Welcome to the Family History Social

Are you going to be in York this Saturday 22 June 2019?

If you are then you should consider very stongly coming along to The Family History Show, York.

It is always well attended with lots of exhibitors from near and far including Family History Societies, the Society of Genealogists, FamilySearch, the MOD, Census Detectives, TheGenealogist and many more.

With various free talks through out the day there is also an Ask The Expert area where you can get help with your family history problems.

So the news is out!

The makers of the UK series of Who Do You Think You Are? have release the star studded line up for the 16th series and it looks exciting with some really big names.

The eight programmes set to air in 2019 will include the following personalities:

Kate Winslet, Daniel Radcliffe, Sharon Osbourne, Naomie Harris, Paul Merton, Mark Wright, Katherine Ryan and Jack Whitehall who will all be tracing their families’ histories and entertaining us along the way.

There is a run down of each  celebrity on this page here courtesy of TheGenealogist: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/who-do-you-think-you-are/who-do-you-think-you-are-series-16-1113/

Image: Somewhere In Toronto [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

TheGenealogist announces the release of Islington Lloyd George Domesday Survey records. These cover land owners and occupiers in 1910-1915 with over 70,000 individuals recorded, joining the previously released data books and their associated maps for other parts of London.

This new release is the latest stage of TheGenealogist’s vast ongoing project to digitise over 94,500 Field Books, each having hundreds of pages, and linking them to large scale IR121 annotated OS maps which are now viewable in TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer tool.

The records have been sourced from The National Archives and were compiled by the Valuation Office in a period that stretched from 1910-1915 in response to the Lloyd George government passing the People’s Budget 1909/1910.

This new release covers records made of property ownership and occupation in Barnsbury, Canonbury, Charterhouse, Clerkenwell, Finsbury, Glasshouse Yard, Highbury East, Highbury West, Lower Holloway, Myddelton, Old Street, Pentonville, Saint Mary, Saint Peter, Saint Sepulchre, Thornhill, Upper Holloway, Upper Holloway East and Upper Holloway West.

Collins’ Music Hall identified by TheGenealogist’s map explorer showing the plot on Lloyd George Domesday map

Family historians can use these records to:

●      Find ancestors who owned or occupied property in the Islington area of London

●      See the outlines of their houses on large scale maps from the time

●      Fade between historic and modern maps to see how the environment has changed

●      Check details of properties in the neighbourhood, by clicking the red pins

●      Locate an address from your research down to a specific house on the map

●      Search by name, parish and street to uncover ancestors’ property in 1910-1915

Complementing the maps on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer are the accompanying Field Books which provide detailed information relative to the valuation of each property, including the valuation assessment number, map reference, owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.

For family historians looking for ancestors’ homes just before the First World War in the Islington area of London this record set is invaluable.

Read TheGenealogist’s article: Lloyd George Domesday Survey maps reveal an Islington Theatre and Dr Crippen’s house.

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/lloyd-george-domesday-survey-maps-reveal-an-islington-theatre-and-dr-crippens-house-1109/

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!

 About The National Archives

The National Archives is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research and an independent research organisation in its own right. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK's most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. The National Archives brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

For the latest stories, follow the Media Team on Twitter @TNAmediaofficer

While we still don't know who is in the 2019 UK series of Who Do You Think You Are? it was reported over the weekend by The Sun newspaper that one celebrity's family was just far too complex to have made it into the 16th series.

That person is Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones fame and it seems that he is descended from a huge family of gypsies, most of whom lived on canal barges. The programme researchers are not ruling out that they may be able to do something for another year, but at the moment they have been defeated getting it all into a one hour show!

The Sun says that a TV insider had told them:

“With Ronnie’s colourful relatives – who can be traced back over 300 years – there was too much to be able to work through in time for this year’s series.

“They’re still determined to see if they can bring together what they need to make a show all about the Wood clan. But if it happens it will have to be next year now.”

Ever wanted to know how much a sum of money was worth in the past?

The National Archives in the U.K. has this handy currency calculator on their website,

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/

So if you want to know how much £1 would have bought you in 1270 it reveals that it is the equivalent of £729.83 (2017 value).

But more than that you can see that your £1 would have bought you a horse, or two cows, or 7 stones of wool. If you wanted  6 quarters of wheet, then your £1 would buy you that amount. And if you were to find a skilled tradesman to employ in 1270 then for £1 he would give you 100 days of work. This shows that value of a sum of money can be very different depending on what it was used for as I doubt a skilled tradesman would work for 100 days for just shy of £730!

TheGenealogist is expanding its occupational records with over 300,000 records of Masters and Apprentices included in a nautical set of apprenticeship records.

These BT 150 records from The National Archives comprise of an index that had been compiled by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor. It consists of apprentices indentured in the Merchant Navy between 1824-1910.

Family historians can use these records to:

• Find ancestors who had learned the trade of a professional merchant seaman
• Discover the age of an ancestor at the time that he went to sea and his year of birth
• Find the name of the company and the port that he was registered as an apprentice
• In some cases also learn the name of the ship that your ancestor sailed on

The index was begun as a result of an Act of the UK parliament in 1823 which introduced a law that required the Masters of British merchant ships of over 80 tons to carry a given number of indentured apprentices on their vessels. The law required that these apprentice seamen’s names were to be enrolled with the local Customs Officer.

By the middle of the 1830s, however, these provisions were extended by the Merchant Seamen Act 1835 which now made it necessary that the indentures were officially registered. In London, this was done with the General Register and Record Office of Seamen; while in “outports” (other ports around the country), the registration was made with the local Customs officers who were under orders to submit quarterly lists to the Registrar General.

Compulsory apprenticeship was abolished in 1849, though the system of registration was maintained by the authorities and the index continued to be kept. The books have now been transcribed by TheGenealogist and include colour images of the original registers to add a fascinating resource to their broad range of records which can be used to build an ancestor’s story.

Read TheGenealogist’s article for tales of apprentices who rose to take command of the Cutty Sark, some more successfully than others:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/merchant-seamen-apprentices-to-captains-of-the-cutty-sark-1104/

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!

About The National Archives

The National Archives is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research and an independent research organisation in its own right. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK's most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. The National Archives brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

For the latest stories, follow the Media Team on Twitter @TNAmediaofficer

The Genealogist is expanding its Criminal Records collection with the release of over 146,000 individuals who were listed in prison records. Sourced from the PRIS 10 & PRIS 11 collections held at The National Archives, these documents contain records from 1697 to 1862 and reveal those jailed for debt or bankruptcy.  

These records will give family historians details of those imprisoned in debtors prisons including the King's Bench Prison, Queen's Prison, Fleet Prison and Marshalsea Prison. They contain commitment and discharge records, giving details of names of the debtor, creditor and attorney, along with the amount of debt.

Use these records to:

• Find ancestors who were imprisoned for debts and bankruptcy
• Discover to who debts were owed
• See when individuals were discharged
  

Within these records, we find John Dickens, father of the famous author Charles Dickens, who was in debt to baker James Karr by the sum of 40 pounds. John was brought in to custody on 20th February 1824 and was later discharged on 26th May 1824 when his mother died leaving him enough money to pay off his debts.

John Dickens’ custody record

Charles Dickens had to earn a wage from a young age and his childhood experiences affected him greatly. He used his experiences as background for the story of Little Dorrit.

Read our article here:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/little-dorrit-dickens-and-dads-debts-1103/

Press Release: Announcing Map Explorer
Powerful new map tool helps trace ancestors properties through time

TheGenealogist’s latest innovation helps you find an ancestor’s property and watch the landscape change over time. The team have georeferenced their Lloyd George Maps for Greater London which are available at launch, with further exciting developments planned for the coming months.

• TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer displays maps for different historical periods up to the modern day
• Maps are fully searchable by county, parish, street and even postcode
• Zoom down to show the individual properties as they were at the time
• Use the transparency slider to reveal a modern street map underneath
• Change the modern base map displayed to more clearly understand what the area looks like today
• Georeferenced pins link to the records for each property
• Display county or parish boundaries
• Find out more and watch the video at TheGenealogist.co.uk/maps/
  

The powerful Map Explorer has been developed to view these georeferenced historic maps overlaid on top of modern background maps including those from Ordnance Survey and Bing Street maps, as well as a satellite view, letting you see where your ancestor's house is today.

To complement the launch of the new Map Explorer, TheGenealogist has also released historic Ordnance Survey maps covering England, Scotland and Wales between the 1890’s and 1960’s. These have also been georeferenced, allowing you to see how the landscape changed over time.

These maps have been divided up into 3 types of layer that can be viewed on top of each other like sheets of paper -  you can then change the transparency of a layer to view the layers below.

The Base Layer

This is the modern layer, which can be used to select a modern OS Map, Open Street Map or a Bing Satellite Image.

The Historic Layer

The historic layer can be used to select a range of OS maps from the 1890’s to the 1960’s

Record Set Layer

This layer provides access to map record sets such as the Lloyd George Domesday, or the soon to be launched Georeferenced Tithe Maps. Keep an eye out as further record sets are added to this layer in the future. This layer also has the ability to show “Pins”, these are map markers that link directly to the records so you can see who was living in a particular property.

[The new Map Explorer from TheGenealogist, going from a historic map to satellite view]

The new Map Explorer has several tools to aid researchers, such as the “Place Search”.  This allows you to enter a postcode or address (either Modern or Historic) and jump to that location on the maps.

Further tools let you see county and parish boundaries and even historic “Wards”, which were the areas that the Lloyd George Domesday Survey were divided into.

[Map showing coverage now available for Lloyd George Domesday Maps]

Researchers are now able to view Lloyd George Domesday Maps for the Greater London Area (Survey books for this area are being released ward by ward over the coming months).

Now you can pinpoint properties old and new with TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer.

Find out more and watch the video 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!

Author talk and signing at The National Archives in Kew

A talk and signing to coincide with the publication of a new popular history study on the life of King Henry VI, by Dr Lauren Johnson; author of The Arrow of Sherwood (2013) and So Great a Prince (2016).

This talk will chart the extraordinary rise and fall of the son of Henry V, who became king as an infant but who, as an adult ruler, oversaw the loss of the English claim to the throne of France, and whose inabilities sparked the Wars of the Roses in England.

Dr Lauren Johnson is a historian and costumed interpreter with a first-class degree from Oxford University. Her research for the book was completed at The National Archives and she will be providing insight into her processes as part of this fascinating talk.

Thursday, 28 March 2019  18:30 – 20:00 GMT 

at The National Archives, Bessant Drive, Richmond, TW9 4DU United Kingdom

TNA's café remains open to the public when there are evening events taking place, serving a range of speciality coffees and teas, cakes, pastries, snacks, sandwiches, beer and wine.

We run an exciting range of events and exhibitions on a wide variety of topics. For more details, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/whatson.

Map Showing the areas covered in this latest release (red) and current total coverage (green)

TheGenealogist is releasing the field books and detailed annotated maps for Kensington and Chelsea as the next part of this exciting record set, The Lloyd George Domesday Survey - a resource that can be used to find where an ancestor lived in 1910. Covering the areas of Brompton, Chelsea East, Chelsea West, Holland Park, Notting Hill East, Notting Hill West and South Kensington the newly added records contain 49,608 individuals who owned or occupied property in this upmarket part of London.

This unique online combination of detailed maps and residential data held by The National Archives is being digitised by TheGenealogist and can locate where your ancestor’s house had been on large scale (5 feet to the mile) hand annotated maps which show the outlines of property plots.

Beatrix Potter's childhood home at 2 Bolton Gardens, Kensington

Details of the Potter’s lavish family home, including 6 bedrooms, 2 dressing rooms, 3 WCs and a servants hall

Previously, researchers would often not be able to find where ancestors lived for several reasons. Road names changed over time, the Blitz saw areas bombed to destruction, developers changed sites out of all resemblance from what had stood there before and lanes and roads were extinguished to build estates and office blocks. All this means that searching for where an ancestor lived using a website linked to modern maps can be frustrating when they fail to pinpoint where the old properties had once been.

• TheGenealogist’s new release will link individual properties to extremely detailed ordnance survey maps used in 1910
• Locate an address found in a census or street directory down to a specific house
• Fully searchable by name, county, parish and street.
• The maps will zoom down to show individual properties on roads as they existed in 1910
  

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

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

The initial releases from TheGenealogist have begun in London and will continue to expand outwards across the country with cross linked maps wherever they are available.

Find out more at: TheGenealogist.co.uk/1910Survey/

Or read the feature article: Kensington and Chelsea Lloyd George Domesday Survey finds famous authors and actors https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/kensington-and-chelsea-lloyd-george-domesday-survey-finds-authors-and-actors-1069/