Read on to find out the answers to last issue’s Family Tree Academy challenges. Our Academy tutor David Annal explains all

Discover the answers to last issue’s chall enges

TAKE YOUR RESEARCH TO THE NEXT LEVEL

FAMILY TREE ACADEMY

David Annal

Your document challenge:

The answers

We asked questions about pages from quarter sessions records, in two categories, ‘Examining the evidence’ and ‘Tracking down the records’.

Examining the evidence…

I. Jane Howe was tried at the Wakefield Quarter Sessions on 1 January 1861, accused of stealing a watch. What other sources might tell you more about the case?

Local newspapers are a great source for information about trials and court cases. In this case, the Barnsley Chronicle was one of several Yorkshire newspapers to report extensively on the proceedings of the West Riding Christmas Sessions.

The report includes a short summary of Jane’s trial and conviction which, as well as giving us Jane’s age (she was only 23), provides some additional detail which adds an extra dimension to the story; it seems that Jane’s victim had been ‘drinking until past twelve o’clock, and therefore was not exactly in a sober state’.

The entry in the original document also refers to a previous conviction at the Bradford Quarter Sessions in May 1860 which would be worth following up.

II. Jane is described as ‘the Wife of one Ephraim Howe late of Wakefield’. What else can you find out about Ephraim?