Category Archives: research tips

I completed the Stage 1 family history course with the Society of Genealogists which was really good.  I’ve now completed the Stage 1 and Stage 3 so I’m thinking I will sign up to the Stage 2 course.

Last week I spent a lot of time learning about Marianne Nantes, the first wife of Henry Harper. His second wife was Julia Young, sister of Alfred Young, my 2xgreat grand father. I should not have become side tracked by Marianne Nantes but she had a fascinating life, about 9 children, and an infamous father (Henry Nantes, look him up).

Previous posts:

Week 5 update

Week 4 update

Week 3 update

Week 2 update

Week 1 update

The problem with Ancestry

Despite cancelling the Find My Past subscription I have been continuing to procrastinate from my important historical task. My list of connected ancestors on my family tree has risen to 387 people as I discovered a new-to-me Young relation, based in Sheerness. This took me on a wonderful trip down the rabbit hole and I added several interesting characters to my family tree.

So I have not had time to download any of my existing records. Better luck next week.

Previous posts:

Week 4 update

Week 3 update

Week 2 update

Week 1 update

The problem with Ancestry

Actually nothing to report this week as there has been no progress at all. I need to make some time for this as I really want to cancel my Ancestry subscription and spend the money on something else. The list of people is still at 321. I have done 28% so far.

I have been enjoying listening to the recordings from the Stage 1 Family History course run by the Society of Genealogists.

I need to complete my little project as soon as I can!

Week 2 update

Week 1 update

The problem with Ancestry

A major new collection of Home Children records has launched today on family tree website, Findmypast, which will allow millions of descendants of British Home Children to trace their ancestors for free – many for the first time.

Created in collaboration with organisations across the UK and Canada, including The National Archives, The British Library, Library and Archives Canada, and Home Children Canada, the new collection features a vast and varied range of records which tell the stories of those who were part of the forced child migrant scheme in place from the 1860s up to the 1970s.

The collection, launched at Rootstech, will be a growing repository with records added on an ongoing basis. It currently includes workhouse records, Juvenile Inspection Reports, Home Children Board of Guardian Records and emigration reports, while future updates are likely to see historical newspapers, migration records, workhouse and institutional records, periodicals and military records added.

Over 130,000 children, now known as ‘British Home Children’, were sent across the Commonwealth, in particular to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Only 12% of these children were ‘true orphans’ – many came from charitable homes, workhouses, or destitute and struggling families. They were usually fostered into families when they reached their destinations to be used as unpaid domestic or farming labour.

However, abuse was widespread in a system which offered little protection to the children and few investigations into the care they received from their foster families. Many were relocated several times during their childhood, and often separated from their siblings.

Historically, descendants of Home Children have struggled to trace their roots, with most records held in private archives and inaccessible to the public. This collection will provide an open-access, centralised set of resources for descendants to trace their forced migrant ancestors back to the UK and their birth families and add them directly to their family tree on Findmypast.

Discover the collection for free on Findmypast: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/page/british-home-children

So last week I wrote a little update about my progress with saving and organising my historical documents. It’s time for my Week 2 update!

We were away over half term which meant less time for family history. However I still managed to keep working my way through my list of ancestors. I finished the C ancestors: Carew, Caswell, Choules, Clutterbuck, Cole, Croker and Cuthbertson.

I got a little side tracked and my current total of people of this family tree is 321 people so it has gone up a little.

You may be interested in other updates:

Week 1

It’s been a week since I wrote my post about my problems with Ancestry. Last night my husband asked how I was getting in with my task and he was surprised I was only on to the letter B (Aldridge, Amor, Bate, Bell, Benger, Brett, Brooke and Bull).

It is a tedious task downloading all my records one by one. For some reason I did pick another letter to break up the monotony, but it was a bit confusing, so I went back to working my way through the list alphabetically.

I am trying to only download existing records but it is very hard impossible to do this. My eye sees the suggested hints from Ancestry and before you know it, I have lost another half an hour exploring possible records. I have already found several people that need further investigation, and especially loved re-discovering the fact that one ancestor worked on the Royal yacht. This is a useful task because I am re-discovering facts I had forgotten and it is also reminding me that there is so much to learn and explore. It is easy to be hyper focussed on one or two ancestors but there is so much work to be done and it is fun and interesting hobby.

Unfortunately I have added a handful of people to my family tree but I will have to download an up to date list of people when I have finished my task. Then I can go back and add them and their documents. The task has also made me realise that I waste a lot of time researching the same things over and over again, not sure how I can solve this but I think some type of research log would be useful.