Current News

Achievements’ family history research team find further insight into the lives of our forbears with the new release of 1911 census data relating to people’s ailments.
The release of a section of the 1911 census relating to "illnesses and infirmities" has given a revealing insight into how health was viewed. The column, which details descriptions of people's ailments as perceived by the head of the household on the night of Sunday April 2 1911, has remained closed under data protection regulations until now.
1 February 2012    More...

My Smith family tree!
It is often difficult to trace a family tree with a widespread surname. When looking for an infant young Ronald Smith, we simply couldn't find him.
27 January 2012    More...

Truth, Fiction, Family History and Spies!
John Buchan's 39 Steps has had many a re-telling on film and most recently the hit theatrical version. The original 39 steps were located at a private nursing home in the seaside town of Broadstairs in Kent, leading down to the nearby beach. The author was staying there, recovering from a duodenal ulcer when he heard his 6 year old daughter outside playing and gleefully announcing the number of steps she had been counting!
23 January 2012    More...

Our forbears thank heavens for Jack Frost!
My grandfather rarely had a cheerful word to say about much, but did have a wonderful wry North Country sense of humour. So if the weather was occasionally mild in his native Yorkshire he would relish saying "green winter, graveyard full". There are variations of this old phrase that many of our ancestors knew.
20 January 2012    More...

Are Cockneys really ‘Born within the sound of Bow Bells’?
Achievements family tree research investigates whether this was a true definition for our Cockney ancestors.

18 January 2012    More...

Achievements family history research team discovers how the Cockneys acquired their name.
Achievements' family history research team investigated the origin of the term 'Cockney' for a case family history and were surprised to learn that the earliest recorded use of the term cockney was in 1362 in The Vision of William concerning Piers Plowman by William Langland and originally denoting a small misshapen egg, from the middle English coken (of cocks) and ey (egg) so literally a cock's egg. In the Reeves Tale by Chaucer, ca 1386, it appears as cokenay and the meaning was 'a child tenderly brought up, an effeminate fellow, and a milksop'! By 1521 it was in use by country people as a derogatory reference for the effeminate town dwellers! We feel our readers may have something to say about this!
13 January 2012