June 6th 2019 marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the pivotal moment in WWII that began the liberation of German-occupied France and paved the way for the Allied victory and the end of the war. Also known as the Normandy Landings and codenamed Operation Neptune, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history, with soldiers Read More
May 12th is International Nurses Day – a chance to not only say thank you to the men and women who continue to work in the nursing field, but also to those who have served the medical profession throughout history. We dug into the UK, Historical Photographs and Prints, 1704-1989 collection to find these ten 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
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
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
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
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
Graham Thompson, Archives Assistant at the Royal Museums Greenwich, talks about the Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital and the role it played in London during the 1800-1900s. The Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital at Greenwich was the main clinical site of the Seamen’s Hospital Society (now Seafarer’s Hospital Society) and a major part of its patient records came to Read More
From baby-faced thieves to seasoned swindlers, Fife criminals were captured in more ways than one in the Fife Criminal Registers. The new collection, spanning from 1910-1931 collection, includes 900 records and more than a thousand historic images of criminals convicted in Fireshire. Men, women and children charged with criminal offences were recorded in registers, providing Read More
Derbyshire Record Office Archivist, Mark Smith, explores some of the odd details and eccentricities you can identify in the Derbyshire Parish Records. Here at Derbyshire Record Office, we look after all the surviving original registers of baptisms, marriages and burials for parishes in the Diocese of Derby. As you will notice if you make use Read More