Royal Navy officer lists added to FindmyPast

The latest additions to FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

Britain, Royal Navy, Navy Lists 1827-1945
Search for your ancestor in official lists of Royal Navy Officers. The collection consists of 147 publications spanning the 1824 to 1945. The collection consists of digital images of original lists presented in PDF format.

British Army Service Records
Over 34,000 new Scots Guards records have been added to our collection of British Army Service records. The new additions consist of Enlistment Registers spanning the years 1642 to 1939.

Scotland, Edinburgh Marriages 1595-1800
Did any of your relations marry in Edinburgh, Scotland? Discover their names, occupations, residences, spouses and dates of marriage, former marriages, and more in this collection of records from parish registers collated throughout the city.

Scotland, Testaments 1514-1800
Did your ancestors die in Scotland? Discover details of their property, relatives, and more in records of their last will and testaments. The collection contains over 2,800 PDF images of original documents

Scotland, Edinburgh Apprentices 1583-1700
Did any of your ancestors learn their trade in Edinburgh? Discover details of their apprenticeships and occupations in this collection of almost 120 years of documents from the capital of Scotland.

Extra! Extra! The latest additions to our newspaper collection
This week we have added 114,026 new pages to The Archive. We have updated three of our Irish titles, and there are also updates to titles covering the city of Liverpool, the county of Gloucestershire and one of our Scottish titles.

This week's new additions include;

Irish Independent 1989-1990, 1993-1994
Peeblesshire Advertiser 1880-1882, 1887-1892
Cirencester Times and Cotswold Advertiser 1869
Evening Herald (Dublin) 1986-1987, 1990
Music Hall and Theatre Review 1890
Belfast Telegraph 1913-1914, 1920
Liverpool Echo 1984, 1986

Further details and links are available at https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/findmypast-friday-july-27th-2590143759.html

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

Find Naval ancestors with Forces War Records

The latest press release from Forces War Records (www.forces-war-records.co.uk):

Forces War Records, the specialist genealogy website, now holds over 10 million military individuals' records, 1000s of which are Naval. In remembrance of all Naval heroes on Merchant Navy Day, we'd like to help you to find your Naval ancestor today. We have 1000s of Naval records for you to search (including exclusive collections) which may hold the information you've been looking for. There's 1000s of original publications and articles within our online Archive, and military specialists on tap to help you overcome genealogy brick walls, and find your ancestor.

Search our complete Navy record collections and also download your free tutorial - 'How to search Navy records' - to help make sure you find your ancestor online.

Visit Forces War Records to search the full Naval collections HERE.


(With thanks to Jennifer Holmes)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course commences Sept 11th 2017 - details at www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

The missionary rescue mission

The following was first posted on my personal blog in December 2010, but may be of interest if you have missionaries in your family tree!

The missionary rescue mission

My family has a long association with the Royal Navy. My father was a submariner, my uncle in the Fleet Air Arm, and my brother a Chief Petty Officer, whilst several cousins have also served in the senior service. And then there was my grandfather's cousin Mary...! Mary was not in the Royal Navy, but a Presbyterian missionary serving in China. She too, however, was destined to travel aboard a Royal Naval vessel.

In 1937 a British warship set sail from Hong Kong with a single mission in mind - to rescue Mary Paton. From the Daily Mirror of Se
ptember 14th 1937:

WARSHIP SPEEDS TO RESCUE LONE BRITISH MISSIONARY WOMAN

British destroyer HMS Thracian speeded from Hong Kong under special orders yesterday...

She was off to the rescue of Miss Mary Paton, a fifty-year-old Presbyterian missionary, solitary British resident of the small town of Swabue, South China.

For twenty-three years Miss Paton has defied war, fever and bandits to found schools in remote Chinese villages.

But now she must leave for the Japanese have landed near, at Bias Bay, after having bombarded fortified positions in the district.

It is reported from Hong Kong that after the ships' guns had bombarded the town at Bias Bay marines landed and blew up Chinese naval works and anti-piracy forts and an arsenal.

She Insisted

The parents of Miss Paton, who is a sister of Mr William Paton, chief of the Presbyterian Mission Society, live in Watford, Herts.

She returned to England for a short time, but eighteen months ago she insisted on returning to Swabue, where she founded another school.

Mr. P. V. Thomas, head of the American Seventh Day Adventist Mission Hospital at Wacihow, arrived at Hong Kong yesterday with his staff.

He stated that the Japanese had bombed the hospital despite the American flags displayed.

Mr. R. G. Howe, the new British Charge d' Affaires to China, leaving Shanghai at 3.30am today for Nanking by road, informed the Chinese and Japanese authorities that the party proposed to take the same route as that covered by Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, British Ambassador to China. A large Union Jack was painted on the roof of the car.

Japan has been unable to trace any attack on Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, the British Ambassador to China, the Foreign Office spokesman stated in Tokyo.

He admitted that Japanese planes had met motor cars on the roads about Shanghai during the recent fighting, but said that none of these coincided with the time and place of the attack on Sir Hughe.

The Japanese reply to the British note on the attack is still in course of preparation.

The Chinese explained a big withdrawl on the Shanghai front yesterday.


Mary returned to England, living in Watford until she passed away in 1974, though she was able to make one final trip back to China a few years prior to her death. I have been able to carry out a great deal of research into her life, with her personal correspondence and photo albums having been donated to the London based School of Oriental and African Studies (www.soas.ac.uk), which has a fantastic archive service.

If you have missionary ancestors, other great resources include the MUNDUS database at www.mundus.ac.uk, whilst the International Mission Photography Archive at http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15799coll123 can also help.

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.

Royal Naval Seamen and Railway records on Ancestry

Two minor developments from Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) on the collections front:

Web: United Kingdom, Royal Naval Seamen Index, 1853 -1872
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=70684

This is a third party web index to a collection held on the website of the National Archives in England, Series ADM 139. See http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/royal-navy-ratings-service-records-1853-1928/


UK, Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1728

Listed as updated, but no detail as to with what. The original source is again the National Archives in England, with the following records:

RAIL226: Great Central Railway Company
RAIL264: Great Western Railway Company
RAIL397: London and North Eastern Railway Company
RAIL410: London and North Western Railway Company
RAIL411: London and South Western Railway Company
RAIL414: London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
RAIL415: London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company (formerly the East Kent Railway)
RAIL426: London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company
RAIL463: Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company
RAIL491: Midland Railway Company
RAIL1156: Special Collections: Retired Railway Officers' Society

Missing for privacy reasons:

RAIL 264 Great Western Railway Company: Staff Records
Pieces 412, 413, 440, 442, 443, 471-522

RAIL 397 London and North Eastern Railway Company: Staff Records
Piece 13

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.

FindmyPast update

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

Ireland Surnames & Family Histories
Discover more about your Irish family name and history with a collection of nine assorted publications containing more than 7,000 individual records.

Devon, Plymouth Prison Records 1832-1919
Find out if your ancestor was a prisoner or prison officer in Devon in the 19th or early 20th century with over 13,000 records. They can reveal where they
were sentenced and for how long.

British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records Browse, 1704-1919
Browse this collection of Royal Navy and Royal Marine service and pension records to uncover the stories of men who fought in one of history's greatest naval battles.

Also:

Queensland deaths 1829-1964

Queensland deaths contains the records of more than 871,000 individuals who died in Queensland between 1829 and 1964. Each record consists of a transcript of the original source material. Each transcript will list your ancestor's full name, death date and the names of both parents including mother's maiden name.

More details at https://blog.findmypast.com/fridays/

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.

Battle of Jutland records on FindmyPast

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.com) has uploaded a collection of records for the Battle of Jutland. From the site:

This new collection has been specially created to bring together the names of those who participated in the battle of Jutland between 31 May and 1 June 1926. The collection is not comprehensive and there may be some gaps. It was created from the following series found at The National Archives in London.

ADM 159: Royal Marines, service records
ADM 188: Royal Navy Seamen, service records
ADM 196: Royal Navy officers, service records
ADM 240: Royal Naval Reserve officers, service records
ADM 377: Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, ratings’ service records

The FindyPast collection, entitled British Royal Navy & Royal Marines, Battle Of Jutland 1916 Servicemen (http://search.findmypast.com/search-world-Records/british-royal-navy-and-royal-marines-battle-of-jutland-1916-servicemen), also uses transcripts created by Naval and Military Press, though no source details are provided for these.

Also released is an update to its Ireland, Poverty Relief Loans 1821-1874 collection (http://search.findmypast.com/search-world-Records/ireland-poverty-relief-loans-1821-1874), which sees an additional 5000 records added, although again, there is no information as to the nature of which areas these new records might concern.

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.

Bletchley Park podcast and Oral History Project

The latest podcast from Bletchley Park includes the story of the sinking of the Bismarck:

This month in the Bletchley Park Podcast’s It Happened Here series, we tell the story of The Bismarck. The iconic German battleship was sunk by the Royal Navy 75 years ago. While this clearly did not happen at Bletchley Park, but in the Atlantic Ocean, codebreaking and some of the pioneering techniques developed as part of it played a crucial role in locating the flagship of the German fleet.

Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, explains how work going on in wooden huts in the Buckinghamshire countryside contributed to the ship’s destruction, which was vital for the Allies, both strategically and symbolically.

Jane Fawcett worked in Hut 6 from 1940. She recalls “It may be the most important thing that any of us have ever done in our lives. We didn’t realise it at the time, but we do now.”

To hear the podcast please visit http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/podcast/932393/The_Bismarck.html


Also, Bletchley Park is seeking more participants for its Oral History Project:

Since November 2011 we have visited over 300 Veterans to interview them and hear how enemy signals were intercepted, decrypted and turned into intelligence, as well as capturing fascinating glimpses of their daily lives. We have interviewed people who worked at Bletchley Park and in outstations from the north of Scotland to Australia. Their jobs highlight the broad range of roles people were fulfilling, from the upper echelons of Oxbridge academics via machines operators and clerical staff to cooks, cleaners and even delivery staff from the local bakery.

We are keen to interview anyone who worked:

• At Bletchley Park or its outstations, civilian or military, in any role, however junior
• In the Y services, in the UK and overseas
• In SLUs or SCUs
• In the Radio Security Service
• In the development and construction of Colossus
• In the construction and maintenance of Bombes

We would also like to hear from anyone who lived in the Bletchley area during the Second World War.

For further details visit http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/hist/oralhistory.rhtm.

(With thanks to Bletchley Park)

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. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Forgotten U-Boat War around the Welsh Coast project

The Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales has secured Heritage Lottery Fund money for a new project, entitled The Forgotten U-boat War around the Welsh Coast.

14 underwater sites out of 170 recorded in the National Monuments Record of Wales will be explored "to enable the Great War story to be told from both the Allied and German perspectives. The sites include British and German submarines; HMS PENSHURST - the Royal Navy's most successful Q-ship or decoy vessel; HMS DERBENT a tanker which played an important part in refuelling naval vessels in the Mediterranean during the Gallipoli campaign; large merchant ships carrying Welsh coal to key theatres of the war as well as coasting vessels from the last days of sail."

For further details please visit the Heritage of Wales News blog at http://heritageofwalesnews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/royal-commission-gains-heritage-lottery.html.

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. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Latest FindmyPast additions

Recent record releases from FindmyPast (www.findmypast.com) from last week and today:

British Royal Navy & Royal Marines service and pension records 1704-1934
Explore over 911,000 pension records, spanning over 200 years from 1704-1934, to uncover fascinating details of your relative's service with the British Royal Navy or Royal Marines.

Suffolk Marriage Index
Over 71,000 marriage records from over 200 parishes have been added to the Suffolk Marriage Index.

Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Births
Discover where your Irish Quaker ancestors were born with over 28,000 birth records from all over Ireland.

Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Marriages
Explore over 33,000 marriage records to discover when, where and to whom your ancestor was married as well as their occupation, parents' names and who attended the ceremony.

Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Deaths
Find out where your relatives were laid to rest with over 39,000 records dating back to 1654. Reveal when they died, where they were buried and the names of those they left behind.

Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) School Records
Explore over 43,000 records spanning more than a century to reveal your relatives birth date, parents' names, the school they attended and the date of their enrolment.

Kent, Bromley Absent Voters List 1918
The Kent, Bromley Absent Voters List 1918 records the details over 8,000 men who were eligible to vote and were away serving in the armed forces during the First World War. At that time, all men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30 could vote. As well as servicemen over the age of 19. The Bromley absent voters list also includes the names of eight women who were members of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corp or Army Service Corp.

Queensland Births 1829-1919 contains over 930,000 records.
Registration for births, marriages, and deaths was not mandatory in Australia until March 1856. As Queensland was not made a separate colony from New South Wales until 1859, some events may have been registered in New South Wales. Additionally, you may want to search a range of dates considering that births may have been registered at a later date from when the actual birth occurred. For example, if a birth occurred in December of a given year, it might not have been registered until January of the following year.

Queensland Marriages 1829-1939 contains over 704,000 records.
Compulsory registration for marriages and other life events started in March 1856 in Australia. Since Queensland did not gain independence from New South Wales until 1859, some events may have been registered in New South Wales instead of Queensland. Additionally, you may want to search a range of dates considering that births may have been registered at a later date from when the actual birth occurred.

Further details via https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/fridays/

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. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

FindmyPast adds Royal Naval records and London censuses

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

British Royal Navy Seamen, 1899-1924
Learn fascinating details about your Naval relatives including the ships on which they served, physical descriptions and their occupation before joining the Navy with over 20,900 new records.

London, Westminster Marylebone Census, 1821 & 1831
Search more than 22,500 census returns to reveal your relative's address and occupation, as well as the number of people living in the home.

The site has also updated its Billion Graves Cemeteries indexes from around the world.

For further details please visit https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/fridays/.

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. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Naval and Military Press sale

Naval and Military Press has a winter sale on just now, with a 20% discount on all titles ordered prior to 6pm on January 25th 2016.

To avail yourslf of the offer, visit http://www.naval-military-press.com.

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/.

The Road to Bletchley Park WW1 exhibition - podcast

Bletchley Park has released a new podcast providing a peek into its new exhibition The Road to Bletchley Park, looking at code breaking in the First World War, and the role of the Government Code and Cypher School.

There's also a feature on May Hereford from Ottawa in Canada as she tries to trace more about her mother, Anne Hereford, who worked in the Naval Section at Bletchley Partk, and who passed away when May was only ten.

The podcast is available to hear at www.bletchleypark.org.uk/podcast/904854/The_Road_to_Bletchley_Park.html

Chris

The latest British GENES podcast is available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/podcasts.html. For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Royal Naval Officers' Service Records Index 1756-1931 on Ancestry

Ancestry has added another third party UK collection index to its site (an index to a collection held by another records supplier on its own site).

It is entitled Web: United Kingdom, Royal Naval Officers' Service Records Index, 1756-1931 and can be found at http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=70686. The original records are held at the National Archives in England, catalogued under ADM 196.

Digitised copies of records found through the index can be obtained from the TNA site at a cost £3.30.

Chris

The latest British GENES podcast is available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/podcasts.html. For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

New FindmyPast releases

The following collections have been released on FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) today:

City of London Haberdashers, Apprentices and Freemen 1526-1933
City Of London Ironmongers, Apprentices and Freemen 1511-1923
St George the Martyr Southwark Mortuary Register 1880-1891
Royal Navy Foreign Awards to Officers Index 1914-1922
Victoria Inward Passenger lists 1839-1923

Full details are available at http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/fridays/

Chris

The latest British GENES podcast is available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/podcasts.html. For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services 1900-1928 on Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has a fairly major release for those with Royal Naval ancestors, in the form of a new database entitled UK, Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services, 1900-1928, available at
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60522. The records have been sourced from the Admiralty Records collection at the National Archives in England, catalogued under ADM 188.

From the site:

These registers record the service of seamen in the Royal Navy. Records include birthdate, birthplace, vessels served on, and dates of service. The registers include seamen who began their service beween 1900 and 1918, with dates of service up through 1928. Make sure to check the image of the original record, where you may also find occupation in service, physical description, reasons for discharge, and other personal details.

You can find details on the system used for assigning service numbers at TNA’s website (see http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1897).

Chris

For details on my range of genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Hunter Killers book - British submarines and the Cold War

A quick plug for a book that you may be interested in by author Iain Ballantyne. Hunter Killers looks at "the dramatic story of the Royal Navy's most secret service" as it fought during the Cold War. I have a connection to the book, in that my father's story on board one of the navy's vessels, HMS Warspite, during a particularly dangerous incident in 1968, forms a significant part of two of the chapters found within ("Jousting with 'Crazy Ivan" and "The Allotted Escape Route"). It's an incident I have been researching for a few years now, and which Iain has been able to progress further with additional contributions from others who were on board.

Although first published in hardback in 2013, the paperback edition has just been released a couple of months back. It can be purchased online via Amazon at £7.99, or a Kindle edition for £3.59. See www.amazon.co.uk/Hunter-Killers-Dramatic-Untold-Service/dp/1409139018

A huge thanks to Iain for including the story, and in particular for the acknowledgements for my father's contribution.

Chris

Stuck for a Christmas gift?! I have a series of genealogy books available in the UK, Australia and Canada, on Scottish, Irish and British based subject areas. Further details at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. Santa approves!

London workhouse records and women's military records indexes on Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added one new major London dataset, comprised of city workhouse admission and discharge records, and two third party indexes for collections held at the National Archives at Kew, England:

London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1738-1930
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60391
Source: Board of Guardians records held by the London Metropolitan Archives, London, England.

Web: UK, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Index, 1917-1920
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=9293
Source: Women's Army Auxiliary Corps service records 1917-1920. The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England. Series WO 398.

Web: UK, Women's Royal Naval Service Index, 1917-1919
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=70690
Source: Women's Royal Naval Service (1917 - 1919). The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England. Series ADM 318 and 336.

Chris

My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Records online course starts on November 5th, and runs for 5 weeks, priced at £45.99. Spaces are still available - see http://pharostutors.com/coursedescriptions.php#302

On holidays, but the hunt never ends...!

Although on holiday this week, the genie bug never ends, and so I've slotted in a couple of sneaky explorations tied into my family history.

Down periscope...

A few months before my mother passed away last year I had a conversation with her about her brief residential stint in Barrow-in-Furness, shortly after she got married in 1968. My father was a submariner, and so just three weeks after getting wed in Carrickfergus, she had to up sticks from Northern Ireland to join him in England - it was here in the midst of winter that yours truly was soon conceived as their first child, although my mum returned to Ireland to give birth to me there. So the first quest in Barrow was to find the house where they resided, and where I spent my first happy months as a confused embryo! The house was still there, and I snapped a couple of pics - it occurred to me later that place of conception should be a field on Family Tree Maker! My mum had also spoken fondly of a local pub, called The Periscope, which I hoped to take my boys and wife into to toast her time there, but it turned out that the building was unfortunately knocked down last year, with nothing more there now than a car park and a concrete foundation where the premises once stood.

The second part of the trip was to drive up to Egremont, to try to find the address noted on a death certificate at which my grandfather was stated to reside at as his usual residence. This is quite an odd one - Ernie Graham did briefly live in Carlisle after separating from my grandmother in the early 1950s, but in 1954 he moved to Pembroke in Wales to work, and we were always led to believe that he had stayed in a pub there for the next 18 years. He died in an industrial accident in 1972, but the death record noted an Egremont connection. I did find the house, located in a fairly small housing estate, and the next thing was to try to find who was actually registered there, both in the mid-1950s (in case the address was a last known address for him by the informant), and in 1972. The local library turned out not to have any street directories or electoral records, so I travelled four miles north to Whitehaven, acting on information in a leaflet given to me in Egremont that the archive there was open on Mondays. It wasn't (clearly the leaflet was published before the opening hours were revised). Very annoying, but one to chase up on at a future stage...!

Anyway, a few wee pics from Whitehaven, and one of us lost en route home, where we suddenly found ourselves next to Scaffell Pike :)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And please consider purchasing the great new version of Caledonia by The Libations at 79p via www.caledonia2014.com - all profits go to help fund Scottish foodbanks

UK, Naval Officer and Rating Service Records, 1802-1912 on Ancestry

From Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk):

FIRST LOOK: SEARCH THESE NEW RECORDS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE
Be the first to enlist with new UK naval records

Does the sea run in your blood? Find out in UK Naval Officer and Rating Service Records, a detail-rich collection compiled for Royal Marines, Coastguards, Dockyard workers, Sea Fencibles, and Convict Guards.

This week’s special offer lets you search them first, before anyone else gets hold of them. This gives you a head start on your family research this summer and helps you find your seafaring ancestors.

The collection is fully titled UK, Naval Officer and Rating Service Records, 1802-1912 and is accessible at http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=9050

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And please consider purchasing the great new version of Caledonia by The Libations at 79p via www.caledonia2014.com - all profits go to help fund Scottish foodbanks

Naval records indexes and Philadelphia passenger lists on Ancestry

Some new third party datbase resources now accessible via Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk):

Web: UK, Naval Officers' Service Record Cards and Files Index, 1880-1950s
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60381

Web: UK, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Service Records Index 1903-1922
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=70688

Also available are some new US bound passenger lists:

Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1948
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=8769

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And please consider purchasing the great new version of Caledonia by The Libations at 79p via www.caledonia2014.com - all profits go to help fund Scottish foodbanks