Back in 1987, when I was a teenager, I paid a trip to London to search the General Registration indexes at St Catherine's House for a record of the marriage of my great great grandparents, James Batchelor, an agricultural labourer, and his wife, Frances Naylor. I knew that the couple had both been born in…
Over the years, I have discovered that many of my ancestors were country folk and l love to visit the villages where they once lived. I usually make a beeline for the church and immediately, my imagination starts to run wild. I envision a large group clustered around the font, as a tiny baby is…
By Pieter Claesz, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4892401 It is a mysterious thing but sometimes, even recent ancestors seem to disappear from the face of the earth in a puff of smoke. After constructing a thorough timeline of their life, suddenly, the trail goes cold. In this article, I will be looking at some of the reasons…
I was first introduced to Bertie, (also known as Bert), when as a child, I saw his name recorded on a local war memorial in the churchyard of St Helen's, Cliffe at Hoo, Kent. Since Bertie and I shared the same surname, I immediately asked my Dad whether we were related. He confirmed that we…
Wills are truly the most wonderful source for family history. They provide unparalleled evidence on relationships, enabling extensive family trees to be constructed. Wills may also lead to you other sources, such as title deeds or manorial records, due to the description of land holdings. They also help you to pinpoint relevant baptisms, marriages and…
A British seaman! A heart of oak! One of the brave tars who fought for, and protected this happy isle / I.M. delin.Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827Published / Created[15 November 1801] Yale University Library https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/15813519 Tracing the career of a British seamen, (who was not an officer), before 1853 can be challenging, as until this date, there…
Oast Houses, Sissinghurst, KentImage courtesy of Derek Winterburn via Flickr- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/ The Garden of England, as Kent is often described, is the county of my birth and indeed, my ancestors have been living here since the earliest dates. Kent is known as the Garden of England because historically, it was full of pretty apple, pear,…
A few months ago I was invited to talk with some fellow genealogists and historians on the subject of occupations, and their importance to family history on the new "Really Useful Podcast" produced by the Federation of Family History Societies. We had a really interesting discussion, which you can listen to here: https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/podcast (Series 1,…
(c) Paintings Collection; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation Introduction Even if you have only limited expertise or experience, it is often possible to trace your family history back to the early years of the Victorian period without too much difficulty. Speeding through the records of General Registration and census you can make rapid progress.…
You never know when a secret, long buried in the past, will come to light. As a result of the indexing of record sources, you can stumble across information about an ancestor that you would never have looked for ordinarily. This happened to me one day when a new, tantalising, green leaf on Ancestry appeared…
Genealogy Jude 