Researching 17th Century Ancestors with SoG’s Else Churchill

The Society of Genealogists is presenting a course aimed at taking your research back into the 1600s. Away from the pressures of life for a weekend, you can focus on how to find your earlier ancestors and flesh out your family’s history. If you sign up for this online course you will spend time with other people in the class that share your interests and are as keen as you are to learn new skills. Most of us enjoy meeting and learning from expert genealogists and we find others’ ancestry almost as fascinating as our own.

The SoG 2-day intensive course covers:

 

The Commonwealth Gap

Civil Wars

Migration to the Americas

Parish Registers and Records

Heraldic Visitations

Grammar Schools and Universities

London Guilds and Livery Companies

Taxation

Old Poor Law

Sources for English Civil War soldiers

Court records and Quarter Sessions

Nonconformity

17th Century Probate

 

Using case studies, document workshops and small group discussions alongside lectures you will learn about England in the 17th Century the sources available to research your ancestors in this period, and what their life would have been like.

On Saturday afternoon guest speaker Tim Healey presents “Sex, Drink and Death in the 17th Century” a romp through the pleasures and perils of life in this turbulent era, featuring bawdy frolics, alehouse revels, highway robberies, Civil War, fire and plague. Hugely entertaining, the talk also gives insight into evolving customs – of courtship, celebration, faith and burial.

Time:  From 10:30am to 5 pm on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th September on Zoom.

 

Students will then have access to the recording of each talk for two weeks.

 

Bookings are open until 9am 16 September 2023.

https://members.sog.org.uk/events/6406270ba8ecf00007e50953/description?ticket=6406270ba8ecf00007e50955

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The Society of Genealogist’s reveals its new home to members

 

I was working on a project that involved me using TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer today when I couldn’t help myself get side tracked. I had to take a look to see where a certain road is situated in London.

The reason for my curiosity? Well, I had received an email from The Society of Genealogists to all its members telling us where the SoG’s new home is going to be.

I expect the official announcement will be made shortly with the full details.  Hint: Its located in a road on this map! 😆

I am looking forward to paying it a visit when it is open.

Open Street Map on Map Explorer from TheGenealogist
Modern Open Street map from TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer
OS map 1893-1900s on TheGenealogist s Map Explorer
OS map 1893-1900s on TheGenealogist s Map Explorer

The SoG also say that they shall be welcoming members back to their beloved library and archive in the first half of 2023. The venue is easily accessible from Euston, Kings Cross and Paddington, and we should all keep an eye out for information updating their progress.

Over the coming months, the SoG also promise to be adding more exclusive content, and more opportunities to interact with other members within the community or quiz their experts. The are introducing a brand new search platform in 2023, which will run alongside the current SoG Data Online and they are improving their catalogues. Soon you will be able to search the new archive catalogue online and view their parish registers and monumental inscriptions from the comfort of your own home.

“We know it’s been a long time coming, but we hope that you will be as excited as we are and that you will come and visit us. As we plan for this exciting year, we will also be sending out a survey to discover what you would like to see at our new premises.”

https://www.sog.org.uk/

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Memorial Cards released by the Society of Genealogists

 

News from the Society of Genealogist:

New Memorial Cards from the Society of Genealogists
This month, The Society of Genealogists have launched an interim database of  their Memorial Card Collection, donated by Phillip Jones. You are now able to search the full Memorial Card Collection of 4,500 and 8,500 digital images. Mourners sent the cards after the loss of a loved one to distant family members, friends and neighbours announcing the death and giving details of the funeral. Cards like these can be used to build a family tree.

For more information see: https://www.sog.org.uk/our-collections/featured/memorial-cards

 

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The Society of Genealogists’ Live Online Events for November to help trace your family history.

 

News:

This list, written by the Society of Genealogists, has some great Zoom talks for those with British Ancestors. I think I’ll sign up to some of them myself. Here is what they plan:

The Society of Genealogists (SoG) is pleased to offer the following Live Online Events taking place in November to help you trace your family history.  

 

Society of Genealogists website

Join the Society of Genealogists on one of their Live Zoom Events, the application is free and easy to use. If you have not attended one of the SoG’s online talks before, more information can be found on their website

 

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Saturday, 7 November 10:30 – Your Buckinghamshire Ancestors

Buckinghamshire has a varied and interesting history. It retains beautiful countryside, especially the Chiltern Hills which are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. After the Industrial Revolution, Wolverton became known for building railway carriages, while furniture and paper industries grew in the south. The county was famous for its lace industry, giving work to women and children.

Antony Marr looks at the historic County of Buckinghamshire – its history, geography and ancestry. Antony then offers advice and lots of advice to help you research your Buckinghamshire ancestors using the amazing resources available in the County and elsewhere.

A one-hour talk with Antony Marr, cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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Saturday, 7 November 16:00-17:45 – My Ancestor was in the Census – Well they should have been!

An up-to-date look at what census material is available online as well as covering the reasons that you may not find that ancestor may not be there. In this tutorial, we will have an extended Q&A session, so bring your questions along.

A tutorial with John Hanson, cost £16.00/£8.00 SoG members

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Wednesday, 11 November 14:00 – SoG Orientation:

Name Rich Sources that Supplement Parish Registers before 1837 in England and Wales

A one-hour talk with Else Churchill, cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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Saturday, 14 November 10:30 – Death and Taxes: Understanding the Death Duty Registers

One of family history’s best kept secrets – records of death duty payments.

Many of us have found our ancestors’ wills and know that they can often give us really valuable information about our family. But very few of us have thought about looking at related records for death duties. For more than 100 years, from 1796 to 1903, the Inland Revenue maintained a series of registers recording these payments. The National Archives now hold the registers, waiting for us to search them.

In this talk, Dave Annal tells us all about them. He covers what’s in the surviving records. Then he describes how to use them to uncover fascinating facts about the lives and times of our 19th century ancestors.

A one-hour talk with Dave Annal, cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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Saturday, 14 November 16:00 – Nonconformity in Wales

Are records relating to your Welsh ancestors missing from Parish Registers? The answer could lie in them being chapel members. The 1851 Religious Census in Wales revealed that almost 80% of the population worshipped as part of non-conformist congregations.

We will examine online and offline resources available in researching Welsh non-conformity, be it Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Congregationalist or Society of Friends. Non-conformist worship in Wales has been a feature of Welsh culture for hundreds of years – open-air revival meetings; song and culture celebrated at Gymanfa Ganu and the Eisteddfod – the chapel has been the core of many communities in a uniquely Welsh way.

Understanding how our Welsh ancestors worshipped is an essential key to our family histories.

A one-hour talk with Gill Thomas, cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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Wednesday, 18 November 14:00 – Getting the Most from the Society Library Catalogue (SOGCAT)

Join Else Churchill for an interesting talk on SoGCAT, the Society of Genealogists’ online library catalogue. The SoG Library holds about 135,000 items. Where do you start to find information on your ancestors? SoGCAT lists what we hold. So learning how to use it gives you a huge getting started benefit. In this talk, Else will provide you with lots of information on how to use SOGCAT and what it holds to further your research.

A one-hour talk with Else Churchill, the Genealogist at the Society. Places are free and go very quickly, so please book your place in advance.

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Saturday, 21 November 10:30 – The Parish Chest

Discover the importance of the parish – the unit of local government into the 19th century in the lives of our ancestors. Find out how the parish worked, what records were generated and where to find them. Learn how to use such records in family history, local history and house history research.

A one-hour talk with Gill Blanchard, cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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Saturday, 21 November 14:00- Online Resources for Property and Taxation

A look at the wide variety of records available online for ownership or occupation of land or a house.

Beyond civil registration, parish and census records there are few genealogical sources that cover a significant percentage of the population. But property and property-based taxation and electoral records name all those who own, or even just rent, property over a certain value. These sources can not only provide information on wealth and social status but even point to specific buildings or pieces of land owned or occupied by an ancestor.

This talk will look at the range of property-related records available online, to help you discover more about your ancestors from the Middle Ages to 1918, and to unearth the information they can provide for your family history.

A one-hour talk with Peter Christian, cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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Wednesday, 25 November 14:00 – Tracing Brewery & Publican Ancestors

Until fairly recently the public house in its various guises was a centre of the community and innkeepers were often respected figures locally. In addition most towns and villages had a brewery or two providing beer to slake the throats of everybody from princes to paupers.

In this talk Simon Fowler discusses the major sources you need to use if you have a publican or brewer on your family tree. Simon also looks at the changing nature of the tavern from the simple beer house to gaudy gin palace.

Bring your own Beer!

A one-hour talk with Simon Fowler, cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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Thursday, 26 November 14:00- Making your Genealogy more Credible & Useful to Others

Genealogy needs to be shared. It serves no point otherwise.

For those who want to use your work, you offer a huge benefit if you can give some assurance that it is of sound quality. The facts you include need to be seen as coming from reliable sources that can be checked. So assurance depends on you stating where your facts have come from and providing a reference to where you found them.

In this one-hour talk, Ian Waller explains that referencing is critical. Cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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Saturday, 28 November 10:30 – My Ancestor Came from Birmingham

Has your family history taken you to Birmingham? Maybe your ancestors were ‘Brummies born and bred’ or maybe they only spent some of their lives in Birmingham.

Join Doreen Hopwood as she explores and explains the numerous family history sources available so that you can discover how your ancestors lived, worked and played in ‘The City of a Thousand Trades’.

A one-hour talk with Doreen Hopwood. Cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

 

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Saturday, 28 November 14:00 – Madness, Mania and Melancholia: the Mental Health of our Ancestors

The history of mental ill-health is poorly understood and many of those who were labelled as ‘idiots’, ‘imbeciles’ or ‘lunatics’ in the past would have a very different diagnosis today.

This presentation looks at the history of reactions to and the treatment of those who we would now recognise as being mentally ill, or as having a learning disability. It also investigates the institutions where sufferers might be held and the sources we can use to find out more about these, often forgotten, members of our family.

A one-hour talk with Dr Janet Few, cost £10.00/£5.00 SoG members

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All events must be pre-booked through the Society of Genealogists website and SoG members should remember to login first, to receive the member’s discounted price.

Join the SoG at one of their Live Zoom Events, the application is free and easy to use. If you have not attended one of their online talks before, more information can be found on their website

 

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LDS London microfilm moving to the SoG

This week I, like many other members, got an email from the Society of Genealogists.

It comes on the back of the LDS news that The London FamilySearch Centre, that has been ‘temporarily’ at The National Archives in Kew for several years, is reaching the end of its contract with TNA and the size of presence at Kew and the type of offerings from the London FamilySearch Centre will change in June 2017.

With this news the SoG Library in Clerkenwell becomes even more of an important place for family historians to pay a visit to than ever.

I have always been a fan of the SoG and so this is good news that the films are still going to be available when The London FamilySearch Centre stops providing access themselves.

 

Society of Genealogists

Here is the email from Else Churchill…

The London FamilySearch Centre microfilm collection, which is currently temporarily located at The National Archives, is transferring to the Society of Genealogists in Clerkenwell. The move reflects a partnership between the Society of Genealogists and FamilySearch to ensure that the microfilm collection continues to be available to family historians. The London FamilySearch Centre will continue to provide its research support services at the National Archives.

 

The collection of about 57,000 microfilms complement the SoG’s remarkable library of genealogical sources and both bring together, in one place, an unparalleled resource for family history researchers in the UK. Having been carefully curated over many years, the FamilySearch Films include many thousands of copies of original church and local records from the United Kingdom and Ireland; probate records for England and Wales before and after 1858 and selected items for Caribbean research.

 

The films will be available to view at the National Archives until 31 May and should be available for consultation at the Society of Genealogists Library from 26 June 2017.

 

Information about visiting and using the Society of Genealogists Library can be found on the SoG website http://www.sog.org.uk/the-library

 

June Perrin, CEO of the Society says “ The Society of Genealogists is delighted to offer a home to such a remarkable collection  and looks forward to welcoming family historians to our library in Clerkenwell”

 

Else Churchill

Genealogist

Society of Genealogists

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Channel Islands ancestors lecture at SoG

Channel IslandsWhile reading the latest news from the Society of Genealogist I came across an announcement for a half day course being held at the society’s head quarters in London called:

“My Ancestors Came from the Channel Islands”

It had previously been scheduled for the end of the month and has now been brought forward to 24/10/2015 10:30 – 13:00 – So anyone who hasn’t realised this yet and who intended to go then make a note in your diary that this course has been moved from its original date of 31 October.

If you have forbears form this part of the world and want to learn more about how to research them then as I write this they still have some space.

Check out the Society of Genealogists’ website:

http://www.sog.org.uk/books-courses

Here is what they say about this half day course:

On which of the Channel Islands did your ancestors originate?

Are your cousins still there?

This half-day course will cover sources of genealogical and historical sources of information about Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. The course will include data that can be accessed in the Society of Genealogists library, online and on the islands in archives, libraries, registries and museums. Relevant contact details of historical and family history organisations will be provided.

with Dr Colin Chapman.

 

Society of Genealogists

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Books on Channel Island Ancestors

Tracing Your Channel Island Ancestors Pen & Sword books have the following editions of Marie-Louise Backhurst’s comprehensive book on Tracing Your Channel Island Ancestors for sale. Check out the different editions with these links:

 Paperback     £12.99

 Kindle edition £4.99

 ePub edition   £4.99

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3 Weeks until Who Do You Think You Are? Live

 

Who Do you Think You Are? LIVE 2011
Who Do you Think You Are? LIVE

Its only three weeks to go before many of us descend on the NEC in Birmingham for the Who Do You Think You Are? Live show.

One of the most interesting parts of this event are the number of fascinating talks given both on the stands and in the various Society of Genealogist workshops around the hall. They can open up your mind to new places to look for your ancestors or give you tips and tricks to use that you hadn’t considered before.

The Society of Genealogists will be running an extensive programme of workshops by leading genealogists over the course of the three day show. You can choose from a vast number of subjects, for instance: different research techniques, how to record your findings and using parish registers.

Taking place in four theatres (SOG Studios 1, 2, 3 and 4), sessions last for approximately 45 minutes with a fifteen minute break in between. All workshops are free to attend* and subject to capacity – for this reason, you are able to pre-book a seat at your preferred workshops for just £2 when booking your tickets to the show.

Click here to see the full workshop timetable.

Don’t forget the Keynote Workshop** will talk place every day at 1.15pm – 2.30pm in SOG Studio 1.

Heading over to TheGenealogist’s talks stand, that on the plan is near the entrance of the hall, I am looking forward to the Tracing Military Ancestors with Chris Baker, Military Expert & Author, Breaking Down Brick Walls with Mark Baley, Online Expert and Celia Heritage talking about our Ancestor’s Working Lives.

Are you going?

 

The Genealogist - UK census, BMDs and more online

Disclosure: Compensated affiliate link.

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How To Break Down A Family History Brick Wall

 

Break Down Your Family History Brick Walls
Family History Brick Wall

I’ve got some advice for you to break down a brick wall.

Have you been stuck trying to find an ancestor?

Thought you might have been!

Maybe what I relate below will help you too.

 

The thing was that some while back, I was getting quite frustrated by being unable to trace a person in the records.
I was completely stuck finding this person’s birth, marriage or death and I had tried looking online and off without any luck.

Maybe you are in this position too?

What broke the problem for me?

Well it was a visit to a Family History website while surfing for keywords to do with the ancestor and then a little bit of time spent browsing the transcripts featured on the platform.

Dartmouth-Archives-onscreen

There were some other factors, such as trying different spelling variations of first and second names, as advised by my family history teacher at the time and a visit to an archive.

What it boils down to is using a bit of lateral thinking in our family tree research and most importantly finding out about alternative records to the ones that we might have already used.

This is one of the themes of the Family History Researcher course that I market online.

Thorne-family-tree-web-site

The family branch that has presented me with the most frustrating problems has been that from Devon. I was fine going back through the census years, 1911, 1901 and so on back to 1841 but then it became more of a problem.

Perhaps this story resonates with some of you to?

I had figured out that my 3x great-grandfather was called John Thorn. This was provided in the information he had given to the census enumerators over the years, along with the fact that he had been born in about 1795. His wife, Elizabeth, had been born about 1798.

As I belong to The Society of Genealogists I took a trip to their headquarters in Goswell Road, London knowing that they have the largest collection of Parish Records in the country on microfiche. They’ve also got some transcripts of parish registers in their library, which I thought may be worth looking at.

If you are in the area I highly recommend you visit the Society of Genealogists.

SoG library

The SoG library is a treasure trove and it features often in the Family History Researcher Course and one complete module takes us inside their doors.

Unfortunately for me, at the time of my research, the Dartmouth parish records were not on microfilm at the SoG. But I was over the moon to find a great selection of Devon Family History Society booklets for marriages taking place in the churches of the town, including St. Saviour’s, Dartmouth. Browsing one book for any likely ancestors I spotted that on 13 April 1817 one person called John Thorn got married to an Elizabeth Sissell.

I opened up the internet and began searching using my new lead. My mission was to hunt down any evidence that this was the marriage of my ancestors.

Doing a search-engine query for Dartmouth + family history steered me towards the Dartmouth-history.org.uk website belonging to The Dartmouth Archives. I discovered that this voluntary organisation had a really broad family history section and included a number of transcribed baptisms, burials, marriages and census records.

I could read the very same information, as I had seen at the SoG in London, on this niche site. The data began in 1586 and ran to 1850 and there was the marriage of John Thorn to Elizabeth and this time I noticed that the witness were given as John Adams and Sunass (sic) Sissell.

Funny name, I thought, and today I understand taking transcribed names with a pinch of salt. If you decide to join the Family History Researcher Academy you will learn more.

At the time I made an assumption that this last person was more than likely some member of the bride’s family. Could it perhaps be the father of the bride?

But that name “Sunass” just didn’t seem likely to me. Now I know that it was the best guess by the transcriber as it couldn’t be read properly in the original record.

From the information I knew that they had signed with a mark, thus they were illiterate and so the first name and the second had not been written down by the ancestors themselves.

When you are doing your own research you should bear in mind that our ancestors may not have had the ability to read or write and the minister may have interpreted the name as he had heard it said to him. In my ancestor’s case the surname “Sissell” could possibly have been “Cecil” or something entirely different. Consider saying the name with the regional accent and seeing what you come up with.

As for Sunass – at this point I was clueless!

The Dartmouth Archives website had not got any early enough christening records for John and Elizabeth and so I went over to the Latter Day Saints (LDS) website or FamilySearch.org and here I did a search for Elizabeth’s christening.

St Petrox, Dartmouth font

I was rewarded by a lead to a baptism in one of the other churches in Dartmouth, St Petrox, on the 16 September 1878. This child was the daughter of James and Sarah Sissill and she was christened Elizabeth Gardener Sissill.

You may notice that the spelling had changed to Sissill with an “i” and not an “e” again pointing to the vicar writing it down the way that he heard it.

I now jumped to a conclusion that the witness to Elizabeth’s marriage could have been her father “James” and this has been interpreted as “Sunnas” because a flowing “J” for James had looked like an “S” to the transcriber and the other letters had been misread as a “u” for an “a” and the double “n” as an “m”. All easily done.

So what I am emphasising here and I continue to do so in modules from my Family History Researcher Course, is to be wary of names and the way they were spelt. If you keep this in mind then some of the logjams we find in our research can be got past.

This breakthrough I had was down to finding that Dartmouth has an active family history website and then using their indexes in conjunction with other internet resources, such as the LDS site.

The first learning point is that you should always find out what other research may have been done, for the area your ancestors came from.

If you find a family history society, or local interest group with a website, can any of their publications or website pages help you with your quest?

Secondly, always keep in mind that names were misspelled in many records. In my own family research I have had to think of other spellings for the Sissells, and indeed names that may have sounded like Sissell in order that I may trace this line back further and break down the brick wall.

Ancestors in Thorne Family tree

I have made some fantastic strides in my family tree research and it is mostly down to learning as much as I can from other’s experiences and finding out as much as I can about what records and resources are available.

Last year I put together some modules for a course of 52 guides, aiming at passing on my experience. Perhaps they can help you become a more knowledgeable researcher?

I had some professional genealogists and data providers also contribute to the project to make it well rounded.

There is a special offer running for readers of this page of a £1 trail for four weeks membership of the Family History Researcher Academy. Click here to learn more.

As you have come to this page I am sure that you must have an interest in family history and I am betting that you to have some brick walls to knock down as well. So take a look at the report below that is based on some of the material from the Family History Researcher course…

 

 

Report3

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Findmypast’s customers uproar at new site

Findmypast’s customers seem to be telling them that they want to go back to the past website.

 

Findmypast logo

It is difficult to ignore perhaps the biggest story in the British isles family history world this week of a customer backlash being played out on social media and on the review websites such as http://www.reviewcentre.com and http://www.trustpilot.co.uk about  Findmypast.co.uk’s new website.

It even spilled over on to my Nosey Genealogist YouTube channel where an interview I did with Debra Chatfield at Who Do You Think You Are? Live got comments posted about, what Findmypast’s customers think of the new site.

While it may not be all of their subscribers, venting this anger, it would be fair to say that many of their customers are not impressed with the new site’s functionality and these are demanding a return to the old site.

 

Comments indicate that customers do not like the “new and improved platform”, some find it very slow to use and difficult to search for records. It would seem that these customers of DC Thompson Family History’s Findmypast do not like it, preferring the previous interface.

 

The facility to search for an address was not working properly this week, as I found out myself, though Findmypast promised to fix that.

It would seem, from the head of steam being built up, that many of the subscribers are threatening to walk away from Findmypast to other genealogical providers.

As someone who uses more than one website for my searches my immediate solution was to look up my census address query on the rival website of TheGenealogist, which also offers an address search not to mention carries a very substantial suite of data sets including all the census records, parish records and the recently released and very interesting Tithe Apportionments that I find fascinating in my ancestor research.

I was also interested to see in an email that I received on Friday from the Society of Genealogists that they are running a training session for Members, staff and volunteers of the SoG.

They say that As the changes are quite significant the Society has arranged some special training in using the new style search functions etc. Paul Nixon, UK Data Strategy with DC Thompson Family History has agreed to come to the Society to make a training presentation and explain how it all works now.

I don’t really understand why Findmypast has let the situation get to this point.

As a fresher on a Business Studies course, way back in the 1980s, I remember being taught in the first few weeks of my undergraduate course that companies that are Customer led are the only ones that will survive. Those businesses that are product led or led by technology often try to push their customers to accept what they think is best for them, and that this is a recipe for disaster.

Surely a company such as DC Thompson Family History will have people within it that understand this customer focus? Lets hope so.

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I Once Lived Near Richard III’s Grave

Like many, I have been fascinated by the reports in the media lately regarding the finding of Richard III’s remains in the former Greyfriars Church in Leicester.

I was a student in Leicester in the early 1980’s. So it was that I walked past the rather nondescript area where King Richard III was buried on a daily basis on my way to and from lectures and never for one instance thinking of the historical importance of the church that had stood there before.

On my most recent visit to the city, back in January, I was aware of the excitement that was building around the find at Greyfriars car park and picked up some leaflets at the tourist office on the subject. Then this week the world’s media covered the announcement that it was “beyond reasonable doubt” the skeleton of the monarch.

100_0051

From my point of view, as a family historian, one of the really interesting things was the use of DNA from a descendent of the dead king’s sister to reach this conclusion.

The team from Leicester University had turned to the historian and author John Ashdown-Hill. Back in 2004 he had been able to tracked down the late Joy Ibsen, a direct descendant of Richard’s sister Anne of York and from her to the Canadian born Michael Ibsen, a cabinet maker in London.

 

Again, of interest to us family historians, is what John Ashdown-Hill said on the BBC’s Radio 4 “Today” programme

“An enormous family tree grew on my computer. You have to trace every possible line of descent because you don’t know which one will die out in 1745 and which one will carry on to the present day – you have to trace them all.”

On the Who Do You Think You Are Magazine’s website it is reported that the team did not rely on just the one line from Anne of York down to Joy Ibsen, as is the impression gained from some of the media reports this week.

Not only did the genealogists find documentary evidence for each ‘link’ of the chain between Anne of York and the late Joy Ibsen, but they were able to make contact with a second maternal line descendant – who wishes remain anonymous – whose DNA was used to confirm a match between genetic material extracted from the skeleton and a swab provided by Joy’s son, Michael.

 

“Right from the start of the project, we did not want to rely entirely on the DNA between Michael and the skeleton. We always wanted to triangulate that wherever possible,” explains Professor Schürer. “We set about trying to secure a second maternal line, and after several weeks of research we actually did discover this person. The documentary evidence again is there to support this.”

Source: http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/genealogists-help-confirm-identity-leicesters-royal-remains

In a couple of weeks the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE show will be at Olympia and already they have moved the talk by Dr Turi King called “Discovering Richard III” from a smaller area to now be held in the Celebrity Theatre / SOG studio 1 on Saturday, 1.00pm – 1.45pm.

It is billed as telling the story of the research project undertaken at the University of Leicester to discover the burial place of Richard III and the related work to scientifically identify the skeletal remains.

Personally I can’t wait for this year’s WDYTYA? LIVE as I missed last year due to fog disrupting my travel plans!

 

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