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Were your ancestors straw plaiters or hat makers?

Could you help English Heritage with their current project? We’ve just received the following message from an English Heritage researcher who’d like to speak to anyone with ancestors who worked in the straw plaiting or hatting industry:

‘Are you, were you, or do you know, a master hat–maker? If yes, we tip our caps to you, and hope that you might have something to share… We’re currently researching the hatting and straw plaiting industry in southern England – the commercial hub was in Luton, but the trade was also vitally important to people throughout Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Essex. If you, or anyone in your family, worked in the trade and would like to share your memories or any photographs, we would love to hear from you – you can contact the author directly at katie.carmichael@english-heritage.org.uk’

Please do get in touch if you’d like to share any of your knowledge with Katie!

Search new Boer War records on findmypast.co.uk

We have updated our Boer War collection with almost 10,000 new records.

The major inclusions in this update are:

• The complete Queen’s South Africa medal roll for the Coldstream Guards, Irish Guards, 1st battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers and Rundles Scouts
• The Wepener clasp rolls for Royal Scots, Royal Engineers, Cape Mounted Rifles, Driscoll’s Scouts and the Kaffrarian Rifles

The Boer War records can tell you vast amounts of crucial information about your military ancestors, including the unit in which they served, where they became a casualty, which war memorial they appear on and the honours and awards they received.

This update brings the total number of records on findmypast.co.uk to 269,425. The records come from more than 470 sources, some of which are extremely rare and others are out of print.

Meurig Jones provided findmypast.co.uk with these records.

Search the Boer War records now

New Chester wills and probate records published

We’ve just published approximately 113,000 new Chester wills and probate records on findmypast.co.uk for the period 1492-1911.

The records include all surviving original wills of Cheshire residents proved at the Chester diocesan consistory court 1492-1857 and registered copies made at Chester Probate Registry 1858-1911.

Anyone with Cheshire roots will be keen to search these records to find vital new information to add to their family tree.

The Chester wills and probate records are the latest addition to our Cheshire Collection, which we published last year.

We are working in partnership with Cheshire Archives and Local Studies to bring you these records.

Search Chester wills and probate records now

Ask the photo expert – possible wedding photo

Our photo expert, Jayne Shrimpton, analyses your family photos.

Doreen Tyrrell sent us her photo and asked:

‘I wondered if you could possibly date the attached photo. I am hoping it is around 1890 to confirm who I think it is, but it could possibly 1902-ish?’

Click to enlarge

Jayne says:

‘It’s perfectly natural for family historians to guess at the identities of ancestors in old photographs that aren’t labelled with a name or date – a common scenario! Having them accurately dated will always help to either confirm or disprove a theory, ruling different possibilities in or out. The visual evidence doesn’t lie and, particularly, the clothing and accessories worn by past family members in a photograph can only date from within a certain time period. Here we see a youngish couple, whose dress we would expect to be fairly up-to-date for its time, whatever their social background.

When women appear in a photograph, this always offers a closer timeframe than male-only portraits, since female fashions changed regularly and can usually be pinpointed to within a few years. This lady wears the separate blouse and skirt that was becoming popular in the early 20th century, her plain tailored skirt fitting smoothly over the hips and shaped with panels to flare out towards the hemline following the fashionable line.

As usual the blouse is the more decorative garment and here we see the typical blouse of the early-Edwardian era, full in front, to accentuate the bust, and embellished with neat vertical tucks on the sleeves. The sleeve style gives the best dating clue, as this shape, narrow in the upper arm and widening towards the wrist, where it is gathered into a fitted cuff, is typical of the years 1901-1904.

Hat styles are also helpful for dating and, although several types of ornate hat were worn at any given time, this shape, worn at a slight slant on the head, is again characteristic of the early-1900s. You don’t mention why you have in mind the years 1890 or 1902, but a date of 1902 would certainly fit this photograph perfectly.

Men’s appearance is not possible to date as precisely as that of women but the man here wears the characteristic three-piece lounge suit of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, an ornate watch chain suspending a seal worn across the waistcoat front. Interestingly, instead of the usual formal starched shirt collar and tie of this era, he wears a black neckerchief: labouring men often wore a handkerchief or scarf around the neck, so I would guess that this ancestor worked in the manual trades.

The pose of this couple, one standing, the other seated, is typical of an early studio wedding photograph. There is no indication of a wedding here in the sense of white dress or flowers; however, this was not unusual in the early-1900s when many ordinary brides simply wore a good daytime outfit and decorative hat on their wedding day. Notice, though, how the lady prominently displays rings on the third finger of her left hand: this could also signify that marriage was the occasion that prompted this photograph. Hopefully 1902 was the date of a recorded family wedding and this has now helped you to establish the identity of these ancestors.’

Jayne Shrimpton

If you’d like to send your photo to Jayne Shrimpton, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Jayne only has time to analyse two photos each month, but if yours wasn’t chosen this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the photo expert – mourning ancestor

Our photo expert, Jayne Shrimpton, analyses your family photos.

Margaret Noble sent us her photo and asked:

‘I would be grateful if you could give me an approximate date for this photograph. I think the lady is my great-great grandmother, who was a Roman Catholic. Any other information that you can glean from the photo would be very welcome. Many thanks.’

Click to enlarge

Jayne says:

‘This professional card-mounted studio portrait is likely to be one of the two standard types of photograph that dominated Victorian and early Edwardian portrait photography: either the small carte de visite or the larger cabinet print which was more popular in the late 19th century. This is a fairly late example, as seen from the dark coloured mount, printed with gold lettering. Black, bottle green and, less commonly, chocolate brown were fashionable colours for photographic card mounts for about 20 years only, c.1885-1905. Many family collections contain photographs on dark mounts, so knowing their period of production provides a helpful dating clue.

Here we see a middle-aged or slightly older lady seated in the three-quarter length pose characteristic of the late-19th century. The style of her clothes is very distinctive and offers an accurate idea of when the photo was taken. Her tight-fitting bodice with pointed centre front, high collar and narrow sleeves was fashionable during the later 1880s and beginning of the 1890s. We can’t see the exact shape of her skirt from her seated position but the slight draping of the front fabric suggests that the back may feature a modest projection – the late phase of the 1880s bustle sometimes seen around the turn of the decade. Her day cap was an older lady’s accessory by this time and its tall shape is again typical of the late-1880s or early-1890s. On a younger woman her dress style would usually indicate a close timeframe of c.1887-90, but, being older, she may be rather behind the times, so I suggest that we consider the years 1887-93.

A person’s religion is rarely evident from a photograph but what is striking about this lady’s appearance is that she is wearing mourning dress – the special clothing and accessories recommended following the death of a close relative and an important element of Victorian death ritual. Older ladies often wore black, therefore, it can be hard to positively identify mourning in photographs but here we see very clearly the bands of crape on her bodice lapels, cuffs and in a deep swathe on her lower skirt. Crape, a crimped, dull silk gauze fabric, has a distinctive textured appearance and since crape was only worn for mourning, when spotted in a photo it always signifies bereavement. In fact, mourning would have been the event that inspired this portrait, as having a photograph taken in formal mourning dress was a significant aspect of the occasion. With mourning dress, nothing was supposed to shine or gleam: notice how she also wears a dull black metal watch chain and black mourning brooch.

Victorian women wore a more recognisable form of mourning dress than men and widows bore a heavy burden as they officially publicly mourned their deceased husbands for at least two and a half years. Mourning dress is a complex subject but the presence of touches of white here, on her cap and cuffs, suggest that this lady may have been in the second stage of mourning when she was photographed. I don’t know your 2 x great grandmother’s dates, but if she lost her husband in the late-1880s or early-1890s, then this confirms that she is very likely to be the ancestor pictured here.’

Jayne Shrimpton

If you’d like to send your photo to Jayne Shrimpton, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Jayne only has time to analyse two photos each month, but if yours wasn’t chosen this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the expert – elusive date of death

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Adrian Shepard:

‘I wonder if you can help me with a question regarding finding the date of death of my great-great-great-grandfather?

My great-great-great-grandfather was Benjamin Shepard from Lymington (born in 1782). His name appears in local parish records for the birth of his children with wife Mary Ann Green (born in 1784 and died in 1856).

By the time of the first census in 1841, and also in 1851, however, he doesn’t seem to be listed again with his wife and children. I can’t find a record of his death locally in Lymington but his name and profession appear on several marriage certificates for his children.

Does that mean he was alive at the time of the children’s weddings in 1853 and 1859? Would it normally say ‘deceased’ on the marriage certificate? Many thanks for any help/advice you can give.’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Adrian,

Thanks for your question.

The answer to your question is that theoretically a marriage certificate should record if the father of a bride or groom is deceased. If the 1853 and 1859 marriage certificates in your possession are silent on this point, therefore, normally one would infer that the father was indeed still alive at those dates, unless there is evidence to the contrary.

No proof was required by the registrar, however, so the information recorded in the marriage register (and on the marriage certificate produced from it) will only ever be as good as the knowledge of the informant providing it (usually the bride or groom, as applicable). For example, in cases of family estrangement, a person getting married may not know whether his or her father is deceased and may, therefore, state that he is alive when he is not (or, conversely, that he is dead when he is not). You should, therefore, proceed tentatively upon the basis that the father Benjamin was alive in 1859 but remain alive to the possibility of him having died by that date.

If you have not done so already, you should also obtain a copy of the death certificate of his spouse Mary Ann from 1856. This should describe her as either the wife, or the widow, of Benjamin. If it states “widow”, then one would assume that he was in fact dead by 1856. If it states “wife”, however, then this could add extra weight to Benjamin being alive at that date – and of course if he was the informant at her death, that would be conclusive! Should he not have been the informant, the same reservations would apply as for the marriage certificates and the evidence is only as good as the state of knowledge of the informant at death.

I am sure that, with a last name such as Shepard, you will already have thought of searching under name variants. If not, you should definitely extend your search using the more common spellings of the last name: on findmypast.co.uk, just tick the ‘include variants’ box when doing a death search.

Having said that, there is a death for a Benjamin Shepard in Lymington registration district for the December quarter of 1853 and another in Southampton in the September quarter of 1863. Unfortunately, at this date the original death indexes that the General Register Office compiled do not give age at death (this was not introduced until March quarter 1866), although the actual death register and a death certificate issued from it will give age, and of course these entries may relate to individuals of completely different age.

Good luck with your research!’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

March newsletter competition winner

We’re very pleased to announce the winner of our March newsletter competition. We asked you ‘In which year did Margaret Westminster get married in St Clement Danes?’

Congratulations go to Tracy Suthers from Lancashire who correctly answered ’1745′. Tracy wins a copy of ‘Family Matters: A History of Genealogy’ by Michael Sharpe.

Thanks to all of you who entered – look out for the next competition question in our April newsletter, coming your way very soon.

12,000 new Birmingham burial records to search

Search 12,000 new burial records for Handsworth Cemetery, Birmingham on findmypast.co.uk

This latest addition to our Handsworth Cemetery records collection brings the total amount of records to 74,623.

The records span the period 1909 to 2010 and will be a real help to anyone with Birmingham ancestors.

Search the burial records now

The sailor superstitions the Titanic ignored

Did you know that six traditional sailor superstitions were ignored on the Titanic’s maiden voyage to New York? Take a look at the evidence we’ve uncovered in our collection of Titanic records. Prepare yourself, some of the superstitions may seem a bit silly…

Sailor superstition #1: Women on board a ship make the sea angry

The header pages from the ship’s passenger list reveal that there were 353 female passengers travelling on the Titanic. The passenger list records the people who boarded at Southampton and Queenstown, but the list of those who boarded at Cherbourg does not survive.

Header page from the Titanic's passenger list, recording the passengers who boarded at Southampton

Sailor superstition #2: It’s unlucky to have a priest on board

A list of the passengers and crew who were supposed drowned can be found in our maritime death records. These record the occupation of each victim, revealing that four of the Titanic’s passengers were Ministers of Religion.

Two of the Ministers of Religion listed in the Maritime death records

Sailor superstition #3: Cutting your hair at sea is bad luck

The list of those who perished in the disaster also shows that there were three Barbers travelling on the Titanic. Two of these were crew members who would have practised their trade on the ship.

One of the Barbers listed in the Maritime death records

Sailor superstition #4: A dog seen near fishing tackle is bad luck

We’ve uncovered this article in The British Newspaper Archive which states that there were dogs (and a pig!) on board the Titanic:

An article from The Western Times, Saturday 20 April 1912

Sailor superstition #5: People with red hair bring bad luck to a ship

You can find many of the Titanic’s surviving crew members listed in our Merchant Navy seamen records. You’ll often find a physical description or a photograph included, as is the case with John Alexander Podesta. Podesta worked as a Fireman on the Titanic and his Merchant Navy index card describes his hair colour as being ‘auburn’.

John Podesta's Merchant Navy seamen record

Sailor superstition #6: Flowers are unlucky on board a ship

Another of the Titanic’s Firemen, Charles Rice, also survived and appears in the Merchant Navy records. He was recorded as having a tattoo on his right forearm depicting a basket of flowers.

Charles Rice's Merchant Navy seaman record

Do you think there’s any truth behind superstitions like these? Is there anything you do or avoid doing to bring you luck?

Search new Northants, Yorkshire, Dorset and Kent parish records

We have updated our parish records collection with 647,000 new records for Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Dorset and Kent. Read on for all the details.

Northamptonshire records

Search 528,228 new Northamptonshire parish records which span the vast period 1527-2006.

Further information on the records is as follows:

The Northamptonshire Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

Search Northamptonshire parish records

Yorkshire records

We’ve added 86,806 Yorkshire parish records to our collection:

The Sheffield & District Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

Search Yorkshire parish records

Dorset records

Search 14,219 new Dorset parish records on findmypast.co.uk:

The Dorset Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

Search Dorset parish records

North West Kent records

We’ve also published 18,167 new parish records for North West Kent on findmypast.co.uk

Further information on the records is as follows:

The North West Kent Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

Search North West Kent parish records