tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45182323927803085672024-02-19T02:46:28.579+00:00The Family RecorderI write things here that interest or amuse me, and that I think are worth sharing. They might be topical, or 'cold case', educational or trivial; the only rule is that they will have something to do with genealogy. Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.comBlogger285125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-51157071206851833772021-11-17T18:29:00.001+00:002021-11-18T00:28:04.521+00:00The war memorial - and beyond<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjtsGPivo4-x3h7pJMVGWvFdjdvXX0LGl-UmJSuN42iFvvg2rl7uJN8VRn_c-1VaDM7PNdMnoSX45YPVlr49cBCJRbnhoYjqv59GkAziv6A40wB2HAKXj8rQEGf3DIWuJwKjy17KNH5w/s2048/Chesham+memorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjtsGPivo4-x3h7pJMVGWvFdjdvXX0LGl-UmJSuN42iFvvg2rl7uJN8VRn_c-1VaDM7PNdMnoSX45YPVlr49cBCJRbnhoYjqv59GkAziv6A40wB2HAKXj8rQEGf3DIWuJwKjy17KNH5w/w400-h225/Chesham+memorial.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />For several years I have been researching the names on the war memorial in the town where I live, Chesham, in Buckinghamshire. I know from the enquiries we receive at The National Archives that many other people have been doing the same, especially since the centenary of the First World War. Because of the job that I do, as Family History Specialist at The National Archives, I thought it would be interesting to see what I could find out about the men who served, and who survived the war. It seemed like a good idea at the time...<p></p><p>In fact, it has proved very rewarding, although I have spent much more time on it than I intended when I started. But that is the nature of many a research project, I suppose. Like many memorials, the one in Chesham town centre lists names without the rank or even the branch of the armed services, and the first names are represented by initials only. This means that it can be difficult to identify some of the casualties - there are still a few names on the Chesham memorial that have defied all efforts to identify them. Fortunately, I did not have to start my research from scratch, there were already two wonderful resources that I could consult. One is the magnificent <a href="https://www.roll-of-honour.com/" target="_blank">Roll of Honour</a> site, which lists names and biographical details from First and Second World War memorials throughout the United Kingdom, as well as useful background information. The other is local in its scope, but for anyone interested in the First World War anywhere in the county <a href="https://buckinghamshireremembers.org.uk/" target="_blank">Buckinghamshire Remembers</a> is invaluable. It includes not only details from every memorial in the county, but also a lot of information on many men, and some women, who survived the war. </p><p>I put together the some of my initial research into a talk I gave at The National Archives in November 2014 '<a href="https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/first-world-war-community-putting-together-use-archives-piece-together-communitys-involvement-first-world-war/" target="_blank">Putting it all together: using archives to discover your community's involvement in the First World War</a>'. Since then I have learned more, and new resources have been released online. There are 184 names on the Chesham town war memorial, and I have now collected details of more than 2000 men, and a few women, who served in the armed forces, or were in some way involved in the war, or the war effort. Deciding who to include was not as straightforward as you might imagine. It was easy enough to set the geographical boundaries; the ancient parish of Chesham, and its former chapelries of Chesham Bois and Latimer, including several nearby small villages. It was much harder to decide who 'belonged' to Chesham, and therefore who should be included. I decided that anyone who lived or worked in Chesham, albeit briefly, would qualify, so I included several men born in Chesham, but who had moved away, sometimes even to other countries, so there are some on my list who served with overseas forces, mainly the Australian or Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Many still had relatives in Chesham, and some of the casualties among them are on the Chesham or other local memorials. </p><p>The biggest single problem encountered in this kind of research is the loss of so many soldiers' records, probably about 60% of them, during a bombing raid in the Second World War. The great majority of men served in the army as 'other ranks', so this is a major obstacle, but the records of men in the other armed services, and those who were army officers, have generally survived, so it's not all bad news. But even without a service record, there are other ways to find out more about a soldier. As a general rule, it is often easier to find information on men who died, because of the information recorded by the <a href="https://www.cwgc.org/" target="_blank">Commonwealth War Graves Commission</a>, which often gives the man's home address, and his next-of-kin. However, some CWGC entries give no extra information at all, but the Naval and Military Press database <a href="https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1543/" target="_blank">Soldiers Died in the Great War</a> provides a man's place of birth, and place of enlistment. and the National Army Museum's <a href="https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60506/" target="_blank">Register of Soldiers' Effects</a> provides information on next-of-kin. These last two resources are available on Ancestry, and using all three, you should be able to identify most of the deceased. </p><p>It can be much more difficult to find out about survivors of the war. Everyone who served overseas with the army will have a medal index card, and these records are complete, but they contain no personal information, so you need to use other sources to identify the right person, if there is no service record for them. In fact, it is not always possible to find out if a man served at all, but there are some sources that you can use, and this becomes easier as more records are digitised and indexed online. </p><p>The most useful of these is the Absent Voters' List, if you can find one for the area where a serviceman lived. I was very lucky in that the Chesham list for 1918 had already been transcribed on Buckinghamshire Remembers, but they are still very easy to use if you consult them directly. The 1918 lists are the most useful, because they were compiled early in that year, while most men were still in the armed forces. Demobilisation was well underway in 1919, but there are Absent Voters' Lists for 1919 and 1920, which obviously contain far fewer names, but are still valuable. These lists show a man's home address, his branch of the service, his unit or ship etc, and his number. Most of the men in an Absent Voters' List will have survived the war, but there are some who died very late in the war, after the lists were compiled.</p><p>It would take a long time to describe all the sources I used, and how I combined the information I found in them to reach my conclusions. But I think the most important lesson I learned was that you can sometimes resolve some apparently insoluble problems using many different sources. Two or three sources may not be enough, but by carefully combining scraps of information from several more sources you may be able to work out which was which, out of several men with the same name. I used some of these techniques to work out which of many George Donaldson casualties was my great-uncle. I described this in more detail in my post '<a href="https://thefamilyrecorder.blogspot.com/2020/11/finding-uncle-geordie.html" target="_blank">Finding Uncle Geordie</a>' and with my Chesham men I was able to attach four men called George Darvell, and another four called Frank Gomm, to their respective families. There were, and still are, quite a number of families in Chesham with those surnames.</p><p>Where possible, I have listed the wives of the men who were married, including their maiden surnames, and this is another way of seeing how inter-related some of the local families were. There is a lot more to explore, when I have the time, helped by some of information gleaned from newspapers. And these are not always local newspapers - several men were in the Gloucestershire Regiment, and lists of casualties in newspapers there include each man's place of residence, so several Chesham men appear in them. </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Some facts and figures</h4><p>To date, I have found nearly twice as many casualties than are listed on the memorial. Some appear on other memorials in the area, or further afield if they had moved away. More than 1700 of my 2000+ names were men who served in the British Army, with 87 and 89 in the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, respectively. A further 62 served in the armies of other countries, 16 were Royal Marines, and a handful served in the merchant navy or one of the Naval Reserve forces. More than 20 local women were in the Voluntary Aid Detachment or one of the women's forces, and a similar number of women were recruited into the Post Office or the Metropolitan Railway, replacing men who were in the forces.</p><p>About 300 men had joined the local regiment, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, but many joined other county regiments, or other non-regional parts of the army such as the Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery, Royal Army Medical Corps, Labour Corps or Army Service Corps, to name just a few. Before 1914 it was possible, but extremely rare, for men to be promoted from the ranks to become officers, but under the exceptional circumstances of the first World War it was much more likely, and 20 Chesham men were promoted.</p><p>In most cases I was able to identify the parents of the men on the list, so I can easily see which families sent more than one son to war. More than 100 Chesham families had three or more sons in the forces, and nine families sent five sons. Nineteen families lost two sons, and one family lost three of their five sons. </p><p>About 100 of the men on my list were discharged from service before the end of hostilities, and if they were in the army it is worth looking for them in the Silver War Badge rolls, available on Ancestry. Although 'SWB' often appears on Medal Index Cards, there is more information on the rolls, which usually give exact dates of service, and whether the cause was wounds or sickness. In some cases they even give the man's age. I have found that more men were discharged for sickness than for wounds, and in either case most will have returned to civilian life suffering from some long-term damage, physical or mental. </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Yet to come...</h4><p>Anyone who is still doing this kind of research will no doubt be eagerly awaiting the release of the <a href="https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1921-census" target="_blank">1921 Census</a> on Findmypast, to see what their community looked like after the war. The information collected on children under 16, the 'orphanhood' question, will be particularly interesting when looking at how families were re-shaped after the war. How many widows remarried? I know of one who did, to her dead husband's twin brother. But this wasn't legal in 1921 (they married in 1923), so I am very curious to see if they were in the same household in the census...</p>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-91556973686418477692021-10-07T19:12:00.013+01:002021-10-09T19:38:20.787+01:00The London Gazette - revisited<p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9zfem0Cs7GDuUuzGFjsIRG0DbWiakVvHmLVAmOCMW4KnRjU-FtYl5Ab9MTZ5vKw-FNBbWXO7vs9K5y7D3EV88W79jwVXUSWL7kN_vvq8oCgbogNA4d2k7buf6aNiEoCcVUP9-p4gaaI0/s955/Gazettes+home+page.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="955" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9zfem0Cs7GDuUuzGFjsIRG0DbWiakVvHmLVAmOCMW4KnRjU-FtYl5Ab9MTZ5vKw-FNBbWXO7vs9K5y7D3EV88W79jwVXUSWL7kN_vvq8oCgbogNA4d2k7buf6aNiEoCcVUP9-p4gaaI0/w640-h400/Gazettes+home+page.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">Some years ago I wrote a blog post about using the </span><a href="https://www.thegazette.co.uk/" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;" target="_blank">London
Gazette</a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">, and I also gave a talk on the subject, called 'Not just the brave
and the bankrupt', or something along those lines. This is because it is well
known that the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are key sources for
people researching military gallantry awards, and bankruptcy cases. While this
is certainly true, there is a lot more to it, and the Gazettes are full of
information on many other subjects of interest to genealogists, house
historians and others. While a lot of what I wrote and said still holds true,
all the details about how to use the site became completely out of date when it
was given a radical re-design.</span></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In the (now
not very) new version of the site, some of the old search functions have
disappeared, notably the ability to perform a simple search by year and page -
this is the unique identifier for any page in one of the Gazettes, and this is
the reference you will find in the printed indexes. In fact, before the Gazette
site was launched online, this was the usual way to find an entry, using the
print versions of the indexes and the Gazettes.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The current
home page advertises all kinds of useful categories and filters, but they only
apply to issues from 1998 onward. To research in editions any earlier, where
the printed editions have been scanned, you can search by key-word. This
obviously has its limitations, especially in the earlier editions, where the
print does not respond well to Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Even in the
19th century, you can still find the letter 's' appearing as a character that
looks more like 'f'. Try doing a key-word search for 'miffion' or 'paffage' and
you will see what I mean!</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">From 1829
onward, you can still search the old-fashioned way, using the London Gazette’s
own published quarterly indexes, if you have an approximate date for the entry
you want. They are available on the site, but this is not obvious from the home
page, because there is no direct link to them, but they are easy to find once
you know where to look. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="p1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 13.5pt;">From the
Gazette homepage, there is a drop-down menu ‘Notices’: from this menu select
‘Publications’, which takes you to the page where you can browse recent pages
of any of the Gazettes, and at the bottom of the page you can search for and
download the historic indexes to the London Gazette (the site has no historic
indexes for the Edinburgh or Belfast Gazettes).</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UlhNX-1u09qvbU6xqhnvE1HhfLHQ_md4Ny2Xg8U8LJSDF6xSa9TrhgnWQiVZluATAnqAkam3OB0aLIR7OfCyU8NFRoB94F8IM9hMO2PKEYV3Csf4pMxJ0OL9gxrcG2vc65ibCzu9a0E/s880/Gazette+Indexes.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="880" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UlhNX-1u09qvbU6xqhnvE1HhfLHQ_md4Ny2Xg8U8LJSDF6xSa9TrhgnWQiVZluATAnqAkam3OB0aLIR7OfCyU8NFRoB94F8IM9hMO2PKEYV3Csf4pMxJ0OL9gxrcG2vc65ibCzu9a0E/w640-h405/Gazette+Indexes.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Choose an
edition (London), then a year, then an index number – there were always 4 index
volumes per year. The arrangement of the indexes varies a little over time, but
is fairly constant, starting with State Intelligence, then Promotions (civil
and military), then Advertisements, and finally various categories to do with
Companies, Partnerships and Bankrupts. It is worth having a look at a few
indexes, just to get an idea of the kind of content you might hope to find. The
Gazettes are particularly useful to researchers looking for gallantry awards,
bankruptcies, and changes of name, but there is a lot more than just those
popular categories. There are official notices of many kinds; promotions and
transfers within the Civil Service, registration of places of worship,
quarantine regulations in times of cholera, property sales by auction following
Chancery cases, and much more besides. You might also find out when tram-lines
were first laid in your town, or even your street, or when a business was
awarded a Royal Warrant.</span><p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When
you find an index entry that interests you, the reference will be a page
number. Each year the Gazette starts at page 1, and this is why a year and a
page is a unique identifier, and you can use this to find the entry you want in
the London Gazette itself. Although the old 'year and page' search
facility is no longer there, you can still do this kind of search, it is just a
bit more cumbersome than it used to be.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In
this example, from Volume 1 of the 1875 index, the advertisement for the sale
of properties in Bermondsey, and freehold land on Richmond Hill is on page 3170. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV2ZHAaAjSg0Bm3rG3hiBe7OTbY6HUW_j1iYaNFRNa-qpxVcUxNzjYZW31tNPtcG0HAtcW3-rUtjbmXVfO56cN8eTxYQGB9AxwceGVx78mwKCWyRb3mWGRtAcT5QvvBFYbFIYsiBJwrh8/s759/Gazette+Index.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="208" data-original-width="759" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV2ZHAaAjSg0Bm3rG3hiBe7OTbY6HUW_j1iYaNFRNa-qpxVcUxNzjYZW31tNPtcG0HAtcW3-rUtjbmXVfO56cN8eTxYQGB9AxwceGVx78mwKCWyRb3mWGRtAcT5QvvBFYbFIYsiBJwrh8/w640-h176/Gazette+Index.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDdITXbb3VqEeCtXoINh18bjIhGVQ-58OcO9Ql0ed1Du3Z8-dYuyQ7SAS7zRtKAv5XKg6sz1lqLzq4KOJUd4-yVWy0FueBMEVfwz4Azf3tEVJBTJFgmdMsqVLFqjfDwbmZIW6f_orIUM/s523/Gazette+results.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Go back to the home page, and enter 3170 in the 'Search the archives' box. Unfortunately, there is no Advanced Search, you can only do a simple search, and then refine the results. In this case you will get hundreds of results to start with, but you can refine them first by selecting ‘London’ from the Gazette edition filter on the left of the page, and then you can use the ‘Publication date’ filter. You can’t just select a single year, you need to select year, month and day in both ‘From’ and ‘To’ categories, or it won’t work, - it's the same kind of system that you'll find when you want to book a flight or hotel room online. When you have done this, and updated the results, you should only have a few results to choose from – as you can see below. The search will have picked up any instance where the number 3170 appears in that year's Gazette, but one of them will be Page 3170. You can then view that page, and download it if you wish. This method works perfectly well most of the time, but it still relies on OCR, so occasionally this will not pick up the page number. If this happens, try again with a nearby number, and then you can browse to the page you need. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="523" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDdITXbb3VqEeCtXoINh18bjIhGVQ-58OcO9Ql0ed1Du3Z8-dYuyQ7SAS7zRtKAv5XKg6sz1lqLzq4KOJUd4-yVWy0FueBMEVfwz4Azf3tEVJBTJFgmdMsqVLFqjfDwbmZIW6f_orIUM/w640-h506/Gazette+results.JPG" width="640" /></span></span></p><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The lower the page number, the greater the number of hits you will get, even using the year filter. But there are still ways to narrow the results to a more manageable number. If your initial date filter was a whole year, you can revise this to the quarter covered by the index volume (1 – Jan-Mar, 2 – Apr-Jun, 3 – Jul-Sep, 4 Oct-Dec). If this still leaves a very large number of results, you can use the ‘Sort by’ option at the top of the results to sort them into date order. This will only sort them by the date of the Gazette edition, and not in strict page order, but it makes it easy enough to scan the results to find the one you want. It’s not an ideal solution, but it does work. Fortunately, most Gazette page numbers are on the high side, so you might never have to look for a page with a very low number - each Gazette year includes thousands of pages.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">When you have found your Gazette page, the viewing window is quite small, but if you click on the 'save' icon in the top left corner you can see the whole page in a new tab., You can also browse all the pages in that edition using the tools at the top of the page, or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> use the 'Download full PDF' tool to download the whole issue.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNM9OYcUs12QMbEjKyV3I8qT6s4T4HmzhyBkhjnHbAzv4QJly5Q2JUQA-RHsiyOoAsMKlaHK5de9iTYeO8NOqKofkyiuM126vWFFOpeJgZ2xqxoVV-0wqcOw6lurz-ec8CzmSLFbu7RD0/s815/Gazette+tools.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="815" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNM9OYcUs12QMbEjKyV3I8qT6s4T4HmzhyBkhjnHbAzv4QJly5Q2JUQA-RHsiyOoAsMKlaHK5de9iTYeO8NOqKofkyiuM126vWFFOpeJgZ2xqxoVV-0wqcOw6lurz-ec8CzmSLFbu7RD0/w640-h237/Gazette+tools.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">As well as using the indexes, you can also use the 'Search the archives' box on the home page to perform more complex key-word searches, using operators like AND or NOT etc. There is more information about this on the <a href="https://www.thegazette.co.uk/help" target="_blank">Help</a> pages. This can be useful, but still has its limitations, because OCR may not pick up a word where the print is indistinct, or where it has been hyphenated at the end of a line. But it is still worth doing, because the OCR works well most of the time. You may be surprised at </span>the kind of information you will discover - and the more you explore, the more you will find.</span></p>
<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="https://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: initial; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;" /></a></div></div></div>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-54790857700070383452020-11-12T13:58:00.007+00:002020-11-14T23:07:57.670+00:00Finding Uncle Geordie<p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioc0AgVDTxMQtC9cikd-I77ndCd-hlu8mev0WESSRzhND7rM90UbAyUlq00-lrUf1jfFeh6s0f_vkBId6rOM42BQW4YCpoGMy3JHzcJD_VWMNxAEQLDmNtfMuuy3aKC-6huhlJ6hWBJtE/s1937/in+Remembrance.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1937" data-original-width="1299" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioc0AgVDTxMQtC9cikd-I77ndCd-hlu8mev0WESSRzhND7rM90UbAyUlq00-lrUf1jfFeh6s0f_vkBId6rOM42BQW4YCpoGMy3JHzcJD_VWMNxAEQLDmNtfMuuy3aKC-6huhlJ6hWBJtE/w134-h200/in+Remembrance.jpg" width="134" /></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"></span></div><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">My maternal grandfather served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, and fortunately he survived. but one of his brothers was not so lucky. All I knew about him was </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">that his name was George, he was in the army, and was killed during the First World War. I had already found his birth entry, on a visit to New Register House in the days before the ScotlandsPeople Centre. He was born 15 December 1893, only 20 months before my grandfather. On another research trip, this time to the <a href="https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/city-archives" target="_blank">Glasgow City Archives</a> at the Mitchell Library, I found my widowed great-grandmother’s application for Poor Relief on 23 November 1915, It included George in the list of her children, and his name had later been marked 'killed' which showed that he must have died at some point after then, but it didn’t give the date of his death.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgZ8rSBf6B3M05DMxba_ipYOjSVsxr16ykurj3xRR4NehQfKdVpCyUu3fQ3iReEQjWbr0oF31rCEGt1zDqiG_MsD9qiyy4rnNrDwSsjT2NQjDvzZOKuGJqO5Puxb0Qsn39ibxfDiR0opQ/s2048/Donaldson+Catherine+Poor+Law+1915.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1113" data-original-width="2048" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgZ8rSBf6B3M05DMxba_ipYOjSVsxr16ykurj3xRR4NehQfKdVpCyUu3fQ3iReEQjWbr0oF31rCEGt1zDqiG_MsD9qiyy4rnNrDwSsjT2NQjDvzZOKuGJqO5Puxb0Qsn39ibxfDiR0opQ/w400-h217/Donaldson+Catherine+Poor+Law+1915.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><br /></span><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white;">There is no surviving service record for him, which is no great surprise, since so many of them were destroyed during the Second World War. Unfortunately George Donaldson is not a very distinctive name, and a search on the <a href="https://www.cwgc.org/" target="_blank">Commonwealth War Graves Commission</a> (CWGC) site for First World War army deaths produced 6 results for George Donaldson, and another 6 for G Donaldson. I wanted to see if I could identify the right one, and I like a challenge. I find it particularly satisfying to find out about the family members who died too young to have any descendants, and who can so easily fade from the collective family memory. My mother used to refer to him as Uncle Geordie, even though neither she nor any of her siblings had ever known him - her eldest sister was born in 1919 - so I wanted to find the information for her, as well as for myself.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white;">Quite separately, I had been doing a lot of research on the men who served in the First World War based on the war memorial in the town where I now live. In the course of this I had learned quite a few ways of compensating for the lack of service records. I discovered that I could find out a surprising amount by combining scraps of information from a wide range of sources, not all of them military. In several cases where there were 3 or 4 local men with the same name I was able to work out exactly which was which. So I decided I would try applying the same techniques to my search for my mother's Uncle Geordie.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white;">Starting with the 12 CWGC results, I was able to eliminate several of them because they contained information that meant they could not be my man. Three of them died well before the date of the Poor Law application, two more were several years too old, one was too young, and another was in the Canadian Infantry. So I now had five men to choose from, less than half of the original number.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white;">Next I consulted <a href="https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1543/" target="_blank">‘Soldiers Died in the Great War’</a> which provides very little personal information about each casualty, but will usually give each man’s place of birth, and place of enlistment. Of my remaining five candidates, one was born in Morayshire, and recruited in Edinburgh, and one of the men listed just as G Donaldson by the CWGC turned out to be Gordon, not George. So now there were three who were born and recruited in Glasgow.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white;">So far, so good, but I still needed to reduce the three to one, and then find some positive confirmation that the last one left was my great-uncle. I hoped that there would be a service record for one or two of them, with enough personal details to eliminate them from my enquiries, but no such luck. All of the deaths are listed in the GRO Index to War Deaths 1914-1921, but with no extra information, such as age at death, it was no help in establishing which of them might be the right one. But deaths of Scottish soldiers are also registered with GRO Scotland. The war deaths are part of the ‘Minor Records’ on <a href="https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/" target="_blank">ScotlandsPeople,</a> and the indexes include age at death. Unfortunately the indexes don’t show regiment or service number, but by now I knew I was looking for a George Donaldson who died in 1917 or 1918, and there was only one whose age at death matched my great-uncle's date of birth, and this proved to be Pte George Donaldson 33164, 16th Battalion Highland Light Infantry, who died on 29 August 1918.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white;">I was reasonably sure I had found the right man, but I wanted some proof. There is a wonderful online resource for Glasgow men who died during the First World War, the <a href="https://www.firstworldwarglasgow.co.uk/index.aspx?articleid=10950#:~:text=The%20City%20of%20Glasgow%20Roll,to%20the%20Roll%20is%20easy." target="_blank">index to the Glasgow Evening Times Roll of Honour</a>. The index gives the date when the death was announced in the newspaper, and the page number. I found the entry for a Pte George Donaldson at around the right date, and on my next trip to the Mitchell Library I was able to consult the newspaper in the hope it would provide the corroborating evidence I needed. I found the entry, and there was even a photograph! but then it was sharp intake of breath time; the caption read ‘Pte George Donaldson, HLI (Killed); widow resides at 107 Maclean Street, Plantation, Glasgow.’. I thought I had been so clever, narrowing down those twelve names to one, but now it looked as though I had made a mistake somewhere, because I was looking for a single man, not a married man, so now I would need to backtrack…</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white;">Then I remembered one of my own rules ‘Never assume’. I had been <i>assuming</i> that he wasn’t married, because no-one in the family had even mentioned a wife. But by the time I started researching, or even asking questions, there was no-one alive with a personal memory of him. There was an easy way to find out, I could look for the marriage, and there it was on ScotlandsPeople. He had married Mary Arthur in April 1916, and the marriage entry proved beyond all doubt that I had found the right man after all. Not only were the parents’ details correct, the wedding took place at the address where the Donaldson family had lived since at least 1909, 77 Elder Park Street, Govan.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white;">George had not yet joined the army, because he is shown with his civilian occupation of carter.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But conscription was well underway in 1916, so he may have joined or been called up soon after. He had only been only married for just over two years when he died, and probably spent most of that time away from his new wife. After he died, the Donaldson family probably lost touch with her, and I haven’t been able to find out what happened to her either (so far). When I showed my mother the results of my research, including the photograph, she said she could see a family resemblance. It’s a very small, grainy picture, printed from a roll of microfilm that had seen better days, but I have a picture of my grandfather, David Donaldson, at around the same age and I think she was right (my mother was usually right!). I have put them both here for comparison.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsACdx1oUw0C6MEwrvkM4VcThtOUPa8P42yXjuusK6w_8jXgezrBICEYE67RswlAf-znCmmfp2Tb8K9p0ZPfJbTRNnW4XrRzqkf69iIjmZZcxK-5xCGrDVuMmXaHb_gZYrolYgwm5_g2M/s158/David+Donaldson+detail.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="158" data-original-width="141" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsACdx1oUw0C6MEwrvkM4VcThtOUPa8P42yXjuusK6w_8jXgezrBICEYE67RswlAf-znCmmfp2Tb8K9p0ZPfJbTRNnW4XrRzqkf69iIjmZZcxK-5xCGrDVuMmXaHb_gZYrolYgwm5_g2M/w285-h320/David+Donaldson+detail.jpeg" width="285" /></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8v165UMJ5fT5XOHNqSlWNdPAJVhT1ZmdLgsCwegjZTIVhxAIGT7jq3jqQmBiXzLm_nZJXQOAZuzS4RMf9su2QdF79A95ST-fA_Pd4A9-4HVZbQ4K2CryHkMVxGA5QsuxtR0TY1Vvt_Y/s1331/IMG_0137.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1331" data-original-width="853" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8v165UMJ5fT5XOHNqSlWNdPAJVhT1ZmdLgsCwegjZTIVhxAIGT7jq3jqQmBiXzLm_nZJXQOAZuzS4RMf9su2QdF79A95ST-fA_Pd4A9-4HVZbQ4K2CryHkMVxGA5QsuxtR0TY1Vvt_Y/w205-h320/IMG_0137.jpeg" width="205" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white;">Glasgow Evening Times 1 Oct 1918<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: white;">As a postscript, I should mention some sources I didn't use, but which might be helpful to other people trying to do the same kind of research. You can search for soldiers' wills on ScotlandsPeople or on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/probate-search" target="_blank">GOV.UK</a>, for England and Wales, either in the soldiers' wills category, or among the regular probate indexes, which also contain some soldiers' wills. Finding the name of the next-of-kin could be just the vital piece of information you need. The National Army Museum's <a href="https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60506/" target="_blank">Register of Soldiers' Effects 1901-1929</a> on Ancestry also gives the name of the next-of-kin. This wasn't available to me when I did the research a few years ago, and might have confused me a bit because of course George Donaldson's next-of-kin was the wife I didn't know about at the time! </span></div><div><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: white;">For soldiers who survived the war, the records I used to call my 'secret weapon' are the Absent Voters Lists which give a serviceman's home address along with his service number, regiment and battalion or equivalent unit. These don't all survive, but there is a good collection on <a href="https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/britain-absent-voters-lists-1918-1921" target="_blank">Findmypast</a>, and they are a real goldmine of information. There are also some wonderful local resources, so it pays to see what is available for the area where your soldier's family lived, such as a <a href="http://www.roll-of-honour.com/" target="_blank">Roll of Honour</a>, or a local or family history society may have researched the names on their war memorial. And of course there are newspapers, many of which are now on the <a href="https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/" target="_blank">British Newspaper Archive</a> - although they don't yet include the Glasgow Evening Times (hint, hint!)</span><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB53r2C4-rOWxRDufWhDaFcIMbFhz8f7clMc_oDx48QapRBFiVKn8NOWIYyUbYwUmN1VZjX7A5zwbm_ueMwDNduauSqyZHe8lmZ0NnqALl8ypP3afudA5fd7hOyGUE5ESFc4l6gwMiKSs/s565/Screenshot+2020-11-12+at+02.50.15.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="390" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB53r2C4-rOWxRDufWhDaFcIMbFhz8f7clMc_oDx48QapRBFiVKn8NOWIYyUbYwUmN1VZjX7A5zwbm_ueMwDNduauSqyZHe8lmZ0NnqALl8ypP3afudA5fd7hOyGUE5ESFc4l6gwMiKSs/w276-h400/Screenshot+2020-11-12+at+02.50.15.png" width="276" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>
<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="https://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: initial; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;" /></a></div></div></div>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-72340722425884380922018-03-27T08:20:00.000+01:002018-03-30T12:31:04.037+01:00Comparing BMD indexes for England and Wales: FindmypastBirth, marriage and death indexes are searched separately with customised search forms, or as part of more general categories. If you search a specific database (reached via the A-Z of record sets) the search page contains links to the other two civil registration databases, but you need to re-enter the data each time you switch to another database. There are no mandatory fields so you can search without a surname, or without any name all.
If you are searching a single database for civil births, marriages or deaths, there is a neat feature that shows you how many results you will get once you have entered your search terms, but before you perform the search; when you have entered information in any of the search fields the text on the Search button turns to ‘See xxx results’.<br />
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On the search screen the ‘Name variant’ box is ticked for the First Name(s) field, and unticked for the Last Name field, which is generally the best option, but you can change this if you wish. Name variants on the first name will return common variants and diminutives such as Tom or Tommy for Thomas (and vice-versa), followed by results including the initial letter of the name.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLUarpTyxTZUet-WFyj6l13s1jO73NcyMcxdnZjvLHuK2j89bUic5tF7ofntp2SMaBqzwCqAa8vUkIuYu7qqL4LzxKoHolFBZKZ7R_Y2_s_3ShMR4_SHB-4Y8fAJ0vxmU4wzH7gslur-U/s1600/Screenshot+2018-03-27+07.41.07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="1136" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLUarpTyxTZUet-WFyj6l13s1jO73NcyMcxdnZjvLHuK2j89bUic5tF7ofntp2SMaBqzwCqAa8vUkIuYu7qqL4LzxKoHolFBZKZ7R_Y2_s_3ShMR4_SHB-4Y8fAJ0vxmU4wzH7gslur-U/s400/Screenshot+2018-03-27+07.41.07.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h3>
Births </h3>
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The search screen for births includes a field for Mother’s Last Name, and when you start typing in this box there is a warning that the information only appears in the index from 1911 onwards. However, Mother’s Last Name has recently been added to some, but not all, birth index entries back to 1837, so search including years before 1911 may produce some results. You can use wildcards in the name fields if you leave the ‘Name Variants’ box unticked.<br />
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The default setting for the Birth Year box is +/- 2 years, but you can easily change this to limit your search to a single year, or +/- 1, 5, 10, 20 or 40 years. You can also limit your search results to a single quarter, which Findmypast describes as 1, 2, 3 or 4, instead of the more usual Mar, Jun, Sep and Dec, or Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun etc. You need to do this using Findmypast’s equivalent of the drop-down menu, where it says ‘Browse Birth Quarter’; when you select this option you tick the box of the quarter you require, and you can select more than one quarter. The Birth Quarter field contains the text ‘Start typing a birth quarter’ but nothing you type here has any effect, although this feature works perfectly well in other fields on this search page, ‘Browse District’ and ‘Browse County’. When using either of these options you can select from the Browse menu, or you can start typing in the search box when you will see a list of options appear, and you need to click on an option to select it. Typing alone, without selecting an option, will have no effect.
This feature is used throughout Findmypast on many of its search pages. It is less intuitive than a conventional drop-down menu, but it has the advantage that you can easily select more than one district or county, and your selected options are clearly visible below the search box.<br />
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The District options are registration districts as they appear in the indexes. The County option is a useful way to restrict a search to a rough geographical area, but is not part of the index entry, and many registration districts straddle county boundaries. It can sometimes be more useful than the District option, because there have been many district changes since 1837, and it is possible to unwittingly select a registration district that did not exist during the years being searched, and so fail to get the results you might expect.
There are two more search fields on the Birth search page, ‘Place Keywords’ and ‘Optional Keywords’. Typing any name or place name in the Optional Keywords box will produce results or filter existing ones, but since there are already perfectly good name and place search boxes this is of limited use. ‘Place Keywords’, on the other hand, can be a really useful feature; you can only search by registration district using the District field, but here you can type the name of a parish or other place. When you start typing you can choose from a list. For example, selecting ‘Gillingham, Kent, England’ will produce results from the the registration districts of Medway or Chatham, depending on the date. This is very helpful when you know a place of birth, but are not familiar with registration district boundaries and their changes over the years.<br />
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The results show the name, year, quarter, district and county, and the mother’s maiden name, where applicable. From 1984 onwards the indexes are annual, not quarterly, and the reference shows the month of registration, which has been converted to a notional quarter on the main results screen. There is also a panel on the left side of the results screen where you can refine your search, but this lacks some of the fields of the custom search page. This is fine as a quick way to change the name or date details, and if you need to go back to the custom search screen ‘Advanced options’ will take you there.<br />
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You can’t download the search results, but you can re-sort them by any of the fields displayed. The full reference details, including the volume and page (and the month, where applicable) are only displayed when you click on the transcription for each entry. Unfortunately there is no way to search or sort by volume and page number.<br />
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Deaths </h3>
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The search page for deaths is, not surprisingly, fairly similar to that for births, since many of the fields are the same. Because the death indexes show the age at death from 1866, there is a ‘Year of birth’ field, with the same +/- options. When you click in this box to start typing, you might expect to see a note to the effect that the age at death is not shown in the indexes until 1866, but instead there is the rather puzzling ‘most of our civil death & burial records cover the years of birth 1780 to 2006’.<br />
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Although the results displayed will include the year of birth, this does not appear in the indexes until 1969, so before this date it will be a figure arrived at by subtracting the age at death from the year of registration. This means that the calculated year of birth will sometimes be a year out - this is not a major problem in most cases, since the age supplied when registering a death is often inaccurate in the first place. Both the age at death and the calculated year of birth appear in the full transcription for deaths up to the March quarter of 1969, after that the year, month and day of birth are shown in the transcription.<br />
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At first sight, the place search options look more helpful than those for birth searches, because instead of ‘Optional keywords’ there is a Parish option which you can browse. But the ‘Place keywords’ box is still more useful; taking the example of Gillingham, the ‘Browse parish’ list offers only Gillingham, but there are three parishes of that name in England, so it will produce results from registration districts in Dorset, Kent and Norfolk. The Place keywords field allows you to distinguish between several parishes of the same name.<br />
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Marriages </h3>
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The marriage search does not have either the ‘Optional keywords’ or ‘Parish’ fields, only the more useful ‘Place keywords’, along with District and County. There are also fields for the surname and forename of the spouse, and the results show name, year, quarter, district, county and spouse’s surname (from 1912). Unlike the birth and death searches, there are fields for volume and page references. While this is useful, the main reason for using this facility is to identify likely spouses; but if you click on the transcription of an entry you will see the ‘Marriage finder’ feature that does this automatically. From 1912, when the surname of the spouse is included in the index, this will almost always be a single name, but in earlier years there can be several possible spouses, depending on the number of entries on the same page. The Marriage Finder suggests spouses of the opposite sex, based on their forenames, but in the case of forenames that can be either male or female it will present all the other names on the page, to be on the safe side.<br />
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For all three events Findmypast provides some background information, which is generally helpful, although some of the advice is questionable, such as ‘If you can’t find your ancestors in these records, it’s possible they eloped or were in common law relationships.’ to their credit, they also direct you to the <a href="http://www.gro.gov.uk/" target="_blank">GRO site</a> to order copies.<br />
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Browsing</h3>
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Quite separate from the three search functions is 'England & Wales Birth, Marriage and Death Browse 1837-1983'. You can type or browse the event type, and the year +/- 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 or 40 as on the other screens, and type or browse the quarter. This time the 'Start typing a Event Quarter' (sic) works, because the quarters are described here as Jan-Mar, etc. The results list individual pages from the scanned indexes, described by name ranges, eg 'FAIRLESS, Joseph - FARRAL, Catharine'. There is an alphabet at the top of the page so that you can jump directly to any part of the index. Once you have clicked on the image link to the scanned page, you can browse forward or back through the images without returning to the results page.<br />
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="https://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-80133427038140644892018-03-19T08:30:00.002+00:002018-03-19T08:30:52.070+00:00Comparing BMD indexes for England and Wales: Ancestry<style type="text/css">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHkiovTLG7DnUPaRCrNUUh9xWhP7h5tvY47FFSFqLCDqUQMVdZTD4wye3-4SNbsRytV7hKlaXVM29dxbQEEJemuME1teTnyUcfntDjrEq_dyzEP1WCJK9UvX93OxKna0JgzzoNAw11vY/s1600/Screenshot+2018-03-19+08.06.48.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="673" data-original-width="1424" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHkiovTLG7DnUPaRCrNUUh9xWhP7h5tvY47FFSFqLCDqUQMVdZTD4wye3-4SNbsRytV7hKlaXVM29dxbQEEJemuME1teTnyUcfntDjrEq_dyzEP1WCJK9UvX93OxKna0JgzzoNAw11vY/s400/Screenshot+2018-03-19+08.06.48.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">There are separate databases for:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 (free index)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2005</span></div>
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<span class="s1">England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915 (free index)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007</span></div>
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<span class="s1">England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 (free index)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005</span></div>
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<span class="s1">There is another database ‘England and Wales, Death Index, 2007-2015’, but this does not come from GRO data.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The six databases can be searched individually, and there is an option to search all of the above databases at once, called ‘England and Wales, Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes, 1837-2005’ For some odd reason this category also includes six databases of church records from Derbyshire, Somerset and Wiltshire, and the search fields seem more suited to parish register searching.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The wider category ‘Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish’ includes all of the above, plus more than 300 related collections such as church registers and probate calendars and obituaries, from all parts of the British Isles. However, even the ‘one size fits all’ search screen for this category has a lot of options for refining a search. No category is mandatory, and each field can be set to ‘exact’ or a variety of flexible options.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Search options</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">When searching a single database you can select ‘Exact’ for any search field, which enables the use of wild cards * at any point in the word. An ‘Exact’ search in the forename field will return all the results where that name appears, even as a middle name - so a search for Mary will return results for Mary Ann, but there seems to be no way to confine the search to Mary without any other forenames. Leaving the ‘Exact’<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>box unticked for a name field searched using name variants, which can be useful, but there is no way of knowing which variants have been included or excluded.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You can select an exact year, or up to + or - 10 years. There is a drop-down menu for the month - although the results are always in quarters up to 1983. If you select January, February or March you will get results for the March quarter, and so on. The place search options are less helpful; there is just the standard Ancestry place option, which auto-fills to places in its worldwide database. This does not include a number of registration districts, and even when override this by typing the exact name of one of these ‘missing’ districts it returns no results. This is likely to happen with a district name which is not also the name of a parish or town within it; for example, ’Medway’ will return no results, but ‘Medway, Kent’ will return results from every district in Kent.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">When searching across multiple databases, there are two ways of viewing the results; the ‘Records’ tab lists all of the individual results from all the categories, and the ‘Categories’ tab shows a list of the databases with results, and the number of results in each.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The results within each database come in chronological order by year (not by quarter) and alphabetically within each year. They show the name, registration district and a county (which does not appear in the original index, and is not always accurate) You can also view an image of the original index page. Each result also has a shopping cart symbol where you can order a copy of the certificate, but this is NOT RECOMMENDED because it costs more than twice as much as ordering direct from the GRO, and will take longer.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The layout of the results varies a little between the various databases, but have similar features, and if you click on ‘View record’ against a particular entry, you will see them all. These include a full transcription of the entry and a link to the original index page (up to 1983). Results from the marriage indexes 1837-1915 include the all the names with the same volume and page reference, to help you identify likely spouses.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">If you search the birth indexes by surname, but without a forename, the results from 1911 onwards include entries under other surnames, but where the surname you are searching is the mother’s maiden name. There is no way of searching by mother’s maiden name only in the 1837-1915 birth indexes, but the search options for the 1916-2007 database includes a ‘Mother’ field, for the mother’s maiden name.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The original paper version of the marriage indexes from 1912 include the surname of the spouse, but the Ancestry results helpfully include the full name of the spouse.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Death indexes include an age at death from 1866, which in the Ancestry results appears as an estimated year of birth eg ‘abt 1840’ but ‘View record’ shows the age as it appears in the paper index. Results 1837-1915 appear in chronological order, which may not be obvious at first, because it is in order of estimated year of birth, except where the age at death does not appear in the indexes, in which case the year of death is used instead, in practice for results from 1837 to 1865.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">There is no way to re-sort or download search results, although you can choose how many to show at a time, 10, 20 or 50. You can also widen your search to other sets of databases without re-entering the search data. This can be useful where a result from another category helps you identify the right entry - for example a probate calendar entry for a death, or the parish register copy for a marriage.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12px;">All of the 1837-1915 indexes include a feature which could have been brilliant, but sadly, has been badly executed. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin0MdzuoskJrTiNUKMEP0ptISmuk0ZCt4J4frEf8c8yqdvOtqhHOFxgcUACWlVXi-yXXvFoUJczfH5SGPP9nzGsO2bHNwUQXP28uZpGiVG8bmqasyC4JLeAQByUEa_4sZDP-_Y4v0XRYs/s1600/Phillimore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="484" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin0MdzuoskJrTiNUKMEP0ptISmuk0ZCt4J4frEf8c8yqdvOtqhHOFxgcUACWlVXi-yXXvFoUJczfH5SGPP9nzGsO2bHNwUQXP28uZpGiVG8bmqasyC4JLeAQByUEa_4sZDP-_Y4v0XRYs/s200/Phillimore.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extract from the Kent parish map</td></tr>
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The full record includes a hyperlink ‘View Ecclesiastical Parishes associated with this Registration District’ which takes you to a list of parishes, based on information extracted from the excellent Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers. Against each parish is a link to the Atlas’s map for that county, and a simple grid reference to locate the parish within the map, eg 5G, 3A etc. If you look at these maps in the book version of the Atlas you will see that the county maps aren’t overlaid with an actual grid, but have letters and numbers in the margin, which works very well as a visual guide, without cluttering the map with extra lines. The Ancestry parish lists have painstakingly included all these references, but unfortunately, the numbers and letters have been cropped from the images of maps, so you have to guess where they might have been. Oops!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">There are some transcription errors, but a much bigger problem is the way that the parishes are listed in their registration districts; if the name of the district contains more than one word, the list will show all the parishes in districts which contain any of those words. So the link for the registration district of St George in the East goes to a list of parishes in districts all over the country, including <b>St</b> Martin <b>in the</b> Fields, Newcastle <b>in</b> Emlyn, Stow on <b>the</b> Wold, and Bury <b>St</b> Edmunds, to name but a few.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Browse options</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">The search options and the way the results are presented leave much to be desired, but on the plus side, it is very easy to browse the original index pages. The main search page for each database has a browse option on the right-hand side where you select a year, a quarter, and then an initial letter; so you can reproduce the experience of using the old born index volumes, but without the heavy lifting.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The links to the Phillimore Atlas maps are not very helpful in this context, but they do contain a lot of useful information, and you can browse the map images, either by following the links from your search results, of from the Atlas’s own landing page.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="https://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-78722736715485484222018-03-12T08:00:00.000+00:002018-03-20T06:25:14.910+00:00Comparing BMD indexes for England and Wales: FreeBMD<style type="text/css">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEciMRv2-ZqRISSdnfJHPMyDCl_qTGrPkhbftge7PFdhnEllB_VEmkjTiTUidKVtN0jxksIx5owPU0P9G6O0HFnTU8w3HjDL-NQ5WSbD3lDlRvAaF5C5IGIA7wD4ei9t727PMkGBaSt3o/s1600/Screenshot+2018-03-12+02.14.28.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="1433" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEciMRv2-ZqRISSdnfJHPMyDCl_qTGrPkhbftge7PFdhnEllB_VEmkjTiTUidKVtN0jxksIx5owPU0P9G6O0HFnTU8w3HjDL-NQ5WSbD3lDlRvAaF5C5IGIA7wD4ei9t727PMkGBaSt3o/s400/Screenshot+2018-03-12+02.14.28.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.freebmd.org.uk/" target="_blank">FreeBMD</a> should normally be the first port of call for anyone who wants to search the General Register Office (GRO) birth, marriage and death indexes. The exception would be when you want to use the more recent indexes; FreeBMD coverage is only up to 1983, the last when the paper indexes were the master copies. Also, since it is an ongoing volunteer project, it is not yet complete - although it is very close. The site has <a href="https://www.freebmd.org.uk/progress.shtml" target="_blank">coverage charts</a> that you can check before performing searches in the more recent indexes.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">There a single search screen so you can see all your options at once. You can search births, marriages or deaths, any two of them, or all three at once. The search fields are; last name, forename(s), surname of spouse/mother’s maiden name, spouse’s first name, age at death/date of birth, year and quarter, volumes and page. You can also filter a search to a specific district or county, and a date range. this is ‘from-to’ range, by year and quarter, rather than a ‘+/-‘ by year, so you can define a very precise range, even single quarter. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The search engine will return results for the surname exactly as entered, and first names beginning with the letters as entered; so ‘Ann’ will return results for Anne, Anna, Annabel etc, including any with middle names. This is the default search, but there are options to select exact search on first names, and phonetic search on surnames. A search for +Ann will produce results where names starting with Ann appear anywhere in the first name field e.g. Gertrude Annie as well as Annie Gertrude. This also works with initials, so +P in the First name(s) field produces results such as Percy, Annie Phyllis, Peter John G and Edith P V.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Birth searches can include the mother’s maiden name (in the indexes from the September quarter of 1911). These searches will only return results from September 1911 onwards. </span><span class="s1">Birth entries for t</span>wins will normally have the same page reference, but sometimes they will have consecutive numbers, where one entry is at the bottom of a page, and the other is at the top of the next page.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12px;">Marriage searches can include the surname and/or first name of the spouse - spouse’s surname is in the indexes from the March quarter of 1912, but the search will identify potential matches in the earlier records, i.e. where both names have the same reference, which means they appear on the same register page. There can be up to eight names on a page, so matching references do not guarantee that the two people married each other. You can restrict your search to those entries where the spouse's surname is guaranteed</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12px;">by selecting ‘Identifiable spouses only’.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Death searches can include a year of birth or an age. If you put an age at death, it will return results showing that exact age, and also where the age in the index is indistinct, or no age is shown all. The results will also include all entries before 1866, when the age was first included in the index. Results from the June quarter of 1969 will be those with dates of birth consistent with the age selected. You have the option to select ‘recorded ages only’ to get exact results. If you select a year of birth instead of an age, the results before June 1969 won’t be exact, but +/- 2 years.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">None of the search fields is mandatory so you can search with just a forename, or even with no name at all. The search screen also has some other useful features; you can save searches, and download search results; if you click on ‘Count’ instead of ‘Find’ you will first see how many results your search will return; there is a maximum of 3000 that can be returned for a single search.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_Q1vDnBR-8T9Bl1CIHPUhhm0snpvx11tiuoOM7ZoylCDd3yhoDR66ReMI5xldD27GS6-Bm-YpNbbqVYBgG4jGp4NOhoc_ZkDhhGUcugYb4anMwIsbNDGgpjrXJR5PzlymvZOit68_D8/s1600/Screenshot+2018-03-12+02.08.11.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="638" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_Q1vDnBR-8T9Bl1CIHPUhhm0snpvx11tiuoOM7ZoylCDd3yhoDR66ReMI5xldD27GS6-Bm-YpNbbqVYBgG4jGp4NOhoc_ZkDhhGUcugYb4anMwIsbNDGgpjrXJR5PzlymvZOit68_D8/s320/Screenshot+2018-03-12+02.08.11.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">Search results are colour-coded, pink for births, green for marriages and grey for deaths; this is helpful when searching across more than one event type. The Registration District is a hyperlink to information about that district, and the page number is a hyperlink to a list of all the entries on that page - particularly useful for identifying possible spouses in the marriage search results. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">The ‘Info’ button links to information about the transcribers, but gives no more information about the entry itself unless there is a Postem - extra detail added by an individual, but which does not appear in the index. but if you don't need to click on 'Info' to find out of there is a Postem, because an envelope symbol will also appear against the entry. You can submit corrections via the Info button; a further symbol, of a pair of spectacles, will lead to an image of the original paper or parchment index page to help you do this.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></div>
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<span class="s1">More information about the site and the data can be found under ‘<a href="https://www.freebmd.org.uk/advanced-facilities.html" target="_blank">Advanced Facilities</a>’, and there is a ‘<a href="https://www.freebmd.org.uk/search-help.shtml" target="_blank">Help</a>’ button for more detailed information on how to search. The search results page includes more links, including instructions on how to order a certificate from the GRO or a local register office. Even frequent users of the site can easily miss some of its many features, which are well worth exploring. if you subsequently use another site for GRO searches, the comprehensive background information found on FreeBMD will prove invaluable.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space">No site is perfect, but FreeBMD performs better than other sites in many ways, and is continually updated and improved.</span></span></div>
<br />Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-63858943820101366452018-03-07T17:24:00.000+00:002018-03-20T07:22:42.516+00:00Searching the online GRO birth, marriage and death indexes for England and WalesBefore I look at the details of online indexes on various websites, I want to say something about the indexes themselves. It is always easier to make sense of an online resource if you know something of the original hard-copy source it comes from.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Transcription slip used by the GRO</td></tr>
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<b style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">Searching the indexes</b><br />
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<span class="s1">Even when the data is identical, you can get different results from different sites because the search engines they use work in different ways. You can even get different results using the same site, depending on the kind of search you use. On some sites you can search across all their records at once, or a general ‘births, marriages and deaths’ category. Searching over multiple databases at once requires somewhat ‘one size fits all’ search options. This has some advantages, but you can perform more refined searches by tackling one set of records at a time.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Sites have different options for coping with variant spellings, including the use of wild cards. If there is a variant spelling option, this will usually involve some kind of computer algorithm; while<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>this can be useful, it may not cover all the variant spellings of a name, and may produce a number of irrelevant results. You can usually refine searches or filter results by place, and the date range to be searched may be set in different ways.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">It’s important to know that the indexes don’t include all forenames in certain years. So if your search includes middle names you may not find the results you want, depending on the site you are using and the search options you have chosen. All names appear in full in the manuscript indexes from 1837 to 1865 (some of these indexes were withdrawn and replaced by typed indexes, which also contain full names). Printed indexes were introduced in 1866, and for 1866 only, initials are used for all but the first forename; from 1867 to 1909 you will see two forenames, then initials, from 1910 to 1968 the indexes were typed, and show only one forename, then initials. In 1969 computers were first used to prepare the indexes, and from then onwards show two forenames, then initials.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Different times, different errors</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Most index information is accurate, but with millions of entries over more than 180 years, there are bound to be mistakes. Depending on the time, and the method of copying used, there are different kinds of errors to look out for.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Until well into the 20th century cursive script was generally used, so even where the final index was printed or typed, the paper slips used for manual sorting were handwritten; so when trying to work out how a name might have been mis-copied, think of letters that look similar in cursive script, not in block capitals, typescript, or print. In the case of capital letters ‘F’ ‘J’ and ’T’ do not look similar when typed or printed, but when handwritten they are easily mistaken for each other, especially at the beginning of an uncommon surname.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">When typing, especially on a computer keyboard, it is all too easy to hit the same key twice by accident. The surname Quarmby is a rare one, and I am reasonably certain that the version beginning ‘QQ’ is not a spelling variant, but is the result of ‘fat-finger’ typing - it’s in the death index for the March quarter of 1975 if you want to look for yourself.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Online indexes up to 1983 have been copied from scanned versions of original parchment or paper indexes. But the scans themselves were made from microfilm or microfiche versions, which were themselves copies. The filming that was done in the 1960s was of better quality that the microfiche version made in the 1980s, but the fiche version was much more widely available. The fiche version of the older hand-written volumes could be particularly hard to read - while perfectly legible in their original form, their parchment pages were more brown and beige than black and white.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">In both cases there was always the possibility of two pages being turned over at once by a camera operator, thus losing two pages of entries. When some of the early hand-written index volumes were withdrawn and replaced with typed copies, a typist could also turn over two pages at once with the same result. Additionally, the typed indexes show each surname only once, which saves a lot of key-strokes and therefore time, and typewriter ribbon. Unfortunately, if a surname was mis-copied, or omitted altogether, this could result in a whole block of forenames being indexed under the wrong surname. In the typed index to for the December quarter of 1864 all the ‘Day’ births up to Elizabeth Sarah are wrongly listed under the much rarer name of ‘Dax’ because the typist failed to type the surname ‘Day’ after the entry for Gilbert Elliot Dax.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Finally, some entries do not appear in the indexes at all because they did not make it through all the stages of indexing; copies of some entries, particularly marriages, did not even get to the General Register Office in the first place, even though the original is held in the local Register Office.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="https://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-65301058210250386182018-03-06T15:17:00.000+00:002018-03-20T07:28:06.000+00:00Comparing websites – Birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales<style type="text/css">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ5TW_JFHdA6hrVYpD5qMTj_7XEHhBEc6X2nLb6AsTA9e7aB9fDdH2U4vMnbkVUTjTUY4Ge5Pjf_By92zTIbXjmSXICmTI7bWe_hvKZBUaRIot-Xjn-KMozmMY2c0jQmW9Q3C9VfUWUWM/s1600/Marr+Jun+1858+Foot.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1600" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ5TW_JFHdA6hrVYpD5qMTj_7XEHhBEc6X2nLb6AsTA9e7aB9fDdH2U4vMnbkVUTjTUY4Ge5Pjf_By92zTIbXjmSXICmTI7bWe_hvKZBUaRIot-Xjn-KMozmMY2c0jQmW9Q3C9VfUWUWM/s320/Marr+Jun+1858+Foot.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">I recently delivered a talk at Rootstech 2018, which was well-received, and this spurred me on to return to some work I did on comparing the online indexes that appear on various websites. This post is an overview of the main sites and their coverage, and will be followed by more in-depth looks at the individual sites. Anyone who doesn't mind listening to me for an hour can view the <a href="https://www.rootstech.org/video/civil-registration-indexes-of-england-and-wales" target="_blank">Rootstech presentation</a> in full. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">indexes Indexes to the birth, marriage and death registers for England and Wales are very widely available. You will find them on a number of sites, some free, some commercial. Although the records are (theoretically) the same, there are differences between the various indexes, and it is worth knowing about them to get the best results from your searches.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">There is a single set of records for births, marriages and deaths since 1837, held by the General Register Office (GRO). But this is not the only set. Births and deaths are registered at a local Register Office, and the original records are still held locally. The central registers were compiled from copies sent to the GRO, called quarterly returns.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Marriage registers are a little more complicated, because marriages could be performed in a number of places; principally, churches of various denominations, synagogues, Quaker meeting houses and register offices. The original registers may be with the church (or more usually a local record office), or at the register office, but, like the births and marriages, the GRO marriage registers were compiled from the quarterly returns.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The main sites where you can consult indexes to GRO registers are:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<li class="li2"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.freebmd.org.uk/"><span class="s3">www.FreeBMD.org.uk</span></a></span></li>
<li class="li2"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.ancestry.co.uk/"><span class="s3">www.Ancestry.co.uk</span></a></span></li>
<li class="li2"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.findmypast.co.uk/"><span class="s3">www.FindmyPast.co.uk</span></a></span><span class="s4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></li>
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<li class="li2"><span class="s5"><a href="http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/"><span class="s3">www.genesreunited.co.uk</span></a></span></li>
<li class="li2"><span class="s5"><a href="http://www.familysearch.org/"><span class="s3">www.familysearch.org</span></a></span></li>
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<li class="li2"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.gro.gov.uk/"><span class="s3">www.gro.gov.uk</span></a></span></li>
<li class="li2"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.myheritage.com/"><span class="s3">www.myheritage.com</span></a></span></li>
<li class="li2"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/"><span class="s3">www.thegenealogist.co.uk</span></a></span></li>
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<li class="li2"><span class="s5"></span><span class="s4">www.bmdindex.co.uk</span></li>
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<span class="s1">None of them is complete, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses, so it is worth using a combination of them for best results. The most recent indexes are not online anywhere, they can only be consulted on microfiche at selected locations – details of these are on the GRO site.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Coverage</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>FreeBMD 1837-1983</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">As the name suggests, this is a free site, the result of an enormous amount of work by an army of volunteers. It is still a work in progress, although the coverage charts for births, marriages and deaths show that it is virtually complete up to the early 1960s, but with many gaps after that. It ends at 1983, the last year before the indexes were ‘born digital’ and the databases were retained by the GRO.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Ancestry 1837-2005 (births and marriages) 1837-2007 (deaths)</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">This is a commercial site, but there is free access at many libraries, record offices and FamilySearch centres. However, Ancestry’s indexes 1837-1915 for all three events come from FreeBMD, and so are still free to search on Ancestry. You will not always get identical results from the two sites because both allow users to submit corrections, so any amendments or updates to FreeBMD after Ancestry acquired the data will only appear on FreeBMD. Similarly, any changes made on Ancestry will not appear on FreeBMD. Indexes from 1916 to 2005 (births and marriages) and 1916 to 2007 (deaths) are Ancestry’s own. You can also browse the images of the index volumes 1837 to 1983.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>FindmyPast 1837-2005 (marriages) 1837-2006 (births) 1837-2007 (deaths)</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Also a commercial site, but with free access at many libraries record offices and FamilySearch centres. All of the indexes on FindmyPast were prepared independently of those on FreeBMD or Ancestry. You will also find them on <a href="http://www.genenesreunited.co.uk/"><span class="s6">www.Genenesreunited.co.uk</span></a>, which is owned by the same company. You can also browse images of the index pages 1937 to 1983. The indexes can also be searched free of charge on <span class="s6"><a href="http://www.familysearch.org/">www.familysearch.org</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>General Register Office 1837-1917 (births) 1837-1957 (deaths)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">These indexes are free to search, but you need to register an account with the site and log in to use them. You need to do this anyway to order certificates from the GRO; ordering GRO certificates from anywhere else will cost more, and take longer. The GRO’s own indexes are the newest to appear online, and are limited in coverage, but they were created by re-indexing the quarterly returns. All of the others are transcriptions of the existing indexes.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><b>MyHeritage 1837-2005</b></span></div>
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It is not clear from the MyHeritage site whether they have compiled their own indexes, or obtained them under licence from another site. As well as the three databases for 1837-2005, there is a GRO birth index for 1911-1954. This is one of the three major commercial sites worldwide, along with Ancestry and FindmyPast, but has a relatively low profile in the UK, so it is less likely to be available free of charge in record office and libraries, but there is free access in FamilySearch centres.</div>
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<span class="s1"><b>The Genealogist 1837-2005</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">These indexes were prepared independently of the others, and are also available on <a href="http://www.bmdindex.co.uk/">www.bmdindex.co.uk</a> </span><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">which belongs to the same company.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FamilySearch centres have free access, and some libraries and record offices may also have free access; but it is much less widespread than the two main commercial sites.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="https://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-2844305376570877922017-02-08T15:40:00.001+00:002018-03-20T07:36:14.141+00:00Who do I think I am?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwalvUXGCBAghhOFfOH0NFtPsupFdp39D92OeE1C3EMpAI8Wbk4Nmln3fWHlNwIGpjhKO3paKx8JxW-i8nZg_W8peT1msTiz1sguiy5JFmW01cbvgBJ6iJHfinXbHgE7_uyf6MY2X0yVM/s1600/IMG_0292.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwalvUXGCBAghhOFfOH0NFtPsupFdp39D92OeE1C3EMpAI8Wbk4Nmln3fWHlNwIGpjhKO3paKx8JxW-i8nZg_W8peT1msTiz1sguiy5JFmW01cbvgBJ6iJHfinXbHgE7_uyf6MY2X0yVM/s400/IMG_0292.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from Anderston to Govan (featuring the 'Squinty Bridge')</td></tr>
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In 2014 I did something I have never done before, and may never do again. I paid with my own money to attend a family history fair in the UK. I have attended every Who Do You Think You Are - Live in London and Birmingham, and before that, every Society of Genealogists Fair in London, as well as a number of local and national events. I was always a volunteer for one organisation or other, and since 2003 it has been part of the day job.<br />
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This was different. 'Who Do You Think You Are - Live!' was in Glasgow, the city of my birth, and where I have at least one line of ancestry back to the 16th Century. Both my parents, all four grandparents and five of my great-grandparents were born there too. So you can understand why I was keen to go. But despite my deep roots in the city, and elsewhere in Scotland, I don't mind admitting that I am much more knowledgable about English genealogy than Scottish. I like to think I have a reasonable working knowledge of Scottish records, but it is not where my expertise lies. So when I am in Scotland I am the enthusiastic amateur, and it is actually rather enjoyable being on the other side of desk for a change!<br />
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I had a wonderful time, I could suit myself and do what I wanted without looking at my watch all the time to see when I needed to be back on duty. The location of WDYTYA - Live!, the SECC, was also a happy coincidence for me. It is in an impressive setting on the banks of the Clyde, in Anderston to be precise, a district of Glasgow that is virtually unrecognisable from even a few decades ago. My father and many of his family were born there, and from my room in the Hilton hotel I had a view across the river to Govan, where my mother was born, as were many members of her family. So I could hardly have been more at home if I tried.<br />
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I have spent most of my life in England, and have no plans to move, but I have never for a minute identified myself as English; British yes, and Scottish, yes, but not English, much as I love the place and (most of ) the natives! I guess the acid test is 'Who do you support in a sporting contest?' My answer to that is that I support a Scottish team or contestant if there is one, and if it is a contest where teams or individuals compete on behalf of the UK or GB, then I root for the British team or person. In a contest where Scotland and England are both involved, I am all for Scotland, but if (and sadly, all too often when) Scotland are out, it's 'Eng-er-land' for me! I am not one of those who support two teams, Scotland, and whoever is playing against England. If you could have heard my father screaming himself hoarse as he cheered England on to victory in the 1966 World Cup, you'd know where I get it from.<br />
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Although I haven't lived there in over 50 years, I am very much a Glaswegian - you can take the girl out of Glasgow, but you can't take Glasgow out of the girl! In many ways I feel I have more in common with people from other cities than with other parts of Scotland, although I have ancestral lines from the rural Scottish counties and the Highlands too. I was also surprised to find just how much I felt at home in Ireland the first time I visited, long before I discovered just how mush Irish ancestry I have. But perhaps that is just a characteristic of family historians in general; we are always looking for something that we can identify with in people and places everywhere, to understand them better.<br />
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As a family historian I have discovered over the years that yes, I am very interested in my own family, and families that I have some connection with. But much of the time I am equally excited by the things that I find out about other people's families too. I have always been fascinated by all things historical, an in particular the 'what people did all day' kind of history. I am keen to know about the history of the places where I have lived, and where I live now (which I will write about another time). To get the most out of your family research you want to see where your people fitted in to their time and place, their communities and the wider world. That's why I want to know about the neighbours, and what they were up to, and what was influencing their lives. Or perhaps I'm just nosy.<br />
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="https://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-5016176967585986292013-10-30T20:23:00.000+00:002013-10-30T20:23:48.330+00:00Gazing at the Gazettes - beta site<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjAYv1-BV51Kit8qYxWqLjBtJZbeJKLnTwY5ntih_rOdK5ge6WN7IzzBQ3u3mCFZJvUuCcbD0JeofO9CYrvuhFPXETsCSlI_pax5bqwqCsJjRQrf4XHCsfNtqds71mva4X2wurCP6he0g/s1600/London+Gazette.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjAYv1-BV51Kit8qYxWqLjBtJZbeJKLnTwY5ntih_rOdK5ge6WN7IzzBQ3u3mCFZJvUuCcbD0JeofO9CYrvuhFPXETsCSlI_pax5bqwqCsJjRQrf4XHCsfNtqds71mva4X2wurCP6he0g/s400/London+Gazette.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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I've been looking at the new beta site for <a href="https://www.thegazette.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Gazette</a> which is set to replace the three separate sites for the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes. It looks very different.<br />
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I am a big fan of the Gazettes, and the London Gazette in particular. It is a wonderful source for family and local history, and not just for bankruptcies, changes of name and gallantry awards, for which it is fairly well-known. In fact, as part of the day job, I gave a talk called <a href="http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/the-london-gazette-not-just-the-brave-and-the-bankrupt/" target="_blank">'The London Gazette: not just the brave and the bankrupt'</a> in 2010 which you can still download as a podcast.<br />
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The fact that you can now search across all three Gazettes at once is an improvement. As before, you can search by key word, date range or Gazette page reference. Although there is no 'Advanced search' or 'Search builder' option, You can still do all these things on the beta site. Previously, there were boxes for all words, exact phrase or any word. You can still do all these searches in the new single search box, using double quotation marks for "exact phrase" and OR between your key words for an 'any word' search, ie the regular Boolean operators. You select the date range using a calendar feature, not a drop-down menu, which works well. The pre-set selections for particular events, notably the two World Wars, have disappeared, which is a pity.<br />
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There are several new filter features, some of them very detailed, starting with 'Notice type', but based on a few trial searches I have made, these only seem to work from 1998 onwards - editions up to 1997 appear as pdf files of whole pages, while the later ones are text versions of individual notices. There is also a place filter, using place, postcode or local authority, which also seems to return only recent results. I have no insider knowledge, but my educated guess is that this is why the post-1997 filters can be so detailed. So neither of these tools will be of much help for historic searches, but there is one new feature that will be useful for everyone; you can register with the site (it's free) and save your searches in an area called 'My Gazette'. You can also share your findings using Facebook, Twitter and other social media.<br />
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The beta site and the old site will run alongside each other 'Until we have migrated all the notices and are completely confident the new site is flawless' so there may be some changes to come. There is one vital feature that I can't find on the new site, which I very much hope will be added before long - the PDF versions of the printed indexes to the London Gazette. These are particularly helpful when searching for gallantry awards, which can be very tricky to find using the usual search methods. <br />
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-28022537808938850052013-10-28T00:16:00.002+00:002013-10-28T00:16:54.033+00:00Memories of the Probate Service - Somerset House<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdiqPN3vsoBK97-jUwBmop0q98IlhLm7U4svoSyWH1ymvfSs0YTKyEudZvZamoxmGqI60qtIySvr2N9d09yYQ-_DCT0l3brd8UD9BKNJedNy5YPJ4WlLJfpib350G3m9CG9vZt5UuJVG8/s1600/Doctors+Commons+interior+K5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdiqPN3vsoBK97-jUwBmop0q98IlhLm7U4svoSyWH1ymvfSs0YTKyEudZvZamoxmGqI60qtIySvr2N9d09yYQ-_DCT0l3brd8UD9BKNJedNy5YPJ4WlLJfpib350G3m9CG9vZt5UuJVG8/s400/Doctors+Commons+interior+K5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The recent news about the move of the Probate Service searchroom from First Avenue House, with little advance publicity, set me thinking about how things have changed over the years. When I started researching, back in the 1980s, the Probate Search Room was in Somerset House, where it had been for nearly a century. The room, like the rest of the building, was a handsome one, and apart from the introduction of electric light seemed to have changed little during that time. Many of the index books, called 'calendars' were in shelved in free-standing bookcases with a lectern on top, as in the picture above, which actually illustrates the earlier searchroom at Doctor's Commons. The rest were in bookcases around the room, mostly without lecterns or handy shelving, although there were some tables. The most recent indexes were on microfiche, and as I recall there were never enough microfiche readers.<br />
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The books were large and heavy, but unlike the birth, marriage and death indexes, did not have handles on the spines, so they were prone to damage from mis-handling. When you found an entry for a will you wanted, you had to decide whether you wanted to read it, or order a copy, then fill in a form and pay the appropriate fee. This was more complicated than it sounds. As well as the form, you had to take the book to the desk for checking, and you could take two at a time - although carrying more than two would have been no mean feat! It cost 25p to read a will, or 25p a page for a copy. Either way, you then had to wait until the will was brought up for you to read, or a note of the number of pages if you wanted a copy to be posted to you. You would hear names being called out as each item arrived, and if you were lucky you'd work out fairly quickly that they called out the testator's name, not your name, or you might have a long wait.<br />
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The fun(?) part was paying the fee. You had to go down the corridor to the cashier, and it was a good idea to have the right money, because the cashiers never seemed to have any change. Except during the lunch hour, when the cashier's office was closed and you had to go down a different corridor and up two floors to another cashier who didn't have any change either. They never quite fixed the cashier problem, but the pricing did become simpler, when the price of copies was fixed at 75p, regardless of the number of pages.<br />
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Somerset House's days were numbered as a home for the Probate Search Room, though, because it simply wasn't big enough any more. It wasn't just crowded with probate searchers, it also shared the building with the Divorce Registry, which was desperately short of meeting rooms where the parties could confer with their lawyers just before a court appearance. On one memorable occasion I had to step over a barrister, in robe and wig, who was sitting on the stairs with his client as I made my way up to the cashier's office.<br />
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The good old days? I don't think so (apart from the price, of course). So the whole operation left Somerset House and moved up to First Avenue House, but that's another story.<br />
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-57813034448391297662013-10-26T00:53:00.000+01:002013-10-27T01:42:49.197+00:00Where are the wills? Searching for the searchroom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QmlyJQe4YQ6tcTTcB5nE4XWUQr29Na7xoec-8ERlXo9Pdi4TyyYWb7GffsV4dIx_imai25bWzkrG118Z2YcMr-_TT5bmesztYvocz2E_DN-Kvso-K8M1-0MSN-blPGvXBsOR_UjBGck/s1600/Will+and+testament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="55" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QmlyJQe4YQ6tcTTcB5nE4XWUQr29Na7xoec-8ERlXo9Pdi4TyyYWb7GffsV4dIx_imai25bWzkrG118Z2YcMr-_TT5bmesztYvocz2E_DN-Kvso-K8M1-0MSN-blPGvXBsOR_UjBGck/s400/Will+and+testament.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I heard from a couple of reliable sources this week that the Principal Probate Registry searchroom is no longer at First Avenue House, but has moved to the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand. This move will only affect researchers who want to search and order wills in person in London; other registries and postal searches through the District Probate Registry at Leeds will not be affected. <br />
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Information about HM Courts and Tribunals Service can be found on both the www.justice.gov.uk and GOV.UK sites, but both link to the same page for the <a href="https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/courts/london-probate-department" target="_blank">London Probate Service</a> still giving the First Avenue House address and opening hours. I could not find any announcement about the move on either site, but the <a href="http://www.sog.org.uk/news/article/london-probate-search-rooms-to-move-from-high-holborn-to-the-strand" target="_blank">Society of Genealogists</a> received a notice from HM Courts and Tribunals Service which they published on 17 October. It reads:<br />
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With effect from Monday 21 October 2013 the London Probate search facility currently ar High Holborn will be moving to Court 38, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL </blockquote>
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The opening hours will be 9am to 4pm although please note the search facility will be unavailable between the hours of 1-2pm. </blockquote>
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The fee payable for this service should be paid at the Fees Office, Royal Courts of Justice, which is signposted within the building. Maps will also be available prior to the opening of the search facility at the new location. </blockquote>
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The search facility will consist of the same search facilities as now, there will still be no Level One Service, copies ordered for collection will be ready after 48 Hours, if you have requested the postal option, and the copies will be posted within 14 working days. </blockquote>
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If you have any enquiries please contact a member of the London Probate team on 020 7947 6043</blockquote>
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This number and the general enquiries number from the London Probate Department page have been added to the <a href="https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/courts/royal-courts-of-justice" target="_blank">Royal Courts of Justice</a> page. You can download a map of <a href="http://judiciary.sut1.co.uk/docs/info_about/rcj-maps.pdf" target="_blank">Courtrooms in the Royal Courts of Justice</a> which shows that Court 38 is on the ground floor of the West Green Building, near the Carey Street Entrance.<br />
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I don't know what the situation will be when the courts re-open on Monday, but earlier this week my sources said the searchroom terminals were not yet up and running, so if you are planning a visit I would strongly suggest that you ring and check first.<br />
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-8305346320876694172013-10-22T08:00:00.000+01:002013-10-22T08:00:00.372+01:00Tuesday's Tip - it's not the document you need, it's the informationSometimes we need to just stop and ask why we are doing what we do. I'm not starting a whole philosophical debate on the Meaning of Life, I just mean that as genealogists we should consider why we are performing a particular search. Suppose that you are searching for an ancestor's birth certificate; fine, that's a very sensible thing to do. But why do you want it? Is it because you like the nice wavy pattern on the watermarked paper, and the offiicial goverenment stamp at the bottom (I'm talking about England and Wales here, by the way)? No, it's because you want the information it contains. So it's good if you find the birth certificate, but it need not be a disaster if you don't, because you might be able to get the information you want from another reliable source.<br />
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Back in the Middle Ages, when there were hardly any census name indexes, I was trying to find a family in the 1861 census in Glasgow. The only way to do that at the time was to hope they were at an address from a certificate, a will, directory entry or some other source close to the census date. I wanted to find out about my great-great grandparents, starting with their ages and birthplaces. I had found their marriage in 1849, but this was in Scotland before the start of civil registration in 1855 so all the information I got from that was the date and place. I tried the address on the birth certificate of one of their daughters born in October 1861, but the weren't there. There was an older daughter born in 1858, but they weren't at that address either. Then I found the death of a child in December 1860 at yet another address, but they weren't at that one either.<br />
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At this point I gave up on this line for a while. If they had lived somewhere smaller I might have searched the whole place, but this was Glasgow, so it would have taken a very long time. I decided it was more sensible to work on another line instead, and then I made a breakthrough. It was the best kind of discovery, one that you make by accident when you are looking for something else altogether. I was looking at Poor Law applications in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow for my elusive Collins ancestors when I spotted an entry for Margaret Charlton. This was my great-grandmother's maiden name, and it was cross-referenced with the surname Soutar. Charlton is not a very common name in Scotland, and the application was dated July 1861, so this had to be her. And so it proved to be.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7J6FW7r1HAKAgXqeu4kwtPLhcJyNUYOZdr_jfKnKWPFE5qm5Ph0avtPeUcxdYuJwNqBSTBFK2gABA7XFHOEOsKUKtzMVI1IHFjocJvtY67KBgC1dcjXAzbmsHL-YqfOriP47_RiIlZ7M/s1600/Poor+Law+Soutar+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7J6FW7r1HAKAgXqeu4kwtPLhcJyNUYOZdr_jfKnKWPFE5qm5Ph0avtPeUcxdYuJwNqBSTBFK2gABA7XFHOEOsKUKtzMVI1IHFjocJvtY67KBgC1dcjXAzbmsHL-YqfOriP47_RiIlZ7M/s400/Poor+Law+Soutar+detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It hadn't occurred to me to look for the family in the Poor Law records, but the single page document that I saw gave me all the information I would have found in the census, and more. Not only did it provide the birthplaces of the whole family, but for Margaret and her four children the actual street addresses were listed. Better yet, it showed that William had been in the army for 15 years, and had been discharged about twelve years earlier. This was all news to me, and I now I had all kinds of leads to follow up. When I did eventually find the family in the 1861 census, after it had been indexed, it was a bit of an anti-climax. It was nice to have, though, and it provided me with yet another address for them, making four different ones between December 1860 and October 1861.<br />
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So it can pay to think laterally. Getting a birth certificate is the obvious way to find the mother's maiden name, but if you can't find it, or if your ancestor was born before the start of civil registration and therefore has no birth certificate, the birth of a younger brother or sister will provide the information. Of course, you have to be sure that they are full siblings, and not half-siblings.<br />
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There are all kinds of places where you might find vital information on dates, places and relationships, not just in registers and certificates. My poor law application is just one example, but it illustrates the fact that your ancestors might have had to provide details of their birth and marriage, and perhaps even prove it by producing written evidence. Schools, employers, the armed forces and all kinds of public authorities might have required this at some point, so don't give up when the head-on approach doesn't deliver the goods. <br />
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-74743194034209120702013-09-18T22:24:00.003+01:002013-09-18T22:24:28.643+01:00Wordless Wednesday - occupations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have a large collection of old (and comfortably out of copyright!) books, many of therm with illustrations. In fact, I bought quite a few of the books for the illustrations alone. I have scanned some of them, although there is still a long way to go.<br />
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Just for fun, I thought I'd share some of them. I've chosen a selection from my collection depicting occupations. I had forgotten that I had a picture of a diver, which would have been topical a week ago, when Sarah Millican's episode of Who Do You Think You Are was shown. Oh well. So here is the diver, and pictures of a few other occupations that your ancestors might have followed.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuOKPW3AQiaIzh1-Awv9GfQ6ZzehGb8EXrN-6f4wMmZPIyOs7tY0oW2JHP06yAmUufKJOWWXQLXpq87nLl6tU89XMKBW8GXdI16lbLCrtyxKDDrLgcGxLcg6_Q6VxbHrRNvB5Kmoyc9aI/s1600/Divers+OE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuOKPW3AQiaIzh1-Awv9GfQ6ZzehGb8EXrN-6f4wMmZPIyOs7tY0oW2JHP06yAmUufKJOWWXQLXpq87nLl6tU89XMKBW8GXdI16lbLCrtyxKDDrLgcGxLcg6_Q6VxbHrRNvB5Kmoyc9aI/s400/Divers+OE.jpg" width="312" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diver</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKJpVEpfp3mPwGke3ZEmXKxx21C-R4MyvE4LBnJ-EFZJjEh7ENEq-vqM1jTnU4gOstKLo1aLTG382iMFkhiFDGHhUAopOkCrB0Pb2NY8W8jUN6406OSSkX9kVk6eM5_0w94eFLWOA9hQ/s1600/Bookbinder+finishing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKJpVEpfp3mPwGke3ZEmXKxx21C-R4MyvE4LBnJ-EFZJjEh7ENEq-vqM1jTnU4gOstKLo1aLTG382iMFkhiFDGHhUAopOkCrB0Pb2NY8W8jUN6406OSSkX9kVk6eM5_0w94eFLWOA9hQ/s400/Bookbinder+finishing.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bookbinding</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4uVzMnye8IIXeOImDgEbdXVdNcYZsaEsayffolNxPbe7vZNu1UI3OKA5opv0WGiQIFfys3CzjDFwApB5-Z5cUWMH9h6UxGDxzYD2ocRhAeeXv5fhULzqEiXfnzAxbkLUmoaggVk0Te0/s1600/Lamplighter+1800+KL1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4uVzMnye8IIXeOImDgEbdXVdNcYZsaEsayffolNxPbe7vZNu1UI3OKA5opv0WGiQIFfys3CzjDFwApB5-Z5cUWMH9h6UxGDxzYD2ocRhAeeXv5fhULzqEiXfnzAxbkLUmoaggVk0Te0/s400/Lamplighter+1800+KL1.jpg" width="325" /></a><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifSf5Yov8p-pKDHzM841ogoVJn4TNoadXAR8q1Va4EG2JdywHE6tS_qvHRVAiVh16gEiQIeblKgLOU7YcnJ2q-OJr5y9uszpAvSTyca_dObUmFGlCa4d59Un2kd7Mg2CcTRob6m5LH5ck/s1600/Box+making+1895.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifSf5Yov8p-pKDHzM841ogoVJn4TNoadXAR8q1Va4EG2JdywHE6tS_qvHRVAiVh16gEiQIeblKgLOU7YcnJ2q-OJr5y9uszpAvSTyca_dObUmFGlCa4d59Un2kd7Mg2CcTRob6m5LH5ck/s400/Box+making+1895.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Box-making</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQSpAg76axQ-mmyGV5BCR2DHM_86YNC3Bg8I3DvATrGdlWt73b-9QMSIaxQtipPNJaXREdlGz-pTc6d2Dd_03MVuLL06dIuRSeL5V6NARIrYszU_m1NTS3m-_zapr7KkxgJ4Z1jKtoeWg/s1600/Crab+fishers+OC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQSpAg76axQ-mmyGV5BCR2DHM_86YNC3Bg8I3DvATrGdlWt73b-9QMSIaxQtipPNJaXREdlGz-pTc6d2Dd_03MVuLL06dIuRSeL5V6NARIrYszU_m1NTS3m-_zapr7KkxgJ4Z1jKtoeWg/s400/Crab+fishers+OC.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
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</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXPDbmUyjw3hhuHRKISQMIBIMmsq4kD6m67o9S0l-1zO9MOAes8QUNWinypRoWar0CdAtuSjBgRJ1m4VYGIhB_E73NhoJEp9lSbuSuawwX8FhYv03WI5DcwvCRFGE9o-YT6kSte_x7ng/s1600/Firemen+K4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXPDbmUyjw3hhuHRKISQMIBIMmsq4kD6m67o9S0l-1zO9MOAes8QUNWinypRoWar0CdAtuSjBgRJ1m4VYGIhB_E73NhoJEp9lSbuSuawwX8FhYv03WI5DcwvCRFGE9o-YT6kSte_x7ng/s400/Firemen+K4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Firemen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCjzT4SJ-Uh5bABjVkI4zQsxvC1OvliLSyZXAZuAb1Yq6OjxnL9FRtLzU9zk4uCjrYRXpiP177cvvL1UNOrkKDeJcoKVOpbaRnT0EijX2XHksI0bfVogZe0dZxgoZCBsfcKWVH96UHlP4/s1600/Glass-blower+IP1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCjzT4SJ-Uh5bABjVkI4zQsxvC1OvliLSyZXAZuAb1Yq6OjxnL9FRtLzU9zk4uCjrYRXpiP177cvvL1UNOrkKDeJcoKVOpbaRnT0EijX2XHksI0bfVogZe0dZxgoZCBsfcKWVH96UHlP4/s400/Glass-blower+IP1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glass-blower</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzdJIhTbnZuU1LnDqf2FYn72SSobuCveB6eDQhqE0z2EFi4Yb6W8DWjRnCmY4_cDBI_uTRZWHSKgPiMFPF5DFtH1_6VNa2bCs8YhnJJn0emcI7narSL7CpMjjXPHPtvpIU9m2Jsx4W3e0/s1600/Potter+IP1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzdJIhTbnZuU1LnDqf2FYn72SSobuCveB6eDQhqE0z2EFi4Yb6W8DWjRnCmY4_cDBI_uTRZWHSKgPiMFPF5DFtH1_6VNa2bCs8YhnJJn0emcI7narSL7CpMjjXPHPtvpIU9m2Jsx4W3e0/s400/Potter+IP1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Potter<br />
<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-66763443900763966962013-09-17T01:15:00.000+01:002013-09-17T01:15:08.558+01:00Copac update: The National Archives Library added<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUAQQzmEgEEKuv8sCCAfD8zg7TTnke-SIG0_9EpNmQwGmMXUhkRczzfQoPuqnPzCNQ0Bm8R7jNpihIfl4ms45bBshPzDJG796ODAjKUX01V8r8S7InypBLNlAxMtyRPa2OfmlBGTFeCek/s1600/Copac.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUAQQzmEgEEKuv8sCCAfD8zg7TTnke-SIG0_9EpNmQwGmMXUhkRczzfQoPuqnPzCNQ0Bm8R7jNpihIfl4ms45bBshPzDJG796ODAjKUX01V8r8S7InypBLNlAxMtyRPa2OfmlBGTFeCek/s400/Copac.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copac National, Academic and Specialist Library Catalogue</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm a big fan of <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://copac.ac.uk/" target="_blank">copac*</a></span> and I use it a lot to find resources in UK and Irish libraries. Of course I use <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/" target="_blank">Worldcat</a>, too, but if you are based in the UK or Ireland there are obvious advantages to using copac* to search only libraries in our two countries. The contents of many major British and Irish libraries are listed on both sites, but some are only on Copac. The two sites offer different search experiences, so where a library's holdings are on both, you might choose to use one site or the the other, depending on your requirements at the time.<br />
<br />
Here is today's announcement:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Copac is pleased to announce that the <a href="http://tna.koha-ptfs.co.uk/" target="_blank">Library holdings of The National Archives</a> have been added to Copac. The collection serves primarily as a research library for users of the archive and holds approximately 65,000 books and journals as well as online resources. It is open to visitors and staff of The National Archives.<br />
The Library holds publications from the 17th century onwards and is still growing. Primarily
a history library, its collection includes local history record society series, military history especially covering the First and Second World Wars, family history and directories including London Post Office directories. It also houses complete sets of the published State Papers and other calendars of public records, a good collection of Acts and Statutes and a range of academic journals. A growing number of online resources are also available.<br />
To browse, or limit your search to the holdings of The National Archives library, go to the main tab on copac.ac.uk and choose ‘The National Archives Library’ from the list of libraries.
</blockquote>
This is a library that I know well, because I have the good fortune to work in the building where it is housed. I often think that if it was a standalone library it would be very impressive, but it is somewhat overshadowed by the millions (yes, millions) of documents in The National Archives. The library used to be in its own area of the building at Kew, behind a discreet pair of double doors leading off the old Microfilm Reading Room. I suspect that there were regular users of the archives who never even realised that there <i>was</i> a library. The library is still in pretty much the same location, but the doors have gone and the wall has come down, so it's hard to miss now if you are in the open-plan Research and Enquiries Room.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfeOh4u9O2Gidw5_p-QZXG9lGP6vjp5PTcOWxkMXdoD128cndqd7qrrwqenhe5dXZBboxNY6rktIOYBPqVtJo9Sn4w4M4NTYHIZdy7D_mDxy3_v0DISGriYL1T9093XWh6O3GXcROvTl4/s1600/Books-are-my-bag-logo-text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfeOh4u9O2Gidw5_p-QZXG9lGP6vjp5PTcOWxkMXdoD128cndqd7qrrwqenhe5dXZBboxNY6rktIOYBPqVtJo9Sn4w4M4NTYHIZdy7D_mDxy3_v0DISGriYL1T9093XWh6O3GXcROvTl4/s200/Books-are-my-bag-logo-text.jpg" width="180" /></a>It's still not used as much as it should be, and you could be missing out if you aren't aware of some of the treasures it holds. The books, periodicals and other resources support and complement the archival holdings, and they include many volumes that are effectively finding aids to the documents. There are also many works that are the fruits of authors' research in The National Archives. These books and articles can be really useful; one of my favourite tricks is to consult works in the same general area as my own research and look at the footnotes and references. Good authors always cite their sources comprehensively and accurately, don't they?<br />
<br />
So if you are planning a visit to Kew, or any other archive, it's a good idea to check out the library <a href="http://www.booksaremybag.com/" target="_blank">Books are my bag</a> campaign to promote bookshops<br />
catalogue as well as the archive catalogue. It's a good idea to check out library catalogues anyway. It just is. Quite an appropriate piece of news just after the launch of the <br />
<br />
<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-72759445076193120932013-08-29T23:11:00.000+01:002013-08-30T01:39:58.890+01:00Soldiers' wills online - good news (up to a point)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilBhqg7iJeLEL6t0KLuZItYSSlONyoo2LsQdYAXFHikiiWqAIo39uHZ8XnXxEtMJC5shGIHFqndLrWReZRUGLK-pqENIFmb6rKIBKFCGJfsgBTVWE_1L9ZEsc4RcStL_yzz1MWq3SRMMY/s1600/Will+form+army+pass+book+1945.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilBhqg7iJeLEL6t0KLuZItYSSlONyoo2LsQdYAXFHikiiWqAIo39uHZ8XnXxEtMJC5shGIHFqndLrWReZRUGLK-pqENIFmb6rKIBKFCGJfsgBTVWE_1L9ZEsc4RcStL_yzz1MWq3SRMMY/s320/Will+form+army+pass+book+1945.jpg" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Will Form in a soldier's pass book 1945</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As reported in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/29/first-world-war-soldiers-letters" target="_blank">Guardian</a> and on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23861821" target="_blank">BBC</a>, the long-awaited collection release of soldiers' wills is at last being released by HM Courts and Tribunals Service. Like most other genealogists I am delighted that the Probate Service has finally made some data available online, but I'm afraid that as it stands, the service leaves a great deal to be desired.<br />
<br />
On the positive side, they have provided an online index to some of their records, which is something that the General Register Office for England and Wales has yet to achieve. And at long last it is now possible to pay by credit or debit card, a particularly welcome move for overseas searchers. Also, the range of years covered, 1850 to 1986, starts 8 years before the Principal Probate Registry, and continues 20 years after the most recent calendars from the main collection, online at <a href="http://ancestry.co.uk/">Ancestry.co.uk</a>.<br />
<br />
So far, so good, but there is still a long way to go. First of all, unless you use the link from one of the news stories, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/probate-search#before-you-start" target="_blank">introductory search page</a> might be hard to find, since it is not in the <a href="http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate" target="_blank">Probate Service</a> part of the HM Courts and Tribunals Service site, but in the Death and Bereavement area of <a href="http://gov.uk/">GOV.UK</a>. The Courts and Tribunals site is due to be merged into GOV.UK, so this confusion should only be temporary. The information, or lack of it, on the search page is of much more concern.<br />
<br />
The introductory page gives only the coverage dates (1850-1986) and:<br />
<br />
<i>You will need: </i><br />
<br />
<ul><ul>
<li><i>the soldier’s last name and year of death to search for a will </i></li>
<li><i>to register for the service with an email address </i></li>
<li><i>to pay £6 to access a will</i></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
Regrettably it does not tell you that only the years 1914 to 1921 are included in the initial launch, or indeed give any indication that the collection is incomplete. Nor is there any background information whatsoever.<br />
<br />
There are both basic (surname and year) and advanced search functions, but both searches will only allow you to search a single year at a time, there is no facility to search a range of years. The extra fields in Advanced Search are: Forename, Month of Death, Day of Death and Regimental Number. I don't know how or why these criteria were chosen, but they are not the ones I would have picked. For an ancestor who died in the two World Wars the exact date and regimental number can easily be found on the <a href="http://www.cwgc.org/" target="_blank">Commonwealth War Graves Commission</a> site, but outside of these time periods you are unlikely to know these details, although you might know the man's regiment, or at least be able to hazard a guess. As it stands, searching for the will of a man with a common name could prove very expensive at £6 a time, with only a name, year and number. This is much less information than is provided in the regular probate calendars.<br />
<br />
A regular calendar entry (which include wills and administrations of some soldiers who died in the World Wars) might read as follows:<br />
<br />
<i>COLEMAN Reginald John of 36 Trewsbury Road, Sydenham, Kent, lance-corporal 36th Machine Gun Company died 19 June 1917 in France or Belgium, Probate London 30 October to Frederick Vincent Buckhurst, bank inspector and Edward Ffoulkes Jones, commercial clerk. Effects £3433 5s 3d</i><br />
<br />
If this had been one of those in the newly-released collection, his entry would simply read:<br />
<br />
<i>COLEMAN Reginald John 71482 19 June 1917</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The search page contains a link at the top<b> 'Beta: This is a new service - your feedback will help us to improve it' </b>and I can only suggest that anyone who is interested in these wills gives the site a thorough road test and feeds back their own opinions and suggestions.
<br />
<br />
<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-43223010956321692032013-08-12T00:31:00.003+01:002013-08-12T00:31:54.263+01:00Fantastic find in a newspaper!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGp-f2lOC1o3MRJzmbMIZ_4H4aP0l7zUrXWCyTp4k9tn7pDzmWdGKKDZjPufVRdHnb2Ut8UMjFhUm1KyXjbgt-WssqY5Bhpf7OObYSbd8WeElQA7BnYatZQSAs-LSII87Toubr3QfrXw/s1600/blackwatch.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGp-f2lOC1o3MRJzmbMIZ_4H4aP0l7zUrXWCyTp4k9tn7pDzmWdGKKDZjPufVRdHnb2Ut8UMjFhUm1KyXjbgt-WssqY5Bhpf7OObYSbd8WeElQA7BnYatZQSAs-LSII87Toubr3QfrXw/s1600/blackwatch.png" /></a></div>
I've always loved using newspapers for family history. Mostly this has meant looking at old newspapers, online, on film or even in hard copy - which reminds me, I must pay a fond farewell visit to Colindale before it closes later this year. More and more titles are being made available online all the time, revealing new details and sometimes astonishing breakthroughs for researchers.<br />
<br />
But this time it is a current newspaper that got me and my family excited. On 27 July the paper in question ran a feature to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty of Panmunjom which brought the Korean War to an end. My aunt is a regular reader of the paper, and was interested in the feature because her late husband, my uncle Tommy, had served in that war. She got the surprise of her life when she looked at picture of a group of soldiers and right in the middle of the picture, there was Tommy!<br />
<br />
She rang the newspaper and asked if she could have some copies of the picture, which she was perfectly willing to pay for, but instead they said they would send her a couple of copies, free of charge! We are a big family, so quite a few of us wanted copies. Technology to the rescue; you can take pretty good pictures with a mobile phone, so a copy of the photo has now been emailed around (it took me about half an hour on the phone instructing my mother, step by step, how to forward an email to me, but we got there eventually).<br />
<br />
I've chosen not to show the picture, because the copyright belongs to the paper, and I haven't named the paper either, because they might not appreciate being 'outed' as a paper that gives away free pictures. Sorry about that. So you have a nice generic picture of the badge of the Black Watch, my uncle's regiment. I thought the story was worth telling, though, because it shows how you can find pieces of family history in surprising places, and when you are least expecting them. So remember to keep your eyes peeled, folks<br />
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-8248319693808369412013-06-08T07:00:00.000+01:002013-06-08T07:00:01.085+01:00Shopping Saturday - Selfridges decorations for the Coronation in 1937 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihUM0QnZHuZDgis-dNyZNSVZBO4ndBxiWdpuCl-b75LLsvaa76ZgDy1ksteH-KwzrPMKvd9HNy-HacSnzPgRmUid2qwsCZWF_pPqAwHT0po8rdlZFxTaVRDAono8YRSxkSIIFZwaObq8E/s1600/Coronation+booklet+cover+1937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihUM0QnZHuZDgis-dNyZNSVZBO4ndBxiWdpuCl-b75LLsvaa76ZgDy1ksteH-KwzrPMKvd9HNy-HacSnzPgRmUid2qwsCZWF_pPqAwHT0po8rdlZFxTaVRDAono8YRSxkSIIFZwaObq8E/s640/Coronation+booklet+cover+1937.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Selfridges is a store that has always known how to put on a show. A special occasion like a coronation is a great excuse to hang out the flags - literally. This week Britain has been marking the 60th anniversary of the present queen's coronation, so it seems like an appropriate time to look back at the coronation of her father, King George VI, in 1937.<br />
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The whole of Selfridge's Oxford Street and Orchard Street frontages were decorated with flags, sculptures, pictures and banners bearing the Royal arms, and the company produced a 20-page booklet, from which these illustrations are taken.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ3t0d48zknmbmgODApep1VSCppW1wVHdzKGx73FezWPVpwRCldgfkY3mROGOJsZCD-KXzFOKNYNGBLyUCWYQgGQsX0tmh5lU3HqcwxZ8eOTWm2KnQ3z29vHzdPU_QWwIr6fmjS6O73fo/s1600/Coronation+Oxford+St+view+1937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ3t0d48zknmbmgODApep1VSCppW1wVHdzKGx73FezWPVpwRCldgfkY3mROGOJsZCD-KXzFOKNYNGBLyUCWYQgGQsX0tmh5lU3HqcwxZ8eOTWm2KnQ3z29vHzdPU_QWwIr6fmjS6O73fo/s400/Coronation+Oxford+St+view+1937.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The centrepiece was a sculptural group 'The Empire's Homage to the Throne' over the main entrance, and above this was the Royal Medallion featuring portraits of the new king and queen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifmeJ_R3NIM1tTug0CTBdi17t5TVxdbj_9SIQVKzmypqmBz5M22D5_z0VchEw9VSHnKAlg-ytiiMS-3ilNo8gV5wIQhCEXHQWQiTGwnw9kdSeTsd4_YzNqggX3MxoXaK5RnhJeNN1_GNo/s1600/Coronation+medallion+1937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifmeJ_R3NIM1tTug0CTBdi17t5TVxdbj_9SIQVKzmypqmBz5M22D5_z0VchEw9VSHnKAlg-ytiiMS-3ilNo8gV5wIQhCEXHQWQiTGwnw9kdSeTsd4_YzNqggX3MxoXaK5RnhJeNN1_GNo/s400/Coronation+medallion+1937.jpg" width="280" /></a></div>
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Above this was a giant representation of the Imperial State Crown, amid a gold and silver sunburst, and the whole thing was surmounted by the figure of Peace 'Let Peace Prevail' which towered 150 feet above ground level.<br />
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Just above window level on the Oxford Street front was a series of 18 bas-relief panels depicting scenes in British history, from the Druids and Stonehenge to the Armistice in 1918. These were flanked by two 35-foot high sculptures representing Canada and India.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4rzOpvzYTsrCSNQ-Vari7yJE_LE1Nt4HnWUjg9k0exOx5UIBDZ5Hoi47lRdT9lBys6SV8GlJhP3dKYA4O7N489Z3SD_SgYHSFaQKj7CEnDF7ybnko2gwMRMRw3tYpGG0Ja0FOJse5-M4/s1600/Wellington.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4rzOpvzYTsrCSNQ-Vari7yJE_LE1Nt4HnWUjg9k0exOx5UIBDZ5Hoi47lRdT9lBys6SV8GlJhP3dKYA4O7N489Z3SD_SgYHSFaQKj7CEnDF7ybnko2gwMRMRw3tYpGG0Ja0FOJse5-M4/s400/Wellington.gif" width="361" /></a></div>
Round the corner in Orchard Street was a giant picture depicting the great seaports of the British empire, with a border consisting of the house flags and funnel markings of major British shipping companies. Either side of this were two more sculptures, this time for Australia and South Africa. Finally, each of the large plate-glass windows all round the store at street level, normally full of merchandise, contained an oil painting of a scene from the His Majesty's life. There were 30 of these in all. It must have been quite a sight.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVg9oB9cYJUoCh0Yb5xFiXxQeGffghEwf-8-xohyXVeB78qp9DgpHQtTTrTiz3f89HTl6WnA0XFVbW3Ijk9VF3VclF_-xdR3EkHuNJFWbEDMvoYUaWX0mng0VjY0Q-9dtQBA3vzzcUEBs/s1600/Coronation+Australia+bas-relief+1937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVg9oB9cYJUoCh0Yb5xFiXxQeGffghEwf-8-xohyXVeB78qp9DgpHQtTTrTiz3f89HTl6WnA0XFVbW3Ijk9VF3VclF_-xdR3EkHuNJFWbEDMvoYUaWX0mng0VjY0Q-9dtQBA3vzzcUEBs/s640/Coronation+Australia+bas-relief+1937.jpg" width="416" /></a></div>
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-10995253212511033062013-04-17T10:39:00.001+01:002013-04-17T10:39:31.986+01:00Funeral of Britain's greatest 20th century peacetime prime minister<i>From The Times 12 October 1967</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8lwm2lbFMzD-FLzeqU31iPGePAN4Nal9fNvp0Xgbx0Wob86n7Ai71kMbcrdAA02uK3tXTKLTs780Oq0nZDhlevb5gHBP3Leq09WJhLT652F4Os2S5CHU4joYPGxuX2nErzp-hZbBBsfs/s1600/Clement_Attlee.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8lwm2lbFMzD-FLzeqU31iPGePAN4Nal9fNvp0Xgbx0Wob86n7Ai71kMbcrdAA02uK3tXTKLTs780Oq0nZDhlevb5gHBP3Leq09WJhLT652F4Os2S5CHU4joYPGxuX2nErzp-hZbBBsfs/s200/Clement_Attlee.png" width="151" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clement Richard Attlee 1883-1967</td></tr>
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<b>SERVICE WITHOUT POMP OR CROWD</b><br />
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There was little of the pomp usually associated with the passing of Prime Ministers at the funeral service for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Attlee" target="_blank">Lord Attlee</a> in London yesterday. Fewer than 150 people attended the ceremony, which lasted 20 minutes, in the Temple Church.<br />
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There were no crowds, few policemen. Most of the congregation were either family or close friends.<br />
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Some of Lord Attlee's oldest colleagues were there: Emanuel Shinwell, who had been his Minister of Fuel and Power and Secretary of State for War, with George Wigg who had been his parliamentary private secretary, during both appointments, and James Griffiths, Minister of National Insurance during the postwar administration.<br />
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<b>Veterans knew the words</b><br />
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Links with the past and present were established by the presence of Mr Alister MacDonald son of the first Labour Prime Minister of England [sic], and Mr Harold Wilson, the party's third Prime Minister.<br />
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The immediate family mourners were Lord Attlee's son, Lord Prestwood (now the second Lord Attlee), with his wife Anne, Lord Attlee's eldest daughter Lady Janet Skipton, now a United States citizen, and his other daughters Lady Felicity Harwood and Lady Alison Davis.<br />
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Two wreaths were all that lay on the small oak coffin during the service. One, inscribed 'To Daddy, with love, from all your children' was of red carnations and roses, yellow chrysanthemums and lilies. The other, a bunch of freesias, roses and lilies read: 'With much love, from grandchildren'.<br />
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The service was worthy of the old socialist, with the lesson taken from Revelation, St John's vision of 'The New Jerusalem', and one of the two hymns 'Jerusalem', sang at so many Labour gatherings. Many of the veterans present sang it without their pamphlets.<br />
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<b>'Building one people'</b><br />
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The master of the Temple, Canon Milford, conducted the service. He was assisted by the Archdeacon of Westminster, Canon Edward Carpenter, who spoke the prayers and the eulogy. In this he referred to Lord Attlee as one who 'sustained a passionate concern to promote social justice, to break down barriers, and to build up among men one people'.<br />
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After the ceremony the chief mourners went in procession to the cremation ceremony at Putney Vale. On the leading car was a wreath from the Cabinet 'Flowers from the garden of Chequers, which he loved'. Lord Attlee's ashes are to be interred at a memorial service in Westminster Abbey early next month.<br />
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Some 30 people standing in one of the Temple squares watched the funeral procession of the man who had introduced the welfare state move off into the rain. <br />
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Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-9867591065511223102013-04-16T08:42:00.001+01:002013-04-16T08:42:26.755+01:00Old Bailey Online - the Will Forgeries<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekKkWbdwwOdk2UpCJPbW0Kvx0r3bOPNADiiRtjgnns7acWpYJPWgLULdjbYSU1cERNxoskH9TNOY8YrWJFjgOR36b20wQA8FT8XhOKnxLSq9QU7RHCbhVdRbHP2300MgOL6KYrEmdTfk/s1600/Bank+Rotunda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekKkWbdwwOdk2UpCJPbW0Kvx0r3bOPNADiiRtjgnns7acWpYJPWgLULdjbYSU1cERNxoskH9TNOY8YrWJFjgOR36b20wQA8FT8XhOKnxLSq9QU7RHCbhVdRbHP2300MgOL6KYrEmdTfk/s1600/Bank+Rotunda.jpg" height="200" width="167" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bank of England Rotunda</td></tr>
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It was all over the papers in 1844, and places in the public gallery at the Old Bailey must have been highly sought-after but the Will Forgeries is now largely forgotten. It's an amazing story, though, and if it were fiction you'd say it was far-fetched. You really couldn't make it up.<br />
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It concerned an organised crime ring defrauding the Bank of England of large sums of money held in dormant accounts. It started with a perfectly legal activity, that of finding the people legally entitled to the money and helping them claim it - for a fee or commission, of course. These would be the next of kin of people who had died leaving sums in the Bank, much in the way that the firms we see on TV on 'Heir Hunters' contact the heirs of people who die intestate. Sometimes there is no heir to be found, and of course the same thing happened in the 1840s.<br />
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This is where one man, Joshua Fletcher, crossed the line into illegality. If he and his agents couldn't find an heir, then it was likely that no-one else could; so if he invented an heir and forged the supporting documentary proof, he and his gang could pocket the money. It took some planning, and involved the assuming of false identities, and even disguises, but it worked very well for a time, until the Bank of England became suspicious of the higher than usual number of dormant accounts that were springing back to life.<br />
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Although many accounts were involved, the charges finally brought at the Old Bailey were the ones where they had the strongest evidence, those of <a href="http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?ref=t18440408-1058" target="_blank">John Stewart</a> who had died intestate with no heirs and <a href="http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?ref=t18440408-1059" target="_blank">Anne Slack</a> who was a real person (and was still alive) for whom Fletcher and his accomplices had forged a will and obtained a fictitious death certificate. The forged will is in The National Archives, which I transcribed and wrote about in a blog post there last year <a href="http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/fraud-forgery-and-identity-theft-in-the-1840s/#more-1201" target="_blank">Fraud, forgery and identity theft in the 1840s </a><br />
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The defendants were all found guilty in the Anne Slack case, and two of them in the Stewart case. This was enough for Fletcher to be sentenced to transportation for life, along with William Henry Barber, the solicitor who carried out his legal work. But that was not the end of the story. Throughout the trial, all the way to Australia and while he was in the penal colony on Norfolk Island, Barber continually protested his innocence. He had been duped by Fletcher, and while he may have been guilty of naivety, he was not part of the criminal conspiracy. With astonishing persistence and single-mindedness he was finally vindicated, gaining first a conditional and then a full pardon. He made his way back to England, was granted £5000 in compensation from the government and even got back his licence to practice law. You really couldn't make it up.
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-73192505400633071542013-04-04T08:00:00.000+01:002013-04-04T08:00:09.017+01:00Those places Thursday - Quarry Bank Mill, Styal, Cheshire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quarry Bank Mill and its chimney</td></tr>
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Quarry Bank Mill is one of the most popular sites run by the <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/" target="_blank">National Trust</a> and it is one of my favourites too. Much as I enjoy visiting the many 'stately homes' also run by the Trust, I love Quarry Bank Mill because it shows how ordinary people lived and worked (in places other than the kitchens - always a popular part of the stately home tour). You have probably seen the mill on TV, as its working machinery is often featured in documentaries on the Industrial Revolution. It is not just the buildings that are well-preserved, there are unusually good records of the Greg family who owned the mill, and even better, for the mill's apprentices and employees. The Unitarian Greg family were regarded as model employers who treated their staff much better than most other industrialists; all the same, when you look at the details the lives of the child apprentices were still very hard.<br />
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The mill is set to be a TV star again, not in a documentary this time, but in a <a href="http://www.wilmslow.co.uk/news/article/8118/quarry-bank-sets-the-scene-for-channel-4-costume-drama" target="_blank">Channel 4 costume drama</a> based on real people and events in the mill's history. The working title is 'The Mill' and there is is no transmission date as yet, but it should be on our screens later this year. Sounds interesting, and I will certainly watch it. I hope it is a good production, but even if it isn't I can turn off the sound and enjoy looking at the locations.<br />
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As well as on its own page on the National Trust site, there is a lot of interesting background information on the mill and its history at <a href="http://www.spinningtheweb.org.uk/m_display.php?irn=35&sub=rural&theme=places&crumb=Quarry+Bank+Mill" target="_blank">Spinning the Web - the story of the cotton industry</a>. That site is a wonderful resource for anyone whose ancestors were involved in the cotton industry, especially in north west England.<br />
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I have visited the mill many times, and it is where I actually joined the National Trust many years ago. There is always something new to see, and over the years I have seen many changes as many restoration projects have been undertaken. Back in the 1980s our family visits always included putting some coins in a box for the 'wheel appeal' to bring a mill wheel to the wheel chamber and restore it to working order - somewhere in my attic there is a teddy bear wearing an appeal sweatshirt that was bought for my younger son when he was four years old! Now they have developed an ingenious means of fundraising more suited to the 21st century; you can help to raise funds by playing online games through the <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/get-involved/donate/current-appeals/quarry-bank-appeal/play-games-and-donate/?campid=QB_TW_Spons_6" target="_blank">Quarry Bank Appeal</a> page. You can play play free of charge too, but obviously the Trust hope you will pay - seems like a better use for your money than buying coins or gold bars or magic crystals on Facebook games.</div>
<br />
<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-88448556978848705682013-04-03T23:35:00.002+01:002021-11-18T00:37:17.377+00:00'Everyone deserves to be recorded' - Dennis Brimhall, RootsTech 2013No-one who witnessed Denis Brimhall's keynote session at Rootstech 2013 will ever forget the astonishing account of his father's escape from a burning plane during the Second And World War. If you missed it, you can catch the recording at <a href="http://rootstech.org/?cid=fsHomeRT2013Recap" target="_blank">Rootstech recap</a>, it is well worth it. (Warning: the video starts up when you click on the link, so choose your time carefully). But it was a phrase from another part of his speech that stuck in my mind 'Everyone deserves to be recorded'. Once someone has passed from living memory, the only way that we know they ever existed is through a written record, a picture or a story that has been passed down through the generations. Once people stop passing on the story, then they are lost forever unless some documentary or picture evidence exists, and someone finds it, records it and puts it in place in the family or community. It is remarkable - and often shocking - how swiftly and easily this can happen.<br />
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Viewers of the British TV series '<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007nms5" target="_blank">Heir Hunters</a>' will be very familiar with those cases where relatives of someone who died intestate are the surprised recipients of a sum of money from the relative they didn't know they had. This is often an old person with no children of their own, and if that person was also an only child, the heirs are often cousins once or twice removed. Often the heirs express regret that they never knew their unexpected benefactor while they were still alive, and then take steps to find out more about them, and contact people who knew them in their final years. Some of them become very interested in the wider family tree, and I'm sure some are inspired to take up genealogy as a serious pastime, and we all know where that can lead us! Better late than never. But just think about the people who remain 'lost' to any family because they die without leaving a sum of money that makes heir-hunting worthwhile. Only estates worth £5000 or more appear on the <a href="http://www.bonavacantia.gov.uk/output/" target="_blank">Bona Vacantia</a> lists, and for probate firms like <a href="http://www.lostkin.co.uk/" target="_blank">Fraser & Fraser</a>, <a href="http://www.hoopers.co.uk/" target="_blank">Hoopers</a> or <a href="http://www.celticresearch.co.uk/" target="_blank">Celtic Research</a> the cost of research means that only estates worth much more than this are worth pursuing. That leaves an awful lot of people who are recorded, in that they have a death certificate, but are otherwise forgotten because they are apparently unconnected to anyone else.<br />
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Dennis Brimhall's comment struck a particular chord with me because of some the earliest findings I made in my family research. Like everyone else I am pleased when I find an interesting or distinguished ancestor or relative; I was surprised and delighted to find a very distant cousin who won the Victoria Cross, and if anything I was even more excited to discover an extremely distant connection by marriage who was an Inspector of Registration for GRO Scotland! But the most affecting discoveries I made are the children who died very young, and who were forgotten in a remarkably short time. I knew that my father had a brother and a sister who died in childhood, because I grew up around the rest of the family who remembered them. But just a single generation before it was a different story. When I was about 13 I compiled my first pedigree charts, by asking my parents about their families. I figured that since I knew all of my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, my parents must know all about theirs too. My father, born when his parents were quite young, was particularly helpful because he had met a lot of his older relatives. He listed all of his father's siblings, including Mary, who had died very young. I wrote down all the details - and did nothing at all with them for another 20 years!<br />
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By the time<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"> I took up family history in my 30s (the descendants no longer requiring my attention 24/7, they were both at school) my father, his parents and a number of his older relatives had died, so I was glad that I had actually asked him those questions while he was still alive. On a research trip to Scotland I was staying with my uncle Tommy, Dad's younger brother and telling him what I had discovered so far about our family, including poor little Mary. This was news to him, he had never heard of her, and for a while he was convinced I had got it wrong. Aunt Margaret to the rescue 'I know who'll know all about the Collins family' she said, and mentioned my grandfather's younger cousin Lizzie whom I had met only once before. After a couple of attempts we got hold of her on the phone - for an elderly lady who got about only with the aid of two sticks she had a surprisingly busy social life! Good for her. She remembered Mary, and gave me a pretty good estimate of her dates of birth and death too. Then she said 'Didn't your dad tell you about Freddy?' I turned out that Freddy was another of my grandfather's siblings who had died in childhood, but before my dad was born, whereas he was 5 when Mary died at the age of 10, just a few days after his own baby brother, Henry. No wonder he remembered. Just imagine the effect that would have on a 5 year old.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><br /></span>
Since then I have discovered that my maternal grandmother was not the middle one of three sisters, but the middle sister of five, and on the other side of the family both sets of great-grandparents lost four children in infancy. So that makes a total of 12 'forgotten' children in my grandparents' generation. So far I have identified nine of them, and I'm working on the other three - they are part of a Brown family in Glasgow so it's quite tricky. These were all the brothers and sisters of people that I knew well. I am lucky to have good memories of all of my grandparents, so I feel that as a tribute to them I should do what I can to record all of their families, not just the ones who have descendants of their own. Nowadays in the developed world if we have children we expect them all to live to adulthood, but it's a sobering thought that only two or three generations back this definitely was not the case.<br />
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The theme of this year's Rootstech was 'Find, Organize, Preserve, Share' and there was a strong emphasis on telling the stories of your family, and not just recording dates. We should remember that the children who never grew up are part of that story too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkKSXyfhyphenhyphenb0mrzQoep7_iOsY6hUqs_mAQddQTf9JyOcYiRvStfVD0jeK6RxLbbcHbm8H2ij6yO9R9nhbiwm1T0fo7C1dMPDmMG5m03ml1iGMHbniH8ho7O5cN3reqPDb6UyCNVV7gLDns/s1600/Kensal+Green+Cemetery+K4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkKSXyfhyphenhyphenb0mrzQoep7_iOsY6hUqs_mAQddQTf9JyOcYiRvStfVD0jeK6RxLbbcHbm8H2ij6yO9R9nhbiwm1T0fo7C1dMPDmMG5m03ml1iGMHbniH8ho7O5cN3reqPDb6UyCNVV7gLDns/s1600/Kensal+Green+Cemetery+K4.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-77117342465378035672013-03-30T17:26:00.000+00:002013-03-30T17:26:51.999+00:00Shopping Saturday - Marks in Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDD_rhqH1tCJJJ0I_DUiX4BcR8Uus8rgZ73Y2b3NwuxVXA7oEf0gIBik9o_VswP9IAhEgQX13ntgjbiOX9nYUi-rQ75CqfTMySBE3bM-siYFFXhxZbfPo3vqxGLAt50cIJIGs6S5qX6R0/s1600/M&S.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDD_rhqH1tCJJJ0I_DUiX4BcR8Uus8rgZ73Y2b3NwuxVXA7oEf0gIBik9o_VswP9IAhEgQX13ntgjbiOX9nYUi-rQ75CqfTMySBE3bM-siYFFXhxZbfPo3vqxGLAt50cIJIGs6S5qX6R0/s1600/M&S.JPG" height="303" width="400" /></a></div>
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Marks and Spencer is close to the heart of many a Brit, or at least close to their skin - or in their underwear drawer. <a href="http://marksintime.marksandspencer.com/">Marks in Time</a> is the website of the M&S company Archives, and it recently celebrated its first anniversary. The archive itself is housed in the University of Leeds, and the website is well worth a visit, whether you are a serious student of retail history or you just like looking at old pictures. The site makes very good use of the company's extensive collection of images - photographs of buildings and people, and packaging and merchandise. For the Baby Boomer generation, that iconic 1970's fashion statement <a href="https://archive-catalogue.marksandspencer.ssl.co.uk/t2.17.1">platform shoes</a> will take you right back! You can do simple or advanced searches of the <a href="https://archive-catalogue.marksandspencer.ssl.co.uk/home">catalogue</a>, with an option to select only items with images, and you can choose from a drop-down menu of subjects such as 'wartime', 'food and home', 'children' and so on. When I searched for all items with images in the category 'women', I found, as expected, lots of clothing items, but also wine labels and bars of chocolate. Makes sense, I suppose.<br />
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As well as the archive catalogue, there is a history of the company since its famous start as a Penny Bazaar in Leeds Market, complete with a timeline, biographies and memories. There is also a fine collection of resources for schools, including a game where you match the fashion to the decade. I have already spent more time than I intended to exploring - well, it's cold outside! Feel free to do the same.
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-39433691387121360522013-03-29T18:00:00.000+00:002013-03-29T18:00:22.183+00:00Kent newspaper online - South Eastern Gazette 1852-1912I was following the pre-launch news about this online newspaper resource, and it actually went online a week ago, while I was in Salt Lake City and rather preoccupied with <a href="http://www.rootstech.org/">Rootstech</a>. Now I am back I have been able to explore it a little. Earlier reports had suggested it would be free to UK residents, but chargeable if you are overseas. It is part of <a href="http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/open/index.jsp">ukpressonline</a> and you have to register to use the site. When you have done a free search and try to view the full page you are told that your subscription does not cover it, so you have to 'buy' a year's access for £0.00. From here in the UK I can;t see what the arrangements are, if any, for overseas users.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTX4mKqntFrvrs4o6JdnYSXvxAurcdH54XOz1EQiVoeSSus-QJAi-T4tY1SMjm8j5F_Xmo1Ex3MADIqMPB6RtivjzF9GW3KpNhOduoNyGOS6LywGWNjs-79rdQTGyao8SJjFXZ9D8RBss/s1600/Maidstone+church+and+college+ILN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTX4mKqntFrvrs4o6JdnYSXvxAurcdH54XOz1EQiVoeSSus-QJAi-T4tY1SMjm8j5F_Xmo1Ex3MADIqMPB6RtivjzF9GW3KpNhOduoNyGOS6LywGWNjs-79rdQTGyao8SJjFXZ9D8RBss/s1600/Maidstone+church+and+college+ILN.jpg" height="335" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maidstone, where the South Eastern Gazette was published</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I tried out a few searches, and the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) works moderately well, although I got a few results where the highlighted text bore no relation to my search term, and in the advanced search an 'exact phrase' brought some results where the words appear quite separately on the page. The search results also include a short extract of text, which is generally less helpful than you will find on other sites like the <a href="http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/">London Gazette</a> or the <a href="http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/">British Newspaper Archive</a> and sometimes there is no text extract at all. On the whole, the site is easy to use and the quality of the PDF page images is good. I was able to clip and save the items I was interested in. Results are returned in that old favourite 'Relevance' order, but you can re-sort them into date order, and display them as thumbnail, list or gallery view. You can see preview pages, view or save PDFs to your computer, or save them to your own bookshelf within the site. I was pleased to see that you can browse, as well as search. If you choose the PDF view, the text is highlighted, a very helpful feature with these large pages, but a mouse click on the page removes it, so you can get a nice un-highlighted copy.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibG_B5EwHV9Tk09PoGC73UcjV95SjPPvqixpNpQlA7-Ki2wejGt8x6tLW_k5XFuQwyz2IMaz-_Ydb-jlLC1iOPp_hv22doPgJs0PJqFviEXVHmHOp6NluP4gEODZQmmNC5vhaKMfnn4eY/s1600/Cylinder+press+IP2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibG_B5EwHV9Tk09PoGC73UcjV95SjPPvqixpNpQlA7-Ki2wejGt8x6tLW_k5XFuQwyz2IMaz-_Ydb-jlLC1iOPp_hv22doPgJs0PJqFviEXVHmHOp6NluP4gEODZQmmNC5vhaKMfnn4eY/s1600/Cylinder+press+IP2.jpg" height="238" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An early cylinder press</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There are <a href="http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/open/services.jsp">other useful resources</a> on the site, mostly 20th century, which you do have to pay for, and subscriptions are available for educational institutions and libraries. Have fun.<br />
<br />
<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a> Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4518232392780308567.post-89886408965096404492013-03-28T17:56:00.002+00:002013-03-28T17:56:39.142+00:00What I got out of Rootstech<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcIpQWHauMinAphMiegvIdS-prgPwOQ4wKVcgFSC1A5_pVqLHPgfDpBuPVBt0Bm5i-9WxYdLPZrJ0MNHrQ1o5X_akkSAnTdTEwGnSFvMn4ENfbyT5LplQzjoRpn1p05O9YVMtqLuY-Xaw/s1600/P3260317.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcIpQWHauMinAphMiegvIdS-prgPwOQ4wKVcgFSC1A5_pVqLHPgfDpBuPVBt0Bm5i-9WxYdLPZrJ0MNHrQ1o5X_akkSAnTdTEwGnSFvMn4ENfbyT5LplQzjoRpn1p05O9YVMtqLuY-Xaw/s400/P3260317.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First the free stuff - badges, blogger beads and more.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is just a selection of the goodies I acquired during Rootstech 2013, to add to a fair old existing collection - you can hear me coming, even if I'm not talking (it can happen!) with the clanking of the beads and badges I have accumulated over the last few years.<br />
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The blogger beads attract quite a bit of attention, and it has become a custom for members of the <a href="http://geneabloggers.com/">Geneabloggers </a>community to get a new set of beads, courtesy of blogging royalty <a href="http://about.me/tmacentee">Thomas MacEntee</a> and <a href="http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/">Dear Myrtle</a>. The Rootstech 2013 beads were from Dear Myrtle, and they are the tasteful black and silver/grey ones with a 'Dear Myrtle' luggage tag. The sparkly pink, purple and silver ones are not strictly blogger beads, they were the required adornments for guests at Thomas's birthday party on Friday night (great party, Thomas!).<br />
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Badges can be more functional, especially the conference ID badge, marked with the events you had pre-booked. As it turned out, the events on the badges bore little relation to the sessions actually booked, but it didn't matter at all because the Rootstech door stewards had paper lists. I got badges from My Heritage, 'I Tweet' from the <a href="http://www.sog.org.uk/">Society of Genealogists </a>and another British badge from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RudeGenealogist">The Rude Genealogist</a> - follow that link at your own risk! I also got a rather attractive enamelled pin for doing some <a href="https://familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing">FamilySearch indexing</a> which is edging ever closer to the 1 billion mark.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMI1MQ-g74fNMco9k7OGFVNwaAklWZi_Se43TnqcX2JQNqgLZcc37t2U66eXsTFAHN6n8m_w9SpumvJwzFSAAigo7PSF51Kr-xj-StJ_sCmALO4GuIH8FSnO8iHtBjtXlHOKWDxa7IHL0/s1600/P3230306.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMI1MQ-g74fNMco9k7OGFVNwaAklWZi_Se43TnqcX2JQNqgLZcc37t2U66eXsTFAHN6n8m_w9SpumvJwzFSAAigo7PSF51Kr-xj-StJ_sCmALO4GuIH8FSnO8iHtBjtXlHOKWDxa7IHL0/s400/P3230306.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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The magic target wasn't quite reached during Rootstech, but it should be any time now... I have done quite a bit of indexing before, intermittently, and it's quite good fun. Well, it usually is - I consider myself a fairly experienced interpreter and transcriber, but the batch I did in public in the Expo Hall had the worst handwriting I have seen in a very long time (New Zealand passenger lists, since you ask). Ireally earned that badge!<br />
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Conference attendees can usually pick up a selection of adhesive ribbons to stick to the bottom of their ID badges, and I was quite restrained this time, I just got <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/">Ancestry</a> and <a href="http://www.findmypast.co.uk/">Findmypast</a> membership ribbons, plus 'I love British Newspapers' and 'I flip over Flip-Pal'. This year's complimentary lanyard was from <a href="http://www.mocavo.com/">Mocavo</a>. I was also one of the lucky recipients of a voucher worth a 6-month subscription to <a href="http://www.myheritage.com/">My Heritage</a>, a site that I have to confess I don't know very well, so I look forward to giving it a good try-out. And of course I can always find a use for a <a href="http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/welcome.aspx">ScotlandsPeople</a> voucher! Not a bad haul, I think.<br />
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What I didn't get...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EYm0-AgE_5RbBdsCi2G02YhEmDJPKQvyL1ddHT2VhF08VssGytiCLcsOX2HTOsRSbbMKiN80ahYNyVW3FBt7llhKZrGzeqehKWbqWX3q5id4fN-3WawiPMoUEm75FMa8-5oGgTgJ4Lo/s1600/P3230288.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EYm0-AgE_5RbBdsCi2G02YhEmDJPKQvyL1ddHT2VhF08VssGytiCLcsOX2HTOsRSbbMKiN80ahYNyVW3FBt7llhKZrGzeqehKWbqWX3q5id4fN-3WawiPMoUEm75FMa8-5oGgTgJ4Lo/s400/P3230288.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Josh Taylor says 'sorry' and I forgive him!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The demand for Findmypast's 'Kiss me, my ancestors were...' badges greatly outstripped supply, and by the time I got anywhere near the stand they were long gone. But we have been promised further supplies at future events - put me down for Scottish and Irish, please.<br />
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Enough of the freebies, maybe next time I'll write something more serious and thoughtful.<br />
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<a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-button.gif" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" /></a>Audrey Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.com0