Blog
Archive for August, 2011
Survey prizes awarded
We ask you to complete our customer feedback surveys because we really value what you have to say. Your responses to our surveys provide us with important feedback about how we can improve the service we offer you.
As a thank you for taking part in these surveys, we have awarded a year’s Full subscription to the following people:
May 2011 – Paul Barton
June 2011 – Helen Price
July 2011 – Marilyn Gonneau
Many thanks to all of you who took the time to complete our surveys. We award our prizes quarterly so the next round of prizes will be announced in November 2011.
Yorkshire Day: the life of a serving Yorkshireman
Yorkshire Day is drawing to a close at findmypast.co.uk, but we’ve got one more example to show you. So far, we’ve looked at the family history of a modern-day celebrity and found the unknown family of the Brontë sisters. Now it’s time to take a look at the life of an everyday hero, in the shape of John William Mansfield.
We found John William Mansfield’s incredibly detailed record in our Militia Service Records. At 30 pages long, it’s the largest record we’ve found in the collection so far.
Mansfield attested to the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1882 and saw regular service with the British Army until he was transferred to the Army Reserve in 1890. He later signed up with the Royal Eastern Reserve and finally the Royal Garrison Regiment, serving for a total of 15 years.
The service record provides us with a lot of detailed information about John William Mansfield and his life, much more than you could find out through other records such as censuses. This is just a selection of what Mansfield’s record reveals:
Mansfield’s life
- Born: Parish of Southcoates, near the town of Hull, Yorkshire
- Trade: Farm Servant
- Father: John Mansfield of 1 Beeton Street, Holderness Road, Hull
- Wife: Married Annie Elizabeth McNamara in Sculcoates, Yorkshire on 28th May 1892.
- Children: Beatrice, Elizabeth, Edith, Millicent and James
A portion of Mansfield's service record - please click to enlarge
Description
- Height: 5 feet 6 3/8 inches
- Weight: 139 lbs
- Chest: 35 inches
- Complexion: Fresh
- Eyes: Blue
- Hair: Reddish
- Tattoos: Tombstone and two figures on front of chest, girl with open fan on right forearm, J.W.M. on left forearm
- Church of England
- Conduct: Efficient and active, very good
Medical history while serving
- Boils (9 days)
- Balanitis (4 days)
- Ague (17 days)
- Warts (8 days)
- Gonorrhoea (36 days)
- Malaria fever (7 days)
- Rheumatism (15 days)
- Sprained ankle (8 days)
Discipline while serving
- Absent without leave in 1883 – 36 days imprisonment
- Drunk on duty in 1889 – demoted from Corporal to Private
- Drunk on duty in 1902 – 42 days imprisonment with Hard Labour and fined £1.
A portion of Mansfield's service record - please click to enlarge
Have you found a more detailed record in the Militia Service Records? Let us know if you have!
Yorkshire Day: the unknown Brontë sisters
We’re continuing to mark Yorkshire Day today at findmypast.co.uk and have found something rather poignant in our parish records collection.
The Brontë sisters, authors of the novels Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, all hailed from West Yorkshire. The sisters’ fame stems from the fact that all three were gifted with the ability to write imaginatively, but also because they all died tragically early. Charlotte Brontë died at the age of 38, while Emily Brontë and Ann Brontë both died when they were 29.
What many people don’t realise is that there were actually two other Brontë sisters, Maria and Elizabeth. These two girls died even earlier than their famous sisters. You can find the girls’ burial records in our parish records collection. These burial records were transcribed by volunteers at the Keighley and District Family History Society.
Maria Brontë's burial record - please click to enlarge
Maria Brontë was buried on 12 May 1825, having died at the age of 12 years. Her younger sister, Elizabeth Brontë, was buried just one month later on 18 June 1825. Elizabeth died when she was just 10 years old. Both children are buried at St Michael in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
Elizabeth Brontë's burial record - please click to enlarge
If they had survived, would Maria and Elizabeth have gone on to become great writers too? The talent certainly seemed to run in the Brontës’ genes!
Yorkshire day: Mike Tindall's Yorkshire roots
Yorkshire Day is held on 1 August every year and is a celebration of the culture and history of the county. We’re getting in the spirit here at findmypast.co.uk and have found some lovely Yorkshire examples in our records.
First up is the family history of the newest member of the royal family, Mike Tindall. Tindall married Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter, on Saturday at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh.
As with the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton earlier this year, this weekend’s royal wedding was an example of a royal marrying out of the upper classes. We can see Mike Tindall’s working class Yorkshire roots by taking a look at his ancestors in the 1911 census.
Mike Tindall's maternal family - please click to enlarge
Tindall’s maternal great-great-grandparents Charles and Fanny Machell were living in Yeadon in the West Riding of Yorkshire at the time of the 1911 census. Their census form reveals that Fanny had given birth to a staggering 13 children, three of whom had sadly died by 1911.
Charles and Fanny were living with nine of their surviving offspring in 1911. Charles was employed as a stone mason at a stone quarry, while the eldest of the Machell brood were employed as nippers, woolliers and twisters at a cloth mill. The census form also reveals that their property only had five rooms – rather small for such a large family!
Mike Tindall's paternal family - please click to enlarge
Tindall’s paternal great-great-grandmother Sarah Ann Tindall can also be spotted in the 1911 census. She was a widow at this point in her life and was living in Skipton in the West Riding of Yorkshire with two daughters, three grandsons and a boarder.
Sarah’s daughters, Mike Tindall’s great-great-aunts, appear to have been rather entrepreneurial. Each was recorded as being a ‘joint restaurant proprietress’ in the 1911 census.
Check back later today for another Yorkshire example from our records and enjoy Yorkshire day!
Yorkshire day: Mike Tindall’s Yorkshire roots
Yorkshire Day is held on 1 August every year and is a celebration of the culture and history of the county. We’re getting in the spirit here at findmypast.co.uk and have found some lovely Yorkshire examples in our records.
First up is the family history of the newest member of the royal family, Mike Tindall. Tindall married Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter, on Saturday at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh.
As with the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton earlier this year, this weekend’s royal wedding was an example of a royal marrying out of the upper classes. We can see Mike Tindall’s working class Yorkshire roots by taking a look at his ancestors in the 1911 census.
Mike Tindall's maternal family - please click to enlarge
Tindall’s maternal great-great-grandparents Charles and Fanny Machell were living in Yeadon in the West Riding of Yorkshire at the time of the 1911 census. Their census form reveals that Fanny had given birth to a staggering 13 children, three of whom had sadly died by 1911.
Charles and Fanny were living with nine of their surviving offspring in 1911. Charles was employed as a stone mason at a stone quarry, while the eldest of the Machell brood were employed as nippers, woolliers and twisters at a cloth mill. The census form also reveals that their property only had five rooms – rather small for such a large family!
Mike Tindall's paternal family - please click to enlarge
Tindall’s paternal great-great-grandmother Sarah Ann Tindall can also be spotted in the 1911 census. She was a widow at this point in her life and was living in Skipton in the West Riding of Yorkshire with two daughters, three grandsons and a boarder.
Sarah’s daughters, Mike Tindall’s great-great-aunts, appear to have been rather entrepreneurial. Each was recorded as being a ‘joint restaurant proprietress’ in the 1911 census.
Check back later today for another Yorkshire example from our records and enjoy Yorkshire day!