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Posts Tagged ‘ British Library ’
Ask the expert – military photograph
Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.
From Martyn Newell:
‘James William Jeffs was born in 1884/86 in Hackney. He enlisted in the army in 1904 and served for seven years. In the 1911 census his occupation was ‘gas stoker’ and he lived at an address in East Ham. In 1914 he was recalled to the 2nd Battalion the Border Regiment as a reservist at the outbreak of the Great War.
He saw plenty of action before suffering with trench foot in the winter of 1914/15 and he was wounded – a gunshot wound to the arm – in the battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915. He was sent home to recover before returning to join the 1st Border Regiment at the start of April 1916 on the Somme. He was killed on 6 April 1916 in a German bombardment that preceded a trench raid on the British front line. He was buried in the nearest location to where he fell and he lies with 12 other men of his unit in Auchnonvillers Communal Cemetery.
My question: the family have never found a photograph of James William Jeffs, although older family members said that one did exist. We wonder where we could look for a photo and how to go about it. We have made contact with people who have actually bought the house next to the cemetery where the soldiers are buried in France and they do battlefield tours – they would like to keep the memory of James and his unit alive and a photo would help them too. I have never found an entire military record for Private 7340 JW Jeffs to fill a few gaps that the family have, so any help would be fantastic.’
Paul says:
‘You have a great of information about this man already so you’re doing well! You may well have tried these potential sources but if you haven’t done so, now’s the time to tick these off:
- Post this self-same query on the Great War Forum and the Border Regiment forum
- Check the local newspaper/s for East Ham between 1914 and 1916. Newspapers are a greatly overlooked resource and while some are already online – and indeed brightsolid, findmypast.co.uk’s parent company, has a huge ongoing project with the British Library, the British Newspaper Archive – the majority are not. Check with Newham Archives to see if they hold copies on film, archiveslocalstudies@newham.gov.uk, and check with the British Newspaper Library
- Drop a line to the East of London Family History Society
- Find Living Relatives on findmypast.co.uk
- Consider looking at the photographic archive held by the Imperial War Museum in London and the Border Regiment Museum
Finally, start a blog and write about your relative; get some information online and let the search engines do the rest. You may be surprised at how many people contact you.’
If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!
The British Newspaper Archive launches
Today marks the launch of the British Newspaper Archive, where you can search up to 4 million pages of historical newspapers online.
The British Library and brightsolid are working in partnership on this ground-breaking project, which will transform the way that historical newspapers are used to find out about our past. The website offers access to up to 4 million fully searchable pages, featuring more than 200 newspaper titles from every part of the UK and Ireland.
The newspapers – which mainly date from the 19th century, but which include runs dating back to the first half of the 18th century – cover every aspect of local, regional and national news. Thousands of new pages will be added to the collection every day, to reach up to 40 million pages over the next 10 years – this is an unmissable resource for your family history research.
Alongside first-hand accounts of historic events, such as the wedding of Victoria and Albert and the Charge of the Light Brigade, the newspapers also provide numerous rich details about how our ancestors lived. You can search a wealth of material to help your family history research, including family notices, announcements and obituaries. The ability to search by name, location, date and newspaper title means that you can search hundreds of thousands of pages at a time to track down those elusive ancestors.
Findmypast.co.uk’s marketing executive, Amy Sell, has made a fascinating discovery of her own in the archive. She found an article about her great-great-great-grandfather, Richard Howard, who was accused of stealing a pocket watch. We learn Richard’s fate at the end of the article: ‘Verdict: “Not guilty” – this caused much surprise in court.’
As well as adding new and colourful information to her family tree, the article also tells Amy the following about her great-great-great-grandfather:
- His age in 1867 (30)
- His occupation (chimney sweep)
- Where he was from (Hitchin, Hertfordshire)
- His father (Amy’s great-great-great-great-grandfather)’s name (James Howard) and the words he used to describe his son’s character
- Information about her ancestor’s whereabouts in the 1850s – his father said “he has been at Biggleswade for ten years, and works for all the gentry”.
Search the British Newspaper Archive now
British Library family history day competition winners
A big thank you to everyone who entered our competition at the British Library family history day last month! We’re pleased to announce that the prizes have now been awarded to the following lucky winners: Read More »
Join us at the British Library’s family history day
The British Library, in association with findmypast.co.uk, is holding a family history day at the Library on Saturday 16 April.
Come along and hear the findmypast.co.uk team talk about our records, as well as lectures from British Library experts.
This is sure to be a fascinating day for anyone interested in family history. Find out more here and book your place now before it sells out!
Join us at the British Library's family history day
The British Library, in association with findmypast.co.uk, is holding a family history day at the Library on Saturday 16 April.
Come along and hear the findmypast.co.uk team talk about our records, as well as lectures from British Library experts.
This is sure to be a fascinating day for anyone interested in family history. Find out more here and book your place now before it sells out!
Ask the Expert – which William?
Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.
From Gail Quirt in Toronto, Canada:
‘I have hit the proverbial brick wall in finding out about my great-great-grandfather, William Booth. I have a registration certificate from the General Register Office for the birth of his son, Joseph Booth, in Benares, East Indies on 27 January, 1864. I know he was in the British Army in India (since his son was born there) and the family stories have him fighting in the Crimea War.
William must have died around the time Joseph was born, as Joseph ‘is recorded as a child of the marriage of 1403 Lance Corporal Edward Lee and Rosannah Booth, Widow’, but I am unable to find the date and place of his death.
Using findmypast.co.uk’s military records, there are a few William Booths who seem to have been in the Crimea and India at the right times. I have no information on when or where William Booth was born and I’m not sure which of the William Booths is my ancestor. Would you be able to find out which is the right William Booth, and when and where he was born and died?’
Paul says:
‘The excellent www.dnw.co.uk website gives three possibilities for a William Booth who fought during the Indian Mutiny and appears on the Indian Mutiny Medal Roll. These three men, all named William Booth, served with the 34th Foot, the 2nd Dragoon Guards and the 8th Hussars.
Finding a man on the Crimean war medal roll is far more difficult purely because the condition of much of the roll is best described as ‘shocking’ and, at worst, ‘unreadable’ or ‘missing’. There is, however, a William Booth with the 8th Hussars (number 1350) who is possibly the same man who later served during the Mutiny.
I thought that he might be a possible candidate until I checked our Chelsea Pensioners records and found that he was discharged from the army (and, therefore, still very much alive) in 1866. Remember too that the Chelsea Pensioners’ data is only for men who were discharged to pensions. If a man was discharged without a pension, or if he died, he won’t be in the Chelsea Pensioners WO97 records.
Later in the year we’ll be releasing records from the WO119 series which is Kilmainham Pensioners’ discharge documents. These are similar to WO97 but only cover the period up until 1821 and so we can rule that out. You may, however, find a death for William Booth in the Indian collection which we’re currently working on with the British Library. Read more about this fantastic project.’
If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!