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Showing posts from February, 2021

Born on St Patrick's Day: Happy 115th Mary

They say that its good luck to be Irish, and that the luckiest of all are those who are born on St Patrick's Day. No doubt this is what was said the day that my great grandmother was born. However, her life was not necessarily filled with the good luck that the superstition had predicted. As much as she had a hard life, her life was also an "ordinary" one of a young British immigrant to Canada. Despite that, the simple life she led in youth was filled with fun. She embrace the changing times, new found freedoms, and innovations. Its the heirlooms from that chapter of her life that fascinate me the most because they show aside to her that none of my relatives knew - a woman who was happy. So today, I am going to share the side of her that one of those heirlooms tells. I have a small black autograph book that was hers.  At almost 100 years old, the book binding has all but disintegrated yet the leather cover is in near pristine condition and the partially bound pages are al...
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UPDATE: Irish Resources

 I have now added a section for Irish resources on the formerly named 'British Resources' page. This page is now named 'British and Irish Resources'. I will continue to add more Irish resources in the coming days. 
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British Military Research: Deserter or Casualty

When I was performing my FAN club research, I learned that my ancestor's two younger brothers had served in the British military during World War 1. The first brother I looked at (James - who I wrote about here ) served honourably. He fought and ultimately died for his country. The second brother (David) had a remarkably different service record. His service file was unclear about how he left the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). At first he was called a deserted, but later on it was considered that he could have been a casualty. So what happened to David?  David, like his brother James, first enlisted with the militia but eventually transferred to the BEF. He served with the Middlesex Regiment as part of the 3rd battalion.  His battalion had a unique roll in WW1. They were responsible for the Salonika campaign in Greece. The purpose of this campaign was first to discourage Bulgaria from entering the war, then later on it was to discourage them from trying to take control of ...
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Pte. James Sword - Poverty, Industrial Schools, and Military Service

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Yesterday I wrote about how to read a British militia attestation form and used the example of a young man named James Sword. His story truly embodies what it was like to grow up in poverty during the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras.  The Early Years James was born July 27 1889 in Bow, London, England - making him the baby of the Sword family. He had four older sisters and one older brother. At the time of his birth the family was struggling financially, and that would only worsen a month later when his father died. Now widowed with five children still in her care, James' mother had no choice but to turn to the Board of Guardians for relief. Within a year the entire family was admitted to the Wandsworth and Clapham Union Workhouse. The duration of the family's stay was brief. By 1901, they had left the workhouse but were still struggling to get by. They were living on Ammiel St in Bow. Their home literally fell down around them, and the neighbouring homes that remained...
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Edwardian British Militia Attestation Forms

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During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, militias were a central part of the British military. Although their service was limited to 'home' service, many of the men also opted to serve overseas. Militia attestation forms were formally referred to as Army Form E 504. They contained the following types of information: Birth place Place of residence Occupation and employer Marital status  Number of children under the age of 14 Next of kin (name, relationship, address)  Previous military experience Physical description What battalion they served with To better understand the structure of a militia attestation form, lets look at one that belonged to James Sword.  Front of Attestation Form How do we know that we are dealing with a militia attestation form? There are two main indicators, both of which are found at the top of the page. In the central bolded font it says "attestation for the militia" instead of stating 'short service' (which was for the army). The seco...
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File Naming Conventions for Genealogists

So I guess I have been slacking a little in the blogging department, but getting back into it is a lot like starting to workout again after taking a long break so bear with me. I could sit here and write a list of excuses why I have been so absent the past week, but what's the point of that? One thing I have been doing in that time though was organizing my downloaded records and sharing some of them with family members.  Often times when we think of organizing our research we think of a bunch of binders or files in a filing cabinet. The reality is that the modern genealogist is a product of the digital age and thus replaced paper with digital files. It is so easy to download a file, yet so few genealogists take the next logical step of changing the file name. Not only does renaming the file make it easier for us to find it later on, but it also makes it easier for somebody else to understand its contents when you share it with them. One of the first things that I did when organizin...
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Ford's Folly and the Slum of Little Hell

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Battersea: The Sinkhole of Surrey During the Victorian Era, Battersea had gained the reputation as being “the sinkhole of Surrey” due to its widespread poverty and slum-like conditions. Many of the poor in Battersea were subject to irregular income from the building trades. For a family to scrape by in the winter they would have to apply thrift spending during the summer. This was often complicated by the reliance on alcohol which was used as a means of escape from the depression of living in such widespread poverty. The irregular income caused many of Battersea’s poor to frequently be on the move. On average a family lived in one place for less than two years before moving no more than a few streets away. After hopping from neighbourhood to neighbourhood the family would eventually return to where they were once exiled from, moving in only a few doors away from their former address. Ford’s Folly and the slum of Little Hell In Keith Bailey’s report Orville Road, Battersea: a Victor...
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Researching Addresses that no Longer Exist

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Ever since I was young I have said that I wanted to see the place where my ancestor's lived. I never cared if it was a castle or if it was a broken down shack in the woods. What I cared about was that feeling I get when I am able to stand somewhere that one of my ancestor's did many years ago. I spent the past four years researching where in England my ancestors lived with the hope that one day I will be able to go there and experience this feeling. Like many people, COVID had other plans. Its been a year since I initially was planning to take that trip and it seems like it might be at least one more before it can happen. In the mean time I have been revising my route and furthering my research. One of the first things that I do when I get an address for where one of my ancestor's lived, is search for it on Google Maps. Depending on where you are researching, the area may have changed so much that it is almost unrecognizable when compared to when your ancestor lived. For ex...
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Courting Disaster: The 1915 Niagara Trolley Accident

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The worst electric rail crash in Ontario’s history and the  3 rd  worst in Canadian history (at the time)  occurred at Queenston Heights in Niagara Falls on July 7 1915 . In total the crash of car number 685 claimed the lives of 15 people and was responsible for injuring 130 people.  To put the scale of the accident into context, more lives were lost and more people were injured during the 1915 trolley accident than British soldiers during the battle of Queenston Heights.  The main occupants of the trolley were members of Toronto’s Wood Green Methodist and St John Presbyterian Sunday school groups. The two church groups had organized a day trip to Niagara Falls for the approximate 1,100 parishioners (majority of which were women and children). The accident occurred when the two groups were on their way home.  All day the weather had been ideal for taking portraits and going picnicking, however towards the evening hours (approximately 7:15 pm) it began to ra...
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