The ark of historyr

Q My ancestor, Charles Hayes, was born on 6 October 1700 in Harrow on the Hill to Charles Hayes and Ann Ewster. He attended University College Cambridge and, described as “one of the Gentlemen of the

The acquisition of houses by the National Trust from the 1930s had less to do with the impoverishment of aristocratic families than the industrial wealth of bachelor donors, as Michael Hall reveals

Picture the scene: a former NHS chef ‘Clem’ Clements is celebrating his 98th birthday, sitting in his front room surrounded by his medications, an oxygen mask and a discreet tape recorder. He is recal

Northumberland Archives (northumberland archives.com), which is headquartered in Ashington with a branch in Berwick-upon-Tweed, holds rich collections for family historians researching this coastal co

Local parish records are the backbone of family history, detailing the baptisms, marriages and burials that reveal key events in our ancestors’ lives. While many of these records are now online, other

As regular readers of this column will know, unusual anomalies in birth, marriage, and death records are far from uncommon. What they do offer, however, is the opportunity to dig a little deeper into