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 VIDEO CONTENT
FamilyTree TAP HERE

Welcome
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EDITORIAL video from
the editor
Assistant Editor -
Karen Clare When tracing our family trees we seek
karen.c@family-tree.co.uk
solutions to the family puzzle, one question
Digital Editor - leading to another as we piece together the
Rachel Bellerby
rachelb@warnersgroup.co.uk clues. Patient and persistent, we never give
up the search...
Senior Designer -

F
Nathan Ward
nathanw@warnersgroup.co.uk amily historians are resourceful, resilient researchers – and
Designers - each week at Family Tree we receive dozens of emails and
Mary Ward letters from people diligently tracing their ancestors’ lives.
maryw@warnersgroup.co.uk
And this perseverance really does pay off – as each of us
Louise Teolis
info@louisespixels.co.uk
could testify, newbie genealogist or old hand. By sticking at it, the
family trees we create, the stories we learn, the fascinating, moving,
Rajneet Gill
rajneet.gill@warnersgroup.co.uk accounts of lives once led that we discover are intriguing
ADMINISTRATION records of our families from times gone by.
This issue, we’ve gathered together 61 commonly asked family
Publisher - history questions – and we hope that the answers may provide
Collette Smith
collette.smith@warnersgroup.co.uk just the prompt you need to take an aspect of your investigations
further (see page 35). We also discuss a particularly knotty problem
Associate Publisher regarding a DNA dilemma (see page 22) and – for me – this
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p46 58 Finally a full deck of Cards

June Terrington tells of her many years of research
into her London folk, and the informative twists and
turns she’s experienced along the route.
62 Miss Webb’s recipe collection
Join Charlotte Soares at the dinner table as she gives
a taste of an extraordinary record of Georgian and
Victorian recipes and remedies from kitchens past.
68 Techy tips
Make the most of digital devices, websites, apps and
gadgets, with genealogical web guru Paul Carter.
70 Books
Enjoy some of the latest genealogical reads with
Karen Clare and Helen Tovey.
72 Spotlight on Hertfordshire
Family History Society
John Tunesi outlines the many events and activities
of Hertfordshire Family History Society, which has
been celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2017.

p74
74 Finding Peterloo roots
Simon Wills learns about a remarkable project to
commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo
Massacre in Manchester that includes helping
descendants of those killed or injured trace their trees.
76 Twiglets
Latest exploits from our tree-tracing diarist Gill Shaw.
77 Coming next in Family Tree
78 The lunch-hour genealogist
Squeeze just 60 minutes of family history into your
daily routine and you’ll soon see your tree start
to blossom. Get cracking with Rachel Bellerby’s
suggested projects and genealogical crossword fun.
80 Your Q&As: advice
p78 Get top family history help with Mary Evans, Tim
Lovering, Jayne Shrimpton and guest experts.
88 Diary dates
Find family history exhibitions, courses and events for
your calendar this January.
90 Mailbox
Your entertaining and informative letters and Keith
Gregson’s Snippets of War.
92 Your adverts
98 Thoughts on...

p80
When we embark on family history we need to be
aware we may discover things that are extraordinarily
painful, but Diane Lindsay wouldn’t have it any other
way other way.

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

FamilyTree 5

p4-5 Contents FINAL.indd 5 07/12/2017 15:57

 PRESERVING THE FAMILY ARCHIVES
Karen Clare reports on the latest genealogy news. If you want to see your story featured, email it to
editorial@family-tree.co.uk or post to our Facebook page at facebook.com/familytreemaguk
IN BRIEF
Appeal helps save iconic bridge
English Heritage’s first ever crowdfunding
campaign, to safeguard Shropshire’s Iron
Bridge, has been a huge success, with more
than £45,000 of the £25,000 original appeal
pledged in less than two weeks.
Work began in November to repair cracks
in the world’s first iron bridge, which was
built in 1779 and was the ancestor of today’s
railways and skyscrapers, after the charity
received a €1m donation towards its £3.6m
project. The site is free to visit and the charity
raised its initial £25,000 target to £40,000
once it had been surpassed. At time of writing,
nearly £46,000 had been raised via www.
crowdfunder.co.uk/project-iron-bridge with
pledges due to end on 10 December.
Advanced course launches
The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical
Studies’ new distance learning course,
Completing Your Ancestral Journey, begins on
18 December. This advanced level 20-module
course provides the next step for students
of the Institute’s Awaken Your Ancestors and
Broadening Your Family Tree courses, and is
also suitable for experienced family historians.
On completion, students may sit the IHGS
Advanced Level in Genealogy examination.
The course fee is £450 and you find full details at
www.ihgs.ac.uk/courses-completing
Brexit prompts genealogy service
British descendants of Jews who fled the
Spanish Inquisition 500 years ago are being
offered an online ancestry-tracing service
to help them gain Spanish and Portuguese
citizenship in light of Brexit.
The Jewish News reported that Britain’s
Spanish and Portuguese (S&P) Sephardi
Community has launched the genealogy
service for Brits worried about the impact
of leaving the European Union and keen to
retain EU passports. Find details at
www.sephardi.org.uk/about/genealogy
New U3A Hearth Tax project
Hearth Tax Online is starting a local history
project with the University of the Third Age
(U3A) in January and is seeking participants
from groups in the West Midlands and south-
east London to research local hearth tax
returns and uncover hidden histories. See
https://hearthtax.wordpress.com
6 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p6-10 News FINAL.indd 6
AGRA celebrates 50 years
By Sharon Grant, AGRA Chair
A
GRA (The Association of Genealogists
and Researchers in Archives) celebrates
its 50th anniversary in 2018. It was founded
in 1968 (as The Association of Genealogist and Record Agents).
Proposals for an association were first mooted in the early ’60s as
a means of  establishing standards of competence and ethics and to
be a representative body. The Association’s inaugural meeting was
held on 24 June 1968 at Stationers’ Hall, London, when 21 people
attended. The Association is now the largest professional organisation
of accredited members in the UK and continues the founding principles
of promoting high professional standards in the field of genealogy and
historical research and also acting as a representative voice in matters
relating to genealogy.
The celebrations kick off on 27 January 2018 with a Recruitment Day at the
Society of Genealogists in London. This is an event for professional genealogists
encouraging them to join the Association and take advantage of the many
benefits the organisation provides. If you are working as a professional
genealogist and do not belong to AGRA, or you are about to start working in the
field, you can register for the event (tickets £10) at http://familytr.ee/agraday
We have a number of events planned for our members including visits and two
Study Days. Members and associates and their guests will be made welcome at a
very special 50th anniversary dinner in May at the Inner Temple.
The celebrations will culminate with the Secret Lives Conference, which AGRA
is holding jointly with the Society of Genealogists, the Halsted Trust and the
Guild of One-Name Studies. This conference is open to the public and will
be held on 31 August to 2 September  2018 (see opposite page). For more
information, visit www.sog.org.uk/books-courses/secret-lives-conference-2018
The gala dinner/drinks reception on the Saturday of the conference will
celebrate AGRA’s 50th. The whole ethos around the 50th anniversary is that it
will be a celebration – in 2018, AGRA will respect its history, value its present and
anticipate its future!
Mapping your Birmingham ancestors c1888
A growing new resource is available Each map has been digitally
to family historians to build a copied and can be bought as a
picture of how their ancestors lived download via the society’s online
in Birmingham. shop at http://bmsgh-shop.org.uk/
Midland Ancestors at www. Warwickshire/BHAMMAP
midland-ancestors.uk was given The maps cover mostly the
about 400 very detailed street maps Warwickshire parts of the city:
of Birmingham and its surroundings bounded by Perry Barr to the north,
that were surveyed by The Ordnance Small Heath to the east, Moseley to
Survey c1887-1888. the south and Bearwood to the west.
Each map covers an area of about Often there are two images of
500 yards by 350 yards, and the scale each map, one copy in very good
of 1:500 is such that pillar boxes, condition and another ‘working
lampposts and garden details can copy’ marked up by hand, sometimes
be clearly seen. When linked to showing house numbers. Where
addresses in censuses and in other ‘clean’ and ‘working’ copies exist,
records, researchers can begin to both images will be provided at no
build a picture of the circumstances extra cost. Long roads and streets
in which their ancestors lived. may be covered by several maps.
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 09:22
 Caring for your memories

All aboard for a busy year of

family histor y conferences
New Mayflower
T
he family history world is poised for an
exciting year with several major conferences site of Pilgrim
in the pipeline, filling the gap left by the
demise of Who Do You Think you Are? Live. descendants
Kicking off the 2018 genealogical calendar
is the world’s biggest family history event, An interactive
RootsTech, which takes place in Salt Lake City, website of
Utah, USA from 28 February to 3 March, hosted descendants
by FamilySearch International. Several UK from Mayflower
genealogists attend this popular global event, passengers
but if you’re not one of then, lectures are usually streamed online for family history and crew
fans who have to stay home. Visit www.rootstech.org has been
The Federation of Family History Societies is holding two big public conferences this launched by
year, Every Ancestor Matters from 13-15 April in Bristol and Beyond the Census III in New England
London on 29 September. Visit the website at www.ffhs.org.uk and email education@ Historic
ffhs.org.uk to register your interest. Genealogical
Another exciting new date for your diary is Secret Lives 2018 – Hidden Voices of our Society (NEHGS).
Ancestors. Sponsored by Family Tree, this major residential conference is being hosted Descendants can become
from 31 August to 2 September at Hinckley in Leicestershire by four more leading part of a living pilgrim history
UK genealogical organisations: The Association of Genealogists and Researchers in through the American Ancestors
Archives, Guild of One-Name Studies, Halsted Trust and the Society of Genealogists. website (pictured) at http://
Aimed at family historians tracing ancestors who may be less represented in mayflower.americanancestors.
mainstream records, overlooked or elusive, the lectures and talks are expected to org ahead of 400th anniversary
feature nationally and internationally-known speakers. Visit www.sog.org.uk/books- commemorations in 2020 of the
courses/secret-lives-conference-2018 for early bird tickets and find the dedicated ship of pilgrims leaving England
website at http://secretlives.org.uk heading for the new world.
For more upcoming conferences, keep on eye on Family Tree diary dates in the The free web resource presents
magazine and at www.family-tree.co.uk/events – and watch this space! the most authoritative biographies
to date of the pilgrims and crew
Preserving memories Heritage project seeks stories
who set sail on the Mayflower.
The NEHGS is documenting
& family trees A heritage project exploring institutional work the diaspora of an estimated
A website carried out in Merseyside by people with learning 30 million living descendants,
combining difficulties or disabilities is seeking stories for an who can freely commemorate
preserving family exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool. their connection and heritage by
history with Liverpool-based theatre and arts company placing their name, photograph,
precious new memories is offering Wicked Fish http://wickedfish.org.uk aims and other identifiers in the
its service for free during the to set up four Friends and Families groups for online gallery, joining a virtual
festive season. its Heritage Lottery-funded project ‘Care and community of people worldwide
Famicity at www.famicity. Control’. Working with researchers, the groups who share Mayflower ancestry.
com is a secure social media will share stories about those who worked in The website is the result of
network that allows users to local institutions in the last 150 years and their years of study by NEHGS, the
share photos, documents, family findings will be included in an exhibition at the USA’s founding genealogical
trees and memories directly with Museum of Liverpool. Development director organisation. Data is culled
their network while retaining Sue O’Brien said: ‘During the 19th and 20th from profiles created through
ownership of uploaded data. centuries, the “feeble-minded”’ were kept the renowned NEHGS Great
Genealogist and historian Dr occupied and “useful”, and usually unpaid, Migration Study Project, a
Nick Barratt (pictured above) in industrial schools, workshops, laundries, definitive source of reference
said: ‘I’m very excited colonies and hospitals. Their skills in carpentry, for early immigration to New
about Famicity shoemaking, tailoring and animal husbandry England. NEHGS envisions that
ON OUR as it truly helps allowed some of the institutions in which they the gallery will eventually include
BLuO Grview users record lived to be almost completely self-sufficient, while thousands of living Pilgrim
d o r in te and preserve their physical labours in institutional laundries descendants as the website
Rea k Barratt
wit h N ic y tr.
/fa m il memories in the underpinned commercial services with hospitals, expands to incorporate additional
at htt p:/ JAcwB
e e /2 m most efficient way schools, and shipping lines.’ features commemorating the
for everyone.’ To help, email wickedfish97@hotmail.com Mayflower experience.

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

FamilyTree 7

p6-10 News FINAL.indd 7 07/12/2017 09:23

 PRESERVING THE FAMILY ARCHIVES
MOVERS & SHAKERS
‘DNA Detective’ Michelle Leonard,
#genesgenie of Twitter’s popular
#AncestryHour, gives us some of the
latest news from this friendly online
community of family history enthusiasts
A
hot topic on #AncestryHour is DNA testing,
with a number of new developments
generating interesting discussions.
The biggest news was Ancestry’s recent change
in privacy policy to give testers the choice to
opt in or out of cousin matching. This provoked
strong views in the genealogy community but
most #AncestryHour followers understood why the
change was necessary.
The news that more than 6 million people have
now tested at Ancestry and 3 million at 23andMe
also hit the headlines. The speed at which the
databases are expanding is phenomenal and
debate centred on how helpful this is for family
historians. Regular contributor @lizl_genealogy
pointed out her friend had no interest in genealogy
before getting her DNA results. How many other
newbies are being drawn in by testing first?
Another welcome announcement was that
23andMe is now offering an Ancestry Only test in
the UK alongside its Health and Ancestry service.
This much cheaper test has been available in the
US for some time, which many felt was unfair, so it’s
right that 23andMe has redressed this imbalance.
LivingDNA launched the One Family One World
Project with the ambitious goal of mapping the
world’s DNA and creating a world family tree. It is
also now accepting transfers from other companies
and will provide cousin matching next year.
A fantastic new tool for chromosome mapping,
DNA Painter, also gained recognition – check it out
at https://dnapainter.com – and another excellent
new tool is The Triangulator created by dnagen.
net for FTDNA, but this was sadly disabled due
to privacy concerns. FTDNA is now working with
dnagen.net to overcome these issues.
• Things are moving rapidly in the DNA testing
world – to have your say join us on Twitter
every Tuesday at 7pm, remembering to use
#AncestryHour and tag @familytreemaguk
Michelle Leonard is a professional genealogist,
DNA Detective and #AncestryHour’s
DN A
#genesgenie. You can follow her
business page on Facebook
@genesandgenealogy and she VIDEOichelle
iss M
tweets as @GenealogyLass Don’t m ’s exclusive
Leonard at htt p://
video tr.ee/
family ideo
F Tdnav
8 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p6-10 News FINAL.indd 8
1939 Register made available on
monthly Findmypast subscription
F
indmypast has made the 1939 Register available for the first
time as part of a monthly subscription, after restructuring its
range of packages.
The site’s new tiered subscriptions are: Starter (£8.95 a
month/£72 a year), Plus (£12.95/£120) and Pro (£15.95/£156).
Starter gives access to UK BMD and UK census returns; Plus
provides access to all British and Irish records except newspapers;
Pro gives access to all records in all territories, including
newspapers. Plus and Pro also include unlimited monthly access to
the 1939 Register, where you may find your family, home and town
at the outbreak of the Second World War.
Findmypast spokesperson Alex Cox said the restructuring was a
‘positive move’ with the website aiming to tailor packages to users’
needs. Existing subscribers will not automatically be moved to the
new packages; instead, Alex said, ‘as subs expire, people will have
the opportunity to take up one of the new package options, but if
they would prefer to keep the access they already have, that’s also
fine’. Find out more at http://familytr.ee/fmppackages
• The Trinity Mirror Newspaper Archive is being digitised by
Findmypast and sister site the British Newspaper Archive, nearly
doubling their newspaper holdings over two years. Trinity Mirror,
the UK’s largest national and regional news publisher, was founded
in 1903 as The Daily Mirror.
Mirror Find more details on the Findmypast
blog at http://familytr.ee/fmptrinitymirrorarchive
Edwardian ‘Domesday’ goes online
Subscription site TheGenealogist.
co.uk has released the first part of
the Lloyd George ‘Domesday Survey’,
which can help family historians find
where an ancestor lived in England
and Wales in 1910.
Researchers often cannot
find where ancestors lived An IR91 index book from the collection
due to road name changes,
or destruction caused by wartime bombing or later development.
However, the unique combination of maps and residential data,
held by The National Archives (TNA) and now becoming available
at TheGenealogist, can precisely locate an ancestor’s house on
large scale (5ft to the mile) hand-annotated OS maps of London
that plot the exact property in 1910. Accompanying field books
provide further information, such as valuation, map reference,
owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.
The project features more than 94,500 field books and the first
release covers the City of London and Paddington IR121 maps
with their IR91 index records. Future releases will expand across
the country. Mark Bayley, head of development at TheGenealogist,
said: ‘The maps show an incredible amount of detail, allowing you
to zoom right in on the hand annotated property. The records that
go with these maps are just as detailed, allowing you to find out all
manner of information about your ancestral home.’
A spokesperson for The National Archives added: ‘The Lloyd
George “Domesday Records” form essentially a census of property
for Edwardian England and Wales. The innovative linking of
individually searchable property data with associated annotated
Ordnance Survey maps will be of huge value to family and local
historians alike.’
Find out more at: www.thegenealogist.co.uk/1910Survey
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 09:23
 Caring for your memories

A century of seamen’s hospital records go online

R
ecords held by the National Maritime Museum mate of the Loch Etive
covering more than 100 years of admissions to the (1877) of Glasgow, TAP HERE
Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital have been made on a voyage from FOR MORE
available online, thanks to the completion of an 18-month Sydney. Discharged IMAGES
FROM TH
‘e-volunteer’ project, involving more than 100 transcribers on 11 August 1881, DREADNOU E
G
around the globe. he returned to SEAMEN’S HT
HOSPITAL
The admission registers, covering 1826-1930, have been London Sailor’s
transcribed in partnership with subscription site Ancestry. Home to recover
co.uk to create 220,000 new digital records featuring fully. The register
information on seafarers from across the world, including a also features some
large number of Indian and Asian seamen, as well as patients of the hundreds
from other walks of life. Conditions recorded vary from of wounded Royal Navy Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital
injuries sustained in combat, to disease outbreaks such as personnel who returned
beri-beri, scurvy and cholera. from raids on Belgian ports in April and May 1918, including
The Seamen’s Hospital Society (later Seafarer’s Hospital Able Seaman Albert Edward McKenzie, aged 19 and born in
Society) was founded in 1821 in response to the increasing Bermondsey, who served on HMS Vindictive and received the
number of homeless and impoverished seafarers living on Victoria Cross for bravery during the Zeebrugge Raid. He was
the streets of London after the Napoleonic Wars. Initially, admitted to the Dreadnought with gunshot wounds on 9 May
the hospital was based on a number of ships moored on the and was discharged to fever hospital on 13 September. He died
Thames off Greenwich, including HMS Dreadnought, a name of influenza at Chatham Naval Hospital on 3 November, days
which was retained when the hospital relocated to the vacant before the war officially ended.
infirmary building of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich as the A memorial to McKenzie was
Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital in 1870. erected in Bermondsey in 2015. FA MILYSE
The digital records are available on Ancestry and provide The Dreadnought ACCOUNT ARCH
medical information on the patients, such as their admittance Seamen’s Hospital FamilySea
MOVE
rc
and discharge dates, vessel they were last employed on, and records can be viewed via register fo h users must now
r
access th a free account to
the floor they stayed on. The ‘nature of complaint’ are also subscription to Ancestry. e si
move is to te’s records. The
recorded, as well as where they discharged to, or the condition co.uk or are free to access online en enable
vironmen a secure
to t and acce
they were discharged in, and length of their hospital stay. in the Caird Library and th e site’s ri
ch range ss
resource of
Project volunteers and staff recognised a number of names Archive at the National org/blog
s; w w w.familyse free
/en/fam arch.
in the admissions registers, including writer Joseph Conrad Maritime Museum; find signin-be ilysearch-
nefits
(appearing as Conrad Korzenwinke), who was admitted with the catalogue at http://
measles on 2 August 1881, aged 24. Records show he was a librarycatalogue.rmg.co.uk

Record office to close as plans Criminal ancestors in focus

progress for £4m history centre
Lichfield Record Office is closing to the public on 1
January 2018 ready for the transfer in March of its
archival collections to Stafford.
Work will continue at Staffordshire County Record
Office in Eastgate Street, Stafford, in April to locate the
collections and to update its online catalogue, and the
archives should be fully available for consultation in May
2018. For further details visit www.staffordshire.gov.
uk/leisure/archives/contact/LichfieldRecordOffice or
email staffordshire.archives@staffordshire.gov.uk
Meanwhile, plans are entering the second stage of
development for a £4m Staffordshire History Centre on
Eastgate Street, which would house historical collections,
a community exhibition space, modern reading and
search rooms and strong rooms to provide storage for
another 25 years. The second stage of the plan is due
to be submitted in spring 2018 and, if successful, work
could start on the centre in April 2019. Learn more at
www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/OurVision/
Our-Vision.aspx
Researchers on Old Bailey Online www.oldbaileyonline.
org and the new AHRC Digital Panopticon project www.
digitalpanopticon.org have joined forces to launch a free
exhibition at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA),
‘Criminal Lives: Punishing Old Bailey Convicts, 1780-1925’.
Between 1700 and 1900, Britain stopped punishing
the bodies of convicts and sought to reform their minds.
Exile and forced labour in Australia and incarceration in
penitentiaries became the dominant modes of punishment.
This exhibition, which runs until 18 May 2018, uses LMA
collections and life archives assembled by the AHRC Digital
Panopticon project to trace the impact of these punishments
on convict lives. See www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-
do/london-metropolitan-archives/news-events/Pages/
criminal-lives-exhibition.aspx
SH
NE W SF L A
Genealogy company MyHeritage has uncovered links to Sir
Winston Churchill and William Shakespeare for Prince Harry’s
US fiancée Meghan Markle; more at http://familytr.ee/2jxcZJw

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

FamilyTree 9

p6-10 News FINAL.indd 9 11/12/2017 14:34

 PRESERVING THE FAMILY ARCHIVES

Web archive records

WW2 WREN HONOURED AT BLETCHLEY women’s history

F
ormer Wren Joanna Chorley
has made a special visit to
Bletchley Park, where she did
her wartime service, to receive an
honour and celebrate the Women’s
Royal Naval Service centenary.
The 92-year-old (pictured) joined
the WRNS in 1944 and was sent
to Bletchley in Buckinghamshire
to operate machinery involved in
breaking enemy codes, including
Heath Robinson and Colossus
machines. In November, over 70
years later, she was presented with
her Bletchley Park commemorative
badge, issued by GCHQ on behalf of
Her Majesty’s Government.
‘It is very warming to know that
our contribution is being
remembered and recognised,’
said Mrs Chorley. ‘We put our
whole selves into working here.
It was quite fun because I
enjoyed the machinery and the
Wrens all got on very well. We
had an idea it was important
but we didn’t know how
important; I think I still don’t!’
Mrs Chorley, who lives in
Gloucestershire, also viewed a
new pop-up exhibition celebrating
the contribution of the WRNS to
the top-secret work carried out
at the codebreaking hub during
WW2 – 2,617 Wrens were working
at Bletchley Park by the end of the
war. The WRNS was commissioned
on 29 November 1917 and has been
celebrating its centenary in 2017.
Jonathan Byrne, oral history
officer at Bletchley Park, gave
Mrs Chorley her gold badge and
a certificate signed by the Prime
Minister, Theresa May, saying: ‘It
may be over 70 years since Joanna
and thousands of other colleagues
worked here, but it is never too late
to recognise the vital contribution
they made.’
Women in Trousers: A Visual
Archive is a new website from Cardiff
University that is collecting images of
bloomers, knickerbockers, culottes
and all manner of bifurcated or
‘divided’ garments to tell the story
of trouser-wearing women over more
than a century.
The innovative website at
www.womenintrousers.org offers a
visual account of the complex and
sometimes contradictory meanings
represented by women ‘wearing
the trousers’ from the 1850s to the
1960s, and provides an illuminating
document of the momentous cultural,
historical and political shifts affecting
women’s lives across this period.
Members of the public can submit
their own family photographs of
women wearing trousers via email to
wearingtrousers@cardiff.ac.uk
The archive is the work of Dr Becky
Munford, of Cardiff University, who
said the response to the request for
images ‘has already been fantastic’,
adding, ‘We would love to hear from
anyone who has a photo to share or a
story to tell’.

YOUR FREE RECORDS

WORTLHY
NE A R
A t Family Tree we’ve teamed up
with UK family history website
TheGenealogist.co.uk to offer you
selected free sources from its extensive
Your census search
You can also search and use the 1891 Census for Kent.

How to use the records

£47
online collections of records. Read on to 1. To access your free records simply register
learn about the medical and census records at TheGenealogist.co.uk/ftfree
you can start searching today... 2. To activate your content for this
WAR
issue, enter the code 561687. MEMOR I
Your medical records to study 3. Once activated, content will Th eG en
e
A LS
war mem alogist has add
Search or browse The Medical Register 1891 for ancestors in the be accessible for a 30-day period Lo n d o n orial rec ed
,W ords for
medical profession during the latter part of Queen Victoria’s (within 3 months of the UK on South Y orcestershire a
ork n
reign, and learn more about their lives. sale date). details o shire, as well d
f monu m as
Australi ents fro
m
includin a and Canada –
g a Sherm
accessib an tank
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ption d

Find your doctor or surgeon

ancestors in The Medical Register
1891 and Kent family members in the
census of the same year

10 FamilyTree January 2018 www.family-tree.co.uk

p6-10 News FINAL.indd 10 07/12/2017 09:23

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FamilyTree 11

p011.indd 11 06/12/2017 10:10

 Dea r Tom

Explore the serious,

sublime and the
ridiculous facets of
family history in this
genealogical miscellany.
This issue, Tom Wood
uncovers a young
female motorcyclist’s
misadventures and some
family history mysteries

F
irst of all, a very happy new year
to all of our readers. As we enter

No stopping
2018, I thought I would start
with something to bring a smile to
your faces, the likes of which, as far as
I can recall, hasn’t appeared in these

columns before. For this wonderful
tale I am grateful to Joyce Billings,
from Leicester, who wonders whether
her auntie, Ivy Stocks, was the first
female motorcyclist in Cleethorpes
back in 1920. Joyce takes up her
story: ‘The photograph of her daring
sister was handed down to me by my
mother, who informed me that on the
day she purchased her motorcycle, Ivy
(born in 1898) rode proudly home,
to show it off to all the family. Her
mother, brother and two sisters were
waiting in front of the house and were
surprised when Ivy rode past, with
a wave of her arm, and disappeared
round the corner. They were even
more surprised when she repeated the
circuit of the house again and again,
waving to them each time.
‘After 10 circuits, the excitement
was wearing thin, so they shouted to
her, “that’s enough, we have all seen
it now”. But her reply to them on the
next circuit was, “I don’t know how to
stop it. I shall have to carry on until
the petrol runs out”!’
Joyce goes on to say: ‘On the
photograph the registration number
Ivy Stocks
of EE2570 can be clearly read, so
on a visit to the Grimsby Record
Office, I discovered that it holds the
local Index to the Register of Motor
Cycles and I obtained a photocopy of
the relevant document. This stated
that Miss Ivy Stocks, of 297 Brereton
Avenue, Cleethorpes, was the first
owner, having purchased it on 21 June
1920’. The vehicle had a 2 ¾ Allday
Allon engine and was next registered
on 3 June 1924 by a Fred Young, of
279 Wellington Street.
What an amusing story. And Joyce
and I would love to know if Miss
Stocks was the first lady motorcyclist
in Cleethorpes, and perhaps even
Lincolnshire, nearly 100 years
ago. Let’s hope we find out one day.
Ivy Stocks on her motorcycle and, top,
our artist Ellie Keeble’s impression of
her exciting escapade in 1920
This extract from Grimsby Borough
Police Index to Register of Motor
Cycles shows Ivy as the vehicle’s first
owner in June 1920

12 Family
FamilyTree January 2018 www.family-tree.co.uk

p12-14 Dear Tom FINAL.indd 12 07/12/2017 09:24


A Broad family mystery
Now for something completely
different, and I must thank Anne
Corry for bringing it to our attention.
It’s about her father’s side of the family
and the ‘many brickwalls’ she came
across when trying to trace them.
Sadly, Anne never knew her father,
as her parents separated and then
divorced when she was very young. So
she feared there could be problems
ahead, and indeed there were. She
knew her parents had lived in Ealing
from 1946 for a few years, until they
arrived in Plymouth. The only records
she had for them were their birth
and marriage certificates. Anne’s
father’s birth certificate said he was
John Edward Sydney Broad, born in
February 1917; his father was John
Edward Broad and his mother was
recorded as Florence Maud Broad, née
Clarke, who Anne knew was born in
about 1880.
Sadly there was no more ancestral
good news, as Anne discovered her
father was illegitimate, which became
another major blow in tracing his
ancestry. Anne still doesn’t know who
his father was and wonders if his birth
may have been the result of a World
War I romance? She discovered that
his mother Florence’s maiden surname
was not Clarke but Broad – her parents
being Thomas Broad and his wife
Rebecca (née Clarke).
In the 1911 Census, Anne found
Rebecca remarried to a Sidney Albert
Smith with two other daughters,
Minnie Elizabeth Broad and Beatrice
Annie Broad. She sent for the two
girls’ birth certificates and this is
where, she says, things became ‘very
strange’. Minnie’s birth certificate
has her name as Minnie Elizabeth
Copp, her mother as Minnie Copp,
formerly Clarke, and her father
listed as Charles Thomas Copp.
Anne initially thought she had the
wrong birth certificate, until she
read the Registrar’s comments in the
right-hand column, which said the
surname Copp should read Broad.
The correction was dated October
1908 and was made on the production
of a Statutory Declaration made by
Sidney Albert Smith, Rebecca’s second
husband, and Mary Ann Garrett, her
sister. Anne then found the Copp
family on the 1881, 1891 and 1901
Censuses. She assumes Rebecca had
www.family-tree.co.uk
p12-14 Dear Tom FINAL.indd 13
separated from Charles Thomas
Copp in 1891 (he died in 1895) and
Sidney Albert Smith had moved in by
1901, with he and Rebecca marrying
a few years later. Anne, at the time
of writing, had not found Rebecca’s
death certificate.
As though there weren’t enough
oddities with Anne’s researches into
this family, she also discovered that
Beatrice Annie Broad had married a
Frederick Charles Bibby twice: once
in Edmonton Register Office in 1902
under the surname of Copp and
again in 1903 under the surname
of Broad, at St Matthew’s Church in
West Ham, with her stepfather Sidney
Albert Smith as one of the witnesses!
The last words on this unusual state
of affairs come from Anne herself, who
tells me that the family she never knew
has been full of intrigue. She adds:
‘I would love to know who my great-
grandfather was, but as my father was
illegitimate, I don’t suppose I will ever
know.’ What a shame, but perhaps there
may be someone among our readers
who can help Anne identify him at last.
A copy of the unusual 1886 birth certificate for Minnie Elizabeth Broad
Heirs to the throne
Regular readers may recall a most
interesting piece in November 2017 Dear
Tom about the royal family in which
a statement was made that there was
‘no heir to the throne’ in 1820. I am
grateful to Peter Shaw, from Blackburn,
who has kindly pointed out that ‘there
is always an heir to the British throne,
however remote’. He goes on to explain
that at the death of King George III
in 1820, the heir presumptive was his
eldest living son, who became King
George IV. But having no living issue
of his own (his only legitimate child,
Princess Charlotte, had died in 1817)
his heir presumptive, and next in line to
the throne, was his younger brother the
Genealogical miscellany
Duke of Clarence. The next in line after
him (heir apparent) would have been
his younger brother, the Duke of Kent.
However, he died in 1820, so the next in
line was the Duke of Kent’s eldest child,
who was Victoria, born in 1819. All the
living brothers tried to have issue, but
failed. So when the Duke of Clarence
became King William IV in 1830, on
the death of his brother King George
IV, the heir presumptive became
Victoria, and since none of her living
uncles older than her father had issue,
she became Queen Victoria in 1837, on
the death of King William IV.
Our correspondent adds that there is
a modern parallel: on the death of King
George V in 1936, his eldest son Edward,
Prince of Wales, became King Edward
VIII. On his abdication later that year, he
gave up all rights for his descendants to
become monarch, although there were
none. So the late King George’s next
eldest son, the Duke of York, succeeded
as King George VI, which made his
eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, his
heir presumptive. On the death of King
George VI in 1952, Princess Elizabeth
became our present Queen, taking
presidence over her uncle, and King
George VI’s younger brother, the Duke
of Gloucester. So thank you, Peter, for
this splendid explanation about heirs to
the British throne.
A migrant Scot’s journey
Back in these columns late last year,
we wondered how a young man called
John Douglas managed to travel in 1841
from his Scottish birthplace of Rogart
in Sutherland to Cheshire in England.
I am pleased to say that Ian F Brown
has come to my rescue. He tells me
that two new forms of public transport
were developing in Scotland in the
late 1830s. There were the railways,
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 13
07/12/2017 09:24
 Dea r Tom
which almost all ran out of Glasgow’s
two stations, Townhead, north of the
River Clyde, which opened in 1831, and
Bridge Street (south of the river), which
opened in the mid-1830s with a line to
Paisley, then Scotland’s third largest
city/town, after Glasgow and Edinburgh
and ranking ahead of Aberdeen. ‘From
Paisley,’ says Ian, ‘there were by 1840
railway lines to Greenock and Ayr. The
other new form of transport was the
steamboat. Initially the steamboats plied
in the Clyde estuary and then over to
Belfast. In 1826 a weekly service started
to Islay (Port Ellen) followed in 1835 by
a service to Islay (Port Askaig), which
then continued up the Hebrides.’
So, back to our Scottish emigrant.
Ian thinks John Douglas may have
begun his long journey south from
Scotland by walking to Inverness, or
perhaps sailing there on a local fishing
boat. From Inverness he could have
caught a boat down the Caledonian
Canal, to Fort William or possibly
Oban. There he could have travelled
by boat via Port Askaig to Glasgow or
Greenock, from where he could have
taken a ship to Liverpool.
Ian has helpfully taken an interest
in tracing more about our young
Scotsman’s family background. It
seems John Douglas was one of five
children born to Hugh Douglas and
Ann Mathieson in Rogart. By the 1851
Census, there is no sign of John with
the family in Rogart, who included
Alexander Douglas, 42. Ian suspects
Alexander was the eldest son in line
to succeed his father’s farm. He points
out that in Scotland in those days it was
very rare for a farmer, or tacksman as
many were called, to retire. Among his
own ancestors is a Patrick McWattie,
a tacksman who lived in Luss parish,
Dunbartonshire, who in 1750 at the
almost unbeliveable working age of 97,
was ready to sign a 19-year extension
to his tack! Unfortunately, says Ian, he
died just before signing, so his name
had to be scratched out and that of his
eldest son substituted.
Ian continued his research into the
14 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p12-14 Dear Tom FINAL.indd 14
life of John Douglas, and found he
had married an Emma Jones at Great
Boughton in Cheshire in the March
quarter of 1841. ‘I think therefore that
it is safe to assume that John faced no
prospects in Rogart left in 1840 or just
before.’ Hence his journey south of
the border. Thank you again Ian, for
such an interesting probable account.
No need for words... ?
We don’t often have many photos of
ancestors in these columns, so I was
delighted to see this great photo of
one of Family Tree Editor Helen Tovey’s
grandpas, standing beside an aircraft,
which I thought I’d share with you.
From his casual appearance and good
looks, I would guess he may have been
quite popular with the ladies! Helen
knows this was her grandpa, which is
lucky because, if she didn’t, the only
clue to his identity is on the back of
the photo, where her great-granny has
written, ‘no need to say who this is’!
Although this is amusing, it is, as Helen
points out, ‘a potential nightmare for
future family historians’. However, she
tells me it is one of her favourite family
photo captions as it shows what a proud
mum her great-granny was of her son,
who’d just qualified as a pilot (things
she knows from other more helpful
records and photos from the time). She
adds: ‘He seems like he was the apple
of her eye, so that’s a lovely family
history insight, even if it’s a bit lacking
in formal clues!’
Helen’s grandpa, and her
great-granny’s comment
on the reverse on the photo!
Do any readers have similar photos
of ancestors who did something a bit
out of the ordinary that would have
made their family proud of them, too?
If so, do send in your photos with some
information about them, we’d love to
hear your stories.
Land Army records
We end this time with an appeal from
Paul Reid, of Southampton, who has
written in about the wartime service
of his mother (Olive Wilkinson, née
Appleton), who was a Land Girl near
the end of WW2. As far as he knows, she
was sent to work on a farm near Bath,
Somerset. Olive was due to come out of
the Women’s Land Army at the end of
1945, but Paul ‘was on the way’, so she
stayed on the farm until he was born in
January 1946, then she returned home
to Catford, London. Now, Paul has tried
to find his mother’s Land Army records,
but without success.
The Land Army women did a
wonderful job in keeping farms
productive nationwide, and supplying
vital wartime food, when many male
farm workers had been called up to
fight in the war years. I believe quite a
number of Land Army women stayed
on after the war was over. But where
are their records? Help, please!
About the author
Tom Wood was a founder member of
Lincolnshire Family History Society and was
its first, award-winning, magazine editor. As
well as contributing to Family Tree from its
early days, Tom also edited the Federation of
Family History Societies’ magazine and wrote
An Introduction to British Civil Registration.
A member of the SoG and Guild of One-
Name Studies, he is still researching the
family names, Goldfinch and Shoebridge.
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 09:24
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everyone left a paper trail and that it’s usually possible to Genealogical Proof Standard: Standards and Good
find it. He introduces a number of strategies to help you get Practice in Genealogy | 14 Feb
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Five hundred years ago in Wittenberg in 1517 Martin Tracing your Catholic Ancestors | 3 Feb
Luther challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings. Tracing your Female Ancestors and Suffragettes | 3 Feb
The consequences of his dissent set off shock waves
throughout Europe. France initially was highly receptive to Reading and Understanding Italian Genealogical
the theology of Jean Calvin, a far more fundamentalist Records | 10 Feb
reformer than Luther. Confrontations between the
Huguenots, as French Protestants were called, and their
loyally Catholic monarchs led to wars and persecution.
Over 200 years, an estimated 50,000 Huguenots came to
Britain and they have left descendants at all levels of
society. In this course Kathy Chater looks at the Huguenots
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FamilyTree 15
Registered Charity No. 233701. Company limited by guarantee. Registered No. 115703. Registered office, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, London, EC1M 7BA. Registered in England & Wales.

p015.indd 15 06/12/2017 10:11

 PARISH REGISTERS & BEYOND
pth
n-de de
I ui
g

Your ancestors & the

Church of England
Those of us with English roots before the 19th century are certain to have Church
of England ancestors – and the good news is there are many more historical
records created by the Established Church to explore. Stuart A Raymond reveals
some of the genealogical treasures available

W
ere your ancestors before
c1800 members of the
Church of England? If
they were English, the
answer is always going to be yes. The
subjects of the English Crown were
automatically assumed to be members
of the Church. Indeed, subjects were
required to attend church under
Elizabeth and the Stuarts, and could
be fined for failure to do so. Even
today, every Anglican parish priest
has a duty to minister to the spiritual
needs of everyone in his parish,
regardless of their religion.
The Church of England has kept
an abundance of records since the
medieval period. It is highly probable
your ancestors were recorded in them.
Parish registers of baptisms, marriages
and burials recorded the vital events
in all of their lives. But there is far
more to Church of England records
than just parish registers. The church
not only registered marriages, but
also exercised legal jurisdiction over
marriage disputes and sexual matters.
It not only registered burials, but also
exercised jurisdiction over the estates
of those it buried, granting probate
to executors and administrators.
Burial, incidentally, meant fees for the
church, recorded by churchwardens.
The records of the church are
extensive, ranging from parish
records to the interrogatories and
depositions of the church courts, from
probate records to the papers of the
Church Missionary Society.
Parish registers
Every English genealogist needs to
consult parish registers. They were
introduced to help the landed classes
trace their descent, and thus prove their
right to property. Hence they are one
of the few sources which were explicitly
intended to be used for genealogical
purposes. Thomas Cromwell brought
the idea of registers back from his
travels on the continent. When

16 Family
FamilyTree January 2018 www.family-tree.co.uk

p16-20 stuart raymond FINAL.indd 16 07/12/2017 10:11


The church at St Levan, Cornwall
Henry VIII gave him authority over
the Church, he issued an injunction
requiring priests to record all baptisms,
marriages, and burials. This 1538
injunction is still in force even today,
and parish registers continue to be
compiled by parish priests.
Not many 16th century registers
survive, and most of those that do are
copies made at the end of the century,
when the government decided that they
ought to be kept on parchment rather
than paper. More survive from the 17th
century, although the Civil War in mid-
century resulted in much destruction
of records. There was a brief period
between 1653 and 1660, when marriage
became a civil matter, and registers were
kept by a lay official confusingly known
as a ‘parish register’. The preservation
of records gradually improved over the
following centuries.
Originally, there was no set format for
parish register entries. Entries could be
very laconic, simply giving a name and
a date. It was not unknown even for the
name of the bride to be omitted from
a marriage entry. On the other hand –
and especially if the subject of the entry
was a gentleman or a priest – a great
The church at Fontmell Magna, Dorset
www.family-tree.co.uk
p16-20 stuart raymond FINAL.indd 17
From court to occupational records & more
deal of information might be given. For
marriages, entries were standardised
from 25 March 1754, when Lord
Hardwicke’s Marriage Act took effect.
The purpose of the Act was to halt the
scandal of clandestine marriages, which
had become increasingly common.
Such marriages resulted from the
fact that the common law permitted
marriages which avoided the canonical
requirement that either banns should be
called, or a licence should be obtained
from a bishop. Before the Act, half the
marriages in London were conducted
clandestinely – mostly in the Liberty of
the Fleet Prison – by priests who were
not under the jurisdiction of a diocesan
bishop. The Act put a stop to such
marriages. In doing so, it also required
that, from thenceforth, all marriages
should be recorded on a printed form,
in a set format. The format included,
among other things, the full names and
parishes of the parties, the names of
witnesses, and the date.
The idea of a set format appealed
to the late 18th-century mind, and
a northern priest, William Dade,
pioneered a much fuller format
including the occupations, status and
ages of both parties. The Dade format
became common in the North of
England, although they ceased after civil
registration was introduced in 1836.
For baptisms and burials, a set
format was established by Rose’s Act
1806. Baptismal entries had to include
the name, abode, and ‘quality trade or
profession’ of parents. Burial entries
required the name, abode, age and
place of burial of the deceased.
When civil registration was
introduced in England and Wales in
1837, separate civil registers of births
and deaths were introduced, but
parish registers of baptisms and burials
continued to be kept (and still are).
However, the old marriage registers
were closed, a new format was adopted
(ages and occupations were also to be
recorded), and registers had to be kept
in duplicate – a copy for the church,
and another for the District Registrar.
The parish priest was required to
send a copy of entries to the Registrar
General quarterly (and still does). If
you are having trouble tracing entries
in the civil registers, you might try
parish registers instead.
Where to find registers
Innumerable transcripts and
indexes of parish registers have been
compiled, and increasing numbers
are being digitised on websites such
as FamilySearch http://familysearch.
org (which is free) and subscription
websites Findmypast http://
fi ndmypast.co.uk and TheGenealogist
www.thegenealogist.co.uk as well as
Ancestry www.ancestry.co.uk
FamilySearch also hosts the
International Genealogical Index,
which indexes numerous baptismal
and marriage registers (although it
is far from comprehensive). Burials
are indexed by the National Burial
Index (again, not comprehensively),
available on Findmypast. Jeremy
Gibson’s Marriage Indexes for Family
Historians (Family History Partnership,
2008) provides a comprehensive list of
available indexes.
The Church of England was also
responsible for preserving transcripts
of parish registers. These bishops’
transcripts were sent to the bishop every
year, and were preserved in diocesan
registries, although they are now held
in local record offices. These are very
useful, and it is worth comparing
them to the parish register to see if
there are any divergences. They offer a
useful substitute if registers have been
lost. You can check what is available
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 17
07/12/2017 10:11
 PARISH REGISTERS & BEYOND
The parish chest at Tiverton, Devon, which would have once held parish records
by consulting Jeremy Gibson’s Bishops’
Transcripts and Marriage Licences, Bonds,
and Allegations (6th edition, Family
History Partnership, 2013).
Marriage bonds & allegations
Gibson’s guide also lists another
useful supplement to parish
registers, namely, the records
relating to marriage licences. If a
couple wished to avoid the necessity
of having banns called, they had to
obtain a licence authorised by the
bishop. Application for a licence was
made by submitting an allegation,
that is, a sworn statement that there
was no impediment to the marriage.
Couples also had to enter a bond,
indemnifying the official responsible
for granting the licence if any of the
conditions in the licence were not
met. The conditions were that there
was no impediment to the marriage,
that any parental consent required
had been granted, and that the
marriage took place in the home
parish of one of the parties. Bonds
and allegations may both include
useful information. Some dioceses
also kept registers of licences
issued. The licences themselves
were presented to the officiant, and
rarely survive.
18 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p16-20 stuart raymond FINAL.indd 18
Records of death
Vital events may also be recorded in
other Church of England records. For
example, monumental inscriptions
in churches and churchyards provide
useful information, and may give
dates of births and marriages as
well as death. Many transcripts and
indexes of inscriptions have been
compiled by family history societies
and others; copies have frequently
been deposited in local studies
libraries and with the Society of
Genealogists – www.sog.org.uk – as
well, sometimes, in the church itself.
Death could be a costly business,
and churchwardens’ accounts
frequently record payments for hiring
the parish byre, ringing the knells,
and/or digging graves. Sometimes,
such payments give accounts the
appearance of a separate burial
register. Accounts may also be useful
for other reasons. Many include rate
lists, identifying all the ratepayers
– the substantial householders – in
the parish. The poor who received
relief may be named. So may the
tradesmen who made the pews,
mended the glass, and repaired the
roof of the church. Sometimes several
generations of the same family can be
traced by checking churchwardens’
accounts in neighbouring parishes.
Death also meant probate. In the
medieval period, the church introduced
the practice of making written wills,
in order to safeguard any legacies
to the church that might be made.
Consequently, the ecclesiastical courts
exercised jurisdiction over probate.
Admittedly, not everyone made a will,
and not every estate was subjected to
the process of probate. However, many
were, and it is always worth checking to
see if any probate records survive.
For genealogists, the most useful
document is the will, which is likely
to name all of the testator’s surviving
children, and also to indicate whether
they were survived by their spouse.
Probate inventories list the goods
of the deceased, and provide an
interesting insight into our ancestors’
material lives. The probate court
required executors and administrators
(for those who died intestate) to enter
administration bonds, so that they
could be held to account. It sometimes
also required them to submit an
account naming the legatees and
debtors that they had to pay.
Where to seek wills
Finding probate records is not
necessarily easy. The problem is that
there were numerous different courts
which could prove wills, all of which
had separate archives. The majority of
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 10:11

wills were proved in the Archdeaconry
courts. If the testator had goods in
two archdeaconries, then jurisdiction
went to the diocesan Consistory
court. The prerogative courts of
Canterbury (frequently referred to
as PCC) and York exercised supreme
probate jurisdiction. Testators did
not necessarily prove their wills in the
appropriate court. Many chose to use
the more prestigious courts such as
PCC. Its wills can be viewed at
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-
with-your-research/research-guides/
wills-1384-1858
A comprehensive listing of probate
courts and their archives, including
details of online resources, is provided
by Gibson’s Probate Jurisdictions: where
to look for wills (6th edition, Family
History Partnership, 2017).
Researching wills is made easier by
Findmypast’s database of Published
Wills & Probate Indexes, 1300-1858
– http://search.fi ndmypast.co.uk/
search-world-records/england-and-
wales-published-wills-and-probate-
indexes-1300-1858 – which brings
together numerous (but not all) will
indexes, and is beginning to digitise
various will collections. It is not
alone; there are many other websites
providing useful information. Welsh
wills, for instance, have been digitised
by the National Library of Wales
at www.llgc.org.uk/discover/nlw-
The parish bier at Bampton, Devon,
which would have been used to
transport corpses for burial
www.family-tree.co.uk
p16-20 stuart raymond FINAL.indd 19
From court to occupational records & more
resources/wills where they can be
freely downloaded.
More church matters
The ecclesiastical courts were not just
concerned with probate. They had
wide-ranging concerns over matters
such as morality, tithe, clergy conduct,
and the maintenance of church
buildings. Issues might be brought
to their attention during the regular
visitations of bishops and archdeacons.
Churchwardens were required
to make presentments on the state
of their parishes. In the course of
time, these presentments became
a mere formality, but in the 16th
and 17th centuries they mentioned
many names of those who offended
against community mores. Were your
ancestors guilty of fornication, refusal
to attend church or unwillingness to
pay rates? Complaints about parish
priests were sometimes made. Or
the churchwardens might be more
concerned with water coming through
the church roof, or the lack of
appropriate books to conduct services.
The ecclesiastical courts also
heard disputes concerning matters
such as tithe, defamation and the
allocation of seats in church.
‘Broils about seats’ were the
bane of bishops’ lives. The
‘interrogatories’ submitted by
the opposing sides, and the
depositions made by witnesses
in answer to them, provide
vivid eye-witness accounts of
life as it was lived in earlier
centuries. For a vast collection of
digitised cause papers from northern
England, visit the Cause Papers in the
Diocesan Courts of the Archbishopric
of York 1300-1858 website at
www.hrionline.ac.uk/causepapers
Tracing occupations
Bishops also had responsibility for
regulating a number of occupations.
Midwives, surgeons and schoolmasters
all required a bishop’s licence in
order to practice. These licences
may provide us with valuable
information, showing where and
when our ancestors practised their
occupations. If your ancestor was a
midwife in Yorkshire, you are likely to
find information about her in Joan E
Grundy’s History’s Midwives, including
a c17th and c18th Yorkshire Midwives
Nominations Index (Federation of
Family History Societies, 2003).
Supervising the clergy was (and
is) another major responsibility
of the bishops. They ordained
Many churches have boards like
this one at Gittisham, recording
charitable donations
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 19
07/12/2017 10:11
 PARISH REGISTERS & BEYOND
priests, they licenced curates and
preachers, and they instituted clergy
to parochial livings. The records of
ordination, licensing, and induction,
are extensive. However, it is now easy
to trace the careers of Church of
England clergymen. Many sources
have been used to compile CCEd:
the Clergy of the Church of England
Database 1540-1835 at http://
theclergydatabase.org.uk which
provides much of the biographical
information required by genealogists.
After 1835, Crockford’s Clerical Directory,
published every few years, provides
brief notes on every priest up to the
present time. Ancestry has a database
of the directory 1868-1932 at
https://search.ancestry.co.uk/
search/db.aspx?dbid=1548 and you
can also find a fuller selection on
subscription site Crockford Online at
www.crockford.org.uk
Associated institutions
Outside of the formal structure of
the Church of England, a variety of
associated institutions and societies
maintained records. The Church
Missionary Society – visit
www.churchmissionsociety.org/
church-mission-society-archives
– and the United Society for the
Propogation of the Gospel (USPG) at
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/
wmss/online/blcas/uspg.html both
sent missionaries overseas, and
kept records of who they had sent.
These records are deposited with the
University of Birmingham and the
University of Oxford respectively,
although some USPG archives are also
held by Lambeth Palace Library, see
www.lambethpalacelibrary.org
The National Society for Promoting
the Education of the Poor in the
Principles of the Established Church
was responsible for the founding of
numerous schools; a useful guide to
its archives, and to other Anglican
sources on education, can be found at
www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/fi les/
Education.pdf
There were also numerous parish
charities, whose concerns ranged
from apprenticing poor children
to temperance, from youth clubs
to friendly societies. Many of their
archives were formerly held in parish
chests, but have now been deposited
in local record offices. Charity
20 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p16-20 stuart raymond FINAL.indd 20
trustees (frequently the priest and/
or the churchwardens), and the
recipients of their largesse, may well
be named. Charities that apprenticed
poor boys, for example, are likely to
have retained their indentures, which
will name both boys (usually with
their parents) and their masters.
Also from the parish chest...
The term ‘parish records’ also
encompasses a wide range of other
documents which used to be kept
in parish chests, but have now been
deposited in local record offices.
Only a handful can be mentioned
here. Reference has already been
made to ‘broils about seats’. In a
status conscious society, seating in
church could easily become a bone
of contention. The allocation of
seating was the responsibility of the
churchwardens. They frequently drew
up seating plans showing the pews set
aside for particular parishioners. Many
of these seating plans survive. They
effectively provide us with censuses
of householders, and indicate the
pecking order of our ancestors within Memorial for a Somerset rector,
the social heirarchy. The quality sat at Thomas Leir of Ditcheat
the front, the poor at the back.
Tithe was another potential bone of
contention. We have already seen that Top 5 websites
there was much tithe litigation in the
church courts. In many parishes tithe If your appetite has been whetted
agreements were made, setting out by this article, turn to Stuart A
what was due from each parishioner – Raymond’s exclusive blog, which lists
and enabling us to identify how much the top five genealogy websites for
our ancestors paid. When tithes were finding Church of England ancestors,
commuted for a monetary payment on the Family Tree website at
by the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act, http://familytr.ee/2eKAm0m
apportionments were compiled setting • Stuart’s book Tracing your Church
out the amounts that were due from of England Ancestors (Pen &
each property, and listing the names Sword, 2017) is also out now
of the current occupiers – effectively
another census of householders. Maps
were compiled to show where their About the author
property lay. Copies were deposited
in both the parish chest, and with the Stuart A Raymond worked
Tithe Commissioners; the latter are as an academic librarian
now held by The National Archives; for many years, and has
see its guide at www.nationalarchives. written numerous books
gov.uk/help-with-your-research/ for family and local historians. He
research-guides/tithes tutors online Pharos courses and
It is impossible to list the full range conducts workshops for the Society
of potential Church of England of Genealogists. His latest books
sources. There are too many, and they include Pen & Sword guides Tracing
are too diverse. They are capable of Your Ancestors’ Parish Records
telling us much about our ancestors. and Tracing your Church of England
This article has merely skimmed the Ancestors (2017).
surface of what is available.
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 10:11
 S&N Genealogy Supplies
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Researching
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Researching &
Researching & Locating
Locating
Your Ancestors
Your Ancestors

& Locating
Locating Your
Howshould
How shouldyou youapproach
approachresearching
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Your Ancestors
genealogistCelia
genealogist CeliaHeritage
Heritageoffers
offersexpert
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including:
• •research
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andhow
howtotorecord
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• •key
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records:birth,
birth,marriage
marriageand
anddeath
deathcertificates,
certificates,and
andcensuses
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CeliaHeritage
Celia Heritage
• •maps,
maps,tithe
titheand
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enclosurerecords
records

Celia
Celia Heritage
• •parish
parishand
andnonconformist
nonconformistregisters
registers

Heritage
• •gravestones
gravestonesand
andmemorial
memorialinscriptions
inscriptions

• •newspapers
newspapersand
andinquest
inquestrecords
records

• •wills
willsand
andprobate
probate

• •parish
parishchest
chestand
andworkhouse
workhouserecords
records

• •occupational
occupationalrecords,
records,including
includingthe
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armedforces
forces

• •court
courtand
andmanorial
manorialrecords
records

• •school
schoolregisters.
registers.
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FamilyTree 21

GS_Ad_FT_Dec16.indd
p021.indd 21 1 02/12/2016 17:07:04
06/12/2017 10:13
 DIPLOMATIC ANSWERS TO GENETICS

DNA dilemma Our experts advise

What would you do? Risk upsetting a family, by ‘reuniting’ a father with his long-
lost child – or deny a daughter the chance to know her dad? Debbie Kennett,
David Annal and Mary Evans help a reader decide the best way forward

E
very week we receive
numerous interesting
questions from readers
seeking answers to family
history problems they have. However,
when this particular question from
Stuart arrived at Family Tree HQ we
knew we had a very different sort of
problem on our hands, one with no
simple answer and which could have
very upsetting consequences. To try
and explore different aspects of the
issue, and to get a balanced view, we
asked three respected researchers
(Debbie Kennett especially for her
genetic genealogical knowledge;
David Annal and Mary Evans for
their many decades of traditional
research experience) for their
opinions as to how the problem
should be handled.
Our reader Stuart wrote:
For about 25 years I have enjoyed
researching my family history,
exchanging information with like-
minded people mostly following
the same moral code of the ‘100
years rule’. Today, however, we face
a different type of researcher: the
‘phishing DNA’ newcomer, with
nothing to offer but one, maybe two,
generations of history.
Recently I was in contact with a
‘DNA match’ and offered help in
establishing the link as she was a
complete novice with the barest of
facts. As I asked for more detail it
soon became evident that she was
looking for her natural father and
not tracing her family history. I was
soon able to identify the father using
Ancestry, BMD and my own family
research notes.
My dilemma is, should I divulge
the identity of the father which
could bring:
➊ Unknown consequences to him
and his family, or
➋ Happiness to a young woman in
knowing her roots?

22 Family
FamilyTree January 2018 www.family-tree.co.uk

p22-23 DNA dilemma FINAL.indd 22 07/12/2017 09:33


I know that there are professionals
who deal with this sort of question but
do have you any advice for me and
your other readers?
David Annal replied:
Personally, I would be very wary of
divulging any information of this
nature. As you say, the consequences
of doing so are unknown and could
be catastrophic. There’s no way of
knowing what the natural father’s
situation is or whether his family know
anything about his earlier life.
The key word here is
‘professionals’. I would
recommend that you speak
to an adoption service such
Adoption Search Reunion www.
adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk or
Adoption Services for Adults www.
adoptionservicesforadults.org.uk
and get their advice. They may be
willing to contact the woman and
talk her through the process.
Mary Evans replied:
This is a difficult situation but I think
a lot depends on the circumstances.
When it became evident that she was
looking for her natural father, did she
mention to you that this was what she
was hoping to achieve?
If she hasn’t mentioned her father
then I think you have three options:
to keep the information to yourself,
to give her the information and leave
her to decide what she does with the
information, or to try to broach the
subject tactfully with a view to helping
her move forward.
If you feel able to discuss it all then
I think it would be best to point out
gently at the start that professional
help is available and an intermediary
can ease the process.
Again, a lot will depend on the
circumstances. Was she adopted or
did the parents simply split up, with
the father walking away from the
family? When did she lose contact
with her father? In the fi fties, sixties
and seventies there could be a stigma
attached to having an illegitimate
child and the mother was often
encouraged or even forced by her
family to put the child up for adoption
even though it might not have been
the wish of either parent. In more
recent years families split up and
contact can be lost for a number of
www.family-tree.co.uk
p22-23 DNA dilemma FINAL.indd 23
Can you help me with a modern dilemma?
reasons. Is her father even aware that
he has a daughter?
Taking time to consider and think
things through is important. If she
was adopted the first port of call could
be the Adoption Contact Register: see
www.gov.uk/adoption-records/the-
adoption-contact-register
It should also be possible to find out
a bit more about the father’s current
circumstances. Is he married? Does
he have other children now? The
consequences to him and any new
family have to be considered.
I think we all need to know who
we are and where we come from
and it is difficult to justify keeping
this information from her. If you
can give her the information but
encourage her to fi nd support to
take it forward then that is perhaps
the best solution.
Debbie Kennett replied:
The growing DNA databases,
combined with the increasing
availability of online genealogical
data, have made the impossible
possible. Foundlings, donor-
conceived individuals and adoptees
now have a very real possibility of
identifying their biological parents
by fi nding a match with a close
relative in one of the databases.
If you match with a fi rst cousin
you share the same grandparents.
Second cousins share the same
great-grandparents. It is then
often a simple matter to trace the
lines forward to identify a suitable
candidate who was in the right
place at the right time. Further
DNA testing will be able to clarify
the precise relationship. In some
cases people are matching at the
outset with a previously unknown
half-sibling or parent. This situation
raises new ethical dilemmas. We
all have a right to the knowledge of
our biological identity but the right
to knowledge does not necessarily
equate to the right to contact.
There is considerable experience of
unknown parentage searches within
the genetic genealogy community.
Many cases have been successfully
solved, and many families have been
reunited, though not all searches
have happy endings.
In this particular case Stuart is
enquiring about sharing genealogical
information about a living person
with his DNA match. This is a
genealogical question not a DNA
question. It is not good practice to
share private information about
living individuals without consent.
The Guidelines for Sharing
Information with Others from the
National Genealogical Society in
the US provide some useful advice:
www.ngsgenealogy.org/galleries/
Ref_Researching/Guidelines_
SharingInfo2016.pdf
I do not think it would be
appropriate in this case to reveal the
identity of the father. I would gently
direct the enquirer to the relevant
sources on Ancestry, FreeBMD and
Findmypast so that they are able to do
the research themselves.
There are a number of specialist
volunteer support groups that can
help with such situations and I
strongly recommend that Stuart
puts his match in touch with
these organisations. They have
experience of making contact
with biological relatives and have
learned through experience the
best way of doing this to maximise
the chances of success.
• There is a large self-help group
on Facebook called DNA
Detectives www.facebook.com/
TheDNADetectives
• The DNA Adoption team
www.dnaadoption.com can
provide specialist advice
• There are links to further resources in
the ISOGG Wiki: https://isogg.org/
wiki/DNA_testing_for_adoptees
About the experts
Debbie Kennett is an
Honorary Research
Associate in the
Department of Genetics,
Evolution and Environment at
University College London. She
wrote DNA and Social Networking
(2011) and The Surnames Handbook
(2012), both published by the History
Press. She writes about genetic
genealogy and her Cruwys one-
name study on her blog at
cruwys.blogspot.co.uk
Find David Annal’s and Mary
Evans’s biographies on page 87.
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 23
07/12/2017 09:33
 SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE

How to write your

family

If you’ve been putting off writing your memoirs, 2018 is the perfect time to begin. For a
long while Bernard Barker felt he had a story to tell, but didn’t know the best way to go
about it. Here he shares his advice for writing a memoir, gained from his own learning
journey. Now there’s no excuse – make it your New Year’s resolution to put pen to paper

O
ne evening, while we were
drinking coffee alone
together in the front
room, my 90-year-old
father disappeared and after a few
minutes returned with an armful
of light green cardboard folders,
homemade files held together with
gummed brown paper.
‘Please take these,’ he said, as his
cornflower blue eyes met mine.
Each cover was marked with a date
in black felt tip. I opened the first,
and then several more. The contents
were my letters home between 1954
and 2000. The manuscript pages were
descriptive, anguished and loving,
as well as patronising and sometimes
ill tempered. As he prepared to die,
Dad’s precious hoard had become a
burden he could bear no longer.
‘Wonderful,’ he said sadly.
‘They’re not,’ I protested,
remembering my youthful attitude
with shame.
My desire to write a memoir began
that evening, though it was another
10 years before I found a convincing
autobiographical voice. The letters
were vivid evidence of my unfolding

24 Family
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p24-27 bernard barker FINAL.indd 24 07/12/2017 14:35


A family photo with Bernard on
the right with his Uncle Wilfred,
plus his mum, dad and brother
thoughts and feelings but also gave
a useful record of events, a reminder
of half-forgotten episodes and the
order in which they happened. My
own recovered words might help
reconstruct my journey from a
comprehensive to Cambridge and
beyond. When my parents died,
leaving a messy heap of documents
and photographs behind, their loss
sharpened the desire to remember
our family life in London and to
understand my struggle to adapt to
the egalitarian culture of a brand
new comprehensive and then to the
boarding school world of an ancient
Oxbridge college.
But I was academic, used to
marshalling evidence, accustomed
to examining other people’s work
and arguing my own case. After a few
efforts, it was obvious this method
was not working for my life story
and would repel rather than attract
readers. I studied memoirs, partly
because they stimulate you to compare
and contrast your life with another
author’s and partly because I needed
to understand how autobiography
is done. How do memoir-writers
create dramatic effects from ordinary
material? How do they animate
characters and incidents?
Exploring others’ stories
Nadezhda Teffi’s Memories describes
her escape from Moscow to the Black
Sea during the 1917 Revolution. Her
narrative evokes the terror as well
www.family-tree.co.uk
p24-27 bernard barker FINAL.indd 25
Getting to grips with your autobiography
as the absurdity of chaotic fighting curator to resistance leader and
but it is her understated humour eventually how she is caught, tried
and bloody revolutionaries that and sentenced to hard labour in
make the pages turn. Teffi’s ironic Germany. There is almost nothing to
perspective shapes her response eat and working with chemicals in a
as basic necessities disappear and rayon factory is seriously dangerous,
privilege implodes but her story also even before Allied bombs begin to
captures the fate of the Russian elite. fall. She is intensely personal but
I make notes. Keep up the pace, write objective. You meet her cell-mates in
about incidents that create action court, prison and death, and engage
and reveal character. Show and don’t with their personalities and outlook as
tell. Timing is everything. they are drawn into tragic resistance.
Agnes Humbert’s Résistance is Agnes uses first person narrative to
also concerned with events and hold your attention and arouse your
experiences with wider significance. empathy. She does not betray friends
She describes the
Nazi invasion of
France in 1940,
her swift change
from museum
Young Bernard
and his father
and baby brother
meeting Father
Christmas in 1951
Eltham
Green, the
comprehensive
school Bernard
attended in
the 1960s
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 25
07/12/2017 14:35
 SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE
to save her own life and does not avert
her gaze from details of suffering
and starvation. You taste the food on
the prison plate. Her decisions and
dilemmas become the reader’s.
These superb memoirs show
the value of writing directly and
personally, as if in a letter to a friend,
and illustrate the importance of
attending to character and dialogue.
Don’t tell the reader that Agnes is
a brave French woman, put her in
a cell talking to a friend who is to
be executed. Place Teffi on a train
having bizarre conversations with
strangers as they hear the sound
of gunfi re outside. Describe the
experience from the inside as it
happens. Don’t be discouraged
because you can’t remember the
words used in a particular time and
place, create lines that sound like
the person you wish to evoke and
fi nd phrases that resemble what they
may have said at the time. Truth is
not much aided by a photographic
memory or even a tape recorder.
The Gate of Honour at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where Bernard
arrived fresh from comprehensive school in 1965
26 Family
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p24-27 bernard barker FINAL.indd 26
My turn to write
I wondered how my letters could
become an autobiography. Was I
disciplined enough to follow these
principles in recreating the unique
atmosphere of my family home?
How should I resist puncturing
the spell of the present tense with
asides about other times and places
(eg, ‘We still meet up for a drink
at the Ritz’)? There is another
problem. My life has been led in
comfortable obscurity, illuminated
by occasional bursts of publicity
about a campaign to save a school
or to launch a challenging book.
The story lacks drama, who is
interested in my yarn? I’m leaving
the familiar landscape of education
for a new world where publishers
and agents are ruthless and have
little interest in minnows.
Then Lorna Sage’s Bad Blood
convinced me that an exciting
memoir can be written without
the author having celebrity status
or first-hand experience of war,
revolution and famine. Lorna was
an academic like me but her tale
is driven by an internecine quarrel
between her grandparents. She
shows their hatred swirling around
the rectory where she grew up and
acquired a passion for language
and books. She discovers and
uses Grandpa’s diary to reveal his
sordid affair with Nurse Burgess.
Her historical document inf lames
the tensions that enliven Bad
Blood. The example taught me
the comic potential of my dad’s
Victorian stance on sex and
alcohol. His efforts to control
bedtime, homework, money and
girlfriends are perfect material for
life writing.
My memoir grew out of an article
about English teaching that was
not intended as autobiography. The
paper describes my parents’ intense
contribution to my use of language
and claims that classroom English
has less impact than teachers
think. Friends demanded more
These superb memoirs
show the value of writing
directly and personally, as if
in a letter to a friend
autobiography and less academic
argument about language learning.
I was encouraged and made careful
notes on the letters written home
from Cambridge between 1965 and
1968. If all was well, the separate
memoirs of school and university
could be brought together as an
account of the years 1946-1968.
As I write about life and learning
at Cambridge through the winter
(2016) and spring (2017), the
story flows. I have my notes on the
letters beside me at the keyboard
and the episodes almost write
themselves. I type ‘Girls’ as a sub-
heading and Tillie is in my arms
in the Dorothy Ballroom; I type
‘Greek Holiday’ and study Ann’s
‘trim bottom’ as she stands at the
window outside my compartment
on the student train to Athens in
1966. I don’t worry about length,
chapters, agents, and publishers.
I am untroubled by the problem
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 14:35
 Getting to grips with your autobiography

One of Bernard’s letters home from

Cambridge in 1965. He used his parents’
Try a writing course
collection of his student letters to help
bring his memoir to life
Family Tree's sister title Writing Magazine
offers a popular 'Making the Most of
Your Life Experiences' course, which
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you need to tell your story, your way.

The online course guides you through

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gained from practical experience which
you can apply to sharing your memories.
You can enjoy:

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through assignments tailored to your
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31 January by calling 01778 392 492
and quoting FTRE/Make18

About the author

of making one good autobiography
from the original English teaching
article and the Cambridge chapters
now rushing towards the desktop.
This is not the recommended
procedure but there is no time to
pause or plan as I swim in Greek
waters and scribble my Tripos papers
all over again.
But I did form a writing group
with two retired headteacher
friends who are equally interested
in our school days. We exchanged
and discussed manuscripts. Cherry
urged more dialogue; Rob asked
for stronger themes and more
ref lection. They helped me revise
the Cambridge manuscript, then
to rewrite the earlier ‘English’
article and dovetail the two pieces
together. As I revised the later
drafts, removing unnecessary
complexity and smoothing the
surface of the prose, I booked
myself on an Arvon tutored retreat
at The Hurst, donated by John
Osborne of Look Back in Anger
fame. It was joy to write for a whole
week with no distractions and a
wonderfully supportive group of
people. The tutors point out that
my wedding in 1968 concludes the
Cambridge story but provides a
limp ending for the memoir. ‘The
book is about your education. Why
not finish with your first day as a
teacher?’ They also urged me to
write the pitch, sell the book and
chase every possible contact and
lead. ‘It’s a joy to read,’ they said,
‘Invite us to the launch’.
I’m still working on that.
Bernard Barker is Emeritus
Professor of Education
at the University of
Leicester. He was the first
comprehensive student to become
head of a comprehensive school and
is author of many articles and books
about education. Two years ago he
decided to write Educating Bernard:
from comprehensive to ivory tower, a
memoir of his journey through family,
school and university. The switch from
professional and academic writing to
autobiography proved demanding as
well as liberating. Like many others in
the baby-boomer generation, Bernard
aims to remember and recreate the
distinctive features and atmosphere
of the post-war era and to understand
its influence on his life and career.
This article shares his experience with
Family Tree readers.

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

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p24-27 bernard barker FINAL.indd 27 07/12/2017 14:36

 TAKE YOUR RESEARCH TO THE NEXT LEVEL
ILY TRE
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Read on to find out the answers to last issue’s Family Tree Academy challenges.
Our Academy tutor David Annal explains all
Your first brainteaser challenge:
The answer
We set the question: ‘I’ve found family clues back to the 1760s,
having found ancestors in the 1841 Census who were 80 years
old. What records should I use to start researching pre-1841?’.
We asked you to name three sources, and how they are
useful. Your answer could include:
• The Church of England’s parish registers are the most
important and valuable source for pre-1841 research. The
information that you get from the early Victorian censuses
should, in most cases, allow you to find your ancestors’
baptismal and marriage records. Of course, not all of our
ancestors were baptised in the Church of England and not all
the relevant records have survived but parish registers should
certainly be your first port of call.
• Wills can be enormously helpful when trying to untangle
complex family relationships and can often provide us with
details stretching over two or three generations.
• If our ancestors were at the other end of the social scale, the
records of the poor law and the workhouse could come in
very handy.
• Often, what we’re looking for is a single reference to a name
in a particular parish to give us a clue about where to dig
deeper; land tax records, poll books and monumental
inscriptions can all provide us with these clues.
Your first transcription challenge:
The answer
We asked you to transcribe part of the will of Richard John Ball.
This will was proved in the Prerogative Court of
Canterbury (PCC) in 1857. The cursive script used by the
PCC’s clerks had by then become highly stylised and while it
may not be instantly recognisable, the letters are consistently
28 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p28-34 FT Academy Jan issue FINALISH.indd 28
Discover the answers to last
issue’s challenges
How did
you do?
formed and can quickly be learned.
• Most are very similar to their modern equivalents; the most
difficult are the ‘c’ which looks like an ‘r’ and the ‘e’ which
looks like a ‘c’.
• Capital letters can also prove quite tricky but again, they are
consistently formed.
• Note that what looks like a double ‘f’ at the start of the name
Frances is in fact a capital ‘F’.
Here’s what was written:
Line 1: This is the last Will and Testament
Line 2: of me Richard John Ball of Number 25 Myddelton
Street Clerkenwell
Line 3: in the County of Middlesex Watch Case Maker I
appoint my dear Wife Jane
Line 4: Mary Ball and my two daughters Georgina Sophia
Ball and Frances Louisa
Line 5: Ball Executrixes and Trustees of this my Will I give
unto them upon Trust
Line 6: the whole property and interest belonging to me in
the house in which I reside being *
* If you look carefully you will see that ‘being’ is actually
written below line 6 on the document . This is a fraud
prevention measure to stop anyone writing anything extra
at the bottom of the page. (On the full document you
would also be able to see that the word ‘being’ is repeated
at the top of the next page).
Your first document challenge:
The answer
We looked at the will of Mary Warner of Enfield and set you
the task of answering some questions about the will.
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 15:32
 ILY TRE
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AC
ADEMY

I. Mary describes herself as a spinster but she goes on to

name her brother, Thomas White. Why do you think they
might have different surnames?
The use of terms such as ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ in the
18th and 19th centuries was far less rigid than today. A
half-brother, step-brother or brother-in-law could all be
described as a brother and, in this case, Thomas White had
been married to Mary Warner’s sister, Lucy, so he was in fact
her brother-in-law.

II. What specific burial instructions does Mary give?

Mary gave some quite specific burial instructions in her
will. She asked to be ‘Laid in the same grave with Captain
Barnes’ and went on to describe in some details what she
wanted to be done regarding the stone before asking to
be buried in a coffin ‘Cover’d with Black & Black Nails &
Plate’. Finally, Mary said: ‘I desire to be Buried Decent but
nothing Extravagant’.

III. Mary names a number of beneficiaries in the will but

how many does she name as relatives?
The following relatives are named by Mary: brother The answer in this case turns out to be a simple case of
Thomas White, nephew George Allen, sister Ann Cox, niece someone using two different names; a little digging reveals
Elizabeth Fenton (wife of James Fenton), nephews Samuel beyond doubt that Benjamin Joseph Whitehead and Robert
Warner, George Allen, Richard Allen and William Cafford, Whitehead are in fact the same person.
sister Sarah Allen, nephew Thomas White junior and his The official registers of the Irish General Register
father. We can assume that Thomas White junior was the Office (GRO) record the marriage of Robert Whitehead,
son of Mary’s ‘brother’ Thomas White so we have a a soldier and the son of Benjamin Whitehead,
total of 11 relatives. carpenter (deceased) to Margaret Sullivan, the
widowed daughter of Andrew Donovan. The
IV. One of the people mentioned in the wedding took place on 12 November 1908
will died before Mary. Can you work
out who?
BE THE FIR ST at St Patrick’s Church, Cork. There is no
record in the Irish GRO of a marriage
The clue is in the ‘probate’ clause on TO KNOW! taking place on the same date between
the reverse of the will. Mary named Sign up for the Benjamin Joseph Whitehead and
free
three executors, Thomas White, at w w w.family e-newslet ter Margaret Sullivan.
James Fenton and George Allen but account/crea -tree.co.uk/ The details given on Benjamin Joseph
te and we’ll ke
you in the loop ep
probate was granted to ‘Thomas White of our latest Whitehead’s Army service record prove
family histor y
& George Allen the nephews & the news an exact match. Well, almost exact; on the
surviving executors’. This tells us that Army record Margaret Sullivan is described
James Fenton had died since Mary wrote as a spinster. But the date and place of the
her will. marriage, the name of the officiating minister
and the names of the two witnesses all match the
V. What other sources might you turn to next to find out details on Robert Whitehead’s marriage certificate.
more about Mary and her family? But it gets even more interesting because it turns out that
The reference to Captain Barnes is intriguing and I would our man wasn’t actually called Benjamin Joseph or
definitely want to follow that up – perhaps he left a will? I Robert Whitehead. He was born on 30 May 1878, the son
would also want to look for wills for the other beneficiaries of Benjamin and Eliza Whitehead and baptised as plain
and to see if I could use parish registers to sort out all the Joseph Whitehead.
nephews and nieces. It should be possible to find a record It’s impossible to say why Joseph enlisted under a false
of Mary’s burial in the Enfield parish registers which might name and then, why he later adopted the name Robert.
give her age. The Army service record shows that he married Margaret
‘without leave’, which might be the reason for the false
Your first case study challenge: name in 1908 but doesn’t explain why he was still calling
himself Robert at the time of the 1911 Census.
The answer Margaret does indeed seem to have returned to Ireland.
Reader Jill Horton wanted to know more about two The death of a 73-year-old Margaret Whitehead is registered
weddings which took place on the same date at the same in the Cork district in 1952.
church in Cork, Ireland in 1908. The details, except for the This case just serves to remind us of how ‘flexible’ our
groom’s name, were the same. ancestors could be with their names!

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

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 TAKE YOUR RESEARCH TO THE NEXT LEVEL

J oin the Fa m ily Tree Acad e my &

be co m e a sk il le d fa m il y h is to ri a n
Running all through 2018, the Academy learning ILY TRE
experience will help you discover more about the
records, resources and research skills you need
AM

to become the best genealogist you can be. We
have case studies for you to pit your wits against,
documents for you to decipher, old handwriting for
you to tackle, and more…
How does it work?
With every issue of Family Tree we will
be setting you genealogy challenges
to help you improve your research
skills and make your family history
investigations more rewarding.
With professional researcher David
Annal as your tutor in Family Tree you
will get the chance to:
1. Tackle research case studies
2. Learn about a broad range
of records
3. Take your research to the
next level
Who can join?
The Family Tree Academy is available
FREE to all readers of Family Tree.
About the Academy
The Family Tree Academy is your
opportunity to really hone your family
history research skills.
We know how frustrating it is to have
brickwalls, and we want to help you solve
them.
We also know how much fun it is to
discover new records to explore and we
really hope you’ll find your studies with
the Family Tree Academy extremely
rewarding.
Here’s to becoming the best
genealogist that you possibly can be!
Happy learning.
For further tips
Be sure to join the Family Tree Academy
Facebook group and chat to fellow FTA
students at
http://familytr.ee/FTAcademyFacebook
E
F
AC
ADEMY
The syllabus
What will you study?
These are some of the great topics we
will cover in the Family Tree Academy:
wills, electoral registers and poll
books, quarter sessions records,
the hearth taxes, tithe records,
protestation returns and oaths of
allegiance, parish registers, militia
lists, manorial court records,
valuation office survey field books
and maps, the 1939 Register, Armed
forces records, and gravestones
and memorials

30 Family
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 ILY TRE
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Join in & learn more about family history
AC
ADEMY
For printable study sheets to fill in your answers go to

g
Strategic sleuthin
www.family-tree.co.uk/FamilyTreeAcademy

Your brainteaser challenge

What’s the next step?

T
he Victorian world was very different to
ours and our ancestors were often employed
Question:

W
in trades and crafts which have long since
disappeared. Understanding what our
ancestors did for a living can help us to build up a
picture of their lives.
hat sources could you use to find out
more about your ancestors’ occupations
in the 19th century?

Improve your
palaeography skills
Your
transcription
challenge
What does this
census say?

T
he ability to read old handwriting is such an
invaluable tool for the family historian that
each issue we’ll be setting you some text to
transcribe. Here’s an extract from a page in
the 1861 Census. The handwriting is typical of
mid-19th century script. How many of the
occupations can you work out? Have a go:
transcribe the wording below and compare your
transcription in the next issue.

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

FamilyTree 31

p28-34 FT Academy Jan issue FINALISH.indd 31 07/12/2017 15:52

 TAKE YOUR RESEARCH TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Document know-how
Your document challenge
Studying a poll book & an electoral register

Just starting in family history?

I. What is ‘Do’ an abbreviation of in the records?
Above: pages from a poll
book dating from 1802
II. When reading old records, what character is ‘s’
sometimes confused with? Above, right: pages from
an electoral register
III. What is a ‘messuage’? dating from 1922

IV. What do the abbreviations ‘HO’ ‘R’ and ‘O’ stand

for? Why are they included in the electoral register?

32 Family
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p28-34 FT Academy Jan issue FINALISH.indd 32 07/12/2017 15:33

 ILY TRE
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Join in & learn more about family history
AC
ADEMY

Look carefully at both of the documents shown here,

and see if you can answer the puzzles we’ve set

Taking it further...
V. List three major differences between the 1802 VIII. How could you use electoral registers to
poll book and the 1922 electoral register. work out someone’s age?

VI. Looking at the page from the poll book and IX. List three websites where you can find good
the column headed ‘Where Freehold is situate’, collections of electoral registers.
what other sources could the information here
lead you to? Find the answers in the February issue of
Family Tree – on sale from 16 January
VII. Most of the entries in the column headed
‘The Nature of the Freehold’ relate to messuages,
houses and land but three of them say ‘Good-
intent Mill’. Can you find out what this means?

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

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 TAKE YOUR RESEARCH TO THE NEXT LEVEL

M ILY TRE
A

E
F
AC
ADEMY
We hope you’ve enjoyed the Family
Tree Academy challenges. To find the
answers to this issue’s questions, see the
February issue, on sale from 16 January.
Discover how you’ve got on!

Research thinking skills Join the Family Tree

Academy Facebook group
and chat to fellow FTA
students http://familytr.ee/

Your case study FTAcademyFacebook

challenge For useful Family Tree

Academy resources

Looking for a and printable study

sheets go to www.
family-tree.co.uk/
‘love-child’… FamilyTreeAcademy
Here you’ll find all
sorts of record sheets

R
ead the question below, sent in by reader Rowland
Dunn, and have a think about how you might go
about finding the answer. What sorts of sources
and strategies might you use to solve this family
history problem? Write down your thoughts and we will
publish David Annal’s answer in the next issue.
Rowland Dunn writes:
I wonder if you can help me with the will of one of my 3x great-
grandfathers, please.His name was Richard Chaplin baptised 15
January 1772 in Elsworth, Cambridgeshire and lived most of his
life in Boxworth, Cambridgeshire.
In his will he states that he is leaving some money to his
‘Natural daughter’ Sarah Wife of John [?]. I cannot decipher
and forms to use with
the FTA challenges
each issue
Take the Family Tree Academy test!
A year from now (at the end of 2018), we
will be setting you a challenge! This will
be your chance to take the Family Tree
Academy test and see how your family
history research skills have grown over the
past year as you’ve been learning with
Family Tree
FREE RECORDS WORTH £34.95 • YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

what John’s surname is. It appears that Sarah was a ‘love-child’

FamilyTree
FamilyTree
DECEMBER 2017
www.family-tree.co.uk

but given that he was baptised 15/01/1772 she could be anything Missed an issue? TOP WEBSITES TO
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issues at https://pocketmags.com/family-
tree-magazine
34 Family
FamilyTree January 2018 www.family-tree.co.uk
(We have sold out of the print edition of the Christmas

p28-34 FT Academy Jan issue FINALISH.indd 34 07/12/2017 15:33

 ESSENTIAL SCOTTISH KNOW-HOW

Understanding marriage
laws in Scotland
If you’ve discovered ancestors who tied the knot north of the border, it’s worth
getting to grips with the Scots laws that led to the creation of a different set of
historical records from the rest of the UK. Family historian Chris Paton leads the
way, explaining the legal infrastructure surrounding marriage in Scotland, and how
it may further your family history research

A
huge historic difference
between Scotland and
the rest of the UK has
been the law surrounding
marriage. In this article I will provide
an overview on how things were done
north of the border, both before
and after the introduction of civil
registration in Scotland in 1855, and
show what to look for in the marriage
records on the ScotlandsPeople
website and elsewhere.
Like other UK countries, Scotland
historically had marriages that
were ‘regular’ or ‘irregular’. A
regular marriage was carried out
by a Church of Scotland minister
after the prior calling of banns in
one or both spouse’s parishes on
three successive Sundays. From
such weddings the Kirk would earn
‘proclamation money’ or ‘pledge
money’, an important contribution
to parochial funds. Although
marriage registers are included, the
Old Parish Registers (OPRs) on the
ScotlandsPeople pay-per-view website
at www.scotlandspeople.co.uk may
show the payment of this sum as
the only evidence of marriage, but
just because the banns were called,
this does not necessarily mean the
wedding happened. If their first child
was subsequently shown to be ‘lawful’,
however, that provides confirmation.
For some weddings the session could

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 Expert guide to Kirk & civil records

insisted upon by the state for a couple if they wished to marry – if both
An 1804 map of Scotland and a to marry was for contracting partners agreed to do so, they married. A verse
1790 marriage record from the to simply exchange their consent – no from a 19th century song, A Tourist’s
ScotlandsPeople website celebrant was required. Witnesses Matrimonial Guide to Wedding, summed
were also unnecessary, but it would be it up neatly.
difficult to prove that a marriage had
ask for someone to stand as ‘cautioner’ been entered into without them. Suppose that young Jocky and Jenny,
(pronounced ‘kayshoner’), essentially Say ‘We two are husband and wife’,
to act as guarantor, and to pay a Identify irregular marriages The witnesses needn’t be many,
deposit to ensure that the occasion There were three main forms of They’re instantly buckled for life.
would be solemn. A real worry for irregular marriage. By far the
both the Kirk and local landowners most common was marriage ‘by When irregular marriage in
was that festivities might be declaration’, also known as ‘declaration England and Wales was abolished
undertaken via a ‘penny wedding’, in de praesenti’. In this, contracting through Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage
which folk would turn up, pay a penny, partners simply asked each other Act of 1753, it soon encouraged a
and then get drunk for several days to
celebrate, with potentially all sorts of
outrageous activities undertaken such
as ‘promiscuous dancing’!
Following the so-called ‘Glorious
Revolution’ of 1688-1689, a
substantial number of ministers split
from the Kirk to form the Scottish
Episcopal Church, which believed
in the oversight of bishops through
an episcopal hierarchy – the very
antithesis of Presbyterian belief,
which believed the congregation held
primacy. This Jacobite supporting
body was initially discriminated
against through penal laws, which
included a prohibition on celebrating
marriages. Following the Act of Union
between Scotland and England in
1707, such a position could not be The ScotlandsPeople website at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
maintained politically, as England’s
Anglican Church operated on a
similar episcopal system. From 1711
the Scottish Episcopal Church was
therefore given the right to organise
independently, and to perform
marriages, in addition to the Church
of Scotland. It would not be until
1834, however, that the same right was
also given to various Nonconformist
Presbyterian denominations that also
broke away from the Kirk within the
18th century, or to other minority
denominations.
As far as the Kirk was concerned,
any form of marriage that was not
carried out through its rites was
‘irregular’. If anyone was found to
have married by other means, they
could be hauled before the kirk
session, rebuked and made to pay a
fine. There was a problem with the
Kirk’s stance, however, in that under
Scots Law it was in fact perfectly Bowden Kirk, near Melrose in the Scottish Borders, dates from the Middle Ages and
legal to marry by other means. Prior was extended and restored in the 17th century
to 1940 the only legal requirement

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

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 ESSENTIAL SCOTTISH KNOW-HOW
St Mary’s Collegiate Church in Haddington, East Lothian
marriage trade over the border. Young
couples and others travelled to Gretna
and other border villages to avail
themselves of the right to marry under
Scots Law. In Scotland, boys as young
as 14 and girls as young as 12 could
legally marry prior to 1929, when it
changed to 16 for both, and parental
permission was not required (still
the case today). When blacksmiths at
Gretna performed their famed ‘anvil
weddings’ it should be noted that they
were not in fact celebrants at such
weddings – in legal terms, their only
function was to be a witness, but you
can’t beat a bit of theatre!
Similarly, Portpatrick and Stranraer
in Wigtownshire developed a
reputation for day-tripping Irish
tourists as wedding destinations.
To record proof that an irregular
wedding had occurred, couples would
often accept the rebuke of the kirk,
and pay a fine, in order for it to be
recorded in the session minutes.
Once suitably chastised, the privileges
of the church would be restored to
them, including the right to have any
children subsequently baptised.
Marriages by declaration were
equally the form of marriage
undertaken at Nonconformist
Presbyterian churches until the
early 19th century. Although a
Nonconformist minister may have
performed a marriage ceremony for
a couple, his role was legally the same
as that of the blacksmith in Gretna –
44 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p42-45 chris paton FINAL.indd 44
not a celebrant, but simply a witness,
with the validity of the marriage based
not on the relevant church’s rites,
but the public declaration of consent
being exchanged. This changed
from 1834 when it became possible
to legally marry within any church
denomination, so long as the banns
had been previously called in advance
within a Church of Scotland parish
church. It is worth noting therefore
that within the OPR records from
1834-1854 on ScotlandsPeople, if a
marriage record is found, it does not
necessarily mean that the wedding
Wellington Church, Glasgow
took place within the Church of
Scotland. A clue to a Nonconformist
wedding having occurred may be
found through the name of the
minister being stated, or in the non-
appearance of any children’s baptisms
afterwards, which did not need to be
recorded by the established Kirk.
Two other forms of irregular
marriage existed. Marriage by
‘betrothal followed by intercourse’
(also known as ‘promise subsequente
copula’) simply occurred after a
promise to marry was consummated.
It was fairly rare by the 19th century,
but legally existed until 1940. A
more common marriage form was
‘by habit and repute’. In this, if a
couple lived together as married,
and were recognised as having done
so, despite the lack of any public
exchange of consent, they were
married. Perhaps surprisingly, this
continued to exist long after 1940,
only eventually being removed from
statute by the Family Law (Scotland)
Act of 2006.
Civil registration & beyond
From 1855, the civil registration
of marriage was introduced to
Scotland, and unlike the rest of the
UK, the Scottish records note details
of all four parents to a couple, and
not just their fathers. To dissuade
marriage ‘tourists’, a three-week
residency criteria for prospective
spouses was introduced in 1856. For
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 09:41
 Expert guide to Kirk & civil records

DID YOU Portpatrick old parish church in

Wigtownshire became the
KNOW? Gretna Green for Irish marriages
Portpatrick in the 18th and 19th centuries.
There is an Old hyard
Church and Churc Couples from Ireland would arrive
ites families
project, which inv about
to submit details in the port by boat for marriages
at ww w.
their ancestors, conducted by the village’s Church
hyard.org.uk
portpatrickchurc of Scotland minister

those marrying regularly through

a church, the need for banns to be
called continued, but an alternative
procedure was introduced in 1879
in the form of a ‘marriage notice’.
Once this was fi lled in and handed
to a registrar, a public notice was
displayed for seven days, in which
time objections could be lodged.
If none appeared, a certificate of
publication was issued (equivalent
of a certificate of banns), valid for
three months, with which a Marriage
Schedule could then be issued to
the relevant minister. In some cases,
both options could be used, with one
spouse having the banns called, and
the other using a marriage notice.
After the wedding occurred, the
fi lled in schedule had to be returned
to the registrar within three days,
upon penalty of a £10 fine. The
details would then be entered into
the civil register.
It was also compulsory to register
irregular marriages prior to 1940,
but before doing so you needed
to obtain permission. In this case, The abolishment of irregular marriages in England and Wales in 1753 saw
within three months of a marriage by couples head to Gretna and other villages in the Scottish Borders to wed.
declaration, the couple had to send Illustration from Chronicles of Gretna Green by Peter Orland Hutchinson (1844)
written evidence to the local sheriff-
substitute, signed by two witnesses,
to ask for a petition warrant. After About the author
then appearing before the sheriff registered, and will therefore not be
and swearing on oath to confirm the on ScotlandsPeople.
accuracy of their statement, and after Chris Paton runs the
confirming that the residency criteria Civil marriages Scotland’s Greatest Story
had been fulfilled, the warrant would From July 1940 the ability for registrars research service www.
be issued, and registration could to perform civil ceremonies was scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk and
proceed, upon a five shilling fee. introduced, and irregular marriage teaches online courses through
The use of such a warrant will be abolished (except by habit and repute). www.pharostutors.com
identified on ScotlandsPeople. Prior An alternative to the calling of banns Among his many publications are
to 1916 an alternative and cheaper or the use of a marriage notice was Discover Scottish Church Records
option to gain proof of marriage was also introduced in the form of (2nd ed) and Discover Scottish Civil
to be convicted by a Justice of the a Sheriff ’s Licence, but it, and Registration Records, available from
Peace or any competent court, and the requirement for banns, were www.my-history.co.uk
to pay a small fine for the privilege. abolished in 1977, with a marriage He regularly blogs at www.
It should be noted that prior to 1940, notice becoming the remaining britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk
many irregular marriages were not means of publication in advance.

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

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 THE PIPER OF BEAULY
Patersons’ farewell
A remarkable find during a house removal set Anne-Mary Paterson on the trail
of two family members who were casualties in World War I
M
y uncle, Donald Paterson
who played the bagpipes,
was killed in World
War I at the Battle of
Festubert and has no known grave. I
read somewhere that pipers, who were
unarmed, were particularly vulnerable,
as they had to climb out of the trench
first, to encourage everyone else with
a rousing tune to do the same. So I
accepted that this was Donald’s fate
until one day when we were moving
house, I came upon a box in an
outhouse. When I opened it, I found
a set of old blood-spattered bagpipes.
Because of their state, I guessed
they must have belonged to Donald.
Confirmation came as I looked further
into the box and saw a small sheet of
paper with a bagpipe tune on it – the
Beauly Shinty Club.
46 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p46-49 anne mary paterson FINAL.indd 46
Shinty is a game played in the
Scottish Highlands. Sometimes rudely
referred to as hockey without rules, the
premier competition is the Camanachd
Cup that the Beauly Team won in
1913. All this set me thinking. If the
Germans blew Donald to bits on top
of the trench, how did the bagpipes
survive? I needed to find the truth.
More discoveries
There was no time to think about what
to do with the box or its contents. It
went into the van for transport to our
new home in south-east England. One
day after we had unpacked our boxes
and attended to other necessary affairs
in our new home, I was searching in
drawers of my late father’s desk for
something or other and came across
a number of bits and pieces about
my uncles. Then I did a thorough
search through the desk and found
more material, which included letters,
photographs and newspaper cuttings.
I decided to put them all, along with
the bagpipes tune, in an album with
captions where necessary under each
item. A particularly interesting piece
was the news cutting, which told me
that Donald had saved the lives of two
other soldiers before he was shot by a
German sniper.
Donald and his brother, Alastair,
were both natives of Beauly, a village
about 13 miles west of Inverness. Their
father, John, was a seed merchant and
ironmonger. Alastair who had joined
his father’s business, was captain of
the winning 1913 shinty team, aided
and abetted by his brother. Alastair
was interested in shooting as well and
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 16:42

Left: Donald Paterson, whose bloodied bagpipes
were found when the author moved house
Far left: Beauly Shinty Club bagpipe tune manuscript
4th Battalion Queen’s
Own Cameron
Highlanders
Territorial Regiment of
Inverness-shire
The soldiers fought bravely through
many battles up until the Battle of
Loos in September 1915. In January
1916, there was a reorganisation and
the battalion became part of the 51st
Highland Division. With numbers so
depleted, the Army disbanded it in
February 1917.
The battalion was reconstituted
in 1920 and carried on until the
outbreak of World War II. Sent to
France in January 1940, by June
1940 at the time of Dunkirk, it was
fighting near the Somme but had to
retreat to St Valery-en-Caux where it
surrendered to the Germans. Most of
the men spent the rest of the war in
prison camps.
The Territorial Army was reformed
in 1947 incorporating the 4th
Camerons. In the 21st century, the
local territorials, now called The Army
Reserve, are an Infantry battalion
and part of the The 51st Highland
Battalion, 7 Scots, The Royal
Regiment of Scotland
took part in competitions at Bisley.
When the Territorial Army came into
being in 1908, the brothers’ interests in
shooting and piping prompted them to
join the Beauly Company, G Company
of the 4th Cameron Highlanders.
I was able to find this information
in a publication by the Kilmorack
Heritage Association entitled The Fiery
Cross, which deals with all the wars in
which people of our parish, Kilmorack,
were involved.
Investigating the bagpipes
What of the bagpipes? A friend
in Edinburgh involved in the
music business, told me about a
reputable repairer in the city, called
Gillanders & McLeod.
On my next visit to the city, I left the
pipes there for renovation and repair.
www.family-tree.co.uk
p46-49 anne mary paterson FINAL.indd 47
r’s
Heirloom with a tragic history
e
e ad y
R tor
s Murdoch Paterson, Chief Engineer of
In the meantime, I contacted a
cousin, Donald MacGillivray, a well-
known piper, to ask him what I should
do with them. Donald had two sons
interested in piping so he said he
would be very honoured to become
the owner of bagpipes with such a
family history.
When Donald collected the pipes,
Pipe Major McLeod told him that the
set was by MacDougalls of Aberfeldy.
This business started in Perth in
1792, moved to Edinburgh in about
1860 and then to Aberfeldy in 1873
until its closure in 1910. When I told
an elderly relation about the find,
he remembered Donald Paterson
spending a weekend with them on
their farm before the war and hearing
him practising on these pipes. The
farm is in the shadow of the huge
28-arched red sandstone Culloden
Railway Viaduct – the creation of
Donald Paterson’s great-uncle,
Stories of those
left behind
In the First World War, Highland
companies were grouped according
to where the men lived. D Company
was composed of men from Beauly,
Donald and Alastair’s home and
Portree in the Isle of Skye. The Army
thought wrongly that being among
friends would help morale.
It is impossible to imagine what it
must have been like when news of the
slaughter in various battles reached
home and many families were plunged
into mourning. The womenfolk were
struggling anyway without young
men to do physical work. In families
involved in crofting, women and
children had to do the work.
The men who did return from the
war, often found it difficult to settle.
Some were suffering from what in
those days they called shell shock or
lung problems from gassing.
In my own family, Alastair’s father
died in 1916. The family business had to
close, as there was no one left to run it
the Highland Railway.
Tracing the brothers’ war
I visited the Highlanders’ Museum at
Fort George, near Inverness, to see if
I could find out more. The museum
deals with the history of Highland
Regiments, in particular the Cameron
and Seaforth Highlanders. The
Camerons are the Inverness-shire
regiment and the Seaforths Ross-shire.
They gave me a book entitled Queen’s
Own Highlanders by Angus Fairrie.
From it, I learned that each summer
the battalion attended camp so that
when war broke out in August 1914
they were a well-trained body of men.
By the middle of August, the 4th
Camerons were in Bedford for intense
training. They did not depart to France
until 19 February 1915, as there was
a bad epidemic of measles. Several
soldiers died before ever reaching
France. Many of the men came from
isolated areas in the Highlands and
had no immunity.
At the time of the departure, Alastair
was promoted to 2nd lieutenant and
Donald was a lance-corporal. Alastair’s
commission papers were one of the
things in my father’s desk.
After a long uncomfortable train
journey in France, they arrived at La
Gorgue, about six miles behind the
Front line and to the west of Lille.
Their first battle was Neuve Chapelle
on 9-15 March 1915 followed by a
long encounter at Aubers Ridge from
15 March to 11 May. On 16 March,
Alastair sent home on a note from the
trenches, maybe as a premonition of
death or maybe as a statement that he
realised things were not as they should
be. Written on a communication from
the commanding officer about the
importance of the Battle of Neuve
Chapelle, he wrote the words: ‘Keep
1914-1918 carnage
Casualties on both sides were huge.
An estimated 5 million British and Allies
were killed and 13 million wounded.
On the German side, 3.3 million were
killed and 8.3 million wounded. Worse
casualties came in 1918/19 when more
than 20 million people worldwide died
in the Spanish Flu pandemic
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 47
07/12/2017 16:43
 THE PIPER OF BEAULY
this for me as a memento, Alastair.’
In 2012, a book by Patrick Watt was
published entitled Steel and Tartan, the
4th Camerons in the Great War. I read
the introductory chapters but put the
book aside when it came to the battle
descriptions as I thought this would be
too harrowing. Also, I am no expert on
battlefield tactics. Then as the 100th
anniversary of the war approached, I
decided that I must read the chapter
on the Battle of Festubert.
By the time, the brothers went
to France their company, G, was
amalgamated with H, the Portree,
Isle of Skye company and renamed
D. The battle started on 11 May but
the 4th Camerons were not involved
until later in the early evening of
17 May. It was raining heavily and
getting dark by the time D Company
climbed out of their trench. They
had only gone a short distance when
they arrived at a deep ditch about 6ft
wide and full of water. Only the fittest
could jump it; most with their heavy
equipment fell in and they and their
rifles got very wet. They pressed on
but the three officers of D Company
along with two other officers were
shot and wounded, including Alastair
Paterson. The aim of the attack was
to take the Southern Breastwork, a
temporary fortress of the Germans.
Selflessness & tragedy
In the confusion with some other
regiments retreating, Donald stayed
behind to bind up the wounds of a
Alastair’s love token
Alastair Paterson, Duncan’s brother, who was also killed in the war
48 FamilyTree January 2018
Family
p46-49 anne mary paterson FINAL.indd 48
colleague, Lance Corporal Ferguson.
He then helped another wounded
soldier. Unable to see where he was,
he returned to Ferguson who was
still nearby and stayed with him until
first light. When he looked up to see
where he was, a German sniper shot
him and killed him instantaneously.
Donald gave his life to save two
others. Ferguson recovered and on
leave home, he was able to recount
to Donald’s parents about their son’s
heroism and presumably return his
bagpipes. Alastair died in a hospital
in Rouen on 5 June 1915. I found the
letter from the hospital matron hidden
in my father’s desk.
The 4th Camerons did manage to
capture the Southern Breastwork but
could not hold it. A number of soldiers
were shot or wounded in the retreat. In
all, 234 men and 13 officers from the
4th Camerons were killed or died of
wounds later.
Afterwards, Brigadier Watts spoke
to what remained of the 4th Camerons
and told them that as they were sent
out at short notice there was not time
to reconnoitre the ground they had
to advance over. Owing to a series of
misfortunes such as clogged rifles,
shortage of bombs and the weather, it
was not possible for them to hold the
German breastwork. He added that
the regiment had done everything
humanly possible and that the country
should be proud of them. This may
have been of little comfort to the
grieving families.
I
n July 2016, I received an email
from Margaret Mackay who was
doing some research on her
grandmother, Annie Munro.
Annie, who came from Kingussie,
was a teacher and was appointed
to Beauly Public School in 1910.
Margaret has an album in which
Annie’s friends put entries and
several are from the Paterson family.
Then some of Margaret’s family
asked her if she could trace the
background to a gold medal that
was also among Annie’s possessions.
Most of Annie’s descendants live in
Canada but Margaret, though born
there, has lived most of her adult life
in Scotland.
The pipes play on
Are the bagpipes still being played?
In the 21st century Iain MacGillivray,
Donald’s grandson, plays the bagpipes
as he travels the world. But, with the
anniversary of the start of WW1,
his father Duncan has composed a
new tune, Patersons Farewell to Beauly.
Duncan has played The Beauly Shinty
Club on the old pipes at what has been
described as a heart-rending moment
at several concerts and a special shinty
match in Beauly at New Year 2015.
And so the bagpipes go on playing.
Useful research tools
• www.forces-war-records.co.uk –
Anne-Mary found subscription website
Forces War Records invaluable for all
sorts of military information, including
details on individuals dating back to
before the Napoleonic Wars
• County archives and regimental
museums are another resource
as they often hold more local
information and can advise on
and may sell publications useful
for research. Visit The National
Archives’ online Find an Archive at
http://discovery.nationalarchives.
gov.uk/find-an-archive and The
Army Museums Ogilvy Trust at
www.armymuseums.org.uk
• www.cwgc.org – Commonwealth
War Graves Commission website
• http://familytr.ee/armyrecords –
Family Tree’s free guide to Army
records for researching your tree
On the back of the medal Annie’s
initials (A.M.M.) and the date
1.1.15 are incised. The Scottish
Twenty Club, formed in the 19th
century to encourage excellence in
rifle shooting, awarded the medal.
Margaret managed to contact the
club’s archivist.
Using the hallmark on the medal
to date it as 1911, she found that
Alastair Paterson won it before
WW1. I had a vague idea that
Alastair had a girlfriend and
Margaret’s family knew that Annie
had a boyfriend killed early in
WW1. Alastair was in Bedford at
the beginning of 1915 so was not in
position to give her a ring. Was the
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 13:46
 Heirloom with a tragic history

ON THE gift of the medal a token of his love and betrothal

BLOG to her?
When Alastair died, Annie may have had to
-
Don’t miss Anne
Ma ry Pa ter so n’s blog mourn privately as this might have been something
on our website at only known to the two of them. In 1917, she married
.co.uk
ww w.family-tree John Shaw, a soldier from the Highlands who had
emigrated to Saskatchewan before the war. He joined
the Canadian Army on its outbreak and, after being
gassed in battle, spent the rest of his active service outside
the confl ict area on office duties in Rouen, France.
If Alastair had a girlfriend, why were there no further contacts with
her by my family? This was something that sometimes puzzled me.
Now I know that because Annie married someone else and went back
to Canada after the war, contact was lost. This may be something she
wished, but a love she herself always remembered with the album and
the medal as keepsakes.

Lost love: Alastair’s pre-WW1 gold

medal for rifle shooting, which
was found among Annie Munro’s
possessions, and an extract from
her ‘Writing Album’, which features
several entries by the Paterson family,
including Alastair himself

About the author

Anne-Mary Paterson
is a freelance writer and
author. She lives near Inverness and is
interested in local, family and railway
history. She is the author of Pioneers of
the Highland Tracks, a biography of her
great grand-uncles who were involved
in the design and construction of most
of the railways radiating from Inverness.
Her latest book Spanning the Gaps –
Highland Railway Bridges and Viaducts
Duncan MacGillivray was published in November 2017.
proudly playing the WW1 • Anne-Mary is pictured at Culloden
bagpipes at a concert, Viaduct, which was the creation of
with Donald’s image Donald and Alastair Paterson’s
on the screen behind great-uncle, Murdoch Paterson.

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

FamilyTree 49

p46-49 anne mary paterson FINAL.indd 49 07/12/2017 13:46

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Woodvine (The Crown), the DVD also features three • Prices start at £379
real wartime public information films from the Imperial for a Recordalife Story
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• RRP £12.99, cert PG (approx 96 mins, plus extras); Get a £50 discount!
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FamilyTree 59

p52 subs club FINAL.indd 59 07/12/2017 16:38

 INHERITED TRAITS Nature & nurture

The obesity genes

Dr Nicola Davies, health psychologist and author of I Can Beat Obesity! Finding the
Motivation, Confidence and Skills to Lose Weight and Avoid Relapse, explores the
role of genetics in being overweight and obese

A
growing child may hear
parents declaring proudly,
‘He takes after his
grandfather height wise’.
Parents of a chubby child, however, will
not comment on an inherited tendency
to being overweight, instead choosing
to concentrate on changing eating
habits and exercise patterns in an
effort to control excess weight. So, is
obesity really linked to the genes or is
it linked to environmental factors – or
is it a bit of both?
Importance of
understanding the role
of genetics in obesity
Genetic factors help to explain why
people have different bodily responses
when faced with the same food or
when consuming the same amount of
food. For example, people can have
heritable sensitivities to hunger and
external food cues. The FTO gene
(also known as the ‘fat gene’), for
example, has been linked to differing
levels of energy expenditure and
ability to control eating behaviour,
both of which are associated with
the development of obesity. It is
important to explore these genetic
factors due to the health implications
of being overweight or obese.
‘People who have a higher BMI
[body mass index] are at risk for
diabetes mellitus, coronary heart
disease, stroke, asthma and cancer. A
The FTO gene
The FTO gene is involved
in appetite and has been
found to explain the
largest amount of genetic
differences in obesity
traits. People with this gene
are more likely to have
impulsive eating habits
and tend to prefer high fat
foods. The good news is
that people with this gene
have also been found to
respond to dietary, physical
activity, and drug-based
weight loss programmes

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

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p53-55 nicola davies FINAL.indd 53 07/12/2017 09:45

 INHERITED TRAITS
genetic predisposition to a higher
BMI is also likely to increase risk
for these health conditions,’ says
Karen Mohlke, Professor in the
Department of Genetics at the
University of North Carolina. It is
important to note Mohlke’s use of
the word ‘likely’ and to understand
that we cannot automatically blame
our weight on genetics alone.
Which genes
affect weight?
Genetic researchers have been
beavering away in laboratories
studying the links between
genealogy and obesity by looking
at DNA sequences and, after
processing millions of pieces
of information, have identified
some links. ‘Recent research
studying hundreds of thousands of
individuals has linked at least 140
DNA variant nucleotides to obesity,’
says Mohlke. ‘These DNA variants
are common in the general
54 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p53-55 nicola davies FINAL.indd 54
population, having been inherited
by members of many families.
Identifying these DNA variants is
an early step toward understanding
which genes inf luence those people
at risk of obesity and how body fat
is distributed. A smaller number
of DNA variants have also been
identified in individual families
that inherit risk to extreme obesity.’
The DNA variants that scientists
are studying are single nucleotide
polymorphisms (SNPs) – the most
common form of genetic variation;
each polymorphism makes for a
difference in a single DNA building
block (known as a nucleotide –
see report 1 in the ‘Read up on
it’ panel, page 55). The human
genome comprises 3 billion
nucleotides, with around 10 million
SNPs – one per 300 nucleotides
(see point 2).
Elizabeth Speliotes of the
University of Michigan, a genetic
epidemiologist who has been
studying the link between
genealogy, obesity, and
disease, has suggested
screening to assess
whether a person’s weight
increases their likelihood
of developing particular
diseases. Speliotes and
her associates took on the
daunting task of studying
some of these SNPs by
comparing 2.8 million
SNPs with the BMI of
123,865 people to identify
susceptibility to obesity.
After following up on 42
promising SNPs, they were
able to confirm 14 already
known SNPs and identify
18 new ones related to
BMI. A number of these
SNPs were found to be near
genes that function in the
hypothalamus – a region
of the brain involved in
keeping the body in a state
of balance. Further study of
these 32 SNPs will provide
new insights into how body-
weight regulation functions.
However, previous studies
have identified some genetic
variations that do appear to
have a connection to weight
Prader-Willi syndrome
Prader-Willi syndrome is a genetic
disorder characterised by constant
hunger from early childhood, often
leading to obesity and type 2
diabetes. The condition is caused by
the deletion of the paternal copies of
the SNRPN and necdin genes. About
70 per cent of cases occur when
part of the father’s chromosome
15 (a pair of chromosomes, where
one is inherited by each parent) is
deleted. In 25 per cent of cases, the
person with the condition has two
copies of chromosome 15 from their
mother and none from their father
gain; APOA2, LEPR and APOA5
(3,4,5). Those carrying a APOA5
polymorphism who also consumed
high levels of saturated fatty acid
have an increased risk of obesity, and
individuals carrying a polymorphism
in the LEPR gene who consumed
more than 12g per day of saturated
fatty acids were also at high risk of
obesity (3). In addition, research
has shown that people with a CC
genotype (the inherited map we carry
with our genetic code) and APOA2
polymorphism appear to be more
at risk of obesity and increased BMI
when a diet high in saturated fat is
consumed (4). This is supported by
another study showing that individuals
with a CC genotype and APOA2
polymorphism have higher obesity
risk when compared to people with a
TT genotype (5).
Something to note from these
studies, though, is that this risk
of obesity is dependent on other
factors, such as dietary intake, as
well as a genetic predisposition.
Has any ‘cure’ been found
for genetic obesity?
Mohlke explains: ‘The results of
most genetic studies will take time
before they are directly relevant
to individuals. Researchers are
learning more about the biological
mechanisms that lead to obesity
and identifying more genes that
might be targeted by future drug
therapies, but developing and testing
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 09:46

new drugs will take many years.’
While this isn’t very helpful to someone who feels that
their genes are responsible for their weight problems,
there is hope in the form of lifestyle changes.
‘Genetic variation contributes to body fat placement,
but environmental and behavioural contributions of
exercise and diet contribute too,’ says Mohlke. Indeed,
recent studies have shown that being physically active
reduces one genetic variant’s effect on BMI by around
30 per cent (6,7).
In one study, where the weight of parents was
compared with the weight of both biological and
adopted children, it was found that adopted children
had a 21 per cent likelihood of being overweight if both
their adoptive parents were overweight (8). In contrast,
27 per cent of the biological children of overweight
parents were also overweight. This 6 per cent difference
illustrates that genetics can impact weight, but that
nurture is also an important factor.
Taking back control
from our genes
Although inherited body proportions in terms of length
of torso relative to legs can’t be altered, a genetic
predisposition to weight gain can be counteracted.
Most fitness experts and dietitians concur that serving
smaller portions, eating nutritiously, and keeping
physically active, are more helpful than submitting to
the belief that weight gain is unavoidable as a result
of genetics – after all, a predisposition is defined as
a tendency to – not a cause of – a certain condition.
With the exception of Prader-Willi syndrome, whether
a genetic tendency to put on weight becomes a reality is
often up to the individual.
www.family-tree.co.uk
p53-55 nicola davies FINAL.indd 55
Nature & nurture
Read up on it
Nicola cites the following sources, mostly available
online, used in her research (correct at time of writing,
October 2017):
➊ What are single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)?
(US National Library of Medicine, 2017) –
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/genomicresearch/snp
➋ Human Genome Project Completion: Frequently
Asked Questions (National Human Genome Research
Institute, 2003) – www.genome.gov/11006943/
human-genome-project-completion-frequently-
asked-questions
➌ Interaction of dietary fat intake with APOA2, APOA5
and LEPR polymorphisms and its relationship with
obesity and dyslipidemia in young subjects
(T Domínguez-Reyes, CC Astudillo-López,
L Salgado-Goytia, et al, 2015) –
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4568066
➍ APOA2, Dietary Fat and Body Mass Index: Replication
of a Gene-Diet Interaction in Three Independent
Populations (Archives of Internal Medicine, 169(20),
1897-1906, D Corella, G Peloso, DK Arnett, et al, 2009)
– www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2874956
➎ APOA2 Polymorphism in Relation to Obesity and Lipid
Metabolism (Cholesterol, 2013 (289481), ME Zaki, ME,
KS Amr, and M Abdel-Hamid, 2013) – www.hindawi.
com/journals/cholesterol/2013/289481
➏ Physical Activity Attenuates the Influence of FTO
Variants on Obesity Risk: A Meta-Analysis of 218,166
Adults and 19,268 Children (PLoS Med, 8(11), TO
Kilpeläinen, L Qi, S Brage, et al, 2011)
➐ Genome-wide physical activity interactions in
adiposity – A meta-analysis of 200,452 adults (PLoS
Genet, 13(4), M Graff, RA Scott, AE Justice, et al, 2017)
➑ ‘Nurture’ more important than ‘nature’ for
overweight children (London School of Economics,
2015) – www.lse.ac.uk/website-archive/
newsAndMedia/newsArchives/2015/02/
NurtureMoreImportantForOverweightChildren.aspx
About the author
Dr Nicola Davies is a
freelance writer, with
an interest in health
psychology. She is
currently researching her family
tree, using her psychological
expertise to delve into unique areas
of genealogy. You can follow her
work via Twitter @healthpsychuk
or by signing up to her free blog
at healthpsychologyconsultancy.
wordpress.com
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 55
07/12/2017 09:46
 RESEARCH RARITIES
Exploring the history of India
Over the coming year Julie Goucher will be spotlighting a website each month that
is either unusual, overlooked or simply fascinating. It is an ideal way to expand and
bring to life your family history
T
he Rare Book Society of
India – found at www.
rarebooksocietyofi ndia.
org – is a fascinating and
very unusual site that is of use to
genealogists and historians alike, with
an interest in India.
The site provides an online virtual
presence embracing the material
from digital libraries such as Google
Books and the Internet Archive,
articles and essays as well as various
collections located at museums and
alike from around the world. What
this achieves, is a showcase of Indian
books, prints and artworks that have
been digitised and placed in an
easily accessible manner for all to
use. It is not just old and out of print
material that is available. The site
also collates a number of Facebook
posts and links to books that are still
in print and available on sites such as
Amazon, although those book links
automatically divert to Amazon India.
What will you find on the site?
A simple search function is
available, but the core substance
of material essentially covers the
following themes:
• natural history in India
56 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p56 Julie Goucher FINAL.indd 56
Lesser-known source of the month
• kingdoms of India
• various sections covering each
of the following religions, Islam,
Christianity, Sikhs and their
religion and history, Hinduism and
Buddhism in India
• The India Independence movement
• history of Mysore
• cartography in India
• Dutch, French and Portuguese in India
• the Grand Mughals 1526 -1857
• military history of India
• Indian cities through the ages
• India and its royalty
• Ancient India up to 1200 CE
• a variety of segments relating to
the Arts in India through either
paintings, photography, sculptures,
dance and treasures
• travel literature of colonial India, and
India as seen by foreign travellers
• and of course, The Honourable East
India Company.
I have researched my Honourable
East India ancestors over the last 20
years or so and a quick search of the
surname Bowring, which is one of
several names in this region that I am
researching, revealed a book written
by Lewin Betham Bowring that I had
been previously unaware of.
This is overall a fascinating website
that harnesses together all these
different strands of life in India both
before and after British rule and
enables us to garnish our genealogy
and family history bring it to life in
some rather fascinating ways.
About the author
An avid history lover,
Julie Goucher has been
researching her family
history since the late 1980s
and has an interest in Italian ancestry.
Julie is conducting several one-name
studies and is an administrator for
several DNA projects. Julie is the tutor
for the Introduction to One-Name
Studies course run by Pharos Tutors,
and is a Trustee and Secretary for the
Guild of One-Name Studies.
www.anglers-rest.net
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 09:47
 HOLD THE FRONT PAGE:
THE 1939 REGISTER IS NOW IN FINDMYPAST’S
MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTIONS
The 1939 Register is now available as part of Findmypast’s monthly
subscriptions. So you can explore your past like never before. Find out who
was living in your city, on your street or even in your house in 1939. Your
family lived through one of the greatest conflicts our nation has ever known.
Find out what life was like for them.

THE 1939 REGISTER. NOW IN MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTIONS.

findmypast.co.uk/1939register
www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 57

p057.indd 57 06/12/2017 11:17

 TRACING MY LONDON FAMILY

Finally a full deck of Cards

While sometimes we make rapid progress on our family history, at other times the
discoveries come at a slower pace – and are all the more treasured because of it.
Reader June Terrington tells of her many years of research into her London folk, and
the twists and turns along the route

M
y mother’s paternal line
certainly didn’t have a
common surname, and
usually that means such
ancestors can or should be easier
to trace. Well, when I started my
grandfather’s line back in 2002, little
did I know how hard it was going to be.
My grandfather was christened
Edward Lily Card, born on 19
November 1887 in Mile End. You might
say, ‘Well how difficult is that?’, and I
would agree with you, but looking for
Cards in the East End of London is like
looking for a needle in a haystack.
I had previously bought my
grandfather’s marriage certificate,
which stated his father as being no other
than another Edward Card, steam loco
driver. By this time I was thinking – this
is going to be fun, it’s not the surname
that’s the problem it’s the first name –
but best not panic at this stage.
So I purchased his birth and death
certificates, using FreeBMD.org.uk (to
find the details that I needed to make
my order – you place your certificate
orders at www.gro.gov.uk/gro/
content/certificates/).
After a little while they arrived, and
I read through them. It’s so surprising
how much information can be gleaned
from a certificate: dates of birth,
marriage, and death, and details of
the home address; and from marriage
certificates, for instance, other details
such as the names of the fathers of
the bride and groom, or, on death
certificates, the cause of death.
My next step was to find out more
about Edward senior, my great-
grandfather. I already knew he was a
loco engine driver but I didn’t know
which company he worked for, and, to
be honest, it was several years before
I discovered this. I was still a novice at
researching my family tree so you can
guess how daunting it was at times,
trying to sort out who was who, where
and when.
Turning to Ancestry, for which I now
had a subscription, I decided to look
through the census for any Edward
Cards working on the railways, and
luckily I found one in the 1901 Census
from Mile End. This time it stated he
was a ‘loco fireman’ and it sounded
as though he possibly worked on the
steam trains.
The 1881 Census stated that he
was in the Army in Yorkshire. This
again caused me some confusion and
I wondered whether it was the same
Edward. However, the details for his
wife and family tied up well, so I went
back further to the 1871 Census. This
time, as Edward was born in 1862,
his parents’ names were on there too,
and there, staring me in the face, was
yet another Edward Card, occupation
mineral water bottler.
On researching my Cards I often
used FamilySearch.org – a website
I love very much – and joined in
with the genealogy mailing lists for
London and Middlesex. Being on
Ancestry I used to get lots of mail
from others who were descended from

58 Family
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p58-60 June Terrington FINAL.indd 58 07/12/2017 09:47


June discovered that at times her
Londoners lived in a notorious area of
Stepney called Rafcliffe early in the
1800s. By the late 1800s – as shown
on Charles Booth’s poverty map of
London – the area was still one largely
of ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’
To explore Booth’s map, visit
https://booth.lse.ac.uk/map
The colour-coded key clearly shows
the seven socio-economic categories
as identified by Booth
my Card lines and nearly all of them
were related, so we used to help each
other out, swapping information on
our finds, as well as ancestor photos,
certificates and copies of trees.
Finally, we had researched back to
1832 – to another Edward Card, son
of yet a further Edward Card, born
1801, a tailor. This Edward started
out as a slop seller as a young man,
meaning he sold secondhand clothes
to sailors. This was quite appropriate
as he was born and raised in a
hamlet of Stepney called Ratcliffe,
where ships came in to London. The
area was notorious for opium dens
and prostitution.
Luckily my Cards so far had been
quite well noted. Although, the
census had, at times, become a little
www.family-tree.co.uk
p58-60 June Terrington FINAL.indd 59
Patience and persistence pays off
confusing, I kept checking and
double-checking my sources. Being
careful that you’ve made the right
deductions about the facts you've
found really is well worth it. To help
me verify information, sometimes
I’d write to archives (one being the
London Metropolitan Archives, LMA
for short) or seek out additional
sources – I found the website
ParishRegister.com very good for
researching London ancestors.
The Ratcliffe area, in particular,
intrigued me as it couldn’t have
been a nice place to live, and it got
me thinking about what it must have
been like in times gone by, and my
family had clearly been Londoners
for a long time. I found out that
Edward, born 1801, was the son of
London
Lives covers
1690-1800
and provides
useful
information
both about
relevant
historic
records for
researching
London history
and ancestors,
and guides to
help you use
the documents
DO YOU
HAVE
LONDON
ANCESTO
Be sure to
RS?
vi sit w w w.
londonliv
es.org
yet another Edward Card (4x great-
grandad, rope maker), who married
Susannah Galliers in 1801 in Saint
Dunstan’s, Stepney.
Now the fun really began. I had
him, his wife and the children. I
knew he was a rope maker (from the
children’s baptism records) until 1816,
when he became a victualler for a
time. It took me quite a bit of time to
solve where he came from though. I
worked out that he must have been
born around 1780 and that was as far
as I got.
The next time I found anything
of Edward and his family again was
through the 1841 Census. Edward
and Susannah, plus family of course,
had moved eastwards into Shoreditch.
This time his occupation had changed
to undertaker, living on Brunswick
Street, and I estimated he was born
in the 1780s. The shock detail was
that he was not born in the county.
I had no idea where to look next. I
scoured the usual places, but nothing.
I put requests on genealogy message
boards – again, nothing. For several
years more I had to re-do my footsteps
and search deeper, thinking carefully
about the evidence.
• Edward died in 1850 and his wife
had in 1849 so it wasn’t any use me
looking for either of their birth
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 59
07/12/2017 09:48
 TRACING MY LONDON FAMILY

Family burgled!

June’s diligence in tenaciously

researching her family was
rewarded by the colourful detail that
unfortunately her ancestor Edward
Card was burgled on Christmas Eve
1830: www.oldbaileyonline.org/
images.jsp?doc=183001140078

• Then, bingo! I found an Edward

Old Bailey Online, part of the London Lives project, provides free access to
transcripts of the cases heard at the Old Bailey. Rather than criminal ancestors,
you might find victims of crime, like June (see panel, above right)
places in the 1851 and later
census returns.
• Edward definitely didn’t come from
London, but contact with Dave
Read and examination of his tree
provided the clue I needed. Dave
believed we were related through his
Sarah Card, who, at the time of 1851
Census, was living on Brunswick
Street and it recorded that she came
from Dorset and was wife of William
Read. Research resumed and I
found Sarah’s baptism. It wasn’t
quite Dorset, but the beautiful
village of Stourton, Wiltshire, which
borders Dorset. She was baptised
1780 to Edward and Sarah Card and
I found further children.
born 1782. As to proving this, I came
across the website run by Dr Cathy
Day www.wiltshirefamilyhistory.
org – she had written a piece for her
PhD on Stourton and its inhabitants
from 1754 to 1914, and has a
searchable database on her site.
• I was definitely intrigued: I looked
at her pedigrees and wrote to her
explaining about my 4x great-
grandfather, explaining that I
thought he was the son of her
Edward Card from Dorset.
• By this time I had found Edward’s
death in 1818 and a will mentioning
Sarah and Edward. This was
the document that clinched our
connection to the Dorset Cards.
Edward was born in 1752, a
gentleman farmer and a flax and
hemp grower for the rope makers
in Dorset. Cathy also added the
London connection to her pedigrees
(I did feel proud of this).
• I’ve now been able to follow the Card
line back further back to around
1568. I’ve also found a big collection
in Swindon archives on the
Card family of Mere and recently
I went and photographed most of
these records.
So, there you are, as my title says, I
now have a full deck of Cards. My next
mystery is to solve Galliers story as my
DNA states I’m 30 per cent French...

About the author

June Terrington started

family history to learn about
If you are very fortunate, the areas your ancestors hailed from will be served by an her absent father, and over
excellent database like Dr Cathy Day’s. But if not, why not think about creating one the years this interest has
yourself? Now, there’s a challenge! Dr Day’s database covers Stourton, Kilmington become a passion – she really
and Mere. Even if you don’t have ancestors from these places, it's well worth loves it. Find out more at
exploring for inspiration as to how you might plan your own site along these lines http://familytr.ee/FBPasttoPresent

60 Family
FamilyTree January 2018 www.family-tree.co.uk

p58-60 June Terrington FINAL.indd 60 07/12/2017 09:48

 Distance Learning Courses
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p061.indd 61 06/12/2017 11:20

 A CENTURY OF CULINARY HISTORY

Miss Webb 's

recipe collection

There’s something about the cold weather that increases the appetite and makes
it even more enjoyable to pore over a recipe book – and when it’s a collection
of culinary adventures from the Georgian and Victorian eras, with some family
history mysteries and medical concoctions to boot, that’s the icing on the cake.
Charlotte Soares gives a taste of an extraordinary record from kitchens past

August 27th 1792. Ann Perry. Savoy
Precinct Strand.
This is a true copy of the Register of the
burial of the above named
Ann Perry taken this 29th Day of
November 1792.
W. Dome. Parish Clerk.
Witness Richd Jones Clk to Mr Mountfort
Gough Sq, London.
visited Beamhurst Hall and also met
a Kent descendant of the Mountforts
who had enjoyed childhood visits
there. There was talk of a portrait of
the housekeeper amongst the family
archive but he never saw it.
The recipes, or receipts as they
were called then, cover everything
from sticking and dismembering a
One quart new milk made warm, about
the size of a walnut of butter, two spoonfuls
of good Barm* beat up with a little lump
sugar. It must stand till it rises then mix it
with flour till about as thick as a pudding.
Beat it with yr hand a quarter of an hour,
then add more flour till as thick as light
bread. Work it well. Set it before the fire to
rise then make it into cakes lay them on a tin

T
his is a strange thing to find
in a handwritten loose-leaf
recipe collection. Why is
a copy of a burial register
in amongst recipes for game, rabbit,
custard and porter?
The recipes would appear to be
the collection of a Miss Webb, at least
that is what is written on the spine
of the folder. She would appear to
have been in the household of the
Mountfort family of Beamhurst Hall,
Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.
The fascinating manuscript
collection of recipes and more was
bought by my late father in the 1980s
in Kent and he hoped to publish
them but this never materialised. He
pig (which is stomach turning), to
making a rich cream custard and a
peas soup purposely composed for
Henry Mountfort Esq, which sounds
delicious, involving ham and roast
beef bones and croutons – though
she doesn't call them that, merely
fried and toasted bread, to preserves,
baking, medical cures and more.
We have not tried the recipes,
nor would recommend the medical
recipes, but include them here purely
for historical interest, transcribed
from the original with only minimal
tweaks to help with their readability.
Recipe: Tea cakes
Here is her recipe for tea cakes
‘exelent’ (sic):
to rise they must not be taken off the tin till
baked wich (sic) must be in a quick oven. If
you forget to prick them they will be hollow.
*That’s barmy!
Barm is a by-product of ale-
making and was traditionally
used in some bread recipes.
It’s unstable nature as a raising
agent led to the word ‘barmy’
Recipe: Dessert cakes
She also included a recipe for
dessert cakes:
Quarter Butter beat to a cream with yr

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hand, three ounces lump sugar pounded.
One egg beat, work all together with the
flour till stif to rool (sic) out. Cut [out]
cakes with a wine glass – very nice, little
trouble, little expense.
My thoughts on the recipes
The abbreviation of ‘Your’ to ‘Yr’
looks like our modern text language!
There are often several copies of
recipes with slight differences but
none of them look as though they’d
been near the kitchen table when
the baking was being done. My own
recipe books are covered in traces of
flour and splashes from being used
too near to the cooking! These papers
are clean, most recipes on their own
single pieces of paper apart from some
which are obviously pages that have
come adrift from notebooks. Some are
carefully written, with fine pen-work,
some look as if they were dashed off in
a hurry.
There are many game and
hunting recipes, for birds, venison
and hare. She writes a note to
remind herself Buck Venison
commences in May or June and
continues till September or
October. Doe Venison commences
in October.
Recipe: Hunting Pudding
There is a recipe written out twice for
Hunting Pudding. Was this taken out
on shoots for picnics?
One pound Raisins stoned and chopped,
one pound currants, one pound beef suett
chopt, quarter of sugar, four spoonfuls
of flour, eight eggs, glass brandy, little
nutmeg – to boil six or eight hours.
Two apples choped very small is an
improvement. Mrs Woodhouse of Litchfield
told Mrs Lawrence they did it at the
Marquess of Stafford Trentam.
Recipe: To make blackberry jelly
Take blackberrys before they are quite black,
put them into an earthen pot and set them
in an oven for some hours. When cold
squeeze them thro a linen bag and to every
pint of juice put one pound of common
lump sugar and a quarter of an ounce
of Isinglass [a substance coming from
dried swim bladders of fish with clarifying
properties]. Boil it over a slow fire till it
jellys – keep scumming it till done.
And another blackberry recipe:
Take blackberries before they are quite ripe.
When turned red pick them and put them
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p62-66 Charlotte Soares FINAL.indd 63
Records of Georgian & Victorian housekeeping
into a pot, tie them up close and put them
in a kettle of water let them stand over
the fire till they are reduced to a pulp then
strain them and to a pint of juice a pound
of pounded sugar – boil it to a jelly. This
recipe cured a person aged 80 of the Stone*
by taking the size of a large nutmeg at
going to bed every night.
*Do you know what the
‘Stone’ might be? Perhaps a
gall stone, or kidney stone?
Tips on preserving fish
Preservation of Fish – for the sweetness of
fish conveyed by land carriage, the belly of
the fish should be opened and the internal
parts sprinkled with pounded charcoal.
The same material will restore impure or
even putrescent water to a state of perfect A recipe for the cough or cold of
freshness. The same effect on meat and if ‘an horse’
put inside a hare to keep.
Homemade remedies may be taken with advantage – but should
Before the advent of the National not be taken unnecessarily.
Health Service homemade remedies
and medical concoctions were relied Recipe: Soothing chapped hands
upon. Notes for medical cures to Mrs Alsop’s advice – When the hands are
make at home are found within Miss chapd wash them and when wet rub them
Webb’s collection alongside the with honey, this is an excellent thing.
recipes for food.
Recipe: For shortness of breath
Recipe: To relieve bronchitis A Burgundy pitch spread upon leather
On a piece of headed notepaper, about the size of the ball of the hand and
complete with coat of arms, there laid upon the chest to remain on all the
is the following important advice winter is an excellent thing for shortness of
regarding Mr Mountford and his breathing or asthma. Mrs Robinson always
bronchitis and difficulty of breathing: puts one on the beginning of winter and
a large jug of boiling water with 4 table never takes it off till summer – finds the
spoonfuls of vinegar in it, a towel wrapped greatest benefit, could hardly live with out it.
round to keep in the steam and to inhale
the steam for 1/2 an hour or more and And more medical advice:
may be repeated when necessary. This will
reduce the swelling of the throat inside and Recipe: Hartshorn tonic
relieve the breathing greatly. Hartshorn shavings (red deer antlers) these
Having suffered bronchitis myself shavings are nourishing when dissolved in
last winter I can also swear by the old- boiling water and united with orange juice
fashioned breathing steam method, and sugar with or without a little wine as
though I used a drop of olbas oil circumstances may indicate – forms a good
instead of vinegar.
More advice is overleaf:
Pil Hydrar: grs ix
Pulo. Ipecae; grs vj If a bone is stuck in the throat
Ext.conii grs x lviij If a hair or fish bone stick in the
misce fiat pil xij capiat j throat immediately swallow the yolk
nora somni- of an egg
If great irritability is occasioned by business
matters or any other cause one of the pills
January 2018 Family
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07/12/2017 15:54
 A CENTURY OF CULINARY HISTORY
article of diet for the sick and convalescent.
Four ounces of the shavings boiled in two
pints of water until one pint and strained
affords a clear transparent jelly.
Veterinary cures too!
Besides cookery and medicinal recipes
and one for ‘Day and Martins’ blacking,
which had treacle in it, it looks as
though Miss Webb’s responsibility also
covered being something of a vet. On
the reverse of the burial entry there is a
recipe for horse medicine.
Recipe: For a cough or cold for
an horse
Oil of Annis seeds, one dram sweet spirits
of nike [?], half an ounce succotine aloes,
half an ounce or two drams according
to the strength of the horse oil. Olive two
ounce give it in a pint of whey or small ale
and two hours after give a mash. Bleed
when you give it if necessary and repeat it
in four or five days.
Mystery accounts
This is on a page torn from an almanac
for 1764, 30 years before the burial
extract which is on the other side. Above
the burial entry are other entries:
Account of Monies paid. (carried over £40
10s 2 1/2d
Feb 16th John Needham 1 s.
Feb 19th Brown for the poor. 10s.
17th Mr Coke Apothecary £2 2s.
3, Moors receipt for Land Tax. 16s.
16.Cockayne Clerk of St Alkmunds 5s 4d
Washing woman 5s 4 1/2
Melland the Butcher 10s 3d.
Total £52 8s 2d
The only church I can find with the
patronage of St Alkmunds is in Derby.
A recipe anthology
Many of the recipes are those gleaned
from other people.
There is Dr Hunter’s cream cheese
without rennet. Mrs Wragg’s dessert
dish to be baked in tea cups and served
with wine sauce and Mrs Brown’s
pickled cucumbers. Mr William
Addersick’s recipe ‘to roast small birds’
uses bread crumbs in a dredger. Mrs
Gardner’s Calves foot jelly calls for 5
quarts of water to a gang of feet [that’s a
set of feet = 4] and Mrs Smyth’s lavender
water needs one pint of the best
rectified spirits of wine, one ounce of
English Oil of Lavender and one ounce
of ambergrease. [Another receipt
for the same adds 2 grs of musk
64 Family
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p62-66 Charlotte Soares FINAL.indd 64
and 30 drops of essence
of bergamot.] Mrs Alsop
(again) covers cranberries
a little with sugar and when
cold makes them in tarts.
There’s Mrs Tomlinson
of Cheadle’s gingerbread
recipe. This shows the
size of household being
catered for: 3lb flour, 1lb
treacle, 1lb sugar, 1lb and
half of butter or lard, 3
ounces of ginger, a large
nutmeg, some brandy, a
few caraway seeds and
candied lemon peel if
liked. A quart of a pint
of cream made warm
with the treacle.
Other names are
Summerhill, Wiggins,
Mrs Thomson, Loxley,
Bradborn, Mansfield,
Haddersich, Mrs
Frears’ cook Cheadle
and Mrs Bainbridge.
Insights to times
gone by
There are no other
instructions, the
method must
have been learnt by A page of mystery accounts found among the recipes
watching and making
under supervision.
And it seems no expense was spared, to write your Name and Address in
ambergrease, nutmeg and cranberries full on this Ticket, and present it at
surely being very costly in those days. the door on entering. By order of the
On the reverse of a recipe for Directors, J. Samuda, Secretary.’ The
brewing ale, there is a faint pencil year 1871 is more than a hundred
drawing of a house behind railings years after the almanac date – the
and another large upstanding earliest item in the recipe collection –
building. I only discovered this when and a long time after Ann Perry died.
the morning sun was shining in at a One embossed headed piece of
certain angle – I had been through notepaper, addressed 68 Gloucester
the collection numerous times and Terrace, Hyde Park – the Jennings’
never noticed it before. I cannot tell if residence – with another recipe for
it represents Beamhurst Hall. lavender water written on it, must
The dates of the collection cover also date from after Ann Catherine,
over a hundred years, the earliest being Henry Mountfort’s daughter, married
the almanac for 1764 and the latest William Jennings in 1852.
being 12 November 1870. The majority A further piece of printed paper is
of the handwriting is the same. half of a flyer for a concert and ball
One recipe for pancakes is on the under the patronage of the right
back of a printed notice from North honourable Lord and Lady Vernon.
Staffordshire Railway Company’s half- WH Holmes of Sudbury respectfully
yearly meeting at the City Terminus announces his intention of having
Hotel, Cannon Street in the City of his annual subscription concert of
London, on Wednesday 15 February ‘Vocal and Instrumental Music’ at the
1871 at one o’clock. ‘If you attend this Red Lion Inn, Uttoxeter on Monday
meeting you are requested previously evening 16 January 1826. I wonder how
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07/12/2017 15:54
 Records of Georgian & Victorian housekeeping

near this day did the housekeeper/

cook write out on the back her recipe
for Collard beef, which was salted and
left for 12 days before boiling.
Another half poster is for the
opening of the new organ in the parish
church of Checkley, 13 May 1827.

Clues to Miss Webb’s life

It would seem Miss Webb was at
Beamhurst in the 1820s but had also
been gathering recipes in the 1790s and
was maybe alive in 1764, the date of the
almanac. She had a cousin Martha who
gave her a recipe for cream cheese.
One could expect a career of 40
years or so, although some of her
recipes may be copying out older ones
using very old scraps of paper.
As a matter of interest, on the 1841
Census all the servants at Beamhurst
Hall, the residence of Mr Henry
Mountfort are aged between 20 and 30.

Little mysteries
Some receipts are mysterious. This The 1841 Census shows an Ann Webb living with the Mountfords.
one has no title, for instance: Was she Mary née Webb’s mother?
1lb potatoes, 3 quarters sugar pounded
together very fine, then 3 quarters pound
butter, six eggs beat well, nutmeg grated
fine, stir it well up.
So what does that make? Is it baked,
fried or boiled? Is it luxurious mashed
potato? Miss Webb does not enlighten us.
Then there is a dish called
‘Porcupine’ involving biscuit in a dish
covered with custard and blanched
almonds. Why is it called ‘Porcupine’?
I suppose the almonds must be stuck
in like spines.
She recommends that before
toasting cheese, you soak the cheese
in water for three or four hours. I have
yet to try this myself but she says it
will be a wonderful improvement and
makes it excellent.
There are several recipes I want to
try, this one in particular: ‘clusters
of Elder flowers before they open A Victorian engraving of Beamhurst Hall
make a delicious pickle. This is
only done by pouring vinegar over
them’. (I make a refreshing drink And mark the clime the limits and the size But Britons envy not these wealthy climes
with elderflowers left in the fridge Where grow not trees, nor waves the Perpetual war distracts and endless crimes
overnight in water, then strain and golden grain Pollute the soil pale avarice triumphs there
also freeze as flavoured ice cubes.) Nor hills nor dales diversify the plain Hate envy rage and heart corroding care
But endless green without the farmer’s toil With fraud and fear and comfortless despair
A recipe for life? Through all the seasons clothe the favourd soil There government not long remains the same
And finally there is a page of writing Fair pools wherein the finny race abound Now they never like us a monarch’s name
titled ‘Enigma’. It is not a recipe, By human art prepared enrich the ground Now Cromwell like a base and low born knave
unless one for life. Not India’s coasts produce an apler store Nobles and kings and queens presumes
A spot there is say travellers where it lies Pearls ivory diamonds gold and silver ore to brave

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 A CENTURY OF CULINARY HISTORY
Britons be wise let avarice tempt no more
Spite of its wealth avoid this fatal shore
The daily bread which providence has given
Eat with content and leave the rest to heaven.
I cannot find this as a quote so
maybe Miss Webb wrote it – a poet as
well as general household expert.
Putting my research skills
to use
I couldn’t resist putting a few names
into Ancestry.com but without much
success. Even Ann Perry’s burial drew
a blank – they don’t have it on record.
I then went to the newspapers and
Henry Mountfort appeared often
including his marriage – in 1830, to
a Mary Webb daughter of Mr James
Webb of Stafford! Could this be her,
the lady of the house, not the cook
after all? This would explain the many
entries on the back of paper folded
to be an envelope, addressed to Mr
or Mrs Mountfort. Would a cook
have access to them? And there is a
little card on which is written Mrs
Mountford (sic). I thought it might be
a place setting, but on the other hand
perhaps it was on the front of a recipe
book and had become detached, kept
along with the loose leaves. There are
several size notebook pages within the
set, now all in loose leaf form. It’s also
the right size to have been slotted into
the label frame of a box file.
Census and more newspapers
recorded Henry and Mary’s two
daughters and there was an older
lady, Ann Webb living with them
in 1841 who would have been born
around 1770. Maybe there were two
generations of recipes being used or
copied out.
In 1851 the Mountforts were
living quietly in Kent with no live-
in servants. In 1861 they were
back at Beamhurst Hall with a full
household. To confuse matters, in
1855 a 24-year-old Thomas Webb of
Beamhurst Hall was advertising for a
place as gardener where he could live
in with his only child. Perhaps there
was after all by coincidence, a servant
66 Family
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p62-66 Charlotte Soares FINAL.indd 66
A photograph of Beamhurst Hall
family called Webb. cook/housekeeper/lady of the house
And Ann Perry? I am still no further or whoever it was who saved her
finding out who she was and why recipes in the blue marbled folder
her burial was important enough labelled Miss Webb. Maybe a reader
to be copied and kept in the recipe knows more!
collection. Or was it merely that the
recipe for horse medicine on the Can you make out the sketch of the
reverse was very important and was house below?
handed down mother to daughter
and happened to be written on a
page torn out of the old calendar.
But there is an alternative idea.
In The Journal of Legal History Vol
37 referred to on the net under
‘Migration of Manuscripts’ –
Henry Mountfort attorney is
mentioned of Gough Square,
London. If he was a working
attorney, then maybe Ann Perry
was simply someone in a case he
was working on, his clerk went to
verify her death for legal reasons,
and that 1764 almanac was only
being used as scrap paper on
which was written later the useful
horse medicine recipe.
But this is too early to be the
Henry (b1789) who married Mary
Webb (b1806). The 1792 burial
entry and the 1764 almanac, About the author
however tantalising to a genealogist,
may have nothing to do with the Charlotte
fgfg Soares’ passions
are writing, history, music,
travel and making patchwork
quilts. She has self-published family
histories and undertaken trips with
other people to further their research on
location, as told in ‘Genealogy angel’
(FT January 2012).
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07/12/2017 15:56
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The Battle (Eagle Day). until of the Histo Hawker g
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100
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BUY NOW
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or bytoday
Order calling 01778
by visiting 392027
our website
www.armourer.co.uk ICONIC
www.family-tree.co.uk
or by calling 01778 392027
January 2018 A IR Family
FamilyTree
CRAFT 67
Sopwith Camel, Hurrica
Spitfire, Mosquito, Lan ne,
cas
Harrier, Vulcan, Tornado ter,
and
Eurofighter Typhoon
RAFPromoFamilyTreeFPA.indd
p067.indd 67 1 31/10/2017
06/12/2017 12:56
10:29
 FROM THE WORLD OF TECH
Techy tips
for family historians
Make the most of digital devices, websites, apps and gadgets, with
genealogical web guru Paul Carter
Tech tool
For a long time now smartphones have really been
advanced miniature computers with the built-in
facility to make and receive calls, but all those
features and apps can quickly drain the phone’s
battery power. There’s nothing worse than visiting
a church yard, far from home, and finding you
have insufficient battery remaining to photograph
some ancestral grave stones.
Must-have gadget
In a bid to avoid this nightmare scenario, I pack
an external battery pack that can be connected to
my phone via its USB cable. All that’s left to do is
remember to charge the charger before leaving home!
There’s many similar models on the market but I use a
Pilot External Battery Pack (£19.99 from Amazon).
68 Family
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p68-69 Tech tips FINAL.indd 68
Searching the web
Google search is a key tool for any family history research, whether
that’s searching for a family name, an individual, a village reference
from a census or an occupation we’ve not heard of. You may not be
aware that there are some tools available within Google to help get
the very best from your search.
How it works
When entering a normal keyword string in the search box,
Google will do its best to match the most relevant results for some
or all those keywords, although not necessarily in the same order
as you entered them.
Change that search by enclosing the keywords inside double
quotes and it becomes an exact phrase search, returning results
for just those words, in the correct order. This is an excellent way
to narrow results for a particularly wide search.
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 15:59
 Gadget know-how for genies

App of the month Sharing large files

I stopped taking a compact camera on archive Scanned documents and digital photographs form an integral part of our
visits a long time ago as the one included in family history research material but what’s the best approach to sharing
my smartphone is as good, if not better. Just these files with others?
taking photos of the copies I needed worked It’s not unusual for such files to be quite large; a photo from a smart
fine, but editing and organising those photos phone will be several megabytes in size. Using physical media, such as a
later required more work. USB stick or CD-ROM, is fine but not always that convenient. Sending
large files as email attachments can be problematic, for the sender and
Scanning know-how the recipient, as email was simply never designed to work in this way. For
Until recently, I used a scanning app called security reasons, email providers often impose limits on the maximum
iScanner, which costs £4.99, although the attachment size allowed per email. For example, Gmail, Yahoo, and
available free trial version is good enough to Outlook limit the size of an attached file to 25MB.
try its features. The scanner app automatically Fortunately, there is a solution, by using a file transfer website such
identifies the boundaries of the document in as https://wetransfer.com
the camera window and the captured image
is even straightened and aligned, avoiding WeTransfer step-by-step
the inevitable skew caused by not holding the File transfers websites all work in a similar fashion, and in the case of
camera exactly level. I was even able to scan WeTransfer, enable you to send up to 2GB of files at a time for free.
multiple pages to a single PDF and upload The process is very straightforward.
them to my cloud storage.
Earlier this year, I switched to the new
Adobe Scan. Brought to us by the same
people who have for years allowed us to
view PDFs for free via Adobe Acrobat
Reader, this free new app is simple to use,
taking the familiar features of iScanner
Pro and just making them better! The
optical character recognition (OCR)
facility automatically scans any typed text 2
in the document, making the document 1
searchable. This is so useful although only Enter the email address of the
for typewritten text and not for spidery Just click on the plus symbol and recipient, your email address and an
Victorian handwriting! The scanned select your files to send optional message
documents are automatically saved to
secure cloud space, making them easy
to access on your computer at Adobe
Document Cloud (https://documents.adobe.
com). You just need to register for a free
Adobe account. Adobe Scan is available on
both the Apple and Google app stores. It’s an
app I would certainly recommend trying.

3 4

The files will be An email is also automatically sent to the

automatically uploaded recipient, containing a link to download the
files. Better still, you will receive an email to
TH notify you when files have been downloaded.
NEXT MON
me tips to
help The files typically remain available for
I’ll have so documents
with sc an ni ng seven days, after which they are deleted
one
with your ph

About the author

fgfg
For example of how to use Google to search Paul Carter is a web designer and genealogist, based on the Kent coast,
within a specific website try who has developed website solutions for a number of professional genealogists, family
veitch site:www.nationalarchives.gov.uk and local history organisations. He is the technical lead for Name & Place, the online
This returns eight results from The National Archives' database app for one-name and one-place studies www.nameandplace.co.uk
website each referencing the name ‘Veitch’ Paul is also the Website Manager for the British Association for Local History
(BALH), an AGRA Associate and can be found on Twitter at @_pacarter.

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

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 Books
Top choice A HISTORY OF BIRDS by Simon Wills

F
amily history is quite an
extraordinary hobby, as we
make intriguing connections
between so many disparate
aspects of the past on our mission to
step back in time and learn about the
lives of our ancestors. Simon Wills’s
latest book is just such an example
– a history of birds – and, as family
historians, we’re sure to find the
many ways that our feathered friends
were regarded and used in times
gone by fascinating.
Did you know that swan wing
feathers were used for arrow flights,
or that of a goose for quills? Blue tits
were originally called ‘mase’ (from
the Anglo-Saxon ‘little’), in medieval
times the prefix ‘tit’ was added (also
meaning ‘small’), and the word evolved
to become titmouse – then the suffix
was dropped, leaving ‘blue tit’.
It’s easy to think that things have ever
been so, but nothing stays the same,
and our ancestors’ relationships with
the birds around them would have been
very different from our own. I’ve had a
huge amount of fun reading this book,
and I’m sure, like me, you won’t be able
to resist reading out little snippets from
the interesting pages to anyone who
happens to be at hand (my husband
now knows quite a bit about the history
of birds too on account of this).
Illustrated with beautiful clear
photographs and historic prints of
the birds in question, this book is a
treat for those with a love of wildlife
and history.
• ISBN 9781526701558. RRP £16.99
hardback. White Owl (Pen & Sword).
Review by Helen Tovey

Uncivilised
Genes by
Gustav Milne
This revealing new
book explains how
understanding our
‘caveman biology’ can
help humans build a
healthier urban future,
at a period in history when we are seeing
an epidemic of lifestyle diseases, such as
obesity, coronary problems and diabetes.
Author Gustav Milne is a leading
archaeologist and academic specialising
in urban archaeology. Currently, he
leads the national community-based
coastal archaeology project hosted by the
Museum of London Archaeology and
featured in the Channel 4 series, Britain
at Low Tide, so he speaks knowledgeably
and engagingly about the subject. He
notes that the problem with our modern
society is that it continues to change at
remarkable speed – and yet anatomically
and genetically we remain much as our
ancestors were thousands of years ago.
Although we can’t change our genes, he
argues, we can alter our modern urban
lifestyles, our buildings, offices and even
our town plans to better suit our biology.
Eating like a hunter-gatherer, with
our food shaped by the seasons, being
active, having pets and changing our
habitats to make them more natural
– with access to green outdoor spaces
and light – and sociable, would not
only be uplifting psychologically but
also benefit our ancient immune
system, says the author. Building
a world that better fits our genetic
makeup – taking lessons from our
prehistoric past – is the key to a
healthier future within the urban
environments that many of us now
live in. This fascinating volume will
certainly make you think about the
lives of your ancient ancestors and
give you food for thought about
your own well-being and the routes
Western society should be taking to
aid our future survival.
• ISBN: 9781781352656. RRP
£12.99, paperback, £8.54 on Kindle.
Independent Thinking Press.
Tracing Your
Ancestors
Through the
Equity Courts
by Susan T
Moore
Discover the wealth
of genealogical
information hidden
away in the courts of equity, which
genealogist and author Susan T Moore
describes as ‘one of the most useful,
if not the most useful of all sources for
family history’ in this hugely informative
guide book for family, local and social
historians. The Court of Chancery (with
its origins in the reign of Richard II)

70 Family
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was the main court of equity, engaged
in administrative matters originally,
and based on conscience rather than
common law. This book also explains
the purpose of, and records created
by, the other courts of equity, such as
the Star Chamber (mainly dealing with
cases involving violence), the Court of
Requests (cases of low value) and the
Duchy of Lancaster. Equity court records
are written in English (unlike those of
common law courts, which are in Latin
up to 1733) and are held by The National
Archives. These under-used records can
prove several generations of a family
in one go and give rich insight into
ancestors’ lives and relationships. If you
haven’t yet investigated these remarkable
records, Tracing Your Ancestors Through
the Equity Courts will not only whet your
appetite but provide excellent historical
context and advice on why and how to
seek them out.
• ISBN: 9781473891661. RRP £14.99,
paperback, £10.79 on Kindle.
Pen & Sword Family History.
BRISTOL ROOTS
Bristol’s Pauper
Children:
Victorian
Education and
emigration to
Canada by
Shirley Hodgson
Retired headteacher
and family historian
Shirley Hodgson has painstakingly
researched the stories of Bristol’s street
children who were part of national
emigration schemes to Canada from
the 1860s to the late 1930s, and are
now collectively known as British Home
Children. Around 100,000 British
children were sent to Canada and
Newsflash
The Kabristan Archives, which
specialises in preserving memorial
a,
inscriptions from Ireland, Sri Lank
India and Jamaica, is digitalisin g its
books and offering a selection of
er
hard copies for free to its newslett
subscribers (excludin g post age).
il
Visit http://kabristan.org.uk or ema
rg.uk for more deta ils
sales@kabristan.o
www.family-tree.co.uk
p70-71 Books FINAL.indd 71
Family history reads with Karen Clare
today some four million Canadians are
descended from them; more than 1,500
paupers went from Bristol’s industrial
schools, reformatories and workhouses
and other institutions alone, producing
an estimated 60,000 descendants
today. Bristol’s Pauper Children uncovers
the hidden stories of those forgotten
youngsters, exploring how the city’s
poor were dealt with in earlier times
and the history of education and child
emigration in Bristol. The emigration
agencies believed they were acting in
the children’s best interests, offering
them a fresh start with their new
families. In reality, most home children
worked on farms or as domestic
servants, and lived an isolated, lonely
and even brutal existence in pioneer
country. Many Canadians are still only
now learning about the important role
home children played in their country’s
history. This thoroughly-researched
and sympathetic book lists the names
of Bristol child emigrants uncovered by
the author, as well resources and tips for
further research, finally allowing these
lost children’s voices to be heard.
• ISBN: 9781909446113. RRP £12,
paperback. Bristol Books.
Bristol
Municipal
Burial
Registers
Volume 2
Bristol and Avon
Family History
Society has published the second CD
resulting from its seven-year project, in
association with Canford Cemetery and
Crematorium, to transcribe and index
all 81 burial registers created by Bristol’s
seven municipal cemeteries up to 1991.
Volume 1, published in 2014, recorded
the registers of Greenbank Cemetery
and this second volume completes the
project by covering the remaining six
cemeteries: Avonview (from 1883),
Brislington (from 1905), Canford (from
1903), Henbury (from 1923), Ridgeway
Park (from 1888) and Shirehampton
(from 1898). Nearly 145,000 people are
recorded and each register includes
cemetery, register number, entry
number, burial date, forename(s),
surname, parish/district, sex, age at
death, date of death and additional
‘noteworthy information’.
• RRP £9 plus p&p, available from
www.bafhs.org.uk/shop-1
Book news in brief
Pen & Sword histories
Pen and Sword’s latest publications
feature a multitude of fascinating
topics, from Georgian queens to the
extraordinary life of AA Milne. Family
historians with early 19th century
criminal ancestors will find Crime,
Clemency and Consequence in
Britain 1821-1829 (£12.99, paperback)
particularly interesting; author Alison
Eatwell provides insight into the
lives of criminals, their sentences,
circumstances and relationships,
using petitions held by The National
Archives. New military history titles
include hardbacks Victoria Crosses
on the Western Front – Third Ypres
1917 by Paul Oldfield (RRP £40) and
Photographing the Fallen – A War
Graves Photographer on the Western
Front 1915-1919 (RRP £25). Details at
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
Police ancestors
In North Bucks Bobbies: The
Establishment of a Rural Police
Force in the Milton Keynes
Area in the 19th Century, family
historian Roger Boulton tells
the story of the men who were
required to uphold the law
over the course of a century that saw
huge progression in the organisation
of police services; from the isolated,
part-time, unpaid parish constables
to the era of a co-ordinated county
police force. Priced £7.99 in paperback
(102pp, ISBN: 9781909054448), North
Bucks Bobbies is available from the
publisher, Magic Flute Publications, at
www.magicflutepublications.co.uk
and Amazon.
Normans in Oxfordshire
Local historian Julie Ann Godson has
penned an entertaining romp in 1066:
Oxfordshire and the Norman Conquest
– why it all started and finished in our
county. From Edward the Confessor’s
birth in Islip through to the formal
surrender in Wallingford after the Battle
of Hastings, modern Oxfordshire
provided the backdrop to major events
that shaped the destiny of the nation.
At 86 pages with 88 illustrations, it is
available on Amazon.co.uk at £8.49
(ISBN: 9781786979223).
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 71
07/12/2017 13:48
 THE SOCIETY SCENE

The society’s founder members, chairman and secretary with

Dr Nick Barratt (back row, centre) at the 2017 Open Day

Spotlight on…
Hertfordshire
Family History Society
John Tunesi outlines the many events and activities of Hertfordshire Family
History Society, which has been celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2017

T
he Hertfordshire Family
History Society (Herts
FHS) was founded in
1977 and is a member of
the Federation of Family History
Societies and a registered charity.
The society has played an
important role in family history
research in the county of
Hertfordshire. There are regular
monthly meetings (except during
the August holiday period) with an
invited speaker. The society tries to
strike a balance between talks for the
experienced family researcher and
sessions for complete beginners who
do not know where to start.
The society has members from all
over the United Kingdom and from
overseas. Membership entitles you
to attend meetings without charge, Hertfordshire People, the society’s
submit your research interests for award-winning quarterly journal
inclusion in our members’ interest
catalogue, receive the quarterly
society journal and generally join in
the activities of the society.
At the meetings, in Woolmer
Green Village Hall, Hertfordshire,
members may use the research
facilities that are always available,
and buy a society publication or
another outside publication. Often
there is a stall of secondhand books
that have been especially selected
to be of interest to family history
researchers. The society also receives
journals from other family history
societies that could be of interest and
may be borrowed, or members can
also consult our ‘Book Boxes’.

72 Family
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 Map showing the progress Local knowledge & resources
of the society’s monumental
inscriptions project

FR E E
DIRECTOR
Do you ru
n a surna
Y
family or m e,
local histo
society? ry
Let poten
members tial new
know abo
by postin ut it
g th
free to w w e details for
w.family-t
co.uk /clu ree.
bs

The society’s website at
www.hertsfhs.org.uk
Our award-winning quarterly
journal Hertfordshire People contains
news and events together with
articles from members. Regularly
included are the names of new
projects, such as the indexing of the
Hertfordshire Militia Ballot Lists, as
close as we can get now to a census
of men between the years 1758 and
1786, of which Hertfordshire has
an almost complete set, and also
Poor Law records prior to 1834.
There is also an ongoing recording
of monumental inscriptions in
Hertfordshire churchyards before
they get lost or unreadable.
All our publications, booklets and
CDs can be purchased via GenFair at
www.genfair.co.uk or at meetings of
the society. We also have a Facebook
page at www.facebook.com/
HertfordshireFamilyHistorySociety
along with a Twitter feed
@Herts_FHS which are engaging
new audiences and existing
members alike.
As our society reached its 40th
anniversary in 2017 we are looking
the Hertfordshire County Show and
a very successful Open Day. For more
information on the Herts FHS visit
our website www.hertsfhs.org.uk
How to join
Membership runs from 1 March to
28/29 February each year and the
current annual membership fees
are: UK £13 paper journal / £9 digital
journal; non-UK £16 paper journal /
£10 digital journal.
For more information visit
www.hertsfhs.org.uk or contact
the Membership Secretary, 134
Beechwood Avenue, St Albans,
Hertsfordshire AL1 4XY or email
secretary@hertsfhs.org.uk
www.facebook.com/
Facebook “f ” Logo CMYK / .eps Facebook “f ” Logo CMYK / .eps

members and new members’ to the future and ways in which HertfordshireFamilyHistorySociety
interests. Members can choose family history can be promoted to
between a printed or digital version. different age ranges and interest www.twitter.com/@Herts_FHS
The society has undertaken major groups. This year we had a stall at

www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family

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 COMMEMORATIVE PROJECT
TAP HERE
FOR MORE
IMAGES FROM THE
RESEARCH ZONE
PETERLOO
Finding Peterloo roots
The Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819 was a turning point in British
history. Now the city is gearing up to mark the 200th anniversary with a
commemorative project that includes helping descendants of those killed or
injured trace their family trees. Simon Wills finds out more
O
n 16 August 1819 a crowd of
60,000 peaceful protesters
assembled in St Peter’s
Square, Manchester, to
listen to speakers urging democratic
reform since fewer than 2 per cent of the
population had the vote. Soldiers and
police charged the crowd and 18 people
were killed and nearly 700 injured.
Karen Shannon is the chief executive
of Manchester Histories, which is
working with various partners to
commemorate the Peterloo Massacre
in 2019. She described some of what
they hope to achieve.
Q Have you been able to identify
all the people who were killed
or injured in the massacre?
A There’s a separate website at
www.peterloomassacre.org that
74 Family
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p74-75 simon wills FINAL.indd 74
lists all people killed or injured on
the day. Whether this is every single
person I can’t guarantee, but using
the contemporary sources available,
this is who we know about. It states
people’s injuries or says if they were
killed. It also includes yeomanry,
police and officials as well as the
protesters, and the different types of
individuals are colour-coded.
Q What can you tell us about
Peterloo Descendants: My
Family Tree?
A What we’re trying to do with
this project is hopefully
work with some of the Peterloo
descendants in Manchester to trace
their family trees back to Peterloo.
We’d like to explore their past, and
the history of their family, and hope
this will inspire others to do the
same. Manchester libraries will be
supporting this, and will have history
sources to help local people.
We’d like to try and trace family
history via stories and visual
representations rather than simply
the classical family tree diagram. We
want to delve a little bit more into the
lives and stories of everyday people
who were alive at the time; a bit more
of the social history, if you like. What
did people do for a living and what
did that job involve? And what did
they eat? It’s the hidden history of
people’s ancestors.
We’d also like to look at the parallels
between society at around the time
of Peterloo and today. Protesting, for
example, is still a phenomenon in the
21st century, as is equal opportunities
www.family-tree.co.uk
11/12/2017 14:31
 research
zone
A Peterloo handkerchief from
the People’s History Museum,
commemorating the massacre
Below, right: Karen Shannon, the chief
executive of Manchester Histories
and the development of democracy.
History helps us to look forward as well
as back.
Q You’re going to develop
a walking app – what will this do?
A There’s a lot of really fascinating
talks that groups and individuals
give about Peterloo, and we’re not
trying to replace them or take over
existing Manchester walks. Our app
would let you follow a map and at
certain locations you’d get information
such as what the yeomanry were doing
here, or the history of a named person
involved who perhaps lived nearby. It
will also help to connect with other
assets such as exhibitions in museums
and link to other online resources. We
hope it will help to connect to younger
people, particularly, and school
groups, for example.
The information in the app will
hopefully be rich media – perhaps
a video with a character to tell you
Exploring the Peterloo Archive
at the People’s History Museum
in Manchester
www.family-tree.co.uk
p74-75 simon wills FINAL.indd 75
Marking 200 years since the massacre that changed society
the story, but also with text and
audio. For example, we might have
an actor pretending to be one of the
yeomanry or Henry Hunt [a radical
speaker at Peterloo who went to
prison because of it].
Q How has the Peterloo Massacre
inspired you personally?
A I’ve only been in post for a year,
but I knew about it before then.
The act of protest can change society.
Peterloo was the start of many similar
movements such as the suffragettes
and the reform of democracy. It’s
the story of how ordinary people can
make a difference and get change
to happen in terms of equality and
rights. It’s a story that must be told,
and everyone should know about it: it’s
important for democracy and freedom
of speech.
Q What else will you be doing
to commemorate the 200th
anniversary in 2019?
A We’re doing a lot! People should
use the Manchester Histories
website to keep an eye on things at
www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.
uk but we will also be creating a new
Peterloo website, which will be ready
for 2019. We’ve been successful in
gaining a Heritage Lottery Fund grant
with the People’s History Museum
here in Manchester. We have a cultural
group and a public group and both
are helping to develop plans. Different
groups of varying sizes will be looking
at different aspects. For example,
the art gallery will be looking at how
crowds are portrayed, and Tameside
local authority will be producing a film
with young people.
Formal commemoration will start
from June 2019, but we hope to build
up a momentum from 2018 onwards.
The director Mike Leigh has a film
about Peterloo coming out in 2018 and
Maxine Peake is in it, so we hope that
will help as a catalyst too.
We’ve been looking at some of the
contemporary protest songs from
Peterloo and thought about recreating
or reimagining some of them with
contemporary musicians such as
hip-hop artists. We really want to
reach beyond the traditional history
or cultural event audience who may
not normally engage, to get them
interested.
Highly
acclaimed
Lancashire
actor Maxine
Peake is
appearing in
a film about
Peterloo, due
out in 2018
Look online
• www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.
org.uk – Manchester Histories
Keep in touch with all the
latest news about the Peterloo
commemorations in Manchester
for 2019
• www.peterloomassacre.org –
Peterloo Memorial Campaign
Describes the events that took
place and enables you to discover
if your ancestor was killed or
injured in the massacre
• www.phm.org.uk – People’s
History Museum A museum about
democracy, which aims to show
‘there have always been ideas
worth fighting for’
About the author
Dr Simon Wills is a
fgfg
genealogist and author
with more than 25 years’
experience of researching his ancestors.
He has a particular interest in maritime and
natural history and his latest book is The
History of Birds (see Books, page 70). Other
titles include: Voyages from the Past, How Our
Ancestors Died and a novel, Lifeboatmen.
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 75
07/12/2017 10:08

DIGGING DEEPER
Twiglets
L
ast issue I had a daft notion
that the Joseph Holdsworth
who lived in Ramsbottom,
Lancashire, and had four
children baptised and three buried
at nearby Emmanuel chapel in
Holcombe, might have been the last-
born son of my 5x great-grandmother
Sarah Holdsworth. Sarah, I decided,
was pregnant when her husband
Samuel died in 1783, and left to bring
up not six children on her own, as I’d
thought, but seven.
So off to Ancestry.co.uk to look for
a Joseph Holdsworth born 1783-84 to
a woman called Sarah, and miracles
of miracles, up pops one straightaway.
Joseph Holdsworth, son of Sarah
Holdsworth, 1784, St Mary’s Church
Prestwich. But nooo! It takes me a
minute to realise that I’m not looking
at a baptism, but a burial. Poor little
Joseph, I don’t think he lived very
long. There’s no corresponding
baptism, so this is perhaps the only
record to show he even existed.
But was he ‘my’ Sarah’s child? Well,
a couple of things suggest he may
have been. The burial took place at
the same church where my 5x great-
grandfather Samuel was buried the
year before, and both register entries
say the deceased were ‘of Pendleton’,
a district of Salford. Do the dates
work out? Hmm, only just. Samuel was
buried on 15 October 1783, Joseph
on 20 July 1784; that’s spot-on nine
months apart, and would fit fine if
Sarah was in the earliest stages of
pregnancy when her husband died.
So, bizarrely, my theory that my
5x great-grandmother gave birth to
another child after she was widowed
might be right, but it’s not exactly
worked out as planned, has it?
Because if Sarah’s infant son Joseph is
in a grave in Prestwich, who the heck’s
the Joseph in Ramsbottom?
Incidentally, thanks to everyone
who wrote in response to my query
last issue about whether a deceased
father was ever named in a baptism
register. It seems it depended entirely
on the minister. Sometimes, in smaller
76 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p76 Twiglets January FINAL.indd 76
Diarist Gill Shaw charts the rollercoaster
ride of researching her family history
parishes, they might have noted the
father’s name, and even the date he
was buried (and you sent in some
wonderful examples that made me
quite envious!), but I suspect that in
Manchester, where big churches like
St Mary’s Prestwich might deal with
a dozen or more burials a day, you
count yourself lucky to have a name
and a date.
My theory’s not exactly
worked out as planned...
Well OK, what now? I’m still
convinced the chap in Ramsbottom
has some connection to Sarah and my
branch of the Holdsworth family, but
maybe I’m starting at the wrong end.
Instead of trying to find his birth, I
might be better off taking the adult
Joseph, and working backwards. Can I
find his marriage? (To another Sarah,
confusingly.) And although last issue I
couldn’t spot his burial at Emmanuel
chapel, he might be somewhere round
about. Either of these could shed light
on when he was born, then we can try
again for a baptism, and see where (if
anywhere) he fits in the jigsaw.
So, the first child of Joseph and
Sarah’s that I know of is Elisabeth,
baptised 1811, so let’s look for a
marriage close to that. I start with
the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk
at www.lan-opc.org.uk and bingo,
here it is: September 1810, Joseph
Holdsworth, a spinner, married Sarah
Redfearn at the parish church in
nearby Bury. Good, good. Now let’s try
for Joseph’s burial, this time searching
the whole county.
A couple of dozen results and, oh,
what have I done wrong? It’s returned
a list of people called ‘Hallsworth’.
Ah, slip of the keyboard; when I
typed in the surname, I missed out
the ‘d’. I’m just about to click the
back button, when suddenly I spot
him. He’s right here: January 1838,
Joseph ‘Holsworth’, age 52, abode
Ramsbottom. And, after all, he was
buried at Holcombe with all the other
Holdsworths. Hallelujah!
Now, 1838 brings us to the early
years of civil registration, so there
might be a death certificate. Ooh,
excitement! On the other hand, the
informant will almost certainly be his
wife or one of their children, so it’s
not likely to help much in terms of
Joseph’s relationship to my ancestor
Sarah. But we’re close to the censuses
now too, aren’t we, and even though
my Holdsworth generation are long
buried, Joseph’s widow and children
should be out there.
But first, because I just can’t resist
grubbing around in the 18th century,
let’s look again at who this man could
be. If he was 52 in 1838, he was born
c1786, and Joseph Holdsworth isn’t a
terribly common name; surely there
can’t be all that many.
Back at Ancestry, I input a birth
year of 1786 +/-2 years, and start to
scroll through, but the handful of
Joseph Holdworths here were mostly
baptised in Yorkshire, and they’re
not really calling to me. But we’ve
seen an assortment of odd surname
transcriptions along the way, so I try
‘Holsworth’, then ‘Houlsworth’. Still
nothing. One more, ‘Holdworth’.
Oooh. The top result makes me
smile, though I’m not quite sure why.
It’s a Bishop’s Transcript for a boy
baptised at St Mary’s Prestwich on 13
January 1788. When I click through
to the image, it says ‘Joseph, son of
Sally Holdsworth by Anthony Limb,
Middleton.’ Ha, now that’s a possibility
I hadn’t even thought of!
I’m probably scandalously maligning
my poor 5x great-grandmother’s
reputation here, but Sally is another
name for Sarah, isn’t it? And the family
were originally from Middleton, so it’s
conceivable they could have moved
back. I know I shouldn’t. I really
shouldn’t. But let’s play a little longer,
and see where this goes…
About the author
fgfg
Gill Shaw is a freelance
writer and editor and former
assistant editor of Practical
Family History. She lives in
Cambridgeshire and loves
singing, walking and tracking
down elusive ancestors.
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 10:10
 BITE-SIZE FAMILY HISTORY
Being busy doesn’t mean you have to neglect your favourite hobby, you can still learn
in your lunch break! Squeeze just 60 minutes of family history into your daily routine
and you’ll soon start to see your tree blossom. So settle down with your lunch and
tuck into Rachel Bellerby’s genealogy treats
Know-how in under 100 words!
Quarter Sessions
The Court of Quarter Sessions was
formed in 1361 and as the name
suggests, met four times a year, in
England (as well as Wales and Scotland
from 1388 and 1661 onwards). The
court was a meeting of justices of the
peace, who would dispense justice with
the help of a jury and carry out local
government business.
Quarter Session records are among
the oldest public records in the UK
and can be found in county and
town record offices as well as some
commercial family history websites,
with local newspapers often also
carrying reports from the Sessions.
Record collection of the month
The 1939 Register
This register covers the whole of
Britain and Northern Ireland on the
eve of World War II, allowing you to
find out where your ancestors lived,
their occupation, and who their
neighbours were. The Register was
taken on 29 September 1939 and you
can explore it at Findmypast.
Because the censuses for 1931 and
1941 are not available due to being
destroyed by fire and not taken during
the war respectively, the 1939 Register
78 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p78-79 rachel lunch hour FINAL.indd 78
The lunch hour
genealogist
bridges the big gap from the 1911 Census,
the most recently available census.
Anniversary of the month
29 January 1856 –
The Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) gallantry
medal was established by Queen
Victoria on 29 January 1856. Awarded
for ‘most conspicuous bravery, or
some daring or pre-eminent act of
valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme
devotion to duty in the presence of the
enemy’, the VC is the highest award in
Britain’s honours system and has been
awarded to 1,355 recipients during its
162-year history.
The medal is a bronze cross with
a lion emblem and the words ‘for
valour’, held by a crimson ribbon
(blue ribbon for naval awards until
1918). Queen Victoria presented the
first awards in person, to soldiers of
the Crimean War, and since then, two-
thirds of the medals have been given
to recipients by the serving monarch.
Because of its rarity, the Victoria
Cross is highly prized and can fetch
hundreds of thousands of pounds at
auction. The world’s largest collection
of VC medals is the Ashcroft
Collection, which comprises a tenth
of the medals ever awarded. This is
kept at the Imperial War Museum
in London, where displays also tell
the story of some of those who were
rewarded for their bravery.
Jargon-busted!
Bawdy court
This lively sounding court was actually
an ecclesiastical church court that
dealt with morality issues such as
adultery and witchcraft.
Video of the month
Scrapbooking
The new year is a great time to learn a
new skill – how about a spin-off from
your favourite hobby? Scrapbooking
is a fantastic way to present and
display copies of your family history
memorabilia and in this exclusive video,
Mandy Williams demonstrates how to
get started: http://familytr.ee/2uFjMsP
Best practice tip
Sources, sources!
Always cite your sources, even if the
information’s initially just for yourself!
It’s useful to be able to refer back to
what information you found where,
and if in the future you’re contacted
by someone researching the same
family, you can show that your family
tree’s based on credible sources.
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 14:29
 3

Sixty-minute research for busy folk

1

A record to learn about

The 1939 Register
See a snapshot of home
and work life for your
ancestors in the 1939
Register. The document
shown here is a page from
the register and includes
address (1), which offers
the option of checking
details of neighbouring
houses also, the status (2)
of each individual – single,
4 married or widowed, the
name of the borough (3)
and an extra column (4)
where the enumerator has
noted details of military
service that individuals
were undertaking on the
lead up to war.
Lunch hour genealogist
2
1 2

3 4

5 6

b rea k:
Take a rd
crosswo
Across Down
Across
5. An institution which cares for children without parents
Down
1. Member of the Society of Friends
5.7.An
Ten-yearly population
institution record
which cares for children without parents 2. Term for1.dying without
Member a will
of the Society of Friends
8. A record that charts the transfer of property 3. DNA strand that transmits hereditary information
7. Ten-yearly population record 2. Term for dying without leaving a will
9. Person who collects census information 4. Abbreviated transcription of a record
8. A record that charts the transfer of property 6. The study of family
3. DNA history
strand that transmits hereditary information
9.* Person
Find the crossword answers on page 92.
who collects census information 4. Abbreviated transcription of a record
6. The study of family history
www.family-tree.co.uk January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 79

p78-79 rachel lunch hour FINAL.indd 79 07/12/2017 14:30

 YOUR Q&A
ADVICE...
With our experts Jayne Shrimpton, Celia Heritage,
Adèle Emm, Tim Lovering, and Mary Evans
Photo-dating costume clues
Q
I wonder if it would be possible
to date these pictures, please.
Note the reverse of one of the
photos (facing page), which says that
the picture can be enlarged to ‘life size’!
An accurate date would help me to
place these ancestors on the family
tree. My forebears lived in the Great
Driffield area of Yorkshire, including
Foxholes and Beverley, some being
members of the Scruton family,
agricultural implement makers of
Foxholes. My grandmother used to
spend her holidays there, as her mother
(Hannah Rebecca Scruton) had been
widowed when young. Hannah Rebecca
was the daughter of Thomas Scruton,
1841-1918 and Jane (née Holiday), 1839-
1922), my 2x great-grandparents.
Elizabeth Wiggins
wiggins.a.e@gmail.com
A
These two card-mounted
studio portraits (photos 1
and 2) are cartes de visite
(cdvs), representing the most popular
photographic format of the 19th century.
As we see from the printed details, they
were taken by professional photographer
Matthew Boak. His main studio was
in Driffield, although he also ran other
branches at various times, including
Pickering, Bridlington and Malton.
Well-known in the region and prolific in
his work, there is even an illustration of
his residence and studio at George Street
House, Driffield on the useful website
‘Photographers of Great Britain and
Ireland, 1840-1940’: www.cartedevisite.
co.uk/studios/studios-illustrated/
boak-m/
Not often do we get to
TO 1
PHO see an image of the building
where our ancestors had
their photographs taken!
The group photograph is rather
unusual as it appears to be a mid-
Victorian marriage scene comprising
several people gathered together
inside the studio. During the 1860s and
1870s if newlyweds wanted a wedding
80 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p80-87 Q&As January 2018 FINALISH.indd 80
photograph, usually the couple visited
their local studio following the church
ceremony and posed together in a
double portrait wearing their ‘Sunday
best’ clothes: indoor group scenes
including bride, groom and relatives
only became common from the 1890s;
otherwise pictures of the whole bridal
party were taken outdoors.
However, here is a bride, seated,
holding a posy, and the groom with his
hand on her shoulder, posing alongside
an older lady and man, who may be
parents, and three younger folk, including
a young boy, who could be siblings of
either bride or groom.
2 The second photograph,
PHOTO also by Boak, depicts an
elderly lady seated full-length
in the manner of early cdvs dating from
the 1860s. Her dark costume, with its
fitted bodice and full skirt reflects the
styles of the mid-1860s, but if the reverse
of the card mount that you provided is
identical for both photographs, then the
design could suggest a later date for this
portrait, also in the 1870s.
Aged in her late-60s or 70s, in my view,
she must have been born significantly
HOW TO GET IN TOUCH...
FACEBOOK/TWITTER
We welcome your family history
queries, and try to answer as
many as we can, but we do have a
considerable backlog at the moment,
so, if possible, we recommend in the
first instance posting your query on
facebook.com/familytreemaguk
or tweet us @familytreemaguk and
we’ll aim to help you there
EMAIL
If those options don’t suit, please
email helen.t@family-tree.co.uk and
we’ll be as quick as possible
@
earlier than your 2x great-grandparents,
so perhaps she was the mother, or even
the grandmother, of Jane (b1839) or
Thomas (b1841) Scruton.
Finally, a plausible explanation of the
reference to ‘life-size’ enlargements:
I have never seen any 5ft or 6ft
photographs but believe this must refer
to the vogue for close-up head and
shoulders portraits enlarged from an
existing photograph to around actual
head and shoulders size – not a life-size
full-length figure, which would appear
rather odd. JS
Photo 1
The bride wears a pale-coloured or
white gown and a white headdress
in honour of the occasion. Indoor
group scenes including bride,
groom and relatives only became
common from the 1890s – yes,
this photo dates from two
decades earlier
The style of the bride’s front-
buttoning costume with ornate
skirt dates this scene to about
1871-1877. A datespan such as this
can be very helpful in matching a
photo to a wedding that occurred
at that time in the family, and thus
identifying those depicted
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 14:11

Photo 2
The dull material of this ancestor’s
gown – probably black – along with
her black day cap may well indicate
that she is in mourning, so when
considering her likely identity expert
Jayne Shrimpton suggests a search
for an elderly ancestor who lost her
husband or another close relative in
the late 1860s or early to mid-1870s,
to help pinpoint which ancestor is
photographed here
www.family-tree.co.uk
p80-87 Q&As January 2018 FINALISH.indd 81
Positively a collodian positive
Q
Are you able to date these two
photos please, which my mother
said were family members on
my father’s side, although my father did
not know who they were?
The photos are on glass. I am
guessing they were husband and wife.
Many thanks for your help.
Janet Robinson
janfred1997@gmail.com
A
Judging from your description of
these pictures as photographs on
glass and from what I can see of
their appearance in these scans, these
are collodion positives or ambrotypes.
ING
STAND
UNDER PHOTO In early
EARLY ATS 1851, while
FOR M photography was
still evolving and not yet
available to a mass market, the new wet
collodion photographic process using
transparent glass plates was introduced.
The glass plate negative could be
used to create positive prints, but most
professional portrait photographers
adopted a method devised in 1852,
which entailed converting the original
negative into an apparently positive
photograph, by bleaching the image and
blacking one side of the glass with black
shellac (varnish) or velvet. The resulting
glass photographs were often cased or
framed for protection: called collodion
positives in Britain, they were patented
in the United States as ambrotypes and
this is the name by which they are now
best known.
Reverse of photo 2
When analysing old photos be sure
to check the back of the photos. The
designs on the back evolved over time
– the colours, patterns, motifs etc were
all popular in different periods, so help
to provide a date around which the
photo was printed
Details at the top of the card mention
that life-size reproductions of photo-
graphs might be made!
Tracing the photographer in trade
directories, for instance, can help to
deduct when they were in business,
and so narrow the time frame in which
your ancestor’s photo was taken
Your questions answered
Photo 3
The gown shown in this photo is
made from a coloured checked
material, especially fashionable in
the 1850s and turn of the 1860s:
unfortunately, her dress sleeves,
which might have provided a more
precise time frame, are obscured by
the jacket
Cheaper to produce than the existing
luxury daguerreotype photographs,
ambrotypes were welcomed by
commercial photographers and clients
alike, although relatively few were
produced in Britain until the mid-
1850s, when initial patent and licence
restrictions were lifted. The number of
photography studios surged and prices
plummeted: in 1857 an ambrotype could
cost around one shilling, this lowering
further to 6d by 1858 (2d extra if cased),
so the affordable ambrotype began to
open up portrait photography to more of
our ancestors.
However, ironically, those set in the
studio, like these examples, only had
a short life-span for during the early-
1860s they were rapidly superseded
by the neat, convenient carte de visite
print: consequently most British studio
ambrotypes date to c1855-1863.
Your female photograph (photo 3)
portrays a girl or young woman dressed
in the fashions of the end of the 1850s
or early 1860s. Her hair, centrally-parted
and drawn down smoothly over her ears,
is typical of this era, and her wide paletot
jacket was a fashionable style at this
time, since it fitted well over the circular
crinoline skirt. Going by what we can see,
I estimate that she was photographed
c1857-1862. Marriage was a common
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 81
07/12/2017 14:11
 YOUR Q&A
Photo 4
This man wears the slender, narrow-
sleeved dark frock, deep V-fronted
waistcoat and black silk cravat
fashionable during the 1840s and
much of the 1850s, but outmoded
among younger men by 1860
reason for visiting the photographer and
at this early date sometimes bride and
groom posed separately in ‘matching’
companion photographs. However,
I cannot see from this scan whether
she wears any rings: she might also be
quite young, aged still in her ‘teens’, so I
suspect it may have been a birthday that
prompted this photograph.
The male photograph (photo 4)
displays a similar close-up long
half-length or three-quarter-length
composition of the subject against a
blank background, as was typical of
early daguerreotype and ambrotype
photographs.
His image is hard to date precisely,
but if a British ambrotype it will date to
between the mid-1850s and early-1860s.
Although his hair appears dark and curly,
it could well be dyed or even a wig: his
hairline is receding and facially I see
an elderly man aged in his 60s or 70s.
Unless your records suggest otherwise,
I doubt he is the husband of the young
woman, but could be her father or even
her grandfather. JS
82 Family
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p80-87 Q&As January 2018 FINALISH.indd 82
Seeking a burial place
Q
Family Tree was
recommended to me
following a conversation
on the family history discussion
website Curious Fox,
http://curiousfox.com
I’m trying to find out where in
the UK my paternal grandmother
is buried and wondered if you
could recommend in general
terms what documents to
consult and where to find them.
Internet resources may also be
helpful but perhaps less so.
I’ve been doing family history
research for the past 12 years
and now know exactly where
and when my grandmother died
(London, 1920) but have run
into a brick wall in establishing
a paper trail beyond her death
certificate which will tell me
where she is buried.
These are the details I have.
Elizabeth Harvey Mould was born in
1867 in Stone, Staffordshire, and died
on 1 January 1920 at 1 Graham Street
SW1 (now Graham Terrace SW1W 8JE).
She was my paternal grandmother
and a domestic servant/housekeeper.
She had three children (Catherine
Anne, Elsie Irene and Stanley Harvey
Tomlinson – my father). She never
married but was housekeeper for
Thomas Hides Tomlinson c1890-1907.
Thomas was land agent to the
Duke of Northumberland in the
late 19th century.
As to my search for Elizabeth’s burial
place, I have found no evidence that she
was buried either near her birthplace in
Staffordshire nor in Lancashire, where
two of her sisters lived. The owner of 1
Graham Street at the time of Elizabeth’s
death was Anne Clara Georgina Wilson
(no relation to Elizabeth) who passed
away in 1923, and in her will expressed
the wish that her funeral service be
conducted at the nearby church of
St Mary. It is possible that similar
arrangements were made for Elizabeth
(a recent enquiry to St Mary’s Bourne
Street SW1W 8JJ – Graham Street in
1920 – elicted no response). Can anyone
tell me more about Elizabeth Harvey
Mould in 1918 to 1920?
Many thanks in advance if you are
able to help.
David Mould
d.mould@btinternet.com
A
At this date it is most likely that
Elizabeth would have been
buried or cremated at one of
the London cemeteries, unless she
had expressly stated otherwise. Here
are some tips to help your search, and
points to bear in mind.
Local authority or
private cemetery?
While some cemeteries are run by local
councils, others are privately owned and
it’s important that records for both are
checked in your quest to locate your
grandmother’s burial.
A person would often be buried or
cremated locally to where they lived or
died, but a person’s religious inclinations
might also play a part in where they were
laid to rest, as might their social status.
A good example of a cemetery which
could be overlooked by researchers is
Streatham Park Cemetery, South London.
This is privately owned and would not
show up if you focused your searches
only on council-run cemeteries.
Religious inclination?
Streatham Park buried people of all
religious denominations, but notably
buried many Catholics from all over
London. It’s important to extend your
searches to more distant cemeteries
(whatever your ancestor’s religious
affiliations) when initial local searches
bring no results.
Pauper burials
If you are looking for the death of a
poorer ancestor, particularly one who
might have died in hospital or the
workhouse in the mid to late 1800s,
Brookwood Cemetery in Woking had
contracts with many London hospitals
and workhouses to bury the bodies of
those who had no family able to pay for
the burial.
Online burial &
cremation registers
There are now many online databases
you can check for your ancestor’s burial.
Most notable is Deceasedonline.com,
which aims to be a centralised database
of all statutory burial and cremation
registers within the UK. This should be
your first stop in the search for Elizabeth.
Although its coverage is not yet complete,
that for London cemeteries and
crematoria is pretty good, and it’s also
an important resource for tracking down
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07/12/2017 14:11
 Your questions answered

burials outside London. DeceasedOnline
regularly releases new cemetery records,
so it’s worth subscribing to its blog at
http://deceasedonlineblog.blogspot.
co.uk or alternatively to my own quarterly
newsletter at www.chfh.co.uk which
includes details of the latest genealogy
web releases. You can conduct a free
search of the index and buy units or
a subscription if you find anything of
interest and wish to look at full details
from the grave register, or discover the
names of anyone else buried in the
same grave.
Essential reading & research tip
When DeceasedOnline does not provide
a positive result, get hold of a copy
of Greater London Cemeteries and
Crematoria by Cliff Webb (easily available
to buy online). Use this in tandem with
the coverage list on DeceasedOnline to
check whether there are any cemeteries
in the vicinity of where your ancestor
lived or died, or which match his or her
religious affiliation, that have not already
been searched.
Can the cemetery help?
If you identify other cemeteries, some
provide online access to their records
wonder if you are able to shed any light
on rank, regiment, unit etc.
He was born in the Ukraine around
1894 and died (was murdered) in Siberia
in 1929 after being forcefully sent there.
We also believe that he may have been
a Cossack serving under Tsar Nicholas
II and after WW1 a landowner farmer
who refused to become part of a
collective. The whole family was sent to
Siberia – both parents and five children
(three girls and two boys, one of which
died there). The remaining children
returned to their village after the death
of their parents.
Some years later, during WW2,
the Nazis took my mother-in-law to
Germany where she was part of the
forced labour regime. I have also
attached a photo of her brother in
his WW2 Russian uniform (he is on
the right), unfortunately after several
searches she still doesn’t know what
happened to him but if his regiment
etc can be recognised that would Photo 5
be a bonus. Any help you could give The main feature identifying the
related to both photos would be greatly three men as Opolchenie is the
appreciated. Thanks. distinctively shaped bronze cross
Terry Davies worn on each man’s cap
terrydavies@blueyonder.co.uk

while others will provide details following
a telephone enquiry. It helps cemetery
staff if you can provide the exact date
of death. There may be a charge for this
service and some cemeteries require
application in writing.
Delayed date of registration?
Remember that names may be spelled
incorrectly or middle names omitted
from the registers, while, if the death
registration was delayed as the result of
a post mortem or coroner’s inquest, the
burial might have taken place well over a
month after the actual date of death. This
may have been the case for Elizabeth
Harvey Mould. I found an entry for a lady
recorded as ‘Elizabeth Mould’ (no middle
name) on DeceasedOnline, buried in
February 1921 in Lewisham. You can now
pay to view the entry, which will help you
decide whether or not this relates to your
grandmother. CH
Researching Red Army soldiers
A
The three soldiers in the
photograph above right are
members of the Opolchenie or
militia. This officially comprised all able-
bodied males between the ages of 21 and
42, so in theory the pre-war militia was a
very large force, potentially comprising
680 infantry, 80 cavalry, 50 artillery and 5
engineer units of about 1,000 men each.
Unlike similar part-time militia forces in
the English speaking countries – such
as the Territorial Force in the UK or the
National Guard in the US – these Russian
units only existed on paper in peacetime.
The Opolchenie was a separate
force to the main army reserve, which
consisted of men who had previously
served in the regular army for three or
four years, and then served in the reserve
for about another 14 years. However,
one of its roles was nevertheless to
provide reserve or replacement personnel
to the army. Another role was to form Photo 6
local defence units made up mainly of The two soldiers in this photo are
Opolchenie personnel. A large number of both wearing a distinctive pointed

Q
My wife’s parents arrived in this
country as Displaced Persons
around 1947. We have a photo
of her maternal grandfather in uniform
(standing on the right – see photo 5) and
these local units were formed in 1914.
The main feature identifying the three
men as Opolchenie is the distinctively
shaped bronze cross worn on each man’s
cap, which had been the symbol of the
cap, known as the ‘budenovka’,
which became a symbol of the Red
Army during the Russian Civil War
of 1917 to 1922

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 YOUR Q&A
militia in Russia since the Napoleonic
wars. This bore the Russian motto ‘For
Tsar Faith Fatherland’ on the four arms
of the cross, while the centre carried the
royal cypher of Tsar Nicholas II.
Unfortunately for us, the Opolchenie
did not have a standard uniform, but
were equipped with any suitable clothing
available, provided by local government
rather than the army. The only
requirement was that red shoulder straps
should be worn, and the men of a unit
should be similarly dressed. These units
were typically equipped with the older,
dark green full-dress uniforms as seen
here, whereas the regular army had been
issued with khaki outfits for their service
uniform after 1907. Peaked caps of the
pattern seen here were also introduced
for from 1907 onward, and I would think it
likely this photograph dates to the period
of mobilisation in 1914.
The two soldiers in the other photo
(Photo 6) are both wearing a distinctive
pointed cap, known as the ‘budenovka’
which became a symbol of the Red Army
during the Russian Civil War of 1917 to
1922, and continued in use until winter
1939. The original pattern was rather
Below: Many of the family members in the 1911 Census below record jobs
reflective of the thriving range of industries in Manchester, particularly some
related to the textile trade (three twilers, an apprentice bleacher)
Below right: a letter from 1921 regarding the ‘mention in dispatches’
84 Family
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p80-87 Q&As January 2018 FINALISH.indd 84
high, and the one we see here is one of
the lower crowned later patterns, either
1927 or 1931. The men appear to be
wearing the 1935 pattern overcoat, with
standard red collar tabs. Therefore, we
can probably date the photo to between
1935 and 1939. The collar tabs carried
rank markings if relevant, so as there
are none we can assume both men
are privates.
I am afraid all the items on view are
very generic, so it is not possible to
identify a particular unit. TL
Tracing my great-grandpa
Q
I wonder if you could help me
find out more information on
my great-grandfather John
Willcock, who was born about 1887
in Manchester. His occupation was a
bleacher. Not much is known about
him or his family, as he died in 1932
when my grandma Dorothy Durkin (née
Willcock) was about seven years old.
Through looking on Ancestry I have
found his service record for WW1,
medal roll index card and that he
was in the London Gazette as he was
mentioned in despatches, his service
number was 26728. I would like to
find out what he did to be mentioned
in despatches and as well in his
service record it mentions about a
concentration camp, which I don’t know
much about.
I would also like to find out a bit
more about his family. I know that he
was married once before he married
my great-grandma Alice Willcock (née
Whitehead) and that his first wife Alice
Barlow sadly died in 1917 and that he
had a daughter Mona Willcock with
her, as she was my grandma’s older
half-sister. I have also found out that his
father was Frederick William Willcock
(but do not know who his mother was).
Through George’s military record for
WW1 I do know that he had a brother,
George Willcock, as he had put my
great-grandfather as his next of kin.
I did find a census record for 1911,
where it has a John Willcock as a
nephew of a John and Jane Willcockson
and his occupation was an assistant
bleacher, which my great-grandfather
was too, but I am not certain that this
is him.
Natalie Abel
na1603@hotmail.co.uk
A
Firstly, a bleacher worked in
the cloth or paper industry and,
because it involved caustic
chemicals and plentiful water, it wasn’t
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07/12/2017 14:12

a pleasant job. As your ancestor lived
and worked in Manchester (nicknamed
Cottonopolis) he probably worked in the
textile industry bleaching finished cotton
cloth. Let’s explore the details we do
have for further clues.
Look at the local area
The family addresses in Beswick,
Miles Platting and Ancoats were close
together and criss-crossed by the
Rochdale Canal, Rivers Irk and Irwell;
the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
all supplying communication, power,
water and transport for raw materials and
completed goods from the local heavy
industry; chemical, glass, brick, bleach
and dye works; finishing and calendaring
mills (textile industry); tanneries and
iron foundries.
The 1893, 25-inch Ordnance Survey
maps, free on the National Library of
Scotland website at http://maps.nls.uk/
view/126521549 and http://maps.nls.uk/
view/126522782 illustrate the area.
Looking at his enlistment details
John Wilcock enlisted at Heaton Park
on 6 October 1915, aged 28 years and
1 month and recorded his trade as
assistant bleacher. It was only a short
walk to the enlisting station from home,
64 Euclid Street, Beswick. John had a
distinguished career in WW1 rising to
sergeant and, what’s more, survived
the carnage.
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p80-87 Q&As January 2018 FINALISH.indd 85
Details of mentioned
in despatches
‘Mentioned in despatches’ (MiD) refers to
the submission of a report (the despatch;
similar to a diary) by officers outlining
recent events plus anyone who had
done something worthy of mentioning.
There was no award as such although
some received certificates explaining
the reason for their mention, and those
MiD were allowed to wear a small bronze
oak leaf on their Victory Medal ribbon.
Sadly, there is also no complete index or
register apart from the London Gazette
(free at www.thegazette.co.uk) and field
records may not survive.
Investigating post-war service
I noted the concentration camp reference
was post-war – 17.2.1919. I’m no military
expert, but maybe he was organising
repatriation. Wikipedia’s entry on WW1
German prisoner of war concentration
camps might be of interest at https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_
prisoners_of_war_in_Germany
Seeking John’s baptism
You also requested information about
John Wilcock’s family.
There is a baptism record on Ancestry
(subscription) for John Wilcock (sic), 16
October 1887 at St Luke’s, Miles Platting.
His parents were moulder Frederick
William Wilcock and Margaret living at 10
Fraser Street. St Luke’s no longer exists
but microfilm records are held on open
access at Manchester Central Library
(1871-1976; baptisms 1871-1899 on roll
MFPR 1523) with some via Ancestry.
What does the census say?
In 1891, Frederick Willcock (two Ls), wife
Margaret, both 24 and Manchester-born,
John, 3, and little sister Ada, 1, lived at
4 Lewis Street, St Luke’s, Prestwich.
Dad was an iron moulder; a physical,
dangerous job in iron foundries (see
maps above) pouring molten iron into
hollow moulds.
2x great-grandparents’ marriage
John’s parents, Frederick William Wilcock
(sic) and Margaret Costello’s banns are
on Ancestry, marrying 29 May 1887 at
St Luke’s (Civil Registration Index 8d
524). Frederick signed the certificate
while Margaret left her mark, hinting at
illiteracy. The happy couple’s address
was 24 Frazer Street. Both were aged 20,
officially requiring parental permission
Your questions answered
and, as son John was baptised in
October, this was a shot gun wedding.
Their fathers, John Wilcock, and John
Costello (deceased) were twisters
(textile industry).
2x great-grandpa’s baptism
Frederick William Willcock was baptised
in Manchester Cathedral on 5 August
1866 (born 30 July); his parents were
John and Sarah Ann Willcock. Dad John
was a silk twister (spinner), unusual for
1860s Manchester where King Cotton
was sovereign and silk production on the
downturn except in nearby Macclesfield
and Leek.
Being christened in the cathedral
was not as impressive as it sounds; the
number of babies baptised that Sunday
covered eight pages in the register
with eight babies per page. Pity the
overworked chaplain! In 1881, the family
was living in Ancoats (piece 3981, folio
42, page 35).
Setting sail for New York
On 9 November 1929, John Willcock
sailed from Liverpool for New York on
the White Star Line Albertic. He was 42,
a bleacher travelling alone 3rd class and
living at 40 Barlow Street; see http://
maps.nls.uk/view/126522815 Early the
following year, 25 February 1930, he
made the return journey on Cunard’s
Scythia, still travelling 3rd class. Had he
been considering emigrating? We’ll never
know as he died two years later. AE
Analysing name, date & place
Q
My three-times great-
grandfather, Kosciusko James
McDonald, according to his
death certificate in 1874 in Sydney,
Australia, was born in c1796 in
Bedfordshire, England, to parents
James McDonald, engineer, and
Elizabeth Batchelor. Kosciusko was
a wheelwright/millwright/engineer on
various documents. However, I have
been unable to find his baptism. His
parents were married in 1796 in Milton
Bryan in Bedfordshire by licence, with
a witness being Robert Batchelor.
James McDonald was from St Luke’s,
Middlesex. I have been unable to
identify any other children to this
couple. When Kosciusko married my 3x
great-grandmother, Sarah Boulstridge,
in 1830 he is described as a widower
but I can’t find this first marriage.
According to his death certificate he
January 2018 Family
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07/12/2017 14:12
 YOUR Q&A
had six sons and one daughter. I know
of only the daughter, Sarah Elizabeth,
who was born in Melbourne in 1845,
and two sons, James Kosciusko, who
was baptised in 1840 in Liverpool,
Lancashire, and Donald, who was born
c1843 in Tasmania, Australia. It would
appear the other sons were born before
immigration to Australia.
Could you give me any suggestions
on where to go to find out more on the
parents or the first wife or perhaps the
other children?
Sue Buckley
buckse@dodo.com.au
but a search of passenger lists through
http://stors.tas.gov.au/MB2-39-1-5
showed that they sailed from Bristol
aboard the Psyche later in 1841. It’s
possible that Kosciusko’s father, in the
same line of work, also moved around.
A search for Kosciusko’s baptism
therefore has to take into account a wide
range of years and also the possibility
of a different place. I think you should
also consider the possibility that he
was baptised simply as James with
Kosciusko being added later.
At least some Bedfordshire parish TAP HERE
records, including some for Milton FOR MORE
Bryan, are available on FamilySearch at IMAGES

A
There are three potential
problems with this search:
name, date and place.
It’s an advantage to have a less
common name but there is a downside
in that an unusual name can be badly
mistranscribed and mis-indexed and
therefore difficult to find in a search.
This seems particularly to be the case
with Kosciusko as I‘ve found the first ‘K’
indexed as both ‘R’ and ‘Th’.
Kosciusko’s Australian burial record in
July 1874 has an age of 79, which gives
a birth year of 1794/1795, which places
it before his parents’ 1796 marriage.
However, the 1841 Census gives an age
of 35. 1841 ages were rounded down so
he could be 35-39, which gives a birth
year of 1802-1806. A passenger list later
in 1841 gives his age as 33, which gives
a birth year of 1808. The 1841 Census
and passenger list ages would probably
have been given by Kosciusko himself so
these, though not a perfect match, are
more likely to be reasonably accurate
than one given more than 30 years later
in Australia by whoever registered the
death. You must therefore consider
the whole range of possible birth years
1794-1808.
While Kosciusko’s death certificate
says he was born in Bedfordshire, his
parents’ marriage shows that his father
was from St Luke’s in Middlesex. It
seems likely, therefore, that James was
working in London and that he and
Elizabeth moved back there after the
wedding. Kosciusko himself moved
around quite a bit, presumably for work,
with his second marriage in Coventry,
Warwickshire, and his son’s 1840
baptism in Liverpool.
After a great deal of searching I
eventually found the family in the 1841
Census in Bristol. I wondered why Bristol
www.familysearch.org and you
can also search all the registers at
http://familytr.ee/BedsPR
The surname McDonald is not
common in the area and there is no sign
of children to James and Elizabeth. ME
Pass it on
As time goes by it’s very easy as family
historians to accumulate or come across
things of historical interest, but which
aren’t specifically related to your own
family history. If you have items such
as these, which you no longer want,
and would like to see reunited with the
descendants of the former owner, then
we are very happy to publicise the details
in Family Tree in the hope that someone
out there is just such a descendant. There
is no charge for this service, but there is
the requirement that you are able to pass
on the item solely for the cost of p&p.
To follow are the details of ‘Pass it
on’ items that we currently have been
provided with.
Memorial bookmark
I found a silk ‘book mark’ (not pictured)
in a charity shop in Ramsgate, Kent. The
details are as follows:
In Ever Loving Remembrance
of my dear husband
Pte Charles Speight
(19709)
10th York & Lancs Reg
Late of
599, Wallace Cottages, Thornhill Lees
Who was Killed in Action
On Nov 15th 1916
Aged 33 Years
He is commemorated on the Thiepval
Memorial which gives more details,
and I would like the book mark to go to
one of Charles Speight’s descendants.
OF CARDS
Please contact me if you are related.
Jenny Morris
Morris.elgin@btinternet.com
Greetings cards
Reader K Morley has sent in some very
interesting memorial cards, notable by
their black borders, and also two stylish
1920s Christmas cards – which we
might call ‘minimalist’ today!
Names mentioned are:
Memorial cards: Joan Hutton, age
18, died 1918, Croydon area; Henry
Southgate, age 56, died 1877; Herbert
Tucker Brown, age 48, died 1928; Mary
McDougall Wilson, age 17, died 1925;
John Coombs, age 52, died 1905;
Charles William Hutton, age 30,
died 1923.
Christmas cards: Mr & Mrs Albert E
Sanders, Birmingham; and Mr & Mrs RA
Cook, Great Yarmouth.
If anyone recognises these names
from their family tree, please contact
helen.t@family-tree.co.uk with further
details of the cards, as we would
like to reunite them with those with a
family connection.

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p80-87 Q&As January 2018 FINALISH.indd 86 11/12/2017 14:28


Bromley, Kent
• Charles Patrick (age 23, father
Charles Patrick) and Ellen
[Prowe?] (age 22, father Thomas
Prowe) married on 30 November
1879 at St Thomas’s Church,
Islington, Middlesex
Birth certificates
• Charles John, born 27 January
1848, son of Charles John Elliott
and Sarah Ann Elliott, Shoreditch
• Charles Henry, born 22
September 1849, son of Charles
Henry Elliott and Eliza Elliott late
Elliott formerly Egan, Lambeth
• Ellen, born 25 September 1861,
daughter of William Patrick (and
Ann Patrick formerly Nason,
Chipping Norton
• Louisa Ellen Elizabeth, born
on 10 May 1858, daughter of
Jane Patrick, Wellingborough,
Northamptonshire
• Ellen Maria, born on 24 April
TAP HERE 1859, daughter of Henry Patrick
and Maria Patrick formerly
FOR MORE Phillips, Essex
IMAGES OF • Ellen, born on 5 October 1859,
CERTIFICATES daughter of John Patrick and
Mary Ann Patrick formerly Hill,
Guildford.
Unwanted certificates
The following certificates have been
kindly sent in to the Family Tree offices
by reader.
If you are related to any of those
ancestors mentioned below, and would
like the relevant certificate, please email
helen.t@family-tree.co.uk with details of
your postal address.
Death certificates
• Charles Spicer, 18 February 1846,
age 5, son of Henry Spicer, labourer,
Barham, Kent
• John Spicer, 24 July 1874, age 89,
gardener, Canterbury, Kent
• William Spicer, 1 January 1935, age
63, Catford
• William James Spiceley otherwise
Spicer, 2 March 1938, age 70,
arteriosclerosis, Shoreditch
• Sarah Collier, 2 February 1870, age
77, bronchitis, widow of Charles
Collier, carpenter
Marriage certificates
• Henry Rose (age 37, father John
Rose) and Annie Spicer (age 38
years, father William Spicer)
were married on 28 August
1915 in the Register Offi ce,
www.family-tree.co.uk
p80-87 Q&As January 2018 FINALISH.indd 87
Your questions answered
About our experts
Jayne Shrimpton is a professional dress
historian and ‘photo detective’.
She is photograph consultant for
TV series Who Do You Think You
Are? and her books include Tracing
Your Ancestors Through Family
Photographs (2014) and Victorian
Fashion (2016).
www.jayneshrimpton.co.uk
Professional genealogist Celia Heritage
runs The Heritage Family History
e-Course, an in-depth, online course
aimed at those with English and
Welsh ancestors. She is the author
of Tracing Your Ancestors Through
Death Records and Researching
and Locating your Ancestors and
publishes a regular newsletter
detailing family history news
and web releases.
www.heritagefamilyhistory.co.uk
Tim Lovering has worked widely
as an archivist and historical
researcher. He developed an
interest in genealogy through his
archive work. He has had a lifelong
interest in British military history, and
completed a PhD on this subject in 2002
Mary Evans is a retired teacher
with a special interest in dyslexia.
She has been researching her
family tree for more than 30 years,
has contributed to research on TV
series Who Do You Think You Are?
and Julian Fellowes’ Great Houses
Adèle Emm is the author of
Tracing your Trade and Craftsman
Ancestors (Pen and Sword) and her
new book, My Ancestors worked in
Mills, will be published by
Textile Mills
the Society of Genealogists. Her
website is at www.adeleemm.com
David Annal has been involved in the
family history world for more than 30
years and is a former principal family
history specialist at The National
Archives. An experienced lecturer,
he is also author of a number of
best-selling books, including Easy
Family History and (with Peter
Christian) Census: The Family Historian’s
Guide, and now runs his own research
Guide
business, Lifelines Research.
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 87
11/12/2017 14:28
 DIARY DATES
Find or post diary dates at
www.family-tree.co.uk/Events
for FREE or email them to
editorial@family-tree.co.uk
JANUARY 2018
From 5 January Pharos Tutors courses
Online. Pharos Tutors starts the new year
with a host of courses, beginning with
an Introduction to Medieval Genealogy
with Gillian Waters (5 Jan, 5 weeks,
£62/£76); Emma Jolly tutors Church and
Community, Selected records 1540-1800
(9 Jan, 4 weeks, £62/£76) and Janet Few
will be teaching Discovering Your British
Family and Local Community in the Early
20th Century (16 Jan, 5 weeks, £49.99).
• Book online at www.pharostutors.com
From 15 January Online classes
Online. Start 2018 with a new online
class from the University of Strathclyde,
Understanding Autosomal DNA Testing for
Genealogy: A Beginners Guide. Running
on Mondays for eight weeks from 15
January to 5 March, the class ‘aims to
impart knowledge of the scientific basis
of autosomal testing and teach the skills
needed to interpret DNA test results for
genealogy’. Family History Research: an
introduction is also now enrolling online,
running during the same time period.
• £167 per online course. Enrol at
https://mycll.strath.ac.uk
20 January Tutorial day
West Yorkshire. Craft tutor Mandy
Williams launches events organisers Your
Fair Ladies’ 2018 programme with this
popular scrapbooking tutorial day.
• 10.30am-3pm. £15. Pudsey, Leeds LS28
7AQ; http://yourfairladies.ning.com/
events/scrapbooking-22
W
WHAT’S NE
AT KEW
inars and
Tours, web e of the
lk s ar e ju st som
ta ar y
ting in Janu
events star e National
as part of Th
18 events
Archives’ 20 sit ht tp://
og ra m m e: vi
pr
2hZTsAW
family tr.ee/
NEW EXHIBITIONS
Now open Designing English
Oxford. The University of Oxford’s Bodleian
Libraries is hosting a major new exhibition
charting the skills and innovations of the
very first graphic designers of English, from
88 FamilyTree
FamilyTree January 2018
p88-89 Diary dates FINAL.indd 88
Unsung heroines & pioneers
T
wo exhibitions in Leeds are exploring the lives of female ancestors in the
home, school and workplace, to mark the centenary year in 2018 of the first
women getting the vote.
A Woman’s Place? at Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, opening on 20 January,
reveals how everyday life has changed for women since the Victorian era. Brought
to life through witty illustrations by Jacky Fleming, the exhibition features stories
and objects from 1860 to the present day linked to pioneering women; from
suffragette Leonora Cohen’s WSPU badge to a gown worn by Councillor Joyce
Challenor in the 1960s.
Four relatively unsung heroines who lived and worked in Leeds are also being
honoured with new commemorative ceramics by local artist Katch Skinner: 1940s
all-female jazz band leader Ivy Benson, from Holbeck, Morley cycling champion
Beryl Burton, suffragette Mary Gawthorpe and Edith Pechey, one of the UK’s first
female doctors, who practised in Leeds in the 1870s-1880s. ‘These trailblazers and
visionaries on display are just a thumbnail of the women who helped make a change
to society,’ explained Katch. The exhibition runs until 31 December 2018, alongside a
programme of talks, study days and workshops.
Meanwhile, Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills is revealing untold stories
of the working class women elected to represent some of Britain’s greatest industries,
from coal to cotton, in its new Queens of Industry exhibition, on show now until
September 2019. Queens of industry were a 20th century phenomenon; the first
Railway Queens were elected in the mid-1920s and the last Coal Queen was crowned
in the early 1980s.
The competitions were inspired by the Rose and May Queens beloved of villages
and towns, and the queens of industry went on to represent their industry, county
or nation in what often proved to be a life-changing opportunity. The exhibition
features rarely seen objects from Leeds Museums and Galleries plus loans from major
museums and private collectors.
• Free with museum admission; find out more at www.leeds.gov.uk/awomansplace
and www.leeds.gov.uk/queensofindustry
TAP HERE
FOR MORE
IMAGES OF
A WOMAN’S
PLACE
From A Woman’s Place? exhibition: Bramley Ladies Choir c1920-1930 and a banner
from Kirkstall Girls’ Friendly Society
King Alfred to Chaucer. Designing English: manuscripts and the famous Alfred Jewel –
Graphics on the Medieval Page explores inscribed ‘Alfred ordered me to be made’, it
the craftsmanship of Anglo-Saxon and is believed to have been commissioned by
medieval scribes, painters and engravers, King Alfred the Great (849-899 BCE), who
through a stunning collection of more than championed the use of English – as well as
60 manuscripts and objects held in the gruesome medical texts, gravestones and
Bodleian collections, one of the largest other objects engraved with English text.
medieval collections in the UK, alongside Discover everything from the materials used
loan items from the Ashmolean Museum, for parchment to the design of texts for
Oxford and the British Museum. Artefacts activities such as performing songs, plays
include royal genealogies, beautiful religious or music. The exhibition is accompanied by
www.family-tree.co.uk
11/12/2017 14:33

talks and events and ends 22 April 2018.
• Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-
5pm. Free admission, no booking
required. The Weston Library, Bodleian
Libraries, Oxford; www.bodleian.ox.ac.
uk/whatson
Now open Fighting for Empire
Docklands, London. Fighting for Empire:
From Slavery to Military Service in the
West India Regiments is a new display
at the Museum of London Docklands
shining fresh light on soldiers of African
and Caribbean descent who fought for
the British Empire as part of the West
India Regiments in the 19th century. The
exhibition focuses on the story of Private
Samuel Hodge, who fought with the
regiments and became the first soldier of
African-Caribbean descent to receive the
Victoria Cross. The West India Regiments,
an official part of the British Army, initially
used only enslaved African and Caribbean
men. For each soldier, military service
offered an alternative to the lifelong misery
of servitude on a sugar plantation. The
act of recruiting and arming 12 regiments
of enslaved men during the height of the
transatlantic slave trade highlights the
importance of the Caribbean colonies’
contribution to the British Empire.
Ends 9 September 2018.
• Open daily, 10am-6pm. Free entry.
Museum of London Docklands, No 1
Warehouse, West India Quay, London
E14 4AL; www.museumoflondon.org.
uk/museum-london-docklands
Now open WW1 commemoration
Greenwich, London. As part of the National
Maritime Museum’s commemorations for
the WW1 centenary, artist-in-residence
Paddy Hartley has created new artworks
reflecting the lives and surgeries of sailors
who suffered devastating injuries when
serving at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. At
their heart is a series of poignant pieces
inspired by Swansea-born Able Seaman
William Vicarage, who Paddy has been
researching since 2004. Vicarage sustained
life-changing burns to his face and hands
while serving on the HMS Malaya and
received pioneering surgery from Sir
Harold Gillies. The artworks tell the former
watchmaker’s story through to his later
years, revealing how he rebuilt his life
with the support of his family, recounted
to Paddy through their own testimonies.
Also collaborating with Gillies Archives and
Wellcome, Paddy has created a series of
works that examine various aspects of
www.family-tree.co.uk
p88-89 Diary dates FINAL.indd 89
What’s on in the family history world
Vicarage’s life, incorporating his family’s SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS
fond memories. The artworks are on display
across the museum, including the Forgotten 13 January 10.30am-1pm –
Fighters: The First World War at Sea gallery Brickwalls and Lost Ancestors
and Upper Deck. Dave Annal introduces strategies to
• Open daily, 10am-5pm. Free admission. help you get around the brick walls in
National Maritime Museum, Park Row, your research, particularly how to get
Greenwich, London SE10 9NF; www.rmg. the most out of online databases and
co.uk/national-maritime-museum advanced techniques. (£20)
13 January 2-5pm – Getting the Most
from the Ancestry Website
John Hanson aims to help you better
understand the Ancestry website and
its online finding tools. (£20)
17 January 2-3pm – Getting the Most
TAP HERE from the Society of Genealogists
FOR MORE Genealogist Else Churchill explains
IMAGES OF what’s available and where to look in
FIGHTING the wonderful and varied collections
FOR EMPIRE
EXHIBITION of the Society. Free but must book.
20 January 10.30am-1pm –
Watch faces from the new art displays Tracing your Huguenot Ancestors
at the National Maritime Museum In Wittenberg in 1517 Martin Luther
challenged the Roman Catholic
Opens 20 January The Soldiers’ Church’s teachings – and the
& Sailors’ Rest consequences set shock waves
Peterborough. Discover the stories throughout Europe. Kathy Chater
of WW1 servicemen who signed two looks at the history of Huguenots
visitors’ books as they passed through who fled France for Britain over 200
a tea stall on Peterborough East Railway years and how to trace them. (£20)
Station during 1916 and 1917 in this
immersive new exhibition at the city’s 20 January 2-5pm – Researching
museum. More than 500 servicemen Your Midland Ancestors:
signed the tearoom books on route to the Staffordshire, Warwickshire
Front, leaving behind thoughts, drawings and Worcestershire
and poems. During the last three years, Mike Sharpe presents a guide to
each soldier has been researched by researching Midland ancestors. (£20)
Peterborough Archives Service and a
team of volunteers through the use of 27 January 10.30am-1pm –
the dedicated www.peterboroughww1. DNA for Beginners
co.uk website and appeals through Debbie Kennett explains the three
social media. Now the project comes to a different types of DNA tests that can
close with this moving tribute. Brought to be used as an aid to family history
life through audiovisual technology and research. (£20)
the voices of actors, this is the first time
these century-old documents are going 31 January 2-3pm – Tithes and Taxes
on public display. Ends 15 April 2018. Records of tithes and taxes give us
• Open 10am-5pm Tues-Sun and a valuable and under-used resource.
Mondays during Michael Gandy explains how to
term-time. Free entry. access and use the records. (£8)
AY
Peterborough
AGR A D GR A (th ts
e
Museum, nuary A is • The Society of Genealogists,
On 27 Jaon of Genealog
Priestgate, ti in Goswell Road, London
Associa Researchers a
Peterborough a nd ) is h o ld in g EC1M 7BA. Visit www.sog.
Archivesment Day for at
PE1 1LF; R e c ru it alo g is ts org.uk for full listings and
na l gene gists
http://familytr. professioiety of Genealo book via events@sog.org.uk
ee/soldiersand the Soc kick off its 50th re or 020 7553 3290
to M o
ary year.
sailorsrest annivers d tickets £10
n
details anch) at htt p://
(incl lu .ee/agraday
family tr
January 2018 FamilyTree 89
FamilyTree
11/12/2017 14:33
 reading
We love s, and try
ter
YOUR LETTERS your let h as many
s
to publi le. Find out

MAILBOX
ib
as poss get in touch
how to us on
with
page 3

From creating memory boxes, to tackling DNA research,

and tracking down a tiny, but crucial, detail at long last...
find out what fellow readers have been up to as they
search for their ancestors

The satisfaction of a fact found

I’ve just finished reading the final few pages of the Christmas issue of Family Tree magazine. One of your readers’ letters just
solved a mystery for me!
Warren and Judy Hoole wrote about the names inscribed on the Menin Gate. They couldn’t understand why their ancestor, who
was KIA (killed in action) in October 1917, was included on the Menin Gate, when an article in an earlier issue stated that only the
names of those missing with no known grave who died up to and including 15 August 1917 were inscribed on the Menin Gate. The
response was that this cut-off date didn’t apply to troops of the AIF (Australian Imperial Force).
Although I’ve been researching military ancestors in detail for a few years now, I hadn’t paid attention to this 15 August 1917
cut-off date. This explains to me why my great-uncle George Heron, 1/7th Gordon Highlanders, who was killed in the Battle of
Cambrai on 20 November 1917, but whose body was not found and identified until 1931, wasn’t included on the Menin Gate.
This was like scratching an itch I couldn’t reach – I thought I was misinterpreting the documents I’d found, when I was actually
missing this little, but crucial, fact.
This is an example of the information consistently found in Family Tree that makes the rest-of-world subscription cost of this
magazine (not a complaint, just a statement of fact) so worth it to me!
Patsy Javor
pejavor@rogers.com
Editor: We’re delighted to have been of help. That is the endlessly rewarding nature of family history research –
finding out the precise clues we need to piece together our ancestors’ experiences.

What makes a good family history society?
The coverage on joining a family history society (FHS) has
persuaded me to write to you. I would like to air the subject of
what makes a good FHS, and more especially how does any
FHS keep their meetings focused on genealogy?
I must declare a vested interest. I am programme secretary
of Malvern FHS, and that is a difficult role to fill. I do have to
organise speakers whose topics are local history in some way,
or maybe speakers on national topics. Most speakers enthuse
about their subjects and are well received, but where – when
they are not specifically genealogy-related – is the family
history? Their talks do not help me further my research or
give me any ideas how I might present the results in a tree, in
a story, on paper or digitally – and those are my two personal
objectives in belonging to an FHS: further research, and
broader presentation.
As programme secretary my philosophy, endorsed by our
committee, is that if folk are to come to a meeting in a school
hall in Malvern on a cold, dark and probably damp evening,
they want to be entertained for about 90 minutes and if we can
add to their education with hints as to where else they might
look to further their own family research, so much the better.
Last May we launched an initiative in which three members
each gave a 25-minute presentation on an aspect of their
family tree. By the time you print this letter we will have had
our second such evening, and I have my first speaker of three
organised for a third event in 2018.
A further initiative is to be trialled shortly: between our
Chairman’s regular opening remarks and the evening’s main
speaker we will have a Five Minute Family History Feature
where, with the objective of ensuring that each meeting has
some genealogical content, however brief, we intend that a
member will give an update on their research. However, early
success of these initiatives may be concealing a problem.
I imagine we are little different from other societies in that
many of our members are drawing their pensions and few
are confident about standing in front of an audience to
give a PowerPoint presentation. Though we have a strong
membership at large, our meetings attract just 50-60 local
members, so how soon will I run out of willing volunteer
presenters from among this core?
I would be interested in hearing the views of other readers.
What makes a good FHS and most especially one that holds
well-attended monthly meetings? How many members
do they get to their meetings, and how do they manage to
maintain a bias in their meetings towards genealogy
(if indeed they do)? Where do they find their speakers, and
how far will speakers travel? What initiatives have brought
results for them? How can we entice folk to step outside and
come to a meeting of their local family history society?
Brian Symonds
brian@hswan.eclipse.co.uk
Editor: Many thanks for airing these issues. This is a subject
that will benefit both family history societies and the wider
genealogy community, if we can share successful ideas. If
you’re involved with a society, please do contact Brian and
Family Tree, and we will cover good ideas in future issues for
the benefit of fellow societies.

90 Family
FamilyTree January 2018 www.family-tree.co.uk

p90-92 Letters January FINALISH.indd 90 07/12/2017 16:07


My relative in Russia
The article by Amanda Randall (FT October)
mentions on page 59 the support given
by British and Allied troops to the White
Russians in NE Russia. This expedition
resulted in failure. The article does not
mention two expeditions using squadrons of
armoured cars.
The fi rst was led by Commander Lionel
Locker Lampson RN which travelled in
1915-1917 via Archangel, the Caucasus,
Turkey, Ukraine, Romania and western
Russia to support pre-revolutionary Russia
against Germany. Its mission ended with
the revolution.
The second expedition was post-
revolutionary, led by Major-General Lionel
Dunsterville, and had a specific objective of
preventing Germany from gaining access to
oil in the Caspian Sea. The squadron reached
Baku via Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia.
Certainly Germany did not gain access to the
oil and this may have had a significant impact
Oh the memories!
I was interested to read ‘How to Create
a Memory Box’ (FT October 2017), as I
have just retrieved a memory box from
our loft. When my children were born in
the 1980s I created a memory box for
each of them. I showed them the boxes
when they left home about 10 years ago,
but they were aghast at the ‘junk’ that I’d
collected and the boxes were returned to
my loft!
However, now my daughter is
expecting her first baby I have brought
her box down again. It’s been a pleasure
to browse through the contents with her;
she plans to store her ‘time capsule’ for
the future, and create a similar memory
box for her own child.
The box contains many items from
www.family-tree.co.uk
p90-92 Letters January FINALISH.indd 91
on the war. In this they were supported
wholeheartedly by the Russians. The
expedition took place despite the
objections of the UK troops who, at the
same time, were supporting the White
Russians opposing the revolution in
the north.
Interestingly the role of the Russians in
opposing the Germans in the south forms
an episode in the book Greenmantle by
John Buchan. The expeditions led by
Locker Lampson and Dunsterville are
both covered by the book The Czar’s
British Squadron by Bryan Perrett and
Anthony Lord, published in 1981 by
William Kimber, London. This account
includes a good contents list with the
names of some of those taking part,
many from Northern Ireland.
A relative, Wilfred Stanley Smith, wrote
a short account of the first expedition in
which he was a blacksmith. He left many
photos including many of the peoples
the year my daughter was born,
such as:
• A presentation set of mint
coins from the Royal Mint,
and a £1 note
• A Mothercare catalogue
• A national railway timetable
book and map (my husband
and I both worked for British
Rail at that time)
• Midwife and hospital ante-
natal notes (including a letter
stating that my husband
could attend the scan
appointment with me but
there was no guarantee that
he would be allowed into the
room while I had the scan!)
• Hospital identity bracelets
• Birth congratulations cards
• Lock of hair from her first haircut
• First pair of shoes
• First pair of glasses.
Over the years I added a variety of
school books, including the inevitable
infant school diaries: ‘Wen daddy was
comeing home he scided and he scad
backwuds and bumpt into the garij door.’ (I
hasten to point out that it was icy weather
and our drive has a steep slope down to
the garage!)
I also included school reports; paintings
and other craft work; homemade birthday,
Christmas, mother’s and father’s day
cards; certificates for swimming, ballet,
brownies, and so on; and her first
Have your say
encountered during both expeditions.
Tom Barry
tombarryamethyst@virginmedia.com
Editor: Many thanks for sending in these
details – books for background reading
and family connections are always
interesting to learn of.
Timeline tip
I have just come across what I believe
to be a very good timeline, from before
Doomsday to the present day. While it is
upon a Kent website – www.kent-opc.
org/timeline.html – apart from the first
entries, it is applicable largely to England
as a whole! It now provides the answer
to many a question I have relating to our
family history.
Tony Clayton
abclayton@btinternet.com
Editor: Thank you for the tip! Ways to
make sense of the passage of time are
definitely most welcome.
passport, complete with
embarrassing photo!
I didn’t include family photos as
those all went into photo albums, which
we often look at. My only regret is that I
didn’t pencil in the date on the back of
the items from school. The only thing I
didn’t manage to obtain to add to the
box was a copy of the newspaper for
the day my daughter was born – I was
rather busy that day!
Rosie Rowley
mrsrrowley@gmail.com
Editor: Many thanks for sharing the
contents of your memory boxes –
things that only get evermore valuable
as each year passes. Just think how
the descendants will love them!
January 2018 Family
FamilyTree 91
07/12/2017 16:07
 YOUR LETTERS

Snippets A grounded poet

of war Keith Gregson explains his love of the wartime ditties
of ‘Red Cross man’ Robert Service
Tramp, tramp the ‘ell road, the ‘orror and the ruin there
The graves of me mateys there, the grim, sour graves
Robert W Service – The Red Retreat

L
ancashire-born Robert Service moved to Canada in the 1890s
and served as an ambulance driver in France during the First
World War. By then he had already carved out a reputation
for himself across the Atlantic as a result of his down-to-earth
monologue-style poetry as reflected in his invention in 1907 of
a character called ‘Dangerous Dan McGrew’. Two years into the
conflict he published his equally down-to-earth war poems in a
collection called The Rhymes of a Red-Cross Man and dedicated
them to his brother Albert who had been killed on the Front earlier
that year. The Saturday Review wrote of Service’s collection that
it ‘dealt with the war in as realistic a manner as could any novel’. I
have always found his writings more to my own taste than those of
better known and loved war poets – possibly because of a personal
interest in music hall and popular culture. Service was down in the
trenches with the men as revealed in poems such as ‘The Stretcher
Bearer’, ‘Bill the Bomber’ and ‘A Song of the Sandbags’. The moving
‘Whistle of Sandy McGraw’ remains a particular favourite as already
noted in an earlier snippet (June 2015). The opening lines of the The cover of Robert Service’s book, The Rhymes of a Red
current snippet (above) are from a poem which deals with events Cross Man, and part of his moving poem on just one of the
surrounding the Battle of Mons in 1914 when, according to the poet, horrors men faced on the Front Line – bringing bodies of the
the allies tramped ‘the grim road, the road from Mons to Wipers’ deceased, injured and dying back to relative safety
singing ‘Oo’s Yer Lady Friend’.

6. The study of family history

Shhh! No peeking...
4. Abbreviated transcription of a record 9. Person who collects census information

Corrections, clarifications Here are your answers for the lunch-hour genealogist crossword on
3. DNA strand that transmits hereditary information 8. A record that charts the transfer of property

• Dear readers, we’re extremely sorry for the page 79 – how did you do?
2. Term for dying without leaving a will 7. Ten-yearly population record
1. Member of the Society of Friends 5. An institution which cares for children without parents
mistake to the numbering in the crossword Down Across
of the Christmas 2017 issue. If you would still
like to tackle the crossword, you can find the
correctly numbered questions at www.family-
e y
tree.co.uk To find the answers, please scroll m g
down the web page (no peeking if you are yet t e o o
to do it). As reader Ralph Atherton says, we
should be eating humble pie, not the mince c t s l
variety, this Christmas. a a o a
• Regarding the Battle of Camperdown r o t a r e m u n e r
(Christmas 2017, page 9) the location was a 9
little awry. This naval battle took place in the t s o n d e e d
North Sea off the Dutch coastal village of 8
s u s n e c r e k
Camperduin which is in the municipality of 7
Bergen – not to be confused with the Bergen b t h e g a n a h p r o
in Norway. As reader Dennis Bill advises, we 6 5

should put ourselves on weevil biscuits and

a n c u
4 3
water for a week! i q
• Regarding the Family History Handbook, 2 1

page 49: The Anglo-Scottish Family History

Society would like to amend the fi gure of its
Lunch hour genealogist
online database to 2 million names.

92 Family
FamilyTree January 2018 www.family-tree.co.uk

p90-92 Letters January FINALISH.indd 92 07/12/2017 16:07

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 THOUGHTS ON...
If it helps us
understand
When we embark on family history we need
to be aware we may discover things that are
extraordinarily painful, but Diane Lindsay
wouldn’t have it any other way
F
amily history is
riveting, compulsive,
and frequently
seriously entertaining.
We often chortle at matters
our forebears might rather
have remained private. I like
to think most of us research
with affection and, beneath the
humour, treat the absorbing
lives of our ancestors with
respect. I know I do, but despite
the odd ethical qualm, I enjoy
uncovering a secret as much
as anyone.
Sometimes however,
your research can also
metaphorically turn round and
bite you on the bum. Apart
from a lump in the throat
and occasional moist eyes I’ve
only really sobbed three times
during my researching life.
Once it was reading the
harsh report of the Hinckley
Workhouse doctor who sent
my 3x great-grandmother to
Hatton Lunatic Asylum in 1867,
where she died the following
year. In her lifetime she had
worked hard, lost a daughter
and three grandchildren and,
on the death of her husband,
her livelihood as well. Shortly
after his death her home was
sold too and her sons tried,
but couldn’t look after her.
When she died, she was simply
described as a pauper lunatic.
The second time was on
opening the death certificate
98 Family
FamilyTree January 2018
p98 Diane Lindsay January FINAL.indd 98
of my great-grandmother’s
first grandchild, on the steps
of Nuneaton Register Office.
The baby, born illegitimately
in Scotland to her runaway
eldest daughter who had died
in childbirth leaving two other
illegitimate children, was eight
months old and her grandma
Needing a family history fix, I did a general
surname sweep of local newspapers in the
1940s, not expecting to find much...
had taken her in. She died
from measles convulsions. My
great-grandmother still had
several young children of her
own at home. At that time, my
own first granddaughter was
also eight months old and had
just been in hospital with a
febrile convulsion, as had my
own daughter at around the
same age.
The third time was just
last week, and I’m sorry if
this seems something of a
winter’s tale but it does serve to
illustrate that when we embark
on family history we need
to be aware we may discover
things that are extraordinarily
painful. If it helps us
understand the past, I for one
wouldn’t have it any other way.
Needing a family history fix, I
did a general surname sweep of
local newspapers in the 1940s,
not expecting to find much.
Least of all did I expect to read
Sharing past family grief
my own birth announcement,
and still less, dated a day after
my second birthday, a classified
For Sale advert for ‘A pre-war
high Dunkley pram, cost £25,
needs no attention, canopy, bed
and eiderdown, pre-war oak cot
£16, small oak crib, 16 shillings,
playpen 25 shillings’.
I was 15 months old when
my sister Pamela was born and
almost two when she died (aged
poignantly eight months.) My
dad was still in the Army and
we lived with my grandparents.
I have no memory of her at
all, but I can recall being told
off for climbing into an empty
pram in Grandma’s front room,
and I remember crying in a
strange cot in another house,
which I recently tracked down
in the 1939 Register as being in
the next street.
My grandparents were clearly
removing all sad reminders
of my baby sister’s presence,
but I also wondered if it was to
help pay for the baby’s funeral.
Times were hard and my
family were never well-off. The
pram, cot, crib and playpen
had also been mine. Family
history suddenly stopped being
such an absorbing hobby
for a moment and became a
genuinely shared grief.
However, in case you think
I’m slipping into a decline, let
me share what I also found
in the newspapers, which
will lift the mood a little. In
February 1939 my 19-year-old
dad was fined five shillings
for ignoring a traffic sign
on his bike. (He kept quiet
about that when it happened
to me when I was 17!) In 1914
my great-aunt Emma was
fined 2s 6d for wandering
about drunk and incapable
in the street claiming she’d
only touched a drop, was
new to the area, had got
lost while looking for her
husband. (And in case you’re
wondering, no, he never went
to war!)
But who hasn’t done that at
some Christmas or another, I
say! Happy New Year!
About the author
Diane Lindsay
discovered her twin
passions of family
history and English
(and her sense of humour)
while training as a teacher
and bringing up three small
children in the 1970s. She’s
a writer and local and family
historian and, although
retired, still teaches anything
to anyone who will listen.
www.family-tree.co.uk
07/12/2017 14:07