Canal Boat Ancestors and Teachers

A narrowboat cabin, 1870s.

A classroom in the early 20th century.

The cover story of the September issue of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine includes my latest feature on canal boat ancestors, plus my feature on Teacher Registration Council registers (available from Findmypast and the Society of Genealogists' Library) so do check it out if you have canal ancestors or teacher ancestors. It was very difficult for canal children to get an education as they were always on the move.

Canal horses and donkeys, 1870s.

On Sunday 10 August, some heavy horses will be visiting the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port, so you will be able to see a wonderful demonstration of horse-drawn canal boating.

Lady's Monthly Museum

What might Jane Austen have been reading to while away a dull moment? We know she enjoyed novel reading. Regency ladies also had magazines specially written for them.
The Lady’s Monthly Museum (LMM), first published in 1798, was written and edited by a ‘Society of Ladies.’ A ‘Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction,’ it aimed to ‘please the Fancy, interest the Mind, or exalt the Character of the British Fair.’
The magazine contained moral essays and biographical pieces on famous women such as the actress Dorothy Jordan; it even had an agony aunt. And, of course, the LMM contained fashion plates with the latest modes. You can find out more about the LMM and its fair rivals in my latest feature for Jane Austen's Regency World.
Images: Dorothy Jordan, mistress of the Duke of Clarence (the future William IV) as featured in the Lady’s Monthly Museum for January 1805.

‘Cabinet of Fashion’ fashion plate for Lady’s Monthly Museum, June 1805: Morning dress of cambric muslin with spencer cloak of blue silk. Full dress of straw-coloured sarsenet (sic) with a tunic of rich embroidered white crape. Hair dressed with ‘Diamonds set on Velvet, with a profusion of White Ostrich Feathers.’ Author's Collection.