Monthly Archives: December 2014

Advent Calendar 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 … Continue reading

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Advent Calendar 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

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Advent Calendar 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

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Advent Calendar 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 … Continue reading

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Advent Calendar 11

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 … Continue reading

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Advent Calendar 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 … Continue reading

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Advent Calendar Day 9

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 … Continue reading

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Advent Calendar Day 8

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

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Advent Calendar Day 7

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 … Continue reading

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Advent Calendar Day 6

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

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