A DNA Guide for Adoptees
How to use genealogy and genetics to uncover your roots, connect with your biological family, and better understand your medical history. If you are an adoptee, there’s likely missing information about your past and you hope to change that. You may have already started down the path of DNA testing, or it may be entirely […]
British & Irish Railway Staff Accidents – an untapped genealogical resource
At the start of the 20th century, the railway industry was the UK’s third largest employer, providing jobs for over 500,000 workers. Little wonder, then, that so many people have a railway connection in their past. But did you know that it was also one of the most dangerous places to work – and that […]
19th Century Insanity
Lunatics, imbeciles, idiots and cretins – terms which in today’s society are only used as derogatory and insulting forms of verbal abuse were commonly used as medical definitions to label people with mental health disorders in nineteenth century Britain and Ireland. For those of us who are used to researching our ancestors, some of these […]
Civil Marriage Ceremonies From 1837
According to the latest available figures from the Office for National Statistics, civil marriages accounted for almost three-quarters of marriages celebrated in England and Wales in 2015. Yet it was only in the late twentieth century that civil marriage overtook religious marriage as the most popular form of marriage, and before the start of the […]