Tracing Your Ancestors from 1066 to 1837 Read online

  General Points

  It is also worth finding out about what was going on around your ancestors in their locality in the past, or in the places that they visited during their lifetime, perhaps as part of their career. There are many local history books available for sale in shops or for loan from libraries, and there are very few places for which there is no published history. These may be great events of national importance or lesser events of local significance. For example if your ancestors lived in the Lancashire towns of Preston, Lancaster or Manchester in November or December 1745, they would probably have witnessed the Jacobite army marching through their streets. There may have been a battle near or in the town or village – St Albans witnessed two in the 1450s. Or on a lesser level, a notable personality may have lived locally; Henry Fielding resided in the Middlesex village of Ealing in 1753–4, for example. Or if your ancestor was in the army or navy, you could check regimental or naval histories to find out which campaigns and battles they were involved in. It is usually very difficult, if not impossible, to know what your ancestor felt or did about these. Speculation is best avoided. However, an awareness of the context of your ancestors’ lives is well worth acquiring.

  Published accounts by travellers such as Celia Fiennes in the late seventeenth century, Daniel Defoe in the early eighteenth or Viscount Torrington in the late eighteenth all give firsthand impressions of villages and towns in England in these periods. The latter described Knutsford in Cheshire, thus: ‘a clean, well-built, well-placed town where the cotton trade brings plenty’. On the other hand, he writes scathingly of the dirty town of Cambridge, only relieved by the magnificence of King’s College chapel, whereas Celia Fiennes condemns the smoking of tobacco pipes by women and children in a West Country inn and Defoe praises the tolerance shown to Catholics in Durham.

  Histories of the village or town where your ancestor lived should also be consulted. Maps and pictures of the same can often be located in the county or borough record office where your ancestor lived. These should give an additional insight into your ancestor’s life. On a more mundane level, if your ancestor worked on the land, the history might tell which were the major crops or livestock which were farmed there. Genealogy shouldn’t restrict itself to names and dates, but also to the environment that your ancestor lived in – certainly a world far removed from our own.

  To recap, check any relevant records for a district for the period that your ancestor resided in it. Even if a reference to the family is not made therein, you will have learnt about the place where they lived and some of the events and people that they may have been influenced by.

  Seals belonging to medieval labourers. Paul Lang’s collection.

  Chapter 13

  PLACES TO VISIT

  There are over 1,000 institutions which hold archives in England, to which access is permitted. It is, of course, impossible to list them all. However, it is worth discussing the most important and outlining others.

  For most of these places entry is by reader’s ticket. These are issued freely, but you will need to bring two proofs of identity. A passport and driving licence, or a recent utility bill, are among the forms of identity accepted. Once inside, coats and bags must be left in lockers and pencils only are allowed to take notes, unless you have a laptop. Archives and other material can usually be ordered in advance of a visit, but only a limited amount. Most of what you see can be copied for personal use by photography or photocopying, but always check first. Fragile material has to be safeguarded so copying may not be allowed.

  Most are open five or six days a week, with at least one evening opening, but never assume; some are not. Always contact these places in advance of any intended visit to avoid disappointment.

  If you cannot visit in person, you may need to consider paying someone else to do this for you. Never expect these institutions’ paid staff to undertake much research for you. They have many other tasks, but they should be able to tell you what their institution holds and may be able to undertake a short search for you for free. However, many places now charge for any searching.

  All of these places will have websites which should state at least their major holdings. Catalogues may also be available online to search, and there may even be documents online, as is the case with TNA. Some of these documents can be viewed online for free, or at least searched via the indexes. Payment may be required for the full text of documents, however.

  Over the centuries, and especially in the last 100 years, there have been many amalgamations and alterations in local government. These affect the location of centuries-old archives. You should consult the archives of the current local authority whose boundaries include those districts that you are interested in. So, for the archives of Twickenham or Teddington, for which there is now no local authority with those names, you would need to consult the Local Studies Centre of Richmond, the borough of which these are now part. Yet you would also need to visit the London Metropolitan Aechives as these places were once administratively part of Middlesex. Yorkshire’s boundaries have changed so much that some former parishes of that county have their archives stored in record offices outside the county (Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, to name but two).

  The National Archives

  Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Surrey TW9 (tel. 020 8876 3444); car park (must be booked in advance), nearest tube station Kew

  Probably the single most important place for family historians. Formed in 1841 as the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane, it transferred entirely to a new site at Kew in 1997 and in 2002 was renamed The National Archives. It is the record office to the government of the United Kingdom and so holds the archives of government departments such as the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the War Office, to name but three.

  There is free electronic access to the digitized sources which elsewhere would require payment. These include the PCC Wills. There is also an extremely good library. This includes most of the county record society publications, especially useful for they contain indexed transcripts of many key sources, such as oaths of loyalty, quarter session records, militia lists, letters and diaries. There are the Calendars of State Papers, 1509–1704, and Calendars of Treasury Papers and Books up to 1745.

  Among the archives are those of the regular army (excepting the Guards) prior to 1921, and the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. There are assize records, archives relating to transportation, and archives of the Metropolitan Police, the Yeomen of the Guard and of the Bow Street Runners. Manorial and taxation records can also be located here. It is a veritable treasure trove for family historians. You can order items in advance via the website if you already have a ticket.

  TNA has a vast amount of catalogue records and online documents available on their website, along with numerous research guides to their collections. The same research guides are available in paper copies on site. Below are the parts of the website relevant to the pre-1837 period.

  http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/

  Duchy of Lancashire Seals, 12th–18th century

  Seamen’s Wills, 1786–1882

  Death Duty Registers, 1796–1811

  PCC Wills, 1383–1858

  Doomsday Book

  Ancient Petitions, 13th–17th century

  Equity Pleadings, 1625–1714

  The British Library Newspaper Library

  Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HE (tel. 020 7412 7353); www.bl.uk/collectionsnewspapers.html; nearest tube Colindale (Northern Line)

  Local and national newspapers from the early eighteenth century onwards can be seen here. Up to four items can be ordered in advance. Some of these newspapers are on microfilm but occasionally you will see the originals in bound volumes. The collection is by no means comprehensive. Many county newspapers for the eighteenth century are lacking, for example. Again, checking their website in advance is highly recommended.

  The British Library

  96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB (tel. 0870 444 1500); www.bl.uk

 
This was created in 1973 from an amalgamation of several libraries. It holds the single largest collection of books in the UK. Access is by reader’s ticket. There are several collections of special interest to the family historian. The Burney Collection of eighteenth-century newspapers can be viewed here on microfilm. These are all national newspapers such as The London Gazette and The Daily Courant. There are also a few seventeenth-century titles (accessible in the Rare Books Reading Room). The India Office Library (tel. 020 7412 7873, www.bl.uk/collections/orientalandindian.html) holds the archives of the East India Company. Then there is the manuscript collection. The Cotton and Harleian collections there contain much relevant to medieval studies, and these can be searched by using the ten-volume index. There is also an extensive collection of maps and the recordings of the British Sound Archive. Finally, there are the books, many of which are held off site at Boston Spa, and these can be searched for and ordered on the online catalogue. The British Library is a copyright library, so has in theory a copy of all books published in the UK.

  The Guildhall Library

  Aldermanbury, London EC2P 2EJ; nearest tube station, Bank

  This holds some archival sources, such as watermen’s records and insurance records, and is also a rich source of printed books. Although the collection concentrates on London’s history, the extensive collection of county and town directories is remarkable. These have to be ordered, but do not take long to arrive and no reader’s ticket is needed.

  Guildhall Library, London, Paul Lang’s collection.

  The Society of Genealogists’ Library

  14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA (tel. 020 7251 8799); www.sog.org.uk

  Not an archive centre, but a vast private collection of copies of genealogical research sources, including parish registers from throughout the country. A daily fee is payable, unless one becomes a member and pays an annual subscription (worth doing if you live in or near London but have to consult copies of material of which the originals are held elsewhere). There is a regular series of lectures, aimed at both beginners and more experienced researchers. These often focus on particular types of ancestor, such as seamen, criminals or paupers. Members pay reduced rates for these events.

  The Borthwick Institute

  University of York, Heslington YO10 5DD (tel. 01904 321166); www.york.ac.uk/borthwick

  Although this is part of the University of York, it is unique in being the only university archive which is also the diocesan record office. Apart from the PCY wills, as well as those for the other ecclesiastical courts in the diocese, there are ecclesiastical court records, visitation records and bishops’ transcripts, and an immense quantity of parish archives, not just for York, but from all the ridings of Yorkshire, although many parish archives for the county can be found in the county’s other record offices.

  County Record Offices

  These began in the 1920s; Bedfordshire Record Office being one of the first. Legislation in the 1950s and 1960s allowed county councils to spend money on acquiring, preserving and making their archives accessible. The core of these collections is the archives of the county council and its predecessor bodies, but they also collect a wide variety of other archives pertaining to their county. More and more counties formed their own archive services, so by the 1970s all counties possessed one, staffed with professionally qualified archivists.

  It is impossible to categorize each county record office. They reflect the post-1974 county boundaries; so the West Riding has been divided into West and South Yorkshire. Some counties have a single record office located in the county town, such as that at Chelmsford, which covers Essex. Some will have a main office and a subsidiary office, as in the case of Hampshire, with Winchester being the headquarters and Southampton having a branch. West Yorkshire has five offices: Wakefield is the centre, with branches in Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds. The metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester and Birmingham have myriad record offices, each serving a district council which makes up the metropolitan area.

  They house the county’s principal administrative archives, such as those of the quarter sessions and the Lords Lieutenant. Estate records often survive, with the Althorp archives being housed at Northamptonshire county record office for example, or Wentworth-Woodhouse at Sheffield Archives. Family papers can be located here, too. If the county record office is also the diocesan record office, as most are outside Yorkshire, diocesan records will be here. In any case, parish archives are almost certainly here. Manorial records for manors in the county are often located here, too. There will also be a good collection of relevant county record society volumes and a library of reference works.

  The largest is the London Metropolitan Archives, which is an amalgamation of the Middlesex and London County Council record offices and that of the Corporation of London Record Office. It has archives of London and Middlesex wide bodies, some Jewish archives and personnel records of the City of London Police. As with TNA, they have a large number of research guides pertaining to their archives (the same can be said on a lesser scale of most county record offices).

  Borough Record Offices

  These are far smaller establishments than those of the counties, in terms of both material held and staffing. Where the borough is part of a county, there will usually be overlap in holdings copies of such material. Archives of the corporation will be found here; York City Archives hold the records of York Corporation, for instance. These can include minute books, treasurers’ accounts, militia lists, lists of councillors and aldermen and city officials.

  University Libraries

  The libraries of the medieval colleges of Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest surviving libraries in the country. They hold many valuable archival collections, often of the colleges themselves, so expect to find information of former masters and scholars, possibly college servants, too. These archives also include the manorial records of the manors which the colleges held. For instance, the manor court rolls for Ruislip, Middlesex, are held in the library of King’s College, Cambridge. They hold all kinds of unexpected treasures. The Bodleian Library (Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BG, tel. 01865 277158, www.bodley.ox.ac.uk), founded in 1598, holds copies of eighteenth-century Newcastle newspapers, for example, as well as the diaries of a female Nantwich Dissenter for the early eighteenth century. Wills proved at the Chancellor of Oxford’s court are also held here. Durham University Dean and Chapter Library has the Sharp Manuscripts, the collection of an ecclesiastical antiquary. However, the more recent universities tend to lack such archives and concentrate on modern records. Access to university archives is not a general right, and special application must be made, often via a letter of introduction; and expect to pay a fee.

  Local History Libraries

  These are often to be found in a county’s or a borough’s central library. They tend to hold copies of the county’s newspaper from the eighteenth century onwards, maps and pictures of the locality, as well as copies of primary material held elsewhere, such as parish registers on microfilm. They tend not to hold original archival material, but exceptions to this rule can sometimes be found. Leeds Local and Family History Library holds the manuscript Memorandum Book of John Lucas, 1712–50, for instance.

  Libraries

  There have been libraries in England since the Middle Ages. Merton College’s library dates from the thirteenth century and is thought to be the oldest one still in use. However public libraries date from the Victorian period and by 1914 there were few places which lacked one. They received much of their stock in the early decades from donations. Some of these were items of local and family history significance. They are often housed in the reference section unless they have been moved elsewhere. Libraries will almost always have books about how to research your family history, as well as books about local history which can be borrowed.

  Cathedral Archives

  The Church has always kept records. Many of these are now held in diocesan record offices, but
cathedrals often maintain their own small repositories, too. York Minster, St Paul’s Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are all examples of these. Advance booking is essential as only a very small number of researchers, sometimes only two or three, can be accommodated at any one time.

  British Library, 2011. Author.

  Lambeth Palace Library (London SE1 7JU, tel. 020 7898 1400, www.lambethpalacelibrary.org), founded in 1610, houses additional archives of the archbishopric of Canterbury. These include the wills of the Court of Arches and a number from the province’s peculiars, and marriage licences.

  Specialist Repositories

  Many organizations have founded their own archive service of records, geared to suit their own organization as well as researchers in general. These are often privately held archives so a fee may be charged for access. For instance, the Duke of Devonshire’s archives are to be found in his home, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, and these can usually be accessed by arrangement and for a daily fee.

  Museums

  There have been museums in England for centuries. Elias Ashmole’s at Oxford is one of the oldest, dating to the late seventeenth century, and now known as the Ashmolean. There are two main types of museum; those which are national in character, such as the National Army Museum and the National Maritime Museum, both in London, and the local museums which proliferate in the counties and cities of England. Some focus on the history of a county or town, and there are very many of these. Traditionally they focused on archaeology but now tend to concentrate on social and economic history of more recent centuries. They are increasingly user-friendly and many cater for children, too. Some museums are in historic houses and some focus on a particular event or individual or group of people. They vary greatly in size and facilities, ranging from small village museums run by volunteers to large museums which have programmes of lectures and educational features. Some may have libraries and research facilities. Many hold regular special exhibitions. Remember that what is on display is only a small proportion of the artefacts which the museum holds. Most artefacts will be held in storage, either on or off site. It may be worth contacting a museum in advance of a visit, in order to arrange to see any of this material which may be of particular interest to you.