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I have my family tree on two websites but I want to know do you have to be in the UK. I am South African but my paternal great grandfather came from the East End of London.

Hi Wendy – you’d need to be available to come to London in February for filming if we chose your story. We can only reimburse travel expenses within the UK. Thanks!

I really started researching my family tree when my wlfe received a strange phone call saying she would be receiving a letter. This arrived a day later and stated that she might be entitled to a share of a legacy, sign on the dotted line and we will take a third of any entitlement.

1837online, subsequently findmypast, immediately was engaged and has been since, some 7 years now. The most valuable ancestors research tool out.

I have been researching my cornish roots for over 30 years
My mother said her grandmother was born as Melinda Opie in Redruth. her mother apparently died in childbirth with her as she was an only child and her father was a Cornish farmer and engine driver who died when she was 7 of madness with too much money
she apparently was made to go to Sunday school and her father blamed her for her mother’s death
But when we received her daughters birth certs, my g gran was named Minnie – not melinda and all the census have her as a different age and place of birth each tim
We were told after death of her father as a orphan she went into an orphanage then into service when she was 14
as my mother, grandmother etc are no longer alive, I am still stumped even though I have searched all genealogy sites
A mystery I may not solve

Have you ever been to cornwall and looked in the books at the local archives, When I went to Devon,our relatives were centred around Ottery St Mary, I found by visiting the local family history society at the local library that not everyone was from there and one was from Broadclyst. On another note my grandmother was abandoned by her mother and brought up by her grandparents, no record of her birth could be found; due to a distant cousin contacting us, we found her on the 1901 census with a differnet surname, that of her step grandfather who we knew nothing about. we had searched lots of records before so dont give up.

Hi There! I got interested in family history due to wdytya and my enquisitive mind (plus a general love of history from school) Tracing my two family names Martin (my own) and Curley (mums maiden name) i thought here we go! Alas, after a while on the web, i find that both names (althogh loosly linked) are not those i should be pursueing! I found out that my mothers father was born illigitimate and, therefore, given the Curley name and on my fathers side a more interesting element!My Grandad on Dads side was born with the surname Hergenroder! His father (my greatgrandfather was born Joseph Martin Hergenroder in Bavaria (C1870) but changed his name by deed after marrying, dropping the surname to take up his middle christian name as our new surname! I guess this may have been due to a potential internment if German sounding and a lack of willingness to sit it out somewhere bleak for a number of years while our country was at war with the hun! I did make the mistake of telling friends down at the local and the click of jackboots has followed me ever since!

i have researched my family tree on your website and on another one,i have been very surprised by some of the things i have found out,it looks like my great grandparents never married,although no one knew, also one of my grandmothers brother deserted,and i think my gxgrandmothers first husband was jailed.i would love to have some verification.

I met a lovely old lady at my mother in law’s 90th birthday party and we talked about her life in the East End as a little girl. When she expressed an interest in finding out about her family history I said I would happily have a look on line for her. What I discovered explained the little twinkle she had in her eye as she asked me. Her mother was a Dashwood and was descended from a family that four generations back had included Hons, baronets and ladies. I was able to trace them back through the census, but the real breakthrough came when I found a Canadian academic, Dr Penelope Christensen, who had done a huge amount of research and was, like all the genealogists I have come across, exceptionally generous in sharing it. It was a thrilling journey, both for me and for Olive – although there are still plenty of mysteries left to solve.

My determination to find out something about my immigrant grandparents was fired up by being turned down for WDYTYA on the grounds that there were too many people like me! More I suspect because my lot were not wealthy or special though they are to me. My father’s name was Cohen – very common and not easy to crack. The breakthrough came with the 1911 census- my Dad was born in 1910. It told me something he’d once mentioned, that his mother was a cigarette maker, his dad an itinerant pedlar. So that explained his absences. Then my 80 year old cousin in New York gave me some clues and I was off! I’ve discovered that some family legends were true, and that my maternal grandfather came from one of the saddest places in Europe, which was the setting for a recent play in our National Theatre. Mostly I’m amazed at their fortitude in the face of great poverty in Liverpool. Happy to talk about them and available on the dates. EC

I have an inheritance of 2,000 acres and with the help of Ancestry.com I have spent 4 years trying to trace it. I am related to a couple of Norwegian Queens, Princes and Dukes. My family were guardian Knights to Kings and Queens and owned major parts of five counties, a couple of castles and even paid for the rebuild of an Great Abbey.

I forgot to mention that it was through (Find my past.com) that enabled me to go right back to the 5th/6th cent

I am still working on my family tree as I have been for over 44 years
and I have over 915 family members and still growing.
The family tree has 258 marriages.16 generations and 223 surnames.
I have found most my ancesters on findmypast and I still searching for more family members today.
I have found my Gt. Gt. Gt. Grandfathers speeding ticket in March 1836 driving his coach in Oldham.

I have been researching for many years on my own and also have my brothers research on part of the family. I have met with the French/Belguim side (maternal) of the family in a family reunion in Barbizon in 2009, GGgrandfather was a Barbizon painter. I found a child on find my past that was unknow in my family, she was either stillborn or died soon after.
My fathers side was a bit more difficult, but I have found his grandfathers Attestation Papers on find my past.com and am still looking for further information.

My mother’s side have masses of Huguenot refugees from the Wars of Religion in France. One boy became separated from his family and walked all the way from Normandy to Holland by himself before becoming reunited in London. My father’s side were wool merchants in Norfolk until one moved to London and his son served in India before returning to Manchester during its boom time. The Fox side in Norfolk had family links to the Tudors. My YDNA tests have shpwn my ancestors on father’s originated in the Alps and travelled to East Anglia via the Rhine. It is likely that Fox was spelled Vaux or Faux at the time of the Norman Conquest. Ihave not yet explored my mtDNA inherited from my mother but again there is a Norman origin but post-1066 in the 17th century.

Using find my past I was looking sideways on the family tree and found the name I was looking for under ‘inmate’ on a census. It transpired he was in Lancaster gaol. Intrigued I went onto the prison’s own website and typed in the family surname. Up came not his name, but another relative I’d also wondered about. Delving further I discovered he had committed murder and was hanged. Brain spinning I then gathered everything I could find from prison records, local newspapers of the time, legal records and a grisly book the hangman, James Berry wrote, to piece together what happened to a nice country lad who turned bad and killed his wife on Christmas Day, leaving his 11 children orphaned and scattered amongst orphanges, workhouses and (the lucky ones) divided amongst relatives. I’m now searching for one particular daughter who I believe ended up in Yorkshire and a son whom my great grandfather seems to have taken in for a while.

I started researching my family tree 25 years ago after my maternal grandmother died and my mother told me she didn’t know who her father was. She had his name and where he worked in 1924 as my Nan had taken him to the ‘bastardy court’ in Marylebone, London and Mum had found the court notice, when she was 13, hidden in a medicine cabinet. The only other info was that his sister had just died and this was the reason he was late for the court proceedings. He admitted paternity but sadly my Nan never got any money from him as far as we know. Nan gave the police her only photograph of him in case they had to trace him. She never got the photo back.
Because of the lack of information I couldn’t trace the man. However it got me interested in other family names including Nan’s. She was brought up in a Glaswegian orphanage by the Sisters of Mercy that showed no mercy, as she would say. She didn’t know anything about her father’s family, but we knew he was a hairdresser and that she was six when he died. I found he was one of 3 brothers who came over from Denmark when Bismark’s Germany was expanding as they were Catholic and didn’t want to be part of the German army.
I researched my own name too to find 7 generations in London and a further 7 generations in Salisbury. I found they owned their own bank in Lombard St between 1774 and 1812 when it failed. My branch of the family then moved to the East End where I come from. The older branch of the family are still wealthy as the Trust funds set up in an ancestors will in 1794 reverted to the older brother after the beneficiaries died. I’m now in contact with many branches of the family all over the world and we have put a book together on the Kensingtons.
Two years ago my mother then aged 85 fell and broke her thigh bone. After 3 operations she was in St Pancras Rehabilitation Hospital and, we felt, close to death. My sister came over from America and we visited Mum together. My back ‘went’ and when I came home I decided to take a couple of days off as a self employed builder and try once again to find the elusive Charles Hillman. At the end of the 2 days and lots of dead ends I came across a possible marriage in the right area, though the name was David C Hillman. On receiving the certificate I couldn’t believe it. Here was a David Charlie Hillman who had got married a year after my Mum was born and gave as his address the place of work my Mum had remembered for 70 years. I knew I’d found him so was able to tell my mum the information over the phone which brightened her up no end. I was however determined to find some living family. Charlie, as he was known, sadly died in 1958 but his widow lived for another 20 years. They hadn’t had children but she had by her previous marriage and I was able to speak on the phone that evening to a woman who called my grandfather grandad, and said what a kind and caring man he was! She said it was lucky I rang as she and her husband were having a clear out which included many old photos of my grandfather, which we now have. In amongst them is a copy of the photo my Nan once described to Mum as being the one given to the police all those years ago. This all has given my Mum a new lease of life and although she’s now in a care home and walks with a zimmer she’s so happy to know about her father at last and has a picture of him beside her Mum. Those of us who know our parents don’t realise how important this knowledge is. Mum has subsequently met her cousin whose mother, Charlie’s sister, sadly died in childbirth. Mum and she are ofcourse the same age.
Sorry to have been so long winded but there’s a lot to tell!

charlie kensington

I have been researching my family tree for some time now and for ages was stuck with my grandfather William Gordon Farleigh. We were able to find some mention of him and especially there is a newspaper article about his various dealings as a company director of a number of failing companies and his subsequent imprisonment as a debtor in Walton Gaol. c1906. After that we only have anecdotal evidence of his life. Funnily enough my father was born in 1906 and i understand he and his brother were fostered out in Anglesey. But we were up against a brick wall with any other research until a cousin of mine discoverd his surname was really Berry, and contrary to family lore he was not born in India as most census returns suggested, but in Yorkshire.

We were told his father was a doctor in Glasgow but now we know not what to believe, but I am wondering if there is a link in the Berry you mention. (I see he was a hangman.) My grandfather had woven himself a very interesting history, some of which may have been true, including a number of trips to America.

I have not had the time or inclination to follow through on any of this to date, mainly because he seems to have been a very difficult person to pin down.

My cousin also gave me a few names of the Berry tree which linked into Fyvie Castle in Aberdeenshire, I will need to look up her correspondence on the matter. I think it was the case that his father was working at the castle as a servant or some such story, but it gave some credence to a story we had already heard that there was a Fyvie castle link. Unfortunately my cousin is not computer literate and has gone about things the hard way. i think my grandfather’s story is worth pursueing though and maybe I could do it through “Find My Past” the story we have is that he eventually went to Russia where he disappeared. That is born out by the fact that my father was diligently teaching us Russian as children with a view to emigrating there, presumably to search for his dad. He would get Pravda sent over and spread it out on the floor to get us to read from it. This was shortly after he was demobbed at the end of WW2, and although I took up the Russian studies a couple of times since, my memories of it are somewhat hazy now. I would have been just ten years old at the time the war ended. I have to say I am glad that we never did go there.

No 17 was meant to reply to No15 and there is more. My cousin also told me that my grandfather was in one census under the name Berry in the Isle of Wight. i think it was the 1901 census, We found out the link through the children who were living with him there because their names Mildred and Winifred matched up with their births in Camberwell (I think) and a mention of the family in the 1891 census together with a brother named Marmaduke, only there they were under the Farleigh name. I have to check all this info still. But i do know Marmaduke went under the name of “Duke” in the family. He was married to my grandmother by the time they were in the isle of Wight and they eventually moved to Bournemouth, which is where I remember her. I think the girls Winifred and Mildred were from his first marriage and were a lot older than Marmaduke. I wonder where i would look for him leaving for Russia? He possibly crossed the channel and went overland in those days, and I wonder whether the visit had anything to do with WW1 perhaps that could be a starting place though I would think he might have been too old for military service by then.

Have researched my tree for 6 years and met many distant relatives by contacting other people who have a tree containing some of the same names as are in mine. Assumed all was accurate until I treated myself to a Find my past subscription last year.This was specifically to see the 1911 census and for no other reason.
What a surprise.
I had no idea the number of records on fmp but what was most important to me was being able to check the facts for myself. Looking at the 1911 census I was able to verify most of my facts but also to correct a lot which were wrong.Can never thank you enough.
Now all I need is access to Irish records to try and sort out my hubbies family. Most of them from 1851 onwards when asked where born just put Ireland so feel as if I have a brick wall to climb. I now watch with baited breath for fmp to come up with Irish records to dig through.

Have researched my tree for 6 years and met many distant relatives by contacting other people who have a tree containing some of the same names as are in mine. Assumed all was accurate until I treated myself to a Find my past subscription last year.This was specifically to see the 1911 census and for no other reason.
What a surprise.
I had no idea the number of records on fmp but what was most important to me was being able to check the facts for myself. Looking at the 1911 census I was able to verify most of my facts but also to correct a lot which were wrong.Can never thank you enough.
Now all I need is access to Irish records to try and sort out my hubbies family. Most of them from 1851 onwards when asked where born just put Ireland so feel as if I have a brick wall to climb. I now watch with baited breath for fmp to come up with Irish records to dig through.

As a child I was told that my Gt Gt Grandfather Dan Patridge had been in business with his brother bringing tea from China to Britain. At some point he was imprisoned by the Chinese. A mandarin’s daughter befriended him and the result was my Gt Grandmother who was sent to England aged eight years old when her mother died to be brought up by her Uncle. Dan later married an English girl.

In my search in recent years I have discovered that he was in fact employed by Jardine Matheson as a captain and later their chief agent in Ningpo. When he was younger he was captured off Formosa and was lucky to escape with his life. He later had a book published about his fate. This was entitled ’ British Captives in China’ There was indeed mention in the book of a mandarin’s daughter helping him but I do not believe her to be my Gt Gt Grandmother as the timimg would be wrong. I believe that my Gt Grandmother was half Chinese ( my mother told me that she had her feet bound) but have been unable to find any record of her birth. Dan had her baptized in England with him shown as Father but no Mothers name.
He married an English lady in Ninpo and went on to have four other children.
He also featured in the journals of Robert Hart who acted as witness at his wedding.
My Gt Grandmother was disinherited when she eloped with the groom. Dan eventually returned to England and died leaving a considerable estate including Property in Shanghai.

I have been researching genealogy for more than two decades, and I have been able to follow my husband’s family name, (continuously involved in the fishing industry,) back to the year 1778.

The findmypast parish records on-line have been a tremendous help, but I have often confirmed my findings using monumental inscriptions. Close to the parish church doors I found many headstones commemorating family individuals, and was surprised to find one family member’s name included on the imposing white marble monument, surmounted by a cross and anchor, which was erected to the memory of over 100 victims drowned in the great storm of 1866.

I have also been able to make use of the findmypast military service records, and I have identified the children of many distant cousins using the census lists, including some who have been commended for brave service with the RNLI .

These on-line indexes have allowed us to contact and meet up with relatives, which has been a great pleasure. Currently we are planning a reunion in Dublin at Easter, with cousins who live in New Zealand, found using the internet.

Brixham in South Devon is renowned for being “the mother of all fisheries” and the Rowse family and ancestors have lived there for at least 400 years, but perhaps not surprisingly, branches of our family have been found living in the fishing ports of Tenby, Ramsgate and Hull. Each time those fabulous “eureka” moments could be verified by the findmypast census lists.

Recently I started to investigate a different line and was amazed to trace back to a marriage in 1603; which was the year James VI of Scotland was crowned King James I of England. I am searching for documental evidence that will reveal the status and occupation of my newlyweds, as it occurred to me that living on the South Coast, they very possibly witnessed the Spanish Armada fleet sailing up the English Channel.

Their great grandson Richard baptised his son George at Brixham parish church in 1688, just two weeks before Prince William of Orange famously landed there with 20,000 men and 5,000 horses, to begin the march towards London that ended by him being crowned joint sovereign with his wife Mary.

If I can collate enough evidence my goal is to produce an illustrated family history to be shared by all interested parties.

I thought you might be interested in the story of my paternal grandfather – Stanley Hibbert, who was an early volunteer into the Middlesex Regiment in the First World War and was taken as a prisoner of war at the Battle of Loos.

He was so ill in the prison camp (probably TB) that he was evacuated by the Germans into Leysin in Switzerland. This practise is little known about – even amongst the battlefield tour guides in Belgium and France. Switzerland took in the seriously sick of all sides in the conflict and kept the men as internees in hotels and TB hospitals in the alps.

My grandma who was from a northern English mill town and who had no money of her own, was taken as a visitor to see her husband across war torn Europe along with other wives and mothers thanks to a charity public subscription fund set up by a member of the aristocracy for the purpose. My grandad was repatriated at the end of the war and died of TB in the 1930`s.

I have always thought how magical and miraculous it must have been for my grandad to find himself in the idyllic surroundings in Switzerland after what he had gone through and how special my grandma must have felt to make that visit. She never ever travelled abroad again in her lifetime after that.

My grandad was taken prisoner in the First World War very close to the place where his son would win the Military Medal in the Second World War for blowing up a bridge to stop the Germans` advance on Dunkirk.

My ancestors were huguenots in Ireland. ZOrabable Was an innkeeper in Tallow, Co. Waterford Also had a son by the same name. THe son was a soldier in the 5th Royal Irish Dragoons in the 1770′s, He was a quartermaster by rank; also a lay methodist cavalry preacher.

He Meet Gideon OUseley in Dunmore, Galway in may 1791 while preaching at a public house. He converted him to the methodist faith. Gideon Became famous throughout the uk as a methodist preacher. Zora died in December 1795 in Dublin.this recorded in several books.

BIll Robinette

Boston

About Brown, Chalmers, Loveday, Spencer & Klee Family Tree

I started this tree some 30 years ago but got no further than the memory
of my late parents. However it started again when my daughter gave me a
grandads book to fill in with stories and anecdotes. At the same time the 1901
census was published and FreeBMD opened up a whole new world of information
available on the internet. Purchasing birth marriage and death certificates
soon led to earlier family members being “found” and contact with others who
saw my first website on Genes Reunited soon sparked an ambition to follow back
my parents lines as far as I could. It now has many of the 1911 census data.

I am most grateful for the information supplied to me by a number of the Klees
and Spencers [my mothers family] especially for the information about the
Rhine Brass and String Band of Klee musicians who settled in Malvern. The
Klee’s came from Germany in the 1860s to play in Spa towns as Geman bands were popular
at that time. Contact with a Klee who had been approached
by a German author on the musicians of Frickhofen resulted in the family tree
information from Germany extending back to 1700s. I decided to start a one name
research into the Klees and so there are quite a few of them in this tree or
really set of trees. Recently I have been in contact with some descendants on the German side
which has been interesting to see how they have fared and what life is like now for todays
generation.

I have also added my wives lines which in themselves are most interesting.
Elaines family came from Devon and moved first to Bristol and then to the
bright lights of the new dynamic town Cardiff. Here the Forses obtained the
post office contract and expanded that into mail delivery, weddings and
funerals with a fleet of landaus drawn by white or black horses. They were
based in a prime site opposite Cardiff castle which became a garage and a coach
fleet as motor charbancs came in. Other businesses included farms and milk
deliveries.

The Peace’s came from Huddersfield and Norman Peace worked hard at the violin
to escape from the grimy life of his family. He practiced 8 hours a day and
moved to Bournmouth whre he was in the Bournmouth Symphony Orchestra and then
later as first violin at the London Symphony Orchestra.

Granny Spencer’s line has also proved most interesting, a long line of butchers
and farmers in and around Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Hereforshire.

A breakthrough regarding my own line of Browns! I’ve found some long lost
cousins!!
My Great-Grandfather Ebenezer Brown who has been hard to find was mis-labled
in the 1901 census as a butcher. Examining the original document shows it was
really builder, and as a result there are 2 other brothers of my Grandfather
John Chalmers Brown who were also in the family business and another sister.
Ebenezer’s Dad, John Thomas Brown, who we though built Thames sailing barges
was actually a builder whose line extends back to the Ipswich area around 1700.

I have also been contacted by the wife of my father’s brother William telling me about
her family research. This is exciting because I have never had any contact with that
side of the family, probably due to the effect of the war in moving people around. I
am looking forward to meeting this branch of the family. This prompted me to
investigate differences between our trees and has enabled me to correct some errors.

I have recently made contact with Adolph Klee’s grandaughter who has just
started her own website. Grandfather lost contact with his brother so it was nice
to meet up and hear more family news from a different perspective.

I have now found the decendants of my Grandmother’s sister who married Wilfred Victor Stokes and
lived at Tyle Mill, Sulhampstead,Berkshire. Auntie Nora who I had though was a Malpas was in fact
Nora Stokes. [I had not seen her since I was a small boy.]

Going back on the Chalmers line we see Andrew Chalmers marriage in Glasgow and
this information lead on to his father George Chalmers from Leslie in Scotland.
Interstingly Leslie was my fathers first name.

My family are steeped in British Colonial History. My father was a career army officer, my grandfather worked for the Imperial Bank of Persia in Teheran, my great grandfather was a superintendent for the Indo-European Telegraph Co. and my great great grandfather worked for the East India Co. Civil Service.
All I had of my great grandfather was a volume of Shakespeare signed “Barnard’s Inn 1863″.
I now know from Findmypast’s Civil Service Evidence of Age that he was born in Chelsea in 1833, his mother died giving birth and his father was overseas. Census returns from 1841, 1851 and 1861 have him a a private school in Croydon, lodging with a Proctor in Holborn and then as a private secretary living in the house of a Bank Clerk in Westminster.
In Oct 1861 there is a passport application no. 51921 for a Frederick Nelson and in 1872 he marries Alice Hannah Love in Teheran (Overseas consular marriages). He has four children (Overseas Consular Births), one dies young and these children travel to and from the UK as seen in UK Incoming records. In the 1901 census he’s in Hove with two of his daughters, my grandfather is in London just about to leave for Persia. By 1911 he’s dead but two of his daughters, now widows are living together in London and have adopted a child born in Tooting.

After living and working all my life in London, I decided to make a break for some country air and a completely new environment. After site seeing acroos the country, I moved to Norfolk ten years ago. As a way to get to know my new home, I immediately started to volunteer at my local museum. I also started to research my family history.

I had been adopted as a baby and this was the first time I investigated my birth family. The search has been one of surprises.

Before moving to this tiny village in mid Norfolk. I knew nothing at all of the county. Imagine my surprise when I discovered through findmypast that my 2x great grandmother had been born in the village next to mine in Norfolk, (her family were the thatchers and woodmen of Tittleshall, her inlaws the blacksmiths here in Mileham), and that my Dutch speaking 11x great grandfather had come to Norwich from The Low Countries as one of the Protestant Strangers in 1600. It was the Strangers who brought canaries, tulips and silk weaving to England.

By using the website I could source census data and BMD certificates to track the occupations and migrations of my family into Norfolk and then across East Anglia. I discovered one of them had been hanged at Ely for his part in the Littleport riots of 1816. I also found wills in the excellent county record office. However the biggest surprise was to discover that the brass memorial plaque to my Dutch ancestor was in the stores of the very museum at which I was volunteering.

I moved to new territory only to find that my ancestors had been here before me.

From: Adrian Norman
Sent: 30 January 2011 16:50
To: ‘casestudies@findmypast.co.uk’
Subject: Family history research

30 years ago I inherited my grandfather’s records from which he had constructed our family tree. His careful draughtsmanship hung prominently on his wall 40 years earlier and my mother picked the name Adrian from the top of the tree for her new baby. My ancestor Adrian was a vicar in Devon for 45 years from 1615 and his son was rector of a Somerset parish during the Civil War.
Soon after filing the records, I took my teenage children to the Westminster reference library and looked up the index to the Gentleman’s Magazine. We found something that was not in my grandfather’s records: in 1780 a Revd Norman killed his brother, also a vicar! What else had grandpa suppressed?

By 1985, I had put the records on a relational database on my PC and checked the work of five earlier researchers. When the Internet enabled me to find and correspond with distant relatives, I was able to find my past and 890 kith and kin, many on my mother’s and wife’s side, all over the world. (The database was translated into GEDCOM.)

There are still many mysteries. In Jan 1825 my direct g-g-g—-great-grandfather, a waterguard in Donegal, drowned attending a wreck. Six weeks later, his wife and baby buried him in Somerset, where his mother took them in. How did they get there so quickly? When I visited Donegal, I left a copy of a 1788 Admiralty chart in the local museum where I learnt from the curator that the coastguard’s father-in-law and Collector of Customs had been involved in James Napper Tandy’s abortive 1798 invasion.

Now I am trying to discover the ship on which my mother’s grandmother was born in 1856 at sea off Foochow, China during the Opium War. The story was written on the back of a photograph taken for her wedding in India 18 years later to a man who rose in the Indian civil service to harbour master in Bombay. Her other grandmother’s line goes back through a cavalry officer in the Peninsular war who fought at Waterloo.

While my paternal grandfathers’ line was a cadet branch of the Normans of Somersetshire recorded in Burke’s (inaccurate first edition of) Landed Gentry and earned their livings as naval officers or lawyers, my wife’s grandparents rose from humbler beginnings: private soldier who married a railwayman’s daughter in 1905 and was promoted to captain in 1918; and a blacksmith’s apprentice who married the daughter of the shopkeeper next door, took over the shop, prospered and sent his daughter to university in 1930.

Next month, my wife and I are guests at the centenary dinner of a Masonic Lodge founded by my great-grandfather. Family history on-line enabled the editor of the Centenary Historical Record to find my past and, I anticipate, to find a good dinner.

Denise at No 4

Minnie was a diminutive used for many female names beginning with M – as well as sometimes being a Christian name in it’s own right.

How odd: there appears to be only one Melinda Opie in the 19th century: the birth registered June Quarter 1877 Redruth district.

Possible parents Joseph Opie & Martha Jane Andrew. Married 25 February 1871, both parties being of Carvannel Water Lannarth .

Melinda Opie, age 4 born Gwennap, @ Penstruthal in Lannarth, Gwennap, Redruth District 1881 with granny widowed Martha Andrew born Wendron c 1814, farming.

1891 Malinda Opie age 14 born Gwennap (Redruth district) with father Joseph Opie mine engineer age 40 @ Penalarick, West Carvannel Lannarth, Gwennap, Redruth District; also present Joseph’s wife Martha J. This suggests above parents may be correct.

Denise, do you think this may be relevant to your family?

There is a great deal of help available for people like you & I with Cornish roots.

Sue

I have through family disputes never seen my father, never a letter, note or photo. I am 76 and getting desperate, how can I find him John Bell dob 5th dec 1905 North Shields Northumberland given as birth place bu cant find him his father Thomas Bell coal miner a hewer by trade perhaps lived in Westoe Durham mother no record JB served in 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards Idnia Egypt etc cheers Del Bell

Del

The only John Bell born North Shields with a father Thomas Bell coal miner hewer, is this one in 1911:

18 Elsdon Terrace
Percy Main
Tynemouth District
Father Thomas Bell age 33 1878 Coal Miner Hewer born Middle Engine Northum
Mother Mary Elizabeth Bell married 9 years age 32 1879 born Percy Main Northum
John George Bell Son age 5 1906 born Percy Main Northum
Isabella Baker Bell Daughter age 3 1908 born Percy Main Northum
Robert Bell Son age 2 1909 Percy Main Northum

Thomas Bell married Mary Elizabeth Baker in the Tynemouth District in the June Q 1901.

In 1901 Mary E Baker is at 45, High Row, Chirton, Percy Main with her sister Isabella & parents John Baker, train driver, & Elizabeth.

In 1901 Thomas Bell is at 2 Middle Engine, Chirton with parents John railway plate layer & Esther, siblings, and the McGeorge aunt & cousins.

It may be worth trying to trace descendants of sister Isabella Baker Bell, as that is a fairly unusual name. She is not in the records as having died young; in marriage records there are a few Isabella B Bell marriages, but not many. For example: Isabella B Bell marries John F Hall in Bermondsey 1937. Having found the right one, you then trace her children – your cousins. Their births would be registered by their surname but also giving the mother’s maiden name of Bell. They or their children may have that elusive photograph.

I am guessing you already your father’s full military service history. If not, follow the instructions at http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/service_records.html.
From there, you should be able to make contact with the pension records, which may enable you to identify the date of death (cessation of pension payments).
This will enable you to send off for a death certificate from the GRO. That gives an address for the deceased. It will also give the name of the informant, often a close relative. You may be able to trace this person. Or, having obtained a date of death, you can obtain a copy of the will from the probate registry, which will name people close to him. Also with a death certificate, you may be able to find a death announcement in the relevant local paper, which would again usually give details of those closest to him.

Also, with precise details from the full service history, it may be possible via contact with the Regimental Museum – or via a post on their forum, to obtain a group photograph.
http://www.rdgmuseum.org.uk/history.htm

This site may possibly also be useful http://www.forcesreunited.org.uk/index.asp.

Hope that helps.

Sue

Nice.

Hi
since my dad died a few years ago i started my family tree. I found my dads family easy, but my mothers father we can not find any birth certificate for him .We found him on census ,and we know who his mam and dad r we know wen he was born ,an died ,but no birth records, his mam an dad had him in their fortys, and hes an only child, thats if their his parents, wondering if he was adopted thas why we carnt find any thing on him I would be very grateful if u could help me, HAROLD WHIKE was my grand fathers name his mam was ANNIE WHIKE dad WILLIAM WHIKE Lived in leeds HAROLD MARRIED ISABELLA YATES
yours sincerly

sheila mcintyre

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