s Velma describes for us in her article on the Industrial Revolution and Transportation, the advent of the railway created enormous opportunities for all our ancestors, whether it was for the monied classes or for the humble agricultural labourer. The importance of this is reflected in the number of articles in this edition which deal with the railways. Dizzy Digital Cat describes the first trials of the steam engines, where George Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’ was the winner.
Many of us have come across workers on the railways in our research, from carmen or shunters to navigators, but most of us are not lucky enough to have much detail about their personal lives. Christine in Herts and Merry Monty Montgomery tell us about their relatives who worked for the Great Western Railway and Velma gives us some background to this important railway company.
In addition, Nasher describes his huge collection of Railwayana and his lifetime fascination with trains and Wendy Pusey writes about her husband’s work as a volunteer at the Havenstreet Steam Railway. Away from trains, Howie from Gwent writes about his father’s, and his own, work in road haulage while Mary in Italy has written about a relative who designed and patented the hansom cab and designed the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.
The Family Treasure this month is an interesting brass tin belonging to Mavis by the Moor. This month, the Spotlight on FTF looks at the various ways in which the site can help with researching your surnames.
ntil the 1700s, transportation in Britain relied either on the horse, on water, or indeed, a human being’s own feet.
However, with the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent mechanisation of production, there was a huge need for a transportation system, which not only supplied the raw materials and fuel to the factories, but provided a route for the finished goods to be distributed around the country, as well as to the rest of the world. Read More >>
he idea for the Liverpool to Manchester railway was first suggested in 1822, as a faster and cheaper way of transporting goods from the textile mills in Manchester to the port of Liverpool.
In 1824 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company was formed and George Stephenson was hired as the chief engineer. Read More >>
he Great Western Railway (GWR) or, as it was more affectionately known, 'God's Wonderful Railway' was one of the early railway companies and was established in 1833.
When Liverpool was connected to London by the railways, Bristol merchants felt their livelihoods threatened without a connection of their own, as they feared that trade would go to the port of Liverpool instead. Read More >>
was trying to follow up a part of my mother’s family again – the Lancasters. She did have ideas that there might have been some connection to the nobility, but I have found none. Instead I have found a family with its own set of interesting qualities (as well as the occasional skeleton in the closet), and my railwayman is a part of that. Read More >>
y great grandfather, Samuel Charles Burchill, was born to the north east of Bristol, at Mangotsfield, in 1855. He was the eldest of the eleven children of Charles and Elizabeth Burchill. Throughout the Victorian era almost all of Samuel’s male relatives, including his father, grandfather, uncles, brothers and eldest son, worked as butchers in and around the Bristol area. This job was not for Samuel though. Read More >>
y husband John was made redundant, at the age of 49, when the air conditioning firm where he had worked for 30 years closed down and relocated to the mainland. After trying desperately to find another job, and being told, “Sorry, you’re too old”, he decided he would become a volunteer at the Havenstreet Steam Railway. Read More >>
y earliest childhood recollection is of my mother pushing me in a pram and stopping at the level crossing in South Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire. What I now know was a tank engine, crossed over the road and then went back towards the station. I must have only been 12–18 months old at the time, but that image left a lasting impression on me. Read More >>
ohn Chapman was born in Loughborough, Leicestershire, on 20th January 1801. His parents were John Chapman, a clockmaker of Loughborough, and his second wife Sarah, daughter of William Parkinson, a farmer who had moved some years earlier from Derbyshire to Quorndon, a village near Loughborough. Read More >>
y father was in haulage all his life. When he started work in 1913, at the age of twelve, it was in a quarry burning limestone. After a few years he went on to be a stable lad, looking after the cart-horses. A few years later he became a carter. We often talked of his experiences "on the road" and I remember him telling me of times when he would have as many as four shires horses pulling a cart of stones up the hills in our local area. Read More >>
ell, at least I think it’s a snuff box, but it may well be a pin tin, and that's not the least of the unanswered questions surrounding this little box.
About half a century ago (ouch!) I went to stay with an ‘honorary’ aunt, at least I presume she was ‘honorary’, as I’ve not yet found anywhere she fits into my tree. She lived in a timbered thatched cottage, with loads of brass ornaments which I enjoyed cleaning! ... Read More >>
ost genealogists spend hours and hours 'googling' for the surnames in their tree tracking down every link and some find their way to the Family Tree Forum by this route.
As well as coming across questions asked on threads in the Research Qs and As boards, they may find themselves looking at a page from the Surname Directory or a member's User Page.
Other pages of The Wiki will give hints and tips on tracking down those names which may have been mistranscribed by census enumerators or in parish registers. ... Read More >>
