Journeys into Genealogy podcast

Find out about Dead Fred the genealogy photo archive setup by Joe Bott. Over the past 40 years or so he has collected hundreds of thousands of old photos including daguerrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite and cabinet cards and even some post mortem photos. Joe shares the stories of how he found some of them, how people share theirs with him and how some are returned to descendants.

Genealogy Fun whilst developing new genealogists is a new book by Sindi Terrien. We talk about lots of games and ways to encourage interest amongst young (and older) people in your family history. There's also a chance to win a copy of her book. An accompanying blog post genealogy fun gives some examples and ways to create your own word search. If you do create something yourself please share it in the blog comments.

Barbara Tien is the founder of ProjectKin (projectkin.org), a new global community of people helping to share family history stories using modern technology. Barbara explains how she came to set it up, how it works, who it is for and how it can help family historians, plus lots of stories and tips.

Lesley Trotter talks about Cornwall, the 'married widows', the Cornish diaspora and where they ended up including the USA, Canada, Mexico, South America and other places. Discussing why people travelled and the industries concerned, including mining. With tips on how to find Cornish people in different countries and stories about how the women left behind coped with bringing up their families alone, sometimes for years at a time. The accompanying blog post has lots of resources and links and suggestions for further reading: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-cornish-family-history-and-emigration

Find out more about the Family History Federation and the new www.exploreyourgenealogy.co.uk website for information, support and guidance on researching your family history. Ian Waller is the education officer and he explains the aims of the Federation and what it offers for people looking for their ancestors.

Find out more about The Surname Society with Kirsty Gray. If you've considered researching one or more of your family surnames and would like guidance and support then the Surname Society is a useful resource. It's open to everyone across the world with online meetings, forums/chat rooms and newsletters. The Surname Society website is www.surname-society.org and is undergoing updates in Autumn 2023.

Maxine Willett shares her expertise in working in archives plus stories and research tips on how to make the best use of your time. The discussion includes planning a visit, private and public archives, what to expect, how to find items, copying and copyright laws and much more. There is an accompanying blog post with tips and resources here: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-in-archives-guidance-tips-and-resources

Dr Perry Gauci shares his expertise on English merchants, trade and banking from the 1660s to 1850s. We discuss what information is available and where to find it including trade directories, the London Gazette, bankruptcy records, wills, insurance records, the role of the town councils, London, Great Yarmouth, herrings, Norwich, Newcastle, Bristol, English ports, river transport, shipping, banking archives, court records and much more. There is an accompanying blog post with links to suggested resources here: https://emmacox.co.uk/trade-banking-and-merchants-in-17-19th-centuries.

Do you have German ancestors? Claudia Strachan talks about some of the letters, memoirs and other documents she has translated and shares stories about migration from Germany to the USA, South America and Australia. Bringing to life 18th, 19th and early 20th century lives in Germany and describing what it would have been like to migrate to another country and how letters were exchanged. We discuss literacy and education, spelling, the migration process and more.

Mike Trenchard is an expert in researching ancestors in British India. We discuss the East India Company and how it helped shape India, where to find records online and in archives, whether to use a local researcher (or not!), the Families in British India Society (FIBIS), the British Library, the India Office, civil servants, ships, how India has changed and which countries it has been split into and much more.

Sandra Robinson shares her expertise on the history of the Walloons of the Low Countries in Europe in the 16th and 17th century. From origins in Belgium and France and including journeys across Europe to escape perscution from Philip II of Spain. They were the original Protestant refugees and their descendants can be found in England and across the world.

Award winning librarian, Peter McCracken, noticed a gap in available information about where to find details about historical ships online. This led him to setup ShipIndex to bring together all the places he could find, or has been told about, to help anyone looking for information about ships. This includes ships used for migration across the world and crew listings for people searching for their ancestors. Peter has written a guest blog post which explains more about ShipIndex. It is available here: https://emmacox.co.uk/guest-blog-shipindex

Anne Hanson's new book, Buried Secrets: Looking for Frank and Ida, is a real-life mystery about her quest to discover the hidden past that her grandparents Frank and Ida took to their graves. When she finally unearthed their real identities, she learned that their tales were lies invented to conceal disturbing facts. Buried Secrets is both a suspenseful drama and a true story about love, sacrifice, and family relationships. Its target audience is readers of suspense, memoir, and social history. Anne has also written a guest blog post with tips on researching early 20th century US family history. It is available from here: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-early-20th-century-american-ancestors

Jonny Perl talks about how he setup DNA Painter and how it can help anyone researching their DNA including people with pedigree collapse and complicated family trees. We discuss chromosomes, tree completeness, what are the odds, the DNA testing companies and much more.

Jules shares the story of her ancestor Jean BonDurant in her book "The Muse of Freedom" and his imagined life as a Huguenot in the Languedoc with the trials and tribulations of 17th century France. While investigating him, Jules researched late 17th century Languedoc customs, politics, and spiritual traditions specific to the little known Cévennes mountains of south-central France, culminating in a rich repository to feed future novels about the Cévenol people and culture. We also discuss some of the help she received and the sources and resources used including the Hathi Trust, JSTOR, Google Books, Gallica, Huguenot Museums and regional libraries.

The "A Few Forgotten Women" project comemorates women who might otherwise never be known. In this panel interview with Janet Few, Mandy Geary, Margaret Roberts and Ann Simcock we discuss some of the women they have researched and the issues they faced such as alcoholism, poverty, criminality, illegitimacy, mental health problems and more. There is also a blog post with lots of the resources suggested for anyone who wants to find out more about women such as these in their family. The blog post is available at https://emmacox.co.uk/a-few-forgotten-women

The "Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes" is a 200 year old album filled with wonderful fabric pieces. It was created by a Victorian mill owner's daughter who became a merchant's wife and tracks her life over the next 20+ years. Kate Strasdin has researched Anne and the other people mentioned within the album, tracing her life and the places she lived and visited enhanced by snippets of the culture, events and fashions of the time.

The Last Lancer is the story of Catherine Czerkawska's grandfather Wladyslaw Czerkawski and his early life in Poland, World War II, and as a soldier and later on as a refugee and finally his family in Yorkshire, England. Going from what is now Ukraine and crossing Europe at a time of trouble. Catherine has traced his footsteps and connected with living relatives and she shares some of the tips and help she has been given along the way. Catherine has also written a guest blog post with some of the resources she recommends. It is available at https://emmacox.co.uk/guest-blog-the-last-lancer-a-polish-family-history.

Female ancestors can be harder to find but records do exist. Emma Jolly talks about some of the resources she recommends and we discuss military pensions, DNA and matrilineal lines, naming traditions in England and Scotland, names and nicknames, Florence Nightingale, female wills, spinster aunts, the benefits of researching a place as well as a person, fertility, records for women in varied armed forces since the Boer War and including WWI and WWII, the differences between English and Scottish records and how each have their own benefits, MyHeritage, artificial intelligence, photographs, inheritance, clothing, visiting archives and much more. There is an accompanying blog post, Researching Female Ancestors, at emmacox.co.uk with links to the recommended resources.

Sophie Kay specialises in researching historical occupations. We discuss potential sources for finding old occupations including trade directories, censuses, occupational reversion, dictionaries of old occupations, Grace's Guide, HISCO, Histpop and the Internet Archive. Plus the effects of occupation on health, death, population migration and family.