Sunday 24 September 2017: The Family History Show – London

New Family History Show for the London area

 

This Sunday, 24th September 2017 sees the first Family History Show  – London and I am off to see what it is like!

The Family History Show - London at Sandown Park

Organised by Discover Your Ancestors Magazine (to whom I am a regular contributor of articles to) it should be great as they are the same people behind the ever successful event up in York. Based on the format of The Family History Show, York it is being held at Sandown Park Racecourse between 10 am and 4:30 and is very affordable to get in to. There is plenty of free parking on site with allocated disabled spaces as well.

Unfortunately for those coming by train, due to engineering work, Esher Train Station will be closed on the day of the show. Surbiton Train Station, however, is just a 15 minute taxi ride from Sandown Racecourse. Alternatively, the K3 bus from Surbiton Train Station will take you to Esher High Street, the race course is just a few minutes’ walk up the High Street.

 

I went to the York event back in June. Watch this video of this year’s York event to get a taster of what is to come down South!

 

Free Talks throughout the day

 

10:00 Show Opening with Caliban’s Dream, Medieval Musicians

11:00 Breaking Down Brick Walls In Your Family History Research Mark Bayley, Online Expert 
Resolve stumbling blocks in your family history research using innovative search strategies and unique record sets to find those missing relatives.

12:00 Tracing Your Military Ancestors Chris Baker, Military Expert & Professional Researcher 
Chris draws on his experience from researching thousands of soldiers to explore what can be found when looking for a military ancestor.

13:00 Breaking Down Brick Walls In Your Family History Research Mark Bayley, Online Expert

14:00 Tips & Tricks for Online Research Keith Gregson, Professional Researcher & Social Historian
Keith shares top tips & techniques for finding elusive ancestors, illustrated by some fascinating case studies.

15:00 Breaking Down Brick Walls In Your Family History Research Mark Bayley, Online Expert

 

Read more at: http://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/

York Family History Fair

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A new census substitute for the year 1921 released by TheGenealogist

Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links.

 

Leading on from my post last week about ancestors that changed their address, this is exciting news from TheGenealogist…

TheGenealogist has sent out a press release that announces that they have released a brand new circa 1921 resource. This is brilliant news for those tracing their British ancestry as it is for a period that is not presently served by a census because of the 100 year rule for census releases.

The new record set covers 23 counties, and is made up of over one million records. They form part of TheGenealogist’s Trade, Residential & Telephone collection.  

The records are fully transcribed, searchable and enable researchers to:

  • search on forename, surname and profession
  • search by street, town and county
  • look for a business name
  • discover your ancestors’ addresses
  • find professions listed

 

TheGenealogist says that their 1921 directories cover the North, South, East and the West of England, the Channel Islands and reach up the country right up to Aberdeen. If you are researching your ancestors in the years around 1921, then this new release will offer a fantastic name rich resource to use.

Searching for householders within these 23 newly released county directories returns a huge number of names from that time and include a great many that are still famous today.

A number of examples that these new records allow us to discover include Harry Gordon Selfridge, founder of Selfridge’s department store; Jesse Boot, who set up the chemist chain that still carries his name; Winnie-the-Pooh’s author A. A. Milne; J.M. Barrie, who created the characters of Peter Pan and Wendy; plus the celebrated economist, John Maynard Keynes. I wrote a feature article for TheGenealogist to highlight how I found these examples and it can be found on their website at: Addressing Where They Were in 1921

The areas that have been covered in this release include:

  • Aberdeen
  • Bath
  • Berkshire
  • Bradford and Surrounding Districts
  • Bristol and Suburberbs
  • Brixton and Clapham
  • Buckinghamshire
  • Cambridgeshire
  • Channel Islands
  • Cheshire
  • Cumberland
  • Dorset
  • Durham
  • Hessle
  • Hull
  • Lincolnshire
  • London
  • London County Suburbs
  • Middlesbrough
  • Norfolk
  • Northumberland
  • Oxfordshire
  • Somerset
  • Suffolk
  • Westmorland
  • Wiltshire
  • Worcestershire
  • Yorkshire

TheGenealogist says that they will be adding further counties in the coming months.

 

To read my article for FREE head over to: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2017/addressing-where-they-were-in-1921-571/

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Millions of New Hampshire Parish Records added to TheGenealogist

Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links.

 

TheGenealogist has made millions of new Hampshire Parish Records available on its site.

TheGenealogist logo

  • Released in partnership with the Hampshire Genealogical Society there are over 2.1 million new fully searchable records of individuals released online for the first time
  • With these records those searching for ancestors from Hampshire can discover almost 1.8 million people recorded within the baptisms from this area in the south of England as far back as 1538 up to 1751
  • Family researchers can also discover the details of over 212,000 individuals from marriages between 1538 and 1753 and nearly 143,800 people listed in the burials of Hampshire from 1838 to 1865

Hampshire Genealogical Society worked with TheGenealogist to publish their records online, making 2,135,878 individuals from baptism, marriage and burial records fully searchable. Dolina Clarke, Chairman of Hampshire Genealogical Society said:

“The Hampshire Genealogical Society have decided to put the remaining data from their parish register indexes for Hampshire, which are not already on line, with FHS-Online and TheGenealogist (S & N). We looked at various different online sites and felt that S & N were able to offer us a very fair deal. Furthermore they are a British company with whom we have had a very good relationship for over 20 years.”

Dolina Clarke, Chairman HGS www.hgs-familyhistory.com

Mark Bayley, Head of Online Development at TheGenealogist, welcomed Hampshire Genealogical Society to the growing number family history societies on both TheGenealogist and FHS-Online saying: “We’re delighted that HGS chose to publish their records through TheGenealogist and FHS-Online. This release adds to the ever expanding collection of parish records on both websites. These partnerships help societies boost their funds whilst bringing their records to a much wider audience, through online publication.”

This release joins TheGenealogist’s already published Hampshire parish records, sourced from the Phillimore Registers, and soon we will also be adding further transcriptions that will fill in any gaps to provide an even more comprehensive coverage of this important county.

If your society is interested in publishing records online, please contact Mark Bayley on 01722 717002 or see fhs-online.co.uk/about.php


 

Example: The last Briton to die in a duel on English soil.

James Alexander Seton was the last British person to be killed in a duel on English soil and he is buried in his family’s vault at St Mary’s Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

st-marys-fordingbridgeSt Mary’s, Fordingbridge, Hampshire from the Image Archive on TheGenealogist.

During the early 1840s James Seton, and his wife Susannah, rented some rooms in Southsea on the outskirts of Portsmouth, Hampshire. Seton was a man of means, inheriting wealth, and so had no need to work. The son of a Colonel, he had spent a brief spell in the Army as a junior cavalry officer though his short career never found him being promoted any higher than the rank of cornet. The Setons were of Scottish ancestry, their forebears being descended from the Earls of Dunfermline and Seton’s grandfather was Vice-Admiral James Seton, governor of St Vincent in the Caribbean.

In May 1845 James Seton met Isabella Hawkey, whom he set about pursuing even though he was a married man. She was the wife of Lieutenant Henry Hawkey, an officer in the Royal Marines. When the coast was clear, and her husband was away, Seton began paying visits to Isabella at her lodgings bearing gifts. Lt. Hawkey began to hear the rumours of this and forbade his wife from seeing Seton again. On 19 May 1845, however, there was a ball held in the King’s Rooms, Southsea, which the Hawkeys as well as James Seton attended. When Isabella danced with Seton this caused a quarrel in which Lt. Hawkey called Seton a “blaggard and a scoundrel”. Having been insulted by this, Seton decided to challenge the Royal Marine Officer to a duel. The next evening, on the beach at Browndown near Gosport and after the seconds had measured out fifteen paces, the duelists took their pistols and fired. James Seton’s shot missed his opponent; Henry Hawkey’s pistol was half-cocked and failed to fire. Under the rules of dueling, that could have been an honourable end to it but Lieutenant Hawkey insisted on a second exchange of shots and this time Seton fell when he was struck by a bullet entering his lower abdomen.

Suffering from his wounds, the wounded man was taken by boat to Portsmouth where he was operated on by the eminent London surgeon Robert Liston. The surgery at first appeared to go well, but then infection set in and Seton quickly went downhill. He died of his injuries on 2nd June 1845 and was buried eight days later. His funeral procession through the town saw most of the shops closing in respect and he was laid to rest in a tomb outside the east front of the church next to his father. A search finds his burial on the 10th June 1845 in the Hampshire records on TheGenealogist.

Burial records on TheGenealogist

 

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