Who Do You Think You Are?

One of the great perks of my job is that I get to have a subscription with all of the main genealogy websites, and I think that even if I didn’t have this job, I would subscribe to more than one. However, multiple subscriptions is a luxury that not e

Although we will be concentrating our efforts on Tuesday 2 February, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t sign up for projects now and try them in advance (see page 26). And of course, you can continue supporting the four projects after the event. Man

Jon worked on Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine for many years before moving on to BBC History. Now a freelance writer, he shares his tips on free records on page 16. Medical Office of Health reports featured in David Walliams’ episode of WDYTYA? s

WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 – so drop us a line and share your thoughts with us. If, like me, you know family members were too young to have enlisted or

Editor Sarah Williams Production editor Seth Burgess Staff writer Rosemary Collins Art editor Robbie Bennie Contributors Lisa Duerden, Claire Vaughan Ad manager Sam Jones 0117 300 8145 Ad sales executives Andy Williams 0117 300 8803, Tony Robin

A Scottish genealogist is appealing for help tracing the families of two men from Paisley, Renfrewshire, who were killed while serving with Bomber Command in the Second World War. The men are Thomas Frame Millar (c1925–1943), who was the son of John

ScotlandsPeople (scotlandspeople. gov.uk) has added 1,000 more maps and plans to its online collection. The maps date from the mid-16th to the mid-20th century. Among the newly added records are examples by notable Scottish surveyors and engineers, i

Three youths from Thornbury appeared in the magistrates’ court after being caught trying to steal four hens. Police Constable Greenslade told the bench that he’d caught them after following “a trail of feathers and footprints”, according to the Weste

The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) has launched a digital database that reveals the lives of Londoners of African, Caribbean, Asian and indigenous heritage going back over 400 years. Switching the Lens (bit.ly/LMA-BAME) is the result of work by

ScotlandsPeople (scotlandspeople. gov.uk) is set to release Scottish kirk-session records in early 2021. Emma Maxwell of Scottish genealogy business Scottish Indexes (scottishindexes. com) announced the news at the virtual Scottish Indexes Conference

The year of the world’s oldest Christmas card, which was put up for sale in December The First World War nurse was identified after her granddaughter in Canada saw her photograph on an episode of Antiques Roadshow The number of records from County K

The results of an international project researching the lives of clergy in 16th- and 17th-century Scotland are now available in the new online database Mapping the Scottish Reformation, which is located at maps.mappingthe scottishreformation.org . Th

e registrar@ihgs.ac.uk w ihgs.ac.uk/courselist The IHGS is offering a range of Zoom tutorials, with upcoming topics including ‘Looking at More Military Service Records’ (14 January) and ‘Searching for Your Quaker Ancestors’ (4 February). £10 each. t

TRANSCRIPTION TUESDAY 2 February e wdytyaeditorial@immediate.co.uk w whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine’s popular annual transcription event returns for the fifth year running. Every year, we encourage our readers to

w rootstech.org In response to the coronavirus pandemic, FamilySearch has announced that RootsTech, the world’s largest family history show, will take place online this year. There will be classes, keynote speeches, a virtual marketplace featuring ‘

An index to mental-hospital registers held by Surrey History Centre, listing patients’ names, ages and dates of admission. Details of local militiamen and naval militia from records at Cornwall Record Office. An index to records, with some details of

Both websites offer free access to thousands of military records, but a good place to start is Findmypast. By visiting findmypast.co.uk/page/free-ancestry-records and clicking on ‘Search free military records’, you are taken to a search page that com

Copies of registers listing members of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. A ‘mega collection’ detailing people found in smaller North American record sets who hailed from Britain or Ireland. Transcribed inde

As we bid goodbye and good riddance to 2020, one of the things that was most challenging about the year was the need to find plenty of ways to keep busy at home, while normal life was suspended by the measures to control the spread of the coronavirus

w ajr.org.uk AJR is a charity that offers support and companionship to Holocaust refugees and their families. It is also building a library of memoirs written by survivors of Nazi persecution. w auschwitz.org The museum’s website has a search facilit

The witnesses on a marriage certificate may be family or friends that could provide further leads for your research. The information you will get on a marriage certificate (price £11) is the same as you will find on a parish register entry so check t

w gatehouse-folk.org.uk The Wrights are appealing for help identifying local residents in photographs taken by postman William McMurray in the early 20th century. Please also get in touch if you can share photos, stories or family histories by emaili

RootsIreland (rootsireland.ie) is the website of the Irish Family History Foundation (IFHF), the umbrella body for an all-Ireland group of disparate heritage centres that began transcribing parish registers back in the 1980s. These two factors – the

w beyond2022.ie This project aims to create a virtual-reality replica of the Public Record Office of Ireland before its destruction in June 1922. w dippam.ac.uk The website Documenting Ireland: Parliament, People and Migration (DIPPAM) includes an ‘

The Box, Plymouth’s £46.8 million archive, museum and art gallery space, opened its doors in September 2020. As well as displays celebrating the city’s history, the building is the new home of the former Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, now kno

w booth.lse.ac.uk Browse poverty maps and notebooks from researcher and philanthropist Charles Booth’s hugely important survey Inquiry into Life and Labour in London (1886–1903). w medicalmuseums.org This is the online hub for the 26 museums in the c

a New Barn Road, Amberley, Near Arundel, West Sussex BN18 9LT t 01798 831370 w amberleymuseum.co.uk The museum has an impressive collection of carpentry tools – see a gallery at taths.org.uk/ tools-trades/amberley-tool-collection. Visits must be book

Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) has digitised membership books for the General Union of Carpenters and Joiners 1886–1921. Details include members’ names, ages, dates of admission, marital status, contributions made and financial payments received, incl

This edition of this frequently published book includes comprehensive explanations and diagrams of carpentry tools, joints, methods and so on, and can be viewed online for free at bit.ly/ggl-trades-1837. Adèle’s overview of trades, unions and apprent

Florence, Baroness Horsbrugh was a dynamic politician and campaigner whose career was devoted to the welfare and protection of the vulnerable. For her dedication as head of the Ministry of Munitions canteen, and for managing a ‘cooked food bank’ for

w www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk Set up by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, this is a key website for tracing birth records and birth/adoptive family. w ancestry.co.uk The varied records on subscription websites such as Ancestr

Although primarily aimed at the US market, this is a well-balanced and informative overview of the uses of DNA testing in adoption research. Keating provides a thorough account of the story of adoption before and after the 1926 Act came into effect.

• Try not to accept evidence at face value. Corroborate it with other sources, such as records from the General Register Office (GRO) and parish registers. • Look to see if there are any overlapping online family trees to check findings and possibly

No individual epitomises the ‘capitalist cowkeeper’ more completely than Richard Laycock of Islington. Born into a family of established goose-farmers, he took over what would become Laycock’s Dairy on Liverpool Road from his stepfather, North London

Two sisters have researched the moving tale of their Welsh ancestors, who migrated on foot to London with their cattle. Hayes tells the story of how Welsh dairy farmers supplied consumers in London. Scott provides a fascinating insight into urban dai

You can discover amazing things in our collections,” says Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre archivist David Plant. “We all have our favourites. The 1604 pedigree of the Seymour family is a colourful joy to behold, an estate plan embellished with a

Salisbury receives its city charter under the name ‘New Sarum’. Sailsbury doesn’t become its official name until 2009. The main body of the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (better known today as Salisbury Cathedral) is finished. Archit

w bit.ly/ specialwiltshire The University of Leicester’s site Special Collections Online includes Kelly’s directories for Wiltshire from 1867, 1898, 1903 and 1911, as well as a Pigot’s volume from 1822. w wiltshire-opc.org.uk/ genealogy This vol

The county archive looks after more than 1,700 boxes of GWR material, including personnel and pension records. STEAM, the GWR museum in Swindon, has timetables, photographs, drawings, plans and bound volumes of the company magazine (you can browse im

AMOR This name is particularly common in the 1881 census districts of Milton Lilborne, Bromham and Pewsey. CLEVERLY This habitational name is thought to come from Claverley in Shropshire. GIDDINGS Aquarter of all of the Giddings recorded in 1891 were

Francis Place was born near Drury Lane in London, the son of a sponging-house owner. He went to school to the age of 14 and always valued education as a way of improving the lot of the poor. He was apprenticed to a breeches-maker, and had early exper

w familyhistory.co.uk/ pre-1841-census-records w census.nationalarchives.ie/ search w bit.ly/ nrscotland-guidescensus-pre-1841 w bit.ly/ nanwfhs-1821-bedworth w bit.ly/ fmp-1821-dartfordkent-census w bit.ly/fmp-1821-devon w bit.ly/ fmp-1821-18

Abacus, 2017 Hutchinson presents a concise guide to the census. University of Essex, 2012 This introduction includes details of surviving records. Institute of Historical Research and TNA, 2005 Higgs explains census records for England and Wales

bit.ly/ national-trust-zoom-backgrounds Free Make your video calls in style with these gorgeous downloadable backdrops from the National Trust. They’ll transport you to rooms in some of the most famous historic properties in the country – from the

How did you come to write the book? In the beginning I didn’t want to write about myself. I wanted this broad stroke of talking about African-American customs and traditions through the lens of intergenerational trauma and fear. That was something t

John Joseph Hughes was in the Navy during the First World War. We traced his career using his service record. These can be downloaded from The National Archives’ website; a small charge applies, but it’s free during lockdown: bit.ly/ tna-navy-1914-19

Richard Carr has vivid memories of the coal miners’ strike in the UK in the mid-1980s. “I grew up in a pit village in County Durham,” he reveals. “I remember food collections being held for the striking miners’ families, and throwing snowballs at the

Each month we’ll award our favourite a year’s Pro subscription to findmypast.co.uk worth £159.99. Please write to us at the address on page 6 or email wdytyaeditorial@ immediate.co.uk ■