Have you wanted to write your own family history book? This family have had an annual newsletter going since the 1950s and Daniel had a vision of creating a book to share with other family members. Daniel who is in his 90s, and one of 13 siblings, worked with his daughter Freda and some of her cousins. Freda and Daniel talk about their experience of collaborating via a committee and how they produced a coffee table book and even a cake to celebrate the launch (shown on the cover image here).

There is a second interview with Freda on Substack where she talks about how it all came together and some of the lessons learned. journeysintogenealogy.substack.com

DNA expert Michelle Leonard shares the do's and don'ts for anyone who is considering doing a DNA test and what to do once you have your results.  She explains what information you receive when you test and how far back you can reliably trace your ancestors. With advice on how to organize matches, the definition of a 'genetic community', how reliable Ancestry's ThruLines and Origins are, whether you should upload your results to more than one company and if books and courses are helpful and much more.

There is a separate Journeys into Genealogy on Substack interview on the new Ancestry Pro Tools and whether it is worth signing up for (hint: we both think it is!). 

Sarah Hewitt is chair of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists. We discuss what records are available in New Zealand, where they are located, what is available for free including birth, marriage and death records, wills and probate, school records, immigration, newspaper and other archives plus the benefits of joining the New Zealand Society of Genealogists including access to the Kiwi Collection. Sarah has put together a resource sheet which is available via this blog post: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-your-ancestors-in-new-zealand.

Dean Kirby has researched his ancestors amongst industrial Manchester in the 19th century and his book "Angel Meadow" is about the slum neighbourhood that they lived in and some of the interesting characters who were their neighbours. We discuss pauper ancestors, Manchester industries, cotton and textiles, manufacturing, Irish migration and ancestry, using fire maps, rate books, the "Friends of Angel Meadow" and more.

Hilary Blanford explains the area covered by East Surrey (for non UK listeners part of this is directly south of the River Thames in London), the resources available from the Society, events held including online family history fairs, in person meetings and genealogy/local history walks and some of the transcription projects the Society is working upon including the Philanthropic School for Boys, the Westminster Lying In Hospital and the old psychiatric hospital in Epsom. 

Natalie da Silva of the Genealogical Society of South Africa (www.genza.org.za) talks about all the records and resources available for researching South African ancestors. Plus South African history, immigration, how the country is setup, locations of archives, where records are stored and if they have been digitised and who to contact.  The accompanying blog post gives links to many of these: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-your-ancestors-in-south-africa. 

Bridget Badoe McQuick (aka Lady Esi) is an oral historian, storyteller and local heritage champion. We discuss her family history, stories and culture in Ghana including burial traditions (funerals go on for 3 days and are a celebration of life and family and some include 'professional wailers') and how this fits with life in England. Plus her work as a heritage champion in Tottenham, London and how to ensure diverse voices are heard and celebrated. 

Fanny Mills discusses her book "Unravelled" full of family secrets, missing people, culture clashes and what she discovered about her family's hidden past. From high society and aristocracy in England in the late 19th and early 20th century one one side and Jewish refugees on the other, to propaganda in north Africa in WWII, all woven around her upbringing in Hampstead, London in the 1960s and 70s.

Celebrating the third anniversary of the Journeys into Genealogy podcast with a short round up of 2023, statistics, tips from some the interviewees and what's in store for 2024.

Fell runner Julie Carter made a running pilgrimage to visit Gateshead in north east England where her ancestor John Nowell setup the Gateshead Harriers running group. We discuss her book "Makin a Mackem" which talks about her journey, mental health, the benefits of running, her family history and how she found out about her ancestors and met Sir Brendan Foster along the way.

Find out about Dead Fred the genealogy photo archive setup by Joe Bott. Over the past 40 years or so he has collected hundreds of thousands of old photos including daguerrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite and cabinet cards and even some post mortem photos. Joe shares the stories of how he found some of them, how people share theirs with him and how some are returned to descendants. 

Genealogy Fun whilst developing new genealogists is a new book by Sindi Terrien. We talk about lots of games and ways to encourage interest amongst young (and older) people in your family history. There's also a chance to win a copy of her book. An accompanying blog post genealogy fun gives some examples and ways to create your own word search. If you do create something yourself please share it in the blog comments. 

P J Ahern was a bard, poet, journalist and storyteller in Limerick, Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th century. His great niece Patricia talks about him, his life and poetry and the parallels with her own life. 

Barbara Tien is the founder of ProjectKin (projectkin.org), a new global community of people helping to share family history stories using modern technology. Barbara explains how she came to set it up, how it works, who it is for and how it can help family historians, plus lots of stories and tips.

Lesley Trotter talks about Cornwall, the 'married widows', the Cornish diaspora and where they ended up including the USA, Canada, Mexico, South America and other places. Discussing why people travelled and the industries concerned, including mining.

With tips on how to find Cornish people in different countries and stories about how the women left behind coped with bringing up their families alone, sometimes for years at a time. 

The accompanying blog post has lots of resources and links and suggestions for further reading: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-cornish-family-history-and-emigration 

Find out more about the Family History Federation and the new www.exploreyourgenealogy.co.uk website for information, support and guidance on researching your family history. Ian Waller is the education officer and he explains the aims of the Federation and what it offers for people looking for their ancestors.

Find out more about The Surname Society with Kirsty Gray.

If you've considered researching one or more of your family surnames and would like guidance and support then the Surname Society is a useful resource. It's open to everyone across the world with online meetings, forums/chat rooms and newsletters. 

The Surname Society website is www.surname-society.org and is undergoing updates in Autumn 2023.

Maxine Willett shares her expertise in working in archives plus stories and research tips on how to make the best use of your time.  The discussion includes planning a visit, private and public archives, what to expect, how to find items, copying and copyright laws and much more.  There is an accompanying blog post with tips and resources here: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-in-archives-guidance-tips-and-resources

Dr Perry Gauci shares his expertise on English merchants, trade and banking from the 1660s to 1850s. We discuss what information is available and where to find it including trade directories, the London Gazette, bankruptcy records, wills, insurance records, the role of the town councils, London, Great Yarmouth, herrings, Norwich, Newcastle, Bristol, English ports, river transport, shipping, banking archives, court records and much more. 

There is an accompanying blog post with links to suggested resources here: https://emmacox.co.uk/trade-banking-and-merchants-in-17-19th-centuries. 

Do you have German ancestors? Claudia Strachan talks about some of the letters, memoirs and other documents she has translated and shares stories about migration from Germany to the USA, South America and Australia. Bringing to life 18th, 19th and early 20th century lives in Germany and describing what it would have been like to migrate to another country and how letters were exchanged. We discuss literacy and education, spelling, the migration process and more. 

Mike Trenchard is an expert in researching ancestors in British India. We discuss the East India Company and how it helped shape India, where to find records online and in archives, whether to use a local researcher (or not!), the Families in British India Society (FIBIS), the British Library, the India Office, civil servants, ships, how India has changed and which countries it has been split into and much more. 

Sandra Robinson shares her expertise on the history of the Walloons of the Low Countries in Europe in the 16th and 17th century. From origins in Belgium and France and including journeys across Europe to escape perscution from Philip II of Spain. They were the original Protestant refugees and their descendants can be found in England and across the world.

Ruth Graham talks about migration to Australia from the first non-indigenous settlers in 1788 up until the £10 POMs in the 20th century. We covers convists, ships, their crews, assisted immigration, non assisted immigration, mining, free settlers, trade and much more.

The transcript for this episode will be added for paid subscribers on Substack. There is a resources sheet available for free on Substack. 

Award winning librarian, Peter McCracken, noticed a gap in available information about where to find details about historical ships online. This led him to setup ShipIndex to bring together all the places he could find, or has been told about, to help anyone looking for information about ships. This includes ships used for migration across the world and crew listings for people searching for their ancestors. 

Peter has written a guest blog post which explains more about ShipIndex. It is available here: https://emmacox.co.uk/guest-blog-shipindex

Jonny Perl talks about how he setup DNA Painter and how it can help anyone researching their DNA including people with pedigree collapse and complicated family trees. We discuss chromosomes, tree completeness, what are the odds, the DNA testing companies and much more. 

Jules shares the story of her ancestor Jean BonDurant in her book "The Muse of Freedom" and his imagined life as a Huguenot in the Languedoc with the trials and tribulations of 17th century France. 

While investigating him, Jules researched late 17th century Languedoc customs, politics, and spiritual traditions specific to the little known Cévennes mountains of south-central France, culminating in a rich repository to feed future novels about the Cévenol people and culture.

We also discuss some of the help she received and the sources and resources used including the Hathi Trust, JSTOR, Google Books, Gallica, Huguenot Museums and regional libraries.

The "A Few Forgotten Women" project comemorates women who might otherwise never be known. In this panel interview with Janet Few, Mandy Geary, Margaret Roberts and Ann Simcock we discuss some of the women they have researched and the issues they faced such as alcoholism, poverty, criminality, illegitimacy, mental health problems and more. There is also a blog post with lots of the resources suggested for anyone who wants to find out more about women such as these in their family. The blog post is available at https://emmacox.co.uk/a-few-forgotten-women

The "Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes" is a 200 year old album filled with wonderful fabric pieces. It was created by a Victorian mill owner's daughter who became a merchant's wife and tracks her life over the next 20+ years. Kate Strasdin has researched Anne and the other people mentioned within the album, tracing her life and the places she lived and visited enhanced by snippets of the culture, events and fashions of the time. 

The Last Lancer is the story of Catherine Czerkawska's grandfather Wladyslaw Czerkawski and his early life in Poland, World War II, and as a soldier and later on as a refugee and finally his family in Yorkshire, England. Going from what is now Ukraine and crossing Europe at a time of trouble. Catherine has traced his footsteps and connected with living relatives and she shares some of the tips and help she has been given along the way.

Catherine has also written a guest blog post with some of the resources she recommends. It is available at https://emmacox.co.uk/guest-blog-the-last-lancer-a-polish-family-history.

Female ancestors can be harder to find but records do exist. Emma Jolly talks about some of the resources she recommends and we discuss military pensions, DNA and matrilineal lines, naming traditions in England and Scotland, names and nicknames, Florence Nightingale, female wills, spinster aunts, the benefits of researching a place as well as a person, fertility, records for women in varied armed forces since the Boer War and including WWI and WWII, the differences between English and Scottish records and how each have their own benefits, MyHeritage, artificial intelligence, photographs, inheritance, clothing, visiting archives and much more. There is an accompanying blog post, Researching Female Ancestors, at emmacox.co.uk with links to the recommended resources. 

Sophie Kay specialises in researching historical occupations.

We discuss potential sources for finding old occupations including trade directories, censuses, occupational reversion, dictionaries of old occupations, Grace's Guide, HISCO, Histpop and the Internet Archive.

Plus the effects of occupation on health, death, population migration and family.

Gill helps guide us through researching ancestors in Wales with topics including Welsh names, patronymic names, Welsh places, chapel and church records, non-conformity, the effects of the industrial revolution, boatbuilding, steel, coal and copper mining, Welsh geography, parishes old and new, crime and punishment, the National Library of Wales, local archives, GENUKI, family history societies, newspapers and journals, AGRA, maritime history, migration, emigration and much more.  A companion blog post with links and resources is available at https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-welsh-ancestors. 

Julie Goucher's Italian ancestors come from Sicily. In this episode we discuss migration, where to find records, her Orlando one name study, suggested resources and much more.  

There is an accompanying blog post with a downloadable guide full of tips and resources on https://emmacox.co.uk/blog

The Gentleman's Magazine was the world's first modern magazine. Julian Pooley of the Surrey History Centre is an expert on the magazine and tells us about its history, contents, readership and how it is helpful to family historians. He also shares some of the stories contained within it including how Samuel Johnson was involved. A full interview transcript is available on Substack at https://journeysintogenealogy.substack.com. 

Journeys into Genealogy is now two years old and 50 episodes have been broadcast. 

This short episode contains a roundup of 2022, some of my favourite moments, feedback from interviewees, lessons learned, statistics and what's in store for 2023.

Do you have ancestors who worked in the theatre, as a musician or similar? Mish Holman shares her stories of researching her ancestors, actors Abraham and Sarah Adcock. Talking about national and regional theatre, playbill archives, special collections and much more.

I have created a blog post with lots of tips for research and useful resources on my genealogy website here: https://emmacox.co.uk/researching-theatre-ancestors 

Do you believe you have aristocratic or royal ancestors? Expert genealogist, author and presenter, Anthony Adolph gives his do's and quite a few don'ts when researching and creating a family tree leading back to the gentry or royalty. Discussing gateway ancestors, wills, heralds visitations, pedigrees, historical books, FamilySearch, DNA and much more. 

"If only you knew" said her father to Lezlee. This mystery lasted for decades until Lezlee had her DNA tested and discovered that things she had believed were not true. Lezlee Liljenberg from Texas, USA is on a journey to discover more about her true parentage and she shares some of the ups and downs along the way and how important her DNA results were. 

Karen Sawyer is a descendant of early 19th century Scottish photographer William Hunter. Here she talks about collecting and restoring his postcards,  arranging exhibitions of his work in Newton Stewart, meeting distant cousins and what she has inherited from him. 

Chelsey Brown is becoming known as "The Heirloom Hunter". Based in New York, USA, she finds and returns objects to the descendants of their original owners. From a letter or family bible to jewellry and artworks and more. 

When researching your family history you are likely to want to find out more about where your ancestors lived. Expert house historian Melanie Backe-Hansen shares her experiences and gives tips for getting started, where to look including local sources (which vary from county to county), church and manorial lands, rentals and house ownership and where to find other clues such as house names. 

Graveyard, cemeteries, churches, the history and evolution of the churchyard, headstones, burial locations inside and outside the church, burial records inc non-conformist, consecration, the Magnificent 7 and more with author and speaker Celia Heritage. Plus tips on where to find genealogical records. 

Neville Gallagher talks about the Beresford family of Bedgebury Park in Kent including philanthropist Alexander Beresford Hope who funded local schools and many churches in England and Ireland and was interested in the American Civil War. Plus the history of the house and estate and sources for local history and hints for getting started with researching an estate. 

Paul Chiddicks is the face behind "Dear Paul" in Family Tree Magazine and a moderator on Twitter's #AncestryHour. He shares family history stories with research tips, discusses heirlooms and The Old Palace School Bombing in WWII. 

In New York in the early 20th century young women who broke the rules or didn't obey their parents were called 'wayward' and sent to reformatories to change their ways.  Stephanie O'Connell discusses her case study titled "Wayward Girls," exploring the 1923 Wayward Minor Act in New York, which criminalised female disobedience and sexual delinquency. We learn about the New York State Reformatory in Bedford Hills, where young women were sent for being 'wayward' or 'incorrigible.' Stephanie explains the social context of the time, the daily life of the girls in the reformatory, and the impact of these institutions on their lives and on her own grandmother who was sent to this reformatory.

Chris Fleet of the National Library of Scotland gives us an introduction to wide variety of maps held with details of some of the collections helpful to people interested in family history / genealogy or researching specific places. We also discuss digitisation, transcription projects such as the Roy Military Survey of the 1740s, estate and county maps and some of the multitude of Ordnance Survey maps available going back to the mid 1800s.

Karen Cummings, owner of Pharos Tutors, a leading online genealogy training company explains about the short courses available (there are lots and I highly recommend them having done several myself). Topics include wills, DNA, military ancestors, Scottish research, Irish research, local history, one name studies, employment, 17th century sources and many more. If you want to learn a single subject or work towards a professional genealogy qualification then have a listen to what is available. (And I have signed up for the DNA course in June 2022!)

Scrapbooking can help you record and bring your ancestors to life. Jeanne Pope talks about how she's used scrapbooking both digitally and physically to tell her own family history stories and those of people she has never met. Find out more about Philadephia, Henry Austen's cook who is buried near him in Woodbury Park Cemetery in Tunbridge Wells.  Plus tips on how to get started with making your own family history scrapbooks, where to buy papers and embellishments and more.