Issue 34 Cover

Discover Your Ancestors

Issue 034

Issue 34 Cover

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Welcome to the latest Discover Your Ancestors Periodical, offering the usual variety of interest, advice and inspiration.

Our big news this month is that Issue 5 of our annual print edition has gone to the printers, and you can expect it out at the end of the month – we’ll have much more information next month, but suffice it to say once again it is packed with more than 30 completely new articles on a huge range of subjects. Look out for it on the newsstands soon! Don’t forget, too, we have four books under our umbrella, with more on the way this year – see page 13.

Meanwhile, if you dive into this issue, you’ll find an interesting history of mankind’s relationship with dogs, 400 years of Quakerism in one family, plus full details of a major exhibition marking this April’s 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and indeed we mark 175 years since the railway came to Swindon.

Enjoy all that and more inside!

Andrew Chapman, Editor.

Articles

Canine companions

Canine companions

The British are often said to be sentimental about their pets and this is perhaps especially true of dogs. Trained canine companions have long played an important role in our ancestors’ lives, from hunting and racing hounds, through working farm animals, to show dogs, lucky mascots and ladies’ miniature ‘toys’. Traditionally the wealthy classes kept aggressive dogs to help guard their properties and sometimes adopted small dogs as ornamental pets, leading to the disdainful term ‘lap-dog’. Over time different breeds have become fashionable and useful to people: for example, during the 17th century various types of spaniel evolved into efficient gun dogs on land and in water, as huntsmen took up flintlock pistols for shooting game.

A family of Friends

A family of Friends

I was fortunate in having a large family archive dating back to the earliest days of Quakerism and when my mother, Joan Barlow, died in 2007 at the age of 93, I became its custodian. Its contents had always intrigued me as a child: our old Bible of 1616, family trees and old letters dating back some hundreds of years, plus first-hand accounts of historical events by my great-grandfather, Frederick Goodall Cash, of Queen Victoria’s coronation and Wellington’s funeral, and my grandmother, Mabel Cash Barlow, describing a visit to the House of Commons in 1889.

A 'Greatorex' by any other name...

A 'Greatorex' by any other name...

Researching a family with an unusual name can often be daunting – especially when that name has numerous different spellings and the family moved around a great deal.

By Me William Shakespeare: A Life in Writing exhibition

By Me William Shakespeare: A Life in Writing exhibition

By Me William Shakespeare: A Life In Writing is staged as part of Shakespeare 400, a year of events marking Shakespeare’s huge cultural impact over the four centuries since his death in 1616. Record specialists at The National Archives and academics from the London Shakespeare Centre at King’s College London – the world’s foremost centre for the study of Shakespeare – have carefully selected six of the nation’s most important documents held by The National Archives relating to Shakespeare’s life.

Swindon: 175 years on track

Swindon: 175 years on track

Walking around Swindon today, it is extraordinary to think that only a couple of centuries ago this was a small, insignificant market town on the top of a hill, encircled by farms and fields. The arrival of two canals at the beginning of the 19th century brought the first stirrings of change, but it was the railway, and the construction of the famous Swindon Works in 1841, that transformed Swindon from a tiny agricultural town into an industrial centre of international importance.

History in the details: Pyjamas

History in the details: Pyjamas

Pyjamas or pajamas (the American spelling) is one of several of today’s dress-related words that first entered the English language from the Indian sub-continent, reflecting the ‘borrowing’ of Eastern-style garments by Western wearers.

The Brits vs the Boers

The Brits vs the Boers

The first-known European to explore South Africa was Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias towards the end of the 1400s; however, it was the Dutch East India Company that first established a settlement of free burghers – farmers – to provide a port and supplies for ships, at Good Hope. These early migrants were largely Dutch, German and French; their slaves were in the main imported from far-eastern Dutch colonies.

February 2016 books

February 2016 books

Sue Wilkes reveals the shadowy world of Britain’s spies, rebels and secret societies from the late 1780s until 1820. Drawing on contemporary literature and official records, Wilkes unmasks the real conspirators and tells the tragic stories of the unwitting victims sent to the gallows. In this ‘age of revolutions’, when the French fought for liberty, Britain’s upper classes feared revolution was imminent. Thomas Paine’s incendiary Rights of Man called men to overthrow governments which did not safeguard their rights. Were Jacobins and Radical reformers in England and Scotland secretly plotting rebellion? Ireland, too, was a seething cauldron of unrest, its impoverished people oppressed by their Protestant masters. Britain’s governing elite could not rely on the armed services - even Royal Navy crews mutinied over brutal conditions. To keep the nation safe, a ‘war chest’ of secret service money funded a network of spies to uncover potential rebels amongst the underprivileged masses. It had some famous successes. These and more are explored in this book.

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

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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.