How to find Gypsy and Traveller Songs in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Archives

Archival search engines are notoriously slow and devious to navigate, even for tech-savvy, seasoned researchers who know exactly what they're looking for.

I created this video to help my fellow Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people who want to explore the traditional songs that Cecil Sharp recorded. These physical records live in the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

The video I've made will guide you through how to make your first digital search.

Here are five singers you might search for to give you a starting point. The search engine can pull up materials such as sound recordings, photographs from Cecil Sharp's notebooks with revealing comments, and changing transcriptions of song lyrics.

• Priscilla Cooper

• Lucy Carter

• Emma Glover / Hughes

• Rebecca Holland

• Betsy Issacs / Holland

Sharp records some of the women above by their maiden or marital surnames, depending on when he met them and what they told him, so there are two surname options for Emma and Betsy.

Next month, I'll share a much easier-to-navigate Songs and Singers e-Book so you can listen to recordings, learn about the singers, and find a potted history of each traditional song. All at the click of a button.