B IS FOR BIBLES, BUSINESS, BLOGGING & BLACK SHEEP

A-Z of Family History Sources & Stories 

Join me on this A-Z journey to explore the fascinating records 

that can  enhance your family history research and writing. 

 

BIBLES -  What a miss for future family historians, as how many of us now have in the  home a family bible, where we record births, marriages and deaths?    

I was delighted to find at my grandfather's house his own parents'' family bible.  But their enthusiasm  for this record- keeping obviously waned, as the entries petered out after the first four children were born.  They went on to have a further seven children.   

                             

John.    my great grandfather's older brother, made a much neater job of recording births and deaths in his family,  with this beautifully written page  which even includes the days of the week when the children  were born.

                

BUSINESS RECORDS  - if you know where your ancestor worked, contact with a local archive centre or museum is called for here to discover background information on your ancestors' work, particularly if it was in a key local industry, such as  textiles. The focus on the collection may be on financial and production records,  rather  than individual employee information, but you may well find valuable pointers that illustrate your ancestor's working life,  such as wage sheets,  staff photographs.  product labels and advertisements, marketing brochures, letterheads etc.    A local history might have been written on a company.  Many towns now have publications featuring old photographs of local shops, trades, mills,  garages, etc. - one might be where your ancestor worked.    

See Also:   D for Directories, J for Job Titles, and O for Occupations. 

My cousin's Oldham family were carters  and coal men in Blackpool, Lancashire - a life  illustrated in these documents:

A sign  of progress.  This was  the first road vehicle that the business bought 

in 1921 as a step to replacing  the horses.

 

BLOGGING - you may feel daunted at the prospect of writing a full family history narrative, but Blogging is such an ideal way to develop your   skills by writing short articles and profiling the life of individual ancestors.  It is also a great opportunity to show your vintage photographs to a wider audience. 

Take a look at the network  site Geneabloggers where  you will find lots of good examples, ideas for posts and support from fellow bloggers. 

Are there BLACK SHEEP in your family?  Little knowledge has come down through the family on my great grandfather James Danson (1852-1906), but anecdotal evidence does not reflect creditably on him, compared with the obvious respect for "Granny".  This is borne out by the photograph below - the only one I have  of him - where he is the bearded man, sitting merry in Poulton stocks.  I suspect the photograph was staged, but it does present a lively image for a family history profile.   James was the youngest son with six sisters and two brothers.   He went on to  father 10 sons (eight surviving infancy), and an only daughter Jennie- so there is no shortage of material here for family stories. . 

                                   

                   The only photograph I have of my great grandfather James Danson
               sitting merrily in  the stocks at Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. ..

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Onto C  for Certificates,  Censuses & Churches