Welcome to the Family History Social

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

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.

TheGenealogist is adding to its Military Records collection with the release of more than 1 million entries for people recorded in the Second World War Casualty Lists. Sourced from collection WO 417 held at The National Archives, these documents contain records from the war years of 1939 to 1945 and list casualties sustained by the British Army during the Second World War. There are volumes for Officers and Nurses, with separate volumes for Other Ranks. The Casualty Lists were compiled from daily lists that had been prepared by the War Office Casualty Section and cover the various expeditionary forces deployed in different locations across Europe, Africa and Asia as well as for personnel at home.

British Army Second World War casualties include wounded and POWs

WW2 Casualty Records will give family history researchers details of ancestors’ names and regiment as well as ranks and service numbers for those recorded. The World War 2 casualty lists contained more detail than their WW1 counterparts and often list the date of the casualty (as well as the list date), plus other information such as the unit a soldier had been serving in at the time.

Included in these lists are those who had been unaccounted for by the military, been dangerously ill or injured, captured as a Prisoner of War or died. The records include troops who had been serving in a number of places across the world, but also cover personnel who had lost their lives, were injured at home or were serving at an overseas station outside the theatres of war. Updates and corrections appear in the records as new information was received by the War Office.

These records allow a researcher to use TheGenealogist’s unique SmartSearch by simply clicking the magnifying glass at the bottom of the transcript. This will automatically search for any other records relating to that person. For example, if they were a Prisoner of War this will return other records from TheGenealogist’s military collection, including PoW records that reveal what camp that soldier had been recorded in.

If a person had died, you also get a smart link to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) which brings up details of their war grave, with further information.

Use the WWII casualty list records to:

• Find ancestors who were Missing, Wounded, Killed in Action or Prisoners of War
• Discover army personnel seriously ill or accidentally killed serving at home or overseas
• Check an ancestor’s rank and service number
• Find the theatre of war in which your ancestor was serving when they became a casualty

Read TheGenealogist's article:  WWII Casualty Lists finds two motor racing aces executed by the Nazis

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/wwii-casualty-lists-finds-two-motor-racing-aces-executed-by-the-nazis-1059/

Prisoner Records reveal a criminal lunatic who threatened Queen Victoria and was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure

TheGenealogist is adding to its Court and Criminal Records collection with the release of almost 700,000 entries for prisoners. Sourced from the HO 8 Registers held by The National Archives, these documents contain records from the years 1821 to 1876. This expands our collection to over 1.3 million individuals covering 1801-1876.

Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey

These Prison Registers give family history researchers details of ancestors who were imprisoned in a number of convict prisons from Broadmoor to the Warrior Convict Hulk. The records reveal the names of prisoners, offences the prisoner had been convicted for, the date of their trial and where they were tried.

Use the quarterly prison registers to:

• Find ancestors guilty of crimes ranging from theft, highway robbery and libel to murder
• Discover the sentences received
• See the age of a prisoner
• Find out where they were sentenced and to which prison they were sent

Read our article, “A child poisoner and a criminal lunatic detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure”.

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/ho-8-historic-prisoner-records-reveal-a-child-poisoner-and-a-criminal-lunatic-detained-at-her-majestys-pleasure-1049/

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

From 1 February 2019, there will be changes to some of The National Archives (TNA) fees in the UK.

This is taken from what is written on their website:

As a government department providing a public service, TNA are able to charge for some statutory services (as defined by the Public Records Act ) on a cost recovery basis. The Fees Order, which regulates our fees, has been refreshed from the last calculation which came into effect 1 April 2017. The National Archives are maintaining the standard approach in line with the HM Treasury publication, Managing Public Money, to set charges at a level that will recover full costs, ensuring that The National Archives neither profits at the expense of consumers nor makes a loss for taxpayers to subsidise.

There are both price increases and decreases, for example a digital copy up to A3 size goes up by 10p to £1.20. Currently, TNA's research service costs £23.35 per 15 minutes, this will go up by £1.00. However, the charge for a copy of a naturalisation certificate will go down by 25p to £27.15.

As there is no legal requirement for The National Archives to digitise physical public records these services are by definition discretionary. TNA has therefore removed the following digital surrogate related lines:
• The creation of digital surrogates funded by others (for a commercial return, or to widen access)
• Reprographic charges (Production and Estimation)
• Image Library (Serviced Copies – Colour Photograph)
• Digital Downloads
• Conservation for Digitisation

In addition to, but separate from, the Fees Order changes, TNA are introducing a fee for the provision of letters of no evidence of naturalisation, in the same way that they charge for certified copies of naturalisation certificates. These will incur a fee of £27.15 which is regulated to be the cost recovery price (i.e. the cost to The National Archives doing the work).

A full list of fees can be found here

TheGenealogist is adding to its Court and Criminal Records collection with the release of almost 150,000 entries for prisoners locked up in Newgate prison along with any alias they were known by as well as the names of their victims. Sourced from the HO 26 Newgate Prison Registers held by The National Archives, these documents were created over the years 1791 to 1849.

Newgate Gaol, London from TheGenealogist’s Image Archive

The Newgate Prison Registers give family history researchers details of ancestors who were imprisoned in the fearsome building that once stood next to the Old Bailey in the City of London. The records reveal the names of prisoners, offences the prisoner had been convicted for, the date of their trial and where they were tried. The records also give the name of the victims and any alias that the criminals may have used before.

Use the Newgate Prison Registers records to:

• Find ancestors guilty of crimes ranging from theft, highway robbery, libel and murder
• Discover the victims of crime
• Uncover some of the aliases used by criminal ancestors
• See descriptions of offenders with details of their height, eye colour and complexion
• Research records covering the period 1791 - 1849

Read TheGenealogist's article about Marie Antoinette’s libeler locked up in Newgate:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/find-criminal-records-of-ancestors-imprisoned-in-newgate-1007/

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 Union Castle Lines’ Pendennis Castle

TheGenealogist has just released over 4 million BT27 Outbound Passenger List records for the 1950s. These records join the ever expanding suite of Immigration, Emigration, Naturalisation and passenger list resources on TheGenealogist. With the release of this decade of records, researchers can discover ancestors who departed from the UK by ship to destinations across the globe. 

 The fully searchable BT27 records from The National Archives just released will allow researchers to:

 ●     Locate family members making a journey together using TheGenealogist’s SmartSearch. This unique system is able to recognise family members together on the same trip. In this situation it will display a family icon which allows you to view the entire family with one click.

●     Discover people sailing to the USA, Canada, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere in the Outgoing Passenger Lists  from the United Kingdom.

●     View images of the original passenger list documents compiled for the Board of Trade's Commercial and Statistical Department and its successors.

●     Discover the ages, occupations and address and where the passenger intended to make their permanent residence.

●     These fully indexed records allow family historians to search by name, year, country of departure, country of arrival, port of embarkation and port of destination.

Those family history researchers with ancestors who sailed from the UK in the 1950’s will welcome this fascinating new release from TheGenealogist, which adds to their current Emigration records that take you back to 1896.

 See their article:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/the-1950s-passenger-lists-discover-celebrity-voyages-972/

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/

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/