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Griff admits that he has never been that interested in family history. However, there is one story that he does find intriguing. Griff’s mother Gwynneth was in her 20s when she discovered that the couple she knew as grandma and grandpa, were not her real grandparents at all.
Gwynneth was told that her mother had been adopted after her own parents were killed in a train crash. It was only recently that Gwynneth discovered her real grandparents were called Daniel and Sarah Price.
Griff wonders why the story should have been kept secret for so many years. He starts to look into the story of the train crash, and quickly discovers that all is not as it seems. Daniel was an engine driver, but there is no sign of either Daniel or Sarah’s death in a train crash. When Griff finally gets to the truth, he uncovers a tale of drunkenness, violent death, poverty and the workhouse.
You can begin with our online research guides to family history in England and Wales and poor and Poor Laws.
Birth, marriage and death records can help you assemble some of the most basic biographical details about your ancestors. For instance, death certificates will include the cause of death. The General Register Office holds records for all births, deaths and marriages registered in England and Wales from 1 July 1837. Certificates can be ordered online.
If you have ancestors in Wales, you can check the census records from 1841 to 1901 online. If like Griff, you have ancestors who fell on hard times, the census should also indicate the place and name of the institution where your ancestor stayed and the name of the Poor Law Union, which administered the workhouse.
Institutions such as workhouses, pauper hospitals and charitable establishments are listed, with the name, age, place of birth and occasionally the occupation of each inmate. Bear in mind though that census records were only made every ten years on a particular day, so they will not necessarily tell you if an ancestor has spent some time in one of these institutions.
For ancestors who worked in the railways, our research guides should give you an overview of railway records, and guide you through the staff railway records we hold.
For Welsh ancestry, you might wish to visit the National Library of Wales. This is the main centre for family history research in Wales, where you can inspect filmed copies of Welsh census returns, parish registers, nonconformist registers and probate records.
Selected Poor Law correspondence from the Southwell Union workhouse from 1834 to 1871 is available free of charge online. You can also visit www.workhouses.org.uk, a resource that lists where workhouses were and what records are available.
For information on English and Welsh trials, you should look at the records of the county assize courts, held by The National Archives. Assizes were held twice each year from the 13th century to 1971 in each county, grouped into a number of circuits. They were abolished in 1971 (in 1956 for Liverpool and Manchester) when they were replaced by the crown courts. Read our research guides on criminal assize trials, 1559-1791, English civil trials, 1656-1971, English criminal trials, 1559-1971 and Welsh assizes, 1831-1971.
The National Archives does not hold personnel records of miners or mining staff. If you think you have a mining ancestor, it would be best to start your search at your local record office. Our research guides explain more about sources for the history of mines and quarries, and the coal mining records available in The National Archives.
Copies of local newspapers can be found at local record offices, or at the British Library newspaper archive. You could also check the Newsplan project. Some Newsplan regions have online lists of holdings of local newspapers both at the British Library and in local archives and libraries.
Tracing Your Ancestors in The National Archives 
Was Your Grandfather a Railwayman?
