Welcome to the Family History Social

The very latest news from the world of genealogy

Recent posts

Categories

More...

Archives

May 2021 edition of Discover Your Ancestors now available

07th May, 2021 Family History, Handy Tips, Latest News Discover Your Ancestors , Family History Online Magazine , Family History Research

 

Discover Your Ancestors Periodical is a high quality monthly digital magazine delivered to your own personalised online account every month. This beautifully designed 30+ page online magazine is packed full of stories, case studies, social history articles and research advice. 

In this month's issue:

Food to die for: When our Victorian ancestors went shopping, adulterated food was everywhere and nothing was as it seemed. Michelle Higgs serves up the details


Celebrating Coventry: As Coventry launches its year-long programme of events to mark its status as the 2021 City of Culture, Nicola Lisle explores its history


A matter of life and death (and marriage): Nick Thorne researches the family of actor David Niven


Tracing a difficult dentist: Under the surface, the life of one dentist highlighted the gender inequality present in Victorian England, as Nell Darby explains


Twas a rare affair: Denise Bates researches a family poem written in 1913


History in the details: Materials – wool (part 4)

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: Cornwall 1844 Pigot's Directory

Get your copy of the May edition by subscribing here: https://discoveryourancestors.co.uk/subscribe/

Leave a comment

TheGenealogist adds over 100,000 names to its Irish Will Indexes

30th April, 2021 Family History, Latest News, New Records, TheGenealogist Family History Research , Index Of Irish Wills , Irish Wills

 

TheGenealogist’s Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 is an index to surviving records of Wills, Grants and Administrations, held by The National Archives of Ireland (NAI). Records include the original NAI reference, which can be used to order a copy of the existing document.

 

This new release adds an easily searched and useful resource to the ever growing suite of records available to Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist. The Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 features:

 

  • More than 100,000 names
  • Easily Searchable by Name, County, Address and Keyword
  • Can provide dates, occupation, status and place of abode
  • Can provide reference and link to order the document from the National Archives of Ireland.

World Famous Brewer, Arthur Guinness’ Will & Grant on TheGenealogist

 

Prior to 1858, Irish wills were administered by the ecclesiastical courts of the Established church, (the Church of Ireland), a part of the Anglican communion. In 1857, however, the Church of Ireland lost its responsibility for Irish Wills when the Probate Act of that year transferred the supervision to the state.

 

Read TheGenealogist’s article: Using Irish Wills to discover your ancestors https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/using-the-index-of-irish-wills-1484-1858-to-discover-more-about-ancestors-important-details-1406/

 

Leave a comment

The Family History Show Online Returns on 19th June! Book Your Early Bird Tickets Now

26th April, 2021 Events, Family History, Latest News Discover Your Ancestors , Family History Fairs , Family History Research , Family History Show, Online

The Family History Show is back!

After three extremely successful virtual events held in the last year, The Family History Show, Online is returning in June 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 19th June 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. You'll have the choice of either booking a free 1-to-1 session or to submit your question to the whole panel, who will be streaming their answers on the day at 15:30.

 

Save on 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. (Tickets on the day are £8.00)

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.
Looking in the Small Print
Amelia Bennett - Expert Researcher, Census Detective with the SOG
Joining the Merchant Navy
Dr Simon Wills - Genealogist, Writer, and Author
Solving Genealogical Puzzles with DNA
Donna Rutherford, DNA Expert
Exploring the Day to Day Life of RAF Ancestors
Nick Thorne - Professional Genealogist and Writer
...and more to be announced soon!

Ask the Experts

Submit your questions to the panel of experts before the show. Either book a free 1-to-1 session or submit your question to the whole panel, who will be streaming their answers on the day at 15:30.

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 their popular 'Ask the Experts' area.

To buy your tickets go to: /https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/online/tickets/

Leave a comment

TheGenealogist releases London Lloyd George Domesday Records

19th April, 2021 Family History, Latest News, New Records, TheGenealogist Ancestors Homes , Ancestors' Property Records , Family History Research , The Lloyd George Domesday Survey.

TheGenealogist has released the records of 143,956 individuals to increase its Lloyd George Domesday Survey record set coverage. This unique online resource of nearly one million individuals records, can help researchers discover where an ancestor lived in the period 1910-1915. The new records this month are for properties situated in Balham, Battersea, Fulham, Hammersmith, Putney & Roehampton, Streatham, Tooting Graveney and Wandsworth. 

 

Area outlined in red is covered in this latest release

 

This fascinating combination of maps and residential data from The National Archives is being digitised by TheGenealogist and enables researchers to precisely pinpoint an ancestor’s house on the large scale and exceptionally detailed hand annotated maps from the period. Fully searchable and linked to the versatile Map Explorer™, Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can see how an area has changed over time by switching between various georeferenced modern and historical map layers.

 

A property recorded in the Lloyd George Domesday Survey Field Book and map on 21 July 1913

 

Family historians often have problems finding where ancestors lived because road names can change over time. Researching the article discovered a shopkeeper living on the corner of Defoe Road and Tooting High Street. Daniel Defoe was a one time famous resident of Wandsworth. Using the Map Explorer now helps to identify that Defoe road has become Garrett Lane in modern times. The southernmost part of Garratt Lane is unusual in that two parallel streets exchanged names in the past. The original Garratt Lane was a narrower street while Garratt Terrace, on the other hand, was the main connection to Tooting Broadway. The south-east end of its length became Defoe Road before it reached the High Street, though many people were in the habit of mistakenly calling it Garratt Lane. For this reason it was agreed to exchange the names. Searching for where an ancestor lived using modern maps can be frustrating when they fail to pinpoint where the old properties had once stood.

 

  • This new release identifies individual properties on extremely detailed 1910-1915 maps 
  • See images of original Field Books often with a detailed description of the property
  • Locate an address found in a census or street directory down to a specific house on the map
  • Fully searchable by name, parish and street
  • The georeferenced OS maps are a layer over a modern street map underlay
  • Changing the base map displayed allows researchers to understand what the area looks like today

 

Complementing the maps on TheGenealogist are the accompanying Field Books that will also provide researchers with detailed information relative to the valuation of each property, including the valuation assessment number, map reference, owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.

 

This mammoth project is ongoing with over 94,500 Field Books, each having hundreds of pages to conserve and digitise with associated large scale IR121 annotated OS maps. 

 

See TheGenealogist’s feature article on using these records in “Finding the Wandsworth homes attacked in the WW1 ‘Lusitania’ Riots”:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/finding-the-wandsworth-homes-attacked-in-the-ww1-lusitania-riots-1400/ 

 

To find out more about these records, you can also visit TheGenealogist’s informative record collection page at: TheGenealogist.co.uk/1910Survey/

 

 

Click this link to watch TheGenealogist's video on these new records: https://youtu.be/ushl8j8ovzA

 

Leave a comment

The National Archives' latest On the Record Podcast is: 17th century witches

08th April, 2021 Latest News, National Archives, Podcasts The National Archives , TNA

The history of trials in The National Archives collection

Episode one of TNA's latest On the Record podcast series, Trials, is now available to stream from wherever you get your podcasts. The series uncovers different stories to examine the history of trials, with episode one looking specifically at witch trials. 

Also its worth checking out TNA's blog post: Seventeenth century witches 

 

Leave a comment

TheGenealogist adds the 1939 Register with SmartSearch

30th March, 2021 Family History, Latest News, New Records, TheGenealogist 1939 Register , Census Substitutes , Family History Research

TheGenealogist has released the 1939 Register, adding their unique and powerful search tools and SmartSearch technology. This offers a hugely flexible way to look for your ancestors at the start of the Second World War.

 

TheGenealogist’s well known brick wall shattering search tools include the ability to find your ancestor in 1939 by using keywords, such as the individual’s occupation or their date of birth. You can also search for an address and then jump straight to the household. If you’re struggling to find a family, you can even search using as many of their forenames as you know.

 

Once you’ve found a record in the 1939 Register, you can click on the street name to view all the residents on the street, potentially finding relatives living nearby.

 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology enables you to discover even more about a person, linking to their Birth, Marriage and Death records.

 

1939 saw the evacuation of thousands of children

 

The 1939 Register can often reveal to you important additional information about your ancestors that will help build your family’s story. The powerful keyword search can find evacuees by searching for their name and date of birth along with the keyword “evacuee”. The fact individuals are listed with their full dates of birth is a huge benefit that the 1939 Register has over the census, which simply lists the age of a person. 

 

Take your research journey quickly forwards by using TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch to jump to a person’s

  • Birth Record
  • Marriage Record
  • Death Record

TheGenealogist makes searching the 1939 Register more flexible. Search by

  • Name (Including wildcards, e.g. Win* Church*)
  • Address (e.g. Whitehall) 
  • Keywords (e.g. Admiralty)
  • First names from a family group (e.g. Winston, Clementine)



See TheGenealogist’s article on finding the highest paid Film Star and Entertainer of the time, George Formby:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/a-window-on-september-1939-and-george-formby-the-entertainer-1398/



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!

Leave a comment

TheGenealogist adds 2,738 more parishes of Tithe Maps to Map Explorer™

19th March, 2021 Family History, Latest News, New Records, TheGenealogist Ancestors Landholdings , Family History Research , Map Explorer , Tithe Maps

 

 

TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer on a mobile phone, using the “Locate Me” feature whilst visiting Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. Cycling through a Modern Satellite Image, Modern Map, 1890’s OS Map and 1838 Tithe Map

 

Over 30 counties of georeferenced Tithe Maps have been added to date!

TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™, the resource for researchers to turn to when searching for an ancestor’s landholding whether owned or simply occupied, has been boosted with the significant addition of georeferenced Tithe Maps for Anglesey, Durham, Devon, Shropshire, Somerset, Suffolk and Wiltshire. 

 

From cottages with gardens to acres of farmed land and country estates, the addition of georeferenced Tithe maps as a layer over modern and other historical maps will allow researchers to see how the landscape changed over time. Map Explorer™ gives the researcher the ability to switch between layers of tithe, historical and modern maps which are all tied to coordinates and so allow the user the ability to see how places change over the years. 

 

From a plot identified on the tithe map it is possible to click through to then see the description as it was recorded in the apportionment record at the time, thus revealing more about what an ancestor’s holding had been. Using Map Explorer™ the family historian can browse an ancestor’s area to find other plots that they owned or occupied. Alternatively, TheGenealogist’s Master Search can be used to look for ancestors’ plots across the tithe records and then view them on Map Explorer™.

 

Lacock Abbey on a tithe map

 

Subscribers accessing TheGenealogist on their mobile devices, while out walking, can use the “locate me” function when using the tool on the move and so open up the history of what is around them. This is explored further in their featured article (see the link below).

  • Total number of maps in this release is 2,738
  • Total number of Tithe maps in Map Explorer™ is now 9,710
  • Map Explorer™ has over four million viewable records indicated by Map Pins
  • TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ displays maps for historical periods up to the modern day.

The addition to Map Explorer™ this week of the black and white tithe maps for Anglesey, Durham, Devon, Shropshire, Somerset, Suffolk and Wiltshire, linked to the apportionment books, will enable researchers to discover ancestors who both owned or occupied property between 1837 and the 1850s, with some additional altered apportionments in later years when property was sold or divided. The records allow TheGenealogist’s Diamond subscribers to find details of the plots, the owners of the land, as well as the occupiers at the time of the survey while also identifying the actual plots on the maps. Tithes usefully record all levels of society from large estate owners to occupiers of small plots such as a homestead or a cottage. 

 

With this addition, Map Explorer™ now features colour tithe maps for the counties of Buckinghamshire, Cumberland, Essex, Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, Northumberland, Rutland, Surrey, Westmorland, the City of York as well as North and East Ridings of Yorkshire plus black and white maps for Anglesey, Berkshire, Cambridge, Cheshire, Durham, Devon, Dorset, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire Suffolk, Yorkshire West Riding and Wiltshire. 

 

See TheGenealogist’s article: Traveling back in time with MapExplorer™ in your hand: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/traveling-back-in-time-with-mapexplorer-in-your-hand-1386/

 

 



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!

Leave a comment

Discover Your Ancestors online magazine for March 2021 out now

16th March, 2021 Family History, Handy Tips, Latest News Discover Your Ancestors , Discover Your Ancestors Online Periodical , Family And Social History

The March 2021 edition of Discover Your Ancestors

In this month’s edition of the online periodical there are some really great articles for those people who are interested in Family and Social history.

Snapshots of fashion past: Jayne Shrimpton picks up a newspaper from 100 years ago this month to see what we can glean about 1920s sartorial trends


The golden age of magic: Our ancestors loved a bit of magic, but it could end up being more dangerous than we might think… Nell Darby peers behind the curtain


Hope and glory: To mark its 150th anniversary, Lynsey Ford examines the remarkable history of the Royal Albert Hall


The Evesham murder: In Victorian Worcestershire, a case of poaching resulted in three deaths and a controversial reprieve for one man… Nell Darby investigates


More like a gentleman: Nick Thorne explores the actor Kenneth More’s family tree


History in the details: Materials – wool (part 2)

Free Recordset: Army List 1875 – January

Contains Generals and Field Officers by rank and by regiment. As well as hundreds of territorial regiments, officers are included for cavalry and artillery regiments, Royal Engineers, West India regiments, Marines, volunteer battalions, and more.

Premium Recordset: Warwickshire Phillimore Parish Records (Marriages) Volume 2

Franciscan registers of St Peter’s Birmingham 1657-1824 (Baptisms) (Phillimore Parish Records)

Get your copy here: https://discoveryourancestors.co.uk/current-issue/

Leave a comment

New Military Book Records added to TheGenealogist with ancestors’ names, places and details

05th March, 2021 Family History, Latest News, New Records, TheGenealogist Family History Research , Military Records

 

TheGenealogist has released over 150,000 individuals to its ever expanding Military Record Collection. Containing names, places and dates, these publications can aid the family history researcher find their ancestors and build a fascinating story of their lives. With records from Britain, Canada and a number of Indian registers and directories, these searchable records contain lists of men and women who served their country in various capacities connected to the military, and not just on the front line.

 

Included in the latest release is The War Office List 1920, where we can find a Miss Florence Agnes Hebb who had been Deputy Chief Superintendent of Typists at the War Office. We can follow her appointments from December 1890, when she first joined the War Office as a typist, to receiving an M.B.E in January 1918 and then becoming Controller of Typists at the Air Ministry in March of that year. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Dowding#/media/File:Hugh_Dowding.jpg

Another record, the Monthly Official Military Directory for Salisbury Plain, April 1914, finds the fledgling Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding when he was an Army Captain, ‘under instruction’ in WW1 and attending the Central Flying School at Upavon, Wiltshire.

The records can be used to discover more about an ancestor’s achievements and are fantastic for identifying where next to apply your research. These books can give dates of postings along with ranks or positions held in establishments, as well as a great deal more useful information that may help to build a better family history.


Use these records to: 

  • Add dates and details to the lives of your ancestors
  • Discover where they served
  • Fill in gaps in the information that you already have on an ancestor
  • Find hints and ‘signposts’ to 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.

 

You can read how, from his entry in the Monthly Official Military Directory for Salisbury Plain, April 1914, we then traced a rising star of the air force through a myriad of other military records on TheGenealogist.

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/military-records-fill-in-the-blanks-and-point-where-to-look-next-1381/

 

Included in this release are:

A List of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst 1833, Bombay Artillery List of Officers 1749-1902, Canada, Defence Forces List August 1938, Canada Defence Forces List November 1939, Colonial Office List for 1914, East-India Register and Directory 28th August 1821, Gradation List of Officers of the British Army July 1924, Graduation List of Officers of the British Army Oct 1915, India List Civil and Military July 1881, Northern Command Official Directory No. 45 Nov 1938, Records of Clan Campbell in the Military Service of the Honourable East India Company 1600-1858, Rules And List Of Members Imperial Service Club, Salisbury Plain Military Directory April 1914, War Office List 1939, War Office List 1920, Western Command Official Directory No. 12 April 1938

 

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!

Leave a comment

RootsTech Connect 2021 is now live

25th February, 2021 Events, Family History, Latest News, Online Family History Shows Family History Fairs , Family History Research , Genealogy Fairs

The new RootsTech Connect 2021 website is now live. Create your personal playlists from over 2,000 selections, connect with relatives, research specialists, and make fun, new family discoveries.

Constraints breed innovation—and that is the mindset of the creative geniuses behind RootsTech Connect—the world’s largest family history discovery event that kicks off today at RootsTech.org (25-27 February 2021, 4:00 a.m. GMT, 9:00 p.m. MST). For the first time ever, it’s completely virtual and free. Find out more at RootsTech.org.

The global pandemic served as an accelerant for the popular annual conference (usually hosted in Salt Lake City and London) to go virtual. The challenge was how to create an online platform that would deliver RootsTech’s signature in-person, highly sociable and interactive experience in a free, all-virtual online model, in 11 languages, simultaneously across all time zones, 24 hours a day for 3 days. The RootsTech Connect team believes they’ve done it. More than 500,000 people from 237 countries and territories have already registered for the free buffet of celebrity keynote speakers, the thousands of sessions, and dynamic chat opportunities that celebrate family connections and help make family history discoveries fun.

RootsTech is an annual international event that has drawn people worldwide who are seeking to make family connections. For the past 10 years, research experts, companies, and attendees gather to provide tech solutions, share genealogical expertise, and offer discovery tips and hacks to tens of thousands of ardent and curious ancestral roots seekers.

The innovative new RootsTech website introduces an exciting platform that enables attendees to interact in dynamic chat forums in 11 languages and create playlists from more than 1,000 video sessions and hundreds of additional video digital assets that they can watch on-demand following the event. Attendees can watch content “live” on the main stage, interact with vendors virtually in the Expo Hall, see if they are related to any of the hundreds of thousands of attendees globally, get one-on-one family history help, or experiment with fun, new tech ideas in the Innovators Portal. And it’s amazingly all free—no ads, no strings attached.

“The pandemic, with its restraints against gathering physically, gave us an incredible opportunity to find a way to do what we aspire to do—but totally online. And that is to inspire so many more people worldwide through personal family discovery experiences,” said Steve Rockwood, FamilySearch CEO, the hosting organization of RootsTech.

Rockwood said RootsTech Connect 2021 creates opportunities for people to learn from specialists, get answers to their family history questions, and make meaningful family connections.

Highlights of the New RootsTech Connect 2021 All-Virtual Platform

Main Stage. RootsTech Connect will feature uplifting messages from celebrity keynote speakers and industry experts from around the world. It will be broadcast 24 hours a day for 3 days in 11 languages.

My Playlist. The RootsTech session schedule is now live. With nearly 2,000 sessions and other video assets, you won’t be able to watch everything you want in the 3 days of RootsTech—even if you are an insomniac. The Playlist feature (somewhat like Netflix) allows you to easily add content of interest to you into your personalized playlist on the site. You will have until the next RootsTech event to enjoy your selections.

Explore Sessions. Content is compiled with a variety of tags or categories, so you can quickly find content that pertains to your needs or interests. You can search by language; geographic region; speaker; Finding Living Family; Ancestors; DNA; Researching Places and Records; Memories—Stories, Photos, and Video; Traditions and Heritage; Websites, Tech Tools and Apps; and Entertainment and Events.

Relatives at RootsTech (Connect). The essence of RootsTech is making fun, inspiring family connections. Who better to connect with than your own relatives worldwide? RootsTech attendees, if they choose, will be able to discover and start connecting with relatives attending RootsTech. With hundreds of thousands of registrants, the possibilities of making a connection are high.

Expo Hall. Companies with family history-related products and services from around the world will help you discover your unique story. Explore new product demonstrations, receive personal assistance, and take advantage of exclusive opportunities.

Innovators Portal. If you like to know the latest innovative technology in the family history and genealogy product segment, this feature is for you. Watch emerging product demos and be among the first to “test drive” some of them.

Guide Me. Not sure where to start? The Guide Me feature conveniently compiles popular sessions on various topics for you, for example, Getting Started, Discovery, or Archivist.

RootsTech Connect 2021 is a free 3-day virtual event. Visit RootsTech.org to participate in the many experiences and view on-demand content.

RootsTech Connect 2021 will be hosting Family Discovery Day virtually and  Our Quest for Connection, a RootsTech experience designed for youth and young adults to connect with each other, relatives, friends, and ancestors.

 

Source: https://media.familysearch.org/free-virtual-rootstech-event-connects-families-worldwide/

Leave a comment
Found 719 Results.
Back to top

© FamilyHistory.So 2025