North West family tree website launched

Featured In: International News

By University of Manchester Monday, May 17, 2024

Loading...

17 May 2024

A free specialist website containing valuable information for people researching their families' past has been launched by a University of Manchester historian.

The website contains 3000 or so records of small businesses and people with common surnames living between 1760 and 1820, mainly in Manchester and Liverpool.

Though small, the database will boost the efforts of some amateur historians to delve into their roots before the 1841 census - a common barrier to investigators.

The brainchild of Professor Hannah Barker from The University of Manchester, it is based on court records, wills, business records and family correspondence.

Funded by the Economic and Social Research council, historians can search the database by name, business and document.

Professor Barker said: "Eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century wills and court records are publicly available - but they can be hard to use even for professional historians .They are also often difficult to access.

"This database makes the information easily accessible for the first time in the north west."

She felt that data, compiled during her research of small business families in the North West, would be useful for family historians.

She said: "Family historians are the mainstays of most record offices and are the biggest group of historians in the country. Family history also has a massive presence on the internet.

"This project, should interest anyone who thinks they might have had an ancestor working ‘in trade’ in the north west during the industrial revolution.

"Small family businesses - such as grocers, ironmongers and wigmakers proliferated in the North West at a rapid rate between 1760 and 1820.

"Despite their significance to the local and national economies, historical research into such firms has been limited and we know surprisingly little about how they functioned or about the people who ran them and worked for them.”
 

Notes for editors

Visit the family and Business in North-west England, 1760-1820’ project website at: http://www.northwestfamilybusiness.arts.manchester.ac.uk

The project is directed by Professor Hannah Barker. Data was entered and analysed by Jane Hamlett, Mini Ishizu and Stephen Connolly. The database was designed and built by Phil Bradbury of the Humanities ICT team at The University of Manchester.

Images illustrating trading families of the period are available

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Media Relations
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

SOURCE

Join the Discussion
Rate Article: Average 0 out of 5
register or log in to comment on this article!

0 Comments

Add Comment

Text Only 2000 character limit

Page 1 of 1

Research Exchange

Automated Forensic DNA Methods: Relieving the Pain of Validation

Apr 21

Automation can increase a forensics lab's sample processing capacity, but it can also add to the complexity of system verification and validation.

Successful Sample Identification

Apr 1

2D Barcodes ensure that a multitude of samples can be tracked in a variety of storage conditions.

Multi-Parametric Cellular Analysis

Mar 23

Flow cytometers perform a variety of multi parametric applications and have been used for an expanding set of cell analysis applications over the past forty years.

Maintaining a Healthy Cell Culture Environment

Mar 23

Investing in best practices and products at the beginning of any experiment is the most time- and cost-effective way to approach cell culture.

Step up to the MIQE

Mar 30

Over the years, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has evolved into a readily automated, high throughput quantitative technology. Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) has become the industry standard for the detection and quantification of nucleic acids for multiple application, including quantification of RNA levels. But a lack of consensus among researchers on how to best perform and interpret qPCR experiments presents a major hurdle for advancement of the technology. This problem is exacerbated by insufficient experimental detail in published work, which impedes the ability of others to accurately evaluate or replicate reported results.

Fast Optimization of a Multiplex Influenza Identification Panel Using a Thermal Gradient

Mar 30

The year 2009 was marked by the emergence of a novel influenza A (H1N1) virus that infects humans. There is a need to identify the different strains of influenza virus for purposes of monitoring the H1N1 strain pandemic and for other epidemiological and scientific purposes.

Advantages of Monolithic Laser Combiner Technology in Confocal Microscopy Systems

Jan 6

Fluorescence microscopy techniques require a reliable light source at the desired wavelength or wavelengths, with minimal downtime for maintenance and alignment. Lasers are a popular light source, although the alignment and upkeep of laser combiners is a time-consuming prospect for many users.

Size-Exclusion Chromatography for Purification of Biomolecules

Dec 2 2009

Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) is a popular method to separate biomolecules based on their size. Primarily, it is applied to the separation of biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids, i.e. water-soluble polymers.

Using the Tecan Genesis Workstation to Automate a Cytometric Bead Array (CBA) Immunoassay

Mar 11

The poster describe the process involved in automating a Cytometric Bead Array (CBA) immunoassay developed to measure relative concentrations of serum antibodies against Tetanus (TT), Sperm Whale Myoglobin (SWM) and Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH) in KLH-immunized volunteers.

Ensuring Quality in Assays Performed with Automated Liquid Handlers

Feb 2

The focus of this presentation is to highlight the need of ensuring quality in important assays performed with automated liquid handlers. Nearly all assays performed within a laboratory are volume-dependent. In turn, all concentrations of biological and chemical components in these assays, as well as the associated dilution protocols, are volume-dependent. Because analyte concentration is volume-dependent, an assay’s results might be falsely interpreted if liquid handler variability and inaccuracies are unknown or if the system(s) go unchecked for a long period.

Inkjet System for Protein Crystallography

Feb 1

X-ray crystallography is used routinely by scientists to obtain the three dimensional structure of a biological molecule of interest.Such information can be used to determine how a pharmaceutical interacts with a protein target and what changes might improve functionality. However, the crystallization of macromolecules still remains a serious hindrance in structural determination despite impressive advances in screening methods and technologies.

Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity in a Drosophila Memory Mutant

Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity in a Drosophila Memory Mutant

Nov 9 2009

Action selection is modulated by external stimuli either directly or via memory retrieval. In a constantly changing environment, animals have evolved attention-like processes to effectively filter the incoming sensory stream. These attention-like processes, in turn, are modulated by memory. The neurobiological nature of how attention, action selection and memory are inter-connected is unknown. We describe here new phenotypes of the memory mutant radish in the fruit fly Drosophila.

Prokariotic Cell Collection in Denmark

Nov 6 2009

I would like to know about a prokariotic cell collection in Denmark. Is there a cell bank in this country? I need a Lactobacillus strain for a fermentation assay and this information about the bank is very helpful for me.

Request for Entries

Oct 16 2009

Ask the Experts is your chance to get the answers to questions on applications, materials, methods, processes, and technologies. Email you question to bst_web@advantagemedia.com, and the editors of Bioscience Technology will find an appropriate expert to answer it. Watch this space in the future to see the questions your colleagues are posting.

STAY INFORMED: SUBSCRIBE TO

Magazine and E-mail Newsletters

Loading...
E-mail:   

MULTIMEDIA

Video:

Neuroscience Diseases of The Brain and How The Mind Emerges

Neuroscience Diseases of The Brain and How The Mind Emerges

Nov 8 2009

Dennis Choi, director of Emory Universitys Neuroscience Center, is renowned for his groundbreaking research on brain and spinal cord injury.

Podcasts:

Allen Institute for Brain Research

Allen Institute for Brain Research

Oct 14 2009

Discussed in this interview are both the mouse brain project and the human cortex project with an emphasis on the importance of these projects to neuroscience research.

Information: