Did Your Ancestors Migrate to Britain in the 19th Century ?

The English National Archives has announced a collection of 7,000 naturalisation records about foreigners who settled in Britain and who became British citizens through the process of naturalisation. Although there are some records for the period 1801 to 1843, the bulk of the records date from 1844 to 1871; 1844 being the date of the Naturalisation Act which required foreigners residing in Great Britain with intent to settle to send a memorial to the Secretary of State stating their age, trade and duration of residence. There's an example image of a memorial for Paul Julius Reuter , a guide to naturalisation and British citizenship  and a lot more on their blog.

Information on these records may provide nationality, occupation, family details, date and place of birth, year arrived in Britain, address, character references.

I haven't found any ancestors or family members in the records but that's probably because they immigrated in the 18th or 20th centuries.

Search the 19th century immigrant naturalisation records for yourself.

As an addendum to Peter’s post Find-my-Past have just announced that they have published 1 million 20th century Merchant Navy Seamen records on their web site.  These cards formed the Registrar General of Shipping and Seaman’s central index to seamen serving on British merchant navy vessels between the world wars. The front of the card contains some basic biographical information and the rear may contain a photograph or a list of ships the sailor served in.  The cards cover men and women, British and foreign seamen.  There’s a full description on the Find-my-Past website which incidentally is Pay-per-View.

Military Stories

Last Sunday's programme, the fifth episode of the new 'Digging up Your Roots', which is broadcast on 92-95 FM every Sunday at midday until 21 February was about military stories.

If you have a question to ask, write to: Digging Up Your Roots, BBC Radio Scotland, Beechgrove Terrace, Aberdeen, AB15 5ZT or email them at diggingupyourroots@bbc.co.uk .

If you missed this, it is available as a podcast for another day.


The first article was a unique letter written by Andrew Anderson, a machine-gunner, on a march to Germany.

Copies of his letter have gone to the regimental museum, local museums, and schools. They recommend that paper documents should be kept in acid-free plastic.

At the beginning of World War II, Germans and Italians were allowed to escape being interned if they volunteered for the British Army Pioneer Corps which provided general labour for the Army, building roads and railways, unloading and loading ships.

Although the stories were interesting, I felt that the discussion about record sources was more useful.

Look in regimental war diaries for details of soldiers.
Prisoner of War camp records are available at Children and Families of Far East Prisoners of War, and for other theatres through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Liberation questionnaires (completed by mainly British and Commonwealth Prisoners of War of all ranks and services), Air Ministry Combat reports, unclaimed medals are at the National Archives at Kew.
Service records at Veterans UK.
Information about World War I is at The Long, Long Trail.

They talked about the "Dead Man's Penny" - a bronze memorial plaque, 5 inches (12.5 cm) in diameter, inscribed with the dead person's name, which was sent with a scroll to the next of kin to all those who died in the Great War (World War I ), there are lots of websites about this, and one that has nice pictures is http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-medals/dead-penny.htm.

I was also interested in the account of an Alexander Macleod who died of cholera in India in 1845, because they talked about a bill of sale of his possessions, and a receipt by his widow.

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Criminal Ancestors

Last Sunday's programme, the fourth episode of the new 'Digging up Your Roots', which is broadcast on 92-95 FM every Sunday at midday until 21 February was about criminal ancestors.

If you have a question to ask, write to: Digging Up Your Roots, BBC Radio Scotland, Beechgrove Terrace, Aberdeen, AB15 5ZT or email them at diggingupyourroots@bbc.co.uk .

If you missed this, it is available as a podcast.

In 1827 and 1828, the notorious William Burke and William Hare carried out a series of murders and sold the bodies to a medical school. Helen MacDougal, Burke's bidie-in, claimed she knew nothing about the murders. When the case came to court on Christmas eve 1828, Burke was convicted, but Helen's verdict was Not Proven.
Later on, Helen was possibly killed by millworkers at Deanston, after she was unmasked as Burke's accomplice.
Lots more detail about them which you can hear in the podcast.

Jane Stark was a one woman crimewave in the late 19th century, housebreaking, affairs, drunkenness. She died in 1899. The information from NHS records was that she was a hawker and had been run over by a lorry and died an hour and a half after admission. The local press reported that she had been run over by a North British railway truck after stepping out in front of it while she was drunk. Poor Relief records came into play when Jane went to prison and her children went first to a shelter and later to an industrial school.

The National Archives of Scotland has prison records from 1657. Most useful are the admission registers which show name, age, height (in feet and inches for men; low, middle, or tall for women), birthplace, residence, marital status, occupation, crime, the court, sentence, dates admitted and released, and photos (mostly of criminal lunatics) from the 1880s. There are also records of prison staff, and governors' journals.
Apparently any child born in North prison, Glasgow was entitled to a farthing (a quarter of an old penny) for life from Glasgow Council. A year's farthings (365) would be 7 shillings and 7 pence farthing (£0.38).
They also mentioned a book by William Seivwright, a preacher reader in Perth prison, which details prison life.
Also see Black Sheep Ancestors, which has details of insane asylums, executions, and prisons in Britain, Canada, and the USA.
British Library Online can be used to view newspapers. It is a subscription site, but many universities provide free access to staff and students.


One listener wanted to know more about a her great uncle in Canada, who she thought had killed his wife's lover, and they found some information in Library and Archives Canada.

Another listener wanted to know about Huguenot ancestors - there are records at the Huguenot Library in London.

There was a quite a lot on Kirk Session records too.

Next Sunday's programme will be about military matters, including a prisoner of war, a daring Battle of Britain pilot, and a unique tribute to a Black Watch soldier.

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One man's 67 illegitimate children, deaths and Guyana

The third 'Digging up Your Roots' programme started with the account of Gilbert Innes of Stow who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, who rose to become deputy governor of the Royal Bank of Scotland. He had an amazing 67 illegitimate children, with many different women. He never married, and died aged 81.

His colossal estate included £750,000 in foreign stocks and bonds, and £140,000 in Scottish property, including the barony of Stow. Jane, his sister, inherited his fortune. Actually, I've assumed they meant pounds sterling, but even 890,000 pounds Scots would be a lot. (Scots money wasn't used for spending after 1820, and there was an exchange rate of £12 Scots to £1 sterling. In spite of its having being withdrawn in 1820, some Scots coins continued in circulation in rural Scotland even till the 1890s.)

They mentioned the difference between moveable property (cash, stocks, and anything that could be moved) and heritable property (land and buildings).
Moveable property is mentioned in wills (till 1901 on Scotland's People and after 1901 in the National Archives of Scotland). Bruce Durie suggested checking the Register of Deeds at the National Archives of Scotland.

Heritable property is mentioned in transfers of ownership in the Register of Sasines and the heir proving the right to inherit in the Retours, both in the National Archives of Scotland.

The next article that interested me was about Humphrey Ewing Crum Ewing Junior who died in Demerara in 1878. Demerara (after which brown sugar is named) was in British Guiana (now the Republic of Guyana) in South America.
His body was put into a lead-lined coffin, which was then filled with rum, and transported back to Glasgow. Humphrey's father was the owner of a sugar plantation in Jamaica, and an MP for Paisley.

There's a Guyana Genealogical Society.

(I visited Guyana in 1993. A lot of Scots went to Guyana, many as overseers, managers, or owners of plantations but others as labourers; and it's remarkable how many estates and some villages are named after Scottish (mostly Highlands) towns and villages, for example Alness, Tain, Fearn, Nigg. There were two small estates named Glasgow, and Edinburgh, though when I was there, they seemed to be long abandoned. There seem to be a lot of Gaelic words in the spoken English language).

An article about military deaths mentioned good sources - the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Pension records in the National Archives at Kew, England, Soldiers' Wills at the National Archives of Scotland, and the Scottish War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle to almost every Scots soldier. apparently regardless of whether they were in a Scottish regiment.

Poor law records helped one lady discover that her great grandmother's brother was killed in Huelva, Spain. There are lots of interesting facts to be discovered in our volumes of Poor Law records - see our blog article, Borders Poor Law Records - Jedburgh (1852-1874), and index to Borders Poor Law Records.

An interesting anecdote about a death mentioned other useful sources. Margaret Halcrow died, was put in her coffin, and left in the church overnight. During the evening, the beadle went in to try and steal a valuable diamond ring, was in the process of cutting her finger, when she sat up in the coffin.
Her husband, Henry Erskine, was at home being consoled by a friend when there was a knock on the door. Henry told his friend that it sounded like Margaret's knock. They opened the door and found it was her. This demonstrates the need to look at the Register of Corrected Entries. Those two useful sites are Deceased Online and Findagrave.com.

Next Sunday's programme, like the others, will be broadcast on 92-95 FM at midday, will cover criminal ancestors, Burke's accomplice and a prison governor.

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