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Thomas, Lord Fairfax and the Second Civil War - Talk at TNA in Kew

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

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On this day: 23 July the Public Records Act 1958 introduced

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Public Records Act (PRA) 1958.

This Act introduced a new system of reviewing, selecting and transferring of records which continues to this day.

The National Archives posted a link on their facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TheNationalArchives/) for anyone that wants to learn more about TNA’s duties under this Act: http://socsi.in/m6opG

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TheGenealogist releases Metropolitan Police Habitual Criminal Registers

 

TheGenealogist has added to its Criminal Records collections with the release of the Metropolitan Police Criminal Records Office: Habitual Criminals Registers and the Habitual Drunkards Registers.

 

These are high quality transcripts with original colour images of the registers, as well as registers created by the Police to supervise released criminals.

One of the most interesting features of these records are the photographic portraits taken from the Registers of Habitual Drunkards. These feature two photographs - face on and profile - per individual, and some records may also give distinguishing features. The Habitual Drunkards Registers were distributed to licensed premises and the secretaries of clubs to prevent the convicted person from buying alcohol.

  • Entries contain a description of the individual and date of discharge from prison
  • Some records may also give distinguishing features of the individual
  • See face on and profile Photographs of habitual drunks.
  • It may also give the name of the prison, length of sentence and previous convictions.
  • Includes registers created by the Police to supervise released criminals including spies!

These new records from The National Archive’s MEPO 6 are available as part of the Diamond Subscription at TheGenealogist.

 

The Criminal Records on TheGenealogist could reveal the darker side of your family tree. Read TheGenealogist’s article:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/criminal-records-on-thegenealogist-could-reveal-the-darker-side-of-your-family-tree-816/



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

 

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TNA is testing handwritten text recognition software

f you have ever looked at an old document and been unable to read the old script then you may be interested in a fascinating post on The National Archive’s blog about software that is being developed to read old handwritten documents.

A 1496 Prerogative Court of Canterbury Will from TNA retrieved from TheGenealogist’s online collection of Will documents

A 1496 Prerogative Court of Canterbury Will from TNA retrieved from TheGenealogist’s online collection of Will documents

 The National Archives (TNA) points out the revolution  that optical character recognition (OCR) technology has made reading printed words written in books, newspapers and some archival documents.  But OCR does not work on handwritten documents. It is for this reason that TNA say that they are excited by the new platform called Transkribus, developed by the EU funded READ Project. It will offer, for the first time, the potential to use computers to ‘read’ handwritten documents.

See TNA’s blog post on their website here: http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/machines-reading-the-archive-handwritten-text-recognition-software/

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Colour Tithe Maps for Buckinghamshire added to TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist has added Colour Tithe Maps from The National Archives to their National Tithe Records collection. With this release researchers can see the plots owned or occupied by ancestors that lived in this ‘home county’ at the time of the survey in the 19th century.


Colour Tithe map of Buckingham 1847

The new data includes:

  • Over 40,000 Plots of Land covering the years from 1837 to 1855 with some much later plans of altered apportionments
  • Joining the apportionment record books and the previously published greyscale maps

These tagged colour maps and their fully searchable tithe schedule records are from those held at The National Archives. The collection gives the family history researcher the ability to search by name and keyword (for example parish or county) to look for all levels of society from large estate owners to occupiers of tiny plots such as a cottage or a cowshed.

Read TheGenealogist’s article: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/buckinghamshires-colour-tithe-maps-online-748/

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Over 650,000 criminal records added to TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist has added 651,369 quarterly returns of convicts from The National Archives’ HO 8 documents to their Court & Criminal Records collection. With this release researchers can find the details of ancestors that broke the law and were incarcerated in convict hulks and prisons in the 19th century.

Prisoners on the hulks from The Illustrated London News on TheGenealogist

The new data includes:

  • 651,369 Records covering the years 1824 to 1854
  • Quarterly returns from Convict Hulks, Convict Prisons and Criminal Lunatic Asylums

 

These fully searchable records are from the The Home Office: Sworn lists of convicts on board the convict hulks and in the convict prisons (HO 8). They give the family history researcher fascinating facts that include the particulars of age, convictions, sentences, health and behaviour of the convict, as well as which court sentenced them and where they were serving their sentence.

Read TheGenealogist’s article “Criminal records of convicts on the Hulks” at:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2018/criminal-records-of-convicts-on-the-hulks-739/

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The National Archives launches Archives Revealed programme

More funds are now available to archives for catalogue their holdings under a new scheme. Archives Revealed, has been launched by The National Archives and The Pilgrim Trust and this will offer grants of up to £40,000 to create catalogues of archival collections. The deadline for applications is 12 January 2018. In February 2018, scoping grants worth up to £3,000, which are provided to allow archives to conduct analysis of their future cataloguing priorities, will be opened up for applications. TNA's website says that 'An archive without a catalogue is like a room without a door: there’s no way of finding out what is inside.' With this in mind the scheme builds on the success of the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives. Part of the revised funding criteria includes an assessment of the collection’s rarity, historical value, and research value to a variety of audience groups plus what need there is for it to be catalogued. Jeff James, chief executive and keeper of The National Archives, said: “Along with The Pilgrim Trust we look forward to working with archives from across the country to support their efforts in cataloguing more of their rich and diverse collections and opening them up for all to use.”

The National Archives

The National Archives

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Flesh and Blood: an evening with Stephen McGann at The National Archives

The National Archives (TNA) has announced a talk by the author Stephan McGann Taking place  on Friday 24 November 2017 between 18:00 – 20:00 GMT. Flesh and Blood  will be of interest to family historians as it is the story of McGann’s family as told through seven maladies – diseases, wounds or ailments that have afflicted his relatives over the last 150 years. These, he believes,  have helped to mould him into what he now perceives himself to be. This early evening talk promises to be a great opportunity to hear Stephen, who you may know better as the actor that plays Dr Patrick Turner in the BBC's  show Call the Midwife, talk about his latest book, inspired by his passion for genealogy with an academic interest in the social dimensions of medicine. Stephen McGann has been an ambassador for Explore Your Archive since 2014. 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.

By Digsa (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Stephen McGann By Digsa (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons  
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The National Archives has an interesting number of podcasts and webinars. Head over to: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ One that is being publicised at the moment is by Tracy Borman who reveals how the Tudor monarchs were constantly surrounded by an army of attendants, courtiers and ministers, even in their most private moments. A groom of the stool would stand patiently by as Henry VIII performed his daily purges, and when Elizabeth I retired for the evening, one of her female servants would sleep at the end of her bed. Dr Tracy Borman is a historian, author and joint Chief Curator for Historic Royal Palaces. Her books include the highly acclaimed ‘Elizabeth’s Women: the Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen’; ‘Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror’; and ‘Witches: A Tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction’. Her latest book is ‘The Private Lives of the Tudors’, published by Hodder & Stoughton.

TNA Tudors video

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Domesday Book to be loaned to Lincoln Castle

The National Archives has revealed on it website that one of the earliest surviving public records – Domesday Book – is going to be loaned to Lincoln Castle as part of a major exhibition for 2017. The iconic document that was commissioned in 1086 by William I, the Norman king best known as William the Conqueror, to give him an insight into his new realm by recording the taxable value and resources of all the boroughs and manors in England is to travel North. The document will be on loan to Lincoln Castle from its permanent home at The National Archives in Kew. It will be on display in the Magna Carta vault from 27 May to 3 September along with a number of local and national treasures showcased as part of the exhibition 'Battles and Dynasties'. Read more on TNA's website: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/domesday-loan-to-lincoln-castle/  

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