Itinerary

This talk is centred on the title pages used by the Renaissance composer Thomas Morley when he held the music printing patent monopoly from 1597 to 1602. The title pages are interesting, as is the genealogy and the connections between the various 16th century music printers. Starting with a brief survey of music printing and guilds, four printers with fascinating connections follow: John Rastell in the 1520s, Richard Tottel in the 1550s and 60s, Henry Bynneman in the 1570s and 80s, and Thomas East in the 1570s and 90s.

Ever wondered the story of a particular building? This talk will demonstrate how archival research can illuminate hyperlocal histories of the built environment. With 190 Upper Street as the focal point, we will witness the transformation of Islington’s status from cow town, to busy high-street, and epicenter of radical politics.

The Empire Exhibition of 1938 was the last large, British imperial-themed exhibitions and remains relevant to the study of British social, cultural, and political history. It occupies a paradoxical position in Glasgow’s cultural memory: an event of global significance which is now scarcely visible in the physical or collective conceptual landscape of the city. Re-examining the Exhibition using inclusive research design and geo-located augmented reality provides an opportunity to surface “hidden histories” and offers powerful ways of engaging with legacies of empire.

For more information about this research, visit: https://sit.gsa.ac.uk/project/decolonising-augmented-reality

Discover how North Yorkshire Archives has transformed access to its historic tithe maps and apportionments through digitisation, transcription, and GIS technology. By connecting 19th-century records with modern mapping, the website makes it easier than ever to explore local and family history, as well as land use and ownership in North Yorkshire.

The parish and village of Thorney were controlled by the Earls and Dukes of Bedford from the sixteenth century until 1910. There was huge interest and investment in the village – housing, industrial buildings, gasworks and schools. Gas was brought into the village in the 1850s with a local gasworks, and water engineering was developed by Samuel Sanders Teulon (Architect) and John Hodgson Jones (Engineer). The population of Thorney also changed at this time, and the results of the building work are still all around the area.

Family Search’s Full Text Search opened up the lives of my 18^th century Fonblanque ancestors including travel, taking the waters, army movements, where they lived and died and the relationships between them.

Using examples from the market town of Loughborough, Lynne will briefly describe her process for researching the industrial history of any place, which as well as involving a lot of sitting down, naturally also includes a lot of walking, and looking up, down, and all around! She will also reveal some of the surprising innovations made in Loughborough during the past centuries, and show how today’s Loughborough is built on, and celebrates its industrial heritage.

Travel through time, from the Domesday Book of 1086 to the present day, and watch your ancestor’s home develop over the centuries. Discover how Map Explorer combines georeferenced historic maps with linked genealogical records to reveal the changing landscape around your ancestors. Overlay tithe maps, Ordnance Survey mapping and the Lloyd George Domesday Survey, then jump directly into the records to uncover the people, properties and stories connected with each place.

Every One Place Study begins with a hard question: where do you start? In this practical session, Carole McCulloch introduces the AI Squad approach — four AI tools, each with a distinct role, working alongside you to plan and prepare your OPS research. Meet Gemini as your Research Strategist, Claude as your Data Specialist, Perplexity as your Contextual Researcher, and Gemini Notebook as your Knowledge Keeper. Drawing on a real study of a Mayfair street, Carole shows how to set up your OPS research workspace with AI as your thinking partner.

How can someone feel deeply British before ever setting foot in Britain? In this talk, Sam Savelli, co-founder of Keepsake Family History, explores the story of his grandfather Gilbert, whose childhood took him from Baghdad to India and, eventually, to England. At the heart of his story is St George’s College in Mussoorie, a boarding school high in the Himalayan foothills where British traditions, education and identity shaped his formative years. Drawing on family interviews, diaries, photographs and local history, Sam will show how simple yet rewarding it can be to bring together fragments of family history and create a compelling story to share.

When the York and Scarborough Railway reached the small village of Rillington in 1845, it transformed far more than transport. Drawing on census records, historic maps, newspapers and original archival research, this talk explores how the railway altered the landscape, economy and everyday lives of those who lived there. Rather than telling the story through railway engineering, it follows the people whose lives changed as agriculture, industry and community became intertwined. Through one Yorkshire parish, we discover how national events can be understood at a human scale and how one place reveals much bigger stories about Victorian England.