Day 9 of the Advent Calendar looks at Trade Directories. These can tell us a great deal about our ancestors’ trades and the areas in which they lived. You can find Trade Directories in Local Records Offices and Archives, and on pay-to-view sites: but there’s a selection which you can view for free here:
http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16445coll4
Today’s Advent Calendar gift is for that wonderful site GENUKI – a virtual reference library of information for the United Kingdom and Ireland. Well worth bookmarking.
www.genuki.org.uk
Many of us have ancestors who lived and worked in London in the nineteenth century, and many of these ancestors were very poor indeed.
In 1886, the philanthropist Charles Booth began a study of London’s poor, which was to culminate in his 17-volume publication “Life and Labour of the People of London”.
Today’s Advent Calendar link is to the Charles Booth Online Archive, which includes the fabulous Poverty Maps, where you can find out about the area in which your ancestor lived.
http://booth.lse.ac.uk/
Day 6 of the Advent Calendar brings you Rootschat: the UK’s largest free online genealogy forum, with members willing to help with research, decipher old handwriting or words, restore photographs and much more:
http://www.rootschat.com
Today’s Advent Calendar free site may be of interest to anyone piecing together information about tracing ancestors who fought in the First World War: The Long, Long Trail. This site has information about regiments, battles, army life, and even Army Regulations (which, believe me, are incredibly difficult to understand!):
http://www.1914-1918.net/
Welsh genealogy can be difficult – http://www.welshgenealogy.net/ has many useful hints and tips, including a translation page for headstone inscriptions.
Irish family history is difficult – but you may find this site useful:
http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/
Today’s the Advent Calendar brings you:
http://www.findagrave.com/
As with all sites, Find A Grave does not give 100% coverage – but it does contain over 121 million grave records, from all around the world. I find it useful for locating, not just graves, but also dates of death.
So, what has The Blog for you today?
http://www.lostcousins.com
Lost Cousins is an excellent website, which you can register with for free. Enter the details of your relatives from selected censuses, complete with the census reference, and the site will match you with other members who have the same references in their family tree (and therefore are related to you).
It’s easiest to start with the 1881 census (which, of course, is the only one of the censuses which is completely free).
You can also register to receive the excellent “Lost Cousins” bi-monthly newsletter, which is packed full of hints, tips and offers.
The Blog will return tomorrow with Day Two…
Starting from tomorrow, the Blog will be updated every day until 25 December: no little doors to open or chocolate, but each day there will be a link to a source you may find useful.
Happy Advent!
