ancestors

The Silken Paper Trail: openness and the national collective memory

Distinguished historians Professor the Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield and Professor Lisa Jardine CBE explore the value of our archival heritage and consider why ‘sustaining the collective memory of the nation is a first-order requirement’. Lord Hennessy is Attlee Professor of ...
Digitised newspapers as sources for family history

This talk aims to give listeners a demonstration of the recently launched British Newspapers Archive (BNA). This database has over 200 UK newspapers, published from 1700-1950, and over 3 million pages – growing daily. Newspapers are frequently the only place ...
Preparing the 1911 census for digitisation

The National Archives held a one day conference at Kew on Saturday 1 October 2011. The conference brought together an audience wanting to know more about the census, from genealogists to local and social historians. The conference looked at all ...
The Hong Kong colonial cemetery

The National Archives provides a treasure trove of material for discovering more about our colonial ancestors. This talk focuses on the former British Colony of Hong Kong – a thriving trading centre and home to merchants, the military and members ...
Tracing marriages in 18th century England and Wales: a reassessment of law and practice

The Clandestine Marriages Act of 1753 marked an important development in the history of marriage by putting the requirements for a valid marriage on a statutory basis for the first time. But what was the situation before 1753, and what ...
Tracing ancestors in Nelson’s Navy

An overview of the essential finding aids and documents held by The National Archives which can be used to trace ancestors who served in Nelson’s Navy.
Every journey has two ends: using passenger lists

The National Archives’ Chris Watts reveals the benefits of using both arrival and departure records when searching for details of our migrant ancestors, as well as demonstrating how the shortcomings of content, indexing and accessibility can be minimised.
Tracing your ancestors: a case study featuring the Darwin family

A step-by-step guide to tracing your ancestors, using the Darwin family as a case study. Gerry Toop introduces researchers to the most important genealogical sources available at The National Archives and elsewhere, including birth, marriage and death indexes, census returns, ...
Tracing Scottish ancestors

Holding records for Scotland from the union in 1707, The National Archives holds documents on many of our Scottish ancestors. Find out how to go about discovering them in this talk by Audrey Collins.
Using the London Family History Centre

Director of the London Family History Centre, Sharon Hintze, gives an in-depth talk about the excellent facilities available for family historians at the centre. The centre is one of more than a hundred in the British Isles, run by the ...
The annual Ancestors Lecture: our 17th century ancestors

Once we go back beyond the period of civil registration, census returns and uniform parish registers, it becomes more difficult to trace a family tree. This talk will look at early parish registers, wills, apprenticeship records, hearth tax returns and ...
Tracing World War One ancestors

William Spencer takes you through the key records for tracing your World War One ancestors, including records of women who were nurses or in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.
Solving census problems

David Annal takes a practical approach to overcoming the most common problems faced by family historians when using the 19th century census returns. It may seem that some of your ancestors are missing from the returns – this talk aims ...
Emigration records

This talk explains the reasons behind the emigration of some 16 million people since the 17th century. It discusses the most popular destinations for emigrants as well as sources, such as outgoing passenger lists, passport records, and a host of emigration ...
Criminal ancestors: trial records at The National Archives

Nigel Taylor takes us through a short introduction into the records that can be used to trace criminal ancestors.