Research project

Searching for Theatrical Ancestors

Searching for Theatrical Ancestors was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council between 2015-2017, and is a follow-on funding for impact related to the earlier project Ellen Terry and Edith Craig Database, which was also funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council between 2006-2008.

This first project, led by Katharine Cockin, describes and contextualises the National Trust’s archive of more than 20,000 documents belonging to the actor Ellen Terry and her daughter, theatre director and activist, Edith Craig. Searching for Theatrical Ancestors draws on 14,000 other online documents to provide a convenient, accessible and rich resource for those researching their family history. With new pages, The Shakespeare Train, and Searching for Theatrical Ancestors, this expansion of the online resource brings archival research, theatre histories and family history together.