How do I find my Irish ancestors?

It is a popular belief that researching your Irish ancestry is not for the faint-hearted. Drawing on recent research, Derek Trinder offers a brief overview to help you to start a journey into your Irish ancestry

0 Comments
Read more about the article James Benjamin & Charles Collie Butler: Soldiers of WW1 Part 1
Charlie and James c. 1915

James Benjamin & Charles Collie Butler: Soldiers of WW1 Part 1

James and Charles Butler both responded in early 1915 to the call to arms and volunteered for army service. Jim was 17 and Charlie was 15. They were amongst some 2½ million men who joined the British army voluntarily between August 1914 and December 1915. This is their story

Comments Off on James Benjamin & Charles Collie Butler: Soldiers of WW1 Part 1
Read more about the article Reading Local Studies Illustrations Collection
Battle Library, previously known as West Branch Library, Reading 1910

Reading Local Studies Illustrations Collection

The Reading Central Library’s illustration collection is one source of photographs that the Berkshire Family Historian uses to illustrate its articles. In case you hadn’t realised that such a thing existed, or that it is easily viewable online, and that you can have your very own copies too, here is a little bit more about it.

0 Comments
Read more about the article Ancient Oak? – a postscript
HMS Trincomalee Ian Petticrew (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Ancient Oak? – a postscript

I came to the article ‘Ancient Oak?’ by David Wooldridge and saw that it was about HMS Foudroyant. I thought “I remember seeing Foudroyant moored in Portsmouth Harbour when sailing there in the 1970s and 80s. It was a dismasted warship of Nelson’s era used as a training ship.”

0 Comments
Read more about the article ANCIENT OAK?
Foudroyant wrecked at Blackpool (copyright Blackpool Gazette)

ANCIENT OAK?

A rather splendid clock and barometer mounted in a wooden anchor graced a wall in my Grandmother’s house and was regularly tapped by everyone passing through the middle room. One day my Grandmother told me that the wood was oak from a famous warship. Here is the tale of a once famous ship – HMS Foudroyant

0 Comments

Berkshire Probate Index, 1480 – 1857 (CD) BFHS

Wills are a valuable resource for family history researchers and are particularly important once the research progresses back into the parish registers and we no longer have the censuses to provide confirmation of family groupings. Berkshire Probate Index: an index to the probate documents of the Archdeaconry of Berkshire 1480 to 1857

0 Comments

An Historical Atlas of Berkshire

This new edition is almost half as large again as it’s predecessor (published in 1998), with 74 articles on Berkshire’s history (and pre-history) from the Palaeolithic period to the twenty-first century, each accompanied by specially-drawn maps in full colour, and with numerous illustrations. Most of the original articles have been revised and updated, and many new ones added. The editors, Joan Dils and Margaret Yates, have assembled a formidable band of specialists to create what is likely to become the standard work on Berkshire’s history for many years to come. For those wishing to possess an accessible introduction to the county of their ancestors, this book will be indispensable. The scene is set with articles on Berkshire’s geology and topography and on the changing county boundary. Major upheavals in the county’s history are covered by articles on the Civil War, the enclosure movement and the Swing Riots, while essays on bridges and roads, rivers and canals, and the railways (see illustration), explore the…

0 Comments

- End -

No more pages to load