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Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 56 (December 2017) NEW!
* Poacher vs gamekeeper: Maybe your agricultural ancestor had another side to him? Simon Wills explores the secretive but risky life of the poacher and his arch enemy * Crackers about Christmas: Nick Thorne looks at some of the Victorian people behind the Christmas traditions we enjoy to this day * Painting the nation blue: Harry Cunningham investigates the 17th century origins of one of the oldest and arguably most successful political movements in the world: the Tories * The forgotten soldier: Daniel Hewitt explores the life of his great-great-uncle, who saw long years of military service * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on crinoline More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 57 (January 2018) NEW!
* Emigration of the poor: Barbara J Starmans explores the role and work of emigration societies in the 19th century * The Victorian beat: Gaynor Haliday investigates the policeman's lot in the 19th century * The ultimate 'Bentley Boy': Nick Thorne follows the family records trail for the glamorous Captain Woolf Barnato * A night at the circus: Sharon Brookshaw celebrates the 250th anniversary of the British circus with a historical flight across the big top * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on hose, stockings and socks More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 58 (February 2018) NEW!
* Vinegar Valentines: Valentine's Day hasn't always been a box of chocolates - Denise Bates explores the dark side of the festival of love, as well as its commercial history * Across the sea to Ireland: Melvyn Jones reveals the details of an early business trip between South Yorkshire and County Wicklow in Ireland * The birds without eggs: Nick Thorne investigates the family behind a favourite British brand * Safety first - or not at all: The Victorian era saw several disasters occur in theatres - caused by poorly built or cramped buildings, as Nell Darby explains * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on men's headwear More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 59 (March 2018) NEW!
* Selling the past: Paul Matthews investigates the history of advertisements in the 19th and early 20th centuries * Nanna's wartime postcards: Keith Gregson reports on the remarkable survival of more than a hundred wartime postcards sent to his wife's grandmother during WW1 * Reformatory life: Nell Darby investigates the history of reformatory schools, in the first of a regular feature on criminal history * Family snapshots: Jayne Shrimpton investigates amateur photography and the unique view of the past it offers * Century of schisms: The early modern period was one of the most religiously and politically charged eras in English history, as Harry Cunningham explains * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on women's headwear More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 6 (October 2013)
Issue 6 features: * Brought to court: Nell Darby begins a new series on courts and their records with a look at Quarter Sessions * Trade secrets: Explore the largest searchable collection of apprenticeship records online * The family killer: Paul Matthews on the ravages of typhus * Roots in many places: Your introductory guide to tracing roots in the Caribbean, by expert Guy Grannum * The skill of search: Maximise your online research techniques * Books: A round up of recent publications * Place in focus: Explore the history of Leeds * Scourge of the seas: Britain’s history of piracy dates back to medieval times – and many pirates were leading figures * Break the brick walls: Wills after 1858 More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 60 (April 2018) NEW!
* Northern lights: 150 years after the first fully public meeting on women's suffrage, Sue Wilkes explores the pioneering work of suffragists in Manchester * Through adversity to the stars: Nick Thorne celebrates the April centenary of the birth of the Royal Air Force * Penitent women: Female penitentiaries were designed to make new women of the €˜fallen', as Nell Darby explains * Raiders on the sea: Did your ancestor earn a living by plundering enemy ships? Simon Wills explores the world of privateers, and how to research them * Food of the gods: Margaret Powling offers a delicious history of chocolate * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on bags and purses More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 61 (May 2018) NEW!
* Wash day every week: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, wash day was a major domestic ritual affecting the entire household, as Jayne Shrimpton explains * The colour mauve: Nick Thorne traces the Perkin family's progress from apprentice leatherworkers to top scientists * Turns of the wheel: Sharon Brookshaw explores the various revolutions in the relationship between cycling and society * Read all about it: The Illustrated Police News brought Victorians a diet of sensationalist crime, but its appeal to the working-classes was a cause of concern, says Nell Darby * Enlightened times: Harry Cunningham explores Scotland's intellectual, economic and cultural revolution from the 1700s * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on handkerchiefs More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 62 (June 2018) NEW!
* A fate worse than death: Michelle Higgs investigates the notorious conditions on the prison hulks for convicts sentenced to transportation * Oxford's education pioneers: On the 140th anniversary of the Association for the Education of Women in Oxford, Nicola Lisle explores the fight for women's higher education * Some Yorkshire sporting heroes: Keith Gregson celebrates this month's Family History Show in York by examining an interesting corner of Yorkshire's heritage * The Justice of the Peace: In the 18th century, legal writer Dr Richard Burn revolutionised the work of magistrates, by writing a manual for them, as Nell Darby explains * Eighty years of caring: Nicola Lisle explores the history of the Women's Voluntary Service, which is marking its 80th anniversary this year * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on gloves More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 63 (July 2018) NEW!
* Women in schooling: Gaynor Haliday takes a look at the history of women teachers and the challenges they faced * The Wills Forgery Trials: Nick Thorne considers a case of forged records that had a lawyer wrongly transported for life * Huskar: a mining tragedy: Denise Bates tells the sad story of one of Victorian Britain's worst (and least known) disasters * Reconstructing Sarah Ann: The bare bones of an individual's life, as recorded in the census, can hide the three-dimensional character, explains Nell Darby * Boom, bust and Balfour: In the late 19th century, an economic crisis exposed the unscrupulous business practices of MP Jabez Balfour. Harry Cunningham investigates * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on fans More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 64 (August 2018) NEW!
* Life and work at the beach: Jayne Shrimpton dips a toe into the history of bathing machines, changing tents and beach huts * Murder in the rookeries: Nick Thorne investigates a gruesome death in St Giles, London * Sniffing out the past: Ruth A Symes considers some olfactory routes into family history * Going for gold: The 19th century saw gold discovered in America and Canada - and people flocked from Britain to find their fortune in the goldfields. Nell Darby digs deeper * The two clairvoyants who failed to tell their own fortunes: An Edwardian trial used legislation from larceny to witchcraft to prosecute a husband and wife palm-reading team, writes Nell Darby * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on watches More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 65 (September 2018) NEW!
* A merry dance: Felicity Day takes to the floor for a history of dancing and how it played a crucial role in society * The sport of kings? Horse racing has been popular with criminal opportunists, as Denise Bates reveals * Our survey says... Nick Thorne shows how records from the Lloyd George Domesday Survey can aid researchers * A voluntary transportation: Nell Darby reports on the odd case of a thief who transported himself to Tasmania in 1885 * Why research local history? Will Hazell offers a passionate and reasoned argument for the value of exploring local history * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on rings More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 66 (October 2018) NEW!
* Stories of the Wey: Archives relating to one of Britain's historic waterways have yielding fascinating insights into centuries of history, as Caroline Roope explains * Life lived back-to-back: Who were the people who lived in Victorian cities' back-to-back housing, and what happened to them? Nell Darby investigates * Squaring the stone circle: With the centenary of Stonehenge being gifted to the public this October, Nick Thorne explores the families who had once owned it * Old cruelties in the New World: Phil Wood explores indentured servitude in the American colonies * Criminal reporting: When Mary Sheming was hanged for murder in 1845, the press was unexpectedly sympathetic towards her crime, writes Nell Darby * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on necklaces More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 67 (November 2018) NEW!
* Armistice at home: Ruth A Symes looks at how our ordinary ancestors celebrated the end of the First World War away from the front * Armistice: a sparkie's eye view: Andrew Chapman found a remarkable diary written by his grandfather, offering an eyewitness account of the surrender of the German fleet at the end of WW1 * Missives of war: Jayne Shrimpton looks at how contemporary postcards reflect various aspects of the First World War * The search for Mr Vinneycombe: Keith Gregson shows how he has used The Genealogist and allied sites to solve one particularly challenging WW1 research problem * Two lucky escapes: Ross Gowland tells the story of William Gordon Mitchell, survivor of two world wars * A policeman's lot: A notebook in a London archive gives a very personal insight into the life of a policeman. Nell Darby reports * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on brooches More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 68 (December 2018) NEW!
* Accidents and emergencies: The Victorian era witnessed a high rate of mortality compared to our own, but death wasn't just down to disease, as Nell Darby explains * Crowning glory or mark of the devil? Denise Bates explores the history of people's attitudes towards red hair * Christmas with the Georgians: Phil Wood celebrates the season, pre-Victorian style * Doyenne of the Razor Gang Wars: Nell Darby explains how a digital archive has helped bring to life two women's criminality - and animosity - in pre WW2 Australia * The search for Mr Nesbit: Keith Gregson brings his WW1 researches to a close with the help of online resources * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on bracelets More Info
Discover Your Ancestors Periodical - Issue 69 (January 2019) NEW!
* Rinking: an Edwardian craze: Roller skating as a leisure activity has a surprisingly long history. Jayne Shrimpton investigates this pastime, which peaked in the Edwardian age * La Belle Sauvage: Nick Thorne visits a coaching inn where the printing presses disturbed the guests * 'Dollar Princesses': Ruth A Symes looks at what our ancestors made of visiting American women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries * Nursing the nation's heroes: Royal Victoria Hospital was Britain's largest ever military hospital. Simon Wills investigates its history and its patients * The Ratho Murder: When the 'respectable' George Bryce suspected that a local servant had told his fiancee to break off their union, he exacted a horrible revenge, says Nell Darby * History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on hair ornaments More Info
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