Advent Calendar Day 19

day 19

Day 19 of the Advent Calendar brings a link to that most useful of all online catalogues for British genealogy: the National Archive.  You can download some documents for very little cost – others you can order copies of.  The catalogue also incorporates basic details of resources and documents held in Local Records Offices and archives: very useful indeed for a one-stop search.

The latest version of the catalogue is known as “Discovery”- you can find it here:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 18

images (17)

Yesterday’s Advent Calendar goodie linked us to lists of Australian transportees: today’s, in a similar vein, links to the Old Bailey records website, which contains details of cases heard between 1674 and 1913.

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 17

day 17

Today the Blog brings you two sites which are useful for tracing ancestors who were unfortunate enough to be transported to Australia:

http://www.convictrecords.com.au/

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/family-history/convicts

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 16

day 16

Have you a photograph of a military ancestor, and want to identify his cap badge or medals, or to buy a replica? Browsing  these sites may help you:

Cap Badges:

http://www.britishbadge.co.uk/index.php

Military Medals:

http://www.hillmilitarymedals.co.uk/

http://www.worcmedals.com/

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 15

day 15

One of the most common occupations in the Black Country was coal mining.  The Coal Mining History Resource Centre has a wealth of information about the conditions in the pits, their location, and even details of those unfortunates who were killed or injured in the pits:

http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/index.html

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 14

day 14

Was your ancestor’s occupation that of a caffeler, or a loriner,  or a tawyer?  Have you ever wondered quite what they did for a living?

This Index of Old Occupations will help you find out:

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/index.html

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 13

day 13

Back on track with the Advent Calendar: today’s link, to Roger Vaughan’s Picture Library, is an excellent resource to help you date those old family photographs:

http://www.rogerco.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/time/date.htm

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 12

day 12

Apologies for the lack of Advent Calender yesterday – the pre-Christmas rush became a little too frantic.

The twelfth link is to the BBC History resources about Victorian Christmas – a plethora of information, including craft ideas, recipes and Victorian parlour games.  Enjoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/victorianchristmas/activities.shtml

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar 11

images (15)

Today’s Advent Calendar link is to the excellent Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, which lists every serviceman killed in the First and Second World Wars as well as many civilians. Sometimes the details given are very brief, but sometimes the site will reveal a treasure trove of information.

http://www.cwgc.org/

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 10

day 10

The Blog apologises for the slightly wonky picture.  Hopefully today’s link will make up for that:  the excellent Scotland’s People site.

This isn’t a free site – you will have to buy credits to see images – but it does contain masses of information, and is an excellent starting point for anyone starting their search for Scottish ancestors.

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment