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Search for Victorian convicts in Milbank, Parkhurst and Pentonville prison records

Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links.*

 

 

LATEST NEWS

TheGenealogist has released over 100,000 individuals into their expanding Court & Criminal Records collection. With this release researchers can find the details of ancestors that had broken the law and were incarcerated in the harsh conditions of early Victorian convict prisons – including some that were only children!

Parkhurst Prison from The Illustrated London News March 13, 1847

 

The new data will allow the family history researcher to discover:

 

  • Over 100,000 individuals in records covering the years 1838 to 1875
  • Registers of prisoners inside Millbank, Parkhurst and Pentonville
  • Each prisoner’s age on conviction
  • The marital status and whether the prisoner can read or write
  • The convict’s former trade
  • When and where they were convicted, their crime, sentence, where and whence received, previous offences, when removed and to where.

 

These fully searchable records are from the HO24 Home Office: Prison Registers and Returns 1838-1875 for Millbank, Parkhurst and Pentonville.

Read TheGenealogist’s article “Criminal records can reveal ancestors locked up in convict prisons”

 

 

About TheGenealogist

 

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.

 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

 

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

 

 

About The National Archives

The National Archives is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research and an independent research organisation in its own right. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK’s most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. The National Archives brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

 

For the latest stories, follow the Media Team on Twitter @TNAmediaofficer

 

*Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links. This does not mean that you pay more just that I make a percentage on the sales from my links. The payments help me pay for the cost of running the site. You may like to read this explanation here: http://paidforadvertising.co.uk

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Announcing the Celebrities for the 2019 UK series of Who Do You Think You Are?

The BBC have not told us a date yet for the 16th UK series, but today everyone is talking about the line up.

Most people seem to be quite excited as this year the chosen few include some really big star celebrities.

Wall to Wall's Who Do You Think You Are? programmes on the BBC

When it returns to our television screens, probably later this summer, it will be after a triumphant BAFTA win.

Wall to Wall, the makers of the show, promise that Series 16 will have shocking revelations, laughter, tears and emotions like never before as the celebrities explore their remarkable histories and their ancestral secrets begin to unfold.

The eight programmes set to air in 2019 will include the following personalities: Kate Winslet, Daniel Radcliffe, Sharon Osbourne, Naomie Harris, Paul Merton, Mark Wright, Katherine Ryan and Jack Whitehall who will all be tracing their families’ histories and entertaining us along the way.

 

Want to read more about this year’s personalities? Take a look at this article courtesy of TheGenealogist:

www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles *

*Disclosure: Please note this is an affiliate link. This does not mean that you pay more, just that I make a percentage on any sales made from my links. The payments help me pay for the cost of running this site. You may like to read this explanation here:

http://paidforadvertising.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

 

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Islington Lloyd George Domesday Survey Records now online!

Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links.*

 

 

Latest News:

 

 

TheGenealogist announces the release of Islington Lloyd George Domesday Survey records. These cover land owners and occupiers in 1910-1915 with over 70,000 individuals recorded, joining the previously released data books and their associated maps for other parts of London.

 

This new release is the latest stage of TheGenealogist’s vast ongoing project to digitise over 94,500 Field Books, each having hundreds of pages, and linking them to large scale IR121 annotated OS maps which are now viewable in TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer tool.

 

The records have been sourced from The National Archives and were compiled by the Valuation Office in a period that stretched from 1910-1915 in response to the Lloyd George government passing the People’s Budget 1909/1910.

 

This new release covers records made of property ownership and occupation in Barnsbury, Canonbury, Charterhouse, Clerkenwell, Finsbury, Glasshouse Yard, Highbury East, Highbury West, Lower Holloway, Myddelton, Old Street, Pentonville, Saint Mary, Saint Peter, Saint Sepulchre, Thornhill, Upper Holloway, Upper Holloway East and Upper Holloway West.

Collins’ Music Hall identified by TheGenealogist’s map explorer showing the plot on Lloyd George Domesday map

 

Family historians can use these records to:

  • Find ancestors who owned or occupied property in the Islington area of London
  • See the outlines of their houses on large scale maps from the time
  • Fade between historic and modern maps to see how the environment has changed
  • Check details of properties in the neighbourhood, by clicking the red pins
  • Locate an address from your research down to a specific house on the map
  • Search by name, parish and street to uncover ancestors’ property in 1910-1915

 

Complementing the maps on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer are the accompanying Field Books which provide detailed information relative to the valuation of each property, including the valuation assessment number, map reference, owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.

 

For family historians looking for ancestors’ homes just before the First World War in the Islington area of London this record set is invaluable.

 

Read TheGenealogist’s article: Lloyd George Domesday Survey maps reveal an Islington Theatre and Dr Crippen’s house.

 

 

 

 

*Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links. This does not mean that you pay more just that I make a percentage on the sales from my links. The payments help me pay for the cost of running the site. You may like to read this explanation here:

http://paidforadvertising.co.uk/

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The Sun newspaper has exclusive on Who Do You think You Are? 2019

 

Wall to Wall's Who Do You Think You Are? programmes on the BBC

We have all heard the stories of the celebrities whose family history was too dull or boring to be made into an episode for the British series of Who Do You Think You Are?

Michael Parkinson, Cherie Blair, Eamonn Holmes and Stephen Mangan come to mind. But now The Sun newspaper has revealed in an exclusive that Rolling Stone’s Ronnie Wood has been left out of this year’s set of programmes for a completely different reason altogether.

The 71 year old’s family tree was richly populated with Gypsies who lived on barges and therefore was so complicated that the researchers have had to stall for more time!

The Sun says that a TV insider had told them:

“With Ronnie’s colourful relatives – who can be traced back over 300 years – there was too much to be able to work through in time for this year’s series.

“They’re still determined to see if they can bring together what they need to make a show all about the Wood clan. But if it happens it will have to be next year now.”

 

So the tabloid newspaper has divulged who is NOT appearing this year but then it goes on to tempt us when it tells its readers that: ‘ “Titanic actress Kate Winslet and ex-Towie star Mark Wright are confirmed for the new series this summer.’

 

This story doesn’t yet appear on the BBC Media Centre site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews

…and neither can I find it on the Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine website here: http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com 

 

This leaves me wondering if  a Press Release will be coming out any day now from the programme makers revealing this years line up?

 

Keeping my eyes peeled!

 

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Merchant Navy Apprentices added online

Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links.*

 

 

Latest News –

TheGenealogist is expanding its occupational records with over 300,000 records of Masters and Apprentices included in a nautical set of apprenticeship records.

 

These BT 150 records from The National Archives comprise of an index that had been compiled by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor. It consists of apprentices indentured in the Merchant Navy between 1824-1910.

 

Family historians can use these records to:

  • Find ancestors who had learned the trade of a professional merchant seaman
  • Discover the age of an ancestor at the time that he went to sea and his year of birth
  • Find the name of the company and the port that he was registered as an apprentice
  • In some cases also learn the name of the ship that your ancestor sailed on

 

 

The index was begun as a result of an Act of the UK parliament in 1823 which introduced a law that required the Masters of British merchant ships of over 80 tons to carry a given number of indentured apprentices on their vessels. The law required that these apprentice seamen’s names were to be enrolled with the local Customs Officer.

 

By the middle of the 1830s, however, these provisions were extended by the Merchant Seamen Act 1835 which now made it necessary that the indentures were officially registered. In London, this was done with the General Register and Record Office of Seamen; while in “outports” (other ports around the country), the registration was made with the local Customs officers who were under orders to submit quarterly lists to the Registrar General.

 

Compulsory apprenticeship was abolished in 1849, though the system of registration was maintained by the authorities and the index continued to be kept. The books have now been transcribed by TheGenealogist and include colour images of the original registers to add a fascinating resource to their broad range of records which can be used to build an ancestor’s story.

 

Read TheGenealogist’s article for tales of apprentices who rose to take command of the Cutty Sark, some more successfully than others

 

 

 

About TheGenealogist

 TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.

 TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

 

About The National Archives

The National Archives is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research and an independent research organisation in its own right. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK’s most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. The National Archives brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

 For the latest stories, follow the Media Team on Twitter @TNAmediaofficer
 

 

*Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links. This does not mean that you pay more just that I make a percentage on the sales from my links. The payments help me pay for the cost of running the site. You may like to read this explanation here:

http://paidforadvertising.co.uk

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New Criminal Records online: Ancestors Imprisoned for Debt

Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links.*

 

 

Latest News –

 

Press Release: New Records Reveal Those Imprisoned for Debt

The Genealogist is expanding its Criminal Records collection with the release of over 146,000 individuals who were listed in prison records. Sourced from the PRIS 10 & PRIS 11 collections held at The National Archives, these documents contain records from 1697 to 1862 and reveal those jailed for debt or bankruptcy. 

These records will give family historians details of those imprisoned in debtors prisons including the King’s Bench Prison, Queen’s Prison, Fleet Prison and Marshalsea Prison. They contain commitment and discharge records, giving details of names of the debtor, creditor and attorney, along with the amount of debt.

 

Use these records to:

  • Find ancestors who were imprisoned for debts and bankruptcy
  • Discover to who debts were owed
  • See when individuals were discharged

 

Within these records, we find John Dickens, father of the famous author Charles Dickens, who was in debt to baker James Karr by the sum of 40 pounds. John was brought in to custody on 20th February 1824 and was later discharged on 26th May 1824 when his mother died leaving him enough money to pay off his debts.

Marshalsea Prison as featured in new record at TheGenealogist

 

Charles Dickens had to earn a wage from a young age and his childhood experiences affected him greatly. He used his experiences as background for the story of Little Dorrit.

 

Read TheGenealogist’s article here

 

About TheGenealogist

 

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.

 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

 

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

 

 

 

​About The National Archives

 

The National Archives ​ is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research and an independent research organisation in its own right. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK’s most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. ​ The National Archives ​ brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ ​http://www.legislation.gov.uk/  

 

 

 

*Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links. This does not mean that you pay more just that I make a percentage on the sales from my links. The payments help me pay for the cost of running the site. You may like to read this explanation here:

http://paidforadvertising.co.uk

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Writing Your Family History

Writing Your Family History

E-Course Module One

 

www.writingyourfamilyhistory.co.uk

 

 

If you went to the Family Tree Live show at Alexandra Palace last week you may have heard Gill Blanchard speaking.

She is a respected professional family historian and author. I now see that her latest course on Writing Your Family History is about to run in a few days time. Best sign up now if you want to learn how to bring your forebears to life in words.

 

Starts Friday 10 May 2019

Ends Week ending Friday 2 August 2019

12 Weeks. 5 Lessons. Weekly Discussions.

Cost £150

 

Tutor: Gill Blanchard

Author and Professional Family Historian

 

 

 

  1. Biography and Creative Non Fiction (UEA)

This is a practical writing course spread over a twelve week period that guides participants through the process of bringing their ancestors to life. The aim is on producing an entertaining family history that other people want to read. The lessons will focus on enabling students to choose the most suitable format for them, decide what to include and how, and find and add relevant context. The tutor will provide personalised and in-depth feedback throughout the course.

 

Students are encouraged to move beyond a basic ‘John begat William and Jane begat Mary’ chronicle; learn how to integrate relevant social and local history materials and to deal with repetitions, missing pieces and anomalies in their writing.

 

The course lasts for twelve weeks and is comprised of five lessons. The first four lessons are posted online at fortnightly intervals, with an extra week after lessons four and five to allow additional time for reading, writing, critiquing and feedback.

 

The lessons include writing exercises, focussed guidance, useful tips, writing examples, links to useful resources and background reading. There will be regular live online discussions with the tutor and other students. A dedicated learning hub can be used at any time throughout the course to share work, ask questions and post news.

 

This course is aimed at those who have completed a body of research into their family history and are ready to start writing.

 

Find out more at:

www.writingyourfamilyhistory.co.uk

 

Stoneywell typewriter

 

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TheGenealogist Enhances the Map Explorer

Powerful new map tool helps trace ancestors’ Headstones and War Memorials 

PRESS RELEASE FROM THEGENEALOGIST

(Disclosure: Please note this blog post contains affiliate links that help me pay for this website.*)

TheGenealogist’s latest innovation, launched at the end of last month to help you find an ancestor’s property and watch the landscape change over time, has now had its first powerful new features added. This is only the beginning, with several other enhancements coming soon.

 

Joining the georeferenced Lloyd George Data Layer are Headstones and War Memorials.

Map Explorer locates various War Memorials in an area

 

  • TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer displays maps for historical periods up to the modern day.
  • Cemeteries have now been added to the maps – enabling researchers to locate burial grounds and view Headstone images, transcripts and cemetery views.
  • War Memorial site locations are shown, with links to see photographs, transcripts and setting.

 

Once you have found an ancestor’s grave or memorial, you will now not only be able to see an image of it and read a transcript, but also understand exactly where it is in relation to towns, villages or cities on the historic or modern maps. This should make it easier for family historians to plan a visit to see where an ancestor is buried or commemorated.

 

TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer has been developed to view these georeferenced historic maps overlaid on top of modern background maps including those from Ordnance Survey and Bing Street maps, as well as a satellite view. With the Map Explorer you can search for an ancestor’s property, discovering its site, even if the road has changed or is no longer there.

 

Alternatively, using the Master Search on TheGenealogist, having found your forebear listed on a War Memorial or graveyard, clicking through to the Map Explorer will show the War Memorial’s or the cemetery’s whereabouts on the various maps.

 

See our article Using the latest features of the Map Explorer, where we find T.E. Lawrence’s headstone and the whereabouts of the Graveyard in which he is buried, plus Wilfred Owen’s War Memorial in his local church. (Disclosure: Please note this blog post contains affiliate links that help me pay for this website.*)

 

 

 

About TheGenealogist

 

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.

 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

 

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

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Looking forward to BBC’s

 

I am really looking forward to Monday’s new series of A House Through Time on BBC 2 here in the UK, IOM and Channel Isles (Monday 6 April 2019 at 9 pm).

 

 

As a family historian I am fascinated by the homes of my ancestors as well as those similar to theirs that have a story to tell. Where a house has stood for a couple of centuries or more, then many people will have lived out their lives within its walls. Relating the stories of these people can often help us to understand the times that the occupants and our own ancestors lived through. Sometimes we may even recognise parallels to our forebears lives in the stories told.

The first series of A House Through Time, based around a Grade II-listed Georgian town-house in Liverpool, captured the public imagination early last year. Local archives reported an increase in footfall in the wake of the series as people wanted to research the history of their own houses.

It is very welcome that, built on the success of the first, a second series is now to be broadcast. This time it is centred on 5 Ravensworth Terrace in Newcastle upon Tyne and the format remains the same even if the location has moved.

Historian David Olusoga (of Black and British: A Forgotten History and Civilisations) returns as the series’ presenter and the home, which has grand fireplaces and generous proportions for a house in the city centre, dates back to the Georgian era.

As with the ever popular Who Do You Think You Are? show, the programme required a great deal of research – not on a celebrity’s ancestors but concentrating on the house’s history traced through deeds and land registry documents, maps, newspaper archives and wills. There in input into the show from experts such as Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan of the University of Portsmouth, who specialises in historical interiors.

Of course it is going to be the personal stories of the inhabitants that will make this show gripping and the BBC publicity tells us that we are set to meet such figures as a lawyer bent on vengeance, a doctor caught up in a workhouse scandal and a noted marine biologist.

As with so many inner-city addresses, the desirability of Ravensworth Terrace has seen it move up and down the social scale over the years, with one time period seeing it as a street of lodging houses rather than a place for the professional classes of lawyers and doctors.

 

If you don’t live in the UK, IOM or the Channel Isles then to be able to watch on iPlayer if you will need a VPN. Google how to watch iPlayer from abroad to find out more.

 

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Announcing Map Explorer a powerful new map tool to trace ancestors’ properties

TheGenealogist announces its Map Explorer a powerful new map tool designed to help trace ancestors’ properties through time.

(Disclosure: Please note this blog post contains affiliate links that help me pay for this website.*)

 

TheGenealogist’s latest innovation helps you find an ancestor’s property and watch the landscape change over time. The team have georeferenced their Lloyd George Maps for Greater London which are available at launch, with further exciting developments planned for the coming months.

 

  • TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer displays maps for different historical periods up to the modern day
  • Maps are fully searchable by county, parish, street and even postcode
  • Zoom down to show the individual properties as they were at the time
  • Use the transparency slider to reveal a modern street map underneath
  • Change the modern base map displayed to more clearly understand what the area looks like today
  • Georeferenced pins link to the records for each property
  • Display county or parish boundaries
  • Find out more and watch the video at TheGenealogist.co.uk/maps/

 

The powerful Map Explorer has been developed to view these georeferenced historic maps overlaid on top of modern background maps including those from Ordnance Survey and Bing Street maps, as well as a satellite view, letting you see where your ancestor’s house is today.

 

To complement the launch of the new Map Explorer, TheGenealogist has also released historic Ordnance Survey maps covering England, Scotland and Wales between the 1890’s and 1960’s. These have also been georeferenced, allowing you to see how the landscape changed over time.

 

These maps have been divided up into 3 types of layer that can be viewed on top of each other like sheets of paper –  you can then change the transparency of a layer to view the layers below.

 

The Base Layer

This is the modern layer, which can be used to select a modern OS Map, Open Street Map or a Bing Satellite Image.

 

The Historic Layer

The historic layer can be used to select a range of OS maps from the 1890’s to the 1960’s

 

Record Set Layer

This layer provides access to map record sets such as the Lloyd George Domesday, or the soon to be launched Georeferenced Tithe Maps. Keep an eye out as further record sets are added to this layer in the future. This layer also has the ability to show “Pins”, these are map markers that link directly to the records so you can see who was living in a particular property.

[The new Map Explorer from TheGenealogist, going from a historic map to satellite view]

 

 

The new Map Explorer has several tools to aid researchers, such as the “Place Search”.  This allows you to enter a postcode or address (either Modern or Historic) and jump to that location on the maps.

 

Further tools let you see county and parish boundaries and even historic “Wards”, which were the areas that the Lloyd George Domesday Survey were divided into.

[Map showing coverage now available for Lloyd George Domesday Maps]

 

Researchers are now able to view Lloyd George Domesday Maps for the Greater London Area (Survey books for this area are being released ward by ward over the coming months).

 

Now you can pinpoint properties old and new with TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer.

 

Find out more and watch the video at TheGenealogist.co.uk/maps/

 

About TheGenealogist

 

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.

 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

 

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

 

 

 

*Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links. This does not mean that you pay more just that I make a percentage on the sales from my links. The payments help me pay for the cost of running the site. You may like to read this explanation here:

http://paidforadvertising.co.uk/

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