National Trust: Bourne Mill, Colchester

Proving that this blog is useful to those interested in the history of Essex, Eleanor Styles, Graduate Project Manager of The National Trust has been in contact with the Essex Society for Archaeology and History.  

Bourne Mill (NT) in Colchester has an ongoing Heritage Lottery Funded project (a little info on the project here https://eastofenglandnt.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/essex-university-help-to-bring-the-history-of-bourne-mill-to-life/), a major part of which is looking at creating new displays and interpretation for the Mill, particularly highlighting its links to Colchester’s textile trade. I have a copy of The Last Days of Bay-making in Colchester by Henry Laver from Transactions n.s. Volume 10 Part 1 (http://esah160.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-last-days-of-bay-making-in.html) which contains an great collection of memories with workers in the fulling and bay trade including that of Charles Baker who worked at Bourne. 

The Society is delighted to grant permission to use extracts of Henry Laver's account in the Trust's new interpretation,

Essex Record Office Wills Online

The Essex Record Office has announced that ‘Essex Ancestors’ their online subscription service which allows users to view digital images of historic parish registers and wills, has undergone its latest major update. The collections include about 70,000 original wills which date from the 1400s to 1858 – images of all of which are now available on Essex Ancestors. The ERO hopes that genealogists and social and local historians everywhere will enjoy the improved access to these fascinating records.

British Newspapers Online

10 million pages now searchable at The British Newspaper Archive

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) hit a major digitisation milestone this month: it’s added its 10 millionth historic newspaper page.

The website launched with 4 million pages in November 2011, so you’ll now find 150% more to explore. If you’ve not used the collection for a while, it’s definitely time to come back and take another look.

Much more to search and a great-value subscription

It’s not just The British Newspaper Archive’s coverage that has improved in the last few years. Back in 2011, a 30 day package was £29.95. Today, a 1 month subscription is just £9.95.

A subscription will give you access to the whole collection of historic newspapers and you can keep the pages you view forever by saving them to your computer or printing them out.

View the full list of subscription options at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/payments

Thousands of pages are digitised every week and some fantastic content has been added in the last few months. Here are just some of the highlights:

1)      The Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror

Copies of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror from 1914-1918 are now available to search online. These national newspapers provide fascinating daily news, photographs and illustrations from World War One.

2)      58 new Irish newspapers

The collection of newspapers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has grown substantially in the last few months. At launch, seven newspaper titles were available, but you can now search a total of 65.

3)      Newspapers from World War Two

More than 350,000 pages from 1939-1945 are currently available to search at The British Newspaper Archive. 60 newspaper titles are already online, including the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, Lancashire Evening Post and Kent & Sussex Courier.

You’ll find more information at http://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2015/02/11/10-million-newspaper-pages-are-now-fully-searchable/

ENDS

Research: British Newspaper Archive

For immediate release

GREAT-VALUE 1 MONTH SUBSCRIPTION - £9.95 FOR UNLIMITED ACCESS

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) has launched a brand new 1 month subscription. For just £9.95 you can search, view and print fascinating articles published in British and Irish newspapers between 1710 and 1954.

The new 1 month subscription is brilliant value for money. Not only is it less than half the price of The British Newspaper Archive’s old 30 day package, you can also view more newspaper pages.

NEW 1 month subscription

£9.95

View as many newspapers as you like*

Old 30 day package

£29.95

View up to 600 newspaper pages

You can purchase the new 1 month subscription from today at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/payments

Ian Tester, Brand Director of The British Newspaper Archive, commented: 

‘Our historical newspapers are full of amazing stories just waiting to be unearthed. We hope that even more history lovers will be able to explore this treasure trove of information with our new great-value subscription.’

You can currently search 7.7 million newspaper pages at The British Newspaper Archive, with thousands more added every week. View a list of the newspapers added in the last 30 days at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/home/LatestAdditions

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Essex Place Names Project

ESSEX PLACE-NAME PROJECT

The Essex Place-name Project (EPNP), adopted by the Society in 1996, seeks to record and investigate field names and minor place names for the historic county of Essex. The initial stage of the project involves volunteers, individuals, groups, and local societies, transcribing the mid 19^th century tithe awards for Essex onto a database. The database is available for public consultation at the Essex Record Office and interested volunteers should also inquire at the Essex Record Office for further information.

The database can be viewed online. 

The Essex Place-names database contains names of fields, roads, inns, houses, farms, manors, places, rivers, streams, woods, etc, and names of owners, tenants, landlords, parties to agreements etc, recorded from historic documents such as Tithe Awards, Rental Agreements, Surveys, Maps, Rolls, Inquisitions, Deeds, Charters.

The database is therefore of use to historians, genealogists, linguists, archaeologists and philologists. It is hoped its use will lead to identification and distribution of archaeolgical sites and historic buildings, will enable analysis of place-names as an indicator of early settlement, landholding and agricultural practices, will refine more precisely descriptive words and word-elements given by early settlers to topgraphical features, enable family historians to trace back owners and occupiers of land.

The Essex Place Names Project is looking for more volunteers.

Volunteers (local societies, groups or individuals) are encouraged to record their parish to be added to the database. To ensure county-wide uniformity of recording, template forms (on paper or disc) are issued to Recorders by the Central Coordinating Committee (c/o Essex Record Office, Essex Place-names Project, Wharf Road, Chelmsford CM2 6YT). Full Guidelines, Help and Training Days are provided. Potential Volunteer Recorders are invited to inquire by letter to the ERO or by email which will be read by the Central Coordinating Committee periodically.  Please leave your name and contact details.

Parish Place-name booklets which contain in hard copy field- and other place- and personal names with additional information are available for purchase from the Essex Record Office book counter tel. 01245-244644

The Essex Place-names Project has been supported by Council for British Archaeology, Essex County Council, Essex Heritage Trust, Essex Society for Archaeology & History, 'Awards for All: Lottery Grants for Local Groups' and Friends of Historic Essex.

Essex Place Names Project

THE ESSEX PLACE-NAMES PROJECT

The Project needs more recorders.   If the subject interests you, more information can be found at www.essex.ac.uk/history/esah/PlaceNames.asp.   Should you wish to volunteer the contact point is the Essex Record Office searchroom  at ero@essex.gov.uk.

AHRC Anglo-Scottish Migration Project

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing from the University of Manchester regarding a project that is currently taking place in the Department of History. The project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is entitled ‘Anglo-Scottish Migration and the Making of Great Britain, 1603-1762’.

The primary aim of the project is to bring together people interested in migration between Scotland and England in this period, to assess how well (or not) Scots integrated into English society. It is our hope to enlist the expertise of members of local history societies and genealogical societies who would like to share their research and ideas.

There are two aspects of the project in particular that might interest your members. The first is that we are working to develop an interactive database (a wiki) with genealogical information of Scots who made their way to England in the 17th and 18th centuries. This will eventually be open access, however to ensure its ease of use and functionality we are initially adding the information ourselves. We would very much like to encourage members of local history and genealogical societies to send us information regarding Scots they have come across in their research, an in particular the types of sources in which they appear. This will greatly help us get the database up and running and will provide an invaluable resource for the future.

A second opportunity for your society to be involved would be to undertake a preliminary study of the role Scots played in your local communities between 1603 and 1762. If a member of your society is interested in doing this, we will be hosting a conference in 2014 to bring representatives of local genealogical and historical societies and academics from across the UK together to discuss the subject and to brainstorm how such research can contribute to all of our research interests.

We would ask that you communicate this twofold invitation to your members and encourage them to contact us if they would like more information. They can write to me at scott.spurlock@manchester.ac.uk. There is also additional information on our project website, which can be found here: http://www.angloscottishmigration.humanities.manchester.ac.uk

Many thanks for publicising our project to your members and we hope to hear from some of them soon.

With all good wishes,

Scott

Dr R. Scott Spurlock, FRHistS  FSA Scot
Research Associate in British/Scottish History
University of Manchester
http://www.angloscottishmigration.humanities.manchester.ac.uk

Online Bookshop lists complete Series 3 of Our Transactions

From today, for the first time on the Worldwide Web, it is possible to view the complete 'Contents List' of all 40 volumes of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History's 'Transactions', published between 1960 and 2009.  The list is available by visiting our Online Bookshop.  The list, and well as the availability of these books to buy, will be of interest to all historians in the county and beyond.

Regular visitors to ESAH160, this interim blog, will be aware that we are, on almost a daily basis, publishing the 'Contents list' of Series 2, having completed 'Series 1' (or the 'New Series') over Christmas. By the end of this month our complete output, since 1868 or thereabouts, will be available with links to articles already published online or a link to enable purchases of original books.

To view the complete list of transactions available to date on ESAH160, click here.

Genes Reunited / Find My Past: Start Your Family Tree Week

The Essex Society for Archaeology and History is not a family history organisation, however readers of 'ESAH160' might be interested in this Press Release / e mail from Genes Reunited.

Start Your Family Tree Week - 26 Dec 2012 – 1 Jan 2013

Christmas is rapidly approaching and with all the family gathered around to celebrate the festivities it is the perfect time to question older generations and listen to their fascinating stories from the past. 

Due to the past success Start Your Family Tree Week is back for its third year.  From 26^th December to 1^st January, Genes Reunited and findmypast.co.uk will be helping members start their family trees with special offers, free getting started guides, discounts and competitions for the chance to win fantastic prizes!

Genes Reunited has some great prizes on offer during the week, competitions will be posted on the message boards and Facebook page.  To see the Genes Reunited getting started guides, visit www.genesreunited.co.uk/static.page/syftw

Findmypast.co.uk will be offering 50 free credits to get involved with the fun and to start searching records, coupled with quiz questions, guides and templates that make getting started as simple as can be! Experts are by no means left out in the cold either, with more advanced questions alongside beginners’ tasks and a “brick wall challenge day” will be held on Facebook and Twitter on the 31st December! The entire week’s calendar of activities can be found at http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/start-your-family-tree-week/index

For further information, please contact:

Natasha White

Genes Reunited

natasha.white@genesreunited.co.uk

Myko Clelland

findmypast.co.uk

myko.clelland@findmypast.co.uk

News from Essex Record Office: Parish Registers Online Project Complete

The Essex Record Office blog has announced the completion of the availability for subscription of Parish Registers online – held at Essex Record Office. (See http://www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/essex-ancestors-update-complete/)

Essex Record Office users may already be familiar with our Essex Ancestors service, which allows subscribers to view digital images of Essex parish registers and wills.

These are two of the most important and useful resources for family historians. Parish registers contain baptisms, marriages and burials for each parish in Essex, while wills can give you fascinating information about your ancestor's lives.

Launched in November 2011, the service initially included all of our pre-1837 registers, and post-1837 registers for parishes beginning with letters A-F, along with about 20,000 of our 70,000 wills.

After much hard work from our digitisers, archivists and software developers, we have now completed the process of uploading the post-1837 registers for parishes from G-W. This amounts to some 227,000 images!

You can use the Essex Ancestors service free in the ERO Searchroom, or from home as a subscriber. Find out how to subscribe on the Essex Ancestors home page, where you can also access the user guide and FAQs.

ESAH Online Bookshop

The Contents of a Library: St Nicholas Chapel, Kings Lynn, Norfolk

Palaeography, the study and transcription of sixteenth and seventeenth century handwriting known as Secretary Hand is a branch of Linguistics rather than History according to Library Cataloguing.  The subject is one taught at the University of Essex as one of four modules contributing towards a ‘Certificate in Local History’.

The example above is taken from “Extracts from the Church Wardens’ Accounts of St Nicholas Chapel, Kings Lynn from the year 1616 to the Restoration of His most Sacred Majesty King Charles the Second (1926)”. 

The book was one from our surplus stock which was offered and sent to the Norfolk Record Office for accession. 

Should I attempt a transcription, or leave this as a teaser for our readers to solve?

To see our up to date list of books for sale visit our OnlineBookshop. 

Research Help: British Newspaper Archive

This resource will be of interest to all local and family historians:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Online newspaper archive celebrates its first birthday

·         Later today the British Newspaper Archive will reach the 6 million page mark on its first birthday

The British Newspaper Archive celebrates its first birthday today, as it nears the 6 million page milestone. With a target of 40 million fully-searchable pages by 2021, this 10-year project is the biggest digitisation of newspapers to take place in the UK.

The online archive holds stories of all human life, ranging from a heart-rending story of a child transported to Australia for seven years for the theft of seven cups and five saucers, to the coronation, marriage and attempted assassinations of Queen Victoria.

           

Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager for The British Newspaper Archive, comments: “We are thrilled to be hitting the 6 million page mark on our first birthday.  The online archive is an Aladdin’s Cave full of fascinating local and national stories that are waiting to be uncovered, all of which can be done, within seconds, from the comfort of your own home.”

Facts about the British Newspaper Archive

·         10,000 pages are added every day, 7 days a week to the website

·         150,000 new stories a day, 4,500,000 new stories a month (approx)

·          Over 200 newspaper titles from the UK and Ireland

·         Newspapers cover the period 1710 to 1950

·         It is the biggest programme of newspaper digitisation to take place in the UK and aims to have 40 million, fully-searchable pages on the website by 2021.

To celebrate the birthday, Archive stories will be posted on the British Newspaper Archive blog for events and birthdays that happened on 29 November.

The website is free to search, with a range of credit and subscription packages available to suit the different needs of researchers who wish to view the paid-for content. Access to the resource is free to users of the British Library’s Reading Rooms.

ENDS

Notes to editors

About The British Newspaper Archive

1.      The British Newspaper Archive is a partnership project between the British Library and brightsolid. From November 2011 to 2021, up to 40 million pages from historical newspapers across the UK and Ireland (spanning the period, 1700 to 1950) will be uploaded to the website. www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

2.      The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection.

3.      brightsolid began life in 1995 as Scotland-Online and is a leading UK independent provider of IT business services to large public and private sector organisations. The online publishing division of brightsolid has significant expertise in the digitisation and management of archival records, and works in partnership with the British Library, the National Archives and the National Records of Scotland. Headquartered in Dundee, the company is owned by the publishers D.C. Thomson and has offices in Edinburgh and London. www.brightsolid.com

For further information contact:

Natasha White

Press Officer

The British Newspaper Archive

Email: nwhite@brightsolid.com

Phone: 0207 994 0149