My Theme
Family History Meets Local History -
Sources & Stories form England and Scotland
ARCHIVE CENTRES are "must contact" places for anything to do with family and local hsitory! There is also a sense of ADVENTURE in exploring the unique records and touching handwritten pages that
give details of our ancestors in their own lifetime.
We are so used now to hunting for information online, but there is a wealth of research opportunities available at Archive Centres. If you cannot get to a centre relevant to your research, take a look at their web site, search their online catalogue, and consider using the range of enquiry services on offer from simple "look ups" to paid in-depth research packages.
How have Archive Centres helped my research?
At Lancashire Archives, I traced: - A marriage bond of 1786 relating to my GGG Grandfather Henry Danson.
- Two Danson wills, dated 1821 and 1831.
- An 1810 bastardy claim,where John Danson was ordered to pay support for his "said bastard child" - a forerunner of today's Child Support Agency!
- A local 1851 directory which listed listed my G.G. grandfather Henry Danson at Trap Farm, Carleton, near Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire; his neighbour and brother-in-law John Bryning, and, under Inns and Taverns, two relations by marriage William Gaulter of the Golden Ball and Cornelius Cardwell of the Kings Arms, plus son-in-law watchmaker James Brownbill.
- I
discoverer the name of the ships on which master mariner Robert
Donaldson had sailed on, the journeys he made and the fate of his ships.
- I obtained the service record of two White ancestors who had served in the Tyne River Police, but fell foul themselves of the law and were charged with assaulting a seaman.
National Archives at Kew, London enabled me to trace death duty records for my great, great, great great grandfather John Danson, with the mariners' register also listing the journeys of my husband's seafaring ancestors Robert Donaldson and Matthew Iley White.
National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh holds original archive material and here
I traced 18th property records relating to my husband's ancestor, merchant Samuel Donaldson of South Leith, Midlothian.
Scottish Borders Archives at the Heritage Hub, Hawick is now my local centre and although I do not have Borders ancestry, I enjoy browsing through its collections. which include:
- Poor Law Records
- Police Records
- Burgh, Town and County Council Records
- School Records
- Militia Records
- Farming Records
- Mill Records
Archive
Centres are also repositories for electoral rolls,
valuation rolls of property, maps, vintage postcards, maps, directories,
newspapers, and the many local history books that can add
so much to learning about the communities in which our ancestors
lived.
I shall be looking in much more detail at a wide variety of records held at Archive Centres as I follow this A-Z journey.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
I am pleased to promote local archive centres in this wa, to show that family history with a local history focus can take you in so many varied directions. You never know what you might unearth to throw light on your ancestors' lives and enhance your family history writing!
Note: In the UK, Date Protection restrictions apply to most post-1900 records
where personal names are given. Archive staff will advise.
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