Blog

Ask the photo expert – work outing?

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

Brian Jamieson sent us his photo and asked:

‘Can you please help with this intriguing image from a family member? Her late grandmother retained it – a postcard produced by Robertsons Bros, Newburgh, Fife, Scotland. There’s no date on the photo and this group photo is a challenge.

My thoughts are:

• It is professionally posed and executed
• There is no-one who is under or over working age
• There are no obvious central characters, such as you would see at christening, wedding or engagement, so it is unlikely to be a personal celebration
• Several of the youngish men and woman are paired and possibly engaged
• The older man at the back left doesn’t quite seem to fit into the group. Could his presence be almost accidental?

My best guess is it is a Newburgh, Fife work-related group. The owner or manager of the business is almost certainly not there as he would surely have tried to look important and would have been in the middle. I wonder what you make of it?’

Click to enlarge

Jayne says:

‘Firstly, the postcard style of this photograph confirms a 20th century date. The familiar postcard with a divided back offering separate spaces for address and a message, as seen here, was first introduced for communication in 1902. It was soon adopted as a convenient card mount by professional portrait photographers, as well as by some amateur photographers later on.

Popular by around 1906/7, postcard photographs became the most common format of the later Edwardian, WWI, inter-war and WWII eras, finally dying out by around 1950. Surviving examples, therefore, span over 40 years and are found in most of today’s family picture collections.

Jayne Shrimpton

Often postcards have little printed information on the back but luckily in this case the studio name and address are provided, revealing the geographical area (Newburgh) in which the photo originated. As we see, this is not a formal studio portrait, but a more relaxed outdoor scene in a rural setting, although, as you say, the group is carefully-positioned, suggesting the work of a professional photographer. He or she would, therefore, either have been an itinerant or open-air operator or, more likely perhaps, a representative from a local studio, hired to capture this occasion.

As you point out, significantly most of the group members are adults of working age, although there is an older lady (middle row, second from right) and an elderly gent at the back who I feel is probably part of the group. There is also a girl of school age, dressed in a youthful white frock and a child’s ‘halo’-style hat, aged perhaps between about 10 and 13. Nonetheless I agree that this could well represent a works outing, possibly a day trip to a local beauty spot. Nobody stands out as the ‘boss’, so perhaps the works manager or owner considerately absented himself from the photo.

The fashion clues here, especially the ladies’ appearance, offer an accurate time frame of c.1906-10 for this photograph. Useful details are their blouses – many of which display fashionable shortened or elbow-length sleeves – and the shape and style of their wide hats, all features typical of the mid-late Edwardian era. The men’s dress also conforms to this period. Most men here wear the starched, turned-down collars of the early-1900s and the wide style of cloth cap common after c.1905.

Hopefully this close date range will help you to judge which ancestor(s) could have been present and even, perhaps, which local company may have employed this group.’

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 – 30th birthday portrait?

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

John Oxenham sent us his photo and asked:

‘I am attaching a photograph which is a negative on a matte black background. The case measures 72 x 60mm. The lady is almost certainly my great grandmother who was born in 1825, lived in Merthyr Tydfil until 1858, then in Cardiff until 1864, and then in Aberdare from 1865 onwards. I think that it is an Ambrotype in a Union case. Am I right? I hope you can help.’

Click to enlarge

‘This is indeed an ambrotype – an early type of photograph that used the wet collodion process and was created by turning the original glass plate negative into an apparently positive image, hence its alternative name of collodion positive. This method involved bleaching the photographic image and coating one side of the glass with black shellac (lacquer), as you can see, or occasionally black velvet.

Being fragile one-off photographs, irreplaceable if broken, ambrotypes were generally set in a brass, gilt or cheaper pinchbeck mount and framed under another glass layer or protected in a folding case, usually with a soft velvet or plush pad facing the picture (unless the case contained two companion photographs).

Your ambrotype appears to have a hinge to one side, suggesting a cased arrangement but the case itself isn’t visible here. Union cases were a distinctive type of moulded case first patented in the United States in late 1854 and used in Britain from around 1855 until the mid-1870s. They were made from an early form of plastic, a hard substance usually black or brownish in colour. From the peeling edges here, I suspect this case could be made of paper or leather cloth-covered wood, or papier maché – all materials commonly used for early photograph cases.

Jayne Shrimpton

The ambrotype photograph was first developed in 1851/2, but patent and license restrictions in Britain meant that few commercial photographers used the technique before 1855. Most surviving examples in today’s family collections, therefore, date from the mid-1850s onwards. Outdoor ambrotypes may date from the later 19th century as these remained popular with open-air and itinerant photographers, but formal ambrotype portraits set in the studio, like this photograph, enjoyed a brief heyday, being rapidly superseded after 1860 by the carte de visite photographic print.

Like many studio ambrotypes that I see, this special glass photograph dates from c.1855-9. Female fashions of the past can usually be dated accurately and here we see a smart day dress characteristic of the mid-late 1850s. The main elements of this style, which provide helpful dating clues, are the bodice arrangement incorporating folds converging from the shoulders to the waist and the open sleeves, which reveal the separate white under sleeves (engageantes) worn beneath.

Towards the end of the 1850s a fashion evolved for even wider ‘pagoda’ sleeves that flared outward from the upper arm to the wrist: the tight upper sleeves here may, therefore, indicate a date close to 1855. Other fashionable features include the neck ribbon and matching bracelets.

It can be hard to judge age accurately in old photographs, but I would suggest that this ancestor is fairly young, aged probably in her 20s or early 30s. Since studio photographs were often taken to mark a special occasion, perhaps this was your great grandmother’s 30th birthday portrait, taken in Merthyr Tydfil in 1855.’

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 – certificate mystery

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

From Maureen Simm:

‘William Henry Brown 1862-1938 married Frances Hannah Kinsey on 13 May 1884 in Leicestershire. My problem is that under father’s name on the certificate all it says is ‘Dead’ – very frustrating with a name like Brown.

In the 1881 census he was boarding with Thomas Kinsey, Rotten Row, Thringstone, Leics. In the 1891 census he was with his wife and three children at Knights Row, Workhouse Lane, Thringstone, Peggs Green.

In the 1901 census he was living at 3 Castle Dyke, Lichfield St Mary, Staffs and in the 1911 census he was living in Fradley, Staffs.

He used the name Henry except on official documents. His place of birth on the census is Lichfield, Staffs and his occupation was Blacksmith.

I’ve spoken to my aunt who although in her 90s has an excellent memory and all that she could tell me was that she never heard anyone speak of siblings but that he might have been born in Somerset.

I have tried to follow this up but no luck so far. Any thoughts would be appreciated.’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Maureen,

Thanks for sending in your question about your ancestor William Henry Brown. You’re right, having to deal with a common last name and then finding merely the remark ‘Dead’ or ‘Deceased’ in the space for father’s name and occupation on a vital marriage certificate can be very frustrating, and cause all sorts of difficulties.

Here, I think there might be a tentative way forward, based upon elimination and probabilities.

Firstly, I note that all four censuses from 1881 to 1911 consistently give Lichfield as place of birth, which is a positive sign. The ages are also very consistent – 20, 29, 39 and 49 respectively over the four census years, suggesting a year of birth circa 1861/62, or possibly as early as 1860. Given this likely birth date, it cannot be assumed that he will appear on the 1861 census and, therefore, the 1871 census is the key census to find him on next.

There are of course various individuals named William, Harry or Henry Brown born and living in Lichfield on the 1871 census. The idea for research is to create mini family trees for each of these – i.e. to draw a simple tree showing the relatives of each as per their 1871 census entry, and then look for the same individuals in the context of those family groups in 1881 (and 1861 and 1891 too, if necessary and helpful).

I had found a William Brown, for example, of the right approximate age living with his grandfather John Hurst on the 1871 census, perhaps suggesting that William’s father had died by then. This individual looked quite good at first but later I could confidently eliminate him as he is still with the Hursts in 1881, by which time your ancestor is boarding with the Kinseys in Thringstone.

By this careful process of family reconstruction, using the mini-trees, it is feasible to start to eliminate candidates and to work your way down to only one or two possibilities.

In this case, I believe I have found a potentially strong candidate. I must stress that it is not possible to be certain that he is the right individual but he is worth considering further. He is Harry Brown, whose birth was registered in September quarter 1862 in Lichfield registration district, and he was seemingly a twin (his sister Rebecca or Rebekah being born the same quarter).

His parents were Charles Brown (a house painter) and Maria Brown nee Ferneyhough, who married in June quarter 1859 in Lichfield registration district. Charles (born circa 1816/17) was about 20 years older than his wife Maria (born circa 1836/37) and he died in Lichfield in June 1876, aged 58 years. This would be consistent with the frustrating note ‘Dead’ on your ancestor’s 1884 marriage certificate.

This Harry Brown is residing with the family in Sandford Street, Lichfield at the time of the 1871 census. His family is still resident in Sandford Street but importantly Harry is not there with them – again, this is of course consistent with the fact that your ancestor was boarding with the Kinseys in 1881. If this man is your ancestor, he had an older brother named William (sic), his twin Rebecca already mentioned, and younger sisters named Florence and Lucy Jane. It is likely that his paternal grandparents (Charles’s parents) were named William and Jane Brown.

I must emphasise that the above is based upon assumptions, e.g., birth in Lichfield, and probabilities, i.e., likeliest candidate. It is not certain. The encouraging facts are that this Harry Brown was born at the right place and date, that his father had died before 1884 as required, and that this Harry is not with the rest of his family in the 1881 census, again as required.

I noticed also from the census returns of your ancestor that his eldest child was a son named Harry. On the negative side, if your ancestor was indeed this Harry, then for some reason he has taken on the additional first name of his elder brother William, and he was born a little later than one would have wanted. I would have felt more comfortable had Harry’s birth been registered in 1861, rather than 1862.

In these circumstances, I would encourage you to carefully repeat my research, and spend more time on each of those mini-trees to see if you can find a better candidate than the Harry Brown, son of Charles. It is perhaps worth mentioning here that it is not always possible to definitively identify ancestors, and sooner or later each line on your family tree will present its own brick wall, either because you have exhausted all surviving records or because the surviving records do not give sufficient diagnostic information to permit reliable identification.

Sometimes it is possible to move forward more (actually, backwards!) tentatively by the process of elimination and probability, but you must treat and mark such steps as unproven – and ideally review them from time to time as you consult new records, or find out more information.

Good luck!’

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!

Ask the expert – missing father

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Pauline Woodcock:

‘I am trying to trace information regarding my father’s WWI army service. He was Gerard Patrick Phillips, born on 17 March 1898 in Birkenhead. I have been through all the online WWI records available but cannot find a record. I haven’t got a regiment for him apart from the fact that it was a Cheshire regiment. His job was to carry ammunition to the front. He was gassed two days before amnesty and was reported missing. My grandmother saw him on a cinema news reel in a convent, possibly in Belgium. I would be grateful if you could give me any direction in where to try searching.’

Paul says:

‘Hello Pauline.

I couldn’t find him when I looked through medal index cards on The National Archives’ site. If he was born in 1898, however, he wouldn’t have been eligible for overseas service until 17 March 1917 at which point conscription had already been in force for a year. Nevertheless, if he served overseas he would have received medals and, therefore, a medal index card should survive.

It’s a possibility, I suppose, that he enlisted under an assumed name and if that is the case it will be difficult to track him down. I found one G P Phillips who served with the 2nd County of London Yeomanry and later the RAF, but that’s the only man with the same initials as your father.’

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!

Ask the expert – Chelsea Pensioner ancestor

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Roslyn Berthelsen in Queensland, Australia:

‘I have been trying to find out what campaigns my grandfather fought in during WWI and the Boer War etc. His name is George Jull and he was born on 24 April 1874 in Kent, England. He married my grandmother Lizzie Kemp and she was born on 15 September 1882 in Kent. They migrated with their family to Australia in about 1920. I know my cousin’s son has my grandfather’s war medals but he hasn’t been very co-operative in letting me know what campaign’s he fought in and now my cousin has died I don’t have his son’s address to contact him again.

George’s father’s name was Alfred Jull, born in 1846, and his mother’s name was Amelia Eve born 1850.’

Paul says:

‘I couldn’t find a medal index card for George Jull for WWI. Two men are listed: George E Jull and George Norman Jull, neither of whom are your man. Two possibilities here then: either he enlisted under an assumed name or he enlisted under his own name but did not serve overseas. The medal index cards only record men who received medals or a silver war badge and if he had no overseas service he wouldn’t have received a medal.

The good news is that his pre-WWI papers do survive in the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records (WO97) on findmypast.co.uk. A potted history reads as follows:

• Attested with King’s Royal Rifle Corps for seven years with the colours and five years on the reserve at Canterbury on 10 February 1892 aged 18 years
• At the time of his attestation he was working as a labourer and was also serving (part time) with the Thames Medway Division Submarine Miners (Royal Engineers)
• He gave his place of birth as Boughton near Faversham
• He was 5 feet 4 ¼ inches tall with a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and dark brown hair. He had a mole on his left shoulder and a tattooed dot on his left forearm
• He had a somewhat chequered military career (which you can read all about on the four pages of his service record) but he spent time overseas in Gibraltar, Malta, South Africa and Mauritius and in fact spent over 11 years serving with the colours and just 10 months on the reserve. It was while he was on the reserve that he married Lizzie Kemp in 1903
• He served during the Boer War and was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps Belfast and Laing’s Nek and the King’s South Africa Medal with clasps 1901 and 1902
• He achieved a number of educational certificates and qualifications during his time in the British Army

The King’s Royal Rifle Corps was a well-respected infantry regiment and George served with the 3rd, 2nd and 1st Battalions. I hope this is helpful.’

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!

July newsletter competition winner

We’re pleased to announce the winner of our July newsletter competition. We asked you ‘Which years do our new Lincolnshire parish marriage records cover?’

Congratulations to G Deakin from Runcorn whose correct answer of ’1700-1837′ wins them a copy of Tracing Your Legal Ancestors by Stephen Wade.

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

New Warwickshire parish records published

Search for your ancestors in 23,000 new Warwickshire parish records on findmypast.co.uk

This update comprises new records from Rugby and Southam.

Rugby records

The Rugby Family History Group provided findmypast.co.uk with these records.

Search the parish records now

Southam records

Please note that the Southam marriage records are away banns, so the coverage is out of Warwickshire and many of the records do not specify a location. Banns are published in the parish of the groom and the parish of the bride on three consecutive Sundays prior to the wedding day. If the bride and groom live in different parishes, the banns have to be published in both parish churches. So for each of these records, either the bride or groom is a Southam parish resident, and the other comes from a different parish. These banns were published in Southam, but also in the other parish.

We are working in association with Pam Batstone and Mary Williams to publish these records.

Search the parish records now

Famous family trees: John Craven

Welcome to the latest post in our series of blogs exploring the family trees of the famous. Experienced family historian, Roy Stockdill, takes us on a journey through time as he investigates the family history of the famous, both living and dead. This time, Roy delves into TV presenter John Craven’s past.

John Craven – image courtesy of starscolor

We’ve never met but I feel a kind of affinity with John Craven, the popular TV presenter. We’re both West Yorkshire lads, born very close in time to one another, and we both began our careers as junior reporters on local newspapers. John went on to become presenter of John Craven’s Newsround and later the BBC’s Countryfile.

John Raymond Craven OBE was born on 16 August 1940 in Leeds. He is the son of Willie Craven and Marie Noble, who were married on 27 December 1937 at Kirkstall Congregational Chapel, Leeds. Willie, aged 27, was a grocer’s assistant and Marie, 25, was a printers’ envelope maker. The marriage certificate shows Willie’s father as William Henry Craven, a blacksmith, and Marie’s father was Percy Noble, an assistant overlooker.

Willie Craven – he appears in the birth indexes as Willie, not William – was born in the registration district of Bramley, Leeds, on 29 November 1910 but his birth wasn’t registered until the following quarter, January-March 1911. I discovered the actual birth date from the index record of Willie’s death in 1990.

Willie just crept into the 1911 census, aged four months. He was living at 4 Drury Street, Armley, a large Leeds suburb, with his parents William Henry and Sarah Ann Craven. William Henry, blacksmith, and his wife were both aged 32 and had been married six years:

Also in the household was Willie’s older sister, Mary, two, and a boarder, Charles Henry May, 28, an iron moulder and the brother of Sarah Ann Craven whose maiden name was May. The whole family gave their birth place as Leeds.

John Craven’s paternal grandparents, William Henry Craven and Sarah Ann May, were married in 1905 at St Bartholomew’s Church, Armley. In the census of 1901, William’s family were at 13 Temperance Street, Headingley cum Burley, Kirkstall, Leeds, with William then single and aged 22, the eldest of three sons and two daughters whose ages ranged down to five. Head of the household was William’s widowed mother, Eliza Craven, a 45-year-old charwoman:

One slight surprise was that, while all the children were shown as being born in Leeds, Eliza’s birth place was given as Stratford, London – the only one of John Craven’s direct paternal line ancestors I came across who was born outside Yorkshire.

Researching John Craven’s paternal family tree farther back beyond his grandfather William Henry, the blacksmith, I discovered three successive generations of direct male ancestors who were all called Joshua Craven. For simplicity, I will refer to them as Joshua one, Joshua two and Joshua three but they will appear in this account in reverse order. Hopefully, all will become clear!

I looked for William Craven in the 1891 census and found him with his parents, Joshua and Eliza Craven, at 20, Club Row, Headingley With Burley, Kirkstall, Leeds. William was then a scholar of 12 with an older sister Mary, 15 and two younger brothers, George six and Albert one, all born at Kirkstall:

The father, Joshua three, was a forgeman (iron worker) of 38, born at Armley, and his wife Eliza was 36, born in London, just as she had appeared in the 1901 census. I found from the death indexes that Joshua died in the first quarter of 1900, which accounted for Eliza being a widow in the latter census.

In the 1881 census Joshua’s name was abbreviated to Josh and the first name of his wife Eliza was enumerated as Elixer! Initially, I thought this must be a mis-transcription but a close examination of the schedule revealed that this was how the enumerator had written it.

It’s worth noting here that you should never submit a correction to an enumerator’s entry if it has been correctly transcribed, even if you believe it to be wrong. The golden rule of census transcribing is that you write exactly what you see and what the enumerator has put down.

The family were at 7, Woodgrove St, Headingley With Burley with Joshua aged 27, an iron forgeman, Eliza, 25 and a woollen weaver and two children, Mary, five and son William H, then only two:

The birth of Joshua Craven (Joshua three) was registered in the Hunslet registration district of Leeds in 1854 and he married Eliza Slater at St Mathias’ Church, Burley, Leeds in 1875. These were the parents of William Henry, the blacksmith and the great-grandparents of John Craven.

At birth Joshua was given the middle name of Standfield and when he married it was shown as Stanfield. This would later become important in tracing the Craven family tree back further.

I looked for Joshua three in the censuses of 1871 and 1861 and found him in 1871 with his mother and four siblings at St Ann Row, Headingley Cum Burley, Leeds:

Joshua was then aged 17 and described as a forge boy in the iron trade. He had two sisters and two brothers, while the head of the household was Harriet Craven, aged 44 and born at Armley.

Harriet was a widow, which meant I had to go to the census of 1861 to try and discover who Joshua three’s father was. Living at Far Fold, Armley, Leeds was the family of Joshua and Harriet Craven with a family of three sons and two daughters including Joshua Jr, born in 1854 at Armley. The family are spread over two pages in the census:

Joshua Craven (Joshua two) was aged 32 and an iron forgeman – just as his son became – born at Wortley, near Armley. His wife Harriet was a couple of years older at 34 and this couple were John Craven’s great-great-grandparents.

The 1861 census is particularly significant in the Craven family history because all three Joshua Cravens appear in it. I have already mentioned Joshua three and Joshua two, but also in the census of 1861 were Joshua Craven one and his wife, Sarah.

They were living at Wingate Road, Armley, Leeds. This Joshua was John Craven’s great-great-great-grandfather and he too was an iron worker, a forge labourer, like his son and grandson:

Joshua one was born in around 1803 at Pudsey, an industrial town midway between Leeds and Bradford, while his wife Sarah, also 58, was born at Wortley, Leeds.

I will explain shortly how I managed to tie the three Joshuas together, who were all linked by the middle name of Stansfield, Standfield or Stanfield – undoubtedly the common factor, never mind the spelling!

First I found the death of Joshua Standfield Craven in 1864 at Bramley registration district. This was Joshua two, born in about 1829, so he was only in his mid-30s when he died. This explained why Harriet Craven was a widow in 1871.

Searching the 1851 census, I came across something which initially threw me and made me wonder whether I had the right man. Joshua two was there; however, his wife’s name was given as Elizabeth and not Harriet! Everything else seemed to fit: Joshua’s age was given as 22, his birth year 1829, his occupation as a pudler (another iron trade job) and his birth place as Armley.

The couple were living at Wingate, Armley, Leeds and Elizabeth was also aged 22 and described as a domestic. With them was a two-year-old son, Thomas Craven:

After research in the General Register Office marriage indexes and the marriage indexes at Yorkshire register office, I established that a Joshua Craven married Elizabeth Nichols at the parish church of St Peter’s, Leeds, in the second quarter of 1849.

A search of the death indexes produced a number of Elizabeth Cravens who died in the Leeds area between 1851 and 1854, one of whom was the wife of Joshua two. The most likely candidate was an Elizabeth who died in the April-June quarter of 1851, for in the first quarter of 1852, Joshua Craven married Harriet Atha at St Philip’s Church, Leeds.

So the mystery was solved! Poor Elizabeth died young at only 22 and Joshua remarried a few months later to Harriet and had more children with her.

The father of Joshua two – Joshua one – was also found in the 1851 census living near his son, also at Wingate, Armley. The two Joshuas appeared on adjacent pages and were just a few doors from one another:

Joshua one’s birth year was shown as 1803, his wife Sarah Craven’s was the same and there were three sons whose ages ranged from 11 to 19, the whole family being shown as born at Armley. A nephew and niece were also in the household.

In the 1841 census both Joshuas, with other sons of Joshua and Sarah, were found at Wingate, Armley, with the ages of Joshua one and Sarah rounded down to 35 and Joshua Jr aged 12:

Now to the final piece of the puzzle which enabled me to get the family tree of John Craven back yet one more generation. Joshua one died in 1878, aged 75, so he outlived his son, Joshua two, by some 14 years. I mentioned that Joshua two was described at death as Joshua Standfield Craven and his son (Joshua three) was registered at birth also as Joshua Standfield Craven.

I discovered that a Joshua Stansfield [sic] Craven was baptised at Wortley by Leeds on 11 April 1830, son of Joshua and Sarah. The likelihood is fairly high that this was Joshua two.

I was unable to identify for certain the maiden name of Joshua’s mother, Sarah, for there were several possible marriages in the Leeds area for a Joshua Craven to a Sarah between 1818 and 1823. I believe, however, that I found the baptism of Joshua one at Pudsey on 29 August 1802, the father being shown as Abraham Craven. Pudsey was given as Joshua’s birth place in the 1861 census.

Pudsey had a Chapel of Ease to the then larger parish of Calverley. The online registers revealed the extra information that Joshua one’s mother was called Elisabeth. I then found the marriage of Abraham Craven, a clothier, to Elisabeth Stansfield at Calverley on 8 December 1793.

So it looks as if Joshua Stansfield Craven (Joshua two) was given his grandmother’s maiden name as a middle name and he then passed it on to his own son, Joshua three.

If my speculation is correct, then Abraham Craven and Elisabeth Stansfield were the great-great-great-great grandparents of John Craven.

Roy Stockdill

The last name Craven appears in the registers of Calverley many times, going back to as early as a baptism of Robert Craven in 1585 in the time of Elizabeth I, with the earliest marriage being that of another Robert Craven to Sybil Baytson in 1596. Maybe these were much earlier ancestors of John Craven, but it would take considerably more research (and substantially more space than I have here) to get the pedigree that far back.

Roy Stockdill has been a family historian for almost 40 years. A former national newspaper journalist, he edited the Journal of One-Name Studies (for the Guild of One-Name Studies) for 10 years. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Society of Genealogists and is commissioning editor of the ‘My Ancestors…’ series of books. He writes regularly for Family Tree magazine.

Search the Royal Air Force Muster Roll 1918

We’ve just published the nominal roll of Royal Air Force servicemen who were with the service when it was formed on 1 April 1918.

This collection contains records for more than 181,000 men and can tell you vital information about your RAF ancestors, including:

• Job in the RAF (trade classification)
• Rank
• Date and terms of enlistment
• Rate of pay

The men included in these records originally joined either the Royal Flying Corps or the Royal Naval Air Service. These organisations were merged to form the RAF in 1918.

Search the Royal Air Force Muster Roll 1918 now

New prison ship records to search

You can now search records for 8,900 prisoners held captive on prison ships, or hulks, on findmypast.co.uk

Hulks were ships used as floating prisons – often these were ships that were no longer fit for battle but were still afloat.

This collection covers the period 1811-1843 and contains records for prisoners on the following hulks: Bellerophon, Euryalus, Hardy and Antelope, as well as a small number of records for Parkhurst prison.

The records hold fascinating details about the prisoners, including the crime they had committed, the sentence they received and the report from their gaoler.

Our thanks go to Jill Chambers for providing us with these records.

Search the prison ship records now

Image of the Bellerophon from ‘Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815′ by John James Chalon.