Category Archives: Document Sources

Not Highly Rated

Posted on November 21, 2024 by Lifelines Research

The aim of this blog is to provide some background material relating to the issues raised in Episode 26 of my video series, Setting The Record Straight. The video and this accompanying blog take a look at an online database … Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, digitisation, Document Sources, Local History, research, Soapbox | Tagged ANcestry, documents, family history, family-tree, Findmypast, genealogy, history, Rate Books, Really Bad Digitisation, Westminster | 1 Comment

31 Discoveries

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Lifelines Research

31 microblogs written and published during the month of August 2024, each one focussing on a different discovery that I’ve made over the years in my own family history… Thirty One I’d always known that my Grandma was illegitimate and … Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, Document Sources, Local History, research, Stories | Tagged #31Discoveries, 31 Discoveries, Discoveries, family history, genealogy, gravestones, parish registers, research | Leave a comment

A Star of the Silver Screen and… the 1939 National Register

Posted on January 19, 2024 by Lifelines Research

Just in case anyone ever needs to know, if you want to get my attention, you could do worse than sending me a message that says: Hi Dave. I’m doing a bit of research at the moment on the 1939 … Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, digitisation, Document Sources, Local History, research, Stories | Tagged 1939, 1939 National Register, Audrey Hepburn, Elham, family history, genealogy, Kent, research, the national archives, tna | 1 Comment

Wills Consultation Paper

Posted on December 17, 2023 by Lifelines Research

On 15 December 2023, the UK government published a consultation paper on the ‘Storage and retention of original will documents’. The paper can be accessed online here. At the same time, the government issued a press release backed up by … Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, digitisation, Document Sources, research | Tagged documents, family history, research, wills | 10 Comments

Remembered Always

Posted on November 10, 2022 by Lifelines Research

Two years ago, I set myself the challenge of writing about an ancestor who died in military conflict, with the aim of publishing a Remembrance Day blog post to mark their life. In November 2022, I duly published the story … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research, Stories | Tagged Black Watch, documents, family history, genealogy, gravestones, Myanmar, research, Second World War | 5 Comments

A tale of the unexpected

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Lifelines Research

On 27 November 1826, the brothers, Robert, Walter, John and Alexander Robertson, presented an inventory of the personal estate of their father at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court. The brothers were described in the document as: Robert Robertson Herd at Bronsley, … Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, Document Sources, Local History, research, Stories, Surnames | Tagged Berwickshire, census, Cranshaws, documents, family history, genealogy, Longformacus, parish registers, research, Robertson, Whitsome | 1 Comment

A Moving Tale

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Lifelines Research

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I spent a day in London last week, pounding the streets in search of ancestors. Over the course of a long day, I visited four ‘live’ archives: the Bank … Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, Document Sources, research, Stories | Tagged Doctors' Commons, documents, family history, genealogy, newspapers, research, Somerset House, wills | 4 Comments

But which parish was it in…?

Posted on July 24, 2022 by Lifelines Research

About a year ago I was looking at my Edinburgh-Irish Flynn ancestors and trying to fill in some gaps in the story by looking at all the birth and death records relating to the family. One of the certificates that … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, Local History, research, Soapbox | Tagged boundaries, cramond, dalmeny, documents, east craigie, family history, genealogy, linlithgowshire, maps, national library of scotland, research | Leave a comment

Transcripts and indexes

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Lifelines Research

The release of the 1921 census returns for England and Wales earlier this year led to some (fairly heated) discussion on social media regarding the quality of the transcription provided by Findmypast, the National Archives’ commercial partners in the online … Continue reading →

Posted in digitisation, Document Sources, research, Soapbox | Tagged antiquarians, census, digitisation, documents, family history, genealogy, indexing, research, the national archives, tna, transcription | 6 Comments

Six Days, Six Stones – Part 5: Macclesfield Cemetery

Posted on May 6, 2022 by Lifelines Research

This is the fifth of six blog posts, written and published over six consecutive days, looking at some of the family graves that my wife and I visited as part of a recent road trip to celebrate our 40th wedding … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, Local History, research, Stories, Surnames | Tagged documents, family history, genealogy, gravestones, Hannah Hulme, John Hulme, Macclesfield, Macclesfield Cemetery, Maggie Bullock, research, Thomas Bullock | 1 Comment