Tag Archives: Family History

Family Reunions and Gothic Revival Houses

by thehistoryinterpreter

Each year since the 1980s, the first May Bank Holiday weekend has been the time for members of the extended Braund family to reunite in North Devon. This year we had visitors from Australian and New Zealand, as well as those joining in from the USA on zoom. This occasions are always an opportunity for eating far too much but we also try to see some of Devon’s historic sites. This year’s offerings included a guided walk round Bideford, which has a fascinating history and an outing to Knightshayes Court. Knightshayes was the home of the Heathcot-Amory family from 1872-1997. The family’s fortune was due to the bobinet lace making machine invented by John Heathcote. This made the process much quicker and therefore more profitable but was very unpopular as it required less labour, so put people out of work. Forced to move from his native Midlands, John Heathcote took over a disused woollen mill in Tiverton and located his lace-making factory there. The factory still exists but has passed into other ownership. It was his grandson, Sir John Heathcote-Amory, MP for Tiverton and later a baronet, who used his grandfather’s fortune to commission Knightshayes in order to demonstrate the family’s wealth and status. William Burges was appointed to be the architect of this Gothic Revival style stately home but when his ideas proved to be too extreme, he was replaced by John Dibblee Crace, whose designs were out of fashion before they were finished. Various features were dismantled and stored by the family and the National Trust have been able to restore some of this to reflect Crace’s vision. The house was requisitioned as a hospital for the wounded during both world wars.

Flowers picked from the gardens and grounds appear in most of the  rooms, together with details of the flowers that have been used and the name of the volunteer who arranged them. A beautiful crewelwork bedspread was worked on by Lady Heathcot-Amory, who invited her guests to add a few stitches. There was an exhibition dedicated to Joyce Heathcot-Amory née Wethered, who was a well-known championship golfer, renowned for her swing. She turned professional and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

We will do it all again next year by which time I may have lost the weight that I put on this year.

Family History Wanderings Part 2

by thehistoryinterpreter

A distinct downside of the Rookesbury Park caravan site is the one bar of wifi and zero phone signal. This meant that, on arrival at the Marriott Hotel, venue for the 47th Guild of One-Name Studies conference, I needed to upload two photobooks for printing before my pre-paid vouchers ran out. This had to be carefully timed so the resulting books didn’t arrive while I wasn’t at home, so I couldn’t do it earlier. This and the fact that I was ostensibly ‘helping’ meant that I missed Brian Swann’s opening presentation about resources for Portsmouth Shipping.

I was glad to be able to listed to Frances Hurd’s ‘Sex, Violence and Alcohol: after effects of the Great War’. I hadn’t realised that then a shell-shock diagnosis relied on physical, rather than psychological, symptoms. This was followed by a fascinating presentation from graphic designer Sarah Houghton, ‘Representing the People: envisioning the hidden history of the Portsmouth suffragist movement’. This was fascinating. Sarah has created wonderful animations about the march of the suffragists from Portsmouth to London and has also recreated some of the banners that they carried. Do check out her website.

I started day two with one of the fringe talks, Valerie Brenton on finding teachers’ records. This was a good summary and deserved a wider audience. Next up was Paul Carter with ‘Making your Research Manageable’, whose verdict on AI was that it was useful as a clerk but dangerous as a judge. Continuing the AI theme, was John Thew, who illustrated what might happen when someone tried to use AI to do their family history, particularly if that person wasn’t very skilled in providing suitable AI prompts. The take away was that humans are still significantly better at making genealogical connections than AI.

Nick Barrett held the after lunch spot, providing hints for Medieval and early modern resources. One of my favourite presentations was Sally Gardiner’s ‘Who was Ann Elizabeth Epitaux’. Sally had purchased a sampler at auction and her U3A group had worked collectively to trace the ancestry of the person who was named on it. Considering that Ann Elizabeth had ancestors who were Jones from Wales, they did remarkably well. I was then part of a panel fielding questions about the future of family history. There was plenty about AI, which is clearly the hot topic.

The Gala Dinner followed. By the time I had joined the drinks reception queue, they’d run out of orange juice. I asked the staff member, who looked about twelve, who said he would bring it to my table. This did not materialise so I asked another waiter – possibly thirteen this one, who asked if I wanted it in a glass. Well yes, not sure swigging out of bottles is the done thing at a gala dinner. He then produced a jug of orange juice for two of us but still no glasses. The after dinner speaker was Harry Rothery about the Mary Rose. I’ve heard talks about the Mary Rose before but probably so long ago that Harry wasn’t born. It is fascinating what has been done recently. I may put Portsmouth Dockyard down for a revisit.

Then it was Sunday. After an ecumenical service, it was my turn with a new presentation ‘Preserving the Past for the Future’. I was pleased with how it went and the resulting book sales. Then I listened to Daris Williams’ presentation, entitled ‘Is AI the new Snake Oil?’, with a very balanced view of the pros and cons. He said that the hope is that all the records on Family Search will be searchable via the full text option by the end of the year.

A break from the focus on technology was Howard Benbrook’s talk on the Hampshire Swing Riots, although, as he pointed out, there are parallels to be drawn between reactions to threshing machine’s and to AI. A useful website that he recommended is www.theenglishprojectcaptainswing.org. Back to technology for the afternoon with ‘Navigating Modern DNA techniques’ from Donna Rutherford and Sophie Kay describing the open source software Gephi. This enables you to visualise your DNA matches but could also be used for other kinds of networks.

Then it was all over. We said our goodbyes and look forward to reuniting next year, when the conference will once again be in Portsmouth.

#RootsTech Roundup Part 3

by thehistoryinterpreter

Ok so it was Saturday but I am still on Friday’s talks. I was relieved to reduce my watch list by three as I had put reshowing of talks that I’d already seen on my list. Wanda Wyporska’s excellent ‘Caribbean and African Enslaved People and their British Enslavers: A look at sources’, was a great  but sobering start to the day. As far as I know, I do not descend from the enslaved or enslavers but along with everyone with European heritage, I have no doubt that some of my ancestors benefitted from the trade in enslaved people.

Having swapped to Paralympic coverage for a while, I went back to Friday’s Rootstech presentations with Kelli Bergheimer’s ‘DNA Misconceptions’. I found the information about inferred matching very interesting. This was the DNA talk that was most relevant to me, that I had listened to so far, even though it extolled the undeniable benefits of sibling and first cousin matches, which I will never have. Then it was time for ‘FamilySearch Full-Text Search – Your Golden Path to Ancestral Discovery’, an amusing and informative session from David Ouimette. I have used this before but there were some suggestions to make searching more efficient. This is still not fully accurate or refined but it is definitely a game changer. ‘Avoiding Research Pitfalls’ with Jana K Greenhalgh and Mindy Taylor came next. Once again, lovely to find US speakers using UK examples. This was packed full of possible pitfalls and worked examples. Another must watch for those starting out.

After that it was time for my own live presentation about researching English Family History 1900-1952. This is important even if you don’t have any British ancestry, as you may need to trace the trees of DNA matches in Britain. I was hugely relieved to find that the technology was working, it was fun to do and the feedback was positive. It was also great to find friends and online acquaintances in the live audience. If you missed it, or indeed any of the other talks, you can access the recordings.

There was still time for Diahan Southard’s ‘DNA Swim School – Part 2: Treading Water with Your Matches’, which built on part 1, with handy tips for working with groups of DNA matches.

Eighteen sessions down (including two of my own) fourteen to go.

#RootsTech Roundup Part 2

by thehistoryinterpreter

News from yesterday. First the decision. Do I catch up on my unwatched sessions from yesterday or start today and fit in the missed ones as and when? Of course the ‘to watch’ schedule can only get longer as other people recommend things to  watch. As eleven of the twelve on my list for today were 3pm or later, I decided to start with today’s 3am one and then try to fill in, although I did have other things to do today, not least do a final run through of my own RootsTech talk for tomorrow. This then is more part 2 than day 2 as most of these were Thursday sessions.

First then it was Kathryn Moore’s ‘Good Genealogists Don’t Guess: How to Evaluate a Record in 3 Simple Steps’. This was intended for newer genealogists but I wish it was fifteen minutes of essential listening before anyone was allowed to create an Ancestry or other online tree. Then it was back to catch up on some of Thursday evenings presentations, starting with ‘Tracing Transnational Lives: Bridging Records Between Countries’  from Allison DePrey Singleton. This covered a variety of lesser-known European and North American data sets and stressed the need to investigate the historical background when working with migratory ancestors.

Crista Cowan’s ‘What’s New at Ancestry’ was next on my list. She’s such an entertaining speaker. The innovations that are being rolled out include record and document transcription for documents that you upload, the ability to compare trees and censuses, the creation of AI stories and updates to the hints and person pages. There’s also a thing called Ancestry Preserve, whereby you can buy a box to send family treasures to Ancestry who will digitise the contents, be it audio tapes, 35mm slides and so on, for a price. This will then appear on your ancestry account. I can’t help wondering who then owns the copyright of these. 10 million records are being indexed by Ancestry each day. Do listen to Crista’s entertaining and informative talk to find out more.

‘When Nothing Found Means Something: Negative Search Results vs. Negative Evidence’ was next. With Diana Elder, taking us through a brick wall research process. This was a very interesting worked example. Having found out what was new and forthcoming (I don’t actually have any of the new features yet) at Ancestry, I moved to listen to Jen Baldwin telling us what was new at FindmyPast. This was more of an overview of what had been added over the past year, rather than what was to come, so I was aware of most of it. An incredible 100 million pages of newspapers are now available.

Still working my way through my Thursday watch list, next was ‘DNA’s FAN Club: Using Shared Matches To Solve Genealogical Mysteries’ by Paula Williams. Like most DNA talks the assumption is that people are working with numerous higher matches and have relatives closer than third cousins who have tested, so the advice wasn’t applicable to my situation but would certainly be helpful for others. Finally from yesterday, I listened to Heather Haunert’s, ‘Picture This: 50+ Image Ideas to Enrich Your Family History Story’, with plenty of ideas about things we could photograph to enhance our family stories. Some of the suggestions might have copyright implications, so would not be for publishing in a public forum. At that point I was RootsTeched out for the day and now I have to combine this with paralympic coverage, as well as Crufts but there will be another round up soon.

#RootsTech Roundup Day 1

by thehistoryinterpreter

For those who don’t know (and if you don’t, you’ve not been reading my blog long enough) RootsTech is the largest genealogical event in the world, with thousands of people attending live in Salt Lake City and many more taking part virtually from all parts of the globe. Many of the sessions are recorded and you can access these for free here. These remain online after the event, so you can watch presentations from this year and previous years at your leisure. This is a brilliant opportunity to learn more about research methods, sources, genealogy related technology, DNA, social history and much more. There really is something for everyone. Including a few talks from me!

I started the day with a 5am talk from UK researcher Davina Wilcock ‘Considering Location When Researching Your Ancestors’, a great introduction to the importance of place and as a One-Place studier, who am I to argue. Then at 6.30am my own pre-recorded session ‘Timelines for Genealogy; a powerful research tool’ went live. Excruciating as it is to listen to oneself, I did, thinking that I could comment and answer any questions in the chat. I could see other people’s comments but my screen lacked the blue ‘join chat’ button that others had.

At 3pm I had a clash, so I started with ‘The GPS in Practice: Examples of Reasonably Exhaustive Research’ with Angela Packer McGhie. The speaker gave worked examples of verifying evidence and analysing the reliability of records, defining reasonably exhaustive research. I appreciated that an English example was included. A very minor niggle, the speaker did refer to Bolton le Moor as a county. British geographical jurisdictions are confusing, particularly for those overseas and getting confused about them is common. She needs my session from 2025 ‘Where am I?: Are You Searching in the Right Place?!

Then it was back to catch up with ‘Poor, Pauper, or Pragmatic? Victorian Burial and Identity: interments in Philips Park Cemetery in Manchester 1866-1900’ with Dr Micala Hulme and I finally solved the lack of a join chat button. It seemed it was because my Family Search profile lacked my date of birth. It would have been handy to have been warned of this somewhere obvious. Interestingly, my own talk is suggested as a related talk alongside Micala’s. It was an interesting overview of Victorian burial practices with Manchester as a case study.

The first part of Diahan Southard’s DNA Swim School was next on my list. The session was very well presented and interesting but not relevant to me as she was focussing on looking for a 2x great grandparent. I don’t have any missing 2x great grandparents and only have one missing 3x great grandparent. The use of ancestral journeys, which she talked us through, is also less helpful to someone with 100% English ancestry. Nontheless, Diahan is a very entertaining and knowledgeable speaker.

Then I listened to a panel discussing Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Genealogy in 2026. The panel members and others are part of a Coalition for Responsible AI in Genealogy, who advocate for accuracy, transparency and privacy. A very balanced discussion, with the take away ‘Don’t let AI make the final decision for you’. Definitely a must watch. There were six more evening sessions on my schedule for day 1 but I decided to swap for Crufts and watch those later, one of the great positives of RootsTech. More tomorrow!

Image created using Canva

What Comes Next for me in the Family History Part of my World?

by thehistoryinterpreter

I often write about what I’ve been up to in the previous few weeks and sometimes get the response ‘I wish I’d known you were doing x’, so I thought I’d look ahead for a change.

Today, yes, today, I am starting a new presentation of my ‘Putting your Female Ancestors into Context course. This is five weeks of online study, almost all of which can be done in your own time. You haven’t missed anything if you want to jump in and come along for the ride. Here where to find out more. There’s a similar course about writing up your family history, starting on 20 April too.

On 26 February, I’ll be running a workshop for the Society of Genealogists that is designed for those who are interested in rural communities, or who have ancestors who were rural dwellers. We have a whole two and a half hours so, after an introduction, participants are let loose in small groups to research a specific community and its inhabitants. The techniques can then be applied to your own ancestors. I’ve done a shortened version of this before and it was great fun but we didn’t have long enough, so this is an extended version, with different geographical areas to investigate. You can book for this here.

Early March brings the annual extravaganza that is Rootstech and the online version is free to attend with hundreds of speakers from across the world, speaking on a wide variety of topics. You’ll find me speaking  live but remotely at 3pm on Saturday 7th about researching British ancestors in the Twentieth Century. I’ve also done a recorded short presentation about using Timelines for Genealogy, which should be available from 4pm on 5th March. Recordings of talks I’ve given in previous years are also available. Do register to attend, there’s so much to learn.

April is going to be busy with the Really Useful Show in St. Ives (the one near Peterborough) and the Guild of One Name Studies Conference in Portsmouth. Bookings for this are remaining open for a few more days. I have a new talk to give for this ‘Preserving the Past for the Future’, about memories, heirlooms, family stories and photographs.

Also available to book is the Society of Genealogists’ Mental Health and Family History Day on 11 May, when I am joining some very talented colleagues to explore different areas of family history and mental health. I will be sharing some case studies of those who spent time in an asylum. If you’ve heard me talk on similar subjects before, I have found some new stories to include for this one. This is how to book for that one.

Looking ahead to the end of the year, on 13 November, I’ll be giving a talk about researching in Devon for Legacy Family History Webinars. You’ll be able to join me live for free but you might like to take out a subscription and view other talks that are part of Legacy’s “Year of the Genealogy Deep Dive”, featuring over 220 talks. Check out the full 2026 schedule and register here: 

I also have far too many other talks to give to various groups, both in person and online. In between all this I have two exciting trips away and a ‘big’ birthday to celebrate. Apropos of that, I just had to apply to renew my driving licence. Good grief, honestly, if you are ten years away from this milestone, start now. It took forever. I made the mistake of doing it online, as I thought this would be easier and quicker than filling in the form on paper. Don’t, just don’t. Four one time pass codes to negotiate. Mid-way through I had to swap to my phone and download an app. I hate trying to do things on my phone. Then I had to answer a load of questions I’d already answered. The grumpy old woman hat was very firmly on by this point. To top it all, my application failed as they didn’t like my photo and I had to encounter yet more one time passcodes.

Because peace and mindfulness is needed to restore balance, I am excited to report that I have a pair of blackcaps, that have been seen several times in my tiny, concrete infested garden. Here’s a hurried, blurry photo, taken through two panes of double glazing, to prove it.

’Tis the Season to be Quizzing – so you think you know your family history? Final Answers

by thehistoryinterpreter

If you’ve just arrived here, it may be that you’ve missed the questions for the a Family History Quiz. If you want to participate, stop reading now, or you will find the answers to rounds 5 & 6 below. Just go to round 1 and return here when you’ve done those questions.

Just some answers for you today then.

Researching Women

  1. When was the married women’s property act passed? 1882
  2. Which women were given the vote by the UK legislation of 1918? Women over 30 who were householders or wives of householders.
  3. What was the minimum legal age for the marriage of girls, with parental consent, in England and Wales in 1928? 12, although the age of consent had been 16 since 1885.
  4. In what decade did Marie Stopes open her first birth control clinic? 1920s
  5. In what decade did The Sex Discrimination Act remove restrictions on women’s financial rights, making it illegal for employers, banks, financial institutions and landlords to discriminate against women? 1970s.

All the answers in the above round come from my Putting your Female Ancestors into Context online course, If you want to focus on your female ancestors, the next presentation of this course starts in February. You can sign up here.

What do these abbreviations stand for?

  1. b.o.t.p Both of this Parish
  2. GRO General Register Office (I should disallow General Registry Office but hey it’s Christmas).
  3. PRONI Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
  4. d.s.p decessit sine prole (died without issue). You can have a mark without the Latin.
  5. FWK framework knitter.

This may be the final blog for 2025, so Season’s Greetings to all and special thoughts for those who find this time of year difficult.

’Tis the Season to be Quizzing – so you think you know your family history? Rounds 5 & 6

by thehistoryinterpreter

You’ve arrived on day 4, the final day, of a Family History Quiz. If you want to participate in earlier rounds, stop reading now, or you will find the answers to rounds 3 & 4 below. Just go to round 1 and return here when you’ve done those questions.

Here are the final quiz rounds

Round 5 Researching Women

  1. When was the married women’s property act passed?
  2. Which women were given the vote by the UK legislation of 1918?
  3. What was the minimum legal age for the marriage of girls, with parental consent, in England and Wales in 1928?
  4. In what decade did Marie Stopes open her first birth control clinic?
  5. In what decade did The Sex Discrimination Act remove restrictions on women’s financial rights, making it illegal for employers, banks, financial institutions and landlords to discriminate against women.

Round 6 What do these abbreviations stand for?

  1. b.o.t.p
  2. GRO
  3. PRONI
  4. d.s.p.
  5. FWK

Now for the answers to rounds 3 & 4. All the answers to round 4 come from my Discovering more about your Agricultural Labouring Ancestors online course, There’s a chance to brush up on your ag. lab. knowledge in the New Year. You can sign up here.

Round 3 Old Occupations

What did the following do?

  1. Pindar – looked after the pound
  2. Fletcher – one who put feathers on the ends of arrows
  3. Chapman – a merchant
  4. Cordwainer – shoemaker – originally one who used leather from Cordoba
  5. Badger – an itinerant seller of foodstuffs

 Round 4 Agricultural Labourers

  1. What was the name of the mythical person who was associated with a series of protests in the 1830s, that were directed at the introduction of threshing machines? These riots were predominantly conducted in East Anglia and the South East of England. Captain Swing
  2. What is the name of the series of county by county books, published by the Board of Agriculture between 1790 and 1820, that provide background information for those with rural ancestors? The General View of Agriculture
  3. What laws were repealed in 1846, reinstating a free market for grain in Britain? The Corn Laws
  4. Where can you consult the National Farm Survey for England and Wales? National Archives Kew
  5. Which English and Welsh census was the first to list the acreages of farms and the number of employees? 1851

Answers to rounds 5 & 6 coming up tomorrow.

’Tis the Season to be Quizzing – so you think you know your family history? Rounds 3 & 4

by thehistoryinterpreter

You’ve arrived on day 3 of a Family History Quiz. If you want to participate in earlier rounds, stop reading now, or you will find the answers to round 2 below. Just go to round 1 and return here when you’ve done those questions.

Round 3 Old Occupations

What did the following do?

  1. Pindar
  2. Fletcher
  3. Chapman
  4. Cordwainer
  5. Badger

Round 4 Agricultural Labourers

  1. What was the name of the mythical person who was associated with a series of protests in the 1830s, that were directed at the introduction of threshing machines? These riots were predominantly conducted in East Anglia and the South East of England.
  2. What is the name of the series of county by county books, published by the Board of Agriculture between 1790 and 1820, that provide background information for those with rural ancestors?
  3. What laws were repealed in 1846, reinstating a free market for grain in Britain?
  4. Where can you consult the National Farm Survey for England and Wales?
  5. Which English and Welsh census was the first to list the acreages of farms and the number of employees?

Now for the answers to yesterday’s round 2. Incidentally, all the round 2 questions were taken from my stage 2 family history course, which Devon Family History Society are running online in the New Year. If you think you need to brush up on your knowledge, head to the website as there are a three places left.

Round 2 answers

  1. What is a Glebe Terrier? Maps and descriptions of church-owned land—mostly C17th & C18th. Tenants often named and those owning neighbouring land may be referred to.
  2. In what century were the Protestation Returns and the Heath Tax created. Seventeenth century (half marks if you put 1600s).
  3. What kind of records will you find in class WO97 at the National Archives? Service Records of Soldiers discharged to a pension.
  4. Which data providing platform gives access to the 1910 Valuation Office Records (Lloyd George’s Domesday)? The Genealogist.
  5. Name 3 ways in which you could gain settlement, according to the 1662 Act. Birth; Marriage (for women) – kept when widowed; · Renting property worth £10 p.a. or more; Completing an apprenticeship in the parish; Working for a year under a settled master; Paying parish or poor rates; Serving as a parish official.
  6. What is a nuncupative will? An oral will made in presence of 4 witnesses – could be used until 1838. From 1677 had to be written up by someone and signed by testator unless physically incapable. Should begin ‘Memorandum Quod..…’
  7. Name four groups of people who were not able to make wills, under the terms of the 1540 Statute of Wills. Child (under marriageable age), lunatic, heretic, apostate, slave, prisoner, married woman (until Married Woman’s Property Act of 1882) unless she had been given property of her own under terms of a marriage settlement, or unless she had permission of her husband.
  8. On which Repository’s website will you find the Manorial Documents’ Register. The National Archives as part of the Discovery Catalogue.
  9. Define a journeyman. Half a mark for someone who has completed an apprenticeship. Another half mark if you said they worked by the day (from the French journee – daytime). They may have travelled about but no marks for ‘being on a journey’.
  10. What is a sojourner? Someone who is not settled in the parish. Half a mark for ‘not a permanent resident’ although they may been there for decades and just not done anything to become settled in the parish (see question 5).

’Tis the Season to be Quizzing – so you think you know your family history? Round 2

by thehistoryinterpreter

You’ve arrived on day 2 of a Family History Quiz. If you want to participate in round 1, stop reading now, or you will find the answers! Just go to round 1 and return here when you’ve done those questions.

Here are today’s questions, perhaps a little harder than yesterday’s.

Round 2

  1. What is a Glebe Terrier?
  2. In what century were the Protestation Returns and the Heath Tax created.
  3. What kind of records will you find in class WO97 at the National Archives?
  4. Which data providing platform gives access to the 1910 Valuation Office Records (Lloyd George’s Domesday)?
  5. Name 3 ways in which you could gain settlement, according to the 1662 Act.
  6. What is a nuncupative will?
  7. Name four groups of people who were not able to make wills, under the terms of the 1540 Statute of Wills.
  8. On which Repository’s website will you find the Manorial Documents’ Register
  9. Define a journeyman.
  10. What is a sojourner?

LOOK OUT ANSWERS TO ROUND ONE BELOW

Round One

  1. Which of the two English/Welsh censuses, that are open for public view, were taken in June? 1841 and 1921.
  2. Which English/Welsh census provides information about how long a couple have been married? 1911.
  3. Jane and Jack share one set of great-grandparents but no grandparents. How are Jane and Jack related to each other? Second cousins.
  4. At what repository are the wills that were proved in the Prerogative Court of York held? The Borthwick Institute.
  5. What does a time in the ‘where & when born’ column of an English or Welsh birth certificate usually indicate? A multiple birth.
  6. From what date were printed marriage registers, containing standard information, introduced in England and Wales. 1754.. I will accept 1753, as that is when the act was passed.
  7. What, in a genealogical context, is meant by the Commonwealth Gap? The hiatus in parish registers from 1653-1660 under Oliver Cromwell.
  8. Jane Brown was baptised on 2 February 1751, her brother William was baptised on 8 September 1752, both events took place in London. What is wrong with that statement? Neither of those dates existed due to the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
  9. Surnames derive from one of main four roots. What are they? Patronymics (from the father’s christian name), occupational surnames, locative surnames and surnames taken from personal characteristics or physical appearance.
  10. When was the Poor Law Amendment Act passed? 1834