Aliss show case researching women’s history, 28^th April

This event shared  the experiences and practical tips of researchers, information professionals and archivists on work during the pandemic and in the new hybrid world

Ruth Macleod is the archivist for London South Bank University . She spoke  about the 2020 project to mark one hundred years of encouraging women into studying engineering. View the slides here

Catherine Ryan is a first year PhD student at Teeside university. her PhD working title is ‘Gender, occupation and the geographical diaspora of those involved in property transfers in eighteenth-century Richmond and Teesdale in the North Riding of Yorkshire, 1736-1785′. She analysed property transactions memorialised in the North Riding Register of Deeds. This Register is archived in North Yorkshire County Record Office (NYCRO) at Northallerton which was closed during the pandemic and has only recently opened 3 days per week. Her talk provided insight into difficulties in navigating complex indexes, timetabling microfilm bookings with scarce resources,  mastering secretary handwriting and overcoming record office closures. It also showed the range  of women who owned property in the North east at this time despite legal restrictions.

Dr Joan Heggie is undertaking a British Academy funded research project Women as capital lenders in nineteenth-century Yorkshire: Evidence from the Registers of Deeds (June 2021-May 2023) It examines mortgage and transfer of mortgage documents to establish women’s role as capital lenders in the towns of Middlesbrough, Scarborough, Halifax and Hull. Although she factored in delays and restricted access to archival records her  British Academy application, the reality of being awarded the funding proved to be challenging. The North Yorkshire County Record Office (NYCRO) closed to the public in March 2020 and did not re-open until April 2021, and then with severely restricted opening hours. This directly impacted on her ability to extract the volume of information needed from the Deeds Registers in the available time frame and key elements of the methodology had to be adapted to mitigate

Megan Ross completed a masters dissertation at QUB  last year exploring women of faith working in peace building in Northern Ireland. View her slides which explained her project methodology and the sources she used.

Dr Deborah Wilson is a subject librarian for history at Queen’s University Belfast. She spoke about her work supporting students in using history resources, with a particular focus on the challenges and opportunities of digital archives for the researcher. View the slides: