Family History - Tracing Travelling People

What's more, today's family historians - and particularly RTFHS members - have the opportunity to add to that national treasure by documenting their own ancestors' family tree, memories, stories and photos for posterity through the medium of RTFHS journals and other publications. All of these are deposited with Britain's five copyright libraries as well as with Trinity College, Dublin: in trust, as it were, for the descendants of travelling people of tomorrow.

Such was the case of the community of Gypsies who arrived on the sandy wasteland at South Shore, Blackpool, Lancashire, in the 1870s and made it their summer home until about 1910.

Photographs of the time show numerous vans and tents dotted across the sands. What made them unusual is that most had a signboard advertising the name of its fortune-teller occupant. The community had spotted the potential to attract some of Blackpool's millions of visitors to have their palms read. In doing so, they became one of the resort's most popular sights and destinations. And so they continued - very profitably - until a fairground began to grow among them, starting in 1896 with a single roundabout but eventually becoming the Pleasure Beach.

Some may have a romanticised view of Romanies always living in a brightly coloured van but this is a relatively recent introduction, not appearing until the mid-19th century and then only as the home of wealthier families.

Both Gypsy vans and Showmen's wagons would be ordered from specialist builders and custom-built according to each customer's choice of style, decorations, carvings and fitments. In a similar way, Showmen wanting a new fairground ride would head to a small number of expert builders. The structures of these vans and rides were beautifully crafted but it was the hand of the sign-writers and painters that individualised them and brought them to life.

The Romany Gypsies and the Showmen were artists too. They had a lifetime's experience in working with their hands and an expert knowledge of both the traditions and newest trends in the design of living wagons and fairground architecture. It was therefore second nature to them to repair, renovate and repaint their own possessions.

Princess Victoria, later Queen Victoria (1819-1901), is widely recognised as a talented artist. Perhaps less well known is that a favourite subject, both in her sketchbooks and her diaries, was the family of Romany Gypsies she befriended at Claremont House, Esher, Surrey, and later at Windsor Castle.

These were the Coopers, people who often camped in Windsor and Hampton Court even though their travels took them from Cornwall to Kent. Because of their frequent presence near Windsor Great Park it was once known as "Cooper country".

One of their number was Matty Cooper (1811-1900), a man whose many rural craft skills attracted the Royal Household to such a degree that they appointed him the royal rat-catcher. Matty is also held in high esteem by a number of RTFHS members who count him as an ancestor. They naturally carry that royal connection with pride.