No two days are ever the same for a professional genealogist, as demonstrated by a research commission I undertook this summer for Leeds-based artist Ellie Harrison, and Polite Rebellion – the company with which she works.
Polite Rebellion Artist Ellie Harrison and me at the Loose Ends Exhibition
Working to a tight deadline, my research drew together some threads of Ellie’s family history, and was a small part of the background detail to her much broader overall artistic display concept.
Loose Ends Credits
Ellie’s thought-provoking interactive exhibition, Loose Ends, is now currently showing in Leeds as part of November’s Compass Art Festival. This Festival brings a variety of interactive art projects into the city.
The Loose Ends exhibition space, Leeds Trinity Shopping Centre Albion Street entrance (near Boots).
I dropped by for the opening day of Loose Ends (22 November 2024).
The Loose Ends component of the Festival is based in a pop-up shop in the Leeds Trinity Shopping Centre. Visually striking, this interactive and immersive experience invites you to think about your family tree in its broadest sense. It goes beyond the traditional historical concept of mother, father, siblings, grandparents, great grandparents, which in reality – as every family historian knows – is rarely so neatly packaged. It also highlights there are often unspoken topics and secrets within families.
Ellie’s family tree
It challenges you to consider what makes your family, inviting you to explore its complexities, the transient nature of some relationships weighed against more enduring ones, with this weighting not necessarily measured by blood links. You are asked to even consider the importance of wider friendship circles – a take on your FAN Club (Friends/Families, Associates and Neighbours).
A chance to explore what makes your family tree
More details about the Loose Ends exhibition, including where to find it, can be found here.
But you need to be quick as it only runs from 22 – 24 November, and 28 – 30 November 2024.
If you can’t make it, here’s the QR Code to scan and enter virtually.
Loose Ends QR Code
A huge thank you to Ellie for commissioning me to undertake her research. I loved doing it, because no two family trees are ever the same – as is demonstrated by the exhibition.
For more details about commissioning me for your research, please click here.
If you are looking for a family or local history speaker during 2025 and 2026, here are the details of my current talks:
Charles the Pigeon and a Yorkshire Spy.
Local Links to the Lusitania.
My Batley St Mary’s One-Place Study. (Covers the history of the Irish in Batley and the Catholic parish of Batley St Mary of the Angels until turn of the 20th century).
The Home Front: the White Lee Explosion of 1914 and the Unlucky History of the Site (available from September 2026).
Tips for Researching your Great War Ancestors. This is based around my book about Northern Union – rugby league – players killed in the First World War. For local history groups, I can drop the research tips aspect, and base the talk solely about the players.
How to Research your Family Tree. This talk will help those embarking on their family history journey, but it will also provide useful reminders and advice for those who have already started out on their ancestral adventure.
The first four have a distinctly Yorkshire flavour. The fifth will be tailored around rugby league players from your locality. The family tree research talk can be geared around research tips for Yorkshire ancestors.
Charles the Pigeon and a Yorkshire Spy is the story of an unsung Yorkshire hero, living behind enemy lines and carrying out works of espionage and sabotage during World War One. His adopted pigeon Charles played an important part in these wartime exploits. Their daring deeds are more like a boy’s adventure story than real life. But this is a true tale of wartime courage, and one which deserves wider telling.
Local Links to the Lusitania focuses on people with Yorkshire connections on board the Cunard liner, torpedoed and sunk off the Irish coast on 7 May 1915. The sinking did not affect only the rich and famous. Many Yorkshire people were involved. This talk explores some of their stories.
There is a possibility this talk can be tailored to your local area.
My Batley St Mary’s talk is based around my one-place study into the Catholic parish of St Mary of the Angels, with a focus on its early history and period up to the 1880s. It investigates what a one-place study is, why I embarked on one, why I chose this particular study, as well as my findings – including the Irish migration angle, how they were received locally, the building of the church, all with a focus on ordinary parishioners.
The Home Front: the White Lee Explosion of 1914 is a talk based around the events of December 1914 when a devastating explosion, caused during the manufacture of picric acid for the war effort, took place at White Lee. It resulted in deaths and injuries, as well as damage across a vast area of Batley, Heckmondwike and the Spen Valley. It is an event often overlooked because of later explosions in Yorkshire at Low Moor and Barnbow. This talk aims to provide more information about this Heavy Woollen District incident, the forerunner to the later explosions. The talk will explore the unlucky history of the site, as well as the events on the day and the aftermath.
Based on my groundbreaking book The Greatest Sacrifice: Fallen Heroes of the Northern Union about rugby league players who died in World War One, the talk investigates the stories behind some of the men. It is also packed with tips for researching your own Great War Army ancestors.
In this talk I will guide you through building your family tree. I will cover the basics to help you start your research on the right track, give you lots of tips, help you avoid those all-important pitfalls, and provide ideas for taking your research further. If required, I can slant this talk towards Yorkshire ancestral research.
Despite it being an extremely busy work month during October, I did add five new posts to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study, bringing the total number to 363 posts. In addition to the five new posts, a further three were updated.
This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of October 2024, including links to them, with last month’s new and updated posts signposted so you can easily locate them.
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
Yet again no new War Memorial biographies have been added this month. I know I keep saying it, but I really do hope to write some for next month, work permitting. One though, Robert Randerson, was updated. And I have added more parishioners to the list of those who served in, and survived, the First World War section, so this list has been updated too.
The Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick section, has an addition. This is the piece covering the parish history snippets which were included in the parish bulletins during October 2024.
And the other October additions are in the During This Week newspaper section, with four new pages covering the editions of the Batley News published during the month of October 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
And this month I have a question about the newspaper round-up pieces. I will continue to add the Batley News ones for the First World War period beyond the Armistice date of 11 November 1918. I plan to continue to the end of 1918. My question is, what should I do after that?
Should I continue with the Batley News to June 1919 and the official ending of the war, or should I end at 31 December 1918?
If I end at 31 December 1918, should I then start with the Batley Reporter from August 1914 to December 1918? Whilst there is some overlap between the two newspapers, there are some significant differences too.
Or should I start with the Batley News for the Second World War (September 1939 to September 1945). If that is the preferred option, I may have to edit it down as there will be so much relevant to St Mary’s.
Please do let me know. Either email me at the contact details towards the end of this piece. Or send a comment via the WordPress comments option. Or if you are reading this on Facebook or X (formerly Twitter), just leave a comment there.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
Last month I added a Batley St Mary’s One-Place Study post about a parishioner who was one of only around 600 nationwide to participate in an event in British history which is still famous – and taught in schools – today. This includes at St Mary’s. But, until my post, the parishioner’s role had been long-forgotten. More of that later.
In all six new posts were added during September 2024, bringing the total number to 358 posts. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of September 2024, including links to them, with last month’s new and updated posts signposted so you can easily locate them.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
In addition to the six new posts, a further two were updated.
These additions and updates included four new weekly newspaper pages for September 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
Yet again no new War Memorial biographies have been added this month. I really do hope to write some for next month, work permitting. I have, however, updated the names of parishioners who served in, and survived, the First World War section, as more men were identified during September.
As I have mentioned, there is one major new post which can be found in the Miscellany of Information section. It is about a parishioner who took part in the famous Charge of the Light Brigade on 25 October 1854. It really is well worth reading.
The final post added this month is in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick section, containing the parish history snippets which were included in the bulletins during September 2024.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
July 2024 has been another busy month for the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study, with some wider parish history pieces added. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of July 2024, including links to them, with last month’s new and updated posts signposted so you can easily locate them.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Seven new posts were added during July 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 345. Three other posts were updated.
These additions and updates included four new weekly newspaper pages for July 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
No new War Memorial biographies have been added this month. I hope to write some for next month. I have updated the names of parishioners who served in, and survived, the First World War section, as more men were identified during July. I have also updated the biography of one of those men who served and survived, Michael Rush.
There are two new posts in the Miscellany of Information section. One is about a public dispute between the church and Batley and Birstall Irish Clubs, which ran throughout the summer of 1903. The other is the story behind a memento plate given to the school children of St Mary’s in 1907. It explains what the plate commemorated, and why it was such an important part of the school’s history.
The final post added this month is in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick section, containing the parish history snippets which were included in the bulletins during July 2024.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
June 2024 has been my busiest month ever for new posts in Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of last month , including links to them, with June’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
16 new posts were added during June 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 338. Two other posts were updated. There’s also a new one-place study section, where I will write about the history of some of Batley’s public buildings and institutions which would have been familiar to the St Mary’s parishioners.
These additions and updates included five new weekly newspaper pages for June 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
One new War Memorial biography has been added this month, James Hughes. I have also updated the names of parishioners who served in, and survived, the First World War section, as more men were identified during June.
There are two new posts in the Miscellany of Information section, about the first Torchlight Procession. So if you want to know about why this annual parish event started, and read about that inaugural procession, head over to that post. The other is about a famous parishioner, Thomas Cassidy, who was a record-breaking rat catcher. And with the General Election on 4 July, his polling booth exploits are something well worth reading about!
The first posts have been added to the Maps and Photographs section. These include four new maps depicting the area around St Mary’s church and schools from the 1890s to the 1930s. There is also an aerial photo from the 1960s.
There is a new post in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick section – it is the parish history snippets which were included in the bulletins during June 2024.
The final two posts can be found in the public buildings and institutions section. One is about the first 50 years of Batley’s hospital – particularly relevant as the first ever patient treated in the initial cottage hospital was a St Mary’s parishioner. The other is the scene of much success for St Mary’s school children – the public baths. Sadly neither of these buildings function today. The hospital has for years stood derelict, crumbling and in 2017 the scene of a fire. There are plans – apparently – to turn it into apartments. The Grade II Listed public baths stand empty, victims of Kirklees Council cuts.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
Yes, I know it’s only June and the Festive Season might seem a million miles away – though the weather might seem drab enough for winter, with summer so far seemingly deciding to give this year a miss. But if you do want to guarantee some family, local or house history research before Christmas, now’s the time to start making those booking enquiries. Because you will find that popular, expert researchers are in great demand, and they do get booked up months in advance.
Whilst I do my best to slot in requests for last-minute pieces of research, I am already taking bookings for work to start in late September. In fact, I’ve already a piece of work scheduled for December completion.
So if you’re wanting to commission a piece of research for a Christmas gift or, come to that, for any upcoming special occasion or ancestral visit, please get in touch as soon as possible to discuss your requirements.
To re-write a well-known nursery rhyme:
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, If you want to research 3x great grandad John, now’s the time for that. Brick wall, house walls, trees – root and branches too, Get in touch, book it in, to find out what makes you.
This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of May 2024 , including links to them, with May’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Six posts were added during May 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 322. Two other posts were updated.
These additions and updates included four new weekly newspaper pages for May 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
There is one new post in the Miscellany of Information section. This is a post about the harsh consequences of refusing to work, even if ill. It does not have a happy ending.
There final post this month is in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick section – it is the parish history snippets which were included in the bulletins during May 2024.
No new biographies have been added this month. However, the final updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more men being identified during May.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of April 2024 , including links to them, with April’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Seven posts were added during April 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 316. Two other posts were updated.
These additions and updates included four new weekly newspaper pages for April 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
There is one new post in the Miscellany of Information section. This is a post which illustrates how tough life was, in relatively recent times. It covers a particularly tragic period for a Skelsey Row family.
Leading on from that, this month I included the first ever guest piece to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study website. It is a brilliantly evocative piece about life in the Skelsey Row area, written by Brian Foley. If you read nothing else, this is one not to miss.
There is a new post in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick – the parish history snippets included in the bulletins during April 2024.
No new biographies have been added this month. However, the final updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more men being identified during April.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of March 2024 , including links to them, with March’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Seven posts were added during March 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 309. Three other posts were updated.
These additions and updates included a new War Memorial biography, that of John William Callaghan. Robert Randerson’s biography was updated. There are five new weekly newspaper pages for March 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. I have also added a new subject heading, a parish history section which will contain the snippets of parish history I produce each week for the weekly bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick. The first piece here is the history snippets included in the March 2024 bulletins. The final updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more men being identified during March.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
Past To Present Genealogy 