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Category: Genealogy

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The Black Sheep Ancestor: Take One Family Tree, Add a Dash of Spice…

Black sheep
Where are the black sheep in your family?

What is a black sheep ancestor?

A black sheep ancestor is one who brings shame to the family. The term originates from black wool being traditionally less valuable than white because it is unable to be dyed.

It may be as simple as being a little eccentric or rebellious in a family that is otherwise highly conformist. It may be a young woman who gave birth out of wedlock. Or it could be a family member who commits a crime. Regardless, the black sheep is a disgraced family member who is often shunned by the rest.

Why are black sheep ancestors so interesting?

It is human nature to be intrigued by people who live outside of society’s norms, whether they be criminals or people who have unusual or extreme lifestyles. Look how popular true crime, crime dramas, murder mysteries, reality shows, and soap operas are on TV. Some of the most popular authors are those who write about criminals, fictional or not. Historical criminal figures such as Ned Kelly, Al Capone and Jack the Ripper intrigue us to this day and are unlikely ever to be forgotten.

Black sheep also add colour to our family history and every family has at least one! The great thing about discovering a black sheep ancestor is that there is often a lot of information available about them!

Skeleton in the cupboard
Every family has skeletons in the cupboard. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

How do we find out about them?

The first hint we get of a black sheep is often the absence of open information within the family though. Perhaps the great-uncle that older family members only whisper about. Maybe the cousin no one speaks about. Perhaps an entire line of the family tree is not discussed. The black sheep is not usually what you are going to hear about when collecting oral history (unless you’re really lucky!). People like to keep the family skeletons in the cupboard, not bring them out to be talked about. Whatever you happen to pick up or overhear is likely to be inaccurate and incomplete. Make sure you cross-check every detail for clues and construct the best timeline you can. Then you need to verify and fill in the gaps using information from outside the family.

Luckily, the more notorious or outrageous the black sheep is, the more information is available. And even if the wrongdoing was only minor, there is likely to be documentary evidence somewhere.

Some sources to consider

A great place to look is in newspapers. Crimes are often reported on both at the time and when the trial occurs, and these reports tend to be a lot less dry to read than the formal documents. Depending on the paper they can actually become quite lurid, for example, the ‘penny dreadful’ illustrated papers of Victorian England.

Some of the sites to check out for newspapers include the British Newspaper Archive (also available through FindMyPast), Newspapers.com (also via Ancestry), Trove (free site for Australian newspapers), and Papers Past (free site for NZ newspapers). Also, do not neglect looking for local history books.

Black sheep reporting
You may be lucky enough to find a dramatic and illustrated version of your ancestor’s misdeeds in a ‘penny dreadful’ newspaper!

For the actual facts about the crime, trial and punishment, there are multiple sources of information such as inquests and coroner’s reports, police gazettes, court records, gaol and prison records and multiple forms of convict documents (about which expect a future blog!). Pictures and/or physical descriptions of the black sheep are not uncommon in several of these documents.

If they left the country, you may find them on passenger lists, or they might have passport applications you can consult.

Illegitimacy black sheep
Young woman accusing married man of fathering her unborn child. Credit: Wellcome Collection

The parish chest can also be revealing. Poor law records such as removal and settlement examinations and orders can provide a lot of information. For illegitimacy see if any bastardy bonds are available. DNA can also be a useful modern tool for validating paternity!

One place where family members might speak out a little is in their will! And if there were legal quarrels in Chancery all sorts of family gossip can be found if you know where to look!

All the feels…

Finding a black sheep ancestor can stir up all sorts of mixed feelings. It is natural to want to feel proud of your family, and believe they are good people. It can be quite a blow to realise that some of them just weren’t likeable (remember my Edward Field?). This doesn’t apply to all, or even a majority of the black sheep though. People were often just doing their best to survive in harsh times.

Remember they were living in different times, with different societal expectations. Most of us today would be considered black sheep if we were transplanted into the 19th Century! Don’t be quick to judge. Take into account the time period and circumstances, and put their story into context. Was it really so wrong to steal food during a famine? Wrong enough to potentially be hung or transported across the world?

At the same time, it is important to be sensitive to the potential ongoing feelings of shame or embarrassment in living relatives who are of an era incompatible with the actions of the black sheep (e.g., unwed mothers, convict ancestry). Do not hide the truth, or worse cover it with white lies. However, be careful how excitedly public you go with information if someone still with us can be hurt.

Convict black sheep
Have you found any convict ancestors? (A.k.a Australian ‘royalty’!)

Next week, I will tell the tale of one or two of my many black sheep, as I have written far too much this week already! In the meantime..who is YOUR black sheep and what did they do?

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Walking the Streets of My London Ancestors – The East End

Wilkes St, Spitalfields
John and Sarah (nee Morter) Rigby were living here at Wilkes St, Spitalfields in 1861, when the census was held and when their son John married Charlotte Teague.

While I was in London attending RootsTech, I put aside a day to go wandering. Not so much tourist-style wandering, but ancestral wandering. A maternal branch of my family has strong roots in the East End of London, so I decided to walk in the footsteps of my London ancestors for a day! It is something I heartily recommend you do if you get the opportunity. However, as with trips to the archives, preparation is key. If you know exactly where key events occurred in your ancestors’ lives, or exactly where they lived, and worked, you can literally stand where they stood. An amazing feeling!

Preparing to visit your ancestral neighbourhood

Go through the documents you have collected for the ancestors in the area you will be visiting. Look for addresses, landmarks, churches, workplaces, schools etc. Make a note of the addresses. I made a spreadsheet so I could sort by street name, ancestor, event and so on. I added an additional column for ‘current street name’. Why? Because street names change more frequently than you might think! London was extensively bombed during WW2, and also underwent a lot of growth prior to that. Many many old street names were lost. I found this site invaluable in finding the current day names for 19th-century London addresses.

The next item I looked for to help me was an old street map. By using a street map from the era of your ancestors you can see not only where the streets are in relation to one another but, for example, how comparatively rural the area may have then been. Over the decades, streets may have been partly demolished, changed course or extended. I found a map from 1853, another from 1882, and even one from the late 1700s. I printed all these out, highlighted the relevant streets and attached my spreadsheet. Now I was ready to visit my London ancestors! Using Google Maps on my phone once there I could chart a course for my East End wandering.

The local church

The first place I stopped was St Matthew’s church in Bethnal Green. It wasn’t the only church used by my London ancestors. They often got married down the road at Christchurch Spitalfields. But for baptisms, burials and regular Sunday worship, this was their main church. When I arrived, to my surprise it was open, an unusual thing these days! Then I remembered it was Sunday. I tiptoed inside hoping to get a quick look at the interior, but I was spotted by the small congregation and ended up attending the service (and having a cup of tea with them afterwards!)

St Matthew's church, Bethnal Green
St Matthew’s church, Bethnal Green

The church had been badly damaged during the war, so the inside was quite modern. The old font that many of my family had been baptised in was gone. But it was lovely to spend a little time in the space where so many of their significant life moments had occurred. A little later in the day I popped into Christchurch Spitalfields too.

St Matthews Bethnal Green plaque inside church
Plaque commemorating the bombing of St Matthew’s church in Bethnal Green.

The neighbourhood

Leaving the church, I followed the trail on my map and began seeking out the addresses my London ancestors had occupied. My main people from this neighbourhood were the Morter, Rigby, Teague, Townley, and Wright families.

Turning onto Brick Lane, I was suddenly confronted by market stalls, buskers, crowds and the smells of delicious foods! Brick Lane Market is held on a Sunday. I love markets! The sun was shining, I was on a genealogical adventure whilst simultaneously experiencing a market. Could life get any better?

Bacon St, Shoreditch
Bacon St, Shoreditch. Formerly Thomas St, this street is the epicentre of my mid-1800’s London ancestry. John and Sarah (nee Morter) Rigby lived at number 5 in the 1861 and 1871 censuses, and Sarah’s mother died there in 1866. Enoch Teague as at 17 at the 1851 Census, his wife Sarah (nee Townley) having died at number 19 in 1842. Their daughter Charlotte was at 23 in the 1861 census living with her married sister Emma.
Cygnet St, Shoreditch
Cygnet St (formerly Swan Yard and Swan Terrace), Shoreditch. Between 1815 and 1820, John and Sarah (nee Wright) Morter were giving Swan Yard as their address as they were baptising their children, including their daughter Sarah. By 1841, Sarah junior was married to John Rigby and they were living in Swan Terrace at the time of the census.

Some of the original buildings at the addresses could still be found, however by no means all of them. Many old houses had been bombed and since replaced by office buildings, a school and a park. This was especially apparent when I visited New Inn Yard in Shoreditch, where hardly an old building could be seen.

New Inn Yard, Shoreditch
New Inn Yard, Shoreditch. When John and Sarah Morter left Swan Yard, they moved here and continued baptising several more children. From this we know that they lived here for at least 16 years. Nothing remains of the buildings of the time.
10 Hanbury St, Spitalfields
This was formerly 10 Brown’s Lane (now Hanbury St), the home of Charlotte Teague in 1861 when she married John Rigby. The blue plaque at number 12 is to commemorate the birthplace of Bud Flanagan in 1896. Just across the road, Jack the Ripper claimed his 2nd victim, Annie Chapman at number 29 (long since demolished).

Get walking!

I recommend walking in your ancestors’ local area if you get the opportunity. If nothing else it will give you a feel for the relationship of the addresses and landmarks to one another and the local geography. This will give you better insight when researching.

In my case, I truly felt a sense of belonging as well. I felt happy there. This feeling often occurs when I visit places that my family inhabited. I wonder if it is as simple as enjoying being there and seeing how my ancestors lived. Or is it something deeper? Is there something to epigenetic memory inheritance? Does it feel like home because part of me recognises it as such?

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Rootstech London – Yes, Another Genealogy Conference!

genealogy rootstech

Last week marked the end of my epic genealogy road trip. What better way to see it out than by attending RootsTech London, the third and final genealogy conference of the trip?

RootsTech is normally held in Salt Lake City in Utah, USA and is organised by FamilySearch. RootsTech is the world’s largest family history technology conference, and in this, its 10th year, they decided to hold their first international conference in London, England.

The Venue

The venue was ExCeL, a massive exhibition centre in the Docklands area. It was so large in fact that ExCeL were also able to simultaneously hold a Comic-Con on the second and third day of RootsTech! This was possibly the most unusual combination of conferences to hold in one venue. At least we didn’t have to worry about accidentally going in the wrong door, the two groups of conference attendees could not have looked more different! Common ground was found, however. Family trees were posted outside the RootsTech hall for Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and The Simpsons which generated lots of interest from strangely dressed people!

RootsTech London Excel
ExCeL London – site of RootsTech London

Keynote Speakers

There were keynote speakers on each of the three days, each giving their own perspective on the importance of family history in their lives.

On Thursday, historian Dan Snow told an extraordinarily moving tale of an ancestor of whom he was not proud, and the part he played in the unnecessary deaths of thousands of soldiers in World War 1.

Friday’s keynote speaker was Kadeena Cox. She is a British Paralympian with a truly inspiring story of courage and perseverance. Although she had not really worked on her family tree as such, both her immediate and extended family played a huge part in her success. Her tales of her West Indian heritage were full of warmth and humour. She was genuinely thrilled when she was given the gift of some further generations of her family tree and some DNA kits!

On Saturday, Donny Osmond revealed that not only was he an entertainer, but also an avid family historian and keeper of the Osmond family genealogy. He spoke and sang to an enthusiastic crowd. Sadly the queues were so long to meet him afterwards that I missed out on being one of the lucky ones!

RootsTech London Donny Osmond
This was as close as I got to Donny Osmond!

The Program

I was spoiled in the previous couple of conferences I’d been to. The first had three streams of concurrent sessions and the second was a single stream. At this conference, for every timeslot, there was a choice of about 10 talks to attend. I’d narrow it down to two or three then really struggle to decide which to attend! I ended up going with talks that covered topics that I’d not been exposed to so much in the previous conferences on this roadtrip.

On Thursday I attended several talks on Welsh genealogy. Given that I have Welsh ancestry on both sides of my family and there are unique challenges in researching the Welsh, these were very useful indeed. I also attended a class on online church court records by Colin Chapman because, well…Colin Chapman! What a legend, 70 years in the profession and he’s still as enthusiastic as ever.

Friday was a bit of a mixture of topics for me, but with a definite Irish flavour predominating. Same on Saturday – workhouse records, DNA, and a bit of fangurling again, this time Nick Barratt talking about legal sources.

Exhibition

It’s always good to spend plenty of time in the exhibition area. Firstly, as a refugee from the corporate sector I know what a huge investment companies make to support these conferences and how much that keeps the prices down for consumers. Also, it’s great to see what’s new or improved from companies whose products I use, and from companies I have not experienced before.

RootsTech London sponsors
An event like this would not be possible at an affordable price without the support of sponsors.
RootsTech London exhibition area
RootsTech London exhibition area
RootsTech London Exhibition area
RootsTech London exhibition area

There was plenty to explore in the Exhibition hall, and I especially enjoyed looking at the latest tech offerings for analysis of DNA.

Sadly, I also came to the conclusion that my fondness for books is perhaps straying into the realms of addiction. I ended up purchasing six books from the excellent Pen & Sword range. This meant having to dispose of several items of clothing and footwear to get them in my suitcase. However the conference special price meant that I was getting six for what two would cost me back in Australia!

I also took advantage of conference specials to take out long-considered memberships of the Society of Genealogists and the Guild of One-Name Studies. I can’t get wait to start digging around in their online resources, and to register at least one of the One-Name Studies I’ve embarked on over the years!

Networking

Sounds so clinical doesn’t it? It’s such an integral part of every conference, meeting new people and catching up with old friends. In the last couple of months, I feel like I’ve forged several new and wonderful friendships which I hope to continue growing. The genealogical community is a warm, welcoming and friendly one. Ironically, you immediately feel like family. I believe there were around 5000 attendees at RootsTech London. I absolutely did not meet everyone, but those I did meet were lovely!

All in all, RootsTech London was excellent, and I do hope they continue to hold international RootsTech conferences!

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Walking the Streets of My Birmingham Ancestors – Kings Norton

This week I am back in England, staying in the Midlands with my remaining close English family. Much of my family history has links to Birmingham and the surrounding areas. I was born there and many of my family lines extending back for several centuries are within the modern-day boundaries of Birmingham. Indeed, my maternal grandmother lived in the (now) suburb of Kings Norton right up to her death in 2007 without even knowing of the depth of her heritage there.

Map Kings Norton
Map showing location of Kings Norton, on the edge of modern day Birmingham

My family links to Kings Norton, however, precede the commencement of parish registers and on some lines go back at least 700 years. It seems as though almost all genealogical roads lead to Kings Norton on several branches of my tree, both maternal and paternal. I’ve often wondered if that is why I’ve always felt a connection to Kings Norton village green or whether it’s just because it is a lovely little historical oasis in a large city.

Kings Norton
Kings Norton St Nicolas’ church and the Saracen’s Head

It actually blows my mind to think that so many of my ancestors crossed paths on a daily basis with each other in what was at the time a small rural village. Their descendants gradually dispersed from Kings Norton to other towns, villages and cities such as Birmingham, Stratford on Avon, Dudley, and even further afield. Yet the lines still managed to merge again by the 20th century to produce my generation who are now living in Australia!

Kings Norton village green
Kings Norton village green

As you know by now, the thing I love about genealogy is not the names and dates but the stories of my people. So today, I’d like to share a tale about one of my least favourite ancestors. We all have black sheep, and they often create the best family stories!

Edward Field (1623-1685) of Kings Norton

The Field family of Kings Norton, Worcestershire had been in the village for many generations and were quite powerful and well-respected in the area. Edward was the son of William Field of Bells Farm which still exists today. William had taken ownership in 1638 and lived there at Bells Hall with his family.

Bells Farm today

In 1642, the Civil War broke out. Although nearby Birmingham was strongly on the Parliamentarian side, Kings Norton and William himself were staunchly Royalist. Bells Farm was situated on the road that commanded the east, and while he was building fortifications and digging tunnels, the tradespeople of Birmingham were making weapons for Cromwell’s army.

Prince Rupert and his troops turned up in 1643, finding a friendly local welcome (including the Field family), and overpowered the Parliamentarians, almost destroying Birmingham in the process. However later in the year Cromwell’s army made a comeback with large numbers of men and heavy artillery and attacked Kings Norton. William had to surrender.

There is no further trace of William. He was never seen again. There is no burial record and his body is not in the family crypt. He is believed to have been executed and his body dumped.

Edward, a young man of about 20 years of age, profited well from his father’s death. Naturally he inherited Bells Farm, which had been damaged during the battle but was then left alone. He also however mysteriously managed to acquire several other properties and much wealth. To do so at this time indicates that he was in favour with the Parliamentary forces, despite them having seen his father and the village of Kings Norton as enemies.

By the time Edward died in 1685, he was a very wealthy man indeed. He had repaired and several times extended Bells Farm, to the point where by 1666 he was paying Hearth Tax for seven fireplaces. His will is voluminous and his six children each inherited properties and a significant amount of money (except his son John who got his watch and his books!). No trace of his inventory has been found though I hope it turns up one day as I’d love to see the list of items he had acquired!

Edward was clearly a resourceful young man, who saw which way the winds of war were blowing and switched sides. To have profited so immensely, it is hard not to believe that he must have betrayed his father to assist the Parliamentary forces in breaching the fortifications of Bell Hall. Whether or not he realised it would result in his father’s death is a matter of conjecture, as is whether he ever felt regret at what he had done. Whatever the truth I do not like this ancestor. But hey, it makes a fabulous family story!

Worcestershire resources are scarce!

One of the great things about having so many ancestors from a single village is that over the years I have gathered quite a collection of resources about it. Parish register copies, local history books, collections of memorial inscriptions, some poor law records, loads of local wills etc. Being in Worcestershire, there is comparatively little available online that isn’t just indexes and transcripts. Even then it is not well covered in comparison with other English counties.

Shout out to Familysearch, FindMyPast, Ancestry, etc…please get around to digitising and publishing Worcestershire records!

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How to Get the Most Out of Visiting Archives

archive shelves

It often feels like all the world’s knowledge must be found somewhere on the internet, but you’d be surprised how much can only be accessed by visiting archives. For every amazing available on-demand item we download, there’s a hundred more sitting in boxes on shelves. Some of these boxes have not been opened in years. Some of these boxes contain the answers to our family mysteries. By visiting archives, we can demolish some of our brick walls.

Don’t be complacent and think that everything will be digitised and available online in the next couple of years. There is so much out there that the crucial documents you need might not be digitised in your lifetime!

Archives – what are they, and how do they differ from libraries?

archives

An archive exists for the preservation and safe storage of the items within it. A library, on the other hand, exists to provide access to the public for its materials, most of which can be borrowed and removed.

Archives contain books, documents, manuscripts, scrolls etc which you can consult within the archive only. They may not leave the building, and they are not usually on open shelves for browsing.

Archives exist at national, regional and local levels, and as they contain the original items, there is little overlap between the contents. It is wise to search them all!

Searching archives

The first rule of searching archives is: you do not wait until you get there. The second rule of searching archives is: you DO NOT wait until you get there!

Although the documents themselves are mostly not yet online, most archives have websites with some level of catalogue search on them. The catalogue search functionality may be absolutely brilliant, such as Discovery at the UK National Archives, or it may just be an email address to write with an enquiry. Whichever end of the spectrum your target archive is at for searching sophistication, use it before you go there.

For anyone with ancestry in the UK, I mentioned the National Archives Discovery portal for a very good reason. Discovery does not just tell you what is in the National Archives, but also what is to be found in over 2500 archives across the whole of the UK with just one search. A marvellous time-saver, definitely check it out if you are planning any archive visits there. It also lets you know if any of the documents it uncovers for you can be downloaded. Hint: if they can, take that option. You’ll need every moment you can get in the archives for those items which have not yet been digitised. Lastly, it also provides access to details such as the opening hours and requirements (appointment? readers ticket?) of the other archives so you can factor these into your plans.

When you have decided the date of your trip to the archives and you know the documents you are going to consult, preorder them. Many items are stored offsite. If you do not preorder them, you could face a long wait while they are transported to the archive building.

National Archives search page

Visiting archives

The day has come, you know what you’re going to be looking at, all items are ordered. Now you just need to show up and start researching.

Helpful hints:

  • Prioritise research lines – start with the ones most important to you, or where the documents you’ve ordered are most likely to open floodgates of information that lead to other items needing to be ordered. You can work your way through the other lines while you wait for further orders to arrive.
  • Do not take pens with you, they will not be allowed in. Take at least two pencils.
  • If allowed, take your research notes and/or laptop/tablet and a charger, as well as a phone or camera to capture images.
  • Be prepared to put your bag into a locker, you may not be able to take it in with you.
  • Take ID, they may require it.
  • Eat and drink before you go in. You are likely to be there for longer than you expect.
  • Take another layer of clothing, no matter what time of year. Archives are notoriously cool. If you are shivering you won’t concentrate well.

I wish you all the best of luck in making your way through your list of items and finding all sorts of information that you’d never have found anywhere else. Don’t forget to keep a record of the collection title and reference numbers etc for your citations. You might want to recheck it in the future for further detail, or someone else may want to consult it, so you need to know where the information came from!

archive shelves
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Genealogy Cruises – Week 2 – A Great Way to Learn

Today is the second last day of my genealogy cruise adventure around the Mediterranean. We are currently docked at Le Havre fairly unexpectedly though, as we outran Hurricane Lorenzo to get to safe harbour. As if genealogy wasn’t exciting enough!

Family History at Sea

So what did we learn about over the past two weeks? Well, the topics were many and varied but the themes were based mainly around research in the British Isles. We had some fantastic speakers including Paul Milner, Mia Bennett, Sue Swalwell, Janet Few, Michelle Patient, Rosemary Kopittke, Eric Kopittke and Chris Braund.

Even when ashore, genealogists manage to find the cemeteries! Cheryl Benson, Sue Swalwell and myself at St Paul-de-Vence in the south of France.

England

The English topics really plunged us headfirst into record sets beyond the usual births/baptisms, marriages, deaths/burials and censuses that we all head to as our first ports of call. We gained valuable insight into the history, context and where to find records such as:

  • land and property
  • probate
  • chancery
  • quarter sessions
  • parish chest and poor law
  • occupational, guild and freeman
  • landed and titled people
  • nonconformists and recusants
  • newspapers
  • maps and gazetteers
  • directories and almanacs
  • and some very handy sessions on some overlooked sources from the 17th century right through to the 20th!
Paul Milner leads us through church and diocesan records in England

Ireland

Ireland had some great sessions covering sources, maps and tools and how to break through brick walls.

Scotland

Sessions included both well known and more obscure sources to be found online as well as a lecture on Burghs, their records, and where to find them. Some gems here!

‘Mistress Agnes’ (who looked suspiciously like Janet Few!), leads us through an evening of life in the 17th Century.

Other areas

Across the water on the European mainland, German immigration and locating the place of origin of a German ancestor provided useful insights, along with the use of Central European maps and gazetteers and a session on Danish genealogy.

Immigration patterns for Australia and New Zealand and how they can help you work out why people went where they did proved fascinating.

DNA as a genealogical tool was also well-covered, with an introductory session for beginners. For more advanced users there were also sessions on using AncestryDNA, Thrulines and Theories of Family Relativity as well as case studies.

There was a five part Writing Workshop to encourage us all to get our stories (or those of our ancestors) down on paper rather than leave them as a list of names and dates. Hopefully you will see a few books borne of this cruise!

Mia in the Research Brickwall workshop, ready to present my own personal brick wall nightmare!

Last but not least, there were research help zones for participants to pose questions about their own research to the speakers. There was also a fantastic research brick wall workshop, where we worked as a group to come up with ideas to help each other with long-standing research problems (including mine!)

Participants ranged from hobbyists through to professional genealogists, but everyone learned something new, including the speakers. Family history is one of those subjects where you will never know everything there is to know. It’s a constant learning curve!

Genealogy cruises are fantastic!

I thoroughly recommend that if you get an opportunity to do so, take genealogy cruises. They are intense, but lots of fun and a great chance to delve deeply into subjects and gain confidence in your research skills.

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Genealogy Cruises – Week 1 – The Adventure Begins and Ancestry Breaking News!

genealogy cruise

This week, I have been lucky enough to be cruising the Mediterranean! However, it has not been all about sitting by the pool with umbrella-decorated drinks. In fact, I am yet to do that, the schedule is packed! Yes, it’s another genealogy conference. No, really.

Genealogy cruises

Unlock The Past have been running genealogy cruises for several years now to various destinations and following different themes. This is the first time I have managed to take part. This cruise is around the Mediterranean for 14 days. The topics are quite varied, but the themes are broadly research in the British Isles and Europe, DNA and writing. All of these are very relevant to my research, so I have been looking forward to this conference hugely!

So how do genealogy cruises work?

The days you are at sea (including the evening of departure), lectures are held all day. We all dine together at the same time then return to lectures. This is no junket! It is concentrated doses of amazing information and discussion.

No lectures are held while the ship is docked in port – at those times we are free to explore and we emerge, blinking, into the sunshine! This is actually very helpful, I’m sure it gives our brains time to digest the previous presentations in the background as we walk the streets of the city we are in. We return to the ship, have dinner and back to lectures afterwards.

Week 1 highlights

We have had lots of fascinating presentations so far from some great speakers, and I’ve decided to give an overall summary next week of what was covered, especially since some of them are part of a series as yet not completed. But mostly because…drumroll…there has been some breaking news I’d like to share while it is hot off the press! This news had a roomful of genealogists at the end of a long day of lectures oohing and aahing in excitement. We were packing up to go to dinner when one of our speakers, Michelle Patient, rushed into the room after a teleconference with Ancestry to tell us about some new developments.

What is Ancestry up to?

Firstly, the search page will now contain the ‘What’s New’ section in the top right corner to make new additions and updates to record sets more visible and transparent.

Secondly, search results will be able to be filtered by date and place to make it easier to find the right ones amongst the huge numbers of results generated. This is in beta, so will only apply initially to births, marriages and deaths.

Thirdly, the positively clunky mobile app is getting a long overdue makeover to make it, well, useable! I think I actually squealed at this announcement!

And last but not least, there will be further tweaks to Thrulines. You will now be able to see if new matches have been added – ‘updated’ will appear in the top right corner of the ancestor tile. If a new Thruline is generated for an ancestor, ‘new’ will appear in the top right corner. You will also be able to see how many Thrulines an ancestor has by hovering over their tile.

These changes will be rolled out during October, so look out for them. I think they will definitely improve our user experience. These changes have come from feedback provided to Ancestry, who have been actively working with genealogists around the world to make the site more user friendly. Kudos to them for this, I think these improvements are a very positive step in the right direction!

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Genealogical Serendipity

Have you ever repeatedly hit a genealogical brick wall over and over again and despaired of ever breaking through it? Have you ever felt as though your ancestors would let you know about their lives when they were good and ready and not a moment before? And have you then suddenly had an amazing coincidence that has seen those brick walls tumble? That’s genealogical serendipity, and it can feel downright spooky!

Ever driven past an overgrown cemetery in the middle of nowhere and decided to stop and take a look? Serendipity is when you find a grave with a surname you recognise and it turns out to be someone from a long lost branch of the family tree! That’s genealogical serendipity.

Genealogical Serendipity Strikes My Tree

When I moved to Australia with my parents as a child, I thought we were the first of our line to live in the state of Victoria. My mum had lived briefly in Sydney as a young girl before returning to England. However no one had ventured south of the New South Wales border. It turned out however that we were unwittingly tracing the steps of an ancestor.

Mary Scriven was my 4 x great grandmother. She spent most of her later adult life around Walsall in Staffordshire, after living quite a nomadic early married life with her husband William Sartain. However she suddenly turned up in a census under a different surname. I would have had difficulty finding her if she wasn’t living with a daughter. She had remarried and been widowed again in the years since the previous census. However, I could not find evidence of this second marriage.

I ended up putting this puzzle aside to brew, and instead traced where her various children went, in the time honoured FAN Club way. It turned out two sons had gone to Australia. Not just anywhere in Australia. One, Joseph, went to a tiny place in my state of Victoria that I happened to have visited a lot! Jamieson is literally just a tiny dot on the map, a former gold mining town of about 300 people. The other, Thomas, went to Melbourne (where I currently live), but then moved to Hamilton, a town in Western Victoria where I lived as a child. He is buried there in the cemetery just a few minutes walk from my old home.

Thomas Sartain and son William
Thomas Sartain and son William. Thomas was buried only a few hundred metres from my home in country Victoria. Credit: Steve Haynes

Intrigued, I started to investigate further…and discovered their mother, my missing Mary, had spent some time in Australia with her sons. Her second marriage took place in Melbourne. Thanks to the detailed nature of Victorian marriage certificates, this confirmed her mother’s elusive maiden name for me, and allowed me to progress the tree backwards. Genealogical serendipity. Mary’s second husband died soon after they wed and he is one of the first interments in Brighton Cemetery.

Sartain Rose marriage certificate serendipity
Mary Scriven’s second marriage.
Sartain Rose marriage certificate serendipity
Mary Scriven’s parents revealed.

Have you had any serendipitous moments with your family history research? Comment below, I’d love to hear your stories!

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Genealogy Conference #1 – MyHeritage Live

genealogy myheritage

During this past week, I attended the MyHeritage Live user conference in Amsterdam. Indeed this is the reason I flew all the way over here to the Netherlands from Australia! This was only the second genealogy conference MyHeritage has held. Their inaugural one was in Oslo, Norway last year. Sadly due to health issues at the time I was unable to attend. However this year I was determined to be there. I’d seen several of the presentations from Oslo which were available online and had been very impressed by the professionalism and content.

As you are probably aware, MyHeritage is one of the ‘big three’ genealogy megasites, along with Ancestry and FindMyPast, and it has been in a rapid growth phase over the past couple of years. They have celebrated multiple acquisitions and the commencement of their DNA service. They are the first of the three however to branch into live events for their users such as a genealogy conference. I think this is a brilliant innovation – how many big companies really want this level of input from their core customers? The CEO, Gilad Japhet was present and approachable throughout the entire conference.

The Program

You may think that the conference would be solely unashamed plugging of their product. This was not the case, however. There were three streams: Genealogy, DNA, and Hands-On Workshops, to choose from. Sure, there was quite a bit of content on how to use the tools and features available through the MyHeritage subscription to get the best value from it. Not to include information on this would have been somewhat remiss though, so I was very grateful for it.

For those who would like to see the program contents free of charge, MyHeritage live-streamed during the conference. These presentations are available now here for anyone to watch.

Personal Highlights

First and foremost, as with any conference, it was fabulous to catch up with fellow genealogists from all around the world. There were 450 attendees from 30 countries. Many of them I was familiar with from their blogs, books or professional reputations. Some I had previously struck up virtual friendships with from afar. This weekend was a great opportunity to meet people and forge friendships and networks with them.

Cyndi Ingle of ‘Cyndi’s List’ gave a great presentation on Searching vs Browsing.

Next it was brilliant to hear the announcements of what MyHeritage are now or soon releasing, and there was some exciting stuff!

  • The MyHeritage Education Center was launched – all free, multilingual, how to’s, everything you need to know about tools and techniques, downloadable resources etc.
  • The acquisition of Promethease and SNPedia was announced, as they continue to expand their DNA presence. Promethease has been made free until the end of the year (usually $12 to access the health information). Existing Promethease uploads will be added to the MyHeritage DNA database. The donors will receive free matching and ethnicity results from November 1st (European users will need to opt in for this due to GDPR regulations). This will increase the database size by around 10%.
  • Theories of Family Relativity is apparently close to being automated rather than having periodic updates.
  • Ethnicity estimates will be updated soon and will be incredibly detailed, which is great to hear. I for one have found their ethnicity estimates the least accurate for my known tree of all the current providers. Having now seen a sneak preview of the work they are doing, I am confident we’ll be seeing some really good estimates coming out.
  • A huge pipeline of genealogy content with a strong focus on Europe, including more exclusive French records.
  • Free text matching technology will help match family trees to newspaper and book records more easily.
Every-Jan Blom of Genetic Affairs did a hands-on workshop on his Autocluster tool which is taking the genetic genealogy world by storm.

In conclusion, this conference was well worth attending. In 2020 it will be held in Israel, though dates and other details have not been announced yet. I heartily recommend attending, especially if you have an active subscription with MyHeritage or have had your DNA tested with them.

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Cornelis Drebbel – Inventor, Renaissance Man, Ancestor

Cornelis Drebbel was my 10 x great grandfather and is one of my most intriguing ancestors. Drebbel was once an inventor as famous as Da Vinci or Edison, but he has now faded into obscurity despite his many achievements. Any readers who have visited the Living Seas at Epcot in Disneyworld, however, will have been greeted by a display of Drebbel’s likeness (below).

Drebbel Epcot
Drebbel at Epcot

Whilst here in the Netherlands, I am taking the opportunity to visit Cornelis’ hometown of Alkmaar. Therefore I decided to dedicate this week’s blog to sharing a little bit of his story with you.

A Short Biography of Cornelis Drebbel

cornelis drebbel
Portrait of Cornelius van Drebbel with his signature beneath. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

Cornelis Drebbel was born in Alkmaar (about 30 minutes north of Amsterdam on today’s trains) in 1572. His father was a local burgher and a landowner, so Cornelis received some education before being apprenticed to Hendrik Goltzius of Haarlem. Goltzius was a well-known painter and engraver, as well as an alchemist. He taught Cornelis much of what he knew about all of those arts. Although Drebbel’s early career was mainly in engraving, he obtained his first patent in 1598. This was for the invention of a water supply system, and for a self-winding clock. In 1602, he also obtained a patent for a new design of chimney.

Around 1604, Cornelis and his young family moved to England where he was installed by the newly-crowned King James I into Eltham Palace. His role was to provide entertainment at court with his many and varied inventions. His most famous invention at that time was the Perpetuum Mobile, or perpetual motion machine.

cornelis drebbel perpetual motion
The perpetual motion machine of Cornelis Drebbel.

Drebbel’s inventions

He also achieved notoriety through several other inventions and displays of genius, such as:

  • automatic and hydraulic organs
  • light projections from magic lanterns and camera obscura
  • fireworks displays
  • the clavichord, a solar-powered musical instrument
  • optical instruments such as compound microscopes
  • pumps for mining and fountains
  • thermostats, leading to his ‘circulating oven’ for incubating eggs
  • a demonstration of air-conditioning for the King in the Great Hall of Westminster Abbey.
  • a dyeing method which allowed for scarlet to be set with cochineal allowing red cloth to be mass-produced for the first time
  • sulphuric acid manufacture
  • weaponry such as water mines, water petards and fireships
  • drainage schemes to reclaim marshlands
  • and most famously…the submarine!

The Submarine

In 1620, Cornelis Drebbel invented the submarine. It was “covered in greased leather, with a watertight hatch in the middle, a rudder and four oars. Under the rowers’ seats were large pigskin bladders, connected by pipes to the outside. Rope was used to tie off the empty bladders. In order to dive the rope was untied and the bladders filled. To surface the crew squashed the bladders flat, squeezing out the water”.

cornelis drebbel submarine
Drebbel’s submarine travelling beneath the river Thames.

The illustration of his grand demonstration for the King in 1626 (above) shows the third of his submarines, which had six oars and could carry sixteen rowers. The demonstration had the submarine do a 3-hour return trip from Westminster to Greenwich and back. This scene was captured in comedic form in the movie “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”. This movie is sadly as far as I know the only Hollywood depiction of Cornelis Drebbel ever attempted!

Drebbel’s later life

Although Cornelis had a genius for invention and was clearly a great showman, his ability to make a profit was less well-developed. This wasn’t helped by the champagne tastes of his wife Sophia (sister of his early mentor Hendrik Goltzius), who spent far more than he made. He rarely patented his inventions. Indeed he wrapped them in a layer of secrecy to protect his exclusivity. In his final years the money ran out and he was reduced to operating an alehouse in London. He died in London in 1633. In his will, he left his paltry estate to be divided between four of his children. I am descended from his daughter Catherine, who married Johannes Siebert Kuffeler.

Cornelis Drebbel – Alkmaar’s Greatest Son

In 2013, Cornelis Drebbel was declared Alkmaar’s greatest son after a vote was held. I was contacted as a known descendant and interviewed by the local paper, which felt like a great honour. In 2019, I am walking in his footsteps through the streets of Alkmaar.

Cornelis Drebbel Alkmaar Courant
The Alkmaar Courant 26 January 2013. Cornelis Drebbel is pronounced Alkmaar’s greatest export, and his 10 x great-granddaughter gets her first newspaper front page!