Expert’s Choice
Vanessa Toulmin, research professor, National Fairground & Circus Archive
The Romany and Traveller Family History Society (RTFHS; rtfhs.org.uk) was founded in 1994 for researchers with Romany Gypsy, Traveller and fairground roots. The website is not only a useful starting point for genealogical researchers, but also a hub of information for anyone interested in these communities. There are various research guides, as well as descriptions of important archival collections across the UK, many of which reside in university libraries and museums. There are details of society publications too, including the quarterly journal Romany Routes and specialist titles such as A Surrey Gypsy Bibliography, and non-RTFHS volumes such as My Ancestors Were Gypsies which is published by the Society of Genealogists.
There are several free indexes available as well, including the UK-wide baptism/birth, marriage and burial/death indexes. The former includes extracts from parish registers and birth certificates – some entries are free to all, others will form the basis of a members-only area currently in development. There are also county-level collections covering Berkshire, Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire, the majority donated by RTFHS member Anne Armstrong. These are particularly interesting for seeing how the ways that Traveller folk were recorded in parish registers and other records changed over time. The Berkshire spreadsheet, for example, is in surname order and begins with the baptism of a tinker’s daughter in 1707, followed by the son of “walking people” in 1659, and later the baptism of a travelling showman’s son in 1881.
If you’re literally just starting out, I recommend that you begin by reading this concise eight-step introduction: rtfhs.org.uk/research_guide.
w sheffield.ac.uk/nfca
Although the cultural overlap between showmen and showwomen, circus folk and Romany communities is complex, this Sheffield University website is a fascinating place to find out more about the transient fairground community. The archive preserves material from fairground, circus and allied entertainments such as early film, sideshows, magic, boxing, variety and amusement parks. There’s a useful article on researching family history, and you can find out about the archive’s collection of 150,000 images, 4,000 books/journals and more than 20,000 items of ephemera including posters, handbills and programmes.