28 January is Tracing Your Female Ancestors Day at the Society of Genealogists. Our first half-day course, Women in the 1800’s: Birth & Baptism with Tom Doig will take place from 10:30am-1pm.
Tom will look at how pregnancy was identified: the Monthly Nurse and Laying-in, childbirth & midwives/Godsibs, the folklore of birth, dealing with weak babies, normal and private baptisms and traditions of naming the child as well as ‘upsitting’ and the ‘churching’ of women.
Tracing Female Ancestors, will follow from 2-5pm, with Ken Divall and Else Churchill
These sessions will discuss how Family historians are often accused of interesting themselves only in the male lines of their ancestry following the history of the surname. Older pedigree compilations often ignore the daughters of a family leaving it difficult to establish the distaff line. However there are some sources that can be used to throw more light into the lives of our ancestresses and which let us hear their voices. We will look at some strong minded, vocal women; hear their voices and learn about women who fell on hard times. In the second session we will look at how the wars effected women’s lives, and changing their social status forever. Often taking over the jobs that had previously been the preserve of men, for example, bus and tram driving.

Each of these half-day courses cost £17.50/£14.00 (SoG Members) and can be booked together or separately. Spaces are limited and must be pre-booked, either online or by telephone: 020 7553 3290.Do you have a question? email the events department.

Technorati Tags: ancestor, class, family history, female, genealogy, grandmother, lecture, military, Parish Registers, pedigree, social, Society of Genealogists, talk, women

The development of fixed surnames occurred much later in Wales than in the rest of the British Isles.   Is this why you cannot find your ancestor in the records? Come and discover how Welsh names evolved,  when the traditional patronymic naming system declined and some techniques for research.

A one-hour lecture with Mari Alderman on Wednesday, 18 January at 2pm, £6.00/£4.80 SoG members. This talk must be pre-booked, through our secure website, or by telephone: 020 7553 3290. Do you have a question? email the events department.

Technorati Tags: ancestor, class, family history, genealogy, patrynomic, Society of Genealogists, surnames, wales, welsh

In the first of these two sessions we will examine and discuss the many challenges inherent to genealogical research in this region, and the  possibilities for addressing and overcoming them. The second session will focus in more detail on the process of researching ancestors in Poland and Hungary,  including issues to consider when starting out; how to go about identifying which archives in which country to approach; ensuring access to available documents; limitations etc

The sessions will be ideally suited to those embarking on such research for the first time or having made a start, but left feeling daunted.

About the tutors: Madeleine Dickens is a professionally qualified genealogist (AGRA registered) with many years’ experience of research in the UK and other countries. Milla Rabjohns has been resident in the UK for many years and has a passionate interest in genealogical research, particularly in her native country -  Poland.

Saturday, 14 January from 2-5pm, cost £17.50/£14.00 SoG Members. Must be pre-booked, through our secure website or by telephone: 0250 7553 3290. Do you have a question? email the events department.

London Canal Museum visit and Regent’s Canal walk 27th July 2011

Many a time I have walked along the Regent’s Canal towpath with my young grandson
and had to restrain him from that inviting narrow slope down into the water!  No,
it is not a way into the water but a way out for horses that had inadvertently fallen
off the tow path.  That was just one of the snippets of history that our Guide, Roger
Squires, imparted during our two hour walk. Roger is a volunteer with the Canal Museum and
obviously has canals in his blood: there wasn’t a single question he could not answer.

Islington canal tunnel and tranquility just behind King's Cross station

There are about 12 locks between the start of the canal in Limehouse, on the Thames, and Camden,
rising 96 feet.  Then the canal continues on the level for over 20 miles to where it joins the
Grand Union canal in Middlesex.  Construction started in 1815 and the intervening years have seen
many changes of use and fortune.  The early railways deprived it of much income but at the same
time brought in other freight such as coal.  Just behind St Pancras station lie the remains of the
steel structures that supported the railway lines bringing coal from the Midland coalfields, below
which lay the canal barges waiting to receive their load from the bottom discharge hoppers of the coal trucks.  The noise must have been horrendous.  Then the barges distributed  the coal right across London, east to west.  Adjacent is the St Pancras gas works site and if you fancy an apartment with a difference, the plan is to build them within the frame of the giant gas holders!   But there in the middle of this industrial dereliction was a Heron, happily perched on a canal barge.

During the war, the canal traffic increased considerably again because of the shortage of road haulage
and the Canal Company started to make profits again.  The war also brought problems!   Kings Cross Station  lies below the canal level and it was realised that a well placed bomb breaching the canal would allow huge quantities of water to escape flooding the station.  So, at intervals along the canal, ‘stop’ gates were fitted which were closed every night and the remains of those gates are still visible; if you know where to look as Roger clearly did.

Camden lock and lock keeper's cottage now a Starbucks

Ice was a major commodity on the canal and there are several ice pits, one of which is located in the Canal Museum.  The largest ice well in London is right next to the Holiday Inn hotel in the middle of Camden.  It was constructed in 1839 and was still in use up to 1913.  It is no less than 100 feet deep, 40 feet in diameter and held 2000 tons of ice.  ‘Is’ because it is still there, capped below the surface and preserved thanks to English Heritage.  Warehouses lined the canal and, just like the dockland warehouses, many have been converted to residential accommodation but perhaps the most spectacular ‘conversion’ is Camden market.  Until as late as the 1950′s, this area was covered with timber but is now covered with this thriving sprawling market, a cosmopolitan riot of colour, smells, languages and nationalities.  It has become a tourist attraction in its own right and my younger overseas visitors always make a bee line for it.

Battlebridge Basin, home of the Canal Museum and …. a heron

For most of the canal’s life, horses were used to tow the barges and it was not until after WW2 that a few tractors were employed.   Anyone who walks the Regent Canal may well have noticed the gouges in the stonework supporting the bridges.  I always blamed drunken cyclists but in fact they represent nearly 200 years of wear, created by the horse’s tow ropes as they laboured many yards ahead of the barge.

Water has always been a problem for the Regent’s Canal and until the two Companies merged in the 1920′s, the Grand Union canal jealously guarded the water that escaped when the connecting locks were opened.  Water conservation is also one of the reasons for the twin lock system on the Regents canal so that as water in one lock was lowered half of it could be discharged into the adjacent lock to raise boats travelling in the opposite direction.  There was also an extensive pumping system to return water back to the top of the canal from the lower reaches in Limehouse.  At least one of those pumping stations has survived, albeit one now serving as a lock keepers cottage.  Most people will be familiar with the traditional canal lock gates and their wedge shape to hold back the water whilst allowing the gates to be easily (?) opened when needed.  Contrary to popular perceptions, they were not invented by early canal engineers but by Leonardo da Vinci; but then what didn’t he invent?

Whilst the canal has not changed in 200 years, the roads above it have and our guided pointed out the many changes of bridge construction such as widening or strengthening to carry trams.  Perhaps the most bizarre was the new bridges that had been built near St Pancras that had been disguised by ‘planting’ on each side the girders from the old bridge as a facade.  They served no useful purpose other than to maintain the historic appearance of the area. It was also good to see at various locations along the canal that some original foundation stones for the bridges had been preserved nearby, recording the various dignitaries at the time (genealogy at last!)

A cormorant in the middle of Camden

Perhaps the biggest surprise was to see a cormorant sitting on top of an egg in the middle of Camden. Egg?  Well that’s another piece of history, albeit modern.  One of the ‘converted’ canal side buildings was the original TV-AM television studios and they erected these huge egg cups all around their roof. TV-AM went long ago but the egg cups remain and now provide a handy perch for any passing cormorant.  At least it proves there are fish in the canal and those rows fishermen along the tow path are not wasting their time.

Genealogy at last!

After St Pancras the canal disappears into a 960 yard tunnel -  but that is a different story and a
different tour that the Canal Museum offer – but by boat!

Barry Hepburn (group leader)

Technorati Tags: ancestor, Camden, canal, history, museum, the society of genealogists, walk

On 11 May a small but very keen group was taken around the Grade II listed City of London Cemetery and Crematorium by the Superintendent & Registrar, Gary Burks.  The 1200 acres located on the edge of Epping Forest and across from Wansted Flats and originally farmland,  was originally purchased by the City Corporation in 1853 to provide more space for the already overcrowded burial grounds in the City. The cemetery design was laid out by the well-known City Surveyor, William Haywood, and opened in 1856.

Gary gave us a very thorough background history of the cemetery before  the tour and we were also able to briefly view the burial registers. As the registers are in date order, anyone wanting to have a search done would need to know the approximate date of death in order to find someone in the registers. Searches can be done for a fee, contact the City of London Cemetery for further details. The registers are currently being digitised and the Corporation of London hopes to make them available on the internet in the near future.

Within the cemetery are 7 miles of roads, 600,000 internments, not including the re-interred remains from the burial grounds of 38 historic City Churches . The grounds are very well kept, with extensive gardens, including a 600-bed rose garden, which require 10 staff to maintain.

As the cemetery is becoming full, Gary explained the cemetery’s policy of reusing graves for modern burial. Families are contacted about existing graves (which are known to have depth for at least two more burials). For example, some of the older graves were dug to accomodate around twelve bodies, but may only have two bodies interred and this leaves space for modern burials. A marker is left on the existing grave to notify the public of the intention for planning further burials. On one gravestone we saw, the stone had been reversed in the ground, and the back side (now facing forward) was used to inscribe the name of the newer, additional occupant of the grave.

Surprisingly, the cemetery also has a small cafe on the premises where one can have lunch or a cup of tea after a long trek around the grounds, something which our group happily took advantage of.

Technorati Tags: ancestor, burial, cemetery, family history, genealogy, graveyard, Society of Genealogists, tour, visit