HUNT FOR ANCESTORS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 21 December 1938, Page 4

HUNT FOR ANCESTORS

TO PROVE ‘ ARYAN” DESCENT GO BACK 150 YEARS [By Air Wail—Special Correspondent! LONDON, 19th November. Anxious to prove the “purity” of their blood, hundreds of Germans who believe they are descended from English people are hunting their ancestors. They are mostly Government officials and professional men for whom conformity with the Nazi racial decrees is especially important. Airs K. Blomfield, secretary of the Society of Genealogists in London, said this week: “We dealt with many hundred inquiries for family trees from Germans when the racial decrees were first promulgated. Now they apply to Austria, and it is from there inquiries have been coining recently. The inquirers often have to establish their pedigree back to 1790. “With the help of our records, if the people are able to indicate the English parish where their parents or grandparents came from, we are able to tell them where the baptismal certificates may be obtained. “The search fee is £1 a day, but we often do it for much less, as the people cannot send more than ten shillings at a time out of the country.”