Tag Archives: documents

52 Ancestors – 52 Documents

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Lifelines Research

Throughout 2020 I’ve been tweeting my own take on Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 52 different types of document relating to 52 different ancestors over 52 weeks. Now I’ve put all 52 tweets together in one … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research | Tagged Ancestors, ANcestry, documents, family history, genealogy | 1 Comment

Where have all the registers gone?

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Lifelines Research

Let’s make something clear right from the start. I am a huge fan of digitisation and online access in genealogy. Both as an enthusiastic hobbyist and as a professional genealogist with 37 years’ experience, I have reason, on a daily … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research | Tagged digitisation, documents, genealogy, online access, research, transcription | 74 Comments

My friend Miss Mary Ann Port

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Lifelines Research

This is the third and final part of the story of my great, great, great grandmother, Mary Ann Port. You can read the first part here and the second part here. The long, drawn-out Chancery Case, Port v. Hovil[1], had … Continue reading →

Posted in research, Stories | Tagged biography, buckingham, documents, family history, genealogy, newspapers, research | 1 Comment

All and every my child and children

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Lifelines Research

Our efforts to reconstruct the lives of our pre-Victorian ancestors are all-too-often thwarted by the lack of available source material. In an era before the decennial censuses and the (virtually) comprehensive civil registration system, our reference points can be severely … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research, Stories | Tagged biography, chancery, documents, family history, genealogy, Port family, research, tna | 4 Comments

1813 And All That

Posted on July 4, 2020 by Lifelines Research

A comment on Twitter this morning in response to a tweet of mine about George Rose’s Parish Register Act got me thinking. My original tweet suggested that the post-1813 printed burial registers introduced by Rose’s Act were “somewhat lacking in … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research | Tagged documents, family history, genealogy, George Rose, parish registers, Parochial Registers Act 1812, registration, research | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in research | Tagged census, documents, family history, genealogy, registration, research, tna | 9 Comments

The Joy of Signatures

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Lifelines Research

As family historians, we should never rely on transcripts. Access to original documents, or at least, to digital images of original documents is an essential part of the process of genealogical research. Even the most thorough and comprehensive transcripts are … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources | Tagged documents, family history, genealogy, research, signatures, tna, transcription | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Local History, Stories | Tagged Aldenham, census, documents, drowning, family history, gravestones, Hertfordshire, newspapers, research | 5 Comments

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 →

Posted in Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged census, documents, family history, Gravesend, Greenwich, Mariners, Merchant Navy, orkney, research, tna | Leave a comment

The Joy of Chancery

Posted on March 29, 2020 by Lifelines Research

This is the Court of Chancery … there is not an honourable man among its practitioners who would not give—who does not often give—the warning, “Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here!” Bleak House, Chapter … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources | Tagged chancery, Charles Dickens, documents, family history, research, tna, transcription | Leave a comment