Genealogy "Humour" 2 - Queen Victoria

Even the royalty had to fill in census returns! Nobody was exempt from them.

HRH Queen Victoria










Here is Queen Victoria at Osborne Palace (or house): on the Isle of Wight in 1861:




However, another not-to-be-confused-with Queen Victoria seems to be living in a poorhouse in Edmonton!
















Here are more links to Queen Victoria and the census:

Queen Victoria in 1851 & other interesting stuff

Really useful article showing how to track individuals including Queen Victoria & Charles Dickens in the censuses

Bank & Holiday

During my research into my own family I've come across some strange census entries. Some people have some weird and funny names whereas sometimes census enumerators decide to give people some strange names!

This is a funny example that I saw once on exhibition at the Family Records Centre in London, unfortunately it covers two pages of the census. It seems that these parents had their twin children during the May Bank Holiday. Interestingly, this census is from 1881, just 10 years after the 1871 Act was brought in to establish the UK Bank Holidays.

Bank & Holiday Munslow !









Here are some links to someother strange census and parish record entries:
Funny Census Names
Funny census names from Randy Seaver's blog
Even more funny names from Rany Seaver's blog
From Randy Seaver again!
Funny names and marriages from Cornwall
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Humour

History of Coal Mining

Having reviewed both of my mother's grandmothers' genealogies. One striking pattern emerges, which is that ALL of the males so far have been coal miners.

My nan's mother's family were miners in North-East England, moving to-and-forth between Durham, Northumberland and Cumberland, probably where there was work.

My grandad's mother's family were miners in the Black Country, concentrated in West Bromwich, though after 1900 they moved to Catleford, West Yorkshire.

I thought it may be of interest for people to read about what mining was like in 1800-1900 England. Rather than me repeat what others have written, I recommend the following links:

Description of a 19th Century Miner's Daily Life

Great information and archive material for Durham mining

Durham Mining Museum

Some Staffordshire Mining History

West Bromwich Mining History (scroll down page)

Background information on West Bromwich

Brief Black Country History

Lots of UK coal mining history

'Down the Mine' - Essay by George Orwell

List of Individuals who died in Durham Mining Accidents

List of Mining Occupations

Within the pages of the websites linked above there are many books on the subject.

For a more academic approach, the following paper may be of interest:

Dov Friedlander, "Occupational Structure, Wages, and Migration in Late Nineteenth-Century England and Wales", Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 40, No. 2. (Jan., 1992), pp. 295-318.



This is a picture of a Northumberland Miner and his family, taken from the site of the first link of this post