All About Ancestors

13/11/2025

A picture tells a thousand words - or in this case, a map. The scale of Ireland’s depopulation after the Potato Famine is staggering. What really struck me as a genealogist who does a lot of maritime and port city work is that the few places where the population increased are all ports - Belfast, Dublin, Queenstown (now Cobh). These areas became holding zones for those desperate to escape. 😢

Ireland’s Catastrophic Population Decline 1841-51 Due To The Potato Famine

09/11/2025

Thought I’d share this for anyone with roots in the Durham coalfield or mining families more generally.

In 1890, a miner named John Robinson lost his life in a fall of stone at the Delight Pit in Dipton. The Consett Guardian described him as “a quiet, peaceful, and unassuming man, held in general respect by all.”

His widow Martha was left to raise their children alone, like so many women in colliery communities who faced sudden loss. Their story captures both the hardship and resilience that defined life in the Durham coalfield — from pit ho***rs marking each shift to neighbours rallying when tragedy struck.

I’ve written about the Robinson family’s experience and what it reveals about everyday life in a 19th-century pit village, using census records and local newspapers to piece their story together.

🔗 Read the full story: https://allaboutancestors.com/durham-colliery-family-history/

06/11/2025

I would like to adopt this system!

Instead of an address, a tourist sketched a map of Búðardalur, Iceland, and it was successfully delivered there.

05/11/2025

As you may know, I’m a big fan of maps. Also a big fan of DNA detective work for genealogy. This map is a perfect blend of the two. 😁

If European Borders Were Drawn By DNA Instead Of Ethnicity

02/11/2025

Thought this might help anyone who’s started exploring old wills or parish registers and hit a wall with the handwriting.

If you’ve ever stared at a 1600s baptism or a 1700s will wondering whether it says John, Iohn, or Thomas, you’re not alone! Reading old handwriting (known as palaeography) takes patience and a few simple tricks.

Here are some beginner tips that really make a difference:

🕮 Work letter by letter — don’t try to skim-read; old writing needs careful decoding.
🔤 Expect odd spellings — these are often inconsistent
📜 Learn common abbreviations — wch = which, ye = the.
✒️ Spot the long “s” — it looks like an f without a full crossbar.
📖 Look for familiar phrases to help you work out letters in the rest of the document — for example, wills often begin “In the name of God Amen,” leases may start with “This indenture made…”

Even experienced researchers still count minims — those tiny pen strokes that make nun, mum, or minimum all look the same!

If you’d like to practise, The National Archives has a free palaeography tutorial with real examples to try.
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20230801162323/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/where_to_start.htm 🌳

26/10/2025

Thought this might be helpful for anyone researching possible Titanic connections in their family tree.

It’s common to hear stories like “someone in our family worked on the Titanic” or “a great-grandfather was meant to sail but didn’t.” Most families from coastal areas, especially around Southampton, Liverpool, or Belfast, have heard something similar.

I’ve shared a post outlining how to check these stories properly using crew lists, passenger records, the 1911 and 1921 Census, and the Titanic Relief Fund archives at Southampton. It also covers how to use online resources like Encyclopedia Titanica, Ancestry, and Findmypast to verify details.

It might be useful if you’re tracing maritime ancestors or trying to confirm whether a family legend has truth behind it.

🔗 Read the full guide: https://allaboutancestors.com/how-to-find-out-if-you-have-titanic-ancestors

21/10/2025

When the Titanic sank in 1912, hundreds of Southampton families lost their main breadwinner overnight. Among them was the Woodford family - and their daughter Susan’s story is one of the few that ended in hope rather than heartbreak.

Thanks to the Titanic Relief Fund, Susan went from orphaned child to qualified musician with the Royal College of Music. Her case reveals just how transformative this fund could be for the crew families it supported.

I’ve written about her journey, the history of the Relief Fund, and what the surviving records can tell us about working-class resilience after disaster.

🔗 Read the full story here: https://allaboutancestors.com/titanic-relief-fund/

28/09/2025

Love this map. Well I love all maps but I find this one particularly interesting 😊

Historic Counties of the United Kingdom, Colored by Name Suffixes

28/09/2025

Thought I’d share something I’ve noticed through DNA research: it’s surprising how often families were living almost side by side without realising it. In one of my cases, reunited half-sisters later discovered that one had grown up above a pub - while the other been in the same pub for a drink on several occasions.

It made me wonder: has anyone else found examples in their own family tree where relatives lived close by but had no idea of the connection? Always fascinating to hear how common this turns out to be.