Review of Vignettes!

I'm absolutely thrilled with this lovely review of Vignettes in the September/October edition of Jane Austen's Regency World! A big "Thank You" to reviewer Jocelyn Bury! This edition of the magazine also includes my article on marriage and divorce in Austen's day, plus an exclusive look behind the scenes of the new TV adaptation of Sanditon, Jane Austen's last unfinished novel.

Review of Tracing Your Manchester and Salford Ancestors

I'm thrilled to bits with this review of Tracing Your Manchester and Salford Ancestors in the July issue of WDYTYA magazine (which also contains my feature on researching framework knitters)! Many thanks to Ruth A Symes for her detailed review.

Tracing Your Regency-Era Ancestors

My latest feature for the new-look Your Family History magazine (April issue) explores the wealth of Georgian records available to help you smash the pre-civil registration barrier: parish registers, poor law records, apprenticeships, Home Office papers, criminal records, militia lists, newspapers and magazines, etc. 

There's also a great review of Regency Spies, and you can also 'Meet the Author' and read an interview with yours truly!
Image: 

‘A Street Row’. Footpads and robbers were rife in Regency England. The night-watchman waves his rattle to call for help. Illustration by George and Robert Cruikshank, Life in London, John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly, 1869. Author’s collection.

Going Shopping With Jane Austen!

High Change in Bond St; Courtesy Library of Congress,

The latest issue of Jane Austen's Regency World includes my feature on going shopping in Jane Austen's day, Maggie Lane explores the work of Elizabeth Inchbald, and Penny Townsend discusses Austen and William Shakespeare. There's also a review of my new book A Visitor's Guide To Jane Austen's England by Joceline Bury.  Last but not least, the magazine has lots of wonderful Christmas gift ideas for Austen fans!

Review of Deirdre Le Faye's Jane Austen's Letters

Deirdre Le Faye's Jane Austen's Letters (Oxford University Press, 2011) is an invaluable addition to the bookshelves of Jane Austen fans and scholars of her life and times.  The updated fourth edition includes a new preface, revamped biographical and topographical indexes (i.e. indexes of people and places mentioned in Jane's letters).  The biographical index is particularly helpful if, like many of us, you find the complex network of Austen's family and friends confusing (and it is a very complicated family tree, especially if you include the remarriages of Jane's brothers). The new subject index is a 'must-have' if you are interested in the social history of Austen's day.

Victorian reviewers of the Brabourne edition of Jane Austen's letters did not appear to find them particularly interesting compared with those of, for example, Fanny Burney, who wrote her letters with a view to their eventual publication, but this is to do Austen an injustice.  Her wit and charm shines out of her surviving letters, and I think they are the closest thing we will ever have to a 'conversation' with Jane in which we can hear her 'voice'.

The history of the letters' publication, and their provenance (explored in the preface and notes) are fascinating.  Jane's sister Cassandra burned many letters containing any very personal information (precisely those which would interest us most today). Several letters have been lost since their first publication, and others are known only in part, because they were cut up and distributed amongst the family. 

Le Faye has methodically documented the provenance, current location (if known) and publication of each letter and put them in sequence.  She clearly explains many seemingly puzzling references in the letters.

One phrase, however, she finds 'unexplained': in a letter to Cassandra (26 November 1815), Jane says that they have not had many visitors that week, but now she is 'in terror' because it is a 'fine bright Sunday, plenty of Mortar and nothing to do'.  Le Faye suggests that 'mortar' might be slang for 'money', and that this is a reference to a popular song of the day.

A quick glance at Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1788 and later editions) doesn't support 'mortar' as a euphemism for money, however.  At the risk of putting my head on the block, I humbly suggest that 'plenty of Mortar and nothing to do' sounds as if it's something a builder or stonemason might say if he'd mixed lots of mortar, but then had nothing to build, and was left twiddling his thumbs in the sunshine. Could this perhaps be something that a builder or workman had said when doing some work for the Austen family?  I'd be very interested to hear what other readers think, anyway.

Discover Your Ancestors Review

Launching a new family history publication may be considered a brave step by some following the recent demise of the online Discover My Past (back issues still available), and the much lamented Family History Monthly.   

However, the new Discover Your Ancestors Periodical is hoping to build on the success of the glossy annual bookazine, available from newsagents or the publisher. The monthly magazine is published in association with theGenealogist.

The first issue (May) had an article on tracking down archives by expert author Simon Fowler, social history articles on the early aviators and on child labour, a look at records available for Essex, book reviews and more.The June issue focussed on the suffragette movement, records for the legendary Dambusters squadron, how to research Welsh Anglican and Nonconformist ancestors, plus a look at Birmingham resources and more.

Looking at the first two issues, I would say that the magazine is initially aimed at those starting out in family history.  However, hardened campaigners should still find the social history articles and focus on particular records valuable, particularly if you like to put your ancestors’ lives in context. Next month's features are listed here, including one on vaccination registers by yours truly.

Subscribers can download the whole magazine in pdf. format or you can just browse each article online. Unfortunately I can’t comment on how easy the magazine is to read on mobile devices as I am old-fashioned and just use my phone for texts and calls!

The monthly periodical is 20 pages long, fully illustrated, and comes with free subscriber data.  It costs £1 per month (£12 for a year’s subscription). 
This compares with £4.99 for BBC Who Do You Think You Are? (100 pages long).  Your Family History and Family Tree are both £4.99 I think (the latter is £3.99 for its digital edition).  These magazines also have subscriber offers and offer free data sets.

As always with the family history magazines, I think which you choose very much depends on your budget, how experienced a researcher you are, and which datasets are useful for your personal research.  You may like to flit between each magazine according to which records are being discussed that month, or you may prefer to treat yourself to a subscription so that you don’t have to remember to buy it each month, and so that you can keep up with the latest news.  

Do you prefer a print magazine which you can thumb through (in or out of the bath!), or do you prefer to read articles on your mobile device or PC?  I’d love to hear your views!

Reviews of Tracing Your Canal Ancestors

'Tracing Your Canal Ancestors was not only a great historical read, but the information and references for tracing your canal ancestors can be applied to other research, making it a great research reference book. It will certainly help my research for my own ideas!' Mr Andrew Bell, Shetland. 

'An excellent practical guide...' Towpath Talk, August 2012.

'This is an extremely useful, interesting and well written book which should be in the collection of anyone interested in workers on Britain's waterways... This is a commercial and social history of the people who lived and worked on the waterways... A thorough and practical guide'. Bristol and Avon FHS.

'Essential reading for those new to the subject'. Railway and Canal Historical Society.

'A practical guide that aims to help ancestors who worked on the canals, or for a canal company, to explore these roots... There is a wealth of rich information about archives, further reading, websites and relevant societies'. Your Family Tree, April 2012.

‘This book is an excellent guide for those who have traced their family back to someone who worked on the boats or for canal companies. The first half is a resumé of canal history, but from the rather different perspective of the individuals involved with them: in their construction, maintenance and operation. It offers the human history of canals… It explains not only how people might have been associated with canals, but also gives ideas for sources of where information about them might be held. Even for those not involved with genealogy, it offers a different approach to canal history…
There is a short general chapter on conventional genealogical research, but it is the specific waterway sources that will be valuable… Even the seasoned canal historian will learn from the extensive catalogue of regional archive holdings… Interspersed with the practical information is a series of case studies… Although obviously of direct interest to genealogists, this is also informative reading for the more general canal historian’. Hugh Potter, Waterways World, February 2012.

‘… A clear, atmospheric history of canals and the people who built and worked them… Tracing Your Canal Ancestors is both an inspiring read and a good starting point for your investigation into your canal-faring forebears.’ BBC Who Do You Think You Are?, January 2012.

‘Social historian Sue Wilkes’ new book, Tracing Your Canal Ancestors, is an authoritative guide for those with connections to Britain’s waterways.  A mixture of socio-industrial history with clear advice on how to find out more about ancestors who played a part in British canal history, Sue Wilkes’ book will be an invaluable addition to many family historians’ bookshelves’. Your Family History, Dec 2011.

‘Canal living as it was in the late 19th century is dissected here in great detail, with regular case studies, illustrations and … colourful anecdotes… Wilkes provides an in-depth practical guide to researching your own boatmen ancestors, with vast amounts of information on archives, websites and societies that could help further your genealogical research. This guide is not just for those with boatmen in their trees – it also provides often overlooked information on people who relied on the canal trade for a living, such as lock-keepers, toll collectors and canal company clerks.
The book is an excellent manual for family historians, and comes with lots of ideas about where to find further details about the personal lives of those that worked the waterways’. Family History Monthly, December 2011.


'The book is well written in a lively style; the information is comprehensive and more than enough to give a researcher a good start in their quest for a canal ancestor...The book is in two broadly equal parts. The first 100 pages are a description of the canal network, its history and development, and the lives of the people who lived and worked afloat. The second half is a series of appendices, designed to guide the researcher through the tracing process. The author addresses the basic nuts-and-bolts of family history – general registration, parish registers and censuses, underlining the particular difficulties census enumerators may have had with – literally – a floating population...The book is well indexed and has a comprehensive bibliography. Sources are cited.
The book is well illustrated with photographs, contemporary drawings, maps and copies of relevant documents that the researcher may encounter. The illustrations are a significant strength of the book. The author is an enthusiast without being an anorak; I enjoyed this book and found myself wishing I had canal ancestors, so that I could delve deeper into their long-gone world'. Federation of Family History Societies, December 2011.

‘Fresh on the heels of Sue Wilkes’s recent The Children History Forgot comes an equally superb offering on a completely different theme – the canal heritage of the British Isles. From the first truly artificial waterway in Ireland (the Newry Canal) to the massive network subsequently carved out in Britain, the author details not only the construction of the network, but the careers that depended on it. There were the navvies who built them, the lockkeepers and canal companies who operated the infrastructure, and the companies who depended on the resource to make a living. Amongst that are the classes often overlooked – families who lived their entire lives from birth to death on the waterways.

... The book is in two main parts – the first detailing the history and the second how to uncover it using key resources and archives. Whether you do or do not have a connection to the waterways, this work is an absorbing and enlightening read’. Discover My Past Scotland, January 2012.

Review of Miss Austen Regrets

Miss Austen Regrets is a welcome addition to the burgeoning Jane Austen film/TV industry. The use of Austen’s letters gave an authentic ring to this biopic. A couple of scenes had me raising an eyebrow. I am doubtful Austen was quite as free and easy in company as Olivia Williams’ portrayal; I was also uncomfortable with the budding ‘affair’ with Charles Haden.
But writer Gwyneth Hughes can be forgiven some deviations from the strict historical record for her portrayal of the power dynamics in the Austen family, especially Jane’s tense relationship with her mother. Greta Scacchi gives us a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of Cassandra, and I was pleased with Adrian Edmondson as Henry.
Olivia Williams plays a fragile Jane with a hint of steel. However, although we know from the letters that Jane enjoyed a drink, was she really the boozy flirt portrayed here?
Imogen Poots gives a convincing portrait of that spoilt little madam, Fanny Austen Knight. Jane loved Fanny; one can only be thankful she never knew about Fanny’s disparaging comments about her Aunt Jane and family in later life.

Cassandra’s ruthless, loving destruction of the most intimate of Jane’s letters means we will never really know the ‘real’ Jane Austen. We’re left to pick over the bones; a forensic recreation of her innermost feelings from the remaining letters, the novels, and anecdotes from friends and relations. This is probably what Jane herself would have wanted.
To sum up, Miss Austen Regrets is beautifully presented and enjoyable to watch. Providing one remembers it's one writer’s personal 'take' on Jane, rather than a documentary, it’s a good introduction to her life for those new to Austen and her work.
I defy any Austen fan not to be moved as Jane faces death, knowing she will never be able to write down all the characters and stories still waiting for her to bring them to life.

A big 'Thank You' to Jane Odiwe for her lovely drawing of Jane Austen. You can also see more of her work at Jane Austen Sequels.