Sunday 29 May 2011

Family Tree News 29 May 2011

Family tree research has certainly been keeping me busy this week! I found time to add details about members of the Copeland, Cotton and Coulter families to the Coventry Blitz Resource Centre. I was also able to add another photo of a Blitz victim – Alan Hiscocks – kindly supplied by Trevor Harkin

I had some good news this week; Barnes and Noble are now selling my Dictionary of Old Occupations too. So, if you are a family tree researcher with a Nook then this may interest you. You can find my ebook by searching for either for 'old occupations' or 'Jane Hewitt' on their site, or from this link http://bit.ly/lE1p3R.

Sunday 15 May 2011

Family Tree News 15 May 2011

Author and historian Trevor Harking kindly donated some photographs of victims of the Coventry Blitz who went to Bablake School. If you are researching Farren, Fraser or Worrod family trees then these may be relevant to you.

Trevor has a new book out about the April 1941 air raids on Coventry. I have always been impressed with Trevor's work, and would encourage anyone interested in WW2 or local history to seek out a copy.

Sunday 8 May 2011

Family Tree News 08 May 2011

This week sees some promising news about the possible restoration of Coventry Old Grammar School, a magnificent building and part of Coventry’s heritage which is currently suffering from years of neglect. The Church of England has announced the setting up of a trust fund for this purpose. You can read more about this historical building in my Disappearing Coventry section.

I stopped by the Coventry History Centre (a.k.a. Coventry Archives) this week to check on progress. Busy workmen were to be seen, and the floor looked better than last time. Still no definite opening date though.

I have added new research data to my website regarding the Coventry Blitz. If you are tracing local Hockton, Singer, Shaw, Sims, Sharrocks, Scannell or Sharratt family trees then you may find useful data in the Blitz Victims section of my Coventry Blitz Resource Centre.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Family Tree News 01 May 2011

I would like to give a big thank you to everyone for the supportive comments and nice feedback about our new ebook, the Dictionary of Old Occupations. The kindle version has been most popular so far, but that may change now that Smashwords, who provide the eBook in all other digital formats, have reviewed / quality assessed the book and accepted it into their premium catalogue. This means that it will soon be more widely distributed by organisations such as Barnes and Noble.

Recent family tree research has had me tracing Scottish ancestors back to the early to the early 1800s so far in the Lanarkshire and Ross and Cromarty areas. I have also been tracing English family trees, including one focussing on the Lancashire area which I have managed to research back to 1745. Whilst I have uncovered lots of agricultural workers, my favourite occupation discovered this week was a chap born in 1823 who according to a series of census records spent decades working as a travelling wine and spirit merchant before settling down as a distiller when he got older. You never know what you will uncover when you trace your family tree!