Tag Archives: census

The Darkest Day

Posted on July 10, 2021 by Lifelines Research

The date is Tuesday, 29 January 1895 and Edinburgh is in the grip of a snowstorm. In fact, the whole country is suffering; snow fell uninterruptedly for 12 hours in Birmingham yesterday and London is experiencing temperatures of 15° Fahrenheit … Continue reading →

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Back From The Dead?

Posted on November 26, 2020 by Lifelines Research

This is the second part of the story of Stephen Willis, the Ramsgate hawker, and his parents, Stephen Willis senior and Ellen (née Foley). In the first part, we followed Stephen senior from his birth in Bishopsbourne near Canterbury in … Continue reading →

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Blank spaces and circumstantial evidence

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Lifelines Research

This is the fourth part of the three-part story of the life of my great, great, great grandmother, Mary Ann Port, which aims to explain why, despite the absence of evidence that she ever had any children, I believe her … Continue reading →

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Don’t Believe The Hints

Posted on June 13, 2020 by Lifelines Research

We’ve all been there. We’re following a line back, we’ve got our ancestor in the census, and we’ve found her marriage. We know the four key pieces of information that we ideally need to formulate a search for her birth; … Continue reading →

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The story behind the stone

Posted on May 9, 2020 by Lifelines Research

About 35 years ago, I was involved with a project to record the monumental inscriptions in Aldenham churchyard for the Hertfordshire Family History Society. The churchyard contains hundreds of gravestones but one in particular, recording the death of a woman … Continue reading →

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A mariner’s tale – with a twist

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Lifelines Research

William Annal was born to the sea. His father, John, together with his uncle William, left their native Orkney, and worked as fishermen along the UK’s east coast, before eventually settling on the Thames Estuary in Gravesend, Kent, sometime around … Continue reading →

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False dawns and first cousins

Posted on March 12, 2020 by Lifelines Research

This is the second of a three-part blog, telling the story of how I broke down a 30-year old brick wall in my research. Read Part One here… The information that my grandma passed on to me had allowed me … Continue reading →

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A census release with a difference

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Lifelines Research

In a previous life, when I worked for The National Archives, I was actively involved in planning and delivering the launch of the 1901 and 1911 censuses for England & Wales. Now, I’m delighted to announce my involvement in the … Continue reading →

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What would I have done?

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Lifelines Research

I’ve very much enjoyed reading all the recent blogs, tweets and news items marking the 100th anniversary of the passing of the Representation of the People Act (1918); that ground-breaking piece of legislation which gave the vote to women aged … Continue reading →

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