As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, librarian Helen Skilbeck takes an in-depth look at one of the most useful resources for continuing your family history research: records of crime and punishment. As well as the most popular collections of birth, marriage and death records, Ancestry hosts some fascinating databases covering…
Category: Leeds History
Collingham Pageants
This week we hear from Library Officer Karen Downham, who explores a fascinating new addition to our Leodis archive of historic Leeds images… The Local & Family History Library often takes donations of photographs to go onto the Leodis online photographic archive (www.leodis.net), and as often happens when researching the background to images, the trail…
Harris Sumrie, Elizabeth Beecroft and Leeds Museum’s Wikithon
This week we welcome guest author Phillippa Plock, who has been working with Leeds Museums and Galleries on their Wikithon, where they write Wikipedia articles on important Leeds Historical Figures as part of their 200th birthday volunteer project. In this article Phillippa will discuss her two most recent articles on Harris Simrie and Elizabeth Beecroft. …
VE Day Resources
Friday 8 May sees the 75th-anniversary of the ending of the Second World War in Europe, known as VE Day. Previously we have told you a little bit about how Leeds celebrated this momentous day on our Leeds Celebrations for VE Day blog so today we wanted to tell you about some free online resources…
The Lockdown Leeds 2020 Collection
This week on the Secret Library, Librarian Louise Birch introduces an exciting new collection for the Local and Family History library. This collection is launching as part of Local and Community History Month. It’s hard to imagine a time when we won’t remember what it felt like to live through Covid 19 and the impact…
New Armley Research Guide
This week Josh Flint will discuss the new Local and Family History Research Guide on Armley. This Research Guide will be of great use to anyone with an interest in the history of Armley and how that history is represented in the Leeds Central Library Collection. This article will examine interesting images highlighted in this…
The Leeds Folk Festival
This week on the Secret Library we hear from Karen Downham, Library Officer at the Central Library. Although most music events are cancelled at the moment, Karen gives us a fascinating look back to an event that took place in the 1980s – explaining, along the way, how The Rolling Stones’ 1982 European Tour caused…
The Maurice Rosenbaum Letters: A Leeds Connection
This week, we welcome University of Leeds students Amy Clayton and Lucy Slater as guest authors. Amy and Lucy have been investigating a new addition to the Central Library collections – the letters of Maurice Rosenbaum – over the last few months. Here, they explain who Maurice was and his connection to Leeds and Yorkshire….
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