Sunday 25 April 2010

Family Tree News - 25 April 2010

I have made several updates to my website this week. My online Family Tree Shop has had a bit of a facelift, and is well worth a look if you are seeking family tree books and software, local Coventry information or military history books and DVDs including the Blitz.

At the archives this week I was able to find evidence from an 1836 copy of the Coventry Herald and Observer newspaper showing details of the trial and conviction of a customer’s ancestor showing why the ancestor had been transported to Australia.

I will finish on a cautionary note. I have been contacted by a chap who wanted to check up on a letter his elderly mother-in-law received. Someone wrote to her claiming to be a genealogist / researcher and requesting private, personal data from her about her family. The letter alleged that this is in relation to a ‘family entitlement’.

As proof of authenticity, the letter writer claimed that he has written articles for my Family Researcher website. For the record, I have no knowledge of any such researcher. I would advise anyone receiving similar correspondence to thoroughly check the authenticity of the sender before releasing any personal information.

Tuesday 20 April 2010

FREE CENSUS SEARCH RESOURCES

For a great list of free census resources, follow the link!

Sunday 18 April 2010

Family Tree News - 18 April 2010

This week’s family tree news is brought to you by the letters Q and L.


Just kidding! I have found time this week to add four more pages of definitions to the Dictionary of Old Occupations, so check out the occupations lists Q and L if you want to know exactly what that old occupation listed on your ancestor’s census record means.

Also this week I was able to provide details from local records to the son of a Coventry Blitz victim.

The highlight of my week was one particular family research project. I was delighted to hear that the information provided has reunited siblings who had lost touch with one another.

Saturday 10 April 2010

Family Tree News - 10 April 2010

Amongst the interesting projects I have on the go at the moment, I have been helping an ex-Coventry resident discover the details of how his old school friend died in World War 2. Turned out the chap was an Ex-Daimler employee who was killed in action in 1945. I was able to track down the grave reference details; he was buried in the Netherlands.


I have been spending a lot of time at the Archives over the last couple of weeks. Sad to report that they have reduced their opening hours, so I was kept hanging around outside last week waiting for them to open up! When I finally got in out of the rain I was able to research the Parish records for Avon Dassett and local directories for records on a Coventry Coal Dealer from approx 80-90 years ago.

I have added another 100 job descriptions to the dictionary of old occupations, so if you are interested in information about old jobs beginning with the letter D then take a look.