Today is Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday and to mark the occasion, we’ve been investigating the records on findmypast.co.uk to see what they can tell us about Dickens’ life.

We feel like we know Dickens a little bit better following our research - read on to find out what our records reveal about this extraordinary man.

Baptism

It seemed logical to start at the beginning, so our first stop was to search for Dickens’ baptism record. Dickens’ unusual middle name makes it easy to be sure that we’ve found the right man.

Dickens record shows that he was baptised in Portsea St Mary, Hampshire on 4 March 1812. We can also learn that Dickens’ parents are called John and Elizabeth:

Charles Dickens' baptism record - click to enlarge

Marriage

Fast-forwarding a few years, we discovered the record of Dickens’ marriage to Catherine Thomson Hogarth. The pair married in Chelsea, Middlesex on 2 April 1836:

Charles Dickens' marriage record - click to enlarge

Dickens and Catherine lived in Bloomsbury where they went on to have 10 children. Sadly, the couple separated in 1858 but never divorced; this wouldn’t have been a socially acceptable action for someone as well-known as Dickens.

Dickens in 1861

By 1861, Catherine and her son, Charles Jr, had moved out of the family home and Catherine’s sister, Georgina, was living with Dickens and the rest of the children. Georgina took Dickens’ side in his rift with Catherine and took over the running of the household.

In the same year that ‘Great Expectations’ was published, Dickens’ 1861 census return provides us with a glimpse into his life at this time. Dickens is described as ‘married’, giving away nothing of his separation from Catherine.

Dickens’ occupation is listed as ‘Author Novelist Essayist & Editor’ and Georgina is recorded as ‘Servant Housekeeper’:

Charles Dickens' 1861 census return - click to enlarge

Death

Next we found Dickens’ death record. He died on 9 June 1870 in North Aylesford, Kent - view the record here:

Charles Dickens' death record - click to enlarge

As well as this record, we unearthed a different record of Dickens’ death on findmypast.co.uk

Dickens was a shareholder in the Great Western Railway, which means that a record of his death appears in the GWR Shareholders Index.

The GWR recorded all transactions that related to shareholdings which changed hands due to an event other than a simple sale. The most common event recorded in the ledger was the death of the shareholder. When a shareholder died, their shares were passed to their beneficiaries and the executors handled the administration of the estate.

Displaying further evidence of his rift with his wife, Dickens’ record shows that his wife’s sister, Georgina, and friend, John Forster, were the executors. View this beautifully handwritten original document here:

Charles Dickens' Great Western Railway Shareholders Index record - click to enlarge

We hope you enjoyed discovering what the records on findmypast.co.uk reveal about Charles Dickens’ life.

To celebrate yesterday’s release of Guy Ritchie’s ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’, we’ve put on our deerstalker hat to uncover the mystery of Britain’s real Sherlock Holmes.

Our detective work has revealed that since the publication of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Holmes novel ‘A Study in Scarlet’ in 1887, nine people have been named Sherlock Holmes across England and Wales.

We also discovered that the Holmes brothers actually did exist. The 1911 census on findmypast.co.uk shows a Sherlock Holmes and his brother Mycroft Holmes - played by Stephen Fry in the film - living in Yorkshire aged 14 and 10 years old:

Click to enlarge

The most popular name from the world’s most famous detective series, however, is not Sherlock or Mycroft, but Watson, the detective’s loveable partner played by Jude Law. Watson appears 14,405 times as a first name in the England and Wales 1837-2006 birth records on findmypast.co.uk. It even appears eight times as a first name and last name: Watson Watson. 319 people had Sherlock as a first name.

Have you found any Sherlocks, Mycrofts or Watsons in your family tree?

Today is Winnie the Pooh’s 85th birthday and to commemorate his author AA Milne, we’ve been investigating Milne’s family history.

Educational ancestors

We discovered that Milne came from a family of school teachers. Our first stop was the census records on findmypast.co.uk where we found Milne in the 1891 census. He is recorded at Henley House School, Mortimer Road, Hampstead, aged nine. He is listed as a scholar with his father, John Milne, the schoolmaster. John was born in Jamaica and was married to Sarah Heginbotham. See the record here:

Click to enlarge

Ten years later, the 1901 census tells us that Milne’s father had moved on from Henley House School and was the schoolmaster at Streete Court School, Westgate-on-Sea, Kent. Milne was living with his aunt and uncle as a Cambridge undergraduate at this time.

Milne’s uncle, Alexander Milne, was the principal of the Boys’ Private School, University School, Holmesdale Gardens, Hastings. Alexander is listed in the Teachers’ Registration Council Registers 1914-1948 on findmypast.co.uk. He registered on 1 July 1919 and his career in education spanned 1871 to 1932. View Alexander’s record here:

Click to enlarge

Our research revealed further evidence of teaching in Milne’s family. Milne’s mother and maternal grandmother, both named Sarah Heginbotham, were school mistresses at Brooklyn House, Wellington, Shropshire at the time of the 1871 census.

Milne’s paternal grandfather, William Milne, was recorded as being an inspector of schools in the 1861 census, which made us wonder whether he was the catalyst for the family’s teaching tradition.

At the time of the 1911 census, Milne was living at Broadgates, Steeple Bumpstead in Essex with his parents. Milne was recorded as being a journalist, working on his ‘own account and Punch‘. By this time, his father was a retired schoolmaster.

Milne on the move

We were intrigued to find Milne 20 years later in the passenger lists on findmypast.co.uk travelling as a first class passenger to the USA with his wife, Dorothy.

The couple were aboard the Aquitania, which departed Southampton for New York on 21 October 1931. In the detailed log, Milne is described as an author and his address is recorded as being 13 Mallord Street SW3. View the record here:

Click to enlarge

As Milne’s ancestry demonstrates, you can glean huge amounts of detail when you find your ancestors in the Teachers’ Registration Council Registers 1914-1948 on findmypast.co.uk. We are working in partnership with the Society of Genealogists to bring you these rich records.

Find My Past the TV show is an exciting new 10-part series which unites ordinary members of the public with their ancestors.

Each week, we take three members of the public on a journey to discover how they are related to someone from a significant historical event, by searching the records on findmypast.co.uk. We follow each of them as they uncover who their ancestor is and the part they played in history, before uniting the participants to find out how they are connected.

The show is screened on Thursdays from 20 October 2011 at 9pm on the Yesterday channel, presented by Chris Hollins of BBC Breakfast and Strictly Come Dancing. Each Friday morning, you’ll be able to read all about the previous night’s episode, including which records were used to chart the participants’ family histories.

Find out more on our Find My Past TV show page

You’re very likely to find ancestors in our new Merchant Navy Seamen records because Britain had one of the largest merchant fleets in the world. The workforce on these vessels was a casual, ‘jobbing workforce’ so in any one year as many as 1.5 million people could be employed in the Merchant Navy.

We’ve spotted a number of celebrities and their ancestors in the records – take a look at who we’ve found!

Have you found any of your own ancestors?

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's grandfather, a 3rd Officer - please click to enlarge

You might remember that Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen discovered that his maternal grandfather Ronald Ernest Wilks was a merchant seaman in his Who Do You Think You Are? episode. Well here he is! Ronald was born on 13th August 1898 in Newport and was employed as a 3rd Officer on three vessels between 1920 and 1921. His record includes a photograph showing that flamboyant hairstyles seemed to run in the family!



Norman Wisdom

Norman Wisdom, a cabin boy - please click to enlarge

Did you know that Norman Wisdom was once a merchant seaman? Here we see that Norman Joseph Wisdom, born on 4th February 1915 in London, once worked as a cabin boy on SS Mandy Count. Norman was recorded as having hazel eyes, brown hair and a pale complexion. You’ll also see an early autograph at the bottom!



Jimmy Savile

Jimmy Savile's brother, an ordinary seaman - please click to enlarge

Jimmy Savile’s brother John Henry Savile was also a merchant seaman and can be seen here telling a porkie pie about his age. John is recorded as having been born on 24th May 1918 in Leeds, though our birth records reveal that he was actually born a year later in 1919! John worked as an ordinary seaman on SS Firby and has signed his name at the bottom of the record. He was recorded as being 5’5’’ tall with brown eyes, fair hair, a fair complexion and a scar on the crown of his head.

Yorkshire Day is held on 1 August every year and is a celebration of the culture and history of the county. We’re getting in the spirit here at findmypast.co.uk and have found some lovely Yorkshire examples in our records.

First up is the family history of the newest member of the royal family, Mike Tindall. Tindall married Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter, on Saturday at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh.

As with the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton earlier this year, this weekend’s royal wedding was an example of a royal marrying out of the upper classes. We can see Mike Tindall’s working class Yorkshire roots by taking a look at his ancestors in the 1911 census.

Mike Tindall's maternal family - please click to enlarge

Tindall’s maternal great-great-grandparents Charles and Fanny Machell were living in Yeadon in the West Riding of Yorkshire at the time of the 1911 census. Their census form reveals that Fanny had given birth to a staggering 13 children, three of whom had sadly died by 1911.

Charles and Fanny were living with nine of their surviving offspring in 1911. Charles was employed as a stone mason at a stone quarry, while the eldest of the Machell brood were employed as nippers, woolliers and twisters at a cloth mill. The census form also reveals that their property only had five rooms – rather small for such a large family!

Mike Tindall's paternal family - please click to enlarge

Tindall’s paternal great-great-grandmother Sarah Ann Tindall can also be spotted in the 1911 census. She was a widow at this point in her life and was living in Skipton in the West Riding of Yorkshire with two daughters, three grandsons and a boarder.

Sarah’s daughters, Mike Tindall’s great-great-aunts, appear to have been rather entrepreneurial. Each was recorded as being a ‘joint restaurant proprietress’ in the 1911 census.

Check back later today for another Yorkshire example from our records and enjoy Yorkshire day!

The newest addition to the Beckham clan, Harper Seven Beckham, was born yesterday to much speculation about the inspiration behind the little girl’s name. Findmypast.co.uk has searched through the 1911 census and can reveal that baby Beckham is not the first to have been given the name Harper, though most people with this name 100 years ago were male.

We’ve found four female Harpers in the 1911 census, including fourteen-year-old Harper Lane. Harper was working as a Nurse and Housemaid at The Bank House in Royston, Hertfordshire – just 45 minutes away from where Victoria Beckham was born herself.

Harper Lane's 1911 census return - please click to enlarge

By comparison, there were 128 male Harpers in the 1911 census. It seems odd that after reportedly wanting a girl for so long, the Beckhams appear to have given their baby a traditionally male name.

What do you think of the Beckhams’ choice of name and have you found any ancestors named Harper?

With the royal wedding almost upon us, we’ve been getting in the mood by exploring our marriage records.

When you search for your ancestors’ marriage records on findmypast.co.uk, we will actually match up their marriage records for you. We’ve chosen a royal wedding-themed example to demonstrate how this will benefit your family history research…

We searched for ‘Catherine Middleton’ marrying ‘William’ to see what our search returned. Note that we’re able to search for both spouses at once. Previously you had to search for both spouses separately then match up their records yourself.

Our first few search results look like this:

Looking in the ‘marriage matched’ column, the results with three green ticks show us the definite matches for Catherine Middleton marrying William. The results with one or two green ticks will display a list of all the people that Catherine might have married. This is a great way of solving those marriage mysteries - you can search using one partner’s name and we will show you all the possible people they could have married.

Now is the perfect time to search for your ancestors’ marriages. Try our free trial to access our marriage records for free for two weeks. Have you come across any royal-themed marriages in your family tree?

It seems that crime writer Agatha Christie, author of the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot detective novels, was somewhat of a mystery woman herself. One eagle-eyed findmypast.co.uk customer, Ian Plimmer, dropped us a line this week to tell us that she actually appears twice in the 1911 census.

Christie, who was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller 120 years ago this month, appears at the home of her grandmother in Ealing, Middlesex on the night the census was taken. The image below shows her listed as Agatha M. C. Miller, aged 20, born in Torquay, Devon.

Agatha Christie in Ealing in the 1911 census - click to enlarge

However, she was also recorded around 200 miles away, living with her mother in Torquay. This census return lists her as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, with her age and place of birth matching the previous record. In the Nationality column on the right of the form, Agatha’s mother noted that her father was American.

Agatha Christie in Torquay in the 1911 census - click to enlarge

We’ve spotted a few examples of people being listed twice in the 1911 census like Agatha Christie was – were any of your own ancestors recorded twice?

Actor Alan Cumming featured in the final episode of Who Do You Think You Are? last night. Alan’s maternal grandfather, Thomas Darling, had always been a bit of a mystery, a ‘black hole’ in Alan’s family history. The family story was that Thomas had died in a shooting accident but Alan had heard a rumour that his death wasn’t an accident at all. Alan embarked on a journey to discover the truth.

Alan Cumming

Alan was born in Scotland 1965. Growing up he was close to his mother Mary Darling and her mother Margaret Noble. Alan started his journey by visiting his mother in Dundee to find out what she knew.

Tom Darling was Mary’s father, Alan’s grandfather. Alan found out that he left home and joined the army when he was 17. Tom was stationed in Inverness where he met and married Margaret. Tom then went to France and Burma as a courier. Alan read Tom’s service record which described him as ‘an excellent type’.

Alan travelled to Edinburgh to find out more about his grandfather’s early military career. Tom worked as a cook and was described as a ‘reliable worker’, another testament to his excellent service.

When Tom was 24 he served as a despatch rider in the army in France, acting as a crucial line of communication between battalion headquarters and the front line. He was awarded a military medal in 1940 for his great courage and the fact that he showed no regard for his own personal safety.

Alan travelled to France to find out exactly what his grandfather did to win the medal.

Alan read Tom’s battalion report which described the many journeys he made on his motorbike along a ‘fire-swept’ road. This road had no cover and Tom risked his life repeatedly among the mortar and machine gun fire to get the message to the battalion headquarters.

Tom was eventually evacuated from Dunkirk, leaving behind many comrades who were either trapped or dead. Alan thought that this experience must have psychologically damaged his grandfather.

Back in London, Alan looked for clues about what happened to Tom when he returned from France. Tom served in times when post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t recognised, let alone treated, and Tom had no real chance to recover. Two years after returning from France, Tom was sent to India where in 1944 he fought against the Japanese army in a fierce battle.

Alan read Tom’s medical history and found out that Tom was admitted to hospital for a gunshot wound after this battle. Tom was ill for many months, and his medical history didn’t make it clear what had actually happened to him. Alan thought it was possible that Tom was admitted to a psychiatric ward during this time, as it was common for these records to be deliberately destroyed. There was such a stigma attached to mental illness at this time that it was covered up wherever possible.

Alan’s next stop was to visit Bristol to meet David, a soldier who fought with his grandfather in 1944. David said that the soldiers all looked up to Tom as a kind of mentor. David described Tom as big, strong, tough and someone you didn’t argue with. David said he genuinely respected Tom.

In 1945 Tom returned to Britain from India to visit his wife and children. They didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last time they ever saw him.

Tom left the army in 1949 then joined the police force in Malaya, now Malaysia. Alan learned that his grandparents were recorded as ‘separated’ at this time and felt that this could have been the reason that Tom decided to go to Malaya. Tom sent money home to the family but didn’t visit them again.

Within seven months of being in Malaya, 35 year old Tom died in 1951. No records of his death existed in Britain so Alan travelled to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to find out once and for all how he died. The official record of Tom’s death from the Malaysian National Archives stated that Tom died from a gunshot wound to head. Alan wanted to know if it was suicide or murder.

Alan travelled to Cha’ah, south of Kuala Lumpur, for more answers. He spoke to Roy, a police officer in Malaya at the same time as Tom. Roy wasn’t there when Tom died but he told Alan the story he’d heard - that Tom died during a game of Russian roulette. Roy believed that Tom wouldn’t have deliberately killed himself and that either he got careless or ran out of luck.

This revelation deeply shocked Alan and he questioned Tom’s state of mind to play Russian roulette on what Roy described as a regular basis.

Alan then spoke to two brothers who had been children when Tom lived in Malaya. They said the people loved Tom very much and that their father, Tom’s friend, named a park and a road in Cha’ah after him: ‘Darling Walk’. The brothers took Alan to see this road and to the place where Tom played Russian roulette the day he died.

A police telegram confirmed that Tom died during a game of Russian roulette. The letter the police sent to Tom’s wife described his death as a terrible accident. She never knew what really killed him, and Alan finally located the source of the family legend that Tom’s death was a shooting accident.