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Category: Social history
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Pathé: Want a fallout shelter?
The National Archives education team’s film of the month highlights a Pathé film relating to current events, anniversaries or key topics that you may be cove... read more
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Suffrage 100: Did militancy help or hinder the fight for the franchise?
By 1912, militancy associated with the Suffragette movement hit its peak, with regular arson attacks, window-smashing campaigns and targeting of MP’s houses.... read more
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England ’66: The best of times?
It was a year when England won the World Cup and led the world in all aspects of popular culture, including pop music, fashion, and film. But it was also a... read more
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Pacifists besieged in a London church, First World War
This footage shows a meeting of pacifists in a London church, which is interrupted by patriots. We see a large crowd outside the church, some trying to get in... read more
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Writer of the Month: Richard Barnett on Crucial Interventions
In this talk medical historian Richard Barnett explores surgery during the 19th century, from the application of antisepsis to experiments with hypnosis. Wh... read more
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Amiable Warriors: A History of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) is the oldest surviving LGBT organisation in the UK. With more than 150 local branches and over 6,000 members, it has... read more
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Heidi Thomas: Researching Call the Midwife
Screenwriter Heidi Thomas shares the process of transforming Jennifer Worth’s memoirs into the BBC period drama ‘Call the Midwife’, a TV se... read more
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Webinar: Using the 1939 Register, recording the UK population before the war
The preparations had been made well in advance. Now Britain was at war, and as the uniformed army prepared to face the enemy, a civilian army was mobilised at h... read more
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Writer of the month: Peter Doggett – Electric shock: From the gramophone to the iPhone
Peter Doggett argues that from the birth of recording in the 19th century to the digital age, popular music has transformed the world in which we live. It has i... read more
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War Girls – poetry and prose by women in the First World War
Ruth Sillers talks about, and performs extracts, from her audio book compilation, War Girls. The study is a commemoration of the remarkable and largely unsung e... read more
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Writer of the month: Jenny Uglow
Author, critic, and historian, Jenny Uglow, talks about her book, In These Times: Living in Britain through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815. This podcast was recor... read more
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Big Ideas: The women’s war in the Middle East – women’s First World War service in Egypt, Gallipoli, Mesopotamia and Palestine
Nadia Atia is Lecturer in World Literature at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research examines the literature and cultural history of the First World War... read more
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‘The Germans are here!’ London’s first Zeppelin raid
Ten months into the First World War and the feared onslaught on London by Germany’s fleet of airships – Zeppelins – had failed to materialise. The... read more
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Webinar: Tracing your ancestors – women in the military services during the First World War
Emily Stidston hosts this webinar which introduces women’s service and other records from 1914 to 1918 and beyond. These records include Army, Royal Navy,... read more
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Fanny and Stella: the young men who shocked Victorian England
The gripping story of the trial that shook Victorian England – a tale of cross-dressing, cross-examinations and the invention of camp, shortlisted for the... read more
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Arts and Inspiration Day at The National Archives 2014: Music and lyrics
Jo Pugh reveals the music, lyrics and poetry lurking in diverse records, from Thomas Byrd’s pupil, John Bull to songs from Second World War prisoner of wa... read more
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Arts and Inspiration Day at The National Archives 2014: Propaganda
Simon Demissie looks at Propaganda through the records held at The National Archives, including the wartime posters in INF 3 and the 1970s ‘Protect and Su... read more
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Arts and Inspiration Day at The National Archives 2014: Design history and material culture
Julie Halls discusses design history and material culture as a potential area for research. Arts and Inspiration Day is a free event for students thinking of fu... read more
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Portillo’s State Secrets
Researcher Tommy Norton introduces some of the 30 documents featured in the BBC 2 ten-part television series, Portillo’s State Secrets. He also talks about th... read more
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Tracing railway ancestors
The National Archives holds a vast collection of railway related material, a legacy passed down by hundreds of railway companies which operated in all corners o... read more
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Catalogue Day 2014: Seditions to petitions – Disturbance Papers and Criminal Petitions, 1816-1838
Briony Paxman and Chris Day outline the cataloguing project around HO 40, Home Office Disturbance Papers. and HO 17, Home Office: Criminal Petitions, Series I,... read more
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Vanishing for the Vote: diverse suffragettes boycott the 1911 census
Vanishing for the Vote tells the story of what happened on census night, 2 April 1911. Despite decades of campaigning, no woman had won the right to vote. Suffr... read more
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Big Ideas: ‘An heroic, slow-motion cataloguing of life’: ethics and digitisation
A culture shift is taking place in the Wellcome Library’s Special Collections team. Driven by a growing realisation that past acquisition policies have left... read more
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Writer of the month: My history – Antonia Fraser
Antonia Fraser’s memoir describes growing up in the 1930s and 1940s but its real concern is with her growing love of History. The fascination began as a c... read more
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The huns have got my gramophone: advertisements from the Great War
In the nineteenth century, Britain led the world in the production of illustrated books and magazines. By the 1890s, commercial artists often drew for both maga... read more
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Black Poppies: Britain’s black community and the Great War
Stephen Bourne talks about his latest book, Black Poppies, published by The History Press to coincide with the centenary of the First World War. Black Poppies e... read more
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Writer of the month: Stories from behind the Berlin Wall
Hester Vaizey discusses her latest book, Born in the GDR: Living in the Shadow of the Wall, which reveals the everyday lives of citizens of the former German De... read more
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Putting it all together: using archives to discover your community’s involvement in the First World War
The names of the First World War dead are there for all to see, on war memorials all over the country. Many individuals and groups are researching the stories b... read more
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The civil service in the First World War
The First World War affected every sector of society, as the nation’s resources were harnessed for the war effort. Like other employers, the civil service... read more
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Inventions that didn’t change the world: a history of Victorian curiosities
In an era when Britain led the world in technological innovation, a host of lesser inventors were also hard at work. Registering designs for copyright was quick... read more
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Inventions that didn’t change the world: a history of Victorian curiosities – audio
In an era when Britain led the world in technological innovation, a host of lesser inventors were also hard at work. Registering designs for copyright was quick... read more
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Webinar: Why did people fear the Victorian workhouse?
The workhouse was a major feature in the lives of the poor, whether or not they were ever inmates themselves. This webinar can help you to explore records in Th... read more
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Did she kill him? Addiction, adultery and arsenic in Victorian Britain
Florence Chandler was in her early 20s when she married much older James Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton broker, in 1881. Eight years later, tensions seethed. Jame... read more
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The naval policy of the Free Church of Scotland
In 1843 the established Church of Scotland suffered a large secession of members who formed the Free Church of Scotland. In the early years of its existence the... read more
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Inconvenient people and how to find them: Tales from the Victorian lunacy panics
The 19th century saw a series of scandals concerning sane individuals being locked away in lunatic asylums, who were the victims of unscrupulous persons who wan... read more
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Reluctant regicides? The trial of Charles I revisited
Dr Andrew Hopper investigates the recent controversy among historians about the nature of the trial of King Charles I. Which individuals drove the king’s... read more
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Georgian Londoners – the making of a modern city
Lucy Inglis looks at the making of the London identity, and how it was shaped through the last years of the 17th century, then consolidated throughout the 18th... read more
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Writer of the month: Human woes – researching violence and pain in the archives
Joanna Bourke discusses her book What it Means to be Human: Reflections from 1791 to the Present and how she uses original records in her writing. Joanna Bourke... read more
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The Post Office Tower: symbol of a new Britain?
When the Post Office Tower was opened officially on 8 October 1965, it was London’s tallest building. It was also seen as symbolising a new, exciting tech... read more
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British nationality: subject or citizen?
Mark Pearsall looks at the status of immigrants and the concept of nationality over the last 500 years. This talk covers alienage, denization, naturalisation an... read more
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Early civil registration
Everyone researching 19th century English or Welsh ancestors is familiar with birth, marriage and death certificates, but how much thought do we give to the ori... read more
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‘…we may lie and die in a land of plenty…’: The Victorian poor in their own words
In all but the most specialist accounts of Victorian histories the poor are often represented through generalisations, graphs or summed up in ‘averaging&#... read more
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He is so silly he would rather have a half pence than a shilling: Discovering the history of learning disability
Simon Jarrett explores the fascinating and little-known world of the history of people with learning disabilities, known variously over time as idiots, imbecile... read more
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From deviance to diversity? Finding sexuality and sexual science in the archives
Dr Lesley Hall, Senior Archivist at the Wellcome Library, examines sources at the Wellcome Library on questions of sexuality from approximately 1800 to the pres... read more
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Black in the British Frame
Stephen Bourne shares his memories of growing up in Peckham and of his adopted Aunt Esther, a black Londoner born before the First World War and the subject of... read more
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Public Cooperation with the Household Expenditure Enquiry, 1953-1954
The Household Expenditure Enquiry of 1953-54 was the first large-scale enquiry into household expenditure and income in the United Kingdom since the Family Budg... read more
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NDACA – the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive
In this talk Tony Heaton examines the vision for The National Disability Arts Collection and Archive and the wider historical and social context. Tony Heaton OB... read more
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They gave the crowd plenty fun: West Indian cricket and its relationship with the British-resident Caribbean Diaspora
‘They gave the crowd plenty fun’ is a lucid study of the impact of West Indian cricket on those of Caribbean birth and descent in Britain. It traces... read more
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Writer of the month: witches, sorcery, scandal and seduction in Jacobean England
This talk describes the events which unfolded at Belvoir Castle four hundred years ago, during the witch craze. It is a tale of superstition, injustice and cons... read more
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Big Ideas: Searching the unsearchable
Colour, pattern and texture are all ‘content’ but are not searchable like written text. This talk discusses how exploiting digital technology to enh... read more
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William Hardin Burnley and Caribbean slavery
William Hardin Burnley, the biggest slave owner in Trinidad, did everything in his power to prevent the emancipation of Africans in the colony. When slavery en... read more
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Writer of the month: Researching untold histories
Dr Kathleen Chater discusses her book Researching Untold Histories: Black people in England and Wales during the period of the British slave trade, c1660-1807.... read more
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From Stephenson to Suburbia: the Socio-Economic Impacts of the Coming of the Railways to the Chilterns
Using current PhD research, Rudi Newman’s talk demonstrates that for rural Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, railways had varying degrees of im... read more
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Engineering office staff
Focusing on some of the drawing and engineering offices, Tim Procter’s talk examines the personal marks that staff have left on the official records and shows... read more
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Selling the age of the train: British Rail passenger marketing and travel in Britain in the 1960s–70s
By exploring a wide range of historical records, this talk aims to tell the story of how the railways changed peoples’ lives, as well as to show how peop... read more
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Immigrant Ancestors Project: indexed collections from The National Archives
Family history majors at Brigham Young University intern at various repositories of European countries and obtain copies of emigration registers, passport appli... read more
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John Reginald Christie: a study in sources, The National Archives and beyond
This talk examines and evaluates the sources for the study of the life and crimes of a notorious serial killer, including records held in The National Archives.... read more
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Big Ideas: Big data and dead criminals
Big data and dead criminals, presented by Professor Tim Hitchcock of the University of Hertfordshire. This talk explores work to make complex trial accounts tot... read more
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Living in a railway town
Di Drummond describes the experience of living in railway towns during the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly focussing on Crewe between 1840-1914. The recor... read more
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Writer of the month: An intimate history of your home
Lucy Worsley discusses the writing of If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of your Home. Lucy is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent ch... read more
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An introduction to the seventh tranche of colonial administration records released at The National Archives
The National Archives is working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to transfer and release colonial administration records, referred to as the ‘... read more
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The life and work of MacDonald Gill: mapmaker, letterer and graphic artist
Discover the wonderful pictorial maps and graphic designs of MacDonald ‘Max’ Gill, one of the best-known commercial artists of the early 20th centur... read more
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Writer of the month: Suddenly, all roads led to Munich, 1936 – why I wrote Winter Games
Rachel Johnson discusses the writing of Winter Games. Rachel is a columnist, bestselling novelist and the ninth editor of the world’s oldest women’s... read more
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Yapton: a Sussex parish seen through the census and parish records
This talk looks beyond the names recorded in the parish registers and census records, which can contain a wealth of other information that can help to define th... read more
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There and back again: going away doesn’t mean staying away
It is easy to think of emigration as a one-way process, but not everyone who went to live in another country stayed there permanently. As more and more records... read more
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The truth about The Great Train Robbery of 1963
It was called the crime of the century. The Great Train Robbers planned their heist pretty much flawlessly. But getting away with it was another matter. Most... read more
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At the Instigation of the Devil: suicide and its records
Even today suicide is surrounded by guilt and silence. How did our ancestors regard it and what records will help us discover more? Dr Kathy Chater has been tra... read more
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Locating London’s wartime past: www.bombsight.org
Bomb Sight uses geography to link together The National Archives’ Second World War Bomb Census maps for London with photographs and personal narratives fr... read more
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Cars and democracy: British trusteeship of Volkswagen 1945 to 1949
This talk gives an overview of British policy and the decisions relating to the Volkswagenwerk GmbH, and today’s Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft. Production... read more
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No (inter)sex please, we’re Olympians
The treatment of Caster Semenya, the South African athlete whose victory in the 800m at the World Championships in 2009 ended in acrimony after she was accused... read more
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The secret listeners
Before Bletchley Park could break the German war machine’s codes, the enemy’s radio traffic and communications were monitored around the clock by th... read more
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Join up and see the world! British military recruitment after national service
In the First and Second World Wars, men had come forward to join the colours willingly, or had been compelled by conscription. But after the end of National Ser... read more
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Writer of the month: In conversation with Dominic Sandbrook
A session in conversation with Dominic Sandbrook, talking about his recent book, ‘Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974-1979′, as part of our... read more
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Writer of the month: An A-Z of interesting things about Elizabethan England
Ian Mortimer started his career as a poet, then qualified as an archivist and later became a historian and a novelist. In this podcast Ian talks through an A-Z... read more
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Hillsborough: the tangled web
As a member of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, Christine Gifford led the Panel on the discovery and disclosure of the information subsequently put in the pu... read more
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An introduction to the fifth tranche of colonial administration records released at The National Archives
The National Archives is working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to transfer and release colonial administration records, referred to as the ‘... read more
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A momentous question: decorating the Victorian home
The rise of an increasingly affluent Victorian middle class and the availability of mass manufactured goods, including furniture and textiles, contributed to an... read more
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Hearth Tax: an introduction
The hearth tax was levied on householders in England and Wales between 1662 and 1689. Records of the assessments, returns and exemptions are a fruitful source f... read more
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What happened before today’s Mutual Credit Unions? An introduction to Friends of Labour Loan Societies 1850s-1930s
Friends of Labour Loan Societies have been overlooked in analyses of mutual self-help organisations and working class organisations. Starting around 1851, on th... read more
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Reckless, rash and repentant: Convicts’ petitions for mercy 1819-1858
A look at the pardoning process of the early 19th century, and some stories behind the petitions for mercy written on behalf of convicted criminals, found at Th... read more
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CO 1069 – Australasia through a lens
A look at the work of Charles Percy Pickering and John William Lindt, two European photographers, whose varied paths had led them to Australia.... read more
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CO 1069: The Colonial Office Library Photographic Collection
Stephen Cable introduces CO 1069: The Colonial Office Library Photographic Collection.... read more
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Ugandan Asians in Britain: Journeys across three continents to find a home
It is 40 years since Idi Amin arbitrarily decided to expel over 70,000 Asians resident in Uganda. Given only 90 days to leave the land-locked East African coun... read more
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Bess of Hardwick
Elizabeth, countess of Shrewsbury (c1522-1608), known as ‘Bess of Hardwick’, is one of Elizabethan England’s most famous figures. She is renow... read more
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The scandalous case of John Vassall: sexuality, spying and the Civil Service
Fifty years ago civil servant John Vassall was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment for espionage. Vassall was homosexual, and whilst working at the Britis... read more
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Tracing Huguenot ancestors
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, many thousands of refugees fled from religious persecution in the Low Countries and France. These refugees left descendants... read more
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The strange journey of Edward Swarthye, an African in Elizabethan England: from the Spanish Caribbean to rural Gloucestershire
In 1597, an African man named ‘Edward Swarthye, alias negro’ appeared before an English court. He gave evidence that, at the command of his employer... read more
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Morbidity and mortality on convict voyages to 19th century Australia
Between 1803 and 1853 some 67,000 convicts were transported from England and Ireland to the British penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land, later renamed Tasma... read more
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An introduction to the fourth tranche of colonial administration records released at The National Archives
The National Archives is working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to transfer and release colonial administration records, referred to as the ‘m... read more
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Adlestrop: railways, poetry and the myths of 1914
Adlestrop by Edward Thomas is one of the nation’s favourite poems. Written in the heat of battle by an officer who was doomed not to survive the war, Adle... read more
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Tracing marriages; legal requirements and actual practice, 1700-1836
Based upon studies of thousands of couples, this podcast explains how, when and where people in past centuries married. Family historians just starting out will... read more
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Keeping it in the family: professional dynasties in 19th century England
The 19th century witnessed a huge expansion in the number of people in Britain described as members of a profession, including lawyers, doctors, religious minis... read more
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Remembering Samuel Coleridge Taylor; African British musician and pan-Africanist
This podcast is an audio-visual presentation on the life of one of Britain’s favourite composers of the early 20th century and the first African to conduc... read more
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Philip Henslowe, Edward Alleyn and the invention of London theatre in the age of Shakespeare
The actor Edward Alleyn and his father-in-law Philip Henslowe built and expanded several London public playhouses, including the Rose, the Fortune, and the Hope... read more
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An introduction to the third tranche of colonial administration records released at The National Archives
The National Archives is working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to transfer and begin releasing colonial administration records, referred to as... read more
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Sarawak in pictures, a century of rule by the ‘White Rajas”
James Cronan introduces files related to Sarawak from the recently released CO 1069 Colonial Office photographic records.... read more
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From wheelchair polo to winning professionals: the history of the Paralympics
Today, the Paralympics is a showcase of professional, top-level athletic achievement. Like the able-bodied Olympics, disabled athletes train for years in order... read more
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Coroners’ Inquests
Coroners’ inquests produce a wealth of information for family historians. Ancestors might have been involved in a number of ways, such as members of the... read more
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Women Making Munitions
The film goes straight in to show women using heavy engineering machinery such as belt driven lathes. We see women on the production line assembling shells, whi... read more
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National Service – Women’s Land Army
This short clip consists of a romantic scene in which a noble woman runs a horse drawn plough across the field. It is taken from a recruiting film for more wome... read more
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Women’s Army in France
This clip comes from a compilation film of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in France, 1917-1918. In this segment we see women with their sleeves rolled u... read more
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Women Transport Workers
The film starts with a tram being driven and conducted by women. The journey continues as the women driver prepares the tram and we then see the women conductor... read more
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Dublin After The Easter Rising
The film opens with titles locating scenes of the fighting in Dublin at Easter 1916. Several different shots follow that focus on the huge amount of damage caus... read more
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Armistice Day Ceremonies
The film starts with titles explaining the Armistice Day ceremony. It then goes on to show the march past the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Context The Great War offic... read more
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‘An impenetrable tangle or an under-used mine of information?’ The Court of Common Pleas and its records, c1200-1875
The Court of Common Pleas was the busiest court in England for almost all of the medieval and early modern period, dealing with tens of thousands of cases a yea... read more
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London Church Completely Destroyed By Fire
The opening titles tell us that this is a church burned down by Suffragettes, causing £20,000 of damage. The scene then shifts to a church at New Cross that ha... read more
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For the Empire – Part 2
This clip takes us first through a sequence of ruined cities in Belgium and France and shows scenes of complete devastation. This is contrasted with London̵... read more
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For the Empire – Part 1
At the start of this clip Britannia (representing Britain) points out ‘What others are doing for us’. We then see a young recruit being waved off to war by... read more
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Emily Davison killed at Derby
Opening title says Tattenham Corner, followed by scenes of horses racing past. A new title then tells us ‘Suffragette killed in attempt to pull down the King&... read more
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War Between British Forces and Irish Republicans
This film opens with titles proclaiming ‘Terror In Ireland’. We then see a scene in which a British checkpoint blocks an Irish street. The scene then switch... read more
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Suffragist Rally in Hyde Park
The opening titles tell us that ‘Law Abiding Suffragists? from all over the country held a rally in Hyde Park. We then see a huge, orderly and very cheerful c... read more
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Suffragette Pageant in London
The clip opens with titles telling us the pageant contains over 66,000 women and they are showing examples of famous women in history. We then see a very large... read more
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The Canterbury Tour – Part 2
This is a film taken from the back of a truck with the cameraman filming everything in his wake. It starts at one end of Canterbury and takes us to the other en... read more
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The Canterbury Tour – Part 1
This is a film taken from the back of a truck with the cameraman filming everything in his wake. It starts at one end of Canterbury and takes us to the other en... read more
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Edwardian Folkestone at play
In this clip we see people bathing in the sea with interesting details like the bathing booths. Later people are shown having portrait photos taken. We get a br... read more
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Colonial lives, careers and policies: researching printed papers of the British colonial governments
The printed papers of colonial governments held by the Colonial Office, including government gazettes and sessional papers of colonial assemblies and parliament... read more
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An introduction to the second tranche of colonial administration records released at The National Archives
The National Archives is working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to transfer and begin releasing colonial administration records, referred to as... read more
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Lost in London
Tracing ancestors before civil registration and the census presents a real challenge to family historians. In London, the problems can be even greater, where th... read more
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The Golden Stool: cataloguing Colonial Office records from 1900
In 1900, war broke out between the British and the Ashanti in the Gold Coast. The Colonial Office records from this year have recently been catalogued by volunt... read more
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Medieval queens in The National Archives
Many medieval kings still loom large in popular culture but the queens who lived and worked alongside them are often less well known. This explores the role of... read more
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Selling history: the role of the past at Fortnum and Mason
Founded in the year when Great Britain was created, the history of Fortnum and Mason is that of the development of British taste. It covers tea drinking, picni... read more
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Digging for diamonds: hidden histories at The National Archives
From ‘parachuting’ to ‘truffle-hunting’, there are many ways to research at The National Archives. This talk focuses on the histories th... read more
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Africa through a lens: Focus on Nigeria
Presented by James Cronan, diplomatic and colonial records specialist at The National Archives.... read more
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Africa through a lens: The history of colonial South Africa
The history of colonial South Africa, presented by Daniel Gilfoyle, diplomatic and colonial records specialist at The National Archives.... read more
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Africa through a lens: Origins and aims
The origins and aims of the Africa through a lens project, presented by Caroline Kimbell, head of licensing at The National Archives.... read more
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Africa through a lens
Africa through a lens, presented by Jenny Orme, Diverse Histories Specialist at The National Archives.... read more
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What Titanic means to me: Rudi Newman
Academic and Historian Rudi Newman talks about what Titanic means to him.... read more
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What Titanic means to me: Peter Boyd-Smith
Maritime Historian Peter Boyd-Smith talks about what Titanic means to him.... read more
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What Titanic means to me: James Cronan
Records Specialist James Cronan talks about what Titanic means to him, and a document of special significance.... read more
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To Her Most Excellent Majesty…
An introduction to the Privy Purse 1 (PP1) series of records. The beautiful, rarely-seen congratulatory addresses in the Privy Purse series were presented to Qu... read more
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Women and Children First
This talk looks at the origins and social context of why women and children were evacuated from the Titanic first, and did this conformity to the social norm ac... read more
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Titanic: The Last Night of a Small Town
It was Walter Lord in A Night to Remember (1955) who described the sinking of the Titanic as ‘the last night of a small town’. John Welshman’s... read more
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Frederick Woodford, a crewman on Titanic
Much has been written about RMS Titanic, but this has tended to concentrate on the ship and its passengers. Using sources such as crew lists, local newspapers,... read more
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The Belles of Belfast
To many, the Titanic story started with the sighting of a dark mass on the horizon, ending when the Atlantic closed over her fantail. However this is by no mean... read more
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Titanic: Emigrant ship or luxury liner?
This talk was originally scheduled to be given by Aidan Lawes at the Titanic 2012 conference held at The National Archives in April 2012. Sadly, Aidan passed aw... read more
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When sport meets the law
This talk uses records of the law courts and government departments to describe the uneasy relationship between sport and the law, covering various sports, incl... read more
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Business Archives: new initiatives and developments
This podcast looks at the background to company archives and the recent development of national strategies to promote business archives more widely. The talk fo... read more
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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... read more
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Our ancestors and the fear of the Victorian workhouse
In 1834 the British government introduced the Poor Law Amendment Act (the introduction of the ‘Workhouse System’). This was one of the most importan... read more
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No vote no census
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 ce... read more
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Out of the way of mischief
From the mid-19th century the Home Office and the Treasury became involved in the inspection and funding of reformatory and industrial schools. Children identif... read more
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Overseas births, marriages and deaths: records in The National Archives
There is no single place to find all the birth, marriage and death records of the British overseas. However, The National Archives holds a substantial number of... read more
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Tithe tales: what the Tithe Survey records tell us about early Victorian place and society
The maps and textual records of this vast tax survey date from around 1840, and are a detailed and unique resource for social, local and family historians. They... read more
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The British Red Cross and its archives
The British Red Cross has long recognised the importance of its history and archive collection, maintaining an archive since the late 1960s. The talk outlines t... read more
