Illegitimacy records from the 19th century

Nine-year-old future star of the silent screen Charlie Chaplin, his mother Hannah, and older half-brother Sydney entered the Lambeth workhouse, south London, in July 1898. The boys were soon transferr

Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials are essential for tracing ancestors before civil registration began (1837 in England and Wales, 1855 in Scotland, and 1864 in Ireland). This month we’re on

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

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

After the hearth tax on fireplaces ended in 1689, the Government sought a replacement. Further driven by financial losses from coin clipping, which saw criminals shave metal from coins to melt it down

Q My maternal great great grandfather was called John Budd. The family story is that he was abandoned in an orphanage as a baby and was given his name there. Aged 11, he was said to have been turned o