Welcome to the Family History Social

New avenues of research are opened up by the latest release of unique Great War records online.

During the First World War many servicemen were reported as ‘Missing’ or ‘Killed in Action’ and for the first time you can now search a comprehensive list of these online. Usefully this includes the changing status of soldiers as the facts became clearer over time, as many assumed dead were found alive and those reported missing had their status updated.

This new release from TheGenealogist contains over 800,000 records. Included are 575,000 Killed in Action records, over 226,000 unique Missing-in-Action records and 14,000 Status Updates.

Over 100,000 people previously reported as missing had further status updates:

• 59,500 were later reported as killed

• 47,400 were later reported as PoW

• 2,000 were later reported as rejoined

• 4,200 were later reported as “not missing”

• 8,400 were later reported as wounded

Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist comments:

“The telegrams and published lists of Dead and Missing must have had a huge impact on the lives of our ancestors. These records give an insight into what must have been an emotional roller coaster. They also give new avenues of research into what some researchers may have assumed were dead ends.”

These records are now available to Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist.

Example 1 Thought to be dead

Some people initially reported to be dead may turn out to be alive; the change in status is usually reported in the War Lists. If it had been assumed that an ancestor was dead, from the initial report, it could reopen a closed off branch of a family tree for further research.

An example of this type of positive record status change is Flight Sub Lieutenant Trechmann who was first reported as “Died As A Prisoner” in the Daily Lists of 6th June 1917.

By the end of July 1917 his status changed to Previously Reported Died As A Prisoner, Now Reported Alive and Still a Prisoner.

Finally, in December 1918, his records show that he was Repatriated.

Example 2 Thought to be wounded

A different illustration, on many levels, is that of the 5th Earl of Longford. Within the Daily Casualty List on TheGenealogist for the 6th September 1915, we can find Lord Longford who had previously been reported as “Wounded”.

His status was then changed to be “Now Reported Wounded and Missing” and this alteration appeared in the daily list of the 27th September 1915

During the First World War, Brigadier-General Lord Longford was in command of a division sent from their base in Egypt to Suvla on the Gallipoli peninsula as reinforcements during the Battle of Sari Bair.

The initial attack by other Divisions on Scimitar Hill had failed. With his men waiting in reserve, the 5th Earl and his troops were then ordered to advance in the open across a dry salt lake. Under fire, most of the brigades had taken shelter, but Lord Longford led his men in a charge to capture the summit of Scimitar Hill. Unfortunately, during the advance, he was killed.

Earl Longford's body was never recovered and so, in the confusion of war, he was first recorded as “Wounded”, and then “Wounded and Missing”. Eventually, in 1916, he would be assumed to be dead.

Posterity tells us that the peer’s last words were recorded as: “Don’t bother ducking, the men don’t like it and it doesn’t do any good”.

To read more about these records and to read a featured article on TheGenalogist here.

On this day in 1916 the German Navy's battle cruisers bombarded the north east of England. The Germans had hoped that the raid would draw out the Royal Navy’s capital ships in pursuit of the raiders and so forcing them into engaging in a sea battle. Their tactic was for a large number of ships of the German High Seas Fleet to join the fight by following on behind. The British force, however, managed to avoid being drawn into an unbalanced fight with the bulk of the German fleet. Unfortunately for the towns attacked, signalling errors and deteriorating weather meant that the raiding ships managed to slip the Royal Navy's attempt to intercept them. The tragedy was that nearly 140 people – predominantly civilians – were killed and 600 were injured. Searching TheGenealogist website, I have found a contemporary report in one of the newspapers and magazines on this site which give a flavour of how enemy actions were reported in Britain. The Great War  periodical gives us the sense of British outrage, at the time, under the no holds bared title of Crimes Germany has committed.

"The Bombardment by German warships of the coast towns of Scarborough, Whitby, and the Hartlepools, on the morning of December 16th, 1914, was a murderous act of barbarism." and later... "A  Berlin newspaper proclaimed this wholesale slaughter to be 'a further proof of the gallantry of the German Navy" If you are researching ancestors from the First World War then the articles in these publications on TheGenealogist can be very useful to fill in background and sometimes find an ancestor named in a report.

The late TV astronomer Sir Patrick Moore had built up an extensive personal archive  of objects and written material including some of the draft scripts and memorabilia from the BBC programme The Sky at Night.

It has been announced that Sir Patrick's collection has now been acquired by the Science Museum to preserve them. They will be kept at the Science Museum Library and Archives at Wroughton in Wiltshire.

The latest newsletter from S&N Genealogy has landed in my inbox with some seasonal promotions for the family historian. S&N are giving away a Christmas gift to their readers of a free 3 month subscription to the online magazine Discover Your Ancestors. They also have some fantastic Christmas gift ideas and special offers, including free Family History binders and sleeves, free gifts, and savings of up to £370 from their online shop. You can now get the UK version of RootsMagic7, with its range of new features, from them and they are also taking advance orders for Family Historian 6 that is due out this month. If you are looking for a special offer for a family history website subscription then you are in luck. In this newsletter I spotted that there is £40 cashback at TheGenealogist. To also read a fascinating article, about experiences of transcribing headstones, take a look at their newsletter here: http://www.genealogysupplies.com/email_news.htm

If your surname reveals that your family came over from Normandy, the last time that England was conquered, then even today you are more likely to be upper class than the average member of the population in Britain. Quite astonishingly, the social status of your ancestors has more influence on your life chances than on your height. Normans recorded as property owners in the Domesday book of 1086 are 16 times more likely to be at Oxford or Cambridge in 1170 and still 25% more likely that their ancestors are there today. Gregory Clark of the University of California, Davis and Neil Cummins from the London School of Economics have published an article in the Journal of Human Nature that shows that social mobility from 1170 to 2012 has always been slow and even now is not much greater than in the pre-industrial period. An example being the Bunduck family whose name regularly appeared in the registers of the Oxbridge universities consistently from the 12th century until the modern day. The Bunducks were also found on the rich property owners' database, which is another suggestion that they were of a higher class as is their appearance on the 19th century probate registry. 'Strong forces of familial culture, social connections, and genetics must connect the generations,' said Mr Clark. 'Even more remarkable is the lack of a sign of any decline in status persistence across major institutional changes, such as the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century, the spread of universal schooling in the late nineteenth century, or the rise of the social democratic state in the twentieth century,' added Mr Cummins. Source: The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility. Gregory Clark (with Neil Cummins, Yu Hao, and Daniel Diaz Vidal and others), 2014. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

I've just received some news from S&N Genealogy that a new edition of the award winning RootsMagic is out. Version 7 is the latest issue of what is a full-featured genealogy program that has become one of the UK’s most favoured genealogy packages. It is the top rated program in numerous reviews and articles which have emphasised RootsMagic’s ease of use and powerful attributes. Packed with great features this software will allow you to easily create superb wall-charts and reports, make a family history website, publish your own family history book, shareable CDs of your research and more.  Authored by Bruce Buzbee, the author of Family Origins, the UK version is published by S&N Genealogy Supplies. If you are a current user there is an UK update available, or the full new UK Edition of RootsMagic can be found here: http://www.genealogysupplies.com/rootsmagic/

If you read my last post, then you will know that with a month to go I was writing my list for Santa (or at least as a massive hint for loved ones to buy me something useful this year!). So it is very timely that this news has come in from the team at TheGenealogist:

TheGenealogist Family History Shop is now open!

Christmas is coming; it’s that time for giving and receiving again.

Are you looking for some great gifts to make a family historian happy this festive period? Simply head over to the fantastic new shop pages recently added to TheGenealogist for a great selection of scanners, software, archival storage, spring binders and charts. Made available in association with S&N Genealogy Supplies, the UK’s largest genealogy publisher and retailer, your present selection is covered this Yuletide.

While you are there, why not browse for something for yourself? To make sure that you get what you want in your stocking this year, just drop your loved ones the hint by giving them TheGenealogist shop’s page link.

http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/shop/

Christmas is coming; it's that time for giving and receiving again. So its probably a good idea to start thinking about what a family historian might want to put on this year's letter to Santa. So here is mine to get people started!

That  shoe box of photos, certificates and A4 family-pedigrees could really do with being more organised. I would really love it if, this Christmas, under my tree I'd find some hard backed binders, to protect all that valuable research I've done and preserve it in a more presentable way for future generations of the family to read.

Gift vouchers to allow me to buy exactly what I want are always well received, especially if they are family history related!

I would also be so grateful if that kind person, who regularly gives me the box of shortbread's that does nothing for my waist line after all the other food on offer at this time of year, would substitute the biscuits with a non edible present instead. Perhaps a useful set of charts to present my family tree in a more attractive way than the print out from my computer, or the scribbled hand drawn tree on that sheet of paper that I have at the moment?

At the top of my list (hint ,hint!) would be a portable scanner, to capture images of the certificates and photographs that I see on visits to my relatives or at the archives.

1905 The SS Hilda, a steamship owned by the London and South Western Railway sank, with the loss of 125 lives when she struck ground at the entrance to Saint-Malo harbour. She had sailed from Southampton at 22:00 on 17 November 1905 on her regular service to Saint-Malo in Brittany with 103 passengers on board. Thick fog caused her master, Captain Gregory, to anchor off Yarmouth, Isle of Wight to await better weather conditions. At 06:00 on 18 November the Hilda resumed her voyage and by 18:00, she was approaching St Malo. Although the lights from the town could be seen, squally snow showers  impaired visibility and her Captain was forced to abandon the attempt to reach port. There then followed occasions when the visibility improved briefly but then deteriorated. Gregory made several attempts to reach St Malo's port, each of which he had to abandon. Around 23:00, the visibility improved again and the Hilda made its final attempt to enter the harbour. Sadly, minutes later, the ship struck the Pierre de Portes rocks, that lie to the west of the entrance channel to St Malo's harbour and broke up. About 20 or 30 survivors managed to climb the rigging  of the wreck to await rescue. By 09:00 on 19 November, when they were discovered by SS Ada, only six remained.

'Twiggy', the fashion icon and model from the 1960s and who appeared in a recent BBC Who Do You Think You Are? programme on the TV, had an interesting family story to tell. Twiggy uncovered the sad truth that her ancestor's family were torn apart by illness, poverty and crime. Her search took her into the Victorian's bleakest institutions, the workhouse and the prison, something she had never heard about previously in connection with her family and on to her great-great-grandmother whose life ended in a tragic way, shopping for clothes and being killed in a "bargain sale" stampede.

Twiggy whose real name was Lesley Lawson (formerly Lesley Hornby) appears in a fascinating piece in the Featured Articles on TheGenealogist.