Category Archives: Document Sources

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

Six Days, Six Stones – Part 4: Longnor, Staffordshire

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Lifelines Research

This is the fourth of six blog posts written after a recent road trip during which my wife and I visited a number of ancestral burial places. You can read the earlier instalments here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, Local History, research, Stories, Surnames | Tagged churchyards, documents, family history, genealogy, gravestones, Isaac Coates, Longnor, Martha Hulme, parish registers, research, Staffordshire | 3 Comments

Six Days, Six Stones – Part 3: Key Hill Cemetery, Birmingham

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Lifelines Research

The third of my six blogs posted in consecutive days, focussing on particular family gravestones, is a bit of a cheat. The other five are stones that my wife and I saw for the first time on our recent 40th … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, Local History, research, Stories, Surnames | Tagged family history, genealogy, gravestones, Key Hill Cemetery, Port family, research, Thomas Port | 7 Comments

Six Days, Six Stones – Part 2: Lacock, Wiltshire

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Lifelines Research

This is the second of six blogs, written and published in six consecutive days, each one focussing on a particular family gravestone which my wife and I visited on our recent 40th Wedding Anniversary road trip. You can read Part … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, Local History, research, Stories | Tagged Benjamin Truman, chest tomb, documents, family history, genealogy, gravestones, lacock, research | 4 Comments

The original and best

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Lifelines Research

This blog is dedicated to the memory of genealogist Lorine McGinnis Schulze who passed away recently. I had the pleasure of working for Lorine over the past few years, transcribing several early English wills for her. Lorine’s enthusiasm for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research | Tagged documents, family history, genealogy, research, the national archives, wills | 6 Comments

When Digitisation Goes Bad Part II: Death’s Apprentice

Posted on January 27, 2022 by Lifelines Research

or…Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Onto The Internet This is the second part of a blog post looking at some particularly bad examples of digitisation in the world of family history research. In the first … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research, Soapbox, digitisation | Tagged research, family history, documents, genealogy, london metropolitan archives, apprenticeship, indexing | 1 Comment

When Digitisation Goes Bad Part I: The Night Of The Living Death Duties

Posted on January 23, 2022 by Lifelines Research

This is the first part of the latest in a series of blog posts looking at the some of the problems behind the way that we access family history sources via the major commercial websites. In previous posts I’ve looked … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research, Soapbox, digitisation | Tagged tna, the national archives, research, family history, documents, genealogy, death duty registers | 4 Comments

The Respectable Printer Of The Times

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Lifelines Research

This is the second part of the story of John Joseph Lawson, printer of The Times. In the first part, A Gross And Scandalous Libel, I covered his ‘trial’ in the House of Lords in 1831. In Part 2, I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research, Stories | Tagged biography, Court of Queen's Bench, documents, family history, genealogy, John Joseph Lawson, libel, national portrait gallery, newspapers, research, The Times | 1 Comment

A Gross And Scandalous Libel

Posted on December 28, 2021 by Lifelines Research

I was watching some old episodes of Who Do You Think You Are the other day and I was particularly taken by the one featuring Ian McKellen; as engaging, enthusiastic and warm a subject as you could possibly hope to … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research, Stories | Tagged documents, family history, genealogy, House of Lords, John Joseph Lawson, libel, research, The Times | 1 Comment