Genealogy Chat

Having taken my family tree back to the late 1500's (in places) I decided to have a look at a few timeline facts. Staggered to discover that the early part of my tree dates back to Tudor times! However, the timeline program I have (came with my FTM 2006 package) is very American (sorry no disrespect intended, just I rather like the idea of English Monarchs and events lol).

Can anybody recommend a good English/European timeline package or site pls? My family does have Dutch Jewish connections too and I already know that Napoleon influenced the surname creation on my maternal side.

Any help would be appreciated.

Di

Well Ive got the US timelines so I dumped doing them - apart from the fact that Romeo and Juliet was being performed for the first time when my earliest GGP were married!

Im hoping the FTM2008 which Im buying the Uk version of will have more suitable ones.

Hi this may help you

1086 - Domesday Book survey of land holdings and tax liability
1290 - Lay subsidy records listed names of assessed taxpayers. Between 1332 and 1523 no names were recorded
1523 - Lay subsidy tax levied on an individual’s wealth in goods, annual income from land, or wage
1538 - Compulsory keeping of Parish Records began (reiterated in 1547, 1555, 1557). Thomas Cromwell instructed the Church of England clergy to keep records of baptisms, marriages and burials on a weekly basis
1598 – Bishop’s Transcripts. Copies of parish records had to be sent to the Bishop’s Registry annually
1601 - Poor Law comes into force, formally establishing the raising of money to shelter, feed and care for the poor within each parish
1613 - Quakers (Society of Friends) begin to keep detailed records using their own dating system
1640-1662 - Severe disruptions in the keeping of registers because of turmoil within the Anglican church, followed by Civil War
1645 - Parliamentary ordinance required the keeping of ‘register of vellum’ with dates of birth, baptism, death and burial. Baptism records should now include a date of birth and the parents’ names; burial records should include a date of death. There was not always compliance with the law
1648 - First Quaker registers kept. Became more general in late 17th century. Very high standard of record keeping
1653 - Act of Parliament establishes a civil registration system, civil marriage ceremonies and gives custody of parish registers to registrars appointed by ratepayers
1656 (Ireland) - Civil Survey of all major landowners
1662 - Settlement Act allowed removal of those claiming relief who did not have legal settlement in a Parish
1663-1666 (Ireland) - Hearth money rolls register for property owner
1665 - Act requiring burial in woollen, reiterated 1678. Many registers include long lists of affidavits as a result
1665 - The London Gazette first published. It gave information on Government activities and official information. Also listed bankruptcies, clerical preferments, service promotions, decorations, citations, statutes and Crown and Government appointments
1690 - Nonconformist registers kept (not very well) for first time
1708 (Ireland) – Registry of Deeds established
1740 (Ireland) – Protestant householders in Counties Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry and Tyrone listed
1742 - Protestant Dissenters’ Register set up at Dr Williams’ Library for Baptist, Independents and Presbyterians. Entries relate mostly to people in London and the South East, but some entries from other areas, and overseas.
1749 (Ireland) – census taken of most parts of Co. Roscommon, part of Co. Sligo and nine parishes of Co. Galway
1754 - Hardwicke’s Marriage Act came into effect. Introduced pre-printed marriage registers; this meant there was consistency of information on the certificate. Act also restricted the place of marriage to the established church. Quakers and Jews were exempt

more to follow
Tricia

1760 - Catholic registers begin to be kept, semi-officially
1766 (Ireland) – rectors of the Church of Ireland record householders by parish, indicating religion and other details. The only records still surviving today are for North Cork and the Counties of Limerick, Londonderry, Louth, Tipperary and Wicklow
1780 - Pallot’s Marriage Indexes begin. Concerned with marriages within the City of London until 1837
1787 - First Fleet of 586 male and 192 female prisoners was transported to Australia. Transportation ceased in 1868
1791 - Ordnance Survey maps of the UK first drawn up
1801 - First UK census; a population count, no personal details. No central archive material for this, 1801, 1811, 1821 or 1831 survives
1802-1803(Ireland) - census of Protestant parishioners made. Records of 28 parishes still survive
1813 - Rose’s Act came into effect. Printed registers had to be used for baptisms and burials. Bishop’s Transcripts were also required to use the same format
1818 - Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry established
1821 (Ireland) - first official census (destroyed in1922 fire)
1824 –1838 (Ireland) – Tithe applotment tax lists compiled
1832 – Introduction of electoral registers
1832 - Reform Act gave the vote to men owning property or land over a certain value
1834 - Poor law: introduction of workhouses
1834 - Tithe maps first drawn up and were compiled until around 1850
1837 - 1 July Civil Registration began in England and Wales
1840 - Non-Parochial Register Act requiring non-conformist registers to be handed over to the state
1841 Census – 6 June
1846 - Irish potato famine
1851 Census – 30 March
1854 - Crimean war
1855 - Date of Civil Registration in Scotland (before then all supposedly written in Parish Records)
1861 Census – 7 April
1866 - Death Indexes recorded age at death
1868 - Transportation abolished
1871 Census – 2 April

1881 Census – 3 April
1884 – By this time, all male householders over the age of 21 entitled to vote
1887 - Married Women's Property Act (enabling a woman to own property and chattels in her own right)
1899-1902 - Boer war
1891 Census – 5 April
1901 Census – 31 March
1907 - Deceased Wife’s Sister Marriage Act permitted a man to marry his deceased wife’s sister
1911 - September Birth Indexes contained mother’s maiden name
1912 - Marriage Indexes showed name of the second party
1914-1918 - First World War
1918 – By this time, all men over 21 and women over 30 entitled to vote
1921 - Deceased Brother’s Widow Marriage Act permitted a woman to marry her deceased husband’s brother
1926 - Legitimacy Act allowed for illegitimate children to be re-registered on the subsequent marriage of the parents
1926 - General Strike
1927 - Adoption of Children Act provided for adoption of children, with the creation of the Adopted Children’s Register
1927 - Registration of stillbirths made compulsory (but the register was not put on open access)
1928 – Age of voting for women changed to 21 (from 30)
1929 - It became illegal for anyone under 16 to marry. Previously, girls could marry at 12 and boys at 14, although they needed parental consent until they were 21
1931 - Marriage between uncle and niece/aunt and nephew allowed
1937 - Divorce Act
1939-1945 - Second World War
1947 - Short birth certificate introduced (this does not contain parents’ names)
1949 - Register of Births and Deaths in Aircraft listed any births or deaths that took place in an aircraft registered in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, wherever they took place in the world
1953 - Date and place of birth and the maiden surname of married women is given on death certificates (Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1953)
1959 - Legitimacy Act allowed the children born when one of their parents was married to someone else to be legitimized when their parents married. The child could be re-registered if it had been previously entered under the woman’s husband’s name
1969 - Death indexes showed date of birth
1969 - Age of majority reduced from 21 to 18. Parental consent to marriage now needed for people under 18
1975 - Children Act 1975 allowed adopted children to obtain the information on their original birth certificate
1986 - People permitted to marry a stepchild or stepgrandchild, but both parties had to be over 18 and the child must not have been treated as a child of the person’s family

Tricia

thanks tricia

noting for later

Wow, Tricia! How did you do that? It must have taken you ages to compile that lot!

I've C & P 'ed it - I know it's going to be useful. Though I can't imagine I'll get back to the 1600's or earlier.

Thanks for this.

Bee.

Having traced one family line back to 1625, I decided to write a sort of historical background to my findings (to make gen really interesting for my grandchildren) For example one ancestor owned weapons and armour during Henry VIII time, so I researched those, and another left in his will "his best silver shoe buckles" this led me into finding out more about the times (and fashions!) they lived in. To make my own time line I used a brilliant book which jumped out at me in a charity shop call "The Autobiography of England" it consists of extracts written by people who actually lived through the ages from 54 BC till the present time. So I have incorporated lots of interesting facts from that, (some very amusing) and incorporated also on line images which give a lot of colour to dates and names. Just an idea for you as the FTM time line was useless for me too.

Thats brilliant work - its that sort of info that makes your research really worthwhile - I cant stand seeing just lists of names.

Another one to add in might be the 1969 Divorce Reform Act. - From this time the sole ground of divorce was irretrievable breakdown of marriage which must be proved by one of the following facts, adultery; unreasonable behaviour, desertion for two years, living apart for two years (where the other consents) and living apart for five years.

Great list that you've done there, though, very helpful, have bookmarked it :)

lol, where do I start? Oh yes, cut and past Tricia's amazing work :-)

And I love the idea about researching anacdotes (sp?) about the life and times of our family history. I suspect for me though, I would have to make sure I didn't dwell too heavily on the Shoah (WW2) and the 70 ish family members who perished in the camps. However, I do know that 1 was a money lender in Liverpool (escaped with the family jewels from Holland), another jumped train on the way to concentration camp and was "hid" for the war, another was a fisherman in Dorset and so on.

I have been doing family history for years now and have had a lot of help from GR and it's members on the way but for me, family history really came to life when I started to attach historic events to my ancestors. I do tend to find that whenever I discover somebody old enough to have potentially served in WW1 that I immediately start to dig for war records lol. Sad or what?

Let me know if FTM 2008 solves the timeline issues though.

Di

Di, it is so wonderful that you have found out about your family during WW2. It is so important that what they did and even how they died is recorded. This type of personal research can be very painful, but it means that their lives are being recorded and remembered and somehow I feel that by doing that it sort of "balances things out" again, if you can understand what I mean.....

N.
Great info. thanks Tricia

Bee, how did you C & P Tricias amazing list? when I try it will only let me Copy, then I dont know what to do after that. think I´ve done it before but dont remember Thanks Sal

Thanks Clare, I remember now, must remember to use notepad more often instead of scribblling bits and bobs onto scraps of paper scattered all over the place. Also many thanks Tricia for that time line. Sally

I am only too pleased to pass the timeline on but I cannot claim ownership of it. I copied and pasted it from somewhere some time ago so someone else did all the hard work. lol

Tricia

Your right DaisyChain, it is important to remember :-) The Jewish sites have a saying that I rather like.

"Unto every one there is a name".

Rather apt I believe and I don't just mean in relation to those that perished in the war (on any side) but to all our ancestors.

For me nothing can surpass the feeling you get when you stand on the same ground, maybe even in the same church, as your forefathers did 150 years or so before. I have done this, stood in the same place as 3 generations of my family did 150 years earlier, stood at the alter where they married and had their children christened. I found it truly awe inspiring and humbling. I suspect that those of us who choose to explore our origins are richer for the discoveries we make? If not occasionally confused, irritated, frustrated and amused :-) (think frustrated would come out on tops with prevailing emotions)

Di

Many thanks for that Tricia - have copied into a word doc. Liz

Have a look at the website: www.johnowensmith.co.uk for a huge list of historical events.

This is an amazingly brilliant site I had such fun reading from the creation right until Harry Potter´s lastest book. Great time line. Thanks Margaret

Nudge