
November 2007
Using military records In my research
Remembrance Sunday and the 11th November itself are days that have always been very important to me. They are days for reflection, to think about those who have fought or are fighting for their country (and for us as individuals) in all wars, whether they have died or...
We will remember them
We are always being told to 'kill off' our relatives, if only to avoid spending months researching what turns out to be the wrong line because the poor chap wasn’t really your great great grandfather but someone of the same name who died in infancy. It’s a slightly...
Wartime memories
I remember it was a lovely sunny Sunday morning the day war broke out. We listened to Mr Chamberlain’s speech on the wireless in the kitchen, the only wireless we had, and my parents were very serious and shooshed us when we, my two younger sisters and I started to...
2nd Lieutenant E.C.R. Christmas
I always had a vague interest in the idea of following up my family tree. I knew my maternal uncles had done quite a bit, and I had made sporadic attempts to put something together now and then, picking my mother’s brains. Eventually, I decided to make a start myself....
What really happened to the gun carriage?
I have a very tatty photograph of a gun carriage sitting in a garden. My mother always told me that it was my father's fault that it ended up there, although she never told me exactly what happened. I knew my father, Benjamin Thomas, was in the Royal Horse Artillery...
From the Gorbals to Auckland via Scutari
My favourite ancestor and the one I would most like to meet, is my great great grandmother Ann Alison Corbett. From the information I have been able to find, her life was at least interesting and quite possibly exciting, but she also faced more than her share of...
The Storming of the Hrin Khana
Nearly everyone has a moment, when researching their family tree, that reduces them to tears. Mine was when I discovered the existence of, and half an hour later the death of, Henry Ayton the brother of my great great grandmother Emily Esther Ayton. The 1851 census...
H.M.S. MERMAID
I read a thread on the General Boards about the exploits of a member's father during World War II which made me think of my own father's service. I "googled" the name of his ship, which gave me inspiration for the following little tale: HMS Mermaid I googled "Mermaid"...
LDS Roadshow Comes to Town
My research would have ground to a halt very early on without the Family History Library at The Church of the Latter Days Saints in Coventry. None of my ancestors have any connection with Warwickshire and day trips to County Record Offices would have been expensive...