April 2007 Archives

The chances of you having a Victorian relative who worked on the railways is pretty high.
Railways were THE growth industry of the mid-late nineteenth century with even tiny villages being connected to the ever-increasing rail network.

I spent many fruitless hours searching for one of my wife’s ancestors, William Lawrence, but could find no record of him in the early Census returns. The listings only referred to his wife who was described as ‘married’ and her children. Where was William?

Throughout your family research it is likely that some of your ancestors were in service.

Apart from establishing family links, marriages etc. the most interesting pieces of information in the Census returns are usually found in the occupations column.

The information given here is usually very specific and gives a fascinating insight into the lives and occupations of our ancestors.

Knowing the distruibution of a particular surname is particularly helpful to genealogists when assessing the likely birthplace of an ancestor. The Jones surname may be popular in Wales but will be less so for example, in Hampshire.

There are many rescources on the internet, but a particularly useful site is http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/default.aspx