If you are looking for a speaker during 2024 and 2025 covering family or local history, here are my list of talks for the period.
They are:
Charles the Pigeon and a Yorkshire Spy.
Local Links to the Lusitania.
My Batley St Mary’s One-Place Study. (Covers aspects of the Catholic parish of Batley St Mary of the Angels until circa 1929).
The Home Front: the White Lee Explosion of 1914.
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.
The first four have a distinctly Yorkshire flavour, whereas the final one is far broader despite its rugby league connections.
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 aftermath of the First World War. 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, and with a focus on ordinary parishioners – including some of their tales.
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.
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. The January 2024 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with this month’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.
Despite moving house at the beginning of this month, I did manage to add five posts during January 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 295. Two other posts were updated.
The additions included a new school Log Book for 1919. There were four weekly newspaper pages for January 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. The other updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more being identified last month. No new biographies have been added here, or in any of the other categories (either World War One or World War Two deaths). These will follow in due course.
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. The December 2023 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with this month’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 new posts were added during December 2023, bringing the total number of study posts to 290. Two other posts were updated.
The additions included one new War Memorial biography, that of William (Willie) Hargreaves. There was also a new school Log Book for 1918. To round the additions off, there were five weekly newspaper pages for December 1917. 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. The other updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more being identified last month. No new biographies have been added here. They will follow in due course.
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.
Happy New Year! It will be a momentous one for me, as after 25+ years in my current home and a lifetime in my home-town, I’m on the move.
To commemorate this change, I will be reducing my hourly research fee to £25, for new bookings taken between 1 January to 31 January 2024 only.
So if you want some help with your family history, from an experienced, professionally qualified family historian, with a proven track record, who has been undertaking research for several years across England, Ireland and beyond, now is the time to get in touch.
From a one hour commission to a block of several hours, whether starting out with your family tree or house history, to overcoming a brick wall, or wanting a specific look-up in a West Yorkshire local archive or local studies library, I can be contacted via email at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com
For more details about my fees and services, plus a few of many testimonials from clients, please click here.
For more information about my background and family history qualifications and experience, click here.
And my Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) profile can be found found here.
The government is proposing to destroy millions of wills going back to the 1800s, thus making the original paper documents unavailable to historians & genealogists. These are the wills held by HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), dating back to 1858 when the Principal Registry was established.
Unsurprisingly though, this is not the spin the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) put on it when their 10-week consultation was announced on 15 December 2023.
Pitching the proposals at genealogists and historians, they say they will digitise these documents making access easier. Once the documents are digitised, the original paper documents will be destroyed – the proposal is to retain these original copies for 25 years only. They estimate this will save storage costs currently estimated to be around £4.5m per annum. Although it is unclear exactly what costings have been done, including the costs around digitisation, digital storage and keeping up-to-date with technology changes.
However, they are proposing retaining some documents: the original wills of famous and historic figures would be exempted from destruction.
As a clarification point, the documents subject to destruction are not the registered copies of wills obtained from the Probate Search Service website. The original will may differ from these registered copies, importantly containing the original signatures of testator and witnesses. These, as family historians know, can provide an important comparator in identifying/proving signatures of the individuals in other records. Currently you are able to request – and should legally be supplied – the original will. It is these originals which are earmarked for destruction.
What’s the problem?
Well, even from my initial read-through I can think of many.
Firstly, destroying key historic documents such as these is total madness. Once destroyed, that’s it. And the government has form here, even in recent years. Remember the destruction of the Windrush Landing Cards? If you read my post about that debacle, you can see echoes of that in these latest proposals. It can be found here.
Secondly, family historians are well aware of issues around digitisation. How many digitised documents have been incorrectly scanned, for example sections chopped off, failure to scan both sides, even missing out pages, or skipping complete sections. And on the subject of this in relation to wills, I’ve had the wrong soldiers’ will supplied because of a scanning issue. The reply I eventually got from HMCTS when, after months of emails and fobbing off, they finally acknowledged the problem, was:
… we are looking at rescanning the affected soldier’s wills and will correct yours in due time…
From this reply it appears mine was not a one-off issue. It seems multiple wills were affected by scanning problems. I did eventually get the correct will. But if the original document had been destroyed this would have been impossible.
Thirdly, and linked to this, there is the long-term viability of digital documents and new technology. Their preservation and longevity is a whole new can of worms. Remember floppy disks? Betamax and VHS? Anyone bought a new laptop of late, with a CD DVD drive? Will USB ports and sticks be consistent? What about deterioration of digital documents? Digital preservation is not one-off and cost-free. And what about cyber attack? The British Library is still suffering major technology outages weeks after they fell victim to one, and anticipate disruption to some services will last for several months to come.
The MoJ is clearly aware of the possible pitfalls of the digitisation process, and potential survival implications of this technology, as evidenced by their proposals around the retention of original wills of the famous. If the technology is so wonderful, why propose this exemption? Is this more around the furore which would ensue if it came to light these particular high-profile documents were incorrectly digitised, or there was a later digital failure, and then all was lost because they had destroyed the originals?
Which leads me onto my fourth point, and one of my major bugbears. My family history is devoid of the rich and famous. But the lives of my ancestors mean more to me than those categorised as such. The majority of people being researched by many family historians will also fall outside this famous category – whatever the eventual criteria for this is, as the MoJ have still to set it. I would argue history – local, social and family – is for many more about the lives of ordinary people, than the rich and famous. From an individual family history basis, to broader social history, local history or one-place studies, wills are an integral building block. It is this history which is more relatable to ordinary people. It is this history which adds richness and colour and context. But the MoJ are only focused on those deemed famous. Their proposals infer the wills of everyday people do not matter. It also ignores the fact that history evolves. Someone not deemed famous when they died, or even 25 years after probate, could – as history is reevaluated – suddenly be recognised as extremely historically valuable. But by then it is too late to retain their original will.
Final point, if one of MoJ’s selling points for this change is the benefit to historians and family history researchers, I would be interested to know why the MoJ, in their key list of 22 bodies being sent a copy of the consultation, fails to include the Society of Genealogists, the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives, the Family History Federation or the Register of Qualified Genealogists.
That being said, they do say responses are welcomed from anyone with an interest in or views on the subject covered by their paper. The full document is here.
I would urge anyone who values history and family history to respond to the consultation, which closes on 23 February 2024. The address for consultation responses is:
Will Storage consultation Ministry of Justice Civil Justice and Law Division, Postpoint 5.25 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ
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. The November 2023 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with this month’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.
Four new posts were added during November 2023, bringing the total number of study posts to 283. Four other posts were updated. The new additions were four weekly newspaper pages for November 1917. 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. This is one of the updated posts.
More men who served and survived the First World War have been identified and are included in that section. This is the second updated post.
The final two updates relate to the identification of another Great War man omitted from the church War Memorial. Accordingly, his name has been added to the section covering Biographies: Men Associated with St Mary’s Who Died but Who Are Not on the Memorial, and his biography will follow in due course. The War Memorial Chronology of Deaths section has also been updated to include him.
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. 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 new posts were added to the Batley St Mary’s one-place study during October 2023, bringing the total number of study posts to 279. Two other posts were updated. This latest monthly update contains the list of all the posts to date, including links to them, with the new and updated posts signposted.
These additions included four weekly newspaper pages for October 1917. 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 was one new War Memorial biography added added this month, for Michael Cunningham.
More men who served and survived the First World War have been identified and are included in that section, though no new biographies were added here this month. They will follow in due course.
The other post relates to the Batley cemetery burials of several priests and nuns who served in the parish. This can be found in the Miscellany of Information section.
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. 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.
St Mary of the Angels, Batley – Photo by Jane Roberts
Eight new posts were added to the Batley St Mary’s one-place study during September 2023, including a crucial one about the arrival of the Irish in Batley, the early history of the parish and the building of the church. It means there are now 273 posts in the study. Two other posts were updated. This latest monthly update contains the list of all the posts to date, including links to them, with the new and updated posts signposted.
These additions included five weekly newspaper pages for September 1917. 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 was one new War Memorial biography added added this month, for William Colbeck.
More men who served and survived the First World War have been identified and are included in that section, though no new biographies were added here this month. They will follow in due course.
The two other posts relate to the arrival of the Irish, the early history of the parish and the building of the church. They can be found in the Miscellany of Information section.
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.
Even though it was a difficult month personally with the death of my mother, more posts were added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during August.
If you are new to to this one-place study and want to know what it is all about, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Six new posts were added to the Batley St Mary’s one-place study during August. Although it is not as many as I planned, it does bring the total to 265. Two other posts were updated. This latest study update contains the list of all the posts to date, including links to them, with the new and updated posts signposted.
These additions included four weekly newspaper pages for August 1917. 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 was one new War Memorial biography added added this month, for Lawrence Judge.
More men who served and survived the First World War have been identified and are included in that section, though no new biographies were added here this month. They will follow in due course.
The final addition this month was about a Batley Irish secret society, and the discovery of an arms cache.
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.
If you are new to to this one-place study and want to know what it is all about, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of Batley St Mary of the Angels parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Six new posts were added to the Batley St Mary’s one-place study in July 2023. This brings the total to 259. Two other posts were updated. This latest study update contains the list of all the posts to date, including links to them, with the new and updated posts signposted.
These additions included four weekly newspaper pages for July 1917. 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.
More men who served and survived the First World War have been identified and are included in that section, though no new biographies were added here this month. They will follow in due course.
There was one new school log book added in June, covering the Mixed Department in 1917.
The final addition this month was a tale of graveyard desecration, the perpetrators being St Mary’s schoolboys.
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.
