Welcome to the Family History Social

  The National Archives blog has announced the release of the latest batch of the MI5 files to view at TNA in Kew while a selection have been digitized. They write that "As always they contain a fascinating new glimpse into the murky world of Second World War and Cold War espionage and provide extraordinary insights into some of the most famous of all spies." http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/grandmother-us-spy-recruited-philby/

  The family story of Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg, known better by her stage name of Jane Seymour, is an emotional rollercoaster of a ride. Her Father’s family are Jewish while her mother was a Dutch Protestant who had endured being in a Second World War Japanese concentration camp. The television episode followed Jane as she discovered more about her two great-aunts, Michaela and Jadwiga who had experienced the horrors of Poland under Nazi occupation. TheGenealogist website, meanwhile, has discovered that Jane's paternal grandfather, Leon Frankenberg, had come to Britain after his family had fled persecution in Eastern Europe. He was the lucky one as he established his own business and became a respected member of his local synagogue community as recorded in the London Jewish Seatholder's records now searchable on TheGenealogist.   Read full article on TheGenealogist site and discover more about Jane Seymour's family history.

 

Did you see the first programme in the 12th series of Who Do You Think You Are? on TV? Paul Hollywood, from The Great British Bake Off, was taken back to his grandfather's WWII experience in North Africa where his grandfather was sent as soon as he had completed his training. At Medjez el Bab in Tunisia, Norman's Light Anti-Aircraft division were protecting the infantry from enemy air attacks at the time of the major Allied offensive to take Tunis from the German forces. With the enemy throwing bombs and missiles at them it was hard on these men. From there Paul travelled to Italy, where he learnt about how his grandfather was part of the landing force that became trapped on the beaches at Anzio for four months, surrounded by Germans and all the while under constant aerial bombardment. Paul gets to see the landing area where his grandfather and the other men would have felt like sitting ducks, with death and devastation all around them. Norman and his comrades finally managed to land and their gun was then transported five miles inland. Unfortunately for them the regiment was soon surrounded by the enemy in a dangerously exposed area. Huge numbers of men had no choice but to dig themselves into 7ft long fox holes and spend months trapped, coming under repeated German shell attacks. In May 1944 and thanks to Norman's regiment's extraordinary efforts, the stalemate at Anzio was broken. The next month the Allied armies went on to liberate Rome, but not without the loss of 14,000 lives. Paul's grandfather brought back from this conflict a visible memento of his terrifying time. He had developed a facial tic that stayed with him until he died. Researching his line even further back, Paul Hollywood was seen in the Who Do You Think You Are? programme to use TheGenealogist's 'family forename search' to find Alexander McKenzie, a Wood Turner who had come down to Liverpool from his native Glasgow. Following his Scottish family line up to Glasgow he then found that the next generation in the McKenzie family was a Glasgow Policeman, down from the Highlands, who had a certain amount of trouble avoiding alcohol. Paul then discovered that his great, great, great, great grandfather Donald McKenzie, was a Highland postman with quite extraordinary stamina. Not being able to afford a horse with which to cover his rounds delivering the mail to 30,000 people, Donald simply ran the 120 miles with the mail every week.

With thanks to TheGenealogist for using part of their article. Read the full piece that reveals even more about Paul Hollywood's family history by clicking this link: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2015/who-do-you-think-you-are/paul-hollywood-248/

History woz ’ere: In this month's Discover Your Ancestors Periodical Ruth Symes explores the personal touches left behind by our ancestors in the form of graffiti. You can read a FREE sample from this month's Discover Your Ancestors Periodical by clicking here: http://www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk/history-woz-ere/

Other articles in the August 2015 edition

Bad medicine: Simon Wills looks at the medicines taken by your 19th century ancestors Scanning on the go: Nick Thorne reviews a useful tool for family historians Joining the circus: Nell Darby takes to the big top with a history of the circus, its performers and those who went along Lost to the waves: Jill Morris looks at records of deaths at sea available online History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on sandals Regulars: News & Events / Books / Place in focus: Bradford / Classifieds

TheGenealogist and the Norfolk Record Office have announced that they have signed an agreement to make Norfolk parish and other historical records available online for the first time. The registers of baptisms, marriages, burials and banns of marriage feature the majority of the parishes in Norfolk.

On release the searchable transcripts will be linked to original images of baptism, marriage and burial records from the parish registers of this East Anglian county

• Some of the surviving records are from the early 1500s

• These vital records will allow family history researchers from all over the world to search for their Norfolk ancestors online for the first time

Famous people that can be found in these records include:

- Samuel Lincoln, the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, 18th President of the United States of America, can be discovered in the baptismal records of St Andrew, Hingham in Norfolk for the 24th August 1622. At some point his entry has been highlighted with a star.

- Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, who lost his life at the Battle of Trafalgar. This impoverished clergyman’s son can be discovered in the register for Burnham Thorpe in 1758. There his father, as rector of the parish, would have officiated at all the baptisms that year in this church with his name appearing at the bottom of the page.

Viewing an image of the actual parish register reveals that the young Horatio Nelson was firstly baptised privately in October 1758, just a week after being born and then given a second “public baptism” in the middle of November. This practice was carried out for sickly babies who were not expected to survive and begs the question of how different British history would have been had he died as an infant. Fascinatingly, by looking at the actual image of the page there are some additions to his entry that have been penned in the margin years later. These notes, reputedly to be by his brother the Rev William Nelson, 1st Earl Nelson, celebrated the honours that his brother received in his adult life. He ends it with the latin quote “caetera enarret fama” which translates as “others recount the story”.

Burnham Thorpe Church, Norfolk. Horatio Nelson’s baptismal place.

Photograph: John Salmon

In addition to those from the Diocese of Norwich the coverage also includes some Suffolk parishes in and near Lowestoft that fall into the deanery of Lothingland and also, various parishes from the deanery of Fincham and Feltwell, that part of the Diocese of Ely that covers south-west Norfolk.

Nigel Bayley, Managing Director of TheGenealogist said: “With this collection you will be able to easily search Norfolk records online for the first time. From the results a click will allow you to view high quality digital images of the original documents. Joining our already extensive Parish Record collection on TheGenealogist, this release will be eagerly anticipated by family and local historians with links to Norfolk”

Gary Tuson, County Archivist at The Norfolk Record Office said: “The Norfolk Record Office is pleased to be working with TheGenealogist, a commercial company helping to make these important records available to a worldwide audience.”

The BBC has now announced the order in which the Who do You Think You Are? episodes will be broadcast for the 12th U.K. series. This popular genealogy TV programme kicks off with Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood on 13th August, on BBC One. The series will be aired every Thursday evening at 9pm, with a one week break in between Mark Gatiss and Frances de la Tour’s episodes on 15th October. Although the schedule may still be subject to change, Frances de la Tour’s story will close the series on 22nd of October.

• 13 August: Paul Hollywood
• 20 August: Jane Seymour
• 27 August: Derek Jacobi
• 3 September: Jerry Hall
• 10 September: Gareth Malone
• 17 September: Anne Reid
• 24 September: Frank Gardner
• 1 October: Anita Rani
• 8 October: Mark Gatiss
• 22 October: Frances de la Tour

   

Jewish Synagogue Seatholder records go online.

TheGenealogist has announced that it has released online 99,500 records of London synagogue seat-holders spanning the years from 1920 to 1939.

• Covering the records from 18 Synagogues around London with many connected guilds, societies and charities etc.

• Additional information found in these records include names of gentlemen eligible for office, life member of the council, women who are seatholders in their own right and seatholders who are not eligible to vote.

• Fully searchable by name, keyword, synagogue and address, the Jewish Synagogue Seatholders has been extracted from various years of: "Seatholders for Synagogues in London”

Those with Jewish ancestors from London will welcome this fascinating new release from TheGenealogist. Revealing details of positions held by forebears, researchers will be able to track ancestors who became wardens, council members, or served on committees of their synagogue, as well as seatholders in synagogues from around the capital city. These fully indexed records allow family historians to search by name, keyword, synagogue and address and with one click see an image taken from the pages of Seatholders for Synagogues in London.

The records include some synagogues that are no longer in existence; for example the Great Synagogue that once stood at Duke’s Place and which was destroyed in the Blitz.

Nigel Bayley, MD of TheGenealogist said: “These records will allow you to search for Jewish relatives amongst the London synagogue seatholders, it is now easier than ever to discover any official positions that your Jewish ancestor held.”

TheGenealogist  provided the following  example:

Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, OBE (25 January 1882 – 28 January 1942) can be found in these records. De Rothschild was an English banker and a Conservative politician who was well known as the creator of Exbury Gardens near the New Forest in Hampshire. He was the eldest of the three sons of Leopold de Rothschild (1845–1917) and Marie née Perugia (1862–1937) and a part of the illustrious Rothschild banking family of England.

On 25 January 1910 he was elected to the House of Commons for the constituency of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire - his grandfather and namesake had been the first practising Jew to be able to take up his seat in Parliament.

Exbury House from wikipedia

His father, Leopold, died in early 1917 and Lionel and brother Anthony became the managing partners of N M Rothschild & Sons bank. However, Lionel de Rothschild had developed an interest in horticulture at a very young age and is said to have planted his first garden at the age of five. In 1919, he purchased the Mitford estate at Exbury in Hampshire where he devoted a great deal of time and money to transform it into one of the finest gardens in all of England with more than one million plants building Exbury House around an existing structure in a neo-Georgian style. Although he continued to work at the family bank, he is quoted as describing himself as "a banker by hobby — a gardener by profession". Lionel Nathan de Rothschild died in London, aged sixty, in 1942 and was buried in the Willesden Jewish Cemetery.

Logging into TheGenealogist and selecting Jewish Synagogue Seatholders from the dropdown menu, we enter Lionel as a forename and De Rothschild as the surname. We can filter the results by date. This returns us several positions that De Rothschild held in three different synagogues in London, including the Warden of the Great Synagogue that once stood in Duke’s Place, north of Aldgate, until it was destroyed in the London Blitz. We can also see that he was the President of the United Synagogue in North Finchley. Selecting that record allows us to view the actual image of the page from the Seatholders for Synagogues in London 1920.

To find your London Jewish ancestors in these records go now to TheGenealogist website.

If you want to know how to start your family tree then here is a really useful video in which FeeBee shows you how to get started building your tree and also shares a great way to keep organised at the same time. Hope you enjoy it! Links used in this episode: http://TreeView.co.uk http://TheGenealogist.co.uk/Roots1  

The new History & Heritage Handbook 2015/16 edited by Andrew Chapman  and published by Heritage Hunter came out recently. Flicking through a copy we were very impressed by just how comprehensive  a guide it was to almost 3500 places and organisations in the UK , the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man all listed across more than 500 pages. Each of the entries provides the contact details and a brief description, many of which give specific information about specialist collections. Use it to

• research your family history: includes details of county record offices and family history societies
• find thousands of heritage sites to visit on holiday or for day trips
• learn about special archives in museums and libraries across the UK, ideal for researching local, social or military history

 

The July issue of Discover Your Ancestors Periodical is now available online!

This month you can read an article by Laura Berry that reveals how to research the history of homes in England and Wales, Chris Paton looks at Scottish kirk records and Sharon Brookshaw explores how our ancestors entertained themselves as children, plus so much more. Discover Your Ancestors Online Periodical is a high quality monthly digital periodical delivered to your own personalised online account every month. It is a beautifully designed 20 page online periodical and is packed full of stories, case studies, social history articles and research advice. You can buy your copy here today:  http://www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk/current-issue/