The Old Biscuit Tin

02/04/2025

These people are real experts in the field and have innovative and creative ideas about genealogy. The future is bright, the future is PURPLE! 💜

28/03/2025

Berwickshire News and General Advertiser - Tuesday 22 July 1913

Newspapers are a great source of historical information. Thanks to the British Newspaper Archive for these gems!

Visit www.theoldbiscuittin.com to find out more!

Visit https://www.yetholmhayloft.co.uk to see the local business mentioned in the article (The White Swan Hotel, Town Yetholm)

A local business near me that is still providing excellent hospitality.

Content provided by THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

14/01/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DHyxW856u/

09/01/2025

I just gave a webinar to Family Tree magazine

Join us for the December Family Tree Brickwalls, Skills & Solutions Club webinar, at which Philip Manley will be tutoring us in how to actually do family history, from laying good foundations, to building good research skills. ‘This presentation will be very useful for family historians who want s...

09/11/2024

2nd cousin 2x removed. Killed during an air raid in Malta.

16/08/2024

This week

I've been looking into a 2nd World War case & am going through the process of getting access to the service records for an individual. These documents are a wealth of information, but can sometimes be frustrating with the amount of acronyms and jargon contained in them. However, persevere or find a website or specialist to help you out, because these details are often what gives the written record depth and context. You can find out so much from these technical bits of information about your relative and their time in the military. Access your local libraries, heritage hubs and archives for assistance. The people who work in these places are always ready to help you and if you have some information for them to work with, they always do their best to help out! If you get stuck, you can give me a shout on this platform in the replies or contact me at discover.more@theoldbiscuittin.com

As always, happy hunting in your research!

21/06/2024

This week
Linked to last week's post regarding addresses. It’s often very useful to look at the old maps on the National Library of Scotland website (https://maps.nls.uk/) when you have an address or street that you know from the censuses or BMDs. This gives you a bit of context for the area, such as local industry, road and rail links, amenities, churches, pubs and local historical sites. It’s also worth searching on social media for old photos of the area in question. There are hundreds of groups around the UK that are interested in their local history and you can pick up some real gems in their posts and photos. If you do use Google, this can often take you to organisations such as Historic England and all the information they hold in and around your area of interest. Sometimes, there are even local museums or archives that are based in the buildings where our ancestors worked. On one occasion, I had a client’s relative working in a mill and when I searched for the mill online, it is now a working museum, which was great for the client for a future place to visit and really discover their working conditions and locality. All these platforms are also full of really friendly and helpful people who are only too happy to help you with any research questions you may have. So, be curious, build up your network and exchange ideas and findings as much as you can. Family history societies and the genealogical community are great for this. Get amongst it! It’s great fun!

14/06/2024

This week:
I’ve been going through some newspaper archives. These are great sources of information, both good and bad! The old newspapers, especially the smaller local newspapers, have stories on all sorts of local events. Most cover the usual births, marriages and deaths, but there are also adverts for jobs or help needed at a residential address, furniture for sale or auctions following a death. When you get your ancestor’s addresses on the censuses or on civil registration certificates, try putting the address into an online newspaper archive, such as the excellent https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ or https://www.newspapers.com/ you never know what you might turn up. So far this week I’ve unearthed some court cases, local disturbances with unruly juveniles and local sports teams, all from the 1870’s to the 1890’s! They are also great when doing military research, as the papers often printed local casualty lists, medal awards and deserters. Even if you are looking for some context around an event or an address, the newspapers can give you some contemporary views of goings on and the atmosphere of the time. As ever, be aware of journalistic license and inaccuracies! And with them being online, you don’t get your fingers dirty flicking through the pages! Enjoy your newspaper research!

The largest online newspaper archive. Used by millions every month for historical research, family history, crime investigations, journalism, and more.

07/06/2024

This week:
D-Day has dominated the headlines this week and quite rightly so. The events in 1944 are difficult to comprehend, the planning, training, logistics, equipment, technology and the ferocity of the day are legend. But for me, the most fascinating part are the individuals. And I'm not talking about the Churchills or the Eisenhowers. When citizen soldiers are thrown into the cauldron of a global conflict, it is their stories that resonate with me. This is what genealogy can bring to people. Our ancestors lived through some very diverse times, as we are living through ours. Future generations will look back at our times in a similar way that we look back. This is why all records are so important, especially those that document what happened to the masses, the everyday people. History comes to life when we read about people like ourselves, just normal folk trying to eke out a life amongst all the worldly events. Please support your local libraries, archives and councils when it comes to our history. As we know if doing Irish genealogy or trying to find Great War service records, when it's gone, IT'S GONE!

31/05/2024

This week:
Doing research for a client is an unusual thing. At some point, you are going to know more about that person’s family history than they do, or at least a specific point of interest that they might have no clue about. This means that, no matter what that is, it needs to be handled with care and sensitivity. It might be something great, good news, but more often than not, it could be something that has been hidden away for a reason. All we can do as researchers is find out what the sources are telling us. This doesn’t mean that these are facts! Many sources are easily corruptible or may even be apocryphal to hide something. This is why, when we take up a research project, we must inform the client of the possible outcomes and when something does come up in the research, we must approach it with the utmost care. It is not our history, even if we are the ones who find something important. We are there as experienced guides and advisors, filling in as much detail as possible to allow the client to draw their own conclusions and do with the information what they want. The important thing is to be accurate, identify your sources, explain the reliabilities (or otherwise) of those sources and, always, be kind. Genealogy is emotive and can reveal some uncomfortable stories for some people.

24/05/2024

This week:
I've been working on a client report which looked quite complex when the research enquiry came in. There were three elements to the enquiry, involving family individuals from three consecutive generations of the same family. The oldest relative had some children as a spinster and this was before September 1837, when civil registration was introduced. Relying on baptism records has it's pitfalls but the region where the research was in has got good parish records coverage. The most recent relative had a very sad story of children in the family not making it to adulthood, so multiple death registrations were ordered. The new digital ordering system on the GRO was great for this and proved to be a lot cheaper (and quicker!) than before we had this service. But the biggest find to help us work out this family mystery was a newspaper article for a funeral of the middle relative. The report listed all the mourners and gave their familial relationship to the deceased. However, it's reliant on accurate journalism and this is not always good! Even in this case, there are errors in marital status. Also, family nicknames are used and no ages are given. But that just means we have to rely on our genealogy skills to find out who's who! And that was great fun!

23/02/2024

This week:
I've been working on a client's ancestor who served in the Fleet Air Arm and looking into where he served in the Second World War. The website https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/ has been invaluable for this project, with some great information on the bases, the vessels and the squadrons. It's easy to navigate (no pun intended!) around and really helps to build the story for the research. Additionally, there are some great photos, maps and plans of the bases. Once you have got the details from the above, the Imperial War Museum website also has some very good photos and films of the Royal Navy and some of the operations that they went on.
It's my first FAA bit of research but it has been great to find such awesome resources like these, makes the projects a lot more manageable and, hopefully, interesting for the clients!
Happy researching!

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