Tracing ancestors in the royal navy

We ended last month looking at the soldier’s pocket books of the 19th century. Sadly very few of these documents survive. They are NOT included in any Army papers that have been stored over the years.

On 21 October 1805, smoke filled the skies over the seas west of Cape Trafalgar, a headland in the Province of Cádiz in the southwest of Spain, as a fierce battle raged. After nearly five hours of int

We’re going to start our coverage of the Army, at the time of the War of the Three Kingdoms, or as it is colloquially known The English Civil War (1643-1651). (It wasn’t only English units involved an

This is one in a series of articles; the intention is to provide an overview of useful family and local history records in existence, covering the period 1066-1485. Each article can be enjoyed as a st

KATHERINE COBB is a member of AGRA based in Somerset REBECCA PROBERT is professor of law at the University of Exeter STEVE THOMAS is a genealogist with over 20 years’ experience PHIL TOMASELLI is a mi

In the early 2000s, I bought the beautiful, but anonymous, ribbon bar of a Saxon officer that is the subject of this article. In this feature, I will detail how I went about identifying the original o