Tag Archives: the national archives

Outrageous … and must be utterly rejected

Posted on February 22, 2024 by Lifelines Research

RESPONSE TO OPEN CONSULTATION:STORAGE AND RETENTION OF ORIGINAL WILL DOCUMENTSPublished 15 December 2023 Introduction I have a number of significant concerns about the proposals outlined in the consultation paper. These concerns and my opinions regarding the proposals are based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, digitisation, Soapbox | Tagged digitisation, documents, family history, original wills, research, the national archives, tna, wills | 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

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

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 | 8 Comments

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

Please Release Me…

Posted on January 7, 2022 by Lifelines Research

…being a very brief history of the releases of the English & Welsh census returns. We need to understand right from the start that the primary purpose of the census has never been to produce a resource for the benefit … Continue reading →

Posted in Local History, research, Soapbox | Tagged 1921 Census, census, documents, family history, genealogy, latter day saints, research, society of genealogists, the national archives, tna | 6 Comments

The Last of the Moultings

Posted on November 21, 2021 by Lifelines Research

On 2 February 1974, a 72-year old woman called Gladys Elizabeth Moulting died in Canvey Island, Essex. I know very little about Gladys, except that she was the youngest of two children of George Henry and Harriet Amelia Moulting, that … Continue reading →

Posted in Local History, research, Stories, Surnames | Tagged Bethlem Hospital, census, documents, Evesham, family history, genealogy, parish registers, research, Surnames, the national archives, tna | 3 Comments

Incorrigible & Worthless

Posted on November 14, 2021 by Lifelines Research

Researching the lives of our military ancestors can be difficult at the best of times but when it comes to retelling the stories of the seven million men and women who served in the British Army during the First World … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources, research, Stories, Uncategorized | Tagged army, british army, documents, family history, genealogy, research, the national archives, tna | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in Document Sources, Local History, research, Stories, Surnames | Tagged census, Hawkers, newspapers, Ramsgate, the national archives, Willis family | 4 Comments

The Joy of Tithes

Posted on January 12, 2020 by Lifelines Research

When it comes to the 1841 census, one of the greatest disappointments for family historians is that the addresses given, particularly in rural areas, tend to be frustratingly imprecise. More often than not, we just get the name of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Document Sources | Tagged documents, family history, research, the national archives, tithe maps, tithes, tna | 3 Comments