blog post – The Nosey Genealogist's: Help Me With My Family Tree

05/08/2014

First World War Medal Records go online

Following on from my blog post last Sunday, I have just heard from TheGenealogist to tell me about another set of First World War records.

Press Release
For immediate release:

Newly released for the first time are First World War Medal Records that crossed the great social class divide.
Over 117,000 ‘Military Medals’ were awarded in the First World War for ‘acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire’. These records are now available to view online complete with an image of the actual Medal Card and a link to the official government publication of the time. It’s a unique, comprehensive set of records available only on TheGenealogist.co.uk

The Military Medal was awarded to ‘Non Commissioned Officers and Ordinary Ranks’ and covers exceptional courage as a soldier in battle. It also was awarded for those that risked their lives trying to save others, often in extreme danger. The Medal Records on TheGenealogist show people from a wide range of backgrounds and social classes, including a number of young women from very privileged families who chose to drive ambulances and rescue the wounded in the mud of battle.

The role of ‘stretcher bearer’ was one of the most dangerous jobs of the time and surprisingly, the records show many women bridged social constraints of the time to risk life and limb to help rescue and bring in soldiers wounded in battle.

Details now available on TheGenealogist range from the most highly decorated Military Medal recipient, stretcher bearer Private Ernest Corey of the 55th Australian Infantry, to Lady Dorothie May Evelyn Feilding-Moore, the daughter of the Earl of Denbigh (the first female recipient of the Medal), to Mairi Lambert Gooden-Chisholm who rescued a German pilot from no-man’s land. Both men and women, crossing the social divide and class customs of pre-1914 to demonstrate outstanding bravery.

The new Military Medal records provide:
Full details of the person winning the medal – their rank, regiment, date of medal citation and the details of their heroism in battle
Sophisticated search techniques to find the medal recipient with just one mouse click. A further addition to the comprehensive medal and First World War records now available on TheGenealogist.co.uk

Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content comments: “With our military record releases in 2014, we are aiming to cover all aspects of The First World War. Every new record set unearths surprises and the Military Medal collection is no different as we discover the female front line heroes listed alongside those who fought to protect our freedom. These unique records consistently provide fascinating tales behind them.”

More details on the records of the First World War ‘Military Medals’ can be found at www.TheGenealogist.co.uk/military-medal

Disclosure: Compensated affiliate links are used above.

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06/04/2014

Tips for Researching Family History

At the largest Family history show in the world, Who Do You Think You Are? Live in London, I decided to ask the expert on the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives for his tips on researching your family tree. I was looking for some material to include in a module of my courses on English/Welsh family history in which several experts advice will be collated for students.

As I’m feeling generous I’m going to share this piece with you for free here in this blog post today.

For those people who are starting to do family history, then one of the most important things is to take notice of anything that you are told by your relatives. Because, although the information may not be 100 percent true, there is always something that somebody will know that can help give you an idea as to where to go on and find other records.

It’s important that you afford the information in official documents with a certain level of importance. Although that information recorded is only as good as that given by the informant at the time. So beware that any information on a birth certificate, or a census record, can be wrong from day one because the person supplying it didn’t want the officials to know the real truth.

This can confuse people doing their family tree research. The best way of proceeding is to make sure that you look at every type of document available to you. So look at a civil registration certificate. Look at a parish register. Look at a census; try and get a will and look at anything else that will give you the full details relevant to that particular individual.

Doing your family history research that way you’re able to build up a fuller picture.

As you progress you will find that it becomes more complex and you’ll find that you may hit brick walls. You may find that you have conflicting information on an ancestor and that in some instances it’s going to be necessary for you to actually go along and work different lines of the family, investigate different individuals.

What you have got to do is make sure that you eliminate those people that aren’t part of your family. Its ever so easy to go down a wrong line because you haven’t been clear enough in making sure the family or the individual that you have is the right person. And sometimes that’s beyond the experience and the expertise of the average family historian and that’s where you need to talk to the professionals.

That’s where members of ARGA, The Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives can help because they are accredited researchers. They have proven their ability to do this type of family research and while they might not be able to find all the answers, they are better placed than many of us to do so.

The reason why even a professional may draw a blank is that if an ancestor didn’t want to be found in officialdom, then they wont be! Irrespective of how good you are and how through you are, this may sadly be the case. Having said that, however, you stand a better chance with using a professional because they perhaps know a little bit more of the overall number documents that they can use to do just that.

If you want to brush up your own skills in English/Welsh family research then give a thought to taking my English family history course by visiting www.FamilyHistoryResearcher.com

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05/10/201105/10/2011

More Thoughts On Ancestor’s Occupations

I wrote a Tip of the Week, about Ancestor Occupations and put it in my selection that I email out to my list if you are signed up. I decided to re-publish it as a blog post last week as: Take A Look At Your Ancestor’s Occupation. In its original email form it struck a chord with one of my readers, as she sent me some extra thoughts that I think deserve to be published here with her permission.

Another aspect of this topic to be aware of is that an ancestor may have actually held two occupations simultaneously and the census might report either one at random. For example, one line in my paternal tree in Pennsylvania (USA) had many generations with men who simultaneously were both farmers AND carpet/coverlet weavers, and well known known for both occupations during the same time span. Sometimes the census shows an individual as a farmer, sometimes as a weaver – yet I have confirmed that the individuals held both occupations concurrently for most of their adult lives. I also have a farmer/blacksmith, and several generations of farmer/pipe organ builders. Later generations worked as farmers and as local manufacturing employees, especially in years when crop yields would be under par. It would begin as a way to supplement income, then turn into a 50/50 arrangement. My maternal New England great grandmother was a teacher who also had her own dressmaking business at the same time.

When times are tough, in the past as well as today, it is not unusual for industrious individuals to hold down two jobs at once. Or in the case of some of my ancestors, one occupation that was “sensible” like farming and another that permitted some form of artistic expression (such as weaving, building beautiful church pipe organs by hand, and even creating practical and decorative goods as a blacksmith).

Again, thanks for the great article and tips.

Karen

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