Book Review: Unlocking the Past: A Guide to Exploring Family and Local History in the Isle of Man by Matthew Richardson.

This review got posted as a result of meeting two special ladies in Cumbria looking for research resources for the Isle of Man. I hope this helps.

Unlocking the Past: A Guide to Exploring Family and Local History in the Isle of Man. By Matthew Richardson. Published by Manx National Heritage, Kingswood Grove, Douglas, Isle of Man 1M1 3LY, British Isles. www.gov.im/mnh/. 2011. 210 pp. Illustrations, index. Softcover. £12.

Geographically the Isle of Man is part of the British Isles. It is a Crown Dependency owing its allegiance to the British Crown with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II holding the title Lord of Mann. But the island has never been part of the United Kingdom. What this all means for the genealogist is that things are done differently there. Yes, there are a lot of similar records, but beginning and ending dates, access procedures, contents and relative importance are often different than we are used to finding in England.

The book opens with a historical overview of the Isle of Man, from the early native Celtic population to the present time, which will be especially valuable for outsiders, like most North American readers. The second part is a detailed guide to the main Isle of Man repositories, providing names, addresses, contact information and a summary of what is likely to be found there. The bulk of the book is a guide to areas of research, arranged alphabetically, and being one to eleven pages in length. The topics include: Castle Rushen (prison) papers; cemeteries; census; church court records; court records; customs records; directories; emigration records; folk life survey; friendly societies; internment records; land and property records (two large important geographically separated collections); mapping; military and naval records; mining records; rolls office records; shipping company and shipping records; and more for a total of 53 different topics. For each topic you get a detailed description of the records, how and why they were created, where they are now and how to access them, and where they fit in context. Many of the topics are illustrated and contain examples of the types of information found in them.

The book concludes with five case studies tracing the context and ancestors of a: miner; soldier; broadcaster; housekeeper; and blacksmith. These case studies show how different records can be pulled together to create a good family picture, and they are well worth reading.

The book is lavishly illustrated throughout, provides a bibliography and is indexed. This book is current, tells what is coming, and is a good replacement to The Manx Family Tree by Janet Narisimham, originally published in 1986, with the 3rd ed. in 2000.

Anyone searching for ancestors or investigating the history of the Isle of Man will find this book beneficial.

Exodus: Movement of the People Conference – Hinchley, Leicestershire, England

I leave today to travel to Hinchley in Leicestershire England to speak at the Exodus: Movement of the People Conference on 6-8 September. The focus is on the story of migration from, to and within the British Isles.
The three day event provides a who’s who’s of lecturers from the genealogy and academic history community from around the world all focused on one subject – British migration. There are twenty-one sessions given by eighteen speakers. I am giving two lectures:
Scottish Emigration to North America: Before, During and after the Rebellions
Irish Emigration to North American: Before, During and after the Famine.
If you are interested in seeing the program have a look at www.Exodus2013.co.uk. I am interested in seeing in what ways the British events are different from the American, Canadian and Australian events at which I have spoken. I will provide some feedback.

Book Review: Tracing Your Huguenot Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians by Kathy Chater

I gave four lectures last weekend in Rochester, New York and got a number of questions about tracing Huguenots in England and Ireland, thus I thought appropriate to share this review.

Tracing Your Huguenot Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians. By Kathy Chater. Published by Pen & Sword Family History, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS, UK. www.pen-and-sword.co.uk. £12.99. US Distributor: Casemate Publishing, 1016 Warrior Road, Drexel Hill, PA 19026. www.casemateathena.com. US$24.95. Australia sales from Gould Genealogy and History. www.gould.com.au. AUS$29.95. 2012. 152 pp. Illustrations, index. Softcover.

Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries many thousands of Protestants fled religious persecution in France and the Low Countries (modern day Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg). They settled in the German Protestant States and the British Isles, some permanently while others later migrated to North America, the West Indies, South Africa and Australia. The book opens with a very good summary of the wars and religious conflict that led to these migrations, reminding us just how important religion was in the lives of our ancestors.

The book focusses on the communities within Great Britain and Ireland. It clearly identifies and summarizes the history, development and decline, of the specific Huguenot and Walloon communities in London, Kent, East Anglia, the West Country, Ireland, Scotland and the Channel Islands. Ms. Chater continues by suggesting a research plan with issues to consider. This is not necessarily easy for the wealthy tended to choose to assimilate joining the Church of England, seeking business and education opportunities, while the poor needed the support of their own community. The Huguenot communities could easily be connected with the Church of England or the Dissenting Churches (Congregationalists, Baptists, English Presbyterians) and often with specific occupations so a broad research perspective is required. A nice research checklist is provided of both specific and general sources, with chapters for each. The chapter on specific resources is very valuable addressing: denizations and naturalisations; returns of strangers; Huguenot church records, going beyond the church registers; poor relief and charity records; schools; charity apprenticeships; friendly societies; wills; other foreign churches. What is nice is that these records are not usually high on the priority list for researchers and so their importance and specificity for this community is valuable. The chapter on general sources points to more commonly used records, but again highlights what to look for that might clearly identify people from this community.

The closing chapters address how to research Huguenot communities with individual European countries, and the rest of the world, including briefly North America. The bibliography includes a complete listing of all titles in the Huguenot Society Quarto Series and New Series, plus how the titles have been combined and reissued on CD-ROM, along with a select bibliography. Compared with other volumes in this series the bibliography and guidance for further research is one of the weaknesses in this otherwise up to date research guide. For example, though the chapter on the religious wars and Edicts in Europe that created this migration is well summarized there is no guidance in the chapter or the bibliography for researchers who want to know more. It should also be pointed out that when discussing the European Huguenot churches mention is made when the records have been microfilmed by the Family History Library, while no mention is made of which British Huguenot church records have been filmed.

This is a useful, up to date, practical guide for anyone who has, or thinks they have, Huguenot ancestors in the British Isles. It provides social and contextual assistance along with guidance on what records have survived, where to find them and how to use them.

Book Review: Tracing Your Rural Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians by Jonathan Brown

Tracing Your Rural Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians. By Jonathan Brown. Published by Pen & Sword Family History www.pen-and-sword.co.uk £12.99. US Distributor: Casemate Publishing www.casemateathena.com $24.95. Australia Distributor: Gould Genealogy, www.gould.com.au AUS$32.95 incl GST. 2011. 162 pp. Illustrations, index. Softcover.

Half the population of England and Wales lived in the country in 1851 so it is going to be relatively easy to find rural ancestors on the family tree. At the same time this is a big subject with lots of options for the researcher.

Mr. Brown begins by describing the largest group of rural workers, the farm laborer (1.4 million in the1851 census), looking at what they did, who specialized and who did not, and how their role changed with time. He continues examining who were the farmers, which are not easily defined or identified, and their relationships to the workers, along with a look at the landowners, their great houses and estates. Village life was affected by the different businesses, tradesmen and professionals who lived and worked in any given community, but all left different records to be searched. Another chapter looks at rural migrants and the rural poor. In each of these chapters suggestions are made as to what records will assist in the identifying your rural ancestors.

The largest chapter consists of an alphabetical list of records and source for rural research. This annotated list identifies all the major records you would expect, but also highlights others you may not have heard of or thought of before, such as: copyhold records; enclosure records; farmers’ unions; inquisitions post mortem; rate books; terriers and more. The listing is followed by suggestions on how to identify where the records are located and how to access them, in archives, libraries and online.

One word of caution is that the bibliography states that it “lists all books mentioned in the text together with other suggestions for further reading” (p.145) but this is incorrect for numerous books were recommended within the text that were not included in the bibliography.

Rural ancestry is a large, many faceted topic. This book is a good introduction to the subject socially and genealogically, pointing the reader in the direction of where to find the records and more advanced readings.

Book Review: Tracing Your British Indian Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians

Yesterday I gave 4 lectures at the Western Australia State Library in Perth, WA. I had a number of questions about British families that came to Australia after spending time in India. I thought this book would be of interest to readers.

Tracing Your British Indian Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians. By Emma Jolly. Published by Pen & Sword Family History, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS, UK. www.pen-and-sword.co.uk. £14.99. US Distributor: Casemate Publishing, 1016 Warrior Road, Drexel Hill, PA 19026. www.casemateathena.com. 2012. xviii, 184 pp. Illustrations, index. Softcover. $24.95

Terms and geography need to be defined for best use of this important book. “British Indian” here refers to British citizens and Europeans who worked for the East Indian Company (generally as officers in the army), plus Anglo-Indians of mixed descent from the union of white British or European males and Indian women. Those of mixed descent were often segregated and discriminated against, yet they made an essential contribution to British India and are found in most British India records. Geographically, the area covered by this book, includes modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma (modern Myanmar). Other areas that may be encountered in India-related records are St. Helena, Iraq, Iran (formerly Persia), Aden, Kuwait, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), Singapore, Malacca, Penang Prince of Wales Island, Java, Sumatra (Bencoolen / Fort Marlborough) and China (Macao and Whampoa). In reality this means most places east of the Cape of Good Hope that had British connections.

The book covers the time period of 1600, when the East India Company received its Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I, to the present. It begins with a chapter on how to get started, which is actually a must read, especially for North American researchers, because even though the majority of the records needed will be in England, they are not in the places even most English researchers would expect to look. The largest collection of original material is the India Office Records at the British Library, with other collections at The National Archives, National Army Museum, National Maritime Museum, School of Oriental and African Studies, or the Society of Genealogists, all in London, with a few other collections scattered around the British Isles and India. The most important society is FIBIS, Families in British India Society, which provides lots of indexes, resources and an excellent wiki.

The following three chapters present the increasing role of the East India Company from 1600 through the Indian Mutiny in 1857, its subsequent loss of control to the British government and the period of the British Raj from 1857 through independence in 1947. The focus is on historical context, but the voluminous record collections applicable to the period and their location are highlighted.

The next five chapters focus on five aspects of the Indian life where the British were heavily involved, and which created most of the records of the British Indians. These are: the servicemen and women of the East India Company’s Armies, the Indian Army, the British Army in India and the Royal Indian Air Force; merchants and ships; religion, cemeteries and schools; railways; probate records. Key throughout these chapters is the clear defining of what records and indexes to examine, and where. They identify which resources are available online, which are published and available for purchase, and what will need to be examined in person or onsite. Each of the groups of people and their records is also placed into historical context. A closing chapter addresses Indian independence and life after 1947. Throughout the book there are a number of short case studies showcasing the biographical information and lives that can be reconstructed from the records of our British Indian ancestors.

India developed from a company outpost into the crown in the British Empire with many individuals over the centuries from the British Isles serving in its government, its military or developing its industry. Many have ancestors who moved there temporarily or permanently. This well written research guide is a must for anyone seeking to explore their British Indian connections.

Genealogy at a Glance: English Research (or Irish or Scottish) – How to purchase in Australia and New Zealand

Genealogy at a Glance - English Research by Paul Milner — Genealogy at a Glance – English Research by Paul Milner

I have exciting news for Australian and New Zealand researchers. As I lecture in Australia there is strong interest in Genealogy at a Glance series of laminated help sheets published by Genealogical Publishing Company. I wrote the English Research guide and have a few remaining copies but expect to sell out of them at my next venue in Perth on Saturday. Brian Mitchell wrote the guide for Ireland, and David Dobson wrote the guide for Scotland, all copies sold out.
Here is how to purchase them directly from the publisher at a much reduced price from the one listed on the company’s website.   These are 1st class international postage paid prices, especially for my blog readers:
1 Genealogy at a Glance        $20
2 Genealogy at a Glance        $35
3 Genealogy at a Glance        $50
You can order via email to ecollins@genealogical.com
You can mail an order to: Genealogical.com, 3600 Clipper Mill Road, Ste 260, Baltimore, MD 21211, USA
You will need to provide either a check in US currency or credit card information.
I apologize to the participants in Brisbane who wanted to purchase additional Genealogy at a Glance laminated folders and I hope you will be happy with this arrangement that I managed to make with the publisher.

Unlock The Past Genealogy Cruise – Buried Treasures: What’s in the English Parish Chest?

We are now into day four of the Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise. The lecture that has opened the most eyes with excitement so far has been “Buried Treasures: What’s in the English Parish Chest?” This lecture examines the civil functions of the English parish, highlighting the records it may provide: the names of the fathers of illegitimate children; the place of origin in the settlement records; those receiving indoor or outdoor relief from the parish; the names of parish officials; the names of those paying property taxes, or being excused because they are too poor. English Parish Chests contain lots of records that participants did not know existed. For many, these could be the resources they need to break down their brick walls.
Once home after this 10-day genealogy intensive in the beautiful Pacific, participants will be able to check out parish records as a new and possibly rich resource for their research.