Angela Smith - Tracing Your Ancestors Using the UK Historical Timeline: A Guide for Family Historians

Tracing Your Ancestors Using the UK Historical Timeline

A Guide for Family Historians

Angela Smith and Neil Bertram

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

Pen & Sword Family History

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Angela Smith and Neil Bertram 2021

ISBN 978 1 39900 332 2

eISBN 978 1 39900 333 9

Mobi ISBN 978 1 39900 334 6

The right of Angela Smith and Neil Bertram to be identified as Authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Dedicated to our families who we have bored to death with family history!

Our grateful thanks to Debbie, Judith, Allan and other friends and family who have kindly read through earlier drafts of this book and offered their comments.

Once upon a time, many years agowell thats just the whole point; many years ago just who can remember all those dates? Dont answer that some of us have to have them written down

So, this handbook has been compiled as a tool for the family historian and in particular those new to genealogy or whose knowledge (or memory) of dates is shaky. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list of historical events. Rather, this timeline offers a guide for family historians to refer to and to help set dates into a wider historical context. It is selective; we have included items that we think are particularly important for family historians to know but there are many more that have not been cited. We have, for example, numerous references to the various taxes that have been imposed down the centuries since the paper trail for their collection might name your ancestor. There are many additional taxes that could be included a tax on wallpaper for example in 1712 and another on the use of bricks in 1784, for which some records survive.

The main column on each page lists events pertinent to family historians where there may be some traceable record. Items in italics may not yield any records but are of interest to family historians. Some items only have the briefest of descriptions but the reader should be able to easily find more detailed information on events or source records by using the phrases in an internet search engine. Inclusion (or not) does not necessarily imply that some sort of traceable record is available.

Two smaller columns may be found on the edge of each page. These include a column listing English monarchs and prime ministers: Monarchy, State and Church. The reader will find further information of a more general nature in the adjacent column which will hopefully offer some historical context: Socio-cultural.

We have indicated, in a few places, if original records are kept in The National Archives (TNA), in local record offices (LROs) or in specialist niche repositories like the Imperial War Museum. We have avoided giving too many specific details as these can be easily found by the reader using keywords in an internet search engine. An excellent place to start is TNA Discovery which holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by them and more than 2,500 archives across the country: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk . A few other websites are given where we are reasonably certain the web address will not change. For a virtual reference library of genealogical information, with particular relevance to the UK and Ireland, see: www.genuki.org.uk .

All population numbers are approximate averaged from several sources as nobody seems to agree! Dates are as accurate as humanly possible; legislation can be quoted as the date it was passed or date it was enacted.

The future looks bright for Family Historians! More and more records are being made available all the time; especially at the moment as records for workers across many diverse trades are being released for general viewing. Keep searching and if they are not there today they just maybe tomorrow.

We really do hope you find the information useful in some way. Even if you find one nugget of information that prompts you to search new areas for your ancestors or offers some context in which to place their situation. Happy searching!

Angela has a PhD in Combined Historical Studies (Warburg Institute, London) and is a freelance lecturer for the Arts Society. She and her husband Adrian live in Somerset. Nearly 45 years ago Angela could be found walking to school with Neil. Now both have been reunited through their love of digging up the past.

Neil has worked in publishing, primarily design and editing. Was a London Taxi (Black Cabs) driver for ten years. Worked on research and volunteer/events coordinator for Boathouse 4 in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Neil gained BA (Hons) in History as a mature student. He currently works in adult social care.