David Tattersfield, trustee from The Western Front Association, explores the little known Battle of Trindade, using Naval Records from the WWI Pension Ledgers to learn more about the 8 British men who lost there lives in this WWI battle. Naval actions in the First World War were fairly uncommon. Whilst anyone with a passing interest Read More
David Tattersfield, trustee from The Western Front Association, introduces the WWI Pension Ledgers to Ancestry, and explains the specific value of the Merchant Marine Cards by way of two key events from WWI history. Most British First World War historians focus their attention on the battles fought by the British and Commonwealth Armies in France Read More
What are the London City Directories and what value can they bring to your family history research? London Metropolitan Archive’s Public Services team explain the valuable detail to this collection, and how the London City Directories can be helpful for your exploring your ancestral connections to the London area. What are London City Directories and Read More
The 1939 Register is a valuable resource for family history research, particularly it learning more about your more recent relatives. It is the only surviving overview of people in UK and Wales from 1921 to 1951 – the 1931 census was destroyed during World War II, and the 1941 census was cancelled because of the fighting Read More
Back in October 2017, we collaborated with British fashion brand, Jigsaw on the launch of their Autumn/Winter 17 campaign, ‘♥immigration’. The campaign celebrated the inherent cultural diversity that is at the heart of the Jigsaw brand, and aimed to challenge the traditional notion of ‘British’ style. But diversity isn’t just stitched into the fabric of Read More
For 200 years, the East India Company was the leading trade operation for exotic goods like cotton, silk, indigo, salt, tea and opium. Was your ancestor a ‘factor’ helping negotiate sales with local European merchants? Or did they serve in the company’s huge private army? Caroline Kimbell, from the Senate House Library discusses the history Read More
Keeping your family up-to-date with your family history discoveries can be a great way to get more people interested in your research. But we all know that when it comes to updating your relatives on your exciting new findings, some will want to know more than others. So how can you keep your fellow fact-hungry Read More
With the launch of the Wiltshire Wills collection, Claire Skinner from Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre explores the historical significance of wills. The probate collection of the Diocese of Sarum alias Salisbury (more popularly known as the Wiltshire Wills collection) is a collection of over 500,000 images of wills and related records from the whole Read More
Ashley Barnwell, Ashworth Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, explores the ethics of keeping family secrets hidden. At the International Family History Workshop in Manchester 2017, I presented my research on Australian family secrets. As a sociologist, I am interested in the connections between the small events of everyday life and the large events of Read More
During the mid to late 19th Century, Fife became an area of aggregation for lunatics in Scotland. The word lunatic originates from the Latin word of ‘luna’ meaning moon. There was a belief that the changes in the cycle of the moon caused periodic or intermittent insanity, affecting people’s cognitive behaviour. The Victorians identified two Read More
