historical georeferenced maps by TheGenealogist. Family history or house historians can now explore the areas where their ancestors lived and see how far it was for them to walk to the shops, visit their local pub, travel to work or take a train to another city or town.

Following on from their recent releases of the 1939 Register and the 1911 Census records linked to contemporary and modern map layers on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™, now the same innovative features have been applied to the 1901 Census of England and Wales. 

With this release Diamond subscribers are able to pinpoint where their ancestors’ properties were at the time of the census count and so metaphorically walk the streets from the comfort of their home. Alternatively, users may access TheGenealogist on their mobile phone to physically discover the neighbourhood while on the move.

This key tool can make the lives of the family or house historian easier than ever to research census records for buildings and the newly linked 1901 census complements the rich georeferenced Lloyd George Domesday Survey and Tithe records that are already available on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ as well as the 1939 Register and the 1911 Census records recently added to this website.

The majority of the London area and other towns and cities are viewable down to the property level, while other parts of the country will identify down to the parish, road or street.

With this new release, viewing a household record from the 1901 census will now show a map, locating your ancestors' house. Clicking on this map loads the location in Map Explorer™, enabling you to explore the area and see the records of neighbouring properties.

See TheGenealogist’s article about the 1901 Census on MapExplorer™: The Clog Dancers house and the paths they would have trodden. https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/the-clog-dancers-house-and-the-paths-they-would-have-trodden-1560/ 

Find out more at TheGenealogist.co.uk/map

Its always good to welcome back Who Do You Think You Are? to our screens and last night kicked off the 18th series with Sue Perkins.

Now looking forward to the rest of the series after a one week break for the Platinum Jubilee.

Read all about the fortcoming episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? here.