Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society

24/01/2026

Back in the days before kids had mobile phones.

24/01/2026

Discover your Scottish ancestry with the help of these free Scottish ancestry records online

https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/17-best-free-online-scottish-resources?fbclid=IwY2xjawHfRXdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZdtB0K2AvAsTvbJdvrZ-86XfrGGo-3xvoRsUnlxi0LwaJ3w-qttQgAvqA_aem_cBLdg0uZ68WEpuD8G6tQRg

23/01/2026

22/01/2026

' The ghosts of Sanitary Street ' previously known as Silk St, later changed to Anita Street, Ancoats, Manchester, 1898 mixed with the same view from Feb 5th 2021.

22/01/2026

If you needed an answer, you worked for it.

You pulled the heavy book from the shelf.
You flipped page after page.
You hoped the answer was actually there.

Sometimes it wasn’t.
Sometimes you looked in the wrong volume.
Sometimes you learned something else instead.

But the process mattered.

You remembered things because you searched for them.
You respected knowledge because it took effort.
You didn’t expect instant answers.

There was patience in learning.
Curiosity without shortcuts.
And pride in finally finding what you were looking for.

Knowledge felt earned… not downloaded.

22/01/2026

This might be of interest to you. During WW2. This was the weekly rations allowed for an adult in the UK. Amazing isn’t it.

21/01/2026

Could you imagine if this was today!🥲🇬🇧

21/01/2026

The Formidable Genealogist

I am so glad I have indoor plumbing. This belonged to my great grandparents who were born in the 1870s/1880s and was their water source in their bedroom.
Even in the 1950s, they didn't have an indoor toilet. My mom talks about going out to the use the outhouse in freezing temperatures when she visited her grandparents.

20/01/2026

"How To Check Your Family Tree For Errors"
https://ancestralfindings.com/check-family-tree-for-errors/

Genealogy has a built-in problem that never goes away. You are trying to rebuild real lives from records created by real people, and people get things wrong. Sometimes the mistake is innocent, like a clerk mishearing a name or a census taker writing down a guess. Sometimes the mistake is intentional, like someone shaving off years, changing a birthplace, or hiding a first marriage. Even permanent things like headstones can be wrong, because the person ordering it may not have known the exact date, or the stone cutter may have carved it incorrectly.

Indexes and transcriptions help us find records, but they also introduce new errors. One wrong letter can split a family into two or merge two separate families into one. Online trees can spread those mistakes fast. After enough copying, a guess can start to look like a fact, just because you see it everywhere.

So how do you know when your research is accurate, or accurate enough that you would feel comfortable publishing it and building on it?

You will never get perfect certainty in every case. Genealogy deals with missing records, confusing handwriting, reused names, shifting county lines, and stories that have been polished over time. Still, you can get to strong confidence by using a few basic checks that experienced researchers use again and again. These checks help you spot weak links early, before they become bigger problems...
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