FTF Online Magazine

The Family Tree Forum Online Magazine

The Family Tree Online Magazine is written and put together by the members of The Family Tree Forum. Since the first issue of the magazine, over 400 articles have been contributed by 119 members to the 24 monthly editions.

A wide variety of topics is covered in the magazine. Most articles are drawn from the authors' own research into interesting relatives who they have come across, others are inspired by questions posed in the forums. Alongside these, you will find in depth articles giving an historical context to our ancestors' way of life. Each issue looks at a specific occupation and related trades. Every article is backed up with sources and suggestions for further reading and research.

Generally the magazine follows a loose theme in each issue, but there are also three series of special features, 'My Kind of Town' where members focus on a specific location, 'Family Treasures' where members describe objects which have been passed down to them and 'Spotlight on FTF' which takes a close look at what you will find on the site to help you in your research.

From August 2009, when we will be beginning Volume Three, editions will appear quarterly - on the first Wednesday in August, November, February and May. We will only be able to do that with your help! You don't have to have been researching for a long time or to have been a member of the site for a long time in order to write something for us. We are interested in you and your stories so don't feel that you can't contribute. If you are worried about spelling or grammar, we can tidy that up.

Do enjoy the magazine and we look forward to hearing from you with lots of ideas for articles.

The Editorial Team

N.B. Links to be added to each issue later.

Our writers for this issue are samesizedfeet, Grampa Jim, Guinevere, KiwiChris and Lemon Nelly. All have been members of Family Tree Forum since the start and have been researching their trees for quite a number of years between them. In this issue, we also have a guest author, Douglas Holmes, who retells his experience of having survived the torpedoing of the SS Strathallan in 1942.

The strength of the site is the help which members give each other – from genealogy to problems with their computers via gardening hints. The Wiki, our Reference Library, has been created from members' recommendations over the past year and continues to expand. The Research Advice forums are always busy with people helping each other break down brickwalls or finding elusive ancestors in census returns.

The Community boards provide help, support and advice on a wide variety of topics including more general threads about genealogically related discussions. One of these threads, “Why did you start your family history research?”, started by Simon in Bucks, forms the basis of three of this month's articles. Other members have shared their personal genealogical detective work, including another Simon who writes about his search for his biological mother.

We have articles from Olde Crone Holden and Merry Monty Montgomery who tell us about some of their more unusual connections in their Family Tree as well as Joy Dean's story about visiting her ancestral roots in Suffolk.

The lead story and its related articles describe how to use a variety of military records in researching your family history. In other articles, Georgette writes about a relative who served in Lucknow, KiwiChris tells us about her great great grandmother who was at Scutari and Christine in Herts describes how she was able to persuade the Commonwealth War Graves Commisssion to amend the details of Great Uncle Cecil.

In addition, Wendy Pusey tells us about the gun carriage which finished up in somebody's garden, guest author Dawn Lewcock shares her wartime memories of Buckinghamshire and Guinevere recounts her day at the LDS Roadshow in Coventry.

This month's issue leads with an article by Ann from Sussex based on her thread on the General board asking members for their own family myths. The membership responded with a fascinating mix of stories and four of these have been made into articles of their own. Look very closely and you will spot Royalty amongst the photographs!

Not letting Christmas pass without a mention, Cherry Tradewell recalls her post WW2 Christmas childhood memories, whilst yummy-mummy-of-2 tells of her mother's unhappy Christmastimes. Guinevere explains the history behind her family's special way of celebrating, Suejmog recalls a family story of when her merchant seaman uncle surprised the family by returning home from sea in time for Christmas and Sunny Kate has put her traumatic memories of Christmas 1974 into poetry. Velma Dinkley delves into the history of Christmas and the origin of some of its traditions, and Cloggie tells of how Sinkerklass is celebrated in her homeland of Holland.

We also have stories from Rosie Knees, Daisiesinmay and Pippa Doll, based on their own family tree research.

Last, but by no means least, please take a look at Muggins in Sussex's Christmas crossword. This is the first in an occasional series. Look out for the solution in next month's issue.

Which just leaves us to say "Merry Christmas to all Family Tree Forum Magazine's readers and all the very best for 2008".

This month we have been looking in particular at emigration and you can read stories about how ancestors of FTF members left their homes for the New World. There is also an article about the movement of Germanic speaking people across the world.

We also begin a new series this month about the occupations of our ancestors, coordinated by Georgette. We begin with agricultural labourers or ag labs, as we have come to know and love them. It’s a very rare tree that doesn’t have a few ag labs.

If you have any interesting stories about your ancestors please contact the team, although we often have themes there is always room for articles about anything to do with Family History.

I was very pleased when Caroline asked me if I would write this month’s introduction because it gives me the opportunity to thank both Caroline and Velma for all the hours they work putting together the magazine. Those of us who help out on the fringes know that our excellent magazine is very much the fruit of their labours. Guinevere

This question, posted by quiffdo last September, launched the idea for the theme of this issue. Once again the members came up trumps with a wide variety of nefarious ancestors lurking in the branches of their trees.

Backing up this month's theme is the launch of a new initiative. Each month we will be running a thread on the research board, based on each issue's theme, to assist members in researching similar stories in their own trees, drawing particular attention to the resources to be found in the wiki.

Velma Dinkley has written about the ship and the disaster, as well as looking into the life of the captain, Edward J Smith and providing a guide to tracing ancestors who were onboard. Alongside the articles, we take a brief look at various seafaring occupations.

We have seven stories from FTF members who have researched their seafaring ancestors, which make fascinating reading. We hope that these have inspired you to trace yours.

If you have any questions, then please join in with the discussion on the Maritime Special thread on the Research board.

The May issue of FTF Magazine looks at member's shop keeping and business owning ancestors. In addition, Muggins in Sussex describes the occupation and liberation of Jersey.

The vast majority of images in this issue have been donated by FTF members and the magazine team would like to take this opportunity to thank all those contributors, as well as the authors of the articles, whose efforts all go to make the magazine a great success!

In this issue, we also take a look at member's 'Family Treasures' - possessions passed down through the generations into the hands of a keen family history researcher! Three members tell us the stories behind their family heirlooms. More of these stories will follow in next month's issue.

For the Occupations Section we look at the largely forgotten craft of the wheelwright and blacksmith, who both played an important role in keeping the population moving before the coming of the railways and the era of motorised transport. Velma Dinkley and jemima puddleduck write about their wheelwright and blacksmith ancestors, whilst Caroline shares her discoveries, gleaned from newspapers, about her great x2 uncle who owned a horse and carriage repository, and Lynn The Forest Fan tells us about her research into her ‘Smith’ ancestors.

We also have articles from kathsgirl.48, who shares with us her emotional story about how she reunited a family, from Guinevere who explains how she found a new living relative, and from Delightful Dukkie who continues her story about German migration, which she began in the January issue.

Our members have been working hard collecting images of churches, chapels, synagogues, citadels etc, from all over the country, some of which are included in this issue. There are presently over 5500 images in the project, which is an excellent achievement - well done to all concerned! However, there's still plenty of work to do, especially now the project has expanded to include Scotland. If you would like to help, then please take a look at the Regional Co-ordinator boards, as well as the Places of Worship Project pages in The Wiki.

In this issue, Georgette takes a look at church related occupations and members share the stories of clergymen found in their trees.

The gathering of photographs for the PoW Project was never going to be an easy task, and some members have had more than their fair share of mishaps trying to obtain the 'perfect shot', as Liz from Lancs found out on her recent thread on the subject. She brings us a humorous article based on her findings.

Whilst the church provides us with the records of baptisms, marriages and burials, which are particularly useful before Civil Registration, Guinevere and Olde Crone Holden examine the other types of written records which can be helpful in family history research.

Continuing the 'My Kind of Town' and the 'Family Treasures' features, Yummy Mummy of 2 tells us about her home city Peterborough, and Caroline shares the stories behind her family heirlooms.

However, we lead this issue with the story of Katarzyna's parents-in-law, Stanislaw and Anastazja, who were both captured as prisoners of war in Poland in 1939 and transported to the horrors of the Russian gulags. In 1941, after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union and the Russians became the Poles' allies, they were both released to trek to Kazakhstan to join the recently formed General Anders' Polish Army, for which Stanislaw fought in the North African and Italian Campaigns, most notably at Monte Cassino. They married in Egypt in 1945, and unable to return to the free Poland for which they had fought, they came and made their home in Britian. It's a fascinating and heart-wrenching story and we feel privileged that Katarzyna chose to share their story with FTF Magazine readers.

You will notice a few changes this month. Beginning the second volume of the magazine coincided with a major upgrade to the software which runs the magazine and gave us the opportunity to incorporate some new features and a new look. The first volume can still be found through the menu at the top of the page.

This month we felt it appropriate that we look at the printing and publishing industry and members share the stories of their ancestors who worked in this field. We also take a look at the invaluable resource of newspapers in our research and members share stories which they have found about their ancestors, which are sometimes shocking, but in other cases have solved a family mystery, which in turn has demolished a personal brick wall.

We continue the My Town and Family Treasures features. This month Gwen@Coggiecorner tells us about her home town of Coggeshall and bev&kev recalls the story of her amazing find connected to her seafaring ancestor. Also in this issue Mavis by the Moor shares her research, inspired by a folk song, into the Cornish miners who went to work on Sark in the 1830s and 1840s. We would be most interested in hearing whether one of your ancestors was among them.

Margaret in Burton tells us about her Granny, who in the 1960s, was the the oldest licensee in Staffordshire. Margaret will be writing about the Burton brewing industry for the October issue of the magazine.

Merry Monty Montgomery, Marjorie Dawn and Roger in Sussex provide stories of their academic ancestors, whilst Jill on the A272 shares with us the entries in the Victorian logbooks from the school where she works in Haywards Heath in East Sussex.

In this issue we look at the theme of reunited families, Yummy Mummy of 2 and Gloryer share their stories, whilst Sherlockslovechild draws from his expertise providing tips and advice on tracing living people.

We finish the trilogy about the Bluett family from Paul Barton, Special Agent, with an article about the untimely death of Thomas Bluett in 1846 and Cath RJ shares the story of her great x4 grandmother, Ann Banton, who lived to the grand old age of 101. Continuing the My Kind of Town and Family Treasure features, Jennie writes about her home town of Boston in Linconshire.

The museum opened in 1977 in the joinery shops of the Bass Brewery, to mark the company’s bicentenary, and holds a wealth of artefacts, all serving to bring Burton 's proud heritage to life. The closure has been a sad blow to the town and efforts to reopen it are still ongoing. Most of the photographs illustrating Margaret’s group of articles were taken at the museum before its closure

Whilst researching my family I have experienced some bizarre coincidences and spooky happenings. I wanted to know if I wasn’t alone, and what with Halloween approaching I thought I’d ask the members of FTF for their spine-chilling tales. Members share their stories in this issue. Continuing the ‘Family Treasures’ feature, Jessbowbag explains why one particular ornament in her garden is very precious to her.

Those killed in both World Wars, as well as many others over the centuries including those in more modern times, will be remembered this Remembrance Sunday so we felt it most fitting that we should make this a special Remembering Military Ancestors issue.

We have an excellent research guide to tracing your military ancestors and stories from members going back over 200 years, from the Battle of Trafalgar, the Peninsular War and the Crimea, through to the First and Second World Wars, covering the three services of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.

In two moving stories we take a look at World War Two from two very different perspectives, that of a soldier and of a child. We also look at an act of remembrance and a trip to the war cemeteries of Belgium to find the name of a great uncle on a memorial.

For the My Town feature this month, we focus on Chatham and its naval connections which go back over 400 years.

As a taster for our December issue, which has a theatrical theme, samesizedfeet explains why her growing collection of theatre memorabilia is her particular family treasure.

Georgette looks into the history of the profession from its humble Mediaeval beginnings through to the spectacle of the Victorian theatre and the 20th century, whilst Marjorie Dawn examines the history of the pantomime. Look very closely and you may spot a familiar good fairy! The acting profession is renowned for its uncertainty, so Velma Dinkley tells us why the union, Equity, is important to the industry. She also looks at the life and works of Charles Dickens, the author of 'A Christmas Carol'.

After whetting our appetites last month, samesizedfeet brings us her dramatic dynasty of theatrical ancestors who were the celebrities of their time, and Merry Monty Montgomery shares the story of her distant relation, Annie Horniman, the founder of the repertory theatre movement. We also have stories from Ann from Sussex, perth tiger and Chrissie Smiff.

As genealogists, we are often asked if we have discovered a famous relation. quiffdo was able to make a connection to the actor, writer and director, Sir Bernard Miles, while jennie was able to confirm that her husband was related to Sam Hardy, the early 20th century England goalkeeper. We also take a look at Glyndebourne, home to the annual opera festival, and Gwynne explains why a piece of lava is so very special to her.

Bo the Bodger has been able to trace her long line of medical ancestors back to the late 18th century and Mary from Italy has discovered an Army surgeon, who was in Boston, Massachusetts, at the time of the American Revolution. We have stories about nursing ancestors from Chrissie Smiff and anniern, and Merry Monty Montgomery recalls her late aunt's first experience of the use of Penicillin, as well as writing about Bedford Pierce, a pioneer in the treatment of the mentally ill. This month we focus on the hospital at Stoke Mandeville and Geraldine delves into its history.

Velma Dinkley reports on the recent release of records from the Victorian period for Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire and of the exhibition of artefacts at Reading Museum, as well as writing about her relative who was terrified of the asylum. Guinevere brings us the sad story of her ancestor who was committed, and Little Nell explains how she discovered her connection to 'The Mad Pork Butcher', Jacob Isenschmidt, the man arrested on suspicion of being the Whitechapel Murderer in 1888.

For the family treasure feature, jennie tells us why a ship’s compass, which has recently come into her possession, is very special to her.

Merry Monty Montgomery tells us about the contents of her grandmother’s treasure basket and jenoco has compiled a collection of reminiscences of their pinny wearing ancestors from members.

This month we begin a series of articles which will look at all the different aspects of the Family Tree Forum, of which this magazine is only a small part. This month we include a guide to The Wiki, its Reference Library and turn the spotlight on the Costume Gallery. A competition was recently organised amongst the membership to select a poster to advertise the forum and the three most popular posters are available to download.

Roger in Sussex has come up trumps again with a selection of illustrations from his copies of The Penny Magazine, for which we are very grateful. They have been used not only to adorn the front page, but also in some of the articles.

Many of us have come across workers on the railways in our research, from carmen or shunters to navigators, but most of us are not lucky enough to have much detail about their personal lives. Christine in Herts and Merry Monty Montgomery tell us about their relatives who worked for the Great Western Railway and Velma gives us some background to this important railway company.

In addition, Nasher describes his huge collection of Railwayana and his lifetime fascination with trains and Wendy Pusey writes about her husband’s work as a volunteer at the Havenstreet Steam Railway. Away from trains, Howie from Gwent writes about his father’s, and his own, work in road haulage while Mary in Italy has written about a relative who designed and patented the hansom cab and designed the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.

The Family Treasure this month is an interesting brass tin belonging to Mavis by the Moor. This month, the Spotlight on FTF looks at the various ways in which the site can help with researching your surnames.

Away from the pits, Guinevere writes about her Allenders who were involved in the iron and steel industry and rkic talks about his connections with the Elswick lead works.

The long awaited publication of the 1911 census caused great excitement on the boards and Velma Dinkley records the findings of some of the members. Moulting Owl writes about how the census solved one of her long standing mysteries while Caroline found herself following the trail of a murderer who had a possible connection with her great great grandfather.

In addition, we have an article from Rosie Knees about her great great grandfather and his military career. This month the Spotlight is on the Community boards of the Family Tree Forum and in particular the areas where photography is important. Once again, we are indebted to Roger in Sussex for providing the black and white illustrations on the front page.

In this month's issue, Marjorie Dawn takes a look through the eyes of Herbert de Fraine at the internal workings of the Bank of England and also his own working life there. Merry Monty Montgomery shows us that having great wealth or success does not always make for happiness.We have a story about the business failure of her relation from sally and jenoco gives us a tale from Val wish Id never started concerning forgery and embezzlement. Caroline writes about a bank clerk cum financial journalist and Elizabeth Herts writes about Robert Heath, hatter, and how his extended family benefitted from his will.

Many of us think that our ag labs had uneventful lives - if they lived on the coast this may be far from the truth. After all, they are hardly going to put smuggler as their occupation on a census form. Caroline has a look at the history of smuggling and the reasons for it as well as some of the occupations involved in its prevention and also writes about some of the smugglers' activities in the West Sussex area. Merry Monty Montgomery tells us about a man who managed to be on both sides of the law.

Our Family Treasure article this month is from Sunny Rosy and Just Barbara reminds us not to forget her Grannie's cousin Bobby and other soldiers who lose their lives in war.

The Spotlight this month is looking at the FTF Places of Worship Project, our database of pictures of religious buildings, how it works and how you may be able to help.

Australia was first discovered by Europeans in the early 1600s, however it was the late 18th century which saw the first convicts and troops arriving on its shores and establishing penal colonies, which were the origins of the major cities as we know today. Delightful Dukkie provides an insight into this period of Australian history, whilst dicole focuses on her home 'town' of Sydney and its evolvement into a modern cosmopolitian city.

It was gold and wool which were the economic making of Australia, and Sunny Kate and Val and George delve into these further. Sunny Kate tells the story of her ancestors who were lured by the prospect of gold. Val and George also looks into World War Two Prisoner of War camps in New South Wales, as well as telling us of how she, her husband and her family emigrated to Australia as '£10 Poms' in 1964.

Yvonne from Oz, MacPanda and jenoco tell the stories of how their ancestors arrived in Australia, and Mary from Italy and KiwiChris provide excellent guides on how to trace your Australian and New Zealand ancestors.

Moving away from the Antipodes, we celebrate Father's Day by bringing you stories from Rosi Glow and Little Nell, who remember their late fathers with fondness and affection.

This month, the Spotlight looks at how Family Tree Forum can help you demolish the infamous genealogical 'brick wall'. If you are not a member and would like help breaking down yours, or think that you can help those who are stuck, then please join us by registering at Family Tree Forum.

We look at the problems of housing the nation, from the humble rural hovel and the city slum to the advent of social housing and home ownership. We also delve into the world of the poor laws, the workhouse and almshouses. At the other end of the social scale, Olde Crone Holden tells us about her 'Manorial Holdens', whose lineage she has traced back to the 12th century.

Bo the Bodger describes the beautiful house in which she grew up, whilst Sherbertrose shares her amazing story that her grandfather actually built the house in which she lives. Michael uncovers carpenters, builders and masons in his ancestry and Rosie Knees looks at her beerhouse keepers.

For the 'My Town' feature this month, Jill on the A272 focuses on the Sussex county town of Lewes, with its rich heritage of historic buildings, and Just Gillian shares the story of her family treasure.

This issue's 'Spotlight on FTF' looks at how Family Tree Forum can help you with your computer queries, whether it be using family history software, or everyday problems such as using the forum, how to scan a photo or installing new hardware.