FindmyPast adds enemy aliens and internees in Britain records

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.com) has added the following records:

Britain, Enemy Aliens and Internees, First and Second World Wars

Were your ancestors suspected of being enemy sympathisers or spies? Were they interned or declared exempt from internment? During the First and Second World Wars, thousands of foreign nationals were investigated and interned in camps across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. These records comprise enemy alien index cards from the Home Office, nominal rolls, correspondence, and much more.

Sources:

First World War
HO 144/11720 - First World War internment lists (1915 and 1918): Enemy aliens in London This series contains lists of German nationals who were assessed for internment, but not interned.

HO 45/11522 Parts 1 and 2 - Aliens and Nationality and Naturalisation: Central Register of Aliens in United Kingdom; policy of internment and repatriation of alien enemies, 1914-1924 This series contains registrations of enemy aliens in lunatic asylums, investigations by the Home Office into reports of suspicious characters, and quantified lists of enemy aliens by district from the 1911 census, as well as lists of enemy aliens, organised by age, with familial information such as spouse and children.

Second World War
PCOM 9/661 - Reception and internment of aliens: list of internees, 1938-1946 The lists include internees from prisons in Holloway, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Lincoln, Lewes, Dorchester, and Leeds. You will find notifications of the reception of enemy aliens into prisons and the dates of their arrests and arrivals. These files include a large number of female internees.

PCOM 9/662 - Reception and internment of aliens: list of internees, 1938-1946 In this series, you will find reports of internee movements and transfers and internee complaints about conditions and investigations. For example, three internees complained that the prisons were not set up for non-criminals and that they were kept in solitary confinement for 19 ½ hours a day. However, the prison officers disputed the complaints.

Nominal Rolls
HO 215/469 - Hutchinson, Isle of Man: Nominal roll, September 1943
HO 215/471 - Metropole, Isle of Man: Nominal roll, October 1943
HO 215/473 - Mooragh, Isle of Man: Nominal rolls, 1943-1945
HO 215/475 - Onchan, Isle of Man: Nominal roll, May 1943
HO 215/478 - Port Erin, Isle of Man: Nominal rolls, 1943-1944
HO 215/502 - Married camp, Isle of Man: Nominal roll, November 1943 Nominal rolls will include your ancestor’s name, birthdate, and birthplace. Some rolls will have additional remarks such as the name of your ancestor’s spouse or occupation.
HO 396 - 308 volumes of people interned or considered for internment by the British in the Second World War (1939-1947)

Further details at http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/britain-enemy-aliens-and-internees-first-and-second-world-wars

COMMENT: Don't forget my website also at http://ruhleben.tripod.com which looks at British and British Empire based citizens interned in Germany in WW1.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

WWII Civil Defence Gallantry Awards 1940-1949 database on Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has launched a major new database in time for this Remembrance weekend, entitled UK, WWII Civil Defence Gallantry Awards, 1940-1949. From the site:

During World War II, up to 1.9 million men, women, and teens as young as 15 served as Civil Defence Volunteers in various capacities. They worked as air raid wardens, first aid workers, firewatchers, messengers, in rescue efforts, in rest centres, and emergency feeding programmes. Acts of bravery by civilians, police, and fire were rewarded with a variety of awards and medals.

This collection contains digitised copies of evidence submitted to the Inter-departmental Committee on Civil Defence Gallantry Awards and its recommendations to the Chatfield Committee. The evidence can include the name and age of the person being recommended, the date and details of his or her actions of merit, lists of supporting documentation and possibly copies, who made the recommendation (name or title), tenure, occupation, and the type of award received or denied.

The main civilian gallantry awards in the 19th and early 20th centuries were:

African Police Medal (later the Colonial Police Medal)
Albert Medal―for merchant seamen, the Royal Navy, and later firemen, miners, railwaymen, the army, and others
British Empire Medal―from 1922 for meritorious service; primarily for civilians but also for the military in certain circumstances
Constabulary Medal (Ireland)
Edward Medal―for miners, quarrymen, and later dock workers and railwaymen
Empire Gallantry Medal―from 1922 for meritorious service; primarily for civilians but also for the military in certain circumstances
George Cross―from 1940 for meritorious service, replacing the Empire Gallantry Medal and later the Edward Medal and Albert Medal; primarily for civilians but also for the military in certain circumstances
George Medal―from 1940 for meritorious service; primarily for civilians but also for the military in certain circumstances
King’s Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom―British honours to foreigners for war service
King’s Police Medal (later the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal and now the Queen’s Police Medal)
Queen’s Gallantry Medal―from 1974 for meritorious service
Sea Gallantry Medal―for merchant seamen

Portions of this description are courtesy of The National Archives, Kew, England.

The source is given as follows:

Inter-departmental Committee on Civil Defence Gallantry Awards: Minutes and Recommendations. Digitised images. Records of the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related bodies, HO 250. The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England.

To access the collection visit http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=9160

NB: Remember that Ancestry is offering free access to its military collections from November 6th-11th.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.