Discover Your Ancestors

Issue 126

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A warm welcome to the October issue of Discover Your Ancestors Periodical, your monthly digital mix of family and social history – now in a new web-friendly format so you can enjoy it on any device!

This time we cover subjects near to home and the ordinary daily lives of many of our ancestors – and something much further away from those. For the former, we explore the growth of Sunday schools, plus the importance of community events such as horticultural shows; and at the opposite extreme, we follow some female explorers who upped sticks (not always by choice) and had to forge a life in far-flung lands, often very much against the odds.

We also look into a fascinating Victorian project to bring rich and poor children together, explore the history of the Doulton pottery empire and more.

Some exciting news about the Family History Shows too! Our growing event stream now has a new, extra venue in the calendar to cover the Midlands – do plan now for a trip to Malvern on 24th March! Meanwhile, enjoy this issue…

Andrew Chapman, Editor.

Articles

When duty calls

‘If these sketches should prove the means of deterring one family from sinking their property, and shipwrecking all their hopes, by going to reside in the backwoods of Canada,’ wrote reluctant emigrant Susanna Moodie in Roughing It in The Bush in 1871, ‘I shall consider myself amply repaid for revealing the secrets of the prison-house and feel that I have not toiled and suffered in the wilderness in vain.’

From drainpipes to dinner plates

There is a business whose name is synonymous with both dinner plates and bathroom suites – an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer with a history stretching back to 1815.

Learning on the Sabbath

In the late 18th century thousands of poor, illiterate children loitered about the streets on a Sunday. Robert Raikes, a devout Christian and the proprietor of the _Gloucester Journal_, witnessed groups of youngsters ‘defiling the Sabbath’ in Gloucester and deplored their disorderly conduct.

Growing communities

The role of the garden in the lives of Victorian workers is overlooked. Although mechanisation meant that in some places factories or housing had been jammed together on all the available land, space was not always at a premium in the countryside, in villages and in areas which were developing into the suburbs of nearby towns. Many workers had access to a scrap of land which they could cultivate, officially or unofficially.

The Children's Order of Chivalry

In 1892, Viscount George Maidstone (or ‘Maidy’) Finch-Hatton became ill with flu while abroad with his family in Cannes. He was nursed for several weeks by his mother, Lady Winchilsea, but sadly her efforts were in vain. While ill, nine-year-old Maidy discussed with his father the idea of setting up a children’s society, whose members would assist and write to poorer children. The 12th Earl of Winchilsea was reputedly a devoted father to Maidy and his sister Muriel, and just over a year later, he established the Children’s Order of Chivalry. Its watchwords were ‘gentleness, honour and love’. Born out of a family’s grief, the Order is a fascinating attempt to bring together rich and poor and to instil social responsibility in the young.

Pivotal battles: Stamford Bridge (1066)

1066; must be Hastings. That year was complex, though, with three kings and three battles to navigate. When Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king of the old line, died on 5 January, there were three men vying for the spoils, the Saxon, Northman and Norman. On the 6th, with almost indecent haste, the Saxon, Harold Godwinson, plonked his posterior on the throne and challenged the others.

News for October 2023

New Irish parish records, home counties Lloyd George Domesday data – and the Family History Show comes to the Midlands

Books for October 2023

New books about female explorers, the foundations of the NHS and London cemeteries

Additional Information

Other Formats

You can buy a printed version of the annual Discover Your Ancestors bookazine directly from the publishers, please see www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk and click on ‘Order print copies’ at the bottom.

Editorial Office

Discover Your Ancestors Publishing,

PO BOX 163,

Shaftesbury,

SP7 7BA

E: [email protected]

W: www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk

Discover Your Ancestors – The Family History Show

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Saturday 8th February 2025
10:00 –16:00 (GMT)

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Free talks available on demand for 72 hours.
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Future Events

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Discover Your Ancestors Periodical is published by Discover Your Ancestors Publishing, UK. All rights in the material belong to Discover Your Ancestors Publishing and may not be reproduced, whether in whole or in part, without their prior written consent. The publisher makes every effort to ensure the magazine's contents are correct. All articles are copyright© of Discover Your Ancestors Publishing and unauthorised reproduction is forbidden. Please refer to full Terms and Conditions at www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk. The editors and publishers of this publication give no warranties, guarantees or assurances and make no representations regarding any goods or services advertised.