Tag Archives: tna

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 | 4 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

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 →

Posted in research, Stories | Tagged biography, buckingham, census, Dorchester, family history, genealogy, Hertfordshire, newspapers, research, tna | Leave a 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

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

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 | 2 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