Welcome to the Family History Social

Public Servants: Excise Officers, Customs Officers and Postmen - A One-hour Lecture on 10 October

The Society of Genealogists (SoG) has announced a one-hour lecture for those of us that have ancestors who were civil servants. If you are in the London area and want to know how to trace the likes of Excise Officers, Customs Officers and Postmen or central government officials then this event could be of use to you. The SoG say in thier publicity that sometimes you can find details of your public servants' families as well.

In this talk, Alan Ruston will be describing:

- The nature of the records;

- The unique and original staff records held at the Society of Genealogists on Customs and Excise staff for the 19th and 20th centuries.

This one-hour talk is on Wednesday, 10 October (2pm) with Alan Ruston.

Cost £8.00/£6.40 SoG members. Places should be pre-booked, through the SoG website or by telephone: 020 7553 3290 (Tue-Thu & Sat). 

TheGenealogist is releasing the third part of its unique online record set, The Lloyd George Domesday Survey. This major resource based on records created for the Valuation Office survey can now be used to find where an ancestor lived in 1910 in the area around Brent. This useful combination of maps and residential data from The National Archives is being digitised by TheGenealogist to bring it online for the first time. These records precisely locate an ancestor’s house on a large scale and extraordinarily detailed hand annotated map so pinpointing the exact property.

An IR121 map shows Dollis Hill House in a rural Brent in 1910 and surrounded by suburban development in 1936

Family historians are often confused by modern maps when looking for where ancestors lived as the road names may have changed over time or been rerouted or extinguished. Wartime bombing saw areas razed to the ground. In the 1960s and onwards, developers changed areas of the country out of all resemblance from what our ancestors would have been used to. The passing of time means that searching for where an ancestor lived using websites linked to modern maps can be discouraging when they fail to identify where the old properties had once been. The area released today was still the location of farms and countryside at the time of the Lloyd George Domesday survey - but with the ever encroaching urbanisation of Brent the council moved to buy land to create a park for the future suburb of London.

• TheGenealogist’s Lloyd George Domesday Survey provides links to individual properties on particularly detailed ordnance survey maps used in 1910
  
• Linked to digitised pages from the original Field book often giving a detailed description of the property
  
• Allows users to find an address discovered in a census or street directory down to a specific house on the map
  
• Fully searchable by name, parish and street.
  
• Maps will zoom down to show the individual properties as they existed in 1910

Image of an IR58 Field Book

Augmenting the street maps on TheGenealogist are images of the pages from the accompanying Field Books. These can give the researcher detailed information about the property, including the valuation assessment number, map reference, owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.

TheGenealogist’s digitisation of the Lloyd George Domesday Survey is a huge ongoing project with over 94,500 Field Books, each having hundreds of pages to scan with their associated large scale IR121 annotated OS maps. This latest release from TheGenealogist includes these detailed IR58 Field Books that contains a great deal of information about the properties that had been surveyed.

The release this month, covers Brent and joins Barnet, Edgware, Finchley, Friern Barnet, Hendon and Totteridge, plus the City of London and Paddington Index and maps that have previously been released by the company. More areas will be released soon for other London Boroughs and the county of Buckinghamshire.

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

You can also read their article about how the Lloyd George Domesday Survey reveals a rural idyll that disappeared into suburbia here:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/lloyd-george-domesday-survey-reveals-brent-as-a-rural-idyll-in-1900s-952/

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

Headline sponsor: TheGenealogist

The UK's Biggest Family History Show of 2018 is almost upon us. After last year’s hugely successful event we are back and twice the size! With even more free talks, societies and exhibitors. Come along to discover ways to delve deeper into your family tree and add more detail to your research. Dick Eastman will be giving the keynote speech on 'The Future of Genealogy' and there is a full programme of free talks to help you on your way back to the past. With free car parking and a free minibus from the train station, you won't want to miss this!

Saturday 22nd September 2018 10am to 4.30pm

Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher

You will find plenty to explore on the day:

• Double the talks - Two Large Lecture Theatres with Free Talks all day
• New This Year - Free Ask the Experts Area
• Announcing The National Archives as a new exhibitor this year
• Local Archives and Ministry of Defence stands
• Gain knowledge from the societies and organisations attending
• Advanced tickets are just 2 for £7.50

Announcing our DNA Sponsor - MyHeritage DNA

We're pleased that MyHeritage will be joining us as our DNA sponsor! They will be available throughout the day and will also be giving a talk in one of our free lecture theatres.

Free Talks throughout the day

There will be free talks throughout the day in our two large lecture theatres.

Keynote - The Future of Genealogy with Dick Eastman

Breaking down brick walls in your family history research with Mark Bayley, Online Expert

Mark describes how to resolve stumbling blocks in your family history research using innovative search strategies and unique record sets to find those missing relatives.

Tips & Tricks for Online Research with Keith Gregson, Professional Researcher & Social Historian

Keith shares top tips & techniques for finding elusive ancestors, illustrated by some fascinating case studies.

Tracing Your Military Ancestors with Chris Baker, Military Expert & Professional Researcher

Chris draws on his experience from researching thousands of soldiers to explore what can be found when looking for a military ancestor.

Photo Dating with Jayne Shrimpton, Photo Expert and Fashion Historian

Using DNA to Trace Your Ancestry with MyHeritage

5 Killer Apps for Mobile Genealogy with Graham Walter

Many of us have a smart phone with us when we are out doing our genealogy research. What are the apps that will best aid us in our pursuit?

Ask the Experts

New this year will be the Free 'Ask the Experts' section, with Jayne Shrimpton on hand to date photographs, Chris Baker to answer questions regarding Medals and Military Research and Social and Sporting Historian Keith Gregson to help break down your brick walls.

• Bring along copies of your photographs and have them dated by our expert
• Have those military queries answered
• Learn more about the social history of your family

Two Tickets for £7.50!

Buy One Get One Half Price on Tickets! Buy your tickets in advance for £5 a person or buy two for £7.50 (Price on the door will be £7 each). HURRY, this offer ends Midday 19th September!

https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/london/tickets/

The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) has announced a new digital archive that reports stories from those who had been involved in RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War.

The archive was launched at a service at the University of Lincoln on 6 September when Frances Zagni, the daughter of Bomber Command veteran and prisoner of war John Valentine, presented them with a unique collection of her parents' wartime letters.

The IBCC website already offers researchers the chance to gain free access to more than 1,000 interviews with those affected by the bombing, including Bomber Command and Women's Auxiliary Air Force veterans as well as people from the bombed countries.

There is also 2,000 photographs and 1,500 documents, including letters, diaries and log books digitised on the site.

https://internationalbcc.co.uk/

Not long to go until Saturday 22 September and the Family History Show, London.

With all the interest raised in tracing family trees generated by the recent Who Do You Think You Are? TV programmes, many more people than ever are wondering where their own forbears came from. The good news for those who would like to find out more about tracing their past family is that the Discover Your Ancestors Family History Show is coming to the Surrey Hall on Saturday 22nd September at Sandown Park Racecourse.

Visitors to the show will be able to benefit from the on-hand expert help, talks, family history society stands, genealogical suppliers and more. With all this under one roof there is a chance to learn how to trace ancestors like the celebrities Jonnie Peacock, Boy George, Robert Rinder, Marvin Hughes, Shirley Ballas, Lee Mack, Michelle Keegan and Olivia Colman did in the recent Who Do You Think You Are? TV series.

After a very successful first show last September The Discover Your Ancestors Family History Show will be returning to Esher’s Sandown Park Racecourse. It will be a packed day with the Keynote speech being given by the International Genealogy Blogger Dick Eastman on ‘The Future of Genealogy’.

Other speakers include Jane Shrimpton (Dating Photographs), Graham Walter, Chris Baker (Military Ancestors), Keith Gregson (Social History), Mark Bayley (Research Techniques).

Along with many archives and societies attending the event this year there will also be the new ‘Ask the Experts’ panel. The ‘Census Detectives’ and Ministry of Defence will be on hand to help with research, date photographs and identify medals.

The event is sponsored by the award winning data website, TheGenealogist and organised by Discover Your Ancestors Magazine so that this promises to be the highlight of the genealogical year for the London and Surrey area.

Special Offer on tickets!

Early Bird Offer: Buy your tickest in advance for £5 a person or buy two for £7.50 (Price on the door will be £7 each)

See this link: https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/london/

TheGenealogist has added over 1.5 million individuals to their Warwickshire Parish Record Collection and so increases the coverage of this Midland county for family researchers to find their ancestors baptisms, marriages and burials.

These records are released in association with Warwickshire County Record Office and have the benefit of high quality images to complement the transcripts, making them a valuable resource for those with ancestors from this area.

These new fully searchable records can be used to find ancestors from the parishes of: Alveston, Arley, Baddesley Ensor, Barcheston, Bulkington, Burton Dassett, Butlers Marston, Castle Bromwich, Charlecote, Cherrington, Chilvers Coton, Church Lawford, Claverdon, Clifton-Upon-Dunsmore, Coleshill, Corley, Coughton, Coventry St Michael, Coventry St John the Baptist, Coventry St Mark, Curdworth, Ettington, Exhall with Wixford (Alcester), Farnborough, Fenny Compton, Foleshill St Laurence, Great Alne, Great Packington, Grendon, Hampton Lucy, Harborough Magna, Hartshill, Haselor, Henley-in-Arden, Honington, Ladbroke, Lea Marston, Leamington Spa All Saints, Leamington Spa St John the Baptist, Mancetter, Milverton, Over Whitacre, Pillerton Hersey, Ratley, Sherbourne, Shipston-on-Stour, Shotteswell, Solihull  St Alphege, Sutton Coldfield Holy Trinity, Warwick St Mary, Warwick St Nicholas, Wasperton, Wellesbourne, and Whitchurch.

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

An 1808 Warwickshire Parish Register for All Saints, Leamington Priors.

Read their article that finds the 1732 baptism and 1810 burial of one of the “founders” of Leamington’s first Spa at:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/discovering-ancestors-in-the-parish-registers-of-warwickshire-938/

Keeping Chronicles is the latest book by Rosemary Sassoon. It intends to show the many ways handwritten and other documents from family archives and other sources are so valuable, not only to the family concerned, but to local as well as national museums.

The many examples within the book illustrate different categories such as letters, diaries, travel records, business and legal ones, personal scrapbooks, school books and cookery books etc. Also included is practical advice from professionals in the field about how to preserve such items and present them for safekeeping to museums.

Rosemary discusses her own memorabilia collection and shows how she has preserved these historical items. After giving talks on the matter of preserving written items, Rosemary was saddened to hear that so many people discarded such memorabilia, destroying family history in a minute, because they were unsure of how to preserve these items to keep. This book will inspire readers to start their own memorabilia collection.

Rosemary Sassoon has written over 30 books across a variety of academic and design subjects. She was originally a designer in textiles and various aspects of letterforms. Later she was asked to deal with serious handwriting problems in schools. This developed from educational into more medical aspects of the subject and resulted in a PhD from the University of Reading. Research then ensued Rosemary’s family of typesets, originally called Sassoon Primary, to find what typographic letters children could read the easiest. This was later developed for other purposes including as a stylistic model for handwriting. Both are widely used worldwide. Rosemary now lives in Australia.

£9.95

Read more here: /https://www.bookguild.co.uk/bookshop-collection/non-fiction/education/keeping-chronicles/

TheGenealogist is adding to its Court and Crimianal Records collection with the release of over 160,000 records of prisoners at the bar and their victims from the CRIM 9 records held by The National Archives. These documents were created by the Central Criminal Court and document the After Trial Calendar of Prisoners.  

Central Criminal Court; The Old Bailey

After Trial Calendars give family history researchers details of ancestors who were up before the Old Bailey, revealing the names of prisoners that had appeared before the court, the committing magistrates, offences the prisoner had been indicted for, the date of their trial and who they were tried before. The records give the verdict of the jury, previous convictions and the sentence or order of the court. Other information in these records are the names of the victim and the level of education or ‘Degree of Instruction’ as well as false names that the criminals may have used to try and hide their tracks from the authorities.

Use the After Trial Calendar of Prisoners records to

• Find ancestors accused of crimes ranging from stealing a matchbox to murder
• Discover people standing trial as forgers, baby farmers, German spies and more
• Uncover some of the aliases adopted by criminal ancestors
• See the occupation or trade of the offender
• Research records covering the period 1855-1915

You can read their article about the cycle thief who became a serial wife killer:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/new-criminal-records-reveal-ancestors-crimes-from-petty-theft-to-murder-928/

News from The National Archives -  Free Talk 23 August 2018

This talk will assess the role played by Lord Fairfax, the commander-in-chief of the New Model Army, in securing victory for Parliament in the South-East of England during the Second Civil War.

The talk will include a discussion of Fairfax’s controversial role in the bloody siege of Colchester, encompassing why parliamentarian retribution was more severe in Essex than in Kent. It will also reflect on the political consequences of this military campaign in creating conditions favourable towards placing Charles I on trial for his life. There will also be an original document display.

Dr Andrew Hopper (University of Leicester) is the author of Black Tom: Sir Thomas Fairfax and the English Revolution, and co-editor of England’s Fortress: New Perspectives on Thomas, 3rd Lord Fairfax.

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

Please note: TNA will be introducing charges in our visitor car park later in 2018. Follow the link for further information

TheGenealogist is releasing the second part of its exciting new record set, The Lloyd George Domesday Survey. This major new release can be used to find where an ancestor lived in 1910 in the area around Barnet, Edgware, Finchley, Friern Barnet, Hendon and Totteridge. This unique combination of maps and residential data, held by The National Archives and being digitised by TheGenealogist, can precisely locate your ancestor’s house on large scale and exceptionally detailed hand annotated maps that indicates the exact property.

Researchers often can’t find where ancestors lived as 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

• Shows the original Field book often giving 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 maps will zoom down to show the individual properties as they existed in 1910

Image of an IR58 Field Book

The Star Hotel, Barnet High Street

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 digitise with associated large scale IR121 annotated OS maps. This second release from TheGenealogist includes these more detailed IR58 Field Books which feature more information about the properties that have been surveyed.

The release this month, covers Barnet, Edgware, Finchley, Friern Barnet, Hendon and Totteridge, just to the south of Hertfordshire. These join the City of London and Paddington Index and maps already released. More areas are coming soon for other London Boroughs and the county of Buckinghamshire.

Find out more at: TheGenealogist.co.uk/1910Survey/ where you can read about how the Lloyd George Domesday Survey finds the Baronet of Barnet:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/lloyd-george-domesday-survey-finds-the-baronet-of-barnet-906/

Mark Bayley, Head of Development at TheGenealogist says:

“With our English & Welsh Tithe Map collection, we’ve become known for our map based records and this new collection makes a fantastic later addition. The maps show an incredible amount of detail, allowing you to zoom right in on the hand annotated property. The records that go with these maps are just as detailed, allowing you to find out all manner of information about your ancestral home.”

The National Archives issued the following statement:

“The Lloyd George ‘Domesday Records’ form essentially a census of property for Edwardian England and Wales. The innovative linking of individually searchable property data with associated annotated Ordnance Survey maps will be of huge value to family and local historians alike.”

To find out more about these records, you can visit our informative record collection page at

TheGenealogist.co.uk/1910Survey/

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