Poachers, perpetrators and pigeons: a look at the Bedfordshire Petty Sessions

Posted by Kristen Hyde on August 25, 2017 in Collections

Kathryn Faulkner is an archivist at Bedfordshire Archives. From 2011-2013 she worked on the Paths to Crime project which extensively catalogued the Quarter Sessions records for Bedfordshire from 1831-1900. Here, Kathryn introduces another set of court records – Bedfordshire Petty Sessions – and shows how they can help build a picture of family life. Court Read More

An Education: learning about London’s School Registers

Posted by Kristen Hyde on July 24, 2017 in Collections

Ancestry’s Senior Content Manager, Miriam Silverman takes us through the new London school records from the London Metropolitan Archives. These two collections include admissions and discharges in mainstream schools that took place during the First World War, as well as an entirely new database of Pauper children’s registers, shedding an insight into the lives of a Read More

The poignancy of researching your military ancestors

Posted by Kristen Hyde on July 21, 2017 in Collections

Ancestry Progenealogists‘ Simon Pearce, explores some of Ancestry’s key collections for researching the military careers of your ancestors.  The armed forces were incredibly diligent at keeping records of those who dedicated their time and careers to military service. As such, military records can be incredibly beneficial when researching the lives of your ancestors; not only Read More

Family, fame and infamy in the Wiltshire Parish Registers

Posted by Kristen Hyde on May 19, 2017 in Collections

Claire Skinner, Principal Archivist at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre identifies some of the famous names you can see in the Wiltshire Parish Registers. Over three hundred Wiltshire parish registers, dating back to 1538, have been digitised by Ancestry working in partnership with Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, a service funded by Wiltshire Council Read More

Exploring the history of Swansea and the Surrounding Area

Posted by Kristen Hyde on March 21, 2017 in Collections

With the launch of the Swansea and the Surrounding Area Electoral, Gaol and Poor Law Union records, Dr David Morris, archivist at West Glamorgan Archive Service provides further insight into the value of searching for your ancestors in these collections. The Swansea and the Surrounding Area Poor Law Union Records, 1836-1916 records relate to the four Read More

Jersey, Channel Islands: A brief history of immigration

Posted by Kristen Hyde on February 15, 2017 in Collections

This blogpost about Jersey’s Worldwide Links and the Island’s Parish Church Records was written by Linda Romeril. Linda is Archives and Collections Director at Jersey Heritage and is responsible for the care and promotion of access to the Island’s archive and museum collections. Archive collections include records from the Government of Jersey, Public Institutions, the Read More