Really Useful Podcasts - Episode 6

The Family History Federation has now launched Episode 6 of its new series of Really Useful Podcasts.

 
This new episode focuses on Newspapers.  The website describes it : 

"Joe is joined by Mish Holman, professional genealogist who is particularly interested in theatre ancestors and census enumerators, Margaret Roberts, speaker, editor of the Playing Pasts online sports history magazine and Publicity Officer for the FHS of Cheshire, Paul Chiddicks, blogger and Family Tree Magazine’s ‘Dear Paul’ and Natalie Pithers, professional family historian, blogger and host of the YouTube/Podcast series #TwiceRemoved.

Newspapers are a superb yet under-used resource for family history. We discuss the kinds of information you can find within them ranging from accidents to awards and how to go about searching for genealogy gold."

Any long term readers of this blog will know how much I LOVE newspapers, especially the magnificent and free Australian newspaper site Trove.  From family notices to court reports, sporting achievements to business advertisements, stories of shark attacks and vagrancy, destitute widows and shipping arrivals, I have found so many wonderful things in the newspapers about members of my family.

As more and more newspapers are digitised and added to the collection, I keep finding snippets that add to my family history.  Thanks to newspapers I discovered that my great uncle Alfred Pummeroy, a jockey, was fined for incompetence.  While searching death notices I discovered my great grandfather James Nicholas Clark and great great grandfather John Clark were both members of Masonic Lodges.

So take some time searching old newspapers - you never know what you might find.

Where has my Germanic Ancestry Gone?

I have been looking at my Ancestry DNA results lately, and have been struck again by the unexpected disappearance of my German ethnicity estimate.

When I first received my DNA test results several years ago, my ethnicity estimate was 65% England, 22% Ireland and Scotland, 8% Germanic Europe, 2% Ghana, 2% Sweden and 1% Norway.

In 2019 an update to results showed small changes.  I was now showing 78% England, 10% Ireland and Scotland, 5% Sweden, 3% Germanic Europe, 2% Norway, 1% Mali and 1% Ghana.

My Germanic heritage has now disappeared completely.  In 2022, I seem to have swapped it for a totally unexpected 9% Norwegian heritage - to date I have exactly 0 Norwegian ancestors in my tree.  At the same time, 33% Scottish seems rather high for the one great great grandparent who is the basis of the only Scottish line in my ancestry, while my Irish great grandparent only shows 2%.  My English ancestry was always high, as my father's entire family comes from Essex and Suffolk for generations back, and my mother's family has significant English heritage as well, so I would probably expect a higher number than the 54% I have now.

The key is to remember that these numbers are estimates only.  DNA ethnicity is by no means an exact science.  These estimates are pretty good at the continental level, distinguishing between Europe, Asia and Africa, for example, in their estimates. Once they get below the continental level, to a regional or country level, all of them start to run into issues: country boundaries have changed; entire populations have moved; people from one area have invaded and intermarried with people from another.  All this makes accurate ethnicity estimates a challenge.  

This is all very well - but I would still love to know where my Germanic heritage has vanished to.  And why I suddenly seem to be part Viking.

#52Ancestors - Week 8 - Courting

Courting is an aspect of our ancestors' lives it is often difficult to trace but so rewarding to uncover - how did they meet, court and decide to marry?  What prompted them to choose each other as life partners?  In the past marriage was usually for life - divorce was difficult to achieve and incurred a great deal of social stigma, especially for women, and remarriage after a divorce was also problematic.  So choosing a spouse was a major decision, not easily undone.

For women especially, marriage was a huge step.  The laws in Britain were based on the idea that women would get married and that their husbands would take care of them. Before the passing of the 1882 Married Property Act, when a woman got married her wealth was passed to her husband. If a woman worked after marriage, her earnings also belonged to her husband.

The idea was that  women should stay dependent on a man: first as a daughter and later as a wife. Once married, it was extremely difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce. The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 gave men the right to divorce their wives on the grounds of adultery. However, married women were not able to obtain a divorce if they discovered that their husbands had been unfaithful. Once divorced, their children became the property of their father, and the mother could be prevented from seeing or contacting her children if the father so decreed.

I know very little about the courting of my ancestors other than my own parents.  Three of my grandparents passed away before I was old enough to ask questions, and my parents knew very little as it was a subject that was not discussed.  I have only written records and the occasional newspaper report to help flesh out these aspects of my ancestors' lives, along with some knowledge of the etiquette and attitudes of the times.

Family Tree UK Magazine

The latest issue of Family Tree UK magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.  

Articles and stories in the March issue of Family Tree include:

• Accredited Genealogists Ireland elects its tenth president

• ‘Vast’ Roman trading settlement uncovered by archaeologists in Northamptonshire

• 3 million New Zealand electoral roll records added to FamilySearch

• RootsTech 2022: first keynote speakers announced

• Expert help for family history newbies

• A new way to organise your digital photos 

• Explore 1921 Criminal Records

• Pinpoint ancestors’ homes from the 1911 census on historic maps

• 72,000 London landowner and occupier records added to TheGenealogist

• Call for Coronation memories

• Researching Your Irish Family History

• Laundresses & Washerwomen : A Short History

• Settlers in Canada
  

Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project

The volunteers of the Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project have been hard at work on the project over the past few months, greatly expanding the work already done.

The purpose of this project is to provide finding aids for the records held at the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. There are three sets of indexes produced by the project:

• The main index is building a name index for the memorial transcription books held at the Registry of Deeds
• The grantors index consists of transcriptions of the Registry of Deeds' grantors indexes
• The townland index consists of transcriptions of the Registry of Deeds' townland indexes

Each of these index databases can be searched on a number of fields. None, of course, is complete. Each has those index entries contributed by the project volunteers.

Since the last update in the middle of December, the free online index has expanded by nearly 11,000 entries and the Townland index has grown by nearly 60,000 new entries.

The Grantor Index now had 49,381 records indexed and is continuing to expand.

All the Indexes are free to search

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.  

Inside this month's issue

• Search like a pro Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine editor Sarah Williams shares her expert advice on family history research

• Surname switch How to trace ancestors who changed their names

• Photo competition results See the winners of our first-ever family photo competition

• The history of women's football Sara Tor on the women who pioneered on the pitch

• Reader story Hazel Garas on how she investigated a murder in her family tree

• Plus: The best websites for Italian family history, finding divorce records, how to search the 1921 census and more

#52 Ancestors - Week 7 - Landed

For many families, throughout their histories there are numerous ties to the land.  For those fortunate enough to own land, those ties can be even deeper.  Whether our ancestors owned land or worked it, mined it or travelled it regularly, ties to land plays a major role in how our families evolved, developed and lived.

My father's family had strong ties to Fordham Hall (also called Manor Farm) in Essex, being tennants at the Hall for several generations.  Although they were not the owners, they were major local landholders and were the gentry of their small community.

Fordham Hall, Essex

The Green family of Fordham Hall farmed the land, kept a pack of foxhounds,and took part in many community events.  The article below, from the 'Essex Standard' on Friday 13 October 1837, mentions Isaac Green of Fordham as one of the judges at the annual meeting of the local Agricultural Society.

The wedding of Constance Green, daughter of Walter Proctor Green, in 1909 was a major event at Fordham Hall, with a large party attending and the event extensively reported in the local newspapers.  Below is a photograph of the wedding party, taken on the lawn at the rear of the Hall.