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January 2023 Edition of Discover Your Ancestors on sale!

In this January 2023 issue of the Discover Your Ancestors Online Periodical:

Reading the past: Rachel Bates introduces the subject of palaeography, with a guide to reading secretary hand in particular

Revisiting Bowton's Yard: Denise Bates investigates where fact and fiction meet in this well-known working-class ballad

The disappearance of Florence Harris: Nell Darby tells a sad story of hardship and mental illness in Edwardian England

Suffragette and socialist: Lorraine Schofield tells the story of an extraordinary ordinary wife and mother, Hannah Mitchell

Cautionary tales: Nick Thorne recounts a series of unfortunate events in the life of a literary man

History in the details: Materials – fur (part 1)

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: Norfolk 1817 Poll Book

https://discoveryourancestors.co.uk/subscribe/

 

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A Few Forgotten Women

New website for family, social historians and those interested in women's history has been launched online at: A Few Forgotten Women

The creators of the A Few Forgotten Women Project are a group of friends, known collectively as A Few Good Women. On their new website they say they are united by their friendship, love of different aspects of family and local history and a passion for preserving the past.

 

A Few Forgotten Women

 

The aim of their project, acording to the welcome they have written on their website, is "to preserve the memory of some women who have, until now, been hiding in the shadows, forgotten by history. The women that you will meet here are those that we have discovered during our investigations into our own ancestry, as part of a one-name study, a one-place study, or when undertaking a wider project. Then there are the women that had no link to our own work but who cried out to us as we researched in the documents of the past. We hope that you will want to learn about the women whose stories we share."

https://afewforgottenwomen.wixsite.com/affw/post/welcome-to-a-few-forgotten-women

 

 

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Learn how to use The National Archives' Discovery

Using The National Archives' Discovery Catalogue | Webinar

Join Sarah Castagnetti, Visual Collections Team Manager at The National Archives (TNA) to learn top tips for using Discovery, The National Archives' online catalogue which allows you to download 100 free records a month. You will come away with all of the tools needed to make the most of the catalogue for your research, whether you are a new user or an experienced researcher.

This webinar will be delivered by Sarah Castagnetti, Visual Collections Team Manager at TNA.

Saturday 14 January at 10:30
Tickets from Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/using-discovery-tickets-482321164587
 
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Over 800 Square Miles of Land Tax records released on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™

More than 185,000 new Lloyd George Domesday land tax records have been added by TheGenealogist to its Landowner and Occupier records. Consisting of records from the counties of Berkshire and the Buckinghamshire, this release provides researchers with the ability to discover owners and occupiers of property in the period 1910 to 1915.

 

Covering an area of over 800 square miles, researchers can use these records to see the size, state of repair and value of the house in which their ancestors had been the landlord of, or had lived in. 

 

IR126 Map of Ascot on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ 

 

TheGenealogist has linked all the records to the large scale Ordnance Survey maps that were used at the time.These detailed maps show each property plotted on detailed mapping that can be viewed with TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ tool. This interface will show the same coordinates on a variety of modern and historical maps. Using this allows house or family historians to see how the area they are researching may have changed over time and with it to then explore their ancestors' locality.

 

  • Details of Individual properties can be found in these Lloyd George Domesday records

 

  • Records are linked to extremely detailed maps used in 1910-1915 and viewable on the powerful Map Explorer™ 

 

  • Ability to fully search the records by a person’s name, county, parish and street

 

  • The Ordnance Survey maps zoom down to show individual properties

 

  • Georeferenced to a modern street map or satellite map underlay the researcher can more clearly understand what the area looks like today

 

Areas covered in this release include:

Aldermaston, Aldworth, Amersham, Arborfield, Ardington, Ashampstead, Ashley Green, Barkham, Basildon, Beaconsfield, Beech Hill, Beedon, Beenham, Binfield, Bisham, Bledlow, Blewbury, Boveney, Boxford, Bradenham, Bradfield, Bray, Brightwalton, Brimpton, Buckland, Bucklebury, Burghfield, Burnham, Catmore, Caversham, Chaddleworth, Chalfont St Giles, Chalfont St Peter, Challow (East and West), Charlton, Chenies, Chepping Wycombe, Chesham, Chieveley, Childrey, Chilton, Cholesbury, Clewer Within, Clewer Without, Cold Ash, Compton, Cookham, Crowthorne, Datchet, Denchworth, Denham, Donnington, Earley, East Garston, East Ilsley, East Lockinge, East Shefford, Easthampstead, Ellesborough, Enborne, Englefield, Eton, Farnborough, Farnham Royal, Fawley, Fawley, Fawley, Finchhampstead, Fingest, Frilsham, Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Goosey, Grazeley, Great Coxwell, Great Missenden, Greenham, Grove, Hambleden, Hampden (Great and Little), Hampstead Marshall, Hampstead Norris, Hanney (East and West), Harwell, Hawridge, Hedgerley, Hedsor, Hendred (East and West), High Wycombe, Hitcham, Horsenden, Horton, Hungerford, Hurley, Ibstone, Ilmer, Inkpen, Iver, Kimble (Great and Little), Kintbury, Lambourn, Langley, Leckhampstead, Lee, Letcombe Bassett, Letcombe Regis, Little Marlow, Little Missenden, Maidenhead, Marlow, Medmenham, Midgham, Mortimer, New Windsor, Newbury, Newland, Old Windsor, Pangbourne, Peasemore, Penn, Princes Risborough, Remenham, Ruscombe, Sandhurst, Saunderton, Shaw, Shinfield, Shottesbrook, Slough, Slough, Sparsholt, Speen, St Giles, St Lawrence, St Mary, St Nicholas Hurst, Stanford Dingley, Streatley, Sunningdale, Sunninghill, Swallowfield, Taplow, Thatcham, Theale, Tilehurst, Towersey, Turville, Twyford, Upton, Waltham St Lawrence, Wantage, Warfield, Wargrave, Welford, West Ilsley, West Shefford, West Woodhay, White Waltham, Winkfield, Winnersh, Winterbourne, Wokingham, Wooburn, Woolhampton & Yattendon

 

Read TheGenealogist’s article: To the Cottage Born https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/to-the-cottage-born-1645/ 

 

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!

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Restoration England Online Talk from the Society of Genealogists

Saturday 10 December 2022 a 1 hour talk online from the Society of Genealogists 2pm to 3pm GMT

 

On Saturday 10 December 2022 Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain, joins Else Churchill for a special talk about the age of Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London, bawdy comedy and the libertine court of Charles II, Christopher Wren in architecture, Henry Purcell in music and Isaac Newton in science.  

If you could travel back in time, the period from 1660 to 1700 would make one of the most exciting destinations in history. 

All those booked on the Researching 17th Century Ancestors course automatically receive an invitation to this talk, there is no need to book separately.  

This event will be recorded and everyone who books a place will receive a link to watch the recording at a later date.

About the speaker: Dr Ian Mortimer is the author of twelve history books, two volumes of historical documents, four novels, three other books, and numerous articles on the history of England between the tenth and twentieth centuries.  

He is best known as the author of the four  Time Traveller's Guides- to Medieval England, Elizabethan England, Restoration Britain and Regency Britain.  As well as a historian, he is a qualified archivist and has two doctorates from the University of Exeter. His PhD was on the subject of 'Medical assistance to the dying in provincial southern England, c. 1570-1720'.  

Between 1991 and 2003 he worked for a succession of archive and historical research organisations, including Devon Record Office, the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts and the universities of Exeter and Reading. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was awarded the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society in 2004 for his work on the social history of medicine. 

 

Saturday 10 December 2022  2pm to 3pm GMT  £16

https://societyofgenealogists.arlo.co/w/events/262-restoration-england

 

 

 

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New Release: 1881 Census on Map Explorer™

Where did my ancestors live? Were the shops, churches and pubs nearby? 

 

These questions and more are now easier than ever to answer using TheGenealogist. This online family history website has just linked all of its 1881 census records of England, Scotland and Wales to its powerful Map Explorer™ so that users can see the locations of houses plotted on georeferenced historic and modern map layers.

 

Uniquely on TheGenealogist viewing a household record from the 1881 census will now show a map pinpointing its location. Clicking on this pin opens Map Explorer™, enabling subscribers to explore the area and see the records of neighbouring properties.

 

 

With this new release family and house historians are able to research the streets, lanes and neighbourhoods in which their ancestors had lived at the time of the 1881 census. Joining earlier releases that saw the 1911, 1901 and 1891 census linked to the powerful mapping tool, researchers can easily identify with just the click of a button, where their forebears had once lived. 

 

With properties plotted on a map researchers can see the routes their ancestors could have used to get to the shops, drop into their local pubs, worship at their nearby churches, travel to their places of work and relax with a walk in the nearby park. Historical maps make it possible to find where the nearest railway station was to their home, important for understanding how our ancestors could have travelled to other parts of the country to see relatives or visit their hometown.

 

Using this powerful resource, Starter, Gold and Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can investigate their ancestors’ neighbourhood from home on their computer screens, or even access the census and the relevant maps on their mobile phone while walking down the modern streets.

 

The majority of the London area and other towns and cities can be viewed down to the property level, while other parts of the country will identify down to the parish, road or street.

 

Charles Darwin’s home, Downe House

 

See TheGenealogist’s article: Darwin at Downe

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/darwin-at-downe-1637/ 


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!

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Memorial Records of the First World War

As we prepare to remember our fallen hereos from the World Wars and other conflicts on Remembrance Day this weekend, TheGenealogist has released a collection of war memorials for soldiers that had served in the First World War. Comprising of details for men who had been born in Ireland as well as in England, Scotland and Wales with connections with the island of Ireland.

With almost 50,000 records that were originally compiled by the Committee of the Irish National War Memorial and published in 1923. Assembled at the time by Miss Eva C. Barnard, secretary to the Irish National War Memorial Committee and printed under the direction and personal supervision of George Roberts they are presented with attractive decorative borders designed by Harry Clarke.

This eight volume set of Ireland's memorial records, 1914-1918, was published in 1923 for the Committee of the Irish National War Memorial. Each entry gives name, regiment, rank, date and place of death, sometimes date of birth and next of kin.

 

Read TheGenealogist’s feature article: Remembering the Fallen

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/remembering-the-fallen-1633/

 

These records and many more are available to Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist.co.uk

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!

 

 

 

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Society of Genealogist announces new home in London

Press Release written by the Society of Genealogists:

At last, the news that so many of you have been waiting for – we can finally announce our new home! We are delighted to inform you that we picked up the keys for Unit 2, 40 Wharf Road, London, N1 7GS this week and have started to plan its refurbishment as a wonderful library, archive and social venue for genealogists, local and family historians.

The venue is easily accessible from Euston, Kings Cross and Paddington, and we will keep you up to date with our progress. We estimate that the Society will reopen at the site in the Summer of 2023.

As many of you may be aware, The Society had sold its previous premises at Charterhouse Buildings several years ago and finally vacated the site in October 2021, having packed up its immense holdings into storage temporarily.

We have been operating out of temporary offices in the old Jones Brothers Department Store on Holloway Road, with a retrieval system and visits which can be booked on Wednesdays. We've also continued to welcome our valued volunteer team to the site on Fridays.

We very much look forward to welcoming everyone back to a new refreshed and revitalised Society in 2023. New premises are just one part of the ambitious transformation programme that we’ve been undertaking over the past eighteen months.

The Society also hopes to welcome partners in the genealogy community, academics, local, family and social historians through its doors. We are looking forward to holding another youth conference as well as a conference exploring African and Caribbean disaporas in September as part of the events marking Windrush 75. Our ambition is for this building to become a destination venue, where we shall hold exhibitions, conferences, courses and continue to promote genealogy and family history.

Dr Wanda Wyporska

Chief Executive

Society of Genealogists

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The Times Newspaper Historic Collection Launches on TheGenealogist

 

TheGenealogist launches fully searchable copies of The Times, to join its ever growing Newspapers and Magazines Collection. This release sees 3,129 editions from the 1870s decade join the many other newspaper publications already available to search on TheGenealogist. Keep a look out for further decades to be released in the coming months of this famous name-rich newspaper of record. 

 

 

The Thunderer, as it was nicknamed, like many other newspapers carried Birth, Marriage and Death announcements and so is a great resource for finding details of our ancestors and where they lived.

 

Discovering our forebears recorded in this newspaper may surprise some researchers. Inclusion in its pages may be because our ancestor was the victim or a witness to a crime. They may have worked as a police officer, lawyer or been a member of the court that had been a part of a legal case reported on by The Times

 

Some ancestors may have warranted their name in print in this hallowed publication on being newly qualified and joining a professional body, for example The Royal College of Surgeons.

 

But it is not just the great and the good that appear in The Times as all sorts appear in its pages. For example the parties to divorce cases are ordinary people from across the country. You can read who was the petitioner, respondent and co-respondent, giving a researcher some useful information. Often included is the county in which the couple had lived and an occupation for the man. 

 

For example, in the edition for Friday 10 June 1870 is a case where a man’s wife had left home to live with another. We discover that the petitioner was employed “at some works at Burslem, in Staffordshire'' while the co-respondent in the case was a grocer’s assistant. 

 

 

Read TheGenealogist’s article: Times Past https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/times-past-1629/ 



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

The Family History Show, London declared a success at Kempton Park

The Family History Show, London that took place at Kempton Park Racecourse on Saturday 24th September 2022 was a resounding success. The show, organised by Discover Your Ancestors Magazine went down extremely well in its new venue. 

 

 

Visitors flocked to the free talks in the large lecture theatres and had the rare chance of asking the experts for help in a one-to-one session to break down the brickwalls in their research.

 

 

“I do like the venue, it's really easy to get to from the station, I came on public transport and it was easy; I just got off at the station, walked down and there it is!” 

– Elsa Churchill from the Society of Genealogists

 

Steve, who attended with his wife, emailed “Just wanted to say thank you for the excellent event you laid on this weekend. First time my wife and I have been and we really enjoyed it… We loved the day and look forward to returning again soon!”

 

Another visitor to the show said:

“I just felt that the location is brilliant. I love the light and the airiness of the venue. I think the venue is super, you should come here again… I'll definitely come again if you hold it here.”

 

Exhibitors comments were also positive about The Family History Show and its venue:

 

“Terrific location, well signposted off the main roads and motorways…the catering was excellent with efficient staff, with good food and drink” – This Way Books

 

“It’s been really interesting coming back again and just seeing the family history community coming together again…to promote what we do and just say how friendly, collaborative and helpful this community can be.”

 – Elsa Churchill from the Society of Genealogists

 

“Easy to get to, easy to park, easy to unload, good facilities, lovely food, plenty of loos, nice and airy with plenty of room to walk around in.” – The London Westminster & Middlesex Family History Society

 

The organisers of the Family History Show London were very happy with the way the event went and are bringing it back to Kempton next year on the 2nd September 2023. With the on-site railway station, plentiful parking, food court and the courteous and friendly venue staff this is set to become a regular for family historians in London and the South East.

 

See the video of The Family History Show, London 2022:

https://youtu.be/d5g-dQMwxRE

 

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