Category Archives: 14th Century 1300-1399

Posts pertaining to the 14th century

Medieval Soldiers List

Although the Medieval Muster roll resource has been around for about 5 years it is worth visiting again.

Early surname data is hard to access and so this resource is an extremely useful collection of early surnames. Why useful to family historians? Well if you are lucky enough to find your surname or variation, then it will give you possibly one of the earliest dates you will find of the incidence of your surname in England. If you are lucky then you might also be able to peg it to a location or an event.

Medieval Soldiers List
C15th Battle of Agincourt

The online muster roll database currently holds just under 94,962 service records, which is an enormous amount of early data. These are taken from muster rolls, housed in The National Archives (TNA), for the years 1369 – 1453. When you search on a surname it is important that you search on as many variations as you can. The search may reveal the rank of the person, under whose command he served and the nature of the activity.

This must be of interest to all family historians but particularly if you are involved in a one name study. A more in depth study of who the soldiers were serving has certainly added some colourful detail to our own one name pursuits.

Maybe one of your ancestors was at the Battle of Agincourt?

Are there skeletons in your cupboard with right royal connections? Was a place or person of noble or royal birth? Can you trace your family tree back to the Plantagenet bloodlines? Take a look at some of the ways you can explore this online and at the same time glean a few insight into the origins of the Plantagenet and Angevin dynasties to add a little colour and perspective to your history project. more

Gutenberg Project Free Ebook Resources

Gutenberg Project 38,000 Free Ebooks for all, legitimate and great research resources non-fiction as well as fiction. Over 100,000 books with partners and affiliates, it is a great resource for historians. Thanks to it’s late founder Michael S Stearn… more

New Ancestry Website

New Ancestry Website

Is the New and major Ancestry upgrade more like colourful building blocks we all treasured as kids, or more like a battleship grey but none less popular Aeroplane kit, less creative and more prescriptive? Take a look a this excellent new interface and find out how together we might take a fresh look at our toolkit and resources for family history spurred on by this latest competitive leap by Ancestry.

The English Accent and Family History

The English Accent and Family History

What English accent did your ancestors speak with back in Elizabethan England? You might be surprised to learn that an American reciting Shakespeare is nearer to the mark than you or I.

Scotland’s Valuation Rolls

Scotland’s Valuation Rolls

The 1925 Valuation Rolls for Scotland have just been launched by Scotland’s People and are free to search.

People of Northern England Database

People of Northern England Database

The People of Northern England (PONE) database is not new but not much heard about either. This database is of the people in the Northern counties of Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland from the C13th. It is drawn from two types of material, one financial and one legal. The financial material is drawn from the pipe…

History Pin WWI Hub

Use the History Pin WWI Hub to share your WWI project and let others connect with what you are doing. Your project may be large or small but by sharing it, many more people will be able to make links and connections with you.

Mapping the London Blitz

Mapping the London Blitz

Mapping the London Blitz is a great project which has used the collated and mapped all the census material of all the bombs dropped during the Blitz 1940 – 1941. It is a fascinating resource for family historians with a connection to WWII.

Red Cross POW Records

Red Cross POW Records

The Red Cross POW records are now digitized and available online to search. For many family historians these records complete the story of their ancestors who served in WWI.

New DNA Studies

New DNA Studies

A new study of European DNA has revealed a third population group that make up the DNA of modern Europeans.

WW1 Postcards

WW1 Postcards

WW1 Postcards a rich resource and a visual opportunity, find out how to discover and use the 20K plus postcards on Europeana for the period 1914-1918 and muse over how you might dig-out what ephemera you might have in your loft or research boxes that might help you and others connect and make that next step n researching your project wehther for your family history social, local or special interest project. In the first year of the 100th centenary of WW1 will there ever be such an opportunity to explore and discover what happened and better understand those momentous events?

Operation War Diary

Operation War Diary

Operation War Diary is a crowd sourced project to classify the WWI diaries of the British Army on the Western Front. A project involving the Imperial War Museum and the National Archive.