February 2009
I n the first of a trilogy of editions dealing with the Industrial Revolution, we concentrate on our ancestors associated with the textiles industry. Velma Dinkley looks at the development of the industry from the cottage weavers to mills and Guinevere looks at silk weaving in Coventry. Olde Crone Holden looks at the life of her hand loom weaver and Simon in Bucks at his ancestors who were linen collar cutters. Jill on the A272 and Margaret of Burton explore the different lives of their tailoring ancestors and we have two articles about lace, one from Elizabeth Herts who looks at hand made lace from Devon and Mary from Italy tells the story of her ancestor who manufactured lace in Nottingham.
Merry Monty Montgomery tells us about the contents of her grandmother’s treasure basket and jenoco has compiled a collection of reminiscences of their pinny wearing ancestors from members.
This month we begin a series of articles which will look at all the different aspects of the Family Tree Forum, of which this magazine is only a small part. This month we include a guide to The Wiki, its Reference Library and turn the spotlight on the Costume Gallery. A competition was recently organised amongst the membership to select a poster to advertise the forum and the three most popular posters are available to download.
Roger in Sussex has come up trumps again with a selection of illustrations from his copies of The Penny Magazine, for which we are very grateful. They have been used not only to adorn the front page, but also in some of the articles. The Penny Magazine was published by Charles Knight between March 1832 and October 1845 for The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It covered a wide variety of topics and was illustrated with woodcuts. Costing a penny, it came out every Saturday but ceased publication as it was felt to be too dry. Roger's illustrations come from a series of monthly supplements entitled 'A Day in ..' . Some of the articles can be read on Penny Magazine Online.
The Editors
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The Industrial Revolution and the Textile Industry
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The Textile Industry
O ver the next three issues we will be looking at the Industrial Revolution. This month we are looking at the textile industry and in March we will be looking at transport, with mining and the iron and steel industry to follow in April.
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Hand Loom Weavers
H and loom weaving is an ancient tradition going back certainly to pre-Roman times. The Chinese were weaving silk into cloth 4000 years ago.
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The Tailor of Barlick
F or my childhood holidays we stayed with my grandparents in Nelson, Lancashire, in their 'two up two down' terraced house every summer. Grandad, Albert Bannister, had been a weaver,
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Ribbon Weaving
R ibbon weaving in Coventry began as a supplement to the thriving cloth industry. In 1627 Mr Bird founded the 'Silk Weaver Company' assisted by Huguenot refugees who came to England to escape religious persecution. They were welcomed into the country because their silk and ribbon weaving skills were the best in Europe.
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Honiton Lace
H oniton (pronounced “Hun-i-ton”) is a market town nestled in the Otter Valley in East Devon. Wool manufacture flourished in the area in the reign of Henry VII, and Honiton was reputedly the first town in which serges were made, but the industry declined during the 19th century. The wool industry was replaced in importance by the lacemaking industry.
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Concrete and Old Lace
L ace was originally made by hand – a slow and intricate process. However, in the 16th century one William Lee from Nottingham invented a mechanical device, the 'stocking frame', which paved the way for mechanisation in the textile industry and played a large part in the Industrial Revolution. 'Framework knitting', using an adapted version of Lee’s machine,
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Imprisoned Tailor
M y great x2 grandfather, Charles Newey, was a master tailor of Exton, Rutland. Charles was born in 1814 in Ghazipur, India, where his father was a quartermaster sergeant in the 17th Foot Leicestershire Regiment.
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Aprons
J ennie’s thread on aprons last July evoked many memories. A lot of us can recall our mothers, and especially our grandmothers, wearing various styles from the plain white, to wraparound, to the fancy frilly tea aprons.
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Linen Collar Cutters
T he research I have done on my family over the past three years has yielded lots of new imformation that has made me go ‘wow’! But I have known for over twenty years that my great grandfather (George John James Holding b 1876) was a linen collar cutter.
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| Family Treasure |
 | The Treasure Basket
I can remember when I was about eight or nine and everything was bigger than it is today, I used to look up at the top shelf in my grandmother’s wardrobe and wonder about 'the treasure basket'.
I was sure the basket was full of treasure and imagined inside there would be a round biscuit tin, with a picture of a ship on the top of it, full of gold coins. This must be the reason I wasn’t allowed to see inside, as obviously I wasn’t to be trusted and might take a gold coin for myself. I hoped when I was older I might eventually own the basket and therefore the gold coins and that would mean I would be rich and would be able to do whatever I wanted!...
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| Spotlight on FTF |
FTF Reference Library ~ The Wiki
T he Family Tree Forum has its own Reference Library. Known as The Wiki, it currently holds over 2000 pages of information and links which were entirely created and are maintained by the members.
When the Family Tree Forum started out, the boards quickly became crowded with recommendations for websites on a wide variety of topics as well as a rapidly growing accumulation of advice and wisdom from the old hands at genealogical research. A group of likely victims was approached to help with the organisation of these threads and in March 2007, the first faltering steps were taken in programming the Wiki pages.
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 | Family Tree Forum Costume Gallery
O ne of the most interesting features of the forum is the threads which include old photographs of members' ancestors. Photographs are often posted in an attempt to work out when they were taken in order to identify the subject. Several members are experts in this field, from military uniform and badges to women's necklines and hairstyles.
In August 2008, the Family Tree Forum Costume Gallery was launched following its suggestion by a member. Members are able to upload photographs which are in their possession in the categories listed below. Each category is sub-divided by decade.
Many contributors add biographical details of the subject of the photograph, others point out details of the fashion of the time. It is fascinating to browse through the pages which are constantly being updated, so it is well worth visiting regularly.
Any registered member of Family Tree Forum is able to upload their photographs, but if they don't feel confident in doing it themselves, there is always somebody around who will help out....
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Publicity Material
L ast autumn it was suggested that Family Tree Forum should advertise itself through posters which could be pinned onto notice boards around the world; in libraries, record offices, LDS centres, Family History Societies etc.
It was decided that there would be a competition to select the site's poster and members were invited to submit their handiwork. There was a good response with a very high standard of designs from the ten participants. ...
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