Archive for December, 2008
Polygamy, paternal care in birds linked to dinosaur ancestors
(Florida State University) Sure, they’re polygamous, but male emus and several other ground-dwelling birds also are devoted dads, serving as the sole incubators and caregivers to over-sized broods from multiple mothers. It is rare behavior, but research described in the Dec. 19 Science found that it runs in this avian family, all the way back to its dinosaur ancestors.
Mitochondrial battery could sniff out explosives
A bioelectronic sensor the size of a postage stamp could sniff out hidden bombs and other explosives
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I say, I say, I say
I recently met Colin Rogers, who has just published a new edition of his classic introductory text "The Family History Detective" (4th edition, Manchester University Press, 2008). During our interview he raised the question, why is there so little humour in family history. It is true, there are few good jokes. He told me several, which I hadn’t heard before. If you have ever taught family history classes, this has the ring of truth about it. A family history tutor was teaching a class about the English Civil War. One of her students got very excited: "My ancestor fought in the Civil War." On which side, he was asked: "On my mother’s." Boom, Boom. If you have jokes or genealogical shaggy dog stories you’d like to share please get in touch.
Judges reports on criminals
Detailed indexes to series HO 47 – Home Office: Judges’ Reports on Criminals – have now been uploaded to The National Archives’ catalogue. The work was undertaken by a team of 21 volunteers and took eight years to complete. As well as being fully name, place and date searchable the records are also searchable by crime, court and sentence given. The records cover the period 1784-1830. They are of particular interest to those researching convicts transported to Australia (the first volumes also include some transported to America). One of many stories which appear here is that of Mary Haydock. The entry in the catalogue [HO 47/13/140] has details of the petition: "Report of John Heath on 1 collective petition (19 people, Adam Hope, woollen draper and others from Blackburn in Lancashire, many trades occupations given) on behalf of Mary Haydock, tried (in boy’s clothes) as James Burrow and convicted at the Staffordshire Assizes, for stealing a bay mare, property of John Sorton. The prisoner ‘was prevailed on’ by another young girl [not named] to give up her job in June 1791 and in order that neither were discovered they dressed as boys and changed their names, Haydock taking the name of James Burrow." However, "The judge considered the prisoner to be ‘artful’ and the crime not likely to be her first offence. Grounds for clemency: youth (14 years), was an orphan, was of good education, was from a respectable family and had been brought up in a religious environment by her recently deceased grandmother, did not steal the mare but it had been given to her by an ‘evil minded person’. Initial sentence: death, commuted to 7 years transportation…" She was 13 years old when sentenced. Arriving in Sydney in 1792 she was assigned as a nursemaid in the household of Major Francis Grose. In 1794 she married Thomas Reiby. By 1803 Thomas owned three boats and traded coals and wheat up the Hawkesbury and Hunter rivers. After his death in 1811 Mary was left with seven children and control of a large business which included rural properties, Bass Strait sealing operations and overseas trading. Through enterprise and hard work she became one of the most successful businesswomen in New South Wales. She now appears on the Australian $20 note.
Find out more at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue and http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/reiby.htm
Sutherland papers
One of the best websites I have come across for a while contain extracts from the Sutherland Papers held by Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service in Stafford. Indeed I was so impressed I commissioned an article which will appear in Ancestors’ February issue. The Sutherland Papers were kept by the Leveson-Gower family of Trentham Hall who were big figures locally and nationally between the late-12th century and the 1950s. Indeed it is probably the single most important collection relating to life in Staffordshire. In addition material about other places as well, particularly Wolverhampton where the family originated. A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabled much of the collection to be digitised and indexed and put online at http://www.sutherlandcollection.org.uk. For family historians there is a name index to the individuals, servants and tradesmen as well as the great and the good, who appear in the papers. Also of interest are the various themes on subjects such as places, people and philanthropy which highlight some of the material that researchers will find if they use the collections. I particularly liked the extraordinary theme, with letters selling Dr Deimel’s underwear and "a recipe to prevent rabbits etc attacking young trees" together with some nice begging letters. All in all this is a fascinating and well-designed website giving a real flavour of what an important collection of private papers might contain.
The National Archives closes!
Kew is closed on Friday and Saturday this week and Monday next (5-8 December inclusive) for Stocktaking. Over the Christmas and New Year period The National Archives is also closed between 24 December and 28 December for Christmas (open normal hours between 29 and 31 December) and on 1 January for New Year’s Day. Online services of course remain unaffected
Black coated workers
One of the greatest and least used collections at The National Archives are the railway staff records. The Public Record Office inherited, what was then called the British Transport Historical Collection, in the mid-1970s. They are well known to railway history buffs, but little used by family historians largely because you have to know which railway company an ancestor worked for. If you want to know more about these records there is an article in November 2008’s issue of Ancestors magazine. Work is however beginning to improve matters. One sign of this is a nice little database of nearly 5000 clerks who worked on God’s Wonderful Railway – the Great Western Railway – between the mid-1850s and the 1870s which has just been added to the online catalogue. The records themselves are in series RAIL 264. Once you have found the person’s name you can see how old they were when they joined the GWR, when they worked for the company, the date of their last salary increase and, where given, their reason for leaving. Among the names is Charles Ernest Spagnoletti (1832-1915), an electrical inventor who joined the GWR as a clerk in 1855. He became the telegraph superintendent transforming the way the railway network operated. In addition to the system of controlling the movements of trains by electric telegraph, he designed electrical bells, bridges, clocks, and a fire alarm. A look beneath the facts and figures reveals some intriguing glimpses into the lives of these clerks. We can only speculate about those who "absconded" from the company, or the life of the Stourbridge station master who "died by his own hand" in 1865. During a six-month period in 1858, five clerks were dismissed from the goods office at Paddington for incompetence and inefficiency, perhaps revealing more about their manager than the clerks themselves. A combination of careful Victorian record-keeping and modern technology has ensured that information about their lives is still available to us today.