Family
History 4 All
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how to trace YOUR family tree.
Newsletter No.13 – October 2007.
1. Our
welcome message.
2.
Featured Article –
The Hokey Pokey Man! - Find out more about your
ancestors day-to-day lives.
3. Help wanted - Need any help? - Carol does. See her
enquiry
4.
Latest news from www.Ancestry.co.uk
5.
Next month’s article.
1.
Hi
all,
Sorry we are late this month. It's been hectic since the
last newsletter. We took a week off to do some research in Liverpool,
staying with a friend on the Wirral. We also went to the Family History
fair at Aintree (30th September). Then my son paid a flying visit from
Australia! My daughter and her family came to stay for a few days and
Carols brother and family have just gone home to Pangbourne after ending
their tour of the north with a few days at our place.
To top it off we are now in the middle of having a new
central heating system installed, to be followed by new windows and a set
of French doors. I'm pooped !!
A big thank you to all that replied to our satisfaction
survey. The lowest score was 6/10 and the highest was 10/10 and the
average score after adding all the replies was a whopping 8/10 !! Thanks
again.
That's enough from me - enjoy your newsletter.
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I hope
this message finds you all in good health. If you have an article or amusing story to share with us then please don’t
be afraid to send it for publication…you can remain anonymous if you
prefer but we want you all to feel you can contribute if you want to. Just
send an
with the words ‘Newsletter item’ in the subject box. And we will include
it at the first opportunity, subject to editing, if necessary of course.
Christmas is just around
the corner and you will find lots of suitable Family History/Genealogy
gifts here:
Visit our store now.*
2. The Hokey Pokey Man! - Find out more about your
ancestors day-to-day lives.
Rather than simply collecting a list of names from the
past, why not find out what life was actually like for your ancestors
before 'Macky D's' and supermarkets!
By finding this information you will enhance your research
to such an extent that you will almost feel closer to your ancestors.
The 'Hokey Pokey Man'? - Children at the turn of the 20th
century enjoyed ice-cream just as much as they do today! It was known as
Hokey Pokey and was sold by street vendors using barrows full of 'dry ice'
to keep the fruit flavoured ice water at it's best. The vendors were often
of Italian origin, so if you have an Italian sounding name, it could be
worth looking into whether your ancestors were ice cream vendors.
The Internet is a vast resource especially for family
history researchers. Use it to find out how your ancestors lived.
Check the various census returns to find the occupations of
your ancestors. They are all available from:
www.Ancestry.co.uk
 .
Then use your favourite search engine to find out more about their work.
We've included many links within this article to help you
on your way to 'Putting Flesh On The Bones' of your ancestors.
WWII ‘United News’ Newsreels, 1942-1946 Released on Ancestry.co.uk
The following extracts are reproduced here by kind
permission from: The Victorian Web -
http://www.victorianweb.org/
" One of the most remarkable characteristics [of
Victorian working-class autobiographies] is the uncomplaining
acceptance of conditions of life and work which to the modern reader
seem brutal, degrading and almost unimaginable — of near-poverty and,
sometimes, extreme poverty, of over-crowded and inadequate housing
accommodation, of bad working conditions, periodic unemployment and
generally restricted opportunities, and of the high incidence of
disease, disablement and death. Yet most of those who experienced such
conditions are not, in their writings at least, consciously
discontented, let alone in a state of revolt. There is a sense of
patient resignation to the facts of life, the feeling that human
existence is a struggle and that survival is an end in itself.
Especially is this so in relation to the early death of wives or
children — a fatalistic attitude that 'God gives and God takes away',
and that although one may mourn, one does not inveigh against the
Fates which, to us, seem to have treated some so cruelly. Such
resignation was, in part, the product of a long history of deprivation
and suffering by which, for generations past, working people had been
accustomed to poverty, personal tragedy and limited expectations; for
some it was reinforced by the religious teaching that this world was,
in any case, a vale of tears, and that happiness could only be
expected in the life to come. These attitudes are true of the great
majority, though not of all. In a few who are politically motivated or
involved in trade union activities . . . the resentment against misery
and exploitation is open and expressed, and it is noticeable that a
more critical tone develops over time.
The picture which emerges from these writings is of
men and women who are materially very poor by contemporary standards,
who are uncomplaining in their poverty, who lead lives of hard work
but rarely expect to find fulfilment from it, and for whom the family,
interpersonal relationships, and relationship with God are centrally
important. Their intellectual and cultural horizons are strictly
limited: very few concern themselves with national events or politics,
even with local trade union or labour movements; they are uninterested
in material acquisition or achievement as such; they are not socially
mobile and barely conscious of class beyond a recognition that the
'masters' constitute a different order of society into which they will
never penetrate. Their aspirations are modest to be respected by their
fellows, to see their families growing up and making their way in the
world, to die without debt and without sin. Such happiness and
satisfactions as life has to offer are to be found in social contacts
within groups — the family, the work-group, the chapel or, for a few,
the public house; here meaningful relationships can be made,
experiences exchanged, joys and sorrows shared."
" That the shameful practice of child labour should
have played an important role in the Industrial Revolution from its
outset is not to be wondered at. The displaced working classes, from
the seventeenth century on, took it for granted that a family would
not be able to support itself if the children were not employed. In
Defoe's day he thought it admirable that in the vicinity of Halifax
scarcely anybody above the age of 4 was idle. The children of the poor
were forced by economic conditions to work, as Dickens, with his
family in debtor's prison, worked at age 12 in the Blacking Factory.
In 1840 perhaps only twenty percent of the children of London had any
schooling, a number which had risen by 1860, when perhaps half of the
children between 5 and 15 were in some sort of school, if only a day
school (of the sort in which Dickens's Pip finds himself in
Great Expectations) or a Sunday school; the
others were working. Many of the more fortunate found employment as
apprentices to respectable trades (in the building trade workers put
in 64 hours a week in summer and 52 in winter) or as general servants
— there were over 120,000 domestic servants in London alone at
mid-century, who worked 80 hour weeks for one halfpence per hour — but
many more were not so lucky. Most prostitutes (and there were
thousands in London alone) were between 15 and 22 years of age.
Many children worked 16 hour days under atrocious
conditions, as their elders did. Ineffective parliamentary acts to
regulate the work of workhouse children in factories and cotton mills
to 12 hours per day had been passed as early as 1802 and 1819. After
radical agitation, notably in 1831, when "Short Time Committees"
organized largely by Evangelicals began to demand a ten hour day, a
royal commission established by the Whig government recommended in
1833 that children aged 11-18 be permitted to work a maximum of twelve
hours per day; children 9-11 were allowed to work 8 hour days; and
children under 9 were no longer permitted to work at all (children as
young as 3 had been put to work previously). This act applied only to
the textile industry, where children were put to work at the age of 5,
and not to a host of other industries and occupations. Iron and coal
mines (where children, again, both boys and girls, began work at age
5, and generally died before they were 25), gas works, shipyards,
construction, match factories, nail factories, and the business of
chimney sweeping, for example (which Blake would use as an emblem of
the destruction of the innocent), where the exploitation of child
labour was more extensive, was to be enforced in all of England by a
total of four inspectors. After further radical agitation, another act
in 1847 limited both adults and children to ten hours of work daily."
The above extracts are reproduced here by kind
permission from: The Victorian Web - read more...http://www.victorianweb.org/
Send us some feedback and let us know if you enjoyed
this months article. You can email us or add
your comments in our
Guestbook
3. Help wanted - Need any help? If you have a brick wall, send us
the details, if we can help we will! and if we can't I'm sure we have a
reader who can. Send those requests now!
"A mother with her
six-month-old child and sickly husband then approached Timmis for help, as
if his very bulk could reassure them. Timmis thought that they were third
class passengers, but they might have been the Chantry family from second
cabin. Timmis advised the woman to strap the baby in front of her and
began assistance. Her husband, suffering from tuberculosis then asked
worriedly, "Do you think they will live, sir?" more...http://www.johnsonancestry.co.uk/lusitania.htm
Carol Johnson - nee
Todd - writes: I'm looking for information from anyone who may know
more about Mina and Harold Chantry and their daughter Elizabeth
aged 6 months who died whilst travelling back from Canada aboard the
Lusitania, which was torpedoed just off the Irish coast in May 1915.
You can
read more about this on Carol's site:
http://www.johnsonancestry.co.uk/lusitania.htm You can contact Carol
via her own online links or we will forward your message to her on your
behalf. To
contact us
(Click here)
4. Latest news from www.Ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry.co.uk, a member of Ancestry’s
global network of family history websites, today launched its DNA service,
which combines the precision of DNA testing with the depth of Ancestry’s
unrivalled historical record collection and broad reach of its online
global family history community.
Ancestry’s 15 million users* can now have their DNA
tested and the results included in a new database, which matches them
with the results of other Ancestry users to identify ‘new’ living
genetic cousins, conclusively verify that a relationship exists, find
new leads where potential paper trails end, and even learn about their
distant ancestors’ ethnic origins.
Ancestry.co.uk
Managing Director Simon Harper comments: “The
combination of our huge online family history community engaging with
each other and our millions of historical records, but now also with
DNA, represents one of the most exciting and significant developments in
family history research since the advent of the Internet.
“DNA will not tell us how we are related, only if,
and within a certain number of generations, which for anyone with an
interest in family history poses an exciting challenge to discover exactly
how they are related to living relatives they may never otherwise have
known existed.”
To develop this database, Ancestry has partnered with
Sorenson Genomics, the world’s first laboratory
accredited for genetic genealogy testing and a pioneer in the field of
genetic genealogy. Users can order their DNA kits on
Ancestry.co.uk and only a simple mouth swab is required for them
to begin their global search. After Sorenson Genomics has
tested the DNA sample, Ancestry will securely email the results back to
users and also place them anonymously in its restricted access** DNA
database for matching.
The two tests most useful in researching family history
will be available - Y-DNA and mtDNA:
Paternal lineage test - a Y-chromosome
test that analyses the Y-DNA passed virtually unchanged between father and
son. This test confirms a shared ancestor in past generations, estimates
the generation span of relatedness, and predicts ancient origins.
Maternal lineage test
– a mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test that analyses the mtDNA passed from
mother to child. This test also predicts ancient origins.
A more comprehensive Y-chromosome test, the
Advanced paternal lineage test, will also be available, allowing
users to more closely match and compare results to establish the span of
generations in which their shared ancestor lived.
Ancestry’s Chief Family Historian and co-author of the
No.1 selling book on genetic genealogy, Tracing your roots with DNA,
Megan Smolenyak comments: “DNA testing in family
history is reaching a critical mass. As more people add their results,
Ancestry’s DNA database will become a powerful asset for users to make
connections and discover their family tree.”
Simon Harper continues: “We
polled our users to gauge their willingness to incorporate DNA into their
family history research and a staggering 91 per cent were in favour. Given
the sheer size of Ancestry’s online family history community, the
potential of DNA to help our users discover new relatives and learn more
about their family’s history is enormous.”
Where paper records can go missing, be damaged or
tainted by human error, DNA moves beyond traditional methods of family
history research, providing conclusive evidence of a relationship. It also
provides a snapshot back 60,000 years to the early origins and migration
patterns of our ancestors.
In the coming months, Ancestry.co.uk
users will be able to add DNA results into their family trees along with
existing research, photographs and stories, and also create and join DNA
Groups - organized social networks that let users work together to
discover genetic connections. For example, those with the surname ‘Blair’
can use their DNA results to determine if they are related.
Ancestry.co.uk’s DNA testing service
is available at http:///dnaancestry.co.uk
5. Next month’s article.
Supplied by John Lindley - One of our subscribers to this newsletter.
"How
I got started
"
Why not send us an article for a future
newsletter? email
* * *
That’s all for this month folks…I hope you enjoyed this months newsletter.
See you next month.
Jim. Editor
PS.
Please forward this newsletter to your friends/relatives, if they are
interested in family history, with our compliments.
If this newsletter was forwarded from a friend/relative and you would
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http://familyhistory4all.co.uk/newsletter.htm
To send us a comment or an article you can
us here
Jim Ackroyd. Address: 12 Avondale Road. Doncaster. UK. DN2 6DE
Take a look at our other web sites here:
http://jamesackroyd.com
PS. For our UK subscribers. If you like to have a flutter on the National
Lottery, Use this link:
http://playlottery.at/A1Shopping
I buy my lotto tickets online as it’s much more convenient. (It is normal
to find the site closed on Wednesday and Saturday evenings GMT. Just try the
next day)
P.P.S. If you like
quizzes - Take a look at our new quiz site:
www.quiz4free.com Hope you like
it.
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